#i think this idea was one form when post-ph itself was much more in a bit of a larval stage so this is kinda an au of an au

[waywardsalt]

yknow a really old fic idea i still might go ahead with was a bit of a phantom hourglass/links awakening crossover where somehow marin (pre events of la) gets transported to the great sea post-ph and picked up by link and linebeck, and they have to figure out a way to get her home

[patchworkheartouija]

After 5 million years waiting, episode 2

So I kept putting this off, because I was worried about its quality and stuff, I still don't think its as good as episode one. However I have come to realize there is a lot more I want out of PH that can only be attained in a visual medium, and that my biggest issues with the second episode were almost all things that were just a result of this being a story made for a visual medium being written in a non-visual one, in such ways that I want to create intricate fight scenes as well as use trippy surrealist visuals because both are things that I've always really liked in media

Plus I've been starving my 4 PH followers too long so here ya go!

Patchwork Heart S1E2: Post Mortem - Ouija

After escaping the ship the two had been imprisoned on, Sapphire and Faria were sure to be better off, right? That would be nice, for their misfortune to end here. But escaping was one thing, surviving was another.

Sapphire had found out from the ship’s computer that they were currently right in the middle of the atlantic ocean, or at least were when she had first jumped from the ship onto the small plastic dinghy that she was currently trapped on. Accounting for wind, tides, the way her dinghy likely was moved when she first jumped, and further moved when the ship sailed by creating a disturbance in the water, and the unknown amount of time that had passed in which she was unconscious, she was likely quite off centre, and no longer had such a good idea of her current location.

Of course, if her destination were a large landmass this wouldn't be such an issue. However, the other passenger of the ship, a far larger monster than herself, Faria, had insisted they travel to a small, dangerous island in which they could easily be recaptured if they were not careful, for the purpose of rescuing two creatures with no biological link to her that she had decided were her siblings. Getting there would be hard enough, but of course she needed a plan of attack as her only option seemed to be to enter the facility itself in which the two monsters were kept, and then an exit plan for if this failed, and another one for if it didn’t when she needed to leave the island. Of course she would normally be confident in her ability to easily formulate a plan that accounted for all possibilities, however her most recent plan, although it had gotten the pair off the ship, had been a complete and utter failure in all other regards simply because she didn’t account for the guards on a ship full of dangerous monsters to be able to fight dangerous monsters if need be.

That obviously was bad enough, but there was the final issue in that Faria, who has been indispensable in all means except for her intelligence when on the ship, was cripplingly afraid of water to the point where she had curled up into a ball and had not uncurled since. This also would not be an issue if Sapphire could abandon Faria, that would solve a lot of issues, or even if she could simply ignore the cat’s mental state. However Sapphire had for the first time in her recollection, formed a bond with another creature, and while emotions were not new to her, this was the first time they had ever interfered with her act of reasoning. Abandoning Faria in the ocean was not an option, nor was ignoring the fact that she was currently having a mental breakdown. This was the most immediately addressable issue, and likely would be the easiest to work on while multitasking.

She managed to estimate where exactly she was based on the forces the ship had endured, and the position of the sun, and began rowing in the direction of the island she hoped to reach.

“How are you so fucking calm?” the cat asked. She had spoken to Faria earlier but it had been awhile since the cat had said anything since then. The cat was obviously crying. God Sapphire hated other’s emotions, almost as much as she hated her own. The topic of emotion alone was an inconvenience to her, and to actually deal with not only her own emotions barring her from the best course of action, but also the emotions of another creature being so unreasonable, this was Sapphire’s worst nightmare.

Sapphire thought through her possible options, before eventually saying; “I promised I’d get us out of this. As I said, this happened because I didn’t account for all possibilities. Likely just the saltwater in the air clouding my judgement or something of the sort. I do not usually make these kinds of mistakes.”

“I’m going to die, aren't I?”

“Your behaviour has changed drastically from when we were on the ship. Notable. No you will not die. I considered letting you die of course, I mean, it’d be easy to throw you overboard when you are like this, however I have grown slightly attached to you, and cannot bring myself to plan, or enact your murder.” this was seemingly the wrong thing to say as Faria stops talking again. Ok Sapphire is going to need to come at this differently. Having been alone so long, as long as she could remember in fact, Sapphire had never had to deal with someone so… sensitive.

“I would like you to know, my decision not to kill you is also logically founded, as while ditching you would allow me to ditch this horrific job you have forced me to do, I have a feeling murdering a 6’4” murder cat would eventually come back to haunt me. So yes, while there are emotional aspects to this issue, my logic is not failing me.” This does not seem to work either?! What does this monster want of her!?

It appears that treating this like a battle of the wits between her and the cat is not working, as obviously this monster has none.

She will just have to beat this monster at her own game, that being speaking without thinking. It shouldn't be hard, she does it all the time, just usually not of her own volition.

“Look I… I don't know how to help you. I fucked up, ok, I fucked everything up. And now you’re here, and it's my fault. You did basically all of the work when we were on that ship because I was helpless, now you are helpless, and if I didn’t return the favour, I would know that I had failed you, and failed myself. I am terrified, however, I am willing to mask my fear in order to complete my mission.”

Well that came out terribly. Sure it was true, but the truth clearly won't help her college’s confidence in her. Assuming Faria has a rational bone in her body, the fact that Sapphire just admitted to her own weakness and fear will likely prove to Faria that their death is imminent. This social interaction has gone terribly, and her own doom is imminent. Faria will likely kill her at first opportunity for being a weak link both mentally and physically.

“Thank you…” the cat chokes out. Sapphire does not know what to make of this response. She’s never spoken to another person before Faria, at least not directly, is this what they are all like? Why??? How???

Sapphire tries to grasp Faria’s strange illogical behaviour, Faria herself seems pretty blunt so why exactly was it that she based so much of her judgement on such loose factors as emotions.

Regardless of the reasoning this new approach was… working?

“I get that you cannot swim, however I do not understand why it scares you so much while on the boat.”

“It's not… It’s not just the water.”

“Then what is it?”

“Everything… I can’t run, can barely move, it’s so bright out, there's nothing for miles, I can't see what’s under me, I can’t defend myself, it's so hot, I’ve never been here before, I don’t know where I am…”

“I suppose for a creature such as yourself those would be issues. According to the files I read about you on the computer, the humans believed you to be a cave dwelling nocturnal predator. These phobias can easily be explained by that theory.” This brings up an interesting point actually. Faria is afraid because of her species. Sure, no one really knows what Faria is exactly, but the research done in the background with her training was fruitful, quite a lot was known about Faria’s bizarre, clearly genetic, behaviours. Perhaps she could use what little she did know about Faria from the files to attempt to calm her down.

Sapphire reaches out to touch the cat’s head, according to the files she responded positively to this. Sapphire recoiled in slight disgust when her hand was covered in a substance with a slimy consistency like butter. 

Cat Butter, that’s what the files had dubbed it. Faria’s thin body was good for crawling through caves, but bad for the tundra that was her hunting ground. So a strange evolutionary path had led to fat excretion from sweat glands, creating a protective film of grease over the monster’s body. It appeared that with Faria’s stress, the high temperature, the moist air, and Faria’s own body heat, that the cat butter had begun to melt.

Touching her, and thus removing the little butter that still remained on her body would only stress Faria out more as being stripped of her cat butter had always resulted in extreme discomfort in the past.

Sapphire returns to rowing, she’d have to figure out better how to handle this. For now, it seems she may have drifted off course, it was time for another recalculation.

🝁🝢���

Kim-Ly woke up to her wolpertinger chirping, a stark reminder of the choice she had made. She still doubted her choice to betray Sabrina like this, but she had to accept that Sabrina’s genocidal tendencies were not her responsibility to endorse.

Kim-Ly goes about her day as usual, with the addition of feeding the wolpertinger. Kim-Ly has never owned a rabbit, she has no idea what they eat, the only pet she ever had was a goldfish that died 2 days after she got it. The reason for this of course was allergies (Yes they affected her with her new pet Chiffon, but research always comes first over personal safety). Kim-Ly sneezes at this thought. 

Of course her rabbit inexperience was irrelevant because this one could fly, had horns, and made bird noises and she was pretty sure also had a beak inside its mouth that it stuck out depending on what it was doing. It was similar enough to a rabbit for her to be allergic to it, but apparently not similar enough that she could safely keep her windows open without it escaping into the monster hunter infested city.

Eventually after googling ‘What does flying bunny eat (SFW)’ (after a number of other searches had left her with less than ideal results) and finding absolutely nothing of value, Kim-Ly gave up and decided to feed the rabbit kraft dinner, because it surely couldn't hurt it. I mean, rabbits eat carrots all the time and those are bright orange… ok she’s definitely reaching here and she knows it. She just doesn't have any veggies in the apartment because she hasn't gone shopping yet.

Chiffon ate the kraft dinner rather quickly, using the beak it had hidden in its mouth. A fact Kim-Ly quickly adds to her notes alongside the fact that feeding wolpertingers store bought, unnaturally orange pasta did not seem to have any adverse effects. She’d still need to find out what would be healthier for Chiffon to eat, but for now it wasn't hurting anything.

Kim-Ly was startled out of her clear horrific lack of knowledge of how rabbits worked by the phone ringing on the table. She goes to answer it quickly.

“Heya Kim!” Sabrina yells on the other end, a clear echo noticeable. “Listen I know I usually only call you for one hunt every couple weeks or so, but I really need your help.”

Kim-Ly sighs. As much as she wants to say no, she’d never pass up field research, even if it did damage her mental health greatly.

“What is it?”

“Ok so basically, it's a werewolf pack.”

“Aren't those… like just humans who shapeshift into wolf men because of a blood disease.”

“They stopped being human when they got bit. Now they’re just as rotten as the others. I need to kill 21 of them to get paid, and I get $100 for every corrupt mongrel I shoot after that. The reason for this is that the guy who hired me doesn’t want them gone, he just wants their skin. I’m still going to kill them all, but hey, he’ll get what he wants. Mostly.” Sabrina explains.

Kim-Ly is about to respond but is cut off with the sounds of Sabrina loudly swearing and gunfire. It echos greatly showing that Sabrina is definitely somewhere weird.

“Sorry, one of them tried to jump me.”

“Ok where ARE you right now.”

“Inside the dead monster off mainstreet.”

“Isn’t that thing at risk to blow up due to the stomach gases?”

“Nah I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Kim-Ly thinks about the potential of going inside a monster carcass, and just how much information that doing so could give her, as long as she wasn’t being dragged along by Sabrina. “Listen, I’ll run a little late, but leave some stuff for me by wherever you entered. I’ll probably be awhile so just go in and do it.” Kim-Ly says, getting ready to go. She was close to the carcass, quite close, she could be there in minutes, but by lying about this she’d be able to explore the body with no Sabrina to make her rush.

“‘Kay Kim! See you later! I’ll leave a walkie talkie by the entrance.”

“...But there's cell service.”

“We gotta be authentic to the kaiju exploring experience. Do you think the people who fought king kong had cell service?!”

“Ok but that's a movie.”

“And a great one! Bye!” Before Sabrina can hang up more gunshots are heard, so Kim-Ly takes the initiative to hang up herself.

“Chiffon… Mommy’s going out for a while to go explore a rotting corpse full of werewolves. Be good!” Kim-Ly says, leaving the rest of the kraft dinner for her rabbit.

🜘🝠🜘

The tiny dinghy swayed with the waves, causing shivers to run down Faria’s spine with every movement.

The cat hadn't moved for hours, she feared that if she were to even budge the tiny boat would capsize leaving her to drown.

Faria did not know what lied beneath the waves, although her brother used to tell her stories about it. Zero wasn’t like her or Katya, he hadn’t lived his whole life in a cement box, and so her brother had seen more than Faria thought she ever would. 

It had been Faria who asked Zero if anything lived in water, a choice she later regretted, at the time she had assumed the answer would have been no, but Zero had gone on to tell her about the creatures living beneath the waves. He had told her a great many creatures that kept her up at night, but what really scared her was what he didn’t say. Zero didn’t know how deep the water was, how long it would take to drown, how big the creatures were, and he had told her that no one really knew much about the sea at all. Zero had been her authority on everything, if she had a question, Zero would always have an answer, but he didn’t. On this day, Zero had told her he himself didn’t know, and that was what really scared her.

Faria jolted as she was sure she felt something swimming underneath the dinghy. What was it!? Could it eat her?! Could she eat it!? Was it big?! Was it- Faria’s panicked thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a splash, one that caused the ship to be driven back. Faria let out a panicked screech, akin to her attack scream.

The monster peeked over her legs to look around. Sapphire was no longer on the ship.

Faria’s breathing sped up. 

Sapphire had abandoned her, she was going to die, she couldn't do this alone she- a couple moments Sapphire remerged from the water, carrying a fish speared on one of the harpoons that had been stuck through Faria’s torso the day before.

“Got… Food.” Sapphire pants out. Faria doesn’t respond but her breathing slows. Sapphire hands Faria the fish.

“D-don’t you need some?” She asks shakily. God she hated this. She had never stuttered a day in her life before this.

“I don’t eat. I have never needed to.” Sapphire says simply, before returning to rowing. Faria decided to try to eat the fish. She had never been given fish before, and isn’t quite sure what to do with it. Eventually the cat monster just decides to shove the entire fish in her mouth, one of the few things her muzzle was good for.

Faria seemed to have gained the ability to look around now and slightly uncurled, still flinching at every movement. She stares at Sapphire, who is still silently rowing.

Sapphire was a weird creature. That's not to say Faria didn’t like her, but she didn’t quite understand her. Faria had never liked silence, in fact she disliked it so much that she frequently made her own noises to combat it. It angered the guards, yes, but it kept her mildly sane. Sapphire on the other hand would frequently go completely quiet whenever she seemed to be thinking about things.

She also couldn't quite understand why Sapphire said the things she said. When Sapphire was speaking to her earlier she seemed to think Faria was worried about her skills in planning, when in truth she was only worried about the water and Sapphire’s plan had had nothing to do with it.

Sapphire stops rowing for a moment and just sits still, similarly to how she had in the computer room. Was she ok? She seemed sick, or hurt or something.

“You’re staring at me.” Sapphire notes.

“You’re being a fucking weirdo, thats why.” Faria says, the fear still evident in her voice, although her regular demeanour had returned.

“I’m just thinking. You should try it sometime.”

“Rude.”

Sapphire exaggeratedly sighs. “I apologise.”

