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navree · 11 months ago

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You keep saying refusing to vote for Biden on moral grounds because of Palestine is ineffective because Trump would be worse, but that really isn't the point. Largely (with the exception of a few extremists and a contingency of people who wouldn't have voted anyways) the philosophy of a movement that has people withhold their vote is to force a significant policy change that wouldn't have changed otherwise. Its a form of protest. I understand from your perspective, election-focused and pragmatic, it is a threat to whoever is running, but if Biden had wanted the votes being withheld he would have capitulated.

Not that this isn't a moot point since he's out, but whatever.

See, this is intensely fucking dumb.

"force a significant policy change" it would not. One, because Biden is the president of the United States, and Israel is not one of those states. Short of sending the CIA to, idk, assassinate Netanyahu in his bed, which most of these people would be against I think because of how much they bitch and moan about US foreign policy at any given opportunity, he cannot actually make an independent foreign power do what he wants and what is electorally convenient for him. Like, I'm very sure Biden would love it if Netanyahu and his partisans stopped acting like fucking freaks for five minutes, if only so that it would stop being a PR nightmare for him. But that's not happening, because he cannot control what Netanyahu does. He could vastly reduce the support the US is providing Israel, and in my view he should, but that's not going to stop what Netanyahu and the Israeli government is doing. Because, I hate to break it to you, but the reason they're carpetbombing Gaza is because they want to be carpetbombing Gaza, and even without US aid they will continue to do it, even it just means with older and less effective weapons. Ultimately, the change that leads to a ceasefire and an end to the war is going to come from the actual parties involved, not Joe Biden.

Two, you've already gotten the significant policy change. Biden has, on multiple occasions now, come out in favor a ceasefire. He has actively been working, along with the Qatari government, to try and broker some kind of peace agreement between Israel and Hamas, but those two keep on fucking it up because they're both run by bloodthirsty psychopaths who don't care one iota about the people they're meant to be governing and only on killing whoever they want. That's been open fact for months now. And it has meant fuckall. The people doing their moral purity about how they'd never vote for Biden were still doing it, just moving the goalposts on what they wanted. First it was ceasefire, then it was 'no ceasefire until [insert impossible demand here] is given', because moving goalposts is what these people do. It's the same mentality as people who saw that Biden was doing COVID stimulus, or cancelling student loans, or reclassifying marijuana, and decided that the issue now was that he wasn't doing enough of it. It's a movement that's been consistently comprised of dogs that caught the car, and are angry that they caught the car because now they can't complain, and they don't want to actually affect meaningful change, they just want to complain because that's easier. And if that's what these people have been doing for his entire presidency, why on Earth would any reasonable person suddenly believe it's different on this one specific issue?

Three, cool you're protesting, then what? Your protest is utterly unserious and completely meaningless if it's not going to have any tangible effects, so what's the next step? You've decided to make your moral purity stance an issue that the vast majority of you learned from infographics on Instagram rather than listening to the voices involved (which is why the red triangle brigade is still a thing on Twitter), so what happens now? No political party is ever going to capitulate entirely to it, because the constituency is just too small (that "uncommitted" gambit was only getting like 10% of the vote wherever it was happening, Biden won over it as a literal write-in candidate in at least one state), so other than the compromise that's already happening, the goalpost movers are gonna withhold their votes because blah blah blah my morals. And their next step is, what? Trump gets elected. And their movement, which has no thought or serious effort put behind it or any actual attempt to provide material aid to the people actually suffering, has helped put a man who is going to be far worse for it in power. The "significant policy change" is going to be that Trump gives Netanyahu whatever he wants and he proceeds to wipe Gaza off the map. The "significant policy change" is that President "Trump Heights" actively makes things worse for the people this protest is supposed to help, as a consequence of that very protest.

It's not about me only being concerned with being "election focused" or some cold hearted bitch. It's about me, as a person who thinks what Israel has been doing since the start is godawful and deeply horrendous, realizing that this entire "protest" is not only asinine but will result in deeply negative consequences and very real harm for the people this protest is purported to be for, and being sickened by that. I live in the real world, and in the real world action speaks far louder than intent. I don't have to acknowledge that the protest wants this or that outcome or what the hypothetical impossible asks that are never going to be answered are, because I understand that they will not matter. What matters is what you get out of your protest, what gains are received, how that protest actually affects change, not the change it gives wishy washy lip service to.

#personal #answered #anonymous #this isn't very eloquent because i've been feeling a bit off all day #but if your protest is not only ineffectual but actually going to make things worse for the people you claim to 'help'#it deserves to be called stupid and be given the disrespect it engenders #i don't CARE about the philosophy behind it #it doesn't matter #it means fuck all that this protest is meant to convey this or that #because the outcome is what matters #the outcome that is going to affect real people who are already suffering #and are certainly not going to have their suffering alleviated if these people don't get their heads out of their asses

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miranaisnotdead · 1 month ago

Text

Introduction/What I'll post about

Yello and welcome back after the shortest hiatus on Earth! Because tumblr can not erase me :3

Fuck a normal introduction- We're doing this my way :3

Read below for a huge amount of information about thy reckless self of one called Mira- aka me

All of my other blogs :3

Important to know:

-I'm hungarian, I speak english and spanish fluently but I'm way more comfy with english :3 (I also know a good amount of italian)

-I live in Mexico, in Playa Del Carmen to be specific. And you might ask why tf am I giving out this info, well- no one lives here and I feel comfortable with it being out there, I'd also love to meet up with someone one day-

-I'm bisexual and polyamorous :3

-Unapologetic when it comes to my personality and style, I am unhinged and really weird which I do accept and I give zero fucks about your opinion :3 (except if I love you- that's different)

-I block VERY freely :3 I don't have DNI stuff, just be normal on my page and you'll survive (freaky things don't count, those are welcome here <3)

-I write fanfiction on a secret blog on here, and if I trust you and so on if you're really curious I can give you a link :3

Not so important shit:

Now I'm gonna go categorize all of this AGAIN-

Me:

Music/Bands:

AFI, Andy Black, Asking Alexandria, Ayesha Erotica, Baby Bugs, Badflower, Bad Omens, Bauhaus, Black Veil Brides, Bring Me The Horizon, Broken Wires, Cal1kath, Conan Gray, CORKY, The Cure, Daisy Grenade, David Bowie, Dead Poet Society, DeathbyRomy, Death Spells, Delilah Bon, Dénes Dávid, Depeche Mode, Escape The Fate, Evanescence, Falling In Reverse, Fall Out Boy, Frank Iero, Gerard Way, Get Scared, Green Day, Homestyle Dinner Rolls, HOWLEAN, Isabel LaRosa, Jake Webber, Jann, Jiinzo, Joy Division, Korn, Leathermouth, Letters For The Oddities, Lovejoy, L.S. Dunes, Luke Black, Mad About Marilyn, MANDRAGORA UK, Måneskin, Memphis May Fire, Mileo, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mirakill, Mother Mother, Motionless In White, My Chemical Romance, Negative 25, Nirvana, Palaye Royale, Panic! At The Disco, Pencey Prep, Pierce The Veil, The Relentless, RUWORR!ED, Sable, Set It Off, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Sleeping With Sirens, Sleep Token, The Smashing Pumpkins, Strvngers, Twenty One Pilots, TX2, Vana, Vass Geri, Victoria, The Warning, YUNGBLUD

Games:

Stardew Valley, Dave The Diver, Slime Rancher, Cult Of The Lamb, R.E.P.O., Don't Starve, Oxygen Not Included, Potion Craft, Despot's Game, Bear & Breakfast, Dorfromantik, Pony Island, Little Inferno, Minecraft, Gran Turismo, Forager, Gensin Impact, Life Is Strange, Olli Olli World, Beat Saber, A Way Out, Warframe, Five Nights At Freddy's, Tekken 7, The Forest, Bugsnax, The Long Dark, Detroit Become Human, Subnautica

Hobbies:

Crocheting, Writing, Reading, Diamond Painting, DIY, Gaming, Sleeping (yes it's a hobby shut up), Journaling, Theorising about my made up world and my made up people

Friends:

@lobot0mmy - Tag game moot <333 @sebbywebster - Gaming pookie <333 @daffodilrambles - United twinsies <333 @im-literally-so-dun - My wife and bbq grilled chiken <333 @shreysheep - Yappidy doo partner <333 @m1lkywaymikey - Writer bestie, and an overall religious happening <333

My tags:

#my yappidy doo - Anything that I yapp about, reblog or just I don't know, exist #don't question my sanity - Something questionable that I don't want you to question #mirana left the house yippie - Most likely pictures of me myself and dearest I #i love my profé - Talking about funny school stories #tagity tag tag - Tag games :3 #bbq grilled chicken <3 - My wife's tag #sebby being the sweetheart he is - Seb's tag, cause he's a LITERAL sweetheart #shrey and i's yappidy doo - Me and Shrey discuss something over reblogs #m1lkywaymikey blows my mind - Either fangirling or just random weirdness with da pookie :3 #lobot0mmy gets lobotomised - Tommy tagged me in a tag game, plus he's an icon, so why not :3 #the wheeze i whozed will be a tag from now on - Something funny I actually laughed on #me being gay over a straight woman - Talking about my life crisis because my IRL bestie kinda too hot to be actually straight #mirana rants about stuff - Me yapping way too much about my problems #gorgeous fanart - Any art or fanart that I'll reblog #being gay with Hanna - Me and my all time bestie (who only comes here so often) being gay or just absolute weirdos #jeyrard vey - Any post about Gerard Way #fhronkh eye'ruh - Any post about Frank Iero #moikey vey - Any post about Mikey Way #reiey touro - Any post about Ray Toro

That's all I actually remember about my original intro post- but I might add to it over time :3

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choicesmc · 5 months ago

Text

LoA Book 1, Chapter 5

Welcome to the fifth installment of this series! Thank you to everyone who’s read this far!! Mad impressed that y’all are still listening to my rambles <33

As always, post under the cut!

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

Gigi + Beau’s Corner

As I said, there weren’t a lot of scenes with Gigi and Beau in this chapter but the earliest one relating to either one of them was this line below:

Immediately, I’m pretty surprised that Gigi and Martin are (what seems to be) the preferred choice for the people in the firm. For this run, Fiona’s been #1 in ranking since from the beginning so I would’ve thought the firm would lean to whoever’s been first in the rankings. Moreover, isnt it a little weird that the firm choices Martin and Gigi, two relative outsiders, over Aislinn? Given that Aislinn is the only person whose skill level they have a clear understanding of, wouldn’t it be natural to default to her over, again, two relative strangers?

Additionally, Beau isn’t mentioned is the lineup. Out of everyone on that team, Beau isn’t mentioned! The firm doesn’t consider Beau a part of the firepower for his own team. It’s clear that the firm reads Gigi and Martin as the real “talent” between the five senior associates and Beau’s place is… not among them in kindly terms.

Yet during the actual proceedings, it’s really Beau who gets to shine.

My first time playing through I’d thought that Gigi and Martin gave Beau the opening for reasons similar to why Aislinn took it… it’s a relatively straightforward task that’s hard to mess up. But, in light of my reading from [Chapter 3] of Beau as someone whose talents lie in interpersonal communication, I think Beau does the opening statement because it is exactly within his forte. It’s his prime chance to show how good he is at working a jury and, well, he’s good. Or, at least, Aislinn certainly thinks so! And so does Sadie.

Now Beau could just be starved for praise but it clearly means a whole lot to him that Sadie, in specific, thinks that he’s grown. At this moment what Beau is hearing is not “you have done a good job” but “you’re becoming more like me.” For Beau, living up to Sadie’s legacy, becoming Sadie, is the only way to be a good lawyer. With that in mind, it holds that the only way to be a better lawyer is to be more like Sadie. When Sadie congratulates the team on improving, Beau hears her happiness that he’s becoming her.

Heading back to the moot court, Gigi might’ve taken the direct examination specifically because it is the one role that doesn’t really require the lawyer to connect with the jury. Additionally, Gigi’s courtroom decorum is… something.

Now, I’m not a lawyer by any means but I’d be willing to bet that’s not how you’re supposed to end a direct examination. Given everything Aislinn told us about McGraw Bryne’s moot court being taken incredibly serious by the firm (Sadie literally chastises Gabe for working on a real case instead of getting to moot court on time!), it’s almost ludicrous that Gigi would end her direct examination with “Your witness, MC.”

It feels so casual for an otherwise serious event! For me, this blatant disregard of courtroom protocol raises a really interesting question: Is Gigi a lawyer purely for the interesting cases she that might come across?

There’s no arguing that interesting cases is her primary reason for pursuing the profession, but Gigi shows a surprising lack of aptitude in pretty much every other area of legal practice. Given that she has been an attorney for some time already, it is strange that she seems less prepared for any aspect of being a lawyer outside of research and writing.

Due to this, I think Gigi primarily worked in contract law before coming to McGraw Byrne. It would explain her exceptional ability in the “paper work” part of being a lawyer and her lack of experience elsewhere.

Here, we see a very delightful truth: Beau can be a conceited mf. Whenever I point out his low self-esteem, it is specifically with regard to the top-tier environment he is in. Outside of the S-tier lawyers he works with, Beau understands that he is a cut above your average lawyer. (And, for the record, so does Gigi.)

At the end of this chapter, we get to (kind of) meet Philip Rothswell and this is how Gigi reacts:

This actually ties into a headcannon I have about Gigi’s backgrounds. [Here] I laid the bare bones of my headcannon but, simply put, Gigi’s family is a socialite one. Here, Gigi is the only one to react to Philip Rothswell’s name. Given that Beau and Martin don’t, we can reasonably assume that they either aren’t aware of who Rothswell is or don’t care.

Either way, the fact that Gigi both knows and cares about Philip is notable. Using the way Gigi describes him as “heir to the Rothswell railroad fortune… has stakes in restaurants, real estate, tech…” it is fair to reasonably assume that Rothswell isn’t a well known man, he’s just a wealthy one. So Gigi’s knowledge of him can’t be simply an ‘online’ thing —she has to be extremely in the know to know who Philip is.

Under my headcannon, Gigi’s mother, Leanne’s, extensive social network would explain why Gigi both knows and is shocked by meeting Philip in person!

