#i am pretty sure we did like we were very clear with the vet staff about what we wanted for her and what we did not want for her

[marmotsomsierost]

The old lady is home, high as shit and Grumpy At Everything.

The puppies are Greatly Concerned.

She has to skip two days of The Good Shit (gabapentin and trazodone) because the doc wants to be sure her wobblies and resistance to standing up are from being High As Fuck and hospital stress, so if she isn't at least upright and semi-mobile by then they want to know about it. Once she is upright and on steady ground she's walking with minimal assist for short distances.

[punkpresentmic]

A quick silly drabble feat. bird!mic based on @englandsgirl18181234’s prompt: 

838 words, rated G

He had received worse calls, Shouta thought as he entered the hospital to pick up his husband. Working as pro-heroes, both of them had gotten their fair share of phone calls like this one: this hero has found himself under the influence of a quirk; you’re the emergency contact we call to deal with that.

It was not, however, everyday Shouta was briefed that his husband had been turned into a bird. Luckily it was only temporary; they were quick to reassure him of that. 

Idly he wondered how the cats would take it. 

A nurse was waiting for him by the door, ushering him back to the emergency department and to an area partitioned off by a blue curtain. A beady eye trained itself on him as it was pulled back. A white bird—a cockatoo with a yellow crest—was settled back on a human-sized pillow, in a human-sized bed, half swaddled in a scratchy hospital blanket.

Despite himself, Shouta released a bark of laughter. “You gave him a bed?”  

Hizashi let out an indignant squawk, wiggling himself out of the blanket only to tumble over it, wings flapping. Yep, that would be his husband. The nurse shifted on her feet, “We thought it would be best to look him over before release.” 

Shouta watched his husband toddle down the bed toward him, wings spread uneasily to steady himself. “What, you have a vet on staff?” 

The nurse cleared her throat. “Some patients have... more animalistic features…” She shrugged a shoulder, like even she wasn’t certain this wasn’t a lame prank looking at the bird who had successfully made his way over to them. 

Shouta grinned down at Hizashi who, with body language that was so comically familiar, was clearly impatient to get out of here. It was an odd thought—how even in such a vastly different body he still carried himself much the same. Shouta wondered if he’d be like this long enough to remaster his usual Present Mic strut. “Long day?” he asked him, only to be met with a very not-birdlike sigh. Shouta turned back to the nurse, “So do you have a pet carrier for me to put him in?” 

Hizashi thwapped at him with a wing, tilting his head to glare up at him with one eye.

Shouta snorted, holding out his arm. “Of course, you’re much too delicate for that. Come on, let’s get you home.” 

Hizashi hopped onto his hand, climbing his way up Shouta’s arm to come to rest on his shoulder. Shouta made his way back through the hospital halls, ignoring the double takes they were getting. He snagged a lollipop from the front desk on his way out and tugged it from its plastic while he walked. “Really, ‘Zashi, this would only happen to you.” 

A scoff was a funny thing coming from a bird’s mouth.

“It’s weirdly fitting, though. Your hair didn’t even change.” Shouta reached up to give his little head a scratch as he stepped out the automatic doors and onto the sidewalk, quick to wave a taxi over. 

The driver only noticed the smaller passenger after Shouta had slid into the backseat. “Sorry, sir, no pets.”

Shouta shook his head, pulling the lollipop out of his mouth with a pop. “Don’t worry. He’s my husband.” 

The driver raised a finger, his mouth opening and closing. Shouta replaced the lollipop. The driver turned back around in his seat with a withering sigh, putting the car into gear. Hizashi shot him a pointed look—a loud and clear ��why did you have to do that?’ as Shouta slumped back to enjoy the ride.

The sun had sunk well below the horizon by the time Shouta was fiddling with his keys at the door to their shared apartment. Inside, Hizashi fluttered to one of their shelves to better face him. The movement caused the couple cats coming to greet their fathers to startle and hiss up at the intruder. “Hush,” Shouta sighed at them before returning his attention to Hizashi. “I am taking a shower and going to bed. Any objections?” 

Hizashi opened his beak—a tentative attempt at forming words—only for nothing but a positively horrid squawk to come out. Both of them winced, Hizashi’s feathers ruffling. Hizashi instead went for shaking his head no, a gesture that looked more like he was shaking it off. 

“Don’t worry about it; you’ve had a long day: patrol after school, hit with a quirk, not able to talk. I’m sure it’s not easy.” Hizashi’s head dipped slightly. He was tired. Shouta reached out with a finger to stroke the soft feathers of his cheek. “I’m glad you’re alright though. Happy you’re home.” 

Hizashi’s feathers puffed happily, leaning into his hand. 

Shouta smiled wryly at him. “Alright, pretty bird—Want to join me in the shower? How about I put on the radio for you?”

Hizashi bobbed his head once and leaned forward to bump their foreheads together, eyes closed. 

Shouta laughed, petting his feathers, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love you too.”  

[dodgergilmore]

YAS give me more jess/rory analysis PLEASE ❤

I ended up expanding on my season 3 thoughts in another post, so I’ll just ramble on about something different if we’re all good with that!

Let’s discuss how “You could do more.” is, in some ways, the thesis of the whole Rory and Jess dynamic.

When Rory is not amused by his magic trick during one of their very first interactions (what a sentence lmao), it shows that she isn’t going to put up with the facade he puts on in Stars Hollow. She doesn’t shy away from speaking her mind and pushes him to take responsibility for his actions:

“All [Luke] does is stick up for you, and all you do is make his life harder. I guess that's what you have to do when you're trying to be Holden Caulfield, but I think it stinks. (...) Funny, I never pegged you as clueless, my mistake.”

Again, Rory points out the act Jess puts on but this also shows how she isn’t going to just passively allow him to act in such ways because she doesn’t see him as the nuisance/lost cause that much of the town sees him as. Instead, she holds him to a higher standard because she knows he isn’t clueless.

After a well-intentioned suggestion on Rory’s part, we see her at odds with the expectations placed on her by the town as she becomes “the poster girl for censorship” and she can openly discuss this with Jess as someone who would understand where she’s coming from, because he is one person who is not charmed by Stars Hollow’s small town antics. Her future isn’t bound to this place, so when Jess questions what Rory and Dean talk about, saying that ‘he doesn’t seem like her kind of guy’ it adds another layer to that conversation; let’s be real, Jess is not coming from a place of entirely pure intentions but after season 1, Dean is basically the town’s golden boy (despite previously being the new kid in town) and thus is the embodiment of one of the two worlds Rory is caught between throughout the series: Stars Hollow. But right from the Pilot, we know that Rory is set to “do more” than Stars Hollow. That whole sidestory in 2x12 and its relation to Rory could be an analysis of its own, which I don’t think I am equipped to offer at this time...

By 2x13, Rory is pushing against and growing frustrated with Lorelai’s view of Jess. Rory recognises that Jess should not need a tutor, after trying to explain his margin-writing to Lorelai in the previous episode, and it’s clear that Rory believes in Jess in a way that he himself does not at this point. He meets her words of encouragement and “you could do more” with cynicism but Rory remains unconvinced. Schooling should not be a measure of success – and by season 6 it ends up being beside the point anyway – but it is interesting that Jess’ reasoning for not going to college has nothing to do with himself and everything to do with what others have to say about him.

And why aren’t you going to college? (...)

Ask my mother, she could give you a couple reasons. Oh, and I’m sure Principal Mertin can chime in with a few good ones. In fact, ask your mother. She doesn’t know me all that well but I’m sure she could improvise a few things.

Do not give me that whole ‘I’m so misunderstood, Kurt Cobainy’ thing. You are way stronger than that and I don’t even wanna hear it.

That whole conversation in the car really is The Goods. The paths they have planned for themselves could not be more different but still, they offer each other the same unwavering support and encouragement.

I wont go into detail because I think I’ve already addressed this in my previous posts today but “you could do more” comes into play even during their relationship in that Jess, as we know, does not generate the most positive views from the people of Stars Hollow, perhaps believing that Rory could do more, so to speak, than him. If nothing else, the town definitely thinks so.

Jess shows support for Rory’s Harvard-and then-Yale dreams, which is one of many reasons his reappearance in 6x08 works so well. He assumes she graduated early before considering she wasn’t in school; when Rory keeps commenting on how her circumstances are “all temporary” Jess is visibly... I don’t know that I’d say concerned at this point but he is definitely taken aback.

I know it's good. Jess, you've got such a great brain. I knew that if you could just sit down and stop shaking it around, you could do something like this. I knew it. I knew it.

I know you did. (...) So, I just basically wanted to show you that. Uh, tell you... tell you that I couldn't have done it without you.

Obviously Jess is confirming her “you could do more” sentiments when he explicitly credits the role she played in helping him find success for himself. In doing so, this reassures Rory that she was right about something after feeling the defeat of Mitchum’s words for however many months by this point, and also reminds her of the ambitions she once had for herself.

Neither of them do or say these sort things for “I want to be with you” reasons but for “I want good things for you” reasons. It doesn’t come from a romantic place – they sincerely want the other to succeed, even if that means being apart. Even after everything that happened, Rory is saying “I hope you're good. I want you to be good.” in that 3x22 phone call, and then this in 6x08:

You know that section toward the front, the staff recommendations? I'm gonna grab a copy of your book and put it in that section, and then I'm going to write my own little recommendation on a card and attach it so people see it and buy it.

Please, that’s just cute :(

Of course it ends up ending in absolute MESS but she goes all the way to Philadelphia to see his open house. Imagine if she hadn’t checked the mail that day lmao

I just got the flier, and I don't know. I just wanted to see your place, but then this...

In AYITL, Jess hears Rory out as she divulges the state her life is in then reassures her that she’s in a rut that she is fully capable of getting out of. “Where is this coming from? What inspired you?” indeed. The implications, y’know??

Now I’m going to circle back to what I said about Dean representing Stars Hollow for a moment here. Logan very overtly represents the world of wealth and like I said, Rory is between these two worlds. Rory is a balance of the world of her grandparents and her mother; what’s interesting about Jess is that he doesn’t belong to either world, really. He can exist in the world of Stars Hollow because of his familial connections and history there and that brings us some little moments that are not at all deep, but I absolutely love anyway:

Can't wait to hear how you bagged the job.

It was the usual thing; I submitted my resume, plus samples of my work, I was thoroughly vetted, there were several lengthy interviews, plus complex negotiations over salary, benefits, parking–

You asked Taylor.

Pretty much.

And then when he asks Rory over the phone to fill him in on the ‘showbiz spat’ in 3x14. Stars Hollow has an important role in Rory’s life, and Jess is able to understand that world in a way that Logan simply can’t – if I recall, he is actually quite endeared by the town when he makes his first official visit there in season 7.

Season 5 makes Dean’s place in Rory’s life very clear, first with “What am I doing here, Rory? I don't belong here. Not anymore.” in 5x08 and then in 5x18, when Dean is used as a direct parallel to Luke:

They want more than this. Don’t you see that? And all you are is this. (...) This town, it’s all you are, and it’s not enough. She’s going to get bored, and you can’t take her anywhere. You’re here forever.

It’s... kind of an odd comparison to make in that Lorelai is quite happy with her Stars Hollow life and hasn’t indicated that she wants “more” than this. For Rory, though, it does reiterate that she wants more than Stars Hollow can offer her. I’ve discussed this before but the world of wealth and Logan, while initially intriguing to Rory, loses its shine during season 6 and she ultimately rejects it in that she doesn’t want to be bound by it. It offers temporary thrills and escapism, but she ends up having to enter the real world.

In Summer, Rory talks about looking at places in Queens so that might be the best, most recent indicator of where Rory wants to be in terms of geography. Just like Rory, Jess isn’t bound to any particular world – bouncing around from place-to-place in the original series, not unlike Rory in the revival – and together... they can do more. And that is that on soulmate-ism!

All in all, they hold each other to high standards not because they idealise one another or put each other on pedestals but because they genuinely believe in each other’s capabilities. They actively push each other to do more and important to note is that they hear each other in these moments; maybe not always immediately but they get there eventually because by the end, it’s clear they have a certain respect and fondness for each other. I like that they don’t passively roll along with whatever the other chooses to do, which may be the very reason some people don’t like them. As much as their dynamic evolves with time, there are just some things that remain a constant...

[thestorytellersapprentice]

Over Booze and Buzz

Pairing: Jo Yeong/Myeong Seung-ah, Lee Gon/Jeong Tae-eul

Fandom: The King: Eternal Monarch

Tags: Fluff, Friendship, Formalwear, Alternate Universe, Parallel Universe

Summary: In which The Captain let loose (at first) in celebration of the King’s birthday. There's booze involved in this, Tae-eul would so much approve.

Notes: Unbeta-ed. Post drama, written before the 13th episode aired, so pretty sure this is not canon. At all. This fic was written mostly because I agree with Myeong Seung-ah. Some men (especially Jo Yeong), all covered up (especially in suits), are terribly hot. And also because we need some light hearted stories before the finale :)

Link: ArchiveofOurOwn

~

As a personal rule, Jo Yeong only drinks two times a year, max. Once, on the birthday of His Majesty, The King of Corea, Lee Gon, and then the only other time was, lately, on his own birthday.

It was not because he had zero tolerance or despised the taste. No, far from it. He actually preferred soju than beer, but he even came to like the Mixing-Shaking-Drinking-style drink that Lieutenant Jeong Tae-eul - former Lieutenant, he reminded himself - introduced him to, and would even admit that he missed it terribly.

However, now that he was fully back to his life and duty as Captain of the Royal Guards in Corea, Yeong simply could not afford to let his reflexes dulled and judgement compromised, even just for a few hours. Multiple lives, including the King’s, Royal Court’s, and his country could be at stake.

But still, he made an exception, for Lee Gon. Only for his best friend Lee Gon.

Yeong clinked his can of beer with His Majesty’s before they both took a gulp.

“Ahh, I totally miss this, Yeongie,” Lee Gon sighed in contentment, a wide smile on his face. “Do you know why I always look forward to my birthday? It's not because of all of the grand celebrations that Lady Noh throws me: the party, cakes, presents, the kind, but because it’s the only time you're gonna have a drink with me.”

Yeong responded by raising one of his eyebrows. “Oh yeah? But that never stops you from asking, does it, Pyeha?”

The King laughed. “I am a man of perseverance, after all. Look what I’ve accomplished! After years and years of asking, you were finally willing to have a drink with me on your birthday too. You know how thrilled I was, right? Took me four years, but progress!”

Yeong gave out a small smile at that, recalling the memory. A few years back, the moment he finally said yes, the King had stood there unblinking for a few seconds, uncharacteristically at loss for words. It was quite an entertaining sight.

“And by the way, I thought you’ve changed,” the Monarch continued, fully protesting now, “I saw you drink openly when you were in the Republic!”

“That’s because you weren’t there.”

Lee Gon made the motion like he had just been shot on the heart. “Ouch, that hurts.”

Yeong just dismissed his King’s antics. "You know what I mean."

Back then, in the Republic of Korea, he was not Jo Yeong but Jo Eun-seob, a mere civilian, who happened to get tangled up in the conspiracies of the two worlds and did some investigations himself. There, he had no King (and best friend) to protect. There, on the other hand, he traded his needs for 24/7 of vigilance with 24/7 of endless worries, because said King had returned to their world with his counterpart without any means to contact them due to the technicalities of the different worlds.

So, yeah, Yeong was fully aware that he was breaking his own rules, but back then, alcohol had been more than essential as his coping mechanism.

Not that he would ever tell the King about the last part, though.

"Anyway, thank you for drinking with me, Yeong-ah." Lee Gon leaned his head back against the headrest. “You see, this, right here, right now,” he remarked, “life is good.”

Yeong let himself hummed in agreement, returning the sentiment.

They were sprawled on the sofa in His Majesty’s study. The King, sporting semi casual clothes of a white collarless shirt and a dark blue vest, was in a relaxed position. He had his hand, which was holding the beer, resting on one of the propped up pillows. Beside him, the Captain was in his suit uniform as always, but had stripped off his suit jacket and folded it up on the nearby chairs. He wasn’t wearing a tie that day, though, and had unfastened the first few buttons on his shirt.

On the table in front of them, the many cans and bottles of beer were mixed in with soju and their glasses, still stacked neatly. They were untouched, for now, due to their mutual agreement that the infamous Jeong Tae-eul's mix of beer and soju was to be kept for later rounds.

To say that Lee Gon had definitely gone overboard was probably an understatement. Yeong was pretty sure that the amount of alcohol had doubled since his last birthday, and he was having difficulties seeing the actual surface of said table.

They were only halfway through their second cans of beer when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Yeong shouted. He did not bother to straighten his back, let alone get up. His Majesty Lee Gon’s birthday was also the one day where he let himself be the best friend first instead of Captain of the Royal Guards. Plus, he was way too comfortable anyway.

He turned in his seat to see Myeong Seung-ah letting herself in, holding a tablet in her hands.

“Pyeha, I terribly apologize, but-” Her voice instantly trailed off once she witnessed the sight in front of her. “Oh, uhh…”

As a new addition to the Palace, less than a year in, Yeong was sure that Seung-ah had yet to get familiarized with their annual habit.

Over the years, Yeong had amassed quite a collection of how people in the Palace reacted to them getting wasted: some were appalled (just Lady Noh, mostly), some highly approved (Secretary Mo), some were fascinated by their curious timing, and a few (almost all of them female, but he did not keep count, really) made awkward attempts to invite him to drink with them later on, to which he obviously denied.

Judging by her nervous glances which alternated between the two men, Yeong would guess that she had a hard time deciding which sight shocked her more: her King slouching carelessly like he had blended onto the sofa, or the Captain holding a beer sans his suit and soldier pose, possibly drunk.

He supposed it was the combination of the two.

To her credit, Seung-ah seemed to be able to recover pretty quickly. Her expression reverted back to that of strict professionalism (to which he very much approved) as she cleared her throat and tried again. “Secretary Mo is looking for you, Pyeha. She has questions about Lady Jeong’s insistence on some protocols.”

The infliction in her voice was clearly an explanation on itself. Yeong could instantly picture Jeong Tae-eul having a fit over the many ancient traditions of the Kingdom. That lady sure was feisty, she could even handle herself against Head Court Lady Noh, which was pretty impressive. Secretary Mo almost didn’t have a chance.

The King turned towards him with an alarmed look on his face. His eyes quickly darted to the beer he was holding, and he needed no words, really. Yeong knew precisely what was on the King's mind.

He stopped the Monarch before he managed to take two fresh beer cans, swapping them with the soju bottles instead. “Pyeha, I’d suggest you take these instead.”

Jeong Tae-eul was famous for her affinity to strong alcohol, after all.

Lee Gon smiled widely at that. “You’re brilliant, Yeong-ah.”

He gathered the bottles and shot glasses onto his hands then stood up. “We’re resuming this tonight. I don’t care if the party ends way past midnight, it’s still my day. My after party. It’s the King’s order.”

The King then turned to Seung-ah with a mischievous smile in his face, “You’re my witness, Miss Myeong Seung-ah.”

~

As soon as the King had departed the room, Seung-ah approached him with a small smile on her face. “Wow, it’s you, Jo daejangnim, loosening up,” she commented. “Daebak.”

Yeong let out a small smile himself. He lifted one of the unopened beers. “Want one?”

He could almost see the gears in the Public Affairs staff’s head turned, as if she was calculating how much she could get in trouble for succumbing to the temptation of alcohol just before the grand party, which he supposed she still needed to oversee.

But she finally relented. “Yeah, okay,” she said, placing her tablet on the edge of the table after rearranging some of the cans and bottles to make space. She cracked open her beer. "I don't know that you drink."