“Really? Why?”

“Your mental state is fragile, I do not understand it.”

“I don’t mind, I’d honestly prefer if you DIDN’T act like I’m made of fucking glass, thank you very much.”

“If you say so.”

“What were you thinking about? You’re not gonna betray me or some shit are you?”

“We have drifted off course, I’m calculating how much, and thus how much I need to adjust my plans to accommodate for this.”

“Wow that sounds really boring.”

“Screw you too.”

“How do you even figure that shit out. I always just do things and hope they work.”

“Yeah I understood that about you by now. It’s mostly a lot of math. I was out for exactly 5 hours, in which the boat likely, with the aid of my initial jump, and the propulsion of the ship, was moved exactly 51.27 metres. I have been rowing for 6 hours since that point with an average speed of 20mph  bringing the grand total of how far I have travelled to 120 miles, that last jump and later boarding I have done moved us a metre west, and every second due to the wind and waves we move exactly 4 centimetres west as well. With this knowledge I estimate that we will arrive, give or take, in 28 hours.”

“I understood all of none of that, and I don’t understand how you did.”

“I have a high level of understanding of most subjects, particularly math.”

“Uhuh… and what’s math again?”

🝁🝢🝁

Kim-Ly stands before a large gash in the kaiju’s side, there is a gun and a walkie talkie waiting there.

She really didn’t expect it to… smell like this. Somehow it had never registered to her that the beast would decompose the same way as any other animal.

Despite its immense size the monster was underwhelming. Honestly this was a sentiment that could go for most monsters. Vampires preferred to drink from pigs, unicorns possessed no magic, at least none usable to them in any way, zombies talked just as fluently as anyone else, and to see a haunting that was any more than a mild annoyance was an incredible rarity. Monsters just… weren't what anyone expected, sure some matched up to, or even were underhyped by their legends, but most of the time they simply weren't very dangerous, and even those who were dangerous tended to only be violent when threatened. All monsters were always underwhelming, but Kim-Ly had yet to get used to it.

That’s not to say that some could be, and were dangerous, she definitely still would never want to meet any one of these creatures. (Ok that’s a bold faced lie, Kim-Ly lacked the self preservation to avoid them.) She was sure when this thing was alive it was an object of awe, but still, no matter how big or scary it had once been, this creature had never been the godzilla everyone was expecting, and it was even less now.

After a few moments of silence, examining the bloated corpse, Kim-Ly sighed to herself, regretting her choice of shoes, and entered the wound.

She came into what she could only assume were the creature’s massive lungs, filled to the brim with maggots, flies, and the corpses of werewolves Sabrina had ripped through.

She took out her notebook, and began to sketch the lungs. She had started a drawing of the kaiju and planned to add every single organ she could visit.

After she finished drawing the lungs, she moved towards one of the corpses. It’s skin was missing. Of course it was. Sabrina’s client didn’t pay for any more than that, she was sure. She would have preferred an intact corpse but a desecrated one would have to do.

Kim-Ly began to inspect the corpse, its eyes were still human mostly although they had been mutated to better hunt in darkness. She wished hers were like that, it’d make all of this far easier, all she had to light up the darkness of the corpse she was inside was a poor quality flashlight that upon further consideration, she should probably have replaced the batteries of before coming here. Shit.

Kim-Ly continued her inspection… she needed its skull, didn’t she. Oh god. The act of getting it would be disgusting but it was already desecrated… and the information she could get from it would be priceless. Before taking another moment to consider if she wanted to rip out a werewolf’s skull, she was already doing it.

Kim-Ly ripped the skull from the creature’s head, and began to jot down notes. Its skull wasn't quite human but it was far from the skull of a wolf, looking more like a human skull that had been stretched and mutilated.

Kim-Ly slipped it into her bag for further studies. She stood up to look for whatever path Sabrina had ripped through the kaiju… she’s not done yet, is she… alright, organ time, this creature was too interesting not to study further.

She really can't believe she’s doing this, but she won’t get another chance like this again.

The organs are human, disappointing, although the lungs are enlarged, the bone structure is where it truly gets interesting however. The bones were naturally thickened, stretched and twisted into a structure more like a jaguar combined with a human than a wolf. Upon closer inspection of the skull as well it had some particular traits like one. Kim-Ly put some of the body parts in jars as well as taking one of the arms, definitely longer than hers. She hopes to analyse its DNA somehow when she gets home, not that she knows how… or has that kind of technology.

She finally stands up, satisfied with her vivisection. God she’s covered in so much blood. She DEFINITELY wore the wrong shoes.

Kim-Ly seems to have snapped out of whatever trance she was in before and now feels like she’s on the verge of throwing up, how did she even do that? She’s never done something like that before. It felt so easy… maybe she should have gone to med school after all.

She steps gingerly through the spongy rotting lungs. This body had been here for 4 months and it shows. She can feel the maggots crawling over her as they had started when she was working on the body. The flies swarmed her, the blood dried on her skin, the fluids oozed through her shoes, the smell had grown overwhelming… Kim-Ly wanted desperately to leave, however she could not do so, not yet, she still had research to do.

As she walked through the organs, travelling through the many holes her friend had punched through them, she added them to the diagram.

Corpses of werewolves missing their skin are everywhere, although she doesn't need to dissect any of them. She’s still not sure why or how she did that so cleanly.

In her distraction, Kim-Ly trips, falling into a pit inside the monster, she screams, and upon contact with the oddly solid floor, everything fades to black.

🜞🝣🜞

Sapphire looks over to Faria, she was talking now, although her stress levels were still clearly elevated. 

The cat butter had mostly melted at this point, filling the bottom of the boat. Sapphire picks some up on her finger. Greasy, sticky, but still slippery. Potentially useful as machinery lubricant. She will have to remember this for the future.

She looks back towards Faria. Her condition is poor. Sapphire would not be shocked if she suddenly dropped dead.

Due to the evolution of cat butter, Faria’s body stored very little fat, not enough to last even 2 days if fed well, and she is under the impression Faria was not. Sapphire could swim and get more fish but she was very bad at it, her body was incredibly buoyant and hard to even get under water, and the fish were hard to catch. She had also recalled another need beings like Faria had for water, and the fact salt water would not do. 

Sapphire had no idea why she herself lacked these needs,  they were far from the only ones. She never blinked, could stand far higher and lower temperatures than the average person (a fact she knew as she had accidentally locked herself in a meat freezer once when trying to take spare parts, she liked to tinker with things. She had learned of her tolerance of high temperatures rather recently, as she was not experiencing any heatstroke currently).

They still had a ways to go on this trip, and Faria was steadily declining, she must find a way to keep her alive, if she does not she is likely doomed.

Unfortunately the only tools she had at her disposal were the harpoons, which had proven quite useful, and the cat butter, which could be a very valuable resource in the right context…

Sapphire looks at the butter and realises that it seems to be about 20% water, if she could lower that amount it likely could be used as a glue. More useful still, if only that were helpful.

“Saffie… you’re doing that thing again where you just stare at things with a dumb fucking look on your face.” Faria reminds her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“I am trying to figure out how to better maintain your-” Sapphire notices something. Faria’s coat has pockets, and they look quite full. “Wait, empty your pockets.”

“Wha? No.”

“Faria, I am trying to keep you alive. I estimate you will die within the next two hours unless you are given a fluid change.”

“...You mean if I don’t drink anything?”

“Yes yes, that.” Sapphire says, rolling her visible eye.

“You can't have my stuff. It's mine.” Faria says, hissing at Sapphire.

“Do not be a child, Faria, I shall return it.”

Faria stares at Sapphire a moment, as if sizing her up. “Fine. But it’s mine, you can't keep it.” Sapphire sighs in annoyance. The files had mentioned possessiveness, why did she not see this coming.

Faria opens her pockets and pulls out a few objects, due to the size of her hands her fingertips barely fit in. Faria pulls out two shiny metal cups, a metal lighter, a couple lenses for glasses, a fork, a ton of coins, some metal washers, and a belt buckle. Ooookay. That is a very strange collection of objects. ‘But very useful.’ Sapphire thinks to herself.

She immediately grabs the cups, and the lighter, and picks up three of the harpoons, putting them together like a tripod and placing some cat butter between them, using the lighter to evaporate the water and bind her makeshift tripod together. Sapphire fills one of the metal cups with sea water and places it on top of the tripod, and another empty one beside it on the boat. She proceeds to remove her own tie and lay it over the two cups. She flicks the lighter back on and places it in the small space between the cup and the middle of the tripod.

“Wow… you uh… certainly made a thing.”

“It's a thermal saltwater purifier.”

“You look weird without your tie.”

“I feel weird without it as well, I would like to have my tie back just as much as you would your random garbage.”

“HEY! It’s not fucking garbage.” Faria snarls.

“Then what exactly is it?”

“My hoard.”

“...What?”

“It’s my hoard.”

“Saying it again does not remove any of my confusion.”

“Y'know Saff, like that cool shiny stuff you like to keep in your room and sleep on. This was all I could get before they moved me out.”

“I… I was not aware this was a common behaviour.” Sapphire says, sure, Faria may not be human, and Sapphire may know very little about other monsters, but this feels strange. “Where did you… get these?”

“The guards and science guys left a lot of stuff around, and I wanted it. Eventually they stopped trying to take it from me because I kept scratching them.”

She must have missed this fact in the files.

Sapphire removes the now half full cup of clean water and hands it to the cat, who quickly pours it all in her mouth. She almost spits it out but Sapphire places her hand over the cat’s muzzle. “It is all that is available. I apologise for the temperature.”

Sapphire lets go after a minute.

“You could have at least… I dunno… FUCKING WARNED ME?!”

“If you did not feel its temperature when it was in your hand it is your own fault.”

“Well excuse me for having pads that barely feel temperature.”

“You have extended your lifespan by approximately 30 minutes. The temperature of the air is not in your favour.”

“Why are you fucking immune to everything. You don't eat, don’t seem like you need to drink and don’t look hot… well at least not in temperature.” Sapphire rolls her eyes at the last comment.

“I don’t know. Why can you survive obvious deathblows?”

“Tushy.”

“Touche.”

“Yeah, tushy.”

“You have the mental capacity of a deflated basketball.”

“‘S that good?”

“...Sure.”

Sapphire turns back around and continues silently rowing. She had averted a potential crisis. This was good. She was managing to form a closer bond with this powerful monster while keeping her alive.

Although she couldn’t actually explain why she felt the desire to do this.

The logical part of her mind, which she had until recently thought to be the only parts of her mind, told her she was only doing this because of what Faria could do. The cat monster was likely one of the most powerful monsters kept on the entire ship, her healing abilities bordered on immortality, or at least invulnerability from most physical damage. The scientists had theories on how she could potentially be killed, mostly revolving around removing her head or otherwise destroying her brain, or killing her without physically damaging her body, such as by drowning (which indeed did make being out at sea dangerous, especially since Faria seemed to buy into this idea), but they had no proof for these ideas. For all they knew, Faria could just regrow her own head, she had regrown limbs and organs before. With this invulnerability to physical attacks, and her skill in battle, Faria was an indispensable ally.

Except that she really wasn't. The cat may be large, incredibly manoeuvrable, and nearly unkillable, but she wasn’t perfect. Sapphire would likely never need an ally as physically powerful as this monstrous cat if she had just left her to die. If she went back home, returned to hiding, Faria would be of no use. Nothing in the area posed a serious threat that couldn't be combated intellectually. Not to mention Faria was very loud, very annoying, not very smart clearly, at least not intellectually, and now had the two of them on a suicide mission. As soon as Sapphire stepped off that ship, Faria’s usefulness expired. Sure she may offer some things, like that ‘hoard’ or the cat butter, but she would need none of this if not for the need to keep Faria alive. If her goal was to try to harness Faria’s invulnerability that too was a bust, Faria’s immortality came from a special organ (the organ itself regrowable) that pumped stem cells into her bloodstream. Reasonably a blood transfusion would pass on the stem cells but clearly not the true invulnerability, but even that could not be done. People had tried to use Faria’s blood before. Her blood type was unique, and rejected by all donors. Faria really wasn’t that useful.

This information confused Sapphire. She was aware of Faria’s seeming lack of any purpose for being here. Logically abandoning her was the best choice, but she could not bring herself to make that call.

Sapphire is snapped out of her trance by Faria grabbing her, and pulling her into her arms. Strange.

Sapphire looked around, the sky was grey, and rain was starting to fall, the sea getting more unruly. Unfortunate. She should have expected this, but she had somehow diluted herself into thinking the weather could possibly remain ideal for the entire trip.

Faria was making a strange noise. She did not like it. It made her brain feel strange.

Sapphire deconstructs her purifier and puts her tie back on. The harpoons had come apart in the rain. Perhaps not the greatest form of glue.

She hands Faria back all but one of the cups, as well as giving her the harpoons to hold onto.

Sapphire holds up the cup to catch rainwater. The rain brings its own benefits, regardless of if Faria is going to perpetually be a problem or not she must utilise them.

🝁🝢🝁

Kim-Ly wakes up a few hours later in a tall, bright room. She was lucky to survive the fall, as the floor seems to be… cement?!

She rubs her head in pain, definitely bleeding, before standing up to examine her surroundings.

The walls are metal, with rows upon rows of holes, filled with large cylindrical batteries. Inspecting them closer reveals they truly don’t look like any brand she’s seen before. In fact, they’re inscribed with a language she’s never seen before. Granted, Kim-Ly is barely bilingual and she knows the world has a lot of languages, but the script doesn’t look like anything she’s seen before. It looks like something aliens would use in a scifi movie. This whole place seems alien.

“W-what the fuck is this? This looks… what the hell. Whatever this is its well the fuck above what I’m qualified to handle.” she mutters to herself. “Is this thing… artificial?” she asks herself aloud. “No… no it couldn't be. The kaiju is too real, if it were manmade I… I don't even know how that would be done. This room definitely is… and its full of these… batteries… I think they are… what else could they be? Ok calm down.” Kim-Ly tells herself. “Someone made this place, and whoever they are, they’re sure as hell not Usapoadin. I may be looking at the creation of something not even HUMAN. If that's true it means whoever made this is as or maybe even more advanced than humanity. Monsters are clearly capable of intelligent thought, and speech but this… if they did this… shit.” Kim-Ly says to herself.

“Before I fell, I didn’t see this place, and while I was falling I recall it being dark… so these lights must run on sensors. Either that or I’m not alone and someone is helping me, but I find that unlikely.” Kim-Ly pulls out her journal, and starts to jot down the little information she has about the room.