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

Fiona’s Corner

By now y’all know the usual disclaimer but still: if you’re here only for Gigi and Beau stuff, you won’t want anything from this point on <3

Do. Not. Get. Between. Fiona. And. His. Ethics.

It’s not something that gets to come up often but Fiona does his damn best to follow ethical codes to the letter. He would go as far as to avoid the appearance of impropriety, in all honesty.

Given that Fiona is being cautious around Gabe by this point in the story, this reaction from Gabe does please Fiona. Like, it’s not going to make him run back to chasing Gabe by any means but it is good to know that, despite the mixed signals, Gabe does want Fiona is some way.

One of the reasons Fiona likes trial is that it almost feels like being a teacher again. At its very base, all trial lawyers do is lead the jury towards a particular conclusion using submitted evidence and testimonies —like guiding a classroom towards a particular concept using theorems and real life applications. It’s all very sentimental to him.

banner by: @/roseschoices [the post]

misc. thoughts

these are just some thoughts I couldn’t place anywhere else xD

mad props to Martin. Literally the scariest sentence in this chapter. How high do you think billable shave to be before they become “unignorable”. That’s insane work.

This is from the scene where Tyler and MC get splashed with water and it’s a weird line, right? Like the narrative has been transparent about Tyler being attracted to MC so this line reads oddly, especially considering that the literally next line is MC getting splashed w/water and offering Tyler the chance to propose a hookup w/MC —it almost reframes the water splashing as perhaps purposeful rather than purely accidental. It might be just me but it’s an odd line.

Ryan is a real one <3 wish we saw more of you 💕 In general, he’s been an absolutely delightful side character and I’m pretty glad they gave him just a tiny bit of character detail! That being said, I’m honestly unimpressed at the writers finding enough time to give Ryan a goal/fleshing out rather than doing that for Gigi.

We know Ryan:

Wants to go to law school

Is working at McGraw Byrne to pay off undergrad debts

Dislikes how the partners disregard/disrespect the paralegals and other non-lawyer staff

just from the things he has said to MC despite being (at best) a tertiary character!

But Gigi does not get the same consideration at all. The writers just needed a smart party girl and left it at that and I am pretty pissed about it. Throughout this little thing I’m doing, it becomes frustratingly obvious to see how little care was given to the female characters in relation to their male counterparts and that fucking sucks.

#loa reactions #choices laws of attraction #gigi sinclair #beau mcgraw #fiona lightwood

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likesunsetorange · 1 year ago

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how do you go about plotting your stories? :P

i always say that i’m a bit of a chaotic planner! i mention it a lot, but i have severely bad adhd, so things with me are a bit of organized chaos (except with the zine, i run that shit like the fucking marines man).

so basically since it starts off chaotic, i tend to kind of brain dump all my ideas into my doc (i use notion for planning), so like all the potential plot points scene ideas i may want, and then i tend to order them in a way that makes sense chronologically!

for one shots, i’ll be a bit more detailed bc i don’t do a lot of extra planning outside of my outline since it’s ONLY the one shot, but sometimes it’s even as simple as this! (from the wedding planner x baker au)

it’s not very eloquently written bc it’s just for me, so i don’t waste time making sure it’s in full sentences lol, it’s like me talking to myself! so i just write a bit chaotic lol but it’s what i find works for me, and im able to fill in the gaps! and here’s another example LOL (a spoiler sorta from the cowboy x model au!) like i said, they’re severely unserious, but it’s what works for me!! but this is how i do my one shot ones, just bc i outline them in their entirety and im not writing full length sentences i don’t have fucking time for that with my minimal attention span having ass 😭

BUT! for the e2l au and the bodyguard au!! i definitely did a lot more planning which is why it’s taken me so much longer to put them out 😭 with dol, which i’ve emphasized MANY times, i wrote it for shits and giggles and so i was like oh! like i should’ve been a bit more organized, which for the most part i’ve done PRETTY well, considering i wasn’t initially but i definitely wanted to be more prepared with these two!!

so for both of the fics, i have them set up like this! there’s three little sections and i can kinda explain how i organized each one!

outline: that’s the overall fic outline, i basically started it how i mentioned above, i brain dumped all my ideas and then made it into a mostly cohesive chronological order! for multi chapter fics tho i get rlly overwhelmed tho if i super intensely outline bc sometimes i change my mind, so i have a MOSTLY SOLID idea of the overall plot give or take some minor decisions (which is why the whole first kiss thing in the bodyguard au i said i wasn’t 100% sure on yet bc i could still change my mind lol). so i outline chapter by chapter going based off the overall big outline, and choosing from the scenes i wanted to do, and maybe any ideas y’all suggest too! so like some things ARE subject to change, but like for sure most things (like in dol the whole fire thing) i ALWAYS know would happen

details: for both fics, to make sure i kept the characterizations consistent, i wrote down everything about eren and mikasa and their character goals and traits for both au’s! and then specifically for the e2l au, i wrote out their feelings and thoughts about the breakup and how they both thought about one another as to make sure i kept those consistent!!! when writing mc fics it’s really easy to kind of stray away from characterization (at least for me bc i write a bunch of stuff at once) so i wanted to make sure i had something to refer to if i ever needed to!!

extras: bc i realized i enjoyed having quotes/chapter titles, i basically pre chose all of those just to save myself some time later on bc im indecisive as fuck lol so if was to help future me

basically i think everyone has a super different process!! i love hearing about all my writer moots writing processes bc we’re all really different! some of my moots have very detailed processes which i admire, bc im not like that at all, but i’ve found this works for me and the way my brain works! it’s a mix of organization but not in a way that stresses me out or overwhelms me!

but also sometimes like the cabin fic i’ll just say to hell with it write a fic on a whim and not plan for shit except knowing i wanna write those five individual scenes so im nothing if not a mess also, but yea sorry for talking your ear off, i always say being concise is not something i can ever do LOL i hope this answers your question tho!! 😭

and i provided some snippets for you bodyguard au and e2l au readers too!!

#asks #writing stuff #bodyguard au #exes to lovers au #cowboy x model au

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naomisalman · 2 years ago

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are there any books you'd recommend to study or reference to help improve writing? specifically weaving scenes smoothly is something I really struggle with; either I show all my cards or hide them so well you can't figure out any of the subtext

i'm afraid i don't have any recs when it comes to how-tos; the idea that you can learn how to write by following instructions is very culturally american? i'm not saying that's a bad thing -- but like, for instance, there are lots of creative writing courses in the US and almost none in france. the general idea here is that writing can be learned but not taught, if that makes sense. i tend to agree.

so, the way i personally learned how to write (or began to learn -- i'll always be learning) was by reading a lot, not only for pleasure, but also by doing deep dives into classics over three years of lit prep school. i loved literary analysis and i learned a lot just from wondering what to say in my damn essays. ("what is the theme of that excerpt, when you get right down to it, and how do i make it sound clever???") so i guess that might be something for you to explore -- select a text you particularly admire and analyse it yourself: how does it work, why does it work? maybe talk it over with friends who've read it too: gushing about things is also fiction analysis. (being a hater, too! you can learn a lot by analysing what doesn't work in certain stories. but it's better to be a hater and a lover, you can't learn only from negatives examples.)

i do like video essays about media. hbomberguy's seminal work "Sherlock Is Garbage and Here's Why" is not only hilarious but also an amazing deep dive into what works and what doesn't. his media stuff is generally pretty great when it comes to taking fiction mechanics apart, though he's mostly done it with video games lately. but yeah, this too is "learning about writing" rather than "teaching about writing": instead of being taught general rules that have so many exceptions they're all basically moot, learn from studying specific works of fiction, on your own or through someone else's analysis.

i guess my one big rec for "specific works of fiction that are fun to read and also to analyse" would be the discworld series by terry pratchett. it's great, but also it's not that great at the beginning: tpratch really starts to hit his stride around book ten. and then he gets fantastically good. if you haven't read them, you can start with small gods or going postal or the truth -- they're all standalones. i have a lot of admiration for small gods in particular, there's not a single wasted word in this book, i swear. then if you like it, you can keep reading discworld books -- and then when you love it, go and read books 1-to-9 and go "whoa wow yeah okay, he really grew as a writer over the course of the series". (caveat: i personally can't read the last five books in the series, you see him decline as a writer as alzheimers takes over and it's horribly sad.)

i hope all this helps! <3

#salman's anons #writing

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heauxplesslydevoted · 4 years ago

Note

Hi there! We're changing things up a little this week :)

Not Yet Wed Questions

Note: Great Scott! This week, we are going back in time to MC’s intern year. Think of Ethan’s relationship with them at this point and answer the following questions accordingly. It is entirely up to you when in year 1 this takes place (pre/post Miami, pre/post CH 15, etc). Feel free to answer with dialogue or pictures or both :) Have fun!

No worries. All of this is off the record and HR will never know!

The setting for this answers is:

For Both

When I first saw them, I thought__________

What is your coworker's most used swear word?

Quick: What color are their eyes?

Three people at work your coworker hates?

What is your coworker’s strangest or most endearing quirk?

If they had a crush on anyone at work, who would that be?

(Bonus round! Feel free to skip.)

Never have I Ever:

come into work hungover

had a fistfight

been kicked out of a bar

gotten a tattoo

broken someone’s heart

been in love

For MC (Ethan is not there)

Where do you see him in five years (both professionally and in his personal life?)

What do you find the most impressive about him?

Last thing he texted you?

If he asked you out on a date, what would you say?

For Ethan (MC is not there)

Where do you see him in five years (both professionally and in his personal life?)

What specifically do you find attractive about her?

Last thing she texted you?

If she asked you out on a date, how would you respond?

Alright, post Book 1 but pre-Ethan fleeing to South America Ethan x Naomi coming right up! I feel like that time would have maximum tension because they’re trying to find their footing again after fucking the souls out of each other’s bodies and sending them into orbit, and lowkey falling in love sleeping together, while maintaining professionalism.

~v~

For Both:

When I first saw them, I thought__________

Naomi: I thought “thank God someone else is here!” I was in over my head with that patient, and I didn’t even notice that The Ethan Ramsey was the one assisting me until much later.

Ethan: I thought she had guts. You don’t see too many first day interns that are ready to jump into the fray like she did.

What is your coworker's most used swear word?

Naomi: He says Christ and any iteration of the word damn. Dammit, goddamn, goddammit, you get the gist.

Ethan: She says fuck.

Naomi: You’ve never heard me say that.

Ethan: She says fuck a lot, especially when she’s...*Ethan trails off and catches himself before he finishes that sentence. It’s a moot point all the same because now all he can think about is the young intern in front of him, hands pulling his hair, nails raking down his back, moaning the obscenity into his ear, into his pillows. He awkwardly clears his throat* Just trust me, I’ve heard her say it. Multiple times.

*and now he’s mad at himself*

Quick: What color are their eyes?

Naomi: Blue. They’re kinda hard to miss.

Ethan: Her eyes are brown.

Three people at work your coworker hates?

Naomi: He hates everyone, except for me and Naveen.

Ethan: Except for you? You think pretty highly of yourself, Rookie.

Naomi: Am I wrong? *Ethan doesn’t deny it, instead staying silent and Naomi smirks* Exactly

Ethan: I don’t think she dislikes anyone. I’ve never met a person like her, she makes friends with everyone.

What is your coworker’s strangest or most endearing quirk?

Naomi: He fiddles with his glasses a lot.

Ethan: She’s constantly biting her lip, especially when she’s really focused.

*she’s actually surprised that he picked up on that* Naomi: You notice that?

Ethan: I notice everything...about everything. It’s the nature of the job.

If they had a crush on anyone at work, who would that be?

*they both share an awkward glance before looking away and declining to answer*

Never Have I Ever...

Come into work hungover

Ethan: When I was younger, yes. But now that I’m older, I know my limits.

Naomi: No, because I don’t get hangovers due to my magical hangover cure.

Ethan: That god-awful drink is...surprisingly effective.

*the interviewer asks Ethan to elaborate on the time Naomi gave him whatever her hangover cure is, and he adamantly refuses*

Had a fistfight

Naomi: Yes, but in my defense I was drunk.

Ethan: *snorts* How is that a defense?

Naomi: I’m the daughter of an attorney, I usually try to resolve my issues with my words. But drunk Naomi is a little feistier.

Ethan: You mean you have a level of feistiness that I’ve yet to see?

Naomi: Oh yeah. Anyway, I was in college, I was drunk at a bar, someone spilled a drink on me, and it escalated. I think I broke her nose.

Ethan: An arrest record wasn’t on your file when we hired you.

Naomi: Like I said, I’m the daughter of an attorney, and the granddaughter of a DC judge. That has its perks.

Ethan: Yes, I’ve gotten into a fist fight before. I punched Nash in the face. And before that, i fought my old med school roommate.

Naomi: Ooh, what did he do?

Ethan: That’s not a story I’d ever divulge while sober.

Been kicked out of a bar

Naomi: Yes. Circle back to the previous question.

Ethan: No, because I’m an adult.

Gotten a tattoo

Ethan: Absolutely not

Naomi: I have a tattoo of the Cancer symbol on my left hip. It’s my zodiac sign.

*this stuns Ethan into silence because he’s seen her naked on more than one occasion and been...very well acquainted with the body parts below her waist, and for the life of him cannot remember a tattoo*

Broken someone’s heart

Naomi: No. At least, I don’t think so. I’ve had my heart broken, if that counts.

Ethan: Same as Naomi. I don’t think I have.

*they make a pointed effort to not make eye contact with each other, and Naomi bites down on her lip, letting the silence hang in the air. The alternative would be informing Ethan that he has indeed broken someone’s heart, and that just won’t do.*

Been in love

Naomi: I don’t know. Maybe? I thought I was in love with my med school boyfriend, but now that time has passed, I know that wasn’t love. At least, not the good kind. And there was a near miss after him, but nothing came out of it. The emotions were a lot stronger the second time around though, and i think it’s the closest I’ve come to it this far. I’m a hopeless romantic, so I hope I find it someday.

Ethan: No. Call me a cynic, but I just don’t see love as something that’s feasible and attainable. Putting that much trust and dependency in another person is not realistic.

For Naomi (Ethan is not there)

Where do you see him in five years (both professionally and in his personal life?)

Naomi: I don’t know what’s left for a man like Ethan Ramsey. He’s already done so much in the field of medicine, unless he reinvents the entire wheel and turns it upside down, which I can see him doing. I can see him writing more, publishing more research, and of course winning more awards. If he wasn’t so anti-administration, he could be running this place. Or maybe he’ll start his own non-profit.

