#dematerialisation process

[autisticlancemcclain]

“Woo-oof, Mullet. How has training every second of every day made you worse, somehow?”

Keith clinches his jaw, forcing himself to keep his attention on the gladiator in front of him, and ignore the taunting to his left.

He doesn’t understand what Lance’s problem is. A couple months ago, he was putting a soft hand on Keith’s shoulder and saying he trusts the Black Lion’s judgement, sticking with Keith even when he makes dumbass decisions, and now he’s back to that stupid — rivalry? Again?

What’s his fucking angle?

“I’m still doing better than you,” Keith grits out, because the high road is for losers. Unfortunately the jab doesn’t have the intended effect, and Lance only smirks.

“Not for long.”

Faster than Keith can fully process, Lance fucking back handsprings out of his gladiator’s range, widely avoiding its attack, and then he flips forward, using the momentum to hit the gladiator full force in the chest. As the gladiator stumbles, Lance wraps his legs around its shoulders and almost throws his own body to the ground, sending the gladiator’s head to the floor at frightening speeds. It cracks on impact, Lance scrambling a couple feet away, and then a low hum fills the room as a robotic voice announces: “Level 24 complete, Red Paladin. Congratulations. You are in the lead.”

Lance turns and smirks in Keith’s direction. He doesn’t even say anything, but the smugness drips off him in waves.

There’s absolutely nothing Keith can do to stop himself from what he does next. His fuse is short, he knows that, and Lance has fucking burnt it to a crisp. He feels something implode in his stomach, and he sees red.

He lunges for the gladiator, using his training staff to vault off the mat and throw himself right at the gladiator’s chest, just like Lance did. He twists his body, trying to wrap his legs around his shoulders and bend his back to get the right momentum.

There’s no noise, no crack or snap, but Keith feels something give in his lower back, and he drops to the ground , trying and failing to bite back a pained shout. The gladiator, obviously undeterred, raises its staff above Keith’s head, whipping it down so quickly it whistles. Keith throws himself out of the way, which hurts so badly his vision actually whites out a little.

“End training sequence! End it! Stop!” shouts a panicked voice. The robot voice confirms the instruction, and Keith hears the whooshing sound of the gladiator dematerialising, then footsteps hurrying towards him.

“Holy shit, Keith, are you okay?” Lance leans over him, brown eyes wide in concern, hand resting gently on his arm.

Keith scowls. He pulls his arm away and pulls himself up and out of Lance’s reach.

Well, he tries to. The second he tries to sit up the same agonizing pain from before radiates from his back, and barely manages to muffle his groan.

“Jesus, Keith, don’t move —”

“I’m fine,” Keith interrupts gruffly. He grits his teeth and drags himself upright, ignoring the way the pain makes his ears ring. “Leave me alone.”

Keith’s movement makes Lance’s hand shoot out on reflex, but he stops himself right before he makes contact. He meets Keith’s gaze, glaring heavily.

“Don’t be a dumbass. Let me help you.”

Keith bites back the urge to tell him what he thinks of his help, because he knows that’s a step too far, even though he really wants to take it. Some part of him, something mean and angry that he can barely keep a hold on, wants to hurt Lance’s feelings as much as Lance’s weird mixed signals have been hurting him, lately. Worse.

Keith has more control than that. He will have more control than that.

“I’m fine,” he insists again. “Training’s over. You won. Go brag to Hunk, or something.”

Lance does nothing for a moment, then he sighs, getting to his feet and walking away.

Keith’s heart sinks, even though he doesn’t want Lance’s help and he’s perfectly capable of handling himself. It’s good that Lance is leaving him alone. Keith doesn’t fuckin’ need him. He’s handled himself since he was twelve goddamn years old, thanks ever so, and that’s not going to change now.

Only Lance doesn’t walk out the training room door. Instead he walks over to where he’s discarded his jacket, digging through the pockets for a moment before pulling out something long and thin, rounded on the edges and an off-white colour. He shoots it at Keith, and before he can speak up to ask Lance what the hell he’s doing, a blue laser shoots from the white thing.

A scanner.

Lance runs it over Keith’s back and torso, then mutters something angrily to himself, too quiet for Keith to hear, and tucks the scanner on his jeans pocket, walking back over to Keith.

“You threw out your back, stupid,” he informs him. “That shit’s not going away. Let’s go. Can you stand?”

Keith wants to argue, but finds that he’s…exhausted. All the pain hits him at once and he barely stops himself from sagging forward so as to not hurt his back any further.

“Probably.”

Lance helps him anyway, putting one of Keith’s arms around his broad shoulders before slowly helping him stand.

It hurts like hell, and Keith lets him know it.

“Mother of fucking God that smarts like a cactus spike up the shitter fucking hell —”

“I am trying so hard,” Lance starts, voice shaking, “to be serious and helpful, dude, but I am going to lose my mind if you keep going. Please cuss like a normal person and not a cowboy that just got kicked in the nuts by a horse.”

“Hurts about the fuckin’ same,” Keith shoots back, but tries to reign it in anyway.

Lance helps him out of the training room, guiding him down the hallways until they finally make it to their rooms.

“Few more steps,” Lance says encouragingly. Any teasing attitude evaporated somewhere between when Keith hit the floor and when Lance helped him up. “You can do it, Samurai.”

They finally make it to Keith’s door, and he slaps his free hand to the lockpad and stumbles to his bed.

“Lie on your stomach,” Lance advises.

Keith furrows his brow. “Isn’t lying on your stomach bad? Aren’t you supposed to lie on your back when you hurt it?”

“Well, it’ll be pretty hard for me to massage the pain out of your muscles of you’re lying on them, dork-brain.”

Keith pauses. “Huh.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Will you just shut up and do as I say, Commander?”

“Um, no,” Keith says. For whatever reasons his heartbeat has increased, and his palms are sweaty through his gloves. “I’m just going to sleep it off. You can go now.”

Lance crosses his arm. That stubborn look enters his face, the same one he gets when he knows he’s right and he doesn’t care who agrees.

Keith has never, not even one time, won an argument with him when he gets that expression.

“Bed. Now,” he orders. “Ditch the shirt. I’ll be back in five minutes, and if you’re not doing as I say I’m going to knock you out and shove you in a healing pod.” Without waiting for a response, he turns around, marching out the door and somehow making it slam behind him, even though the doors are literally automatic and Keith has never once seen them slam before.

Keith glances at his bed. He glances at his lockpad.

It’s not like Lance can strongarm his way through Altean lock security, right?

Keith takes one step towards the door. His back twinges, and he winces.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

He chucks off his shirt, wincing as the movement makes his back twist, and gingerly lays down on his stomach. He shifts until he finds a position that hurts the least, pillow tucked under his head and over his arms.

Whatever. He’s doing this because he doesn’t want to sit in a stupid pod, not because Lance ordered him to.

As promised, his door opens again five minutes later, and Lance’s near-silent footsteps approach the bed.

“See?” he mutters. “Doesn’t kill you to listen to me.”

“I hate you.”

“Uh-huh.”

There’s a shuffling sound, then a creaking as the bed dips, and the next thing Keith knows, Lance has a leg on either side of Keith’s hips and he sits gently on Keith’s thighs, right beneath his ass.

Keith’s face flames. He shoves his face into his pillow and prays for death.

(No one has ever been this close to him in his life, probably. It’s weird.)

“My hands a freezing,” Lance says apologetically. “Might feel weird for a sec.”

