#i actually favour the rook over the queen

[tulipe-rose]

I've come across an old debate from 2023 arguing on who would be the queen on Dazai's side of the chess board; it was a Rampo vs Lucy debate. Some people suggested that Lucy would be the rook, and Rampo would be the queen, others argued that it was the opposite. Personally, I think that the former opinion is more accurate. Why? Because the rook, and the queen are both major pieces, thus meaning they have equal value (5 points), the difference is that Rampo is the strongest agency member, which means that he's the strongest chess piece; i.e the queen. Lucy was very valuable to Dazai's plan, but she isn't as strong as Rampo (intellect wise), she's more restricted. It could be argued that Lucy is stronger on the physical, and Ability front like the queen should be, and that is also valid as well, but her being a rook sits better with me.

[aquaburst3]

I'm starting my own take on Pomefiore. That means Neige is coming into play a lot more. While I seen posts saying why they enjoy him and think he's a fleshed out character, I still think he's the complete opposite.

He has almost no personality. His good personality traits are similar to the Golden Aged princesses and princes. Charming, kind, gullible and easily forgiving. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. I enjoy Cinderella. I don't mind Snow White for what she is, especially given the fact it was one of the first animated movies ever and was created at a time when male writers didn't know how to write female characters yet. The problem is that none of Neige's similar traits are examined or developed. He is as static and bland as they come. Hell, Snow White from the 30s movie is a better developed character than him! That REALLY says something...

He has done some pretty shitty things in the arc. He picked his buddies to be on his team, slamming the door on anyone else at RSA with actual talent. Instead of working on his routine, he came up with a half assed on. He relied on the dwarves' cutesiness and childlike appearance to win over the crowd, going against everything the competition stands for. Do I think Neige is a bad person for this? Absolutely not. However, like Kalim, I think he's an inconsiderate, thoughtless and selfish person, who is like a Disney prince who just skipped straight to his happy ending without earning it. Unlike Kalim who learns that how he's acting is hurting others, especially Jamil, and tries to improve himself, Neige is treated as being in the right and never learns anything, despite hurting many other people. That is anger inducing.

He's also rather dumb and gullible. He takes the drink from Vil without even questioning it.

His connection with Vil is all "tell" and no "show." We only get Vil's perspective on the situation. While I love Vil and he's one of my favourites in the game, even I admit he's extremely biased. We never get a chance to learn anything about Neige from his own words. Vil and Neige never directly interact till the climax, despite Neige being the antagonist of that arc.

The same goes for his acting ability. We're told that he's an amazing actor, but are never shown any examples other than two commercials. Let's face it. Acting in a commercial is different than in a movie or tv show.

Honestly, the canon doesn't show us anything that proves that Neige is more talented than Vil in regards to acting and singing. If anything, it seems like the exact opposite. It comes across like Neige is coasting by on only his looks.

I'm 95% sure that Yana pulled that info about Neige right outta her ass after Rook's VA received death threats from the Japanese fandom. For one, all of that info came out AFTER this incident instead of being woven in organically into the previous book. None of it was even remotely hinted at in advanced nor makes any sense when you think about it more than a few seconds. It's so tacked on that I don't even consider it canon. (Seriously, why the hell wasn't Neige taken away by Child Protective Services if he was a minor living with seven other kids, who don't seem all there? What the hell happened to his parents?)

Any opportunity to give them a deeper connection is completely dodged by the narrative. Again, why aren't they stepbrothers? It would make them resemble the original story more and have Neige's backstory make far more sense.

At the end of the day, Neige is just a cardboard cutout for Vil to sneer at and that's it. Ironically, Neige's such an underdeveloped and boring character that Vil is better Snow White analog than him, despite technically being based on the Evil Queen. Both Vil and Snow White are adaptable, capable, stern, value hard work, and want to help out other become their best selves.

Honestly, it's a damn shame. Neige could've been an interesting and fun character, but that was all dodged in favour of lazy and shitty writing. Hopefully my take on his character with his new backstory will improve him a lot, including making Neige Vil's stepbrother.

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Thinking about Thule! Kit and the possibilities for him.

He would've been 10 when Sebastian won, all warlocks died or got turned into demons, so their spells stopped working, so the wards around Johnny Rook's house went down, so something similar to when Malcolm Fade died. This could mean that, because the shadowhunters weren't around to save him, he could've died by demon attack due to how dangerous the world got but that's the sad boring answer so here's some other ideas.