Naomi: As far as his personal life, I don’t know. You heard loud and clear that he doesn’t really believe in love. I hope one day he changes his mind or finds a companion, because underneath his extremely prickly exterior, he’s one of the best men I know and he has a heart of gold. He deserves the chance to let someone take care of it for him.

What do you find the most impressive about him?

Naomi: From afar, Ethan seems very larger than life, but I think the most impressive thing about him is his dedication to not just medicine, but his patients. I’ve never seen him not go above and beyond for someone he was treating.

Last thing he texted you?

Naomi: “Please consult Diana in HR regarding your official diagnostic team fellowship application. I know this year has been unorthodox to say the least, but there are still some steps that must be taken before the start of your second year. Thank you.”

Naomi: I’ve never received a text message that long.

If he asked you out on a date, what would you say?

*her cheeks heat up furiously and she pulls her bottom between her teeth before answering, her eyes bright and watery*

Naomi: Am I a total glutton for pain for saying I’d jump at the chance?

For Ethan (Naomi is not there)

Where do you see her in five years (both professionally and in her personal life?)

Ethan: Dr. Valentine has so much potential and she’s going to be one of the greats. She’s going to be running the diagnostics team if she chooses to stay at Edenbrook, and I can’t see Naveen not trying to keep her here. She’s going to win awards, have awards named after her, publish research, lead trials, whatever. I hate to sound banal and cliche, but the sky really is the limit for her. I chose her for a reason, and I plan her helping her reach all of that potential.

Ethan: As for her personal life, I don’t know. Hopefully she finds someone that’s good enough for her.

What specifically do you find attractive about her?

Ethan: A-attractive? *the word comes out in a squeak, but he coughs to cover it up* Why on earth would you assume that I’m attracted to her?

*he goes on a ridiculously long tangent about how inappropriate it is to be attracted to your coworkers, especially your subordinates, and how he would never jeopardize Naomi’s career on something as trivial as attraction, and anyone with an ounce of common sense can tell that he doth protest too much*

Ethan: But if I absolutely had to pick something besides her good looks, it’d be her spirit. She’s warm and empathetic and optimistic, and I’ve never seen someone care as much as she does.

Last thing she texted you?

Ethan: “👍” I sent her a message about her upcoming fellowship and she sent back a thumbs up. Just that. I was a little annoyed.

If she asked you out on a date, how would you respond?

Ethan: As um...flattering as that might be, I would say no. I am an attending, she’s an intern, my soon to be fellow. That is crossing too many ethical lines, lines I refuse to breach.

Ethan: And I would say no because Naomi is...just a good person. And maybe I’m being biased, but I don’t know if anyone will ever be truly worthy of her. But I can say without a shadow of a doubt that she deserves so much better than me or what I could give her.

#ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #newlyweds game with your host bree

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sanderssidesfanfiction · 4 years ago

Text

If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Seventy Two

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

November 11th, 2001

Emile sat at the table, staring at the letter he was holding with great consternation. Faith had written him, and he had written her back, talking about Remy and how they were getting along, and generally, how everything seemed nice and domestic lately. And Faith had replied, throwing Emile a curveball.

Would you marry him, Emile? It’s obvious to everyone you’ve written to that you love him. We’ve all talked about it at one point or another. We all think you should, if you love him as much as you say you do.

Emile didn’t know how to respond. Would he marry Remy? The mere thought felt like he was going to spiral into a panic attack. But at the same time...he couldn’t deny the warmth he felt in his chest about the idea.

He put the letter away, resolving to respond to it when he had a better answer than “I don’t know.” He knew Faith wouldn’t let the matter drop if he waffled on the decision.

September 20th, 2002

Emile couldn’t help but laugh as he saw a familiar face he knew all too well approaching him on campus. “Theo!” Emile exclaimed, running over and giving his friend a huge hug. “What’s up? I didn’t think you were coming to visit for a little while yet! I thought you’d still be sick of Fairview!”

Theo laughed and hugged Emile back. “I actually swung by to chat with you and Remy. I’m having housing issues and I was hoping you two might have some advice on finding a roomie and splitting rent, y’know? Falling in love is not required, but it is a plus.”

Emile laughed. “Well, you’re in luck, because I just finished my last class and I was heading to the parking lot. Remy’s not off his shift at the local coffee shop yet, but we can hang around the shop until he’s off and we can snag him, and you can come back to ours!” Theo nodded and they walked to the parking lot together. “So, what sort of housing problems are you having? Prices? Roommates? Lack of roommates?”

“All of the above?” Theo weakly joked. “My current roommates are barely pulling their weight, I can’t find new ones, and none of the half-decent places are in my price range, so if I move out, I have to settle for a run-down one room which probably has massive problems.”

“Yikes,” Emile said with a grimace. “That’s seriously not good.”

“Tell me about it,” Theo said. “You two made it look so easy, I don’t know how you did it. I’m ready to throttle my roommates at any given moment for stealing my food, invading my privacy in my room, or for inviting people over who inevitably trash the place.”

“I mean, the fact that Remy and I tolerated each other and had pretty clear boundaries from the start helped,” Emile said. “I have no doubt you tried to set boundaries, but I’m willing to bet those roommates of yours didn’t respect them, did they?”

“Not after the first few weeks, no,” Theo sighed. “And they brushed me off every time I tried to talk to them about it.”

“Ouch. You definitely need better roommates, Theo,” Emile said.

Theo nodded. “I don’t know anyone else in that area, though, unfortunately. I’m thinking about moving back here, however temporarily, because I know a few people here who might be willing to split rent with me.”

“That might be a good idea,” Emile agreed. “Provided you can stand being around the college you went to, that is.”

“Somehow I think I’ll live,” Theo laughed. “Like, some people might give me grief, but they’re my friends so I wouldn’t mind too much. The biggest problem, for me, is going to be finding a job in my field. Forensic science is all well and good until you’re forced to move back to a city with a low crime rating so all the spots where you might be able to work forensics have been filled for years.”

“Ooh, ouch,” Emile said with a wince.

“Yep,” Theo said with a strained laugh. “It’s...not great, for sure. I really need to find somewhere that I can work, and somewhere that I can afford my own place at the same time, y’know? But the housing market is ridiculously expensive, and I heard it’s only gonna get worse.”

Emile grimaced. “Yikes, yeah, I’ve heard inflation is getting pretty bad. I haven’t had to worry about it as much, but if you’re looking for a place...”

“It totally sucks, dude,” Theo said with absolute certainty, leaning back into the passenger seat of Emile’s car. “Oh, but since I’m here, and Remy’s not...how’s the project going, man?”

Emile offered Theo a big grin. “I’ve got the property,” he said, eyes lighting up. “Turns out it was almost gonna be demolished, because no one’s been picking it up. But it’s in good condition. All I really need is the inside and everything will be ready!”

“The inside is gonna take a while, though, you know that, right?” Theo asked. “Getting everything up to code, renovating what’s been getting run down, electricity, plumbing...”

“I know,” Emile said. “But I have the worst of it over with. The property’s bought. And I know Remy’s specifications for what he wants on the inside, and he’s none the wiser to the plan, and...man, this will be ready by mid to late December if everything goes right!”

“It could be your birthday present to him,” Theo lightly teased.

Emile gasped. “Oh my God, it could! Can you believe that, Theo?! I could make this Remy’s birthday gift! His very own shop!”

Theo laughed. “You’re such a mess, Emile. On one hand, you’re a highly skilled, well-rounded adult, but on the other, your emotions come into play and it’s like you’re a five year old on Christmas morning. And your emotions are always in play when it comes to Remy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see you being loving and excited and human, but your reasoning skills when you’re emotional?” Theo made a whistling noise with his teeth, “Out the window.”

“Hey! I’ve made good decisions when I’m emotional before!” Emile laughed.

“Yeah, because you put your emotions to the side. That’s not making rational decisions when emotional, that’s looking at things from a rational angle rather than an emotional one. And you do kinda bottle up those emotions when making the decisions, don’t think no one’s noticed.”

“I—well—yeah...” Emile reluctantly admitted. “Remy’s been helping me with that, though.”

“Yeah, he’s told me as much in his emails,” Theo said. “And I’m proud of both of you. You for allowing your emotions a place and a time, and Remy for being willing to help with that sort of thing instead of leaving you to your own devices.”

“We both have grown a lot,” Emile agreed as they pulled into the coffee shop parking lot.

Theo and Emile got out of the car and walked into the shop, Emile asking, “You want anything to drink? My treat.”

“I could take a small coffee,” Theo said.

Emile nodded and got in line, telling Theo, “Grab a table for both of us?”

Theo nodded and Emile couldn’t help the little smile on his lips. He was just having coffee with a friend. It shouldn’t seem all that important, but it felt strangely adult, and he didn’t know why that made him giddy, but it did. Just being able to sit down and complain about roommates and jobs and...just getting adjusted to the new normal that life was winding up being.

Emile placed their orders and found Theo sitting in a corner, and he gave Theo his coffee while Emile kept his tea. Theo waited until Emile was taking a sip of his tea before he asked, “So, are you gonna pop the question?”

Choking on his tea, Emile stared at Theo, who was shaking with silent laughter. “Theo!” he gasped. “Come on! That’s mean!”

“Well, I’m just wondering!” Theo asked innocently.

Emile sighed. “Well, it’s not exactly like we could get married anywhere yet,” he said. “It feels like a moot point.”

“It’s a symbolic thing, man. Even if you can only get a ‘civil union’ or whatever, the promise of staying together until the end of the line is there,” Theo said.

“But we already have that promise with each other,” Emile said, frowning.

“Precisely why I’m asking about this,” Theo said. “You’ve already got it, so when are you making it official?”

“Theo, believe me when I say whenever gay marriage is an option I will absolutely be marrying Remy. And it will be the best day of my life. But until it’s legalized, or at least it’s in the process of being legalized, I don’t see the point of getting a ring,” Emile said with a shrug. “Oh, and before I forget, when that day comes? You’d better be my best man.”

It was Theo’s turn to choke on his coffee. “Dude, you kidding me?! Of course I’d be your best man! I’m honored! But is there like, no one else you’d rather have?”

“Theo, the only person closer than you and our friend group in terms of friendship with me is Remy. And I’d be marrying him. I can’t exactly have him be my best man.”

Theo beamed. “Man, you’d better be inviting all your friends to this hypothetical wedding. That includes your high school ones. I can’t wait to embarrass you in front of them.”

“They knew me when I was thirteen, can’t get much more embarrassing than that,” Emile said simply.

“Ooh, I’d love to pick up some stories from them,” Theo said, grinning and rubbing his hands.

Emile laughed just as Remy walked over. “What’s the deal with this party without me?”

“Remy!” Theo exclaimed, standing up and hugging Remy.

Remy returned the hug with a grin. “Good to see you, man. What’s up?”

“Housing issues, actually,” Theo said. “I need your and Emile’s advice about finding new roomies.”

“And in the process, try and get us to get engaged, apparently,” Emile said drily.

“What, we’re not married already?” Remy asked with a laugh.

Emile snorted and Theo said, “Nah, man. You haven’t tied the knot. I would know, I’m Emile’s best man, and he hasn’t stuck me in a tux yet.”

Remy grinned. “Well, that’s great and all, except for me, because now I have to find a different best man for the big day.”

“Yeah, I’m not making two best man speeches,” Theo laughed. “Would you seriously ask me, though?”

Remy shrugged. “I dunno, man. Like, thinking about it, I never really planned out a wedding for anyone I had crushed on or dated. And Toby was gonna be my best man, because I asked him once and he promised...but since we lost contact...” Remy shrugged. “You’d be an excellent second choice. But I’ll figure something else out.”

“All right,” Theo laughed.

“You officially off the clock, Rem?” Emile asked.

“Yup,” Remy said. “And ready to go home.”

“Oh, man, I wish I could say that,” Theo bemoaned.

“Yeah, let’s talk about your housing, man, what’s up?” Remy asked.

As Theo explained what was going on and they walked out of the shop, Emile’s gears were whirring. He would definitely need to find Toby soon. Especially considering that sooner or later he knew he would be finding a ring for Remy. He didn’t know when that might be, but Theo was right. The promise of staying together until the end of the line deserved something important.

It was funny, though. The thought of marrying Remy just felt...inherently right. As Remy and Emile fought over who should drive the car back to their apartment, Emile considered marrying anyone else, of any gender, of anyone he had previously dated, and it never rung as true as what he felt when imagining marrying Remy.

Remy won the argument for driving the car and Emile slid into the passenger seat, glancing at Theo in the back. “You know what, Theo? You’re right.”

Theo grinned. “I know I am, dude. But I’m glad that you can see that too.”

“He’s right about what?” Remy asked.

“One day, I’m gonna marry you,” Emile said simply.

“Oh,” Remy said. “I mean, yeah? Marriage is terrifying, but there’s no one I’d rather marry.”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement,” Emile said.

“Do you know when you’re gonna propose?” Remy asked.

“Not yet,” Emile said. “Need to find a ring first, figure out the right moment. But I’m definitely proposing to you.”

“Not if I do it first, buddy,” Remy said with a wicked grin.

“Oh, it is on,” Emile said.

Theo laughed. “Are you two really turning proposals into a competition?” he asked.

“Best proposal wins the excuse to kiss the other person for a solid minute,” Emile said solemnly.

“Oh, you are so on!” Remy exclaimed with a laugh.

Theo just cackled at their antics.

#if there's a place i could be #sanders sides fanfiction #remile #emile picani #ts sleep

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wunderlass · 6 years ago

Text

Max Evans, Princess of Power

“You’re the one who never wanted us to ask questions or call attention to ourselves, and we followed it blindly.”

“No one made you follow my rule, Michael. I’m not your dad.”

“You’ve sure as hell been acting like it all our lives.”

During a recent rewatch of the show, I started thinking about the power dynamics of the pod squad, and specifically the way Max is positioned as their de facto leader–largely through statements made by Michael. This led me to question whether Max actually does serve the purpose of leader (or at least, a paternal/big brother figure to the other two), or whether the power dynamics are far more complicated than that.

To that end, I’ve done a close rewatch of all the scenes involving the pod squad interacting with each other or talking about each other to try and answer this question.

