#it's not something they can put off until oct if they want the strike over in oct

[chirpsythismorning]

For what I've seen, the ST production team has been working all o this time since none of them are part of neither the WGA nor SAG-Aftra. This probably means they've advanced a lot of work. Do you think that once the strikes are over, this will make it easier for them to start filming as soon as possible or even for the filming process to take less time than initially predicted? (Around a year)

It’s possible.

But it’s also worth noting that them needing a full year to film ST5 is for a multitude of reasons.

With all the delays, they now have to rework their entire schedule post-strike, as it won’t look the same as it looked before the strike. They need to be able to fit dozens of cast-members schedules together to ensure that their availability aligns with other cast-members they have scenes with.

While ST does get first dibs more than the casts other projects because of their contract with Netflix, it’s a lot easier to plan a schedule when you get everyone’s schedules, put them all together, and look at what aligns and what doesn’t, to make it easier for everyone.

For example, it made sense that despite certain cast members being unavailable in May to film, there were rumors (multiple statements from Noah himself) that he would start filming in May. And that’s likely because he started school again in the fall, and so it makes sense they looked at his schedule and determined it would be best to squeeze in as much filming for him as possible from May-August before school started in the fall, with him having a good chunk of time throughout the school year to go back to school for tests, etc..

Another example is David Harbour, who said he was going to be filming Thunderbolts in Atlanta simultaneously while he was filming ST5 in Atlanta. This means he would likely have at least 1-2 weeks of filming for ST and then 1-2 weeks of filming Thunderbolts, with days off and on within the mix, in order to accommodate both films schedules and when they need him for certain scenes.

I think a lot of fans assume that 1 year of filming means nonstop filming for each cast member, which is just not the case.

Even if certain actors have a lot of scenes in each episode, there are still scenes without them.

For example, let’s say Millie has 8 scenes total in 5x01 or something. There are still going to be several scenes without her, upwards of over 10 scenes give or take. That's scenes with other characters filming without Millie present because she does not have to be because she is not in any of the shots. Millie does not need to be strictly in Atlanta for those 1-2 weeks that it takes to film the block of scenes that do not include her. If they can make it so actors are able to be gone for 1-2 weeks of time, as opposed to just filming 1-2 scenes and then having to wait 2-3 days for their next scene, they’ll try to. Not saying that won’t happen occasionally, as I'm sure there are times when it's maybe a week on and week off or three weeks on and one off, but still, doing it in larger blocks to make it easier and accommodate everyone, is much more realistic because it just makes it a lot smoother to flesh out the schedule like that with their main (high demand) cast, and then fit side characters (not as high demand aka more wide open availability) around that.

For example, Amybeth only had like 4ish scenes total throughout the entirety of s4, and she lives out of the country, so it wouldn’t make sense to have her stay in Atlanta for upwards of a year. Instead Amybeth was only in Atlanta filming for two weeks total for those scenes featuring her, from mid May-early June 2021. That meant they had to ensure Maya (and Joe lmao) were available during that time Amybeth would be on set bc they had scenes together. Fun fact, if you pay close attention to the shots with Vickie during the pep rally, it's clear that it was filmed on a different day than the rest of the scenes, bc in the wide shots we don't even see the band on the bleachers (TV magic!). This means that only that corner with the band was filled up and the rest of the bleachers were empty when they shot that scene with Amybeth and Maya. No one else needed to be there since it wasn't necessary.

Usually, filming for 1 episode takes about a month. But it’s likely much of ST5’s episodes will be a little over 60 minutes as opposed to like 50 minutes. So giving them about 1-1.5 months to film each episode, 8 total (unless that changes), puts them at approximately 12 months aka a year. While some episodes might take only a month (or maybe even less) to film, the finale is going to be over 2 hours, which means filming for the finale will take closer to 2 months potentially.

This means 12 months is a very good estimate for how long it could take to film ST5 overall. Though to be fair, given the circumstances of them being on hiatus for so long and maybe being more prepared, maybe it’ll take a little bit less than that? But I honesty don’t think it will be by much, as most years they end up underestimating and it takes a little bit longer than anticipated bc of impromptu delays. (This is also assuming the strike ends and filming starts in Oct, only a couple months from now, which isn't guaranteed whatsoever either).

Even if the strike ends and filming is in full swing and they have a plan to finish in 12 months, there’s no way of knowing for certain if something else could impact filming and cause it to take longer. We should know by now with COVID and the strike that nothing is guaranteed until it’s all filmed. Once it’s all filmed, THEN we can actually start theorizing about when it will premiere.

ST5 premiered about 8 months after filming, not only because post-production is time consuming in and of itself, but because they wanted to have it come out in summer as opposed to Spring. Maybe the first few episodes were ready way earlier, but the later ones weren't even close, so holding off for a more suitable release period, Summer, which they prefer for ST releases anyways, makes sense.

A best case scenario rn, that I allow myself to hope for still, despite everything (assuming the studios get their heads out of their asses asap), is ST5 starting filming in October this year and finishing in October 2024. This puts them at a similar roll out period to ST4, with about 8 months of post-production and a premiere in the summer sometime in 2025 between May-August, whether that include two volumes or not. Netflix is a lot more likely to push for a summer release, regardless of them starting/ending filming sooner than October. Hell, even if they finished editing those first 5 eps by like March or something, Netflix would much rather stretch and wait to release those in early summer with the rest in mid/late summer again, bc they’ve never done Spring releases and I don’t think they’re going to start now. Especially bc I think it will be pushing it in terms of the working conditions being way too strenuous for VFX/editors. I'd rather have them push for a summer release and take their time and make it as good as they can, then to rush and make a spring release and have it feel half ass, only to be over forever.

I know people get sad knowing how long it's going to take to come out. But I just can't comprehend wanting it to be out ASAP, and most likely poorly, only to be over forever. Like this is the end for real. Maybe you'll see one of the characters pop up in a spin off, at best, but it wont be any of the mains that is for certain.

ST5 in 2024 is 100% not happening, so unless you want s5 to be edited for a mere 2 months at absolutely shit quality, let it go. If you want to hope for Spring 2025 go ahead, but that release period is already unprecedented with/without the strike, so don't hold your breath. I would try to accept ST5 Summer 2025 and hope that is as far as it goes. TBH if the strike goes past October, Netflix is going to have to come up with a deal because they are risking ST not premiering in the Summer like they want. If they don't make a deal by then, they'll presumably be forced to make a deal asap, otherwise they’d just be fucking themselves over.

[moosescribbles]

Over the last 6 weeks I have been working on a book for a LARP here in the UK, the holy book of one factions god of the hunt, Kubeth. Leant into a woodcut style that I think came out well. The title page came in mostly to make a nice symetry in the binding, bringing the total to 36 pages, also made the font and a lil moose for a makers mark.

The writing was done by the player of Ardentia, she wanted something simple and rustic, Kubeth is one of the most feral gods of a faction with a lot of gods that lean towards people and civilisation. I wanted a nice rough look to the images, looking at actual woodcuts is impressive, I honetly feel like my facimilie is a bit of a disservice to how wonderful they can be. I have two @3eyedog linocut prints above my desk and I'd often look at them for inspiration on texture and technique.

The hare here is the second image I did and when i really felt confidence that the style would work, angular, defined prints with some soft watercolours is just nice, and quite striking. the occasional bits of ink running throughout. The pup in spoils was a lot of fun, and while the subject is grim I don't think the gore of it is initially striking, with the indistinct shape of the kill in the background, a little "it gets worse the longer you look".

The "Eyes of the Hunted" 'chapter' was the first section I fully finished, the "To Survive" and "Too Slow" are majority black ink, I wanted the hunted to feel a bit opressed, minimal colour. "Too Slow" was the style test concept image, to make sure the writer was happy, it turned out a bit more stylised than the rest of the book imo. "Defend yourself" is one of my favourite pages, the page turn for it is great. After the darker pages it is quite barren, with a little running ink. There isn't much triumph to the page, for the hunted the victory is only temporary. Finally the "Prey Medley" (and therefore all of the medleys) are very inspired by @mothsprout, I was constantly looking in their blog for vibes, and when I saw "Canis Lupus + Flora" I knew that this was how I'd want to end each chapter to end.

Probably my favourite section, every one of this images fights for my favourite, the bear intentionally pushes up on all the margins for the power, the swooping eagle for the speed, the utterly desolate hungry wolf, it's also where the colour pallet shined, I used a pallete someone kindly put on the CSP asset store featuring historical pigments so i could stick with a little fantasy, even the black ink is "bone charcoal ink" rather than just pure digital black. The "Hunters" medley took a couple goes, the first one was mostly neutral, writer wanted snarls, I had put a wolf head on in the center, then again Moth Sprout as an inspiration with the swooping owl, looks so much better. There's more than a few hidden layers of different animals on that file.

Ok cutest image in the book, writer insisted that not all this section would be human, and i struggled to think, until she suggested just a cuddle relaxed pile of wolves which I felt like, of course, I had been wanting to make some hunters not on the hunt. This whole section was very guided by her, and I feel that it comes off well. The "Gifts Medley" is my least favourite, I think it was the one place where I found the style to lack, I also had issue coming up with enough items to feel I'd fleshed out the medley, and then also depicting them in such a style, I think the message is conveyed, but at the cost of some of my self imposed style rules.

And here we go, the final image, I like this one, the final medley as a probably the most colourful page. This was a really fun project, different from OCTs I had a more intricate brief with a longer time frame, so I took my time, grabbed refs overall I'm happy with the project. Though I do now have a goal of trying to do some linocut prints of some of the pages.

Ardentia did the bookbinding, and a pretty good job of it too!

My greatest regret? I didn't take any good photos of the finished product, I did a rambly video but it was finished day of the event it was due for, and has now left my hands and is loose in the system. Below are the links to the CSP pen, watercolour brush, and historical pallete I used to complete this.

[theanticool]

My most anticipated fights of October 2021

Just pick a bunch of fights from here - except Rodtang who has covid :(

Giorgio Petrosyan vs Superbon - ONE Championship: First Strike (Oct. 15) - Two of the P4P best kickboxers on the planet face off in a 5 round kickboxing match for the vacant ONE Featherweight Kickboxing title? I mean, nothing could possibly top this.

Sitthichai vs Tayfun Özcan - ONE Championship: First Strike (Oct. 15) - ONE put together another featherweight kickboxing grand prix and it’s so good we’re getting Sittichai vs Ozcan in the very first round. That’s just too good.

Petr Yan vs Cory Sandhagen - UFC 267 (Oct. 30) - A replacement fight but a damn good one. Sandhagen is a fantastic fighter that can replicate some of the things Aljo did to have early success against Yan. But can he do it over 5 rounds? Excited to find out.