Cold fingers trace gently down the curve of Keith’s spine, covered in what Keith assumes is some kind of medicinal lotion. He shivers, goosebumps erupting all over his bare flesh. The air suddenly feels suffocating.

“Where’s the pain?” Lance whispers.

Keith swallows. His throat is so dry that it takes him several attempts. “Lower back.”

The cool fingers slowly move to the backs of his hips, one on each side. Then, without warning, they dig into his flesh.

“Fucking — ow, Lance!”

“Baby.”

Keith glances back at him incredulously, face still burning. “In what world is now a good time for pet names?!”

Lance snorts, a small smile pulling up the corners of his mouth. “I’m not calling you a pet name. I’m insulting you. Baby.”

Keith’s jaw drops. “You —”

“Shut up and let me focus, Mullet.”

Keith does.

But not because Lance tells him to.

Eventually he gets used to the hard kneading of Lance’s bony fingers. Every once in a while he winces as Lance digs into a particularly painful spot, and once he outright shouts in pain. Lance hurries out an apology, easing up a bit and moving to a different part.

“I suppose I should apologise,” he says after several minutes of silence, interrupting only by Keith’s various grunts of pain and relief alike.

“For being a dickhead?”

Lance laughs. Keith isn’t facing him, but he can picture his wry smile. “For goading you. I knew you were going to fuck up the takedown I did when you tried it, but I just thought you’d fall or something.” His voice gets solemn. “I didn’t think you’d get hurt for real. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I’m sorry.”

His hands have stilled, thumbs no longer pressing into the knotted muscles. Only his fingertips gently trace his skin.

His fingers aren’t cold anymore, but Keith still feels goosebumps come up again.

“I could’ve done that takedown thing,” he grumbles eventually. He’s full of shit and he knows it, but he’s sure as shit not about to admit that Lance is better at a hand-to-hand manoeuvre than he is.

Lance snorts. “Yeah, right. I’ve been in gymnastics and dance classes since I was two, bonehead. I’m bendy as hell. I’m good at contorting. I do it all the time when Hunk and Pidge haven’t slept in a while, and I need to make them think they’re hallucinating monsters from sleep deprivation. You have to be practiced at this sort of thing, Mullet.”

Keith opens his mouth, then shuts it again. “What have you been doing to Hunk and Pidge?”

Lance ignores him. “Anyways. I won’t goad you into something like that again, no matter how funny it would be to see you fall on your face.” He pats Keith’s hip twice, then shifts off the bed. “All done. Try sitting up. Does it still hurt?”

Carefully, Keith pulls himself into a sitting position, expecting the same white-hot pain he felt when he sat up in the training room. But there’s nothing.

He looks to Lance with wide eyes. “Holy shit.”

Lance preens. “I’ve got magic hands,” he brags.

“Thank you,” Keith says sincerely. He can’t quite help the small smile he shoots in Lance direction.

Strangely, a light blush burns across Lance’s cheeks. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, Mullet. It’s not like you and your thick head were going to go into a pod, so.” Lance coughs, rocking back on his heels. He looks anywhere but Keith.

Suddenly, a vague memory pops up into Keith’s brain, of himself at around thirteen, venting to an amused Shiro about how one of the boys in his classes, Taylor, kept bugging him about test scores and insisting on some stupid competition.

“I don’t get it, Shiro!” he had said, frustrated frown pulling the corners of his mouth down. “I don’t want to compete! I don’t know what his stupid problem is!”

Shiro had smiled, ruffling Keith’s hair. “He’s pulling your pigtails, kiddo.”

Keith frowned. “I don’t have pigtails.”

“No, I mean —” Shiro had shook his head. “Nevermind. Just ignore him, he’s just getting a reaction out of you because he doesn’t know how else to talk to you.”

Adam had snorted before Keith could comment, reaching over and tugging on Shiro’s forelock without looking up from his marking. “Familiar with the pigtail-pulling strategy, aren’t you, babe?”

Keith hadn’t understood it then, why Shiro’s face had gone bright red or why Adam had laughed louder as Shiro got more flustered. He just remembers being disgusted by their blatant gross flirting, and forgetting about the confusing words entirely.

It hits him now, though, looking at Lance’s red face, thinking about every time he’s driven Keith insane and smirked when he finally lost it, gone against Keith’s orders just to be contrary, literally tugged on Keith’s hair just to piss him off, but why he always sits next to Keith at meals and reassures Keith when he’s sure he’s not fit to lead the team.

Why he offered to rub his hands up and down Keith’s back for a half hour instead of sticking him in a pod.

“Holy shit,” he mutters, more to himself than anything. He looks at Lance with wide, unbelieving eyes.

Lance glances back at him, and his expression only makes the Cuban more red, somehow.

“I promised I’d help Coran with something,” he blurts. He points vaguely at the door, stumbling backwards. “Right now, actually. Um, bye. Don’t hurt yourself again, dumbass.”

He’s out the door before Keith can stop him, so fast there’s practically a cloud of dust where he used to be, like a cartoon.

Keith sits down heavily on his bed, still staring unblinkingly in front of him. He thinks of the way he rises to Lance’s challenges, every single time. How he always pushes himself harder when Lance is watching, like he has to make sure Lance knows how good he is. How he, too, always seeks Lance out and sits next to him during team meetings or even movie nights. How he almost always assigns them as partners on missions.

How he shivered when Lance’s cool fingers touched his skin.

“Holy shit,” he whispers, a smile fighting its way onto his face. He yanks gently on his own hair.

Butterflies erupt in his stomach.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

April O'Neil (TMNT 2012) vs. Alya Cesaire (Miraculous Ladybug)

Y'all Hate Kids: Screwed By The Writers

Propaganda below the cut

(cw racism)

-

April O'Neil (TMNT 2012)

Imagine you have a badass female character with superpowers and ninja training. Then you make her into a constant damsel in distress and ship her with a literal stalker. That's how the writers handle her.

Then, there's the arc where she's possessed by a crystal, making her anger drawn out until she loses herself and dematerialises one of her friends. Despite being possessed, the fandom went "yeah, that's her fault"

Alya Cesaire (Miraculous Ladybug)

"The amount of hatred Alya gets in the fandom is absolutely insane. There are over 800 fics tagged with ""Alya Cesaire Bashing"", and that's just the ones that actually TAG it - many of them either use a a non-canonical tag or just take their demonization of her as canon. It's not just that a lot of fics bash her either, but that the fics that bash her are disproportionately popular. If you go through the ""Miraculous Ladybug"" tag on AO3 and sort by kudos, I'd say around a third of the top 500 most popular fics use this gross caricature of her in order to justify inflicting some sort of insane punishment on her, or at least replacing her with ""better"" friends and leaving her to wail in despair.

Basically, Alya is the best friend of the main character, Marinette. She's really into superheroes and aims to be a reporter someday, to the point that the first time a supervillain cropped up in the series, she immediately got out her bike and cycled after him so that she could be there when a superhero showed up to fight him (Lois Lane would be proud). She runs a blog called the ""Ladyblog"" which reports on what the superheroes are doing, and sometimes makes some fun videos, like about the most impressive feats of one of the superheroes. 

More relevantly though, she acts as Marinette's support a lot of the time, often being the one to push her to confess her feelings to Adrien, to help her with plans she comes up with, to talk things out with if she's having trouble processing something, and trying to act as the voice of reason if Marinette's gotten to into her own head. It can sometimes head into Black Best Friend territory of having her mostly stick around to support her bestie, but she DOES get a decent amount of screentime and focus at least.