(That title is a complete pisstake, by the way).

tldr: Michael doesn’t listen to Max and never has. Max definitely isn’t in charge of the pod squad.

The first time we meet Michael, he’s contrasted with Max: the irresponsible brother against the “self-righteous” one. The criminal vs the cop; the rule breaker vs the rule maker and enforcer. It’s implied that Max is the leader of the pod squad, keeping the errant Michael in line: a big brother reprimanding a misbehaving younger sibling, despite the fact they’re the same age as far as they know.

However, the dialogue in the pilot suggests their agreement to keep their secret was one they reached between them, rather than a rule that Max imposed on the other two. Isobel says:

“I keep this secret because you, me, and Michael swore that we would.”

During the pilot, Michael is the one trying to enforce this rule, tailing Max to stop him talking to Liz. The one who puts their survival above all else. Isobel tells Max that Michael won’t forgive him for telling Liz their secret—and Max states that he isn’t asking permission. This doesn’t suggest that Max has been running a little fiefdom of the three of them.

Within the same episode, Michael tries to steer Isobel to get inside Liz’s mind to send her away. And by “steer”, I mean he explicitly gives Isobel an order:

“Start preparing yourself. Because if Liz Ortecho turns on any of us you will get inside of her head and erase it, make her leave Roswell...leave Max.”

So far, we haven’t been told Max was the one making the rules, and Michael sure as hell isn’t following any. The episodes that follow compound this, showing that Max has no authority over Michael, who never listens to him and consistently pushes back against him. Michael and Isobel break into the Crashdown to threaten Liz, going behind Max’s back. They sneak around in episode three trying to get into Liz’s mind. By the time Max decides this is the best approach in episode four, they’ve already tried it for him (again), and his opinion is a moot point.

It’s in episode five where Michael first claims that Max is their leader: “You made the rules our entire lives—never be extraordinary! Just once we made a gametime decision for your own good!”

That’s pretty consistent within the pod squad—making decisions for each other. Max tries it, Michael tries it, Isobel does it but is usually going along with one of her brothers. The narrative at least tries to frame this is as a bad idea, something which leads to bigger problems for them. But Michael is the one who’s in on both secrets, initiating the lie to Isobel about who killed Rosa. We don’t at this stage know who came up with the idea to send Liz away back in 2008, but I’d put odds on it being Michael, just like it was this time around. Isobel was capable of doing that alone without needing to discuss it with Michael, if she thought it was the best approach, and without telling him so he couldn’t spill the beans to Max. Instead, Michael’s involvement suggests to me that it was his idea that time and this time.

It’s Michael’s claim here in episode five—"our entire lives”—that doesn’t ring quite true. As we find out over the course of the season, the pod squad were separated before they were verbal. It’s possible that they came up with some kind of mental pact to blend in, but given that Max doesn’t remember that period of time, why would Michael? This means any rules could only have been put in place when Michael returned to Roswell as a preteen. And during the tent discussion in episode six, it seems clear that Michael realises he has to cover up his powers for his own protection. This isn’t something he’d need telling by Max. He’s already successfully kept his alien identity under wraps while separated from the other two for years.

One of the things I found most interesting about that first scene in episode six is how, when Max has killed the drifter, both boys turn to Isobel to ask her what they should do. Isobel is too broken at this point to answer, so Michael takes charge, covering up the body to bury it. But this instinct of theirs, to look to Isobel, implies that maybe the first leader of their group was actually her. And when she wasn’t capable of fulfilling that role any more, they each tried to fill the void.

Throughout this episode, there isn’t really any sense of either boy being in charge. They share their problems, to an extent. Michael at this stage is the least sheltered of the pod squad due to his upbringing, and he’s used to not relying on anybody else. He can take charge where he needs to be, because he’s used to surviving on his own. When Max notices the issues with Isobel he suggests going to their parents, and Michael is the one who shoots that down. No rule, certainly not one imposed by Max, is mentioned.

Later this is reversed, with Michael imploring Max to involve his parents at the caves. Neither boy is wrong in the logic they use to discredit the suggestion, and neither boy is taking the lead, instead working together to produce the cover up. Max suggests they must cover the murders up; Michael lies to Isobel. Isobel pushes the cover up further. There is shared responsibility for what happened, rather than one person being to blame for what went wrong, and Isobel says to Michael that they agreed to never talk about that night. Everything they do is mutual, except for the lie Michael tells Isobel. But when the topic comes up in episode eleven, Michael blames Max for the cover up.

Based on what’s shown, it’s probable that Max moved into more of a paternal position after Rosa’s death, because he had to. Isobel wasn’t capable; Michael’s plans fell apart and it seems likely he started acting out in ways that could have led to his discovery, so Max stepped in to try and keep him under control. By this point, their relationship was already fractured, and Michael’s resentment of him began to grow, until his interpretation of their dynamic in the past is coloured by how it is in the present.

Max’s role as leader has been massively exaggerated by Michael's resentment of him. Nobody needed to impose a rule on any of them, because they all knew what was at stake. They’ve grown up in a society which is saturated with ideas of aliens (human and inhuman) as the enemy and examples of what humanity does to people it fears. If Max is the leader in the present (and it certainly doesn’t seem like Michael follows his lead) then he didn’t choose this role but was the last one standing capable of taking it.

One last thing I want to mention is how Max’s mere size could influence people’s perception of him, both other characters and viewers. NDP is a big dude with a deep voice, so Max’s anger when we see flashes of it is palpable. Max could be characterised as an “alpha” (not a real thing) based on physical characteristics alone. But when you look at Max’s behaviour, he really isn’t. He doesn’t want to be in charge of anything or anyone. He didn’t become a cop to gain power, he did it to assuage his guilt. Within their relationship, Liz is the more dynamic character and it seems very plausible that Max would be happy to hand over all the power to her.

Max may grow into a leadership position in the future, depending on the nature of his powers, but he’s certainly never held the reins of the pod squad. Even if they all believe that’s the case, it’s been an illusion. More flashbacks may provide more context and flesh out their historic dynamic further, but it seems clear to me that Michael is used to being beholden to nobody except himself, and it’s been that way their entire lives.

#roswell new mexico #meta #pod squad #max evans #michael guerin #isobel evans

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tendertenebrosity · 6 years ago

Text

So, @castielamigos was asking me about the Mage story with Rill. I actually attempted to write his story for NaNoWriMo several years ago, but petered out after a handful of chapters.

I re-read the document just now and it’s... okay? I can tell my writing’s changed. The very first chapter - mostly introductory stuff - is under the cut if it would be of interest to anybody.

Chapter One

Rill looked up at the walls of the Camrissian Academy of Magic with a light, sick feeling in his chest.

His wife, Talia, finished instructing the driver to return to pick her up. She approached behind him and took his arm.

“Well,” she said briskly. “Here we are. Do you have all of your things?”

“Yes,” Rill said. It wasn’t as if he had so many ‘things’ that he could have lost track of any in the carriage ride from the Ambirana town house to the Academy. A single bag over his shoulder contained his plainest sets of clothing, a few personal grooming items, and two books. He had no idea what he was going to need, or for that matter what he was going to be allowed to keep - he had a vague recollection that mages weren’t allowed much in the way of possessions. It seemed best to be frugal.

“Well,” Talia said again, and squeezed his arm gently. She joined him in looking up at the Academy. “It’s a beautiful old building.”

“Yes,” he said. “I suppose.”

He gathered his thoughts. He would rather say most of his goodbyes out here, just in case they didn’t get any time alone later. “Talia… I want to thank you for… the last few weeks,” he said awkwardly. “It’s been… you’ve been…”

“Rill, I’m sorry it took something like this to…” she frowned and shook her head. “Get us to sort ourselves out.” She unhooked her arm from his and wrapped an arm around his waist for an embrace. “I think we could have… we would have been okay in the end. We had a rocky start but we could have made it work. If it wasn’t for…”

“Magic,” he said. “Maybe you’re right. But it doesn’t really matter now, does it?” He tried to smile.

Privately he thought it was easy to tell themselves it would have worked out if only it had been allowed to, now that external factors had made the question moot. In some ways it’s ideal, he thought sadly. I wanted a way out of the marriage that didn’t have repercussions for our families, didn’t I? Nobody can be held to blame for it, and now Talia can get a proper husband like she should have.

There was no way he would voice that self-pitying spiel to Talia, though. He had enough self respect for that at least.

“Anyway,” he said. “I – I do love you, Talia.”

She sighed, and pulled him close for a few seconds. “My poor Rill.”

He held her for a while, but pulled back when he felt a lump rise in his throat. “Come on,” he said, pulling away. He resettled his bag on his shoulder and held his arm out properly for her to take, smiling. “I’m sure they’d rather we got there as soon as possible.”

“It’s been two months,” Talia said offhandedly. “I think another five minutes wouldn’t result in you bursting into flames. But if you’re ready.”

Rill wasn’t sure he was comfortable joking about bursting into flames. He took a deep breath, and they opened the door and entered the Magic Academy together.

Inside it was quiet and high-ceilinged, with a deep blue carpet on the stone floor.

A woman in a high-collared uniform coat of the same blue straightened up from her position against a wall. There was another, a man, on the other side of the hallway. “Hello. Can I help you?”

“I am Lady Talia Ambirana,” Talia announced. “We wish to speak to someone about magic.”

The mage-watchers – for that was what the blue uniform signified – exchanged a glance with each other. “Of course, lady,” the woman said. “What, specifically, regarding magic did you wish to speak about?”

“My husband has recently discovered that he possesses magic,” Talia said haughtily, as if daring her to think badly of them for it. She had behaved much the same way with her family.

Both of the magewatcher’s eyes shifted to Rill immediately. He tried to emulate Talia’s poise.

“I see, my lady,” the first magewatcher said. “If your husband would step through here, then, I’ll be back to speak with you shortly.” She stepped forward, obviously expecting to take Rill somewhere.

So soon? Resignedly, Rill moved to disentangle himself from Talia, but she pulled him closer with a meaningful glance. “I meant we wanted to talk to someone with authority,” she said. “I’m not intending to drop him off like a parcel.”

The magewatcher’s mouth thinned into a line. “Very well, my lady,” she said after a few moments of thought. “Hannivel? I’ll see if the mage commander has a moment.”

“Please do,” Talia said, although it hadn’t been addressed to her.

They waited for her to return. Rill might have said something to Talia – something like, “Tali, I have to live here, I don’t know if you should be making me enemies”. But Magewatcher Hannivel stood there in a relaxed but alert posture, watching them both but mostly Rill. So he decided not to say anything.

“Mage commander Laurent has some time to talk to you,” the first magewatcher said when she returned, without even an address. “If you’d follow me.”

She led them through a few doorways and down another blue-carpeted hallway; Hannivel had fallen in behind them. The magewatchers didn’t act quite like soldiers; maybe a bit more like the city watch.

Mage commander Laurent turned out to be a tall man in his late thirties with rumpled brown hair and a deep crease between his eyebrows. He stood up as they entered.

“Lady… Ambirana, was it?” he said. “And…?” he cocked his head at Rill.

“Emerill Ambirana se Rezdin,” Rill said, giving a very shallow bow. “At your service, sir.”

Laurent gave him a measuring look. “Are you? Good. Show me your hands.”

A little startled, Rill put out his right hand as if Laurent was going to shake it. Instead, the mage commander took hold of his wrist and tilted his hand to the light, examining it.

Rill realised he knew what he was looking for. “Oh,” he said. “If you’re looking for what I think you are, it was there, but it went away after a day or so. Is it… normal?”

Laurent raised an eyebrow at him. “Would you mind describing it for me?”

“My fingers were blue,” Rill admitted. “Not all over – just in patches. It was as if I’d spilled ink on them, but brighter, and it wouldn’t come off. This was after… uh… after I did something to the fire.”

“’Did something’?”

“It flared up,” Rill said. “There was another time when I made these… lights, but that didn’t last any more than a minute or so.”

Laurent nodded and let his wrist go. “You’re quite right,” he said, sitting down and gesturing for them to do the same. “Master Ambirana does indeed have magic. I’m sure I don’t need to explain to either of you that that means he belongs in the Academy now.”

“Yes,” Talia said. “That’s why we’re here.” She told Laurent all of the basic details of the story.

Laurent listened with the crease between his eyes growing deeper. “You mean to say,” he said when Talia had finished. “You have known about this for two months, and it took you until now to come to an Academy.”

Well, more than two months, Rill thought to himself guiltily. I didn’t tell Tali until it had been happening for weeks.

“We were travelling,” Talia snapped. “We had to get here.”

“Unless you were in the Lianese Empire, I seriously doubt you were two months away from an Academy,” Laurent said grimly. “Do either of you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

“My husband would never knowingly work unauthorised magic,” Talia said, scowling.

“That is not the point,” Laurent said. “Did he or did he not just admit to -” He cut himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. “Our instructions have always been very clear,” he said in a quieter voice. “Newly discovered mages need to go to their nearest Academy, as soon as possible.”

“We have always lived in this city,” Talia snapped. “We ��”

“You put yourselves and everybody around you in danger,” Laurent interrupted. “I don’t care why. I’m just glad that you’ve come here without anybody having to pay a steep price for your foolishness. It could very well have happened.”

Talia drew herself up, but didn’t argue. “Well, he is here now,” she said coldly.

Laurent cocked his head and looked at Rill. “Do you have anything to add to this?” he asked.

“It… didn’t seem that pressing,” Rill said tentatively. “I’m sorry. It only happened a handful of times.”

“That is no predictor,” Laurent said. “It’s not unusual for the first or second manifestation of magic to be one of the very… destructive ones. You are not in control of the magic, and you have no chance of gaining control over it except here.”

Rill nodded. “Yes. I know that.”

Laurent sat back and looked at Rill for a moment. “You are Emrissian, aren’t you?” he said, looking over to include Talia in the question.

How is that relevant? Rill glanced at Talia. “Yes, we are,” he said.

“Why?” Talia asked, her eyes narrowing. It had been a long time since anybody had caused any problems about that in Camris.

Laurent shrugged. “Just an observation. I will say this, though – and I will tell you exactly once before you start to infringe on my patience.” His voice wasn’t harsh, just matter of fact. “Neither your birth nor religion will get you any concessions here. Our rules are our rules, and as soon as I sign this paper, Master Ambirana will be a mage under our jurisdiction like any other. This is most important for him, but I suggest you bear it in mind as well, Lady Ambirana.” He flashed a polite smile, and then pulled a piece of paper across the desk and began writing on it. “Was there anything pressing you needed to see me for? Most of this could have been covered by Watcher Lillan.”