Enriko Kehl vs Davit Kiria - ONE Championship: First Strike (Oct. 15) - Basically see #3! That tournament is STACKED.

Saemapetch vs Tawanchai - ONE Championship: First Strike (Oct. 15) - Tawanchai is considered one of the P4P best in Muay Thai and Saemapetch is always a treat. Just one part of an immensely stacked card.

Mackenzie Dern vs. Marina Rodriguez - UFC Fight Night (Oct. 9) - The pure chaos of grappler vs striker is lit in this one. Dern has made it to this point in her career by being a dedicated grappler who can take a punch. Rodriguez has made it this far by being a wildly dangerous striker who can get takendown but has yet to be submitted. One of these things has to give here and that is compelling enough for me.

Jan Błachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira - UFC 267 (Oct. 30) - Some people may be surprised this one isn’t higher but my fear is this Glover fight is going to be like every Glover fight on his recent streak, where Glover gets the crap beat out of him til the other guy gets tired. Except I don’t think Jan will fall into that trap and instead it’s going to be a slow destruction of Glover. Hope I’m wrong but that’s why it’s not higher.

Chantelle Cameron vs Mary McGee - Oct. 30 - The IBF and WBC super lightweight titles are on the line as Hearn works to have one unified champ. Cameron, the UK’s best boxer, returns to action after injury and long suffering American Mary McGee gets the biggest stage she’s ever had in her long career. What’s not to love about this one!

Rico Verhoeven vs Alistair Overeem -  Glory: Collision 3 (Oct. 23) - I don’t know what I’m expecting from this one but I want to see two dudes with action figure physiques who are clearly on that horse meat trade punches until one of them collapses under the size of their own bulk, probably Overeem. Since it’s heavyweight, I’m also expecting some shenanigans so that should be fun. 

Amanda Ribas vs. Virna Jandiroba - UFC 267 - I still believe in Amanda Ribas as a prospect at strawweight. Looked good against Rodriguez before getting KOed. Jandiroba just had her best performance against Murata following a loss to Dern. I’m expecting something special from this one as both women have something to prove.

Other notables: Magomed Magomedkerimov vs Ray Cooper 2; Douglas Lima vs Michael Page 2; Teofimo Lopez vs George Kambosos Jnr; Jamel Herring vs Shakur Stevenson; Savannah Marshall vs Lolita Muzeya; Islam Makhachev vs. Rafael dos Anjos; and Bruno Cappelozza vs Ante Delija

Feel free to share what you’re looking forward to this month or complain about how I didn’t have Fury-Wilder 3 here or whatever.

[dornish-queen]

Pedro Pascal on Fame and ‘The Mandalorian’: ‘Can We Cut the S— and Talk About the Child?’

By Adam B. Vary

Photographs by Beau Grealy

When Pedro Pascal was roughly 4 years old, he and his family went to see the 1978 hit movie “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve. Pascal’s young parents had come to live in San Antonio after fleeing their native Chile during the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s. Taking Pascal and his older sister to the movies — sometimes more than once a week — had become a kind of family ritual, a way to soak up as much American pop culture as possible.

At some point during this particular visit, Pascal needed to go to the bathroom, and his parents let him go by himself. “I didn’t really know how to read yet,” Pascal says with the same Cheshire grin that dazzled “Game of Thrones” fans during his run as the wily (and doomed) Oberyn Martel. “I did not find my way back to ‘Superman.'”

Instead, Pascal wandered into a different theater (he thinks it was showing the 1979 domestic drama “Kramer vs. Kramer,” but, again, he was 4). In his shock and bewilderment at being lost, he curled up into an open seat and fell asleep. When he woke up, the movie was over, the theater was empty, and his parents were standing over him. To his surprise, they seemed rather calm, but another detail sticks out even more.

“I know that they finished their movie,” he says, bending over in laughter. “My sister was trying to get a rise out of me by telling me, ‘This happened and that happened and then Superman did this and then, you know, the earthquake and spinning around the planet.'” In the face of such relentless sibling mockery, Pascal did the only logical thing: “I said, ‘All that happened in my movie too.'”

He had no way of knowing it at the time, of course, but some 40 years later, Pascal would in fact get the chance to star in a movie alongside a DC Comics superhero — not to mention battle Stormtroopers and, er, face off against the most formidable warrior in Westeros. After his breakout on “Game of Thrones,” he became an instant get-me-that-guy sensation, mostly as headstrong, taciturn men of action — from chasing drug traffickers in Colombia for three seasons on Netflix’s “Narcos” to squaring off against Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”

This year, though, Pascal finds himself poised for the kind of marquee career he’s spent a lifetime dreaming about. On Oct. 30, he’ll return for Season 2 as the title star of “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm’s light-speed hit “Star Wars” series for Disney Plus that earned 15 Emmy nominations, including best drama, in its first season. And then on Dec. 25 — COVID-19 depending — he’ll play the slippery comic book villain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

The roles are at once wildly divergent and the best showcase yet for Pascal’s elastic talents. In “The Mandalorian,” he must hide his face — and, in some episodes, his whole body — in a performance that pushes minimalism and restraint to an almost ascetic ideal. In “Wonder Woman 1984,” by stark contrast, he is delivering the kind of big, broad bad-guy character that populated the 1980s popcorn spectaculars of his youth.

“I continually am so surprised when everybody pegs him as such a serious guy,” says “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins. “I have to say, Pedro is one of the most appealing people I have known. He instantly becomes someone that everybody invites over and you want to have around and you want to talk to.”

Talk with Pascal for just five minutes — even when he’s stuck in his car because he ran out of time running errands before his flight to make it to the set of a Nicolas Cage movie in Budapest — and you get an immediate sense of what Jenkins is talking about. Before our interview really starts, Pascal points out, via Zoom, that my dog is licking his nether regions in the background. “Don’t stop him!” he says with an almost naughty reproach. “Let him live his life!”

Over our three such conversations, it’s also clear that Pascal’s great good humor and charm have been at once ballast for a number of striking hardships, and a bulwark that makes his hard-won success a challenge for him to fully accept.

Before Pascal knew anything about “The Mandalorian,” its showrunner and executive producer Jon Favreau knew he wanted Pascal to star in it.

“He feels very much like a classic movie star in his charm and his delivery,” says Favreau. “And he’s somebody who takes his craft very seriously.” Favreau felt Pascal had the presence and skill essential to deliver a character — named Din Djarin, but mostly called Mando — who spends virtually every second of his time on screen wearing a helmet, part of the sacrosanct creed of the Mandalorian order.

Convincing any actor to hide their face for the run of a series can be as precarious as escaping a Sarlacc pit. To win Pascal over in their initial meeting, Favreau brought him behind the “Mandalorian” curtain, into a conference room papered with storyboards covering the arc of the first season. “When he walked in, it must have felt a little surreal,” Favreau says. “You know, most of your experiences as an actor, people are kicking the tires to see if it’s a good fit. But in this case, everything was locked and loaded.”

Needless to say, it worked. “I hope this doesn’t sound like me fashioning myself like I’m, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big s—,” Pascal says with a laugh.

Favreau’s determination to cast Pascal, however, put the actor in a tricky situation: Pascal’s own commitments to make “Wonder Woman 1984” in London and to perform in a Broadway run of “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson barreled right into the production schedule for “The Mandalorian.” Some scenes on the show, and in at least one case a full episode, would need to lean on the anonymity of the title character more than anyone had quite planned, with two stunt performers — Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — playing Mando on set and Pascal dubbing in the dialogue months later.

Pascal was already being asked to smother one of his best tools as an actor, extraordinarily uncommon for anyone shouldering the newest iteration of a global live-action franchise. (Imagine Robert Downey Jr. only playing Iron Man while wearing a mask — you can’t!) Now he had to hand over control of Mando’s body to other performers too. Some actors would have walked away. Pascal didn’t.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” he says. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s ‘Star Wars.'” (For Season 2, Pascal says he was on the set far more, though he still sat out many of Mando’s stunts.)

“The Mandalorian” was indeed the next big s—, helping to catapult the launch of Disney Plus to 26.5 million subscribers in its first six weeks. With the “Star Wars” movies frozen in carbonite until 2023 (at least), I noted offhand that he’s now effectively the face of one of the biggest pop-culture franchises in the world. Pascal could barely suppress rolling his eyes.

“I mean, come on, there isn’t a face!” he says with a laugh that feels maybe a little forced. “If you want to say, ‘You’re the silhouette’ — which is also a team effort — then, yeah.” He pauses. “Can we just cut the s— and talk about the Child?”

Yes, of course, the Child — or, as the rest of the galaxy calls it, Baby Yoda. Pascal first saw the incandescently cute creature during his download of “Mandalorian” storyboards in that initial meeting with Favreau. “Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and, boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode,” he says. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, yep, that’s a winner!'”

Baby Yoda is undeniably the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” inspiring infinite memes and apocryphal basketball game sightings. But the show wouldn’t work if audiences weren’t invested in Mando’s evolving emotional connection to the wee scene stealer, something Favreau says Pascal understood from the jump. “He’s tracking the arc of that relationship,” says the showrunner. “His insight has made us rethink moments over the course of the show.” (As with all things “Star Wars,” questions about specifics are deflected in deference to the all-powerful Galactic Order of Spoilers.)

Even if Pascal couldn’t always be inside Mando’s body, he never left the character’s head, always aware of how this orphaned bounty hunter who caroms from planet to planet would look askance at anything that felt too good (or too adorable) to be true.

“The transience is something that I’m incredibly familiar with, you know?” Pascal says. “Understanding the opportunity for complexity under all of the armor was not hard for me.”

When Pascal was 4 months old, his parents had to leave him and his sister with their aunt, so they could go into hiding to avoid capture during Pinochet’s crackdown against his opposition. After six months, they finally managed to climb the walls of the Venezuelan embassy during a shift change and claim asylum; from there, the family relocated, first to Denmark, then to San Antonio, where Pascal’s father got a job as a physician.

Pascal was too young to remember any of this, and for a healthy stretch of his childhood, his complicated Chilean heritage sat in parallel to his life in the U.S. — separate tracks, equally important, never quite intersecting. By the time Pascal was 8, his family was able to take regular trips back to Chile to visit with his 34 first cousins. But he doesn’t remember really talking about any of his time there all that much with his American friends.

“I remember at one point not even realizing that my parents had accents until a friend was like, ‘Why does your mom talk like that?'” Pascal says. “And I remember thinking, like what?”

