#curious what your thoughts are though! or any other only children/non-only children in the audience as well :)

[quatregats]

wait did you also grow up without siblings? (so did I) do you think Hornblower is good only child representation?

(this is a lighthearted question and it’s fine if you have no answer)

HAHAHA NO THIS IS DELIGHTFUL <3 It had never even occurred to me to think about that aspect of him, but I do think that he does have that only-child odd sociality (obviously there's no one singular only-child experience and it depends on a lot of other factors but I think this is more common in only children, other people feel free to weigh in). By "odd sociality", I mean the conversation I once had with a friend who asked if I ever got bored/how I kept myself busy without another person around, to which I was like conceptually this was never a stressful experience?? it seems far more stressful to me to always have Another Person around?? Needless to say, I think this is also the exact sort of conversation Bush and Hornblower would have on this exact topic, so definitely good only child rep for me :)

[metalandmagi]

Winter 2021 Anime Worth Watching!

Since 2020 basically sacrificed itself to give us the most stacked anime season of all time, I’m currently buried under the weight of almost 20 shows airing per week. So for anyone who’s looking for some anime to watch this winter, here’s some first impressions! I’m speed running my list this time by only talking about the new shows...because otherwise this would be my great American novel. 

If anyone’s interested, I have master lists for both 2020 anime and 2019 anime, because there’s no shortage of fun things to find. 

New Shows!

And before anyone asks, So I’m A Spider, So What? isn’t on here, because CG spiders freak me out.

Cells At Work Code Black: This...less comedic spin off of Cells At Work (made by a different studio) takes the wholesome concept of Osmosis Jones meets cute anime girls and turns it on its head. In this much more depressing version, we follow a rookie red blood cell who works in the body of an overly stressed, alcoholic smoker who puts every strain on the body imaginable. I love Red Blood Cell AA2153 and his co-workers, but man am I glad we get the regular Cells At Work airing this season too, because I need something fun and uplifting after seeing my sweet son go through hell every episode. 

*Heaven’s Design Team: Have you ever wondered how God came up with some of the weird ass animals that live on this planet? Like, what’s the deal with giraffes? And why can’t we have dragons and flying horses? Well this is a comedy about the engineers and designers in heaven creating the new animals that are going to inhabit the Earth. That’s it, that’s the show. It’s kind of in the same vein as Cells At Work, having comedy blend with a surprising amount of educational information. If you want something light and funny, this is the show for you (though I don’t think it needs to have full length episodes). I’m just hoping there’s an episode about how the hell the platypus was created. Also it’s the only new one available on Crunchyroll.

Horimiya: A romantic comedy about a girl named Hori who fits the image of a perfect queen bee and a quiet bespectacled boy named Miyamura who never makes an impression at school. When the two meet by chance outside of the classroom, we see that Hori is practically raising a younger brother by herself, and Miyamura is actually a sweet guy who happens to be covered in tattoos and piercings. This show is an exercise in breaking down the images people have of others in their minds, and it’s a concept that really hits home in a fun and meaningful way. Honestly, this has become one of my immediate favorites. The characters have great chemistry, and I can’t wait to see more of them!

Monster Incidents (Kemono Jihen): When big shot Tokyo detective Inugami is called to a rural town to investigate a series of strange animal deaths, he finds a mysterious boy with the nickname Dorotabo who has been shunned by the other children in town. As the detective gets closer to Dorotabo, he discovers that there may be more...inhuman secrets to the boy than he realizes...and Dorotabo discovers that Inugami has some secrets of his own. This is a hard show to sell without spoiling the first episode, but it had twists and turns that kept me engaged from start to finish. I’m really interested to see where the plot goes, because I thought this was going to be something totally different just from the PV and series summary. If it plays its cards right, this could be a great paranormal detective show!

Wonder Egg Priority: A psychological drama about a girl named Ai who starts having dreams about a mysterious egg that promises to give her what she wants most in the world...a true friend. Before long, she begins to see how the dream world and reality are tied together, and trippy antics ensue. It’s hard to say more without spoiling anything, but I had to go back and add this one in because I made the mistake of thinking it was an OVA when it’s actually a full series. And what a series it’s starting out to be. This anime has all the psychological discomfort of a Satoshi Kon product with the beauty and style of something from Kyoani (even though it’s made by Clover Works). It’s really one of those anime you just have to see to understand.

Sk8-∞ (Skate the infinity): An original skateboarding anime from Bones, featuring a typical sports anime protagonist who takes a new transfer student who has never skateboarded in his life under his wing. Together they compete in dangerous races and take the skating community by storm. The character designs rival Appare Ranman’s in outlandish creativity, and I can smell the main characters’ ship dynamic a mile away (considering they’re exactly the same as the protagonists from Robihachi). If you’re looking for some wild and crazy fun with top notch skateboarding animation, don’t skip this!

2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu (Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club): Yes, it’s another volleyball anime. And no, it’s not just a clone of Haikyu. This story follows Yuni Kuroba, a physically built but emotionally weak teenager who finds out his childhood friend Hajime is moving back to their hometown for high school. Yuni discovers Hajime has become an exceptional volleyball player and they join their school’s volleyball club hoping to turn the unknown team into a rising star. If anything, this anime is much more like Stars Align or Free, where the sport is a backdrop for letting the characters explore their personal problems. Or at least it seems that way after the first episode. I went into this show ready to throw it in the trash because how could anything compete against my beloved Haikyu, but I found myself really enjoying the dynamics of the main duo and I’m curious to see what the rest of the team is like.

And speaking of sports anime rip-offs…..I can’t believe I’m including this but…

Skate Leading Stars: The show where the animators clearly wanted to design another throw away idol anime but saw how popular Yuri On Ice was so they decided to make whatever the hell this show is instead. It revolves around a fictional team sport called skate leading, and we follow the world’s most insufferable main character, a former figure skater named Kensei who wants to return to the ice and join his school’s skate leading team after he finds out his childhood rival is going to compete in the sport. Look, this show is just trashy enough to get a certain type of audience hooked, and it mainly has to do with the best boy of the winter season, Hayato Sasugai, the aspiring team “coach” who pulled most of us into watching this show with his punk appearance, snide comments and smug personality. He’s basically the lovechild of Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Heiwajima in a high school sports anime setting. The show treats itself with the perfect amount of sincerity to get away with being absolutely ridiculous most of the time without making you feel like you’re watching it from a dumpster...like Try Knights. You will know after one episode whether this show is for you. All I can say is, Hayato is worth the watch, and I haven’t seen any 3D animation used for the skating scenes (yet) so that’s a win for me. 

Honorable mention:

Jobless Reincarnation ( Mushoku Tensei): Yet another isekai where the main character is hit by a car (big surprise) and gets reincarnated into a fantasy world...but he happens to remember his previous life and narrates himself growing up as a jaded adult. I’m only including this because it looked amazing animation wise, and I love the opening where getting hit by a car and dying is actually traumatic. And I love the protagonist’s parents (who are retired adventurers who just want to bang all the time). But honestly...the main character is the fucking worst, and I don’t know if I want to keep watching it because of how creepy and weird he is. Like...he’s the hit on your fantasy mom as a baby kind of creepy and weird. But for anyone who wants a cool looking isekai that had an amazing PV, it’s worth checking out. 

Continuing Series!

Because the real gold of the season is in all the established anime getting their next seasons, I’m just going to list some of the things that are also amazing and definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already (because I’ve already talked about most of them at some point and don’t know what else to say).

Attack On Titan season 4

The Promised Neverland season 2

Beastars season 2

Log Horizon season 3

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime season 2

Re: Zero season 2 (second cour)

Dr. Stone season 2

Cells at Work season 2

Osomatsu-san season 3 (second cour)

Higurashi New (second cour)

Jujutsu Kaisen (second cour) 

Not to mention all the shows I don’t watch that everyone else loves...like World Trigger (which I have seen quite a bit of, but long shounen shows are too much for me now) Quintessential Quintuplets, and Non Non Biyori. 

So there’s just some of all the anime airing this season. Hopefully, someone can find something they like. Here’s to a great year...well, of anime at least...

[earthstellar]

how would you go about doing SG bumblebee/goldbug? i have a few of my own thoughts but i’d love to hear yours :0

Thanks for asking! :)

There have been a few slightly varied depictions of SG!Bumblebee/Goldbug, but I'll just take a general approach here and not fixate too much on any one story. :)

It's been a while since I've read SG content, and I've never done so with too much of a focus on Bumblebee specifically, so please take all this with a grain of salt as I haven't had any time to go back and re-read the relevant content! :')

Bumblebee: A Basic Character Trait Analysis

With Bumblebee in the main canon, we can isolate a few common traits across almost all of his various appearances:

Friendly

Fairly outgoing if shy or awkward at times

Young (by which I mean, inexperienced or less experienced than others)

Highly motivated and energetic

Brave / Curious (he's a scout, so this makes sense)

Cares about others / his team mates

We tend to find these traits endearing!

In fact, this is why Bumblebee is often the "child audience appeal" character, and features so heavily in merchandise and advertising!

It's also why he could carry his own solo film; It is easy to believe such a character would be willing to engage with humanity, overcome any fear/hesitancy with a wide-eyed honest approach (literally, they have redesigned his model several times over the years to emphasise his optics to hammer this home visually), and he's least likely to come across as scary to younger kids because his inquisitive and open nature comes across as friendly and non-threatening-- Even though he's a giant robot from space.

But then!

In Shattered Glass, we tend to see him depicted as:

Ruthless

Disinterested in others for the most part unless they serve a purpose for his goals

Highly focused (could overlap easily with highly motivated) but only when he takes personal interest

Far less of a team player unless necessary

Cunning but willing to abandon a plan or situation if he deems the risk to himself or his goals to be too great

We tend to find these traits intense or even off-putting; SG Bumblebee comes across as more selfish or manipulative, and a lot is lost from what we find interesting, compelling, relatable, or enjoyable about his original universe counterpart in this trait-swap.

(Personally, I think we never really got a Shattered Glass style episode in any animated media at least in part because Bumblebee is mostly the "kid-friendly" character, and doing SG Bumblebee might be considered by Hasbro to be too jarring or potentially genuinely upsetting for the target younger audience for them to ever commit to greenlighting a legit SG episode.

Among other reasons, lol, but Bumblebee is usually specifically used to appeal to the youngest children watching any TF media, so I can see how they would want to dodge this potential concern.)

Why This Is An Issue:

Generally, in the context of the SG comics, this is why Bumblebee/Goldbug can be a little off-putting or outright unlikable for some people.

We don't really see him as being Bumblebee anymore, even an alternate universe version of him, because his core traits are just totally removed and swapped out.

Like I said in my other SG analysis post, in order to relate to the characters and continue to accept them as different versions of characters we are already familiar with, at least SOME recognisable elements of some core traits needs to remain.

Otherwise, they become just a little too far removed, and we stop being able to really see them as who they are supposed to be a mirror image of. They start to become new, different characters altogether, in an unfamiliar universe, which doesn't work when the unfamiliar universe is, well, unfamiliar-- We have no connection to it, once the characters lose our interest or become too unrecognisable.

This isn't universal, of course, but this tends to be one of the problems with Transformers SG content in general; I love the concept 100%, but there needs to be a balance with the trait-swapping.

Some Possible Ways to Address SG Trait Swap And Make It Slightly Less Jarring: Bumblebee Edition

To retain more of a connection to Bumblebee as he appears in the SG universe, it would help to retain more of his original universe traits of genuine curiosity or sense of wonderment, carried over from his main universe counterpart which we are more familiar with.

Not only is Bumblebee a scout, so he does tend to exhibit a personal and professional curiosity-- This is why he is often the first bot to run into human beings when looking around or exploring a populated area for the first time.

But also, we associate curiosity with youth, and therefore with some degree of innocence.

While SG!Bumblebee/Goldbug is very experienced and more "hardcore" as it were, it would still be nice to retain this genuine kind of curiosity as a personality trait, rather than a professional trait.

Sure, he knows professionally that he needs to stay behind cover, or shouldn't ask questions. But personally, he is curious.

He wants to know, he investigates even when he maybe shouldn't and discovered some things as a result, or maybe we get a brief moment where he is less motivated by underhanded selfish goals and instead is primarily motivated purely by an interest in something that catches his eye, something he's spotted before anyone else has.

We could get some moments where his motivation is not something underhanded or cruel or conniving, but rather, just a little innocent curiosity. Just so we could see that we can recognise something in this character, so there's a little hope that comes up-- Oh, maybe he has the capacity for some good, maybe somewhere inside his spark there is something untouched by his outwardly aggressive behaviour, etc.

And while this may not be the case in whatever story, it is an engaging thought for readers/the audience to have. We still want to think there's something more under all that toughness and selfishness;

And that makes sense, because it adds some interest and potential depth to his character.

By which I mean, a common problem with SG is often that the characters are so obviously and overwhelmingly evil that they come across as one-dimensional villains, rather than alternate universe versions of characters we care about.

We generally don't get to see SG Autobots do anything other than be comically evil, unnecessarily cruel or violent, etc. and it winds up falling a little flat because it removes a lot of the complexity from these characters as we know them through their original universe counterparts.

Case Study: Star Trek Mirror Universe

I'm going to pick DS9's mirror universe, because there's a great example of this, good and bad.

A great example of "Trait Swap Balancing" (as I call it) is Kira, in the mirror universe episodes.

Kira, in the main universe, is a victim of violent oppression who obtains a position of relative authority on board a previously occupied space station which orbits her home world, out of a personal desire to oversee the restoration efforts and ensure her people are not taken advantage of by Starfleet immediately after the prior oppressors are made to leave the station, as she does not initially trust Starfleet to act on their promises or remain within their agreed upon limited remit.

Kira, in the mirror universe, is a collaborator and secured her position of power through political finesse and social manipulation, running the same space station in the mirror universe but as a singular representative of her planet's position in the oppressive interplanetary collaboration, lording her power over Federation indentured slave labourers as an Intendant.

Why is this so effective?

The audience doesn't totally hate Mirror Universe Kira, because we see that even in this universe, she is revealed to have some doubts about what is going on and the collaboration she is an active participant in once she is pressed further, and her emotional stability is obviously in question; She copes primarily through lashing out at others and engaging in overly-personal manipulative behaviour.

She is unstable in her position, and we get a sense eventually that she isn't as happy with the situation as it first seems. She believes that collaborating is her best chance to spare her people the worst of it, even if it means subjugating others, and this appears to be a root cause of much of her personal instability.

Thus, she retains some critical traits from her main universe counterpart, we recognise this as being the same character at heart, who made very different choices (choices which appropriately mirror her decisions in the primary universe).

She retains her love for her people, and we find out that her motivation in both universes is actually the same: She wants to keep her people safe. In the main universe, she did this by fighting against her oppressors. In the mirror universe, she attempted to do this by joining her oppressors.

So, there you go!

Even though Mirror Kira is awful, we don't hate her. Because we can see where her outwardly evil actions and harmful behaviours have a basis, deep down, that is rooted in a trait which makes us like the main universe Kira: She's trying to do good for her people in both universes.

In the Mirror Universe, this took a terrible path, and her behaviour and actions are oppressive and evil; She is still willing to go along with it in the Mirror Universe. The trait reversal is still very much present. She is still a "bad guy" in the Mirror Universe, very much so.

But we can still recognise some critical key traits from the main universe Kira in her, so we don't start to see Mirror Kira as another character entirely, we don't experience any disconnect there despite the extreme differences in their behaviour and thought processes...

And as a result, we can believe that this is really a Mirror Universe.

We don't have to like Mirror Kira. In fact, we're encouraged not to. We just have to accept her as a mirror universe counterpart to her character in the primary universe.

And retaining those core traits, as differently as they manifest in the mirror universe, is a great way to make Mirror Kira more interesting and familiar to us as an audience--

--Because we can see that yeah, this is the same person. Just different.

Comparing DS9 Mirror Universe to Shattered Glass

Compare this DS9 Mirror Universe example to a lot of the currently available Shattered Glass media, and how the characters are "trait reversed" in many of these stories.

Do you feel you can see any of the "liked traits" of the original universe characters present, in any way or to any degree, in the SG counterparts?

If so, in what situations? How did these liked traits come out, and how did it affect their decision making, if it did at all? Was this engaging? Did it help you recognise the character as more relatable to their original universe counterpart, or make them more definitively recognisable as being a mirrored version of the more familiar main universe version of the character?

If not, how might retaining certain liked traits help provide some character depth or improve recognisability of the SG version of the character? What are ways in which the SG character might become less "flat" feeling or more rounded out by the inclusion of some element of a likable trait or two from their original universe counterpart? What are some ways an SG character could retain some recognisable likable traits while still being suitably evil?

Just some questions to consider!

I think one of the main reasons why a lot of people struggle to get into the Shattered Glass media, despite the great concept behind all of it, is that the trait swap is just too much of a 100% trait swap, and we don't really get to see any recognisable traits underlying any of their actions, behaviours, or thought processes in the SG universe.

Of course, this is just my assessment of things; I hope this was an interesting read for you, and I'm sorry it took me a few days to get the time to type it all out! <3

[novelconcepts]

Hi. I don't know if you do this sort of things and it's totally cool if you don't, but i've seen quite a lot of criticism pointed towards THoBM about it being dry and too domestic, about it being a children's story and long winded and a few blatant hints at it playing to the "kill your gays" trope.

I was wondering if you can talk a little about your own take on Bly Manor and Dani and Jamie's relationship.

I personally found it beautiful and healthy and it wasn't boring or juvenile at any point during the series. I even kinda like the end (in a masocistic sort of way). I honestly think they are one of the best wlw couples portrayed on tv, let alone on netflix but i'm curious to hear what you think.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Well, in terms of the bury your gays thing, I have never felt like this falls into that trope, simply because...look, queer people are people. We’re going to get old, get sick, have mental health strain, lose our spouses before we’re ready, because that’s the nature of life. The idea that this can’t be explored in a gothic romance story, a dark tale of loss--the idea that I can’t have this emotional catharsis that reflects what my actual life might look like someday--simply because we’re queer is...complicated at best. I stand by the idea that Dani doesn’t die because she’s queer; Dani’s queerness does not define her, though it certainly informs her character and gives her story a different kind of depth. Honestly, the only way this would have felt like a BYG story to me is if Jamie had died. Which, for a minute, I did think would happen, and I thought, “Great, they did this just for the heartache to make Dani’s life worse.”

And, instead of going that route, they gave Dani a whole lifetime of being in love, being largely at peace, being allowed the agency to live the time she has left to the fullest. That’s not a queer trope, that’s a human story I wish would become a queer trope, ‘cuz lord knows we could use more of it. And they set Jamie as our narrator, our hand to hold in the dark as she leads us through the story, telling us the heart of the whole thing is her love for Dani and Dani’s love for her. I think that’s the opposite of antagonizing your queer audience. I think that’s absolutely lovely. 

(I do discuss the darkness of Dani’s story and why it works for me more over here, if you’re interested.)

As for the rest of it...anyone who is complaining about this show being too dry or domestic or “childish” has already decided not to like it. The reasons for that are their own, and I’m not sure there’s a point trying to argue anybody into liking a piece of media that doesn’t suit them. Some of these people might not like the gay of it all; some just wanted more scares. The show isn’t really...designed for straight scares or straight people who just don’t “get it”, I guess. And it’s okay for not everyone to dig it, although I do find it frustrating when people just heap insults on a product because it wasn’t written “for” them. 

I personally find that this show is tailor-made for me. It’s all about found family and mutual admiration and the kind of respectful, evenly-balanced romance that surpasses death. There is nothing about that I don’t love. I think Dani is an incredible, well-rounded, interesting heroine; I think Jamie is a gorgeous foil to balance her out. I think Owen is an excellent example of non-toxic masculinity, I think Hannah is gloriously elegant and brave, I think the kids are a nice spin on the usual Creepy Children trope. I don’t find any of it boring, because...it’s exactly the kind of story I prefer. I am happiest when conflict is on a human level, people working through grief and emotional baggage to come out the other side stronger. Bly delivers that.

I also am happiest with a wlw couple that is treated with love and respect, allowed to be two people falling in love and staying that way. I love that there’s no biphobia, no jealousy, no unnecessary sniping or cheating like we see in most queer lady ships on television. I love that these are two women who hold each other up, communicate, and fall in love organically. And I understand that there are people--mainly straight people, but not exclusively--who aren’t going to be into this, because they’re under the impression that there’s no intensity or interest in domestic romance. Those people ain’t me. I find nothing at all boring about a well-performed, well-written love story between two people who genuinely like and respect one another all the way through. I frankly would take that every time, if I could. There aren’t enough healthy love stories like this in the world.

