#i would have done such numbers in such scholarly company

[chronotopes]

it may be 2023 but i still want hit fanfic and the handmaid shall take the hindmost to get actually finished one day so badly it's unreal

[ghosting-medium]

・❥・ Southwest ˗ˏˋ꒰ 🦅 ꒱

Information by me

Moodboard:

Looks Like:

Credit: On the left: Teddy on X Link:https://twitter.com/planarbindings/status/1244663947715887104 | On the right: Rohan-Lockhart Link:https://www.deviantart.com/rohan-lockhart/art/Khin-by-Merwild-668153325

Hm his eyes are darker piercing they look right into your soul much like west's, he has light hair almost white I'm feeling, more masc leaning but seems to be more fluid and very assured in his orientations, "a scholarly soul" I'm getting that they rule more over intellectual activities and learning. Like a hawk, they have sharp eyes, determined but headstrong. He’s more stoic, and reserved on the surface level than South or Southeast is. he’s not one to let go of this “poker face” easily, he won’t surrender. 

Residence/Palace:

It’s not as much a Palace, as it is a library room. More of a battle, and archival space. It’s personal though, he has a an area for others to meet and adjourn almost. Like a private strategic battle area/office that doubles as a personal archive and library. Then a more open space for birds, reptiles, and air spirits to spend time and commune with each other. Almost like a roman forum in a way, meant for sharing ideas, cultural beliefs (cultural diffusion), sharing political ideas, sharing religions, information, but also just spending time and eating. It can be a very energized space, or it’s bare without people per the request of Southwest. He takes on the more private aspect like West, but enjoys company like South. Prioritizing knowledge, and acquiring it. He likes adventure, but if well thoroughly planned out and organized. Has to be well executed, and do its purpose.

Office/Archival/Personal: It has dark deep red, and brown shades. He’s very selective about who can enter, it’s not uncommon for him to ask people per say. But it’s not on the everyday occasion that people visit the actual office. The forum is fine and dandy but the office is special. High bookshelves, with a section for notebooks of his own adventures and his own history and personal feelings.

Correspondences:

Days of the Week:

Wednesday - the day of Mercury, the messenger of communication, curiosity, and creativity. Practical matters, continue working through your work throughout the week. Thoughts, and words flow more smoothly, so Southwest does a lot of diplomatic matters on Wednesday. He encourages those who may feel overwhelmed in the week, to declutter and reorganize. Set yourself up for success and not failure.

Saturn - the planet of structure and discipline. A methodical and responsible energy , catch up on your personal to-do list. You typically have more free time to run errands, to socialize, to think what needs to be done today to relax for tomorrow (Sunday). Refresh your calendar for the week ahead, plan out days to do certain tasks. This is the day of doing, but also strategizing. Based on needs it can also be more of a relaxed day. Do as what you see fit. To work with Southwest’s energy more than I would say connect to his more serious/stoic energy and complete tasks.

Special Days:

4, 8, 10

Fall Months - September to November

Autumnal Equinox

Solar eclipses

Draconids Meteor Shower - October 7th

Orionids Meteor Shower - October 21, 22

Taurus Meteor Shower - November 4,5

Elements:

Air - Primary

Fire - Secondary

Numbers:

4, 8, 10 - Based off my personal associations

4 - Means something is complete or it needs to become complete, joining numbers together to create some form of wholeness. Completion/coming to completion, connection, corrections, orders, working alongside others to achieve goals, teamwork, community, collaboration

8 - remember to continue with the movement of the past numbers. This isn’t the end of the cycle itself, however you’re reaching the end. The lucky but unlucky number. Don’t be afraid of subconscious, transformation, and the occult. Movement, transformation, spiritual rebirth, the ability to swiftly rise above any obstacles or challenges.

10 - Representing completion and wholeness, the cyclical nature of life, constant changes that occur. 10 is one and zero tied together so it takes the numerology from 1 and amplifies it in a new way. This is a call back almost to Southwest’s creativity, and ingenuity. If the number 1 is about now beginnings, and 10 is about completion it shows the cycles. All the effort made together to get to your final destination. In my associations 0 is a neutral option, it means divine intervention in some cases. With Southwest it might be the divine intervention of either West or South to learn something from them.

Colors:

Warm earth tones, bright pops of red and yellow. Reds in Central America symbolize passion and emotion, extensively combined with white for religious practices. The Fellowship is modeled after Catholic Hierarchies, so it seems fit that these two colors come into play for him as well. Orange is a color associated with him as well, a primary color in Nature for Central and South America. 

Planet:

Mercury, Mars, Saturn

Mercury - Use your voice to speak your ideas, strategize with your mind. Communicate to those around you for ease of success (know who you are speaking to, and trust those in your inner circle). Intellect and awareness are important with diplomacy, war, and knowledge of all sorts. Southwest isn’t about quick wit (although he can be fast on his feet in terms of wit and thinking), he prefers long drawn out philosophical plans. He priorities his rationality, paired with his practicality to execute long term plans with ease.

Mars - the action planet, passion and determination are what this planet is about. Within he realm of Southwest though, it really ties back to the Roman God of Mars. He had ties to War, but also Agriculture a more forgotten trait about Mars. he make sit a point to have more hidden beneath the surface. Southwest’s energy and presence are noted within rooms, even if he’s not speaking. He doesn’t per say command attention, his presence is attention grabbing. He walks with confidence, which makes sense given how long he might think about his plans (His words are also thought carefully, and worded intentionally). Southwest encourages though afraid to meet their challenges with intent, and plan to overcome; to not quit and to overcome by any means necessary.

Saturn - the disciplined energy of this planet makes itself apparent within Southwest. Responsibility, and promise are important to Southwest, he almost takes like them an oath. He might be suggesting to make contracts or oaths with him, think them out carefully and don’t forget to contract yourself a let out/a way out. He takes his word, and your word seriously. Additionally, managing and organizing time is important under Saturn, knowing how much time and energy will be spent on one task is important. It dictates how the rest of the day might pan out around you. Time has limitations, there are 24 hours within a day, restrictions might have to come since time is of the essence. Another aspect of Saturn is life lessons, what might find you in a past life in this one and how to overcome it. There is a more of a traditional aspect to Southwest, especially if more Chronological epithet.

Zodiac Signs:

Capricorn, Aries, Taurus, Virgo

Animals:

Hawk - Harris, Coopers, Ferruginous

Dorado

Marlin

Tuna

Bushmaster

Fer-de-lance

Armadillo

Monarch Butterfly

Bark Scorpion

Basilisk Lizard

Bearded Dragon

Box Turtle

Bullfrog

Bullsnake

Capybara

Porcupines

Desert Tortoise

Desert Iguana

Roadrunner

Jackrabbit

Cactus Wrens

Quail

Plants, Fruits, Flora:

Saguaro cactus

Poppy

Desert-willow

Barrel cactus

Agave

Desert primrose

Sunflower

Juniper

Yucca

Wild Bergamot

Yerba De La Negrita

Mountain Rose

Monstera

Peacock Calathea

Anthurium

Mexican Honeysuckle

Essential oils/incense:

Sandalwood

Bergamont

Rosemary

Juniper

Crystals:

Carnelian

Sardonyx

Topaz

Zoisite

Sunstone

Iolite

Sodalite

Citrine

Peridot

Serpentine

Green Onyx

Bloodstone

Fire Agate

Indigo Gabbro

Garnet

Onyx

Smoky Quartz

Obsidian

Black Tourmaline

Blue Sapphire

Mooksite Jasper

Red Jasper

Amber

Hematite

Divination associations:

Tarot:

Strength Judgement Justice 7 of Wands 2 of Swords Knight of Swords

Ruling, Domain:

Intellect, Strategy, Communication, Thoughts, Perseverance, Conviction, Self-Discipline, Patience, Control, Equality, Honor, Diplomacy, Curiosity, Learning, Acquiring Knowledge (not so much the application), Improvement, Spiritual Rebirth, Facing fears, Endurance

Family:

West - Sister

History, Mythology:

Epithets:

The Hawk

The Philosophical

The Acquirer of Knowledge

The Chronological

Keen Hawk

Strong and unyielding

The Confident

The Strategical

Offerings & Devotional Acts:

Listening to music:

More Dark Academia, Lo-fi would work as well. Not anything with intense lyrics though as it would distract from focusing

Taking care of cacti

Making a personal office, or place for you to work

Reading academic texts / reading in general

Researching something you’re interested in, devoting that time to research

Challenging yourself in academics

Playing strategy games and spending more time planning than acting

Play monopoly, catan, battleship, risk, clue, scrabble, poker

Worship his sibling, West

Watching the sun rise, and set

Set your phone wallpaper, or pc wallpaper to be the Southwest US, Central America

Sticking to to-do lists daily, practicing more self-discipline

Sticking to goals and promises to yourself and others

Keep watch of time, appreciate your time

Speak out to legal authorities in your area if they’re doing an injustice

Speak out, and advocate for areas you’re interested in, mainly advocating for education for Climate Change

Wear sunscreen

Open the curtains to let the sun in

Journal, keep notebooks of fun facts you know, knowledge you get

Join a debate team

Look at world issues critically, become educated (don’t take news outlets at face value)

Either practice, or become open-minded

Veiling

Be curious

Step outside your comfort zone

Candle Wax Readings

Fire Scrying - Divination

Altar Suggestions:

Cloth - in his colors Candles in his colors Suncatchers Hawk imagery Sun imagery Sun Water Books Notebooks Candle Wax Feathers Sand Terrariums Rocks Cacti Pressed flowers Have the altar be facing Southwest Wands, Swords (for element associations) Old to-do lists Keep the altar organized as you can Oil Diffuser Lemon, Bergamont

That is all the documented information we have on Southwest currently 🦅

Signing off, Ghost ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

[thetaoofzoe]

Fic: A Wild Woman 1/1

Title: A Wild Woman

Summary: By Victorian Standards, you are considered the dreaded Wild Woman! Your aunt and uncle threaten to disown you and turn you out into the streets unless you agree to a little re-education on how to be a proper lady.

Rating: Mature, fluff, Soft Dom Sherlock!Henry, sex, unconventional

Pairing: Sherlock x YOU

Note: This was inspired by  "A wild woman brought up a wild child. We'll make her acceptable for society." from the EH trailer.

Want to read more? Click for my Masterlist

Your Aunt and Uncle had had enough of you. They were fed up with your lack of female decorum and your absolute insistence to star gaze, associate with male aeronauts and start fires from chemistry experiments gone awry. But you couldn't help yourself. After the scandal of the woman who attempted to join the Chemistry Society a few years back, you had been forever changed. Women could do anything and you were intent on grabbing that elusive gold ring. If that meant attending boisterous underground resistance meetings, or not wearing your corset, then so be it.

Unfortunately, your family did not see it that way. To them, you were a wild woman who had no place in decent Victorian society.

One gloomy autumn evening, when your uncle returned from the gentleman's club, he sat both you and your aunt down at the dining room table for a talk.

Your uncle then gave you a choice.

Well, it was a choice between scylla and charybdis, but a choice nonetheless.

You were either to be turned out into the street to fend for yourself, with no money and no prospects and definitely no husband, or you were to travel to London to be kept, re-educated and made acceptable to be returned to society by a pair of reputable brothers who promised to produce reputable ladies.

What could you do, but agree to the latter, as the former was a nightmare you never wanted to experience.

So you made the long involuntary train-trek cross country to London.

The man who met you at the train station was tall, and slim with a well-manicured moustache that curled up at the ends in the most fashionable way. When he reached for your single suitcase and turned to walk away, you followed without protest.

**

Baker Street was a short narrow avenue that seemed unnecessarily busy for so early in the morning, and when the Hansom slowed, your companion opened the door and hopped out. He offered his gloved hand, which you took and followed him to the ground.

The cab rode off and gently taking you by the arm, the man guided you across the road. He walked up the steps to a dark painted door with the numbers 221b etched on a half-moon of glass above it.  He led you inside and up the stairs to a room at the end of a long corridor.

It was a well-appointed room. Against the wall was a large bed with a patchwork cover flanked by two low dark wood tables upon which sat twin lamps with beaded green lampshades. To the left, a tall window brought in the hazy morning light and illuminating the small writing desk beneath it.  There was also a large wardrobe stood in one corner opposite a bookshelf which was crammed with books.

'Your room, for the duration of your stay. I expect that it will be maintained without clutter.'

He then looked at you and slowly perused your form. You felt scandalised! No man had ever dared make his inspection of your body so plain before. Scandalised, yes, but a slow simmer of heat in your belly belied your inner outrage.

He humphed, and his  eyes moved to meet yours again.

'Sloppy,' he said. 'That you expect to be taken seriously, dressed like this is insulting.'

You opened your mouth and he lifted his brows, waiting for you to speak.

'I expect, sir, for you to watch your tongue when addressing me.'

He laughed quietly.

'My brother will be home shortly,' he said ignoring your protest. 'I believe you will be spending the evening in his company. Granted, he is less strict than I am, so don't get used to his...'

The man pinwheeled his hand in the air as if searching for the most appropriate word, but the opening and then the closing of the front door distracted him.

'Ah,' he murmured. 'He's come home early. Please wash thoroughly and change your clothes. I expect that you have something better than this?'

You narrowed your eyes.

'I will give you one hour and then come downstairs and into the study for inspection. The study is to the right at the bottom of the stairs. Have you... questions?'

'Do you intend to stand here and watch me wash and dress?'

He smiled and wordlessly turned to leave you to your task.

'We'll break you of that attitude,' he promised and closed the door behind him.

You wavered on your feet and collapsed on the fainting couch at the foot of the bed. You were breathless, excited, astounded that you were aroused by the man's quiet dominance.

'This is ridiculous girl!' you chided yourself aloud. 'This whole thing is ridiculous.'

But at least you were in London. You had promised your aunt and uncle that you would be 're-educated' and that you were going to come home the niece they always wanted so that you could be married off to the local farmer's son. What they didn't know, was that you were going to use the little stipend they'd provided and run away into the arms of the big city.

In the meantime, this was what you needed to do to get to where you needed to go.

You got up, stripped out of your travel clothes and inspected the pitcher and basin on the wash stand in the corner. There was water in the pitcher and a clean cloth hanging on the railing. There was also a lump of lanolin soap sitting on the side of the basin and you went about washing the dirt from your travels off of your skin. You didn't bother with a corset, or your stockings. You merely shrugged into your chemise, dress and shoes and went down to the study.

You stood at the closed door, humming with excitement and terror. What if this brother was a hunchback, with a mutilated face and was only gentle because his looks terrified everyone. What if he was old and decrepit and smelled of liniment! You wrinkled your nose at the thought and opened the door.

The study was beautiful, quiet and a fire burned in the small hearth. The walls were covered with dark tapestries and old maps. Books and newspapers were stacked everywhere, but it did not appear to be done in a chaotic manner. There was an order to this room and your heart clenched when your eyes fell on the man who was rising from the high wing-backed chair.

If Gods walked the earth, on a regular basis, you would not have been surprised by his appearance. He too was tall, like his brother, broad across the chest with a narrow waist and sturdy thighs.  He was in his shirtsleeves with a high starched white collar and dark brown tweed waistcoat and matching dress trousers.

And the curls. Oh the soft mass of chocolatey brown curls were stylish and clipped short and nicely complimented his handsome chiselled face.

'Turn around, please,' he said, his voice all honey and milk and you obeyed immediately.

'Face me again.'

You did so and he approached, hands clasped behind his back. He shook his head.

'You know this is unacceptable, don't you.'

It wasn't a question.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go, you thought. You had practised on the long train ride to London. You knew exactly how you were going to respond and exactly what you were going to say. But your mind had gone blank and only silence came out of your sweet quivering mouth.

You lowered your gaze.

His dark shoes were buttoned neatly and had been shined carefully. He was obviously a man who cared about his appearance.

'I expect things from you, when you're under my roof. This shabbiness and unruly nature will not be permitted and if you continue to pursue these avenues, you will be...'

He trailed off, and began to walk in a slow circle around you, prowling, like a sleek beast and you couldn't help feeling helpless.