Besides, he loved his life in San Antonio. His father took him and his sister to Spurs basketball games during the week if their homework was done. He hoodwinked his mother into letting him see “Poltergeist” at the local multiplex. He watched just about anything on cable; the HBO special of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman Broadway show knocked him flat. He remembers seeing Henry Thomas in “E.T.” and Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun” and wishing ardently, urgently, I want to live those stories too.

Then his father got a job in Orange County, Calif. After Pascal finished the fifth grade, they moved there. It was a shock. “There were two really, really rough years,” he says. “A lot of bullying.”

His mother found him a nascent performing arts high school in the area, and Pascal burrowed even further into his obsessions, devouring any play or movie he could get his hands on. His senior year, a friend of his mother’s gave Pascal her ticket to a long two-part play running in downtown Los Angeles that her bad back couldn’t withstand. He got out of school early to drive there by himself. It was the pre-Broadway run of “Angels in America.”

“And it changed me,” he says with almost religious awe. “It changed me.”

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pascal booked a succession of solid gigs, like MTV’s “Undressed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But the sudden death of his mother — who’d only just been permitted to move back to Chile a few years earlier — took the wind right from Pascal’s sails. He lost his agent, and his career stalled almost completely.

As a tribute to her, he decided to change his professional last name from Balmaceda, his father’s, to Pascal, his mother’s. “And also, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda,” he says. “It was exhausting.”

Pascal even tried swapping out Pedro for Alexander (an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander,” one of the formative films of his youth). “I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he says. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”

It was a desperately lean time for Pascal. He booked an occasional “Law & Order” episode, but mostly he was pounding the pavement along with his other New York theater friends — like Oscar Isaac, who met Pascal doing an Off Broadway play. They became fast, lifelong friends, bonding over their shared passions and frustrations as actors.

“It’s gotten better, but at that point, it was so easy to be pigeonholed in very specific roles because we’re Latinos,” says Isaac. “It’s like, how many gang member roles am I going to be sent?” As with so many actors, the dream Pascal and Isaac shared to live the stories of their childhoods had been stripped down to its most basic utility. “The dream was to be able to pay rent,” says Isaac. “There wasn’t a strategy. We were just struggling. It was talking about how to do this thing that we both love but seems kind of insurmountable.”

As with so few actors, that dream was finally rekindled through sheer nerve and the luck of who you know, when another lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson, agreed to pass along Pascal’s audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to “Game of Thrones” co-showrunner David Benioff.

“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff remembers over email. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like s—; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

Before Pascal knew it, he found himself in Belfast, sitting inside the Great Hall of the Red Keep as one of the judges at Tyrion Lannister’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey. “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire f—ing set,” Pascal says, his eyes wide and astonished still at the memory. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit — and with this view.” He sighs. “It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.”

And then it all started to happen.

In early 2018, while Pascal was in Hawaii preparing to make the Netflix thriller “Triple Frontier” — opposite his old friend Isaac — he got a call from the film’s producer Charles Roven, who told him Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him in London to discuss a role in another film Roven was producing, “Wonder Woman 1984.”

“It was a f—ing offer,” Pascal says in an incredulous whisper. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”

Pascal had actually shot a TV pilot with Jenkins that wasn’t picked up, made right before his life-changing run on “Game of Thrones” aired. “I got to work with Patty for three days or something and then thought I’d never see her again,” he says. “I didn’t even know she remembered me from that.”

She did. “I worked with him, so I knew him,” she says. “I didn’t need him to prove anything for me. I just loved the idea of him, and I thought he would be kind of unexpected, because he doesn’t scream ‘villain.'”

In Jenkins’ vision, Max Lord — a longstanding DC Comics rogue who shares a particularly tangled history with Wonder Woman — is a slick, self-styled tycoon with a knack for manipulation and an undercurrent of genuine pathos. It was the kind of larger-than-life character Pascal had never been asked to tackle before, so he did something equally unorthodox: He transformed his script into a kind of pop-art scrapbook, filled with blown-up photocopies of Max Lord from the comic books that Pascal then manipulated through his lens on the character.

Even the few pages Pascal flashes to me over Zoom are quite revealing. One, featuring Max sporting a power suit and a smarmy grin, has several burned-out holes, including through the character’s eye. Another page features Max surrounded by text bubbles into which Pascal has written, over and over and over again in itty-bitty lettering, “You are a f—ing piece of s—.”

“I felt like I had wake myself up again in a big way,” he says. “This was just a practical way of, like, instead of going home tired and putting Netflix on, [I would] actually deal with this physical thing, doodle and think about it and run it.”

Jenkins is so bullish on Pascal’s performance that she thinks it could explode his career in the same way her 2003 film “Monster” forever changed how the industry saw Charlize Theron. “I would never cast him as just the stoic, quiet guy,” Jenkins says. “I almost think he’s unrecognizable from ‘Narcos’ to ‘Wonder Woman.’ Wouldn’t even know that was the same guy. But I think that may change.”

When people can see “Wonder Woman 1984” remains caught in the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the industry; both Pascal and Jenkins are hopeful the Dec. 25 release date will stick, but neither is terribly sure it will. Perhaps it’s because of that uncertainty, perhaps it’s because he’s spent his life on the outside of a dream he’s now suddenly living, but Pascal does not share Jenkins’ optimism that his experience making “Wonder Woman 1984” will open doors to more opportunities like it.

“It will never happen again,” Pascal says, once more in that incredulous whisper. “It felt so special.”

After all he’s done in a few short years, why wouldn’t Pascal think more roles like this are on his horizon?

“I don’t know!” he finally says with a playful — and pointed — howl. “I’m protecting myself psychologically! It’s just all too good to be true! How dare I!”

[leepace71]

When Pedro Pascal was roughly 4 years old, he and his family went to see the 1978 hit movie “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve. Pascal’s young parents had come to live in San Antonio after fleeing their native Chile during the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s. Taking Pascal and his older sister to the movies — sometimes more than once a week — had become a kind of family ritual, a way to soak up as much American pop culture as possible.At some point during this particular visit, Pascal needed to go to the bathroom, and his parents let him go by himself. “I didn’t really know how to read yet,” Pascal says with the same Cheshire grin that dazzled “Game of Thrones” fans during his run as the wily (and doomed) Oberyn Martel. “I did not find my way back to ‘Superman.'”

Instead, Pascal wandered into a different theater (he thinks it was showing the 1979 domestic drama “Kramer vs. Kramer,” but, again, he was 4). In his shock and bewilderment at being lost, he curled up into an open seat and fell asleep. When he woke up, the movie was over, the theater was empty, and his parents were standing over him. To his surprise, they seemed rather calm, but another detail sticks out even more.

“I know that they finished their movie,” he says, bending over in laughter. “My sister was trying to get a rise out of me by telling me, ‘This happened and that happened and then Superman did this and then, you know, the earthquake and spinning around the planet.'” In the face of such relentless sibling mockery, Pascal did the only logical thing: “I said, ‘All that happened in my movie too.'”

He had no way of knowing it at the time, of course, but some 40 years later, Pascal would in fact get the chance to star in a movie alongside a DC Comics superhero — not to mention battle Stormtroopers and, er, face off against the most formidable warrior in Westeros. After his breakout on “Game of Thrones,” he became an instant get-me-that-guy sensation, mostly as headstrong, taciturn men of action — from chasing drug traffickers in Colombia for three seasons on Netflix’s “Narcos” to squaring off against Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”

This year, though, Pascal finds himself poised for the kind of marquee career he’s spent a lifetime dreaming about. On Oct. 30, he’ll return for Season 2 as the title star of “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm’s light-speed hit “Star Wars” series for Disney Plus that earned 15 Emmy nominations, including best drama, in its first season. And then on Dec. 25 — COVID-19 depending — he’ll play the slippery comic book villain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

The roles are at once wildly divergent and the best showcase yet for Pascal’s elastic talents. In “The Mandalorian,” he must hide his face — and, in some episodes, his whole body — in a performance that pushes minimalism and restraint to an almost ascetic ideal. In “Wonder Woman 1984,” by stark contrast, he is delivering the kind of big, broad bad-guy character that populated the 1980s popcorn spectaculars of his youth.

“I continually am so surprised when everybody pegs him as such a serious guy,” says “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins. “I have to say, Pedro is one of the most appealing people I have known. He instantly becomes someone that everybody invites over and you want to have around and you want to talk to.”

Talk with Pascal for just five minutes — even when he’s stuck in his car because he ran out of time running errands before his flight to make it to the set of a Nicolas Cage movie in Budapest — and you get an immediate sense of what Jenkins is talking about. Before our interview really starts, Pascal points out, via Zoom, that my dog is licking his nether regions in the background. “Don’t stop him!” he says with an almost naughty reproach. “Let him live his life!”

Over our three such conversations, it’s also clear that Pascal’s great good humor and charm have been at once ballast for a number of striking hardships, and a bulwark that makes his hard-won success a challenge for him to fully accept.

Before Pascal knew anything about “The Mandalorian,” its showrunner and executive producer Jon Favreau knew he wanted Pascal to star in it.

“He feels very much like a classic movie star in his charm and his delivery,” says Favreau. “And he’s somebody who takes his craft very seriously.” Favreau felt Pascal had the presence and skill essential to deliver a character — named Din Djarin, but mostly called Mando — who spends virtually every second of his time on screen wearing a helmet, part of the sacrosanct creed of the Mandalorian order.

Convincing any actor to hide their face for the run of a series can be as precarious as escaping a Sarlacc pit. To win Pascal over in their initial meeting, Favreau brought him behind the “Mandalorian” curtain, into a conference room papered with storyboards covering the arc of the first season. “When he walked in, it must have felt a little surreal,” Favreau says. “You know, most of your experiences as an actor, people are kicking the tires to see if it’s a good fit. But in this case, everything was locked and loaded.”

Needless to say, it worked. “I hope this doesn’t sound like me fashioning myself like I’m, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big s—,” Pascal says with a laugh.

Favreau’s determination to cast Pascal, however, put the actor in a tricky situation: Pascal’s own commitments to make “Wonder Woman 1984” in London and to perform in a Broadway run of “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson barreled right into the production schedule for “The Mandalorian.” Some scenes on the show, and in at least one case a full episode, would need to lean on the anonymity of the title character more than anyone had quite planned, with two stunt performers — Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — playing Mando on set and Pascal dubbing in the dialogue months later.

Pascal was already being asked to smother one of his best tools as an actor, extraordinarily uncommon for anyone shouldering the newest iteration of a global live-action franchise. (Imagine Robert Downey Jr. only playing Iron Man while wearing a mask — you can’t!) Now he had to hand over control of Mando’s body to other performers too. Some actors would have walked away. Pascal didn’t.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” he says. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s ‘Star Wars.'” (For Season 2, Pascal says he was on the set far more, though he still sat out many of Mando’s stunts.)

