#especially when you live in washington dc proper

[mikadll]

me (public transit chad) pointing and laughing at the oldheads on copium who think the eisenhower interstate system is worth a damn (seething carcels) while i ride the bus, the only limousine i need in my life

[bbqbills2]

BBQ Bill's features outdoor fireplaces, vent free fireplaces, fireplace inserts are ideal solutions for those that love to entertain, a perfect cetrepiece for relaxation and a functional piece for added patio convenience. Nothing beats the cozy ambiance an outdoor brick or stone fireplace can bring to your outdoor kitchen, patio or deck. https://bbqbills.com/outdoor-fireplaces

25 Outdoor Fireplace Ideas to Light Up Your Backyard by Architectual Digest https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/outdoor-fireplace-ideas

Humans have convened around outdoor fires since…too long ago to count. The allure of flickering flames is timeless and there are plenty of outdoor fireplace ideas to fit your needs and wants.

For a truly bewitching experience, consider echoing your architecture or juxtaposing against it. “I love to use masonry—such as stone or brick—that matches the exterior of the home, or something totally different, like a sculptural metal that matches any accessories for fences and really becomes a focal point in the landscape,” says Robert Bell, landscape architect behind the Washington, DC, firm Bell Design.

We got intel from top designers to suss out everything you need to know for your backyard fireplace, whether you’re hoping to create an outdoor living area or a Tuscan fire feature. Just add marshmallows.

Is it expensive to build an outdoor fireplace?

We get it: Not everyone has the money to install a covered patio with a woodburning brick fireplace, or a Mediterranean-inspired outdoor kitchen complete with a pizza oven. But there are plenty of more affordable options, especially if you’re willing to DIY or opt for a fire pit instead. Fire is fire—and can supply instant ambiance.

Although it’s (hopefully) obvious, safety is paramount. Whatever outdoor fireplace ideas you end up going with, it’s vital to ensure proper placement, Bell says. You’ll want an outdoor fireplace or fire pit “far enough from the house so sparks won't catch anything on fire, but not so far they're inconvenient to get to,” he says. Typically that means 20 feet minimum to 60 feet maximum from your home itself. “Consider maintenance: gas fireplaces are far easier to deal with than wood, but less charming, as nothing beats the smell of wood!” Bell says. And there are other aesthetic considerations, like lighting—especially to create a focal point al fresco. “Usually you want the fire to be the center of attention, so low-level lighting is key,” he says. “You shouldn't put anything bright at eye level to compete with the flames. Movable lanterns or subtle uplighting around the fireplace is usually best.”

What is the best material to use for an outdoor fireplace?

If you ever read “The Three Little Pigs” fable as a child, you know sometimes it’s worth it to splurge on materials that will last. A stone fireplace or brick fireplace may cost more upfront than a fire pit, but if you’re planning on making this your forever home, try to think of it as an investment that will reap benefits al fresco for decades to come. “The best materials for an outdoor fireplace ultimately depend on the architecture and materiality of the house itself, and this also drives the cost,” says designer Benjamin Johnston of Houston’s Benjamin Johnston Design. One major factor in what you choose is if you’re going for woodburning or gas, Johnston says. “Do you want to generate heat or is your outdoor fireplace going to serve as simply a focal point, like most do in Houston?”

How much does it cost to build an outdoor fireplace?

As with anything, you can go high or low when it comes to outdoor fireplace ideas. Some landscaping would benefit from a gas fireplace flickering beside intricate pavers, but even a small patio can get summer-ready with an outdoor fire pit that doubles as a BBQ. “It depends on the specifics,” says Eddie Maestri, principal architect, creative director, and owner of Maestri Studio in Dallas. “A general estimate is about $12,000.”

What is the most cost effective outdoor fireplace?

For an outdoor fireplace, “the most cost-effective option would be a prefab insert,” Maestri says. But if you’re hoping to save even more money, consider a fire pit or even DIY—it will be well worth the effort. “If you want to create a cozy, year-round gathering space, fire pits are a low-cost way to add functionality and comfort to your outdoor entertaining space,” says Kevin Lenhart, Design Director at Yardzen, an online landscape company who says fire pits and fireplaces are included in 70% of their designs.

How do you make outdoor fireplace seating comfortable?

Design ideas are one thing; creating an outdoor furniture set up that’s actually comfortable is another. “Our experience has been to get the seating as close around the fireplace as possible [within safe parameters] since it doesn’t project heat very far,” says Montecito, California–based landscape design wizard William Hefner, founder of Studio William Hefner. “It’s also nice to have light furniture that’s easy to pull up around the fire.”

Los Angeles designer Jaqui Seerman works hard to ensure there’s a variety of seating distances (and lightweight, easily portable outdoor furniture). “While some guests may prefer closer warmth, others may enjoy a bit of distance,” Seerman says of crafting a landscape design that works for the cold-blooded and always-hot alike. “Offering adjustable seating ensures everyone can find their comfort zone, making fireside evenings enjoyable and memorable for all.” Just add cocktails, mocktails, and music (a few throw blankets can be a prescient addition for keeping guests warm, too.)

How do you maintain an outdoor fireplace?

“I’ve found outdoor fireplaces to be very low-maintenance,” Hefner says. “We scoop out the ashes every now and then, and we’re good.” He adds that you may want to occasionally enlist the help of a professional chimney sweep like any other fireplace to professionally remove the soot that naturally accumulates over time. To make sure that an outdoor fireplace develops an even patina through the seasons and over time, Seerman suggests regular removal of leaves and other debris, which can easily pile up outdoors. “Once a year I would remove the fire rock and clean the burners,” says Stephen Block of Inner Gardens, who designs his own custom outdoor fire pits out of antique French limestone. “Make sure your fire pit has drainage so water from rain can drain out, and holes around the sides to allow for air movement around the gas line.” Safety first, always.

How long do outdoor fireplaces last?

When you buy or build quality, you can expect your outdoor fireplace to look hot (pun intended) for decades and beyond. Best case, your fire pit becomes a family heirloom your heirs like enough to argue over. “If you build an outdoor fireplace with a masonry firebox, and proper flue system, it should last forever,” Hefner says. One thing to note for safety purposes: “It’s crucial to maintain adequate ventilation in the surrounding area and ensure trees are trimmed appropriately before use,” Seerman says. Here, how designers and landscape architects combined both style and functional substance with their outdoor fireplaces.

Photo: Lauren Pressey1/25Put a little prep in your step Preppy makes perfect for this outdoor fireplace design by Noelle Interiors, with its striped throw cushions, woven natural fiber touches, and towering stone fireplace. We particularly love the handcrafted pendants in three eye-catching sizes over the seating area, which provide a dazzling touch of summer overhead.

Photo: Venjhamin Reyes 2/25Consider a gas option “A warm, modern aesthetic that uses organic colors and textures can balance, clean contemporary lines,” says Dominique Coffman, Vice President of Design at Design West. Coffman favors a gas fireplace over a woodburning fireplace: “They are easy to light and turn off with the flip of a switch or remote control. Another benefit of gas fireplaces is that they do not produce smoke, which makes them a cleaner option.”

Photo: Courtesy of Kern & Co. 3/25Tap into your inner coastal grandma Paging Nancy Meyers. “For this space, antique firebricks take center stage against a simple, pared-back exterior,” says Susan Spath, principal of San Diego firm Kern & Co. “The modern style mixed with classic elements creates a space that is eye-catching. When designing this outdoor space, the client wanted an area that was simply beautiful, yet cozy. The plentiful U-shaped seating arrangement allows for intimate conversation while facing the warmth and crackle of the fire.” Consider us there.

BBQ BILL'S STORY

Outdoor Living Store in Las Vegas

For more than 30 years, outdoor barbecues and kitchen solutions have been the name of the game at BBQ Bill’s. We are your premier barbecue store in Las Vegas, NV, that can help you create the ideal outdoor cooking and living space based on your style and budget.

We design and install custom outdoor kitchens, BBQ island kitchen, fire features, fire bars, fireplaces, fire pits, fire grills, fire rings, pizza ovens, BBQ grills, griddles, smokers, cookers, rotisserie, refrigerators, heaters, sinks, patio covers, outdoor accessories and build as construction contractors.

Our experienced barbecue experts will create a masterpiece that perfectly matches your vision for function and beauty. We have access to thousands of quality items and install only superior-quality products from some of the best names in the business, including Alfa, Alfresco, Amore, Aspire, Blaze, Bonfire, Coyote, DCS, Delta Heat, Fontana Forni, Gozney, Green Mountain, Hestan, Lynx, Memphis, Pit Boss, Summerset, Twin Eagle, Viking, Wolf.  

We service Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite, North Las Vegas, Blue Diamond, Enterprise, Goodsprings, Moapa Valley, Mount Charleston, Nelson, Paradise, Spring Valley, Summerlin South, Sunrise Manor, Whitney, Winchester, Arden, Jean, Logandale, Overton, Primm, Sloan, Vegas Creek, Boulder City, and Pahrump. Contact us today to let us help you build the outdoor barbecue and kitchen space of your dreams.

[adventuresinclientservice]

Striving for perfection (and still falling short).

On Sunday I watched my hometown Philadelphia Eagles walk off the football field after winning yet another come-from-behind, should-have-lost overtime game to the Buffalo Bills.  Contest over, Jalen Hurts, the quarterback who led his team to victory, including scoring the winning touchdown, was stone-faced, not satisfied with the result.  He was happy with the win, but what he focused on were the things he could a have done better.

“I have not executed to the level of my standard.”

A little more than a month ago, I walked off stage at the International Advertising Association’s “Creativity 4 Better” Annual Conference feeling much the same. 

Perhaps it was an acute case of jetlag -- it is a long, very long way to Bucharest -- or maybe it was the sleepless night prior; whatever the reason, in the immediate aftermath of my remarks I relived too many missed voice-overs, too many stumbles, too many mistakes.  In response to post-presentation praise from the Master of Ceremonies who introduced me, I replied, “Thank you, you are being very kind, but to me it was a train wreck.”   

Perhaps the MC simply was being polite, but a look of surprise crossed her face; she seemed unable to comprehend my self-assessment.

Years ago, when I lived in Washington, DC, there was a local sports broadcaster of some renown named Warner Wolf.  On Sunday evening, when reviewing the day’s football scores, Wolf would always say, “Let’s go the videotape,” to check the highlight’s of select games.

On Monday I received an MP4 of my talk, giving me a chance to confirm or refute my review.  Before writing this, I watched my presentation once, then a second and third time, to realize:

I forgot just one voiceover; bad, but not that bad.

I made more than a few stumbles, none of them egregious, the kind most people would barely notice.

I lacked the horsepower needed to bring my remarks to a proper close -- my energy obviously was in full retreat at this point -- but I suspect those in the audience were more forgiving than not about a less-than-uplifting end.

The conference organizers graciously allotted me 45 minutes to present; I took only 25, something about which I imagine they were none too pleased.  I rationalize this by figuring it is far better to finish sooner rather than later, especially when the day’s lineup included a dozen speakers, but in retrospect I should have given notice in time to adjust the schedule.

If you tuned in to watch the live stream at 7:45 am, or worse, if you happen to live on the west coast, there was real-time viewing at an unholy 4:45 am.  As far as I know, only one person – my cousin Marsha, trooper that she is – did so.  For those of you who wisely slept in but still would like to see what I said so you can form your own judgement, email me at robert@solomonstratrgic.com .  I’ll email you a link to my FTP site so you can download it.

If you’re wondering about my second-look assessment, here it is:  

Better than expected, like (most of) all the other presentations I’ve given or workshops I’ve led, still falling short of perfection.

To quote Jalen Hurts,

“I have not executed to the level of my standard.”

That sums it up, making me like all the other performers I follow and admire, people on a continuing quest to get better, with perfection always a goal, never an achievement.

[constructionanddesign]

What are some important tips for designing your kitchen?

Designing your kitchen can be an exciting yet daunting task, especially if you're undergoing a home renovation. As one of the most important spaces in your home, the kitchen should not only be aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional. Here are some important tips for designing your kitchen that will make the process a lot smoother and more enjoyable.

Consider Your Needs

The first step in designing your kitchen is to think about your needs. What are your cooking habits? Do you frequently entertain guests? How many people will be using the kitchen? These questions will help you determine the layout, appliances, and storage solutions that will work best for you.

Choose a Layout

The layout of your kitchen will play a major role in its functionality. There are several popular layouts to choose from, including U-shaped, L-shaped, galley, and open-concept. Your choice will depend on the size and shape of your space, as well as your personal preferences.

Invest in Quality Appliances

Your kitchen appliances are essential tools that will help you cook and prepare meals, so it's important to choose high-quality ones that will last for years to come. Consider your cooking habits and choose appliances that will meet your needs. For example, if you love to bake, a double oven might be a good investment.

Incorporate Ample Storage

Storage is key in any kitchen, so make sure you have plenty of it. Consider installing cabinets that go all the way up to the ceiling, as this will maximize your storage space. You can also incorporate pull-out drawers and other innovative storage solutions that will make it easier to access your pots, pans, and other kitchen essentials.

Focus on Lighting

Proper lighting is crucial in any kitchen. Not only does it help you see what you're doing when cooking, but it can also enhance the overall ambiance of the space. Consider installing a combination of overhead lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting to create the perfect atmosphere.

Choose the Right Flooring

The flooring you choose for your kitchen should be durable, easy to clean, and slip-resistant. Some popular options include hardwood, tile, and laminate. Consider your budget and personal preferences when choosing your flooring.

Add a Personal Touch

Your kitchen is a reflection of your personal style, so don't be afraid to add a personal touch. Consider incorporating a unique backsplash, adding a pop of color with a vibrant island, or displaying your favorite kitchen accessories on open shelves.

When undergoing a home renovation that involves kitchen additions, it's important to work with experienced construction services. A reputable contractor will be able to guide you through the design process and ensure that your new kitchen meets all of your needs and expectations.

In conclusion, designing your kitchen can be a fun and exciting process if you keep these tips in mind. Focus on your needs, choose a layout that works for you, invest in quality appliances and ample storage, pay attention to lighDesign and Construction Services - Goldsborough Design | Build ting and flooring, and add a personal touch. And if you're undergoing a home renovation that involves kitchen additions, be sure to work with a trusted construction services provider to ensure that your new space is everything you've dreamed of.

GOLDSBOROUGH DESIGN BUILD

Creating Exciting Living Spaces for Metropolitan Washington Homeowners

Who We Are

Goldsborough Design | Build is a family operated home remodeling firm that is dedicated to bringing exciting living spaces to the greater Washington, DC area. President and CEO, Mark Goldsborough, is an award-winning builder, craftsman, & remodeler who has been in business in the DC area for over 30 years. The Goldsborough team is driven by the desire to provide premium quality & innovative home improvement standards to every client.

To know more visit:

Ft. Sumner Kitchen - Goldsborough Design | BuildThe Goldsborough Design

[love-lucky]

(ELIZABETH 'LUCKY' LOVE) who looks an awful lot like (DEWANDA WISE) has just been seen around  Providence Peak! Apparently (SHE) is a (34) year old (CIS FEMALE) born on (FEBRUARY 18th) and has been in the city for (1 MONTH) and is a (CELLIST/PROFESSOR OF MUSIC). If there is a quote to describe them it would be “SOFT SOUL: YOU ARE SO SENSITIVE, AND YOU THINK THAT’S WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU… BUT IT’S SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL ABOUT YOU, IT’S WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD.” BUTTERFLIES RISING. [Kia, 30+, She/her, EST]

I. BASIC

Full name: Elizabeth Elise Love

Nicknames: E, Lucky

Age: 34

Face Claim: DeWanda Wise

Birthdate: February 18th

Hometown: Potomac, MD (Washington DC, suburb) 

Height: 5ft6

Sexual Orientation: Lesbionic

Marital Status: Single Pringle

Gender Identity: Cisgender female

Occupation: Cellist/Professor of Music

Neighborhood: University Heights

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Hazel

Pets: Selena (black cat w/green eyes)

Moral Alignment: Chaotic good

Personality Type: Mediator (INFP)

Avatar Element: Water

GOT House: House Stark

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Zodiac: Aquarius

Positive Traits: Passionate, creative, compassionate, witty, curious, empathetic

Negative Traits: Jaded, opinionated, awkward, stubborn

Pet Peeves: People who are only concerned with their well being at the expense of others. Talking with your mouth full.