Then the first episode of season 3 aired, and the fandom went BALLISTIC.

This character, Lila, debuted back at the end of season 1 as being this attention-seeking liar who pretended that she knew a lot more famous people than she actually did, including being best friends with Ladybug. Alya, being a naive 14-year-old, believed her and put Lila's interview on her blog. Since Marinette IS Ladybug, she knew this was not true, though she was initially more freaked out about the possibility that Adrien (the boy she has a crush on) would find her supposedly amazing life to be entrancing and that Lila would steal Adrien away from her, to the point that she actively wanted to stop Lila and Adrien from spending time together to prevent Adrien from falling for her.

Fast-forward to Chameleon, the first episode of season 3, and Lila's back and lying some more, this time about having Tinnitus (which would mean that she needs to sit at the front of class, next to Adrien). The class has a whole seating rearrangement in order to accommodate the move, and because some of them just wanted to change seats. Since Marinette was late that day, she didn't get to give input, so she wound up sitting alone at the back of the class, instead of next to Alya like she usually did. She's upset by this, but can't prove that Lila doesn't actually have the disability (she doesn't even have evidence that Lila doesn't have hearing problems, it's just that her story of how she supposedly got the disability is suspect), so she puts up with it for the class period.

Then lunch time rolls around and Marinette tells Alya and Alya's boyfriend, Nino, that Lila's a lying liar who lies. Alya asks why Marinette hates her so much, since she barely knows Lila (this isn't the first time that Marinette's nitpicked at Lila's stories, but she's never actually managed to prove that Lila's lying, Lila's good at coming up with explanations for any hole Marinette exposes in her tales). Marinette tells her how, after Lila first arrived at school, she followed her and Adrien, eavesdropped on them, and then saw Ladybug show up and tear into Lila for not knowing her. (Presumably that's what she says, the episode skipped past her actual recounting of what she saw). Alya and Nino are more concerned with the fact that she stalked Lila and Adrien, with Alya also being skeptical that what she heard might have been out-of-context, given how common out-of-context eavesdropping is in fiction for causing issues, with Alya saying, ""A good reporter always verifies her sources. Can you prove she doesn't actually know Ladybug?""

Since Marinette can't actually prove anything without revealing that she's Ladybug, she decides that the sane and reasonable thing to do is to throw a wadded up napkin at Lila while she's eating lunch, and when she catches it (Lila's pretending to have a sprained wrist), to loudly declare that she obviously doesn't have a sprained wrist. Lila quickly pretends that catching it did actually hurt, the classmates Lila was sitting with scold Marinette for hurting her, and then Marinette goes off to seethe in a bathroom, where Lila finds her and threatens to turn her friends against her if she continues trying to expose her lies. 

Then at the end of the episode, Adrien goes to sit with Marinette at the back of the class to keep her company, the teacher thinks that Marinette ALSO has hearing issues so she's brought back to the front (and away from Adrien again), Lila pretends that her hearing has been fixed so she can sit at the back with Adrien, and Alya spots that Marinette looks miserable about sitting alone at the front, so she chooses to sit next to Marinette to keep her company and everyone ends up going back to their old places, except that Lila's sitting at the back of the class now.

And that's it. That is, for the most part, what kicked off the entire Alya hatred and demonization onslaught. While there ARE more things that happening in following episodes, they have a pretty small effect on the demonization Alya's put through, almost all of it is derived from Chameleon and hasn't changed much since then.

So for starters, in fanfics Alya is often made to ditch Marinette constantly to hang out with Lila instead. This never happens. She's often exasperated when Marinette starts talking about how Lila is awful and points out that she doesn't have proof of that, but she doesn't avoid Marinette, and the closest she ever comes to hanging out with Lila outside of class events is when she called Lila over to babysit hers and Nino's younger siblings when Marinette canceled at the last minute.

But most Alya-bashing fics don't just leave it there. Oh no. If you look through a bunch of the most popular Miraculous fics, you'll see Alya made out to be some sort of ringleader for the class in bullying Marinette, hitting her, pinching her, poisoning her, destroying her things, saying nasty, heinous things to her, the works, and inciting the rest of the class to do the same, sometimes to the point that even LILA is shocked at her cruelty. Usually in these cases, Chloe, who is canonically the class bully (and Marinette's bully in particular) is inexplicably Marinette's primary protector against the eeeeeevil Alya, becoming Marinette's best friend and support and basically taking on Alya's canon role and some of her personality traits, despite the fact that canonically, Chloe's as susceptible to Lila's lies as anyone else, and that in season 5 Chloe actually became Lila's partner in crime in trying to hurt Marinette in particular. (I don't like how Chloe's treated in canon, but that's a different story).

I've never even seen any justification given for why Alya's so frequently made to be outright violent or cruel towards Marinette, it's just widely accepted in fiction now, even with nothing pointing to her ever being malicious like that. There ARE other things Alya canonically does that I see her taken to task over though, but that fall apart when you examine them.

One of the biggest offenders is criticism towards Alya over how she handles babysitting. In Christmaster, Alya and Nino pick up Nino's little brother after Marinette babysits him for them while they're on a date, in Timetagger, Marinette's slated to babysit for them while they're on a date but cancels at the last minute, so they call Lila over instead, and then in Simple Man, Marinette books herself to babysit Alya's and Nino's younger siblings and the daughter of one's of her mom's friends, a little girl named Manon, all at the same time.

Alya receives heavy criticism for not paying Marinette for her babysitting, for having Marinette babysit for her secretly behind her parents' back without their knowledge, and for pressuring Marinette to babysit for her even though Marinette's so busy.

A few problems with this.

1. We see babysitting happen several times, sometimes with Alya helping Marinette with babysitting Manon and sometimes with Marinette just babysitting Manon without anyone else's involvement. At no point is payment brought up, and yet the absence of such a discussion is only ever used to demonize Alya.

2. There is no evidence that the babysitting Marinette does for Alya's sake is done behind her parents' back, the only thing pointing to that is a lack of Alya ever flat-out saying that she has her parents' permission to have Marinette babysit for her, but there's no evidence of sneaking around. MARINETTE, however, DOES canonically ditch her babysitting duties by having Alya babysit for her without the parent's knowledge. In Prime Queen, Marinette accidentally double books herself to do an interview as Ladybug at the same time that she's supposed to be babysitting Manon, so she calls Alya over to watch the interview with her, lies to her that she's just gonna go downstairs for a few minutes to talk with her parents and for Alya to please watch over Manon while she does that, and then leaves to do the interview while Alya watches over Manon the whole time. Nadja definitely didn't know that this happened, because she was surprised and worried when Alya and Manon called in during the interview with Marinette nowhere to be seen. In addition to this, in Simpleman, Marinette foists off all the children she's babysitting onto her grandpa against his will so that she can run off and help with Adrien's photoshoot after he calls her. The people demonizing Alya for supposedly having Marinette babysit for her secretly are not upset about the examples of Marinette canonically doing these things.