"I mostly don't,” Yeong replied, resting his arms on his knees. “But the Royal Guards have vetted the entire guests, aids, security details, their family, friends, colleagues, distant acquaintances - everyone - multiple times over the last few months, so I’m confident.”

Not to mention, his fellow security details, the ones who would accompany the many military personnels, politicians, foreign delegations, celebrities, everyone who’s who for that night, had done and coordinated their own security checks and protocols with them. The security level of that night's event was simply beyond impenetrable.

"You must have," Seung-ah agreed. "I can't believe it took me more than an hour to enter the Palace every day this week. I've worked here for months and I even know almost everyone from your team by name!"

Yeong felt a swell of pride for his team at that admission.

He took another sip.

He had to admit, it was nice to be able to let go, even just for a short while. The warm buzz of the alcohol was most definitely comfortable.

Now that the nightmare with Lee Lim was all over, finally, finally he could breathe so much easier. Himself, the King, Lady Jeong Tae-eul, as well as the whole Palace and Kingdom of Corea. No more waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since the King told him that the traitor was still alive. He had prepared himself for such battles and so much more his whole life, but Yeong still had to admit that those particular few months of going back and forth the parallel worlds were absolutely bad for his stress levels and taking its toll on him, both physically and mentally.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Seung-ah turned on the screen of her tablet. “Can you meet me fifteen minutes before the gate opens? I have to freshen up and take care of some minor stuff first, but I still need to prep you.”

“Prep me for what?”

“The Royal Guards’ uniform,” she replied, but Yeong still didn't really follow.

The Palace Wardrobe Department had sent a notice to his office, regarding the guards’ dress code for the night. He had only glanced at it, because just like the year and many years before, the Royal Guards would wear their three piece suits for the night, including himself.

He belatedly realized that she should be talking about their ties.

Yeong gave out an involuntary shudder. “It’s not bow ties again this year, is it?”

Two years ago, Lady Noh had them all wear patterned bow ties, which he hated with a passion. He remembered looking at the photos plastered upon the Kingdom's newspaper the day after and feeling the strongest urge to sue the Head Court Lady for infringement of decent fashion sense.

He still kind of wanted to, to be honest.

Seung-ah laughed. “No, you have my word,” she said. “But I’ll have you know, you still looked extremely good in them, daejangnim.”

Yeong raised one of his eyebrows. He noticed that for some reason, Seung-ah had her gaze locked in on the general direction of his collarbones as she said that.

Yes, that is Myeong Seung-ah, Yeong thought. She was as direct as she always was.

And, well, Yeong had to admit that he really did not mind if she was, indeed, checking him out.

~

After taking a quick shower, Yeong returned to the Royal Guards' locker room to change.

It was currently empty. He supposed everyone had headed out towards their respective posts already. Yeong checked his watch to confirm that he still got about twenty minutes before the Palace gates were opened for the early arrivals.

The Captain put on his shirt, which was all white, just like the other Royal Guards on duty that night. He was in the middle of putting his earpiece on when Myeong Seung-ah came in, bringing a tray filled with tie selections and a large box with her.

“Why are you the only one to bring the ties?” he asked. He expected one of the palace maids to accompany her, but apparently, she came alone.

“Because none of the palace maids know how to do the Eldredge knot perfectly, while I do.” She should have registered the blank look on his face, because she continued with a small smile, apparently amused, “And because I also doubt you’ve even heard of it, daejangnim.”

The what knot, now?

“What’s wrong with Full Windsor?” He inquired. Yeong might not know too many knot varieties, he simply had no time. But at the very least, he knew that the Full Windsor was always a proper option.

“Nothing, but tonight is the first birthday party that the King shares with Lady Jeong, so he wants every little detail to be a bit more special. And, my Captain, the Eldredge knot is a work of art, that I can assure you." Yeong could clearly see that Seung-ah enjoyed teasing him. It was hard to overlook the mirth in her eyes as she uttered the last sentence.

“Miss Park In-young had chosen the Trinity knot, by the way, which looks fantastic on her.” Seung-ah had put down the tray on top of the box and was inspecting his vest and suit jacket, clearly looking for the best pattern or color that would match them best. “But you are the Captain, so you should have the most exquisite one.”

Seung-ah lifted her first choice. The tie was dark navy in color, with some sort of dragon-scale texture which gave out a subtle glimmer to the fabric. “What do you think, will this do?”

"Sure," he said. And he meant it, despite his monosyllabic answer.

For his day-to-day, he did not feel the need to be flashy, just immaculate, so he usually went for solid colors whenever he opted to wear one. Yeong had no objections to subtle patterned ties for special occasions, though, and the one that Myeong Seung-ah currently held screamed nothing but opulence, which he thought was highly appropriate for celebrating his King and best friend Lee Gon's birthday.

“Okay, please stand still,” she laughed at her own bad soldier jokes.

Standing in front of him, Seung-ah upturned his shirt collar and placed the tie around his neck before crossing its skinny end over the wide end at the front.

As she began to work, Yeong started to take note of their height difference. Myeong Seung-ah was not a tiny lady, but she was still a good fifteen or twenty centimeters shorter than him. He mostly saw only the top of her hair as her hands continued to weave the piece of fabric for him.

Her hair smelled nice, he thought. No, she smelled nice.

Yeong was fully aware of their proximity then.

After probably a minute or two and some initial loops, she leaned back to assess the moves she had made. “Okay, so far so good. It’s not too tight, is it?”

Is it not? Yeong felt the room got slightly warmer. “Hm,” was all he offered.

For some reason, Seung-ah grinned at his curt response, he did not know why. She tended to do that a lot, now that he really thought about it. It started to nag him.

Looking down, he watched her return to her task, carefully making some more loops and at one point pulling the skinny end and tightening it. She tugged the fabric with one hand as her other hand held the knot in place. Yeong doubted that she realized it herself, but apparently, when she was deeply concentrating on something, Myeong Seung-ah would produce a slight frown on her face and her lips form a tiny pout.

Yeong let out the tiniest smile.

Her eyes were even prettier from up close, he mused. She probably put something on for the night, because they gave out an extra sparkle-

"And…" his thought was interrupted by the lady in question, who in the meantime was moving her fingers close to his jugular. “I just have to hide the rest here, and we’re done.”

She finished the knot by tucking the rest of the skinny end of the tie behind his right neck loop.

After that, Seung-ah moved closer, closing the gap between them, as she needed to tiptoe a bit just so she could reach the backside of his collar in order to fold it down. Once she did, Yeong was hyper aware of how her hands brushed slightly over his collar, and then also his chest as she straightened his tie for the final touch.

Yeong blinked.

"There," she said, taking a step back to admire her handiwork, and the way she looked at him made him even more uncomfortable.

Did she just throw him a mischievous grin?

Her phone rang before he could respond.

Seung-ah quickly put it in silence as she apologized, “Oops, sorry, it’s my alarm. We gotta go!”

Her eyes darted around the room, and Yeong realized that she should be looking for someplace to change into her partywear for the night. She was indeed still wearing her pantsuit, and the large box she was carrying earlier should consist of her dress.

“Do you need somewhere to change?” he inquired.

Instead of directly answering, Seung-ah jumped straight into her own question. “Um, would you mind if I do it here? Can you turn?”

Yeong just nodded, then without saying another word, he turned on his heels and made a point to face the door, just as an extra precaution.

In the meantime, he continued to prep himself.

After checking his reflection on the mirror on his locker door (which was carefully angled to respect her privacy completely), Yeong could say that he very much approved of this so-called Eldredge knot. It looked highly intricate and lavish.

He soon reached for his own vest, which had bullet-resistant lining sewn inside, and started to put it on, while at the same time silently appreciating its convenience before he moved efficiently to put on his gun holder and suit jacket next.

He was about to turn on his communication line when Seung-ah’s voice called out from behind him.

“Daejangnim?” Her voice was hesitant. “Can you help zip me up?”

When Yeong turned, Seung-ah had her back to him, her hands busy trying to hold down her dress from flying open. She looked sideways at him with a sheepish expression on her face.

“I can only zip them up halfway,” she explained.

He could not help but stare at her dress. It was soft peach (he guessed), layered in laces, and flowing all the way to her ankles. It was not too tight, but he could tell that it should hug her figure nicely, even though he only saw it from the back and it was still in its unzipped state.

Yeong had to admit, that color looked totally good on her.

“Jo daejangnim?” she called him again when he did not respond. “Some help, please?”

“Oh, yes,” he finally moved to assist her.

He quickly identified where the hook and loop on her dress were located and united them. Then, he placed one of his hands where Seung-ah stopped zipping, careful not to touch her somewhere inappropriate, as his other one pulled up the zipper slowly. He carefully trained his gaze elsewhere except to her exposed skin the whole time.

When he’s done, Seung-ah spun to face him, and his breath hitched involuntarily.

“You look- wonderful,” he breathed out.

Seung-ah’s smile was wide. “You do too.” She looked at him from head to toe, and did not even bother to hide the appreciative look on her face.

Yeong took a step forward.

She stayed put. Her gaze upon him did not break at all. Instead, Yeong watched as she tucked her hair slowly and bit her lip as her gaze travelled down from his eyes to his lips, and then lingered on-

And, well, that was the last straw. Yeong simply could not help himself at that point.

He completely closed the gap between them in one long stride, and without saying anything else, he leaned down and claimed her lips with his own. 

And he really took his time with it.

~

Later on that night, the King and his soon-to-be Queen huddled together near the three-layered birthday cake that was slightly bigger than her. They finally had a moment to themselves after shaking hands and making small conversations with the guests all night.

Gon had his eyes trained on her best friend, who was currently standing beside Myeong Seung-ah with wine glasses on their hands. She was apparently saying something, then laughed at his response before putting her hand on the Captain's elbow. He, on the other hand, did not seem to mind that gesture at all.

Instead, the King watched as the Captain leaned close and then whispered something in the lady's ears. Lee Gon soon was flabbergasted, and also thrilled, when he saw the smile on Yeong's face.

"Yeong was late to my party - he's never been late to anything! - and now he's being like that? Do you see that? Tell me that you see that!"

“Told you, booze is magic,” Lady Jeong Tae-eul whispered conspiratorially. "And, well, this means I win, right, Birthday Boy?"

Beside her, the Monarch laughed a hearty laugh.

She might be onto something, because at that moment, one thing that the King was really certain of was that he would not get to resume his drinking session with Yeong that night after all.

~

Visual Ref: Yeong’s tie in the Eldredge knot / Seung-ah’s dress

[x-kytanna-x]

If you are still doing promts, how about Bilbo being a vet and Thorin coming to him with his sick pet raven

I think this has been sitting on my inbox for almost an entire year?? I’m so sorry it took me so long nonny. 

This is the first of the five prompts I have filled for Valentine’s day. I’ll post the next one in a couple of hours and you’ll find all the prompts tagged with Bagginshield’s Valentine, in case you want to read the rest. Hope you enjoy this ficlet and happy Valentine’s day for you all!! 

-------------

"Uhm…" Hamfast hesitated.

"Yes?" Asked Bilbo without looking up from the blood test results he was holding. When the vet nurse didn't say anything Bilbo finally looked up. "What is it?"

"He's here again." Said Hamfast, at last.

Bilbo sighed, putting down the papers. "Did he tell you what happened this time?"

"He said Burack is making a weird breathing noise." Explained Hamfast.

Bilbo snorted, his mouth curling into a smile involuntarily. "Of course he is."

Bilbo stepped into the waiting room, and sure enough, Thorin and his raven were there. They came to his clinic so often everyone was more than acquainted with him and Burack.  Except for the very first time Thorin had no reason to come back, his raven was the healthiest bird Bilbo had ever seen, despite his owner claims.

It was time to end this, Bilbo was sure the poor bird was tired more than a tad fed up with all the hassle that was coming for a check-up and as much as he liked Bilbo no one enjoyed to be prodded on a daily basis.

"Thorin please come in," exclaimed Bilbo, a soft smile planted on his face.

Once they were both inside the consulting room, Thorin pulled Burack out from his rather fancy carrier. “Hello, Bilbo.”

“Hello Thorin, and hello to you too Burack,” added Bilbo, brushing his thumb against the raven’s beak. “Hamfast told me he’s been having trouble with his breathing.”

“Yes. He’s been like that for a couple of days, I realized one night when he came to snuggle with me. I want to discard the possibility of it being aspergillosis.” Explained Thorin in a monotone tone, not quite meeting Bilbo’s eyes.

Bilbo simply hummed and pressed his lips together when they threatened to turn up in an amused smile. “Well, let’s see what’s wrong with you, my boy.” Bilbo carefully put his stethoscope against Burack’s chest while Thorin rubbed feathered back comfortingly.

The bird, for his part, remained unbothered; too used to being auscultated by now and with how often he came by he probably knew he would get delicious treats if he stayed still.

Unsurprisingly, Bilbo found absolutely nothing odd with his breathing. At twenty years old Burack was in the prime of his life and with how well Thorin took care of him it’ll a cold day in hell before Burack got aspergillosis. Sure enough, it was common for birds to have infections in the respiratory tract but Bilbo highly doubted Burack would be getting them anytime soon.

Bilbo eyed Thorin as he mechanically checked Burack for what must have been the fifth time that month. Bilbo knew why he kept coming back — and so did all his staff, Bilbo was sure they had a bet going on — but he didn’t seem to be about to ask Bilbo out today either. He wasn’t quite sure why he was so hesitant, Bilbo had made sure to give him all the right cues to show he was receptive to Thorin advances.

Very well then, Bilbo had never been one to wait meekly for others and he wasn’t about to start now. “What do you say about this Friday at seven?”

“Excuse me?” Asked Thorin, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“I think —” Bilbo trailed off, licking his lips and feeling his face starting to heat. “— Burack would appreciate that we meet without him being in the middle of it.”

Bilbo took out the treats he kept especially for Burack and gave him some. Thorin’s face was taking a very endearing red tinge and Bilbo wanted nothing more than press a kiss in one of his bearded cheeks. “Burack has nothing wrong, by the way. Although you probably already know that.” Bilbo added with a teasing smile.

Thorin looked down, idly rubbing the back of his neck, in obvious embarrassment. “I apologize for that. I wanted to talk more with you but I wasn’t quite sure how to ask you for your number and I was afraid you might find it improper since Burack is one of your patients.”“Well, I’m not going to date him, am I?” Said Bilbo. “I thought I was making my interest in you quite clear, I think I did everything but throw myself in your lap,” Bilbo admitted quietly with an embarrassed smile.

“I’m not used to the intricacies of flirting, I’m afraid,” Thorin explained with a chuckled. “It’s been a long while since I’ve been interested in someone.”

“I would say you did pretty good, I’m quite taken with you,” Bilbo said as he walked towards Thorin and took his hand. “So... Dinner at seven?”

“Yes. I- Yes, I really would like that.” Thorin replied, intertwining their fingers and brushing the back of Bilbo’s hand with his thumb.

[bloojayoolie]