Idea 1-

This idea, less focused on him being in faerie, is that because Johnny Room is crafty (inspired by this post) they survived. He managed to find a way to benefit from all the chaos, became favourable to Sebastian just to survive. Kit learns even more to not pick sides, to look out for himself and take advantage of a situation. Maybe they find Rosemary, the Riders of Mannan are in the blocked off faerie so they can be a family, maybe she still dies but they don't find out about Kit. The first one makes my heart break, he has the family dynamic he has in the none Thule world but obviously more dangerous and twisted. The second one interests me more though.

Kit grows up still in the mindset he was in during Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows. Johnny does little things here and there but isn't the conman he was before the war. He actually spends time with Kit, teaches him things and maybe stops blaming Kit for being the reason Rosemary was separated from him. Maybe he even starts to love his son (crazy idea I know).

They get in danger after Sebastian dies, their protection is gone, the rebels don't know who they are and definitely wouldn't help them knowing they were half on Sebastian's side. Johnny dies when Kit's 17. His powers explode like in QuOAAD and he finds himself in faerie. He observes from a distance as he tries to figure out his powers and where they came from, he finds out when the Riders of Mannan find him, he gets back to his world and after some processing, starts to hone his powers.

This comes to the attention of the rebellion, now finding a way to restore the wards on demon portals, remake Shadowhunters using the Mortal Cup and stop the blight by killing the Unseelie King (as Julian told Livvy Arawn's name) and spreading the water of Lake Lyn. Kit's powers are useful to get in and out of faerie.

This version of him is definitely more snarky, more morally grey and hurt but also confident. Not totally dark Kit but a darker him.

Idea 2-

When the wards came down, Johnny knew Kit was in danger. He took him to find his mother, there was a few weird months while Sebastian slowly destroyed the world but the Riders of Mannan found them, killed Rosemary and Johnny (the Unseelie King really wants the First Heir to stop being a problem after he takes over all of faerie) then turns to little 10 year old Kit when his powers explode and he lands in faerie.

He wanders around, caught up in a war, time going fast so he ages quickly. The Unseelie King takes over all of faerie as it's cut off, hears of how Kit survived and hunts for him, capturing him around the age of 14 and torturing him. Kit asks him why and finally gets an answer in the form of the story of the First Heir. He snaps and escapes at around 15. He wanders again, less confused and more angry and hurt at what he's become. He comes across a camp, steals some food then finds it's the Wild Hunt's Camp.

Kit's heard bad things about them and is fully expecting to die or at least lose a limb, he's surprised when he's offered a place in the Hunt, with Gwyn knowing about the story of the First Heir and seeing both the Seelie Queen and Unseelie King in his face that's turned more fae.

He gets trained, bonds with Kieran over Arawn being shitty and become almost like brothers. But Kit is still traumatised, only knows that to get what you want, whatever that is, you must spill blood. He gets used to the cruel ways of the Hunt, trains his powers and leaves to get revenge on the Unseelie King. Maybe they come with him, but considering they stay out of Seelie & Unseelie politics I don't think so. Maybe Kieran comes with, not wanting to be king but doesn't like his dad.

Kit grows older as he picks a one man war with the Unseelie King, knowing his powers and getting used to blood. He takes the crown at around 18 but he's not counting years. He's got stability but is lonely. He hears of people from another world and Sebastian's death from scouts and sees an opportunity, maybe he exploits the shadow realm or maybe he tries to get to the non Thule realm. The latter seems pretty interesting.

Hope you enjoyed this, tell me your Thule Kit headcanons below

[shoujolover-666]

Apple Kisses

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27032116

Ship: Yandere!Neige LeBlanche x Vil Schoenheit

Warnings: Possessive Behaviour, Obsessive Behaviour, Yandere

Vil stared into the mirror, a blank look was on his face as he let the man with ebony black locks caress his own golden tresses. A pair of soft lips ghosted over the nape of his neck, which caused him to shiver slightly. He could hear a soft chuckle from behind him before he felt the sting of a bite.

The man who played with him, almost as if he was a doll, was Neige LeBlanche, the man who was known for his gentle beauty that almost toppled kingdoms and his kindness.

It made him want to laugh, but he wasn’t able to. If it was because of his unique magic he used on him or the pure ridiculousness of the situation, he didn’t know.