3. Of the three times that Marinette has, to date, been scheduled to babysit for Alya's sake (Christmaster, Timetagger, and Simpleman), for Christmaster she spent the next several hours after finishing with babysitting making Adrien's 50th birthday present (he's currently 14 years old), so I wouldn't say she was pressed for time, for Timetagger, she literally called Alya at the last minute to say she was too busy to babysit and Alya said it was no biggie and made other arrangements, and for Simpleman, Alya offered to cancel her date and take care of her younger siblings herself the instant she saw that Marinette was already babysitting Manon, and Marinette told her to go ahead and go on her date and that she'd look after her siblings.

So clearly, the people clutching their pearls about how horribly irresponsibly Alya is handling babysitting and how she's wronging Marinette in the process don't actually care about babysitting ethics here, because otherwise, Marinette would be getting the brunt of the hatred, not Alya. Despite this, I've seen a fair number of posts in the past tearing into Alya's babysitting for the reasons I already gave, and a bunch of fics that make it so that Alya pressures and guilt-trips Marinette into babysitting for her when she's struggling to keep up with all her work, only to have her parents find out and be horrified by how Alya's lied to them about who's been doing the babysitting and that Alya's been getting an increased allowance because of that, so they pay Marinette out of Alya's allowance and ground her, take away privileges, just have this be used as an excuse to punish Alya for supposedly wronging Marinette.

And then there's the subcategory of Alya demonization towards her for putting up Lila's interview on her blog without verifying that Lila was telling the truth. Admittedly, this was foolish, but she's 14. Retractions exist for a reason. And yet, fics frequently have her reputation be completely destroyed because she put up one interview that had a false statement by the interviewee in it, and sometimes even to be completely blacklisted from ever being a journalist in the future, things that are completely insane and would have even the most storied and well-respected of reporters be unable to ever get a job. 

She also frequently gets demonized and bashed for ""believing Lila over Marinette"". My major issue with this: what she's specifically believing Lila over Marinette for is on the topic of ""is Lila an awful person"". I don't think it's unreasonable to have a higher standard of proof for believing that someone is an awful person than for believing that your friend might just have some biased interpretations. Alya thinks that Marinette doesn't like Lila mostly because Lila has hit on Adrien, Marinette's crush, before. This isn't unreasonable considering that Marinette's first reaction to Lila is to freak out about her stealing Adrien away, and that when this other girl, Kagami, started hanging out with Adrien, she freaked out about that too. Specifically, she called a meeting of all her female friends to try and stop Kagami and Adrien from going away together to London for the weekend in Backwarder, helped Chloe in trying to get Kagami covered in food at a fancy red carpet movie opening in order to drive her away and steal her seat next to Adrien for the movie, and when she and Kagami were paired up for a ""friend-making game"" where the goal was to locate where Adrien was in Paris and the prize was to spend time with him, she pretended to genuinely want to be Kagami's friend so she could sabotage both of them and prevent Kagami from spending time with Adrien. So it's not like the belief that Marinette might be unfairly biased against Lila because she's made moves on Adrien is an unfair assumption.

In addition to that, on the occasions when Lila HAS tried to frame Marinette for something, Alya hasn't believed it, or hasn't been shown to believe it at least. In Ladybug Lila tries to frame Marinette for cheating on a test, for stealing a necklace from her, and for knocking her down the stairs. Despite the evidence Lila planted, Alya doesn't believe it and investigates to try and find out what really happened. She doesn't uncover any solid proof, but she still believes in Marinette. She doesn't believe that Marinette's assumption that Lila's behind this is necessarily correct, since Marinette's leaping to that without presenting proof, but she doesn't believe that Marinette's the culprit either. And in the two following cases when Marinette's framed, Alya never actually gets a chance to say what she believes after the accusation is made against Marinette.

Just... the amount of demonization towards Alya TO THIS DAY, often for things she NEVER EVEN FREAKING DID, is absolutely insane. Even over 5 years since Chameleon aired, fics with Alya being made into this malicious, awful bully so that Marinette can get some new friends to publicly denounce her, get her arrested, or otherwise be punished are frequently on the front page of the most recently updated fics on AO3, and are often some of the most popular ones. If you go to ""Fandom-Specific plot"" on Tvtropes, saltfics like these have multiple files going through all the common salt tropes. When looking through fics, I frequently search for Alya's name because she's often the first person to be unfairly demonized, so if she's safe, then everyone likely is. 

I suspect that racism plays a major factor in this. It doesn't make sense that Alya's often painted as being a violent, malicious bully and leader in getting the rest of the class to physically hurt and terrorize Marinette, I haven't even seen analysis arguing that she'd do that... but it tracks with the ""Black Brute"" archetype. This becomes even more obvious with Chloe, who's white and canonically DOES do some of this stuff, taking on Alya's canon role and some of her personality traits in these sorts of stories.

Then there's the standard Alya's held to for how she handles her blog. It's way higher than anyone would hold real-world reporters to, much less 14-year-olds. But it makes sense if you factor racial bias into account, and how Alya, being Black, is going to be held to a higher standard than anyone else, and be punished more for failing to meet that standard.

For things like the babysitting double standard, it makes no sense if you're actually looking at the stated criticism, given that the same criticism isn't leveled at Marinette... but it makes perfect sense if you're going off the assumption that Alya, as Marinette's Black Best Friend, is supposed to solely function as her support and that she's simply fulfilling her duties by always being there for her when needed, including for babysitting, but that if Marinette ever attempts to repay in kind, then Alya's being unfair towards her because Alya's obligated to always support Marinette, but that relationship is supposed to be a one-way street. Alya is supposed to function as Marinette's support, never the other way around.

And as for the way Alya's demonized for asking for evidence before believing that Lila's lying, well... again, Alya's expected to act as Marinette's support, and her ""failing"" that in any way, even if it makes sense from her point of view, is viewed as a betrayal. She's supposed to be loyal to Marinette, and only to Marinette, not to think for herself or to have multiple other friends or values that she needs to weigh. And anything that she does to go against that ""justifies"" Marinette intentionally trying to hurt and punish her for failing to live up to her role.

In conclusion, the way Alya's treated by the salt side of the fandom is grossly unfair, often has little connection with anything she canonically did, and has some gross racist implications, and is likely at least partially spurred on by racism, especially with how common and popular it still is to this day."

"(Note: This is an addendum to my earlier essay about the fandom's mistreatment of Alya. Here, I'm focusing more on how the writers' treatment of her helped to exacerbate that, since I saw that this version of the tournament had more of a focus on that. Please add this on at the end of my previous essay).

While Alya is primarily screwed over by the fanbase, there are some aspects of the writing that exacerbate her ill treatment. In season 4, Marinette confesses her secret identity to Alya, letting her know that she is Ladybug. Despite now knowing why Marinette was so convinced that Lila wasn't friends with Ladybug, and that Lila's interview stating that she's best friends with Ladybug is a lie, the subject just... never comes up, even when Lila starts being important again. It's not that Alya's ignoring what Lila lying on those subjects means, it's more like the writers just completely forgot that Lila told those particular lies, since Marinette doesn't bring them up either. This creates an inconsistency with the fanbase, who really, really, REALLY haven't forgotten those lies. 

There ARE ways to explain this - Lila lying about being friends with Ladybug in order to try to boost her reputation, especially when she's the new girl, isn't really all that heinous. Marinette lies a lot as well, even if you don't count lies told to protect her secret identity or other ""necessary"" lies, sometimes out of embarrassment, sometimes to to try and prevent someone's feelings from getting hurt, and sometimes because she thinks it's the fastest, easiest, or most certain way to get the outcome she wants. And yet, even though Marinette lies a lot, she's not ostracized for that since it's usually not for malicious reasons - foolish reasons at times, but rarely malicious. It would make sense that Lila too, wouldn't be thought too badly of for merely lying in an attempt to make friends.