Being Alone, Bad, and Cats: PABLO 38161-5 years old, Handsome, friendly, playful, housetrained, very affectionate with staff, lived in harmony with teenagens & another male dog.well behaved when home alone ADOPT @brookyn acc waiting for U **** TO BE KILLED - 4/4/2019 **** WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY? PABLO'S JUST A WINNER <3 Pablo's family is moving to a place where he isn't welcome. You all know the drill. :( Now Pablo currently resides at the Brooklyn animal shelter but thats very temporary. The dogs only have but so many days to find a new home and it appears that Pablo's time is up. At the awesome age of five, this is hardly the end of the road for Pablo. At least we are going to do everything in our power to make sure it isn't. We want to share Pablo to the moon and back for that much-needed second chance and we know you do too. Take a look at Pablo. In spite of a skin allergy, he's super cute and pretty much a compact fella. He lived in harmony with teenagers but the big seller here is that Pablo even lived in complete harmony with another male dog. He's just an awesome little dude in a bad situation and we want to help change all of that. Friendly, affectionate, playful and housetrained - Pablo is ready to start anew with a wonderful family. Please do what you can to help ensure a happy ending. PABLO@BROOKLYN ACC Hello, my name is Pablo My animal id is #58464 I am a male black dog at the Brooklyn Animal Care Center The shelter thinks I am about 5 years old, 51 lbs Came into shelter as owner surrender Mar. 28, 2019 Reason Stated: MOVING Pablo is rescue only Pablo was placed at risk due to behavior concerns and bite history. his previous owner reported an altercation with another male dog and bit the owner in the hand when they were attempting to intervene. He also exhibited reactivity toward other dogs during Playgroup interactions. As a result, it is recommended that Pablo to be placed with an experienced rescue partner who can reassess his behavior in a more stable home environment before seeking permanent placement in an adult-only home environment with no other pets to ensure his success. pablo was diagnosed with Dermatitis My medical notes are... Weight: 51.8 lbs Vet Notes 28/03/2019 [DVM Intake] DVM Intake Exam Estimated age: 5 years Microchip noted on Intake? Yes Microchip Number (If Applicable): History : O/S Subjective: BARH. No csvd Observed Behavior - friendly, allowed all handlig Evidence of Cruelty seen - no Evidence of Trauma seen - no Objective P = wnl R = wnl BCS 5/9 EENT: Eyes clear, mild to moderately erythemic pinnae AU, no nasal or ocular discharge noted Oral Exam: PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupnic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: MI with two descended testicles MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin diffusely erythemic with spots of alopecia; no masses noted, CNS: Mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Rectal: normal externally Assessment Dermatitis- suspect secondary to allergies Prognosis: good Plan:Recommend derm consult with placement SURGERY: Okay for surgery Details on my behavior are... Behavior Condition: 1. Green Behavior History Behavior Assessment Upon intake Pablo show counselors a lot of affection and was very friendly. He allowed collaring, petting and photo taken. Basic Information:: Pablo is approx. 4 years old. He was surrendered along with Storm (58465) to BACC due to the owner getting evicted and unable to care for the dogs anymore. Previously lived with:: 2 adult, 1 child, 1 dog How is this dog around strangers?: Owner stated Pablo is friendly and outgoing towards strangers. How is this dog around children?: Owner stated Pablo lived with a 17 and 18 year old. He was relaxed and playful around them. How is this dog around other dogs?: Owner stated Pablo lived with 1 male dog named Storm (58465) and they were relaxed, playful and loving towards each other. How is this dog around cats?: Owner stated Pablo would chase after cats with Storm (58465). Resource guarding:: Owner stated Pablo does not resource guard his food or toys. He is not bothered if you try to take it away. Bite history:: Pablo has bitten a person but not an animal. Housetrained:: Yes Energy level/descriptors:: High Has this dog ever had any medical issues?: Yes Medical Notes: Skin allergies, head tilts and old scars from a dog fight. For a New Family to Know: Owner stated Pablo is friendly, affectionate, and playful dog. He has a high activity level. When your home he loves to follow you around. He likes to play with stuffed toys and balls. He also like to play fetch and wrestling. He is mostly indoors. He eats both wet and dry food. He is house trained. He is well behaved when left in the house and yard. He has never been crate trained. He knows ques such as sit and come. He brisk walks on the leash. He does not like to take baths. Date of intake:: 3/28/2019 Spay/Neuter status:: No Means of surrender (length of time in previous home):: Owner surrender Previously lived with:: 2 Adults, 1 Child (17), 1 Dog (Female, Medium, Unaltered) Behavior toward strangers:: Friendly and outgoing Behavior toward children:: Relaxed and playful (w/resident child) Behavior toward dogs:: Relaxed, playful and affectionate (w/resident dog) Behavior toward cats:: Chase (stray cats) Resource guarding:: Pablo's bite history started with a fight between him and another visiting dog over food. Owner does not report any resource guarding. Bite history:: 2017: Previous owner has reported Pablo to have begun fighting with a visiting dog in the yard over food. When Pablo snapped at the visiting dog, the owner attempted to intervene and was bitten in the hand by Pablo, requiring 20 stitches. Housetrained:: Yes Energy level/descriptors:: Pablo is described as friendly, affectionate and playful with a high level of energy. Summary:: Leash Walking Strength and pulling: No pulling Reactivity to humans: None Reactivity to dogs: None Leash walking comments: Initially gave chase to a bird, but did not continue behavior after redirection Sociability Loose in room (15-20 seconds): Explores, wagging tail, some whining, neutral-soft body, solicits attention and seeks contact, accepts contact, jumps up onto handler's lap softly, distracted by outside noises Call over: Approaches readily Sociability comments: Handling Soft handling: Leans in, soft and loose body, wagging tail, mild tension in head, accepts all contact Exuberant handling: Leans in, soft and loose body, wagging tail, mild tension in head, accepts all contact Handling comments: Arousal Jog: Follows handler, soft and loose; On third pass, engages in play with handler, jumps up and recovers immediately Arousal comments: Knock Knock Comments: Whines when assistant exits; No response to knock; Approaches assistant soft and loose, ears back, leaning in and seeking contact Toy Toy comments: Grips firmly, moves away; Readily relinquishes and trades Summary:: According to Pablo's previous owner, Pablo had an altercation with another male dog over food, which resulted in Pablo redirecting and biting the owner. He was surrender with a female dog and his owner stated they were friendly with each other. Due to Pablo's immediate reactivity towards other dogs as well as his previous bite, the Behavior Department recommends that Pablo is the only resident dog and does not visit dog parks. 3/29: When off leash at the Care Centers, Pablo enters the pens, whining and fixating on the greeter. When the greeter approached the gate Pablo immediately displayed offensive behavior- lunging and hard barking for several seconds. The greeter was removed and Pablo ceases the behavior. Date of intake:: 3/28/2019 Summary:: Affectionate, friendly, accepted all contact and allowed all handling Date of initial:: 3/28/2019 Summary:: Friendly, allowed all handling ENERGY LEVEL:: Pablo has been observed to exhibit a medium-high level of energy during his interactions in the care center. BEHAVIOR DETERMINATION:: New Hope Only Behavior Asilomar: TM - Treatable-Manageable Recommendations:: No children (under 13),Single-pet home,Recommend no dog parks,Place with a New Hope partner Recommendations comments:: No children (under 13): Due to the bite history reported by the previous owner, as well as dog reactivity observed in the care center, we feel Pablo would be best set up to succeed in an experienced adult only home environment. Single-pet home/Recommend no dog parks: Pablo's previous owner reported, Pablo had an altercation with another male dog and redirected on the owner resulting in a bite. He also exhibited reactivity toward other dogs during Playgroup (see dog to dog). As a result, we recommend that Pablo is placed in a home without any other pets, as well as not be taken to dog parks to ensure his success. We advise safe and appropriate management when handling Pablo, as well as utilizing guidance from a qualified, professional trainer/behaviorist. Place with a New Hope partner: Although Pablo is social, solicits attention and seeks contact, his previous owner reported an altercation with another male dog and bit the owner in the hand when they were attempting to intervene. He also exhibited reactivity toward other dogs during Playgroup interactions. As a result, it is recommended that Pablo be placed with an experienced rescue partner who can reassess his behavior in a more stable home environment before seeking permanent placement in an adult-only home environment with no other pets to ensure his success. We advise safe and appropriate management when handling Pablo, as well as utilizing guidance from a qualified, professional trainer/behaviorist. Potential challenges: : Anxiety,Bite history (human) Potential challenges comments:: Bite history (human): Previous owner has reported Pablo to have begun fighting with a visiting dog in the yard over food. When Pablo snapped at the visiting dog, the owner attempted to intervene and was bitten in the hand by Pablo, requiring 20 stitches. This incident occurred 2 years ago. Please refer to the handout on Bite history (human). Anxiety: Although Pablo is social, solicits attention and seeks contact, he has been observed to display mild anxiety during her interactions in the care center. He was observed to somewhat pant and whine during his interaction. Should this behavior arise in a home environment, please refer to the handout on Anxiety/anxious behavior. PABLO IS RESCUE ONLY…..TO SAVE THIS PUP YOU MUST FILL OUT APPLICATIONS WITH AT LEAST 3 NEW HOPE RESCUES. PLEASE HURRY!!! IF YOU CAN FOSTER OR ADOPT THIS PUP, PLEASE PM OUR PAGE FOR ASSISTANCE. WE CAN PROVIDE YOU WITH LINKS TO APPLICATIONS WITH NEW HOPE RESCUES WHO ARE CURRENTLY PULLING FROM THE NYC ACC. PLEASE SHARE THIS DOG FOR A HOME TO SAVE HIS LIFE.

[miss-noo-na]

“Vos Anima Mea” (Chapter 3)

* See Masterlist for additional chapters

Title: Vos Anima Mea

Genre: Vampire AU

Rating: PG-13

You walked back to the club the next week confident and excited.  You’d mulled over what you’d learned about Kihyun and the more you thought about it, the more enticing it became. You had searched for so long for something truly fascinating and dark in this world and you had found it, and you got to spend time learning about it and in turn, capturing it for your art. It was a dream scenario.

As you set up your sketches and your paints, Kihyun lounged gracefully on his chair, watching you. As you took a seat you dabbed a small brush into some water and gave him a smile.

“It’s your turn,” You said, and he sat up.

“My turn for?”

“To tell me about yourself. Now I absolutely have to know everything.”

He chuckled, and placed a finger on his chin. His fingers were lined in silver rings, not dissimilar in style from the earring he always wore.

“Where do I begin?”

You dipped your brush into some black and began your outline. “How old are you?” You asked, the most pressing question of all.

“Not as old as you’d think, given what I am.  I’m about 90 years old.”

Your eyes widened a bit as you glanced toward him.

“That’s pretty old.” You blurted out, and he laughed at your frankness.

“I know those much older. I am a baby in comparison to many.”

“So that means you were born in late 1920’s.” You said, trailing your lines and feeling a tickle of thrill inside.  All the things he must have seen?

“When were you…changed?” You asked, not sure if the terminology was correct.

“I was never changed; I was born what I am.”

You blinked, not even thinking that was a possibility. Then again, you hadn’t known until a week ago that vampires were a possibility at all.

“My father is, let’s say, a high-ranking individual in our world. I was given whatever I could have wanted in life, but I grew tired of having things handed to me fairly quickly. I decided I only wanted to be surrounded by beautiful things, so I invested in art.  I amassed a collection that brought me my own fortune, and with it I was able to open my first clubs and galleries.”

“Your staff, do they know?”

“Some, only those in my closest circle.”

“Samantha?”

He laughed a little. “No, but if she sticks around any longer I’m going to have to tell her. She’s my most loyal and long-lasting employee.”

“I think she’d understand.” You nodded.

“She would, but I’m selective.”

You looked at him and paused your painting, smiling some. “I guess you never planned on telling me.”

He stared back at you, the corner of his lips tugging back, like he suppressed his amusement. At least he wasn’t upset about it.

“I didn’t plan on it, no. But it is what it is.” He paused, leaning toward a chair side table to take his crystal glass into his hand for a drink, which he savored in thought before speaking again. “Maybe there’s a reason for it.”

“A reason?”

“I’ve been around a long time, and while there are coincidences in this world, it isn’t nearly as often as you’d think. Perhaps there’s a reason you found out about me.”

You pushed some of your hair back and felt yourself getting flustered at the thought. You tried to concentrate on painting again.

“I can’t imagine what that reason would be.”

Kihyun made a humming noise, tapping his glass with one of his rings. “Who knows, maybe I was meant to discover a great talent. The art in this city has been pretty stagnate lately.”

You shook your head. “I’m not that good.”

“Don’t be modest.” He said firmly. “You should be proud of your work; it’s a breath of fresh air in what is otherwise a very boring scene right now. So many “artists” who think they’re doing something unique and dark with their gothic twists on fairytales.” He rolled his eyes and you laughed.

“You’re not wrong.”

“I hardly ever am.”

He had a sly look on his face as he said this, you’d seen it before, and it was becoming a hallmark of his personality but one that did not bother you. His confidence was genuine, and appealing.

“So, “You started, not even sure if you should pose this next question, but decided to go for it anyway.

“The whole blood drinking thing?”

“I had a feeling that one was next.”

He took another drink before he spoke again. “It’s not as gruesome as you’d imagine. I only drink from willing participants and there’s no lasting damage.”

“No harm, then?” You asked, and he looked to be considering it.

“I can’t say that totally, no. Not everyone is as civilized. There are those that get a thrill from death, drinking until the life drains from the body.”

You shuddered at the thought of something like that roaming around your neighborhood when you walked alone at night.

Kihyun seemed to notice your pause, and was quick to assure you.

“The vetting process for my clubs is very intense, especially for other vampires. You don’t find those kind around here if I can help it.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re one of the good guys.”

“I try.”

You sat in silence for a little while, Kihyun noticing the intent and focus you showed in this process of the painting. It was awkward at times when you had to look at him for details not in your sketches, because he always met your eyes, as if on instinct. Sometimes you’d catch each other automatically and he would smile, and you’d look away bashfully. This may have read to you like something else, had you believed he would have any reason to show interest in you. Yet, he was an otherworldly being with years of experience in life, and surely an ordinary painter was not going to cause any stirring in him.

After about an hour and a half of idle conversation and moments of quiet work you dropped you brush into your water.

“I think that will do for tonight.” You said, not wanting to admit to him you were struggling. Portraiture was not your forte, and the nerves about getting this right for him were seizing your ability to move forward.

“I won’t ask to look at it.” He said while standing and you thanked him in your head. At least he was experienced with artists.

You started to clean up when the elevator to the pent house dinged, and you both turned to look at who would be coming in right now.

A tall, slender, older looking man with sallow cheeks and black hair came into the room, distinguished in dress. He removed a pair of leather gloves finger by finger, and only regarded you with a quick glance before focusing on Kihyun, who looked perturbed by the intrusion.

“You seem surprised to see me, my son.” The man said with a grin that didn’t feel quite right.

“I’d prefer if you would inform me of a visit first, father.” He said steadily as he approached the man. The tension in the room was palpable, and you wished there was some way you could slink out of there unnoticed.

“Ah, well, I just happened by.” He explained dismissively, then looked over Kihyun’s shoulder at you, and a chill ran through your body.

“I wasn’t aware you were in the middle of dinner.”

Kihyun narrowed his eyes at the man who towered over him.

“She’s an artist I’m working with.”

“Working with.” The man repeated with a laugh. “I guess that’s what they call it these days. Never mind that, I have something to discuss with you, so if you’d send your little treat away.” He said, making a shooing motion at you, and a little piece of your fear was replaced with annoyance.

Kihyun turned to you with apologies all over his face, and you simply nodded as you gathered up your things.

“I’ll see you next week.” You said, and placed a hand on his arm in a comforting way as you walked passed him.  You felt him relax for a brief moment under your touch.

Outside in the cold night air, you were glad to be free of the pressure in Kihyun’s penthouse, although worried about him. You wondered if the man was really his father, and why it seemed like the air between them was so thick with resentment.

When you saw him the next week, you talked casually at first, but the curiosity got the better of you.

“Was that your father I saw last week?” You asked, peering from the corner of your eyes. He noticeably stiffened up at your words.

“Yes.” He said without feeling.

“We don’t have to talk about it, I was just wondering.” You were quick to reply, and Kihyun let out a sigh.

“It doesn’t bother me to talk about it, I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

You shrugged one shoulder. “Not too many, though I do wonder how this whole vampire birth thing works.”

“Vampires can have natural children, though it’s very rare and very difficult. Usually, only those that can afford the hardship and aftermath of the ordeal will go through with it. My father has a massive ego, so he wanted a child of his own. He tried for decades, with many women, some human and some not. Finally, he got me.”

“Was your mother human?” You asked, intrigued by the possibility.

“I don’t know, my birth killed her, and I was never told anything about her.” He explained with a trace of sadness in his voice, and it weighed heavy on your chest to hear it.

“I’m sorry.” Was all you could think to say and his chip picked up, eyes flickering in acknowledgement, as if he’d never been told that before. He nodded once before continuing.

“Because of all this, my father treated me as more of a pawn than his son. I was shown off at parties, put on display for his society friends, ignored any other time.  I cannot say we have the best relationship as a result.”

“You seem to have done very well for yourself, despite him.” You offered with a smile.  “Whoever your mother was, I’m sure she would be proud of what you became.”

His mouth twitched, eyes softening before he looked away and cleared his throat. “Thank you.”

Your conversation returned to things less taxing on Kihyun. You got him to open up about the more interesting and humorous parts of his life, mostly about the things he encountered in the art and underground subcultures. He admitted to being rather shy, which surprised you given his self-assurance.

“I was much like you, Little Dove.” He spoke with a smirk, “Watching everything from the rafters. I guess I still do.”

You flushed at the nickname, not hearing it spoken by him in some time. It always felt different when he said it, compared to others at the club.

“It’s an interesting way to view the world.” You said, focusing on your brush strokes. “Like being a ghost.”

“Though, sometimes you need to manifest.” He said “Sometimes it’s good to be a part of it all.”

“I don’t know about that.” You said, feeling yourself get timid again.  “Some of the things I’ve seen….” You left the words to hang in the air, and he picked them up swiftly.

“The fear, doesn’t that make it more exciting?” He asked, his voice raising an octave. When you looked at him, he trailed one finger over his lower lip in thought, eyes peering at you, and you turned away as your breath hitched up in your chest.

“I’d have to put that theory into practice before I decide on that. “ You offered with a nervous laugh.

“Well if you’re ever interested, you know who to ask.”

You had no idea how to take those words or what exactly he meant. You wanted to think it was innocent enough, but his tone said otherwise and you tried to push down any burgeoning feelings of arousal.

You finished up for the night and made your way to the elevator, Kihyun walking you out.

“Would you mind texting me when you get back?” He asked, waiting for the elevator.

“What for?” You said, looking at him curiously.

“I’d just like to know you got back safe.”

The elevator dinged, scaring you out of the trance you were in put in by his words. You mumbled back a “sure” as you ducked into the elevator, trying to hide your face. He waved at you as the doors closed.

You stepped out onto the sidewalk just as a short black limo pulled up in front of the club, the door swinging open and making you step back. You were about to leave when a perfectly polished shoe stepped out and a man appeared, speaking as he did so.

“Just the lady I wanted to see.”

It was Kihyun’s father, and the way he smiled at you made your skin crawl.

“I was just leaving, have a good night, sir.” You said, but as you turned on your heel, he passed in front of you so quickly you didn’t even know how he got from the car to you in such a short amount of time. You stumbled back.

“I’d like to talk to you a moment, if you don’t mind.” He said, and of course you minded a lot, but maybe if you just listened to him you could get out of here unscathed.

You stopped short and looked up at him, waiting for him to continue, trying to mask your fear. You could see a very small amount of Kihyun’s face in his, but when he half-smiled it as far more sinister.

“I know my son has paid you quite handsomely for your time, and while I do not understand his need to waste his money on such things, I have a request of you.”

He didn’t even look at you when he spoke, instead much more interested in buffing his nails on his coat. You waited in silence.

“Once you’re done with your little painting, take the money and never speak to him again. It would be best for everyone involved.”

And with that, he brushed past you on his way inside.

[speciesofleastconcern]

Questions from young person and my answers

A friend’s son interviewed me for an assignment. Here are the Qs and As if you want em. 1) Are the animals at your zoo happy that they are being held captive? 2) How well do you know the animals at your zoo? 3) How well do you treat the animals at your zoo? 4) Are there more animals at your zoo that are there to be saved , and not just for entertainment? If so, how many more animals are there to be saved? 5) Does your zoo take care of Panamanian Golden Frogs? Dear C------, Thanks for your thoughtful questions! I answered them in between tasks while I was working, so I hope the answers make sense. You chose a couple subjects that I am passionate about, so I was very excited to talk about them. If there are things in my answers that need clarification, please let me know, or feel free to ask follow up questions. Best of luck with the assignment! Sincerely 1) It’s not clear that animals can understand the idea of “captivity.” Humans feel very strongly about the concepts of freedom and captivity, to the point that we punish lawbreakers by putting them in captivity. But animals don’t seem to have much ability to think about the future, or to imagine things other than what they are experiencing. What we do at a zoo is to give the animals as many choices as possible—places to go and experiences to have—within the space that we can safely give them. We also have a hard time telling if animals are “happy” or not, since that is also human concept. We try to provide an environment that has everything the animal physically needs in order to be comfortable and healthy, with enough choices so they can demonstrate whether they are suffering stress or not. 2) Some animals I know very well, some not as much. As a quarantine keeper, I take care of almost every animal in the zoo eventually, but only for a limited time, usually 30 days. Other keepers work with a limited group of animals and may work with those animals for many years. Almost every animal at the zoo has a training program, with a keeper whose job it is to work with that animal, understand its behavior, and use positive reinforcement training techniques to get the animal to do certain things willingly. Most of the animals, for example, are trained to go to a specific place and wait there—when an animal can do this willingly, we can weigh it on a regular basis, visually examine its body for injuries or other changes that might indicate a change in its health, and so on. We even have several gorillas who are trained to offer their shoulder so that we can give them a flu vaccine. The zookeepers who train their animals know them very well. 3) We like to think that we treat the animals very well, and that as we learn more about animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, that we are treating them better now than we were just a few years ago. We have access to the latest science about animal nutrition so that the animals can get the best possible types of food available for their health. We have three veterinarians on staff and four veterinary technicians so that if any of the animals gets sick or hurt they can be taken care of right away. The animals all get regular vaccinations and physical examinations. The keepers are very protective of the animals—if they think there is something a little “off” about an animal they will let the vet staff know immediately. We provide “enrichment” for all the animals, which is our way of saying we give them toys and games, but also expose them to interesting smells (the big cats love the smell of sheep’s wool, for example) and sounds. We have an enrichment committee whose job it is to make sure that all of the animals are receiving enrichment which is safe, species-appropriate, and effective. (Enrichment is considered effective if the animal interacts with it in a way that displays normal behavior—playing outside is good enrichment for human children because it causes the children to climb and play and throw and dig and all the other normal human child behaviors). 4) When I think of animals at the zoo being there for “entertainment,” it makes me wonder if people think that the exhibits in a science museum are entertaining, or if visitors to an arboretum think the trees are entertaining. Zoos are science museums that exhibit animals and animal behavior—and it’s true, animals and animal behavior can be entertaining. Everyone finds monkeys and tigers entertaining, but what about the frogs, or songbirds, or insects? We want all of the exhibits to be interesting, we want people to want to experience the zoo in a positive way. Back in the bad old days zoos would allow guests to throw things at the animals, or feed them unhealthy things. We do not allow any kind of “entertainment” that is detrimental to the animals. We allow guests to interact with some animals, like petting the goats or feeding the parakeets or walking among the butterflies—each of these activities is carefully monitored so that the guests can have a good time without doing anything that could harm the animals. Many of the animals at the zoo belong to species that are endangered, some very endangered. Gorillas, pygmy hippos, and mandrills are all animals from parts of Africa where habitat is disappearing and it wouldn’t be safe to release more animals into the habitat. All of the zoos in North America work carefully with one another to exchange animals when necessary to make sure that the zoo population is stable and that no more endangered animals will be taken from the wild to replace them. You probably know that zoos are responsible for rescuing certain species of animals from extinction, like the black-footed ferret, the California condor, the golden lion tamarin, and recently the Lord Howe stick insect. The zoo I work for has brought Siberian crane eggs (laid by our birds) to be raised in Russia, preserved vital DNA and gametes (reproductive cells) from Mexican gray wolves, we helped save Bali mynahs (a kind of bird) from disappearing completely into the pet trade, and we help out with Blanding’s turtle recovery efforts here in Massachusetts. None of the animals we keep are there just so they can be released to the wild, but it’s something that could happen in the future. Because zoos hire and train people who are experts at caring for, training, breeding, and providing health care for animals, zoos are the logical places for these recovery efforts to be located. There are thousands of species of animals that are in need of protection and recovery. Zoos are one piece of it, along with protecting habitat, conserving resources (recycling!), and changing the way that we treat animals and their environments around the world. 5) At the moment we don’t have any Panamanian golden frogs, but we have cared for them here. I’m super glad you brought them up because they are part of one of the most amazing projects I’ve been involved with at the zoo. My boss, the head veterinarian here, was on a team of researchers who joined scientists in Panama to study the impact of the fungal disease that is killing so many species of frogs. They determined that the problem was severe, even worse than they expected, and if no one did anything the Panamanian golden frog and dozens of other frog species would be wiped out. They created a project called the Amphibian ARK, like Noah’s Ark, to rescue the frogs. They are keeping the frogs in disease-free quarantine spaces, in Panama but also in zoos all around the world. If they hadn’t acted fast these frogs would just be gone. The frogs are being bred and protected, at the same time that the disease is being studied. It’s pretty complicated stuff that I don’t fully understand, but I think some of the effort will be to breed and release many thousands of tadpoles—there will likely be some that are more resistant to the disease, and they will pass their genes on to the next generation. A few years ago I was privileged to take care of 15 Panamanian golden frogs in the zoo hospital where I worked. It was amazing to think that I was working with an animal species that had completely disappeared from the wild, and that I was one of a handful of people who had ever seen one. Of course, once they were put on exhibit, then hundreds of people could see them, and learn the story. Someone will be inspired by the experience to figure out what we need to do to keep the frogs from going extinct, and then they will be wild, and we will have prevented extinction.