“I am so happy to have you with me like this, Vil-Senpai.”

Neige almost purred as he wrapped his arms around the older man’s shoulder, placing his chin on the shoulder of the person who sat on the expensive looking chair. Chocolate brown eyes were gleaming, they were oh so different from the now dull violet looking eyes. Still, to the Royal Swords Academy student, they looked like the most beautiful pair of purple diamonds. A rarity that only few people in the world could actually afford.

Fingers were exploring each and every inch he could reach as he indulged himself in the luxury of being able to be this close to his idol, the man he had always looked up to for such a long time now.

Oh, he could clearly remember the hushed whispers of some students when he was in middle-school. Words were spread about a person with the name of Vil Schoenheit and how he took over the world of fashion and celebrities by storm with his beautiful and alluring appeal while working so hard, even when he didn’t need to.

A man who also had all kinds of rumors cling to him.

How he offered favours to get to the place where he was now. Back then, he didn’t care too much about the gossip, because the world of social media never had been something that he did belong in. With time, he got to see him more and more though. On television, on flyers and even on big screens that showed advertisements.

Each and every time he saw him, his heart started to beat a bit faster and he was able to feel how his cheeks warmed up, his face ending up flushed. At first he thought it was simple admiration of how beautiful a person could be, but with time, he noticed that he never elt like this with anyone else, no matter how beautiful they were as well.

No, only the blonde man was able to make his blood boil with passion like this. It almost felt like the call of a siren, each time he saw him, he couldn’t help but get drawn to him more and more. At one point, he couldn’t stop himself anymore from trying to get closer to him.

He wanted to be able to work with him, to talk to him, to be closer to him than anyone else was. Neige wanted to be on his mind, to be his everything, just as Vil was everything to him.

That was the reason why he threw himself into the world of glitz and glamour without hesitation. If it meant that his wish would come true like that, he would even give up his position as a prince.

The stares he got at first were almost unbearable. He knew that people tended to think that he was good looking, but most of the people he interacted with were polite enough to pretend that they did not stare. Now, it was different. As a person who got more and more famous, it was only common to be looked at, to have the attention of other people.

It was uncomfortable to him, but he persisted. Thinking about how this was only a small sacrifice if it meant that he got the chance to glance at Vil without the screen separating them helped him go through this.

When the time arrived in which he finally stood directly in front of the fair beauty, he had to try his hardest to prevent himself from shaking and squeaking like the excited fan he was. Instead of giving in to the urge to react how he usually would, he simply reached his hand out to him with a smile as a greeting.

A gasp almost escaped his lips the moment he felt the soft and warm sensation of the taller man’s hand on his. Vil’s smile was refined and refined, and it only made him want to faint on the spot.

It was almost as if a queen stood in front of him, regal and prim. Oh how he wished Vil would agree to become his, to become the one who would rule and stay just right by his side.

How he would love to shower the other model with love and all the luxuries the world had to offer.

None of Neige’s inner thoughts were betrayed as he simply kept his innocent smile on his lips.

Since then, they met each other more and more often because of collaborations. The black haired noticed how his own fame started to rise more and more with each job he took, just so he would be able to get closer to Vil.

And then he was suddenly the one who was known as the fairest of them all. Something that he did not anticipate.

In the beginning, it was awful. The eyes that looked at him with a calm neutrality at first turned more and more hostile.

He wanted to beg him, asking him to forgive him… when a certain thought came across his mind.

Didn’t it mean… that Vil would be focused solely on him? Neige’s mood improved immediately and he started to work even harder to keep his new found status.

Like this, he got more and more chances to work with him. He couldn’t be happier, it almost felt like a dream come true. Until it didn’t.

The routine of feeling the hate filled gaze locked on him when he wasn’t looking at Vil was something he was used to by now. If he had to be honest, he almost anticipated it. That was why it was so strange to him when he did not feel the burning look on him.

Why?

Why? Why? Why?

Who was the blonde man who stood next to him so carelessly? Why was Vil not bothered by him in the least and paid more attention to him than to Neige? What did he have that the black haired man didn’t?

For the first time in his life, he felt angry towards someone. Wrath started to consume him, but he hid it behind the sweet smile he was known for.

“Ah, isn’t it Roi de Pomme?”

The man with the hat looked at him and bowed before he introduced himself. Not that he really cared about who he was. “My name is Rook Hunt, I hope you are going to have a successful shooting, oui?”