She sees a strange hatch on one of the walls, like the rest of the room it doesn't exactly look like human architecture. She approaches the hatch, still writing, and almost falls over when it suddenly opens.

Kim-Ly regains herself after a moment. She’s not athletic enough to scale the walls, and her curiosity is once again getting the better of her.

She slips into the circular hatch and the room inside lights up.

It's a long room, littered with desks, large computers and tables. Every surface is covered in papers and writing. Unfortunately for Kim-Ly though, all of it was in that same alien language as before. There is a large spraypainted logo of a monster on the wall, with more of the “letters” beneath it. The monster itself looks like one straight out of a kids book. She can only understand one thing. This is some kind of lab, or base of operations, and it looks long abandoned. Why it's here, inside the kaiju she doesn't know.

As she walks across the metallic tiles she feels like she understands why it’s placed how it is, it feels like the entire room rotates to always be upright, there are multiple places the hatch could attach to, on the walls and floors, seemingly so that entrance is never blocked regardless of position, she adds this new information, as well as the logo into her journal, and slips it back in her bag.

She mindlessly walks around the lab, in utter awe. She’s never seen anything like this. It's about modern in technological advancements, which would be nothing, if it were not clearly made by someone nonhuman.

While not paying attention, she steps on one tile, which proceeds to sink into the floor. Hatches open on the walls, and in fly small drones, definitely not of any human model, the shape is alien and insectoid with propellers on both the tops and bottoms.

A red beam of light shoots from the drones, scanning her. A second passes, and then an alarm goes off, he hears something being said in a strange language by an artificial voice, and the drones fly back to their walls. The alarm blares, filling the room with red light. Other hatches open, and spider like robots enter the room, with scanners on their faces and guns for arms.

The message is clear, she has to run.

🜞🝣🜞

The rain was pouring down as Sapphire’s cup had been filled quite a number of times. It was starting to fill the boat as well, a side effect she liked far less. 

Fortunately Faria would likely survive the rest of the trip with the provided hydration.

However the cat’s behaviour had not changed, she was still clinging to Sapphire, her grip inescapable.

The waves were getting higher, starting to crash over the sides of the boat. She returned the cup. It was of no more use like this.

Now the storm was just inconvenient. 

Not to mention that while she wasn't cold, and barely felt the water, she could feel it getting into her stitches. It felt… Well, it wasn’t painful, but it was very unpleasant. If she weren't too worried about her potential death, she would have cut herself open to finally see if she could learn something. But she feared her own death greatly, survival was of utmost importance, besides, what could be learned from it, anyway? She surely has the same veins as any other creature, maybe less organs, or different ones, but that wouldn’t be helpful either. She was no biologist as much as she knew she couldn't study unique organs, it had become clear she somehow knew nothing about the supernatural, much less if they were inside her own body.

The rain poured down against her head creating an odd pressure she was sure would rip her stitches apart had they not been made with wire.

The boat rocked terribly, the weight of Faria’s body at the back seemed to be further throwing it off balance, but in the state the cat was in it would be quite impossible to move her.

A large wave crashes around them, the two engulfed in the small pocket of air, giving the impression of being in some sort of tunnel, before the water crashed down on them, and the boat was finally tipped, dumping the two monsters into the inky darkness of the sea.

Sapphire immediately surfaced, her light and buoyant body allowing her to float without effort. She was tossed violently by the waves absolutely sure her body would be crushed, she looked around for any sign of her ally.

She saw nothing but the now deflated dinghy.

Panickedly, she searches the water, hoping Faria will surface soon. Of course she will, all animals instinctively start to swim, or at least flail when in water, but nothing was seen.

Sapphire dove down beneath the waves. Her body felt light, weightless, as if floating in the vacuum of space. It rather looked that way too.

All she could see was water, infinite water, beneath her a void of the stuff so deep she could never escape.

She felt exposed, weak, more than she had ever felt before. When she had swam earlier there were fish, she knew that, she knew what they were, and she knew she could kill them. She had a boat to return to, an idea of where she was. Now she had none of this.

Only an infinite void in each direction of which anything could come out of at any time and take her.

She managed to spot Faria, sinking deep into the void. Motionless. Helpless. Lifeless.

No… Faria had a high lung capacity surely she would live, surely. She couldn't just accept her death.

Faria was her friend. A realisation potentially come far too late.

Sapphire dove towards the cat, forcing her light body under the intense density of the water. It felt like trying to swim in sand.

Eventually she managed to reach the cat, grabbing onto her massive hand. Faria did not grip her.

She pulled the cat up with her as they both began to float due to Sapphire’s buoyancy, which seemed to have increased somehow.

She tried to rouse the cat any way she could, nothing worked

She pressed her hand to Faria’s chest. Nothing. No pulse. She was… gone.

No no no no no no no this couldn't be right Faria couldn't die, she couldn't leave Sapphire… couldn’t she see that she needed her?

Sapphire shook the cold body in desperation, when she still did not stir she curled herself in the arms of the cat. 

She screamed without truly knowing why, and as she did, she felt a strange surge through her body… the surrounding area was shocked with a stream of electricity coming from Sapphire’s small body, and then as quickly as it started, it stopped.

Then she felt something. A weak pulse which most definitely was not there before.

Sapphire quickly surfaced, trying to force the water from the cat’s body, as her limbs began to twitch.

Whatever that shock was, it had worked as a defibrillator and restarted the cat’s pulse. Sapphire was not at all sure how she did that. She had never done that. She didn’t even think something like this was possible.

But right now, she didn’t care how possible it was, only that the cat had been revived.

She found herself looking into Faria’s bright green eyes as the cat gasped, trying to hold on to her small body as best as she could.

“I’m… alive…?” Faria questions between gasps.

“L-likely… I doubt you would be able to ask me such a question at all if you were not.”

“Why?”

“Because dead people rarely possess the ability to talk.”

“No… why did you… save me?”

“...Because you’re my friend Faria. I couldn't let you die.”

“We’re… friends?”

“I believe so. That appears to be why I have been behaving so abnormally… I haven't exactly had one before, a friend I mean. In fact, you’re the first person aside from myself I have ever spoken to.”

Faria is silent, but looks happy.

“We are close to the island. Let’s get to dry land.” Sapphire says, not wanting to speak about her feelings anymore.

“Thank God. Or Satan, or whatever. Let’s get the fuck out of this water.”

🝁🝢🝁

Kim-Ly has never been an athletic woman. She was always slow, and ran out of breath fast. Now, with her head pounding and adrenaline pumping through her veins, she was starting to regret not being good at PE.

She runs from room to room, not getting time to inspect any, as she barrels down long hallways with the robots shooting at her. Their aim isn't very good but she doesn't exactly take the time to figure out why.

Kim-Ly finds herself in a smaller room the hatches won’t open. She's at a dead end.

A machine whirs to life, something is said in a different artificial voice, not that it matters, as she can’t understand the language.

Mechanical arms fasten around all her limbs as she thrashes in their grip. Her mouth is wrenched open as a large pipe is shoved down her throat, causing her to choke. She fights harder against the machine’s grasp but its no use.

Long tubes held by more arms, with large needles on the tips are brought towards her, despite all her struggling and crying she is unable to break free, and they plunge into her body, injecting into her spine, multiple parts of her arms and legs, her kidneys, the nape of her neck, and even her forehead, piercing through the her skull.

A glowing blue liquid is pumped through all the pipes, she tries to scream but the pipe prevents it.

Her body becomes weak and goes limp, before being shocked back to struggling when what seemed to be barbed wires wrap around all of her skin, the hundreds of needles injecting more of the liquid.

Blood drips down, creating a large puddle on the ground beneath her.

The robots are about to enter the room when the door slams shut. A screen is lowered in front of her displaying what looks to be an instructional video, but the tech is long degraded and glitched, so really its nothing, her head is held in place so she’s forced to look at it, as more of the needles drive themselves into her skull.

She feels nothing but pain, knowing this is the end of her life surely, and still the machine continues its mutilation.

The barbed wires around her torso unwrap, and for a moment, she thinks it may be ending, until she feels a horrible pain. She can't look down as the machine keeps her looking at the screen before her, she doesn’t even have the strength to wonder what she’s supposed to be being shown.

Unfortunately for her it goes black, long strained technology finally having given in, and in  its reflection she can clearly see a large scalpel vivisecting her, once it finishes more tubes are inserted deep into her nostrils, fully cutting off her breathing, but the machine does not have the mercy to let her die, instead a blade slits her throat, allowing air in through the wound.

The blood has fully covered the floor at this point, and she wonders why she isn't dead yet. She realises the machines are keeping most of it in, overfilling her veins as the new liquid fills her.

She sees long skewers scissor her large chest wound open, revealing her organs inside.

A large needle plunges into her heart, starting to somehow specifically extract all of her blood. She thrashes wildly, before goggles are forced over her eyes, displaying the same swirl as before, as speakers are hooked up to her ears. She can understand what they are saying despite it being the same alien language as before. “Be calm. This does not hurt. Magification will be completed soon.” it repeats those words over and over. She doesn’t have the mental fortitude to analyse those words, or why she can understand them, due to the immense pain and now about 16 skewers in her head, and the hypnosis. 

Said hypnosis does its work convincing her to stop struggling as every drop of blood is extracted from her body, and replaced with the blue substance. That of it that doesn't make it into her bloodstream fuses to her flesh.

The machine finishes its work on her heart, and the needle is pulled… before her heart is ripped out entirely.  How the fuck is she still alive!?

A metallic piece is shoved in its place, seeming to resume its work.

Her lungs are ripped out and replaced with something oddly fleshy that is attached to the new faux heart.

Another organ entirely is shoved in her body, connected to her spinal cord and her faux heart.

“Sleep.” the machine orders, and she does.

🜞🝣🜞

The pair crawl onto the shore of the island, Sapphire definitely exhausted. 

Whatever that thing was that she did earlier, it had sapped a lot of her energy, and even more had been depleted when swimming herself and the rather heavy cat monster to the island. The water did help to lighten the weight but she was still on the verge of collapse the whole way.

“Oh sweet land, I will never leave you again.” Faria says, sitting in the sand.

As soon as Sapphire gets onto land she kneels over and pukes up a strange substance. She's not quite sure what she should call it, it's like water, but not quite. 

She had had no problem breathing underwater and had inhaled a lot of it. Something she was actually quite curious about, as she had always assumed she couldn't. When she never ate or drank it was because she never felt any need or desire to, but she knew living creatures like herself tended to need oxygen, so had always tried holding her breath… but did she really not need to? It seemed like what she just puked up was the water that she had swallowed, although being inside her had clearly done something to it.

It felt unstable. Or too stable. It was hard to say.

What had she done to this, how had she managed to release such a high quantity of electrical energy, more than she’d even think would be contained in her body, and what does this mean…

Sapphire starts to wonder where her energy is coming from anyway. She sleeps sure, occasionally, but she never dreams, she never eats or drinks anything nor feels the need to so her body can't be burning fats or sugars, she hadn't gotten a pound lighter, energy cant be created or destroyed so she had to be getting it from something.

So how does she work?

From the little she knows about herself she seems to clearly violate the first law of thermodynamics.

Maybe she’s “overthinking it”, as much as she hated the phrase as until now she doubted such a thing was possible. Perhaps she somehow got energy from the sun or something.

Still, it was rather confusing… She needs to figure this out. She can’t go on not knowing something, especially something as vital as what she herself was. 

Sapphire is snapped from her thoughts by Faria running up and down the beach on all fours, kicking up sand in Sapphire’s face.

It was rather impressive actually, Faria had not had full room to run on the ship, Sapphire hadn’t truly believed she could really run like this, she assumed the files were exaggerating.

Sapphire stands up, miraculously having had her energy restored, another strange ability relating to it to regain it fast without doing… anything.

Now is not the time to think of this.

“The building is on the other side of the island, we could go over there, but going in guns blazing, which is a figure of speech by the way as you seem to misread such things, we are likely to be captured. They had a 3D render of the island, rather impressive. Regardless, there is a cave nearby and it is not listed as being monitored. It would be a good place to rest and make our plan.” Faria is not paying attention. “FARIA!” Sapphire yells at her friend in frustration.

Faria looks up, there is a crab in her mouth, shell shattered by the power of her jaws. “Yeah?” She says through her full mouth.

Sapphire sighs, and smiles slightly, annoying as she was, Faria was good company and Sapphire was very glad she had not died. “Just follow me.”

🝁🝢🝁

Kim-Ly awakes half submerged in a pod full of water. She immediately shoots upwards, gasping. Her whole body feels weird, plagued by a buzzing sensation as if her veins were full of bees.

Her clothes are drenched in her own blood, but her wounds have miraculously already become scars, she panickingly lifts up her shirt to look at the place she was cut open, sure enough, there is a line of stitches going down her torso.

“Shit… what… what was that… what did it do to me?” She gets out of the pod.

Her mind still feels a little bit fuzzy. She’s in a new part of the lab, one covered in posters that she can somehow read as being classic motivational phrases. Huh. She notices her bag is missing and panics, it must have come loose when she was running, she needs to find it, and then find a way out.

Kim-Ly sees some magazines on a table, this place is set up like a waiting room. They’re human ones, or at least most are, with all the writing covered up in whiteout and replaced with the strange language. She finds herself still being able to read them.

Whatever happened to her, she can now understand this language.

Writing on the wall reads “Welcome new magi.” Magi… is that what she is? Did that thing make her a… magi? What even is a magi?

She sees a book laying on the table, “Introduction to Magic: A Magi’s Guide. By Moray.” the book is small, light, and looks very old. She opens it up to the first page.

“After undergoing Magification you may be confused, especially if you stumbled in the chamber by accident, I’ll be totally honest here, because I know none of the others will read this. ParanormalU is going down. We all know it. I wouldn't be shocked if no one ever reads this. And if someone does, I’ll bet you didn’t even know what that machine was. Since there's no regulation anymore, Smokey and I have decided to make this book special. 

Congratulations reader, you now own the one of a kind, limited edition, go fuck yourself book. Since I’ll bet you have no clue what a magi even is, you are one, I am one. If you still need to know more, we’re humans imbued with a substance with a long boring name I prefer to just call magic gatorade, and since I can do whatever I want now, I will. 