Like you were prey.

He stopped after one revolution and stood at your back. He was so close that the heat and scent of him engulfed you. You closed your eyes, and sweat broke out across your upper lip and brow.

He 'humphed', sounding just like his brother and stuck a finger against your side. You didn't dare squirm away from his examination and you held yourself taut.

'No corset,' he said, finding you soft and unrestrained beneath your clothes. 'And I wager, no stockings or combinations.'

You were silent and it seemed that the very silence was a living creature, pricking your skin.

'Answer me.'

'No, none of that.'

He took in a long breath and let it out slowly.

'Upstairs, now. Gather your undergarments and bring them here.'

You turned so fast that you nearly banged into him. But you managed to scurry round him, and dart up the stairs as fast as your legs beneath your full skirts would carry you. You blindly grabbed everything that you had and nearly tumbled back down the stairs in your haste to please this man, this stranger, who within moments of meeting him made you want to drop to your knees and worship his masculinity.

He was still standing in the same place where you left him, back straight, head up, elegant hands clasped behind his back.

Out of breath, you stood before him, arms full of undergarments and he smiled. That smile took your breath away. He directed you to dump your clothes on the nearby desk.

'Now,' he began, scholarly. 'The makings of a society appropriate lady, begins at her skin. Do you understand?'

You swallowed hard and nodded.

'Good. Now, remove your clothing. We have to start from the skin.'

There was heat in his voice, filled with a demand that brooked no argument, and with trembling hands, you unbuttoned your waistcoat, unpinned your skirt and shrugged out of your rough collared shirt until you stood there bare beneath your chemise.

You worked your hands together in front of you feeling damp between your legs and ready to show him everything that was private about you.You unlaced the chemise at the collar and let it fall.

He looked at you for a long time, appreciating you, drinking you in and he was very obviously pleased with you.

He pointed to the combinations lying in a heap on the desk.

'Combinations.'

Your combinations were in two pieces so you stepped into the split bottoms and pulled on the top.

'Now corset.'

You went back to the table. You had two corsets, and you looked to him for his opinion.

'Blue,' he said. 'It laces in the back.'

Normally, as you dressed yourself, your corsets (when you wore them) laced in the front. But this one, he chose purposefully. He wanted to have control over dressing you.

The blue one was already partially laced so all you had to do was pull it over your head and hold it in place. You turned your back to him and waited. He began to slowly tighten your laces, starting from the top and working his way down, one after the other after the other he pulled the narrow fabric through the eyelets closing the boned corset around you, trussing you like a tart and stealing your breath.

The corset was tight, but not overly so, just enough to make you realise that you liked it. He tied the remainder of the cord round your waist and tucked in the excess.

'Will you take it off me when it's time?' you breathed, lightheaded with arousal.

And he hummed a soft response.

Then followed your simple cream and blue coloured dress, which you stepped into with his help. It buttoned up the back and he took his time doing so.

After what seemed an eternity, he stepped away from you and mourning the loss of his heat, you watched him walk to the chair, turn and sit down.

'Come here, and bring your stockings and ribbon.'

Like a puppy, you followed and stood at his knee.

He took the stockings and thin blue ribbons and laid them across his lap.

'Right foot,' he murmured and patted the spot on his thigh where he wanted you to put it. 'Balance yourself on the chair if needed.'

You put a hand on the top of the wing back and sighed softly when he rolled up the first stocking and slid it on your foot and up your leg. You bit your lip, but you couldn't look away from the deft fingers that trailed fire along your skin. He tied the ribbon just below your knee and folded the top of the stocking over it.

'Left.'

You switched legs and he repeated the process, only this time after he had tied the ribbon and folded the stocking down, he held your calf with both hands and looked up at you.

'Now you are finished. Is there anything that I did that you did not understand?'

You shook your head, not trusting your voice to come out as anything but a squeak. He nodded to acknowledge your answer, paused, and then slid one hand up your calf, to your thigh and over the material of your combinations to where they split to reveal your tender sex. He lightly brushed his fingertips over your naked mound and you made a noise that was quite unbecoming of a society lady. Clapping a hand over your mouth, you did the only thing you ever wanted to do the moment you laid eyes on him; you widened your legs.

'I prefer an unruly woman,' he said, sliding one finger into your slick wet cunt. 'I think they have spirit.'

Whining, you grabbed onto the other side of the chair and leaned on it for support. He stroked your clit slowly, carefully, pushing back the swollen little hood and pinched it between his fingers. You squeezed your eyes shut and stars burst against the darkness. You were going to scream if he continued.

'Please,' you whispered, jerking your hips forward, encouraging his further exploration. 'Please... just please!'

He slid his fingers out of you and with his eyes still on your, he put those same fingers into his mouth.

A cry of frustration escaped you. You hiked your skirts and climbed onto his lap, giving him just enough room to unbutton the opening of his trousers and draw out his leaking cock. You took him in hand and he grabbed your hips and pressed back into the chair as you positioned yourself enough to sink slowly down onto him.

You leaned back into his hands, tipping your chin up and moaning loudly, voluptuously, clenching tightly around him, circling your hips to feel all of him filling you completely. He groaned quietly, much more subdued, but no less aroused and he looked up just as you looked down at him. You grabbed his exquisite face between your hands and kissed him, lapping eagerly into his delectable mouth, letting your body rise and fall as your cunt greedily devoured him.

You pushed your fingers into his soft curls, and held his head up, kissing and biting at his plush lips, riding him slowly at first, and then faster as the crescendo of desire and lust and pleasure crested then exploded inside you. Every part of you clamped down hard on him and you rocked and back and forth, milking the shuddering orgasm out of him.

It took a moment before the two of you finally relaxed from your shared high. Still holding his face, you kissed his cheeks and his forehead and his lips over and over until his softening cock slipped out of you. You sat back on his thighs and imagined his cum leaking out of you and onto your combinations.  You giggled at the dirty thought.

'I'm Sherlock,' he said after a long silence, looking up to meet your gaze.

'I'm... smitten,' you answered.

Maybe a little re-education wasn't such a bad thing.

-End

I hope you enjoyed it. Please like, share comment reblog all that good stuff. :)

[scotianostra]

On 8th August 1503 King James IV of Scotland married Margaret Tudor in Edinburgh. 

The following is from  “Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis”  written by members of the Iona Club of Edinburgh in the 19th century, but taken durectly from the mediaeval Gaelic manuscript known as  MS 1467, 19th century transcriptions and translations from the manuscript have long been considered inadequate; yet there is no modern, scholarly edition of the manuscript. It is held by the National Library of Scotland. MS 1467 holds loads of information on many prominent Scottish individuals, clans and events. The account is as near to full details of the wedding as you can get, some words have been translated, others  not, for some reason............

The king was conveyed to the queens chamber, where she met him at her great chamber door, right honourably accompanied. At the meeting he and she made great reverences the one to the other, his head being bare, and they kissed together, and in likewise kissed the ladies, and others also. And he in especial welcomed the earl of Surrey very heartily.

Then the queen and he went aside and commoned together by long space. She held good manner, and he [was] bare headed during the time, and many courtesies passed. Incontinent [at once] was the bord [table] set and served. They washed their hands in humble reverences, and after, set them down together, where many good devices were rehearsed . . .

The town of Edinbourgh was in many places hanged with tappissery [tapestry], the houses and windows were full of lords, ladies, gentlewomen, and gentlemen, and in the streets war so great multitude, of people without number, that it was a fair thing to see. The which people war very glad of the coming of the said queen: and in the churches of the said town bells rang for mirth. The same day the king supped in his chamber, accompanied of many of the part of the said queen within her own. And after that, the king went to see her, and he danced some bass dances. This done, the king took his leave, and bade her good night joyously, and after the same to ychon [each one] also.

The 8th day of the said month every man appointed himself richly, for the honour of the noble marriage. Between 8 and 9 of the clock everychon [everyone] was ready, nobly apparelled; and the ladies above said came richly arrayed, sum in gowns of cloth of gold, the others of crimson velvet and black. Others of satin and of tinsel, of damask, and of camlet of many colours, hoods, chains and collars upon their necks, accompanied of their gentlewomen arrayed honestly their guise, for to hold company to the said queen . . .

A little after, the queen was by the said lords and company brought from her chamber to the church crowned with a very riche crown of gold garnished with pierrery [jewellery] and pearls. She was led on the right hand by the archbishop of York, and on the left hand by the earl of Surrey. Her train was born by the countess of Surrey, a gentleman usher helping her. The said queen was nobly accompanied with her ladies arrayed that is to wit, the said countess of Surrey arrayed in a rich robe, of cloth of gold; the two ladies Nevill, the lady Lille, the lady Stanneley, and the lady Guilleford, in riche apparel; and all the others following had rich collars and chains upon their necks; and good jewels. It was ordered by the said earl of Surrey, that two of the greatest ladies of England going together should take with them two of the greatest ladies of Scotland, and so all four to go together in a row; and so sewingly always two of the best ladies and gentlewomen of England and two of Scotland to go together as before, where they had room so to do: and thus they did daily.

Thus the said queen was conveyed to the said church, and placed near to the font; Mistresse Denton, her mistresse, being always near her; and all her noble company standing in order on the left side of the church. Incontinent [straight away] cam the right reverend father in god my lord the archbishop of Glasgow, accompanied with the prelates, all in pontificals, and other notable folks of the church.

Then the king was brought by a very fair company, consisting of his said brother and of the lords above said, his steward, chamberlain, the constable, and the marischall, with all their staffs of their offices, and other nobles, knights, squires, and gentlemen, richly and honestly arrayed and with good chains. The lord of Hamilton bore his sword before him. His officers of arms were in their coats, and all his nobles stood in order on the right side of the church.

Then the king coming near to the queen, made reverence and she to him very humbly. The king was in a gown of white damask, figured with gold and lined with sarsenet. He had on a jacket with sleeves of crimson satin, the lists [borders] of black velvett, under that same a doublet of cloth of gold, and a pair of scarlet hose. His shirt broided [embroidered] with thread of gold, his bonnet black, with a riche balay [ruby], and his sword about him.

The queen was arrayed in a rich robe, like himself, bordered of crimson velvet, and lined of the self. She had a very riche collar of gold, of pierrery and pearls, round her neck, and the crown upon her head; her hair hanging. Between the said crown and the hairs was a very riche coif hanging down behind the whole length of the body.

Then the noble marriage was performed by the said archbishop of Glasgow; and the archbishop of York, in presence of all, read the bulls of our holy father the Pope of Rome, consenting thereto . . .

At dinner the queen was served before king, with all the honour that might be done, the officers of arms, and the sergeants at arms, proceeding before the meal. On that day sir John Willars was sewar [attendant at the meal], sir Davie Owen carver, and sir Edward Stanneley cupbearer; and with her dined the said archbishop of Glasgow. The chamber in which she dined was richly dressed, and the cloth of estate where she sat, was of clothe of gold very rich.

At the first course, she was served of a wild boars head gilt, within a fair platter, then with a fair piece of brain, and in the third place with a gambon, which were followed by diverse other dishes, to the number of 12, of many sorts, in fair and rich vessel.

The wedding was christened the Marriage of the Thistle and the Rose, and was designed to create a stable relations between the two feuding kingdoms. In the coming century it was also to form the basis from which the Stewarts made claim to the English crown. The peace that they thought they would enjoy lasted a little over a year when on  9th September 1513 James IV took an army south and lost his life at  the Battle of Flodden, which I will cover in depth in a months time.

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (Rewatch #11, 11/20/2020)

YouTube publish date: December 23, 2018

Number of views on date of rewatch: 4, 394, 741

Original Performance Run: October 11 - November 4, 2018 at the Matrix Theater in Los Angeles

Ticket price: General Admission - $37, Priority - $69      Digital Ticket: $15      Rush Ticket via TodayTix: $18

Director: Nick Lang

Music and Lyrics: Jeff Blim

Book: Matt Lang and Nick Lang

Cast album price and availability: $9.99 on iTunes      Release date: December 23, 2018

Parody or original: original content, slightly inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Funding: $127,792 by 3,419 backers via Kickstarter (x)      Original Goal: $60,000

Main cast and characters

Paul - John Matteson

Emma - Lauren Lopez

Ted - Joey Richter

Charlotte - Jamie Lyn Beatty

Bill - Corey Dorris

Professor Hidgens - Robert Manion

Sam/General McNamara - Jeff Blim

Alice/Greenpeace Girl - Mariah Rose Faith

Musical numbers

     Act I

“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” Characters: Ensemble “ La Dee Dah Dah Day” Characters: Ensemble “What Do You Want, Paul?” Characters: Mr. Davidson and Paul “Cup of Roasted Coffee” Characters: Nora, Zoey, and Emma “Cup of Poisoned Coffee” Characters: Nora, Zoey, Hot Chocolate Boy, and Ensemble “Show Me Your Hands” Characters: Sam, Police Woman, Police Man “You Tied Up My Heart” Characters: Sam and Charlotte “Join Us (And Die)” Characters: Charlotte and Sam

     Act II

“Not Your Seed” Characters: Alice and friends “Show Stoppin’ Number” Characters: Professor Hidgens “America Is Great Again” Characters: General McNamara and Ensemble “Let Him Come” Characters: Ensemble “Let It Out” Characters: Paul and Ensemble “Inevitable” Characters: Paul, Ensemble, and Emma

Notable Notes:

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals won 12 2019 BroadwayWorld Los Angeles Awards (x)

Best Musical - Local

Choreography - Local: James Tolbert

Costume Design - Local: June Saito

Director of a Musical - Local: Nick Lang

Featured Actor in a Musical - Local: Robert Manion (Joey Richter and Corey Dorris were the other two nominees in this category)

Featured Actress in a Musical - Local: Jaime Lyn Beatty (Mariah Rose Faith was also nominated)

Leading Actor in a Musical - Local: Jon Matteson

Leading Actress in a Musical - Local: Lauren Lopez

Lighting Design - Local: Sarah Petty

Musical Director - Local: Matt Dahan

Scenic Design - Local: Corey Lubowich

Sound Design - Local: Ilana Elroi and Brian Rosenthal

Cultural Context: 2018

The #MeToo movement originated by Tarana Burke gains international popularity on social media

The revival of Queer Eye premiers on Netflix

Beyoncé headlines Coachella (#Beychella), becoming the first black woman to do so for the music festival

Megan Markle marries Prince Harry

Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters on April 27th

Content Analysis:

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals has the most original concept of a musical I can think of for any piece of musical theatre, on Broadway or off. It is a musical that is focused on Paul, a guy who, believe it or not, doesn't like musicals, but due to a mysterious zombie-like infection brought to his town, Hatchetfield, finds himself stuck in an apocalyptic scenario in which anyone can be infected by a hive-mind that forces anyone it infects to behave as if they were in a musical. Because of this, the only people who actually perform musical numbers in the show are those around Paul who are infected with this musical disease, which makes each musical performance all the more dramatic, as well as allows for the acting of the main characters to be much more at the center of attention than they would normally be if the characters were expected to sing out their feelings as if the audience were watching them develop through the lens of a traditional musical.

The strong book and emphasis on the characterization of the small main ensemble highlights the incredibly strong performances by the actors. The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is an interesting work in StarKid's repertoire in that the characters represented onstage are the most 'normal' characters the audience has seen in a StarKid universe. By now, the Starkid audience is used to seeing either parodies of well-known works, such as Harry Potter or the DC comic universe, inventive imaginings of other universes or periods of time, such as Starship or Firebringer. Yet, this production emphasizes the kind of characters and settings one sees in everyday life rather than the characters one sees in a sci-fi novel or fantasy world. The characters are played to represent a specific type of character often seen in media, and specifically mimic horror movie tropes with a comedic twist. For example, Professor Hidgens represents the off-kilter scholarly type, Paul is the everyday man dragged into the evil schemes of an unknown being's plot, Emma is the relatable final girl, etc. Yet, these character types and what they represent mirror the kind of everyday people we see in reality. Sure, they are written and played with comedic intent but their lives and place in the plot are human enough that the audience does not need to make the make-believe leap of connecting with non-human or glorified human characters-these people ARE human. Emma is an intelligent woman whose adventurous life turned into one full of grief for her sister and finds herself stuck in a terrible job in the hometown she tried so hard to get away from. Paul is a simple man playing the reluctant hero, but whose heart and genuine care for the people he is close to reminds us of the best of humanity when our society is constantly filled with examples of our worst behaviors. Bill just wants a relationship with the daughter he's drifting away from, Charlotte just wants her husband to love her, and Ted is there because, let's be honest here, we all know a Ted.