[drferox]

20 Questions with Dr Ferox #15

Here’s 20 more questions and comments you Vetlings have sent me. It’s a bit of a mixed bag this time, including topics about harness trained cats and getting work in a vet clinic. I’ve tried to tag everyone who identified themselves when asking questions, but if you were on Anon you’ll have to look through yourself for an answer.

Anonymous said: What is black ice? You mentioned it when talking about cold days in Australia. Tax - my headcannon about you is that you used to have many pets as a child.

Black ice is actually transparent ice which has frozen over a road, looking black. It's when it's cold enough to snow, but without anything fun. It often occurs at night and results in many accidents because it looks like a normal road, but is of course very slippery.

@rokkrwolf​ said: Could the feline parvovirus also have potentially mutated into the human parvovirus? Because until a few years ago I never knew humans could get parvo until my mom got it and it showed up around the same time canine parvovirus did.

Human parvovirus was first identified in 1975, but was probably around a lot longer we just didn't have great technology for identifying viruses back then, and it may not have been a high priority because my understanding is that it mostly causes a cheek rash. (Compare this to intestinal wall sloughing and bone marrow suppression of the small carnivore parvoviruses). Also I think there was only one gene difference between canine and feline viruses, which makes them highly likely to be recently related.

@ surskitty said:How often do you see harness-trained kitties? How do you feel about leash-training cats?

Not very often. I suspect they're less common here than overseas because we are, as a nation, a bit slack about our cat care. They're more common among millennial pet owners with their first cats out of home

Anonymous said: Do you see a problem with indoor-outdoor cats? Couple times a week I will bring my 7month old cat out on a harness to bask and watch the bugs/birds. Is this a bad thing?? Should I stop this behavior? Thank you!!

Gosh no, that's a great thing to do. The cat might be outside, but it's not free roaming and it's completely supervised. It's good enrichment and bonding without the risks associated with the outdoors. Just try to discourage your cat from actually eating any bugs, and make sure their vaccines are up to date. If your cat enjoys the experience, I highly recommend it.

@lornacus​ said: My cat is in an abusive relationship with a neighborhood problem cat./We are thinking of capturing the problem cat, and taking it somewhere so we can see if it has a chip. Then contacting the owners in an attempt to get them to keep their cat inside, to at least open that line of communication. Our cat goes outside because we have a dog+dog door. What is your impression of this situation?

Check with your local laws, but it's usually ok to catch a cat on your own private property before presenting it to a vet clinic. It's both pet owners responsibility to keep their cat confined to their property, if your cat is leaving your yard then both owners are to blame for the situation.

If the cat does have a chip, a clinic can't just give you the owner's details. It's a privacy issue. They can hand your details over to the cat owner if you request, but there's no obligation for them to contact you. Trapping their cat may also cause significant animosity.

I would consider locking the dog door or securing your yard also.

Anonymous said: Hi there! I read in your FAQ about giving general advice about getting into Veterinary medicine in Aus. I am applying at the end of this year to a few universities, a couple of which require an application essay of sorts. I was wondering if you would have any advice on what to include? I'm sure they see countless "I've loved animals my whole life... etc etc", have you got any hot tips on what might help me stand out a little more? Love the blog, it keeps me motivated to keep my GPA up to get in.

Avoid phrases that make it sound like you want to be a vet because “Owo animals so cute” and focus on the medicine or science side as well. Try to sound professional, because you are trying to enter a profession, and target your essay for the university you're applying to. For example, if you're applying to a tropical school, mention something about why tropical medicine is of interest to you. Do this even if you're applying to every university on the continent, explain why you're extra keen for admission to that particular one.

Anonymous said: Hi. I'm a vet student and I want to help my local vet for a few weeks this summer. I wonder how should I ask? Should it be 'I want to help you a little and observe you during work'? Should I tell them why I choose their small animal practice? Is answer 'no' common? Also I'm extremely anxious that they would find out that I don't remember everything from i.e anatomy or other basics courses or that I can't handle animals properly.

We usually use the term 'work experience' and specify that it's for a vet student, not a highschool student. Not every clinic will accept students if they don't have the caseload, or if they're training up a student nurse or a new grad vet, so don't take rejection personally. Explain that it's for part of your course, and be prepared for a friendly chat. It's advisable to get to the point quickly, starting by asking if they take vet students for work experience at all before launching into too many questions.

Don't worry about not remembering everything. You're a student, you by definition don't know everything yet and I'm yet to find a vet who remembers everything about everything. But when you find something you don't know, show you are actively trying to learn it. Write it down, make sure you know the answer the next time they ask.

Anonymous said: Hey dr Ferox! You recently made a post about how important the choice of your first job is. Do you have any tips for a soon-to-be-recent-graduate on how to find the rigĥt place? What to look out for and what to avoid?

New grad interview tips

New grad job tips

Red flags for abusive workplaces

If you have a good rapport with the other vets on staff, if you could see yourself becoming like them over time and you like that idea, then it's probably a good choice. But by the same token, don't be afraid to switch jobs in your first year if it's not working out, about a third of new grads do.

Anonymous said: How often would you recommend taking an otherwise healthy rabbit to the vet? I've had my rabbits for 2 years now, and they've only really been to the vet for their spay/neutering, and whenever they've presented any signs of illness (so only like once for each them)

I usually recommend at least every 6 or 12 months, depending on your local clinic's vaccine schedule. Myxomatosis (which Australia unfortunately is not permitted a vaccine for) and Calicivirus are both 99+% lethal in unvaccinated rabbits and can be spread by insects.

Anonymous said: If you cannot answer this i understand but my poor lab has cherry eye. She's 6 months. I want the surgery that keeps the tear duct in tact, but if they have to remove it, what are the chances of her getting dry eye and going blind? I'm actually really scared, i love her to pieces and i'll deal with it if it happens, but i'm scared.

In a labrador type dog, the chances of developing dry eye after removing one tear gland aren't that high over their lifetime, probably something like 30%.

But dry eye is manageable, even if the dog develops it if the surgeon wasn't able to preserve the tear gland, and I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to. There are multiple different medical treatments for dry eye which will preserve eye function, and at least one surgical one, so try not to worry too much at this early stage.

Anonymous said: q tax: i feel like you'd have to Russian Blue cat as a familiar! so my beagle has fatty lumps (negative for cancer thank god!), and he's prone to getting skin tags. my other beagle never had these issues but she was pure where he was not. is this a breed thing or just something some dogs are prone to?

It's an individual dog thing, though there are breed predispositions. Fatty lumps are fairly common across all dog breeds, but the more fat the dog is carrying, the more likely it is to develop a fatty lump.

Trash Bag is turning out to be a pretty good familiar. I'm personally not all that into purebred cats, not when there are so many moggies that need a loving home.

Anonymous said: My father-in-laws dog scoots it's butt to scratch. He says he's had her checked out and she's fine. Is her bum just itchy, is she cleaning herself or could she have something really wrong. I believe him that he had her checked. I'm a cat person so have no idea. Thanks Dr.

Her back half could be itchy, or her anus could be itchy, there could be something stuck there or it could be an allergic itch, she might have worms (making her anus itchy) or she might have full anal glands and be trying to express them (they are located just inside the anal sphincter). The anal glands are definitely worth getting checked because they can develop into an abscess, but if the dog's madly itchy it's worth getting checked again anyway.

@toastedtoast15​ said: My dog is sick with diarrhea and vomiting. Can he get me sick?

Potentially yes.

Gastrointestinal illnesses in dogs can transmit to humans if they are bacterial in origin (eg Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc) but not if they are viral or due to dietary indiscretion.

Anonymous said: Hi, I was wondering if you could clear something up for me. I was recently told by a friend that giving a puppy peanut butter too young can cause a peanut allergy. Is this true/have you ever heard anything like this? Question tax: came for lucifer the bun, stayed for the awesome info on animals. I really enjoy your breed analysis too. Thank you!

It's a theory that's common in raising little humans, but I don't see an evidence for this in dogs. Dog don't develop life threatening anaphylaxis to peanuts like humans commonly do. (They can develop it to insect stings and injected drugs though).

However it's still prudent to be careful with peanut butter, because dogs that have eaten it recently which lick a highly sensitive human may induce anaphylaxis in the human, and some brands are now using artificial sweeteners like xylitol which are toxic to dogs.

@ geminilaser said: Does anything bad will happen if I give my cat some catnip?

Probably not. Some cats just don't like it, some have a stronger reaction to it than others. It's not advisable for them to eat a whole lot of it as it can cause vomiting, but it's usually self limiting if the do. Smooching the leaves should be fine.

Anonymous said: What are the best dog breeds for beginner owners? If you don't want to recommend a specific breed, what are the best traits a dog should have if their owner is not very knowledgeable about them?

You're right in that I don't want to recommend a specific breed for beginner owners.

If you are new to owning dogs, then I generally recommend your first dog to be an adult acquired from a shelter. They're already mature, so you know what you're getting, and somebody else has started the training process for you. They're already desexed and should be temperament tested.

While many dogs do get surrendered for behavioral problems and phobias, there are also lots of perfectly good dogs (often smaller ones) which have just had their owner die and no family members able to take them on, so they end up in a shelter. These are excellent dogs for a beginner as it's harder to make mistakes with them, and you're doing a good thing.

@mortyplier​ said: hi! whats your favorite kind of penguin? i love emperor penguins myself

I'm very fond of the Little Penguin, which I grew up knowing them as the Fairy Penguin. They're good little birds with grumpy faces.

@daedricprincessxoxo​ said: I just started working at the front desk of an animal hospital. A people nurse asked me if she could get whatever medicines she needs to perform surgery on her cat herself, because she'd rather that then to have a veterinarian do it. Nurses don't even do surgery! Even if they did, no!! On the bright side, there was a baby snake that was so tiny it looked like a worm. That was cute.

That is an unbelievably stupid thing for a human nurse to claim. I would not be surprised if she was not a human nurse at all and really just wanted to get her hands on some ketamine or propofol. I nurse should know that she can't perform surgery herself.

Anonymous said: Your Cupcakes story made me curious. I've been going to the same vet clinic for years now and the vets and other staff have always been wonderful​ both as people and as vets, but I know that their days are rough on several levels. Would it be a faux pas to bring in some baked goods next time I bring the pets in for a check up? Either way is there anything else I could do to briefly improve a vet's day while I'm in the clinic with a pet?

Bring the food. Don't ever be embarrassed about bringing food into the vet clinic, someone will eat it. It helps if you know if any staff have dietary restrictions (eg gluten free, nut free) but the gesture is always appreciated.

Anonymous said: Do you have any pets of your own?

You must be new and have missed out on pictures of Wonka and Trash Bag the cats.

[drreporting]

Puppy Love Pt.6

Amelia.

I open my eyes and immediately shut them, the sun peeking through my bare windows almost blinding me. For the fourth time since I’ve moved to Seattle, I make a mental note to buy myself some curtains. Sadly, my temporary solution for now is to flip over and face away from the sun, so I do that and rest my head on the chest of the warm body inhabiting my…

Wait…

I instantly dart away, holding the covers to my chest as I inspect the intruder in my bed. Looking under the covers, I realise that he’s not wearing any clothes either.

“Owen,” I say hoarsely, tapping his shoulder. He snorts and scratches his beard, but dos not wake. I tap him again, firmer this time, but no response comes. A little annoyed, I shove him, almost throwing him out of the bed. “Owen, get up!” I hiss. This time, he definitely wakes, his bloodshot eyes scanning his surroundings before looking at me. “What are you doing in my bed?”

He furrows his eyebrows and lifts the cover to see if he’s completely naked. “I…I’m not sure.” Gesturing between the two of us, he asks, “Did we…?”

“No,” I swiftly answer, “You fell asleep by the time I came back.”

He blushes in embarrassment for a moment, before asking, “Then why are you naked?”

I raise the cover higher in defence. “I sleep naked.”

“Why?”

I widen my eyes at him. “That is none of your business; I don’t need to explain anything to you.”

“So you don’t find it a little weird that you prefer to sleep…”

“Get out of my bed,” I say, shoving on his shoulder again.

“Okay, okay,” he laughs, slipping out of the covers, “But I’m warning you, I’m naked.”

“I know,” I say as he walks butt naked out of my room.

He looks back at me with raised eyebrows and a shocked smile. “No one likes a peeping tom.”  I roll my eyes but I can’t help smiling at the comment.

—

“Did I really fall asleep?” he asks as we have breakfast together, breakfast being a bowl of cereal each.

“You did,” I confirm, stuffing a spoonful of cheerios in my mouth, “I came back and you were out cold on the floor. I tried waking you up, even hitting you. Nothing.”

“That was not my intention,” he chuckles, milk dripping down his chin. A few moments of silence occur before he says, “So…you’re a doctor.”

“You know, we’re always talking about what I do for a living,” I say, setting my spoon down in my bowl, “What do you do?”

“What do I look like I do?” he answers, a mischievous smile on his face.

“Hmm,” I ponder, eyeing his muscular physique, “You look like a…P.E. teacher.”

“A P.E. teacher?” he repeats.

“No, a sports therapist!” I quickly say, pointing my spoon at him, “You’re definitely a sports therapist.”

“Well, I guess I’m a sports therapist then,” he laughs, stirring his cereal.

I smile at him briefly before looking down at my bowl again. “What do I look like? Other than a doctor, that is.”

“An events planner,” he says almost right after.

“I was hoping for something a little less sexist?”

“Sorry.” He ponders for longer this time, eyeing my hair, my eyes, everything, as if my features hold the secret to my profession. “A psychologist, maybe a graphic designer? I don’t know, you’re pretty hard to pinpoint.” He looks me in my eye again. “You just look like…you.”

My heart oddly begins to race as our eyes stay connected. Silence dominates the room.

Breaking eye contact first, he brings the bowl to his mouth and drinks the rest of the milk. “Anyway, I should get going. I have an injured track athlete to meet with.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about your Scottish accent first?” I tease.

He looks up at me in shock. “I don’t recall speaking to you in a Scottish accent.”

“You did,” I confirm, reaching across the table to poke his head, “Right after you got hit in the head and fell off a ladder.”

“Ow,” he complains, placing his fingers to the small cut on his hairline. It appears as though he didn’t even know it was there. “Well, you didn’t have to punch it.”

I laugh, getting up to lead him to the front door. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you home?”

“I’m sure,” he says as I open the front door, “I’ll catch a cab or something; no big deal.” He envelops me in something I can only describe as a ‘bear hug’ and whispers in my ear, “Till next time.” I smile softly to myself as he walks away.

—

“Do you even know what kind of car you’re looking for?”

“I’ll know it when I see it, obviously,” I grumble as we weave through cars.

“Well, then what brand are you looking for at least?” Ryan asks as he trails behind me.

I shrug. “A BMW.”

“You’re shooting pretty high in the cost department,” he says, rolling his eyes, “Can you afford that mortgage?”

“I can afford to buy it wholesale, actually,” I say, in an attempt to one-up his snarky comment.

He stops in his tracks. “Wait what?” I ignore him as I continue my merry way, looking at different models when he comes right in front of me and traps me between a car and his body, his hands on either side of my face, resting on the car window behind me. “You said wholesale, Amelia. Where are you getting all that money from?”

“I sell drugs on the side, obviously,” I joke, my heartrate picking up a little when I look into his sparkling blue eyes. They’re full of mischief all the time and I like it.

“Haha, very funny,” he says, quirking an eyebrow at me, “So what, are you a medical or an engineer or something?”

“I prefer the term Dr. Shepherd, but Medical Shepherd could do, I suppose,” I sigh, feigning boredom. When I look up at him again, his shocked expression turns into one of excitement.

“Shut up,” he grins, his hands still at the sides of my head. “Holy crap, I’m dating a doctor.”

“We’re not dating,” I scoff, “We are casual friends. Very casual.”

“So this is casual, then?” he asks, slowly bringing his lips closer to mine, enveloping them in a soft kiss. As my eyes are about to close, I notice something over his shoulder.

“That’s the one!” I exclaim, pushing him out of my way as I go over to the car, “This is the one I had in LA.”

“You’re gonna buy the same car again?” Ryan sought to confirm as he recovered from almost being thrown to the floor.

“The BMW 435i gran coupe is a good car,” I defend, trying to get the attention of a sales rep. Once I’ve gotten the woman’s attention, I turn back to Ryan and ask, “What are your religious beliefs on the sexual christening of new cars?”

He raises an eyebrow at me before slowly grinning. “I’m very religious. Very.”

—

“Do I look professional?”

“You look like my baby sister,” Derek beams as I look at myself in the mirror in the Attendings’ Lounge.

“Okay, well no one wants someone’s baby sister cutting into their brain or spine,” I hiss, adjusting my lab coat a little, “So do I look professional or not?”

“You look professional. Happy?” Derek smiles and shakes his head. “Dad and I came by your house yesterday.”

“Really?” I say, a little curious yet terrified, “I was out all day, actually.”

“According to him,” Derek teases, “He saw you let a red out. He didn’t want to interrupt your morning routine, so he made me take him home. The next time we came back, you were gone.”

My cheeks turn rosy pink. “I don’t have a morning routine, Derek.” I clip my ID onto my lab coat pocket and turn away from the mirror to face him. “That was just a friend.”

“With your track record, I highly doubt,” he responds in mild disgust.

“I know you guys think of me as the family slut,” I say as I throw my stethoscope around my neck, “But for once, can you please believe me when I tell you that it was just a friend?”