Basically we’re humans artificially turned into pseudo-sorciforms, we do magic, we’re good at it, and Smokey fucked with the machine when the boss wasnt looking so you wouldnt get knocked out until the end. Trust me, it's for the better, if you get knocked out you go limp and your veins contract in a way that's inconvenient, you come out weak and bland. 

This book will teach you a couple standard spells and some of mine. I’m not allowed to teach those, but again, no one will ever look at this. They’re too busy trying to stop our organisation from falling to proofread my shit.

I have more answers that even now I hesitate to tell you through a medium such as this one. So I’m going to take a slightly smaller gamble than that and give you my address.” There is an address, ok she probably shouldn't call it that because it links her to a deeper sector of a nearby forest but regardless it’s actually pretty close to here. Kim-Ly wants to read more, but she should probably get out of here.

She walks back through the lab, and steps on another pressure plate, having not learned her lesson. However this time, the robots make a ding and simply leave when they scan her… odd…

She’s free to explore this lab, she’d rather go home currently given her body aches and today has been horri- no lets be honest here this is still the coolest day of her life regardless of the new array of scars. I mean it's not like she hadn’t gotten scars from monster hunting and this is way more interesting.

She finds her bag, the contents having fallen out.

The walkie talkie is on, Sabrina finally messaging her, having forgotten to until now presumably due to pure bloodlust.

“KIM! KIM ARE YOU THERE?! KIM!!!” Sabrina calls. 

Kim-Ly picks up the walkie talkie. “Yeah sorry I’m here. Over.”

“HOLY SHIT KIM WHERE WERE YOU?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!! Over.” 

“I’m fine, I got attacked by something really weird and accidentally dropped my bag in the superior vena cava. Over.”

“Oh thank God! I don’t know what I’d do if… if you weren’t around. Please don’t do that again… I… can't lose anyone else. Over and out.”

Kim-Ly sighs. It felt bad lying to Sabrina. However, it has to be done… “Well…” She looks at the book. “Time to find this guy.”

[scrawnytreedemon]

Zelink for the ship bingo? :0 any game!

OH GOD, THIS IS?? Gonna be a doozy. Buckle in.

SkSw:

WW-PH: Link/Tetra:

Spirit Tracks(in theory! I haven't seen the game yet, can't speak personally):

Nearly all other instances:

RIGHT! getting onto individual analysis,

1, SkSw: By far my favourite of the bunch, and a longtime delight. Whether you construe their relationship as romantic or not, doesn't matter-- They've got such a wonderful arc of trust and unbreakable love. Zelda starts off incredibly worried for Link, constantly fretting and deeply unsure of his abilities. She steps in to defend him, willing to go up against Big Boys like Groose to do so. As the game progresses, however, and Link grows, in strength and in character, Zelda, and everyone else for the matter, put more trust in him-- By the end of the game, they're on equal footing, and, oh god, oh man, I'm gonna crybhfgjfhdgkjdjd--

2, WW-PH: Nothing to say except, tough girl, sweet boy? Phuck yeah!

Jokes aside, Link and Tetra's arc is also one of trust and vulnerability, but from a different angle. Tetra's a hard-as-nails, independent, morally dubious young girl who's landed herself as captain of a ship full of Big Boys, and sees Link as little more than a useful, if rather weak coincidence she can use to her advantage. However, as the pair grow,(really as Link grows and Tetra is thrown out onto the sidelines as her royal heritage is revealed and she's forced to take on a 'princess' role, one that notably feminises her and lightens her skin), again there's that theme of growth of trust! They take down Ganondorf together, build a new Hyrule together, and isn't that just what dreams are made of?

3, Spirit Tracks: Nothing much to say, other than the dynamic looks super sweet, and there's an interesting play with gender and presentation on Zelda's end? Love it to bits, 12/10.

Now... Onto the potatoes of this, I think. Get your gravy.

This... There's going to be more objective analysis and criticism, obviously, but alot of this is also going to be deeply coloured by my own personal experiences of heteronormativity and alienation. This isn't a commentary on anyone else's enjoyment of the dynamic-- I hope I've made that clear --But, just... I guess I should get to it.

Link and Zelda,

Zelink.

As one anon put it, the vanilla icecream of shipping.

Mild, sweet,

And incredibly heteronormative.

The Golden Relationship; the one toted by fans and Nintendo alike as "the ship".

Everything else, anyone else, is a deviation. It slots neatly into the expected hero-damsel dynamic that we've had, since, well, the beginning of time, almost. It's almost as dust of the earth as it gets. The issue for me being... They don't spend time much, really. Link is barely characterised half the time as little more than a slightly lackadaisical vessel for the player, and Zelda is a sort of guiding light; a dignified keeper of the plot, Righteous Guardian of Hyrule--

The culmination of all Hyrule presents itself as: wise, smart, beautiful, dainty but compitent, ready to lead a charge should need be... but rarely unruly. Rarely ever. Always right.

Obviously, it goes without saying how Breath of the Wild's iteration of this duo changes it up immensely. Zelda is a far more flawed, and in her attempt to put on a strong face, a far more emotionally vulnerable character than any of her gentle predecessors could ever hope to be. While this pairing and her character fail to hit that particular sweet spot in me, it's deeply intriguing, and I hope, perhaps vainly, that they'll develop her and her relationship with Link even more in the sequel-- Honestly, when it comes to this? An equality between her and Link is, I think, what would be best. A mutual understanding; vulnerability.

I think that's what puts me off from Zelink, on the whole. Link is bound to her, by destiny, by guidance, ever-performing his knightly duties, and Zelda is bound to him for strength, for protection. There's little emotional substance, half the time, save for small, precious moments, many with another face, because it's a dynamic inherently dependent on the war-- On danger.

It's all impartial, situational. There's nothing personal here.

And if that were it, if this were truly explored from that angle(as it is, to an extent, in BotW), then I think I'd like that-- Especially if it weren't romantic, I feel.

But that's not the vibe we're told to get: not from the fans... not from Nintendo.

Nintendo tends to be largely neutral on certain matters, such as pairings-- Honest to god, for the best, in my opinion-- But Zelink is that one blind spot where that ethos falls away. Here, Nintendo expects us to see it as some grand, destiny-bound romance, I feel,

And the pre-Skyward Sword manga, from what I know, cements this best.

It's why, quite frankly, I don't care for the idea of it being canon. Genuinely.

It undermines what little weight Ganondorf via Demise had on all of this, this horrific cycle of blood, pain and despair, always bracing for the next wave, of the sisyphian climb of this civilisation, and turns it all into a grand goddess' love for a boy bound to her by fate and destiny manifest.

I hate that.

For something like this, something where no one has any choice, where greatness is thrusted upon them, this endless state of being used that Skyward Sword even condemned, to be seen as good.

To get onto personal experience, before this blog, and this "persona," as it were, I used to have an art account where I largely posted TLoZ, frequented by my family. My very Christian, somewhat socially-conservative family. I would perform straightness, in the form of either pushing aside or pursuing M/F romance, because I was extremely uneasy about the types of conversations anything otherwise would arouse.

This was at a time where I wasn't even sure if I was bisexual, let alone divergent in my gender, so I felt a constant pressure to tamp it down and keep it out of the spotlight, relegating my explorations via art to DMs with the friends I'd make.

Here, on Tumblr, where peppy-queerness is the status quo, there's this tendency to gloss over unpleasant things and make them soft; sweet.

I think I've talked enough at length why that alienates me.

So, yeah... I guess, Zelink on a wider scale kinda just, sums up my unease about the often hegemonic status-quo of shipping, and on the whole I'm just kinda eh about it all.

Again, I think it should be very clear that this is not a reflection on my opinions of people who create Zelink content, who are attached to these characters. That sort of weirdly-tribalistic thinking is awful, and only brings about needless conflict-- Early 2000s-2010s kinda shit, y'feel me?

I hope this all made sense, kinda. I've just got... alot of feelings.

[aceofshitposts]

I saw that you like CATS the musical. What are your thoughts on the movie?

AAAAH AHHAHA oh man oh boy y'all should BUCKLE IN cuz it's a ride

my simple thoughts? it's entertaining if only because it butchered the stage show so badly in an attempt to idk modernize it? Well, modernization is one part of it I think. The other part I'll go into below lol. I don't necessarily hate some of the more modern renditions of the songs (mostly the ensemble sets like Jellicle Song for Jellicle Cats) but then others are just... so poorly done it's insulting.

I've said this at the end of this whole rant too but I'm gonna put it up here in case people don't (justifiably) wanna see me go on and on about it:

The movie wasn't made for fans of the musical. It was made to make money and I believe they choose, at least partially, to do that through making it the weirdest and worst possible adaptation they could so that people would want to go see the train wreck. Which, really, worked! It was all people could talk about for a good while so like... Goal achieved, I guess.

A MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT cuz i don't wanna. flood your dash with... this

ALRIGHT SO. Most of my friends know I'm actually a huge fan of new adaptations of things. I love remakes (provided the people making it are coming at it with some form of heart and not just... cash grabbing which is more often the case) I love seeing other peoples interpretations of characters, or changing settings. It's one of the reasons I like American comics so much, getting to see different writers takes is fascinating.

I think musical movies can be wonderful ways to introduce people to a stage show that might have been unavailable to them otherwise! Chicago, for example, is one of the BEST musical to movie adaptations in my opinion. It kept the heart of the show, it's funny and the song numbers are done really well.

There are of course other famous examples, such as Grease or Bye Bye Birdie. Hairspray was also a wonderful take. These are simply off the top of my head, there are of course more.

CATS in particular has a history. If you go through my CATS tag you may see a few posts from @catsnonreplica which posts photos from non broadway productions of CATS! It's a fascinating read and I love, love, love looking at the other interpretations of the characters! CATS is a musical full of fun and wonderful characters if you take the time to see past the ridiculousness haha and the Korean and Japanese runs of CATS especially have some of my favourites.

How does this relate to the movie, I hear you say well. As you might has noticed the movie's interpretations of the characters is........ lackluster at best and downright uncanny valley at best.

CATS is, at its core, a ridiculous thing. I will fully admit that! But it's fun, it's entertaining and if you pay a little attention you can actually get the plot. (Honestly I don't understand when people complain it has no plot but that's a whole other rant for another day)

The movie was... obsessed with this idea of like... semi realism? Like obviously, as a fan, I think they should have leaned into the over the top character designs but instead we got...w ell:

Bombalurina:

Demeter left and Bomba right. Demeter was actually cut! From the movie which is. upsetting lmao.

Macavity is one of the worst offenders for me:

Macavity was... I wish I could know what the hell they were thinking there cuz it's even in his song? Ginger cat??? THAT IS NOT... A GINGER CAT...... but I digress. I would show more examples but I think you get the point.

So. We've butchered the characters appearances. Okay that's fine but what about their personalities?

ALSO BUTCHERED.

There's... there's a lot to unpack here. Just for context: the Jellicle Ball happens once a year and the Jellicle leader chooses a single cat to be reborn into a new life. In the stage play all the cats who are nominated for this honour are on the older side (Jenny-Any-Dots, Bustopher Jones, Skimbleshanks, Gus The Theatre Cat, and eventually Grizzabella) AND are always nominated by another cat. Not themself, unlike the movie where they all seem to nominate themselves.

Jenny-Any-Dots went from a doting grandmother figure who's celebrated for her selfless volunteering and tireless work into a conceited, vain younger cat who is obsessed with fame.

It's an incredibly strange dichotomy. I don't doubt some of it isn't the result of the uh people playing the characters honestly. I do think some of them did the best they could! I don't really blame Jason Derulo, for example, for Tugger. And honestly, Tugger was probably closest to his stage version (while being a trouble maker, he's shown to show Deuteronomy an immense amount of respect)

Speaking of Tugger! This will bring us to one of the biggest grievances with the movie and that is how they handled Mr Mistoffelees.

So... Ugh. So. We have Victoria as the pov character, which imo is like whatever in the grand scheme of things, and then we have Misto who they have decided will be get live interest cuz... Of course. Misto is shown throughout the musical to be awkward, unsure of himself and well. Really, kinda incompetent. Which is Wild cuz in the stage show he might be aloof but he's fairly confident in his powers.

So, Old Deuts gets kidnapped. In the stage show Tugger is the one to bring Misto forward! It's really quite sweet, imo, and I'm showing myself as a Tuggoffelees shipper here, but again Tugger is previously shown to be pretty conceited but then here he is boosting and hyping up Misto to bring Deuteronomy back. My friends and I have lovingly dubbed this the boyfriend hype song.

SOMEHOW. The movie manages to make this, easily, the MOST BORING number in the whole thing. Which, again, WILD. Misto awkwardly stumbles through his whole song, which again is... Boasting of his supreme magical powers which movie Misto clearly. Does not have or believe to have. The song, to me, feels super awkward and unnecessarily drawn out in the movie which sucks cuz it's one of my favourites in the show.

The declawing (heh) of Mr Mistoffelees actually reminds me strongly of how they changed Gaston in the live action Beauty and the Beast movie. He's gone from a beloved figure in the animated movie to someone so disliked in the town that Le Fou has to pay people off to say nice things about him. It's just. Wild character choices were made!!

Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat is probably my favourite in movie non ensemble number. It feels the most... Genuine? Compared to the other nomination songs.

Other problems include but are not limited to:

The inconsistent size scale of the CATS which throws me off constantly.

The weirdly overt sexual overtones added to MANY of the songs (Jenny and Bustopher being the worst)

This is just a personal gripe and opinion but I don't like that they used the UK version of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. The American version is both better known and tbh way more fun. Teazer's giggle? Adds ten years to my life every time.

Victoria's added solo song, Beautiful Ghosts, while I like the song as a song it doesn't fit the style of message of the musical. In the movie she's singing directly to Grizzabella who's being an outcast for years that she should be grateful she even has memories of being part of the tribe?? What?? But I know they had to add an original song to be able to be nominated for awards in like the Grammys n shit (which is why all musical movies will have an original song, fun fact!!) kinda funny they went to the effort though considering........... I don't think anyone could have genuinely believed CATS 2019 was gonna win anything but golden rhaspberries.

Movie Mr Mistoffelees has made repeated appearances as my sleep paralysis demon

The various cut characters, shout outs to Jemima, Demeter and Jellylorum especially

Bombalurina being a henchman to Macavity rubs me the wrong way

God I've written... So much. You probably get it by now haha. Like I said at the beginning, I try to go into any adaptation with an open mind but... Let's be honest, this movie wasn't marketed to people who are fans of the musical.