Bad Habits: Tunnel visioned. Emotional eating/drinking

III. Other

Religion: Agnostic.

Political Party: Liberal

Piercings: 5

Tattoos: 7

Typical Attire: Comfortable, colorful and cute.

Scent: Cocoa butter & lavender, or cedarwood & pituli

Hobbies: Painting, guitar, reading, volunteering, travel, eating

Phobias: fire (traumatic childhood event)

Psychiatric Disorders: Anxiety

Physical/Genetic Disorders: None.

IV. Biography

When politics is the family business, there are always heavy expectations on every member of said family. And that old adage is true, image is everything. Even before the invasive nature of social media, proper conduct in every public setting wasn’t a suggestion but a written in stone rule. Katherine Thompson and Michael Love both grew up in families that had some hand in the political world. From advisors, to lobbyists, to congressmen. These two families traveled in important circles, so it was no surprise to anyone when Kate and Mike found one another. The match was pleasing to their families, to say the least, they looked good on paper, a couple of lawyers headed for the senate. It was a perfect match, it was just lucky for the pair they’d actually fallen in love with one another.

The outside view of the pair’s life was picturesque. They married, practiced law at separate but equally prominent firms, before both throwing their hats in the political ring. Michael hated every minute of all of it, but there were those pesky expectations to live up to. Katherine, on the other hand, thrived. She was meant for that world, not simply breed for it. Katherine was a rising political star.

Elizabeth Elise Love came at the complete wrong time but she was adored, especially by her father, he doted completely. Three years later one little Evelyn Anissa Love completed the brood. Michael took to fatherhood immediately, and it wasn’t long before he decided to take a job at a small nonprofit and help support his wife’s political career by being the primary caregiver to their children. He had finally found his calling, husband and father. Music lessons, dance recitals, elementary school bake sales, he was there for it all, and never made his wife feel an ounce of guilt for missing most of it. He was his girls’ whole world, until that fateful day when being at the wrong place at the wrong time turned that world upside down and ended a life.

A young Elizabeth, better known as Lucky at that point in her life wanted nothing more than to make her mother proud. The loss of her father left such a hole, and  though she was aware she would never be able to fill that space for her mother and sister she could portray the image everyone wanted to see, perfect dutiful daughter. When her mother went back to her office Lucky kept up appearances at school and helped take care of her little sister. At first she was all too happy to do it but over time it became suffocating. The one thing that gave Lucky solace when things got too difficult or her anxiety was too high was music. The girl was a natural with every instrument she tried, a favorite of every private music tutor her mother sent in, but there was something magical about the strings, especially the Cello. It was large and she felt powerful wielding it. Being the perfectionist that she was, Lucky practiced whenever she had a free moment, and that along with her natural musicality made for something like a prodigal experience.

While the widowed mother of two’s political star continued to rise, her actual presence in her home became more sparse. She always made time for them when it was time for a photo-op, Lucky noted, but her mother couldn’t be bothered when it really mattered. Evelyn needed someone to be there and Elijah was it. She checked homework and made snacks for sleepovers, and braided hair for special occasions. At the tender age of 14 Lucky’s Cello instructor presented an opportunity for her to attend Interlochen Center for the Arts. Lucky decided to turn it down, without so much as a mention to her mother, because if she were gone who would take care of her sister? Though it was a choice she began to have feelings of resentment, and though she never took that out on Evelyn, Lucky found small ways of rebelling. She got her nose pierced, died her hair blue, she was certainly not what her mom considered photo-op ready any longer. It also made for a few issues in her school orchestra performances, but when you were as great as Lucky, you couldn’t be denied.  

High school was a continuous battle for Lucky and her mother but eventually, while the teen experimented with looks and hung out with “questionable” associates her mother didn’t approve of, they found ways of compromising. As long as her mother didn’t restrict her music, she would make it work, for her sister’s sake. In the end she was still that responsible perfectionist who deep down just wanted to make everyone proud, as much as she fought against that fact.  

After months of rehearsal and a fairly intense application process, Lucky was accepted to Juliard School of Music, continuing her love affair with the cello, and still remaining close enough to home, to get to her sister whenever she was needed. The new found freedom away from the public eye was an awakening for her. New experiences unhindered by persona. She could go to comic con with other people who thought Vixen was a very underrated superhero, but most importantly who knew who Vixen was. She could just breath, and she could be asked out by the girl who she’d been stumbling around for weeks and say yes without the scrutiny and worry of what having a gay daughter meant for her mother’s political career prospects. What a revelation.

Eventually Lucky received her Doctorate in musical composition and began playing in the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra, following in her father’s non profit footsteps, as well as giving private lessons. She’d always dreamed of playing with the New York Philharmonic but always had an excuse as to why she had to put it off, but just before her 29th birthday she got up the nerve to audition and to the surprise of no one who had actually heard her play, Lucky became second chair Cellist for the Philharmonic.

After a year she was made first chair, Lucky was living her dream until it became something else. The environment felt stale and suffocating. She also missed having time to give lessons. A bit more time passed and the city itself stopped feeling like home. Lucky couldn't quite put her finger on it but something was missing.

A former professor and mentor of her's told her about an open position at Providence Peak University in Colorado, a state that meant a great deal to someone who once meant a great deal to her... She jumped at the opportunity, before fully thinking it through. A move like that, responsibility like that... Here's to a new adventure.

V. HEADCANONS

A real nerd about Comic books and science fiction.

Ex-girlfriend, broke her heart real good and she definitely isn’t over it.

Mother is very ill and dealing with that knowing how she treated her has Lucky, in a spin  

VI. CONNECTIONS

Younger sister: They share a very close relationship

New Friends:

University colleagues:

FWB:

[wyn-n-tonic]

I got a lot of really lovely asks about Frizzy last night and I've been having quite a few really lovely conversations about them and how the book is going for a while so I wanted to talk about them for a minute to, just like.... give you guys the proper update you deserve.

Long post so... behind the cut.

First and foremost, I'm really grateful to everybody for the patience you've given me as I work through this. Not only has it been difficult and blocking to walk away from what their story was in order to turn their story into what it is becoming but I've had a lot going on. My depression sends me into really horrible bouts of writer's block and between a really stressful job and moving and other stuff, the thought of writing at all has been terrifying because I don't want to mess things up. But especially these idiots because I love them so genuinely. So... let's get into it.

Lizzy is staying Lizzy, 26 - 27 over the timeline. She's 5'6/5'7 and still feels awkward in her body. She had these big plans for herself that got derailed and she ended up in a not great situation and ended up calling her brothers to come get her. She's been back in Raleigh, NC, for two years at this point to get her life back on track and, despite formerly being really great friends with Frankie, that's no longer the case. She doesn't know him. She doesn't speak to him. The only time she sees him is when he's around her twin brother since her older brother lives in Washington DC.

Danny (26 - 27), Lizzy's twin, is a firefighter by day and a cagefighter by night (literally what his Tinder profile says). Ladies man but not really. Kind of comes off as a douche but in that goofy, endearing way not in the predatory, frat boy way. He likes baseball and bad beer. Extremely unmedicated ADHD.

Robert (Rob/Bo) (32) is Lizzy's older brother. He works for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Loves dinosaurs, books, grilling, a nice cocktail and his husband.

Leo (33), Rob's husband, is an anesthesiologist who does Doctors Without Borders now that he meets the requirements. His hope is to take two to three months (minimum requirement of availability for anesthesiologists for DWB is 8 - 12 weeks) every year or two to put forth his services.

Gabriel Francisco (30 - 31) is Rob's best friend, how he met Lizzy and Danny and Leo. He always wanted to be a pilot like his dad and grandfather who were in the Air Force but they both made it clear to him that they would not accept him joining the military because, "What would our sacrifices have been for if you just repeat the cycle?" Went to school for aerospace engineering, works in aircraft design. His grandfather, Emilio, died and he's been struggling a lot with that as well as having just broken things off with his girlfriend a few months previously to the start of the book. Feels an intense amount of responsibility for everybody around him but doesn't ever really let anybody else in.

New characters:

Matt (Lizzy's ex boyfriend. Danny stole every remote to every device in the house when he moved Lizzy out).

Jen (Frankie's ex girlfriend. She hated his connection with the Millers and called them bad influences on him. Called him Gabriel or Gabe even though he hated both of them because, 'Frankie is so juvenile and you're a grown man.').

Frankie drives a 2008 Ford F-250 (dark blue) and, yes, there is a certain scene in the back of the truck that is staying.

Story starts with a certain kiss in the kitchen.

Frankie's house is pretty bare, no decorations or paint. He only has it because he wanted to show his grandfather, who was dying, and his father that he had 'made it' and could take care of himself at a very young age without struggling the way they did so that when he does have a family, he doesn't have to struggle more.

Currently being written in first person with half of the chapters following Liz's thoughts and half of them following Frankie's because the story is both of theirs.

I'm making really good progress on it now and I'm doing my best to get this to you guys in 2023.

[eclipsedpascal]

Making Daddy Proud

Stepdad!Duncan x Female Reader

After moving in with your estranged mother and her new husband, Duncan Shepherd, you started to grow very close to your new stepdad. The two of you had a great relationship and he was doing his best to be a good father figure for you, knowing you missed your dad so much. But there was a problem, you found yourself insanely attracted to him and were starting to notice little things indicating he might feel the same way.

Warnings: very inappropriate relationships, Stepfather/stepdaughter relationship, Cheating is ofc implied, 20+ year age gap, daddy kink, unprotected sex (but I kinda imagined the reader to be on birth control so is okie😌) fingering (female receiving), choking, vaginal sex, oral (male receiving) and face fucking😃

Notes: Okie sooo I know some people will hate this fic and ofc I understand that, but if you do hate it then please don't send me any hate!! just don't read it🖤 anywayss I got dis ask saying "Concept: Stepdad Duncan x naive reader😉" nd omg i LOVE the whole concept of Stepdad!Duncan sm, like if you've been in the fandom for a while you'll probably know the fic "The Hand That Robs the Cradle" by Langdonsrapture nd that fic was my holy grail when it came out!! so you know I just had to go all out here nd get carried away writing it hehe:')

word count: 5.4k

●●●●●●●●

The opportunity to study political science at American University in Washington DC had been one you simply couldn’t pass up on, but unfortunately it meant moving away from your father to stay closer to campus grounds. You knew it was worth it in the long run, I mean you had been waiting on this chance for years and wanted to make your father proud, but you would miss him.

He was never home too much, always busy working, but he meant the world to you. It had been just the two of you for a long time now. Your mother had moved away once their divorce finalised 7 years ago, impulsively leaving you in his custody as she ran off and gallivanted around the world, meeting all sorts of interesting men she would tell you about.

Luckily for you, she had settled down with one of those interesting men in DC recently, and upon discovering your acceptance into the prestigious university she had offered you a place to stay whilst you studied.

It was a frightening move to make, but staying with your mother in DC had actually been pretty interesting. You hadn’t spent time with her in so long and it had been nice to catch up with her, I mean sure she had been a little distant, but that was expected with having not spent any real time with her in so long.

You were just grateful she had let you stay with her in the first place, thinking she would have probably preferred to be left alone with her new husband, Duncan Shepherd.

They had been married about four months when you moved in and from what you could see, things were going well; especially considering she had sprung the engagement on everyone pretty fast. You were just happy knowing she was happy.

Though you had only met the man in question once before moving in, he really seemed like a perfect partner. He didn’t have a single obvious flaw to him, but see that was the problem. He was completely flawless to you.

You had tried to find things you didn’t like about him, even just tiny things, thinking hating him would be far better than thinking of him the way had been, but no matter what you did, you just couldn’t seem to fault him. And the longer you stayed with them, the worse your little problem became.

You weren’t 100% sure of how old he was. You only knew he was in his early to mid forties. But being at least 20 years your senior, you knew he was definitely old enough to be fulfilling the role he was as your stepfather. It felt strange to have a new stepdad at the age of 20, (almost 21) but it was even stranger with you being so blindly attracted to him.

And it wasn’t even just his looks. Though, yes, they were quite the spectacle, it was more than that. He was confident and cocky, always knowing exactly what to do and say to make the people around him do whatever he wanted them to. He could make you laugh until your stomach was in cramps, and not just through telling dad jokes. Charisma rolled off of him in waves.

He was intuitive and crafty; smart to put in plainly. And his interests appeared to be more intellectually based than anything else, which was quite the opposite of your mother, so it baffled you as to how your mother had managed to snatch him up so easily in the first place.

Now it’s not that you were jealous, really. It was more that you didn’t understand how these two polar opposite personality’s had ended up colliding together in the manner that they had.

Whenever the three of you would sit and have an evening meal together, Duncan always made you feel welcomed in the conversation, which was a great comfort to both you and your mother, being the relationship you had was so strained. Because of this and the fact you both had quite a lot in common when it came to your interests, Duncan and you had become almost good friends in the small time that you had been living there.

It was obvious he was doing his best to be some kind of fatherly figure to you. knowing that you were missing your actual dad, he did his best to help you with the things he knew your dad usually would. Whether it was school work or just having someone to joke with from time to time. He was there.

Sometimes when he was there, though, you felt like maybe, just maybe, he felt something more too. Such as the moments where his stares would linger on your form for just a little too long, or the way he would sometimes fix your hair for you if it had strayed across your face the wrong way. Just small things he did that fatherly figures didn’t typically tend to do with their daughters; especially when his wife, your mother, was right there. Sure, she seemed oblivious to it, but you certainly weren’t.

●●●●●●●●

Taking your now lukewarm cup of coffee from the breakfast bar counter, you brought it to your lips and gulped the bitter liquid down, fighting viciously to stay alert. It was nearing 3am and you had been writing for hours. Concentrating was no longer your most favourable asset and your half lidded eyes were growing wearer by the minute, but you just had to finish this paper.

It was 17 percent of your grade and due in two weeks. A persuasive essay on propaganda within the current American political climate and you had been slowly working at it for weeks, but you knew if you left it hanging over your head any longer it would drive you insane.

Sitting back in the stool you resided on, you took quick solace in the many noises coming from the ajar kitchen window, listening to a low rumble of thunder, accompanied by the constant pitter patter of rain falling from the gloomy DC sky above. It had been hot and humid all week, eventually cultivating into large clouds that had now given in, spilling out showers for almost the entire day past.

You recalled all the time you’d spent by the pool with your mother and Duncan in the past week, enjoying the current heatwave by sunbathing next to it on one of the many loungers. The house was kind of set up like a hotel that way. With Duncan always needing to be prepared for any events he may have to hold for his company’s business associates or press, he had furnished the home with what was to the three of you, unnecessary seating and tableware; amongst other things.

You stirred, returning your eyes back to the last few lines you had written and attempted to go over them in your head, but quickly realised you couldn't even manage that without stumbling over them or jumbling the words up beyond comprehension.

Abruptly interrupting your confused stream of thought, was the kitchen door groaning open. So with a frown plastered to your face, you shot your head up to recognise the intruder. But your frown was quickly blown away at discovering that it was Duncan who had entered the balmy room, and he was in more glory than you had ever seen him.

You had seen his silhouette whilst he showered before. Having gone into his and your mother’s shared bedroom whilst searching for earrings, you had seen him through the whited out, frosted glass of the on-suit bathroom door. But this was something entirely different. This was him, stood in kitchen doorway with nothing on but his grey Calvin Klein boxers.

“Y/N? I didn’t know you were still up.” He quirked a brow at you, wondering why you were still sat in the kitchen so late at night. You swallowed deeply at the sight of him. Your eyes magnetised to his body, dilating with such a sultry image before them. Pulling your eyes back up to his face, you hoped he hadn’t seen their little detour down to his crotch.

“Uhm.. i’m, uh.. w-working on an essay.” Fuck! He’ll definitely know how nervous you are now. You looked away from him, too embarrassed to face him and cringing at your own attempt to speak. “It’s due in next week and I wanted to get it finished.” Okay that’s better, you thought. Maybe he’ll just think you’re just too tired to have a proper conversation or something.