Neige noticed how Vil rolled his eyes. To most, it was a gesture of annoyance, but to him, it was something different. It told him how close they were to each other that the beauty would do something like this. He could feel the burning feeling of jealousy in his chest, it almost robbed him of his breath, but he kept himself in check. No, it would not do him any good if people were to find out that ugly side of him.

Ah, it was time to speed up his plans. The prince wanted to take his time and coerce him into being his slowly with time, show him what he could offer him, but there was no time for that.

He had to act now, before someone who was not worthy of Vil would snatch him away from him.

~ 🍎 ~

Vils eyes were focused on Neige for a moment before he looked away again. Right now, the black haired menace was not his priority.

There was a reason why he took Rook, his Vice, with him. Lately, there have been strange occurrences. Things that belonged to the third year student of Night Raven College started to disappear. At first, it was nothing special. Sometimes it was something as simple as a can he left standing, sometimes it was some food that he didn’t want to eat anymore.

Nothing special.

Then, other things started to go missing. Lipsticks that he used, handkerchiefs that he put down for later, even some pieces of clothes vanished without him knowing who the culprit behind these actions was.

He hoped that Rook would be able to find out who was responsible for these actions.

Maybe that was why he could care less about Neige this time. Finding the person who stole his things had a higher priority this time.

A hand grabbed his all of a sudden, pulling him out of the world of his own thoughts. “We should go, Vil-Senpai. The shooting is going to start soon.”

And with that, he was dragged along by the man who was shorter than him.

They let the make-up artists apply some make-up on their faces before they were shooed to the canvas that were prepared for them. It was time to get to work.

All the while, Rook watched his surroundings with a smile. To anyone else, it seemed as if he was solely focused on the two celebrities, but that was not the case. As a hunter, he noticed everything that happened around him. There was nothing strange happening though. Not a single person was out of place, each of them doing their own work and fulfilling their purpose.

How strange. He knew that his queen was vigilant, but not to the point of being paranoid, so he trusted the other’s judgement.

Was the person who made his dorm leader worry like that suspicious of him? What a pity. He would have loved to hunt that person down for the beautiful man he served.

~ 🍎 ~

It was time for a break. Neige was on edge when he saw how the man from before approached them, but an honest smile appeared on his lips when he heard that he had to go because of some kind of business.

Good.

He waited for Rook to leave them alone completely before he turned to Vil again, who was touching up on his make-up himself. Neige felt the urge to tell him that the blonde haired man didn’t need to do that to make people fall for him, but he swallowed the words.

“Vil-Senpai?”

The other man popped his lips after he reapplied the purple lipstick he wore before turning to him, one elegant and thin eyebrow was raised.

“What?”

That single word was cutting, sharp, but he did not care. No, he would not let anyone else stop him from what he was doing.

With his goal set, he approached him. Vil didn’t even have the time to react when Neige grabbed his arm and pulled him down, pressing his pink coloured lips against the poisonous looking ones. His lips tasted bitter but were soft. The prince wished to simply get lost in the sensation, but he didn’t have the luxury.

“True Love’s Kiss.”

Purple eyes started to get glassy and lost their focus the moment Neiges lips touched him like that.

True Love’s Kiss. It was a skill that was inherited in each generation of his family. If they kiss a person while using their magic, the person would fall under a charming spell that made them obey the caster.

The prince never intended on using his Unique Magic on Vil like that, but he saw no way to get around it. Too many threats were around his beautiful queen, and he did not want to risk losing him.  

A hand wandered to the entranced man’s cheek and caressed it. If he were in his usual state of mind, his hand would have been slapped away already. Now, that he got a taste of his kiss, he was calm, docile.

Excitement made a shiver run down his smile, and he couldn’t help but laugh to himself slightly. It sounded so innocent and sweet.

Neige would tell the people that the shooting had to be stopped, for Vil was not in condition to continue. Of course, as a good colleague, he would take care of him.

No one questioned him because of how they all believed that he was simply a sweet boy who dearly cared for his older co-worker.

Which wasn’t too far from the truth.

With no one stopping him now, he took Vil home with him, his hand tightly grasping the others’.

A soft melody was hummed by him.

Finally.