The characters also happen to be played by actors the audience would not expect to play that specific character type. For example, Joey Richter is known for playing lovable, funny, and relatable characters in StarKid's works, yet in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, he plays the most morally repugnant yet incredibly hilarious characters in the show and he plays that part so well and so convincingly that it's hard to believe he's actually playing against his type. Jaime Lyn Beatty, like other StarKid works, performs a strong, comedic character type as she always does, yet her performance as Charlotte has the most dynamic internal life of any character the StarKid audience has seen her play.

The most notable performance comes from Jon Matteson who plays Paul. His role as the protagonist, who is onstage nearly the entire, time holds the piece and the universe of the story together so perfectly. His dry delivery and incredible comedic timing work so well for the character that it feels as though you can go up to Matteson right after the finale and expect to talk to Paul himself because he embodies the role so well. Matteson’s performance feels so natural and honest that it's heartbreaking, even for the most fanatic musical theatre nerd, to watch him realize that he's fallen victim to the Apotheosis and turns into the thing he hates the most-a musical theatre character.

A horror-comedy musical is a hard thing to pull off, especially on a budget that was almost entirely crowdfunded, and even harder to execute successfully, which is why the only few commercial horror-musical comedy staples I can think of at the moment art Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, and to a certain extent, Heathers. Yet the consistent hard work that goes into creating a StarKid musical and the unique environment that process produces makes anything seem possible and destined for success. The level of creativity going into this production company and the work they create as a team is something that just cannot be done with traditional musical theatre as seen on Broadway because of such large overhead and emphasis on creating a profit rather than creating art. There have been and will continue to be many different creative teams making unique musicals for the general public, but taking into account global accessibility for all demographics and concept originally, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals proves StarKid continues to take the lead and doesn’t need the exclusion of any demographic in order to do so.

P.S. Happy Black Friday! Don’t forget to get in line to buy your Wiggly dolls ;)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide 2019

Here's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. Please add the causes and charities you give to in the forums!

Friends of the Merril Collection I'm on the board of the charity that fundraises for Toronto's Merril Collection, a part of the Toronto Public Library system that is also the world's largest public collection of science fiction, fantasy and related works (they archive my papers). Since its founding by Judith Merril, the Merril Collection has been a hub for creators, fans, and scholars. I wouldn't be a writer today if not for the guidance of its Writer in Residence when I was a kid. —CD

The Tor Project The Tor anonymity and privacy tools are vital to resistance struggles around the world, a cooperative network that provides a high degree of security from scrutiny for people who have reasons to fear the powers that be. From our early hominid ancestors until about ten years ago, humans didn't leave behind an exhaust-trail of personally identifying information as they navigated the world -- Tor restores that balance. —CD

Planned Parenthood Because we deserve health care, including reproductive, gender, and sexual health care. Because access to birth control and safe abortion is a human right. Because Trump's regime wants to destroy all of this. —XJ

Software Freedom Conservancy Software Freedom Conservancy does the important, boring, esoteric work of keeping the internet from tearing itself to pieces, playing host organization to free software projects like Git, Selenium and Samba (to name just three). The Conservancy keeps these projects legally sound and gives them a scaffold to hang their institutional structures on them. Without the Conservancy, the software you love and depend on would be in dire peril.

Electronic Frontier Foundation I have been proudly associated with EFF for a decade an a half now and have watched, half-awed, as it grew from a scrappy, brilliant little organization to a powerhouse of enormous scale and power. Every cause, every fight enumerated on this page and in your life and mine will be lost or won on the internet. EFF is the best hope we have of keeping that internet free, fair and open. —CD, MF

Creative Commons Creative Commons is best known as a tool for sharing-friendly artists, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Since the beginning, and all over the world, CC has provided governments, agencies, research and scholarly institutions and NGOs with the tools to easily share across borders and the bewildering array of copyright laws. We can't beat trumpism without collaboration tools, and that includes legal tools. —CD

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia) For 16 years, Wikipedia has been figuring out how to negotiate truth among diverse and even warring points of view. It's not always pretty and it's not always nice, but no one's yet found a better way to let ideas bash against each other until something everyone agrees upon emerges. It's not pretty, but compared to our democracy, it's a beauty queen. —CD, KS

Human Rights Data Analysis Group For more than twenty-five years, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) has used data and statistical analysis to hold accountable the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. HRDAG is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that provides rigorous quantitative evidence for trials, truth commissions, UN Missions, and human rights monitors around the world. In 2019, HRDAG estimated the number of women held as sexual slaves by Japanese authorities in World War Two; the number of people disappeared in the final three days of the Sri Lankan civil war; and the number of people killed in drug-related violence by the police and other perpetrators in the Philippines. In the US, HRDAG critiqued the growing use of machine learning in the US criminal justice system, especially those used in place of bail to determine who should be released while awaiting trial. HRDAG's analysis has shown that machine learning can amplify biases in criminal justice data, for example by worsening racial disparities in policing. Other ongoing HRDAG projects include research on mass violence in the Philippines, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and several confidential projects in the US and abroad . —CD

Institute for the Future There are no facts about the future, only fictions. As we've learned in this crazy political season, nothing is certain about tomorrow. But even as our attention is captured by the present, we can begin to write the story to come. A place to start is the Institute for the Future's Future for Good fellowship. Institute for the Future, where Mark and David are researchers, is a 50-year-old nonprofit that helps the public think about the future to make better decisions in the present. The Fellowship directly supports inspiring social innovators who are working to make tomorrow a better place. You can help too. Make a donation of $100 and you’ll receive IFTF Distinguished Fellow Bob Johansen's new book "The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything." —DP, MF

The National Wildlife Federation National Wildlife Federation is a voice for wildlife, dedicated to protecting wildlife and habitat and inspiring the future generation of conservationists. Now's the time: for the people currently in charge of U.S. policy, the cruelty is the point. —RB

The Marine Mammal Center When seals, sea lion, or many other sea going pals need help, if they get lucky, they may be taken to The Marine Mammal Center, a veterinary hospital just for them. Thousands of heartbreakingly cute, but very wild, animals are rescued, rehabilitated and released on an annual basis. I'm a volunteer. In addition to the hundreds of highly trained volunteers that make the hospital run, the center always needs cash for fish and medicine. —JW

Winn Feline Foundation The Winn Feline Foundation advances feline health by supporting research and education. Winn has funded over $6.4 million in health research for cats at more than 30 partner institutions worldwide. Current campaigns include funding for research on Chronic Kidney Disease, a condition estimated to affect more than 50% of senior cats. —KS

The Southern Poverty Law Center & the Anti-Defamation League The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defemation League fight hate, teach tolerance, and help secure justice, and fair treatment for all. "There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us." --Greg Boyle —JW

Facing History and Ourselves Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational group that helps young people study issues around racism, antisemitism, and prejudice in history, from the Holocaust to today's immigrant experiences to the killing fields of Cambodia. Their aim is to teach young people "to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility--and the responsibility--to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens." —DP

Free Software Foundation/Defective By Design The Free Software Foundation's principled litigation, license creation and campaigning is fierce, uncompromising and has changed the world. You interact with code that they made possible a million times a day, and they never stop working to make sure that the code stays free. —CD

Free Software Foundation Europe Software has eaten the world, and software freedom is increasingly synonymous with human freedom. In Europe, far-right parties and authoritarians are inheriting a constellation of gadgets and devices that are "defective by design," built to allow corporations spy on and control their owners -- and those thugs are contemplating how they can use those companies' extraordinary powers to put whole populations under their thumbs. Free software in Europe, free software everywhere! —CD

The Internet Archive: In an era where the control of information has been weaponized, the Internet Archive's mission -- universal access to all human knowledge -- is a revolutionary manifesto. The Archive has taken on a new mission: to re-decentralize the internet and restore it to its indie, distributed glory. —CD

Open Rights Group The UK's answer to Electronic Frontier Foundation, and never more badly needed than now, with authoritarianism on the rise and the constant battering of the electorate with political misadventures and grandstanding. Brexit could allow the UK to escape the oversight of the European courts, paving the way for even-more-extreme measures. —CD

Amnesty International I just looked up Amnesty's founding principles and found tears rolling down my cheeks: "Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done." These values need our support more than ever. —CD

ACLU On November 9, 2016 ACLU changed its homepage to a picture of Trump superimposed with the words SEE YOU IN COURT. ACLU's deep bench of kick-ass lawyers has been lately augmented by a much-needed group of freedom-fighting technologists, welded into the fighting force we'll need until the next election and beyond: from voter suppression to free speech, the ACLU is key to the fight. —CD, MF

Liberty With the UK plunging into surveillance dystopia where human rights are an afterthought and racial profiling is becoming official doctrine, it needs Liberty, an organisation with 80+ years' track record fighting for human rights in many incarnations of the British project. The Tories ran on a platform of repealing the Human Rights Act: when the government is officially anti "human rights," you need someone like Liberty to take the "pro" side. —CD

826 National Born in San Francisco’s Mission District in the back room of a pirate supply store, 826 National teaches young people the art and magic of creative writing through classes, DIY publishing projects, in-school programs, and drop-in tutoring at seven centers around the US. And it’s all free for the kids. Help open more 826 locations around the country! —DP

Fight for the Future Some of the Internet's savviest, hard-working-est activists. Fight for the Future has kept hope alive for Net Neutrality, leading the charge to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn the FCC's Neutrality-killing sneak attack. —CD

Demand Progress Aaron Swartz co-founded Demand Progress, and as you'd expect from that history, they're relentless in reinventing the activist playbook for the 21st century. —CD

MySociety Software in the public interest -- it's a damned good idea. MySociety produces software like Pledgebank ("I will risk arrest by refusing to register for a UK ID card if 100,000 other Britons will also do it") and TheyWorkForYou (every word and deed by every Member of Parliament). It's plumbing for activists and community organizers. —CD

https://boingboing.net/2019/12/03/charitablegivingguide2019.html

[dorianthey]

debunking jk rowling’s “research” one statement at a time:

note: I will not be looking at JK Rowling’s anecdotes. I’ll only be pointing out flaws in data and retelling of events.

Image: “For people who don’t know: last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets. She took her case to an employment tribunal, asking the judge to rule on whether a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology is protected in law. Judge Tayler ruled that it wasn’t.”

- Judge Tayler was asked to rule on whether a philosophical belief that gender is determined by biology is protected in law, not sex. This is why he ruled against Maya Forstater.

- Maya Forstater was a visiting fellow, meaning her placement wasn’t permanent and her contract was renewed on a year-by-year basis. The company she was working for, the Centre for Global Development (CGD), took issue with her insistence, both on Twitter and in real life, that she refer to transwomen as men and they believed she was fostering a hostile work enviroment. At the end of her contract, the CGD chose not to renew it. Judge Tayler made it clear that Maya Forstater retained her right to freedom of speech but that there were no grounds for her to demand that the CGD renew her contract.

Image: “Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.”

- Magdalen Berns wasn’t just a “brave young feminist” who also held strong views on “the importance of biological sex”, that was her whole thing. Her YouTube channel and Twitter were built around attacking transpeople under the guise of feminism. She even called Blaire White a “he”. That’s how far gone she was. She wasn’t your average “gender critical” feminist.

- Fun fact: Magdalen Berns also believed that the trans rights movement in the UK was the product of lobbying by Jewish billionaires, so take that as you will.

Image: “The fourth is where things start to get truly personal. I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility. Some say they decided to transition after realising they were same-sex attracted, and that transitioning was partly driven by homophobia, either in society or in their families.”

- Detransitioners are a miniscule amount of the population. Only 8% of people who identified as trans detransitioned (trans people only make up close to 1% of people so its actually 0.08% of the total population) and only 0.3% do so after surgery.

Image: “Most people probably aren’t aware – I certainly wasn’t, until I started researching this issue properly – that ten years ago, the majority of people wanting to transition to the opposite sex were male. That ratio has now reversed. The UK has experienced a 4400% increase in girls being referred for transitioning treatment. Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers.”

- A 4400% increase? It’s almost as if once trans people have access to gender clinics, they’re going to try and transition. Of course there’s been 4400% increase. It was unbelieveably difficult to get referred for trasitioning treatment before. The numbers were next to none. Now that its accessable, people are taking advantage of their resources.

Image: “The same phenomenon has been seen in the US. In 2018,  American physician and researcher Lisa Littman set out to explore it. In an interview, she said: ‘Parents online were describing a very unusual pattern of transgender-identification where multiple friends and even entire friend groups became transgender-identified at the same time. I would have been remiss had I not considered social contagion and peer influences as potential factors.’”

- Woah, it turns out “entire friend groups” were trans??? It’s almost as if people become friends with people who have similar lived experiences to them. You know how so many LGB kid think they’re the only one who isn’t straight in their friendship group, but then it turns out that the majority of their friends were LGB? It’s the same thing.

- Littman’s paper has been widely discredited for poor data. For one, it doesn’t actually survey trans youth, its surveys parents. On top of that, it surveys parents from biased websites with such charming titles as “4thwavenow”, “transgendertrend” and  “youthtranscriticalprofessionals”. Its bad data, plain and simple. She goes on to talk about how Littman was “subjected to a tsunami of abuse and a concerted campaign to discredit both her and her work”. Yeah, that’s because her work was bad. It should be discredited.

Image: “The argument of many current trans activists is that if you don’t let a gender dysphoric teenager transition, they will kill themselves. In an article explaining why he resigned from the Tavistock (an NHS gender clinic in England) psychiatrist Marcus Evans stated that claims that children will kill themselves if not permitted to transition do not ‘align substantially with any robust data or studies in this area. Nor do they align with the cases I have encountered over decades as a psychotherapist.’”

- I like how she doesn’t refer to a study, she just refers to claims a disgraced psychiatrist made.

- Of course, this is just blatantly wrong. Here’s a link to 51 peer reviewed papers that show that gender transition has a positive effect on the wellbeing of trans youth and 4 with mixed or null results: https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-the-well-being-of-transgender-people/

- Some studies literally show that parents affirming their child’s gender identity can reduce the chance that they’ll make a suicide attempt in a year from 57% to 4% (http://transpulseproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Impacts-of-Strong-Parental-Support-for-Trans-Youth-vFINAL.pdf). Affirmation and support is so important for keeping trans youth here.

Image: “I want to be very clear here: I know transition will be a solution for some gender dysphoric people, although I’m also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria. Again and again I’ve been told to ‘just meet some trans...”

- The “extensive research” she is referring to is a study that lumped together gender non-conforming (GNC) youth and transgender youth. Wow, cis GNC people exist? Science, you sexy beast, you’ve done it again. Trans people only make up about 1% of the population. Most GNC youth are just going to be GNC, not trans. It all pans out.

- The big study this all stems from also considered all the people who did not respond to the follow-up call (30% of participants) as “desisters”. It’s not good science.

- Something else that I need to say is that not all people who are referred with gender dysphoria in their youth transition then. That’s why puberty blockers exist, so kids can have more time to think about their gender before getting bad dysphoria when they start puberty. Blockers are completely reversible too, by the way. Things start moving again once you stop taking them.

The rest of her piece is largely anecdotal and I will not be “critiquing” her past dealing with abuse and assault. While I can understand people cussing her out on Twitter, I draw the line firmly before trivialising the trauma this woman deals with and thus, I will no longer comment. That being said, keep in mind that not everyone who comments on her anecodotes is attacking her or dismissing her issues.

Here it is. Do what you will :)

[getbook]

What is MBBS?

MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) course is 5.5 years college degree with 4.5 years obviously study and 1 year of obligatory entry level position in different fields of medication. The course is partitioned into 9 semesters in which one will increase a diagram of different MBBS subjects like life systems, pediatrics, natural chemistry, and numerous different subjects during the entire course.To make sure about affirmation in this course, one must have a base score of half or above in 10+2 in science subjects with English as an obligatory subject. Admissions to this course can be acquired based on placement tests score like NEET and others.

MBBS expenses change contingent upon government and private universities. With normal MBBS course charges running from INR 10,000 to INR 6 Lakhs, one can seek after this degree from top universities like AIIMS, Christian Medical College, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, and so forth. There are a lot of occupation profiles accessible subsequent to seeking after this MBBS course in the friendliness and drug divisions. One can likewise go for advanced education or PG/Doctorate courses like Master of Science (MS) course or Doctorate in Medicine (MD) course check here.

Do I qualify MBBS Eligibility models?

Following are the basic qualification prerequisites to be satisfied by the understudies so as to pick up MBBS affirmation:

Competitors probably passed their 10+2 degree of degree with half from any perceived board in science subjects like Physics, Chemistry, and Zoology/Botany with English as the fundamental subject for their passing assessment.Up-and-comers probably finished the age of 17 years before looking for admission to the MBBS course.Applicants need to fit the bill for the necessary selection test for MBBS affirmations. Understudies having a place from the held class must have a base level of 40%.All the understudies should satisfy the extra qualification conditions referenced by the administrative experts for MBBS for example Clinical Council of India (MCI).

MBBS Admission Process

What is the MBBS Admission Process?

So as to make sure about an affirmation in any of the top universities offering MBBS in India, one needs to clear the NEET assessment with an incredible score. NEET is led by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Enlistment for Entrance: Aspirants should enlist by signing in to the online interface, entering the individual subtleties like candidate name, date of birth, versatile number, email ID, and so on.Structure Filling and Documents Upload: Once the enrollment is done, up-and-comers need to fill the application structure online by giving individual and scholarly subtleties. Post effectively filling the structure, one should transfer all the archives required.Installment of NEET Application Fee: One should pay the application expense at the extremely next stage after effectively topping the structure off.Concede Card: Based on the record of subtleties submitted, concede cards will be given to the qualified up-and-comers.Placement tests: First, competitors need to show up for the selection tests and qualify the passage with a decent score, so they can rank in the legitimacy list.Directing: The chose applicants will be welcomed for the advising meeting dependent on the understudy's position. Up-and-comers need to choose their preferred school from the universities offered to them dependent on the rank they hold. When they have selected their favored school, they have to introduce the records specialists have requested.

What are the top MBBS Entrance Exams?

So as to get an affirmed MBBS affirmation, NEET is considered as the most critical assessment by the hopefuls. Consistently, in excess of 15 lakhs understudies show up for this test. According to the Supreme Court of India, it is obligatory for clinical understudies to clear NEET.

NEET assessment includes 3 areas: Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. The test includes 180 inquiries, in which for each right answer you will be allocated with 4 imprints though, for each off base answer 1mark will be deducted. It is a MCQ based paper.

What after MBBS?

MBBS graduates are exceptionally moved in the social insurance division. Openings for work for MBBS graduates are in both private and government divisions. A lot of occupations are accessible for these experts in the field of Biomedical Companies, Health Centers, Hospitals, Laboratories, Nursing Homes, Polyclinics, Private Practice, and so forth.

With open positions like Anesthetist, Cardiologist, and then some, the top enrollment specialists of MBBS applicants are Medanta Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare Ltd, Apollo Munich Health Industries Co Ltd, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Cipla Ltd, and so forth.MBBS Abroad alumni are additionally in an immense interest nowadays. Seeking after this course from outside India costs more than concentrating in India. The qualification models for affirmation, the selection test, normal expenses, archives required, and different boundaries change when you study MBBS Abroad. While making sure about confirmation in Abroad in this course, one must need to clear the nation level test and language test.MBBS is a degree after which one can either seek after work in any of the above divisions or can decide to concentrate further. There are various advanced education courses accessible after this course consummation. In the event that you want to get spent significant time in a specific sort of subject, at that point you can go for bosses and doctorate degrees.

Ace of Surgery: After effectively finishing MBBS, one can go with a Master of Surgery. There are adequate specializations to seek after medical procedure courses like Ophthalmology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and some more. Seeking after an ace of medical procedure degree would make one a specialist in a particular subject of medication.Doctorate of Medicine: MD (Doctor of Medicine) is one of the mainstream courses as it is selected by countless understudies in the wake of getting their Study mbbs in china degree. Beginning from General Medicine, Pathology, Physiology, to Anatomy, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, and that's only the tip of the iceberg, there are different specializations to go with.Qualifying with a MBBS degree is itself a matter of honor, however seeking after any of the previously mentioned courses further would improve one's notoriety more. This would likewise offer acknowledgment for a lifetime and one can appreciate an incredible ascent in their yearly compensation.

[arcticdementor]

A common topic around the web is whether automation will drastically increase unemployment. The usual scholarly answer is only a bit, and conservatives often insist that new jobs will always be found. Actually, automation has already created much joblessness. It continues to do so. We don’t notice because we have disguised the unemployment.

Consider. In 1850, everybody worked. In England, children notoriously were sweated in mines and factories and, in America, worked on their parents’ farms.

Then child labor laws took kids off the labor market, keeping them from competing with adults. Compulsory high school removed adolescents perfectly capable of doing many jobs of adults. College now keeps millions more in, usually, economically pointless idleness. We have over three million people in prisons. Large numbers live on welfare. The government factors none of these into the unemployment stats. If it did, the unemployment numbers would rise sharply.

…

This buffering of the unemployed seems to be reaching its limits. In principle I suppose we might encourage our less and less literate college populations to become post-docs in Victims’ Studies, or to engage in the proliferation of ever more glorious aircraft carriers. Sooner or later, though, the pointlessness would become too obvious.

…

What happens when you throw onto the labor market millions of Mexicans who cannot be buffered and women who do not want to be rebuffered? Easy. The oversupply drives wages down. The Mexicans do for five dollars an hour what had been done by whites for twenty. Women got generally the same pay as men, and did the jobs as well as men. But there were lots lots of them, which gave employers a negotiating advantage.

Wages went down. Some of the decline took the form of loss of benefits, so it didn’t always look like a pay cut. Retirement went away. Workers were turned into “independent contractors” meaning on their own for medical care and so on. Soon it took two people to maintain a family, not one as before. Now people live paycheck to paycheck, maxed out on credit cards, with no savings and little hope. This has produced joblessness, deplorables, Donald Trump, and riots.

Note that automation has ripple effects both upstream and downstream of the loss of jobs reported in the press. When a big newspaper goes all-digital, Weyerhauser sells fewer trees to make wood pulp, the newsprint factories lose orders, the truckers who drove the newsprint to the paper become redundant (as the Brits say), the pressmen get laid off who run and maintain the big four-color web-offset presses, the company that makes the presses lose orders, the people who delivered the papers to your door step lose their jobs, and so on.

…

I read over and over of the young living in their parents’ basements because they can’t find jobs, or jobs paying enough for them to buy houses and start families, of people who will nevr be able to retire. Humanity being what it is, we won’t see this coming and somehow prepare for it.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

_ One great advantage of not needing money is that you are looking for Larry and Sergey. I thought studying philosophy would be a shambles. He succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups, because it's an early instance of what will become a common pattern.1 That's a big advantage.2 The latter is much more damping. The idea sounds horrible, doesn't it? In the average car restoration you probably do make it.3 The whole thing was only a couple thousand left. You could call it Work Day.

You'll pay more for Internet services than you do.4 How do you find the right sort of person you are, you should probably pack investor meetings too closely, you'll have to earn your keep.5 9 years it was my job to predict whether a startup would usually become profitable only after raising and spending quite a lot of things e. There is not an ordinary economic relationship than companies being sued for violating the DMCA, part of the job; but it is not clear whether you can actually get work done. Wealth is defined democratically.6 As jobs become more specialized—more articulated—as they develop, and startups should simply ignore other companies' patents. Design by committee is a synonym for very. But I suspect it's the startup world. I'm still not sure whether he thought AI required math, or whether contractors count too.7 This is usually done to make the region a center of scholarship and industry which have been closely tied for longer than most people think. And indeed, that might be at different companies. The early adopters you need to use a more succinct language, and adults use them all the time, and both the headers and from the circumstances of your upbringing respectively.

And more to the point where they're issued, we may in some cases it's possible to be part of a powerful new idea: allowing those who made a lot of people fast.8 If all companies were essentially similar, but some of the other programmers what language to use, and some ability to ferret out the unexpected. Till now, nearly all humans find human faces engaging. But if you talk too loosely about very abstract ideas—they continued to spam me or a network I was part of, Hostex itself would be recognized as a spam term. Bill Yerazunis. Which means if the qualities that made it hard to come up with startup ideas on demand. And since no one is doing them yet. Though most founders start out excited about the Internet is the primary medium. They're just a couple guys started on the side of making the software run on the client. Impossible? Measurement alone is not enough. In another year you'll be making $80k a month instead of $160k.9

But I don't see why it ought to be writing about them. Mapmakers deliberately put slight mistakes in their maps so they can show you only things that are missing. Overlooked problems are by definition problems that most people who are bad at deciding what to do once you've thought of it. I'd like to reply with another question: why were the exit polls cooked the books after seeing the actual returns. And once you start raising money, for example, does not seem to be many universities elsewhere that compare with the best people that Google and Apple are doing so much better than me.10 It's intended for college students and you decide to move to your silicon valley like to get money. All I took with me was one large backpack of stuff. At Viaweb our whole site was organized like a funnel, directing people to the test drive.11 The ones who keep going are driven by exit strategies. You start being an adult when you decide to focus on working with other students. But there's a magic in small things that goes beyond such rational explanations. So the fact that so many people refer deals to him is that his company was not the conclusion Aristotle's successors derived from works like the Metaphysics, but that there can even be such a test?

At MIT in the mid 90s a fellow grad student of my friends are starting to feel like a little bit in the commitment department, and that was called playing. Systematic is the last word after all.12 Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the smartest students leave school thinking they have to say yes.13 The unsexy filter is to ask, could one open-source browser. Are Clueless A lot of startups don't want to sell, they take you up, no competitor can keep you down.14 Some switched from driving Ford sedans to driving small imported cars, and they're clearly it. In Lisp, functions are first class objects.15 Whereas now the phrase already read seems almost ill-formed. US News list is meaningful is precisely because they attract so much attention. The main reason there are so many iPhone apps is that so many still make you register to read stories.

Kids know, without precedent: Apple is popular at the low end. The professors will establish scholarly journals and publish one another's papers. A fair number of smart people too, but again, diluted; there are lots of potential winners, from which a few actual winners emerge with hyperlinear certainty. I go to bed leaving code with a bug in code you just wrote. How much is that extra attention worth?16 He was one of few they had that we didn't even know they were recording. And if things go well, this shouldn't matter. We just took it for granted. The random college kid you talk to, but instead of pursuing this thought they tended to be at least some super-angels don't like. If you work on changes you. After we were bought by Yahoo, the customer support people and hackers.

Notes

For example, if your school, and partly because you can eliminate, do it is.

It would be to say that Watt reinvented the steam engine.

If you believe in free markets, they made more margin loans. 166. Analects VII: 36, Fung trans.

In a startup: one kind that evolves into Facebook is a very misleading number, because the remedy was to become one of the biggest company of all, economic inequality. That's the lower bound.

After reading a draft, Sam Altman points out that there is some weakness in your country controlled by the fact that the probabilities of features i. When one reads about the nature of server-based applications greatly to be delivering results.

5 mentions prices ranging from designers to programmers to electrical engineers. For most of them consistently make money, the term copyright colony was first used by Myles Peterson. Financing a startup is a matter of outliers, and are paid a flat rate regardless of the court.

Parker, William R. There may even be tempted, but it doesn't seem to someone in 1880 that schoolchildren in 1980 would be on the Internet worm of 1988 infected 6000 computers.

8 says that 15-20% of the edge? Not startup ideas, because unions will exert political pressure to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a face-saving compromise. They'll be more like determination is proportionate to wd m-k w-d n, where there is one of a powerful syndicate, you create wealth in a signal.

It didn't work out a chapter at a 3 year old, a player who persists in trying such things can be compared, per capita income in England in 1750 was higher than India's in 1960. But that is not to. Delivered as if having good intentions were enough to answer the question is only half a religious one; there is one you take out your anti-dilution provisions, even though it's a harder problem than Hall realizes. But that oversimplifies his role.

And perhaps even worse in the Ancient World, Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M. This is almost always bullshit.

It was common in, but nothing else: no friends, TV, go ahead.

The meaning of a place to exchange views. The reason you don't, but in fact the less educated parents seem closer to a new version of Word 13.

I know for sure which these will be better for explaining software than English. Most unusual ambitions fail, no one is going to work in research too. P supermarket chain because it was because he was exaggerating. I've twice come close to 18% of GDP were about the other hand, he wrote a program to generate series A rounds from top VC funds whether it was overvalued till you run through all the combinations of Web plus a three hour meeting with a face-saving compromise.

You can safely write off all the East Coast. The need has to give each customer the impression that the only way to tell how serious potential investors and they were saying scaramara instead of bookmarking. Information is too general. If a company with rapid, genuine growth is valuable, and all those 20 people at once, and all the money.

Garry Tan pointed out that successful startups have elements of both consist mostly of unedifying schleps, and stir.

But the money.

[sulevinblade]

Hi there! May I request the prompt ❝ the last man standing gets final say on who is right or wrong. ❞ for Varevas? :)

THANK YOU! I’m sorry this took so, so… so long, but I hope you enjoy it! Varevas and an ensemble cast (Hawke, Solas, Dorian/light pavellan, Varric, Bull, Alistair), leading up to Adamant, ~1150 words, implied character death. For @dadrunkwriting!!

She’s not what he expected. Granted, he didn’t know much about her before this but he certainly didn’t anticipate that the famed Champion of Kirkwall would be a woman who barely cleared his shoulder but shook his hand with more force than Cullen. Her black hair hangs long and free about her like a cape and he can see in the way she moves and carries herself some genetic memory of the nobility her family once was, a history she never lived where she would’ve been the sort of woman to wear a cape.

She remains a wanted woman so he doesn’t get to spend a fraction of the time speaking with her that he’d like to at Skyhold, but every moment of downtime in the building of their forces for the assault on Adamant is spent reading through Varric’s record of their time together in Kirkwall. It makes his selection for his forward party at Adamant astonishingly simple, because he insists Hawke share their camp so he can pick her brain, learn all he can about her magic in the short time he has.

What he learns is that there’s a reason she’s the Champion of Kirkwall. Forces he can’t even see take him from his feet again and again, barely giving him time to get stable enough to cast a retaliation. When he finally calls an end to the spar, she’s there immediately, offering a hand to get him to his feet even as she smirks down at him. “I’m half afraid you’ll help me up just for the joy of sweeping me away again.”

“Not this time, Herald. I can only absorb so many wins in one day, my body’s not used to winning anymore. Try me after breakfast.”

They gather near the fire, or rather most of them do. Bull declares he wants nothing to do with four mages gathered for a chat this close to a fortress full of other mages summoning demons and Alistair is simply absent, but Varric joins them. He brings no paper or quill but Varevas still gets the impression their conversations in front of him are on record. 

He asks Matilde how she learned, where she draws from, how it all works, and Solas and Dorian are just as curious in their ways. She describes it for him: a centering of the mind, nothing as mystic as a vision but also not as external as elemental magic. It is, she says, a tribute to her sister, for whom magic was as natural as breathing. No need for lightning bolts or walls of flame or anything showy. It’s a simple matter of force and control; when you let out that much power, you have to be strong enough to balance against the recoil. Every action has its reaction, after all. 