“There are legalities to deal with,” Talia said, coolly. “I cannot be expected to discuss…”

“If you drop off the necessary documents in the next day or so, I will fill them out,” Laurent said. “For the moment, I think it best that you make your farewells and let Watcher Lillan take Rill into the academy. There is a two month period of novitiate in which mages are not allowed visitors; after that you may come see him on the second and fourth Sunday of every month. Any further questions you have, I suggest you address them to Magewatcher Hannivel, or whoever else is on duty in the hall.” He signed the piece of paper with a workmanlike scrawl, not at all the way Rill would have signed something official, and started on another. “Watcher Lillan!” he called. “Please show Lady Ambirana out.”

They stood. For a second or two Talia planted her feet, eyes flashing, but Rill tugged on her arm gently. Please don’t make this more difficult than it is.

She glanced at him, and tossed her head. “Thank you for your time, good sir,” she said haughtily.

Outside the office, Watcher Lillan nodded at him. “You can have a minute. And give the lady back that bag; you can’t take anything in with you.”

“Oh,” Rill said, his stomach dropping. “But I need – could I leave it with someone and get it back later?” She was shaking her head. “Not even – but clothes?”

“We have everything you’ll need here already,” she said. She gave him a surprisingly sympathetic look.

“What about a book?” he said, trying to keep a pleading edge out of his voice. “You won’t have… No. No, nothing, right. I understand.”

You could recite most of those poems by heart anyway, he told himself. You don’t need it. But truthfully, he had wanted it more for the inscription in the front, and the memories. His sister had given him that book.

He put the bag down, and turned around to run into a full-body hug from Talia.

“Be careful, darling,” she whispered. She smelled of roses and that heavy perfume they’d picked up a crate of in Phynnis.

“I will,” he said. “A-and I’ll see you in two months?” Please.

“Of course. Of course.” She sniffled, and tightened her arms before letting go. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

#Mage Rill #my stuff

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nostalgic-blood · 8 years ago

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THAT MOVIE THO.

spoilers under the cut of course

Yeah yeah yeah pacing issues, too much cool stuff crammed into a movie with too little time to spare for many characters including AJ and Flutts who unfortunately made no friends and thus, had they not been in the movie nothing would really have affected the plot. They were there for MORAL support okay. Also my favourite gag wouldn’t have worked without Fluttershy. I wish I could watch it again to refresh my memory, but basically they were stowaways on an airship full of pirates, and the pirates find them and threaten them, like eating them or scarring them or SCARRING THEM EMOTIONALLY, and each threat is tailored to a specific pony, and the emotional one focused on Fluttershy. That was great. I loved that gag.

Also the plot was like, simple. EXTREMELY SIMPLE. bad guys show up. Run away from bad guys. search for macguffin that can defeat the bad guys. Bad guys capture good guys anyway. FRIENDSHIP IS POWER THAT CAN DEFEAT--well no, not in the giant rainbow beam smashes into bad guy kind of defeat. The bad guy actually died, and there was a lot of fighting in the climax. Huh.

Well anyway the world building was very good which I normally would never even comment on because when it comes to MLP I usually don’t give two shits about the lore. For instance in season seven they’re introducing a whole bunch of mythical legends that while might be interesting on their own, are presented in a such a way that the episode tends to be a complete bore. What do I learn about Rarity or AJ in an episode where all they do is tell campfire stories? There is no focus on a conflict or any moral lesson (except the small ones in the stories themselves) and little interaction between the main characters. I was so bored by that episode. The Daring Do episode fared even worse and somehow they shoehorned it as Pinkie’s legend (??!!?) despite Pinkie having not read any Daring Do books and having little reason to be on this adventure. (This doesn’t even begin to describe how much Daring Do being real is one of the weakest aspects of the show itself, but I digress)

The only episode that was an interesting way to depict a legend was the Fluttershy episode because figuring out who this historical healer was, was important to curing and preventing the spread of a horrible deadly illness, so that one had great and suspenseful setup with a lot of development for Fluttershy. And frankly I think in terms of legends themselves Fluttershy’s was the least interesting, but because it was framed by a really good episode about Flutters it was the best one.

Oh right I was supposed to talk about the movie.

But yeah, one thing I REALLY like and thought was a possibility in the MLP universe were sky pirates or at least sky sailors or whatever, and HERE THEY ARE, EXISTING! And BEING PIRATES! AIRSHIPS ARE A THING! They even had one in the newest MLP episode. I knew they existed for a long while (one appeared in a small moment during Rarity’s song in Sweet and Elite back in season two) but they were never really utilized until this movie. I don’t know how i feel about tons of all anthro-looking creatures though. I always assumed the world of MLP was all these quadrupedal creatures and if they did stand on two legs it was because they were hybrids with human-like pieces such as minotaurs. Or dragons, but let’s not talk about them.

But here it’s this anthro-cat, and some anthro-fishmen, and then anthro birds, and the big bad is okay because he looks like a primate of some sort, so it makes sense, but the rest of em... ehhhh. I guess since they went OUTSIDE Equestria it makes sense there are a much larger variety of creatures/races, and maybe Equestria is the just the one with the most four-legged equines, but...

Also I think we almost had enough screentime with these new characters to like them. Almost. I was starting to like them, but it wasn’t to the point that if these characters suddenly decided to help the mane six that it’d be 100% believable. Since there wasn’t much time devoted to each of them, the fact that catman decided to side with them just because Rarity in those few precious seconds fixed the hem of his shirt was a little less realistic or believable as it could have been. I get what they were trying to do, but if more time was devoted to it, it would have had much more impact. The pirates especially I thought maybe they would blame the Mane Six for leading to the destruction of their ship, but they were actually really reasonable for pirates that when we first saw them were about to eat them. They realized straight away that the real reason their ship exploded was because their boss sucked.

I could totally believe the Princess Seapony!Hippogriff thing siding with them though. She was just lonely and wanted friends. There were no ethical issues to get in the way at all like murderous pirates or conmen. The fact that the queen did not join them made sense though, since Twilight royally fucked up.

Speaking of Twilight I see a lot of people complaining she was not very Twilight in this movie, doing things that opposed the message of friendship. It made sense to me that she fell back to her more logical, rational way of life though. As they were journeying to find the Queen of the Hippogriffs, normal singing happy friendship methods to solve problems wasn’t really working. They befriended this cat man but he actually just wanted to sell them and was using them. Then they changed the ways of the pirates, but in doing so led the enemy straight towards them. I can see how Twilight thought this wasn’t like Equestria, the land of the colourful happy pastel ponies and their usual modus operandi wasn’t gonna work here. She was desperate! But due to the amount of time they had they could not spend a lot of time emphasizing this, so it may have come off to some people that Twilight was acting a lot more malicious than she is.

Another thing is this movie is clearly not for some random person to walk into a theatre, sit down, and just start watching like they’d understand the movie if it were just a standalone thing. There isn’t much time used up at all to introduce our characters and to make a blind audience care about them. It only really works if you’re already attached to the characters and know who they are, so it really wasn’t a good movie to attract casual moviegoers or anything like that.

I think another comment complaint is how helpless the ponies are especially when they are outside Equestria. This I thought was odd because we have Twilight who still had her magic which could basically solve anything and do anything if the plot demands in the show. Or Rainbow Dash who is supposedly faster than mach 3 or whatever, but neither of these two used their overpowered abilities effectively throughout the movie, almost like the movie forgot that Twilight could teleport or Rainbow Dash could escape.

But anyway all of that is moot. Why is all the above moot? Because we had a movie with a clear beginning, middle, and end. There were decent songs and a pretty good score. It’d otherwise just be a normal run of the mill 6-7/10.

BUT THAT IS MOOT BECAUSE PINKIE PIE WAS AMAZING IN THIS MOVIE. AND I WATCH MLP FOR PINKIE PIE. SHE IS THE NUMBER ONE REASON I AM INVESTED IN THIS FANDOM AT ALL. AND SHE HAD THE MOST FOCUS OF THE MANE SIX AFTER TWILIGHT.

The biggest issue I always had with adventure episodes which were usually the season premieres and finales of the show was that it was always heavily Twilight focused with the other five on the wayside. I did not want to watch a movie where Twilight solves the problem herself and her friends are hostages, or out of commission, nor not themselves, or otherwise not doing anything that affected the plot. They were just along for the ride. Yes unfortunately this ended up being the case for two of the Mane Six, but that’s just another side-effect of them not making this movie longer or utilizing what time they had effectively. (We could have had less new supporting characters or something, idk)

But luckily for my biased-self it was Pinkie they chose to focus on. When they don’t focus on Pinkie and she isn’t important she’s usually just the mindless comedic relief, which was always a depiction I hated of Pinkie. Equestria Girls Pinkie is exactly this, and that’s why she’s my least favourite in the EG Universe. This is fine if Pinkie’s comedy was actually good, but usually they aim for lolrandom humour when that happens. Pinkie’s comedic moments in the movie were much more often hit than miss. I didn’t really dislike any scene with Pinkie at all! At no point did she seem overly obnoxious. Maybe the time when she was trying to play I Spy, but the rest of the Mane Six were audibly exasperated with her so they were self-aware how obnoxious she can be at times, lol.

Also yes, she did ruin some moments too like a few others. And by ruin I mean, the Mane Six are trying to do something and have a perfectly good plan to do so, but one of the characters do the thing they’d always do and it’d ruin the plan. For Pinkie that was just yelling out loud in the marketplace trying to find help, this led them to being conned by the cat man and almost being captured. Then Rainbow ruined everything when she went overboard trying to turn the pirates by showing off her Sonic Rainboom, which is a very loud and flashy technique catching the bad guys’ attention and ruining their plans. Finally Twilight ruined everything when she straight up tried to steal the pearl. So at least it wasn’t ONLY Pinkie... and all of them to me seemed perfectly in-character or made sense for that specific context anyway.

A good example of an adventure episode where Pinkie isn’t very important but has great comedic moments is the season five premiere. She’s the first to notice the odd smiles and has great expressions and reaction faces to the weird town they’re in, and when the Mane Six are being brainwashed she has some great dry humour as well. Still funny when not even trying to be funny! A good example of an episode where Pinkie is not effective whatsoever at being comedic relief is the season three premiere. Pinkie’s just being really loud and screechy. Even if I did like the flugelhorn bit where she yells “FLUGELHORN” into a flugelhorn while trying to play the flugelhorn.

I think the reason why this movie gave such focus to Pinkie over the other five instead of someone else is that Pinkie is the most popular character among the target audience. All the little girls adore her. She’s definitely not the most popular among the brony community, but I’m glad the little girls have great taste! Also Twilight messes up and SHE gets captured, not all her friends at once! It is her friends who she alienated and ostracized that came to the rescue instead. I like this because even though Twilight is the Princess of Friendship now, it doesn’t mean she’s some flawless individual who is the end-all and be-all to friendship. She is the princess because she has many great friends, and they all complete her. It doesn’t make sense for a princess of friendship to not be doing things with her friends. That’s like Luna with no moon, or Cadance without a husband.

Also while Tempest whatever has a much better backstory than Starlight, I still find it a little annoying that MLP has a habit of infodumping a villain’s (that is meant to be redeemed) backstory blatantly in our face, and now we have to feel sorry for them and completely understand their motivations. I thought her villain song started out strong but fell apart when it just jumped into her backstory like that. Again, if the movie had more runtime we could have explored her backstory and motivations in either much more subtle ways, or with more depth, or not all at once. Still despite her edginess she was one of the more fleshed out new characters, so I’ll give her that.

The movie actually reminds of two fanfics I’ve read that have sky pirates and a world outside Equestria. In one, the villain is trying to find and kidnap the protagonist for their dastardly deeds, just like in the movie trying to kidnap Twilight for power, and the cast runs across faraway lands to escape. The other just has a bunch of sky pirates. I love those sky pirates. I made a sky pirate AU for ponies once that if I weren’t so invested in my RWBY AU powered by 1000% salt I might actually attempt to write. SKY PIRATES!!1!11!!!

It’s like the movie was pandered directly to me. Good Pinkie content and sky pirates. Yay! So, with all that bias included I’d give the movie a solid 8.5/10. But that’s just me personally. If Pinkie ISN’T your favourite character or you enjoy more complicated plots with more unpredictability you might rate it a more objective 6 or 7 out of 10.

8.5 tho. Just for Pinkie. PINKIEEEEE!!

#here i am ranting again ~#i thoroughly enjoyed the movie tho #gr8 movie would r8 again #text!post #rant!post #mlp!shit #spoilers

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oliverarditi · 6 years ago

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A few wooden buildings

Places have memories. This is not to propose the pathetic fallacy that they have feelings, consciousness, thoughts or intentions, but that in the same manner that a certain synaptic pattern preserves a trace of experience in the brain, features of landscape and cityscape preserve traces of biography. Of course subjective experience can only be imaginatively resurrected from biographical details, or from buildings and artifacts, but it is entirely possible that this is also what occurs when we retrieve memories from our brain tissue. The act of recollection on the basis not of long-term potentiation of the synapses, but of topographic and documentary residues, is central to the literary genre of psychogeography, but also to historical fiction in general. When David Mitchell stumbled across a small neighbourhood of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch architecture in Nagasaki, the memory of a particular series of historical events, he felt moved to begin such a process of imaginative recollection.

He had found Dejima, once an island at the edge of the Bay of Nagasaki, but now absorbed into the city by a process of land reclamation, which housed a Dutch trading enclave from 1641, when they replaced the Portuguese, until 1854, when the Convention of Kanagawa rendered it obsolete. During this period Japan was legally secluded, with trade and contact with the outside world strictly controlled; for Europeans it took place exclusively through the offices of the Dutch East India Company at Dejima. Around twenty Dutchmen lived on this small patch of ground, around one-hundred and twenty metres by seventy-five, visited by no more than two ships a year. If that isn’t a fascinating scenario, a readymade setting for dramatic fiction, I don’t know what is.