“How many times have you told me that, Amy?” Derek teases as I follow him out of the lounge.

“More times than I can remember,” I sigh. We stop at an elevator and he presses the button to call it. “But I’m telling you the truth this time, I swear.”

“Where’d you meet your friend?” he asks.

“At a vet clinic,” I answer with ease, preparing myself for his interrogation.

“He’s from here?”

“Scotland, I think.”

“What does he do?”

I stutter for a moment. "Uh, he’s a sports therapist…”

He eyes me suspiciously but lets the slip pass. “How old is he?”

“Thirty eight-ish?” I guess.

“Where does he live?”

I shrug.

“Do you at least know his name?” he queries in disappointment. The elevator dings and the door opens, letting out a multitude of staff personnel.

“Of course I do,” I say as I roll my eyes, “His name is…”

My voice catches in my throat as my eyes fall on a redhead holding a cup of coffee in his hand. He glances at me once, as if I am nobody, but when he looks at me again, his eyes open wide in shock. He’s about to say my name but  I open my eyes wide at him, signalling him to shut up, and he understands.

“Oh,” Derek says as we enter the elevator, “Amy, this is Dr. Owen Hunt. He’s the head of trauma. Owen, this is my baby sister, Amy.”

“Dr. Shepherd,” I correct, sticking my hand out to shake his.

He slowly takes my hand and shakes it, shock still clear on his face. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” I say, grinning a little too falsely. At least I know his last name now.

[thegrumpypenguin]

  Imiq and Claire: this was the runner-up to my choice for May’s photo!

  [If you haven’t read Part I yet, you can find it here; go ahead and read it and come back – we’ll wait here for you!]

  Dora (Mama) and cub

I ended Part I with my first viewing of the cubs, on May 28, 2018 and my summer having been planned out for me. I wish I could say that was hyperbole, but I really did spend more time with the Toronto Zoo wolf pack last summer than I spent on any other activity – and it’s not even close. At the beginning I hung around the northwest corner where barriers had been set up to keep noisy visitors from getting too close to the den; however, it wasn’t long (this photo is from three days after my first sighting) before the cubs began to wander far enough afield that I was able to take up semi-permanent residence in a much more comfortable location: on the bridge at the southwest corner under which the wolves travel to reach their food and the yards by the house. The bridge is covered and open to the air on three sides (both very important features on the hot, muggy days we get around here) and I was able to put my camera lens right up against the fence – which had large squares in the mesh – to eliminate any obstructions from my shots.

  Incoming!

I’m so glad I had so much free time to watch them right from the beginning because they grew up incredibly fast. This shot is from June 1; already their ears are standing up, their expressions are more alert; they were allowed to wander off far from the rest of the family. At this point, they are only three weeks old, and it has only been four days since I first saw them stumbling clumsily outside of their den. They looked different every single day and the odd time I had to skip a couple of days I almost didn’t recognize them when I came back. But it wasn’t like I could drop in and see them any time I wished: most visits required a lot of patience and careful scanning of the landscape for sometimes a couple of hours before even one baby would make an appearance. Not that I am complaining in the slightest: the payoff was magnificent and I spent some very Zen-like moments in between sightings. And it got to the point where I was able to fairly accurately predict when I might see the cubs – and where – by observing the actions and listening to the vocalizations of the adults (especially Vera).

  The whole brood of six

On June 7th they turned four weeks old. I took this photo (at left) on that day, along with the shots that appear at the top of each of the parts to this blog post (including, obviously, the May photo for the calendar). By that point, I was already noticing a very clear pattern. Every time Imiq would attempt to settle down somewhere, a single cub would come up to him and sniff around his muzzle. Then the cub would rub up against him and flop down, trying to get him to play with it. Sometimes a second cub would appear, but if ever a third (or fourth or fifth or sixth) cub tried to join in, Imiq would quickly run out of patience and get to his feet with a snarl. But he showed remarkable patience with one cub at a time, and it didn’t take long to figure out that it was the same cub, over and over, making these approaches. The Keepers long suspected that this cub was “Daddy’s Girl;” once they were caught up and sexed later in the summer, it was discovered that “Daddy’s Girl” was the only girl of the six. Thus, when I chose the photo of Imiq and cub that graces this month’s calendar page, it was pretty easy to determine which of the litter was in the shot. I don’t think I would have been that lucky with any other kind of picture.

  Tiny cub; big world

One of the difficulties I had when trying to take photos of them in their early days was the length of the grass in the exhibit. I think perhaps Dora caught them a bit off-guard when she denned, because the grass hadn’t been cut since the winter and it was too late at that point to do anything about it. Ordinarily, the wolves from the exhibit are brought under the bridge and “caught up” in the back yards while a crew goes into the domain and tends to all of the horticultural needs. Once Dora went underground, nobody was going to be able to enter that exhibit until much later, when the family was all caught up and the cubs sexed. As you can see from the photo here, the cubs were barely as tall as the grass. In fact, in some areas the cubs would completely disappear from view and I would have to just watch the “wake” behind them as they moved through their miniature jungle.

  Dozing with Mama

There was another advantage to my “stake-out” position. Because the wolves had to go under the bridge to get to the back areas, the area just before the gate was one of the lowest points in the whole exhibit and, consequently, one of the coolest as the days became hotter. I would often see some of the cubs or adults (or both) just hanging around down there, often lying in the muddy areas or against the rock walls to snooze. These weren’t always great positions for photo access, but sometimes I could use my cell phone to shoot straight down through the mesh, while other times I walked over to the wooden fence to the west of the bridge, held my camera up over the planks, and snagged some excellent shots – including the one I’ve posted here, at left.

And then, finally, the cubs began to be allowed access to the back areas themselves, where they had to learn what to do with some strange new things, such as water bowls:

  A little weak on the concept, at first

  Feeding frenzy

Dora was an amazing first-time Mom. Six is quite a large litter for an Arctic wolf and there were times when she looked so impossibly thin I didn’t know how she was going to survive until the cubs weaned. But survive she did, and a good portion of that credit goes to her sister, Auntie Vera. I have watched some recent births at the Zoo create some really special aunts – Lemon with the lion cubs, Sabi with Theo – and Vera was no exception. Apart from the obvious thrill of watching these six tiny floof-balls grow into majestic wolves, one of my favourite things about spending so many hours observing this family last summer was watching the dynamics develop and strengthen. Vera was almost a complete outsider before the cubs were born, as Dora (despite being smaller) is the Alpha female; however, she took to her new role as smoothly as if she’d been doing it for years. She made sure the cubs were fed regularly in the early days; she would babysit them while her sister went out into the fields and rested; she was the only adult who could – and did – tolerate all six of the wriggling furballs at one time, other than when Dora would nurse them. And the babies clearly loved her attention, and would flock to her whenever she walked out into the open and summoned them with a soft whining call. She was pretty much perfect, and watching her take on such a huge role made my heart swell.

But sometimes they didn’t need any adults and just played until they simply couldn’t play any more:

  Wrestled into a deep sleep

  Goodbye jungle!

The day after the cubs turned two months old, their Keepers and the Vet staff wanted to gather them all up to give them their shots and find out how many boys and girls there were. It didn’t go particularly smoothly, however. I dropped by first thing in the morning on my way to work, unaware that any of this was taking place. I could hear the pack howling as I approached the enclosure, which made me very excited as I had been trying to capture that on video with no success to that point. However, when I reached the bridge I encountered a very agitated Vera on the exhibit side, with all the other eight wolves either in the back yard or in the house. They had been trying to bring her in for a couple of hours at that point but she simply wasn’t buying what they were selling. I don’t recall exactly what happened with Vera in the end; all I know is they shut down access to that bridge at that time and I eventually saw the groundspeople in the exhibit, finally chopping down all that grass. I returned that afternoon and took some shots of the cubs that were much less obstructed, and that made me happy. That happiness was short-lived, however, as I soon found out that Imiq had somehow been hurt in the whole procedure of the morning. It took the staffers a couple of days to realize how badly hurt he had been: a spiral fracture of the femur is what the diagnosis was. As invasive surgery was not the first choice of the vet staff – especially at such an important time in the solidification of the pack – Imiq was left for a few days to see if the leg would begin to heal by itself. When it became obvious this simply wasn’t going to happen, he was brought in to the Health Centre to have surgery and a plate was inserted into his leg.

  Vera (with cubs) and Dora

Nobody was sure how Imiq would be received upon his return after convalescing for a while. In the meantime, this put a little extra pressure on Dora and Vera as they were now the sole adults responsible for the entertainment, sustenance, and general well-being of six not-so-small-any-more wolf cubs. They both took on the extra duties with ease and the rest of the summer passed pretty much without any further major incident. Imiq was away from the pack for nearly seven weeks, all told, including some time just before his reintroduction that he spent in the wolf house, where Dora, Vera, and all of the cubs were aware of his presence, to be sure. Meanwhile, the cubs just kept right on growing at a ridiculous speed. In late August, before they were even 16 weeks old, this is what they had grown into:

  One of the “cubs” at nearly 16 weeks of age

  Auntie Vera and a nephew or niece

Labour Day came and went, fall was nearly upon us. It had gotten to the point – take a look at this photo at left – where it was difficult to tell from a distance whether one was looking at an adult or a juvenile. The cubs were still quite brown underneath their burgeoning white fur, but often Dora and Vera would roll around in the mud or dirt to satisfy an itch or just for the fun of it, and they would get quite brown themselves. Imiq’s imminent return was weighing on my mind. It seemed to me that he had had plenty of time to establish himself among the cubs before he “disappeared,” but there was no way of knowing how they would treat him when he was back among them.

It turned out I needn’t have worried at all. This heart-melting series of photos was taken on the day he was re-introduced to the pack.

  Imiq slowly gets to his feet where he had been lying quietly, away from the pack

  He moves a little closer, for observation purposes

  He makes up his mind: he’s heading down the hill on three good legs to see them

  When the cubs see him, they swarm him. All six of them. This time, Imiq loves it.

  Nobody can tell me that’s not an ear-to-ear grin on Imiq’s face

  Contented and exhausted

  Papa and the kids

  A very happy cub

As winter approached and the cubs began to get their first white coats, it became harder and harder to tell them from the adults. Fortunately they maintained just a little bit of brown under the white right up until the last time I saw them. It was great fun watching the nine wolves romp around in the snow over the winter, and Imiq often led the charge on his three “good” legs while the six offspring fanned out behind him like a long tail. I went to see them less and less often, but I never was disappointed when I did show up. They grew to be magnificent wolves and seeing so many of them in the domain together for the first time in several years was quite a thrill.

  This is the last time I saw all nine of them together on the exhibit, in late February of this year:

  There are nine wolves in this photo. Can you spot them all?

  The last day I saw the cubs

There had been some talk that perhaps all nine could stay together, providing that none of the five male cubs tried to challenge Imiq’s alpha status too much. I don’t know if that happened, or if there were other reasons for the final decision, but sometime late in the week of March 18th, the six cubs left the Toronto Zoo and headed for a new life – together – at Zoo Sauvage in Saint-Félicien, Québec. It’s a lovely facility and I know they will thrive there, but the news came to me suddenly and just a smidge too late. I was at the Zoo for a training session in the Wildlife Health Centre on March 17; on my way out I passed the wolf domain and noticed that the whole pack was out together in the sunshine. I hesitated for a few moments and debated going back to take a photo, but I finally decided I just wanted to get home and I could take the shot when I returned later that week. The very next day the Zoo announced on Facebook that the cubs were leaving and that they would be off the exhibit until then. I headed over as soon as I learned the news, and managed to see them all one last time in their yards by the house, but it was pretty much just bittersweet. By the way, I had known for a long time what the Keepers intended to name the cubs (all after Outlander characters) and that’s why I was able to label this month’s photo “Imiq and Claire” way back in November (when I made the calendars), but that post was the first time the names had been made public, or at least “officially.” Claire, Jamie, Murtagh, Dougal, Angus, and Rupert are the six.

  Here is probably my favourite video of the few I managed to take of the cubs:

    Now, here comes the exciting bit, the reason I wanted to hold off on posting the second part of this post until today, March 10 (the birthday of last year’s cubs). From the Zoo’s Facebook post of May 2nd:

“#WolfWatch Update! Our Arctic wolves Vera and Dora have gone down into their den and two pups have since been observed! Keepers observed that Vera went down into the den on Wednesday, April 24. Two days later on the afternoon of Friday, April 26, Dora proceeded to also go down to the den. After observing both females breed with Imiq in mid-February, this could indicate that either one or both females have given birth to pups. Vera was observed breeding with Imiq 3-4 days before Dora, which could also explain why she denned up before Dora. However, Keepers cannot confirm if both wolves have had litters of pups, as they are in the same den versus different dens. Wolfs are also very elusive, and there isn’t much known what goes on in the den as we respect their privacy during this time.

“Both females have emerged from the den and have been seen eating, so we remain on the lookout to determine how many pups emerge in the next few weeks. The curious wolf pups will likely be eager to explore soon…”

I was really hoping to spot a cub or two and share the photos with you today, but I’ve not been that lucky yet – despite camping out at the den for several hours over the last week or so (I knew they were denning before the Zoo posted about it). So far, this is all I have to offer you – a photo of Dora’s tail as she returns to the den following a brief foray into the domain:

  Mom bum in the den, May 10, 2019

  Rest assured that as soon as I have any shots to share, I will post them on my Grumpy Penguin page on Facebook. Please check that page out; if you have a Facebook account then you should be able to view anything on there without having to “Friend” me.

Well! That two-part post broke all kinds of records for me. Hope you made it all the way through, and hope you enjoyed the time you spent! As for me, my summer’s free time just became significantly smaller in the past few days. If you need me, you will probably find me camped out at my favourite spot on the bridge, falling in love all over again with a whole new set of wobbly balls of fluff. Come by and say hi!

Next month: a couple of “non-inventory” Zoo animals that are almost obscenely cute. See you in June!

2019 “VISITING WITH ANIMALS” Calendar – May Story Part II I ended Part I with my first viewing of the cubs, on May 28, 2018 and my summer having been planned out for me.

[cosmosogler]

time to try to sum up a full internal day again!

i woke up on time enough. the brutal reminder that it is, in fact, “shark week” got me interested in being awake and not having those Very Special dreams.

those are euphemisms. i would be more specific but i don’t like talking about it at all. but i needed to bring it up because “shark week” becomes important later.

anyway i went through my normal daily routine, except- get this- i tried using that cat smell spray that the vet pawned off on me for 20 dollars, and snoopy didn’t poop on the couch! she went in her litter box!!! that put me in a good mood right away.

while waiting for the bus i complained to myself about my pokemon game and the rng. i’ve found that i am very good at listening to complaints from myself. the complaints did consume me by the end of the day but this morning i was sort of amusing myself with it.

the first class was really rough... i’m not a fan of that professor at all. he doesn’t, like... relate the topics he talks about in one lecture, so all these numbers and letters are kind of floating in a void that i have no context for. he MUST know that “k” is a variable AND a constant used across multiple fields in physics and i don’t know which one he’s referring to when he just says “k,” right??? and he doesn’t define any terms and then starts writing down equations that he doesn’t use any actual words for. i was frantically scribbling down every mark he made on the blackboard hoping that if i went over it all at once later it might magically make sense.

he also went 7 minutes over. i was vibrating in my seat. when he finally put down his notes i ran out to the bathroom. i was only there for two minutes, but when i got back to the classroom the next professor was in and started lecturing before i could even get to my seat. 

he started the lecture 6 minutes early. so the 15 minute break between classes had become a 2 minute break. and he started being really passive aggressive to students who came in 3 minutes before class was supposed to start and interrupted his lecture. i was angry. but i took notes anyway. quantum lectures are the easiest for me to understand in general.

i mean, quantum the subject and quantum the math are insanely difficult and i don’t think anyone really understands it. but quantum lectures i can follow.

so his class also ended late, so i guess to this guy “50 minutes” means “start and end whenever you want.” i feel like... as a grad student we’re supposed to handle that kind of abuse but it still didn’t feel good. it felt bad. i was gonna explode. it took me a minute to figure out why i was wiggling all over the place.

i guess it feels like i am fundamentally at odds with the “physics grad lifestyle” so to speak. i am putting so much effort into taking care of myself and pacing myself and staying on a schedule, and these guys just plow right through our breaks! i know i can’t focus for more than 75 minutes tops and they want me to go for 120 minutes with basically no breaks? how am i supposed to get all this nervous energy out??

i didn’t have enough time for a full lunch break before my appointment with the counseling center so i caught the bus over there. the therapist was around and i was early so we just started early. she did a general biography thing and asked some questions for the psychiatrist i’ll be seeing and some questions for the group therapy counselor. we talked about some insurance options. i think i might stick with the group therapy... going off campus is such a huge hassle and there’s no guarantee that the therapist i get is even going to be any good since my insurance seems to prefer, kind of, assholes? not always, but enough of the time. anyway i got an appointment with the group therapist to get checked out on wednesday.

the weather was strange. it was like being spritzed with a giant mister, except it never stopped spritzing. i could tell i was getting wet standing outside, but it wasn’t enough water to actually get wet with. 

the bus driver didn’t stop when i pulled the stop thing so i had to backtrack to get back to the physics building. my ankle still hurt so i was kind of unhappy about that. i mostly finished my lunch (didn’t have enough of an appetite for all of it) and crammed in a full study session. 

i didn’t do any homework... 

third period was ok. the lecturer is pretty good and he does a good job of giving the class a coherent narrative, but i cannot read his board work. his handwriting is really bad, but i could deal with it if it was just that. he also does not write top to bottom. he writes in random groups and will go back and change things and then move on with his previous topic. it was ok at first, but eventually he made a correction while i was looking at my notebook trying to write and when i looked up he had moved away from the equation he’d corrected and moved on. i couldn’t figure out what he’d changed and by then i’d fallen behind and he had moved away from what he was working on again so i had to search the entire board for the new work. you would think that’s not hard, but his handwriting is so bad that if he uses a term i’m not familiar with, even if he spells it out i don’t know what he said...

after class i asked suzanne what i should do about it, like, how to get him to write in the right order. taylor jumped into our conversation to explain to me the professor’s board writing pattern and how it is out of order. 

i got kind of snappy. i said “yeah, i was there, i saw the board, thanks.” he didn’t say anything after that for the rest of the conversation. he was wearing a shirt with an ugly dude saying “m’lady” and tipping his fedora. i couldn’t tell if it was ironic or not. not sure if i like the kind of dudebro who does that ironically either anyway.

i mean, i feel that at no point was i irrationally angry. i just had 200% less tolerance for people wasting my time.

i talked to the professor and asked if he could write on the board from the top down and made a hand motion. and he agreed to slow down. which is not what i asked for, but ok, whatever. 

at that point i didn’t have enough time for a full study session so i hung out in the lounge and sort of nibbled on my quantum notes while suzanne and jennica played ping-pong. at 5:00 i went out to the lobby and tried to look for the graduate mentor i had arranged to meet up with. i think... at the grad meeting last thursday, the department had used the wrong photo for the woman i was corresponding with. i noticed a strange woman i hadn’t seen before really staring at me while i was waiting in the lobby. i kind of frowned at her and then she asked if i was samantha so that was awkward. 

i’d forgotten her name but was too angry with myself to ask.

ok, about before. i understand where taylor was coming from, sort of, in a very misguided sort of way. i think when i asked “how can i ask the professor to write in a more logical way” he took that as “i don’t understand how the professor is writing” so he thought explaining it to me would make me understand and retrospectively have perfect notes.

i talked to elisa for a good long while about mostly physics stuff. she’d been abroad for the summer in south korea but originally was from italy. i was super tired, i think i burned myself out from being irritable all day. i seemed to be unable to articulate my real question in a way that would get a response in the vein i was looking for. 