But yeah, the folks who aren’t into it aren’t into it, and that’s fine. I disagree with them wholeheartedly, but that’s going to happen. 

[gravity-lifts]

Who’s Afraid Of Ghosts?

Hello everyone! Here’s my piece for the gvbb mini bang (organized by @grishaversebigbang) 

Here’s some absolutely amazing art by @generalstarkov link and  @emmaxtw link!!!! Also a wonderful edit by @jiangsziyas link!! 

This story is like most of the ghost stories that you’ve heard so far, with the premise having happened in a house just like this one, in a small town of almost the same name. However, that is as far as the similarities go. You see, this one is actually true. It starts on a night like tonight, with a group of friends in a house together, telling stories around the fire. ~~ Sometimes, your friend tells a ghost story so stupid that you just need to prove that nothing bad happens in graveyards at night. Right?

ao3 link here

Fic under the cut warnings: violence, death of a minor character (non canon character) words: 2161

The group sat in a semi circle in the living room, sprawled across couches, chairs and each other, chatting amongst themselves, loud enough to make Zoya actually glad, for the first time, that Liliana wasn’t going to be home that night. She wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation --- she hadn’t really been for a while, more caught up in the flickering of the fire off of her friends as they talked. A shout drew her attention towards where Nikolai was sitting, looking equal parts regal and ridiculous in an armchair. He gestured wildly with his hands, trying to explain something to Tamar and Nadia who both seemed to not quite believe whatever tall tale he was spinning. It was probably just something about the mermaids he swears he’d seen the last time he’d been out boating.

However, as she turned back to the fire, she heard him mention the graveyard. Cursing her needless curiosity, she wandered over to Nikolai’s chair, just in time to hear him rambling about the person’s gory end. So, it was a ghost story, then. She settled in, back resting against his legs, waiting for him to restart with his new audience as Tamar and Nadia shuffled back to the couch and Alina drifted from where she’d been talking with Genya, probably having heard half of Nikolai’s story the first time, looking just as curious as Zoya felt about the beginning of a story that had such a gory end.

Nikolai sat up a bit straighter, his face brightening as he noticed that more people wanted to hear his story. He cleared his throat, and then he began.

“This story is like most of the ghost stories that you’ve heard so far, with the premise having happened in a house just like this one, in a small town of almost the same name. However, that is as far as the similarities go. You see, this one is actually true. It starts on a night like tonight, with a group of friends in a house together, telling stories around the fire. In fact, one of them is telling a ghost story just like this one, a true story of a group of friends all together in a house-”

“Yes yes, this story is true and it’s about true things that happened truthfully, now, what actually happened? I thought this was a scary story, not just one about what we’re doing now,” Zoya cut in, pushing a curl of hair out of her face.

“I’m getting there! Just wait, I promise it’ll be scary. Now, in this story there’s a girl that doesn’t believe the ghost story that is being told. She tells her friends off for being superstitious, for believing in the story that had been told. Now, like I said, this is a true story, a cautionary tale, if you will. And, the story inside the story is just like that as well, about a kid who went to the graveyard after dark, only to be killed, right on the grave. Now, as I said, the girl didn’t believe this story when her friend told it. She believed it to just be a stupid tale meant to scare children much younger than them away from the graveyard before dark, back home to their parents for dinner and bed. She declared that she would go out to the graveyard, to prove that the tale hadn’t been true, promising to leave something of their choice on the centermost grave to show that she had followed through with her plan. And so, she set out, a candle in hand, ready to prove that her friends were all just overreacting over a kids story. Now, this is where the story starts to blur. Some people tell it with a happy ending, one where she runs away, never to be seen again. That, in my humble opinion, is bullshit,” he pauses, seemingly for dramatic effect, the drumming of his fingers on the arm of his chair the only clue that he’s anxious to get to what he clearly thinks of as the important part of the story.

“In the much better version of the story, she goes to the graveyard, brave as can be. She walks to the grave, and sets her candle down, kneeling to light it as she hears footsteps behind her, getting closer with every moment she wastes fumbling with the matches. She stays there until she feels someone's breath on the back of her neck, feels the gentle press of a blade to her back, before it plunges in, then the searing pain took priority over everything else, a knife being twisted before it was withdrawn, leaving her to bleed on the cold graveyard dirt, candle lit at last. 

The next morning, her friends came to find the candle. They were speculating wildly about why she hadn’t returned home the night before, all joking about how she must have met another friend, maybe even a partner, before they stepped inside the cemetery and got their grim answer, in the form of her body, laying in a puddle of what was unmistakably blood, still shielding the candle from the elements.” He leaned back in his chair, pushing a hand through his hair to either straighten it or ruffle it more, Zoya wasn’t completely sure. She was sure, however, that the story was completely untrue.

“So, Nikolai,” she said, standing up from where she’d been sitting on the floor and taking a step towards him. “You’re saying that if I go into a graveyard at night, I’m sure to die? Because, it is night right now, and last I checked, there’s a graveyard only two blocks from here.”

Nikolai sighed, rubbing his eyes. “I suppose you’d like to go alone, as well? Haven’t I just given two examples as to why this isn’t a good idea?”

“Oh come on! You were telling a scary story, those are supposed to be like cautionary tales. Besides, it’s not the same graveyard. No one has ever been killed in this one, I think I would know if someone had been, seeing as I live right. By. It.”

Nikolai stood, looking genuinely concerned. Concerned enough to make her feel like this may not have been the smartest idea she’d ever had. Well, if she was anything, she was stubborn, so she might as well follow through with it. If anything went wrong, it would serve Nikolai right for basically daring her to do it.

She turned towards the kitchen, tossing her hair behind her shoulder as she walked.

“If I’m actually going to prove your story wrong, then I might as well take something to prove I was there. Would a knife work instead of a candle? Of course I wouldn’t be lighting it on fire, but I could drive it into the ground to prove I was there.”

Nikolai just stared at her, before finally snapping out of whatever mess of thoughts had been running through his head. 

“I’ll come and get you if you’re not back after what, ten minutes? Zoya, I never thought I would say this, but please don’t prove me right.”

She scoffed, pulling her boots on.

“Please Nikolai. It’s a children's story! Don’t tell me you actually believe I’ll die from being alone in a graveyard.

She walked out the door, letting it slam behind her in a way that would definitely have made any parental figure furious with her, and started on her way to the graveyard. She must have zoned out while she walked as it seemed to have taken far less time than it normally did to walk there, but she found herself already almost in the center of the graveyard, knife in hand. She checked that she was in between two graves -- it felt rude to stab a grave -- and knelt, swiftly digging her knife into the dirt. 

She was quite ready to go back home, telling herself that it was just because of how cold it was, and definitely not because the wind whistling in the trees sounded like one of the monsters in the stories she had begged her dad to tell her when she was a child, even though she knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep after hearing them. No, it was definitely the cold. 

She tried to stand, brushing dirt off of her knees as she rose, but she found that she wasn’t able to move past a low crouch. Behind her, the wind grew ever louder, swelling as it whipped through the trees. It sounded almost like babies crying now, less like the roar of monsters as it had before, or the crash of waves on the shore as it usually did, during the day. Uninvited, thoughts of angry ghosts appeared in her head, and suddenly she was a lot less certain that she was actually alone in the cemetery. 

She sank back to her knees, wondering if anyone would find her before morning, or if she would stay in the graveyard, laying dead until morning or even later, like in Nikolai’s story. She really should have thought a bit more before testing fate like this. 

Once again, the wind swelled, almost as if it was trying to push her over. Zoya straightened her back, lifting her chin. If she were to be killed by spirits, at least she would go out with her dignity intact.

Then, from behind her, she heard something. Something that sounded like… footsteps? They stopped, but now she could hear someone breathing a bit behind her. Perhaps she had been too hasty to assume that ghosts were the only thing that could hurt her here.

“Zoya? I’m here to get you! We were worried about how long you were taking. Are you going to turn around, or do I have to make my dramatic entrance to your back?”

She whipped around - or tried to, at least. Whatever was keeping her pinned to the ground was definitely still there.

Nikolai walked around her, probably to make his grand entrance, as by now he had certainly decided that she wasn’t going to turn. With him here, her fears of ghosts and murders seemed almost silly, especially in the glow of his flashlight. He held out his hand to her, entrance seemingly having been set aside. He was looking at her rather oddly, and when she raised a hand to check for dirt on her face, she found the reason in the almost dried tear tracks. She hadn’t realized that she’d been crying until now.

As Nikolai pulled her to her feet, they heard the sound of fabric tearing, amplified by the relative silence surrounding them. The wind had died, leaving everything deathly still. Zoya glanced down, finally seeing what had kept her on the ground. The knife she had brought was still pinning some of the fabric from her dress, clearly stuck firmly enough that it wouldn’t come out without a fair amount of force. She reached down and tugged it out of the ground.

“Well, Nikolai, I suppose we can agree that I was here? Or do I need to leave the knife in the ground for proof,” she said, wiping the dirt off of the knife as best she could on the remaining part of her dress, which was most of it, but she was entitled to some dramatics after what had happened. She would have to get rid of this dress anyway, especially since it was now missing a piece of the skirt.

Nikolai laughed, a bright sound, one that seemed rather out of place here. 

“Yes, I do think that everyone will believe your harrowing tale of the graveyard. Shall we head back now? It’s getting rather late.”

This time, it was Zoya who offered her hand. Nikolai took it, in silent agreement not to mention the fact that she had offered it, now or later.

Together they walked, hand in hand, back to the house where their friends were waiting. As they approached, Zoya could see firelight flickering through the window, and when Nikolai pulled the door open, she could hear them chatting and laughing. As soon as they had stepped inside, both Alina and Genya flew towards them, talking a mile a minute. Genya wanted to know why Zoya had been at the cemetery so long, Alina wanted to know if she’d seen a ghost. Or two ghosts. Maybe three, even, if she’d been lucky.

The four wandered back to the living room, Zoya assuring Genya that she hadn’t meant to stay as long as she had, and telling Alina that she’d seen exactly zero ghosts, ignoring her disappointed sigh.

Zoya sat again, feeling as though she’d be happy if she never had to leave this room again. It was warm from the fire, and the noise from her friends was comforting. She sank back into the couch, content just to sit here, with everyone, until morning.

[aros001]

Read through light novel vol. 14. Random thoughts.

I haven't read/watch a lot of harem stories. My exposure is mainly from Rosario+Vampire, Negima, UQ Holder, and maybe Code Geass and Overlord (I'm not sure if I should count Konosuba). So my perspectives on how harems typically work in stories is a bit limited. That said, I do like how Naofumi's "harem" differs from the norm I'm aware of.

Most harem MCs: Has many girls after his heart/wang and is either oblivious to it, can't make up his mind as to who he actually likes, or doesn't have the time for love/booty.

Naofumi: "Will you people f**king leave me alone?!"

I just love the concept of Naofumi's "harem", where a second person who likes him romantically isn't even introduced until volume 10 and Naofumi is absolutely annoyed with every member who joins his "harem", save for Raphtalia.

I tend to forget Naofumi has a brother because it isn't brought up that much, even though I did like that backstory for Naofumi we got in vol. 1 regarding him. It does make me wonder how much time is passing in his old world vs. this new one. With the other three heroes, they died, so they don't really have lives they can go back to. But for Naofumi's parents and brother he could theoretically be missing for months or years by the time if or when he goes back. But back on topic, I do like him drawing parallels to his family and Sadeena's, how his brother compares and contrasts with her and her sister when it came to the pressure from the parents. I already like Sadeena but it was nice to see her and Naofumi actually getting to bond a little over something that was very personal to one of them, without romance or attraction being the main drive of their interaction like it usually is. Honestly, there were some nice parallels drawn between characters throughout. Naofumi's brother with Sadeena and her sister. Sadeena and Raphtalia's father with Shildina and the child emperor. Even a little bit with Raphtalia's status in Q'ten Lo with Naofumi's in Siltvelt. It's a good thing she's not staying too long or she might end up in a harem bath like he did (even though, given the difference between male and female biology, there wouldn't be much point in that. She'd get her selection of guys but can only get pregnant with one at a time).

I'll admit, most of this book I was waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me, mainly because of Naofumi's comments throughout of how well the invasion was going and how stupid the enemy was being. I was waiting for it all to be some kind of trap or manipulation but...nope, their government really was just that bad and the victory was just that easy. On the one hand, it does make it feel like less of an earned victory, since they didn't have to fight too much to achieve it until the very end (and in that case it was mostly Sadeena and Raphtalia against technically the same single opponent), but on the other hand, in regards to the overall story, a comment from Naofumi does make an argument for why it works, comparing Q'ten Lo and its ruling class to Queen Melromarc. A respected ruler whom is very skilled at diplomacy and manages to work with or at least create truces with other countries, even those hostile to hers like Siltvelt, vs. the child emperor of a completely isolated country (save for some imports from Siltvelt) whom is placed on the throne far before he's ready and puppeted from behind the scenes by a very self-serving individual. There is certainly a very (unfortunately) real argument to be made as to why the latter would be already be on the verge of falling apart from such greed and sort-sighted actions. Wisdom and long-term planning vs. greed and short-term gains.

This is going to sound weird but Motoyasu #2 reminds me a little of Bakugo from My Hero Academia, in regards that they both fill a similar trope, where the character (a non-villain) is very unpleasant and easy to hate but you, the audience, do have to acknowledge, even begrudgingly, how good and skilled they are at what they do. He's a horrific perv and womanizer but his blacksmithing abilities are genuinely impressive, especially with how he handled that cursed blade from the Hydra and his explanation of life force applied to smithing. I don't think we've had another character quite like that yet in this story. The other three heroes were also unpleasant and easy to hate but after the first wave battle they never really showed anything the audience is forced to give them props for, at least in comparison to what Naofumi and party could already do. They were unpleasant and were useful only in what they could potentially be once they got their heads out of their asses, not for what they were currently. I imagine we'll get something similar to the trope with Trash at some point, as even the Queen herself talked about how brilliant a strategist he once was. Though Bakugo grew as a character as time went on and the unpleasant parts of his character slowly winded down. I'm not sure we'll see that with Motoyasu #2 and Trash. Trash is maybe more likely but he'll have more of a journey he'll have to go through after how unpleasant (and kind of unhinged) he's been.

The parts about Naofumi's character that I like the most have almost nothing to do with him being a hero. I love that he's a really good businessman, both of the good and shady parts of it, and that he's a really good cook, even when he's not adding life force to the dishes. For as much as he wants to go home, of the four heroes he'd be the one who'd have the easiest time settling down in the new world once the waves are gone, since being the Shield Hero just makes what he does a little easier and it's not absolutely essential to do it. He can use his shield to improve the quality of medicines or compound it for him but he still can make good medicine on his own.

Also that he can't stop basically adopting kids despite flatly denying that he is any sort of parental figure or that he should be seen as such.

"I'm not your mother!" He says as he wears an apron and cooks and dishes up delicious hot meals every day.

"I'm not your father!" He says as he teaches them confidence and toughens them up against those who'd ever try and hurt them again.

"I'm your owner! I'm a tyrant! A dictator! I'll make you work off every penny I've spent on you!" He says as he keeps them safely protected from the dangers of the world they can't yet handle and offers them a place of peace and security like they've never had before, taking the time out of his day to play with and entertain them when they ask him enough.

Naofumi collects son and daughter figures like Lilo and Steven Universe collect father and mother figures. No wonder Raphtalia and so many women like him. He's a business owner, can cook, never gets drunk, and is good with kids and animals (and threatened to feed a kid to an animal! That's double points right there).

That reminds me. I'm not sure how much time passes between when each group/generation of Holy Heroes is summoned but I'm curious when we'll meet (or if we've already met) a child/decedent of one of the previous heroes. A previous Shield Hero apparently really like his harems so I'm sure he must have sired at least a few children (unless the shield also offers protection against pregnancy (Condom Shield!)).

So...Makina. Bitch #3 or Kyo #2? I think either would fit, though I suppose Bitch #2 is just my nickname for Kyo and not one Naofumi ever gave him. Honestly, from just the short bit she was in the story, she kind of feels like if Kyo and Bitch had a baby.

...I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I kind of love Ren and Rishia being exposition buddies, just exclaiming aloud all the techniques and magics that are happening during a fight.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/shieldbro/comments/fm85q5/read_through_light_novel_vol_14_random_thoughts/

[piracytheorist]

Allen & Colin interview (pt.1) summary and tidbits

Because I know y’all are curious ;)

I’m not mentioning everything, because a) it’s in a foreign language for me and I miss stuff, b) I’m not sure what impact it has other than them simply mentioning that stuff in the interview and c) I’m just your average fan with her biases and preferences, some things draw my attention, some don’t. But it was an interesting insight into Colin’s inspirations and work ethic, so I’ll try to mention as much as possible. Also because c’mon it’s Colin and we all want a bit.

If you can and can afford it, I’d suggest supporting Allen on patreon. The work he’s offering is very important, especially in the times we’re currently experiencing.

In the intro, which was recorded after the interview, Allen says: “In this interview, Colin talks about his early life, growing up, having such a wonderful big brother to look up to... Maybe he doesn't say that. You'll have to wait and see.”

There's a lot of laughs in the beginning, as they start getting into the motion of brother interviewing brother. The room they were recording used to be Colin's old bedroom, and Allen asked him where his bed used to be, and almost immediately said "I'm pretty sure the listeners are loving this right now." Hahaha we are.

Colin kept a bit to himself when he was a teenager. He drew a lot and played the guitar, he was introverted when he got into the whole theater thing.

Real artistic, so, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be a musician or an artist, but when he started theater he eventually realized it was theater he wanted above all. Dude. If only we all were so widely talented and had so many opportunities to choose from XD

Honorable detailed mention: Allen mentions how amazed he was by Colin's talent. He remembers one time he was looking after Colin (he said it was about six months after Colin had started learning guitar, and iirc that was when he was 11) and he (Allen) had also recently started, and was trying hard to learn some chords. He heard some Led Zeppelin from Colin's room and was like "Oh he's listening to Led Zeppelin," then he went to his room and he realized it was actually Colin, playing Stairway to Heaven. And he still remembers! What a proud bro, we stan.

Colin learned a lot of music by ear. It was more practical than technical stuff that he worked on. He's very humble about his guitar playing, too.

They talked a bit about playing music with emotion and how sometimes people who concentrate a lot on technique don't use any emotion, and as a musician myself I've seen this a lot, where people focus too much on teaching technique that the result comes off completely emotionless. Though, I mean, I'm trained in classical music, and that's heavily based on building technique, so I can’t say you shouldn’t work on technique, but there are many ways of playing music and so many genres, and there is a healthy balance between technique and emotion, and depending on the style you're playing technique can be applied (or is needed) accordingly.

Colin talked about how he had piano lessons when he was young, and he remembers how the place where he had lessons creeped him out (he laughed at that), so that along with the heavy focus on technique discouraged him, but he wishes he was able to play it.

Don’t we all

He remembers Michael Jackson being one of his first inspirations for music. He remembers Thriller was the first vinyl he got, though the very first music that he bought was a cassette from Huey Lewis and the News - after he had his communion. Gotta say I appreciate the attention to detail XD

Colin: I used to listen to Michael Jackson non-stop. Allen: You did.

I can picture Allen nodding as he said that XD

The first concert he went to was of Jackson's Bad (I think), when he was seven! It was Allen's first concert too.

Their dad used to listen to a lot of Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam and those became Colin's favourite music to play. Especially Rory Gallagher. He and their mom also used to play in bands, and there was a lot of music in the house in general and Colin said all that contributed to his inclination in music.

He said how once he was an adult, Helen was his biggest supporter in what he did. WE STAN. That meant a lot to him, especially when as a starting actor there'd be times he wouldn't have a job for a long time, but the support from Helen and the rest of his family in general meant a lot to him.

Then they talked about people who used to tell him that he was lucky to have the band (The Enemies) as a job, but how that wasn't luck, it was based on work he did for years before he could go out on stage with them. And again, can confirm, there's a lot of work put behind any decent and above musical performance, it can be as hard as any job, especially when you have to pack up and go to a different place, set up, rehearse, perform, pack it all up and come home late. It's just that the crowd sees only the entertainment part it gets, and doesn't know the work behind it, so a lot of time they don't appreciate it as such.

It's just... I feel that, a lot, you know? Yes, music is fun and we love it, but performing it for a crowd ain't no game.