Mitchell is known for innovative and experimental approaches to narrative, but The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a straight genre novel, a historical thriller with a linear plot. It is a technically exemplary work of historical fiction, characterised by plausible world-building (its accuracy is entirely moot, as I know little about the time and place in which it is set), and convincing spoken language, ‘Bygonese’ as Mitchell calls it, which nods to the turns of pre-industrial English phraseology without falling into tweeness. Most importantly, as with all good speculative fiction (and I make no apology for including historical fiction in that category), every aspect of difference between the world inhabited by the characters and that in which the reader can be assumed to reside, is shown, not told. The plotting is taut, effective, gripping, and has a sense of urgency that is abetted by the use of the present tense throughout. Repeated cliffhangers turn on a change of point-of-view character, leaving the reader desperate to tear into the next section and find out what happened.

One such shift is also into the first person. The shocking immediacy this brings to the narrative is deployed in a shift from the perspectives of other characters who are of more or less high status, to one who is a slave. It’s a very effective strategy, forcing the reader to confront the subjective experience of slavery from their own subject position; Mitchell takes the opportunity to explore exactly what that loss of liberty might feel like, and how it might be endured. This switch, and sudden immersion, is one of the most powerful moments in the book. Up until this point even the most socially engaged reader will have taken Dejima’s hierarchies more or less for granted as they follow a narrative focussed on the desires, successes, and setbacks of certain characters who for all the contingent restrictions on their freedom of action, are not chattels. Sadly, this brilliantly written passage is no more than an interlude, and its first-person narrator a minor character. When we return after a single chapter to the narrative’s established points-of-view, there is a jar – or at least there was for me. For a brief moment, this character was the most important in the book, the subjectivity to which all the others had led, the most marginal and unrecorded of experiences resurrected by the magic of fiction from a historical record in which it figures mainly as a trade commodity. But, it turns out, Mitchell invoked it to serve no more than a decorative function.

Perhaps he was too in love with his own brushwork not to include this portrait, even when it had become clear it had no real place in the book. Perhaps this is really the best representation the life of a slave could have, to be treated within the fictional domain as instrumentally as within the primary world of the historical record, but that is not a representation that reflects very well on Mitchell. Towards the end of the book there is another comparable example of a writer too in love with their own materials to resist including what does not really belong, when a long descriptive passage acquires rhyme and regular meter, although it remains justified on the page as prose. Again, it is extremely well-written, but again it draws attention to itself as a clever formal device, in the midst of a book whose beautifully constructed, lucid prose, is characterised by both consistency and transparency. In a novel as accomplished as this one, such unwonted departures advertise themselves as faults.

Also striking a dissonant note against the predominantly cosmopolitan, multi-cultural perspective of the book, is the rather bizarre fantasy that provides the plot with its propulsive mystery. Accusations of Orientalism could be levelled at a writer who decides to include fantasy, not of the magic and dragons type, but of the conspiracy-theorist, Da Vinci Code variety, in a novel that otherwise belongs to the historical fiction genre, and to make it a fantasy of Japanese depravity, contrasted in the book to prosaic forms of European dishonesty and corruption. The precise details of said depravity do not need to be rehearsed here, and I don’t propose to make a detailed analysis of the novel’s representation of cultural and ethnic identities, but it’s worth noting that this was a questionable choice on Mitchell’s part. To me, it felt like a cheap shot.

Although some characters are not on stage for long enough to appear as anything more than villains, for the most part every individual is portrayed sympathetically. Real honesty in a context of widespread corruption is shown as a plausible possibility, albeit one with significant costs; but other than the end-of-level boss around whom the central plot revolves, every character that we spend a reasonable amount of time with, has motivations for their behaviour that are plausible, that are reasonable responses to their context, and that evince a nuanced understanding of the moral and ethical ecology of Mitchell’s very particular revenant society. He has an empathy or compassion for his characters (you choose) which is probably a prerequisite for writing anything that feels like a description of a real person.

The memory of Dejima that Mitchell invokes is not populated by characters whose names appear in the historical record, with a few exceptions, while the few specific historical events that he deploys have been transformed in time and detail to fit the exigencies of his narrative. This does not invalidate in any way the novel’s status as an act of remembrance. A novel adhering literally to the available record, or a non-fictional account attempting to reconstruct the lives once lived on Dejima, could not, at this distance, make any claim to more effectively preserve those long-vanished subjectivities. What is most important, what is genuinely vital to the health of our global culture, is to remember that real people lived in such times and places, and experienced lives that were utterly particular to them. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is several things: it is a ‘literary’ historical fiction, a commodity which will enable middle-class readers to accumulate and reinvest yet more cultural capital; it is an entertaining and exciting thriller, which will enable readers of all stripes to lose themselves for a while in a milieu they will probably thank their preferred deity that they do not have to inhabit; and it is a vivid reading-out from the historical record of a memory, embodied in a few wooden buildings in Nagasaki.

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ponyregrets · 8 years ago

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Hey, so literally all of your Bellarke fanfics are my favourite thing to read and every time I read one I always think "imagine this in the others POV". My honest to god favourite fics are the ones in Bellamy's POV because I just love the way you write his thoughts and feelings. Anyway, my point is, I'd love Bellamy's point of view on 'And a Guy Like Me' or specifically the scene where they finally get together but him pining away for her would be great too!! Thanks!! Once again, you're awesome!

I got two requests for this, which is cool, bc I def forgot about it. Original fic is here, and alt-POV is here on AO3!

Bellamy never expected his life to involve any kind of extended contact with Princess Clarke. Maybe, if he'd actually become a knight, like the man who was supposed to be his father wanted him to, he might have met her once or twice, in passing, at formal events. He'd seen her and never thought much of her, aside from a general knowledge that he should be loyal to her, but she was just--some person.

It's strange, to think about it now. There's no way of knowing which people will matter to you, but--he can't imagine his life without her, now. And he knows he should get used to it, sooner or later, but--he'd rather do it later.

He'll take everything he can get, until he can't get it anymore.

"Where's the new guard?" he asks her, mild. Whenever she slides in next to him at his usual spot in the library, he can't help remembering the first time she did it, five years ago, this bright girl with her hair in neat plaits, asking him what he was reading. She was wearing a plain dress, something like his sister might wear, and no crown, and he'd assumed she was a serving girl who couldn't read herself. He'd been talking to her for half an hour before her guard found her, told her that her mother needed her, and he'd realized with a jolt that he had been joking around with the princess.

Even five years later, it's still a little disconcerting.

"Preparing the carriage. I don't want to introduce you yet. But--I think he's good."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She nudges him with her elbow. "You'll definitely like him. He's quiet and sarcastic and glares at everything."

"That does sound better than most of them. Why don't you want me to meet him?"

"We're leaving for a ball in Azgeda in an hour," she says. "That's what the carriage is for. I'll be gone the rest of the day and tomorrow. If he hates you, I don't have time to get a new guard before then."

He has to smile. "I'm surprised you don't want to get rid of him just to get out of the party," he teases.

"I thought about that, but so did my mother. She said if the new guard was unsatisfactory, she'd just send Sir Emerson to escort me."

Bellamy winces. "So, she's really serious about this one." Threatening Clarke with a trip with his mother's husband is above and beyond, even for the queen.

Clarke worries her lip, drums her fingers on the table, apparently trying to figure out what to say. "My birthday is coming up, and we've been arguing about marriage again. I think she's trying to remind me I could do worse than Monty."

"Prince Roan would be a lot worse," he agrees. "So, I'll see you when you get back?"

"Yeah." Her jaw works, and then she reaches under the table, gives his hand a quick squeeze. "Remember to eat and leave the library sometimes when I'm gone."

"They said they'd put a cot in the corner if I wanted."

"I'm going to veto that."

"Yeah, I didn't even try. Have fun in Azgeda."

"You should be grateful you don't have to go."

He should be, but he's not. He'd love it, if he was just expected to be everywhere Clarke was. If they were a political unit.

But it's a stupid thing to say, so he just shrugs one shoulder and turns his attention back to his book. "I am," he says. "Bring me back something nice."

He hears the carriage returning from Azgeda and the trumpets that mean the princess has returned to the castle, and within an hour, she's in the library. There's a dark-skinned man behind her, and he assumes it's her guard, but he thought her new guardsman was Miller, and he thought he knew Guardsman Miller. They've met a few times, in passing. Bellamy was optimistic about him. With this guy, he's at a loss.

"Who's this?" he asks.

Clarke sits down next to him, close so she can see what he's reading. He angles the book obligingly. "New guard," she says.

"Already? It's been like a week since you got the last one." He's mostly trying to see if she actually lost Miller in Azgeda, but even if this is some unfamiliar Miller, Clarke won't want him to know she sneaked away to gossip with Bellamy about him. She always manages, but they never tell the guards that. It just makes them pay more attention.

"Couldn't keep up with me," she says. "Miller, this is Bellamy Blake, my tutor. Bellamy, be nice. Monty likes him."

Bellamy can't help a scowl, for all he knows it's stupid and irrational. Clarke and Monty do not, on any level, want to get married, so he's not--it's not as if he's jealous, not really. Monty has what Bellamy wants, a promise of marriage to Clarke, but it's not like Monty's happy about it either. No one wants this. But sometimes it still just--stings.

"Oh good," he says. "He can keep on guarding you when you're married." But it's not like this Miller is at fault for any of that, nor is Clarke, or Monty, or anyone. Clarke's supposed to get married on her eighteenth birthday, and he's increasingly grumpy about it with no one to blame. He can still be nice. So he tries a smile. "Nice to meet you, Miller."

It turns out, it really is. This Miller is the other Miller's son, and like Clarke said, he's quiet and glares a lot and Bellamy really enjoys hanging out with him. He doesn't care at all that Bellamy is with Clarke all the time, and when Monty explains what happened with Bellamy's family, in low, private tones, Miller just nods and accepts it, and it changes absolutely nothing.

And, not that Bellamy's an expert on romance, but he's pretty sure Miller gets what he's going through. Because every time Clarke tells Miller she wants to see Monty, he perks up, and every time Monty's around, Miller actually smiles.

"It probably won't be so bad, when they get married," he offers, half to test his hypothesis and half to see if he can say it and sound even slightly convincing. It's probably true; Monty wouldn't care if Clarke stole out of their bed in the night and--

But it would still be their bed. And Bellamy cares about that so much more than he wants to. He'd like to think he wouldn't, if Clarke didn't mind, but he honestly doesn't know. And she does mind, so it's a moot point anyway.

Miller snorts. "Yeah? Try it again. Sound more excited."

"Shut up. It won't. Monty's great. And it's not like--I've met some other princes of the realm. She could do a lot worse."

"Way more convincing," says Miller. He's watching Monty, not Clarke, so he's a terrible guard and definitely just as unenthused about this whole thing as Bellamy is. Which makes even less sense, because--this should be good, right? Clarke and Monty can get married, and Monty could have Miller and Clarke could have Bellamy and everyone would be happy.

It's just--it's a lie. And it feels like such a stupid lie. The lie that no one wants. It doesn't benefit any of them.

"Dick. Don't pretend you're happy about it either," he adds, deliberate, testing it out.

Miller's face gives nothing away. "None of my business."

He has to smile. "Yeah. It's none of mine either."

Clarke looks over and gestures for him. "Bellamy! Get over here."

"Duty calls," he tells Miller, and Miller smirks.

"Just warn me when you're going to steal her. So I don't get executed for failing to protect her."

He's thought about it, but--well, they can't. They have a kingdom to take care of.

"Shut up," he says again, and goes to lean over Clarke's shoulder. She leans back into him, warm and soft and smelling of some light, floral perfume, like she always does.

He could press his lips against her neck, and no one would care. No one here would be surprised, except for Clarke and himself. They'd both be stunned he actually did something.

"What's up?" he asks instead.

"Tell Monty he's wrong about this translation."

"Wow," says Monty. "What an unbiased take on this situation."

He and Miller are perfect for each other, seriously.

"It's not my fault you're wrong. I'm just presenting the facts."

"Uh huh."

Bellamy smiles, nuzzles Clarke's hair, just a little. For a long time, he didn't let himself do things like this, thought it would be easier if they weren't close, if he didn't know the feel of her skin on his. And they've never done anything even as intimate as kissing; he's never done anything with her that he didn't do for his sister, when she was younger, just warmth and affection, but--he knows what it means when he does it to her, and so does she.

She was the one who started it, a year ago, when they were drunk with Raven and Wells in her rooms, when those two were still in the unable-to-stop-touching stage of courtship, and Clarke had finally just wrapped herself around him and said, "I feel left out," and he was helpless to resist holding on tight.

He hadn't been sure before then that she felt the same way he did, but--she made it very obvious. It was a relief and torture, all at once.

"What's the line you're having trouble with?" he asks.

"I'm not having trouble," says Clarke. "I know exactly what it says." She points to a line. "Here."

"On holiest night, when the moon is at its highest point," he says, instantly, and Clarke laughs.

"See? You're wrong. I didn't even tell him my translation first."

Monty huffs. "It's Holy Night right? Not holiest. A specific day."

"They'd both be specific days, but I don't know if it's supposed to be our holy night," Bellamy says. "Or it might not be. What's the date on this spell? You'd want to figure out what the holiest night was at that time and do it then."

"Told you," says Clarke.

"You know he doesn't actually know everything, right?" Monty grumbles, but he's smiling. "Bellamy can be wrong."

"Do you think he is?" Clarke asks, sweet, and Monty makes a face.

"I'm going to go read with Miller," he declares, and Bellamy slides into the seat next to Clarke. She hesitates for a second, and then takes his hand, and he squeezes back.

"What's the spell for?" he asks.

"Nothing. Just one of Monty's pet projects." She smiles. "I haven't found anything to prevent marriage yet."

"Keep me posted."

Her thumb strokes over his, soft. "I'm pretty sure you'll be the first to know."

It's not really true, of course. Bellamy is not involved in any discussions of Clarke's upcoming nuptials, because he has no place in court. If he had an official title, which he's still does not, it would probably be scholar. Mostly he's allowed to live in the castle and read, and for the first few years after the scandal with Octavia broke, he couldn't imagine anything better. Teaching the princess, advising her when she needed, and time to himself the rest of the time. It was so perfect.

He hadn't been ambitious. He still doesn't feel ambitious, for all he's hoping to be--a prince consort, he thinks. That would be his title. That's not why he wants her. It's a fringe benefit.