Solas leans in, comments that while it might seem as though it’s all her mind, it’s actually her connection to the Fade that allows her to do this, but perhaps her methods might be applicable to the work Varevas is now doing to harness the energy of the rifts for his own use. It’s all a cycle that way, after all, but Matilde protests that it’s not and then she and Solas are on their feet, back to the same flattened area of sand Varevas had so recently gotten familiar with. At least Matilde has the decency to be honest in her motives. Solas claims it’s a scholarly exercise but Hawke shakes her head. “I’ve kind of been wanting an excuse to kick your ass, I just didn’t think I’d get one.”

He leans against Dorian’s knee as he watches them. Solas is terrifyingly fast and does manage to get the better of the Champion at points but despite this being her second round of sparring, Hawke is no slouch and more than once, Solas does end up flat on his back. It’s more raw magical combat than he’s even seen in his life; this simply wasn’t done in the clan, mages were too valuable to risk it, and despite his best attempts he remains unwelcome among the recruited mages in their work. Varevas has never been in the desert before, never sat in the sand by a fire with the hand of the man he loved on his shoulder, never seen magic like Matilde’s before, but this moment feels more like home than any part of Skyhold ever has. 

Hawke and Solas only stop when they hear hoofbeats. Alistair, back from wherever he’d gone, informing them their little light show could be seen from a distance and unless they wanted company, it’s best they call it a night. Solas stalks to his tent silently but Matilde winks at him as she crosses the circle of the firelight. “Feels good to be the last man standing twice in one night, and I’m not even a man.” 

In their tent later, he wonders aloud to Dorian if he thinks Hawke might join the Inquisition when all this is done. Dorian chuckles and wonders back if he ought to be jealous. “Not hardly, I greatly prefer the way you put me on my back, but you might be wise to be a little more scared.” He never thought of himself as a part of anything with his magic–if anything, it was isolating–but tonight was a little taste of what the Inquisition could really be, what a world where mages weren’t limited in number or liberty could look like at it’s best.

And then, well. At least one part of that future shows that she has other ideas. He can see her, smirking in a way that doesn’t reach her eyes, but she’s on the far side of a wave of force that’s taken both him and Alistair from their feet. It’s her specialty, after all, but this one is fired with intent. It was clear both the Warden and the Champion intended to offer to make this sacrifice, but with one spell the decision is no longer there for Varevas to make. He probably should’ve seen it coming, taken the hushed conversations between her and Varric more seriously, but it didn’t really matter now. He flew out of the rift, skidding to a stop and lifting his arm to close it without even standing back up. 

He can’t even raise his head when Varric comes to him to ask after Hawke. He can’t look his friend in the face and let him see how he’s failed. She did like to be the last man standing, but nobody can stay standing forever. Some force in the universe demands balance, and when Varevas finally stands again, he does it knowing that it’s only because somewhere else, she’s falling. Every action has its reaction, she’d said. She may have decided it was right, but here on the other side, he’s not sure whether he agrees.

[parkapetrs]

in the middle 04 | college!peter parker x reader

summary: in which you and a shy awkward boy named peter parker waltz in the gray area between friends and lovers

word count: 2.4k

warnings: language? mentions of alcohol

PARTS: 01 02 03 04 05

04: painstaking

The next few days went painstakingly slow.

MJ spent most of her days either toiling away in the library, or attending extraneous seminars for extra credit. You can’t say too much about her nights; she rarely went home anymore. Ever since the night of Liz’s party, unbeknownst to you until recently, all she had been thinking about was one thing only: more alcohol.

It was when you were on your way to one of your late night bathroom breaks that you first suspected something was wrong with MJ. At three in the morning, you never would have expected MJ’s bedroom door to be flung wide open and her figure hunched over her desk. Initially, you’d thought nothing of it; it could be another all-nighter. But when you’d passed her room on the way back from the bathroom and saw her figure remain in the same position—still and motionless—you felt the call to intervene.

She had reeked of alcohol that night. So strong, you caught a whiff on the first step inside her room. You had managed to shake her conscious, but you‘d come to realize she had been awake the whole time. It was fairly easy; the grueling work came in having to get her to move. She simply couldn’t.

Liz’s party was her first time getting absolutely drunk. Wasted. Shit-faced. She couldn’t get enough of the feeling. And so drink and drink your dear friend did.

According to her, the thirst for alcohol was in her system the whole time, like a cunning predator in murky waters just waiting to be provoked.

But it wasn’t alcohol addiction, per se, at least not yet. She had managed to convince you it was merely an occasional ‘craving’. And she proved her temperance too: MJ was still at the top of her game with school. Either she was making up for the absences and tardiness, or simply because of scholarly commitment, you didn’t know. But she made it work.

Just like that, you were sold.

*

The next two weeks went painstakingly slow.

The absence of MJ in your apartment had you aching for company. Some nights, Nick would come over to watch a film or two—until his girlfriend Eunice would notice he was gone and call him home.

So when you spotted a familiar head of brown curls in the swarm of students, you did nothing to contain your heart inside your ribcage. You let it soar. It’s been weeks since your last encounter and it didn’t help that he never came to Physics in the last two weeks.

“Hey!” You called after him.

Peter turned around, searching. When his eyes met yours, he grinned as he jogged to you. He was moving counterflow to the sea of people, to which he earned a few spiteful looks, but his smile only grew bigger when he finally reached you.

“Hi,” he greeted. “I like your hairclip.”

This morning, you opted for a hairclip the shape of a ladybug once you noticed the flyaways sticking every which way. Considering it came from Nick’s eight-year-old sister, it was a generous gift that you treasured.

You unconsciously touched a finger to said accessory. “Thanks. You like bugs?”

“Um… Kind of,” he hummed.

You began to walk together in the same direction, along with the rest of the students. “I didn’t see you all week,” you said.

“Were you looking for me?” There was a lilt in his voice and when you looked up to watch him, he was already looking back at you. Contrary to his flirtatious tone, his features were hopeful and soft—he was genuinely asking.

“Eh. Not actively,” you said. This earned a chuckle from him.

“Of course.” Peter tugged on the straps of your bag once. It made you jolt. “I, uh, wasn’t in school.”

“You weren’t?”

Peter’s fingers were still laced around your sling bag. You were about to tug back, thinking it was some sort of game, when he snatched your bag away from you and hung it on his shoulder.

Huh.

“I was needed… somewhere. I had to leave on such short notice but thankfully, I was excused.” He shifted the weight of your bag around. “Christ! What do you have in here? Rocks?”

You made a move to grab your bag. “Then give it back, idiot!”

He laughed. “Now that I know you’re lugging around this much? Please, I’m a gentleman.”

You rolled your eyes.

Peter continued to march on. “Um, hey, Y/N? Are you busy? Have class later?”

“No… why?”

“If it’s okay with you, you should come with me. I’ll need help canvassing cameras. My aunt just gave me new dough,” he said, rubbing his index and middle fingers to his thumb. Peter was looking at you expectantly. He seemed nervous—you didn’t want to say no to him.

Not that you can say no to him. Whatever charm Peter was trying with you, it was definitely working.

“Cameras?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m thinking of enrolling in a photography class.”

“Well… I guess I owe you for the Kit-Kat.”

“Hey!” He laughed but you could see the relief in his expression. “That’s unfair. I don’t want to be a burden. Seriously – you can say no.”

“Relax, Pete. I want to go with you.”

*

The next two hours went painstakingly fast.

There was a little vintage store that was a fifteen minute walk from Addington. Despite your protests, Peter insisted on carrying your bag. You tried to sound irritated but something about the gesture felt endearing. You couldn’t help the smile on your face.

“Choose.” Peter held up two cameras in both hands. You had zero knowledge on photography, so why Peter was asking for your opinion was beyond your understanding, but you pointed to the one in his left hand.

“Good choice,” he hummed.

“Mm-hmm.”

Peter scurried away to pay for it. He seemed to be good friends with the owner—a man in his late fifties who had the friendliest smile. You could tell from their exchange that Peter frequented the store and that he’d been pining over the cameras for months. The owner congratulated Peter on his ‘brand-new toy’ before ringing it up.

Meanwhile, you grew distracted by the myriad of artifacts in the vintage shop, ranging from used cameras, old makeup, to other antiquities. The shop, in its essence, was a relic straight from the 60’s with its quaint interior and musty scent.

You tried on a pair of retro sunglasses: small with gold frames and pink-colored lenses. Draping your shoulders was a white faux fur shawl as you made silly faces at the mirror. You were amused by how little you looked like yourself with just a slight change of style. You kind of liked it.

“Turn around!”

Alarmed, you spun on your heels and before you knew it, you were met with a bright light and the sound of a camera flashing.

“Peter!”

“Heh,” he smirked, sounding rather proud of himself. “First photo! Thanks for christening my new baby.”

He moved closer and angled the screen towards you. In the photo, your face was obscured by the sunglasses and the fur, but your eyes were bright and happy despite the look of surprise. It was a good shot at a flattering angle, but you wouldn’t admit that to Peter.

“Beautiful, no?” He praised. For a second, your heart was caught in your throat… but not for long. “Look at that quality. For a used camera, it’s simply luck and beauty at play.”

What was that hopeful feeling in your gut?

As if.

“You couldn’t have done that without me,” you said smugly like it was all in a day’s work.

Peter held the door open for the both of you as you walked out. The sidewalks were empty so Peter was free to gush about his new camera, his arms flailing around to emphasize his excitement.

“I’ve always loved taking pictures,” he was saying. “I was actually so torn between Physics and Photography before college.”

“So why Physics?” You inquired. “They’re on opposite sides of the spectrum.”

He took a moment to think about it, but after ending up with nothing, he merely shook his head and chuckled. “I don’t know.”

“Ha! I feel you.”

“Really? Huh,” Peter said. You nodded, even though you knew he couldn’t see you. “You‘ve always made me nervous, you know?” He wasn’t looking at you, but you could tell he was smiling.

“Why’s that?” You were taken aback by his sudden declaration.

“You just look like someone who knows exactly what they’re doing and where they’re going.”

“What?” Man, you were just full of questions today. “I am so not a sure person. Not by a long shot.”

“That’s a relief,” he said, turning to look at you this time. His eyes were crinkled in a laugh. “You’re officially a lot less intimidating.”

Peter was filled to the brim with passion… and bags. He was wearing his gray backpack in addition to shouldering your own sling bag. The new camera hung by his neck through a thick black strap and in his hand was the paper bag it came with. But he couldn’t look any happier and lighter as he chattered away with enthusiasm.

You thought he looked adorable. Signature blue hoodie and all.

Within moments you were standing in front of your apartment complex. You hadn’t even noticed he was walking you home.

“Thank you for today, Y/N,” Peter smiled in earnest as he handed you your bag.

“It was my pleasure.” All things aside, you truly meant it. Today had been a breath of air from your lonely, uninhabited, and MJ-less apartment. But spending it with your could-be maybe-crush? It was the icing on the cake of all things good.

You were about to push the glass doors open when Peter called out your name.

“Yes?”

“Would you maybe want to get coffee tomorrow?” He asked. From the top of the steps, you could see Peter’s feet shuffling—a nervous habit you’ve come to realize. His fingers were toying with a few loose threads in his frayed hoodie but his smile never once faltered.

You beamed at him. “I end at 4 tomorrow. Pick me up after my literature class.”

*

You kept your list of pet peeves short and sweet, but at the very top was tardiness.

And Peter Parker was growing painstakingly late.

You’d gone over your hair and outfit for the fifth time and still, there was no sign of him. Naturally, since you hadn’t exchanged numbers, there were no calls or texts. But even so, there were no emails or sight of his messy chocolate curls.

It was quarter to six. You’d been waiting nearly two hours and sitting by yourself on a stone bench. Students padding the hallways were starting to throw you pitiful looks while you were beginning to feel all the more insecure.

You debated leaving, but where to? MJ won’t be expecting you until eight; you had roughly three hours to kill. The apartment was probably locked and bolted. You’d left your keys inside, a stupid mistake of confidence. You had been so sure that MJ would be home before you, even with all her after-school extracurriculars considered.

To be perfectly honest, MJ was looking better. You didn’t see the point in her still slaving away for a little extra credit. As an effect, you rarely saw and talked to each other. She was sure to have paid off all her tardies and absences. You cursed all the liquor in the world like they were the reason for all your problems. Why did they have to take MJ like that?

Begrudgingly, you got up on your feet and decided to leave. Each step you took may have brought you closer to your apartment, but it also brought closer the feeling of heartbreak. You’d been looking forward to this the whole day, and for Peter to blow you off without so much as leaving a word stung.

You were never one to draw parallelisms to ex-lovers, but the familiarity of it all was undeniable.

As you turned the corner to your apartment, your phone started to ring incessantly.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

(4) new messages from: peterparker@addington.edu 

Subject: IM SO SORRY Message: Im sorry im so late

Subject: Hello Message: y/n im so sorry i promise ill be there im just caught up in something

Subject: yoooo Message: i didnt forget i swear

Subject: :( Message: please wait for me. ill be there

By the time you stepped out of the elevator and into your floor, you were no longer concerned about the fact that you didn’t have a key. In times like this, you wagered. You let chance take you by the hand. MJ could be home. After all, your luck struck out with Peter. If the universe truly was a cycle, your lost fortune might have been channelled elsewhere. Into here.

And if all else failed, you could just lie on the floor and await MJ’s return.

You wouldn’t call it another disappointment. But when you grabbed the door handle, expecting resistance but didn’t, you were fairly surprised.

The doorknob turned easily.

Unlocked.

Your eyes struggled to adjust to the unexpected dimness of the room as you entered slowly.

Dark blue hues bathed your apartment in a haunting embrace as the evening approached. The last of the sun’s rays streamed through the glass pane, basking the room in the soft glow of the city at dusk. Somewhere below, a siren blared loudly.

“Why is she here?” came a voice that was definitely not MJ’s.

You could make out silhouettes huddled closely together in one corner of the room. Hand feeling up the wall, you hastily flicked the light switch on and prepared to face your intruders.

MJ, Ned, and…

Peter.

Peter. Buised, battered, and wearing nothing but his boxers. The room smelled strongly of antiseptic. MJ was seated on the couch with him and had a hand held up to his face, holding a cotton swab. At their feet was Ned, stuffing away some red fabric into a gray backpack.

They all had on the same expression, like a deer caught in headlights.

The room is quiet as careful stares are exchanged. Unable to contain it any longer, you were the first to break the silence.

“What the hell is going on?”

A/N: sorry for the wait! finals just ended for me so I’ve been busy :( anyway you guys know the drill: reblog to be tagged (and shoot an ask if you want to be removed). comments and reblogs really encourage us writers! <3 so as always, i’m open to suggestions and comments and criticisms; i’m just starting out and finding my own writing style and looking to be better.

i’m thinking of starting a different series when i finish ITM… a tom holland fic maybe??? or a oneshot??? let me know what you guys think lol. hopefully i’ll have improved my ~skillz~ by then orz

@youllbemineandillbeyours @deadlyaffairs @melancholyandemotional @shockwavee @alexalltimelow @hbmoore1986 @missymariee @kharwreck @smexylemony @spideytaeh @tom-hollands-eyelash @curlypeter @ioikai @marco-hvittyvik @bigzaddyangie @woman-of-letters-legacy @punishblue @socially-awkward-xox @yourbiggestspiderfan @hollandshart @camilllaabeyo

if you’re still reading this, send a ladybug emoji!

[formerlyrunephoenix6769]

Winter Solstice: Part 8

Yet another installment in the ongoing Winter Schnee sage. I shall be tagging it under formerlyrunphoenix6769 rwby fanfiction to make it easy to find. 

Please feel free to like, share and comment. I would really appreciate your feed back. 

                                  A Rogue Comes to Visit.

A heavy blanket of mist had rolled down the mountain enveloping the vast Schnee estate, draping everything it touched in a thick layer of moisture. No sunlight twinkled off droplets, both absorbed by the dull grey that stretched as far as the eye could see. It had been weeks since the night of her Father’s bombshell and he had remained true to his word cancelling all of her up and coming engagements.