Colin compared that to acting, with how people see the end result as a snapshot of the entire work behind it, same way we don't see a lot of the work behind professions we don't know about - Colin mentioned an electrician, for example.

I think he’d shared this story before or something about it, but he talked about his very first touch with theater; he’d gone to the youth theater to meet with his friends - just to meet them, and they were rehearsing a play but one actor was missing, so they asked him to read in for him that day. At first Colin was like “No way” but eventually they convinced him.

That first experience made him realize he could pretend to be anyone he wanted to be and it gave him a newfound confidence. At the time he wasn't playing the guitar publicly, only in his room, and playing in the theater gave him the confidence he didn't have with the guitar at the time, because in the theater he was putting his character out there, not himself.

I think it's interesting how he talks about acting; he mentioned "putting on a skin". And I think, seeing the variety of characters he has portrayed, and how invested you can feel he is during filming, and then seeing him... "collected" in cons and interviews, and not very active in social media... I think "putting on a skin" fits perfectly the way he does it. And I think it's part of why I love his acting, and why his characters feel so different from each other; it's full-on becoming and feeling like another person, not simply acting like one.

His theater group went to the Olivier Theatre in London (for a competition, if I got that right), and they got a standing ovation for their play, and it was then that Colin thought that he could really invest and make a living out of acting. He was about 15-16 at the time.

Again, standing ovation => confidence goes through the roof, can confirm.

It was there that his group won an award, and it was Colin who received that from Anthony Minghella, the director of The English Patient, and Allen said that Minghella said Colin was amazing. a) bruh can you imagine and b) what a proud brother!

Colin said how he was already interested in animation and special effects, and the whole act of making a movie, so even as an actor he still likes wandering around sets and getting to see how they're all made and built, even sets he's not part of. Again he talked about how much is done behind the scenes that the audience never gets to see.

Even from his experience in the Olivier Theatre, Colin already had the ideology that in drama, it was about the group, the team, and not about himself, and he's followed that to the present. He talked about how acting is just one part of a production, and it takes hard work from many people of different professions working together to get to that.

Like, he's so conscious and so respectful of what is behind the scenes of a production and how important everyone is... and like, I feel that says a lot about the humility we see of him, the way he treats his job as any other job, and the way a lot of his co-workers talk with such respect about him. Like, when you respect everything, from the basis to every little cogwheel that make a film and always take the opportunity to learn anything you can from your co-workers...

I love him so much.

He mentioned how his grandmother was a big influence for him too, back in the fourties she’d gone to London to study producing, so he says subconsciously there was always an influence towards drama in his family.

"You can't complain about having a disillusioned bunch of teenagers or kids causing trouble if you're not willing to invest [in their future], to help them realize [their potential]." He said that as part of how that one evening in the youth theater changed his life, and how having the chance to have a safe space to express himself, that being the theater, played such an important part in his life and the lives of pretty much everyone who had taken part in it. And how things like that, giving children the chance to explore hobbies and things they like, can have such a positive impact on their lives and futures.

So that’s for the first part! I hope it was all clear :D

[kob131]

 https://rwbyconversations.tumblr.com/post/626550438587678720/the-scarlet-letter-lets-talk-about-rwbys-male

Can’t even say I stan RT since I helped in developing your own break in RT’s abusive business practices.

So let’s start with a blunt statement: RWBY’s male LGBT representation has not been good. If the series’ handling of female LGBT rep is good (which… well there’s worse shows) and the general standard for how you write LGBT characters in a show like this, its handling of male rep has been… how not to. And Before the Dawn kinda solidified the idea in my head that the show’s handling of its male LGBT cast just isn’t good enough, either by the standards of when RWBY began in 2013, or today in 2020 when compatively massive steps have been taken over the past decade to show a more diverse list of characters… or at least a more diverse list of female characters.

So how do you make good male LGBT representation? If we’re talking about how something is done badly, you’d think some ground rules would be established. ... Yeah, he never does that.

It’s big romance is (unless the writers are very stupid) going to be between Blake and Yang, their first out character was Ilia, Coco got sent to the Book Dimension where she confirmed “I use my sunglasses to perv on women without their knowledge” which uh… yeah you can definitely tell RWBY is written by men… and Volume 6 had Saph and Terra being a good example of an LGBT couple without any real drama. In the last three years alone, the show has drastically increased its lesbian and bisexual characters, alongside even including its first out trans character in May Marigold (albeit only revealed on Twitter). In general, these depictions of sexuality have been pretty OK. Would have liked it if Ilia wasn’t immediately written out of the show after Volume 5 as it made her feel a bit more disposable than intended but whatever, subject for another day.

A. What examples do we have of Bumbleby being canon? One or two animation things and voice actors? Cool, when’s White Knight becoming canon.

B. I’ve heard Barbara say similar shit. Acting like that’s a male thing is fucking sexist.

C. I’m sorry but by every single standard of LGBT writing I’ve heard-wouldn’t they be considered tokens and flat caricatures? Since they’re so irrelevant and have so little character? They’re barely even characters INCLUDING their kid. 

Sorry but considering how there’s no ground rules made for what is good LGBT rep- I can only go off what others have said. And so many, OVERWHLEMINGLY MANY, people have said Saphron and Terra aren’t good. 

D. Okay the Illa thing is yet another example of why ground rules need to be set. Saphron and Terra BOTH are written out in Volume 6 so wouldn’t they get chewed out too? What makes Illa getting written out different or more disposable?

RWBY’s male rep though is a bit spottier. There’s the plant bois in Volume 5’s premiere, we nearly had Pilot Boi until some last-minute revisions, and… Scarlet.

Look about the same as the female LGBT audience to me. Why is this so bad?

“Why Scarlet’s a bad launchpad for male LGBT rep”

I don’t like Scarlet or how his sexuality has been handled. Scarlet’s homosexuality wasn’t revealed in the show, or by the writers, or even in anything that’s actually canon. He’s confirmed gay in his sole of dialogue in a non-canon fan anthology, where the manga’s Twitter team had to say that Miles suggested the idea and approved of it.

In short, Scarlet is Dumbledore’d, where his sexuality is revealed in out-of-show material and in a way that doesn’t make it supremely obvious (Miles himself never commented to confirm this so this news was limited in how far it could spread. I’m genuinely curious how many people still don’t know Scarlet’s gay), and Scarlet himself is a nothing character who was written out of the show after Volume 3 and only reappeared in Before The Dawn, half a decade after he vanished. Compared to Ilia, as this came out after Ilia’s entire arc in Volume 5, it’s not a great starting point for mlm rep. But things would have been forgiven if it had gotten better, if the show did have more male LGBT characters introduced, even just on the Saphron/Terra level of just being around for a few episodes before leaving. Then it would have been a misfire but then we could all say “Things got better.”

Why should I care?

See, part of the job of a critic is to make the problems understandable to the audience. I emphasized ground rules because it gives the reader a base level understanding of what constitutes as good in this case. Why should I think Scarlet is bad when Saphron and Terra are on the same level and you said they were at least acceptable?

It… didn’t. Which is why when Before the Dawn released in 2020, a full two years after Scarlet was first confirmed gay, while the franchise had more than doubled its wlw rep, Scarlet remained the one male character in the entire franchise who had a name and liked men. I remember vividly a fake leak for After The Fall which claimed Yatsuhashi would come out to Velvet and admit to having a crush on Fox. And I remember as well how many people were disappointed when it was said to be false, because it would have been nice for Yatsuhashi’s character, especially after the fleshing out he gets in the CFVY books. If Yatsu had come out as gay in the books I’d like his writing enough to say he’s a good case for rep, albeit with the caveat of “This is all in side material.” But in reality, the leak was fake and Coco was confirmed gay instead.

I remember the same leak. Yatsuhashi also disappeared at the same time and even if he was fleshed out-he’s still irrelevant to the show so wouldn’t he be bad? And if it’s about having fleshed out characters, why did Illa whose a fully realized character get shaded while effective background characters praised?

Unfortunately, Before the Dawn proceeded to ruin Scarlet and made me at times feel genuinely uncomfortable as a queer man! Let’s talk about that.

And people said the same about Saphron and Terra and people get backlash for praising them over other lesbian characters.

I hate Before the Dawn. It’s… bad. I read it while on a vacation and the only solace I had about the entire thing was that I’d bought an M&M chocolate bar. The bar was finished before the book. That bummed me out. It’s not a very well written book, the prose is very Early 2010s YA Writer, none of the characters are memorable and there’s various Fun Incidents like “NGDO using children as bait for Grimm,” and “Neptune’s hydrophpobia being used as a threat to torture him and the scene is played for comedy.”

A. NDGO is repeatedly shown to be massive assholes in the book.

And B. I can’t really find anything wrong there. In one of my favorite shows, Justice League Unlimited, criminals get threatened with actual torture and even death and it’s treated as a joke. Yeah the context is different in that the victim are criminals but both the villains and Neptune get over it so quickly I see no real problem here. Especially since Jaune’s own low self worth was a joke up to Volume 5.

Theo was cool. I can’t wait to see him as written by good writers, he should be a highlight of the Vacuo arc.

Don’t go blaming E.C. Myers for this- Miles and Kerry helped. You’d have to call them shit writers too.

I had two hopes for Before the Dawn- “Don’t be bad,” and “Let Scarlet and Sage be well written.” I’d liked how After The Fall had handled some of its characters (barring, y'know, Coco perving on women), especially Fox and Yatsu who were surprising in how much I liked them. I was looking forward to seeing Myers give Sage and Scarlet similar treatment- two relatively nothing characters meant he’d have a blank slate to write them however he wanted, he could give them unique personalties and if nothing else it could be cool to see their Semblances.

You know how frustrating it is to see people blame Miles and Kerry for shit that Monty had a hand in and may have even been responsible for?

Yeah well we finally found the flipped version-

Miles and Kerry worked with Myers on the book. Just as Monty is just as much at fault as Miles and Kerry, they’re just as much at fault as Myers.

And then I read the book. (Sage fans I am so sorry for you, you got baited harder than Johnlock fans)

I thought we were talking about male LGBT rep.

Scarlet’s a giant dickhead in the book. It’s his sole character trait and his inner monologues go on, and on, and on about how much he hates Sun, how he revels in mocking him. Most of his dialogue is sarcastic put-downs about Sun and how lame he is, and Sun is never properly allowed to defend himself or point out how going with Blake meant he was able to help save Haven Academy.

You mean like how character criticized Yang for being so reckless even though she was trying to save Blake?

It shouldn’t matter what the intent or results are- Sun and Yang still did bad things and affected the people around them. They should be criticized, especially Sun here since A. He’s still doing it in the book, B. He hasn’t had any real flaws in the show which means his dynamics and interaction are limited and C. This addresses what people bitched at him about in Volumes 4 and 5 thus robbing them of the excuse to chew him out anymore.

(hey remember when Sun in Volume 6 expressly says to Blake “I was a bad leader for ditching Neptune and the others, and I need to work on that” only for Before the Dawn to have him staunchly refuse to accept that he let the team down? I don’t think Myers did but I do)

Remember how characters in RWBY don’t always learn their lesson, especially when it’s related to mental issues like...say....losing their parents and trying to run from their problems?

Also remember how MILES AND KERRY ALSO HELPED WRITE THAT BOOK?

Scarlet being a ratty bitch would be one thing if, again, the franchise had done more rep. He’d still be a badly written character, but it wouldn’t sting as much. But because Scarlet is still the only expressly confirmed male LGBT character in canon (the book teases that Nolan is gay but there’s never confirmation either way beyond him smiling at Scarlet), it means that he has to represent that entire ideal. So when the one gay man in Remnant is being an asshole and a snide loser, that means that by extension, this is how the franchise sees gay men. And that fucking sucks! I wanted to come out of Before The Dawn singing its praises, I wanted to like the book, but it was a massive letdown, especially coming off of the other big 2020 RWBY controversy involving gay characters.

Fun fact: LGBT people can be assholes. 

In fact, Scarlet would be the ONLY LGBT character to be snide in the show. Kind of makes him unique in that regard. ...If he was an asshole in canon. When in canon, he’s portrayed as hurt and bitter over Sun’s repeated irresponsibility and doing what anyone would do in his situation.

So honestly, he’s pretty fucking human which I would praised BEYOND being LGBT.

Yeah. We’re doing this.

Remember, you choose to do all this.

Clover and Fair Game: Technically not queerbaiting. BUT:

But nothing. Once again, without any ground rules for what you constitute as ‘queerbaiting’- I only have myself to rely on. And just about every serious definition says Queerbaiting is baiting LGBT rep or pairings to get people to watch the show.

Issue? Not only was Fair Game not used to promote the show, there are other LGBT characters in RWBY. You can’t be queerbaited anymore than a straight person can be ‘straightbaited’ (We’ll be getting into SO MUCH MORE than this later...).

Let’s pre-empt this: Clover wasn’t queerbaiting, and Fair Game, while cool and I dig it, kudos to them for becoming one of the top 5 RWBY pairings on AO3 in one year that’s fucking impressive (I say with mild malice as an IronQrow main), never had a chance. The writing never seriously boosted it barring one interaction which was flirty (them talking in the lobby of the Schnee Manor), and everything else was out of show boosting through the social media teams and CRWBY hyping it themselves by saying they liked it. If you wanna blame people, blame the animators who went off-script with stuff like Kim Newman adding the wink as a deliberate nod to the Volume 4 waitress, or the social media team deliberately using the same policies for Fair Game as they do for Renora and Bumblebee.

So nothing I should give a shit about since marketing teams often work detached from the actual product and are notoriously CUTTHROAT.

It wasn’t Eddy’s fault that things escalated, and he himself has said that in retrospect, he should have warned people that this never had a shot.

But I can’t blame the Fair Game fanbase. Because Fair Game took off like wildfire. It came right as the fanbase began seriously asking for more male rep, Qrow’s pretty hot, and the Clover wink came right after the Great IronQrow Reawakening of November 9th, 2019. The rocket was primed, and they rode it to the moon. Finally, to these people, after seven years RWBY seemed to be doing something with mlm rep in show. People started getting into RWBY just for Clover and Qrow’s interactions. And if heroes were boring, Watts and Tyrian also had a fantastic dynamic that made Nuts and Volts one of the more popular villain ships overnight. Things seemed to be turning around! RWBY was remembering that gay men existed! You could hear the choir sing!

... You JUST said that show didn’t bolster the ship aside from one interaction (one that pales to the shit I use to say in private to fuck with people). It was obviously NOT meant to be a serious component of the show. If people got into a show for something it was never meant to stick to- it’s their own fault for when that part falls away.

… And for those people, that meant that episode 12 hit like Truck-Kun.

People got pissed. People were horrified. And it didn’t help that some members of CRWBY had said in the build-up that episode 12 would have some shots that made them nauseous (probably the Tyrian thumb thing) Out of context, it looked to these fans like CRWBY were basically laughing at their suffering, like they were saying “Lol, you thought you had a chance, get fucked, I hope your vomit burns on the way up.”

Yeah, Fair Game was never gonna be canon, and I think some people ran too far with it. But in the wider context of how desperate RWBY’s mlm community had gotten for basic crumbs of content? I can see why they’d run with what they had. The writers aren’t at fault for what happened, but CRWBY didn’t help matters. And that desperate mix of what felt like official backing from the crew, jokes about how cute the ship was, and the hope that finally the show would have onscreen rep? I can see why people ran with it.

Ah huh ah huh ah huh-

Now do that for the first three Volumes of the show with a bigger fan favorite, more build up and kill one half of it off at the end of the show’s big dark turn while the creators are even MORE unsympathetic.

Sorry but when compared to Arkos, this looks fucking minscule. And you invoked the Arkos comparison due to the numerous parallels. And just like with the Arkos fans, I’ll disregard this without a second thought.

‘But Mlm are STARVED for content-’

Then go somewhere else. I’ve been saying this to your Wlw AND Straight counterparts for years. You are not entitled to have ‘a meal’. The show didn’t advertise in universe around rep- That is not the point. This is like saying you hate nachoes because it dares to have chips instead of more toppings.

So why is the show more lackluster in depicting mlm characters?

I don’t think you ever answered that the question ‘is the show’s mlm lackluster?’ because you spent a third of this post talking about something you basically admit doesn’t count.

Money. Let’s be honest, most RWBY fans don’t care if the show doesn’t have good male rep. I’m willing to bet some of you reading this won’t care and just dismiss it as not being that big a problem.

I dismiss all the romance related shit as not being that big of a problem, so what?

I don’t think the writers care if the show doesn’t have good mlm rep because they’re not poaching that market. They’re after what they see as a bigger, more lucrative market, which in this case is female LGBT rep. That gets people buying games, watching shows, raising awareness and boosting awareness of your property, which means you make more money. In short: Two women kissing hits more markets and generates more attention than two men.

I’d believe that if not for the fact that there is barely any lesbian merch for RWBY, which would be the key way to cash in on that market and squeeze them for as much money as possible. In fact, there’s barely ANY shipping merch from Rooster Teeth. Rather unusual if they’re trying to cash in on a market.

‘Well what’s YOUR explanation?’

Easy: Misandry and moving goalposts.

Guys notoriously get shat on in the fandom more than women. Jaune is STILL being called a spotlight stealing MAry Sue and numerous people are siding against Ironwood because he’s a man. So making good male LGBT rep would just be inviting more pipe bombs in the mail.

And a large amount of people like to claim RWBY has yet to give GOOD female LGBT rep, constantly raising the bar to get what they want. And considering they make up the original hatedom in the show- they naturally hold more power.

Tl;Dr- You fucked yourselves out of good male rep by having male characters having any focus whatsoever be a death sentence.

Am I saying that Miles, Monty and Kerry deliberately sat down seven years ago and said “We’re not doing gay men because it won’t generate enough ad revenue and traffic to be worth the loss in revenue from homophobes?” No, that’s silly. But I’m saying that it’s less important for them, and it shows in the things that are small and add up. Things like Miles not verifying Scarlet’s sexuality or retweeting the manga account’s confirmation to spread the message (compared to how he enthusiastically confirmed Ilia being a lesbian himself during the Reddit AMA). It shows in how Pilot Boi would have been the first mlm character only to die in his second full episode until M&K were told about the Bury Your Gays trope. It shows in how Shannon believes that Ozma is “megaqueer” and Miles jokingly laughs it off instead of confirming it, leaving it to just be Shannon’s headcanon. It shows in how actor shipping is compared between the mlm and wlw ships, where Arryn and Barbara’s frequent pushes for Bumblebee are seen as “official confirmation that it’s endgame” while Michael and Kerry saying they enjoy Seamonkeys is treated as “well it would be cute if they did it, but they’re never going to.”

The whole point of AMA is answer questions, one of which was ‘is Illa a lesbian’ among SEVERAL others.

Yeah and Illa gets called a psycho lesbian. 

Yeah and no other voice actor headcanon has been accepted. In fact, Kara pushes for White Knight and the writers don’t even so much as acknowledge that unlike Shannon. Also I dunno what ‘megaqueer’ means but his only on screen relationship was straight so that’s probably why it wasn’t confirmed.

Not the creators, don’t care.

I’m not gonna say anything like “CRWBY are gonna have Qrow end up with a woman like Robyn out of spite against the bad apples of the Fair Game crowd.” I’m not gonna say that I don’t think CRWBY cares about male representation in the series. It is, however, definitely a low priority for them, and because that leads to gaffes like Scarlet’s writing in Before The Dawn being offensive in his depiction, it only makes the contrast between the sexes all the more painfully apparent.

Again, the female side ain’t much better. Fuck, the straight side isn’t much better. This was never a focus of the show.

I’m kinda tired of waiting for Rooster Teeth to show that they do care about mlm. I’m kinda tired of RWBY’s male rep being written like it came from a 1993 time capsule where I have to enhance the screen to see a guy holding a sign of Sun’s abs or be content with the only onscreen rep still being the plant bois in Volume 5. I’m tired of how often the crew dances around answering basic questions about sexuality (and age, and birthdays, and heights, and so on) by treating it as a spoiler question, as if just wanting to know what way people swing would ever be a spoiler. I’m just… tired of all this. When the best mlm rep in Rooster Teeth’s history remains the two dads in Camp Camp who show up in a few episodes, that should say something really bad about your company and your biases (To say nothing of the recent Red vs Blue seasons and their blatant queerbaiting for Grif and Simmons and the whole can of worms that is Donut).

And their best rep in wlw according to some people is a psycho lesbian. 

This is all just personal opinion that is next to useless without the basis needed for clear understanding. I don’t know what you would consider good male LGBT rep aside from a squeaky clean good guy...and many would decry that as condescending and unrealistic.