And regardless of his current station, Clarke talks to him about everything, which means he finds things out as soon as she's done learning them, and they discuss what to do, and he's absolutely and without question one of the most powerful people in the kingdom, largely by accident.

So he finds out very promptly, when she's not getting married.

He's in the library, helping reshelve books because the librarian is getting on in years and can't do it so well herself. Bellamy thinks she's hoping he'll take over the position, when she's ready to retire, and he wouldn't mind, assuming he didn't have anything else to do.

And since Clarke is currently in a meeting with her mother and Monty and a bunch of nobles, he thinks he'll know soon, if he does have something else. This is when he's going to find out if there's a chance, or if they have to figure out how to live with her marrying Monty. It does feel survivable. Especially with Miller. He'd feel bad, if Monty was alone, but he's not going to be, no matter what. He's definitely got Miller.

The only warning he has that Clarke's coming is the start of the librarian saying, "Your hi--" and when he turns to see who came in, he finds himself with his arms full of Clarke, her face buried against his neck.

"Hi," he says, soft, tugging her closer. It feels like she might be crying, and she's holding him so tight. "I honestly can't tell if this is good or bad news. Did you--"

"Our new agreement is that I have to marry an untitled Arcadian," she says, and he shivers at the press of her lips against his shoulder. "To make sure we aren't dissolving this alliance for a more advantageous one. So, if you're not spoken for--"

He lets out a sharp, bright laugh. "I'm spoken for," he teases. "You know I'm spoken for."

"I do." She pulls back to look at him, and she's a little teary, but smiling, beaming, lighting up the whole world. "Will you marry me?"

He catches her jaw with his hand and tilts her face up, lets himself savor the second where her eyes flutter shut in anticipation, and then he finally--finally--kisses her. Her lips are soft and already slightly parted, and he tastes it when her mouth turns up in a smile, just for a second, before she presses closer, kisses him back, fingers tangling in his hair. She's not the first person he's kissed, and he knows he's not the first person he's kissed either, but it's never been like this before, because he's never been in love with anyone but her.

He's not sure how long it goes, that first kiss, but every time he thinks about pulling back, she'll make a noise, or her fingers will twist in his hair, and he doesn't know how. They won't get married until her birthday, which is another month, and he's not concerned it's going to be that long before he gets to do this again, but--they've been waiting for so long. They deserve something nice.

Miller's the one who finally says, "If the princess dies from lack of oxygen, I'm the one they're going to punish."

Clarke tugs his lip gently with her teeth and then pulls back, her smile still blinding. His own expression must be ridiculous, but he doesn't care.

He gets to marry the girl he loves. He gets to just--love her. He doesn't have to worry about it anymore.

"You know you can breathe and kiss someone at the same time, right?" Clarke asks Miller, leaning against Bellamy's chest. "But thanks for looking out for me."

"That's my job, right?" asks Miller, and then his eyes flick to Bellamy with a smile. "For the next month, anyway."

"I never said I was marrying her," Bellamy points out, and Clarke elbows him. He kisses her hair. "But I am, yeah. I've got her."

"I think I need a guard," Monty tells them, a week before the wedding.

"Why?" asks Clarke.

"I'm a prince. I'm important. And you're probably going to get a new entourage, right?"

"Probably," she agrees, glancing at Bellamy. "You're going to be the prince consort, I don't think anyone can disrespect you for your heritage."

"If they do, I can have them killed, right?"

"Yeah, that's the sign of a good ruler."

Bellamy turns his attention to Monty. "So, you want Clarke's guard?"

"Desperately," Monty says. "I didn't get to marry the princess, so I should get something, right?"

"You didn't want to marry me," Clarke teases.

"No, definitely not. But still."

"Yeah," says Bellamy. "I think we can work something out."

And, he has to say, it's a much better arrangement than he thought he'd get.

Honestly, it's perfect.

#asupernaturalfangirl101

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breathofaknight-blog · 8 years ago

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Question: How does the Hyrule Military Operate?

Answer: It’s complicated.

No, really, it is. We’ll break it down from the top.

///Part I: Who leads?

The commander in chief is always the sovereign, whether that be a king, queen, or princess, theoretically. It can sometimes be a steward if the princess is unprepared to be a king/queen/unfit to take on that responsibilitiy. This sovereign commands absolute authority over all subsections of the military and can, if need be, very rapidly exert total control over any military force; to object would mean treason, and civil war.

From there things instantly become murky, as there are three layers of nobles who would command military power:

-Professional Military Commanders, likely holding the actual rank of General, possibly with some specific ‘high-general’ title, like ‘Master of Infantry’ or ‘Master of Horse’ etc.

-Provincial Governors/Lords, who would command their own local troops and have the ability to requisition military assistance from the crown by right.

-Household Nobles that maintain private armies recruited and trained to Hylian Army specification but are paid and commanded solely by specific noble houses.

The first kind of noble is easy to control and predictable, and in theory is most loyal as they are tied to the crowns forces and technically may be of the royal house, or related in some fashion to it.

The second kind requires good leadership but is understandable and can be worked with; obligations made both ways ensures that orders will be followed albiet with grumbling.

The third kind is entirely unreliable and must be either eliminated or controlled to prevent possible civil war.

From these groups you get your generals.

From Generals, you go to Captains, leaders of either pre-arranged companies or ad-hoc units, possibly of many regiments strong. Captains will command between one and five hundred men on average.

From Captains, you go to knights, who may be granted a single company of warriors to lead, or will simply lead a lance of men (one cavalryman, one infantryman, one archer) outside of their battles.

From Knights, you go to Sergeants, who are really just senior infantrymen, and categorize a vast number of soldiers, of whom a few may be picked to lead the others.

From Sergeants, there are Soldiers, whose orders can override conscripts and guards. Etc.

///Part 2: How do they lead?

Out of combat generals lead through a series of obligations to lesser officers and commanders tied to social physical and national consequences. Or in other words, men obey because they must. However ‘how’ they accomplish basic command and control is unique. In general, essential reports are handled either by Sheikah or mage units. These reports contain war changing information or intelligence, and are used to inform and also command subjects.Less pressing matters are handled by the Royal Army messenger service, a mounted organization of armed mailmen that deliver missives to and from headquarters around the country. They work closely with border and interior guard units, using their facilities and erecting way stations of their own to help move information around quickly.In combat generals will give basic orders, but more complex commands must be carried out through a series of banner movements and instrumental calls, such as horns for a cavalry charge. For this reason each regiment has a battlefield musician, or multiple musicians, and a regimental standard, usually with its unique appearance. Sometimes, although uncommon, specific units of soldiers will alter their uniforms to stand out as well. All of this makes it easy for officers to see and hear commands and army status reports in combat without distracting from the fight. It also means fighting a Hylian army sometimes looks and sounds like going to war against a symphony, and the usefulness of some things, like drums for infantry marches, have been copied by other races over time.If a very specific order must be given that does not have a musical or banner call it must be done by HQ staff on the battlefield running to officers engaged in combat to inform them of the order; very impractical, dangerous, and often impossible.Another matter is battlefield organization and formation. Hylian officers obsess over formations and exacting specific details about battle lines. The following three are classics of Hylian doctrine:

‘Power’

The Power formation, named like the others, after a triforce piece, is meant for an assaulting force. It is best used in a field battle, but can and has been modified for siege as well. Troops adopting this formation instantly know the battle will be a hard fought slog.Power breaks the Hylian line into three arrow shaped columns, with the head of each arrow being two-to-three companies of knights, and the body being of standard infantry. The knights will smash into an enemy formation on foot, allowing the rest of the column to move into the disrupted formaiton of the enemy and push through, or break off and surround if the knights report the enemy has dug their heels in. Meanwhile, ranged combatants move on the flanks to fire into the engaged enemy lines while Cavalry either repeatedly charges the enemy’s center and flanks, or moves for a pincer assault around the sides, possibly to kill enemy commanders or ranged elements. Sometimes commanders create smaller sub-units of infantry to support the assault around the flanks and create a ‘battle cauldron’ or a frontline that extends around the enemy’s flanks. Recruits and conscripts either join the column, serve as flank security, or assist the cavalry with outflanking the enemy and forming the cauldron.

‘Wisdom’

The Wisdom formation is promarily defensive, although it leverages the Hyrule knights as excellent frontlines against missile attacks. Wisdom saps the enemy of energy and goades them into long charges by deploying siege artillery in a field battle formation, along with as many ranged warriors as Hyrule allows. The formation is also unusually mobile, willing to cede ground to lure enemies into killzones. To speed up army movement, wisdom divides its battle line into three ‘battalions’ which seperate and reform easily thanks to individual commanders being responsible for each, which are able to micromanage their troops. Here the Knights are kept as a frontline unit for only as long as the enemy wishes to try to out-shoot the hylian army, as the standard Hylian shield can absorb almost any form of punishment with no issue, thus rendering such efforts largely moot unless their archers dared try the more difficult and less effective ‘high-shots’ aimed above and beyond the knight line.In any case when the battle is about to join, the knights melt back into the body of the army, and the infantry counter-charges the enemy just as their charge is about to connect. Because the enemy charged longer, they will be more exhausted, wounded from the incoming fire and artillery, and have less kinetic energy than a properly timed Hylian counter-charge. Cavalry units are tasked with destroying other cavalry, skirmisher units, and watching the flanks.It is a brilliant strategy that frustrates hostile commanders, for it seems that it has no weakness unless one can outshoot the Hylian army by a considerable margin.

‘Courage’

The most standard formation from which all others are derivered, Courage is a three line system wherein the main infantry take the first line, the recruit reserve adopt the second, and the elite dismounted knights take the third line. The second line supports and relieves the first during long combats and provides flank security. The third line sits in reserve until the battle is won or it is needed to turn the tide, in which case it normally pincer-attacks on the flanks. Archers form up with the third line and on the flanks. Cavalry supports flank efforts. Although it is simple it is flexible, adaptable, and equally good on the attack and defense; a perfect choice for the commander who is uncertain of the opposition or is wary about the advance.

Sadly, it takes a tactical genius to reorganize battle doctrines in the middle of a fight. Usually the army adopts a style, or a variation of a style, and commits to it for the entire battle.Battles tend to last one to nine hours, depending on enemy strength, willpower, and determination.

Extremely large battles can take days, with breaks in between engagements to rest, with skirmishing units harrasing each other during these times. A siege can last four months to three years, depending on the defenses and preparations from the attacking force. Settlements without walls can be taken in 8-12 hours.

///Hyrules army at Peace

During peacetime most of the army is disbanded, except for a corps of professional trained soldiers. These men are kept well fed paid and trained, and are deployed as garrison units to forts throughout the land.Lighter units are organized into border patrols, which are subsidized by provincial lords and tarriffs, allowing for these mounted untis to continue to exist. Naturally, knights go back to their important social duties of organizing estates, government offices, or desk-based military positions. Those knights not occupied with these duties will find themselves in Knight-houses, or chapters, which are social gatherings of like minded knights within a lords fief, who generally keep to themselves, go drinking, participate in tournaments, train, and live a good life in a communal lodging, kind of like a fighters guild. They may also take contracts for extra pay, so long as it does not conflict with their vows. Sometimes knights simply retire, maintaining their skills privately and settling to form a family.They are tested in yearly games to ensure their skills do not decay to the point where they are no longer knights.

All conscripted units that survive are given a payout and dismissal from the army with the option of continuing service in the regular army proper.All disbanded infantry units, if any disbanding does occur, receive small veterans payments on a yearly basis for service, the same applies to those units that retire of their own will once a set number of years has elapsed. The pay is not enough to live off of; it is meant to supplement a new income stream. These old timers are on lists to call up in times of dire conflict for their experience and expertise.Militias and Guards adopted into the service are given a slight payout and returned to their former lives without much consideration given to them.

The army’s duties during peacetime are the elimination of monster populations, messaging services, road patrols, escorts, guard duty, maintaining military industries and facilities, maintaining and making new weaponry, and defending the realm against external threat. It is highly unusual for the army to leave the province during peacetime for any means other than escorting an important official, or for diplomatic reasons. During times of unrest, the army will enforce order, through violence if necessary.

Joining the army during peacetime is usually an easy way to avoid a had life on the streets, but is a dead end job with little hope for commoners to be promoted beyond a professional infantrymans pay-grade, so service is sometimes viewed as a waste of potential for young men, or as an escape. Many country boys dream of joining the army to see the world and have a better life than their equally meager prospects in the countryside.

#of Hylian Purity #Hyrule's word #trigger warning: wall of text #zelda roleplay #zelda rp #botw rp #legend of zelda roleplay #legend of zelda rp

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maxwellyjordan · 5 years ago

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FAQs: Announcements of orders and opinions

This post — which is an updated version of posts that we have published in earlier terms — addresses some of the questions about orders and opinion announcements that we have commonly received during our live blogs. If you have a question that you don’t see answered here, please feel free to ask it during today’s live blog.

ORDERS

Question: What do you mean by orders? Answer: When we talk about orders or the order list, we are usually referring to the actions that the court took at its most recent conference, which are reflected in a document (the order list) that the court releases to the public. The most common orders are those granting or denying review on the merits in a particular case (known as granting or denying cert, short for certiorari), but the court may also issue other orders related to petitions for review or in pending merits cases — for example, an order granting or rejecting a request to participate in an oral argument.

Question: What is a CVSG? Answer: CVSG stands for “call for the views of the solicitor general.” In most cases in which someone is seeking review of a lower court’s decision, the Supreme Court will issue a straightforward grant or denial. But sometimes the court will instead ask the government for its views on what the court should do with a particular petition for review, particularly in cases in which the government isn’t a party but may still have an interest — for example, because the interpretation of a federal statute is involved. In this scenario, the court will issue an order in which it invites the U.S. solicitor general, the government’s chief lawyer before the Supreme Court, to file a brief “expressing the views of the United States.” It isn’t an invitation in the sense that the federal government gets to decide whether it wants to file a brief at all, because the court expects the government to file. There is no deadline by which the government is required to file the brief; when the brief is filed, the government’s recommendation, although not dispositive, will carry significant weight with the court.