i guess... my real worry was “how to i make sure i stay on this long-term schedule?” but it was coming out as questions like “so i need to be working for a professor by february?” they are similar questions, but not the same one. i guess i was looking for some kind of reassurance. elisa recommended the opposite of what i wanted. she suggested i go into random professors’ offices and ask what they’re doing. 

maybe what i really wanted was an excuse to not have to be creative or brave.

after we finished our drinks (i had juice) she seemed to have forgotten that she’d offered to drive me home so i walked over to the bus station. the bus schedule lied to me. one bus route runs after 5:30 until 6:40 or so. one single bus route. luckily i only had to wait like five minutes and i caught the last bus off campus.

when i got home i only had time to drop off my stuff and clean my lunchbox before the “milk and cookies” social event for the apartment started. but when i got down to the lobby there was no one there and the lights were off. i was really frustrated. an indian woman and her son showed up and started poking around the doors. after i checked the rec room and didn’t find any milk or cookies there i talked to them for a little bit. we went in the rec room and found some students playing a killer billiards game but they said they had gone looking for the social event an hour ago and hadn’t found anything. 

then when we got back to the lobby there were three more people standing around awkwardly. the woman went to look for the staff member she knew. when she came back she told us that the office guy had said that the event had started an hour and a half ago and was scheduled to end at 7. we were all really confused. one girl pulled out her phone and opened up the image of the event calendar which clearly said “starts at 7 in the lobby.” but we cleared out. i was pretty bummed.

i didn’t realize the two girls from the lobby were the same girls from the yoga session that the instructor hadn’t shown up for until they started sort of laughing and looking at me knowingly. 

when i went back up to my room i made butternut squash ravioli. it was GOOD.

then i didn’t get anything done at all all evening!!! not a thing!!!! i wasted my own time!!!!!

so now the homework is due wednesday AND i haven’t started the homework AND i haven’t done the class reading AND i haven’t finished studying my old notes. 

i guess mostly i just wanted to sleep all evening, but i didn’t because it wasn’t time for bed yet. but now it’s past time for bed because i’ve been complaining for 45 minutes straight. 

snoopy has parasites too. the vet called me with the results she said she’d have saturday “pretty quick,” which i could have picked up the prescription while i was waiting at the bus stop for an hour... now i have to go back again next saturday to pick up some pills. i don’t know how i’m going to get snoop to eat them. and that’s another ~2 hours out of my saturday.

i’m really super irritable today. it hasn’t gotten any better even though i’ve been lounging around all evening. tomorrow i gotta teach my first class at 9:30, and i’ll be at school until 8 because the professor decided to move our mandatory “extra two class periods” back to start at 6 because he’s insane and thinks we don’t need to eat dinner i guess.

my lunch box isn’t really big enough to pack lunch AND dinner. whatever...

i just don’t understand why, in order to do physics, you have to choose physics or health. it’s not hard to do both. or it doesn’t have to be. i’m trying so hard to do all the things you’re supposed to do to manage depression and they’re just not letting me.

[waywardranchanimalsanctuary-blog]

The Three Little Pigs That Changed Everything

Wayward Ranch was founded to be a sanctuary for dogs with behavioral issues that would stop them from being candidates for adoption. However, we knew that when we founded the sanctuary in 2016 that it would be some time before we would have the property to fulfill this dream, and we decided to start rescuing dogs and cats, utilizing foster homes to house them until adoption. About eight months after we began, I was on Facebook and a post caught my eye from a NJ buy/sell/trade group. In the post there was a photo of three potbelly pigs that looked terrible. I had never handled pigs before, but I was pretty sure they were not supposed to look like these three did. I contacted the poster and discovered he was the new owner of a property where these pigs had been abandoned.

Above: The photo from their original post on Facebook, the black pig already had a new home.

I knew I wanted to save these three pigs, I’ve always been curious about pigs, but we still did not have a rescue facility, so I called a quick board meeting. Dogs, cats, and small animals were one thing, all of us had experience with caring for those species, but none of us had experience caring for potbelly pigs. Where would they live? What care would they need? We decided that we would put out a post on Facebook, and should an experienced foster home step up, we would save these boys. I was shocked when we were flooded with offers to help. One of the offers came from the farm where I was boarding my personal horse, and considering I had known them for five years and the owner was a vet tech, we decided they would be the perfect foster farm for these pigs. 

The next day Adam and I drove three hours to New Jersey. We met the new property owner and he explained that the three pigs he wanted us to take were very fearful and could even be aggressive if they felt cornered. Their paddock was very small, full of feces and very wet from recent rain, and all of a sudden Adam and I realized we had no idea how to catch these pigs. In our excitement to rescue them, we had not properly planned ahead, and all we had were the three large dog crates we had brought to transport the pigs in our car. It took over an hour, but between myself, Adam and the new properly owner we were able to chase, corner, and trap all three pigs in separate crates and then load them in the car. 

The whole car ride from the farm to our vet I was absolutely giddy. There were pigs in the car, actual pigs! I have loved farm animals all of my life and I was so excited we as a rescue were branching out to help pigs. At every stop light I would reach my hand behind my seat and offer it to the pigs to sniff and would squeal in response to every noise they made. I was sure we would be friends in no time since I knew how to bond to fearful dogs, and how much harder could pigs be? We arrived at the vet and that is when my excitement came to an abrupt halt and I recognized how naive I had been. When we were catching the pigs there was so much mud that it was hard to tell, but in the bright light of the exam room, it became clear how terrible the condition of these poor animals was. They barely had hair and the rest of their bodies were one giant scab. Every time they moved, this scab opened and they would bleed. Our vet told us they most likely had sarcoptic mange, which is contagious to other animals and to people. Each pig weighed in at 30 lbs, about 40-50 lbs underweight. I realized we were in over our heads, but we had committed to these animals, and it was my job to educate myself to make sure we gave them the best care possible. We had an uphill battle ahead of us, but more than ever I was so glad we had saved them. Who knows what would have happened to them had we not come for them? 

Above: A Photo taken of Shinzi when we first brought him to our vet.

We brought the boys to their new foster farm and set them up in an empty stall. This was the cleanest space they had seen in a long time, and they were grateful for the food and water. As I watched them eat, drink and then pile together and fall asleep, I joked that they looked more like hyenas than pigs, and Adam and I decided to name them Ed, Shinzi, and Bonzai after the three hyenas from The Lion King. I was (and still am!) completely head over heels in love with these boys, and wanted to give them the best. I made pig research my full time job those first few weeks and luckily I found some great resources online (such as minipiginfo.com) and was able to learn a huge amount of information about the care pigs require. The boys skin slowly healed, and their personalities began to shine through. We bonded very closely to all three and I took so much pride in having earned their trust. A year went by and we rescued three more pigs, this time females, and together they formed a happy little family! Adam and I were there every few days once we brought in the girls to help with feeding, cleaning and enriching their area at the foster farm, and we would spend hours with them each time. 

Above: The boys, one week after their initial rescue bonding with me over some fruit treats.

Above: Our three little pig-hyenas curled up together their first night after rescue.

Above: All six pigs in their stall one year after we rescued the first three.

This farm was beautiful and large enough to house many farm animals and horses, and we began to make plans to rent-to-buy it from the owners and finally have a rescue facility of our own. Six months before we were supposed to begin renting the property, due to personal health reasons, Adam and I were unable to come to visit the pigs for about six weeks. We stayed in touch with the farm owner and staff throughout that time and they assured us all was well with the animals and not to worry. Imagine our shock when we returned, opened the door to their stall, and discovered six emaciated and screaming pigs living in filth, the floor covered by at least three inches of feces all around. As long as I live I will never forget the screams they made, and how clear it was that they had not been fed, watered, or cleaned once in the six weeks we had been gone. The pigs ran to me as I began to cry, although some were too weak to even walk. Bonzai especially had lost so much weight he appeared nearly dead, and he weighed in at 25 lbs, having lost 50 lbs in the six weeks. I was so confused, how could anyone have done this to innocent animals? I was furious, what had they done with the money we sent for pig food? I was lost, how could I ever trust anyone with our animals again?

Above: Shinzi, three weeks after we discovered the foster farm’s abuse, still healing from the trauma.

The next few days were a blur, and I am so grateful to our vet who brought all of our pigs back to life after this incredible abuse and neglect. We brought the evidence of this abuse to the local authorities, but sadly after months of following up, I had to come to terms with the fact that nothing would be done to make these people answer for nearly killing our animals. Instead I had to focus on caring for them every day and finding a new place for them and our horses to live. The night after we first saw what the foster farm had done, I couldn’t sleep, kept awake by the guilt of realizing I had trusted the wrong people with our rescue’s beloved animals. I went online and began desperately searching for a farm we could afford, and one farm kept popping up in my searches. It was a beautiful, 60 acre horse farm that with some hard work fundraising, we could afford to rent, and that night I decided it is where our rescue would someday call home. 

Above: A photo from the real estate listing of our new property.

Here we are almost a full year after this horrible experience with the foster farm. We are thriving on our new property, and most importantly so are our pigs and other animals. We now have nine pigs, including Ed, Shinzi and Bonzai, and they have a large, beautiful and clean space here to enjoy. They have all of the food, water and love they could ever want. We have decided to keep Ed, Shinzi and Bonzai as permanent sanctuary residents so they can help us to socialize new pigs that come through our rescue, and to help us to educate our community the way they helped to educate us about the plight of pigs in our country right now. These three little pigs have taught me so much about how to care for farm animals, what I want our rescue to stand for, and who I am. They are the reason we found our new home, and they are a daily lesson for me in resilience, as they have come back from abuse and neglect not once, but twice. I look forward to many years of loving them, spoiling them, and watching them thrive. They will never want for anything again, and now will just be able to enjoy their lives. I am so thankful to have met these three little pigs who changed our rescue and changed my life.

Above: Recent photos of Ed, Shinzi and Bonzai, all are now healthy and happy.

Written by: Eleni Calomiris

Executive Director and one of the Founding Board Members of

Wayward Ranch Animal Sanctuary

P.S. If you want to see more updated photos of our piggies enjoying their life here at the sanctuary, check out our website: https://www.waywardranch.org/meet-our-permanent-resident-animals

[topicprinter]

Back in the early 2010s, when I was still an active songwriter and radio jingle/ads producer, I lived remote enough that it was hard for me to find local session musicians for hire when I needed live instrumentation or a certain vocal type. Through Craigslist, other classified ads and Mylene who is our co-founder and back then managed touring musicians, I put together a small team of essential session players. We pretty much communicated by email, phone, dropbox and the likes. Since that was rather time consuming and not very efficient, we more or less hacked together a collaboration tool. Since I knew other songwriters I told them how I create my music and they asked me if I can help them as well and that’s when Tunedly became a business. That was in 2015 and we officially incorporated in 2016 making a run at it.How much we invested initially is hard to quantify because it's not like we moved funds from one account to another account and decided it would be our "startup fund" or the likes. I left a well paid job as a manager to work full time on Tunedly, without having any reliable income from Tunedly at that point. So, we lived partially from savings. Then, once we noticed this is going somewhere, we permanently immigrated from Europe to Canada so that we can fundraise in the U.S. and Canada, attend accelerators in the U.S. and live in North America full time. Going through the immigration process, as you can imagine, wasn't cheap. If I have to guesstimate how much we invested initially prior to our first outside investment, I would say somewhere around $20,000.What does Tunedly do?When we started, we were a pure collaboration tool, connecting songwriters to vetted session musicians. By now, we are more of a music publisher. We still operate the collaboration platform, but that really only serves as our source of content. We noticed this: On our platform, there are thousands of new songs being created every year. Songs nobody has ever heard and we get a first pass at them. So, when we come across a song that sparks our interest and could be commercially viable, we make an exclusive publishing offer to the songwriter and then try to place the song in film, TV, ads, media or with established artists, which generates sync license fees and royalties for us and the songwriter.For this company, it was a gradual decision to start. I mean, myself and Mylene were already entrepreneurs prior to working on Tunedly so it wasn’t like we just decided to be self employed. However, the way Tunedly developed and became a company was gradual. I was really just trying to find a way to be more efficient for my own songs and noticed by helping me, we’re actually creating something of value to the music industry.How did you get your first three clients?By talking to other songwriters. It really was that. I was in touch with a number of other writers through online forums where I shared music to get feedback, they shared music to get feedback and at the end of the day, I was asked often enough “how do work with your musicians?” and that’s how we found our first three “clients”. Funny enough, our very first client, when Tunedly wasn’t even called Tunedly yet - we didn’t have a name at that point, is still with us today. He has been with us for so long, it almost feels like he’s part of the company. He really experienced the growing pains as much, if not even more severe as we did as founders. He got so used to just talking to one person, being myself, when getting his songs done. As we grew and added more staff, at times I couldn’t be involved in music production projects due to travel, fundraising, presentations, etc. so he had to deal with staff and at first he wasn’t all too happy about this, but at the end of the day, he is still with us because the quality of session musicians and production quality at our rate is impossible to get elsewhere.When we had that “oh, this could be a business” moment, we put up some ads on Google, bought a few banner ads on songwriters forums and things like that just to see if we can attract songwriters who we don’t personally speak to. Sure enough we could.I have been into music since I was nine years old. I learned how to play the piano and then in college I picked up songwriting and music production, so I had experience in the area.Have you raised any money? How much?We have raised some angel funding. After we validated the market, we went through two accelerator programs, StartFast in New York State and then Capital Innovators in St. Louis. The funds they invested plus the exposure they gave us to other investors in their network enabled us to raise a total of about $500,000.The initial idea was funded by personal savings.How do you attract clients?In the early days, we worked a lot with paid advertising on Google and Facebook. Nowadays our blog is generating most of our traffic, plus we get into news articles every now and then which keeps us on top of songwriter’s minds.Our target audience are songwriters. If you had asked me this question a year ago, before we really got into the publishing side of things, the answer to this question would have been much longer, but today, we really just want to make sure we’re working with songwriters who either want to create great sounding songs, or already have great sounding songs which we can sign to a publishing deal.What is the funniest/most strange request you have received from a client/prospective client?There are so many funny and strange requests, I’d really have to think hard about which one tops the list. I think the funniest and strangest song we ever worked on was a Psychedelic song about a purple house, written and composed by a talented songwriter in India. Other requests that were strange at first was when people who are not songwriters came by asking us to write a song for them for a special occasion or a birthday. I mean, we were always very clear about the fact that the platform is for songwriters but since this request came up repeatedly, we actually launched a service under a different brand at Bring My Song To Life to cater to those requests.Where did you meet your founding team?Mylene and I met about two years before we founded Tunedly while we both lived in Dublin, Ireland and actually became a couple. We met Marc, who joined us shortly after we founded Tunedly as the CTO, in New York while we were in the StartFast accelerator program. Neither Mylene nor I have a technical background. I could fumble around with html enough to put something rough together but as we grew, we knew we needed something solid and were looking for someone who can write code.What is the most common service you offer?The most common service we offer is the full production of a song from just a lyric sheet and a rough tape.What motivates you when things go wrong? What is the end goal?First of all, in a startup, things go wrong all the time. Not necessarily gravely wrong, but small things go wrong all the time here and there. The way I stay motivated is by knowing that our clients need what we’re building, our employees and contractors rely on the income they’re generating by working for us, our investors put their trust in us, expecting a return and by looking at how far we’ve come despite all the other things that went wrong prior to the latest thing that is going wrong. As an entrepreneur you better learn how to get up after you fall quickly.Do you have any advice for someone just starting out?Do it! If you’re an entrepreneur type of person and you have an idea, just do it. Don’t wait until tomorrow, or until the economy is doing this, or the next presidential election or until the wind is coming from the south. Just do it. We will find a million reasons to not do something. Yes, your idea might now work out, but you’ll never know unless you try. And even if the original idea doesn’t work out, maybe you stumble upon something else you can pivot to and create something that solves a problem we didn’t even know we had.What is stopping you from being 3x the size you are now?Time. The day only has 24 hours. Employees have families, friends, social lives so they can’t, and shouldn’t, spend all their time working. It’s close to midnight and I’m answering these interview questions in my “break” because my to-do list for today is still only halfway done. So yeah, time is what is holding us, and pretty much any business, back at the moment.What apps could your business not run without?Our top apps we’re using are, well, obviously our own platform. Our staff and contractors use our collaboration tool to communicate with songwriters, session musicians and even with each other simply because we spend most of our day on the platform in the first place. Another tool we heavily use is Slack, mostly for internal communication, sharing of non-music related files and quick messages. I personally am not too into the next one since I mostly work with the musician staff directly on Tunedly, but I know Mylene likes using Trello to organize tasks for the non-musician staff and to get a good overview of what’s done and what’s not.Are there any new services you’re working on?Just recently we launched Bring My Song To Life under the Tunedly umbrella which allows virtually anyone to create a song for a loved one or a special occasion. You don’t need any songwriting or music composing skills. For example, your wife’s birthday is coming up and you’re looking for a special, very customized gift, you can tell our songwriters the story you want to convey, and they will write customized lyrics, compose and produce a song with your message and story. Other use cases we come across a lot are sport teams and companies wanting their own special anthem or graduating high school classes their own unique graduation song.Would you ever sell the company?Well, we raised funds so in a way, we already did sell part of it. Would we ever exit and fully sell it, of course we would for the right amount and the right acquirer. Mylene and I will always be the founders of Tunedly, but if someone makes a good offer and that someone has the capacity and ability to scale and grow Tunedly faster than we can, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t want to sell.If you enjoyed this post, there's more here.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Epic Dollhouse Review of Doom: Why I Am Calling It Quits

by Dan H

Monday, 22 June 2009

Dan on Dollhouse, The Sopranos, and Slow Builds~

Previously on Ferretbrain: I started watching Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and was doing an episode-by-episode review.

I kind of stalled on it, because I've come to the realisation that part of what the show is trying to do is to make you, the viewer complicit in the activities of the Dollhouse, trying to draw a comparison between you watching the show and the clients hiring the Dolls. Just as the Dollhouse caters to their needs, so this show caters to your needs. Do you see.

Eight episodes in I decided I was no longer going to be complicit in anything. I can take being bored. I can take being annoyed. I can take having Joss Whedon masturbate in my face. What I can't take is being bored and annoyed and having Joss Whedon masturbate in my face all at the same time.

Just to be clear. I did not stop watching Dollhouse because the dolls are all rape victims. I did not stop watching Dollhouse because I was uncomfortable with a television series where human traffickers are sympathetic viewpoint characters. I did not stop watching Dollhouse because its damning insights into the human condition were outside my comfort zone. I stopped watching Dollhouse because it was preachy, inconsistent, condescending, self-aggrandising, clunkily written, boring, exposition-heavy, mcguffin-driven, shit with the intellectual sophistication of a sixteen year old's GCSE essay about how we should totally abolish money, because that would make everybody equal.

So here are my final thoughts:

A Very Specific Level of Evil

One of the “memes” I'm trying to spread around the internet is

A Very Specific Level of Tired

. For those who don't want to read the link, the salient exchange (from a hypothetical D&D game) is this:

“No, you have just enough energy to climb this hill, but not enough energy to go on or look for someplace else to camp.” “That is a very specific level of tired.”

I like to use the phrase “very specific level of [blah]” to describe any situation in a work of fiction where a character or institution is supposed to be sufficiently [blah] to do what the plot demands, but not quite [blah] enough to do all the things that a [blah] person would do that might wreck the plot. Voldemort is a classic example of this. He's evil enough to kill helpless babies if they get in the way of his plans (or at least, fail to kill helpless babies) he's evil enough that he routinely uses torture and violence to get what he wants, but somehow he is not evil enough to – say – round up all of Harry Potter's friends and start killing them until Potter shows himself.