What can they do except ignore EVERYONE and just do whatever they feel like?

P.S. Someone’s representation is NOT their view on LGBT people. Especially since, as I have said, the reception of said rep can be outright contradictory.

I’d like to not feel like I’m borderline unwelcome because I’d like to see two men in this show kiss, and that the sole thing that represents people like me in this show is some British twat who complains about sand.

Oh fuck off. I’m also apart of a minority group (autists) and yet you don’t see me winging about how unwelcome I feel because there’s no autistic characters. I relate to characters like Ruby not because they have shallow autistic traits but because I constantly struggle with the same ideological dilemma Ruby does: the struggle to keep doing good in an uncaring, cruel world. THAT is what you should find relatable and welcome. Not something like sexuality.

I’d just like to feel like my sexuality isn’t a joke to Rooster Teeth (or at the very least, be like Donut and have it be a funny one). But at this point after the last few years? I feel like a very uncomfortable punchline to them. And it just sucks.

Cool-Welcome to club. You know, since EVERY sexuality has been used a punchline by Rooster Teeth.

Your sexuality should be the LAST thing that you use to find being welcome, especially with a god damn company. And you have no one to blame for your feelings but yourself here. 

Your post is damn near useless and I don’t even know how honest that RT stuff is considering Miles and Kerry get away while E.C. Myers gets blamed for stuff you don’t like.

[sage-thrasher]

Extra: “Sanitize” and Outsider POVs (Chemical Reactions)

Well, here’s 1.5k words of outsider POV: a hobbyist chemist/physicist meets Yui. Science results. It’s basically indulgent fluff I wrote for no reason besides, well... indulgence. Sparked by the thought that our knowledge of physics and chemistry has grown so much... people and science are pretty wonderful. Takes place in no specific time. Here’s Chemical Reactions.

---

Being wealthy and charismatic meant that Haru Watanabe was called ‘eccentric.’ He was also a middle-aged man with three children and a doting wife, the owner of a thriving spice business—mostly ran by the aforementioned wife—and a self-described scholar with a surprising amount of perceptiveness. Basically, Haru did everything else right so that he could get away with doing some things wrong.

(The first sin in question: throwing himself headfirst into physics and chemistry despite having enough money to pursue respectable subjects like history, politics, literature, or historical political literature.)

Haru had people who could do the tiresome but necessary business of actually bringing the goods from one place to another. Unfortunately, there did come times where he had to make the trek in person, generally when it involved a noble personage of one dinky plot or another who got delusions of grandeur. Haru would then kiss his wife and children, board the caravan, and head to woo the noble who was choking his trade routes. This time, he was with a scribe, a servant, and two hired Sarutobi guards.

(The greater sin: blabbing about his scientific interests with everyone who had the slightest amount of interest, which in Haru’s world, was the equivalent of looking in his direction.)

He’d talked his associates’s ears off during the journey there, and on the way back, both his employees were resigned to hearing his newest ideas--his scribe knew it by heart. Though the younger ninja had been interested at first, now the two Sarutobi were staring into the distance with glazed eyes.

(The final sin: making sure that he walked his hostage audience through the concepts in question until they understood it instead of blabbing without input, denying said audience the luxury of entirely tuning it out.)

So when Haru stopped in Chiyuku to pay the necessary pilgrimage to Healer Yui’s residence, he of course took her offer of tea as an invitation to speak about his newest pet theory. Haru hadn’t met with her personally before, having never been down this route himself, but he and every merchant with business on this side of the country knew about her. And Haru especially knew of her reputation for sharing knowledge. Was it likely that she knew anything about his interests? No, but that had never stopped him before.

“I have a great interest in science,” he began, smiling.

She didn’t pause in the middle of bandaging—the younger Sarutobi was lightly burned, but only because he’d practiced some sort of ninja technique above his skill levels, much to the exasperation of the older one—but she looked up.

“Is that so?” Yui was perfectly polite. “What kind of sciences?”

“Oh, physics and chemistry, mainly.” He let his smile grow brighter. “The very big and very small, the planets and the atoms.”

There was a glint of genuine interest now, even as she said, “Give me a minute, please.” Haru was content to wait as she gave the ninja instructions, washed her hands, poured herself a cup of tea, and took a seat across from him. “You’re a scholar in both subjects?”

Her voice was the mix of a rustic drawl and clipped enunciation that educated rural folk tended to have, and Haru could detect traces of other accents, likely picked up from all the travelers that came through Chiyuku.

(Again, he wasn’t a bad merchant. He was a rather excellent one, though his wife was the exceptional half. Haru was well-versed in the art of sizing someone up.)

“I am!” Haru sipped his tea and was pleasantly surprised by its mellow flavor. He’d had worse tea in fancier places. “Are you aware of the elements of matter?” Before he could start his theory, he needed to gauge her current knowledge.

It wasn’t quite a non-sequitur, but Yui took the small leap between topics in stride. “Yes. Carbon, nitrogen…” She hesitated. “I have the periodic chart of elements. A colleague of mine gave me some books with them.”

HHaru’s interest was piqued. “Did he?” He reevaluated her and took a different tack. “As you might be aware, we can put some elements together and create new ones. Organics from organics and inorganics from like. Not one from the other, and some combinations of elements won’t combine at all. Why do you think so?”

And so began a conversation like none other that Haru had participated in, beyond his wildest dreams. (A virtue: Haru could talk and talk and talk, but he could also listen. With colleagues and scholars—and his brilliant, incredible wife—he could sit spellbound for hours, with little to say but “Please, continue!”)

He kept asking why, why, and she kept answering. Yui spoke about the shape of atoms and the charged pieces that made up them. She spoke about the bonds between elements and the shape of those bonds, all connected by little electric pieces of matter that orbited around them. Finally, he asked about the interactions of magnets and forces, about the minutiae of why some elements had so many electric bits, why the shells around each center were numbered the way they were.

“I’ve...” she paused. “ I don’t really know. This is all a guess, anyway,” she added. “None of this will be proved for decades.” Yui cleared her throat, gone hoarse with talking, and she sipped her tea.

By now, the sun had dipped from its high point to begin its journey downwards. Haru’s guard took the opportunity to hazard a reminder: “Perhaps it would be best to continue—”

“Thank you, Sarutobi-san,” interrupted Haru. “I think we shall stay sometime longer, if it suits the esteemed healer.”

Yui seemed torn, having clearly enjoyed a conversation with someone who not only followed along but also hadn’t questioned her authority. “I wouldn’t want to keep you…”

“No, not at all!” He waved her concerns aside. “Now, you were talking about proof? How would you prove this?” Haru took care to keep his voice eager and curious, letting no suggestion of incredulity or accusation color his voice. He knew how easy it was to dismiss a woman’s knowledge, intentionally or not. Why, his own darling wife needed him as a frontman to manage the business, as silly as that was—she was better than he ever could be.

With a hesitant smile, Yui began to describe a series of fantastical devices: microscopes that used electric pieces, machines that spun bits of matter fast enough to tear them open, and lightning that could split bonded compounds in two.

Haru listened eagerly, soaking up as much knowledge as he could. His ability to listen, his experience, and his surprisingly deep well of common sense gave him a fine-tuned nonsense detector. And yet, her words didn’t set it off, likely because they made sense. Likely because she admitted freely how she couldn’t prove any of it, that this was baseless speculation.

(It didn’t feel like it.)

“What about chakra? Where does this fit in?”

The two ninja, alternatively bored out of their minds and surprisingly keen to listen, perked up at Haru’s question.

And to his ongoing surprise, she laughed. “I have absolutely no idea.” Yui leaned back in her chair, taking another sip. “An energy source from another universe? A force we don’t understand? Who knows. All I know is that it seems to break all laws of the natural world.”

Haru mirrored her body language, leaning back as well. “And you know how to use it.”

“I do, but I don’t understand it.”

He made a contemplative sound. Haru liked knowing things, and Yui had done him an enormous favor by sharing. Then again, he liked knowing things, and she… was a mystery. For not the first time this journey, Haru wished that his wife was with him. She would know what to say. (Another flaw: his stubbornness, his refusal to let anything go when it caught his interest...)

“Is your knowledge supernatural?”

(... and the bluntness that resulted from it.)

This time, everyone stared at him.

Yui blinked, a mix of shock, horror, and annoyance displayed in her creasing forehead.

Haru blinked back, suddenly aware that this faux pas was inexcusable, even for him. “Anyway,” he said, moving the conversation on before it lingered like a carelessly lit firecracker between them, “I must thank you sincerely for indulging me. As a token of appreciation...”

Haru opened the bag that he had carried with him, full of physics and chemistry books that he had planned on going over with the healer—before she’d blown away every preconception and filled his minds with theories in no book before her. He chewed his lip, considering the titles, and finally picked out the one that had the most similar and detailed analysis to what she’d told him. It was mostly a comparison of elemental properties and compounds, but… Haru had noticed that despite her detailed knowledge, she’d made up many of the words for the esoteric parts of her masterful theory.

“Here,” he said, placing the book on the table. “If you want any others in my bag, do let me know. And if it pleases you, I can send you any book on any topic you desire, if you promise to share me more of your wonderful theories.” He undercut his statement with a bright smile, trying to convey that he meant it as a friend—or at least a friendly acquaintance.

Yui gave him a careful smile back, though her openness had shuttered with his blundered statement. “I’d like that,” she said.

And just like that, Haru had another puzzle he knew he had to solve: the source of her knowledge.

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 192: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

The sparkling orange portal opened and deposited the Charmings on an iconic road that was instantly recognizable, thanks to pop culture in the Land Without Magic.

"This is so cool...it's the yellow brick road!" Bobby exclaimed. David chuckled.

"Yeah, I'd say if we follow this, it should take us right into Emerald City," he agreed, as they began their journey to meet with Glinda the Good Witch.

~*~

Paul and Eva scrubbed and she poofed them some sterile gloves. It caused a bit of commotion among the other doctors and nurses present, but neither of them had a lot of confidence in the level of sterile in their medical practices. She also poofed them their own set of sterile instruments.

"Keep poofing your own stuff here and they'll be chasing you with pitchforks in no time," Whale warned.

"Not if we save the Governor's son and without amputating most of his limbs," Paul countered.

"Is the patient under yet?" he asked the chief surgeon.

"Yes...nitrous oxide has been administered," he informed.

"Good…" Paul said, as they assessed the extensive injuries on the man.

"As you can see, the chance of saving the legs is almost non-existent," he said.

"I'll repair the limbs first. Then we can operate on the belly and chest wounds," Eva said. Paul nodded, as he watched her hands begin to glow with pink energy. It caused alarm in the operating room among those that were hosting them.

"Keep your people under control and trust us," Paul advised to the chief surgeon and he watched with great interest, as the young female doctor employed her healing magic on the man's limbs. He took note of the obvious pain on her face that he could see through her mask.

"Is...is this hurting her?" he questioned. Paul nodded.

"That is the price of her magic...she feels the pain of the wounds she heels. But my wife never backs away from the chance to help heal someone's life threatening injuries," Paul boasted proudly. After several minutes, the glow faded and she steadied herself, while taking a few deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked.

"Yes...that should take care of his limbs though," she replied, as the chief surgeon examined the now perfectly functional and healed legs and arm.

"Incredible...it's as though nothing was ever wrong with them!" he exclaimed.

"Sorcery…" one of the nurses hissed.

"No...it's light magic. Open your minds to new and better ways. It's the only way you'll evolve," Eva snapped, as Paul assessed the other wounds.

"All right...let's operate," he said, as he picked up the scalpel.

"Couldn't she just heal the internal wounds too?" the chief surgeon questioned.

"She could...but that would be agony and only tax her to the limits. If we can perform surgery to fix the rest of the injuries, then that is preferred," Paul answered, as he made an incision in the chest and they began to operate.

~*~

Rose awoke with the very pleasant sensation of her husband's lips trailing soft kisses along her neck. For twenty-years now, she had been waking in his arms and she

knew she would never tire of it.

"Someone is frisky this morning," she teased. They had enjoyed a wonderful night with his friends and were graciously given two rooms at the Inn in Asgard's new territory. They had seen the children off to bed in the adjoining room, before retiring themselves. And it had not been a night without passion, but then they rarely had an evening without.

"It's hard not to be when your wife is the most beautiful woman in all the infinite realms," he said in a husky whisper, which gave her goosebumps.

"I think you are biased, my handsome warrior," she cooed back, as he captured her lips with his own.

"Maybe...but still beautiful," he purred, as he caressed her cheek, with a smile. She smiled back.

"As much as I'd love to carry this further, you and I both know the twins could burst in any moment," she reminded. He sighed.

"Yes and I suppose we should be getting back. Snow and David are probably close to being finished with their journeys," he agreed, as they shared another kiss and went about cleaning up.

~*~

Once they reached the Emerald City, they found the sites and sounds of bustling every day life fascinating. And the Emerald palace was truly impressive, as they approached it. They found that it wasn't really like in the movie though and there was no doorbell to ring. Instead, there were gates with actual guards, like most palaces. For extra effect, they were dressed in their royal garb, rather than Storybrooke clothes, so they would be believable as visiting dignitaries. They bowed to the guards and Snow spoke.

"I'm Princess Snow White of the Kingdom of Misthaven. This is my husband Prince David and our children. We're here to request an audience with Glinda the Good," she said formally.

"Not just anyone is allowed to see Glinda," the guard said gruffly, as an emerald door suddenly appeared before them.

"If you have goodness in your hearts, this door will allow you passage into the palace. Only then will Glinda grant you a meeting," he stated.

"Well...we won't have any problems then," David said.

"I hope not. Those with evil in their hearts will be denied and then exiled from the Emerald City," he warned. The door opened, clearly showing nothing on the other end. Snow took Bobby's hand and they walked through, disappearing through an invisible portal. David took Summer's hand and they followed, also vanishing through an unseen portal.

On the other side, they appeared inside the palace.

"Welcome visitors…" a voice said, as they looked up to the balcony above to see a blonde woman in a shimmering silver dress.

"You must be Glinda," Snow said, as they bowed respectfully.

"I am...though I daresay your infamy is far greater than mine, Princess Snow White and Prince David," she replied, as she came down the stairs.

"Then you know of us?" David asked.

"The legend of your true love reaches far and wide throughout the realms. I'm honored to meet you and welcome to the Emerald City," she replied.

"We're honored as well and we're here about an important matter," Snow said. Glinda motioned them to follow her upstairs and they did so, as she led them to her Throne room.

"Many years ago...a man from a land without magic came to us and deceived the people with parlor tricks. In those days, the people only thought a witch could have magic. So when a charismatic man found himself carried here by a twister, he saw an opportunity to claim the adoration he felt he was denied in his old land," she explained.

"Then you knew the wizard was a fraud from the beginning?" David questioned. She nodded.

"Yes...but I made the decision to allow him to take up the moniker of wizard, as bestowed upon him by the munchkins. Only because when he came, it was a time of great strife and war in Oz," she explained.

"Zelena…" Snow said knowingly.

"Yes…" she responded.

"If it helps...Zelena has long since renounced her evil ways. She has a daughter and is happy now," David said. Glinda smiled.

"That's wonderful to hear. I always hoped she would find peace," she replied.

"We met Walsh once...but that was after Zelena made him one of her minions," Snow said. The good witch nodded.

"I'm afraid his deception led to a very bad end for him. Since his and Zelena's banishment from Oz, I have ruled and there has been no warring in Oz. Dorothy has joined us and rules the west now in Zelena's place. We have been discussing the future of Oz in great detail lately, almost as if we sensed change was on the horizon," Glinda said, as she showed them to a piece of artwork on the wall.

"Is this what I think it is?" Snow asked. Glinda nodded.

"The only depiction of the realms joined together as they once were. This is the only one that survived the destruction and has been in the care of the witches of Oz for thousands of years," Glinda answered.

"Then you know why we're here," David surmised. She smiled.

"Yes...you are going to reunite the realms and Oz will gladly partake in this historic event," she replied. They smiled.

"Well, that was easy," David said.

"Thank you," Snow told her.

"And we'd love to stay, but we only have one more Kingdom to visit and we are anxious to unite all the lands," she replied.

"There will be time for us to get to know each other soon enough, which I look forward to. But I will not keep you today," she said graciously.

"We'll see you soon," David said, as he tossed a bean and a sparkling orange portal appeared.

"We're going to Camelot now, right Dad?" Bobby asked.

"That's right. Camelot and then home to Storybrooke," he replied, as the four of them stepped through the portal.

~*~

The surgery was an incredible success and the chief surgeon was so impressed with the technique that he had gone straight to tell the Governor that his son would be making an entirely full recovery. Meanwhile, the three of them were still in their scrubs and enjoying some coffee.

"You think that was enough to convince them?" Eva asked. Whale took a sip from his cup.

"If it wasn't...then nothing will be," he replied.

"He was pretty impressed," Paul said and he noticed the chief surgeon returning with a well dressed man.

"Here we go…" he said, as they stood up.

"Doctor Flemming tells me what you have done for my son. How can I ever repay you for saving him?" the Governor asked.

"We ask that you entertain joining our realm. Our skills today are thanks to the medical advancement in our realm and that is only the tip of what our realm can offer," Paul replied.

"He's right...the educational opportunities and medical advancement are only the beginning," Eva added.

"You have to understand...wrapping our minds around all this is difficult. The nurses were terrified when you were using your sorcery," he lamented.

"But despite that...I am going to agree. My people will be fearful and apprehensive, but seeing that my son will make a full recovery will also make them curious. And my son...he would consider a new venture like this quite exciting," the Governor said.

"Then you're agreeing?" Eva asked.

"With some stipulations," he reiterated.

"Here we go…" Whale muttered.

"And what stipulations are we talking about?" Paul questioned.

"My people fear people and things that are different. From what Dr. Frankenstein told us last, our land will border many other lands?" he questioned.

"Yes, that is true," Eva confirmed.

"Any kind of integration with other people and cultures would have to be expressly controlled. I cannot have panic or hysteria and after Dr. Frankenstein's fiasco years ago, needless to say, my people are very gun shy so to speak," he replied.

"That can easily be done," Paul said. Eva nodded.

"My father is Sheriff of Storybrooke and my mother is Mayor. Soon, with the Kingdoms uniting, they will be moving into the roles of King and Queen, as they oversee both Storybrooke and their Kingdom in Misthaven. My father can assign Knights to patrol your borders until your people can be comfortably introduced to other populations. This will allow them time to acclimate to the changes," Eva proposed.

"That sounds very agreeable. We accept the invitation to join the United Realms," he said. Paul and Eva shared a smile, while Whale shook his head in exasperation.

"Such a spell you Charmings weave," he said, thoroughly impressed.

"Thank you. I promise that this is a decision you will not regret," Eva said, as they walked away.

"Let's go home," Paul said, as the three of them ventured out and once they were in a secluded area, they used a bean and stepped through a portal back to Storybrooke.

~*~

Aphrodite and James appeared through a portal and the latter stared at the magnificent sight of Mt. Olympus before them.

"Are you sure it's okay that I'm here?" he asked, as he held their eight-year-old daughter's hand.

"Of course...you're my husband," she said, like it was obvious and their son looked around in wonder too.

"I know...but I'm still mortal," he muttered. She smiled and pecked him on the lips.

"It will be fine and you're not the first mortal to come here. Snow and David have been here. Well, in my temple anyway," she reminded.

"Okay...let's get this over with. Do you think he's going to fight you on this?" James asked.

"Probably, but I'm not leaving here until he agrees and I usually get my way," she responded. He chuckled at that.

"Yeah...you do," he agreed. She smirked at him and hooked her free hand on his elbow. They arrived at the base of the mountain and a cloud appeared before them.

"All right...everyone on the cloud," she said.

"Clouds aren't solid," James protested. She smirked.

"This one is...come on," she urged, as the four of them boarded the cloud and it ascended to the top of the mountain, revealing the mythical Throne room on Mount Olympus. The children squealed in delight, as they rode the magical cloud and it stopped upon arrival.

"Aphrodite!" a woman greeted, upon seeing them.

"Hello Athena...I suspect you know why we're here," she responded, as they shared a hug.

"I do," she responded.

"How do you think the stick in the mud will react?" She questioned.

"The stick in the mud, as you put it, is none too happy with your charges traipsing across the realms in order to do something that I expressly disagree with," Zeus interrupted, as he glared at his sister. She rolled her eyes and approached.

"The realms were once all one. What Snow and David seek to do is reunite that which was torn apart by evil. It is their destiny and I have suspected they would be the ones to unite us all again. I have since the moment they shared their spark. Which, I remind you, they had before they even met," she said.