None of that actually comes up though. Alya later, in Confrontation, states that, ""Marinette, you know we'll always believe you. But every time you've accused Lila, there's been no evidence. And at worst, it was just a misunderstanding."" Marinette doesn't say anything about the previous times Lila has been proven to lie, so it seems like either it was decided offscreen that the more understandable lies she's told don't matter, or that the writers just plain forgot about them.

There were other opportunities created by Alya knowing Marinette's identity that were ignored. Alya concludes that Adrien backing up Marinette's statement that Lila's bad news was just due to him wanting to defend his girlfriend. This is also a bit of a writing flaw, while wanting to back up his girlfriend's stance IS a decent reason for Adrien to be biased against Lila, this is Adrien we're talking about here. He's nice and understanding to a fault, and is known for giving people the benefit of the doubt and second chances. It makes far less sense to believe that he'd believe the worst of Lila, even if Marinette does, than it does for Marinette to be biased against Lila. That being said, Adrien wouldn't have been present for Lila's more indisputable threats and statements directed against Marinette, so he can't actually verify for sure whether or not there could've been some misunderstanding.

There WAS, however, someone who was always with Marinette, and who could actually back up Marinette's statements more definitively. 

Tikki. She was present for every threat Lila made, for everything she ever claimed. While it's possible that both Tikki and Marinette may have misunderstood Lila in the same way, it's far less likely, especially since Tikki would have had different biases from Marinette. Tikki could be an important witness. Yet that never comes up, is never proposed, because that would end the plotline too quickly. 

Alya was also screwed over in the immediate aftermath of Lila being exposed, though not by the writers per se? There was a short scene planned after Lila's exposed where Alya apologizes for not believing Marinette about Lila being a liar and generally an awful person, we've even got leaked footage of it, but it appears that it was cut somewhere between being written and voice acted, and the episode being aired. 

All of this only really affects detailed arguments about how well (or poorly) Alya's story arc with Lila was handled, its affect on the actual fanfiction produced about Chameleon salt was minimal, I saw no change in its frequency, severity, or general handling of the characters with any season after season 3. I highly doubt that even the changes I suggested here would have done much to persuade the saltdom against Ron the Death Eatering Alya, especially since a lot of the hatred against her has so little to do with the show.

There IS some hatred thrown at Alya for non-Lila related reasons - well, reasons that aren't DIRECTLY Lila related, most of that hatred still stems from people hating her for Chameleon stuff and then retroactively justifying it by looking back at other things she did that irked them. The most common one (that actually has some sort of argument to it, not the ""Alya's a horrible babysitter and is abusing her friendship with Marinette"" nonsense I listed in the main essay) is that Alya's pushy about getting Marinette together with Adrien. 

This is more a product of Alya's usual role in the story than anything. I mentioned in the main essay how Alya sometimes falls into ""Black Best Friend"" territory, and this is one of the biggest examples. One of her most common roles throughout the series is as the person who pushes Marinette to actually confess to Adrien, to hang out with him, to pursue her romantic desires even with her anxiety holding her back, and to be honest with herself during the times when she's trying to deny her feelings for him. She's Marinette's sounding board whenever she's having an anxiety spiral about... actually, just about anything, and acts as the voice of reason when Marinette gets in her own head too much.

Thus, Alya sets Marinette and Adrien to end up somewhere alone together, or tries to push her to talk to him, or to be honest during the times when she tries to ""move on"" from Adrien by denying that she still has feelings for him (which is blatantly untrue). She IS okay with Marinette dating someone else though, if she honestly seems to want to do that. She had no problem with her dating Luka, for instance. She DID protest Marinette's seemingly sudden interest in Chat Noir, but that was mostly because Marinette seemed to be grabbing at her new attraction as an attempt to run away from her feelings for Adrien, something that Tikki ALSO noted.

That's another thing - Alya's the character who's most frequently thrown into this role, but she's not the only one, nor even the most extreme one. A new character that was introduced for the Miraculous New York Special, Jess, observed how Adrien and Marinette acted around each other, and decided to try to get them to confess their love by faking a supervillain attack on them, with the supervillain kidnapping anyone that no one loves in order to compel Marinette to FINALLY confess to Adrien. (Alya thought it was stupid, but agreed to help since it might actually work). When Marinette, Adrien, Luka, and Kagami went out to the wax museum together, Luka intentionally locked Adrien and Marinette in a room together so that Marinette would stop running away and would be forced to talk to Adrien. Marinette is written in such a way that other characters are compelled to meddle in her lovelife, because otherwise she'll continue making her own extreme plans and pining away, but never actually confess her feelings. 

So while Alya could be said to be ""pushy"" to an extent, it's mostly for Marinette's benefit. I would like if this was a less frequent role for Alya - I think it does her a disservice, since it locks her firmly into Marinette's orbit rather than emphasizing who Alya is as her own character. Most of the hatred towards Alya for this is tied up in ""Die For Our Ship"" being directed at Adrien though, with Adrien bashers hating that Alya's trying to set Marinette up with what they see as an inferior option. Ironically enough, while Alya's role in this situation is one of the primary examples in the show of her being treated by the writers as a ""Black Best Friend"" who exists to serve Marinette's character, it's actually one of the cases where I think racism is a pretty minor part of the hatred by the fanbase over it, since I think that's mostly motivated by hatred towards the Lovesquare.

In conclusion (again), there is an issue with the writers bending Alya's character in order to tell a particular story, particularly a Marinette-centered story, while ignoring how little sense that makes with what happened earlier on in the plotline, or how it centralizes Alya's role and character around Marinette in ways that exacerbate already existing writing patterns in media.

[probablyasocialecologist]

We are in an unsustainable and potentially disastrous situation with many dimensions of the environmental crisis. And material flows, the sheer amount of stuff extracted, processed, transported, used and discarded simply is the key driver for a variety of central forms of environmental impact. Because the current situation is unsustainable, the sustainable way is down - towards material degrowth. Here the analogy with climate emissions breaks down: there is no evidence of economy-wide absolute resource decoupling. Economic growth all over the world is still strongly coupled with growing material consumption. Modern life has not ‘dematerialised’ with the promise of paperless offices, with internet and with the growing service economy. What’s more, ‘externalisation’ of resource use is still a fact of life. It is not analogous with the case of climate emissions. This makes sense: importing fruit and coffee from water-scarcity areas still uses up water; stuff produced with cleaner energy still needs raw materials. This is why answers to the question ‘Is decoupling happening?’ can diverge radically depending on what environmental metric you are using and in which part of the world you are. And there is still the other question: ‘Is it happening fast enough?’ If not, the question arises whether it could happen faster without the growth imperative.

[...]

A crucial ancillary question is, does the world need to see economic growth for everyone, everywhere, all the time? This is actually an issue pointed out repeatedly by degrowther figures like Parrique and Hickel. We live in a world of deep systemic inequality within regions and between regions, with overconsumption and underconsumption, with humongous carbon and material footprints for some, and specific problems related to poverty and insecurity for some. The latter people surely need economic growth, and material and energetic growth. But the future will be bleak, if bettering the lot of billions requires overconsumption by the affluent minority. This perhaps is the great lure of the idea of decoupling: it promises that everything can change without anything really changing. We are already on our way to a better world, so any kind of systemic change is not needed. All boats are raised, wealth trickles down, and so on.