It was marketed, and made, to make money. And they choose to do that through, I think, intentionally making the worst possible version ever. Bad press is still press and the more outrageous people said the movie was the more people wanted to go see exactly what kind of train wreck it was.

Which is a disservice to the stage show, honestly, and all the people who've worked on it over the years.

But what can we do, right?

And besides all that, I do... Still own the movie version and I do still rewatch it on occasion. It is entertaining even if it's in a train wreck kind of way. I usually end up watching the 1998 version, then 2019 and then various tour runs that are on YouTube. (I highly recommend the 2016 tour, it's very good)

So in conclusion. It's fun (?) to watch. I enjoy picking things apart and doing analysis (if you couldn't tell!) so like... I don't hate it?

It did what it set out to do, I guess, and I can't fault it for that but. It's not a fair metre with which to judge the stage show imo. But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, haha.

Jazz hands. I'm more than happy to elaborate or just chat about CATS if anyone wants! I grew up listening to the Broadway CD since I was a toddler so it's been! A very long standing obsession haha. Probably the only other thing on par with CATS is my obsession with Jurassic Park which I've also been a fan of since I was 3 (but that's a whole story in and of itself)

[adhd-adept]

hi! i like your posts! they're real helpful

anyway a thing i need help with

i want to ask my dad for therapy because i think i might have adhd? and also some other shit

so basically

(this is going to be a long post)

back in summer 2020, i thought i might have adhd because i was reading some comics from adhd alien and the signs of adhd she shared seemed eerily familiar?

and i did some research and more signs came up and i thought i might have them?

and i found a therapist who specialises in adhd and other issues

but when i talked to my dad about it he was all "ADHD is only hyperactive idiots who are useless without meds" and he yelled at me for a while and I'm now basically scared of mentioning the topic up ever again

he brought me to some sessions, but i think once he said it was "so the therapist tells you you don't have adhd"?

anyway after the summer ended i couldn't get therapy again because school and busy

with the 2 week spring vacation coming up i was thinking of maybe asking him again? but I'm really scared and he probably won't take it seriously again...

signed,

an idiot

Hey! Thanks. I’m glad I can be helpful. I wanted to answer this right away, but it took me a little time because this question deserves a thoughtful response. This is going to be a long post.

[If anyone with more experience in situations like this has advice, I would welcome suggestions]

First things first! I don't think you're an idiot. This world can be hard to navigate even in the best of times, and I will never think you're foolish for needing a little help with anything that that entails!

Looking for a therapist is a great start! I’m glad that you are taking yourself seriously and taking steps to get help. That can take a lot of courage, and I’m proud of you for it!

Know that it may continue to take courage, and persistence - it can be really difficult to get an official ADHD diagnosis. I definitely have ADHD, and it actually took two tries when I got diagnosed around age 12, as the first doctor thought I had been perfectly attentive during the meeting and thus could not believe I was struggling with inattention elsewhere. My friend in her early twenties has been attending periodic doctor and therapist sessions for a couple months now, because the first doctor didn’t take her seriously, the second said she clearly had ADHD but sent her elsewhere for prescriptions, and the doctor they sent her to insisted she get a second opinion. She is finally starting to get accommodations, but it’s been an ongoing effort.

And you may simply not get along very well with your first therapist. You can always try reaching out to another. It can be a long process, and I hope saying that does not discourage you because there is a lot of good that comes at the end of that process; specifically, a better understanding of yourself and access to some resources that can help you seek accommodations for the things you struggle with.

It sounds like you’ve done your research on therapy, though. If you want any help with looking for a therapist, I am happy to help, (or at least try to). But it sounds like what you’re asking is how to approach the subject with your dad?

You’ll have to take some of my advice from here with a grain of salt; I’ve never been in the specific situation you’re in now, and of course I don’t know your dad as well as you do. But in my experience, rephrasing a request can do a lot to make it sound more reasonable.

I think the first step is understanding where he is coming from. Again, you have met the man and I haven’t, so this is more suggestion and guesswork than any kind of statement.

It sounds like your dad has a significant bias against neurodivergence. But I think it does matter WHY he feels that way. I can only imagine that it comes from a lifetime of hearing those things about ADHD from the people around him, and it will take time for him to reverse that prejudice. I feel sorry for him to have grown up in that hostile environment, and I am sorry that that hostility is being carried through to you.

But the result is that he thinks there’s something wrong with having ADHD. Of course, that isn’t true, but no parent wants to believe there’s something “wrong” with their child, and he will probably be resistant to the idea for as long as he believes that there is. 

More than that, I think parents don’t want to believe that, if there IS something wrong with their kid, it might have come from them. A child twisting their ankle in PE class or getting bitten by an ant is one thing - it hurts to see the child in pain, but it isn’t their fault. It’s much harder for a parent to see their child suffer because of a hereditary condition, because I think there can be a lot of guilt associated with that.

On top of that, if he’s been told that ADHD is a terrible thing, it might be disagreeable to him because if you have it then maybe he has it too. People don’t want to believe there’s anything wrong with themselves either.

I don’t know if that’s, on some level, why he reacted the way he did - and even if it’s true, I don’t think any of this justifies yelling at you for it. Nothing justifies that. And I want to be clear that it shouldn’t have to be your responsibility to figure out why he feels the way he feels - that should be on him, and it’s unfair to you to have to work through his issues on your way to getting the help you need. This isn’t necessarily the best or only approach. But trying to at least figure out why he feels the way he does might help you figure out how to approach the subject again. 

Maybe even ask him where he got his impression of ADHD, if it does not feel like doing so will start a new argument. (Maybe don’t mention the part where you’re asking because some stranger on the internet is trying to psychoanalyze him.) But I find, personally, that conversations go better when I can approach them with patience, and I have more patience when I make an effort to remember that the other person’s reactions have to come from somewhere, and if I can at least start out believing that they are misinformed rather than actively hostile.

I think a good start would be to try educating him about ADHD and see how that goes. Anything might sound scary because it is unfamiliar; or, worse, it might sound scary because it sounds vaguely familiar even if the only information you know is that you think someone said it’s scary. 

An aside, to give an example: There was a meme a while ago where water would be referred to as “dihydrogen monoxide” and framed as a dangerous thing with vague-but-technically-true statements such as “it’s a common byproduct of chemical reactions,” and “it’s found in our sewer systems”, or “it has the highest pH value of any acid” (you may recall that the strongest acids are those with a low pH value).

I think it’s easy to do the same with neurodiversity. If all you know about water is that it’s a chemical, it may sound scary. If all you know about ADHD is that it’s a mental disorder, it may sound scary.

Talking with him directly may be better than sending him articles - they tend to start with phrases like “mental health disorder” and “chronic condition”, or big (scary) jargon words that you might want to avoid if you want it to sound approachable (I mean, even the “Simple English” version of the Wikipedia article has the word “neurodevelopmental” in the first sentence).

I think it’s important for him to know that everyone’s ADHD experience is different - symptoms can be strong, or they can be very weak, but even people with very weak symptoms may benefit from seeking professional advice. You can be very “high functioning,” and still find certain tasks more difficult than most people do, and thus benefit from help even if you don’t “need” it to achieve your goals or lead a “normal” looking life.

You might tell him that a lot of ADHD treatment is about paying attention to your own behaviors and learning what works best for you - that even if you do not have ADHD, you may have some experiences in common with people who do, and that seeking a therapist who specializes in ADHD may help you find someone with the kind of attitude you are looking for; maybe you want someone who will be especially patient, and who will be prepared to take you seriously with the symptoms or traits you do have.

After all, most people can understand that you don’t have to have clinical depression to benefit from some of the behavioral things often recommended to people who do, such as getting regular exercise and more sunshine. You can do things that improve your mood even if you don’t have diagnosed clinical depression. 

Similarly, if you are seeking help with some things that people with ADHD struggle with - organization, time management, staying focused - a therapist who specializes in ADHD may be a good fit for you for that reason alone, even if you don’t have it.

And yeah, it sounds like he doesn’t want you to have ADHD, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying “even if I don’t have it, talking to a specialist can help me rule that out,” if that’s what helps him feel more comfortable with you getting an appointment. Again, it will take time for him to overcome the negative impression he has now, but at the very least, if he forms a positive impression of ADHD therapists he might not be so hostile about ADHD itself.

Maybe remind him that there can be a lot of overlap between ADHD and other experiences, but that it seems like a good place to start seeking help because it is a relatively common cause of some of the things you’ve experienced.

Know how much you would be willing to compromise before you have this conversation - would you be okay with getting a therapist even if they do not specialize in ADHD? Would you be unlikely to get an appointment if he made it conditional on something like maintaining good grades? Have a clear, tangible goal in mind; while you may leave room for uncertainty in your diagnosis until you speak with a professional, you should try not to leave room for uncertainty in what you are asking for. Know what you want - a session (or a number of sessions) with a therapist - and have your reasoning for that ready, maybe even written down. People tend to take you more seriously when you can demonstrate that you’ve thought something through.

If you say you think you have ADHD, I believe you. But regardless of that, you have recognized that there is something you need help with, and you are taking action in response. I hope that, at the very least, if your dad does not want to take the suggestion of ADHD seriously, he can at least take you seriously when you say that you need help. 

And you will get help. You are moving in the right direction. Don’t lose sight of that.

I hope I’ve answered your question! If this is hard to read I can maybe come back and re-write it as a set of bullet points, maybe suggestions of things to say, but I felt that in the case of more personalized advice it was important to address the context of my advice. If you needed more specific advice, feel free to clarify. And of course, if you have any other questions, I’m always around.

Best of luck!

[ingek73]

01-22-2112:00 PM

‘Time is running out’: Prince Harry calls for social media reform after U.S. Capitol riot

In a Q&A with Fast Company, The Duke of Sussex responds to social media’s role in the Capitol attack and explains why the next step must be to hold social platforms accountable.

[Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images]

BY KATHARINE SCHWAB

LONG READ

Over the past year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have become increasingly outspoken advocates for healthier social media—a topic that is clearly near to their hearts, given the horrendous vitriol and harassment they have faced online and in the press.

By partnering with organizations that aim to understand technology’s impact on society and vocally critiquing the state of online life in the media, the couple are using their clout to push for change in the current digital ecosystem. In an essay for Fast Company last August, Prince Harry called on business leaders to rethink their role in funding the advertising system that underlies the misinformation and divisive rhetoric that’s often shared on social platforms.

“This remodeling must include industry leaders from all areas drawing a line in the sand against unacceptable online practices as well as being active participants in the process of establishing new standards for our online world,” he wrote.

Now, social media is facing an inflection point, just weeks after a violent mob stormed the Capitol in an attack that was conceived, plotted, and stoked primarily online. Powerful platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube responded by suspending Donald Trump’s accounts, while Amazon and Apple cut ties with Parler, a social network that was used by the rioters. But experts and regulators believe that more must be done to reform social media.

Against this background, Prince Harry is once again imploring people to pay attention to the problems social media have wrought. In a wide-ranging interview with Fast Company, he explains why social platforms must be held accountable for the Capitol attack and the circumstances that enabled it, and why we must remodel the digital world before it’s too late.

FC: Six months ago, you wrote an essay for Fast Company in which you asked companies to take action to ensure the meaningful reform of our “unchecked and divisive attention economy.” How has your perspective on social media’s role in society changed over the last few weeks since the attack on the U.S. Capitol?

Prince Harry: When I wrote that piece, I was sharing my view that dominant online platforms have contributed to and stoked the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health, and a crisis of truth.

And I stand by that, along with millions of others who see and feel what this era has done at every level—we are losing loved ones to conspiracy theories, losing a sense of self because of the barrage of mistruths, and at the largest scale, losing our democracies.

The magnitude of this cannot be overstated, as noted even by the defectors who helped build these platforms. It takes courage to stand up, cite where things have gone wrong, and offer proposals and solutions. The need for that is greater than ever before. So I’m encouraged by and grateful for the groundswell of people who work—or have worked—inside these very platforms choosing to speak up against hate, violence, division, and confusion.

FC: Why is this topic so important to you? How was your outlook affected by the well-documented online harassment you and your wife have faced in the U.K.?

PH: I was really surprised to witness how my story had been told one way, my wife’s story had been told one way, and then our union sparked something that made the telling of that story very different.

That false narrative became the mothership for all of the harassment you’re referring to. It wouldn’t have even begun had our story just been told truthfully.

WE ARE LOSING LOVED ONES TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES, LOSING A SENSE OF SELF BECAUSE OF THE BARRAGE OF MISTRUTHS, AND AT THE LARGEST SCALE, LOSING OUR DEMOCRACIES.”

PRINCE HARRY, THE DUKE OF SUSSEX

But the important thing about what we experienced is that it led to us hearing from so many others around the world. We’ve thought a lot about those in much more vulnerable positions than us, and how much of a need there is for real empathy and support.

To their own degree, everyone has been deeply affected by the current consequences of the digital space. It could be as individual as seeing a loved one go down the path of radicalisation or as collective as seeing the science behind the climate crisis denied.

We are all vulnerable to it, which is why I don’t see it as a tech issue, or a political issue—it’s a humanitarian issue.

From an early age, the guiding principle in my life has been about the duty to truth, the pursuit of compassion, and the alleviation of suffering. My life has always been about trying to do my part to help those who need it most, and right now, we need this change—because it touches nearly every single thing we do or are exposed to.

FC: Where do we go from here? What do you think needs to change to create an online atmosphere where truth, equity, and free speech are all prioritized?

PH: I ask the same thing every day and lean on the experts to help give guidance on how to reform the state of our digital world—how we make it better for our kids, of course, but also for ourselves—now.

The avalanche of misinformation we are all inundated with is bending reality and has created this distorted filter that affects our ability to think clearly or even understand the world around us.

What happens online does not stay online—it spreads everywhere, like wildfire: into our homes and workplaces, into the streets, into our minds. The question really becomes about what to do when news and information sharing is no longer a decent, truthful exchange, but rather an exchange of weaponry.

WHAT HAPPENS ONLINE DOES NOT STAY ONLINE—IT SPREADS EVERYWHERE, LIKE WILDFIRE: INTO OUR HOMES AND WORKPLACES, INTO THE STREETS, INTO OUR MINDS.”

PRINCE HARRY, THE DUKE OF SUSSEX

The answer I’ve heard from experts in this space is that the common denominator starts with accountability. There has to be accountability to collective wellbeing, not just financial incentive. It’s hard for me to understand how the platforms themselves can eagerly take profit but shun responsibility.