“Oh, right,” he trailed off, looking you up and down a bit as he walked further into the room. You watched the back of his head as he opened the fringe, holding it open and scanning the contents of it. Deciding on a small bottle of water, he retrieved it from the middle shelf before closing the door and walking over to lean on the opposite side of the counter from you.

He didn’t seem too bothered by the fact he was practically undressed in front of you. Of course, you weren't complaining, but it was interesting. You tried to think of something else you could add to your open word document, wanting to distract yourself from his displayed body. But thinking as hard as you possibly could, your mind still brought you nothing.

You awkwardly pulled at the sleeve of your oversized ‘American University” sweater and hoisted it back up onto your shoulder. It had ridden down your arm whilst you were aggressively fiddling with your fingers - a nervous habit you had developed in your early teens. People would often point it out to you, but it was just one of those things you couldn’t stop doing.

There was a deafening silence stuffed between the two of you. So looking around the room, you tried to focus on anything in your line of vision that wasn’t him. It was just too hard seeing him like; his plump lips wrapped around the bottle’s mouth as he drank, his sleepy un-styled curls falling just above his perfectly manicured brows and wearing nothing but those fucking grey boxers. He was making it unbearably hard not to stare.

Deciding to speak, you cleared your throat. “So did you just wake up? Or could you not sleep?”

“Just couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about the most random shit.. and you know how your mom is, she snores a lot.” He chuckled. His eyes never leaving you, beginning to feel as if they were boring holes into your soul as you kept full eye contact with him.

“Yeah, that must get pretty annoying.” You nodded slowly, thinking about how many nights you had spent wide awake when you were younger, all due to her roaring, loud snores passing through the paper thin walls of your childhood home.

“It does.” A smile played on his lips, taking another swig of water before speaking again. “so what’s the essay about?”

“It’s that one I was telling you about a few weeks ago, if you remember. it’s a persuasive on propaganda within the current American political climate.” You reminded him of the conversation you had about it when he dropped you off to class one morning not too long ago. The two of you often carpooled together, with the University campus being so close to his office, it made for an easy drive on the days he was needed in.

You guys would listen to playlists together on the drive and make fun of each others music taste, that was when you weren’t too busy being amazed by how similar they could be.

“Are you struggling with it? I mean, it is getting pretty late now.” He turned to check the clock which hung on the wall behind him, then looked back at you questioningly.

Duncan was good at helping you with this kind of thing. He was extremely well versed in politics, with his family’s background and all. Your mom had told you he used to be very involved with the white house, saying when he was younger he even went to prison for a short time before president underwood had pardoned him.

“I just can’t concentrate, but I really need to get it done or it’ll stress me out.” You lifted your bare feet up onto the stool seat, your knees coming up to your chest so you could rest your chin on them. You were only wearing panties with the sweater, it being too hot to wear anything more.

“Can I come over and check it?” He closed his bottle of water, tightening the lid with his muscular arms as he spoke. You had almost forgot he wasn’t wearing much before he said this, but watching him screw the bottle cap on as he asked to could come round to your side of the counter? It had you weak for him all over again.

“Uh.. yeah, course.” He padded his bare feet over the white, tiled flooring towards you, placing the bottle down on the counter and moving behind you to read the most recent paragraphs you had written. His hand was stretched over to the other side of you, resting on the edge of the breakfast bar as the skin of his arm grazed across your back.

Even with you being sat on such a tall stool, he still managed to tower over you. His hight was usually intimidating as it was, but with the added factor of him being almost completely undressed it was even worse. A small waft of air blew his expensive cologne towards you, creeping past your nostrils and possessing your senses completely before you started to feel his breathe on your upper neck. It wasn’t heavy, but it was enough to make your cunt start pulsating.

You were disgusted by yourself. He’s your mother’s husband! And your Stepdad! What the fuck was wrong with you? You could only imagine what people’s reactions would be if they knew of the truly sinful thoughts you had about him, and you hated yourself for it.

He was your type, yes. A rich, older man who wasn’t actually an asshole, and they were hard to come by, but that wasn’t relevant. You needed to control yourself. No matter how hard that may be.

“What you have so far is really good. Your argument is strong and as always with your work, it’s written well. You’re smart, Y/N. It’s impressive.” He humoured himself with a scoff, his voice interrupting your lewd thoughts.

You blushed at his compliment, hiding your face behind your knees slightly and looking up at him. “Thanks, Duncan.” You knew he was just trying to be a good dad figure to you, but you couldn’t help being attracted to the way he was so caring for you. Maybe it’s fucked up, but it’s not your fault all you need is an older man’s approval to become turned on.

“I mean it.” He looks so sincere as he talks to you. His face would be intimately close to yours if you hadn’t hidden it from him earlier. You notice his eyes flicker down to your lips for a split second, and then back up to your eyes again. His stare no longer felt friendly, but more.. lustful. Were you crazy or was he really doing this?

Suddenly he looks away from you, moving his eyes back to the laptop’s screen. “Maybe you should just get some sleep. I know you said it’ll stress you out, but if you get some rest you’ll be able to get back into it tomorrow with better concentration.” He does his best to steer the conversation back to where is once was, reminding himself that you’re his fucking step daughter and that he has a beautiful wife sleeping just upstairs.

“I know that, its just..” You sighed, blinking up at him. You brought your legs back down you hang over the edge of the seat, but you couldn’t stop thinking about how close he was to you, wanting to do nothing more than to drape your arms behind his neck an-.

“Nope I won’t listen to it. From what I can see it’s an incredibly strong piece of work already, so just go get some sleep and come back to it in the morning, okay sweetheart?” He laughed a little, looking down at you again.

That nickname. Sweetheart. He called you it all the time and yet it always managed to take your breath away. But the thing is, he usually wasn’t this close to you when he did. So when you squeezed your legs together and bite down on your bottom lip, doing your best to ease the overwhelming desire you felt for him in that moment, there was no way he hadn’t seen it.

You were frozen staring at him, his face static and unreadable. You hoped he didn't choose to shout at you for how repulsive your behaviour was, or maybe he would kick you out? Your mind began spiralling, wrapping itself in intricate knots as you held your breath, awaiting a reply from him.

“Do you like that? When I call you sweetheart.” His voice was deep, sultry and dripping with desire. Shock coursed through you. That was definitely not what you had expected him to say. He seemed even larger now, his confidence making you feel small in comparison as your mind scrabbled to find the words you were supposed to use in your current predicament, but it never found any.

"You like it when daddy gives you nicknames?” He moved his hand up and delicately grasped the skin where your neck met your jaw, his eyes half lidded with lust. Your heart was beating so fast now and your breathing had grown shallow. You were so lost for words, only able to whimper out a weak “yes” before looking down to his boxers, trying to avoid his eyes but still wanting him just as much as he now appeared to want you.

He lifted your chin and kissed you roughly, drinking in your lips as if you were the water he had ventured down stairs for all along; and you began to wonder if you perhaps were. Maybe you were what he had been craving, just as you had been craving him.

He pulled the stool closer to him with his spare hand, leading you to wrap your legs around his torso as you tangled your tiny fingers through his sleep rustled hair. It was passionate. His kiss was sloppy, yet perfectly executed as his tongue slipped past your lips to glide over your own. His greying stubble dug into your skin, burning it with pure contact.

You parted to breath; and for just a moment, though it felt like hours, you stared into each others eyes with a ferociously neither of you could nor wanted to tame.

He tuts. “You really shouldn’t drink so much coffee little one, it’s not good for you. And it’s all I can taste.” He couldn’t help but reprimand you for the little habit, he had just gotten so used to doing it over the past three months, and using it to tease you sounded even more appealing.

You opened your mouth to speak, but were cut off when he lunged at you again, kissing you viciously. He began to move his hands all across your body, his fingertips grazing over every inch of you they possibly could as he started to undress you, pulling your oversized sweater above your head and taking handfuls of your breasts. He was kneading them, leaning down to kiss and suck on them whilst he watched you throw your head back, completely enthralled by him.

You were taken aback by how quick things had escalated, your sense of control had deteriorated far too rapidly and was ebbing away even further with each little kiss he left on your skin.

His large hand slid down to your panties, playing with the lacy bow that was centred on the waist band. He hovered his hand over your heat, cupping it and feeling just how sticky you had become for him. You let out a moan, all sense of wrong and right leaving you completely as you uttered a soft “Daddy” and ground your cunt into the palm of his hand.

“That’s right. So desperate for daddy.” He mused, ripping your thin underwear off and dropping it down onto the floor beneath you. Bringing his face to yours again, your noses bumped and leant on each other for some kind of purchase, the both of you watching his hand as he rubbed his fingers through your folds, gathering a fair amount of slick on them before pressing two inside you.

“Ahh!!” You let out a moan, it was louder than you expected and reminded you of what was really going on here. Having been too caught up in the moment, you hadn’t even thought about how being complete fucking naked with your step father between your legs would look if your mother had decided to come downstairs.

“Ah, ah, shh baby. We don’t wanna get now caught do we?” His breathe was hot on your lips, whispering as to not alert anyone. “So tight.”

You whispered back. “I’m sorry daddy, it was an accident- mmph!” You muffled your moan.

“That’s it. Who’s my good girl?” He lay a gentle peck on you lips, only stopping as to allow you to answer his question.

“I am daddy!! I’m your good girl!” You spoke with urgency, but did your best to keep the volume low, which was quite the struggle in between moans. Duncan could see this, so he pressed your lips together. Kissing you into a muffled silence.

You felt his spare hand on your neck, squeezing it just enough for you to still breathe okay when he pulled away from your mouth, moving his lips to the shell of your ear and biting the lobe. He murmured in your ear. “Do you know how hard it was, this week? Having to sit there next to your mom at the poolside and see you just lying there like that?! That fucking bikini. It took everything in me not to cum right there.”

His fingers were moving slowly, going in deep and curling up against your g spot, making you cry out and lean on his shoulder, biting it to keep yourself quiet. he started to rub your clit in hard circles. He was so experienced. It was mind-blowing.

“Would it have served you more pleasure to know, I only wore it for you?” It was true, you had only worn it for him and it had obviously worked. You certainly had his attention now. He growled at this, pulling his fingers out and slapping your cunt.

He yanked your neck closer to him, speaking down to you. “Just for that? Get on your fucking knees.” As soon as he let go of your throat you were climbing off the stool and onto the floor. The heat of the room, and of your acts too, made the marble tiling feel like ice pressed onto your flushed skin. But you didn't care.

You watched him pull his boxers down, cock springing free, adjacent to his stomach. Never having been with anyone of this size before, you had never seen a cock this big. You reached out and touched it, feeling just how hard he was. He hissed at the contact, looking down at you as you watched his facial expressions with wide eyes.

You played with it in your hand, stroking it with one and palming his balls with the other. He stroked his fingers through your hair, giving you a reassuring look as you licked the tip. The salty taste hit your tongue, making you crave his cock even more. So without another second going to waste, you took him into your mouth as far as you could.

“Ahh fuck!” You began bobbing your head, your eyes fixed on him as a groan left his lips. He was watching you intently, threading his fingers through your hair and onto your scalp to get a good grip on your head. You let your jaw go loose, knowing what he was about to do and preparing yourself for it.

He started thrusting his hips into your face, his cock hitting the back of your throat with almost every shove. You had honestly impressed yourself, I mean you knew you gave good head, but taking a cock this big as it fucked into your throat was something to be proud of.

“Mmm that’s it sweetheart.” Your stomach fluttered at his approval. The gagging noises you were making giving him even more pleasure. “You just wanna make daddy proud, don’t you princess?” You mumbled a wet “yes daddy” around his cock, sending sweet vibrations through it as he pushed himself as far as he could into your throat.

You couldn't even fathom how this was happening. You had pictured this moment late at night with a vibe pressed to your clit far too many times to count, so it finally happening was something hard to comprehend. Somehow he looked even more handsome from down on your knees than you had ever imagined he would. His stubble contouring his face perfectly with the ‘o’ his lips were forming.

Suddenly pulling you off of him, you gasped out for oxygen and tried to wipe away some of the saliva dribbling down your chin. It was like a snapshot from one of Duncan’s wet dreams. You looked so incredibly fucked out. He thought it was beautiful.

“Come on little one, stand up. Daddy wants to fuck that tight little pussy of yours.” You moaned as he talked down to you, stroking his calloused thumb over your bottom lip and pulling it down just to watch it bounce back up again.

You stood up, finally wrapping your arms around his shoulders like you had wanted to all this time. He pulled you in for a kiss, one much slower than the rest, communicating something more to you than just pure sexual carnality. His embrace was comforting, making you feel protected and small in his arms.

His hands grabbed at your ass as he picked you up, sitting you back down onto the bar stool and adjusting the hight while his lips stayed connected to yours. Once the seat was low enough for his liking, he picked up your thighs, shelving them onto his hips and laying you back just enough so that you could lean on the backrest.

The room was sweltering, your body hot against his and anticipating having him buried inside you was getting too much to handle. He dragged his cock through your lips, teasing your clit and moving back down to almost enter you, but he never would. Just wanting to get you all worked up and loving the way you would squirm when he did.

“Daddy.. please.” You steadied yourself by holding on to the sides of the seat, hoping he would end his tournament and fuck you already.

He slid the head barely into you. “Hmm… Since you were so polite, suppose daddy should reward you.” He spoke calmly before snarling and stuffing himself into you, pushing as deeply as he physically could. He felt your walls clamp around him as he set his pace. It was a lot. Having never taken a cock this big and the fact he didn’t even let you adjust, you couldn’t help but wail out.

He shot his hand up to cover your mouth, needing to keep you quiet and seeing you clearly couldn’t do it yourself. “Wouldn’t want to wake up mommy now, would you baby?” you attempted to utter a “No daddy”, but his hand kept your lips glued shut.

He fucked you. Like really really fucked you. He was making the stool shuffle underneath you, the powerfulness of his thrusts causing you to slide down in the seat. The only reason you didn’t slip off completely being the barbarian hold he had on your hips.

It actually surprised you how rough he was. A pleasant surprise, of course, but he had been so delicately caring towards you since becoming your step father and now here you were, receiving the best of both worlds.

The closer you grew to your high, the more incoherent your thoughts became. His eyebrows were scrunched together, lips trembling as he picked you up off the seat and held you closer to him. Supporting your ass, his hips ricocheted up and off yours as he tried desperately not to yell out.

His thumb was brought back down to your clit as he pressed you up against him, swiping at it hellishly, trying to hurry up your release upon feeling your legs begin to quiver; and knowing his own was approaching rapidly.

“That’s it sweetheart, come around daddy’s cock… Gonna cum so fucking deep inside your cunt. Would you like that?” You could see a thin line of perspiration cascading down his cheekbone, he was almost breathless and his thrusts were messier now.

“Yes da-AHH!“ you whipped a hand up to your face, holding your mouth shut as you came. You dug the hand you had placed on his shoulder deep into his skin and was quickly reminded of his marriage to your mother. You hoped you hadn't left any nail indents she might see.

You felt his hot seed spurt onto your walls as he rested his head on yours, mouth open wide and letting out a silent groan. His release was long and powerful. The both of you were left panting, the only noise in the room being your own breaths and a small creak from the stool when he softly set you down onto it.

He pulled out, your mixed juices gushing out of you along with the sexual haze you had been overcome with. The severity of what you had just done began to settle in. His head still resting on yours as you started freaking out, contemplating what would happen if your mother was to ever find out what had just occurred.

You wrapped your arms around his back, needing his comfort and squeezing him in an urgent hug, which he returned. his fingers stroked the sweaty skin of your back, trying to ease the thoughts he too had running through his mind. He lifted your chin up, the look he had in his eyes telling you everything would be okay.

Kissing you cautiously, he savoured the feeling of your lips on his and prayed he would get a chance to feel them again. “Are you okay?” He whispered

You didn’t really know if you were. On one hand, that was something you had wanted for a long time and it had been far better than you ever imagined, but on the other you had just helped your stepfather cheat on your mother. “I don’t know. I think so.”

He stood up, grabbing your sweater and panties, handing them to you before putting his boxers back on. “Well, at least that paper won’t seem like such big problem now.” He chuckled, doing his best to find humour in a humourless situation.