“The Mandalorian” was indeed the next big s—, helping to catapult the launch of Disney Plus to 26.5 million subscribers in its first six weeks. With the “Star Wars” movies frozen in carbonite until 2023 (at least), I noted offhand that he’s now effectively the face of one of the biggest pop-culture franchises in the world. Pascal could barely suppress rolling his eyes.

“I mean, come on, there isn’t a face!” he says with a laugh that feels maybe a little forced. “If you want to say, ‘You’re the silhouette’ — which is also a team effort — then, yeah.” He pauses. “Can we just cut the s— and talk about the Child?”

Yes, of course, the Child — or, as the rest of the galaxy calls it, Baby Yoda. Pascal first saw the incandescently cute creature during his download of “Mandalorian” storyboards in that initial meeting with Favreau. “Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and, boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode,” he says. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, yep, that’s a winner!'”

Baby Yoda is undeniably the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” inspiring infinite memes and apocryphal basketball game sightings. But the show wouldn’t work if audiences weren’t invested in Mando’s evolving emotional connection to the wee scene stealer, something Favreau says Pascal understood from the jump. “He’s tracking the arc of that relationship,” says the showrunner. “His insight has made us rethink moments over the course of the show.” (As with all things “Star Wars,” questions about specifics are deflected in deference to the all-powerful Galactic Order of Spoilers.)

Even if Pascal couldn’t always be inside Mando’s body, he never left the character’s head, always aware of how this orphaned bounty hunter who caroms from planet to planet would look askance at anything that felt too good (or too adorable) to be true.

“The transience is something that I’m incredibly familiar with, you know?” Pascal says. “Understanding the opportunity for complexity under all of the armor was not hard for me.”

When Pascal was 4 months old, his parents had to leave him and his sister with their aunt, so they could go into hiding to avoid capture during Pinochet’s crackdown against his opposition. After six months, they finally managed to climb the walls of the Venezuelan embassy during a shift change and claim asylum; from there, the family relocated, first to Denmark, then to San Antonio, where Pascal’s father got a job as a physician.

Pascal was too young to remember any of this, and for a healthy stretch of his childhood, his complicated Chilean heritage sat in parallel to his life in the U.S. — separate tracks, equally important, never quite intersecting. By the time Pascal was 8, his family was able to take regular trips back to Chile to visit with his 34 first cousins. But he doesn’t remember really talking about any of his time there all that much with his American friends.

“I remember at one point not even realizing that my parents had accents until a friend was like, ‘Why does your mom talk like that?'” Pascal says. “And I remember thinking, like what?”

Besides, he loved his life in San Antonio. His father took him and his sister to Spurs basketball games during the week if their homework was done. He hoodwinked his mother into letting him see “Poltergeist” at the local multiplex. He watched just about anything on cable; the HBO special of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman Broadway show knocked him flat. He remembers seeing Henry Thomas in “E.T.” and Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun” and wishing ardently, urgently, I want to live those stories too.

Then his father got a job in Orange County, Calif. After Pascal finished the fifth grade, they moved there. It was a shock. “There were two really, really rough years,” he says. “A lot of bullying.”

His mother found him a nascent performing arts high school in the area, and Pascal burrowed even further into his obsessions, devouring any play or movie he could get his hands on. His senior year, a friend of his mother’s gave Pascal her ticket to a long two-part play running in downtown Los Angeles that her bad back couldn’t withstand. He got out of school early to drive there by himself. It was the pre-Broadway run of “Angels in America.”

“And it changed me,” he says with almost religious awe. “It changed me.”

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pascal booked a succession of solid gigs, like MTV’s “Undressed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But the sudden death of his mother — who’d only just been permitted to move back to Chile a few years earlier — took the wind right from Pascal’s sails. He lost his agent, and his career stalled almost completely.

As a tribute to her, he decided to change his professional last name from Balmaceda, his father’s, to Pascal, his mother’s. “And also, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda,” he says. “It was exhausting.”

Pascal even tried swapping out Pedro for Alexander (an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander,” one of the formative films of his youth). “I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he says. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”

It was a desperately lean time for Pascal. He booked an occasional “Law & Order” episode, but mostly he was pounding the pavement along with his other New York theater friends — like Oscar Isaac, who met Pascal doing an Off Broadway play. They became fast, lifelong friends, bonding over their shared passions and frustrations as actors.

“It’s gotten better, but at that point, it was so easy to be pigeonholed in very specific roles because we’re Latinos,” says Isaac. “It’s like, how many gang member roles am I going to be sent?” As with so many actors, the dream Pascal and Isaac shared to live the stories of their childhoods had been stripped down to its most basic utility. “The dream was to be able to pay rent,” says Isaac. “There wasn’t a strategy. We were just struggling. It was talking about how to do this thing that we both love but seems kind of insurmountable.”

As with so few actors, that dream was finally rekindled through sheer nerve and the luck of who you know, when another lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson, agreed to pass along Pascal’s audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to “Game of Thrones” co-showrunner David Benioff.

“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff remembers over email. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like s—; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

Before Pascal knew it, he found himself in Belfast, sitting inside the Great Hall of the Red Keep as one of the judges at Tyrion Lannister’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey. “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire f—ing set,” Pascal says, his eyes wide and astonished still at the memory. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit — and with this view.” He sighs. “It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.”

And then it all started to happen.

In early 2018, while Pascal was in Hawaii preparing to make the Netflix thriller “Triple Frontier” — opposite his old friend Isaac — he got a call from the film’s producer Charles Roven, who told him Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him in London to discuss a role in another film Roven was producing, “Wonder Woman 1984.”

“It was a f—ing offer,” Pascal says in an incredulous whisper. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”

Pascal had actually shot a TV pilot with Jenkins that wasn’t picked up, made right before his life-changing run on “Game of Thrones” aired. “I got to work with Patty for three days or something and then thought I’d never see her again,” he says. “I didn’t even know she remembered me from that.”

She did. “I worked with him, so I knew him,” she says. “I didn’t need him to prove anything for me. I just loved the idea of him, and I thought he would be kind of unexpected, because he doesn’t scream ‘villain.'”

In Jenkins’ vision, Max Lord — a longstanding DC Comics rogue who shares a particularly tangled history with Wonder Woman — is a slick, self-styled tycoon with a knack for manipulation and an undercurrent of genuine pathos. It was the kind of larger-than-life character Pascal had never been asked to tackle before, so he did something equally unorthodox: He transformed his script into a kind of pop-art scrapbook, filled with blown-up photocopies of Max Lord from the comic books that Pascal then manipulated through his lens on the character.

Even the few pages Pascal flashes to me over Zoom are quite revealing. One, featuring Max sporting a power suit and a smarmy grin, has several burned-out holes, including through the character’s eye. Another page features Max surrounded by text bubbles into which Pascal has written, over and over and over again in itty-bitty lettering, “You are a f—ing piece of s—.”

“I felt like I had wake myself up again in a big way,” he says. “This was just a practical way of, like, instead of going home tired and putting Netflix on, [I would] actually deal with this physical thing, doodle and think about it and run it.”

Jenkins is so bullish on Pascal’s performance that she thinks it could explode his career in the same way her 2003 film “Monster” forever changed how the industry saw Charlize Theron. “I would never cast him as just the stoic, quiet guy,” Jenkins says. “I almost think he’s unrecognizable from ‘Narcos’ to ‘Wonder Woman.’ Wouldn’t even know that was the same guy. But I think that may change.”

When people can see “Wonder Woman 1984” remains caught in the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the industry; both Pascal and Jenkins are hopeful the Dec. 25 release date will stick, but neither is terribly sure it will. Perhaps it’s because of that uncertainty, perhaps it’s because he’s spent his life on the outside of a dream he’s now suddenly living, but Pascal does not share Jenkins’ optimism that his experience making “Wonder Woman 1984” will open doors to more opportunities like it.

“It will never happen again,” Pascal says, once more in that incredulous whisper. “It felt so special.”

After all he’s done in a few short years, why wouldn’t Pascal think more roles like this are on his horizon?

“I don’t know!” he finally says with a playful — and pointed — howl. “I’m protecting myself psychologically! It’s just all too good to be true! How dare I!”

x

[horselesbian]

Round One: Hiyasu Shimokizu vs. Senshi Yasashii

@taiyuu-high-oct

it’s later than i wanted but it’s done and i think i like it we’ll see in like three days i guess

They’d been sent off to change into their gym uniforms with little other instruction, but even glancing at the shorts told Shimokizu that she couldn’t wear them. She tugged at her sleeve, and put them back. 

For whatever they were going to do, her uniform pants would have to suffice. 

Tugging at her sleeves again, she ventured out of the locker rooms, trying to watch everything at once and avoid being spotted by her teacher. 

Aurora-sensei seemed to be nice, but she was breaking the rules. There was no changing that. She would be in trouble. 

“Hiyasu! Why are you wearing your uniform pants? They’re going to get dirty, you know.” 

Shimokizu yelped as Aurora noticed her almost immediately, and tried to duck behind Yacchan, except they weren’t nearby, so she couldn’t. She had to face whatever punishment Aurora had head on. “U-um… I can’t… I’ll be too cold if I… um, with shorts. Sorry…” 

“Oh, alright. I’ll see what I can do about getting you some gym pants for your uniform. Why didn’t you say something sooner?” 

“I didn’t… I didn’t think, I’m sorry, sensei…” 

“No need to be sorry! We’ll take care of it, okay kiddo?” 

Shimokizu nodded. “Thank you, sensei.” 

Aurora smiled broadly at her, then went over to stand next to Wolfsboon. 

She tugged her sleeve, confused but grateful at the lack of punishment. “Stupid, stupid… breaking the rules on the first day…” she mumbled, wishing she could just curl up and disappear. 

“We’ll be going in the order you see here!” Aurora said cheerfully as she explained their upcoming sparring sessions. She indicated a board that had a list of thirteen pairs of 1-A and 1-B students. 

She was ninth, against Yasashii Senshi. Yameru was seventh, against Fuji Hotaru. 

Two fights in, however, she was getting nervous. “Everyone is so good… I’m nowhere near their level…” 

“You need to have more faith in yourself, Mocchan.” 

She jumped at the sudden voice, but relaxed at its familiarity. “Y-yacchan…” 

“Do your best and you’ll be fine.” 

She nodded, grabbing Yameru’s hand. “Okay.” 