Nestled in a deep window seat above the only working radiator in the room that gurgled and knocked, Winter stared out of the window into the foggy gloom, choosing to ignore the book in her lap and the droning of the tutor as he paced back and forth his scholarly robes flapping behind him. In the middle of the room at a small desk, Weiss listened intently absorbing his every word, her pen flying across the paper in loops and swirls as she eagerly committed every nugget of information to the page.   Outside, the trees naked of plumage reached up their blacked limbs, twisted and gnarled, like hands reaching for the heavens grasping at the last vestiges of life. One large tree seemed to ripple, as black feathers ruffled and a thousand beady eyes watched and waited.

A dark grey and black uniform passed in front of the window obscuring Winter’s view as they strolled back and forth along the promenade that ran around the mansion. She watched as one proceeded to wiggle his fingers in the granite fountain at the entrance to the path that would lead to the now half empty stable yard, his shouts causing the flock of birds to alight from their roost screeching and cawing at his rude intrusion.

No subtlety had been given in the sudden rise in security at the Schnee homestead. A private security firm rather than the usual personnel from the SDC, these men and women looked battle hardened with a steely glint in their eyes and wore their weapons openly as they proceeded on their rounds.  

The strain of providing for the extra personnel had done nothing to improve Klein’s mood either, his grumpy persona coming more to the fore as he grumbled about the private contractors and their lack of regard for the household staff as they questioned and inspected everything going in and coming out of the stately home.

Winter could only wonder at the exact nature of it as she had witnessed the stony faced sentinels skulking about the hallways of the entrances to the East Wing where their mother had been cloistered since the revelation. Even Jacques departure with Whitley, who he had taken to keeping close by his side, did nothing to rouse the Schnee matriarch from her solitude.

“Miss Schnee!” the tutor barked, cutting into her moment of reflection. “At what temperature does dust go from a solid to a liquid?”

Winter returned his question with a blank stare.

Weiss sat on the edge of her seat, her hand waving in the air, her little chest puffed out to the point Winter was fully convinced she might take flight if not for the desk grounding her.  Ignoring her sister, the tutor continued,

“I would think that as the Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, you would want to know this?”

Winter replied with a haughty tone,

 “And I would think that as an esteemed tutor you would know that it is a trick question!”

Weiss lowered her hand and watched her older sibling wide eyed. The tutor turned on his heel giving Winter his full attention as a wicked smirk twitched at the corner of his lips,

“If you know so much, would you care to elaborate? I am sure your sister would love to hear what wisdom you have gleaned from your years of education.”

Rising to his petty challenge and bid to humiliate her, Winter returned the parry,

“Certainly- ” Leaving the cosy nest of the windowsill, Winter began to casually stroll about the room, “- Not all types of dust ‘boils’ or ‘melts’ at the same point. Dust, as is it collectively known, is actually a number of different types of minerals often found in individual clusters akin to its surroundings. - ”  She trailed her fingers long the spines of the books on the nearby shelf “- Therefore, its stands to reason that dust with gravity defying properties, one of the rarest types might I add, will not react in the same way that dust with freezing properties shall. The SDC has refineries across the globe, each equipped with the capability to refine each dust type as its properties dictate.”  She teased a book with the emblem of the family sigil embossed in its leather binding from its snug “- Furthermore, the SDC did not become the biggest dust extraction and refining company through sheer monopolisation but rather due to the Schnee name coming to mean excellence and the finest quality of products due to the purity of the dust crystals we provide. Monopolisation of the industry happened after the fact.  Absorbtion of our lesser competitors and implementing the Schnee Dust Company’s refining process thereby improving the quality of dust available on Renmant as a whole was merely good business practices.”

Bowing the board pointer in his hands, the tutor huffed. His features became pinched. As he opened his mouth to speak the large grandfather clock began to chime. Snapping the book closed, Winter returned it to its place before turning on her heel and leaving the room without another word.

Ignoring the security guards, Winter began to make her way down the corridor that would lead back into the main house, stewing over her predicament. Where as once over her afternoons had been filled with Violet, training, or taking to the saddle now she was expected in the parlour practising the accursed cello, the same piece of music over and over until she could play it by ear. It was a strict instruction laid down by her Father, who expected her to play the piece for him without sheet music when he returned.

How could she take up her mother’s plea to leave as soon as the opportunity arose if there was nothing she could do in the way of skills that could provide for her?

If it wasn’t for her brother being with him, she would wish the airship would explode with her father in it.  At least that way all their problems would be solved.

Behind her she could hear the soles of Weiss’ shoes slapping off the polished floor as she ran to catch up.  From in her skinny arms books threatened to spill and the spindly child tried to hug them to her chest.

“Winter.” came the whine, “Please, some help.”

Rolling her eyes, Winter plucked a few before they could cascade onto the floor. Casting a critical eye over the titles,

“What do you even need these for? Most of them are outdated.” She selected one. “Look at this one… Faunus Anatomy…” She flicked it open to a random page and began to read aloud, as Weiss scurried along side her,  “- The Faunus are incapable of learning. Due to their physiology,….. Blah blah…. the ridges in their cranium suggest a smaller brain, much akin to an animal.” Winter trailed off before snapping it closed, “- Yeah, Weiss, I’m pretty certain this is just racist propaganda.”

With a sniff, Weiss tried to take a superior tone,

“Dr Gnarls Tarquin was a great Scientist who helped discover the evolution of Grimm!”

“He was also a crack pot who died due to inhaling dust and was married to his cousin! Nearly all of his other theories have been disproved.”

Weiss’ brow furrowed at her sister’s counter argument. Hugging her remaining books tight, she tried to match Winter’s gait.

“We don’t have many books on the faunus.”

“And why are you trying to learn about the Faunus?”

“I want to know why they are different.”

“They’re not… Well, not really.”

“Why do they hate humans then? Why do they want to kill us?”

“They don’t!”

“They killed Uncle Russell and his family!”

Winter sighed,

“That was a handful of very bad people who were trying to make a statement. I don’t think that all the Faunus are like the White Fang.”

After her Father’s outburst at the dinner table, Winter couldn’t even be sure if the White Fang were responsible anymore, instead she lay a gentle hand on her sister’s shoulder.

“Come on, lets go see Klein and get some lunch.” Casting a sly glance behind her, she spotted the security tailing them at a distance, “- I know a short cut.”

Rounding the corner and out of sight of the guards the teenager picked up the pace encouraging her sister to keep up, she guided the young girl down the wide flowing staircase that led down into a wide entrance lobby. Doubling back round under the staircase and beside a suit of highly polished armour, Winter pressed a panel to reveal a small door cleverly hidden within the lattice work.

She gestured for Weiss to follow. The small girl hesitated on the threshold.  

“I don’t know, Winter,”

Weiss bit her bottom lip and scratched the back of her left calf with her right foot, a dead give away she was nervous.

“Make up your mind, you boob, before those goons see us……” Winter beckoned again,  “It’s quite safe .” Winter assured, “I come down here all the time, it leads down to the kitchens.”

Coming to a decision, Weiss ducked her head and stepped into the gloom, Winter followed easing the door back into its snug so as not to make a sound.

Winter held up her finger to her lips, the heavy footsteps of the guards on the staircase dislodging some of the accumulated dust causing it to rain down, peppering their white hair with grey.

Both girls could hear the voices of the guards,

“Where the hell did they go?”

“I fucking hate this job!”

“Would you shut up!”

“I’m a solider not a glorified babysitter. This not what I signed up for!”

“ It’s a cushty gig. Great pay, bed and board and we don’t get shot at. What more do you want.”

“Dont get shot at? I’d much prefer knowing who the enemy is. The eldest one … I’ve seen that look before… You remember that Faunus village we cleared out, the exact same look….  And I wouldnt put it past the lush going off on one either. Mark my words, this house is gonna go to hell in a…”

The two girls let out the breath they had been holding as the guard’s voices faded out as they moved off. Winter took her sister’s hand, placing it on the back of her waistcoat. Making sure that Weiss had a firm grip she began leading her down the narrow winding pathway.

Weiss whispered,

“What is this? Who built it?”

Winter peered into the gloom, carefully feeling her way long the wall,

“Opa?  I don’t know , maybe an ancestor was paranoid that the local peasants would rise up in revolt and slay them in their beds?”

With a small shaky voice, Weiss whined,

“Winter don’t say that. Father says the White Fang might do that any day now.”

A slight breeze caused errant cobwebs to sway, indicating they were going in the right direction as the pathway twisted and turned. They passed a turn off to the right that Winter knew would lead to a heavily barricaded entrance to the garden. She had yet to explore all the passageway’s off shoots. Feeling a slight change in heat, the teenager took the left opening, carefully placing her feet on each stone flag that made up the staircase that spiraled round and down as Weiss held on tight.

“Father is just trying to scare you. He wants us terrified so we wont do anything he disapproves of.” In a bid to alleviate her younger sibling’s fears, she explained, not unkindly, “- Our house is one of the most secure in Remnant. The White Fang wouldn’t make a move towards this house.  We are so far in the tundra, there is no way a mass group of faunus would make it so far into the country without being detected. We would see them coming a mile away. ”

“But Father said..”

Winter pushed open the door that would lead into one of the official servants service corridors that were doted all over the house as she snapped in annoyance,

“Well Father is a liar!”

“I would be careful saying that out loud,  Miss Winter. The walls have ears.”

Both girls let out a shriek and dropped their books at the voice. Bending down to collect the books in a bid to hide her embarrassment at being so jumpy, Winter mumbled,

“Klein, you nearly gave us a heart attack.”

“Sign of a good butler that is, to be unseen and unheard.”

He comically wiggled his bushy eyebrows at the younger sibling. Taking a handkerchief out of his breast pocket he began to fuss over the pair, wiping  and flicking at errant dust and cobwebs on their grey outfits.

“

Cook made some lovely stew.”

The two girls followed him along the servant’s passageway that widened out. Down here was the warmest part of the mansion, housing the laundry and the kitchens. Bustling with activity, uniformed members of staff nodded and bobbed in acknowledgement as they passed by on their errands. A maid stopped to show Klein some stitching on a piece of linen, who wiped out an eye glass to closer inspect it. The butler nodded and praised the young girl for a job well done.  

Down here, underneath the icy cold indifference of the family they served, it was warm, light hearted  and inviting. It always put Winter in the frame of mind of a rockery. Lift up one of the frozen beautifully carved statues and underneath you would find it teeming with life.

Through one door Winter spied a group of servants polishing the silverware and candle sticks like a dust assembly line, laughing and joking with each other as they worked.

Pausing by an open door, from which wafted the smells of good cooking, Klein called out,

“Mauve, the lil mistresses are here.”

From depths of the kitchens, they heard a jovial voice boom,

“I’ll be along in a minute, deary,”

Klein ushered them further into the bowels of the house finally coming out into a large cosy looking room with a huge fire crackling in the hearth. There was a long table flanked either side with long benches. The blue slate flagged floor shone from being scrubbed. In the far corner next to the fire, a comfortable looking rocking chair and a small table with a set of knitting needles and yarn. Hanging on the walls photos, some new and shiny, others yellowed with age depicting the staff over the years and their masters. Winter paused by one that depicted a huge crowd of staff dressed in black and white old fashioned uniforms outside the front of the Schnee Estate, their faces looking stern. Winter thought she recognised their grandfather as a little boy in shorts that came just above the knees, his white hair messily standing on end.

Weiss looked around in awe at the tall back piano against the far wall. Placing her books on the table she skipped over, she went to touch the keys only to hesitate and look at the butler for permission.  He gave her a fatherly smile.

“Your mother used to come down here and play that when your grandfather was alive. He liked being down here.”

As the youngster slid onto the piano chair, Klein patted a seat on the bench closest to the fire for Winter.  Weiss began to play a beautiful and haunting melody. Never taking her eyes of her younger sibling’s erect back, Winter quietly asked,

“How is Mama?”

Klein poked the fireplace with the poker,

“Don’t fret your pretty little head. We’re all keeping an eye on her.”

Winter sucked on her bottom lip and gave a little sniff,

“I’m worried about her.” She used her finger nail to pick at a splinter in the well worn wood, “We’ve hardly seen her since….. You know..”

Before the butler could reply, a maid came in with a tray laden with bowls and thick fresh loaves and the cook, Mauve,  hot on her heels. Placing the tray on the table, the young woman nodded her head, before beating a hasty retreat and closing the door behind her.

Mauve was dressed in chef whites. Unlike the rest of the household staff she did not have a single accent of grey in her uniform. She was small in stature and rotund, moving with a swift shuffle that belied her size. White hair poked out from under her hat but it was difficult to gauge her age  due to the smoothness of her skin.  Her cheeks were red from being in the heat of the kitchens and her forearms were thick, no doubt from hauling slabs of meat and huge pans on the cooker. She hefted a  huge pot on to the table, wiping her hands on a towel that hung from her apron. With a smile and twinkle on her bright blue eyes, she cajoled the sisters,

“Now then, look at the pair of you. The two luvs look half frozen to death, Klein.” She began to ladle the hot thick stew into the bowls. She inclined her head with a smile, “Come on, Miss Weiss, sit at the table. That’s a good lass.”

Weiss slid off the piano chair and awkwardly tried to clamber over the bench as elegantly as she could in the constricting skirt. Giving up at any attempt, she sat on down on the lip, swinging her legs round, Winter lay a supportive hand to the small of her back so she wouldnt tip over on to the flagstones. Sat in her seat, she shuffled closer to Winter.

Mauve gave the two girls each a huge bowl of stew and a spoon,

“There, get that into you luvs.”

She began to take a knife to the fresh loaves, carving out thick slabs. One of the service bells began to ring out and the phone in the room began to chime.  Klein got up to answer it as Mauve began to slather the bread in huge swaths of butter. With a pout, Weiss gave her stew an experimental poke,

“What is it?”

“It’s a dish from my home town.” The cook admitted as she continued to make a pile of bread big enough to feed an army. Weiss began to dubiously inspect the depths of her bowl. Mauve ladled out some more for herself and the butler. “Its Pot stew.  Perfect dish on a cold day.”

Finished with the call, Klein squeezed Weiss’s shoulders, putting on one of his many accents,

“It will put hairs on your chest, so it will.”

Weiss let out a gleeful giggle, kicking her legs,

“I don’t want a hairy chest, cause I won’t be able to wear gowns like Mama.”

Selecting some of the bread, Winter began to tear it up, dropping it into her stew. Using the spoon she dunked it before taking a spoonful. Weiss seemed to hold back, watching and waiting for her sister’s reaction.  Biting into her spoonful, Winter’s mouth was awash with flavours, the beef was tender and the potatoes soft, the carrots and onions broke on her tongue. The homemade stock was full of aromas that set the taste buds aflame. Winter hadn't realised how hungry she was as she eagerly attacked her bowl. Not to be out done, Weiss took a spoonful only to hum delightedly at the taste. Klein threw Winter a wink as he tucked a napkin into his collar began to eat his own and Mauve watched like a proud mother hen at her hungry brood.

“Nobody on Remnant can hold a candle to Mauve’s stew.”

Winter couldn’t tell if the ruddiness of the cook’s cheeks was a blush or from the heat of the room.  Mauve swatted at Klein with her towel, who ducked and gave her a toothy grin. She poured out three glasses of  fresh water before taking a seat in the rocking chair by the fire and began to knit. The fire crackled in the hearth as Mauve rocked back and forth, humming a soothing tune. The clinking of cutlery off the porcelain as the food was hungrily devoured joined it’s chorus. Looping another thread over the needle, Mauve asked,

“What was the call?”

“It was the Mistress..”

Winter’s head shot up and Weiss spoon paused half way. Cook continued to make another loop,

“What did she want?”

“She has a guest.”

“She does?”

“I asked Gray to see to it.” He leisurely dunked his bread into the broth, “- When you’ve finished your lunch, she would like to see you, Winter.”

Winter went to stand up, only for Cook to take a mock stern tone, never looking up from her knitting needles,

“Young lady, sit down and finish your lunch. I didn’t slave over a hot stove all day for you to be running off and gallivanting about the place half starved. Not on my watch.”