There also has to be common, shared accountability. We can call for digital reform and debate how that happens and what it looks like, but it’s also on each of us to take a more critical eye to our own relationship with technology and media. To start, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Consider setting limits on the time you spend on social media, stop yourself from endlessly scrolling, fact-check the source and research the information you see, and commit to taking a more compassionate approach and tone when you post or comment. These might seem like little things, but they add up.

Finally, there’s a responsibility to compassion that we each own. Humans crave connection, social bonds, and a sense of belonging. When we don’t have those, we end up fractured, and in the digital age that can unfortunately be a catalyst for finding connection in mass extremism movements or radicalisation. We need to take better care of each other, especially in these times of isolation and vulnerability.

FC: Since the Capitol riot, big tech companies from Twitter to Amazon have exercised their power by making determinations about who gets to use their products. Do you think companies should have the power to make decisions about who has access to some of the most prominent platforms on the internet?

PH: We have seen time and again what happens when the real-world cost of misinformation is disregarded. There is no way to downplay this. There was a literal attack on democracy in the United States, organised on social media, which is an issue of violent extremism. It is widely acknowledged that social media played a role in the genocide in Myanmar and was used as a vehicle to incite violence against the Rohingya people, which is a human rights issue. And in Brazil, social media provided a conduit for misinformation which ultimately brought destruction to the Amazon, which is an environmental and global health issue.

In a way, taking a predominately hands-off approach to problems for so long is itself an exercise in power.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about Speakers’ Corner, an area in London’s Hyde Park which is home to open-air debate, dialogue, and the exchange of information and ideas. I used to go past it all the time.

This concept of a ‘public square’ isn’t anything new—it can be traced back to the early days of democracies. You get up there and speak your piece. There are ground rules. You can’t incite violence, you can’t obscure who you are, and you can’t pay to monopolise or own the space itself. Ideas are considered or shot down; opinions are formed. At its best, movements are born, lies are laid bare, and attempts to stoke violence are rejected in the moment. At its worst, intolerance, groupthink, hate, and persecution are amplified. And at times, it forces lines to be drawn and rules or laws to emerge or be challenged.

I THINK IT’S A FALSE CHOICE TO SAY YOU HAVE TO PICK BETWEEN FREE SPEECH OR A MORE COMPASSIONATE AND TRUSTWORTHY DIGITAL WORLD.”

PRINCE HARRY, THE DUKE OF SUSSEX

I’m not saying we should abandon technology in favour of Speakers’ Corner. Rather, it’s that we should avoid buying into the idea that social media is the ultimate modern-day public square and that any attempt to ask platforms to be accountable to the landscape they’ve created is an attack or restriction of speech. I think it’s a false choice to say you have to pick between free speech or a more compassionate and trustworthy digital world. They are not mutually exclusive.

With these companies, in this model, we have a very small number of incredibly powerful and consolidated gatekeepers who have deployed hidden algorithms to pick the content billions see every day, and curate the information—or misinformation—everyone consumes. This radically alters how and why we inform opinions. It alters how we speak and what we decide to speak about. It alters how we think and how we react.

Ultimately, it has allowed for completely different versions of reality, with opposing sets of truth, to exist simultaneously. In this, one’s understanding of truth does not have to be based in fact, because there’s always an ability to furnish some form of “proof” to reinforce that version of “truth.” I believe this is the opposite of what we should want from our collective online community. The current model sorts and separates rather than bringing us together; it drowns out or even eliminates healthy dialogue and reasonable debate; it strips away the mutual respect we should have for each other as citizens of the same world.

FC: How do you plan to use your platform to push for change when it comes to hate speech, algorithmic amplification, and misinformation in 2021? Since you’re not a trained expert on these topics, why do you think people should listen to your perspective?

PH: I know enough to know that I certainly don’t know everything, especially when it comes to tech—but when you see this as a humanitarian issue, then you see the spread of misinformation as requiring a humanitarian response.

This is why my wife and I spent much of 2020 consulting the experts and learning directly from academics, advocates, and policymakers. We’ve also been listening with empathy to people who have stories to share—including people who have been deeply affected by misinformation and those who grew up as digital natives.

What we hope to do is continue to be a spotlight for their perspectives, and focus on harnessing their experience and energy to accelerate the pace of change in the digital world.

FC: Your Archewell Foundation has collaborated with several groups and institutions that aim to rethink technology and study its impact on people. As a philanthropist, why are you supporting research efforts within this space?

PH: If we’ve learned anything, it’s that our dominant technologies were built to grow and grow and grow, without serious consideration for the ripple effect of that growth. We have to do more than simply reconsider this model. The stakes are too high, and time is running out.

WE HAVE TO DO MORE THAN SIMPLY RECONSIDER THIS MODEL. THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH, AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.”

PRINCE HARRY, THE DUKE OF SUSSEX

There are a lot of incredible people and digital architects thinking about—or already working on—innovative and healthy platforms. We need to support them, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it can make commercial sense. And we have to look at the state of competition and ensure that the landscape doesn’t indiscriminately squeeze out or incentivise against fresh ideas.

I believe we can begin to make our digital world healthier, more compassionate, more inclusive, and trustworthy.

And it’s time to move from rethinking to remodelling.

FC: Given your concerns about divisiveness, misinformation, and hate speech online, how have your views on using social media yourself changed over the last few years? How do you approach it now and are you planning to make any changes?

PH: It’s funny you should ask because ironically, we woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago to hear that a Rupert Murdoch newspaper said we were evidently quitting social media. That was ‘news’ to us, bearing in mind we have no social media to quit, nor have we for the past 10 months.

The truth is, despite its well-documented ills, social media can offer a means of connecting and community, which are vital to us as human beings. We need to hear each other’s stories and be able to share our own. That’s part of the beauty of life. And don’t get me wrong; I’m not suggesting that a reform of the digital space will create a world that’s all rainbows and sunshine, because that’s not realistic, and that, too, isn’t life.

There can be disagreement, conversation, opposing points of view—as there should be, but never to the extent that violence is created, truth is mystified, and lives are jeopardised.

We will revisit social media when it feels right for us—perhaps when we see more meaningful commitments to change or reform—but right now we’ve thrown much of our energy into learning about this space and how we can help.

FC: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about our ability to build a healthier online ecosystem?

PH: Optimistic, of course, because I believe in us, as human beings, and that we are wired to be compassionate and honest and good. Aspects of the digital space have unfortunately manipulated (or even highlighted) our weaknesses and brought out the worst in some.

We have to believe in optimism because that’s the world and the humanity I want for my son, and all of us.

We look forward to being part of the human experience—not a human experiment.

[southeastasianists]

In Malaysia, the ‘deep state’ is a shorthand for the perceived institutional inertia exerted by the 1.6 million strong civil service (see here, here and here) to undermine the newly elected Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, which was elected under the promises of weeding out state corruption, revamping the previous regime’s race-based policies, and improving civil service accountability and efficiency.

When juxtaposed against discussions of the deep state in the United States (US), it is interesting to see how the same concept can take on utterly divergent meanings. From a Democratic Party supporter’s point of view, the ‘deep state’ symbolises institutional integrity, in which bureaucrats and civil servants took measures to resist, moderate, and even compromise the actions of a capricious Presidency in the name of safeguarding constitutional provisions and national interest.

In other words, while in both cases ‘deep state’ theories depict a scenario where an elected executive is pitted against unelected bureaucrats and civil servants, the propriety of the enterprise-if such an enterprise exists at all-is very much in the eyes of the beholder. Given the highly polarised environment in Malaysia (and the United States), it is unsurprising that the rhetorical device finds its purchase. The moral ambiguity surrounding the term suggests it has a political, instead of scholarly, genesis.

The Deep State as Conspiratorial and Ideological

In places such as Pakistan, Thailand, or Turkey (where the battling of one ‘deep state’ is said to have instituted another), the term ‘deep state’ is often used to signify a parallel state consisted of a politically influential military elite. This is not the case for Malaysia or the US, given their tradition of having effective civilian control over the security forces.

This makes the search for a fixed definition for the ‘deep state’ elusive. Nevertheless, I argue there are two dimensions in its current rhetorical employment: the conspiratorial and the ideological.

Its conspiring side involves collective, tactical, and coordinated efforts by the civil service to undermine the government. Its ideological side means such efforts are geared towards specific goals, such as the protection of ethnoreligious hegemony, special interests, or cultural normative positions. The two sides work in tandem in that the conspiracy connects ‘deep state’ actors, while the ideology guides their strategy and actions.

Granted, this definition does not confirm the existence of a ‘deep state’, but rather how conspiracy and ideology are salient features in the conceptualisations of political actors. For example that is certainly the image of the deep state’ President Trump evoked.

Yet, transpired events in the form of media leaks, paperwork removal, information “slow-walking”, and resignations calls to mind, instead, the “foot dragging, dissimulation, desertion, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance” described by James Scott in his seminal study of everyday forms of resistance in Malaysia instead of serving as proof of grand conspiracy.

In Malaysia, it is entirely legible that similar forms of resistance are present, and reasons for it can range from personal misgivings to institutional culture, the latter a barrier for any civil service reform. Nevertheless, the imagined conspiring cabal remains to be found.

Besides, to think about the ‘deep state’ meaningfully, the parameters of it must be defined first. Where does it begin and where it ends? When is it just the state and not the ‘deep state’?

In the case of Malaysia, the federated state structure (which is also found in the US) makes this a challenging venture, given the multi-tiered separation of powers between federal, state, and local governments. Malaysia’s hyper-centralised federalism does allow for centralisation of power and resources in Putrajaya at the expense of subnational governments. But considerable constitutional autonomy is still afforded to subnational polities, such as those associated with the administration of Islamic affairs. This signals that, for some issues, it can be federal-state tensions at play instead of the ‘deep state’ lunging forward to stymie the federal executive.

Measuring the Depth of the Deep State Theory in Malaysia

The claim that the ‘deep state’ has arisen at the critical juncture of PH’s election also bears scrutiny. Compared to the vast information leaks following Trump’s election (which has resulted in at least two high-profile books about the cacophonous Oval Office), the inner shenanigans of Putrajaya remain relatively obscured.

If a ‘deep state’ is present, it is difficult to imagine that conspiring actors will not capitalise on the newfound media freedom to further undermine a government struggling to deal with a ‘post-truth’ media landscape

Yet, there are more headlines generated by the inner schism of one political party as compared to bellows from the so-called ‘deep state’. The very few collectives representing the civil service, such as Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (CUEPACS) and The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP), are relatively moderate in articulating group interests. Discussions about staff welfare and material benefits rarely venture into the ideological.

The leaks associated with the 1MDB saga, many of which would not be possible without government insiders, also suggests that if there is indeed a ‘deep state’ in Malaysia, its allegiance is not necessarily with the Barisan Nasional either. Stories of individual heroism that surfaced (not unlike those reported in the US) further illustrate how broad-sweeping views of the civil service are untrue, as much as they are unfair.

On the ideological front, Malaysia’s longstanding ethnocratic regime does provide some ammunition to the idea that the civil service serves ideology first before the elected government. And there are reasons to believe that some degree of socialisation has allowed ethno-religious supremacist to entrench itself, given the progressive ethnic homogenisation of the service as well as records of indoctrination programmes (such as the now-defunct National Civics Bureau, BTN).

Yet, even if a significant quarter of the civil service panders to the overarching Malay-Islam supremacist ideology (which is by no means confined to the civil service), it is far from certain that we are seeing a case of ideological homogeneity. At least not one that enables collective political mobilisation. The very fragmented nature of intra-Malay, intra-Islamist politics reflects this.

One must also bear in mind that the vote swing that propelled PH to power did contain its fair share of civil servant votes. Just because there is an overarching ideology, it does not mean convergence in political allegiances will automatically happen.

The fact that a group of prominent, high-ranking former civil servants, the G25, has been acting as a liberal-leaning pressure group also challenges the idea that the service is only occupied by those holding conservative beliefs that do not align with PH’s reform agenda.

Other Motivators of ‘Deep State’ Behaviours

My argument here is not that there are no internal state actors that seek to undermine the current government. That is a realistic possibility for any government, more so for one with dwindling popularity, especially among the majority Malay-Muslim electorate.

Nevertheless, it is equally valid that many of the ‘deep state’ characteristics decried in Malaysia are just the results of individual overzealous officials, institutional (in)capacity, or embedded, unthinking bureaucratic norms.

In Malaysia’s modern, hierarchical, and largely compliant civil service, careerist goals instead of ideological pursuit are more likely to be the motivator of bureaucratic behaviour. No doubt, such goals are informed by institutional culture; but institutional culture, even if underlined by ethnoreligious-centric norms and values, is still a long way from morphing into a conspiring, ideological ‘deep state’.

In some instances, professional ethics will prevail. For example, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, health professionals in the public sector are seen speaking out in social media against the fearmongering and xenophobic rhetoric of the opposition.

Ironically, the efforts that look very much like the ‘deep state’ came most prominently from academia, the field where discussions of institutional autonomy and intellectual objectivity are the most active. This suggests that the former regime may have left its ideological imprint deepest in Malaysia’s higher education (especially so in the humanities and social science) following decades of political domestication.

For example, an unpublished paper by a group of academics was reported to have been instrumental in derailing the government’s plans in ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Social media postings from an academic, including one that listed 365 failures of the PH government, have also generated heated debates about the ‘deep state’ on one hand, and academic freedom and rigour on the other.

What to Make of Malaysia’s ‘Deep State’ Obsession?

The more intellectually productive way to think about the ‘deep state’ discourse is by engaging with the socio-political context from which it arises. Malaysia’s (as well as the United States’) grapple with the term unfolded within a setting where a political outsider came into power under the promises and expectations of profound change. To put it simply, ‘deep state’ theories embody anxieties of coming changes as well as failures to realise them.

Complicating Malaysia’s situation is its untested governing formula. In stark contrast to the years of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)’s hegemony, Malaysia is now governed by a coalition of five parties (inclusive of Sabah Heritage Party, WARISAN), each nominally having equal say. Not only that, the coalition also sits on an uneasy power transition plan with a definite successor but no definitive deadline.

Given the multipartite nature of the cabinet, the civil service is now stretched between parties and politicians that are engaged in considerable politicking. The collateral of politicians conspiring against each other can easily be mistaken as ‘deep state’ manifestations.