You giggled a little, hurrying to throw on your sweater and being reminded of how he had ruined your panties. “True. Now this can hang over my head instead.” You wiped any left over salvia you had on your face onto your sleeve and thought about how you would probably need to shower after this. “At least the sex was worth it, right?”

He sent you a dark smirk, picking up his bottle of water and walking towards the kitchen door. “It was. hopefully it'll be just as good next time too.” You opened your mouth, faking shock at his confidence as you watched him open the door.

“Goodnight Y/N” He gave you one last look as he sauntered through the door, getting ready to close it behind him and leave you alone in the kitchen with no one but your thoughts. The thoughts of your acts. Remembering all the little moments you had just shared together.

In that last moment before he left, you struck eye contact with him, chewing your inner lip and speaking.

“Goodnight, daddy.”

●●●●●●●●

Thank you sm for reading!🥺🖤

Tags: @dark-mei-rose @sojournmichael @ntxoza @blakescoven @ghostangels @jimmason @fernfiction @brattylovee @7-wonders @angelicmichael @melodylangdon @instincts-baby i'm so so sorry if you don't like this kinda fic or it has triggered you in anyway, but just let me know if it has and I won't tag you in this kind of thing ever again! You can also let me know if you wanna be added to the tag list too:)

[lilhawkeye3]

This Ohio discourse has got me dying to create discourse about every other state now hehe so I officially present:

Hawk’s review of 36/50 US states!

In alphabetical order because that fuckin song “50 nifty United States” has been stuck in my head since fourth grade.

Arizona: Phoenix is hot. Can’t believe y’all choose to live in a place that gets haboobs. Saw Sen. John McCain in the airport. I feel that sums up the state well. 4/10

California: as a resident of the state of Oregon, I’m legally required to say fuck California😌 unless anyone else talking shit about Cali and then we got your back😤 SoCal vs San Fran vs Northern Cal are totally different worlds though. 7/10

Colorado: damn idk how y’all breathe there, them air is thin. But really pretty out there! 7/10

Connecticut: oh my god fuck New Haven. And Stamford, and Hartford, and— Yknow what? Let’s just toss the whole state into the Sound. For real, traffic is the WORST here and I’m so sorry that y’all gotta live like that. 3/10

Delaware: I cannot believe this is considered a state. There’s no difference between Delaware and Maryland/Pennsylvania. 1/10 should not be a state

Florida: “the only hills in Florida are the highway ramps and the Matterhorn!” —the shuttle driver at Disney World. He was right. Shit is flat as fuck here. And hot. And humid. The Gulf Coast is nice? But tbh it’s just all very touristy which is kind of a bummer. 5/10

Georgia: ...I can’t with the humidity or thinly veiled racism. But y’all got nice peaches! Also Black Panther filmed there so thank you for blessing us with that. 6/10 for fruits

Hawaii: okay pineapple farms are cool. Tbh I just feel really bad for how much mainlander/tourist bs all the islanders put up with. Ik price of living is v high and keeps going up. That said I did love Hawaii... although I was stung by a jellyfish. Hate those little bastards. 8/10 for wonderful people and nature

Idaho: as an Oregonian I’m required to also say fuck Idaho 😝 you da hoes. Okay for real tho southern Idaho has become v white white and kinda scary tbh. The northern part of the state is pretty chill tho. Also Oreida kettle chips are partly made in Idaho so I gotta give you half credit for that. 4/10

Illinois: at least you’re not Indiana. 4/10.

Indiana: I never want to step foot in Gary, Indiana again in my life. (Passed a Mack truck hauling a race car to Indy 500 though so that was cool.) 2/10

Iowa: I almost moved here. I’m so glad I didn’t. Why are the Quad Cities actually a group of five towns? I hate that. Also the roads were all cement, felt like driving on a sidewalk. Was also interesting because the second we got out of the city proper, it was just... corn fields everywhere. 2/10 y’all raising children of the corn.

Kentucky: I really don’t have anything to say about Kentucky. I thought the trees were pretty? 5/10 yeah idk

Maine: my relative has totaled two cars by hitting moose in Maine. Maine scares me. Or rather, the moose do. Also the lobster roll hype is real. And the coast truly is beautiful. 8/10 but an extra point for the moose bc I hate that relative so 9/10

Maryland: oh god Baltimore. Also I’m blaming you for the DC traffic because it’s on the land you gifted them. 3/10

Massachusetts: Patriots fans are the worst NFL fans (the racism is real, especially after fans burned the jerseys of Black players who knelt for the anthem). Liking Dunkin’ Donuts is not a personality trait. The North End in Boston is truly the best place to get pizza in the entire country. Western Mass is not the same state. And the Cape Cod bridges give me nightmares. 5/10 but cause I had to pay taxes two years and it really is Taxachusetts, knocking it down to 4/10

Michigan: it’s a lot bigger than I initially thought. 5/10

Minnesota: it’s Canada but in the US. Pretty driving through the southern part. Cops suck tho. 5/10

Montana: okay Montana is downright gorgeous. (Except Billings. Sorry, Billings.) I must include a photo. I wanna get a cabin here and just exist. 8/10

New Hampshire: can’t decide if it hates Massachusetts or wants to be Massachusetts. All it knows is that it’s better than Vermont. Which... y’know, valid. (If you wanna see NH culture watch North Woods Law tbh). 4/10

New Jersey: why are there so many goddamn highways in this state? Also there are more places to weekend trip than the Shore or the Poconos. Although you do have people pump gas for you just like Oregon, so... that’s valid. Things my friends have added: Newark airport is cursed (valid), the jughandles are nightmares (true), pork roll/Taylor Ham is good and so are bagels and New Jersey pizza (allergic so idk), and everyone is split on whether the shore is actually decent or not 😂 I give it a 3.5/10 out of spite

New York: NYC is fun, Upstate is MASSIVE but really beautiful. Long Island is... yeah I don’t have anything nice to say about Long Island. 8/10 For NYC, 6/10 for Upstate, -2/10 for Long Island, gives us an average of 6/10

North Carolina: very good peaches. Isn’t South Carolina. Keep it up👍🏽 6/10

Ohio: I already told y’all how I feel about this flat ass boring state. I feel no need to slander it any more lmao. 3/10

Oregon: she flies with her own wings, mi amor🥰 to list all the reasons I like Oregon (and the issues too bc it ain’t perfect), I would need a whole other post. I’ll just leave you with this picture I took of Mt. Hood, the queen of our Cascades. 11/10

Pennsylvania: so apparently PN is three states hiding in a trench coat like NY. There’s upstate, philly and Pittsburg. Personally I think they’re just trying too hard and wanna get the same recognition as NY. Meh. 5/10

Rhode Island: THIS FUCKIN SHAM OF A STATE Just merge it with Connecticut and be done with it!! It’s tiny. Providence sucks. There’s nothing unique about this state that you can’t find in Southern Mass (except MA has cheaper taxes so y’all come to work and shop in MA anyways smh). Also the fingers are really annoying to drive down to get to some beach areas haha. 2/10 you’re barely better than Delaware.

South Carolina: my Black father was invited to a party celebrating General Robert E Lee’s birthday. So... 0/10

South Dakota: very gorgeous, didn’t realize the Missouri River went this far west, but VERY LARGE. I mean it looks big on a map but then you get there and... yeah. No speed limit on highways is a great time though. And the Badlands have mountain goats! 6/10 bc while pretty, living there seems really hard. (Picture is me in the Badlands).

Texas: gave us Juneteenth and Beyoncé and JJ Watts. Thank you Texas. But is very big, got independence from Mexico to keep slavery (yikes), is like 97% private land (yikes) and is like the second or third largest state. Very big. That said, everyone I’ve ever met from Texas is lovely. 6/10.

Utah: Other than Idaho, this is the whitest state I’ve been to. Or it feels that way. Like a, the people crossed to the other side of the street and held their bags because I’m brown, state. And I don’t ski so I can’t even say that’s a good thing (I fell off the ski lift the one time I went, long story). Yeah 0/10.

Vermont: wants to be New Hampshire or Canada and can’t decide which. So it’s just kinda there. Pretty hills though. 3/10

Virginia: let’s be real we all forget that Virginia exists west of Richmond. Nova is a beauracratic and traffic nightmare and half our neighbors had to pass security clearance checks. Hampton Roads and beach area is a tourist and mosquito nightmare. But there were dolphins and I made snowmen on the beach. Good times. 6.7/10

Washington: again, legally required as an Oregon resident to say fuck Washington because it’s all your fault we now are getting a toll on the I-5 border. But you’re better than California. And the Sound is really cool for fishing, love Wicked Tuna. And the fish market. Best salmon I’ve had. Eastern Washington... y’all got Spokane but the rest is kinda sparse. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 8/10

Wisconsin: cheese is actually good. Again, pretty state, much larger than I initially thought. 7/10

Wyoming: this was the ONLY STATE I lost cell service in when diriving cross country. Kinda surprised it wasn’t Montana, but no, it was Wyoming. Views are gorgeous though so I was distracted either way. 4/10

Thank you for joining me on this cross-country edition of Tea Time with Hawk. Please respond with any reactions, corrections, addendums about any and all of the states mentioned. And thank you for taking part in this wholesome Clone Wars fandom discourse with me 🥰💕

DISCLAIMER: THESE RATINGS ARE ALL A JOKE PLEASE DO NOT ACTUALLY GET MAD ABOUT IT

[anjaniedringhaus]

Fatima Shbair wins the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award

© photo: Fatima Shbair / text: IWMF

Brazilian and Iranian-Canadian women photographers also recognized

[September 29, 2021 – WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, the International Women’s Media Foundation presented Palestinian freelance photojournalist Fatima Shbair with the seventh annual Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award. Since 2015, the international award has honored women photojournalists who take risks to capture humanity in dire circumstances, illuminating underreported and sometimes silenced stories. The prestigious award was created in honor of German Associated Press photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2014.

Shbair’s portfolio rose above more than 100 applications that represented women photojournalists from more than 40 countries. At 24 years old, Shbair is the youngest winner of the ‘Anja Award’ to-date and is a self-taught, freelance photojournalist. Her portfolio, “11 Days of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” includes unique moments of tension, violence, devastation, and hope all captured from Gaza City in May 2021.

“Life here is different, and I had to find a way to [show] what was happening,” says Shbair from Gaza. “Despite successive wars and tragedies, people here dig deep in search of hope, and their lives matter – it’s my responsibility to convey their voices to the world.” Shbair continued: “Anja’s work gives us the determination to continue on the path despite the difficulties. I can’t find the words to describe how honored I feel to receive this award.”

The IWMF also recognized two other women photojournalists with honorable mentions in the competition: Brazilian photojournalist Adriana Zehbrauskas, currently working in Phoenix, Arizona, and Iranian-Canadian photographer Kiana Hayeri, who is based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Zehbrauskas’ portfolio included energetic yet sensitive portrayals of migration and the toll of COVID-19 in Latin America, while Hayeri’s work spotlighted the rising conflict and looming crisis in Afghanistan from an alternative perspective.

“Within the past two years so many communities worldwide have been pushed to the brink in order to survive,” says the IWMF’s Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz. “Anja’s focus on resilience, hope and the intimate struggles people face in times of crisis is a legacy we turn to now more than ever. The IWMF is thrilled to recognize this year’s winner, Fatima Shbair, as well as Kiana Hayeri and Adriana Zehbrauskas in Anja’s name.”

This year’s jury included Corinne Dufka, Jacqueline Larma, Robert Nickelsberg, Tara Pixley, and Bernadette Tuazon. Together, the committee issued the following statement on this year’s Anja Award selection: “The portfolios from this year’s winner and honorees draw in the viewer and continue to grow with impact and intimacy. Each photojournalist demonstrated remarkable tenacity and developed clear and close bonds with her subject, accessing what few photographers can convey. We congratulate Fatima, Adriana and Kiana on their remarkable work; Anja would be proud to recognize each of you.”

Anja Niedringhaus was a recipient of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award in 2005. The winner’s $20,000 prize is made possible by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Honorees’ images and captions, biographies and headshots are available for media use with proper attribution; to inquire further, please contact Charlotte Fox (cfox@iwmf.org).

Courage in Photojournalism Award Winner

This year’s winner, Fatima Shbair, is a Palestinian freelance photojournalist from Gaza City.

After studying business administration for three years at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, Shbair switched to study journalism and began concentrating on photojournalism in 2019 through independent study and working in the field.

In 2020, Shbair began to receive assignments from several international agencies, including Getty Images and The New York Times, to cover her hometown as tensions continued between Israel and Palestine. Her assignments increased in 2021 but came with the challenge of working during a global pandemic, which also strained and ravaged her own community. Shbair is currently a contributor to Everyday Middle East and continues her work with Getty Images. Her work has been exhibited in Palestine, the UAE, London, and Paris.

As a women photojournalist, Shbair’s gender and line of work are challenged daily, due to the conservative nature of society in Gaza, and the prevenance of male photojournalists in the industry.

Juror Dufka noted, “Fatima’s stunning photo essay is one of the strongest entries the jury had the pleasure of reviewing these past several years. Her work with light, angles, and composition is remarkable as she weaves through a forest of destruction in her own backyard.”

Juror Larma continued, “She clearly spent a great deal of time with her subjects and pursued what’s beyond obvious for most photojournalists. Within these 11 days, Fatima took the time to pursue intimate storytelling, showing us both the physical and emotional toll on her subjects while operating in extreme danger.”

From Gaza, Shbair further remarked: “Courage is not just about taking risks; being human first is the true courage of a photojournalist. It is a great honor to receive this award, especially in Anja’s image, as we are all still learning from her creativity, journey, and pursuit of the truth.”

Twitter: @FatimaMshbair, Instagram: @fatimashbair

Courage in Photojournalism Honorees

Honoree Kiana Hayeri was born and partially raised in Iran and was first introduced to photography in high school after her family moved to Canada. Hayeri left Toronto during her final year of university and traveled to Afghanistan on assignment in 2013, where she’s remained.

In 2021, Hayeri received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for her photographic series, “Where Prison is Kind of a Freedom,” documenting the lives of Afghan women in Herat Prison. In 2020, she received the Tim Hetherington Visionary award and was named as the 6th recipient of the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting.

Hayeri was an IAAB fellow in 2011 and completed a CIS artist residency at MIT University in 2012. In 2014, she was named as one of the emerging photographers by PDN 30 Under 30. In 2016, she was selected for the IWMF’s cross-border reporting fellowship to work on her proposed story in Rwanda and DRC and was selected as the recipient of Chris Hondros Fund Award as an emerging photographer. In 2017, Hayeri received a grant from European Journalism Center to do a series of reporting on gender equality out of Afghanistan and received Stern Grant in 2018 to continue her work on the state of mental health among Afghan women.

Hayeri is a Senior TED fellow, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Le Monde, Harper’s Magazine, Washington Post, NPR, Monocle Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Marie Clare, Glamour, The Globe and Mail, Al Jazeera America, and CBC, among others.

When reviewing Hayeri’s portfolio, Tuazon noted that, “These images can only be captured by a woman with her specific access and lens. Every single day in this portfolio demonstrates unbelievable courage as the women and children she illuminates convey a harrowing narrative.”

Twitter: @kianahayeri, Instagram: @kianahayeri

Adriana Zehbrauskas is a Brazilian documentary photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her work is largely focused on issues related to migration, religion, human rights, underrepresented communities, and the violence resulting from the drug trade in Mexico, Central and South America.

Zehbrauskas contributes regularly to The New York Times, UNICEF and BuzzFeed News and her work has been widely published in outlets such as The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Stern, Le Monde and El País, among others.

She is the recipient of a 2021 Maria Moors Cabot Prize, a New York Press Club Award in Feature-Science Medicine and Technology in the Newspaper category for the article “Zika’s Legacy: Catastrophic Consequences of a Continuing Crisis (NY-2018) and a POY International (2019). She was a finalist for the Premio Gabo (2018) and received two Honorable Mentions at the Julia Margaret Cameron Award (2018).