The Dollhouse (the institution rather than the show) has a similar problem. The Dollhouse is evil, it takes people and scrubs their brains and programs them to do things for rich people.

But it's a very specific level of evil. It takes the time and energy to provide its Dolls with comfortable living conditions, even though doing this pretty clearly makes them harder to control. It seems to vet its assignments extremely thoroughly, so that the Dolls only get sent out to do things which are basically okay. It gives the Dolls names – admittedly names based on military callsigns, but they're clearly designed to function like English Proper Names, not codes. They seem to encourage their handlers to form an emotional bond with their actives and if the handler abuses the relationship, that handler is actually killed.

It's the most naïve representation of human trafficking I can possibly imagine.

Now the counter-argument to this is that the Dollhouse is only superficially nice, and that in fact they are just as evil as you would expect from an institution which (as we discover in episode seven) is run by an evil biotech company that does experiments on babies.

There are two problems with that argument. The first is that the “good” parts of the Dollhouse are most assuredly not superficial. They do in fact take genuine care of their actives, they do in fact try to make them as happy and comfortable as possible. They do in fact use them to help people (sometimes, apparently, for free).

The second problem with this argument is that evil institutions do not look superficially attractive because they do not need to. There were no Callisthenics classes in Auschwitz. Josef Mengele didn't have cutesy conversations with his Jewish prisoners before pouring bleach in their eyes. Guantanamo Bay isn't full of happy, smiling Muslims with slightly vacant grins on their faces. The Dollhouse's veneer of respectability is not for the benefit of the staff (who shouldn't care) or the clients (who shouldn't care, and who never see inside the building anyway) but for the benefit of the audience.

It's another incarnation of what the girls at

Boils and Blinding Torment

used to call “the Misdirection Fairy”. Joss Whedon is chronic for having characters in his shows behave in ways which only make sense if you assume they are consciously performing for an audience. Classic examples of this in Buffy include Jonathan deciding to commit suicide by shooting himself with a sniper rifle in a bell tower (almost as if he was deliberately trying to fool the viewing audience into thinking he was about to embark on a killing spree) and several bits in season seven where Buffy persists in acting confused and frightened, even though everything is going exactly according to her plan. The Dollhouse keeps acting “nice” but there's no earthly reason for it to do so.

To put it another way: Joss Whedon fails at Atrocity 101.

If we are to accept that using Dollhouse technology on people is a genuinely atrocious act, then we have to assume that it works the same way all atrocities work. You start by dehumanizing the victim. Giving the Dolls names, making them comfortable, letting them socialise and caring if they get raped are all totally incompatible with wiping their minds and handing them over to the highest bidder. There's a reason that lab rats aren't given names (or, for that matter, toys). The Dollhouse treats the Dolls like people, and they shouldn't. Not if they're supposed to be genuine human traffickers.

There's a bit in Episode Eight (the last episode I saw, and the last I will ever subject myself to) where de Witt explicitly says that the Dolls should be thought of as pets. This is supposed to be chilling, I think. It's supposed to highlight how dehumanizing the Dollhouse really is. But it doesn't work.

Anybody who has ever worked in a laboratory should know that you absolutely, under no circumstances, treat your test subjects as pets. Pets are, in fact, treated as people. They are cared for and protected, they are given names and they are individualised – humanised, in fact. De Witt consistently singles Echo out for special treatment. One cannot treat a person in this fashion and then commit atrocities against them.

Show, Don't Tell, Dickhead

We spend a lot of time in The Dollhouse having people present the cases either for it (it “gives people what they need” and “helps people”) or against it (it is “slavery” and “human trafficking”). We do not ever see the Dollhouse behave in a manner that fits either of these descriptions, or at least not consistently.

In Episode Eight we finally discover that Sierra was wiped against her will (unlike all the other Dolls, who were volunteers) specifically because she turned a millionaire down for sex. De Witt later explains at the end of the episode (in which the Dollhouse arranges for its three primary Dolls to achieve “closure” or something – I was too bored and pissed off to care by this point) that she “needed to confront the man who took her power away.” Now hang on. You can't talk, sympathetically, about how horribly Sierra was mistreated by this guy when you run the organisation that made it possible. Not because it's hypocritical, but because you shouldn't care. The whole sequence seems to be designed to make you realise how awful the Dollhouse is, because of what it did to Sierra, while at the same time making you think that de Witt is an okay person, because she sympathises. It's not subtle, it's not complex, it's just fucking stupid.

A comparison that I've been wanting to make for a while now is with The Sopranos.

Tony Soprano is very seldom called a criminal. People very seldom tell him that what he does is wrong. He seldom justifies his actions, because he seldom needs to. But he does things that are demonstrably, obviously horrific, and we see them in harsh, unflinching detail, and we see the consequences that his choices have on ordinary people. We don't need trembly emotive speeches where people say “the Mafia is bad!” because we already know. We don't need Tony to say “we help people” because it would be completely stupid.

And we certainly aren't asked to question our own complicity in the work of the Cosa Nostra.

Dollhouse is two shows. There's the show Joss Whedon wanted to make, which exists entirely in the exposition, and is all about Big Serious Issues, and the show that Fox wanted to commission, which is an adventure show about a hot girl who wears a series of different outfits. What we are left with is a show about a girl who has crazy kung fu adventures which keeps stopping every five minutes to explain how it's really about human trafficking and free will and shit.

The Slow Build Fallacy

I once met somebody who said that the thing they hated the most about Buffy the Vampire Slayerwas the fact that they kept watching it, and not liking it, and everybody they talked to kept saying “yeah, well that season wasn't so great, but the next season is really good”. They gave up after season three, possibly because nobody could quite bring themselves to say that about Season Four.

People keep saying the same thing about Dollhouse “sure, the first three quarters of the season sucks, but then you see where it's all been going and it's awesome”.

This is bullshit.

Good TV is good TV from the start. No ifs. No buts. No exceptions. A series should not have to waste my time for upwards of eight hours before it starts displaying whatever dubious merits it is supposed to possess.

To put it another way, if you like a television program, and it shows consistent improvement in ambition, complexity of storytelling, and of course acting, you are going to see that as a show which gets better every season. If, like Buffy, there is also a marked change in style every season, you will also mark every season as the point where it really gets into its stride. I know that I've been guilty of identifying pretty much every season of Buffy as “where it starts to get really good” when talking to more sceptical members of my social circle.

Basically this is an elaborate piece of self-deception we engage in, convincing ourselves that our appreciation for a show is based on a slowly developing understanding of its many subtle advantages, when actually we just think it's a cool idea.

If you don't like Buffy Season 1, you will not like Buffy, period. The reason for this is simple: if you don't like Buffy Season 1 it's probably because something fundamental about the show doesn't work for you. Maybe it's the cutesy dialogue. Maybe it's Sarah Michelle Gellar. Maybe it's the whole idea of a cute blonde chick fighting monsters when she transparently doesn't have enough meat on her to open a stubborn jar of pickles. It doesn't matter how complex the arcs get, or how well they handle

the subject of bereavement

or

the nature of forgiveness

the whole thing is framed in cutesy dialogue and a blonde girl kicking vampires in the face and either you buy that shit or you don't. I personally bought it big time and Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains one of my favourite television shows ever.

I just don't buy Dollhouse. I don't buy the premise, I don't buy the boring, stilted, not-at-all-cutesy and therefore not-at-all witty and therefore not-at-all interesting dialogue. I think the show is heavy handed. I think the show is boring.

Nothing can change in the last four episodes of Season One or the first four episodes of Season Two to change this fact. My issues with Dollhouse are with the root and the core of the show, with the ideas behind it, the way the characters are presented, the way the dialogue is written. No penultimate-episode revelation will change that. Nothing the show can be building towards can change what the show is built on.

Which, from where I'm standing, is Joss Whedon's penis.Themes:

Damage Report

,

TV & Movies

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

,

Whedonverse

~

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~Comments (

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)

Arthur B

at 12:47 on 2009-06-22

Eight episodes in I decided I was no longer going to be complicit in anything. I can take being bored. I can take being annoyed. I can take having Joss Whedon masturbate in my face. What I can't take is being bored and annoyed and having Joss Whedon masturbate in my face all at the same time.

So what you're saying is that you're fine with Joss jerking off in your face, but you draw the line at him asking you to give him a hand? :P

Seriously though, awesome article. I think a lack of, for want of a better word, psychological realism can absolutely kill any hope shows like

Dollhouse

have of being appreciated on the sort of level Whedon clearly wants

Dollhouse

to be appreciated on. This isn't always true, but I think it's often true, especially if the show hinges on the internal psychological states of the characters, and having your show hinge on a mind control process means the mental states of the characters is

the

most important element of the story.

The Prisoner

did this sort of thing

right

. Even though most interrogation processes are vastly grimier than what Number Six went through in the Village, you still had the impression that people were behaving in the way you would expect them to behave in a paranoid schizophrenic Welsh village where Number Six never knows who's working for Number Two and Number Two isn't sure how much Number Six really knows. What's more, what goes on in the Village is an atrocity with a thin veneer of pleasantness which is

actually

a thin veneer. The various Number Twos and their lackeys were perfectly pleasant most of the time, but behind their kind words there was always a snare, and they never hesitated to knock people on the head and drag them in for a lobotomy if they felt the need.

I think part of the reason that the last episode is so controversial is that it abandons psychological realism for tripped-out 60s allegory, and whilst there's nothing wrong with allegory it does tend to involve unrealistic behaviour on the part of characters for the sake of making a point. I do wonder whether

Dollhouse

would work better approached as social allegory as opposed to a psychologically realistic study of rape and/or slavery, but I suspect not since it certainly sounds as though it were written as the latter, not the former.

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Andy G

at 13:57 on 2009-06-22Blackadder comes to mind as a counterexample to what you say about slow builds ... though I guess you could make the case that that is a slightly unusual case since so much was changed after season 1.

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Andy G

at 14:09 on 2009-06-22

And we certainly aren't asked to question our own complicity in the work of the Cosa Nostra.

I agree that the show isn't making some sort of didactic point, but surely it is very much about the uneasy relationship between mainstream American society and the violence that it either hypocritically condemns while supporting, or simply turns a blind eye to? Especially with the outsider liberal figures like Meadow or Dr Melfi.

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Dan H

at 15:46 on 2009-06-22

I agree that the show isn't making some sort of didactic point, but surely it is very much about the uneasy relationship between mainstream American society and the violence that it either hypocritically condemns while supporting, or simply turns a blind eye to?

True, but there's a difference between making a point about society in general, and making a point about you, the viewer.

The Sopranos doesn't ask you to view the act of watching the Sopranos as making you complicit in the work of the Mafia, if you see what I mean.

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http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/

at 17:58 on 2009-06-22

Blackadder comes to mind as a counterexample to what you say about slow builds ... though I guess you could make the case that that is a slightly unusual case since so much was changed after season 1.

I'd say with Blackadder it's really the same all the way through. There are major changes b/w season 1 and the later seasons, but the basic idea is the same. I think the biggest tweak is in exactly how Blackadder fits with the world and the other characters. But a lot of the basic ideas are the same. The final episode isn't so much fantastic because it shows you where the show is going; it just applies the same formula to a part of history where it's most powerful imo.

The Sopranos doesn't ask you to view the act of watching the Sopranos as making you complicit in the work of the Mafia, if you see what I mean.

I agree. I just started finally watching

The Wire,

and interestingly, in the commentary for the pilot the creator talks about how the first chapter shouldn't be as good as the series is going to get--he's going for a slow build. But at the same time the first chapter clearly lays out what the series is about. And there too it's about society, but not in an accusatory way. Characters don't explicitly justify or condemn everything about themselves and others.

Also maybe another thing that also applies to the Sopranos and doesn't seem to apply to Dollhouse is that there's little need for characters to justify themselves because the world in which they live makes what they do understandable. We can see why being born a Soprano might encourage you to be Tony or AJ or Meadow, or how someone like Carmela would wind up this kind of wife. Likewise how the characters in The Wire become criminals or cops.

But is there any explanation why these people created and work at the Dollhouse--any human reasons with which a reader can identify? This is partly where the proble of all those nice guys working at the Dollhouse come from. We can see where a nice guy on the Sopranos or the Wire could get pushed to stay in a life that goes against their nature (and so probably slowly kills them) but when I read your descriptions of these characters I still wind up asking why they don't work somewhere else.

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http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/

at 17:59 on 2009-06-22Sorry about that strange comment--I didn't realize the whole thing was copied in italics!

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Jamie Johnston

at 18:18 on 2009-06-22Haven't finished reading the article yet but I thought I'd mention before I forget: the link to

Boils and Blinding Torment

doesn't work. It looks like it has the same problem I got when I was putting up my last article, namely the process of pasting into the Ferretbrain article editor and saving has somehow added "&8221" to the beginning and end of the URL.

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Jamie Johnston

at 19:04 on 2009-06-22Have now finished reading and very much agree, not specifically in relation to

Dollhouse

because I haven't seen any of it but in relation to your general thinking about how fiction should work and how it goes wrong.

Funnily enough the section on the 'slow-build' made me think of exactly the same bit of commentary on the first episode of

The Wire

that Sister Magpie mentioned. David Simon says several times in that audio commentary (and not without sounding just a little smug and patronizing about it, I'm sorry to say) that the series was very demanding of its audience in following a single complete story at a relatively slow pace across 13 episodes rather than the more usual thing of playing out a long over-all plot over the course of a series of somewhat self-contained one-hour-long stories. But you can get away with that if each episode, whether self-contained or not, is in itself enjoyable (which in the case of

The Wire

it certainly is). You can't use it as an excuse for boring your audience out of its collective skull for twelve weeks on the promise of something exciting happening in week 13.

I'm also put in mind of what Neil Gaiman has often said about

The Kindly Ones

, which is that it was the only sequence in the

Sandman

series that he allowed himself to write not as a series of 24-page monthly episodes but more or less as a single 312-page comic, knowing that the pacing and plotting would not really work very well when it was published in 24-page chunks and would only properly make sense in a trade paperback collection. The point here is that Gaiman knows enough about good writing that he clearly feels rather sheepish about doing this.

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http://skull-bearer.livejournal.com/

at 19:24 on 2009-06-22

osef Mengele didn't have cutesy conversations with his Jewish prisoners before pouring bleach in their eyes.

Sorry to disagree, but that's exactly what he did. But that's a case of reality being more screwed up than fiction, and that guy was an utter nutcase.

Sorry, carry on.

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Rami

at 20:52 on 2009-06-22

process of pasting into the Ferretbrain article editor and saving has somehow added "&8221" to the beginning and end

I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that -- it's the magic of Microsoft Word.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/ck5gg.gRlPbLG2WYCqrJ5k2.qjxalTVt0AHQ#14479

at 23:37 on 2009-06-22Dan Hemmens is a man after my own heart.

Okay, enough sucking up.

You make a good point, though about not liking Buffy because something doesn't 'click' with you about it, but I'll go one step further and say Whedon's propensity for not really understanding the underlying psychology of a given situation precedes Dollhouse by a country mile.

I was first totally turned off to the Whedon way of thinking during the "Graduation Day" episode of Buffy when I was insulted a total of three times.

The first was when Buffy was given an umbrella and the title of "Class Protector". First of all, are you kidding? If all the kids in high school knew about the growing vampire population, don't you think there would be a massive exodus of people from the town, not to mention a mass ostracizing of Buffy (in the same way people would avoid Fairuza Balk's character in The Craft)?

Most normal teenagers back away from things that are dangerous, even if there's an overall 'good' associated. Why? Because lots of people believe that if you lie with dogs, you get fleas. Hang out with Buffy, you're taking your life in your hands. Better to turn a blind eye to it also, if you know what's good for you.

The second was that the Scooby gang let same said high schoolers in on the plot to take down the mayor. Are you kidding? Are you seriously telling me that the same group of kids isn't going to stay home that day because they might just end up dead?

And third, and the most final and grating of insults, was that upon reflection of the day's events, Oz says, ponderously, "We survived high school."

I get the fact that Buffy was supposed to have been a metaphor, but seriously? The metaphor works best when you're not being beaten over the head with the fact that it's a metaphor.

Golly!

So, I'm not particularly surprised that Whedon has this odd base in non-reality that quite a few people seem to think is clever. (What can I say, I'm a sucker for sci-fi, even if I hate the creator, and yes, I have daggers for Whedon the same way Dan has for JK Rowling - who I also have daggers for.)

So, I made it a point to watch Dollhouse. Hey, if Adam Sandler can have "The Wedding Singer" in him, surely Whedon could have something interesting (and good!) to say at some point, right?

But only three episodes, two of which after the mythical "game-changer" episode. The first was the pilot. Oddly, I didn't see much difference in between the former and the latter, no matter what the fans say (I think the fans have convinced themselves that they're seeing something that isn't really there...I just thought everything I've seen was unilaterally bad in all the same ways).

What constantly annoys me about Whedon's work is often a complete lack of understanding of how people actually work. And this is the point that Dan makes very well above. There's Dollhouse, which tries to give everyone, no matter how 'evil' a supposedly sympathetic edge, and then there's The Sopranos, where the writing goes so far as to make you understand why the characters do what they do, instead of relying on plot contrivances to masticate pathos out of them.

I certainly wouldn't have, for instance, pegged Topher for 'lonely', and if I did, I would think he'd be sneaking dolls more often than just for his birthday (he being a 'genius' and all). Reminds me of that episode of Firefly where Jayne 'betrays' the crew and Mal threatens to throw him off the ship, or into a turbine or something. The rest of the episodes (of either) don't seem to have a thread that bears out these particular plot contrivances; they merely exist to demonstrate what Whedon wants us to see in the characters.

And Adelle, being Miss Lonelyhearts? Why can't she just be ruthless? Or is it not empowering for women to have blind ambition and nothing else? Or is that too cliche for Whedon? (I'll save my rant on why what Whedon writes isn't feminism for some other time because I'm sure I'm just rambling now.)

But yeah, I totally agree that there's just no "there" there with Dollhouse. It's insulting pseudo-intellectual garbage.

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Dafydd at 00:37 on 2009-06-24

"Dollhouse" is indeed boring, but as for Whedon wanking in our faces?

You need a Klein bottle to turn Whedon through 180 degrees.

http://www.kleinbottle.com/

Whedon's head is stuffed so far up his arse, that he will need to be rotated at right angles to reality before it is anatomically possible for him to wank in our faces.

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Robinson L

at 05:15 on 2009-06-26So, being annoyed, bored, and having Joss Whedon's rather malformed and immature "messages" and "insights" shoved down your throat all at the same time is too much for you? Reasonable. Dunno if I'll ever watch another episode. It ain't going to get any better.

If you don't like

Buffy

Season 1, you will not like

Buffy

, period.

Gonna play Hack's Advocate for a second here and point out the "Growing the Beard" phenomenon. I suppose the counterargument is that people who like, e.g.

The Next Generation

even before it gets good, and people who hate it when its bad will still hate it when it gets good.

the intellectual sophistication of a sixteen year old's GCSE essay

I seriously doubt that. My sister was sixteen last year, and I know she could right more sophisticated stuff that

this

back then.

One of the “memes” I'm trying to spread around the internet is A Very Specific Level of Tired.

Oh yeah. Good one. (

Love

that comic.)

Jonathan deciding to commit suicide by shooting himself with a sniper rifle in a bell tower

I saw this episode long before I began critically engaging with my entertainment media, and even then I knew this sequence was bunk.