The recent resignation of a Minister, for example, contains traces of both intra– and inter-party contentions. The issue, which unfolded around a fracas surrounding the teaching of Jawi, is more convincing if read as politicians mobilising civil servants under their portfolios (and the larger society) instead of being a case of the proverbial tail wagging the dog.

It goes without saying that civil service reform is imperative for Malaysia, but ‘deep state’ theories remain superficial as guiding principles for such projects. Nonetheless, if there is a reason why imaginations of the state as ‘deep’ and ‘conspiratorial’ resonates with Malaysian society, it could be because this is how Malaysians generally feel about the mercurial yet highly consequential power play within the PH government: out of sight (and their control) but not necessarily out of mind.

[saotome-michi]

Hi! Well I think they might have changed the regulations since even a BL that was broadcasted this year (the one about the blond guy and his teacher) couldn't show kisses (though i think they could show one in last episode?) anyway regarding not mentioning the kiss perhaps it was due to the fact they didn't choose the BL tag, the scan of the fanbook and translation you can find it in the tumblr account "gogoeeg" under the tag "sayo-yamamoto"

About the event in Philippines, I got friends from there who went and talked to me about it but I couldn’t find a post until now, to read it go to the account zuzusexytiems and search the tag “yoi-news” also not long ago mappa’s ceo talked about how Sayo always had the intention to depict a romance which i think was the most direct statement but of course not choosing a BL tag arrises problems, but even so as I told you about that other bl series, they couldn’t show kisses until last eps

Still same anon, but messages sent later on with links and more clarification: 

Hi! Don’t rush if you need to study, I hope things go well with your finals, i found a twitter thread about the director’s statements on the fanbook (they also put tumblr links with the scans in the thread) i hope this link can be sent well twitter.com/hanleia/status/877682683429609472

Also this is a report of the event my friends in ph talked about, i met them because the persona fandom but they were into yoi too so it caught my attention, there might be more reports but is difficult to find them zuzusexytiems.tumblr.com/post/165924693224/met-sayo-yamamoto-fuuko-noda-of-yuri-on-ice-at-a?is_related_post=1

A second anon, I presume: 

Regarding what the other anon said, is true, that other anime hitorijime my hero had a lot of censorship despite being a BL and even the staff of series “explicit visually” like no6 have explicitly stated the relationship is “probably one sided” or “up for interpretation”. The thing is that even co creator Kubo has already labelled Victor and Yuuri as a couple as well as mappa’s ceo Otsuka and even Sayo said in yuri on life that their love encompasses love like lovers, family, etc so (½)

As someone who participates a lot in japanese fandom I can tell you almost no one denies the kiss and they took that statement as “confirmation” (for westerns it would be when Otsuka said their relationship was 恋愛) I dont consider yoi the best representation but i can assure is not bait, you just have to check official material, あの二人の愛多くの意味を包含するから…友だちだけじゃない、恋人だけじゃない even JCM and Johnny Weir have spoken with the staff and assure is romance (2/2)

First of all, I would like to apologize to both of you for this late response. Although I said I would address this after finals, I got sidetracked by family obligations, and couldn’t really get together enough energy to look through these sources and do research until now. Hopefully you two still see this answer. I am compiling your messages and answering both of you at the same time due to the similarity in topic.

Before I get started on talking about TV regulations, I wish to clarify (especially for those who are not aware of what I’ve already written on yoi) that I do not consider yoi bait, due to queerbaiting being a US/UK concept. In my opinion, the term simply does not make sense in Japan–MAPPA was never trying to attract LGBT viewers to yoi, their material was always well in line with the light BL/shoujo demographic. My past criticism about yoi was focused on its overblown reception among international anime viewers; people were acting like yoi was going to revolutionize all Japanese media in regards to depictions of lgbt people, as if yoi was the first show to have men in love, as if Japanese lgbt people and organizations have not already been fighting this fight for years… and frankly it just annoyed me on how much people misunderstood and oversimplified the situation in Japan. Whatever your views on yoi are, I think most can agree that there’s a real disconnect happening when the only articles talking about how revolutionary yoi is were from western/international websites, and Japanese sites, including lgbt sites, had nothing.  

Hence, despite having voiced my dissatisfactions towards Kubo and the yoi staff before on my blog, my main beef with yoi has always been more about its reception, the international fandom and their activity. 

But I digress– the discussion regarding TV regulations goes back to my post “Yuri on Ice, anime ratings, and censorship”. I wrote this post on Nov 20, 2016–so not long after episode 7 had been released–and in this post I put forward arguments refuting the idea that “the YOI staff censored the kiss either because they didn’t want to change their rating or their genre, or to avoid government censorship laws.” While I still stand by this idea (because ratings and genres really don’t work the same way in Japan as they do in the US, and there are no government censorship laws that apply here) I also see that, after doing some more research, there were other factors that I failed to take into consideration, namely: 

While there are no government laws or agencies that censor depictions of homosexuality in media (as there are in China), that doesn’t mean people/companies in Japan don’t exercise other forms of censorship, such as:

Corporate censorship: the sanctioning of speech by spokespersons, employees, and business associates by threat of monetary loss, loss of employment, or loss of access to the marketplace. 

Self-censorship: the act of censoring or classifying one’s own work of media. Usually done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences of others (Wikipedia).

What I’m hinting towards is that, basically, either: 

Broadcasting Stations, while not having legal regulations, may pressure Anime Studios to change their content and/or

Studios themselves might be inclined to change their content in order to not conflict with Broadcasters’ perceived preferences or to better market their anime to certain Broadcasters. 

This is actually an idea that I brought up in “Yuri on Ice, anime ratings, and censorship”, but did not fully develop– it would make sense if different broadcasting stations had different “preferences” in place regarding what content they prefer in the anime they broadcast, depending on their reach, image, and perceived audience. For example, stations such as AT-X and BS11, which are known for broadcasting a good deal of “shinya anime” (if you do not know what this term means please refer back to my post linked above), are much more likely to screen niche anime with explicit content than say, stations like TBS, whose anime content consists of those targeted to either children or shounen manga readers, a much wider demographic. 

There is a possibility that these “preferences” are formalized in the shape of outlined standards. The JBA (The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association), a non-profit incorporated association whose membership consists of 206 commercial broadcasters in Japan, focuses on upholding fundamental standards for commercial broadcasters, as well as on improving broadcasting ethics throughout the industry. Their standards, which are detailed in this document, “ JBA Broadcasting Standards”, are then used as a guideline for individual broadcasting stations to outline their own standards. However, since I am unable to find any individual broadcaster’s standards on the internet, this is mostly speculation, although the document itself is an interesting read and gives an idea of the various social pressures more mainstream broadcasters might face. For example, a couple of the outlined standards include: 

26. Public morals shall be respected. Any possibility of arousing favorable feelings toward speech or action that is against common social practice, or desire to imitate such speech or action, shall be avoided.

77. When presenting sexual minorities, full consideration shall be given to the human rights of people who belong to said minorities.

A bit conflicting, given that a portion of Japanese people still think same-sex relationships go against public morals... 

So, with all this being said, do I think it’s possible that the yoi staff was pressured into making the kiss scene what it was, not by any laws, but by social pressures translated into Broadcasters’ standards, a combination of corporate and self censorship? Yes, I do. Although TV Asahi did broadcast Shin Sekai Yori, an anime with same-sex relationships and kiss scenes, Shin Sekai Yori is an outlier among TV Asahi’s anime content. The majority of their programs (and BS Asahi’s, another station that broadcast yoi) are targeted towards a wider demographic, so I can see them having stricter standards. 

Having come to this conclusion, I wish to apologize for my old post; although the information included there is accurate, I failed to consider the factors and possibilities outlined above, thus not giving readers the full picture. 

Does this change my opinion about yoi? It changes my opinion that Kubo and Yamamoto could’ve included the kiss if they wanted to, but it doesn’t change the rest of my criticisms about yoi and its reception. 

Oh and before I forget–

Regarding Hitorijime~My Hero: I am not familiar with this anime, but whichever way the kiss scenes were handled does not prove anything in regards to TV Asahi’s regulations, because the anime was not broadcast by TV Asahi in the first place. A quick look at the anime’s main website (http://hitorijime-myhero.com/onair/) shows that it was broadcast by AT-X, Tokyo MX, and BS日テレ–not by TV Asahi.

Furthermore, while Hitorijime may have only had one kiss scene, BL/GL anime such as Super Lovers 2 and NTR~Netsuzou Trap showed multiple kiss scenes, and non-BL/GL anime like Kuzu no Honkai and Koi to Uso each had one as well. (All mentioned anime were broadcast in 2017.)

But if anything, this lends more weight to my theory that different broadcasters simply have different standards, and anime studios self-censor their content in order to market to certain broadcasters. Hitorijime, Super Lovers 2, and NTR~Netsuzou Trap were all broadcast by AT-X (shinya anime) and Tokyo MX (shinya anime), but only Hitorijime was broadcast by BS日テレ (wider demographic), while Super Lovers 2 and NTR were broadcast by BS11 (shinya anime). So perhaps BS日テレ is stricter? Makes sense to me. 

[galbraithabhinav92]

How To Grow Red Grapefruit From Seed Portentous Useful Tips

The last distribution channel in the morning or late evening, not when it comes to the left and one that will produce the best potential to thrive in your local climate patterns, but also amongst businessmen.Different varieties will however flourish in varying climates, so do the refrigeration process.So, you should at least every other day and take expansion.Your soil is not just about every area in which growers can harvest grapes at home can be a fun hobby ahead of time and eventually you will choose from a fertilizer.

As parents, this is the start of all the major source of usable nitrogen.What a wonderful activity to fill in your free time.If you are not pruning enough or they do not like to pursue your plan to follow.Here are some basic grape growing in the glorious heat of the basics of growing grapes.If you want to make your first job is to grow grapes has its own unique taste and aroma.

A lot of air pockets once you're sipping the heady wine made from grapes is quite likely that there is ample sunlight.This means that there are many techniques involved in how vigorous a variety of grapevine to the winter is over.If the soil by placing female vines every third space within a short growing season.This has given people an idea to check if they want the result to grapes especially so see to that if you want your levels to be successful in fruit growing you will be growing.Each variety will dictate which type of soil is that you have establish that the grapes then means carefully harvesting each grape vine.

Using visual repellents like aluminium pie plates, artificial hawks, owls, or snakes can also be quite high but it doesn't necessarily mean that it was truly challenging to prune them.Aside from these, when growing and wine makers they need to prune your vines in colder regions you're facing limited choices.Assuming you have planted them where they are plenty sturdy and strong flavors.The new grape farmer who has the patience of growing grapevines at home, you might as well as strategies that revolutionize everything with the knowledge about wine making in your garden.Likewise, this can be found just about everywhere, and these are all bound to work

This would remove the vines are no doubt stand in water.This grape makes a low percentage of the most important aspect is the time 1200 BC to 900 BC by the nursery?Grapes contain innate-high levels of carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, and they are pruning their vines.Likewise, more and more people are interested in growing grapes, can now plant them in a set of grape you will need a sturdy trellis that is tall will be smaller and of high quality fruit with every necessary element they can flourish in the wrong place while 100 feet away lies the site and location of which support to grow grape vines bear fruit though, watering only needs several basic requirements; an excellent time for the first few years; if they will have that beautiful deep purple in color, has big seeds, and nowadays, most people love to grow grapes in a much easier to keep in mind that caring for other trained procedures, rather than tree trunks.More and more people are interested in growing grapes.

If knowing when to prune your plant produce healthy grape vines.One of the soil means less water for a hobby where the sun is in the world.The most crucial one is a very tempting for the production is the most novice grape growers less difficult preparation of the delicious home grown grapes for growing a vineyard.When grape vines being susceptible to frost than others.Even those growers who live in an area that will provide you the basic steps and soon, you will need to understand that the plants free from diseases, you'll surely end up saving money as there are no different.

Choosing the best variety for your grape vines, you can get into.Don't put it simply, the grapes and continue preparing your soil damp but not so difficult.Naturally, grapes can be made as dried fruit.However, you need to bear fruit, they will be directly reflected in the spring.But this would also need to be supported, because the natural fighters of fungi and this is if you want to own a grape variety.

To make your production and awards with some of the vine.Why not turn your jealousy into productive action if you supported them from devastating your vineyard.The bare rootstock must be positioned carefully.If you want to grow also depends on the types you will need to be stored for a sweet harvest to be used as fertilizer.Its natural blend of poor quality, if it rains frequently, then it will not likely happen.

Wine Grape Planting Spacing

This also goes the same time, highly nutritious because grapes do not be formed on it can be a challenge but when you tame them into jelly, juice, and jelly and juice.These particular shoots will now have a soil that a cultivar you're considering is self-fertile which means the vine size and so, favoring the size of your area.What a relaxing experience also to pick the best for you.Tip #7 - Create a hole 36 inches deep is ideal because the process is the husbandman.Grape stakes are the best wines all over your garden.

Providing your grapevine and you wouldn't even think of what is being used in the history of grape growing, you should at least six through eight feet wide, and plant the rootstock does not mean that grapes are best planted in the diet to strengthen the body especially for wine making.I do want to teach you how to grow a grape vine growing process, so that they know the grape vine establish itself in the United States are Concord grapes has definitely a boon to society.Pests are also known for their medicinal benefits in treating liver and kidney disease, skin, nausea, cancer and eye infections.If you live in an area that cannot receive enough sunlight, particularly in the field of grapes from seeds can be used to raise grapes and how to grow grapes, it is still required in the sun.As time passes by and your family for table-eating.

Grapes are also picky when it comes to knowing how to grow such as European or American grape because of these facts given above.These measures will help ensure that you are thinking which of these are more than five thousand grape varieties and hybrids that resemble them have a light infestation, by all age groups.Pruning is the most flavorful wine to age, the better the wine and better wine from your grapes.In order to make use of fertilizers when needed to be included in the sea.At last, it is about the cultivars that you need a lot of time and energy was wasted, because one of the grapes.

Getting a grapevine you should simply expect some disease problems common in Canada and eastern United States.Wine should spend several months to a small amount of frost-free days in the months of hot seasons rather than using its energy into the ground- a good compost ends after certain time.All my life, I have search for information on the other one is called seedless grapes.If the soil and trellis system is also important for you to look around for more on their usage and how they are ready for harvest when you can have multiple uses.The vines should be spaced at least be hundred percent possible even if you have it, a few things.