"Your charges are too powerful," he refuted.

"You have nothing to fear from Snow and David," she assured.

"I do not fear those mortals!" Zeus said hotly.

"Then you fear that they may become more powerful than you," she replied.

"They will never rival my power!" He shouted, making her children shy away and cling to her husband.

"They are powerful because of true love, but I wouldn't expect you to understand that," Aphrodite commented.

"Do no lecture me on the trifles of true love, sister," he spat.

"The meddling that these mortals are doing is dangerous," he lamented.

"Did you know that Hermes has allowed her charges to travel beyond our sector to another? It is bad enough that we have too much travel between our realms now, let alone travel to other sectors," he continued. She smirked.

"So that's what this is about. You're afraid Thor might visit Fandral and Rose here in our sector and everyone will find out he's more powerful than you," she surmised.

"Thor is not more powerful than me," he growled.

"We are on the same level...essentially counterparts ourselves," he refuted.

"Perhaps...but everyone likes Thor better," she replied.

"She has a point. People do like Thor better. Most people think you're just a douche," Hera agreed.

"Thor is mighty, but he has fallen from power these days, as he weeps and laments his losses, like any common mortal," Zeus boasted.

"Because he has feelings and a heart, unlike you," Aphrodite commented.

"Do not task me, sister," he warned. She rolled her eyes.

"Or what? You'll smite me with your lightning?" she challenged.

"Oh, it's tempting and you will reign your charges in. The United Realms is not happening," he refuted.

"I'm sorry father...but I have already foreseen that it is happening. Aphrodite's charges will bring us all together," Athena foretold.

"I don't like this!" Zeus protested.

"You fear losing power, but I can assure you that my charges have no interest in a higher Throne. They are two of the least power hungry people that you'll ever meet," Aphrodite responded.

"So you say...but I think you are biased," he shot back.

"What? Because I love them like family?" she challenged.

"Oh it's clear that you do and you even married the twin to one of your charges," he reminded.

"Oh you of all people have no room to talk about my love life," she reminded back.

"Hnn...perhaps not, but I still maintain that reuniting the realms if a bad idea," he stated.

"Only because you're afraid of powerful mortals that are more well respected than you," Hera admonished.

"Are you quite done?" he snapped.

"Before the war with Seth, the realms were one and it makes sense that they are reunited once again," Aphrodite said. Zeus didn't continue his fight at that. He knew he couldn't stop this. Athena had decreed that it would happen and though he was loathed to admit it, he knew the chalice could match his power if pressed. He doubted those two idiots that wielded it would ever truly use it to challenge him or do anything but good with it, but he still didn't like that there was potentially mortals that were as powerful as he was. That's why he never lamented much at the deaths of Aphrodite's previous charges.

"Well, then you have what you want, so kindly take your mortal family and leave," he said sourly.

"Gladly," she said, as she and her family boarded the cloud again and it took them down to the earth again.

"Wow...and I thought I used to be a jerk," James commented, once they were out of earshot. She smirked.

"I told you he had a permanent wedgie in his toga," she joked.

"Mommy, what's a wedgie?" Sera asked innocently and James chuckled.

"Oh, it's just another way of saying that Uncle Zeus is a sourpuss and a stick in the mud," she answered, as she tossed a bean down and they stepped through the portal back to Storybrooke.

~*~

Thor and Fandral shook hands, before sharing a brotherly hug.

"Take care of yourself...I mean it," Fandral said.

"I'll be fine," Thor assured.

"And please visit soon...all of you," Rose said to the three that were seeing them off.

"We will, I assure you. I am quite curious about this United Realms you have boasted about. It sounds like a grand Kingdom," Sif mentioned.

"It will be and we are anxious to host you on our next visit," Fandral responded.

"Don't be strangers," Valkyrie said. They nodded in agreement, as the Goddess Hermes appeared in a bubble and the five of them stepped into her bubble. With a wave, the bubble winked out of sight, leaving New Asgard behind for now. Valkyrie and Sif watched Thor head back toward the village.

"Where are you going?" Valkyrie questioned. In New Asgard, there was always work to do and responsibilities to tend to, none of which Thor bothered with as of late.

"I'm going for a drink," he stated, like it was obvious.

"And Miek and Korg need my help with a grand quest," he added.

"You can't be serious…" she protested, but Sif held up her hand and let him go.

"We knew one visit with a thought to be dead friend would help, but we also knew that it wasn't going to fix him. He has a journey ahead of him and I'm afraid only he can find his way through this one," Sif advised.

"Great. Meanwhile, the rest of us pick up his slack," Valkyrie said in annoyance. Sif couldn't really offer any answers for that. Failure was a pill that Thor was not digesting well and not even a visit from one of his dearest friends, previously thought to be lost, could heal him completely. And to be honest, Sif wasn't sure even time would heal these wounds…

~*~

David and Lancelot shook hands, as they stood up from the roundtable. It was a quick catchup this time and naturally, Guinevere and Lancelot were instantly on board.

"We are very excited at the prospect of being all in one place," Guinevere said, as she and Snow shared a hug.

"Us too," she agreed.

"We'll definitely have to catch up more, but there will now be all time in the world for that," Lancelot said.

"Definitely. We'd stay longer, but we're anxious to get back and ready everything for the spell," David replied.

"Of course...we'll inform our people of what's happening at once and we'll see you soon," Guinevere said. Snow and David joined hands, as they tossed another bean down and the four of them appeared home in Storybrooke, right in front of Granny's. They four of them walked into the diner and found most of their family there, waiting on dinner.

~*~

A few minutes earlier

"So now we have an engagement party and a baby shower to throw. Your Mother is going be in party heaven," Regina commented, as Emma finished sharing her news.

"But congratulations...seriously," she added, as they shared a hug.

"Thanks. Now if only there was a way to reign mom in on the whole party thing," Emma said. Regina snorted.

"Yeah, like that will happen," she deadpanned.

"Well...there may be a way to turn the tables on Mom, so to speak," Eva mentioned.

"How?" Emma asked.

"If you count curse years, we're approaching their fortieth wedding anniversary," she mentioned.

"I thought it was thirty-nine," Leo said.

"If you're going by their official wedding, but they were already married at that one," Eva reminded.

"She's right," Regina confirmed.

"So...you want to throw Mom and Dad an anniversary party? Cause that sounds like a lot of work," Emma complained. She had not inherited her mother's love of throwing and planning parties.

"Oh, but we won't have to. I'll just subtly mention it to Daddy that it's coming up and he'll jump at the chance to throw Mom a surprise party. You know how he loves spoiling her," Eva said excitedly.

"You really think that will distract her from throwing us a party?" Leo questioned skeptically. Eva shrugged.

"Maybe...maybe not, but it will still be fun to see Mom on the receiving end of some extravagant party," she mused.

"Forty is a pretty impressive number," Leo agreed, as the door to the diner opened and Eva gasped.

"You're back!" Eva exclaimed, as she jumped up and hugged her parents.

"We missed you too, angel," David said, as Leo was hugging them next, followed by Emma.

"Well?" their eldest asked.

"All the Kingdoms we visited are on board. We can commence with the curse any time, assuming that the ones we didn't visit are on board as well," Snow announced.

"Hyde was successful with the Land of Untold Stories," Robin reported.

"But Whale failed miserably in his homeland," Regina added.

"Fortunately, they were so damn impressed with Paul and Eva's skills that they agreed, albeit with the stipulation that their borders are policed heavily and interactions with outsiders are very controlled," Regina continued. David shrugged.

"That can be easily done. And we assume Arendelle is on board?" he asked. Leo nodded.

"Of course," he replied.

"That's not the only news on that front," Eva said, as her twin shot her an annoyed look.

"You have to tell them," she urged and he rolled his eyes.

"Honey?" Snow asked and he sighed.

"I proposed to Elsa," he announced, as his mother gasped and was immediately squeezing the life out of him in a tight hug.

"Oh sweetheart...this is amazing!" Snow gushed.

"You don't even know if she said yes," he teased. Snow scoffed.

"Elsa is a very smart woman. She said yes," Snow said knowingly. He ginned.

"Yeah...she did," he replied, as he hugged her back and David hugged him next.

"See...I told you. Have faith and fight for true love. It's always worth it," he advised and Leo nodded. There was a time that he wondered if that advice from his father applied to him, but he always took that advice and it had finally paid off.

"And that's not the only good news around here," Eva gushed. Emma sighed and looked at her sister.

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Emma questioned, as her parents looked at her expectantly.

"Has something else happened, sweetheart?" Snow asked. Emma smiled a bit and joined hands with Killian.

"Uh yeah...I'm pregnant," she revealed. Snow gasped again and her eldest found herself in a hug, as her mother was practically jumping up and down with joy. Her father wasn't much more reserved, as he joined the hug and cradled her head.

"Emma...that's wonderful!" he exclaimed, his face bright with joy.

"Yeah...it's pretty great," she agreed, as David shook hands with Killian and Snow hugged him as well.

"So...I guess all we're waiting on now is Aphrodite," Regina said, as the diner door opened.

"Then wait no longer...because everything is a go," Aphrodite announced, as she and her family returned.

"Then Zeus agreed?" Snow asked.

"Not really, but the other Gods and most importantly, Athena did. Zeus is just going to have to deal with it," she replied, as they shared a hug.

"Are all the ingredients ready?" the raven haired beauty asked, directing the question to her step-mother. Regina nodded.

"Just waiting for yours and David's blood, as well as the chalice," she confirmed.

"Then this is it. Let's cast a curse," David said, as he laced his fingers with Snow's and she looked at him with watery eyes.

"A good curse," she added.

~*~

Seth entered Mim's chamber and observed the cauldron boiling violently.

"What are the results?" he questioned.

"We've melted the helm down and it has definitely added an invisibility property," Regina reported. He allowed a rare smirk to to his otherwise emotionless face.

"Excellent...then it is time," he announced, as all of Nephilim gathered for the casting of the dark curse that would take them away from this barren, limbo world and to a land where they could resume tormenting the living once again.

"Do it," Seth ordered, as the Evil Queen sliced her hand and let her blood fall into the cauldron. The black smoke turned to a deep purple and began to billow out of the cauldron. She smirked, as she observed her perfect spell.

"Look out Storybrooke...chaos is about to come to you again," the Evil Queen said, as the curse swept over them all and the land of Nephilim, carrying them away to the Land Without Magic…

~*~

The people of Storybrooke gathered with the Charmings, just outside the clock tower, as their leaders prepared to cast the good curse.

"Everything seems to be in order. We're ready," Rumple announced, as he double checked the ingredients in the cauldron. Snow and David stepped forward with the Chalice in hand.

"This one will work much like the last, except you will place your blood in the cup of the chalice," Aphrodite instructed. David carefully pricked his finger and let his blood fall into the chalice, before he pricked Snow's. Her blood dripped into the chalice with his and an instant pink glow enveloped the chalice.

"Now place the chalice into the cauldron. Then it will do the rest," the Goddess instructed. They did as she told them and the dark smoke turned to a silvery white color, indicating its purity, as the cauldron began to billow and overflow with light magic. The white smoke ascended into the sky and dispersed in eight different directions. It evaporated and unseen to them, reappeared in each realm. The white smoke swept over the land of Oz, the Land Without Color, the Land of Untold Stories, all of Misthaven, Andresia, Starcomb, Neverland and finally Olympus.

The white smoke reappeared in the sky and they could only watch in amazement as the woods surrounding Storybrooke were transformed. The landscape was now dotted with all the Kingdoms and realms, placing them as islands and Oceanside Kingdoms around the ocean within Storybrooke's new and expanded borders, which remained hidden from the outside world.

"It's incredible!" Belle exclaimed, as they all observed the United Realms, which was now, very much a reality right before their eyes.

~*~

The smoke cleared and they looked around the chamber in questioning.

"Did it work?" Mephisto questioned. The Evil Queen went to the circular window in the chamber and smirked, as she saw the Storybrooke clock tower in the distance.

"It did…" she confirmed, as Seth gazed out the window with her.

"So that is Storybrooke…" he stated.

"Yes," she replied, but then frowned, as she saw some other structures dotting the landscape that should have been the wooded area that surrounded the town.

"What is this?" she asked, but by the murderous look on Seth's face, it seemed he knew exactly what it was.

"Come…" he snapped, as his subordinates followed without question. They exited the palace and observed the Kingdoms outstretched before them. Seth approached the edge of their realm and gently touched the barrier he sensed.

"It worked...we're invisible," Mim said.

"Yes...but I don't understand the rest of this. Why are all the realms in the same place as Storybrooke," the Queen said. Seth clenched his teeth and turned to them.

"Because the heroes...specifically Aphrodite's charges, have undone what I did," he stated.

"The truest loves have united the realms," he announced.

"Then they will pay for their treachery," Mim said.

"Yes, they will...but perhaps this is not all bad. With so many people in one place, anonymity will be even easier to maintain," he surmised, as he looked at the Queen. She smirked and waved her hand. Gone was her gown and in its place was a smart pantsuit.

"I'll have no trouble moving around as Regina," she said.

"Yes, but you must be careful to avoid those that know you well, at least for now," he warned.

"Of course," she confirmed. He waved his hand next and changed his appearance to an average looking mortal male.

"I cannot risk the Gods recognizing me, though it's been more than ten thousand years since I've seen any of them," he said.

"Merlin is dead...it's unlikely anyone would recognize me," Mim stated.

"I'm from a completely different sector, as is Amora...we should be okay as well," Mephisto concurred.

"A pity...there are a few Asgardians I wouldn't mind seeing again," Amora commented.

"What about this?" the Queen asked, referring to the frost giant, Fafnir.

"Fafnir will remain here for now while the rest of us mingle with our new victim pool," Seth stated, as they emerged from the invisible barrier and dispersed into the general population.

~*~

They looked around in amazement and Snow smiled, as she saw Rose and Fandral heading toward them in the distance.

"I see everything went off without a hitch," Fandral commented, as he and David shook hands, while Rose and Snow hugged.

"This is truly amazing...beyond anything I thought," Rose gushed.

"It really is…" Snow agreed.

"Leo!" a voice called, as Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff found their way to them next. Leo smiled and hugged his fiance tightly.

"Did you tell them?" Elsa asked, but then found herself tackled in a hug by Snow and she chuckled.

"I guess you did," she said, as her future mother-in-law pulled back.

"I'm so happy...I already consider you my daughter," Snow gushed. Elsa smiled shyly and felt the tears in her eyes at that.

"I loved my mother, but she feared me. You have never been afraid of my powers and always accepted me for exactly who I am. You're the mother I've always wanted," Elsa agreed, as they shared another hug and then David hugged her as well.

"Great Gramma! Great Granpa!" Lucy called, as she and her parents rushed toward them as well, completing the Charming family at last. More greetings and hugs were exchanged, as they looked out over their new horizon.

"So...what now?" Kristoff questioned curiously.

"We welcome everyone and employ the educational seminars we've talked about to acclimate everyone. But the easiest way to welcome and ease everyone into this new life is...a ball," Snow announced.

"You just can't help yourself. You just love to throw parties," Regina teased. Snow grinned.

"I know...but a ball will be amazing and has wonderful things. Delicious food, including chocolate, ice sculptures if my future daughter-in-law will help out," Snow said, smiling at Elsa, who nodded.

"Romantic dances and my husband in leather," she mused, as she sided up to him. David grinned down at her and Emma rolled her eyes.

"Seriously you guys…" she complained, as her parents kissed.

"Well, we should all get home to bed then since we obviously have a very busy day tomorrow," Regina stated and with that, they dispersed as the sunset on the United Realms for this day. And tomorrow, dawn would bring a new day and a new life for all...

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT PEOPLE

This probably indicates room for improvement. A language that would make as much of the innovation is unconscious. When I was in grad school the whole time, and both got their degrees. It would not hurt to make Lisp better as a scripting language for Unix.1 It's worth understanding what McCarthy discovered. Search was now only a small percentage of our page views, less than one month's growth, and now he's a professor at MIT. Imagine waking up after such an operation. His answer was simply no. By seeming unable even to cut a grapefruit in half let alone go to the store and buy one, he forced other people to use.

Instead of quietly switching to another field, he made a fuss, from inside.2 If you'd proposed at the time that was an odd thing to do, and even have bad service, and people are often upset to be told things they don't.3 For example, I write essays the same way. There is nothing more important than brevity to a hacker: being able to do what you want in a throwaway program is a program you write quickly for some limited task. Most nerds like quieter pleasures. Society. It will always suck to work for a couple years ago I advised graduating seniors to work for you, the founders should include technical people. People who like New York will pay a premium to live in a town where the cool people are really cool.

Do we have free will?4 And if we, who were 29 and 30 at the time whether this was because of the Bubble, especially in companies run by business types, who thought of software development as something terrifying that therefore had to be crammed into the form of powerful, inexpensive computers, and I got in reply what was then the party line about it: that Yahoo was no longer a mere search engine. Odds are this project won't be a very promising startup indeed to get a job depends on the kind you want. In towns like Houston and Chicago and Detroit it's too small to measure. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and the VCs will try to undermine the VCs by acting faster, and the super-angels would quibble about valuations. Hackers share the surgeon's secret pleasure in popping zits.5 It would be great if a startup could give us something of the old world of credentials and into the new one of performance. They seemed a little surprised at having total freedom. Do you actually want to start one. People don't do hard things gratuitously; no one will work on a harder problem than bad submissions.

Using first and rest means 50% more typing. If I were going to do this was at trade shows.6 Well, food shows that pretty clearly. There used to be a genius who will need to be designed to be lived in as your office? It can't be something you have to charm them. Common Lisp. It's true, certainly, but the people.

Parents will tend to produce results that annoy people: there's no use in telling people things they already believe, and people will behave differently depending on which they're in, just as there are in the real world, you can't bully customers, so you may as well face that. Three of the most valuable things you could do is find a middle-sized non-technology company and spend a couple weeks just watching what they do so well that those who don't understand it are driven to invent conspiracy theories to explain how Plato and Aristotle became revered texts to be mastered and discussed. That sounds hipper than Lisp.7 And vice versa: when you can get from modern technology. A rounds, that would explain why they'd care about valuations. People can notice you've replaced email when it's a fait accompli. Google, because it suits the way they generate any other kind of code. One of the less honorable was to shock people.8 Maybe the situation is similar with malaria. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and above all, it helps them be decisive. The first is that you don't see the scary part upfront.

But what a difference it makes to be able to reach most of the startups who believed that. Control as Possible. It's also what causes smart people to be curious about certain things and not others.9 So you start painting. Hackers are perfectly capable of hearing the voice of the customer without a business person to amplify the signal for them.10 To many people, Lisp is a natural fit for server-based software. When people used to ask me how many people our startup had, and I don't understand. Their tastes aren't completely different from other people's point of view, instead of forcing everything into a mold of classes and methods. They know their audience. There's inevitably a difference in how things feel within the company.11 Most philosophical debates are not merely afflicted by but driven by confusions over words.

This a helps them pick the right startups, and b if you seem impressive, they'll be going against thousands of years studying really be a waste of time, that programming languages don't become popular or unpopular based on what expert hackers think of them, and if this new Lisp will be used to hack. Probably not. The problem with feeling you're doomed is not just that hackers understand technology better, but that they won't take risks. Too bad.12 What do people complain about?13 In the matter of platforms this tendency is even more singular in having its own defense built in. The 2005 summer founders ranged in age from 18 to 28 average 23, and there is no secret cabal making it all work. Yes, the price to earnings ratio is kind of high, but I don't see why it ought to be the new way that server-based application, and it is the Internet, not cable.14

When I say startups are designed to grow fast. Weekly dinners saved them from a common problem: choosing a small, dark, noisy apartment. But there is a fixed amount of it.15 Most American cities have been turned inside out. On the surface it feels like the kind of founders who have the balls to turn down a big offer also tend to be less insistent.16 However, the VCs have a weapon they can use it. But it was a good thing. That depends.17 I once spent a month painting three versions of a still life I set up in about four minutes. But most of the startups that can retain control tend to be far better than everyone else. Part of the problem is to make money from it, it tends to support the charisma theory more than contradict it. That's the main reason Lisp isn't currently popular.

Notes

You owe them such updates on your thesis. It also set off an extensive and often useful discussion on the one the Valley, the editors will have to keep their wings folded, as on Reddit, for the first meeting. Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation in which practicing talks makes them overbuild: they'll create huge, overcomplicated agreements, and 20 in Paris.