Question: What does it mean to relist a case? Answer: When a case is relisted, the justices do not grant or deny review, but instead will reconsider the case at their next conference. This will be reflected on the case’s electronic docket once the docket has been updated: You will see the words “DISTRIBUTED for Conference of [fill in date],” and then the next entry in the docket will usually say “DISTRIBUTED for Conference of [next conference after the previous entry, whenever that is].” It is almost impossible to know exactly what is happening when a particular case is relisted, but a few different things could be going on. One justice could be trying to pick up a fourth vote to grant review, one or more justices may want to look more closely at the case, a justice could be writing an opinion about the court’s decision to deny review, or the court could be writing an opinion to summarily reverse (that is, without briefing or oral argument on the merits) the decision below. In 2014, the court appears to have adopted a general practice of granting review only after it has relisted a case at least once; although we don’t know for sure, presumably the court uses the extra time resulting from a relist to make sure that the case is a suitable one for its review.

Question: What does it mean to reschedule a case? Answer: When a case is rescheduled, the justices will consider the case at a different conference than the one for which it had originally been scheduled. Unlike relisted cases, which are considered at one conference and then set for reconsideration at the next conference, rescheduled cases are moved to a new conference without first having been considered. Rescheduled cases are similar to relisted cases, however, in that it is almost impossible to know exactly why a particular case has been rescheduled.

OPINIONS

Question: How many cases are left to be decided? Answer: After issuing one opinion on Monday, June 8, the court has 19 opinions left to release.

Question: What opinions will the court issue today? Answer: Unlike some other courts, the Supreme Court doesn’t announce in advance which cases will be decided on a particular day. So normally, we don’t know which opinions we will get. The only time we have a good sense is the very last day, when the court issues its final rulings.

Question: What’s the last day the court will issue opinions? Answer: We don’t know what the last day of the term will be. The justices normally try to issue all of their decisions by the end of June, but it is possible that they could go beyond the end of June this year because they held an unusual May argument session, finishing up with arguments two weeks later than usual. When the justices are in the courtroom, the chief justice usually signals the end of the term by announcing that the following day will be the final day before the summer recess. To be honest, unless there is just one opinion remaining to be released, we aren’t sure right now how we will know when we have reached the final day.

Question: If a case is not decided by the end of the term, will it be reargued? Answer: Ordinarily, yes, the court will order reargument during the next term. But it’s relatively rare for the court to order reargument, particularly if it hasn’t asked the lawyers in the case to address a new question.

Question: What are per curiam opinions? Answer: A per curiam ruling is a ruling issued in the name of the court, without any specific author identified – for example, the court’s opinion earlier this year in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, which concluded that the Second Amendment claims based on the city’s old ban on the transport of guns were moot. Per curiam opinions in cases that were not briefed and argued on the merits are typically issued with the order list and not otherwise announced.

Question: How are the opinions released? Are the justices in the courtroom? Answer: Because of the COVID-19 crisis, the opinions are currently being released only on the court’s website; no one takes the bench to read a summary of the opinion (or any dissents), and there is no live audio or video of the opinion release. The court had originally posted opinions on its website at five-minute intervals, beginning at 10 a.m. EDT. On June 8, the court announced that, going forward, opinions would be posted at 10-minute intervals.

Question: How does the court decide the order in which opinions will be released on a given day? Answer: The opinions are posted by author in order of reverse seniority. This means that if Justice Brett Kavanaugh has any opinions, his are released first, followed by Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Elena Kagan, and so on through the chief justice, who is always the most senior justice. However, there can be exceptions to this general reverse-seniority rule, generally when the justices are announcing decisions in two or more cases involving similar issues and it makes more sense to announce one first, even if it means disrupting the normal order for announcements.

Question: What is the significance of “R” numbers? Answer: The court does not state in advance how many opinions it will release, nor does it officially announce when it has finished releasing opinions for the day. However, the method that it uses to number the opinions – which we sometimes call the R-number system – serves as an unofficial (but so far reliable) signal that the court has released its final opinion for the day. When the opinions are eventually published in the U.S. Reports, the official bound version of the court’s opinions, they are published chronologically, with the opinions for a particular day published in order of seniority. The R number, which appears to the left of the opinion date/docket number/case name on the court’s website, refers to the order in which the opinion will appear in the U.S. Reports. But because opinions are announced in order of reverse seniority, the opinions on the court’s website can’t be assigned an R number until all of the opinions have been posted. Therefore, the posting of the R numbers is a sign that the court is done issuing opinions for that day.

Question: Who decides which justice will write which opinion? Answer: Shortly after the oral argument, the justices vote on a case. The most senior justice in the majority gets to assign the author of the opinion. He can assign it to himself or to a colleague he thinks will be able to hold the majority.

Question: Do the justices ever change their votes while the opinions are being drafted? Answer: The justices do sometimes change their votes. But unless the news leaks from the court, the public generally does not know for sure that this has happened until much later – for example, when a justice leaves the court and releases her papers.

Question: Does the court notify the lawyers in advance when it is going to issue an opinion in their cases? Answer: The court does not notify any of the lawyers in a case before it issues an opinion. So unless it is the last day before the summer recess, the lawyers (like the rest of us) don’t know whether they will get a decision in their cases.

Question: How can I find out when the next opinion day will be? Answer: The court highlights opinion release days in yellow on the calendar on its website.

The post FAQs: Announcements of orders and opinions appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/06/faqs-announcements-of-orders-and-opinions-4/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#law #justice

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marymosley · 5 years ago

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How Long is Law School? It’s More Complicated Than You Think

Are you considering law school? You’re not the only one. Law school applications have increased nearly 12% over the last two years. That’s a pretty significant jump in interest, and there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing more diversity in the law world and more juris doctors in general in the next few years.

There are many possible reasons for this sudden increase. Some believe it has to do with our current tumultuous politic system while others think that the economic recovery of the 2010s made pursuing legal studies to obtain a JD degree more appealing. Regardless, tons of people are entering law school right now, or at the very least considering it. One factor to consider before jumping into law school is how long it will actually take from start to finish to end up with a degree.

So just how long does it take to finish law school? The simple (and not always correct) answer would be three years. However, law school in the United States is quite complex. There are a variety of factors that come into play when calculating how long it takes to graduate from a JD program.

In this in-depth guide, we’ll be breaking down various law school scenarios to help you figure out which law school timeline works best for you.

Let’s start with the basics of law school and how long it usually takes to graduate when taking traditional classes.

The Basics (and Timeline) of Law School

Accurately answering the question “How long is law school?” depends on the particular path a student may wish to take.

The first step of this timeline begins with a bachelor’s degree. A vast majority of law schools don’t require a bachelor’s degree, but having one is absolutely allowed before applying to a law school. That being said, there are a number of undergraduate degrees one may want to have to better prepare them for specific niches in the law world. These degrees are considered “pre-law” degrees. Here are a few degrees that are popular as pre-law:

Political science. This major focuses primarily on theory and practice of politics and government at various levels, from state to national to international. Political science could be an excellent pre-law major for aspiring lawyers who want to get into political or federal law.

History. A degree in history can be useful for passing the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) and provide a well-rounded education in the history of society, community, trials, and constitutional law.

Criminal justice. It makes sense why criminal justice would make a great pre-law major. Criminal justice is a very interdisciplinary degree that studies pretty much everything that relates to crime and law, from psychology to public administration. If you plan on becoming a criminal justice lawyer, this is a great pre-law degree to have.

Psychology. Psychology courses are very useful to aspiring law students, as they provide a lot of insight into the human psyche. For law students who want to apply psychologic insights into their practice and communicate better with clients, a background in psychology could be great. A background in psychology can also be useful for criminal justice.

Sociology. The study of the structure and development of human society obviously has some great use cases for lawyers. Sociology is actually a major aspect of the law, so taking this major as a pre-law investment can provide students with a healthy background in the foundation of law.

A majority of these degree programs will take approximately four to five years to obtain, depending on how many credit hours per semester a student wishes to take. Remember that this isn’t a requirement– almost all major law schools do not require a pre-law major or degree. However, investing in pre-law degrees can demonstrate how dedicated you are to becoming an attorney and will look very good on a resume or school application.

The next step in the law school timeline is the LSAT test. The Law School Admission Test is a standardized exam that is given to all students who have applied to law school. It isn’t that different from the SAT exam you may have taken in high school, except the focus of the test is on law, logic, reasoning, reading comprehension, and critical thinking. LSAT testing is required by all American Bar Association-approved schools. It is highly recommended that when selecting a law school one should only apply for ABA-approved schools.

You will only be able to take the LSAT three times in a year and seven times over a lifetime. If you fail the LSAT seven times, you will not be able to enter law school. This is important to consider when calculating how long your law school journey will take. You’ll need to spend some significant time studying for this exam, and that could take up to a year when taking into consideration the available yearly testing dates. The actual test itself is timed at just under four hours.

Once all of these factors are taken into consideration, it’s time to look at the actual “school” portion of law school. As we mentioned before, law school usually takes around three years. Unlike undergraduate programs, law school does not permit students to take credit hours at their own pace, so this amount of time is more or less set in stone. Sometimes extensions may be granted for very specific situations, though this is uncommon.

When you take all of these traditional steps for law school into account, you could be looking at six to seven years from applying to a pre-law program to graduating with legal certification.

But the timeline possibilities don’t end there: What about night school?

Alternative Law School Programs

If you’d like to work in law but don’t necessarily want to go the traditional route, there are some options that could be shorter. Some law programs out there offer part-time classes in the evening in order for students to stay employed during the day. Through these programs, a student could complete their degree in around four years. This reduced course load can also be helpful for students who are interning while they are in school or are facing a significant financial burden.

Unfortunately, there are some downsides to being in a part-time law program. To start, even a part-time scenario is a massive time commitment between reading and studying and class time. A part-time student can still expect to spend forty hours a week focused on school. Just as well, some employers may see part-time programs as less desirable, which may be a factor in whether or not you are hired after graduation.

Still, night school can be a good idea. Many American Bar Association-accredited schools that are full-time do not allow students to work more than twenty hours per week while enrolled. In fact, some schools don’t let students work at all. A part-time option could be the best solution for students who must work for a living.

How Difficult is Law School?

We’ve established that the biggest factors of how long law school will take are your ability to finish pre-law quickly and pass your LSAT quickly. Law school itself is pretty much set in stone to take three years unless you opt for a less prestigious night school part-time.

Law school is difficult, and as a result, your LSAT will also be difficult. It’s vital to study very hard before you take this exam, and even then, there is a sturdy chance that you’ll fail the exam at least once. This is going to influence your law school timeline.

Just as well, there are also the fringe requirements around law school that you’ll have to spend time doing. You’ll need to ask for letters of recommendation before you even apply to law school. Depending on who you request these from, getting those letters can take a while.

The difficulty of law school also influences how long law school “feels.” Sure, it’ll take three years in a vast majority of cases. But that first year of the socratic method is extremely rigorous and may make you question your competence. If you’ve even been stuck in a very difficult life event, time seems to move very, very slowly.

However, once you pass the first year, things do actually get better. They may not get academically easier, but law students get a lot stronger after that first year. By your third year, you’ll be ready to focus on extracurricular activities like moot court, externships or thinking about possible clerkships. .

How Finances Influence the Length of Law School

Law school costs money. Quite a bit, in fact. Even if you attend an affordable law school, you can still expect to pay five figure sums for tuition and that’s not including living expenses or expenses associated with studying for and taking the bar exam.

When people think of the length of law school, they often forget about how long you’ll be carrying the financial burden of years of study during the time you are practicing law. The average annual tuition for private law schools is around $49,000. Keep in mind, that is a per-year amount. The total cost for three years in one of the best law schools could top $150,000. Let’s not forget about the possibilities of out-of-state tuition as well. Law school applicants will either need financial aid or a scholarship in most cases, in addition to some saved money. These scenarios can tack on more time before one can apply to enter law school.

One way for law school students to score more money or possibly get into law school for free is to do particularly well on the LSAT. Many schools reserve special funding for particularly brilliant students. Some schools also offer tuition discounts to applicants who have great academic credentials before entering law school, usually through a pre-law degree. The other method for figuring out the cost of law school is to think about applying to law schools that are slightly below the U.S. News & World Report school rankings where you would have otherwise qualified. In other words, you may want to consider attending a slightly lower ranked school in exchange for a significant scholarship. I say that you may want to consider because law firms are notorious for using the school ranking system for recruitment purposes, so if you want a shot at a Biglaw firm you may need to attend the best ranked school possible.

Guides and Resources from Biglaw Investor

Now that we’ve established how long law school can take, how financial situations influence law school timelines, and how difficult law school can be, you may be convinced to take the plunge and get into this particular career.

At Biglaw Investor, we believe that knowledge and preparation is everything when it comes to law school. We are dedicated to helping lawyers and soon-to-be attorneys around the country manage their student loan debt, make great investment decisions for their future, and get educated. A big part of becoming a lawyer involves financial stability and being able to pay for law school. Our in-depth resources and guides explore everything a law student may need to know, from refinancing student loans to how to pay for law school to additional tips for legal education.

Join our email list today for more great updates on personal finance and other great information that lawyers need to be the best they can be!

Check out some of our other great law school-related content, such as How Often Can You Refinance Student Loans? and How to Pay for Law School. We also have a ton of content available for learning about investment accounts, liabilities, exits, savings, protection, tools, and more! Need an investment calculator to help you improve your personal financial health? We’ve got that too!

Have Questions?

How long is law school full-time?

All American Bar Association accredited law schools require 3 years of full-time study to earn a Juris Doctor (also known as a JD, Doctor of Jurisprudence or law degree).

How long is law school part-time?

Part-time law students typically complete their law degree in four years.

How much does law school cost?

The cost of law school includes tuition, room and board, books and the opportunity cost of leaving the workforce to pursue a law degree (in other words, the money lost when you would have been working).

Related: How Much Does Law School Cost?

How do I pay for law school?

Paying for law school typically involves a combination of savings, scholarships, loans and part-time work.

Related: How to Pay for Law School

What are the most affordable law schools?

The cheapest law school is the University of the District of Columbia where tuition is around $13,000 a year.

Related: The 10 Most Affordable Law Schools in the US

Should I go to law school?

Considering whether you should go to law school? The important questions to ask are what are your motives for going to law school? Would you consider working before law school to make sure it’s the right path for you?

Related: Should I Go to Law School?

How long is law school in California?

Law school in California takes three years to complete.

How long is law school in New York?

Law school in New York takes three years to complete.

Originally posted on How Long is Law School? It’s More Complicated Than You Think

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