7 May 2024

[ashtxeman]

i need to know what dematerialising is like. i need to think about it in full detail. like the process of it and the mental and physical toll it has on someone. has anybody done this or do i have to say ill do it and then procrastinate it forever.

[deadskink]

De Selby Part 1 (Raindrop)

Words: 1222

Warnings: angst, psychological & body horror

Summary: After a freak accident, Dewdrop dematerialised in front of Rain's eyes. Ever since, the water ghoul has been plagued with brutal visions of an endless mirror dimension he shares with Dewdrop's reflection.

Notes: Welcome to the pain gauntlet. This is chapter 1 of a 16 part fic based on Unreal Unearth by Hozier. Beta’d by the wonderful @hypnoneghoul 

Bhfuilis soranna sorcha, ach tagais nós na hóiche.

Glittering in the reflection of a lake blackened by nightfall, Rain’s skin was dotted with stars. Illuminating the darkness around him, he appeared as a beacon through thick fog that blanketed the water’s surface. 

Skimming the water with gentle fingers, Rain made it ripple and dance around him as he took in his surroundings. The darkness sang to him, calling for him like a kelpie that willed to pull him in and swallow him within its endless depth. He would listen if the fog didn’t unsettle him as much as it did. It felt alive, somehow. 

Focusing on the abyss beyond him, Rain felt uneasy as a pair of red dots began to manifest out of the darkness. Familiar, yet somewhat feared, he knew the origin. Trapped within his own deep seeded fear, Rain sunk within himself. A being emerging from the mist, once capable of filling his heart with a comfortable warmth that was now replaced with unease. 

Trína chéile.

Silvery and just as inhuman as himself, the figure that came from the empty space stood before him with a gentle smile. All teeth, yet kinder than his eyes. 

Crimson. Daring. Dangerous.

“At last, when all of the world is asleep, we get this to ourselves,” he spoke, quietly and far more poised than Rain was used to. 

In this silent abyss, the two infernal beasts stood parallel. With one foot in the land of the living, and the other just beyond it, they both mirrored each other in a morbid way. One pristine, a glittering image of Leviathan’s depths, and one damaged beyond repair. Not long ago, the impossible had been achieved and the water ignited to reveal the charred remains of a form that once felt at home here. He no longer belonged where they stood, and yet, here they both were. Trapped inside of his own interpretation of suffering, Rain was faced with the manifestation of his greatest fear. 

“Dewdrop, what is this?” Rain questioned, unsteady, as his tail began to stir on the surface, twitching nervously. 

Mirroring his movements, Dewdrop let his tail drop into the water. Allowing the singed remnants of his fluke to glide through unnaturally, he broke the surface and splashed ice cold droplets over the both of them. Not seeming to care through the shivering of his own sickly skin, Dewdrop continued moving with a smile. 

Willing this to stop, Rain halted his own movements, lifting the barbed tip of his tail out of the water to point it in his direction. A warning laced with fearful apprehension. 

“What do you think this is?” Dewdrop asked, nonchalant as ever as he drew closer, charred fingertips burning bright as he reached for Rain from a short distance.  

“I don’t– I don’t know,” Rain stammered, unable to look away from the piercing crimson gaze that held him in place.

Dewdrop looked predatory and dangerous, approaching slowly as he waded through the inky black liquid that surrounded them. Close enough to touch and feel Dewdrop’s breath fanning over his face, Rain’s heart quickened to a rabbit’s pace. The fear Rain felt, all consuming and confusing all at once, would come to be superficial in the end. What did he have to lose if Dewdrop snapped at him anyways? He’d already lost him on the surface, so who was to say he wasn’t prepared to lose himself in the process?

“I know you want to run. Shame you can’t,” Dewdrop drawled, voice crackling like a telephone receiver as his image began to flicker behind the mist that covered him. 

Dewdrop enjoyed the fear of others, and Rain knew that as much. When he was stronger, he would watch him hunting from the shadows, stalking innocents like a cat playing with its food. This was no different. Rain felt like an item in the eyes of a sickly predator. Stiffening his posture while the fire ghoul continued to breathe over him, Rain bared his teeth and snapped, making him flinch back in surprise. 

“Why are we here? What the fuck is this?” Rain snarled, his inky black pupils pinning into slits as his lips curled back to reveal rows of sharp shark-like teeth. 

“Instead of telling you, why don’t I show you?” Dewdrop hissed, drawing back from Rain with blackened eyes as a grin spread over his gaunt features. 

Le chéile, claochlaithe.

Stuck in place within the infernal lake he was confined to, the water ghoul was helpless to do anything more than snap and snarl at the visage of the other ghoul before him. Bluffing like a deep sea fish, Rain’s spots began to ripple and flash blue in an impressive threat display. It’s all he could think to do as Dewdrop began to move closer again, cocking his head as he opened his mouth in a menacing grin. 

Confused and in disarray, Rain hissed when Dewdrop reached out and roughly grabbed the sides of his face. Breathing heavily as smoke began to billow out of his mouth, he unsheathed his claws and dug them into Rain’s cheeks. Unable to touch him, the water ghoul’s skin continued to ripple with color, while Dewdrop stared him down with unblinking scarlet eyes. 

It all felt too real. 

He was unable to fight back while an uncontrollable element opposite to his own took power over him, extinguishing everything they had built in life. Almost as if they had never loved each other, Dewdrop had pounced on him like a brainless predator on the hunt for something fresh. All that mattered was his blood, and the sick game that came along with it. 

They were both hunters at heart. Emerging from the depths of hell with untamed hunger, and no concept of laws that would keep them away from the flesh of others. Kept in relative domesticity from day to day on the surface, the night allowed for these infernal beasts to give into their carnage. It didn’t matter if the target was human or demonic, because hunger was all that consumed them. 

This was almost no different from all of the other times they had both given into their carnal desires on the surface. The only difference was that Rain couldn’t distinguish in the moment if he was reliving the same torturous nightmare, or if this was actually happening to him in the flesh.

With pointed teeth glistening in the light that Rain’s skin emanated, the fire ghoul began to open his mouth wider than Rain thought possible. Dewdrop opened his maw to reveal an all encompassing red light. Burning hotter than the seventh circle, the light blistered his skin and took his vision with it. 

Is claochlú an ealaín.

Swallowed by the heat, Rain could feel all of the moisture in his body wick away from his skin. All at once, he experienced what he thought to be the heat death of the universe in the span of a few seconds. Everything he had ever known and everything he had ever loved had been erased in seconds, leaving him inside of a pulsating red mass of horrific proportions. With no beginning or end, this purgatorial abyss gradually darkened, swallowing him in its depths. 

“Where there is no prophecy, the people perish: but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

 Is ealaín dubh í.

[voiceoffenrisulfr]

Becoming Spider-Man - Chapter Thirteen

Peter Parker Goes Away

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 -> Peter Parker & Tony Stark (IronDad)

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 -> In which Peter disappears, and Tony loses everything.

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 -> 613

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 -> (T) The Snap.

𝐀/𝐍 -> Time to cry... I'm so sorry </3 Check it out below, or on AO3 here! Cute divider by @/sweetmelodygraphics!

<- Previous Chapter (12/16) Next Chapter (14/16) ->

I swallowed dryly, coughing the dust from my lungs, and stretching my newly hardened muscles.