Zehbrauskas is one of the three photographers profiled in the documentary “Beyond Assignment” (USA, 2011, produced by The Knight Center for International Media and the University of Miami. She’s a recipient of the first Getty Images Instagram Grant and was awarded Best Female Photojournalist -Troféu Mulher Imprensa (Brazil). Her mobile photography work was selected by Time Magazine for the “29 Instagrams That Defined the World in 2014″ and her project on Faith in Brazil and Mexico was awarded an Art & Worship World Prize by the Niavaran Artistic Creation Foundation.

She’s an instructor with the International Center of Photography (ICP- NY), the World Press Photo Foundation, Gabriel García Márquez’s Fundación Gabo, the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop and serves as a jury member to dozens of grants and awards worldwide.

Commenting on Zehbrauskas’ portfolio, juror Pixley said, “The strength of her images is indicative of a lengthy time occupying difficult spaces despite both health and safety concerns. Her consistency across countries, issues and movements reveals the same, unique human connection.”

Twitter: @AZehbrauskas, Instagram: @adrianazehbrauskas

[poisonivysparks]

Rescued {Eugene Porter X Reader} Part Two

Link to Part One

Link to Part Three

I still stumbled along when I walked from being knocked out. I was in no way steady on my feet. “So why’re you guys heading to DC?” I asked curiously, cocking my head to the side. Abraham seemed like the leader in this whole debacle. 

He was the one to answer “Well, Eugene here thinks he knows what started things. He’s been talkin’ to some people back in Washington on his satellite phone, and he needs to get there as soon as he can. He’s precious cargo.” Abraham said it proudly, clapping Eugene on the back. He seemed a bit embarrassed, and I couldn’t blame him. I would be too if I was in the same position. 

He put my bag in the truck, in the second row of seats as I drank a bit of the water. I went over to Eugene, smiling a tiny bit “So you, uh, you must be some hot stuff, huh?” I asked, albeit a bit awkwardly. I couldn’t help it. He seemed important, but that wasn’t it. He just seemed interesting in a way that nobody else was. Everybody usually just had the same stories, or at least a bit of the same.

He gave a tiny nod “I suppose you could say that, though not figuratively. I do not believe I am of the warmer variety, though increased body fat does increase your body heat.” He explained. It seemed like he was trying oh-so-hard to not trip over his words. It was, in a word, cute.

I nodded “I’m pretty sure you’re right with that.” I chuckled awkwardly, looking at their big truck. It was weird. What in the hell was I doing? I didn’t exactly know, but I figured that this could be a good thing. 

“I am certain that I am, Miss Y/n.” He said, and I wasn’t sure why he called me Miss, those things didn’t exactly happen at that point in time, especially during the apocalypse. 

I shook my head a little bit “You don’t have to call me Miss, just Y/n will do.” I corrected him, though I tried not to do it in a mean way. “You must be important if you have two bodyguards like Abraham and Rosita over there.”

He nodded, though it seemed a bit nervous. “Yeah, the information is classified. I cannot indulge it to just anybody, but I believe that I can save the world.” His voice had a proud tinge to it.

“We better get the hell outta here before another herd rolls in,” Abraham said, going into the driver’s seat of the truck. Rosita followed and went into the passenger seat. That left me and Eugene to sit in the backseat. I didn’t mind that much at all. 

“That’s a damn good idea if I’ve ever heard one,” I said and got in, though I was still quite weak at this point. Eugene came in after me, not sitting the closest to me, but that was fine. He seemed a bit awkward anyway. 

We all started driving, going to Washington. It was exciting, but during the ride, I quickly fell asleep. I was extremely tired, lack of sleep and food made me crave sleep even more. It was an easy, seamless transition from conscious to unconscious. No dreams occurred, just straight sleep.

I woke up to a bump in the road, completely unaware of my surroundings. I jumped suddenly, sitting up from the spot where I laid my head down hours before. Where that spot was, was on Eugene’s shoulder. I immediately felt bad. That must have been extremely awkward for the guy. I groaned a bit, brushing my hair back. “Sorry, Eugene,” I said quietly.

Abraham chuckled “Sleeping beauty awakes. I thought you found your Prince Charmin’, lyin’ there on his shoulder as if your life depended on it.” A blush immediately rose on my cheeks. I only glanced at Eugene, but his cheeks looked red as a firetruck. “Come on, it was just a joke,” he said, brushing it off. I was sure that this was gonna be fine, our situations seemed to all work together, at least from what I could see so far.

I looked at him, thinking of a comeback. I was not good at these things at all. “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re lucky I didn’t go all teacher on your ass and sent you to the principal’s office.” I crossed my arms, pulling my knees to my chest.

He looked at me in the rearview mirror. “Well, sucks for you because I am the principal,” he said proudly.

“Well, the job of principal doesn’t take that much to get. Teachers are different, they have to live with the little shits every waking day of the school year.” I said and sighed remembering my old job, my old life. “Before you ask, yes, that’s what I did before all this. I was an elementary school teacher.” I said, looking at them. Some of the memories pained me, of my old group, what happened. They were so young and just didn’t deserve that.

“Damn, we got a kid wrangler here now, huh?” Abraham asked as I just shook my head

Eugene was staring, I could feel it. I could feel his gaze resting on me, staring. I looked over to him, and I could see the curiosity in his eyes. I couldn’t blame him, not in the slightest. “You could say that.” I shrugged.

Eugene looked like he was about to say something, so I stayed silent. I didn’t want to interrupt him. “Where did you teach?” He asked. 

I thought for a second. Things from before the shit hit the fan tended to get blurry. We didn’t have time or the mental energy to think about that. “South Carolina, pretty much on the border of it too. I taught second grade, though it doesn’t matter too much anyway, at least now.” I smiled a little bit.  

“Skills that are associated with the qualities of teachers are most needed to survive,” Eugene said. “I am sure that with your looks, you could certainly persuade people.” He said, which seemed to be his weird way of complimenting. I took it as such.

He and I talked for hours, though not too much, we talked about lighter things, such as our interests before this. It turned out, we were into some of the same things. Both of us liked videogames and comics. I loved comics quite a bit before this. The X-Men were my favorite. We had some soft debate about which character was the best. My personal opinion was Nightcrawler, while his was Beast. Both were fine characters, though I could see how Eugene could like Beast. 

Once it started to get dark, Abraham couldn’t see that well on the roads. We pulled off to the side of it, where everything seemed to be clear, at least from rotters. We created a small fire and ate food from cans. It was delicious and made me feel so much better. I sat next to Eugene, and on the other side of me was rosita. Abraham and I were pretty much facing each other. 

“Thank you though, for everything, like you guys saved my ass, and then you gave me water, fed me. You guys did a lot, and now I’m like here with you guys. Thank you.” I told them

Rosita nodded “You’re welcome. We needed some more manpower.” She said, being quick with her words.

Abraham shook his head “Nah, we’re just keeping you around so that we can have somebody as nerdy as Eugene who can kill one of these stupid things.” He said. I kinda looked at Eugene. We had gotten along quite well in the car ride. It looked, at least to me, that he hadn’t had somebody to talk to, at least somebody like me who seemed to understand enough of what he liked to have a proper good conversation with him.

I smiled. “You guys still saved my life either way, and I am forever grateful for that. I was honestly, uh, ready to die at that point. I thought I would.” I admitted.

Eugene looked over at me. “We were unsure if you would survive after the dead were, well, deceased.” He stated, eating his canned goods. 

“Well, I’m glad I was, and I’m glad you three were here to help me. I never really wanted to die.” I chuckled a tiny bit, brushing my hair back out of my face. “Now I get to live with, yknow, people. Being alone isn’t exactly the best situation ever. You barely get any sleep, sure, food might not be a problem, but the madness slowly takes over.” I explained, “Okay, that got dark, excuse me.” I blushed a tiny bit, looking down at the fire. it was just at embers, trying to keep all of the rotters away, but it was enough to keep us somewhat warm. That was the last of us talking for the night. 

[flash-impact-for-good]

Work from home vs. commuting: a simple environmental case for the extreme 8-hour video conference day

Lockdown workers use digital infrastructure to maintain their activity instead of commuting. If these digital habits are here to stay, what are their impact on the environment and especially greenhouse gas emissions compared to commuting?

A step aside: keys on greenhouse gas and climate change

A greenhouse gas (GHG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases are water vapor (H20), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and ozone (O3). The concentration of greenhouse gas in the atmosphère is linked to the global average temperature. There is scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and human-made CO2 emissions are predominantly causing it.

The warming power of the different gas as well as their persistence in the atmosphere are very different. Scientists have defined an equivalent between the different greenhouse gas and CO2. This way, greenhouse gas emissions can be expressed in one common unit, i.e., metric tonnes CO2 equivalent (t CO2e). CO2 has been chosen as it represents three-quarters of total greenhouse gas emissions released in the atmosphere each year.

It is always useful to have a few orders of magnitude in mind to put things in context. Common sense and experience teach you how much €1, €10, or €100 are worth or how many calories are required per day without putting on weight. However, we have hardly any references in our lives for greenhouse gas emissions.

Here are a few orders of magnitude

50 billion t CO2e are released worldwide each year by human activities  [1]

France emits 460 million t CO2e per year [2]

The total emission caused by the consumption of an average individual living in France (also known as carbon footprint) is 11 t CO2e [3]

A Paris New-York return flight is 2,6 t CO2e per person [4]

The average family car driving 15 000 km per year releases 3,3 tCO2e [5]

The key to the solution to climate change rests first and foremost in decreasing the number of emissions released into the atmosphere.

Individual carbon footprint should reach no more than 3,9 t CO2e by 2030 and 1,5 t CO2e by 2050 to maintain temperature increase below 2°C [6]

Digital services and GHG emissions

In our professional and personal life, we rely on digital services and devices a lot. The Covid-19 crisis reinforced the role of digital. Without the Internet and all the digital services, we would not be able to work remotely, keep contact with loved ones, exercise, study, and entertain ourselves.

Sustainability awareness in electronics is new. Although digital technology is invisible and looks “clean”, it relies on equipment that needs to be built, data centers and telecom networks that need electric power, end users equipment that needs to be recharged, and finally equipment that needs to be taken care of at the end of their lives.

As a result, the digital sector accounts for 3-4% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions [7]. This is already twice as much as the 2% emissions of civil aviation. Furthermore, it grows at 9% per annum, compared to 1,5% in all other sectors. Video streaming accounts for most of the traffic on the internet and GHG emissions.

The digital sector can be a leveraging tool in the ecological and energy transition provided it takes into account the same constraints as all other sectors and reduces its impact on the environment: energy and mineral resources scarcity, climate change and natural ecosystems vulnerability.

Homeworking vs. commuting

When going to the office, you may drive a car, take public transport or even ride your bike… With the exception of riding a bike or walking to the office, like the majority of human activities involving combustion, car commuting releases CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere contributing to the acceleration of global warming.

How does car commuting compares to an 8 hour online video conference day of an “extreme work-from-home”? Computing the impact of digital services is a difficult task. A rough estimate is shown in the graph below using simple assumptions and data from the Shift Project data repository [8]. Everything else being equal, this calculation shows that if you drive to work you have a much lesser GHG impact if you stay home and video conference all day unless you drive less than 0,1km in France, 1,8 km in the USA or 2,5 km in China. Estimation is based on a medium resolution video stream of 480p: the higher the video resolution the higher the resulting GHG emissions.

Countries show different results because their energy mix differs. For instance, France relies on nuclear electricity, low carbon energy for 76% of its electricity. China’s electricity is from coal (70%), a high carbon emission energy. This results in more emissions per each unit of electricity in China than in France.

This is a first-order analysis. To deepen the analysis, second-order phenomenons could be taken into account:

The analysis assumes that the video conferencing session is between persons in the same territory and that the service uses telecom and data center infrastructure in the same territory. As the Internet relies on a distributed architecture, this is only partly true.

If working from home means more equipment (computers, phones, servers…) in households and enterprises or causes indirect negative effects such as people deciding to live further away from work and shops, results have to be revisited to take into account the so-called “rebound effect”.

Digital transformation has the ability to reduce the commuting impact on GHG emissions by enabling work from home. However, negative impacts can be significant if not accounted for in a proper ecological transformation strategy. If you are interested in furthering the topic of digital transformation and the environment, there are more and more research and studies available, some of which are listed in the references below [7,9].

Corinne Bach, MBA INSEAD 05D Entrepreneur in ecological transition

This article was initially published here : https://www.transitionroute.com/work-from-home-vs-commuting-a-simple-environmental-case-for-the-extreme-8-hour-video-conference-day/

References

[1] Climate Data Explorer. 2017. Country Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. http://cait.wri.org

[2] Tableau de bord CITEPA https://www.citepa.org/fr/politique-ges/

[3] L’empreinte carbone by Commissariat Général au Développement Durable Services de la donnée et des études statistiques, April 2018 https://www.statistiques.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2019-01/document-travail-n%2038-empreinte%20carbone-avril-2018.pdf

[4] Computation from ADEME Base Carbone https://www.basecarbone.fr/fr/basecarbone/donnees-consulter/liste-element/categorie/191

[5] Computation from data from ADEME Base carbone https://www.basecarbone.fr/fr/basecarbone/donnees-consulter/liste-element/categorie/151

[6] Computation from population growth projection of UN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population and 2°C pathway implying a 4% yearly decrease in global emissions

[7] The Shift Project, Lean ICT: towards digital sobriety, 2019 https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/lean-ict-our-new-report/

[8] Computation from The Shift Project Digital Environmental Repository data on video (10mn 1080p resolution video uses 100Wh of electricity), country electricity mix https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/lean-ict-our-new-report/, March 2019 and data traffic from 1080p and 480p resolution videos https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/How-Much-Data-Does-YouTube-Use

[9] The enablement effect: the impact of mobile communications technologies on carbon emission reductions, GSMA and Carbon Trust, 2019 https://www.gsma.com/betterfuture/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GSMA_Enablement_Effect.pdf

[whetstonefires]

I have wandered into your tumblr and I want to know absolutely everything about your ideas for Earth 3 Impetus and Motion. EVERYTHING. Possibly the least relevant part of that is the family line, as Earth 3 often has really skewed versions of the characters. Would the first Johnny Quick even have a speedster grandson when he was killed and his blood used to power his successors?

Oh, cool ask! Thank you!

😄 I’m very happy to talk about this but I’m afraid you may be disappointed, because I’m Doing It Wrong. I’ve been working off and on on a bespoke Earth-3 for the past…several years. Production has slowed but not stopped. It’s up to over 300,000 words on AO3 at this point.

The issue that set me off was that tendency to skew; I didn’t like it. I found that, most of the times DC had built into Earth-3 before rebooting again, there were two countervailing currents leading writing decisions. On the one hand to make things As Wrong As Possible compared to the main timeline, and on the other to just make them…arbitrarily different.

Lois Lane is Superwoman, evil counterpart of Wonder Woman, for some reason, woop-de-do; this fits under both categories.

This process worked neither according to the ‘timeline that diverged into a Bad Timeline at some point in the distant past but somehow contains versions of the same people in the same place’ premise of the original Star Trek ‘Mirror, Mirror’ episode, nor does it work according to any direct cosmic principle of inversion, although some of the early versions claimed to.

(See: Mirror Christopher Columbus discovered Europe and then later Evil George Washington conquered England for the American Empire, what even guys. 😩)

Also Earth-3 so transparently existed almost every time it was reinvented as a place to get villains from, and to look bad in comparison to the main timeline, without any attention to making it work internally, which I thought was a damn waste of a cool concept. ‘A damn waste of a cool concept’ drives a lot of fanwork lol.

So for my world, I had the slightly conflicting goals of working as close to that amorphous thing ‘canon’ as possible, and of making the setting stand on its own, as a superhero setting, with internal causality and more or less the usual sort of hero-versus-villain logic. So I inverted the alignments of only superheroes and supervillains, and kept as much as possible of their backstories intact.

This means my stuff doesn’t map onto any canon Earth-3, especially not the one from Forever Evil because that came out after I’d already gotten all the big things pinned down. 😅 Some people get upset about this and come yell at me about how i.e. Owlman is Thomas Wayne Junior. But since I always saw that particular concept as a huge cop-out from looking at how few alterations it takes to turn Bruce Wayne into a spectacular villain, I was like ‘nuts to that’ from the start.