After that, she watched each fight with rapt attention, gathering every small bit of information she could from each fight, about her classmates’ fighting styles, quirks, and even touches of their personalities. 

She didn’t know a thing about her opponent, aside from their name. She didn’t even know which of the students was Yasashii Senshi, though the options narrowed slowly as 1-B students were ruled out by process of elimination. A spectrum of colors filled out the space as she learned more about each person, some colors drew her in, others grated at her. 

She could almost get excited about pinpointing each of her classmates’ exact shades, what colors went well with theirs. 

“Mocchan, it’s my turn,” Yameru said quietly, and Shimokizu quickly let them go, embarrassed. 

“G-good luck Yacchan!” she said, louder than she meant to, later than she wanted to. She knew she was blushing, and buried her face behind handfuls of her hair. “S-sorry…” 

No matter how many times she watched Yameru fight, she was always enraptured. The way she could sometimes watch a move in so much more detail and sometimes she could barely see what was happening… there wasn’t anything else she could watch that could possibly compare. 

There were only six students remaining that could still be her opponent. The five others she’d seen in her class. As Yameru fought, Shimokizu nervously looked over the students from 1-B. She was slowly associating names to faces, but she was sure she’d forget at least half of them by the next day. 

Yameru was exhausted when they stepped back to stand next to Shimokizu. She tilted her head just enough to tap into their arm, to show her support without being a distraction to anyone else, and they patted her head. 

“Alright! You’re up, Hiyasu Shimokizu!” Aurora called, as Wolfsboon called for her opponent. “Good luck!” 

“Good luck, Mocchan,” Yameru said, quieter than she had been. 

She was wringing her hands as she walked to the ring. There, she faced her opponent, Senshi Yasashii. 

Still, she bowed. “T-to a good fight, S-senshi-san.” 

They bowed back, quiet, though there was something that might be disappointment in their eyes. 

She shifted her feet, shuffling a bit in the sand. She glanced Senshi over, gathering what she could before the fight started and figuring how low the temperature could go safely, given the factors at play. It wouldn’t be long, and as long as she limited the range… no, it would distract her too much. 

While she was thinking, Senshi took the opening and made the first move. They swung towards her with their staff, and Shimokizu took that as an invitation to start the fight. She slid under the swiping attack, sliding her stance wider and ducking down. The force ruffled her hair, carefully pulled tight into a ponytail, some strands catching and being tugged along with the weapon. She held carefully to her quirk so she didn’t go too low or too sudden and hurt anyone. Dropping would hurt everyone, and it wouldn’t be a fair fight. 

“I won’t be losing this fight.” 

Shimokizu blinked, catching a follow-up blow. “Wh- does i-it matter th-that much?” She pushed the staff away with all her strength, then rushed in close. 

“Are you serious?” They caught her jab, but the following kick connected, separating them as Senshi leapt away from the strike. “Of course it matters. I can’t be… weak.” 

Shimokizu scrunched her nose in confusion, but followed Senshi to keep herself close enough that their hand to hand would continue. “I-it’s j-just a… j-just pra-practice…” She saw that the chill was getting to Senshi; they retracted their staff and shifted away from her again, though not without attempting a quick punch that she easily dodged. “J-just a de-dem-demons...” She huffed in frustration, the chill closing words from her again. Stupid, stupid… words shouldn’t stick in her throat just because of her own stupid quirk…

They were about evenly matched at hand to hand, which meant keeping close was to her advantage. Shimokizu winced as her opponent struck her sharply in her right side, then responded by kicking at Senshi’s shin. “Just practice…? Is th-this a joke to you?” She ducked under a particularly harsh and fast blow and surged upward, only to be pushed back by a quick shove before she could make any hit, skidding slightly and almost wavering in her footing. She regained her balance quickly, the lack of traction of her boots being compensated for with a small twist of her ankle. 

She frowned, slipping the temperature downward a bit faster. The fight was dragging on too long and she was getting close to becoming too cold to stay focused. “I-I t-take ever-every fight s-s-seriously. I-it wou… would b-be r-rude n-not to.” 

Likely noticing the increase of her quirk usage, Senshi rushed her. She didn’t catch the nature of the feint until it was too late, and jumped back, wincing in pain from the solid punch to the stomach she’d received. 

In the moments she was recovering her focus and barings, Senshi had grabbed their bag, and flung the first thing they’d grabbed from it at her. 

Pencils scattered across the field at her feet, and she nearly missed adjusting her footing so that she didn’t step on them. Suddenly distinctly more conscious of her ill-suited, though warm, footwear, she kicked the pencils out of her way, then froze when she shifted her focus away from the ground and  noticed the water bottle in her opponent’s hands. 

Then she cursed herself for freezing, because there was no reason to suspect that she had any adversion to water except from her reaction, so stupid, SO STUPID you can’t make mistakes like this and she skittered back, trying to avoid the splash of water as best she could. 

She didn’t succeed in that endeavor. The water made her sweater itchy against her skin, weighed her hair down differently than it was before, and, worst of all, worsened her chill. She gasped from the shock and lost her grip of control on her quirk, the temperature dropping suddenly further down. She allowed herself to ignore it, even though she swore she heard someone gasp and something snap, instead watching for Senshi’s following move. 

It was a good thing she did, since they had been just about to shove her the last few feet out of bounds with their staff. She pulled herself to the side, slipping a bit on the balls of her feet and just barely dodging the weapon’s path. 

Before they could retract the staff, Shimokizu grabbed it, then dug her heels into the ground, praying that her footing would hold. “S-sorry,” she said, then twisted, forcing her grip to hold through shaking hands and quivering arms, and somehow, some way, used the staff to swing Senshi out of bounds. 

The whistle blew, but Shimokizu had already stepped out after Senshi, extending her hand. “Y-you… you’re a g-good f-fighter.”  Stupid, stupid… stutter! Just say the words, you know how to say them, it’s not this hard! 

Senshi stared at her. She tried to smile kindly, but it no doubt fell short. Wavering and uncertain, like always, be better, you idiot! 

They took her hand, and shook it. “Tha-thank you.” 

“I-I a-almost th-thou-ought y-you h-had m-me! I-I-I wa-was s-sure y-you g-got me w-with th-the w-water… Y-you w-were at th-the a-adv…adva…” She wrapped her arms around herself. “S-sorry…” 

“H-how cold… are you?” 

“A-ah, I’ll…” She sneezed. ‘’M f-fine.” 

“Hiyasu, you’ll get sick if you keep that soaked sweater on. Go ahead and change back into your regular uniform.” Aurora smiled at her, warm, kind, and wide. 

“A-ah, th-thank y-y… th-thank yo-ou s-sen-sensei!” Shimokizu bowed quickly, then hurried off. 

“If she can’t ask for what she needs, she can’t succeed as a hero.” 

“Shush, Kuzu. Give her time.”

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Graphics by Jasmine Mithani

President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are well on their way to facing off in November, but this hasn’t stopped the new coronavirus from casting a pall of uncertainty over the campaign. Numerous primaries have been postponed and the Democrats have already delayed their convention. In fact, there’s a decent chance that neither party will be able to hold one in person, possibly necessitating the first virtual convention in U.S. history. There’s also a real question mark around the general election, as it may fall in the midst of a resurgence of the virus.

But if we’re going to entertain doomsday scenarios, let’s consider one that’s always lurking but may be disturbingly relevant in 2020: the death or incapacitation of a presidential nominee. How would the parties — and the public — respond to such a tragic event?

We know this is macabre, but Trump and Biden are both in their 70s (Trump turns 74 in June, and Biden is 77), making them the oldest major-party nominees in American history.

And on top of the reality that the elderly simply have a greater chance of dying, COVID-19 is particularly dangerous for those 65 and over. So if there were ever an election cycle to worry about this morbid hypothetical, it’s this one.

If something were to happen to the presumptive nominee before the convention, the parties have a plan — they’d proceed as normal and use the convention to pick the nominee. And if something happened after the convention but before the election, there’s a plan for that, too — national party committees would step in. After the election, though, things get murkier, as it’s uncertain how the result would work out in the Electoral College.

Let’s tackle that first scenario — something happens to either Biden or Trump before their respective conventions. In the case of the Democratric nomination, that would all of a sudden open up the race, according to Lara Brown, director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. The delayed primaries would become far more relevant, and this could create a free-for-all with Sen. Bernie Sanders and the other candidates. “Let’s face it, none of the candidates have officially withdrawn,” said Brown. “They’ve all just suspended [their campaigns].”

But if tragedy didn’t strike until the convention, Biden delegates would have to choose someone else to support.1 Richard Pildes, a constitutional law professor at the New York University School of Law, stressed, however, that even under normal circumstances, the Democratic delegates are technically free “on the first ballot to vote their conscience.” As for the GOP convention rules, Pildes told me they specifically bind the delegates, and as Trump is the only candidate who will really have delegates, the party might need to issue an “interpretation” of the rules or even vote to change them to deal with this unforeseen situation.

Brown and Pildes said it wouldn’t necessarily prevent a drawn-out convention battle, but if Biden had picked a running mate, that might go a long way in limiting the intraparty fighting because Democrats would already have someone to rally around rather than being split among a host of alternatives. On the other hand, Vice President Pence would automatically ascend to the presidency should something happen to Trump, giving the Republicans a pretty straightforward pick if disaster struck before their August convention.

If something happened after the conventions but before the election, the national party committees would pick another nominee. Under Republican rules, the Republican National Committee could reconvene the national convention, although Pildes told me it’s hard to imagine that being feasible. So in both parties, national committee members would vote to elect a new nominee.2 Pence would once again be the obvious choice for Republicans, although the GOP would also have to pick a new vice presidential nominee (as would the Democrats if this situation arose for them). And while Democrats could try to back a former candidate or an outsider who didn’t run — say, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — Brown said a crisis like this would likely push the Democratic National Committee to put the vice presidential nominee at the top of the ticket. “I assume that the Democrats would attempt to follow that same pattern [as the GOP],” she said.

Neither party has ever had to replace someone at the top of the ticket, but Democrats do have some experience with replacing someone in the No. 2 spot. In 1972, the national convention nominated Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton to be George McGovern’s running mate, but after reports surfaced that Eagleton had received electroconvulsive therapy for depression, he withdrew, and the DNC chose Sargent Shriver to fill the vacancy. Brown cautioned me not to read too much into how this worked, though, because she argued that the process would work differently if someone died. “It’s different with a death because a death is unexpected,” said Brown. “Whereas by the time you get to Eagleton withdrawing at McGovern’s request, the whole party is kind of on board with that already.”