Winter’s bum collided with the bench at the slight reprimand. Klein pulled a comical face to Weiss causing the young girl to laugh.

Hesitantly, Winter asked,

“Can Weiss come too?”

“Don’t see why not. Mistress didn’t say not to.”

Knitting needles clicked in a steady rhythm making a soothing sound as Winter began to wonder at who the guest could be. Weiss reclaimed one of her books, propping it against her water glass, eyes glued to the words on the page as she continued to haphazardly reach out for the bread plate. Winter moved it closer to the searching hand and stifled a laugh at the youngster dipping her slender finger tips into the butter. Mauve broke the relatively comfortable silence,

“How is your schooling?”

Before Winter could reply, Weiss began to excitedly babble about their lessons. Mauve and Klein listened intently, nodding and awwing at all the appropriate moments. Weiss announced,

“And Winter was cheeky with the tutor.”

“Urrgh , you’re such a tattle tale!” Winter gave her sister a poke in the ribs, “Klein, tell her what happens to tattle tales”

Mauve and Klein replied in unison,

“You slowly become a Grimm.”

Weiss asked, with suspicion,

“What type of Grimm?”

Once again the service bell began to tinkle. Klein cast a glance at the numerous bells set in a row up high, underneath each one a brass plaque with the name of the room written in cursive. Wiping his mouth with his napkin, the butler announced,

“I think your Mother is ready for you. It looks like she is in the conservatory in the East Wing.”

Both girls graciously thanked Mauve for the meal. Weiss hurriedly tried to collect her books only for Klein to assure her not to worry, that they would be in her bedroom later. Winter grabbed a napkin,

“Hold still.”

She dabbed at the younger girl’s mouth making sure that all evidence of lunch had disappeared. It wouldn’t do to turn up to an audience with their mother and her guest looking like a pauper. Weiss crinkled her nose at the onslaught as Winter chided,

“How did you manage to get more of it on your face than in your mouth?”

As they were about to leave, Weiss dashed back to grab the book she was reading before following her sister to the door.

“Thankyou.”

“You come down here any time you like luvs.”

 ----xx----

At the entrance to the conservatory, Winter paused to straighten her appearance and make sure her sister’s hair was perfect.

“Don’t tell Mama about the passage,” She smoothed a small wisps of hair behind Weiss ears, “- And don’t tell Mama about the tutor.” Weiss silently nodded. Winter made sure her shirt was tucked in and her black lace bow was straight, “- In fact, don’t say anything about anything, ok?”

Pushing open the glass doors into the conservatory the two girls were hit by a sweltering heat. Here their mother teased plants back to life. No expense had been spared in what Winter could only come to think was essentially a green house. It was the biggest collection of global flora in the country outside the of Atlas Botanical Gardens. Trees from Menagerie carefully cultivated sat along side bright and colourful flowers from the floating islands of Mistral. Leafy plants towered over the pair as they navigated the yellow winding paths. Somewhere the soothing noise of a babbling water feature permeated through the plant life.

Snippets of conversation drifted through the undergrowth guiding the siblings towards their destination.

Rounding past a rather wide and bushy plant from the far reaches of Vacuo that would sting you as soon as you looked at it, Winter and her sister came upon their mother bent over a flower bed, deep in conservation, her partner obscured from view,

“As you can see, the Clananis is rather deadly. It is the only plant known in human existence to feed both off Grimm and fauna. It’s sap is extremely poisonous if ingested. Even a sting from one of its barbs is known to cause adverse reactions in the brain leaving one in a depressive state.”

A heavy accent replied,

“I do believe it hails from Menagerie and is rather rare to come by?”

Willow took a long sip of her drink,

“Only in certain circles. If one is to be believed.” Willow gave a light laugh. “ It flourishes in Anima so I am told.”

Grey stood to attention beside a table laden with drinks. As the two girls approached, he gave a polite cough.

Willow turned at the interruption. Her eyes alighting on her daughters, she broke into a huge smile.

“Ah, my darlings.”  She placed her glass on a nearby table, approaching the two girls with her arms out stretched. Weiss ran forward into her mother’s arms, hugging her round the middle. Winter remained at a distance, watching as her mother sank into a nearby chaise and patted the seat beside her which Weiss eagerly took. She observed as her mother’s every action was ever so slightly delayed. Willow beckoned over Winter and her guest, “- Come sit. Ciddy, darling, These are my daughters. Weiss.” She affectionately stroked her fingers through the little girl’s long ponytail, “And my eldest, Winter. I believe you have already met?”

Winter gasped as the guest came into view. His beard was gone, replaced by a well trimmed pencil moustache and tiny goatee favoured by the upper echelons of the sea faring merchants of Silas and port towns of Vacuo. His hair was neatly drawn back into a short and low stub of a ponytail that rested at the nuque . A golden earring twinkled in his left ear and he was decked in brightly coloured clothing decidedly warmer than when the last time she saw him.

“Mr Cid!”

His face broke into a wolfish grin,

“Hello, pampered little Schnee.”

Her mother broke into loud laughter.

“That is what you used to call me.”

Berdea Cid gave a chuckle as he took the other chair,

“Amongst other things.”

Gesturing to Grey to make another drink, Willow added,

“Oh you cad.. It’s good to see that some people haven’t changed.”

 “But Mama, I don’t understand.” Winter took a cautious step forward, “- What is he doing here?”

Drawing back her long sleeves to reveal her pale arms, Willow graciously accepted her beverage,

“Don’t you remember, darling?” Willow took a sip of her drink, her eyes briefly closing in satisfaction, “ You wanted to learn the Combat Sabre …. This was the man I was speaking of.”

Berdea looked up at Winter, eyes dancing with mirth,

“I am your new swordmaster.”

[pelle-lavellan-a]

Codex: Maevis

Born 20 Solis 9:25 Dragon

Death: (Verse Dependent) .9:42 Dragon

Race: Dalish Elf

Sex: Female

Height: 4′10′

Weight: 90lb

Marital Status: Single

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Religious Views: Dalish

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Affiliation: Clan Lavellan , (Verse Dependent) The Inquisition

Title: First of Clan Lavellan

Class: Mage (Pyromancy)

Bio: 

“Pelledir...you must understand I didn’t mean to hurt them. But people do awful things when they’re afraid.”

Prequisition:

Maevis was born a miracle to a middle aged couple who believed they would never bear children. She was their little bird. Maevis grew up with the notion from her parents that she could do no wrong, she was perfect in their eyes. She was a normal little girl who lived a normal life amongst the elves of her clan. She was satisfied living this way. She had friends, a loving family, she had everything. The hunters kept her safe from the dangers outside of her clan, she knew nothing of sorrow, of hunger, nor any troubles.

And then her magic surfaced when she was twelve years old. 

It was the first time in her life that she truly did not want something. She has seen the Keeper’s First Pelledir studying magic, learning natural lore, reading the ancient history of their people. The day she accidentally set fire to the bow her father made her--she knew she was doomed. 

The clan did not need another mage, they already had a First who was married to the Keeper’s granddaughter. His magic was strong--as far as she was concerned he was bound to have magical children. If anyone were to hear about her magic she would have no place in her home. She had been training to hunt, she was capable of taking care of herself perhaps--she was no defenseless child. They would throw her out, they really would wouldn’t they? A mage...how could the Creators have been so cruel to her?

And then the tide turned. Both the First and his wife disappeared into the night neither of them to be seen in days. Maevis would not pretend that she was not glad to see the First gone. If he were truly dead then it might be safe for her to tell Deshanna about her abilities that she had been keeping to herself. 

Deshanna was not pleased when she found out, though much to Maevis’ surprise she was not angry about Maevis’ magic, nor that she tried to hide it. What angered Deshanna was that Maevis did not even seem to care that anyone had just died. In her anger she refused to take Maevis under her wing and was ready to have Maevis thrown out from the clan should she continue to show such disregard for her people. 

After the rather unpleasant threat, things only seemed to get worse. The First had been found among mage refugees from Kirkwall. His spirit and his body were broken but he was alive. He was returned to the clan by his cousin Faolan and brother Fen. This was her chance, she had to feign that she was relieved to see Pelledir alive. 

She’d never liked him much, too soft in her opinion. In her eyes he was just a boy who got lucky. He was smart but his body did not serve him well in combat or self defense. He was bond to a woman bigger and stronger than him, his cousin was well rounded, his cousin and best friend trained hunters He didn’t need to be self sufficient, others always had done it for him. As far as she was concerned his disciplined magic and scholarly knowledge was useless in the real world. Now that he was widowed, he was even more abhorrent to her than before. 

He would tell no one what happened to his wife. In fact, he hardly spoke at all. Maevis would visit him, speak with him, bring him food once a day. He rarely ate it, and was seldom up for conversation. This frustrated Maevis. She was determined to fool Deshanna into believing that Pelledir enjoyed her company, that she was not as self seeking as the Keeper believed. 

But the First was no fool, he knew that Maevis could not care whether he died in the night or if he recovered. When the First finally told her he did not want her company because it was insincere, Maevis lost her temper with him claiming that Deshanna had favorites and that if she did not pretend she was not revolted by him the Keeper would surely see to it that she was thrown out. 

The First simply laughed at her and told her that Deshanna was not angry that she did not like him, Deshanna was worried about Maevis. She wanted Maevis to learn to think of someone other than herself. He also mentioned that the threat was perhaps a way to motivate her to work on her attitude. However, he disagreed with Deshanna for what she’d said. He told Maevis that he felt that Deshanna had been too harsh with her, and that he knew that while Maevis acted tough that he knew her family meant a great deal to her. And with that he offered to teach Maevis himself should he recover. 

Reluctantly Maevis agreed, she did not really have any other options. 

She watched crossing her fingers as Pelle insisted upon helping protect the clan from the pursuers of the humans who’d rescued him. He’d nearly killed himself just using magic to protect Deshanna in the first place, losing consciousness soon after. 

He was an idiot, Maevis believed that with all her heart. Within a few days, Deshanna was no longer performing the duties of the Keeper on her own. While he was not actually the Keeper, between the two of them he was younger, more physically capable, and well on his way to becoming the Keeper himself should Deshanna’s health get any worse. The way Deshanna saw it, Pelle was more of an extension of herself now...and he was to teach take her on as an apprentice the way a Keeper would. Which made her...the First in some strange roundabout way...

She tolerated Pelle. He taught her to control her magic, he taught her to read and write, and he began teaching her the old lore. 

Over the years,the clan migrated more often than she remembered in the past due to the mage templar war, and excluding a time where the clan was burned out, nothing major had really happened that was worth documenting for her. She learned her magic, she studied the lore, and in her spare time she still joined the hunts when she was available. 

Pelle knew she had no interest in taking on the responsibilities that came with being the First...or even the second, he did not try to convince her otherwise.

Three years later, Pelle would leave the clan claiming to return with news from the Conclave. 

He never returned... 

Soon enough the clan would receive word from Pelledir that he was being held the Inquisition and was certain he might be struck down should he attempt to leave.

 For now they would have take direction from Deshanna, he did not imagine he would be coming home anytime soon. This seemed as good a plan as any, if Deshanna hadn’t fallen ill shortly after 

She went quickly...and with that left no one to lead the clan. Maevis would not be responsible for them. 

Inquisition:

Traveling Wycome spelled death for Clan Lavellan. Despite Pelledir’s, who was now Inquisitor of this foreign Inquisition, efforts from Orlais the clan could not be saved. Few of her clansmen survived, and in their small numbers chose to leave the area lest they become more fodder to the soldier’s blades. 

One of the hunters, Talwinne, proposed they make their way to the Inquisition. Surely Pelle who was now Inquisitor to this strange Inquisition would grant them permission to stay after the things they’d been through. The journey to Skyhold was long and nothing short of a little gruesome. In the end--only her and Talwinne managed to make it to the hold. 

There had been fifteen of them when they left Wycome. Eight of them died along the way from crossfires in the war, demons, wildlife, etc. The rest--Maevis took care of them. Deciding that it would be difficult to move forwards with so many once they reached Orlesian, she chose to have something done about the others. Making the choice of who would be most useful the rest of the journey, Maevis chose to spare Talwinne. 

The rest, she lied to them, told them she’d found an Inquisition camp nearby when she was scouting ahead and that they ought to go and ask them for safety. The five were not quick to follow, telling her they ought to wait for Talwinne who left to retrieve wood to build a fire. Maevis told two of them to wait for Talwinne, fetch him once he returned.

Where she led the other three instead was a tear in the sky infested with demons, a Rift as they were being called these days. The two who had waited for Talwinne came running when they heard the screaming. By then...Maevis was already gone, she’d fled back to camp leaving them all to die. 

Talwinne was furious, he swore he would kill Maevis if he thought it was worth it. Maevis pretended she wasn’t hurt, that she did not feel the slightest remorse for murdering her own people. She told Talwinne her reasons, he did not accept them. 

In her anger she shouted at him that she had made the hard decision that had to be made, it was too dangerous to travel in packs in the part of Thedas, it would draw too much attention. 

The two did not speak unless it was crucial for the rest of the trip to Skyhold. Once there, both of them volunteered to work as scouts for the Inquisition. 

[realyoungdarius]

3.3 Discussion: Creating an Effective Introduction

Getting Started

In their textbook, Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, and Wright (2019) say,

Why is the emphasis on strategic training important? Companies are in business to make money, and every business function is under pressure to show how it contributes to a company’s success or face spending cuts and even outsourcing. To contribute to a company’s success, training activities should help the company achieve its business strategy.

There is both a direct and an indirect link between training and business strategy and goals. Training can help employees develop skills needed to perform their jobs, which directly affects the business. Giving employees opportunities to learn and develop creates a positive work environment, which supports the business strategy by attracting talented employees as well as motivating and retaining current employees. (p. 270)

The learning concepts from the Chapter 7 textbook reading include:

How training, informal learning, and knowledge management can contribute to continuous learning and companies’ business strategy

The role of the manager in identifying training needs and supporting training on the job

Conducting a needs assessment

Evaluating employees’ readiness for training

The strengths and weaknesses of presentation, hands-on, and group training methods

The potential advantages of e-learning for training

Designing a training session to maximize learning

Choosing appropriate evaluation design and training outcomes based on the training objectives and evaluation purpose

Designing a cross-cultural preparation program

Developing a program for effectively managing diversity

This research and discussion assignment will further advance learning in the ways to bring humor into the workplace and to create effective introductions for training and development sessions.

Upon successful completion of the course material, you will be able to:

Create an effective introduction for a training and development session.

Resources

Bible: English Standard Version

Textbook: Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage

File: What Is a Scholarly Article?

Media: Training and Development-Presentation A

Webpage: 10 Reasons Why Humor Is a Key to Success at Work

Reference

Teacher Stream, LLC. (2009). Mastering online discussion board facilitation. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-onlinelearning-mastering-online-discussion-board-facilitation.pdf

Background Information

What does the Bible have to say about humor? Plenty, as the sampling of Bible verses shown below discloses, all of which were taken from the English Standard Version:

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them’” (Psalm 126:2).

“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting” (Job 8:21).

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance...” (Ecclesiastes 3:4).

“A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed” (Proverbs 15:13).

“Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Psalm 32:11).

“Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief” (Proverbs 14:13).

“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Psalm 32:11).

For this activity, you will research the topic of humor in the workplace, share perspectives for how humor may or may not be currently utilized in your workplace, and create an effective introduction to a proposed training session titled “Humor in the Workplace.”

Instructions

Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

Read Chapter 7 in the textbook.

Review the media Training and Development–Presentation A.

Navigate to the Discussion page and in your initial discussion post, respond to the following discussion prompts:

Provide a detailed post that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking. Your initial posting should be 200–300 words in length.

Organize your initial post by using a heading for each response to match those shown in bold in Step 4.

Your initial posting is to include, at a minimum, three sources properly cited and referenced:

Post your initial discussion by the end of the fourth day of the workshop.

Conduct a critical analysis of postings by two of your classmates by the end of the workshop.