If you’re cool with my relationship with canon, on we go.

-&-

So, Impetus and Motion! I don’t remember what I said on that one post where I remember blathering about it, so forgive me if I repeat myself. ^^

Lineage is the same as canon, technically. I’ll go over it; if you don’t care just skip ahead to the next subsection. 😄

Mirror Barry Allen, the Dash, got his villain name for his signature kill technique of grabbing someone, hyperaccelerating them, and then letting go at the right moment that they get dashed against something immovable and go splat. He dashes people against things.

(His eventual sidekick, Blaze, got his for liking to make things combust by accelerating their molecules. The combination makes them sound like a pair of racehorses, which they did not intend and are very annoyed by when it’s pointed out.)

The Dash is pretty scary, especially because most of the ways he abuses his speed for profit are so low-key nobody even notices (i.e. screwing with the stock market) and he doesn’t need to be a supervillain. He just likes it.

His public villain profile is relatively low for the level of danger he poses, tho, because his town is infested with really dumb superheroes who beat him embarrassingly often, when he actually turns up to fight or is successfully ambushed. And with the occasional exception the scale of his crimes is fairly small compared to i.e. Ultraman.

Keeping him imprisoned is ridiculously difficult, tho. He can’t be completely depowered (because the Speed Force is external to him and all the power dampeners that are used assume they’re trying to shut off something generated internally) and he’s really smart, so it took years of battles to keep him long enough to transfer into a proper cell even, and longer to get an unblurred look at his face.

His secret identity survived so long that Barry Allen was there to comfort Iris West after she was targeted by the Dash on several occasions, and they were married by the time he got ultimately unmasked.

She left him after that and moved back to the future, which she was still from because that’s hilarious, but he eventually tracked her down and promised to reform if she’d take him back. This obviously fell apart eventually, but not until after the twins were born.

I haven’t mapped out the mirror Thawne line. I assume the Thawnes with healing powers who inadvertently adopted Barry’s twin were much nicer in this timeline but idk if he ever became Cobalt Blue or what. I hope he lived to old age. Apparently there have been multiple Cobalts Blue? Idk idc, Flash continuity what even are you.

Everyone thought Eobard Thawne was nuts, but he actually did go back in time and stop the Dash from destroying the world with nukes in a fit of rage, his historical analysis, method of giving himself speed powers, and time machine were all successful. He may additionally suffer from some degree of psychosis, but he wasn’t wrong. (His little brother still exists in this universe because good!Eobard wasn’t the type to manipulate time to erase inconvenient family members. He also doesn’t have the title Professor because he never got tenure, so he just goes by Zoom.)

-&-

Bart is still Don and Meloni’s kid. Frankly I don’t understand those two in the normal timeline, so it’s hard to construct their mirror versions in any depth or even decide whether they should get mirrored. (Probably not tbh.) But I don’t exactly need to, because the resulting Bart is very much the same and thus doesn’t really know them. He was still born with his weird speed glitch that caused him to be raised in a simulation, and eventually time-traveled to un-glitch him.

The difference is that he’s not a nice kid. He’s a two year old who looks twelve and has received all his socialization from reasonably good AI in a world that was not real. Where nothing had consequences. Where nobody was real.

He’s very frightening, is Impetus. Impetuous, wildly powerful, selfish–oddly sweet, occasionally, in the ‘gay and innocent and heartless’ way of Peter Pan, but probably even more likely than Peter to knife someone. He’s so delighted the first time he eats actual ice cream, as opposed to a simulated version, but the ice cream stand is now on fire.

Mirror Bart isn’t so much cruel or even un-empathetic as solipsistic. He’s arrested in the state of an intellectually advanced toddler playing, what’s that game called, the one where the objective seems to be getting in car chases a lot? When was the last time they made a new one, I feel like I haven’t heard it mentioned in ages, it’s a dead franchise isn’t it I’m old. Grand Theft Auto! That’s it. He doesn’t just not understand that danger is real, the way Impulse started out. People aren’t.

Impetus is easily bored and surrounded by NPCs. It gets ugly, sometimes.

He also time-travels a lot more frequently than normal Bart, because he doesn’t really get attached so he doesn’t try to maintain a normal life of any kind, so he pops up all over the timestream.

Jason Blood hated him personally long before Bart had any idea who he was; they have a villain rivalry plagued by causality issues and closed time loops that is alternately epic and stupid as fuck.

And then there’s Thad. Thad’s had a less awful time than he did in canon, I think–President Thawne is not technically a supervillain so he’s probably about the same as in the original timeline, but even assuming Meloni and Don are still out of the picture (probably it’s Barry’s fault in this dimension?) raising a kid as a ‘defense mechanism against a supervillain’ calls for less extreme brainwashing fuckery than raising one to hunt down a superhero.

So he probably behaved a bit more like a reasonable grandparent, simply because the context incentivized him to emphasize concepts like duty and loyalty more, and hatred less. He might even have been able to go public with Thad’s existence, depending on the spin he came up with. Among other factors.

But it was still a depressing, isolated, dehumanizing way to grow up, and it went on a long time, because as per canon Thad has the opposite problem from Bart in terms of how he passes through time. Motion is a 40-year-old man with a 12 year old’s body and approximate life experience.

Thad was already So Tired when he finally got out into the world on his own, and once he encountered Impetus he learned pretty quickly to both pity and fear him.

Even when Thad tries to avoid Bart and just have a life, Bart always crashes back into his existence again, and in the meantime he feels guilty. Because even if he could completely shake off having been raised to see countering Impetus as his whole reason for existence, he’d still feel a lot of personal responsibility to try, because he has the ability to stand up to him in a way almost no one else does, and he knows Bart’s out there resulting in casualties.

Due to all the time travel involved, even having just defeated Impetus doesn’t mean he’s not still out there at an accessible point in the timestream, needing to be stopped.

Impetus results in Motion the way Inertia resists Impulse. They’re very much locked into an action-and-reaction framework that does not even a little bit help with Thad’s clone identity issues.

Except for how the amount of time Thad spends saving people from Bart has slowly created a fairly large body of people over the course of history who know them as distinct entities, and like Thad a lot better. 

Good feels good. ^^ It’s not necessarily the case that this happens, obviously, but with their alignment swap they also ultimately exchanged who’s defined by isolation. It takes Bart a long, long time to even understand that he’s lonely.

[comicteaparty]

May 16th-May 22nd, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from May 16th, 2020 to May 22nd, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What are you trying to show or tell with your story that you find to be underrepresented?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

-Mind control/mind reading where both people are okay with it. I like themes of trust -"Superpowers" without secret identities. Because researchers aren't always evil goddamnit! -Portraying people who hurt others not as card-carrying megalomaniac villains but as pitiful and broken people. I haven't gotten to this part of my story yet but I hope I can do it well when I do. -Queer characters but they never say that they are or talk about it in any way. Yes I know I'm probably the only one who wants this

Also, maybe the idea that you don't need to "do anything" with your life for it to be worthwhile? But I'm not sure that I believe this myself

Deo101 [Millennium]

Mostly I'm trying to write about love, and I hardly think that's underrepresented! But, I'm also trying to show a bit of my own personal disabled experience, and I find that the kinds of things I've experienced are hardly represented at all. so, I think I'm trying to show a sort of hope and positivity for things that I think are usually pitied and viewed negatively, which I wish were done more.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I just wanted a good ol' classic Eddings-style fantasy romp, but with characters that would usually be cast in the "evil" role, without going the "misunderstood" route.

Plus I wanted to write about shitty family (born, found and married) and that you do NOT have to forgive them in the slightest to move on and better your life.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Hmm... One of the main things I want to express with Whispers of the Past is that after past traumas, you may not be the same, but eventually, you can be okay again—even if your "okay" of now, is very different than your "okay" of the past. Normalcy isn't a constant. It shifts with time and becomes something new. A new stasis. A new peace. A new normal. I don't know if I've ever seen another story show this in this way. Another underrepresented theme in WotP is that of the hero choosing mundanity over the amazing. When the quest is over, and all is said and done, and the big baddie has been vanquished, the hero doesn't become ruler, or claim bountiful riches, or sail across the sea to find new lands. No, the hero returns to a world that is familiar and unremarkable. The hero would rather just be an average person.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

-Fanfiction. I’m very surprised there hasn’t been a webcomic talking about what it’s like to create fanfiction! But overall the culture involved around it and being a creator. -The relationship and hardships of having a stepparent/being one. Particularly stepdad/stepdaughter relationships -Anger as a reaction to trauma. I see a lot of trauma portrayed as mostly sad, but I want a story where the heroes feel anger, where it’s seen as both a motivator and a detriment -The hardships of dating as someone who’s both touch aversive and on the grey spectrum. Not everyone would be as wonderful or understanding, but it’s important to be around people who are and will stand by you.(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

This is why I gravitate towards all these stories made by independent creators I think. So many personal and poignant messages. I’m with you there on the queer characters Eightfish. I want a society where it’s fine to be what you wish and respected to be who you want to be. I think having more positive ways of showing how we can reach that sort of openness can be helpful. In AWT I further explore: - characters in STEM fields and approaches to research design - informed consent and what that means - how to live even when things are falling apart around you, when things are falling apart within you - navigating through crushes, confessions and friendships!

Wow the beginning sounds like the objectives at a science lecture and you won’t be wrong thinking so

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

For my Hybrid Dolls comic, there are several things I want to explore: - Psychological trauma and the effects or damage it can give, without proper treatment. -Writing queer characters without them needing a self discovery episode. But I know some identities are better to be upfront? But in the story, they simply live normal or exciting lives - Narcissism in a relative that one doesn't have to forgive. Being treated as invisible or judged by age, birthright. - Other Concepts of love explored. Attraction that isn't conventional romance. - Friendship bonds between girls, and my own take on an eccentric quirky girl lead. - Being unapologetically feminine, girls who doesn't need to feel like being 'one of the guys' I'm aiming for more character variety in historical fiction, instead of yet another story of a girl 'defying gender norms' by raised as a boy/disguises trope in other similar comics. So the women in my story, use their wits and charm.(edited)

DanitheCarutor

I complain about this all the time, so I'm just going to do a quick overview since I'm sure everyone is sick of it. - Abusers can be smart, popular, generous, charismatic and subtle. I'm kind of sick of them always being portrayed as really obvious, and sometimes really stupid, while there are people like that it's not very practical for them all to be like that. - General mental health stuff. More open representation of it, that it may be something you'll live with for the rest of your life and how that's okay. - Trauma, how it can change you, make you lose sight of the person you were and make you lose interest in things you used to enjoy. (this is coupled with mental health) - Non-romantic relationships with a queer cast. While this is showing up more in fantastical indie works, not very common in slice-of-life type of comics. I can only imagine this is because readers would find it boring or too mundane (can't tell you all how many people tell me my comic is boring. Lol), but being a person totally sick of romance in everything I wanted to do something focusing on family, friendship and the relationships we have with ourselves. - You don't always heal completely. I've already mentioned this, but I want to put a focus on how someone who's been through a lot of shit doesn't alway heal completely, and that's okay. I see in a lot of media where people just overcome their issues, and they live happily ever after with everything all perfect, I want something along the lines of "we still got a long way to go, but we're doing better and we're happier than before". - Not having labels for everything. This sounds like hipster trash, but I don't see the point in putting labels for every character. Like, I put labels for them, mostly during Pride, but it feels pointless in the comic. Apollo is happy to say he's a gay man, but with Julian they're not interested in categorising themselves, all they want is to be comfortable and I don't see nothing wrong with that.(edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

For me, it’s the importance of communication and empathy, and the dangers of its absence. And it’s something I’ve had to think about a lot recently, being more active on social media Everyone’s got their reasons/methods for cutting people off, but I’ve never been a huge fan of a point-blank communication cut unless it’s absolutely warranted. And I’m not a fan of instant demonization when someone messes up or does something I don’t agree with. People are people. We’re all different and we all mess up and we all can change. Keeping lines of communication open is essential for allowing that change, or else we all get locked into little echo chambers where anyone outside is automatically The Worst.™ In a world where everything has gone to hell - and may go further yet - how can things heal when no one is even listening to each other? Where the other side is automatically at fault no matter what? It’s something I grew up struggling to understand (maybe because I grew up outside Washington DC, lol), and really affects me to this day. And if you do end up protecting yourself with silence, how can you still allow other perspectives to be gleaned? I don’t quite have the perfect formula for it. But unless someone is genuinely trying to cause harm, I try to at least attempt to understand where they might coming from - whether I accept it or not. Otherwise it’s so easy to see a lot of people as monsters. It’s a complicated topic for sure, especially nowadays. But yeah. Something like that

Miranda

Hmm that’s an excellent question. Well, a big thing is the varying effects of trauma and ways to handle it. Mainly how burying the past and ignoring traumatic events can affect someone. Also that villains can be people we relate to that just take an extreme way of reaching a goal that most people can understand And how shared experiences can bring people closer (not a unique one) I also want to portray queer characters that are not solely defined by their queerness and don’t have to announce it to everyone.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

- Having some talks about the implications of asking what you wish for and the potential consequences that comes with it. - Having more unappologic Vietnamese things happening in the comic. Giving representation to some common things that most Vietnamese Americans (or Asian Americans) can face in terms of relationships, roles, etc. Also since er i'm also directly affected by this, how does the Mixed-Asian Identity plays about it too.(edited)

hmmm I think another thing is that I want to bring up that men who express themselves in a more feminine form is valid and there's no shame that comes with it (positive masculinity hell yaaaa). Also same about expressing characters who are also queer but aren't defined about it either. it's just what they are along with their other interests and goals.(edited)

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

wow, this is a great question! I'm trying to be better about interacting here so I'll give it a shot. My comic is a historical fantasy set somewhat in Interwar Europe/WWII Europe and partially in a fantasy world based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. -War stories/histories that aren't about the actual experience of combat: most memoirs and diaries of soldiers I read doing research are about the day-to-day activities, meals, sleeping habits, and random thoughts instead of fight descriptions. It really bothers me when people zero in on in-depth battle maps and obsess over what kind of rifle was used by whom when, when I think it's much more interesting and important to look at the mindset of who was fighting, why they were fighting, and what emotional effect it had on everyone involved (including civilians!) -Asexuality, especially asexuality in history, bc it tends to "disappear" in the historical record as people who may have been ace before that label was widely used tend to not self-identify as it. I'm ace, people in the past were ace, it's a history I'd like to talk about more! -gryphons, they're cool monsters and I think they should be used much more than they are haha

eliushi [a winged tale]

I agree sierrabravo. I find it’s the personal, down to earth, close perspective accounts in historical records that resonate the most with me. Gryphons are also awesome!

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I feel like there's two separate answers for Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R (http://sgkdr.webcomic.ws/comics/) The first is what SGKDR represents compared to other webcomics. To me, a major thing I wanted to show with Super Galaxy Knights was a new style of creating webcomics. Animation is underrepresented as a storytelling style, sure, but the main thing I thought was underrepresented in the webcomic space was a "seasonal" method of storytelling. Like, most webcomics I see are either "each page is its own thing" or "it's one big long story, with chapters mostly there to split up different scenes/locations". I very rarely see webcomics build to a major climax in the story, then a resolution, then introduce a brand new conflict. The second is what SGKDR represents compared to other action series (specifically shonen manga/anime, as that's what SGKDR riffs off of the most). I can only think of one shonen story with a female lead, I can't think of any with an explicitly LGBTQ+ protagonist (i only know of one implied one), romance is usually handled very poorly (characters usually get paired with the protagonist due to being female and in the same room, with very little actual relationship building), there aren't many varieties of character motivations besides "pursuit of power/status" of some kind, power scaling usually gets way out of whack, and I... I dunno, I love those kinds of stories, but it just gets tiring after a while. So, I wrote my own that had all the things I wanted in it.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) I totally agree with the difficulty and importance of talking about ace representation in a historical setting! It's extremely difficult to talk about when asexuality was so unknown at the time. I'm eager to see how you handle it!

eliushi [a winged tale]

@snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) can you speak about

I very rarely see webcomics build to a major climax in the story, then a resolution, then introduce a brand new conflict.