And what if something happens very close to Election Day? It’d probably be really hard to pick a replacement in time to update ballots, as most deadlines to certify state ballots would have passed by early October — not to mention other logistical hurdles that could pose problems, such as mailing ballots for overseas military service members in time, or making last-minute adjustments to absentee ballots. It’s entirely possible that if the candidate died only a few days before Nov. 3, voters might not know who the party’s nominee was when they go to the polls.

Again, neither party has experienced this at the top of the ticket, but Republicans did have this happen to a vice presidential candidate in 1912, when sitting Vice President James Sherman died on Oct. 30, just days before the election. This left insufficient time for the RNC to meet and nominate a replacement to join President William Howard Taft on the GOP ticket, but it was also largely a moot point as Taft lost to Woodrow Wilson. The RNC still chose a replacement, Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, who received all eight of Sherman’s electoral votes, but it’s unclear whether a new presidential pick would receive the electoral votes intended for the original nominee today.

That’s because, unlike in 1912, more than half the states have laws that attempt to bind electors to a state’s vote. In fact, there’s an ongoing case in front of the Supreme Court about whether members of the Electoral College are free to vote for whomever they want or whether state laws can require them to vote a certain way. And depending on how the court rules, that could affect the ability of individual states to adjust for the unexpected death of a presidential nominee. For instance, Michigan’s law requires an elector to vote for the ticket named on the ballot whereas Florida’s rules say that an elector is to “vote for the candidates of the party that he or she was nominated to represent.”

Finally, if the nominee was incapacitated after Election Day, a lot might depend on whether he is considered the “president-elect.” If he is, it’s actually pretty straightforward — the 20th Amendment says the vice president-elect shall become president. But if it all happened before the Electoral College votes on Dec. 14 or even before Congress counts the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, it’s not clear what would happen next, as he might not be considered the president-elect. There is one instance of this happening — in 1872, Horace Greeley died on Nov. 29, just before the Electoral College’s Dec. 4 gathering and most of his 66 electoral votes were split among four alternate candidates (including Greeley’s vice presidential nominee, Benjamin Gratz Brown), but this example is largely academic, too, as Greeley had already lost to Republican President Ulysses S. Grant.

It’s hard to know what exactly might unfold, but none of these timelines would leave much time for the near-certain legal wrangling over the fallout from a candidate’s death, a problem that we haven’t adjusted for even after the messy recount in the 2000 presidential election. Pildes put it bluntly: “We’ve been lucky. We have actually had some presidents who have died shortly after taking office but not somebody who died either between the convention and the election, or after being elected and becoming the president-elect.” And if that were to happen this year, it would likely create intraparty division, uncertainty among voters or a tidal wave of litigation. Let’s hope that the country’s luck doesn’t run out in 2020.

[jbuffyangel]

Entertainment Weekly Arrow Article

We never get any big articles of Arrow, so yeah I am posting the whole damn thing. There were some interesting little tidbits and of course discussion around Emily Bett Rickards’ exit. Is it wrong that I am low key pissed that of course Arrow gets the cover of EW after she leaves? Is it also wrong that while I’m happy Arrow is getting some attention, I’m annoyed it wasn’t an Olicity cover? Cuz that’s where I am at. (X)

How Arrow saved the TV superhero — and why it had to end

As 'Arrow' prepares for the end, Stephen Amell and the producers reflect on its origin story and preview the 'Crisis'-bound eighth and final season. 

Stephen Amell is dreading the eighth and final season of Arrow, though you wouldn’t know it on this hot, sunny July day in Los Angeles. Wearing Green Arrow’s new suit, the CW star seems perfectly at ease as he strikes heroic pose after heroic pose on a dimly lit stage. But once he’s traded heavy verdant leather for a T-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap, his guard drops and the vulnerability starts to creep in as he contemplates Arrow’s last 10 episodes, which was set to begin production in Vancouver a week after the EW photoshoot took place and premieres Oct. 15.

“I’m very emotional and melancholy, but it’s time,” Amell — who is featured on the new cover of Entertainment Weekly — says as he takes a sip from a pint of Guinness. “I’m 38 years old, and I got this job when I was 30. I’d never had a job for more than a year. The fact that I’ve done this for the better part of a decade, and I’m not going to do it anymore, is a little frightening.”

Developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg, Arrow debuted in the fall of 2012. The DC Comics series follows billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Amell), who, after years away, returned to now–Star City with one goal: to save his home-town as the hooded bow-and-arrow vigilante who would become known as Green Arrow (it would take him four seasons to assume the moniker). What began as a solo crusade eventually grew to include former soldier John Diggle (David Ramsey), quirky computer genius Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), lawyer-turned-hero Laurel Lance/Black Canary (Katie Cassidy Rodgers), and the rest of Team Arrow. Together they’ve defended their city from a host of threats — dark archers, megalomaniacal magicians, and the occasional metahuman — while Lost-like flashbacks revealed what Oliver endured in the five years he was away, first shipwrecked and then honing his skills around the world to become someone else, something else.

The premiere gave The CW its most-watched series debut since 2009’s The Vampire Diaries. But before they launched Arrow, Berlanti and Guggenheim had to suffer through a failure: 2011’s Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds. The duo co-wrote the script but lost creative control of the film, which flopped. So when Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth approached them in late 2011 about developing a Green Arrow show, they were wary. After much deliberation, Berlanti and Guggenheim agreed, on the condition that they maintain control. Says Guggenheim, “As long as we succeed or fail on our own work, and not someone else’s work then maybe this is worth a shot.”

Their take on the Emerald Archer — who made his DC Comics debut in 1941 — was noteworthy from the beginning. Taking cues from films like The Dark Knight and The Bourne Identity and series like Homeland, the writers imagined a dark, gritty, and grounded show centered on a traumatized protagonist. “As we were breaking the story, we made very specific commitments to certain tonal things, such as ‘At the end of act 1, he has his hands around his mother’s throat.’ And, ‘At the end of act 2, he kills a man in cold blood to protect his secret,’ ” says Guggenheim.

A hero committing murder? That was practically unheard of then. Having Oliver suit up in a veritable superhero costume by the pilot’s climax was radical too. Sure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was deep into Phase One when the producers were developing Arrow, but TV was traditionally more apprehensive about comic books. Smallvillefamously had a “no tights, no flights” rule and only introduced superhero costumes in the last years of its 10-season run, and there weren’t any masked avengers running around NBC’s Heroes or ABC’s No Ordinary Family, the latter produced by Berlanti (Let’s not even mention NBC’s The Cape, which was essentially dead on arrival and never did get its six seasons and a movie). But Arrow not only fully committed to the idea of someone dressing up like Robin Hood to fight crime with a bow and arrow, it introduced a second costumed rogue, the Huntress (Jessica De Gouw), in episode 7.

“It’s just comic book to the extreme and the fans seem to really love it,” says Batwomanshowrunner Caroline Dries, a former writer on Smallville. “They still maintain it very grounded, but it’s very different with everyone in costumes. The appetite for superheroes has changed in my mind in terms of like they just want the literal superhero [now].”

Not that the team wasn’t meticulous about creating Green Arrow’s cowl. “We had to have so many conversations to get it approved, but that’s why we got [Oscar winner] Colleen Atwood [Memoirs of a Geisha] at the time to [design] the suit,” says Berlanti. “We were determined to show we could do on TV what they were doing in the movies every six months.”

“It’s really easy to make a guy with a bow and arrow look silly. We sweated every detail,” says Guggenheim, who also recalls how much effort it took to perfect Oliver’s signature growl. “I actually flew up to Vancouver. On a rooftop during reshoots on [episode 4], Stephen and I went through a variety of different versions of, basically, ‘You have failed this city,’ with different amounts of how much growl he’s putting into his performance. [We] recorded all that, [I went] back to Los Angeles, and then sat with the post guys playing around with all the different amounts of modulation.”

That process took eons compared to the unbelievably easy time the team had casting Arrow’s title role. In fact, Amell was the first person to audition for the role. “It was Stephen’s intensity. He just made you believe he was that character,” says Guggenheim, recalling Amell’s audition. “We had crafted Oliver to be this mystery box character, and Stephen somehow managed to find this balance between being totally accessible in a way you would need a TV star to be, but he’s still an enigma.” After his first reading, Amell remembers being sent outside for a short time before being brought back into the room to read for a larger group: “I called [my manager], and I go, ‘I know this is not how it’s supposed to work, but I just got that job.’”

In the first season, the show’s chief concerns were maintaining both the “grounded and real” tone and the high quality of the stunts, and investing the audience in Oliver’s crusade. Beyond that, though, there wasn’t much of an over-arching plan, which allowed the show to naturally evolve — from introducing more DC characters, such as Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) and Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), sooner than they initially intended (the shot of Deathstroke’s mask in the pilot was meant as a harmless Easter egg), to promoting Emily Bett Rickards’ Felicity from a one-off character in the show’s third episode to a series regular in season 2 and eventually Oliver’s wife. Even the whole idea of a Team Arrow — which, over time, added Oliver’s sister Thea (Willa Holland), Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez) and Dinah Drake/Black Canary (Juliana Harkavy) — was the result of the writers allowing the best ideas to guide the story. “Greg used to say all the time, ‘You have a hit TV show until you don’t, so don’t save s—,’ ” says Amell.

Also not planned: Arrow spawning an entire shared universe. “We went on record a lot of times during the premiere of the pilot saying, ��No superpowers, no time travel.’ But midway through season 1, Greg started to harbor a notion of doing the Flash,” says Guggenheim. “I’m a very big believer that it’s great to have a plan, but I think when it comes to creating a universe, the pitfall is that people try to run before they can walk. The key is, you build it show by show.” And so they did. First, they introduced The Flash star Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen in the two-part midseason finale of Arrow’s second season. From there, Supergirl took flight in 2015, then DC’s Legends of Tomorrow in 2016, and Batwoman is due this fall. “It’s like the hacking of the machete in the woods and then you look back and you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s a path,” says executive producer and Berlanti Productions president Sarah Schechter. But even though Arrowis the universe’s namesake, Amell doesn’t concern himself with the sibling series outside of the now-annual crossovers. “I never think about any of the other shows,” he says. “I want all of them to do great, but they’re not my responsibility. My responsibility is Arrow, and to make sure everyone from the cast to the crew are good.” His sentiments are seconded by Flash’s Gustin: “I don’t understand how he does it — his schedule that he maintains with working out, the conventions he goes to, the passion he has for it, and the love he shows towards fans. He’s always prepared. He cares more about that show being high quality than anybody else on the set.”