It was time for the future he always looked forward to. Of course he had to take care of the details later, like pulling Vil away from the eyes of the public and paying the headmaster of Night Raven College to throw the blonde student out of the school but the effort was worth it, for he now had his own princess, who was going to be his queen in the future.

It was his own Happily Ever After.

[mona-stay]

Snowed In - Peter Hale

Prompt - Christmas special Warnings - none Pairing - Peter Hale x reader Story You are driving back to beacon hills for Christmas. You still have almost an hour and a half of driving left and the snow was starting to come down heavily. Your phone rang, using the Bluetooth headset you answer it. 

“Hi y/n how's the drive," your brother stiles asks. You groan "it's too bloody long" you laugh. In the background, you hear Derek give out a small laugh too. "Well if you didn't go to college on the other side of the country it wouldn't be so long," Stiles says sarcastically. "Was the reason you called me?" you asked him. "Yes Derek asked can you do him a favour and pick Peter up on your way," he asked. You rolled your eyes "do I have to?" you asked back. 

Next, you heard Derek's voice loud you guessed he took the phone from stiles, "please y/n if you go he'll come for Christmas" Derek said. You roll your eyes again "fine but you owe me" Derek laughed and agreed. You all say your goodbyes, as you turn to head toward Peter's home.

You didn't hate him, quite the opposite really you loved him but tried to lie to yourself and others you dislike him. Peter had always been a selfish, self-centred person, you knew he'd never care for you. When you heard he was interested in someone, it broke your heart so you left. 

You pulled up to his house, the snow was now ankle as you knocked on his door. Peter opened it looking at you with a smile and hint of surprise. "Santa must have gotten my Christmas list this year," he said opening the door for you to come in. "Peter hale your on Santa's naughty list and always will be" you joked. 

"So if your not my Christmas present what do I owe the pleasure of your company tonight," he asked charmingly. This was the way Peter always was flirty and charming. This was why you fell for him, that and his incredible good looks.

"Derek asked me to pick you up on the way," you told him. Peter nodded his head. He looked a little disappointed, "well you'll have to wait while I pack than" he said walking off. 

When he came back he saw your yawning, rubbing your face "how long have you been driving for?" he asked. You looked at the time "around 10 hours or so" you say working it out in your head. Peter looked at you shaking his head, "you're not driving until you've had a nap or something" he ordered. You are actually happy he'd said that not really wanting to go back out in the cold, now sitting in the warm house. Peter disappeared coming back with two plates of food. "Eat and you can go upstairs have a rest we'll leave in the morning," he said.

Agreeing you finished your food before Peter showed you to a guest bedroom. After a shower, you got in bed falling asleep right away. 

You woke the next morning, getting dressed you went down the stairs. Looking at your phone you noticed it had run out of battery in the night. Getting your coat and keys you went to get the charger from your car. At first, you couldn't open the door, it was stuck thanks to the weather. After a few pulls, you managed to open it, only to see a wall of snow almost three-quarters of the way up the door. You screamed Peter! He came running down the stairs in a panic, possibly thinking you were being attacked by the way your sound. "We're snowed in," you say pointing to the blocked door. 

Peter laughed sitting on the couch. "Why are you not bothered by this" you shout, anointed he's just laughing about this. "Well, sweetheart I can't control a blizzard and you're cute when you're mad," he said picking up a book.

"What are we going to do now!" you say placing your hands on your hips. “We have to get out of here somehow." Peter looked at you rolling his eyes "the snow is too deep even if we do get out, we can't go anywhere your car is buried" he told you. You gave up, closing the door, joining join him on the couch. 

You weren't sure what to do or say, Peter, however, saw you looking nervous asked if you were hungry. Telling him yes, he held out his hand helping you off the couch. In the kitchen, Peter made you a hot drink and started mixing batter for pancakes. You both laughed when he cooked, seeing how high he could flip them. You tried completely missing as yours landed on the floor.

After eating Peter found you some of his clothes to wear knowing you couldn't get to yours. "The power is off" Peter shouted to you. Coming back down, now in one of his V-necks, you saw him trying the lights, "do you have any candles?" you asked."In the kitchen" he said turning to look at you.

Peter looked at you with a smirk "what?" you questioned nervous, looking down at yourself. "Nothing you just look hot in my clothes," he said going into the kitchen. You rolled your eyes, but smiled and blushed a little at his words. He came back with a few candles lighting them, you spent the next few hours playing chess, talking about anything and everything. You told him all about college and you tiny flat you sheared, then about the few new friends you had made. Peter told you all about his different holidays he'd had, and all about the war with the humans in beacon hills. 