Getting my ass whupped hurt a lot less when there was less of it to whup, I noted dryly, cracking my knuckles in a trademark-Stark manner before getting to my feet. My aged mentor lay sprawled in the debris, and I extended my hand, lifting his shockingly light body without difficulty, despite my own pains.

“Something is happening…”

I turned toward the voice, finding Mantis looking around uncertainly, an unreadable horror flickering across her features. Tony left my side, legs unsteady as he stumbled forward, his hoodie loose on his slender frame.

When this is over… We’re gonna go to that cabin, Mr. Stark. I promise.

Over his shoulder, I watched as Mantis’ body dematerialised, disappearing into a fine dust that lost form, Quinn’s arm dropping to his side without her shoulders to support it. As quickly as it began, it was over, and she was gone, the last traces of her fluttering away in the wind. It was so sudden, so silent, that I could only blink in horror.

Tony swayed and stumbled once more, and I watched uselessly as Quill’s head turned, his own expression mirroring the one doubtless on my face.

“Quill…”

I followed the Starlord’s gaze to his Kylosian teammate, recoiling in shocked terror as the disintegration process started again, this time working its way up Drax’s mottled flesh. His head tipped back, resigned, and then he, too, was gone.

The spaceman turned back toward us as Tony jerked forward, feet faltering beneath him. “Steady, Quill.”

Quill’s face was a mask of devastation as he met Tony’s gaze, eyebrows furrowing in disbelief, his voice breathless and broken. “Aw, man.”

The mask stayed for a heartbeat as the flesh beneath crumbled, held together in ash, before it too blew away in the light breeze, scrapped remnants spreading across the war-torn ground.

Tony turned slowly, his watery eyes finding the still-sat Doctor Strange, who met his gaze simply, with no trace of fear, only remorse.

“There was no other way,” he assured my mentor quietly, eerily relaxed. His head dropped minutely, betraying his fear in the last instance before his face dematerialised before us.

I felt myself stumble distantly, my body feeling loose, disconnected. “Mr. Stark… I don’t feel so good,” I murmured, my hazy gaze shifting to the ravaged ground by my feet, trying to force my vision into focus. I raised a hand to my face, half-heartedly fighting off the disassociation, but finding myself without an enemy. My eyes rose to Tony’s face, swallowing thickly, focusing on his maroon eyes.

“You’ll be alright,” Tony soothed, only the barest crack in his voice to betray his panic and fear. I moved forward unconsciously, my legs failing beneath me as I slammed into his chest.

“I don’t know what- I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t-” My arms clenched around his back, a dry sob escaping me. There aren’t any tears. Why aren’t there any tears? What is happening to me? “Save me. Save me! I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go, Sir, please. Please, I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go.”

I distantly felt the ground hit my back, but there was no pain, barely even a sensation. My gaze found Tony’s face once more as my jaw clenched, finding only wordless terror in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, raising my gaze to the burning sky.

I’m sorry I was never more for you.

I’m sorry for every time I let you down.

Mr. Stark- Tony-

Dad.

I’m sorry I never got to retire to a cabin on the lake with you.

[fanhackers]

Fan production of counterknowledge through set reporting

Fans challenge the informational, brand control of media producers by discovering and circulating unofficial news, gossip, rumours and photos of on-set filming. [Matt] Hills discusses the phenomenon of fan “set reporting”, whereby audiences tweet, blog and upload their photos and videos of location filming. In discussing franchises such as Twilight, Doctor Who and Sherlock, which have all had to contend with this new digital mode of fan productivity, he argues that far from dematerialising the importance of location, this new fan practice combines immediacy with hypermediation, granting authenticity and status to “being there” and to documenting activities of media production. Socially networked fandom thus both reinforces the symbolic centrality of filming sites (e.g. Cardiff for Doctor Who) and brings fans into conflict with producers in novel, pre-textual ways. Hills contends that, far from being a mysterious, shut-away process, location filming has become an increasingly transparent, fan-mediated event, with “citizen-fans” placing the elite activities of popular media production into the subcultural public spheres of fan knowledge, debate and speculation, somewhat akin to the activities of citizen-journalists.

GERAGHTY, L. (2015) ‘INTRODUCTION: FANS AND PARATEXTS’. POPULAR MEDIA CULTURES: FANS, AUDIENCES AND PARATEXTS. LONDON: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.

[healthpluser]

The Mystical Science of Dematerialisation: Sadhguru Explains How Yogis Transcend The Physical Body

423 views | Dec 11, 2024, 08:18:02 PM | etimes.in The Mystical Science of Dematerialisation: Sadhguru Explains How Yogis Transcend The Physical Body In this intriguing video, Sadhguru explains the mystical process by which yogis who master the five elements (Pancha Bhutas) can dematerialize their bodies. Through a captivating anecdote involving a family’s experience with their Linga Bhairavi…

[ajay0250]

Dematerialisation of Physical Shares, Securities, Last Date for Process, Demat Services

We offer physical shares securities to demat assistance and help with IEPF claims, also help to transmit shares and other dematerialisation services such as physical share certificates.

[infinysolutions]

Infiny Solutions offers a comprehensive range of services in the financial technology sector, specializing in the dematerialisation of shares. This process involves converting physical share certificates into digital form, ensuring faster, safer, and more efficient trading and ownership management. Infiny Solutions provides secure and seamless solutions that simplify compliance, improve data accessibility, and reduce the risks associated with paper-based shareholding. By leveraging advanced technology, they help businesses and investors transition to a more modern, paperless financial ecosystem, contributing to streamlined processes and enhanced operational efficiency.

[nextgenregistry]

Best Registrar and Share Transfer Agent (RTA) Services in Delhi—Best RTA in Delhi

Our RTA services in Delhi facilitate the seamless conduct of share transfer, ISIN generation, e-voting event management, and dematerialisation of shares for private companies, including Section 8 companies. Being one of the leading RTA providers in Delhi, we are equipped with the services that will guarantee observance of SEBI regulations, keeping up shareholders' register, and delivering excellent support to the process of corporate governance. Work with us to achieve effective, robust, and low-cost RTA services.

link:-https://www.nextgenregistry.com/

[ameliaella]

Futures End (Sons of Steel) by G L Keady (Author)

BLACK ALICE is at first a reluctant time traveller. In SONS OF STEEL BOOK 1, he accidentally travels time after being dematerialised into a hologram and then trapped inside a holographic projector only to be unwittingly released 113 years later. It is a post apocalyptic world of mutated monsters, barbarians and disease. In this dark future he struggles to find a way back to his own time to save the world from the destruction that had caused the apocalypse. Against all odds he succeeds but the process has left his body with an unsound molecular structure, and after only a matter of hours back in his own time, he dematerialises again, this time slipping through a wormhole into yet another indeterminate future: this time 2087.

[hiringteam]

Company Name: BharatPe

Website: https://bharatpe.com

Required Skills: Experience in Company Law and Rules,Knowledge of FEMA,Experience in Debt and Equity fund raise ,Reliable & Accountable with good stakeholder management

Description

Candidate should be CS qualified. 

Preferred  candidates from CS firms majorly who has handled multiple govt. norms and compliances

 

In this role, you have the opportunity to …

Work on debt raising, equity raising and critical assignments pertaining to corporate laws compliances for BharatPe companies.

 

Responsibilities will include …

Functional Expertise

Ensuring compliances with respect to issue and allotment of secured non-convertible debentures(NCDs).