That said, the universe’s expansion precipitated what is widely considered to be Arrow’s best season, the fifth one. After focusing on magic in season 4, the show returned to its street-crime roots as part of “a concerted effort to play not just to our strengths but what made the shows unique,” Guggenheim says of balancing their four super-series in 2016. “Because Arrow was the longest-running Arrowverse show, we were able to do something that none of the other shows could do, which is have a villain who was basically born out of the events of season 1,” he explains of introducing Adrian Chase/Prometheus (Josh Segarra), whose criminal father was killed by Oliver. “That gave the season a resonance.”

It was midway through season 6 when Amell realized he was ready to hang up Oliver Queen’s hood. “It was just time to move on,” the actor says of pitching that Oliver leave the series at the end of season 7. “My daughter is turning six in October, and she goes to school in L.A., and my wife and I want to raise her [there].” Berlanti persuaded him to return for one final season, which the producers collectively decided would be the end. “We all felt in our gut it was the right time,” says Berlanti. Adds Schechter, “It’s such a privilege to be able to say when something’s ending as opposed to having something just ripped away.”

But there’s one integral cast member who won’t be around to see Arrow through its final season. This spring, fans were devastated to learn Rickards had filmed her final episode—bringing an end to Olicity. “They’re such opposites. I think that’s what draws everyone in a little bit,” showrunner Beth Schwartz says of Oliver and Felicity’s relationship. “You don’t see the [love story of] super intelligent woman and the sort of hunky, athletic man very often. She’s obviously a gorgeous woman but what he really loves is her brain.” For his part, Amell believes the success of both Felicity and Olicity lies completely with Rickards’ performance. “She’s supremely talented and awesome and carved out a space that no one anticipated. I don’t know that show works if we don’t randomly find her,” says Amell, adding that continuing the series without Team Arrow’s heart is “not great. Arrow, as you know it, has effectively ended. It’s a different show in season 8.” And he’s not exaggerating.

The final season finds Oliver working for the all-seeing extra-terrestrial the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) and trying to save the entire multiverse from a cataclysmic event. “[We’re] taking the show on the road, really getting away from Star City. Oliver is going to be traveling the world, and we’re going to go to a lot of different places,” says Guggenheim. “Every time I see Oliver and the Monitor, it’s like, ‘Okay, we are very far from where we started.’ But again, that means the show has grown and evolved.” Adds Schwartz, “This is sort of his final test because it’s greater than Star City.” Along the way, he will head down memory lane, with actor Colin Donnell, who played Oliver’s best friend Tommy Merlyn in season 1, and Segarra’s Adrian Chase making appearances. “Episode 1 is an ode to season 1, and episode 2 is an ode to season 3,” teases Amell. “We’re playing our greatest hits.”

But season 8 is not just about building toward a satisfying series finale. “Everything relates to what’s going to happen in our crossover episode, which we’ve never done before,” says Schwartz. Spanning five hours and airing this winter, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will be the biggest crossover yet and may see Oliver perish trying to save the multiverse from destruction, if the Monitor’s prophecy is to be believed. “Oliver [is told] he’s going to die, so each episode in the run-up to ‘Crisis’ has Oliver dealing with the various stages of grief that come with that discovery,” says Guggenheim. “So the theme really is coming to terms, acceptance.”

If there’s one person who has made his peace with Oliver’s fate, it’s Amell. “Because he’s a superhero with no superpowers, I always felt he should die — but he may also not die,” says Amell, who actually found out what the show’s final scene would be at EW’s cover shoot. “I cried as [Marc Guggenheim] was telling me. There are a lot of hurdles to get over to make that final scene.” Get this man some more Guinness!

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 15

Blargage. Sorry about the pause guys, work got crazy there for a while. For the record, I understand that there is a second season to Brotherhood (for some reason broken up into multiple parts on iTunes), I was just expecting that there would be an intro change at the season halfway point cause I’ve gotten used to that from other anime. Granted, the ones that come to mind are one-season or currently-only-one-season shows like KlK or AoT, so that perspective’s probably a little skewed. Onwards with Brotherhood!

Episode 15 - Envoy from the East We open in a city at ni- wait, what’s with the electricity? I thought the Terminator died last episode? Ah, an Alchemist duel, got it. In the alleyway the smoke clears to show what. What is this. Why am I looking at an Evil Mister Monopoly?

Mr. Monopoly is chuckling as he fights oh hai Scar, how’s it going? No sunglasses? Heeey, this episode doesn’t have any subtitles. How am I supposed to spell this guy’s name then? (currently boasting that he’s the Silver Alchemist, name sounds vaguely Italian) Whatever, I’ll just stick with Mr. Monopoly. Not like he’ll be around much longer, facing Scar. Mr. Monopoly is certainly living up to his name, Transmuting numerous presumably silver weapons to fling at Scar. Doing fairly well too, dodging the Ishvalan’s attacks when he has a peg leg. Captain Monopoly, then? But it doesn’t last, one scratch is exchanged for a broken peg leg, the Silver Alchemist takes a bath and gets a Face Death Grab. Bye, Captain Monopoly! Ooh, new intro! Seems we’ve got a guy singing the intro this time, pale-shaded Al and Ed before we get normal-colored Ed on a hill reaching towards the sun/title. Hey, the captions are back! Wait no, it’s the gossiping at Central from last episode, Roy walking through the hallway. Guess the captions are broken this episode, turning them off. Odd. Intro continues with clouded skies, Ed and Al sitting under a tree- suddenly panda? Yeah there’s a little girl with a little panda on her head, striking martial arts poses. The titular “Envoy from the East”? Now another new character, older black-haired guy with a ponytail and sword standing on some ruins, what looks like a pair of ninjas drop into the scene before we transition. Quick shots of Roy’s Crew (Havoc, Furey, two others I don’t remember but one appears to be a Big Eater, and Riza) and Roy himself. Now we’re back to Ed glaring at the camera, a clear shot of Hohenheim/Papa Elric glancing back? Ooooh, they’re looking at each other in a graveyard, no doubt over whose grave is between them. Shot of metal-armed Ed getting pulled into the Gate, while a human right hand reaches for him? Dunno if symbolic or if he frak’d up again. Winry is sitting at a desk next to a picture board, we see the Elric Family with Papa Elric’s face still covered. Quick scenes of Scar surrounded by flames (“dang it, I did leave the stove on”), Lust and Gluttony on a rooftop at night (what the heck is up with Gluttony’s face?!), a dark red-eyed face surrounded by screaming masks (charming), an Uroborus left eye that I recognize as Bradley/Wrath, and Father/clearly Papa Elric sitting in his Pipe Chair holding a cup of “wine”. What is his deal, even? More fight scenes, Ed earthbending at Envy and Gluttony, Bradley firebending at Lust, werewolves charging at Panda Girl? Who’s got some neat Alchemy moves, cool! Then we get Bradley swordfighting Sword Man and the ninjas, who are actually getting in some hits? Seeing as we know that Bradley is a Goth now, this makes me very happy! Then Screaming!Scar fighting Screaming!Ed, screen whites out from their attack before we get Ed closing his watch (Don’t Forget Oct. 11), and the Elric Brothers walk along a traintrack into a desert. Episode proper continues with Scar, who does not seem happy and is asking “Who is this?” Inside the dilapidated house is that weasly guy from last episode who led the bounty hunters to Scar, is Scar crashing at his place? There’s also Intro!Girl, who politely introduces herself (going without captions here, apologies for misspelling) as Mei-Chang. And that is a little panda she has with her. Cute! Mei-Chang’s saying that “Master Yoki” (Scar shoots Yoki a look at this) found her collapsed by the side of the road and brought her to the house. Scar tries to shoo her out as she’s feeling better now, but Mei sees that Scar’s leg is cut, and says that she’ll close the wound. She sets up a standard circle-star TC, but puts shuriken at the corners? Oooh, we get to see foreign Alchemy styles now, neat! Scar and Yoki are shocked to see the injury healed so quickly, Mei says that’s it a skill called (please forgive the spelling, not having captions is really annoying) “Alcahestiry from the land of Shing”. Yoki scoffs at Mei’s claim that she crossed the desert from the east, Mei insists that she did it along with Shao-Mei (Assuming the tiny panda here). Scar is shocked when said panda looks back at Scar while Mei’s saying all this, he reaches out to either Hand O’ Doom it or pet it, I can’t tell which. Mei looks back though, and Scar freezes. Which means Mei sees his tattooed arm and identifies it as Alcahestiry? Ooh, Scar family backstory! Scar says that his brother researched both Alchemy and Alcahestiry (so there’s a distinction between the practices, then). Mei is very complimentary of his brother’s skill. Methinks that Scar doesn’t like to think about how he got the tattoo, though. Yoki notes that with Scar healed they can continue on to Central, Mei invites herself along. Saying something about immortality? Yoki dismisses her, and gets a bite from the panda for his rudeness. Ha! We get a mental monologue from Mei that she knows immortality doesn’t work with Alcahestiry, but it is possible through alchemy (Yoki’s behind her still screaming about the panda eating his hand, Scar’s sitting clearly already Done With This). That’s why Mei’s here, to meet the man she’s heard so much about. Wait, what’s with the roses and music… uh oh. Oh dear Leto no. Mei’s got a crush on Edward Elric. As cute as that is, I think Ed’s a little old for you, dear. Also, Winry. Central at night now, a blond woman (looks kinda like Riza) is walking her dog through an alleyway when the dog spins around and starts growling. Creepy laughing? Aw crap I know that hollow-voice, that’s Barry the Chopper! Run! Wait… ha! Ok, sorry for not recognizing you properly Riza, haven’t seen you out of uniform before. When faced with a Soul Armor serial killer, Riza just pulls a pistol from her groceries and starts blasting at the panicking Barry. Who tries to freak her out by removing his helmet? Pfft, sorry dude. That might work for some civilians, but Hawkeye knows Al. She just blasts his helmet away. Which makes Barry start crushing on Riza? Ew, no. Also, props to the dog who’s gnawing at Barry’s cloak. We’re at a warehouse now, puppy standing guard as it seems that Barry’s being questioned by Roy and his Totally Non-Military Civilian Friends. With Barry the crew’s got the lead on the secret lab that Bradley ordered Armstrong not to discuss. Now that Roy’s clued into the military producing Philosopher Stones, he wants to investigate the researchers- but it seems that when their research was done they got used to make Stones as well. Roy also asks if Barry was the one who killed Hughes, but that’s a dead end. Hey, it’s Rush Valley! Finally, we get to see Winry again. How’s her apprenticeship going? The mechanist is walking out of a story when she hears a familiar voice: Edward! Who’s reeeealy hoping that she’s in a generous mood today. Because yeah, Ed’s arm took a bit of a beating in the last episodes. Winry is not happy about this. Later, Winry is patching up Ed’s arm (who is slumped on a table, blood-stained wrench by his side), chiding him for getting into trouble even when their pickpocket acquaintance has an honest job as an odd-job woman. As for the brothers, they’ve made some progress but can’t give any details. Winry’s dones with the patch-job, but still needs a few parts to finish it, so until then she shoo’s the two out to kill some time. Ed’s complaining about there being nothing to do as a non-engineer in a town of nothing but automail shops. But Al’s found something in an alleyway. Aw, do we get a cute “caring for a stray cat” episode? Actually, wasn’t there a white cat in the credits scene? Oh! Not a cat then, rather an unconscious Intro-Sequence character in the form of Sword Guy. And rather than an extended healing sequence, we cut right to the guy (who sounds an awful lot like Vic from Red vs Blue) chattering away at a table piled with dishes, saying that they shouldn’t quibble about who’s paying (not him). Sword Guy says that he’s from Shing (sorry, actual map shows up saying that it’s Xing), and he crossed the desert to visit the ruins of Xerxes. *notes namedrop for future episodes, there’s no way that mention won’t pay off later* Sword Guy (when are we getting his actual name?) is info-dumping about Alcahestiry, saying that it’s actually Alchemy, or probably closer to Bio-Alchemy given the emphasis in Xing for healing. Ed remarks that for Amestris it’s more for military, what with border skirmishes to the south (Aerugo) and west (Creta), with a huge country Drachma to the north, with a sort of Russian Agreement: tentative non-aggression treaty and there’s a wintery mountain range between them, but relations are dicey. Finally there are introductions, Sword Guy says he’s Ling-Yao. Buuuut he’s not actually an Alcahestrist, he’s just in town looking for something: *dramatic eye opening* The Philosopher’s Stone. Aw come on, I was just starting to like this guy. Don’t tell me he’s another “Immortality at the expense of other lives” jerk. Ed claims that he doesn’t know anything, Ling wonders if they’re lying, snaps his fingers and SUDDENLY NINJAS!