True, but there's a difference between making a point about society in general, and making a point about

you, the viewer.

Actually, I've always thought one of the things which could've made

Firefly

much better would've been if Whedon had made his feminist message about how ordinary, well-meaning nonsexist (in their own minds) people (by implication

you, the viewer

) are complicit in systemic sexism, rather than scapegoating it all on the Misogynist-of-the-Week.

Josef Mengele didn't have cutesy conversations with his Jewish prisoners before pouring bleach in their eyes. Sorry to disagree, but that's exactly what he did. But that's a case of reality being more screwed up than fiction, and that guy was an utter nutcase.

On a somewhat-less-evil (though perhaps only because of opportunity) scale, Bull Connor apparently had a quite friendly and pleasant conversation with a couple of Freedom Riders on his way to dumping them in

very

hostile territory in the middle of the night. Some people, apparently, really

are

that sick. (Or that desperately in need of a real human relationship and that screwed-up about how to go about it. Don't mind me, rosy-tinted ocular sensors filtered by a rose-tinted brain.)

"We survived high school."

Again, watched the episode before I got my critical thinking in gear. At the time, I just thought it was a good joke. (

That's

what you consider the bigger accomplishment?)

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Jamie Johnston

at 19:59 on 2009-06-26Keeping the ever-riveting technical side-discussion alive:

I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that -- it's the magic of Microsoft Word.

Surprisingly I got it even with Mac TextEdit. But I'm not complaining - it's no trouble to fix as long as one remembers to check for it, and the only reason I mentioned it was to alert people to the need to check.

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Jamie Johnston

at 20:01 on 2009-06-26Actually, having said that, I started writing in Pages rather than TextEdit, so composing

ab initio

in a plain-text programme might well solve it.

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Rami

at 00:33 on 2009-06-27

Surprisingly I got it even with Mac TextEdit.

Word is the most common offender but pretty much any rich-text program will screw up HTML. Starting out plain-text will fix this for sure :-)

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Arthur B

at 02:09 on 2009-06-27

Word is the most common offender but pretty much any rich-text program will screw up HTML. Starting out plain-text will fix this for sure :-)

Wise words for sure. Should there in fact be a note in the article writer's guide - or, indeed on the main article-editing page - strongly suggesting that people use plain text editors such as notepad to compose their articles for best results?

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http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/

at 15:55 on 2009-06-29

On a somewhat-less-evil (though perhaps only because of opportunity) scale, Bull Connor apparently had a quite friendly and pleasant conversation with a couple of Freedom Riders on his way to dumping them in very hostile territory in the middle of the night. Some people, apparently, really are that sick.

Definitely. Though I think when people show them in fiction that comes through. Like, there'd be a difference in deciding *why* Mengele has these creepy cute conversations that make him even more evil before he hurts a person. What Dan's talking about seems to be more people being portrayed as genuinely normal and well-meaning and nobody seeing any disconnect between that and human trafficking.

Maybe an even better example would be something like slavery where you had a slave owner who was sentimental with some of his slaves, but that just makes the rancidness of the relationship all the more clear. They're not really being nice the way they would be nice to a real person. It seems like Dollhouse thinks you can genuinely have it both ways where the human trafficking genuinely doesn't inform other interactions.

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Robinson L

at 03:30 on 2009-06-30*slaps forehead* You know, I think I'd meant to say something like that and then forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me, Sister Magpie.

While I was pedantically pointing out a minor argumentative error that somebody else had already pointed out like the arrogant little prick that I am, I agree with the general point that the Dollhouse staff do not behave at all realistically for a human trafficking organization. In all these cases the victims are being dehumanized--that's just about a tautology for someone who's a slave or in a concentration camp or even a second class citizen: they are viewed as less than human. Their masters/overseers may still have affection for them, but not the affection you'd have for a fellow human being--an equal.

Despite continually mind-raping their subjects and stifling their free will to almost nothing, the Dollhouse executives still show a distinct tendency to treat their "actives" as human equals, or near-equals.

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http://tabaquis.livejournal.com/

at 03:58 on 2009-06-30

There's a reason that lab rats aren't given names (or, for that matter, toys).

Loved your review as always, but just to nitpick: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/enrich/rodents.htm

Lots of lab rats are in fact given toys, because it stimulates their health and reactions in a positive way so that you get more out of your experiment with them.

Just sayin'! ;)

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http://wemblee.livejournal.com/

at 06:30 on 2009-07-06

Good TV is good TV from the start. No ifs. No buts. No exceptions.

I... what? Star Trek: The Next Generation isn't a good show? Because I thought it was... starting with season 3, because anything before that is a

wasteland of unimaginable suck

. And Deep Space Nine? That was an even better show... except for pretty much the entire first season, which was horrible. And Farscape, which didn't find its way until the end. And Torchwood had a terrible beginning, but found itself in its second season. And Moonlighting's pilot is slow and awful. And pretty much no sitcom, ever, has had a pilot that was as good as the episodes that came later. And and and.

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Robinson L

at 08:06 on 2009-07-10Mm, yes wemblee, although I think what Dan

meant

was that people who enjoy a bad programme will enjoy it even more, but people who don't enjoy a bad programme probably won't like it even when it gets good. I suppose he could be right.

I can enjoy Next Generation and Deep Space Nine even before they got good, and Torchwood, too (although I'll have to see the second season to believe it gets any better), so I'm open to them being good. Maybe people who dislike them do so for reasons more to do with taste than quality.

Although if that is the argument, I agree that particular passage was unfortunate.

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http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/

at 19:31 on 2009-07-10I thought it was also more like saying that if you don't like the basic idea of a show, that basic idea getting better isn't going to do it for you. Iow, there was always some good fundamentals there, it just took a while for them to be used in the best way. Somebody turned off by those fundamentals isn't going to suddenly like the show when they get used better.

Blackadder I think is a good example since there's such a marked change between S1 and S2-4. I much prefer 2-4. The characters significantly shift their dynamics. But there's still stuff in S1 that I like that sound like the Blackadder of 2-4.

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Dan H

at 22:47 on 2009-07-10

I... what? Star Trek: The Next Generation isn't a good show?

Sister Magpie pretty much sums this up. All the things that are good about Star Trek TNG are things that are part of the show from its inception. All the things that are bad about Star Trek TNG are things that are part of the show from its inception.

Everything that's good about DS9 is in it from the beginning. Everything that's good about TNG is in it from the beginning. You might have thought that the first three seasons of TNG sucked, but you obviously weren't turned off by the premise of the show, you didn't think the idea of flying around in space seeking out strange new worlds was stupid, because if you did you wouldn't have liked series four onwards either.

TV series don't get better they just get better executed.

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Niall

at 23:55 on 2009-07-11

Everything that's good about DS9 is in it from the beginning.

I think I would be prepared to make the case that (a) the Dominion, (b) the Defiant, and (c) Worf are substantial parts of what made DS9 good, and they were grafts onto the original concept, not a part of it.

I would also be prepared to make the case that Torchwood is a counter-example here. Children of Earth is good in large part because it discards or transforms most of what was characteristic about the first two seasons.

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Arthur B

at 00:33 on 2009-07-12

I think I would be prepared to make the case that (a) the Dominion, (b) the Defiant, and (c) Worf are substantial parts of what made DS9 good, and they were grafts onto the original concept, not a part of it.

But would the Dominion, the Defiant, and Worf be enough to make you enjoy the show if you couldn't stand the Bajor/Cardassian conflict, Sisko's accidental messiahism, Odo and Quark's frequent run-ins and all the other elements which were important to the show from the start?

Arguably, each of the things you mention is simply something that enhances a pre-existing element of DS9. The Dominion is an added complication to the "interstellar politics" dimension of the show. Worf is an addition to the "ensemble cast with complex interrelationships" element. The Defiant is a plot device for moving subsets of said ensemble cast to off-station locations. They embellish the show, but they don't actually change the premise of it: it's still a show in which an ensemble cast with complex interrelationships have to deal with tricky questions of interstellar politics.

I would also be prepared to make the case that Torchwood is a counter-example here. Children of Earth is good in large part because it discards or transforms most of what was characteristic about the first two seasons.

And I'm sure that there's a number of people out there who actually liked the first two seasons and are completely livid about

Children of Earth

, although they may well be in the minority. Major changes to the very premise of the show are an

enormous

gamble, and the BBC is arguably one of the few broadcasters who are really in a position to attempt such a roll of the dice, and even

then

they may still not have considered it if

Torchwood

wasn't a significant part of their grand plans for the

Dr Who

franchise. I suspect 9 out of 10 broadcasters out there would rather scrap a series and commission a new one with a new premise rather than alter an old series to fit a new premise.

It remains to be seen whether Whedon will, in fact, do anything similar with

Dollhouse

, but it would be stupid of Dan to keep watching merely in the

hope

that Whedon will undertake such a drastic retooling.

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http://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/

at 04:08 on 2009-07-12Um - just chiming in as a Niner, to say that shows certainly can develop. But much of what I absolutely loved about DS9 was there from the first season. And that included the Dominion. Yes, they were introduced in the first season! (at least, I'm pretty sure they were - or very early in the second).

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Niall

at 09:01 on 2009-07-12Mary, you're right; I'd remembered "Rules of Acquisition" as being late-S2, not mid. Nor am I saying, actually, that DS9 wasn't good until S3; I have a substantial amount of affection for S1 and S2. But the *perception* exists that DS9 didn't get good until S3, with the appearance of the elements I mentioned. And while Arthur is in a sense correct that the grafts are more organic than I allowed in making my point, I dispute that it's still the same show: it changes complexion radically, from a show about building peace to a show about fighting war. It's as radical as the change in Torchwood, just done more gradually.

Arthur:

And I'm sure that there's a number of people out there who actually liked the first two seasons and are completely livid about Children of Earth

Yes, there are. The arrogant, superior part of me finds them hilarious. But if you're going to make "some people like the early version" your counter-argument, well, that could apply to any TV show. I'm sure plenty of people were pissed off when the Dominion showed up, too (probably pissed off for reasons not a million miles away from those behind my dislike of the recent Trek film, come to think of it: a betrayal of the Trek vision). That said, as it happens I think Children of Earth would have been better as an original production -- the ending is hampered by the need to fit into an ongoing continuity.

but it would be stupid of Dan to keep watching merely in the hope that Whedon will undertake such a drastic retooling.

Indeed, and I wasn't suggesting he should. I was disputing his general argument. Angel is yet another example: later seasons bear very little resemblance to the format they started out with (indeed, you may remember how vocal fans of the initial help-the-helpless-of-the-week concept were when the show moved away from it). But there are plenty of fans who joined the show at S2, or S4, or S5, who don't like seasons earlier than those points because of the ways in which they are different from the version of the show that they like.

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Arthur B

at 15:54 on 2009-07-12

And while Arthur is in a sense correct that the grafts are more organic than I allowed in making my point, I dispute that it's still the same show: it changes complexion radically, from a show about building peace to a show about fighting war.

There I think we just have to disagree - the threat of war was

always

present in DS9, it's just that we were led to expect trouble to break out between Cardassia and Bajor. (If war wasn't

potentially

about to break out at any moment, the whole "building peace" thing would have fallen flat after all.) The fact that the war turned out to be against the Dominion instead was a misdirection, but not one without precedent in the sort of story being told. (In fact, it's a lot like the similar misdirection in

Babylon 5

, where at the beginning we're all expecting shit to kick off between the Centauri and the Narn and the Vorlons to remain steadfastly neutral.

Speaking of B5, in fact, you could equally argue that the early seasons of that are about building peace rather than fighting a war, but the war was still planned from the very beginning.

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http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/

at 21:03 on 2009-07-12

Angel is yet another example: later seasons bear very little resemblance to the format they started out with (indeed, you may remember how vocal fans of the initial help-the-helpless-of-the-week concept were when the show moved away from it). But there are plenty of fans who joined the show at S2, or S4, or S5, who don't like seasons earlier than those points because of the ways in which they are different from the version of the show that they like.

Supernatural in S4 became a war vs. heaven and hell with the main characters in the middle story. There are fans who don't like this direction and wish they'd go back to MOTW. Others have gotten more interested tihs season.

However, I would never say this is a fundamental change of show. It's still imo a disagreement over the most enjoyable way to deal with the same characters and general idea. I liked the original premise of 2 brothers running around fighting demons. I'm more grabbed by what's going on now. But what's going on now is still dependent on the exact same brother relationship that was always at the center of the show, the family drama played out with supernatural beings is still the central idea. If I'd hated that premise the shift to angels and the apocolypse would not change that. The Wincesters are still the same family. If I like them now I can't help but also like them in S1 (and that would be true even if I hadn't cared for them as much back when S1 was first-run). I'm still expected to care about these characters and what's important to these characters is still their family.

The move from MOTW to a mytharc is pretty common since The X-Files, actually. Many mytharcs basically are MOTWs where it's personal played out over many episodes instead of just one.

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Robinson L

at 18:36 on 2009-07-14

TV series don't get better they just get better executed.

All right Dan,

now

I see what you're saying, but I think you're treading on some tricky linguistic ground, here.

Sure, it might be more accurate to say that tv shows don't get better, it's the

quality

of the shows which gets better. Just as it would be more accurate to say that the Earth revolves so that the sun is more/less in view, rather than "the sun is rising/setting." But who the hell talks like that? It's not even that good a comparison, anyway, because just saying "the earth revolves" doesn't mislead 99% percent of readers, whereas saying "good TV is good TV from the start, no exceptions" can be

very

misleading, as we've just seen ...

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Viorica

at 03:43 on 2009-07-27

The Wincesters

*sniggers*

There are people who were pissed off by

Children of Earth

, but not really because of any change in tone. They're raging because a very popular character/pairing was killed off, and this fandom has some truly deranged 'shippers. However, this is a good example of a series that fundamentally changed when the tone shifted. Torchwood's first two seasons are about a secret alien-fighting organisation that's only slightly less campy than

Xena

, where no one really has to make serious decisions beyond "Who would I rather sleep with?", and death can be reversed with a magical robotic arm.

Children of Earth

is about an alien-fighting organisation that's extremely serious and dark, where agonising choices have to be made, and death can't just be undone. Same premise, very different show.

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http://matthew.wilson.myopenid.com/

at 14:40 on 2009-08-02Buffy had a plan in season 7?

[dorothydelgadillo]

Are Your Marketing Job Candidates ‘Ghosting’ You? You’re Not Alone

Christmas Eve in Houston was a beautiful, 65-degree day.

As I worked from my home office, I could hear the trees rustling in the wind and my neighbor’s relaxing wind chimes signaling what a gorgeous day it was.

While I would have loved to frantically clean the house before company came over hit up a brewery and spend time with friends and family...I instead waited on Zoom video calls for applicants that didn’t show up to their interviews.

We’re aggressively hiring for four to six positions right now in our Services team. I vet all applicants and am the first person every applicant meets with for their first three stages of our hiring process.

It’s time consuming, but it’s one of the most important things I do to make sure we have a successful team and continue to provide the level of service our clients deserve.

While most of the agency took off the week of Christmas, I continued to interview considering it’s easier for most candidates to interview when they’re off work.

I had four scheduled interviews through the early afternoon that Christmas Eve day, and only one person bothered to attend their call.

via GIPHY

Ghosting In The Marketing Industry On The Rise

To clarify, ghosting is the sudden withdrawal of all communication with no explanation. A person simply vanishes. What used to be a term only used in dating has now spread to the workplace.

According to the latest by Digiday, I shouldn’t be surprised to be ghosted repeatedly now that the unemployment rate is at 3.7%, the lowest it’s been since 1968.

While I am extremely appreciative that the job market is doing so well, I can’t help letting out a few “WTFs” when I learn that more and more people are committing to meeting with you, only to not hold up their end of the bargain.

Where did integrity go?

Even worse, some employers are experiencing ghosting at a whole new level beyond the interviewing process.

Digiday highlights a story about Aquent Studios, a staffing firm, that was working with an agency to staff a Digital Marketing Strategist position (something we hire for often). After 5 rounds of interviews, a negotiated salary and contract in-hand, the new employee never showed up for their first day of work and was never heard from again.

I don’t know about you, but if that happened to an employee I helped hire, I would be fearful something terrible happened to the person.

It would never cross my mind someone would not show up on purpose because they were afraid to have an adult conversation.

(Unfortunately, an even worse form of ghosting - sudden quitting with no explanation - is also happening once employees are well into their job.)

Although Digiday doesn’t present hard numbers, several agencies and in-house teams confirmed to them that ghosting during the hiring process is on the rise.

I can confirm that from my experience in hiring for IMPACT as well.

But there are a few things we’re doing to minimize ghosting’s colossal waste of time that you can do too.

How to Minimize Your Ghosting Problem

Digiday’s article does state that it helps to show how your business is competitive in the perks department to try to reduce your chances of losing out to other employers...but really, you should focus on eliminating a person who would do that in the first place.

Over time, we’ve narrowed down what we’re looking for and designed our hiring process to pick up on red flags early in the process to minimize wasted effort down the road.

Our hiring process used to have the following steps:

5-minute phone screen with me

30-minute interview with me

A situational activity with me

30-minute manager interview

30-minute interview with our CEO, Bob Ruffolo

Team interview/other important IMPACTers

Offer

However, we’re always learning and looking to improve. Last month, we decided to make a change in our hiring process to speed up our process from a candidate perspective, as well as save loads of time on our end.

1. Make the first stage an assignment

To reduce the amount of time I spend sitting on our initial phone screens with no one showing up on the other end, and to see if applicants are willing to invest in how we communicate, we no longer do an initial phone screen.

We now ask each candidate to send us a 5-minute video answering a set of questions we provide. This does a few things to reduce the annoyances of ghosting, as well as helps us see early on who’s a potential great fit.

By asking a candidate to do an assignment off the bat, we know that the ones who do are serious because they have put in some sort of effort.

2. Be very clear about the role they’re applying for

In our second step, the 30-minute call with me, we used to spend the first 5 or 10 minutes discussing the role and answering any questions our candidates had.

Then we’d go into more of a traditional interview to learn more about their experience as it relates to the position.

After this call, we would have a pretty big drop off in our pipeline - either because I eliminated a candidate or because they’d remove themselves from the process.

And, of course, some would ghost.

Now, between the video our candidates send to us and our next call, I send them a pre-recorded video explaining more about the role and addressing the top questions every candidate asks me in the interview process.

The goal of my video to them is to be very clear with them about what the job is and, almost more importantly, what it isn’t.

This way, we allow candidates to self-select out of the process before we ever spend time on the phone with them.

This also spares me from repeating myself so much.

3. Be transparent about the hiring process

I’m not sure why, but we didn’t always let our applicants know what to expect when it comes to the hiring process.

I’ve been on the other end of that where you feel like the calls never end and you aren’t sure when you’ll know if you get the job.

We now follow up our first phone conversation to the applicants who make it through with an email outlining the steps of our hiring process so they can manage their time and expectations.

We’ve received feedback that this has provided a positive experience to candidates, and we know we’ve done our due diligence to get their commitment up front to hang with us throughout the process.

P.S. We make sure we now let every applicant know where they stand in our hiring process at each stage - whether they've moved on to the next round or not. We even send applicants who don't move to the first video stage an email letting them know and thanking them for their interest. Keep this in mind so you don't end up ghosting your own applicants! 

What Are You Doing About Ghosting?

As sad as it is that ghosting is a real thing in the workplace, we can at least make some small adjustments to mitigate the effects.

That's what we're trying - let us know if you've experienced ghosting and made any adjustments accordingly in IMPACT Elite!

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/are-your-marketing-job-candidates-ghosting-you-youre-not-alone