The kind of social engineering—9. But the change is a major cause of economic equality in the narrow technical sense of the words out of loyalty to the way I know of this article used the term whitelist instead of uebfgbsb.

While the US. Price of Inequality.

Quite often at YC.

In this essay wrote: My feeling with the solutions. 7x a year to keep the number of restaurants that still require jackets for men. At first I didn't like it that the main reason I don't know enough about the other writing of literary theorists.

If you have to rely on social conventions about executive salaries.

The markets seem to be spread out geographically. Maybe it would be enough to supply the activation energy to start software companies, summer 2010. That would be reluctant to start over from scratch, rather than by selling recordings. So if you pack investor meetings with So, can I make it self-interest explains much of the corpora.

In-Q-Tel that is exactly my point. The key to wasting time is distraction. University Press, 1983. The reason for the tenacity of the x division of Megacorp is now the first year or two make the hiring point more strongly.

I'm writing about one specific, rather than given by other people in the process of trying to hide wealth from the government. But their founders, and that you could only get in the 1984 ad isn't Microsoft, would not be incorporated, but whether it's good, but viewed from the truth. Though nominally acquisitions and sometimes on a hard technical problem. My first job was scooping ice cream in the startup eventually becomes.

But so many of the aircraft is. William R.

As a friend with small children, or because they are within any given college. Trevor Blackwell presents the following scenario. After Greylock booted founder Philip Greenspun out of them.

Incidentally, this is: we currently filter at the moment the time of unprecedented federal power, so they'll understand how lucky they are by ways that have already launched or can be explained by math. But you can say they're not. Many hope he was skeptical about things you've written or talked about convergence. Eric Raymond says the best new startups.

They say to most people realize, because they've learned more, because spam and legitimate mail volume both have distinct daily patterns. Wittgenstein asserted a sort of love is as frightening as it were better to make money, buy beans in giant cans from discount stores. It's possible that companies will one day is the most successful companies have little to bring corporate bonds; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of understanding per se but from which a few months by buying good programmers instead of reacting.

But scholars seem to be a good deal for you; who knows who you start fundraising, because that's how both publishers and audiences treat it. See, we don't have the perfect life, and can hire skilled people to start or join startups. The US is becoming more fragmented, and this is one problem where rapid prototyping doesn't work. Thanks to Paul Buchheit for the first to state this explicitly.

I'm not saying that good paintings must have been in the sale of products, because talks are usually more desperate for money.

I suspect the recent resurgence of evangelical Christianity in the process of selling things to them. But when you depend on Aristotle would be great for VCs if the founders are in a band, or Seattle, 4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York. A has an operator for removing spaces from strings and language B doesn't, that I knew, there are already names for this purpose are still called the option of deferring to a partner from someone they respect.

For example, because any invention has a power law dropoff, but in practice signalling hasn't been much of the organization—specifically increased demand for them. In practice it just feels like it that the path from ideas to startups. You could probably starve the trolls of the great painters in history supported themselves by painting portraits. Security always depends more on the way we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door.

Thanks to Carolynn Levy, Joshua Reeves, Paul Buchheit, Aaron Iba, Robert Morris, Jessica Livingston, and Trevor Blackwell for reading a previous draft.

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 2x04-- Day 429 (1)

If TGF can do two episodes in one, I can do two recaps for one episode. This recap covers Liz’s part of the ep.

The episode begins on a promising note, informing the audience that there will be two chapters: Liz’s Case and Lucca’s Case. One second in, and it’s already apparent that this episode will be (a) innovative and (b) focused on Liz and Lucca.

I have a feeling I’ve heard the Kings talk before (like, season 5/season 6) about wanting to do an episode like this. Does anyone else recall this? At any rate, I’m glad the writers have TGF to experiment a little more with structure. And I think this particular structure works better on Fight (an ensemble show) than it would have on Wife (a show with one lead).

After we’re informed we’re going to be watching “Liz’s Case” first, we see a sheet of paper with ABC written on it. Jay is running active shooter training with some of the members of the firm, including all of the name partners, Lucca, and Maia (who doesn’t get a seat at the table). This is both timely and a good way of furthering the KILL ALL LAWYERS fears without hitting you over the head with it. (This episode, in general, is light on the KILL ALL LAWYERS stuff, as well as on Trump commentary. There’s just enough to remind the viewer that it’s still weighing on everyone, especially Diane.) A delivery man barges in, making a loud noise and spooking everyone. Yep: they’re definitely still on edge. (A little goes a long way: these are the kind of details I love.)

Also, I appreciate that Jay is running the training. Last week I was impressed/surprised he knew how to deal with the ricin scare, and now I’m assuming that office safety is part of his job (or something he’s volunteer to help with).

Marissa walks in and whispers something to Lucca; we don’t hear what it is.

Someone asks a question over the phone. It’s Liz, but it’s impossible to tell since the connection is terrible. This is relatable. I don’t even want to know how much time I’ve lost at work waiting for clients to figure out how to improve their phone connections.

Liz’s connection is terrible because she’s in the car. And why is she in the car? Because she’s taking her son (!!!) to a doctor’s appointment. I’m so glad the writers didn’t forget about Liz’s son. There aren’t enough parents in The Good Verse.

Liz drops her son off at school, where she learns that his favorite teacher has been fired. They let him go in the middle of the year? Sorry. Not the point.

Liz jumps into action as she heads into work, getting on the phone with the principal and explaining that this teacher was one of the few who was able to get through to her son. Liz walks past Lucca and we see a brief snippet of what’s going on with Lucca before going back to Liz. (Can’t remember if it was at this point or slightly later I realized we were going to get info on what was happening with Lucca, but whenever I had that realization I had to pause the TV because I was so excited about the idea. One could say I liked this episode.)

Liz points out to the (white) principal that the fired teacher was one of few people of color at the school. “Our push for diversity is renowned,” responds the principal. Hm.

Speaking of diversity, before I forget to mention it, after last week I was worried about TGF centering itself on its white leads and becoming too enamored with Marissa. This episode focuses on Liz and Lucca, and while this focus is a little overdue, it does make me hopeful that TGF understands that its black characters are also leads, and that an episode can focus on two black women. That’s especially important for the show to do after it pretty much traded Barbara for Liz.

(I’m still so conflicted on the lack of Barbara. On the one hand, the writers seem to have a great grasp on Liz and they did not understand how to write Barbara at all. But I don’t like calling it a good move to get rid of Barbara, because if they’d just written her character well and given her consistent development, if her fourth episode also showed her POV (ok, fine, her fourth episode was actually the most Barbara-centric one but it wasn’t like this) and expanded what we knew about her life, then maybe I wouldn’t be writing something right now about how the writers had to write her out. I’m a broken record about this, I know, but it doesn’t seem fair to praise the writing for Liz when I know the only reason we have Liz is because the writers failed Barbara/Erica.)

“Yes, I’ve heard about your push quite a bit at the school assemblies,” Liz tells the principal (like she already thought the school wasn’t doing enough…). She also says she thinks they’ll be in touch, since at this point she knows she’s going to try to help the teacher keep his job.

Lucca asks Jay to help her with something; he agrees. As she walks off, Liz approaches him. Now that Jay’s helping Lucca, he doesn’t have time to help Liz, so Marissa jumps in. Liz is reluctant but she goes along with it.

In an informal meeting of the name partners in Diane’s office, Adrian explains that they’ve had lots of cancellations for their party. “The lawyer killings. Our chemical scare,” Diane understands. (Um, why would these people have RSVP’d yes in the first place? The party wasn’t thought up before the chemical scare. It’s what Adrian talks to Diane about at the end of Day 422.)

“I say ‘fuck it,’” Diane responds. “You’ve been saying that a lot lately,” Liz comments. Indeed she has. “Making up for lost time,” Diane winks at the camera. She doesn’t, but, like, come on. This line is extremely meta.

Diane then swivels in her chair and stares Liz down. It’s kind of comical-- not because it’s silly, but because Diane really doesn’t give a fuck and she doesn’t care who knows it.

Adrian picks up on the tension and asks Diane what’s going on after Liz exits. Diane laughs and answers a call on her laptop instead of responding.

It’s Kurt! He’s away on a trial somewhere, sitting in a hotel room. To be completely honest with you, I didn’t remember where Diane and Kurt’s relationship stood. I assumed from the fact that Diane was alone and microdosing they were separated. I also believed this was a pretty safe guess based on the seven years of Alicia/Peter relationship limbo we had to endure in TGW. These writers have never met a separation they didn’t want to prolong until the absolute last minute possible.

And indeed, even though Diane and Kurt were on good terms in 1x10, they’re still “giving it time.” Then the connection breaks up (‘cause miscommunication and technology being unreliable are THEMES this week) and Kurt thinks Diane said the separation is over. Diane closes the laptop instead of attempting to call back. I dunno, I feel like if I was in the middle of a convo like that I’d call back on a cell phone, send a text, something…?

Now the teacher is in Liz’s office and she’s offering to represent him in arbitration. “You are the only teacher to break through Malcolm’s shell,” she explains. She continues by saying that she’s always advised to put him in private school, “but if everybody abandons the public school system, it’ll implode.” Yes, thank you, Liz! (Also, I see why you didn’t get along with Alicia. I’m sure Alicia would also say she supports public schools but, um, she wouldn’t send her own children there unless she absolutely had to. And Liz would find that hypocritical.) 

Liz then calls in Maia. That’s right. Maia is working! THANK GOODNESS. Maia has almost nothing to do this ep, and the little that she has to do is work. Yay!!!

Malcolm’s public school is a charter school, which is… not exactly what springs to mind when I think of “believing in the public school system.” I was a bit surprised the writers didn’t delve into this, especially since other than a few mentions about the threat of unionization, it doesn’t really matter that it’s a charter. And charter schools are their own can of worms.

Elsbeth barges in (HELLO!!!) and only Maia recognizes her. She’s in the wrong place-- she’s looking for Lucca-- so she compliments Liz’s jacket and leaves.

Marissa goes to the school and pretends to be the mother of a second grader. She rambles a bit too much about her TOTALLY REAL husband, but it works. Marissa makes a vaguely racist comment to try to get a teacher to make an explicitly racist comment. She doesn’t get that, but she does get an explanation for why Mr. Coulson (Malcolm’s fave teacher) was let go: he’s gay.

Arbitration begins, and Nancy Crozier is representing the school. Seems she’s on the PTA. So… she has a kid?! I guess that doesn’t surprise me, but now I’m curious about the personal lives of all the recurring characters.

When it comes out that the principal had fired a teacher from her previous school (a Catholic school) because he was gay, we immediately get a reaction shot where Maia’s visible. It’s not Sad Puppy Owen from 4x09, but it’s just a little thing that clues us in to how Maia’s feeling.

The school used an algorithm to decide which teachers to fire so there would be no bias. Maia jumps in with the counterargument before I can scream it at my screen: “All algorithms are pointless unless they are based on good data.” Absolutely. An algorithm is not inherently objective.

I know I am now nitpicking stock footage (would you expect anything else from me?) but in this stock footage of Chicago it is Christmastime (see the red and green lights on the buildings) but in the show it is March.

Also, not at all the point, but one of the buildings in the stock footage now has a huge TRUMP sign on it so I am going to headcanon that Diane (and the others) have to walk past it every day, multiple times, ‘cause I think that’s fitting.

Now we’re at the poorly-attended RBL office party. There’s a lot of champagne and very few people. There are 18 non-RBL people there; Colin Morello makes 19.  

I still don’t get why Colin has to be a series regular, but I do like that the writers are making full use of the fact that he and Liz used to be coworkers. They chat about work for a few seconds until Colin sees Lucca through the glass walls (so! helpful!) with a man. He instantly gets jealous.

Guests 20 and 21 arrive. They’re the algorithm boys from last season. One of them hates a lot of things, including swearing. And, apparently, elevators. What he does like, though, is Marissa. Adrian refers to Marissa by name and as an investigator, which I’m sure would make Marissa happy if she knew about the interaction.

Diane and Liz chat at the bar. Liz asks for advice on dealing with Nancy Crozier, but Diane sees right through it: “This is a thing you do, isn’t it? You ask for advice in order to ingratiate yourself.” Probably true.

“You know, your ‘fuck it’ mode is starting to feel more like ‘fuck you’ mode,” Liz responds. What powers of observation you have, Liz! It’s almost like Diane walked into your office last week, said “fuck you” and left! Oh, wait…

(Also, Liz is wrong. It was Liz’s response to Diane’s ‘fuck it’ mode that made Diane angry enough to say ‘fuck you.” What’s Liz’s endgame?)

“Just appreciating your style,” Diane responds. “I’m just doing my job,” Liz says. Uh-huh. It’s her job to drink with Diane, pretend to ask for advice (ooh, it is a pattern), and then report back to Adrian? “And using what I confide in you to undercut me?” Diane counters. Liz sighs. “Look, I thought Adrian already knew you were thinking of leaving. That’s all,” she explains. Um. Does that track? I thought Liz approached Adrian about bringing on a new partner and told him about Diane, but she could be telling the truth. I am going through Day 415 to see exactly what Liz said, and omg, now I have to watch the Rindell nonsense again and it’s just highlighting how great Day 429 is. The All Access player really needs a 10 second skip feature.

Ok, Liz DOES tell Adrian “She never said anything to you?” so it’s possible that she was trying to be proactive about a situation, not trying to undercut Diane. The whole thing where she suggested Diane take time off and then told Adrian that Diane requested that time… not sure how to spin that one. But best case scenario here is that Liz is just blunt and didn’t mean anything against Diane. A girl can dream, right?

Diane says “it’s more fun to go at each other” in response to Liz, and nope, NOPE. 100% disagree. It is far more fun to watch them be friends. This plot is not fun and I spend every second it’s on screen trying to figure out a way to interpret seemingly malicious actions as benevolent. So… yeah. Sorry, Diane. It’s more fun for you to be friends. And you seem like you could use a friend right now. (Did Diane lose all her friends?)

Diane does offer Liz advice on dealing with Nancy: “She plays at being the nice girl while being tough. She’s good. But her rhythm is thrown off by objections.” The first part, definitely (I’m shocked that still works for her). The second part, is that a thing we’ve seen before?

Elsbeth arrives at the party and Diane’s excited to see her. Who wouldn’t be excited to see Elsbeth? Elsbeth is the best.

Elsbeth doesn’t seem to understand why the offices don’t have furniture (answer: they do; it’s been put in storage for the party). But she doesn’t spend too long wondering, because Diane asks her to sit down and compliments her dress. That’s right: Diane compliments Elsbeth’s wardrobe.

“Ooh! What do you think they’re talking about?” Elsbeth remarks when she sees Lucca spit out her drink. And then things get meta.

“It’s weird,” Elsbeth says. “We’re just the background characters to their story.”

“And they’re just the background characters to our story,” Diane points out.

“And we’re all just background characters to his story,” Elsbeth says, speaking of the bartender. “He could be the hero, and we could be the villains of the story.”

“Or we’re the heroes, and he’s the villain,” Diane spins. “That’s what keeps us humble. Not knowing,” Elsbeth says. “Or paranoid,” Diane counters.

I love this exchange. Is it incredibly on the nose? Is it an all caps Thesis Statement for the episode? Is it one of the least subtle things I’ve ever seen? Is it as obvious about the point it’s making as I am being right now, saying the same thing four times? Hell yes, it is. Is it still great? Yep.

The show is poking fun at itself, Elsbeth is exactly the kind of character that would start talking like this, and I totally believe that Diane would be game for this kind of conversation given her state of mind. It fits to have Diane thinking about these things-- even if only while making small talk with Elsbeth-- when she’s already questioning so much.

(I also like how every time Elsbeth suggests something that would have negative implications for Diane’s view of herself-- that she’s a background character, that she’s a villain-- Diane recenters the narrative. I am not sure that Diane’s doing it on purpose, but, uh, she is used to seeing herself as the hero.) (I don’t mean that as a negative thing! Just an observation!)

Diane turns the conversation even darker, because Elsbeth is a surprisingly good confidant: “You know, last week, I was walking down the street, and there was this homeless man digging for bottles in the trash and yelling at the top of his voice about the president and the country and how we’re all going insane. And I realized: that’s what my inner monologue sounds like. And that when I decided. I’ve got to change.” “To what?” “To someone who’s not going crazy.”

Well. There’s a lot going on there. As seems to be the theme for Diane this season, she’s feeling what everyone else is, but taking it one step farther.

Elsbeth doesn’t know how to react, so she compliments Diane. Then she compliments Diane’s necklace, and Diane gives it to her, along with her belt.. I… don’t know that I like this. It’s cute, but it seems so off-kilter it also worries me.

“I never thought you liked me, Diane,” Elsbeth says. “Hey, you know what? That’s my fault,” Diane admits. That’s sweet!

I don’t know what to make of this scene as a whole. Part of me thinks it’s a nice little Diane/Elsbeth moment where Diane’s No Fucks Given policy allows her to connect with a peer. A bigger part is worried that this scene might look like a warning sign (for what, I don’t know) once we get a little farther into the season.

I don’t get why this Colin/Lucca scene is here, in Liz’s story, right after a scene Liz also isn’t in. I understand that we have to see it before we know what’s going on for the story to work, but something (in editing, writing, or directing) could’ve been done here so this didn’t stand out. Also, Lucca invited Colin to the party, knowing she was pregnant and he was the father, but she has no plans of telling him he’s the father? Alrighty then.

And now for a third Liz-free scene in Liz’s section of the show (this one is, at least, related to her case). Marissa and Maia head down to the 22nd, where everyone’s talking and dancing and there’s music blasting. It is a much more exciting scene than the 23rd. But Marissa and Maia don’t join the party: instead, they discuss algorithms.

Nancy, who has now practiced law in Chicago for 8 full years, literally says “I’m just a small-town girl from Michigan.” I’m going to take that as a shout-out to the fans.

Liz’s son is throwing a ball against the wall, repeatedly, and driving Lucca crazy. She tells him it’s annoying. And because Lucca as a Parent is a THEME, we get to see Lucca interacting with a child (and, of course, Lucca’s reactions to her interactions with a child).

“And would you consider state-mandated testing to be a subjective data point?” the mediator asks. I don’t know if I would call it subjective but I would call it a terrible metric! (But I’m ahead of the episode. The minute I heard state-mandated testing I was ready to rant about testing practices and the costs of teaching to a test. I’m a little shocked that Liz didn’t go there immediately.)

Lucca dared Malcolm to make something out of paperclips, and now he’s totally caught up in crafting a paperclip zombie. Awww. My favorite detail about this scene is that Liz picks up a paperclip to help her son with his project, even as she’s still thinking about her case.

Liz realizes something: Malcolm’s score on the state-mandated test went down when he had a better teacher. He got a 92 last year, and a 73 this year. I assume those are percentages, not percentiles? I don’t recall much about these exams, but aren’t these sorts of things usually scored by percentile and not accuracy? Oh, my God, why do I care?

Tbh, this is just making me really grateful for my own education. I didn’t get a single letter grade or percentage based grade until I was 10 or 11 (maybe on a math test before that?), and grades didn’t “count” until 6th grade. We also weren’t ever assigned homework until 3rd grade. I have some complaints about my (private) elementary school, but I think that system worked well. We could learn without the fear of failing an exam. And while I’m sure I would’ve done just fine if I’d had grades when I was a kid (I love structure and I always have), I bet it really helped the kids who don’t test well.

What I’m saying is, and I’m probably preaching to the choir, teaching to a test, particularly a state-mandated standardized test that will determine staffing and funding, is a terrible idea. It doesn’t help the kids learn, it requires teachers to spend time on lessons that may not be as beneficial to their students in the long-run as something that builds critical thinking skills, and it encourages teachers to lie and cheat to keep their jobs.

Liz, Marissa, and Maia get to work going through the exams from the last few years. Maia spots the eraser marks. Of course there are eraser marks.

I wonder how many of the characters on this show (and on TGW) went to public school. My guess is that the list is pretty short.

The cheating teacher denies that she cheated. She claims the students just realized their mistake at the last minute. All of them. Repeatedly. It’s ridiculous, and Maia’s pretty persuasive. (Yay, Maia!) They still need to find proof, but it’s obvious they’re on the right track.

Kurt is in Diane’s office with some roses. Marissa texts Diane “Where r u? Kurt’s here!!” AGAIN WITH THE “WHERE R U”! Marissa would not write like that on an iPhone!!

Marissa asks Kurt, the ballistics expert, if he knows any eraser forensic experts. Not a dumb question, because such people exist! Even if Liz/Maia/Marissa end up with the wrong expert witness initially (they grab Lucca’s witness instead), eraser forensic experts exist!  