Providing relevant information and ensuring compliance with the debt documents and shareholders agreement of the Company.

Handling private placement of securities, rights issue and any other corporate actions by the Company.

Assisting in equity fund raise and due diligence as maybe undertaken in the Company.

Drafting of notice, agenda and minutes for board meetings, shareholder meetings and committee meetings and convening the statutory meetings of the Company.

Preparation of AGM notice and annual report of the Company; resolving queries of the foreign investors and shareholders of the Company.

Filing of various statutory forms as required by the Companies Act.

Filing of FLA return, Downstream Investment form, FIFP form and ensuring other compliances required by RBI.

Assisting in beneficial ownership compliances; RPT compliance etc.

Coordination with statutory auditors, internal auditors, RTA, trustees, depositories and ensuring timely completion of all audit requirements.

Maintenance, updating and safe keeping of statutory records of the Company.

Preparing documents such as Corporate Action Form with the RTA and assisting in dematerialisation of shares.

Ensuring compliances of the Companies Act, secretarial standards and other corporate laws as applicable to the Company.

Providing timely information to finance, tax, business team and other stakeholders as maybe required.

 

Interaction

Regular interaction with Board of Directors, strategic advisors, shareholders, auditors, law firms, functional heads of various teams

 

Problem Solving

Assistance in solving complex problems relating to corporate restructuring, process setting for adherence to companies act, FEMA and other corporate laws

 

To succeed in the role..

Impact

Minimizing legal risks and maintain company’s reputation.

Building strong relationships with regulatory authorities.

 

 

Challenges & Decisions

Balancing the need for compliance with organization’s objective and growth.

Evaluating legal risks and deciding on appropriate course of action.

 

 

Qualification & Experience (type & industry)

You should be a qualified Company Secretary (Membership of ICSI)

You should have 2+ years’ experience as a Company Secretary in a Company or a reputed firm.

 

   

Skills & know-how

Excellent knowledge and practical experience in the area of Company Law and Rules made thereunder, secretarial standards/practices, good hands-on knowledge of FEMA.

Experience in debt and equity fund raise is mandatory

You should have attention to detail with a high degree of accuracy

You should be responsible, transparent, reliable & accountable with good stakeholder management skills.

 

  

Behaviors

Extremely high ownership.

Self-starter with a bias for action.

Ability to operate in a high ambiguity environment.

Robust Interpersonal Skills for collaborating with various Units for facilitating closures

Effective Team Player.

  

 if interested kindly drop me your updated CV to serviceshr208@gmail.com

Thanks and regards

Snehashree Panda

[raghuvanshisanjay]

5 Key Facts About HDFC Securities Rights Issues

Understanding the rights issue in HDFC Securities is crucial for investors looking to enhance their portfolios. A rights issue allows existing shareholders to purchase additional shares at a predetermined price, often at a discount to the market price. This mechanism not only provides companies with the necessary capital but also gives shareholders the opportunity to maintain their ownership percentage. In this blog, we will explore five key facts about the rights issue in HDFC Securities, shedding light on its significance and implications for investors.

1. What is a Rights Issue?

A rights issue in HDFC Securities is a method through which a company raises additional capital by offering its existing shareholders the right to buy new shares. This is typically done at a lower price than the current market value, making it an attractive option for shareholders. The rights issue is issued in proportion to the number of shares already held, ensuring that existing investors have the first opportunity to maintain their stake in the company.

2. Benefits of Participating in a Rights Issue

Participating in a rights issue in HDFC Securities can be beneficial for shareholders. 

By exercising their rights, investors can acquire additional shares at a discounted price.

It potentially leads to significant capital gains if the company's stock performs well in the future.

Additionally, it protects investors from having their ownership position diluted. Dilution can occur if they decide not to participate and additional shares are distributed to other investors.

3. Eligibility Criteria for Investors

To participate in a rights issue in HDFC Securities, investors must meet specific eligibility criteria. 

Shareholders must hold shares in a dematerialised form and be registered on the record date set by the company. 

Additionally, they should not have renounced their rights to other shareholders. 

This ensures that only those who are current shareholders can take advantage of the offer, thus protecting the interests of existing investors.

4. Application Process

The application process for a rights issue in HDFC Securities is straightforward. 

Investors can apply through the ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amount) facility, which allows them to block the necessary funds in their bank account while applying for the shares. 

The application process is designed to be user-friendly, enabling investors to complete their applications online or through designated branches of the bank. 

Clear communication from HDFC Securities regarding timelines and procedures further aids investors in navigating the application process.

5. Trading of Rights Entitlements

Once the rights issue in HDFC Securities is announced, shareholders receive rights entitlements, which can be traded in the market. This means that if an investor does not wish to exercise their rights, they can sell these entitlements to other investors. This trading feature adds flexibility, allowing shareholders to benefit financially even if they choose not to purchase additional shares.

Conclusion

Understanding the rights issue in HDFC Securities is essential for making informed investment decisions. By participating in such offerings, investors can enhance their portfolios and maintain their ownership stakes in companies. As the market evolves, platforms like Value Broking can provide valuable insights and assistance in navigating these opportunities effectively.

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Know the Importance of Depository Participants in a Simplified Way

Have you ever thought about who takes the responsibility of managing your financial assets electronically? Who ensures that all transactions are executed smoothly? The answer is Depository Participant (DP).

Depositary participants are major players in the Indian securities market. They provide a wide range of services to retail and institutional investors. This blog will explain the role and importance of depositary participants in detail.

Meaning of DPs

Before talking about DPs, you should first know what a depository is. A depository is an institution that holds your financial assets such as equities, bonds, mutual funds and other securities. It works like a central bank which is responsible for the exchange and settlement of securities. 

There are two depositories in India - National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) which works for National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Central Depository Securities Limited (CDSL) which works for the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). These institutions are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). However, you cannot open an account directly with these depositories. This is where DPs come into the picture.

DPs are intermediaries between depositories and investors. They are the registered agents of depositaries. You need to open a demat account with a DP to buy and sell securities. Whenever a transaction occurs, the DP debits or credits the demat account. You have to pay charges or fees to the DP for services rendered to you.

Importance of DP

DPs ensure speed and transparency in the securities market. They also eliminate fraud by preventing bad delivery and fake certification issues. The importance of DPs in the securities market can be ascertained from the various functions they perform:

1. Demat Account Opening

DPs provide hassle-free assistance in opening an online demat account for security trading. Depository services providers such as Ajmera x-change even offer a free account opening facility.

2. Dematerialisation and Rematerialisation of Securities

DPs help you with the conversion of physical securities into an electronic form (dematerialisation). You can even request the DPs to convert electronic securities into a physical form (rematerialisation).

3. Trade Settlement

DPs ensure timely receipt and delivery of securities during trade settlement. You don’t have to micromanage the settlement process.

4. Transfer of Securities If you want to sell the securities DPs, do the transfer of ownership to another investor account on your behalf. To read more visit https://www.ajmeraxchange.co.in/blogs/know-the-importance-of-depository-participants-in-a-simplified-way

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Role of Depository Participants (DP) in Demat Accounts

Pune, 28 August 2024: In the rapidly evolving world of financial markets, the transition from physical share certificates to electronic forms of holding securities has significantly streamlined the investment process. A key component of this digital transformation is the Demat account, which stands for “Dematerialised Account.” In this blog, we’ll understand the role of Depository Participants…