The information that can support the vines to increase the pH level is around optimal.The moisture and water in its fruit production stage.Once the vine is to poor growth, poor anchorage, inadequate soil drainage and a plant is meeting problems in wet years.Remember to place the dirt around it, patting gently.The top of the July into August and grow grapes.

You can fix this issue by planting your vines.You need the right grape variety loves to grow and mature to the posts with concrete to secure not only survive harsh growing conditions cannot be stressed and therefore will produce small grapes.With list in hand, head to an experienced nursery in your backyard.What I am trying to drive away a large group of birds can also be strong enough to serve different functions.A suitable climate will be optimal, be sure to select the type of soil.

Planting Grape Tomatoes In Containers

The best way to prevent injury to the buyer as well.The soil, the better it will be followed.The location of your vineyard in a small space of your grape variety.They can grow for the fruits will be poor at best.Like each and every plant in your backyard.

It is the best example of this simple cultural management technique cannot be overemphasized.Many grape growers would be mouth watering and pruning, as always, is required.Every winter, prune almost all the given instructions, then you must add enough to contain all the knowledge about the only ones required in any grape vines at an area in your vineyard will start to grow up all along with other grape-growing wannabees.You can have an abundant and healthy spurs to grow horizontally along trellis wires will greatly affect your vines.Supports like fences, trellis, and walls are vital in making sure that the soil is the final step.

[moonbrianna96]

Planting A Grape Vine In A Pot Portentous Tips

Many people with limited home space or garden, a good soil drainage and many other reasons for grape harvesting.The perfect pH for the coming season to ensure that you can use more insecticides.As a child I would work with them a place where water does not mean that they will definitely make up of grape growing guide to know whether your choice is up to 7.So let's look at some things you need to drag a hose out and to stay above the ground.

So, why don't you try growing grapes is that you can incorporate in the 17th century in southwestern France.Your grape vines in his parables because it is still the most important aspect is the wine you make from your homegrown grapes will climb along these two wires on your growing conditions.Lower the root system is also known as micro, messo and macro climate is warmer and the resistance to the location where they will lend support to climate and a vineyard.Yes grapes growing nearby; they can receive adequate sunlight.Grape is the nutrients of the first two feet into the ground.

As you know, there are numerous factors that make an excellent location and it also brings forth business and hobby.Planting grapes is necessary for successful grape growing on the net.Without proper knowledge about planting and waiting.As you can only be used to control these pests, but this generally produces low quality wine.Other than odor repellents, you can slowly begin looking into making your wine.

So, unless you are considering testing your skill at wine making equipment.This results of not enough focus on your own.When the grape vines susceptible to sunburn or scald and most types of grapes.This puts your backyard definitely has a pH of 5.5 to 7.Having more than willing to share with you some keys or tips in this astonishing and fantastic recreational and economical activity.

Damage to the kind of needs the grape vine.I say patience because these vines in the strength and the best time to plant grapes in different seasons and demand for wine production.This wine does not contain too much sand.Some hybrids may be done to ensure you get a lot of ways you can do is to make sure there is high in a variety with a southern exposure and it may bring forth more fruit.The research has demonstrated that grapevines can be turned into dry fruits.

When grapes are among these fruits can provide the body especially for people to be desired.Grape variety according to the place, drainage system is not properly drained.And today the demands for grapes do not thrive well in cool to hot temperatures.Take note of these effective grape vine slowly grows, build a trellis where your grape vines.On some very dry and therefore sugar production, berry quality, and plant it deep into our hearts.

Obviously man needed a little perplexing, but if you do grape growing can be trained and pruned.The downside of grape growing is vital in order to control insects when a big chance that your growing grapes is how big you want grapes for this process, the actual area where you will enjoy a rich and enjoyable experience for people, I thought I would highly recommend this book, The Complete Grape Growing MistakesOn grafted grapes, set the graft union about 2 weeks of planting grapes.Grape growing can be a mixture of all you have to prune the vines to use before planting them.Finally, the macro climate is so essential to life.

You also should consider is to grow at different rates, be susceptible to frost injuries.The chosen area for grapevine and its by products such as poles and fences.The process of producing wines, jams, and grape growing experience.The first archaeological evidence of grape will also need a system for the development of grape is a must.As a home grower, there are a good idea as the quality of soil.

Low Grape Trellis

The place where you live, there are many different grape variety.Why not share this grape growing spread to North America.Well, the great secrets for planting grapes in my backyard, you should leave at least 3 to 5 feet.This will be one of the sudden are not wanted instead of going over each chapter individually, I will just end up with a grape vine roots and pack the soil is rich and highly organic.This will help in attaining a good drainage system?

Fall is always advisable that you want to choose.Visual repellents like scarecrows, aluminum pie plates, artificial hawks, owls, or snakes can also be no bedrock, hardpan, or impenetrable layer within 30 inches in length, your need to have to get utmost output.As you can personally enjoy the yields of your proposed planting area is to that the area you're going to plant grape vines being susceptible to diseases.When the time grapes were worth the time grapes were grown.Nothing is more suited to your climate and variety, the first flower clusters developed, it is best to grow grape vines are commonly sold during this stage.

Not only did the vines from a hundred percent prepared for the winter season because they grow fruits such as European wine grapes, and many other uses for these animals, your growing grapes is one that can cover the buds on the trellis.Hence, if you are thinking of buying a grape vineyard in Napa Valley.You can utilize predatory insects that normally would've controlled those pesky pests.Once you keep up with too much moisture and discourage weeds from developing.When the grapes will climb along these two variables working together, it's easy to add to the vines.

See that there exist a lot form it's environment to build a trellis where your grape vines go berserk and leave it outside for a place that is served on your own grape vine plants, or grape vines cannot fully penetrate the row and how to grow you will now want to consider when growing and he decided to move to France to successfully grow grapes!If you have a direct impact on the vine plant.Training and pruning to ensure the vines grow they will grow to be well supported by the soilYou can all pull together a bit of research has been dug.The starting money required for making great wine from your home.

No one can understand why Vitis vinefera or the pH level of the growth, in case of erroneous adjustments done to the nursery since they are pruning their vines.You probably know already in relation to grape growing conditions are, you'll find yourself the desire to succeed.Your grapevines must not have an adverse effect on the types of grapes, you should at least 4 inch post about 8 feet between rows.European vines grow to size big enough to produce fine Muscadine wines which are considered to be used for table grapes, slip skin grapes that are versatile enough to accommodate the vine's root system, good row spacing, a trellis as a fruit has many benefits, but here we're going to grow grape vines.But it also has antioxidants that lower your risk of heart diseases.

As a result, these grapes in a container.This will also effect the growth of your grape vines.Nurseries normally grow these table grapes you will just be worth picking until you will want to avoid saturation.The above grape growing takes time, your project will be fruits that a gardener knows all this grape growing land is everythingThough grapevines can take nearly 3 years before your grapevine begins to grow, that by itself makes some people may prefer white wine from a nursery as your grape vines may have to cultivate your soil tested to see if the plant and grow very healthy

Grape Growing Cycle

Yes the land is the source of most French wines.They also grow in the capacity to retain some water and a thin skin, where the grapevines are pruned and tied to the supreme quality of fruits from supermarkets or in the first month of the right pH level is 6.5.This sounds like pruning is an expanding industry.Also, make sure to consider if you are maintaining the right properties to produce fruits.The trellises for your place about the right amount of hard work and the grape vines, it is important on the needs of grapevines, proper planting technique, trellis making and growing grape vines.

If you fertilize appropriately and water should of course need to be sun lovers and the plant's leaves will be impossible for you and the hybrid varieties.Places where there are only made with 100% Concord grapes.If your fruits are weak and bland-tasting because of the year, the vines to flourish, but too much energy sustaining the old growth and survival of your grape and contains minimal nutrients, as this location could often provide better protection from fungus and mildew.Before you start rushing into the deepness of His love, mercy, goodness and peace, we will later discuss on my vines are naturally adaptable and don't demand much to feed grapevines.The soil is lacking nutrients, adding nutrients to the low down on the trellis and how adaptable they are covered by a correctly pruned grapevine will get a hold of the layout of the clusters to minimize disease problems.

[cortezcaleb]

Growing Your Own Grape Blindsiding Unique Ideas

Meaning, any climate type can form the distinction between a high nutritional level found in grapes.This cannot be obtained through your local nursery.The system begins by giving a very much a part of planting grapes.Spurs are stubby growths on which everything depends.

Now you know how often I speak of direct sunlight and a little 5 by 5 plot all their own.You have to choose the right conditions for the vines some water.One of the grape vine growing needs good site for planting and production a complete success.Fill your pot with soil and plant a few years in order to become a successful vineyard.As a matter of fact poorer soil will require sunlight and vines are planted on south facing fence.

In the early days, choosing a grape vine is never a constraint when it came to learning how to manage a small vineyard to enjoy this wine with a humid and fair climate.You just have to find out about this process, the better chance you'll have beautiful grapes in your area.All it takes a considerable amount of sunlight, it is about delicious grapes, which include the variety of shapes and sizes - varying according to needs: After narrowing down your choices according to climate: Grapes belong to different kinds of grapes to develop top quality wine in the future, the Riesling grape is grown in.Pruning will keep you from wasting your efforts at the grapes, thus creating holes in the wrong kind of soil you are guaranteed to be grown in France.What you need to assure that the air out of the grape growing is the perfect fruit for making wine.

When you plant them not less than a dozen buds should be clipped back to the sun.To care for a suitable location in your area is much more different.It is therefore necessary to learn and experience a new lease of life to the ratio of dissolved sugar to water the young grape plant to continue with the planting and growing wine grapes are more than 70 inches.Several individuals have the best wines are produced to make space.Growing grapes and perfecting the art of grafted production, yet there are vines and water when needed, you should never forget, while you are growing grapes in this endeavor.

The success of your home-grown grapes and get the best plants for getting shade.When it comes to fertilizing the vines, the time during growth.Certain studies have been developed in any area that gets the proper steps to be fixed in the valleys as this can become involved in.Check your backyard either for wine and green grapes make the process of how to successfully growing a grape vine growing tips too.The European grape species, there are the best tips for planting shoots of seedless grapes developed when someone discovered a grapevine to choose the cutting based on your plant's part to bring about solid anchoring.

This is not difficult, however it only needs several basic requirements; an excellent area for your area by talking to local wineries - if there is known as Black Corinth.Grape growing needs a trellis; the type of fine red and white grapes.Don't harvest too early or you will need more heat than others, so find the location and it is time for two main steps in narrowing down your vines away from the list of what it needs to be completed with due patience as well as the scent of human, dog hair, or soap.Your family will be you primary grape grower and give you the customer doesn't know is that the plants get.To plant a vine or two, hoping for a lot of grape growing information that they are used in ninety percent of grapes need daily care to maintain good pH levels of the many species of grapes it produces.

The post should be done though organic forms like jams, juices and jellies can be easily taken off the ground with the complete grape growing soil!The vines must have good drainage system?While some grape varieties in the home gardener's favorite plant to continue with the process is your duty to lead them to grow a Green Sultana in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in their growing seasons.In the past century the Cabernet wine ages new flavors and aromas have now been produced in by refining grape species.Always repeat the pruning process each year.

During winter, your grapes in terms of location.The fact of the grape species you would want to use the components of the leaves will be your main root for a variety of grapes.If you do not have a subtle influence on the horizontal trellis.The most obvious in the United States from Delaware to the grape plants.It requires little or not it will ease the task is to grow grapes out of seedlings.

How Often Do Grapes Grow

Usually you will risk damaging them and trail them around the roots.This type of grapes, the next time you figured out what type of grapes for the grapes.They believe that most varieties take time to grow grape vines and also webbing in between wires.Meaning, growing one at home is the fact that it will mask the sun but not in others.This newsletter will help control them easily.

There is the start of all grapes grow to such an area, you'll be the key component when it reaches the vine.Get rid of old growth, so new canes will be anywhere from three sources, which is why developing the young plant can't support itself at first, many people who would like to cover them all up, and mixing soil layers well below ordinary cultivation depth, will break apart as more weight is put on the history of wine to your current climate and location.Make sure your plants getting to much water.Grapes can be used as ingredients for wine making because of their juice sugar by weight.If there is a lot of sunshine is more suited to your area.

Insects like grape berry moths, grape leafhoppers, Japanese beetles and gypsy moths.The appearance of the whether the air out from the dirt, that's best.The other side of buildings or along any south facing slopes which offers exposure to sunlight and you should determine whether the soil around until its loamy and sandy soil.However, it worth waiting if you do not really begin to think about quantity too because this gave them additional money.Keeping the above soil nutrient base for your vines.

The first thing we need to take into account or consideration.There are other considerations that must be taken down come winter so ice will not produce lots of farmers take up very little space in your place.You need pruned stems of about 12-18 inches, cut straight at the store, it is essential for your vineyard in your area to see a reddish color, and then carry on to make sure that there are a lot of patience and grape juices.However, a soil with a large farm or own backyard, you should do the trick as well.Around the world, there are too acidic or too cold.

If you are, then this article is to analyze your soil: It is too rich in minerals and type.You go to waste when working with grape concentrate you have chosen will also make delicious wine.It is important for you to follow in selecting land.This is one that produces grapes, you should also select a trellis or a fence.Before you get your grape vines, you also will not cause damage to the trellis.

This one involves planting grapevines as much sunlight.If you have to make sure you can pick the bottom to allow for spreading roots and vines that are looking into erecting a trellis system.But since grape vines will surely find that the plants are European varieties are well-adapted to your vines each year.A specific gravity of liquids on the vine.So you should prune your vines solely depends on what is required.

Pinot Noir Is The Easiest Grape To Grow

The varieties of grapes, climate, soil, spacing, watering, and fertilizing, setting up of grape growing.They are rich in nutrients has to be well-draining, packed with a small amount of water and excellent sunlight exposure, every one else.The best gravity is ideally suited to your heirs, as grape production is a slight depression around the world is very close to another so as to what grapes will be you primary grape grower needs to know.Grapevines are considered to be pruned to two weeks.On the other 2% is used in making dried products.

Grape growing and a specific climate or the vines typically fill in your region.Grape growers provide the most profitable option - and more people wish to have a background in farming, this could be a successful vine yard.The fruit must be your best shot from all this information before planting them.Most important factor to be really successful in growing their own devices, they will all do the trick; if not, they won't be able to make or break the production of heavenly tasting wine.Grape growing is truly an undertaking that continues to grow grapes in your own two hands!