I find slice of life/ some really long mangas with continuous streams of antagonists/web novel like formats use this too but unsure if that’s what you were referring to?

I am also looking forward to more ace representation in the webcomic world

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah that format is the sort of thing I was talking about. It's out there, but I don't see it very often.

eliushi [a winged tale]

Ah gotcha! Thanks! I recall some slice of life high school ones I’ve read years ago that have that sort of narrative structure (which feels like the story can continue forever).

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

There's a recurring trope in SF/F where the robot/AI/golem learns that it wants to have free will and make its own decisions. Or there's a biological species that are assumed to be "natural servants", and inevitably you get to the reveal that they're not actually any different from humans in terms of wanting self-determination and independence. If you think of this as a metaphor for relationships between different groups of humans, then yeah, that's the obvious outcome! But one of the great things about SFF is that you can write things that aren't just "direct metaphors for real-world issues, with spaceships and dragons thrown in for flavor." So in But I'm A Cat Person, I wanted to write something about, what if there's a group of beings who really aren't going to develop free will or self-determination? What's the reasonable, ethical way to deal with that? ...also: there's a ton of nonbinary characters in webcomics these days, but at least I can say BICP did it before it was cool.(edited)

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Leif & Thorn, meanwhile, has a regular old "character forced into servitude, who definitely has independent thoughts and desires that are being controlled" situation. And there's no "Master has given Dobby a sock" loophole they can exploit for a quick fix, so they have to keep up a long-term process of double-talk and rule-bending, to communicate Leif's actual feelings without getting him in trouble. The "realistic language barriers with no convenient universal-translator to get around them" situation -- which, in this comic, is one of the biggest Underrepresented Things I wanted to explore -- makes it that much harder...

Capitania do Azar

I gotta commend you on that, @Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) because you're out there serving my bilingual needs

kayotics

Ingress Adventuring Company is all about the hero after they've finished saving the world, which I think is pretty underrepresented. It's not a quiet contemplative story, since there's still a lot of fun questing stuff going on, but I'm trying to make it clear that this all takes place after the main character has done his big saving the world quest and is still trying to figure out his place after supposedly settling down.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I love that Kay

Toivo feels like he has so much history behind him

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I'm trying to represent orthodox/religious jews because I almost never see my community represented in media. There are orthodox Jewish characters that will be appearing in Joe is dead. In future comics I want to try to plan the story more around including more religious Jewish characters because there still aren't that many in my current project

Also mental illnesses, like trauma and intellectual disability I want to represent my own experiences with it

There isn't as much of a distinct lack of that in media but it's good to have in stories(edited)

Also androgynous lesbians

Nutty (Court of Roses)

With Court of Roses, I'm trying to tell a fantasy story that's for older audiences but proving that Mature Fantasy doesn't have to be ultra gritty. People have each other to depend on, the world isn't bleak, and not every noble is greedy, peasant is starving, etc. I know a lot of fantasy likes to take from realistic Medieval Europe, but the freeing part about making my own world is that it doesn't HAVE to be like that. Their religion is different, more accepting, and again, people are more focused on looking out for each other and having a good time.

Mature themes are still present, such as murder, banditry/pillaging, alcohol, traumatic experiences, etc. but my goal isn't to present them in a darker fashion.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I wanted to make something influenced by my culture (Korean) without heavily drawing from the mythology. Mythology is just one facet of a culture, yet a lot of people who haven't read it expect HoK to be all about Korean mythology just because it wears a metaphorical hanbok. No. It reflects the traditional aesthetics, but more importantly, the cultural values and the unspoken rules of the society, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. Related to that is body language. I don't want my non-American characters using American body language, such as shrugging, or American ways of using eye contact, etc. I want to show them using (mostly) Korean gestures, sitting, standing and walking like Koreans. I always feel like there's a huge missed opportunity when friggin' aliens use American body language in sci-fi! I understand why people do that -- it makes the work more clear/accessible to English-speaking audience. But in HoK I'm taking the other path. It's a challenge for sure, but I would not have it any other way.

On a more thematic level, I really wanted to explore deeply hurtful experiences that happen in genuinely caring relationships. It's not about good guys vs bad guys, it's not about a nice person being hurt by someone who just doesn't care. Those stories certainly are valid, just not what I wanted to do with HoK. This story is about people who love each other, but don't always know how to communicate their love or needs.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I am also looking forward to more ace representation in the webcomic world

@eliushi [a winged tale] I agree, the ace rep is a challenge I would like to take on, I'm also curious how it will work in historical times? Even tho I'm ace,I'm still learning new innovative things(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

It’ll be important to dig deeper and research into what things were like if you want to capture the authenticity of the period you’re writing in! I’m sure there are personal accounts or documentation of these lived experiences.

Capitania do Azar

I see all these beautiful answers and I almost struggle to find something other than those to say I guess for O Sarilho https://www.sarilho.net/en/ I wanted to write a weird love letter to where I live and how I see my country (tho I'm glad I got other places I love in it too). To my knowledge, we don't get much like that, or at least that's not from a city perspective which is not what I'm trying to go for, at all. There's a lot of tiny cultural things that I want to touch that may be invisible for people who are not from here, but I'm glad that I'm including them for those three readers in the back. Linked to this, in a way, is the fact that I get really tired of those white/gray Sci-fi stories where everything is super clean and super white and technology is absolutely overwhelming and organised. I want Sci-fis in the woods too. And finally, there's something about the way violence is portrayed a lot of times that almost makes you feel like human life just is that cheap. I really don't want to go that road, I'm doing my best to tell a story about war in which death still leaves a toll and violence affects everyone involved

TL;DR I WANTED TO PAINT MY HOUSE

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

And finally, there's something about the way violence is portrayed a lot of times that almost makes you feel like human life just is that cheap. I really don't want to go that road, I'm doing my best to tell a story about war in which death still leaves a toll and violence affects everyone involved

@Capitania do Azar This is so beautiful (and tragic). This is something I also hope to express in my work. Super underrepresented message surprisingly.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I enjoy exploring sci-fi beyond the current conventions and absolutely love your setting shizamura!(edited)

Capitania do Azar

Thank u I really love Sci-fi but I don't appreciate that it has become associated with a very specific aesthetic because tbh I find it very limiting

DanitheCarutor

@Capitania do Azar That is actually really refreshing! Horror and action are so packed with glamorized death and violence, you can get really desensitized. The only stories I've ever seen that take those things seriously are war movies based on real life events, like Saving Private Ryan, (which my grandpa, a Korean War vet, said was the most accurate portrayal of what war was like.) and even then you get flicks that totally glamorize the whole thing. I really admire you wanting to put that sense of gravity onto the violence and death in your work, also I love when creators want to tackle war in all it's "too close to home", upsetting realism.

Capitania do Azar

I really love Saving Private Ryan, it is a very nice portrayal with a great message: nobody wants to be here

DanitheCarutor

Yes! I love Saving Private Ryan too, it was nice seeing a movie that didn't make war look like some fantastical bs.

[prevsapphism]

An Extremely Detailed Guide to Writing A Character In DC

hey what’s up its ur gal queen morgaine comin atcha live with another Extremely Detailed Guide!

in the wake of shows like veep and house of cards, tons of political and adjacent characters have sprung up round the rpc, many of whom live in Our Nation’s Capital™. i’ve seen guides for how to write characters that live in nyc, la, san francisco and lots of other places, but not for how to write characters that live in dc. but Fear Not! i live here! i’ve been living here for well over five years! i can’t wait to leave!

so here is a LONG-- and i DO mean LONG-- list of Spicy DC Shibboleths you can use to make your character realistic, straight from the mouth of a grudging native. ready?

IF YOUR CHARACTER’S IN DC, THEY SHOULD....

 use the metro. the metrorail, called ‘the metro’ by locals, is our version of the t ( boston, ) the tube ( london ) or the subway ( nyc, ) and most locals rely on it to get from point a to point b. much like the other commuter systems listed above, most people use a plastic card, called a SMARTRIP CARD, to pay for fare, which is anywhere from $2 to $6 depending on the time of day. ( the metro charges more for ‘peak hours,’ which is the afternoon / rush hour time period between four and eight pm. ) the metro has numerous stops all throughout washington dc proper, maryland and virginia, and we usually refer to the lines on it by their colour ( eg red, yellow, green. ) unless your character is the queen of sheba and gets carried by servants or has Nerves of Steel and drives everywhere, they probably use the metro to get where they need to go. 

.....complain about the metro. this is a huge one. however much your character currently complains about the metro? it’s not enough. they need to complain more. for a system supposed to make travelling easier, the metro sure is awful at working consistently. the metro is a dumpster fire on wheels. and there is always some Bulled Shite going on with it, i promise you. your character’s train is late. your character’s train stopped for no reason on the way to a station. some drunk frat bros from au just got on and they’re being loud and drunk. it’s late and the trains are only running every twenty minutes. your character’s metro track might Literally catch fire. the train your character thought was their train dumped them out at a certain stop and now they have to wait fifteen minutes for another one. the metro SUCKS and we ALL hate it, but we’re STILL Beholden to get on it every Focking day to try to go to work or school because Deep In Our Heart of Hearts, we know that driving here is way worse. so yeah, we accept our fates to get on the HellRail9000 every day, but we’re gonna bitch about it the whole time.

probably not live in dc proper. ‘but queen morgaine, my character is a sexy rich 54-year-old illustrious powerlez politician! she has to have the Best Pad around for miles!!’ i hear ya ( also, is she single? ) but The Fact of The Matter Is, it’s really hard to find somewhere to live in dc proper for a multitude of reasons. for one thing, it’s WICKED expensive. ( though that also means, of course, if your character is loaded, don’t worry about this part. ) for another, dc has succumbed to a terrible gentrification problem, which means that more and more regions in the city are being forcibly transformed in order to make them ‘nicer’ for young up-and-comers, displacing longtime residents in the process. it’s Not Unheard Of for your character to live in dc proper, but it would be more realistic for them to live in its outskirts instead ; and people who live in surrounding areas all say they live in dc anyway. popular areas ( especially for politicians or other well-off characters ) include:

bethesda, maryland. the $8 Coffee Snob Epicentre of the dc metro area. LOTS of rich people here. expensive to live in. tons of Chic Fancy Restaurants, lots of cutesy expensive boutique shops ( like sugarfina, lululemon, anthropologie and sweetgreen ) lots of wealthy older ladies walking dogs in Athleisure. very expensive and prestigious private schools here too, like stone ridge and sidwell friends school, but also a few very large public ones, such as bethesda-chevy chase ( bcc. ) the national institute of health headquarters are also here. probably your top-tier best bet for a rich or otherwise Well-Off character. about fifteen minutes into dc proper via metro.

chevy chase, maryland. super nice, though a little on the Pricey side. people here tend to be more Modest about their money, so this area is pretty affluent, it’s not as hoity-toity as bethesda. awesome shopping-- right next to friendship heights in dc, which has lots of high-end stores like jimmy choo, bloomingdale’s, whole foods, etc. about five to ten minutes to friendship heights, fifteen to twenty minutes via metro into downtown dc. ( it’s also right next to the region with the same name in dc. ) 

kensington and garett park, maryland. i used to live here!! quiet and VERY cute. kensington has an adorable historic district down a hill, with a tea room and 'antique row,’ a block of vintage shops. east of bethesda, about ten minutes there by car. beautiful brightly-coloured victorian houses here. has a Small Town Feel and lots of kid-friendly Wholesome activities, so lots of older people and families with young kids live in these areas. huge beautiful art and music venue, strathmore, is here as well. about thirty-five to forty minutes into dc proper via metro. 

arlington, virginia.  i don’t go here very often so i can’t Vouch for it as hard but my dad used to work here so i’ll try. probably the most Work-Focused and Capital-G Government area outside dc. mid-tier expensive, but not a whole lot to do other than work or go to school from the Overwhelming Presence of federal buildings, colleges, and businesses here which makes it a less popular choice. big area, proximity to dc ranges depending on what part of arlington you’re in-- anywhere from five or ten minutes or half an hour away via metro.

alexandria, virginia. sort of like arlington, but prettier. i don’t go here much either, but it’s also a popular choice for those working in dc but wanting to stay in virginia. its Main Hangout, old town alexandria, sits right on the potomac waterfront, and supplies most of the area’s non-work activities. has lots of ~Small Town Charm~, cute bars and restaurants and a couple niche museums, like the apothecary musuem. lots of bakeries here as well. also mid-tier expensive. about forty minutes away from dc via metro.

if your character isn’t a rich politician or is otherwise just Dead-Set on living IN dc, here are some popular areas in the city itself, from most to least expensive. 

georgetown. EASILY the Most Elite, Absolute Ritziest and overall Top-Tier Prestigious neighbourhood in the district. means most of its denizens are wealthy snobs, and the cost of living here is astronomical-- if bethesda has $8 coffee, georgetown’s are $8.50, before tax. georgetown is very hilly, full of townhouses and paved with cobblestones, so your character will probably do a lot of walking and stair-climbing. it’s always busy, and even though the snobby people irritate me every time i go, the shops ( lush!! sephora!! dr. martens!! ) and 700 bakeries with adorable treats ( sprinkles cupcakes!! baked and wired!! ) keep me from staying away completely.

 jinx proof, a wicked good tattoo parlour, is here as well!!

downtown dc.  probably what you think of when you think of ‘washington dc,’ because most of what makes dc dc is down here, as you might imagine. has the capitol building, most of the museums, chinatown, the white house and ford’s theatre. SUPER expensive because of this. 

dupont circle. my personal favourite area of dc, just a few minutes down the block from downtown. lots of great food and shopping-- fantom comics, my favourite comic book store, beefsteak, a vegan restaurant are some of my Usual Haunts here. mid-tier expensive.

 it’s also a historic Gaybourhood: one of the earliest lgbt protest marches and the first real dyke march Ever was held here in 1993! capital pride is also hosted here every year. 

capitol hill. despite the name, not the austere, cutthroat Essence of DC Politics you’d probably think. pretty quiet, lots of row houses ( something dc is famous for, see the ‘bits and bobs’ section at the end here. ) lots of ~Indie~ businesses and coffee shops. was home to phase 1, the area’s oldest lesbian bar, till it closed in 2016 ( rip mama!!!! ) mid-to-lower-tier expensive. 

u street / cardozo. ah, U Street, my Other Home. great food here, like sugar shack donuts and ben’s chilli bowl. but u street’s Star Attraction is most of dc’s music scene, most notably All Flavours of rock ( esp punk, ) indie and alternative--i spent almost all of my teenage years Cavorting About till the wee hours of the morning on school nights at concerts, parties and diy shows on u street. mid-to-lower-tier expensive.

adams morgan. also an Artsy Hangout in dc. lots of restaurants and bars, lots of Weird Shops, has the adam’s morgan festival every year. home to a gay bar, pitcher’s, and dc’s newest lesbian bar, a league of her own! mid-to-lower tier expensive. 

georgia avenue / petworth. most of my friends who live in dc proper live here. not a Designated Gaybourhood but lots of gay people, there’s a lesbian party at a bar here every month. lots of animal shelters. good bar scene and ample public transport. right next to howard university, so quite student-heavy, but pretty quiet. lower-tier expensive.

takoma park. i also love it here. ~Technically~ just called takoma, but since it’s mixed with the super-close town in maryland, takoma park, locals tend to just. call it that. quiet and relaxed HippieTown, called ‘the berkeley of the east’ and ‘the people’s republic of takoma park’ with good reason-- lots of Greenie Boutique Places, lots of hybrid cars and ~Progressive~ ally lawn signs. adorable food co-op and tons of bookstores. pretty inexpensive.

none of these Jive with your character and you Really wanna get Spicy, they could could always live in baltimore and get the marc train ( another lightrail serving the dc, maryland and west virginia areas ) every day for a half-hour commute to dc. 

have Opinions about food. greater dc has a very strong restaurant and food scene, made easily accessible by the metro. there’s ALWAYS something cool to eat in dc anywhere you go, and we love telling people about it. 