"if someone had told me, I would have come back to help," you said after hearing about what your friends had been through. "I'm glad you weren't" he said not looking at you moving his rook. You bite back a small smile at the idea he sounded worried about you. "Oh," you say moving your pawn to block his move "and why is that?" you ask taking your hand off the piece looking up at him. "Well being human your not much help" he smirked going to make his next move.

This was the reason you couldn't fall for him before or even now. You knew he never had feelings for you or ever would. To him, you would always be human and out of his league. "It's your turn y/n," he said breaking you from your thoughts. "So anyone special at college?" Peter said starting a new conversion waiting for you to make your move. "What's it to you" you answer still annoyed with his human comment. "Take that as a no then," he said with another smirk. You rolled eyes "no, there isn't anyone but I don't get why you care," you say snappy.

Peter frowns his brows, "checkmate" he says moving his queen to win. "And I do care, about you anyway," he said low. You looked at peter confused and sad "just not the way I want" you say under your breath walking away. You forgot Peter had wolf hearing and cringed when you realised he heard you. Peter stood up grabbing your arm. "And what is it you want?" he asked. He stood towering over you glaring into your eyes, waiting for an answer. "I...I don't know" you stuttered out nervously, now looking at the floor.

Peter closed the gap between you, putting his hand on your chin, to make you look at him. "How do you want me to care for you Y/n" his face became closer, making shudder a breath. When you didn't answer he smirked again "do you want me like this" he whispers in yours. Peter leans down to kiss you, in surprise, you freeze at first. Peter stops looking into your eyes, you look at him and smile leaning back in to kiss him again. 

When the kiss stops Peter smirks "so is that what you meant?" he asked. You bit your lip nodding, "good because I've wanted you, this for a long time" he smiled before pulling you in for a passionate kiss. "Really?" you ask when he stops, Peter looks you up and down. "of course I have, all the flirting, telling you how hot you look all that wasn't for fun," he tells you. You smile at him wrapping your arms around his neck, you kiss him again as he lifts you during the kiss, making you wrap your legs around him. You feel him smirk in the kiss making you stop "what?" you ask him. "I just thought I must be on Santa's good list and you really are my Christmas present" he laughs. You lightly smack his chest rolling your eyes as Peter carries you upstairs kissing you more.

[sussex-nature-lover]

Friday 22nd January 2021

Musings from under the duvet

Today’s Photos which are not my own are sourced via Twitter

If you were at all interested in my sojourn in Anglo Saxon history and the Sutton Hoo find, behold, there’s more. I won’t go into it but you can find all the information Here from Staffordshire. If you weren’t as fascinated as I am, let’s move on.

We didn’t have such an early a start as the Test Match Special team, who were on air from 04.15 but we were awake early enough and listening to the cricket from Galle again. The commentary team are all in different locations - Salford, The Oval (London) and their own homes. First comment of note, apart from the three early wickets, was a fox seen wandering right across the ground at The Oval 

You can’t make them out all that well here but the grass is also covered with gulls and starlings.

Looking out at our own frosty garden we have absolutely loads of Rooks with some Crows and Jackdaws - they’re the noisy neighbours from the woods. I think I said before we’re in for a busy Spring with constant cries of rate my baby again. It’s a few years now and I think their community is going from strength to strength. Roll on leaves on those trees please.

An altogether different bird has flown here via the Royal Mail. I’m not totally sure what it is? some kind of Swallow I imagine, so it’s come early. Lovely though.

Thank you Ms NW tE x

I have to say it’s very pleasant lying in bed warm and snug, with a mug of hot tea, listening to the cricket, reading and looking out of the window. My it’s been a cold and very frosty start to the day and there was a very strange cloud this morning too. I’d better consult the book and see what that’s all about. It’s also notable that we haven’t needed a bedside lamp on today either, so that’s a pleasant change.

I was actually reading up on some recipes, aubergine (egg plant) recipes to be precise. I’ll be making this soon. But looking around lead my mind to wondering why I dislike coriander (cilantro) so much?  I’ve read up on it before as I absolutely hate and detest the flavour so much that my mouth is actually shrivelling and I’m recoiling at the very thought. Crow can tolerate it, but isn’t particularly keen. Now the odd thing is, for me, it’s only raw coriander that brings about this extreme reaction. When the herb’s cooked into a dish it’s not quite so bad, when it’s used as the dried seeds or ground spice, which I use frequently in Indian dishes, then I’m ok with it - as a garnish, undetected in a salad or salsa it completely ruins my food. Usually I’m quite a fan of leafy green herbs.