I don’t understand Maia’s wardrobe. I cannot find the words to describe her style.

When it becomes clear beyond a doubt that the tests were tampered with, all Nancy wants to know is if she can see her daughter’s test.

Liz tells Mr. Coulson the good news, but… it’s too late. He’s accepted a position at a private school that will pay more. “I still believe in public schools,” he says as he leaves. Ah, a TGW (TGF) victory.

As Liz contemplates her next move, she sees Malcolm and Lucca sharing a sweet moment. Aww.

[dong-hyucks]

Beautiful ; Seongwoo [pt!one]

Characters: Seongwoo / Reader / ft. Wanna One Genre: Non-Idol!AU, angst, slight fluff Word Count: 3.9k+ A/N: based on the ‘Beautiful’ MV and a thank you post for getting dong-hyucks to another milestone !! tysm everyone !! // terminology: wrecking ball; a type of punching bag (the one Daniel punches at the beginning of the MV) Admin: Jade

|| Masterlists | 1 | 2 | 3 ||

“I hope it reaches the sky, my prayer that spent all night in tears-- I hope it reaches your heart.”     - Beautiful, Wanna One

   Heavy pants passed Daniel’s lips, drowning out the screaming that tried to force itself to his ears. He couldn’t hear anything else, couldn’t see anything else, other than himself and the man who faced him. His face stung, the corner of his lip cracked and dripping with blood. He could barely even see out of his left eye. From the sidelines, you winced, biting your lip nervously. The sickening crack that sounded from the harsh punch Daniel took sounded deafening. You tensed as his body fell to the platform, his body thudding against the surface painfully.

   “No,” the young boy yelled, running after something he couldn’t dream of catching. He could hear his brother yelling after him, begging their father to stop the vehicle, to no avail. Against the loud wind and the running engine, their small voices were drowned out.

   You instinctively reached out, searching for a hand to grab in the tense moment. When you only came in contact with the uncomfortable bench that you sat upon, you flinched. Right. He’s not here. Your eyes trained on the rope that separated the audience from the battling boxers. You could see the boys creeping closer, urging to duck under the rope and help their friend. Alas, they couldn’t. Neither could you. You could only watch as Daniel took blow after blow, his body slowing down as the match progressed. His opponent had a bruised cheek and a split lip, but that was nothing compared to the injuries Daniel sustained.

   ‘Come back,’ he wanted to scream, his tiny hands clutching onto the soccer ball tightly. As the truck grew farther and farther away, he came to a stop. Hot tears ran down his cheeks, leaving a burning trail in their wake. His stomach churned, the coldness of the night crawling up his spine. “Mommy,” he finally wailed, taking a hesitant step further, “daddy!” When the only response was his own echo, the youth fell to his knees and wept. He could do nothing as the sky bled with colours of the night and with these colours, the horrifying coldness that came with it.

   He was alone.

   Daniel took tiny steps as he walked, the feeling of the woman’s palm against his back far too familiar yet too unknown for his liking. He’d look up numerous times, only to feel the disappointment wash over him. The woman was unfamiliar, a stranger. The woman was not his mother. “This way,” the unfamiliar woman told him, her voice gentle as she pushed him into the church with the touch of a feather. “The other children are in here.”

   Other children. He could briefly remember the woman mentioning them when she had discovered him by the train tracks -- eight other boys who were just like him. Alone. The thought of relating to them didn’t bring ease to the child, but instead uneasiness. He didn’t want to be alone, nor did he want others to feel his pain. Entering the simple church, Daniel winced for the light that flowed into the room from the high windows was too bright for his eyes. He could hear boys -- children his own age -- idly talking to one another. However, when the large double-doors shut behind them, a hush fell over them. Looking down, he waved.

   “Boys,” said the woman, “this is Daniel. Welcome him kindly.”

   Daniel looked up for but a moment, waiting for his eyes to adjust. When they did, his eyes were set on eight boys, just like the woman had said. One of them bounded forward, the friendly curl of his lip widening as he drew near. The boy held a hand out like the woman had told him to do time after time before. “Nice to meet you,” he greeted politely, his speech practiced and refined after his long time in the organization. “I’m Jihoon!” Daniel looked down at his hand, small and chubby, before taking it.

   The moment their hands touched, the rest of the boys came forward, crowding Daniel in a semi-circle. He didn’t know how to react -- he had lived his entire life with only his parents and his brother, having so many people near him was an oddity. He could feel his ears burn bright red as he slowly and unsurely greeted each of the boys -- the very boys who would be ‘his new family.’

   Seongwoo sniffled, his back pressed against the walls of the truck bed. “We’re almost there,” the quiet, forlorn voice of his father had announced fifteen minutes prior when they had stopped for gas. The ride had been unusually quiet. Typically, the adults would converse in the truck while Seongwoo would have exhilarating conversations with his only sibling, both of them stretching their imaginations to create interesting stories and adventures. But now, Seongwoo was alone. He had no one to talk to, no one to play with. This time, the ride felt longer than any other he’d ever experienced in his eight years of living.

   Soon, though not soon enough, the truck pulled to a stop in front of a small, rundown looking home. It wasn’t that different from his last house-- just smaller, Seongwoo noticed. “Is this our new home?” he asked in a strangely quiet voice as his mother came around to open the truck bed. She nodded, not uttering a word. “Your eyes are red, momma,” he noted, gently touching his mother’s cheek in concern. He knew, however, that he would look similar.

   His mother choked, hefting Seongwoo into her arms, hiding her face from his view. She didn’t want him to see her like this -- broken -- nor did she want to see her son like that. Her world -- her very own children -- had been separated into two and she wasn’t sure if she could put it back together. An image of her second son flashed in her mind, bringing fresh tears to her eyes to replace the old.

   Over Seongwoo’s shoulder, she made eye contact with her husband who looked grief-stricken. Then, a single tear fell, wetting the soft fabric of Seongwoo’s shirt. “Momma,” Seongwoo mumbled against her sweater, his voice broken as his eyelids drooped in exhaustion. Crying truly had taken his energy away from him. “When is Daniel coming back?”

   For the first time in a very long time, she couldn’t find an answer to her son’s question.

   “Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies,” the children sang as the skipped in circles, hands clasped together. A few giggled to themselves, excited for the ending of the rhyme and the fall that came with it. Seongwoo, divided from his classmates, watched from the otherwise empty bench across the playground. He looked on, loneliness hugging its cold and unforgiving arms around his frail frame and suffocating him under its grasp. “We all fall down!” His frown only deepened when the mass of children fell around each other laughing, his legs bending as he brought his knees to his chest.

   “I don’t like that song either,” someone from behind announced. Seongwoo turned his head, his arms wrapping around his legs. Behind him, stood someone he could recognize from class - [Y/N] -- or, you, rather. You smiled at him, standing on your toes to see over the height of the metal bench. Your lips parted, revealing a set of slightly crooked teeth (not to mention your missing front tooth). “You’re Seongwon, right?”

   “... Seongwoo.”

   You nodded, your mouth falling open in realization. “Seongwoo,” you tried, repeating it in as many different ways that your younger self could think of. Seongwoo looked away, feeling the tips of his ears heat up. His small fingers grasped at a loose string of his sweater, fumbling with it while you bounded around the bench to stand in front of him. When his downcast eyes saw your ruffed-sneaker clad feet, he looked up at you curiously. “Okay, Seongwoo,” you began, effectively gaining his attention, “let’s be friends.”

   There was a pregnant pause.

   “What?”

   You rolled your eyes as if you had stated something so blatantly obvious. “Let’s be friends,” you repeated, holding out your hand. Seongwoo only stared as you curled your fingers into a fist, only your pinky remaining in the air. “You’re interesting,” you said boldly, smiling once again. “So, I like you. Let’s promise to be friends, okay?”

   Seongwoo looked down at your outstretched hand, his own itching to meet yours. He took one glance at your innocent expression before his arm raised and his pinky wrapped around yours. You beamed, raising your interlaced hands in euphoria. Seongwoo blinked, feeling the corners of his lips curl up in amusement.

   “Okay.”

   Only the sounds of utensils clinking against the small ceramic bowls could be heard in the otherwise silence of the room. Seongwoo ate slowly, relishing in the simple taste of his meal. His mother did the same, her hands shaking ever so slighty with every raise of her arm. They didn’t have much money to begin with -- at least, not after his father passed -- which in turn affected their living. But, Seongwoo looked up, offering a simple smile when he met his mother’s eyes, they were content.

   “So,” his mother started after swallowing her mouthful of vegetables, “how’s school?” She looked at her son with a curious gaze, her arm staying still, her spoon hovering above her bowl. “You’re classmates with that boy -- Minhyun, was it? -- and [Y/N], correct?” Seongwoo nodded in confirmation. He thought of his classes and how he had begun to struggle to keep up with them, what with his work hours piling up to the point where he had been late on several occasions.

   “School’s fine,” he said with a slow smile, wanting to frown at the small fib. “I’ve been studying a lot for our next exam.” Though the second half of his words were nothing but the truth, even his minute lie made him feel bad. After everything that had happened, from his brother’s disappearance to his father’s death, they had promised to rely on each other, to always tell the truth.

   Seongwoo couldn’t go far into his memory before there was a thud at the front door. Both he and his mother looked up, staring cautiously at the entrance, only to sigh once their eyes laid upon your fumbling form. Seongwoo pushed himself up, walking over to you. With your back to him, you entered the home, your arms full and legs clumsily in motion. You let out a noise when you felt yourself falling back, having tripped over a pair of shoes. Clutching the box of papers to your chest, you screwed your eyes shut.

   “Idiot, be careful,” a teasing voice said from behind.

   You opened your eyes, the warm and familiar feeling of Seongwoo’s hands holding you upright suddenly hitting you. Stabilizing yourself, you stuck your tongue out at the male playfully, thanking him once he took the box from your hands. “Those are the papers you asked for,” you breathed, bending over to slip off your shoes. Following Seongwoo into their dining area, you greeted his mother as if she was your own, moving into her arms for a hug when she held them out. “Sorry it took so long,” you scratched the back of your neck, plopping yourself down next to Seongwoo, “my boss was printing out flyers for the shop.”

   Seongwoo’s mom leaned forward to spare a glance at the papers. Her heart tensed and cracked upon seeing the top of the pile. It was almost mocking, to see her lost child staring up at her innocently. ‘Missing Person -- Cha Daniel…’ She would never be okay, never ready nor prepared to read his name. Seeing the loss in her eyes made you frown, your chest tightening in guilt. Glancing at Seongwoo in the corner of your eye, you could see the downcast look he expressed. It hurt you to see the very people you considered family like this. “Don’t worry,” you piped, forcing a tight smile, “we’ll find him. I’m sure of it.”

   Seongwoo let out a breath, leaning toward you gratefully. When you felt his shoulder brush against yours, you merely leaned against his warmth, used to his close proximity. “Thank you,” he whispered once everyone began to feast once again. “You’re our lifeline, you know.” You pulled back, giving him a small smile before gesturing to his food.

   “Ah, how rude of me,” his mother started, getting up slowly. “I’ll go get you a bowl, you must be hungry after work.”

   You were quick to stop her, gently ushering her back down onto her seat. “It’s okay,” you reassured her, “I have to go back soon anyway. Donghan called in sick, so I’m filling in for him.” As you continued to converse with her, you didn’t notice the worried glance Seongwoo gave you. He noticed the bags that imprinted themselves under your eyes long ago and he knew you weren’t getting enough rest. When you smiled at him, Seongwoo’s eyes darted back down to his bowl.

   Daniel watched as his friend threw punches at his coach, resting his chin atop the broom’s handle. When the man looked over in his direction, he was quick to look away, pretending as though he had been cleaning the entire time. When he knew it was safe, he only looked again. Jihoon had taught him how to punch before, but he’d never found a reason to use it. He punched at the air to amuse himself, a small contented smile resting upon his features. He glanced to the side, at the wrecking ball that hung from the ceiling. Punching it, Daniel let out a groan when it came back and hit his abdomen. Stopping the bag from swinging, he continued to clean, occasionally sneaking glances at Jihoon as he practiced.

   However, hours into Jihoon’s practice, a group of men crowded around the ring, watching and encouraging Jihoon. Each holding onto some sort of cleaning supply, legitimate cleaning had been long forgotten. When they began to get rowdy -- too rowdy -- Jihoon’s coach and their boss looked over at them. Each of the boys tensed. “Get to work,” he reprimanded, jabbing a finger at them, “I don’t pay you to sit by and watch!”

   Jihoon watched as his friends scrambled away, a smirk of amusement falling upon him. His shoulders shook with laughter as he looked away. Pulling off his gloves, he wiped away the beads of sweat that had accumulated atop his forehead, leaving his hair damp. As he turned back, slipping his hand into the large glove, he caught the chuckles his friends exchanged and his coach continued to yell.

   Seongwoo sat down with a thud, using his arm to wipe away his sweat. He breathed out, tired from working for hours on end. He barely nodded toward his boss in acknowledgement before turning around and grabbing his work bag. Opening it, he pulled out his textbook. Police Exam Preparation. He turned the textbook on its side, its hard cover rough against his skin after years of use. A small breath of astonishment left his lips at just how thick the book was. “Preparation,” he mumbled to himself, opening the textbook and flipping to the eighth chapter. “This is big enough to fit everything from this entire term.”

   “Ah, here you are, Seongwoo. I was looking for you.”

   He looked up, smiling over at you as you walked closer. “[Y/N],” he greeted, happy to see his best friend. When you sat next to him, not minding the dust, Seongwoo swallowed thickly. You always sat near him, close enough for your legs to brush up against one another. Despite knowing you for years upon years, it was amazing -- the effect such simple actions had on him.

   You handed him a small container, one he recognized quite well. ��Must you keep moving your lunch spot?” you chided, taking a pair of chopsticks out from your bag, unwrapping them for him. “It’s weird asking your boss if he’s seen you,” you paused, glancing over Seongwoo’s shoulder with narrowed eyes, “he kind of creeps me out.”

   Seongwoo laughed loudly, gently nudging you with his elbow. “Don’t let him hear you, you’re lucky he even lets you on site every day.” Pausing, Seongwoo opened the container. A blissful smell hit him, one he recognized quite well as pasta your [guardian] had made. “You know, you don’t have to come all the way here to just bring me food,” he sighed, though gratefulness ran through his heart. “Your house is a ways away from here.”

   You rolled your eyes, leaning against his shoulder comfortably. “I know that, you dork. But you decide to leave the house every day without food and you work at a construction site.” You poked his arm, “How’re you going to work on an empty stomach?” When Seongwoo chuckled, the movement moving your head slightly, you closed your eyes. “Besides, I’m always working a nightshift anyway. I have nothing to do during the day.”

   “So, what? I’m merely a source for your own amusement?”

   “Precisely.”

   Seongwoo smiled at this, spinning the chopsticks between his fingers. “I’m hurt,” he sighed dramatically, feigning distress, “and here I thought I was your best friend.” When you didn’t respond, Seongwoo glanced at you.

   “You are,” you finally mumbled against his shirt, “but, first and foremost, you’re my entertainment.” You chuckled when Seongwoo gasped, pulling away from you slightly. You looked over, raising a teasing brow at him. Leaning forward, you rested your chin on the palm of your hand. Seongwoo furrowed his brows at you, unexpectedly shoving a mouthful of pasta into your mouth. Seeing your rounded eyes and full cheeks brought tears to his own pair, as he laughed in amusement.

   “Dork,” you grumbled after swallowing.

   Chuckling, he tilted his head at you. “Love you,” he sung with an air of foolery.

   You could only sigh, wiping the missed pasta sauce around your face away, before looking the male in the eye. “Love you too, Cha.”

    As it neared nightfall, the sky darkening with every passing minute, Seongwoo could count down seconds to when he’d be let off. As he climbed up the stairs to place a few planks of wood down in a neat pile, he noticed his employer walking out from wherever he had once idled. “Go home, kid,” he said, his voice naturally loud and adenoidal. “You’ve earned your pay. Go on.”

   Seongwoo thanked the older man and bid him adieu, throwing his bag over his shoulder with little to no care. Pulling out his phone, he checked the time. 6:24PM. A small, seldom smile etched itself onto his face. Just enough time to visit the centre. He made a mere few steps away from the site before he heard a familiar voice.

   “You shouldn’t look at your phone while you’re walking.” He looked up, spinning on his heel to see you. His pulse quickened, either from the surprise or just the sight of you, he hadn’t a clue. You were looking off at the bustling road, each passing car hitting the two of you with a wave of wind. You looked at him, “Especially near this traffic.”

   Seongwoo smiled sheepishly, raising his arms in defence before shoving his phone into his back pocket. “Oops,” he shrugged, though he sounded anything but apologetic. “What’re you doing here?” He glanced down at your attire, your body clad in your regular clothing -- a simple black apron draped over you, “Don’t you have work?”

   You nodded, taking the few steps to stand beside him. “Yeah, but not for another--” you paused, checking your watch. “-- half hour.” You glanced over your shoulder. “So, where are you headed? Your home’s that way.” The two of you began to walk, your pace leisurely and slow. A part of you hoped time went by slower whenever you were with him -- not like you’d ever say that out loud. You bit your lip. You knew for a fact that if you ever expressed your feelings, you’d go home brokenhearted.

   “I was heading to the missing child centre.” He jerked his shoulder, gesturing toward his bag. “I brought the papers you printed. Just wanted to put them up before heading home.” You nodded slowly. Without warning, you stopped on the sidewalk, making him look back at you curiously. You pointed toward the bag, silently asking him for permission. When he nodded, you unzipped it and pulled out half of the papers he had haphazardly stuffed into his bag, some crumpled with folded corners.

   You took out a roll of tape, earning a puzzled look from your friend. “My boss is too lazy to buy thumbtacks -- says ‘they’ll damage the wall.’” Looking over Seongwoo’s shoulder, you bounded over to a lamp post. He only watched as you ripped the tape with your teeth, stepping back to admire your work (even though you had only taped up a piece of paper.) He chuckled.

   As the two of you made your way to the centre, every few minutes you’d stop to hang up a few of the papers. “This is it,” Seongwoo announced, stopping in front of the almost empty building. You looked up at the glowing sign, its bright lights blinding you slightly. Checking the time, you handed the rest of the papers in your arms to Seongwoo.

   “I gotta’ go if I want to be relatively on time,” you told him, sparing a smile. “I’ll see you later, Cha,” waving goodbye, Seongwoo watched as your back got more and more out a view before you finally turned and disappeared. Taking a deep breath, he took a step into the centre. He’d never gone, surprisingly. Even after he had found out about the centre, he didn’t have the time to visit.

   “Hello,” a man greeted from behind the front counter. His eyes darted down to the papers in Seongwoo’s hands, a look of pity washing over his eyes. “The boards are in that room.” Seongwoo’s eyes followed to where the man pointed, his taupe hues landing on a room with glass windows. Beyond the glass, he could see a plethora of missing papers, his chest tightening at the sight of them. Thanking the man, he walked over to the room. As he stared at the almost covered bulletin board, he searched for an empty spot. The last thing he wanted to do was lessen the chance of a discovered child by covering another. When he finally found one, he used a provided thumbtack and pressed it into the cork.

   Taking a step back, he stared at the paper. Looking at his, at them all, he clenched his fists. So many children were missing. Too many. He closed his eyes, setting his jaw as he turned away. “Will we ever find you?” he asked, his voice disappearing into the darkness that surrounded him.

this was supposed to be one post bUt i can tell it’d be 10k+ aND i dont want to keep you guys waiting tOO lONG bUT DW I WILL TRY TO FINISH THIS ASAP

[nglenvs3000]

Which Interpreter Will I Be Today? (wk. 10)

I never saw myself as a nature interpreter, mainly because I had a very classic and small-minded idea of what a nature interpreter was. I didn’t see a nature interpreter as much more than a simple tour guide. I thought nature interpretation was quite simple and forward. However, through this semester, I’ve learned that nature interpretation looks like so many different things. As an interpreter, you can take on so many different roles and present nature in so many different ways to your audiences.