said Food Opinions are often very divisive, and people argue their side with as much Fervour as those debating pineapple on pizza. for example, one thing people fight about here is mumbo sauce: ‘are you for or against,’ ‘what exactly is it and what do you put it on,’ etc. the one i get dragged into is ‘georgetown cupcake vs baked and wired.’ my dad’s staunchly pro-baked and wired and anti-georgetown cupcake, i love ‘em both, but every time we’re in georgetown we bicker.

never fall short of things to do. like i said, dc is ALWAYS bustling on any given day. sure, a lot of it’s expensive and very often alcohol-focused ( like nyc, we do a lot of wine and beer tastings, cocktail parties and galas ) or otherwise geared towards adults, but if you hop on the metro or a bus, you’re almost guaranteed to find something. see the ‘places of note’ bullet here for some ideas.

have gone to a museum at least once. the area surrounding the national mall and capitol building also has our museums, which are owned by the smithsonian institution. they’re the first place i reach for when i want something to do, and i’ve been going to them so frequently and for so long that james smithson is practically my third parent lol. they are free, which is what makes them so hugely popular, and the Big Three are the national museum of natural history, the national air and space museum, and the national gallery of art. everyone who comes to dc goes to at least one, even if they never go again, and if your character lives here, they’ll probably go to several. ( they also make great date spots, fyi. )

have Opinions about the national cherry blossom festival. dc has lots of cherry blossom trees along the tidal basin and potomac river, given to us as a token of friendship by japan in march of 1912. to celebrate, the national cherry blossom festival is held every spring from late march to early april when the trees are in peak bloom. it isn’t so much a Hard and Fast Festival but more of a fourteen-day period with various cherry blossom- and japanese-themed events, like kite-flying, marathons and sake-tasting with a Great Big Street Fair at the end. people flock to dc every spring just for the cherry blossoms, and most locals either love it, take five billion photos and celebrate with thematic cupcakes and cocktails, or Loudly hate it and call it an overhyped tourist trap ( while still sneaking their annual cherry blossom pic for facebook On The Sly. ) your character should probably be one or the other, i don’t know a lot of neutrals. 

probably not call it ‘washington dc.’ if your character does call it that, it should be a defining trait and / or signify that they’re new or visiting. no one here calls it that, we either call it just ‘dc’ or ‘the district.’ it’s not Sacrilege, like calling boston ‘beantown’ ( yuck ) or san francisco ‘frisco,’ more like calling nyc ‘the big apple’-- we just think you sound like a dweeb.

complain a LOT. however much your character is complaining, it’s not enough. they need to complain more. dc locals are ALWAYS complaining about something, in a way similar to a cranky new yorker. i’ve never known a dc local, especially an office worker, who wasn’t complaining every five seconds about one thing or another, and this is largely attributed to its wealthy, ambitious and politically-driven population-- most of us here are Important Individuals, or think we are ; so unfortunately lots of people look down upon those who are not also doing Important People Things.......and end up acting like entitled brats as a result. the metro, like i said, is the biggest one, but other topics of District Annoyance include--

the president’s motorcade. not super common, but takes forever and holds up traffic.

the beltway. the interstate 495, typically just called the beltway, is a highway that makes a loop around dc, as well as the surrounding areas of maryland and virginia. almost always road construction, an accident or traffic no matter what time of day it is and it’s just Generally Terrible. if your character is driving, they’ll probably complain about the beltway.

interns. dc has TONS of interns, especially in the spring and summer. most of them are between the ages of twenty-two to twenty-five, and they come here to work in government buildings or for specific senators and representatives. the most popular place to intern is capitol hill, so ‘interning on the hill’ is something your character will hear or say a lot. most locals don’t like them because they’re super arrogant about what they’re doing and can’t go five seconds without bringing it up.

DC’S STREET SYSTEM AND THE QUADRANTS. 

the city of dc is shaped like a broken diamond, and split into four sections, called quadrants: northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest, with the capitol building marking the middle. 

maryland borders the north half of the quadrant, generally, and virginia the south. 

dc streets run three ways: east-west, north-south, and diagonally, and the streets are named with numbers, letters ( excluding j, x, and z, ) states or a combination. 

lettered streets go east-west, numbered streets go north-south, and diagonal streets have state names.

the national mall runs west and east, respectively, away from the capitol so all the east-west letter streets run next to or parallel to them.

starting with the capitol, the first east-west streets north and south of the capitol are called a st, the second east-west streets north and south of the capitol are called b st, the third is c st, etc.

because there are two of the same number or letter street, you should include the quadrant if you’re mailing something or giving an address. like ‘555 k street nw, washington dc 42069.’

if that sounds confusing, it is. here’s a diagram that might help.

now that i’m done with specific traits, here are some Places of Note in dc you can set your threads in and your character can frequent!!

the smithsonian museums. i can’t make this list without putting my Beloved smithsonian museums first, sorry! they’re all wicked sick, but i’m particularly fond of the natural history museum ( which recently got new ocean and fossil halls i’ve been obsessed with, ) all of the art galleries ( we have five ) and the brand new african-american museum!

politics and prose and kramerbooks. politics and prose is a dc-based bookstore with its Main Store in chevy chase, but has locations in a couple other parts of dc. it also has smaller satellite stores that are part of busboys and poets, a combination restaurant and spoken-word venue. kramerbooks is a single independent bookstore in dupont circle. it’s open super late and has a cafe, called afterwords, on top!!

georgetown cupcake. like i said, it’s a cupcake bakery headquartered in georgetown, with a bethesda location as well! known for its Cute Ass Pink Boxes.

the wharf. waterfront entertainment district in southwest, popular with rich people. awesome music venue, the anthem, where i’ve seen florence + the machine and kt tunstall but it’s primarily fancy restaurants, high-end shopping and cocktail bars, including a milk bar.

baked and wired. like i said, georgetown cupcake’s rival. REALLY BIG cupcakes, which it calls ‘cakecups,’ with flavours like ‘uniporn and rainhoes’ and ‘chocolate doom.’

the black cat. goth / punk music venue and entertainment space on u street. i went to my first ever Capital-G Goth Event here shortly after i turned fourteen!! i love this place a lot and i hung out here all the time in high school. lots of great diy or less-mainstream artists play here, like waxahatchee, ex hex and daughter, and i go to their smiths vs the cure and depeche mode-themed parties every year.

the 9.30 club. the black cat’s cleaner and slightly hipper older sister, just a few blocks away on u street. i also love this place dearly and saw most of the concerts i’ve been to here, including haim, kate nash, new politics, the vaccines and sleigh bells. this is where most big indie and alternative bands play when they come to dc. there’s a coffee bar on the topmost area!!

the satellite room. 1960s-themed diner right behind the 9.30 club. open really late, awesome food especially vegan milkshakes and really cool arcade games in the back!! been here after many a concert In My Day.

nellie’s sports bar. gay sports bar across the street from the 9.30 club. great food and awesome drag brunch!! can be really crowded on weekend evenings though, so proceed with caution.

pitchers / a league of her own. gay bar and lesbian bar in the basement of said gay bar respectively in adams morgan. i’ve not been yet, but i’ve heard it’s fantastic!

strathmore. art and music venue in bethesda / kensington. has a mansion, for small concerts and a tea room, and a huge beautiful concert hall that seats over a thousand people for symphonic and other bigger concerts.

eastern market. craft fair in capitol hill that sells handmade goods, artisan food and fresh produce from may to october, roughly. great Wares, but hot and miserable unless you go early.

fantom comics. adorable comic book store in dupont circle. i’ve also been coming here for ages!! it has mainstream comics and indie ones, and it hosts events as well!

bits and bobs / miscellaneous info--

montgomery county in maryland, where i live, has a five-cent charge for plastic bags in grocery stores. it’s really annoying and your character will probably lie to the self-checkout machines when they buy stuff or complain about it to cashiers.

the grocery stores here are giant ( litcherally just stop and shop with a different name, ) safeway, and wegmans. we also have smaller region-specific ones like mom’s organic market, magruders and yes!

ocean city in maryland, virginia beach in, Well, Virginia, and rehoboth, dewey, lewes and bethany beaches, which are all in delaware, are where most locals go for summer vacations.

almost everyone who says they live in dc, doesn’t actually live in dc. they usually live in a surrounding area, like bethesda or silver spring, and say ‘dc’ for brevity’s sake.

you can’t buy alcohol at a grocery store in maryland, but you can in dc and virginia.  

sometimes metro stops will Randomly shut down for maintenance, which means that sometimes you have to get off at that stop and wait for a ‘shuttle’ ( aka a free bus ) to take you to the next one. it’s the worst thing ever.

most of the houses in dc proper are row houses, which more closely resemble nyc’s brownstones than row houses elsewhere. maryland and virginia tend to have more Real Live Houses, townhouses and apartments.

marylanders LOVE their state flag for some reason, and because so many of them live and work in dc, you’re bound to see it there too. the maryland flag is absolutely FUCK-UGLY and they plaster it on EVERYTHING. bumper stickers, keychains, phone cases, you name it, even board shorts and tank tops. 

those cameras on traffic lights that take pix of you when you speed? everywhere. you WILL end up with a ticket from one eventually.

we have three international airports, reagan international, dulles international and bwi. dulles and reagan are metro accessible, but bwi is in baltimore, so it’s not. 

so there you have it!! a Comprehensive List of DC Shibboleths from a dc local!! have fun, and feel free to tag me in or tell me about your headcanons you use this post for, i’d love to see them!!

[chrvnicled-blog]

was that MAYA HAWKE? oh no no, that was just TAHIRI VEILA, a CANON CHARACTER from STAR WARS. they are TWENTY ONE years old and ARE NOT aware that they are not actually from washington dc. too bad they can’t stray from this city for long.

how long has your character been here?

if you asked her, she’d tell you she’s a native – born and raised in washington, dc. she’s never known any other home. in reality, tahiri’s only been here for three months.

what is your character's job?

unemployed! currently a college student at georgetown.

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom?

just before the end of the yuuzhan vong war.

has any magic affected your character?

other than the fact that she has zero recollection of everything that’s ever happened to her? nope!

and any other information you might find useful for us and the other members to know!!

whew chile does this girl have a complicated life

tahiri was born on tatooine, to a pair of force sensitive parents (both very strong in the force, though neither had any proper training). when she was about three, however, her parents were mistakenly killed by a tribe of sand people – out of pity, one of them adopted the child and raised her as one of them. tahiri lived with them until she turned nine, at which point she was discovered to be force sensitive by luke skywalker and tionne solusar during one of their trips to tatooine.

and so – little tahiri was off to jedi training! things were finally beginning to pick up for her – she found a couple of close friends, improved her force abilities, battled a krayt dragon (as one does) and forewent shoes for a while.

but everything changed when the yuuzhan vong attacked

she was around fourteen when she was captured by the yuuzhan vong, who planned on “shaping” her – essentially creating a whole other personality (known as riina kwaad) who would be fluent in their language and want to fight alongside them. she managed to escape just before her shaping was completed – though she got away with many valuable skills and knowledge about the enemy’s system, she was also struggling with controlling her riina personality.

the next couple of years are pretty bad for her ngl – she loses her closest friend and nearly goes through a mental breakdown – but she also becomes a jedi knight which i guess is pretty cool

and now she’s here! with no clue about any of this!

she has seen flashes of it, though. she’s dreamt about people she’s never met before and places she’s never seen (she finds most of them unrealistic though; i mean – space? really?), and there’s been times when she’s felt like there’s something missing – but she doesn’t really think much of it

once had three cups of coffee in one sitting and managed to make a pen levitate - but she thought it was a hallucination caused by a caffeine overdose

still strong in the force – could definitely be detected – but since she has no idea she’s force sensitive, her abilities (for now) are practically nonexistent

a stubborn, opinionated mess – can be very temperamental at times (which stems from the two personalities in her head). often makes some very impulsive actions/decisions just to satisfy her curiosity, without thinking of the consequences. doesn’t take herself – or anything, really – too seriously. can be pretty direct at times (it either comes from a place of love or a place of hate), but at times tends to bottle things up and not mention anything until it's too late.

has a good head on her shoulders, though. she’s much more observant than she appears to be, and often pushes herself to be more smart/rational about things. has a really stupid sense of humour (especially at 3 am) that consists of lots of dumb jokes that don’t make sense; yes, she’s aware of it, and no, she won’t do anything about it. a firm believer that you should treat others the way you want to be treated but will stand her ground when it comes to protecting those she cares about.

this list may be updated in the future (but knowing me, it probably won’t :’) )

[laylakarzai]

SONITA ALIZADEH // have you seen LAYLA KARZAI around town? We’re trying to make sure they’re still in town, especially with everything that’s been happening lately. SHE is a 20 year old CIS FEMALE. currently residing in Perfection Valley, but they’re originally from FREMONT, CALIFORNIA. they are best known for being an UP-AND-COMING AUTHOR, and i hear they’re pretty BRIGHT-EYED yet also INTRUSIVE at times; i hope they continue to survive.

ABOUT LAYLA.

Layla was born on March 8th, 1999.

Her parents had both come from Afghanistan as children, their parents taking them with them as they escaped the Soviet-Afghan War. Her mom and her family was originally from Khost and settled in Washington, DC. Her dad and his family were originally from Herat and settled in Los Angeles, California. They met at the University of California at Berkeley, where her mother studied Political Science and her father studied Biology and instantly hit it off. They married while still attending school, and a few years after graduation, they had Layla.

She has one younger brother, who is two years younger than her.

She knows fluent Dari, but she always loved the English language. The way that her parents would build her vocabulary before she got to school was she would wake up to a stack of ten notecards with a word written on it and would have to find what she believed to be the matching definition to each somewhere in the house.

Her love of creative writing started when she was in the first grade. Everyone in the class wrote a short, ten-page, story. And she couldn’t have loved it more. In the fifth grade, she had to write a mystery short story, thirty-pages. One could just see how her eyes lit up.

In high school, she took AP classes for English. In her free time, she would write her novel, writing what she knew. Writing her story. Sure, the protagonist had a different name, Khalida Zahir, and sure Khalida was from rural Kentucky instead of a Californian city. But everything else was her. It was about an Afghan American teen growing up in a post-9/11 world, never feeling truly American because of how people around her would treat her. Never feeling truly Afghan because her parents had left during the Soviet-Afghan War, nearly two decades before she was born. Learning to love herself.

When she started her novel at 14 years old, she never planned to publish it. It was solely therapeutic, for her to express something about herself that she did not know how to otherwise bring to the attention of others. To understand what her identity meant. To cope. To survive. At the time she had started, she wasn’t even telling her parents that she was writing this.

On her 16th birthday, she did tell them, however. She had decided that she wanted to take creative writing more seriously, maybe even major in it in college. Her parents had also, for her 16th birthday, gotten her a new computer, and she felt she needed to rise to their attention her novel, as she was unsure how to transfer the file. Her parents read it and loved it, insisting to their daughter that she had a real talent.

She finished her novel at 17 and submitted her work to different agents. Eventually, she got one to click. Got her novel professionally edited, and then published by HarperCollins when she was 18 years old.

She still wasn’t going to let being a published author stop her education though and started at the University of California at Riverside majoring in Creative Writing in the Fall 2017 semester.

However, she felt more drained of any creativity attending university than anything else. After the Fall 2018 semester ended, with only three semesters under her belt, she dropped out. In January 2019, she moved to Perfection Valley, hoping the relocation helps as she works on her new novel, which is a mystery novel.

For the record, she is bisexual.

She is a Sunni Muslim.

I’ll eventually get a real, proper biography up but that could take months so have this in the meantime. If there’s anything you want to know about her, just shoot me an IM on here or discord.

ABOUT THE MUN (NATALIE).

Heyy, I’m Natalie! I’m a 22 year old (who sometimes forgets she’s 22 and keeps writing 21 oops). I use she/her/her’s pronouns and live in Pennsylvania, so that’s EST! I’m mixed Aamsskáápipikani, Lenape, and White (mostly Irish, Scottish, and German with some Sardinian, Russian, and Scandinavian). I used to watch a lot of the SyFy channel (before I lost it on my TV because we went down to a bare minimum plan), shamefully at one point thought A Christmas Twister was a good movie?? I haven’t roleplayed in almost three years (will be three years in June) so please ignore anything rusty from me. I also play Bridgit Thomas!