So off I went again on another internet search 

“It may surprise you to learn that those who dislike cilantro tend to have a gene that detects the aldehyde part of cilantro as a soapy smell and taste,” Dr. Vyas says.

Aldehydes are organic materials that possess a distinct chemical structure. The pairing of a carbon atom with an oxygen atom leaves room for two more bonds. If one of those bonds is with a hydrogen atom it’s called an aldehyde. If neither of the bonds is with hydrogen, it becomes a ketone.

The difference may be small at the molecular level, but has large implications at the olfactory (smell) level. It’s suspected that a dislike for cilantro is largely driven by the smell (and smell is directly linked to how we taste.)

“Think back to grade school science lab and formaldehyde and you can see why some people have such a negative reaction to aldehydes,” she says.

I’d looked up why I dislike the herb before, especially after finding out there are whole websites and an International Day (February) devoted to these feelings. I began to speculate whether I could eat it if I held my nose? but that article goes on...

On the flip side, one of the most famous perfumes ever invented uses synthetic aldehydes in high volumes. Chanel No. 5, a very distinct and popular perfume, contains a number of synthetic aldehydes to deliberately gear up your olfactory system.

Blame it on your genes — and your surroundings

Some people possess a gene that makes them super-sensitive to the aldehyde component found in cilantro and other foods and products. One study noted a very specific genetic link near the olfactory center of DNA in about 10% of those with cilantro aversion.

What’s even more interesting, according to the study, women are more likely to detect a soapy taste and dislike cilantro. And African-Americans, Latinos, East Asians and South Asians are significantly less likely to detect a soapy taste when compared with Europeans.  Source

See I find that really strange because I’ve worn Chanel No 5 perfume for years and love it.

Chanel No 5:

A highly complex blend of aldehydes and florals - including rose, ylang-ylang, jasmine, lily of the valley and iris - layered over a warm, woody base of vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, amber and patchouli

Coriander is just one food that may drastically differ in taste depending on your genetic make-up. What we taste when we eat broccoli for example, can also be determined by the receptors we were born with.

‘Somebody may have a great aversion to broccoli because they have the bitter taste receptors that are responsive to a specific compound in broccoli. Whereas other people don’t have that receptor variant and, therefore, don’t experience the bitterness from broccoli,’ explains Prof. Keast.

Strange again, my sense of taste favours Umami, bitter and sour, I like salty too, but not too fond of sweet.  The very smell of broccoli makes me heave and gulp, so I don’t doubt that olfactory senses play a large part in the dislike, but the explanation about coriander isn’t stacking up for me.

Anyway, the upshot of all that is that any dish which calls for raw coriander has  flat leaf parsley substituted and I can’t see that changing. The topic was a bit of a diversion though and topical given that a loss of smell and taste are symptoms of the Covid-19 virus. Crow thinks I’m the in-house sniffer dog whereas his senses aren’t particularly well developed and indeed his late father lost both of those senses through illness and it did prove both unpleasant and potentially dangerous at times.

As a change away from my culinary and sensory investigations I saw our old stamping ground on Twitter. Like so many others, the Reserve has had to close due to the weather.

Burton Mere I had a little browse of their website and the photo on that link made me smile. I also saw they’re featured in Nature’s Home magazine.

Going back to the photo (which you’ll have to click through to see) it reminded me how little we’ve seen of squirrels in the garden these past few months. At one time there were about eight who were the absolute scourge of our bird seed and feeders. The same goes for rabbits, who are also mainly sticking close to the woods at the bottom of the garden, although there were some up by the house after dusk the other night.

spot the odd one out

Throw-back photos from the garden

Butler (above) and The Twins (below)

I kind of miss watching them, but it’s very much a case of be careful what you wish for.

What Did I Learn Yesterday?