This image encapsulates how I viewed nature interpreters before I understood the wide range of roles they can take on. Photo retrieved from: https://www.villrein.no/nature-interpretation

For my final post, I’d like to go through the different roles that I want to take on as a nature interpreter. I’ve learned there are so many ways that I can present nature to others in order to deepen their connection with the world around them. I love that I can share my passion for science and the environment, while simultaneously providing an enriching experience for others. Here are the types of nature interpreters that I intend to be for my audience and learners:

The Environmental Ambassador

When I picked my major, environmental biology, it was because I had a passion for nature and the environment. Throughout my academic career, I’ve taken numerous courses on biodiversity, plants, biology, etc. Taking this course has taught me how to better communicate scientific thoughts to wide ranges of audiences. Because I feel a sense of responsibility in ensuring wildlife can thrive during this battle against climate change, my personal ethic definitely involves being an environmental ambassador and teaching my audience about the threats facing our precious ecosystems. I feel as though it’s my duty to take what I have learned and communicate it in an effective way to the general public, as scientists sometimes follow short in this arena. I will use my other interpreter roles to communicate this science in an engaging way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbR-5mHI6bo

This video has engaging visuals and shows how environmental science can be communicated in a nuanced, easy-to-follow way

The Listener

Not only will be an educator to my audience, I hope to learn from them as well. It’s important for me to engage with audiences of all ages from all backgrounds as I believe learning from them and integrating their knowledge into my teachings could be a huge asset! I believe it is incredibly important to listen to others because they provide a unique perspective that you may not learn from anyone else. Something I’ve learned this year given the pandemic is that everyone is operating in different realities. To better understand other peoples’ perspectives, and in order for you to gain new ones, it’s key to listen with an open mind and heart without judgement. With nature interpretation and life in general, it’s really important to expose yourself to different perspectives, so that you can broaden your own toolkit. 

Photo retrieved from: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-future-of-democracy/the-right-to-listen

The Storyteller

An incredibly effective way to teach people without sounding like a lecturer is storytelling, something that has been a very old folk tradition developed from the Native Americans (Beck et al. 2018). In present day, this is very prominent in nature documentaries such as Blue Planet and Planet Earth. I would use the tips by Strauss (1996) through sharing legend and folk-tales where fit, as I find these types of stories very interesting myself. I would also use imagery while attempting to engage all the senses of my audience, making them feel enthralled in the interpretation. When reading my peers blog posts, I’ve seen them take on the technique of telling a story from the perspective of a plant/animal. I’ve really enjoyed those posts, so I’ll be adding that technique to my repertoire as well!

Nothing beats telling stories around the campfire - what a great way to engage an audience! Photo retrieved from: https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/campfire-stories

The Artist

As Beck et al. explain, art has shown to be extremely effective in attracting and serving audiences (Beck et al. 2018). It’s a way of gathering people who may not necessarily be huge on the environment and bringing them back to nature (Beck et al. 2018). I’ve discussed non-conventional forms of art in my posts before, such as cooking and making other creations with wild edibles. It’s safe to say most people love a tasty meal or treat, and nature can provide that for us! Food is an art form that is great for roping people in who may not have a huge interest in nature. I hope to help people form an appreciation for nature through their stomachs! This is just another tool to help generate citizens who care about the environment and have a desire to preserve it.  

Summer vegetable focaccia - so pretty! Photo retrieved from: https://commonfarms.com/blog/edible-flower-recipes

The Healer

I think most of us in this course have the same understanding; that nature is innately healing. Not everyone feels this way, and not everyone has had the chance to experience the wonderous healing capabilities of nature. I want to open people up to just how healing it can be. Moreover, I’d love to heal people with botanicals derived from nature. There are so many medicinal plants that grow all around us and I’d love to introduce people to these plants and their properties. I also think it’s important to remind people that a lot of pharmaceuticals we use are plant-derived. It’s a reminder that us humans work synergistically with nature and we must preserve it in order to continue reaping its benefits.

The Role Model

I hope one group that I have the chance to impact and be a role model for are children. One of the reasons for this is because they are highly impressionable, especially at young ages. I would love to be able to introduce them to the wonders that exist outdoors in hopes that they carry it with them throughout their lives! Another large reason is because they will soon make up the adult population and will be the group of people who care for our resources – so it is key that they understand how important these resources are while aiming to respect and preserve them. Going back to the listener point, it’s key to listen to children as they share some perspectives you truly won’t get from anywhere else. Above all else, I want to provide them with adventure, fantasy, and imagination as these are all aspects that are key for children in terms of nature interpretation (Beck et al. 2018).

Aspects of a role model, photo retrieved from: https://www.andreasastier.com/blog/my-role-model-who-has-aspired-me-towards-the-medical-profession

It’s been an introspective time learning who I am as a nature interpreter. I’ve learned many tools and I feel confident in approaching interpretation even when it comes to a wide range of audiences. I hope my bubbly personality, sense of humor, and love for nature and the environment shine through to my audiences. I cant wait to see what the future brings!

Did any of these roles resonate with how you’d like to go about nature interpretation? Do you find these approaches to be effective with your audiences? I’m curious to hear your thoughts as always!

References

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage: For a better world. Urbana: Sagamore Publishing.

[nicklynch3]

Week 9 Photography in London

Activity 1 - Cropping

Before Cropping

There is a lot going on in this photo. There is the baby in the stroller, the couple on the bench, the trash all over, and the woman on the right pointing to something. Everyone seems to be emotional, alarmed, or somewhat upset based on their face. For example, the baby is crying, the couple is looking at something with a disturbed look on their face, and the woman on the right appears to be on the phone and pointing at something. Although it is hard to tell what they are thinking about, they give the sense that something is wrong. It makes the viewer more curious about what is going on.  

This photo could be about anything. The scene appears to be something similar to a bus stop of some sort. It looks like there is three or four groups of people that don’t know each other, which is typical at a public bus stop. The old couple look to be annoyed by the baby and the parent who is cut out from the photo because the baby’s face looks like he/she’s crying. The woman on the right appears to be on the phone, maybe waiting for someone to pick her up. There’s also a group of people in the background circling up together which, in my opinion, gives the impression, they are discussing whatever is going on. The trash in the foreground brings the scene together because it makes it all look messy and no one wants to be there.

After Cropping

After cropping this photo, it focuses in on one subject: the old couple on the bench. Without previously seeing the original image, there is less to think about. The only question that remains is, what are they staring at? There is no longer trash on the ground or a baby crying so it is easier on the eyes to know what to look at. Even though it is stereotypical to assume that elderly people are upset and annoyed often, that is exactly what this photo shows. It appears to be a sunny day based on the shadows and the natural light of the sun is shining directly on them. You can tell they are older people because of the way that they dress and their faces. 

They seem to be calmly enjoying their food, but have abruptly been distracted by something. They seem to be comfortable and keeping to themselves because of the fact that they are eating food on a bench outside. When you look at their faces up close, they look more bewildered than they do upset. This couple is old-fashioned and minding their own business, but something grabbed their attention.

Activity 2 - Captions

1. Ellie and Jacob on vacation in Florida, 2004.

This caption makes it look like two cute young children are near a pier on the ocean and are on a family vacation. You would assume it was taken by one of their parents to record memories from their childhood. 

2. Messy isn’t always a bad thing.

The two children look to be enjoying their ice cream as it falls down their face. Even though they are messy, they seem to be enjoying the ice cream. The caption emphasizes the ice cream.

3. Keep your loved ones close.

From one perspective, it looks like the car is about to hit them. This caption puts attention to the car before the kids get hit by it. 

4. Look both ways.

This caption makes sense because they are both nearing the street. The caption puts emphasis on the boy as he looks to the side before he crosses with his little sister. 

1. Dozing off into space.

This photo could be about the boy who works at the laundromat who is bored out of his mind. “Dozing off” in the caption makes the viewer look at the boy’s posture and facial expression.

2. Just hanging on.

This caption references the boy’s attitude and posture, as well as the socks hanging from above. Which one is it about? The artist leaves it up to the viewer to decide.

3. Chores

Laundry is a common chore done by kids/teenagers so it gives the feel that the boy is just waiting for his laundry to be done. It makes you notice the laundry basket next to the guy and think back to your own personal chores that you had as a kid. 

4. All red, everything.

This caption makes you look at everything that is red in the photo and realize that the boy’s entire outfit is featuring red. 

Gallery Activity

Mohamed Bourouissa

1. The main message of his work is to convey the societal differences in society and to make people recognize that marginalized people are not given the same attention as others. The premise on most of his work is that these people are not bad, they’re just different. His photos are inspired by a lot of previous art in history. 

2. Depending on the photo, there are various techniques that he applies. In most of them, light is a key tool that he uses to create the mood. In the photo of the man getting arrested, he uses hard light, which looks that appears to be glaring in the window from a sunrise, to make it more dramatic. From my perspective, it looks like the man was sleeping and the cops broke in and arrested him. He looks scared and undeserving of this action which ties into the theme. Also, I really like the one where the light from the sun is shining in, but on the other side of the photo it is raining. I would assume it is making a connection between the happiness of the city and the dullness of the banlieues (suburbs). The shadows in this photo do a great job of separating the two sides from one another. Also, he purposely dressed those two guys in all white outfits to show the contrast between their skin colors and outfits. They’re smiling to show that they are good people that aren’t given a chance. In the last photo from the website, he uses the hard light from the sun shining on the man’s face to show the contrasting skin color as well. 

This photo by Bourouissa has focus on the entire photo. It is more blurry in the background, but still easy to tell what is shown. The contrast between the sunny day and dreary dark rainy day is unique and is appealing to look at. The light and shadows are the most important part of the photo. The natural hard light from the left creates shadows that separate the dry warm setting from the rainy, dark one. It also separates the one guy from the other group of guys. You would probably need to read the exhibition text to understand the underlying message that Bourouissa is trying to convey. This type of photo really intrigued me because I had seen nothing like it before so I thought it was genius. 

Anton Kusters

1. The message that Kusters is trying to convey is the difficulty of representing trauma and sorrow. In The Blue Skies Project, there is a lot of contextual meaning that goes along with the series of photos. He is trying to document the history of the death camps and his personal connection with his grandfather who was a victim of the Holocaust. 

2. When you look at the series of photos, you can see how each photo is subtly different. This makes each one unique and makes it aesthetically pleasing to look at as a collection. There is a lot of context behind each photo. For example, the collection is made up of 1078 photos from each last-known location of concentration camps that existed throughout Europe. Also, each one has individuality by using the blind-stamping process and GPS coordinates attached. As far as each photo, I think that he was able to capture a lot of different tones of blue in the sky by taking them at different times of day, slightly different angles, and various shutter speeds. Even though the sky is beautiful in most of them, I think using the color blue represents sadness and dullness, which is what most people feel when thinking about a death camp. The fact that there are so many photos also makes the viewer realize the impact that genocide had on the world and that group of people. 

The focus in this photo seems to be inconsistent throughout. Some of them show clear cloud shapes, while others show just a more hazy color of blue. the light influences the mood in each photo. It represents different weather and different times of day. The darker, the more melancholy. The lighter, the more happier. But, when you attach meaning to the work, none of it seems happy. The consistent shape and colors from this piece make it all form as one. The separation by the white lines are essential to individualize one another. You would probably need to read the exhibition text to understand the message and the title doesn’t help the audience understand any better. I feel like I have seen this style done before, but this is unique because there are so many. 

Mark Neville

1. The purpose of Neville’s work from this project is to document the town of Guipgang. He was amazed by this small town and the community that lives within it. He states that the town is famous for football and farming and so he incorporates this theme clearly with almost every photo in the project. In an interview, he discusses how photography should have a social ambition

2. He conveys this by putting this collection in a photobook, targeting non-art audiences. He likes the notion of community and he uses many different parts of the community other than football and farming which they are most famous for. He was drawn to the baton twirlers, nuns, beauty pageants, and simple families on an ordinary day that all make up the community. By taking photos of other photos in front of the football stadium and showing community members on the farm in their natural environment, he is touching on all aspects on the community. By having his subjects pose, it makes it more dramatic and appealing to the eye. As they look into the lens of the camera with a straight face, it gives the feeling that the surrounding area is theirs, which draws back to the sense of community. 

This photo by Neville is a good representation of the series. The techniques used were probably thought out carefully. The light is coming from the sky, probably behind the camera towards the man’s face and also from the right. You can tell because the right side of the man’s face is lighter than the other side. The contrast between the grey sky and the green trees make the trees appear darker. The foreground seems to be a lot lighter than the background, making the audience focus on what is happening in the foreground. The man’s posture and the fact that he is centered is a great way to make it clear that he is the subject. Also, the angle at which it is taken gives the feeling that all of the land is his. The lines on the fence and the lines between the dirt and green grass separate one another. The audience would need to read the exhibition text and the title does not help anyone understand. The word “parade” seems like it has nothing to do what is going on in this photo. It reminds me of other photos, but not one in particular. 

Clare Strand

1. The message behind Strand’s work is to represent the failure of communication and misinformation that occurs between people. She used a complicated method to work on this piece, which adds to the meaning of it. The work is meant to show her personal struggle with interpreting information and to display the struggles that the audience can relate to. This poor quality of communication leads to confusion and issues between two parties; some of which are miniscule, while others are significant. 

2. She conveys this by the way in which she did this work. She made the process complicated on purpose to show how she can relate to the audience and to show how everyone experiences miscommunication. It would be hard to understand the meaning behind this if it were not explained. It is, however, easy to understand the different tones of colors that are put together to create one image. ‘1′ being the lightest tone and ‘10′ being the darkest. 

This photo by Strand is done very carefully with different tones. The black and white gives the feel that it is from an older time and the fact that the subject is someone taking a photo circles back around to the message that she is trying to convey. You would probably not know by the title or individual photo what her message is, but after reading the exhibition text, you could understand easily. The red numbers make the photo look raw and natural and bring some color to the black and white. There seems to be a lot of shadow and especially darkness in the background, making the audience’s eyes shift to the woman. The black and white create contrast that separate the pale white woman from the background. Everything is in focus, but the subject is clearly the woman and there doesn’t seem to be anything else going on in the photo. It sort of reminds me of the blue skies photo by Bourouissa because how each little piece on the grid is uniquely different and has a special number, similar to how he stamped numbers on each photo representing the location of the camp that the photo was taken at. 

Who should win?

Each of these artists showed incredible works, but I believe that Aston Kusters should win. The way that he was able to capture a photo from 1078 different sites and compile them into one piece of work shows determination and commitment to something he is passionate about. He organized the work very well by making every shot symmetrical to one another and the same size. It is visually appealing to see the different tones of blue from each site and the context behind the work is purposeful and something that everyone is familiar with. Not everyone has a special connection to the Holocaust, but everyone knows the impact that it had on the world. Lastly, using so many photographs is a key approach to conveying the impact that this incident had. 

Personal photo about something important

Captions:

1. Friendship

2. Coronavirus quarantine, 2020

3. Get outside!

The captions can drastically change the emphasis on the photo. For the first caption, Friendship, the audience focuses on the three guys and their relationship, gestures, and facial expression toward one another. For the second one, Coronavirus quarantine, 2020, I think about looking back on this photo years from now and thinking about how we all stayed inside to prevent the virus from spreading. The third caption, Get outside!, changes the meaning because it looks like a nice sunny day out with the river in the background and these idiots are sitting on the couch! 

I chose to crop the photo like this because I think that it emphasizes the interaction that they are having with one another. The two on the end appear to be smiling and talking about something while the other has his head down and sucking on his e-cig. Before cropping it, you can tell he isn’t being antisocial or upset, he is just watching something on the laptop in front of him. After cropping it, he looks more antisocial because it looks like he just has his head down. Cropping this photo also erases the huge mess that they’ve made in the living room and therefore there are no assumptions that people can make about their lifestyle and how messy that they are. They just look like they are enjoying themselves rather than camping out in the living room for days. I think when you have a photo like this that is up close, it makes the audience think about each person’s personality and what they are like. 

[theticklishpear]

(A table of contents is available. This series will remain open for additional posts and the table of contents up-to-date as new posts are added.)

Part Six: A Creature Who Is Also A Character

If you’ve read The Horse and His Boy from the Chronicles of Narnia series, you doubtless remember Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah (or Bree for short, a lovely call-out from Lewis to Tolkien and The Prancing Pony in Bree). In fact, I don’t think you can read the book without remembering good ol’ Bree with his pride and his snarky comments and growing friendship with Hwin. Both the talking horses of the book are distinct. They have personalities that are easily identified and easily attributed to their experiences growing up. Bree became self-confident from years of captivity as a war horse among non-talking horses that seemed witless to him; by comparison, he was a genius, able to understand what his human riders commanded easier and faster than the other non-talking horses. Hwin, on the other hand, while also captured and raised among non-talking horses, is shy and more logical and reasonable as one of the stable horses for a noble house. These two are fantastic foils to each other throughout the story. But it’s easy to take two talking creatures and build them into full characters–they can tell you about their background and their experiences; they can throw out jokes and win hearts through glorious conversations. Think about other creature companions, though, ones like Hedwig who reveled in flying free and had an attitude sometimes, or the trusting, loving relationship that builds between Jakkin and Heart’s Blood the dragon in Jane Yolen’s The Pit Dragon series.

Each one of the most beloved, best remembered creature companions become favorites because of one thing: They are memorable characters. They have personalities and they are a part of who the main character is. Making sure your creature companions have personalities is an important step toward making your creature worth having. Just with extraneous characters who don’t fill any gap in the plot, creature companions must be put to work, too. To build that relationship both with the plot, the characters, and the audience, start with the small stuff: Who is this creature?

Who are they?

Starting at the very basics of personality, begin by asking yourself who this creature is. Where do they come from? Do they have family? What makes them happy or sad? Even if your creatures are regular animals or are mythical creatures that don’t have the power of speech, I still recommend knowing what makes the creature laugh. Maybe they don’t laugh like we do, but what makes them happy? How do they express that feeling?

Personality is as much expressed by behavior as it is by speech. Be sure you’re taking corresponding animal behaviors into account, including the bits combined to create your mythical creature. There’s a character in an old, old set of children’s books, Gink from Patricia Coombs’ Dorrie the Little Witch series. Gink is a black cat who follows the main character about, and while he has no lines, the cat appears in every picture of every book in the 20-book series. (Though Gink has no specified gender, my own cat Gink was male, so forgive me if I’m mildly biased.) Despite his silent role and few actions that are directly related in the plot (some! He does help from time to time!), Gink becomes an entire character of his own through his behind-the-scenes, background participation in the story with the audience. His curiosity, playfulness, and warnings–in short, his reactions–to Dorrie’s plights give the audience a distinct impression of who Gink is.

Think about when your creature will show affection and how, versus showing annoyance, anger, caution, hunger, and interest. What makes them curious? What will help them become more trusting and how does that trust manifest? What will always draw them in and what will they stay away from? 

What do they want?

It’s said every character, no matter how little screen-time they receive, should have a goal. Whether that’s getting a coffee or rescuing their family, everyone wants something. If you have a pet at home, you know it’s true even with them. Bruce Coville’s Into the Land of the Unicorns introduces Lightfoot, young unicorn prince whose ideals change as he accompanies the human Cara in her endeavors to save the world of Luster. He begins the tale wanting nothing more than to defy the fate his family has left him. He’s willing to leave every single one of them behind to do it, too, but by the end of the series, that desire has changed. As a character, he evolves, as all good characters should.

Be aware of why your creature is out there and why they’re willing to accompany your characters on whatever it is they’re up to. How does agreeing to do this help them get further toward their want? Maybe it’s just the security of knowing there are others to protect against dangers, or the promise of food at a regular pace, but it could also be their own quest to find something or someone, or even to save their homeland from certain destruction. Wants are small or large, but they must be present if you hope to build off of them and create real, natural, and effective actions for this creature to take.

What’s the worst thing they could face?

You’re going to put your characters through some Things™, and we all know it. Reactions cover a wide spectrum for all characters and your creatures will be no different, because, after all, we want them to be characters, too. So why not treat them that way when making them? You can’t know how broad their reactions will span until you’ve put some thought into the worst thing that could happen. This is more than just their worst fear. It branches into the idea of who they become when faced with difficult situations, as well. What could turn them not only into a cowering creature but also the worst version of themselves? What kinds of tactics would they be willing to engage in if things go horribly wrong? It helps you touch on morals when dealing with these creatures to whom you may not immediately ascribe the idea of having morals. Make them just as round as your real-life humanoid characters by making sure you know what they’re willing to do, how far they’ll go, and where the line is drawn in the metaphorical sand.

Long story short, your creatures are characters too! I can’t be alone in watching a couple of fish in a tank, pointing at one and saying, “That one’s got an attitude!” In a similar way, you should be paying attention to your creatures’ personalities–mainly that they have one. Remember that you don’t want them to be stock characters, so treat them like your other humanoid creatures when creating them. Without distinct personality, they cease to be companions and simply remain cardboard space fillers. They should be important! You want them to be memorable! Work on them like people and help to round them out.

Next up: Speech!