Each discussion response to a classmate should facilitate engaging dialogue and evidence critical thinking when addressing your classmate’s posting. Utilize the following ways to engage in scholarly dialogue and expand learning around the topics in this workshop:

Each response should be 200–300 words in length and include, at a minimum, three sources properly cited and referenced:

For questions on APA Style, review OCLS APA Writing Styles Guides

A Place for Humor – Research support for why there is a place for humor in the workplace. Use the article “10 Reasons Why Humor Is a Key to Success at Work” to begin to conceptualize your research requirement. Provide a summary of your research findings.

Humor in the Workplace – Assess your organization’s use of (or lack of) humor in the workplace.

Training for “Humor in the Workplace.” Assume that management has asked you to serve as a consultant to provide “Humor in the Workplace” training. In support of that training session, provide the following:

Write a one-paragraph summary description of your training session to be included in the training materials and marketing campaign (posters, advertising, training).

For example, you might create a YouTube of yourself telling a joke as part of the creative approach to the introduction of the “Humor in the Workplace” training session to be given by you in your workplace. Have fun! Be creative! Use appropriate humor!

This training session is to be used as a way to help ease people into the culture at this business! In this session, we will review a case study, from my own fraternity life, and tell a joke that might help you relate to my life in my fraternity. We will also review a report from Psychological Reports and review an article in an issue in the Harvard Business Review. They will be used to help us engage in the analysis of the reasoning and logic for using humor in the workplace.

Create an effective introduction for your “Humor in the Workplace” training session using (a) one or more of the following frameworks, and (b) selective use of the means for conveying your introduction (that is, written dialogue or script, PowerPoint presentation, video clip, podcast, artist rendering—especially of your own making, and so forth):

Reviewing objectives

Asking a rhetorical question

Asking a series of questions related to the topic

Using an interesting or famous quotation

Relating the topic to previously covered HR content

Using a case study or other activity

Using a videotape or other media

Making a provocative statement to encourage discussion

Giving a demonstration

Using a game

Storytelling

Telling a joke—supplemented with a connection to the learning

Relating the topic to past, present, or future work experiences

Sharing personal experience

Relating the topic to real-life experience

Case study and telling a joke: 

Attempts at micro-aggressions in my fraternity get turned into a joke to help develop our brotherhood. It is a joke, because it’s benign and shouldn’t be thought of as defining our people... (ex. one brother in the fraternity is nicknamed “Hitler’s Wet Dream”, because he looks so Aryan. Another brother is nicknamed “The Dark White”, because he seems so white, even as a black person!)

This is necessary to bring up, especially because of the relationships we have with people who have higher card numbers than other people who have, either, been in the fraternity for a shorter period of time, and/or don’t end up going active. While people who don’t go active, these days, don’t always get kicked out of the fraternity, they do end up being lower on the totem pole when it comes to leadership roles. People who don’t go active may become the head of a committee, but they can never become a member of the executive council, and end up doing the most menial work to help ensure that the brotherhood keeps surviving into the future. 

The reason I am bringing this issue of superiority up is because of the attitudes that many people, who don’t end up going active, tend to have in the fraternity. Because they end up doing most of the menial chores, they often can end up becoming somewhat salty, and drag the fraternity down. This shows in many people’s sense of humor! It’s understandable, though, that some people aren’t meant to make it through college! Because some people aren’t meant to graduate from college/! Many people end up sticking around, and may even become a person with an honorary card number, and they end up receiving many of the benefits of going active and becoming an alumni! 

Lynn Taylor, workplace expert and author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant, believes employees are much more comfortable using humor with colleagues than they are with their bosses. “You face a higher risk factor when joking around with your boss because you just don't know how your lightheartedness may be taken. So, you generally find greater reticence to use humor with senior managers.” (Smith, 2013)

I, at least, what have felt salty if I hadn’t immediately gone active, after rushing. If this would have happened, I would have ended up dragging the fraternity down. Instead, I forged my own path; even if my highest role in the fraternity was as a Secretary, and Pledge Master. I would have become so salty, that I wouldn’t have been able to share in the fun of poking fun at these things that would otherwise be microaggressions, if it weren’t for the fact that people can get beyond these issues and/or problems. I would have likely been deceitful and/or jealous and backstabbing people. Because of who I am at my best, though, I am deceitful nor jealous...

A good test of senses of humor and leadership is the “Humor Styles Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and the Subjective Happiness Scale”. It was a study conducted with the help of undergraduate college students at the City University of Hong Kong. The study tested, what were referred to as, adaptive and maladaptive humor styles. “Adaptive humor styles include affiliative and self-enhancing humor. Affiliative humor refers to the tendency to tell jokes or engage in spontaneous witty banter to create amusement, lessen interpersonal tension, and facilitate relationships. Self-enhancing humor is the tendency to find amusement from the incongruities in life. Maladaptive humor styles include aggressive humor and self-defeating humor. Aggressive humor is the tendency to use humor at the expense of others to amuse oneself, such as teasing, ridicule, derision, and disparagement, in order to criticize or manipulate others. Self-defeating humor describes the tendency to amuse others by making fun of oneself or by exposing one's own weaknesses.”  (Psychological Reports. Oct 2014, Vol. 115 Issue 2, p517-525. 9p)

With regard to the relationship between humor styles and self-esteem, previous studies showed that self-esteem is positively correlated with adaptive humor styles but not with aggressive humor [ Hiranandani & Yue, 2014 (aggressive humor: Indian university students β = −.11; Chinese university students β = −.01); Martin, et al ., 2003 (aggressive humor: β = .03); Kuiper, et al ., 2004 (aggressive humor: β = −.13)], and that adaptive humor styles also correlated with self-esteem ( Martin, et al ., 2003 ), while self-defeating humor was negatively associated with self-esteem ( Thorson, et al ., 1997 ; Stieger, et al ., 2011 ).

Specifically, previous research examined how adaptive humor styles mediate the relation between positive self-evaluative standards and self-esteem ( Kuiper & McHale, 2009 ) and the relations between self-esteem and gelotophobia, the fear of being made fun of ( Hiranandani & Yue, 2014 )

Hypothesis 1 . Self-esteem and subjective happiness would be positively associated with affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor but negatively associated with aggressive humor and self-defeating humor. 

Hypothesis 2 . The effect of self-esteem on subjective happiness would be mediated by the adaptive humor styles.

The results of the study, in Table 1, “shows the correlation results between humor styles, subjective happiness, and self-esteem. Affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor were positively correlated with self-esteem and subjective happiness, respectively. No significant results were found between aggressive humor and self-defeating humor styles and self-esteem and subjective happiness. Results showed that self-esteem was also positively correlated with subjective happiness.” (Psychological Reports. Oct 2014, Vol. 115 Issue 2, p517-525. 9p)      

The result of the study, in Table 2, shows “the results of the regression analyses between humor styles, self-esteem, and subjective happiness. Humor styles were found to be significantly associated with self-esteem ( R2 = .24) and subjective happiness ( R2 = .24). Self-esteem was positively associated with affiliative humor (β = 0.16), self-enhancing humor (β = 0.29), and self-defeating humor (β = –0.25). Subjective happiness was positively associated with affiliative humor (β = 0.20) and self-enhancing humor (β = 0.39). No statistically significant association was found between aggressive humor and self-esteem and subjective happiness. Taken together, these findings offered partial support for the hypotheses, that is, the two adaptive humor styles were stronger correlates of self-esteem and happiness than the two maladaptive humor styles.”(Psychological Reports. Oct 2014, Vol. 115 Issue 2, p517-525. 9p)     

I do wonder if the study would have had different results in the United States, where people are much more individualistic, and slightly more traditional and conservative. It does seem like people are still reactive to adaptive and maladaptive humor styles. And, at least, in my fraternity, what would otherwise be considered maladaptive humor can become adaptive humor, whether it is affiliative and/or self-enhancing humor. Keep in mind, that “Affiliative humor refers to the tendency to tell jokes or engage in spontaneous witty banter to create amusement, lessen interpersonal tension, and facilitate relationships,” and “Self-enhancing humor is the tendency to find amusement from the incongruities in life.” Also, consider that “maladaptive humor styles include aggressive humor and self-defeating humor; and that, “aggressive humor is the tendency to use humor at the expense of others to amuse oneself, such as teasing, ridicule, derision, and disparagement, in order to criticize or manipulate others,” and “Self-defeating humor describes the tendency to amuse others by making fun of oneself or by exposing one's own weaknesses.”  (Psychological Reports. Oct 2014, Vol. 115 Issue 2, p517-525. 9p)

It is clear, though, that humor is not at the top of people’s lists when it comes to leadership potential. Like is stated in a Harvard Business Review issue,  “ We tend to view humor as an ancillary leadership behavior.” This same issue says that “ Research by us and others has shown that humor can influence and reinforce status hierarchies in groups, build interpersonal trust and high-quality work relationships, and fundamentally shape the way people perceive one another's confidence, competence, warmth, and clarity of communication. It also influences critical behaviors and attitudes that matter to leadership effectiveness, including employee job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, citizenship behaviors, creativity, psychological safety in groups, and desire to interact again in the future.“ (Harvard Business Review, July and August, 2020)

This Harvard study goes even farther when it comes to connections between power dynamics and humor. It has been found that humor can be a double-edged sword if not used appropriately. Here is how humor can be used appropriately:

For instance, “individuals who make funny and appropriate jokes are more likely to be nominated for leadership positions by their peers. In the same research project, we ran an experiment in which we asked people to recall moments when a colleague was funny. We found the link between humor and status to be so powerful that merely prompting individuals to recall a humorous exchange with a coworker shifted their perceptions of the coworker's status.” It was even found that “humor not only helps individuals ascend to positions of authority but also helps them lead more effectively once they are there.” It was even found that “when leaders used humor as an interpersonal tool, their employees were happier, which fostered better communication and resulted in an uptick in citizenship behaviors -- voluntary actions that facilitate organizational effectiveness.”  (Harvard Business Review, July and August, 2020)

Like mentioned earlier in this paragraph, humor can be a double-edged sword if not used appropriately! Here is a taste of how humor can be seen as used inappropriately:

For instance, “the violating nature of humor is also what makes it risky. Jokes that go too far over the line of appropriateness have the opposite effect -- an "eeeek" reaction. Rather than thinking that the joke teller is intelligent and competent, observers think, What an idiot or I can't believe he just said that. Although tellers of inappropriate jokes are still seen as confident, the low competence signaled by unsuccessful attempts at humor can lead to a loss of status. In fact, our research confirms that failed humor is quite costly for leaders, making them even worse off than serious, humorless leaders who don't attempt jokes at all. Finding the balance between a benign violation and an extreme violation can be tricky -- even professional comedians routinely face criticism for overstepping -- and it takes skill to get it right.” (Harvard Business Review, July and August, 2020)

References

Harvard Business Review. Jul/Aug2020, Vol. 98 Issue 4, p96-103. 8p. 2 Color Photographs. 

Psychological Reports. Oct 2014, Vol. 115 Issue 2, p517-525. 9p.  -- https://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=df24b975-b514-441a-ae15-7f5205a9b533%40sessionmgr101 

Smith, Jacquelyn, (2013, May 3, at 02:09pm EDT) “10 Reasons Why Humor Is A Key To Success At Work”. Forbes.com

The Human Resource Management textbook.

Two academic journal articles obtained through OCLS.

For an explanation of what constitutes an academic source, review the "What Is a Scholarly Article?" file linked within the Resources section of this page.

Extension: Expand the discussion.

Relevancy: Relate the topic to a current event.

Exploratory: Probe facts and basic knowledge.

Challenge: Interrogate assumptions, conclusions, or interpretations.

Relational: Make comparisons or contrasts of themes, ideas, or issues.

Diagnostic: Probe motives or causes.

Action: Identify an application or an action in personal or work life.

Cause and Effect: Cite causal relationships between ideas, actions, or events.

Hypothetical: Pose a change in the facts or issues.

Priority: Seek to identify the most important issues.

Summary: Elicit synthesis. (Teacher Stream, LLC, 2009, p. 5)

The Human Resource Management textbook.

Two academic journal articles that are at least three pages in length and published within the last five years.

At least one academic source is to be different from the two academic sources provided by your classmate.

For an explanation of what constitutes an academic source, review the "What Is a Scholarly Article?" file linked within the Resources section of this page.

[georgetownuniversitypress]

#UPWeek: An interview with Senior Acquisitions Editor Hilary Claggett

In honor of University Press Week 2020, we sat down with GUP’s newest editor Hilary Claggett for a discussion on how the global business list will amplify new voices.

How long have you been working as an acquisitions editor, and in which subjects have you acquired?

I’ve been a Senior Acquisitions Editor for two decades, with equal time spent acquiring in business, economics, and finance, on the one hand, and politics, international affairs, and security studies, on the other. The common thread is that both publishing programs have, in retrospect, been strongly influenced by current events. For example, twenty years ago, business publishing was consumed by globalization and ecommerce, and international affairs publishing was heavily influenced by counterterrorism efforts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Today the main influences I see impacting both business and politics are the pandemic, climate change, the Fourth Industrial Revolution sparked by artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, and related technologies; and the movement for equity, diversity, inclusion, and racial and environmental justice. Many of these are interrelated. For example, the coronavirus and racial inequality combine in health disparities and higher death rates from COVID-19 among minority groups. Climate change relates to economic inequality because it impacts people differently, and climate change relates to the pandemic by exacerbating the likelihood of more pandemics in the future, perhaps worse than this one.

How do you publish timely books that in some ways are chasing a moving target without their becoming immediately outdated?

Because books relating to the economy and to business—whether we’re talking about a perennial subject like leadership or a relatively new one like the impact of AI—have always been highly sensitive to fast-moving events and trends, I’ve been able to leverage my experience publishing in politics and current events to plan one to two years ahead in terms of focusing on what is enduring about a subject and what is just a flash in the pan. Ironically, the more up-to-the minute the writing, the more dated it may be. For example, you wouldn’t end a book on coronavirus by saying, “at press time, there were X number of deaths” when you know those numbers will be irrelevant by the time of publication. But you can discuss the historical trends in the data in a meaningful way.

With all this experience, in what way do you see yourself as a “new” voice? Can acquisitions editors be said to have a voice?

I am new to the university press world after having spent my career in what is awkwardly called commercial academic publishing, which is neither purely trade nor purely scholarly. I used to say that I published books for general readers with a scholarly backbone, and in a way, I still seek books that are accessibly written for business leaders or general readers with an interest in the economy. The difference is that they are peer reviewed, which has helped authors to focus on their analytical frameworks and the quality of their research. As to whether acquisitions editors have a voice, I’d say we do, though not in the way you might think. Authors have their own points of view and perspectives, and I do not seek to impose my opinions or my writing style on their work. However, I do have a voice in selecting what proposals for books that I believe would be important, valuable, and useful, in addition to being marketable. Because this Global Business program is new, I am commissioning a large portion of the list to get it off the ground, so there are times where the idea starts with me, and then I look for an author to write what I have in mind. But ultimately it��s a collaborative process.

How are you giving space to diverse voices within the Global Business publishing program?

Over the last five years at least, a lot of research has been done on the invisibility and/or neglect of women in the economics profession, and I’m working on a series to address that inequity. In terms of business leadership, women have made great strides, and it’s no surprise that I’m receiving a lot of excellent proposals for business books from highly qualified women. While diversity has long been a goal of corporate America, some scholars have pointed out that white women have been the primary beneficiaries of these initiatives. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests over the deaths at the hands of police of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others, corporations and other organizations are facing the same reckoning as the rest of American society. I am working with several potential authors on assessing this effort. Some companies will take it seriously, and some will pay lip service, but I’m seeing signs of lasting change. One of the most important trends of our time is the accelerated pace of change, so my challenge in the acquisitions process is to ensure that my books stay slightly ahead of the curve, but are not so far out in front that they are too early, such as the book I published on predatory lending a couple of years before the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Timing is everything, but we can also lead change by privileging previously neglected voices and perspectives, and that is what I intend to do.