Ever sung the words “ I see a little silhouetto of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango? “

Well I knew that the fandango is a dance but I always assumed a scaramouche was some form of devil figure, but no, well, kind of (as per the skirmisher) the proper definition is

Scaramouche or Scaramouch (from Italian scaramuccia, literally "little skirmisher") is a stock clown character of the 16th-century commedia dell'arte (comic theatrical arts of Italian literature)

Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen

[johntropea]

Situational awareness in strategy

I want you to imagine you live in a world where everyone plays Chess against everyone else. How good you are at Chess really matters, it determines your status and your wealth. Everyone plays everyone through a large computer grid. Ranks of Chess players are created and those that win are celebrated. Competition is rife.

The oddest part of this however is that no-one in this world has actually seen a Chessboard. When you play Chess in this world, you do so through a control panel and it looks like this …

[...]

The game continues until at some point, usually after a long sequence of presses, the system announces that someone has won or it is a draw.

Unbeknownst to either player, there is actually a board and when they press a piece then a piece of that type is randomly selected. That piece is then moved on the board to a randomly selected position from all the legal moves that exist.

...but all of this is hidden from the players, they don’t know any of this exists, they have no concept there is a board … all they see is the control panel and the sequence of presses.

However, we have the sequence! Within that sequence people will find ‘favourable’ patterns e.g. the best players seem to press the Queen as often as possible! People will come up with their own favourite combinations and try to learn the combinations of other winners!“When your opponent moves the Knight, you should counter with Queen, Queen, Rook” etc.

[...]

As you aggregate more and more data from different games in ever larger “big data” systems and AI is applied then the more patterns will be proclaimed and the more secrets of success announced in popular publications. You can already imagine that article in Harvard Business Review collecting sequences from over 100,000 games and announcing the killer combination of Queen, Queen, Pawn, Knight.

[...]

Imagine one day, you play that individual but they can see something quite remarkable … the board. 

[...]

...every time you play this player, you lose and you lose fast. You keep recording their sequences and even try to use their sequence against them. 

...People will be amazed by the incredible skill of this player but also confused that they can’t replicate the success

...there is no luck to this or special way of pressing buttons. The player controlling Black simply has far greater situational awareness. The problem for the player controlling White is they have no real understanding of the context of the game they are playing. White’s control panel is just a shadow of the landscape and the sequence of presses lacks any positional information or consistent understanding of movement on the board. When faced with a player who does understand the environment then no amount of large scale data analysis on combinations of sequences of presses through the control panel or application of artificial intelligence or algorithms that is going to help you.

[...]

...our enlightened Chess player has many WHEREs to move pieces on the board. By understanding the landscape you can make a choice based upon WHY one move is better than another. This is a key point to understand. People often talk about the importance of WHY in strategy but WHY is a relative statement i.e. WHY here over there. To answer the question of WHY you need to first understand WHERE and that requires situational awareness.

[...]

I’d hope you’d agree that a strategy based upon an understanding of the landscape is going to be vastly superior than a strategy that is derived from a SWOT. Equally from the point of view of communication and learning then a map beats a SWOT hands down.The question you need to ask yourself however is — what do we most commonly use in business? SWOT or MAP?

[...]

The problem that exists in most businesses is that they have little or no situational awareness. Most executives are even unaware that you can map the business environment and increase situational awareness

[...]

Those with high levels of situational awareness often talk about positioning and movement. Their strategy is derived from WHERE and so they can clearly articulate WHY they are making a specific choice. They tend to use visual representation (the board, the map) to articulate encounters both present and past. They learn from those visualisations. They learn to anticipate others moves and prepare counters. Those around them can clearly articulate the strategy from the map. Those with situational awareness talk about the importance of WHERE — “we need to drive them into the pass”, “we need to own this part of the market”. They describe how strategy is derived from understanding the context, the environment and exploiting it to your favour. The strategy always adapt to that context.

Those with low levels of situational awareness often talk about the HOW, WHAT and WHEN of action (e.g. the combination of presses). They tend to focus on execution as the key. They poorly articulate the WHY having little or no understanding of potential WHEREs. They have little or no concept of positioning and they often look to ‘copy’ the moves of others — “Company X gained these benefits from implementing a digital first strategy, we should do the same”. 

[...]

I’ve come to conclusion that less than 1% of companies have any mechanism of visualising their environment and continuously learning from it. The vast majority suffer from little to no situational awareness but then they are competing in a world against others who also lack situational awareness.

SOURCE Why big data and algorithms won’t improve business strategy

Related

What is a strategy?

Emergent strategy is not strategy by prediction, it’s strategy by discovery