*Sigh* Yep, Ling smirks and says he want’s to achieve immortality. Well we did kill off Greed last episode, I guess we needed someone to take his place. Mid-episode pause here, we get character portraits for May Chang (w/ Shao May) and Ling Yao. Ok, so got Sword Man’s name right, I blame Avatar for mistyping May’s name. Back to the show, Ling’s telling Ed to spill the beans, Ed bluffs that it’s a bunch of nonsense. Then he breaks free nope boot to the head. Al gets tossed too, these guys are no joke. But if they can survive Teacher, they can survive these ninjas! Across the city pickpocket-girl (sorry I can’t remember your name) notices the sparks and smoke from the fight, and Ling just laughs as he sees the fight move away and orders some dessert. Sliding along some awfully large pipes now Ed transmutes a metal staff (and of course damaging the infrastructure like that causes no immediate problems), but Silent Ninja is easily beating Ed in this close-quarters combat. Experience fighting other Alchemists? Ed rants about getting attacked just because he didn’t give them information, “you and your boss with the freaky closed eyes”- wow ok Silent Ninja really didn’t like that, tried to poke out Ed’s eyes. Yeesh. Aw, poor baby Ed. He was so proud to finally land a hit on Silent Ninja, but nope another boot to the head. But now that Ed’s seen that Silent Ninja’s weakness is insulting Ling (hmmm, sudden suspicions about Silent Ninja from that), he has a plan. Begin the trolling! On Al’s side of the fight, he’s running down the street when pickpocket girl starts calmly jogging along side him. Al’s happy to see Paninya (thank you!) again, asks her for a favor. Mustache Ninja is thinking about how “every living person emits a flow of ki”, but he doesn’t sense any from Al. So he doesn’t know that Al’s a Soul Armor, then? Quick Al, pull a Barry and remove your helmet! Suddenly Al and Paninya turn around, Mustache scoffs at the aid of one person- and we’re back to Ed vs Silent. Ed is doing what he does best and annoying the crap out of his opponent, a dodge and gutpunch later he’s got Silent by the mask and yup no surprises here that Silent is a lady. Ed is shocked (shocked I say) that he’s been fighting a girl. Buddy, you of all people should be aware that the ladies are some of the biggest badasses in this show. Riza, Winry, Teacher, a quick flash of Paninya aiming her cannon-knee… and Silent’s now neutralized Ed’s arm and dropped a grenade in his face. Ouch. The townfolk panic at the dual explosions (really? You lot live in a town revolving around Automail, I’d think you’d be used to events like this), Mustache is thinking that this county is a force to be reckoned with, when Al swoops in and binds him to the town’s sign and demasks him. Mustache is surprised to see “Alkahistry without an array”, reminder at how special the brothers are to Transmute without TCs. On brother’s end… things could be going a little better. We see Ed’s mechanical arm reaching up through rubble as Silent walks up, and now I need a new name for her as she complains that she overdid it and that Master Ling will be furious- aha, the arm’s detached! A snare is sprung and the ninja’s hoisted into the air, Ed reclaims his arm and chides her for using a weapon that would have killed anyone else. Callback to the island, setting traps for rabbits. Nice continuity! Al and Paninya arrive with Mustache in hand- And then Sword Man shows up all chipper, complimenting their skills and offering them jobs to take over the country. Ed’s giving this the proper response, when… uh oh. The townfolk aren’t very happy right now, somebody’s gonna have to cover all these damages. Ed points to Ling, who suddenly can’t speak Amestrisian good and skedadles. And of course in the few seconds we looked away from the ninjas there’s nothing but cut ropes now.

Welp, now to fix everything back up- oh right, Ed’s armless. Wait, why is it surprising that Al can Transmute without a TC now? This is a recent thing? I honestly thought he could do it from the beginning, my bad. Aw, chin up Ed. Just because your younger brother is taller than you and now he’s got your super special no-TC style as well, it doesn’t mean you aren’t important. Just… less so. Poor, poor Ed, collapsing in despair and writing something in blood. No subtitles here, can someone translate for me? Later that day, the Elric Brothers return to the AutoMail shop where Winry is apprenticing, and guess who they find? [Ling]: “Hello, we meet again!”

Ed immediately bashes Ling over the head with his detached arm, who just tries acting all friendly. Still hoping to hire the brothers? Ah, info on the ninjas! I’m approximating the girl’s name as Lahn-Fahn, and the old man is Fu. Their family (so they’re related? Father/daughter?) has served his for generations, and are quite good as we’ve seen. So what about Sword Man, what’s Ling’s deal that he has ninjas working for his family? (Also, this guy in a purple shirt and suspenders drinking tea with Ling, another employee?) Oh, Ling’s “the Emperor’s son”! The Elrics… burst out laughing? Ling’s a little nonplussed about this reaction, but the Elrics explain that they just didn’t see it coming, that the guy who they found collapsed in an alley and mooched food off of them is a prince. Lahn-Fahn does not approve of this disrespect, yikes. Oh, a lesson in Xing politics, the country’s broken up into 50 clans, and the Emperor gets married to a daughter of each of the clan leaders (yikes). Currently Ling shares the prestigious title of Prince with 23 other sons, with him at #12. Obviously this family setup makes succession complicated, and with the current Emperor’s health iffy all the clans are working to gain favor. Ling’s attempt is to discover immortality, I’m assuming for himself to increase his own survival rather than give it to dear old pops and never get the job. So he asks again for info, Ed refuses to say anything, and the noble Prince immediately latches onto Ed and declares that he’s sticking around until Ed cracks. Ed beings wailing on Ling with his arm, Lahn-Fahn prepares to respond to this aggression- Uh oh. Winry’s just arrived, talking about how there was some sort of fight on Main Street. Just in time to see Ed waving around the broken arm she’d fixed earlier that day. Ling watches with a vapid grin as tools go flying and Ed pleads for nonexistent mercy, until Fu pokes his head through the window for his young lord. On the rooftop, Fu asks why Ling is acting subservient to a commoner, Ling just says that with the fate of 500,000 clansmen on the line a little bowing is a small price to pay. Huh. So is his clan at risk if he doesn’t become Emperor? Inside the shop Winry’s asking where Ed plans to go and break his automail this time, working away at the arm as Purple-Shirt looks on (I’m assuming that he’s the mechanic Winry’s working for right now). Al mentions that they’re planning on continuing their investigations in Central, Winry asks to go along to- uuuuuuuuuuuuugh. [Winry]: “I’d like to go see the Hughes’ family again.” Whyyyyy. Why must these poor kids be heading towards such bad news? Ugh, the scene where they’re told what happened is going to be excruciating. Al asks about Winry’s work in Rush Valley, Purple-Shirt (who Winry calls Mr. Garfield and who I now headcanon as having tea and discussing prototypes with Leeron) encourages her to take a break. [Ed]: “Okay, we’ll all go!” [Al]: “Central, here we come!” [Winry]: *Cheerful giggle* [Ling]: “Oh, we’re going to Central? How exciting!” Snrk. Cut to a wagon, with a sleeping May and Shao in the back (based on tropes I can guess that May’s a half-sister Xing Princess who’s off to try and find the secret of immortality like Ling, although I’d be impressed if the writer subverted expectations by having them be unrelated). Yoki’s chattering about how he doesn’t know Scar’s name, the Ishvalan says that names among his people are considered sacred gifts from God. But he’s renounced his name, and snaps at Yoki to keep moving. [Scar]: “I am walking down a path with no return. So I will leave behind me every gift I have received from God.” New credits sequence! Singing is a mix of English and Japanese, a view of the countryside behind a short white-stone wall. Winry’s standing against a blue cloudy sky with hair blowing, Ed’s looking away from the camera in his red cloak, same with Al, shot of their burnt-down house. The new characters of Ling and his Ninjas get dramatic determined poses, May and Shao get their own against a sunset background. Flashback of Baby!Ed and Baby!Al shopping for groceries, then walking along a path back home as the sun sets. Return to the wall of pictures (with Papa!Elric’s face still covered, come on show we know what he looks like), and then Papa!Elric looking away from the camera towards Central. And back to present Ed and Al walking towards the horizon, sequence ends with a night-time shot of the Rockbell’s home. Alright! New characters from Xing promise some new shenanigans, with everyone going back to Central I’d say things are coming to a head but we’re only a little over halfway through the first season. Bleh, our poor babies learning about Hughes is going to be awful, can we get that out of the way soon so it’s not hanging over our heads anymore? Assuming that they manage to get back home next episode and aren’t delayed by filler, we’ll see how things shake out in Central.

[sparkexplosive]

The Bite (Werewolf!Bakugou Katsuki X Reader)

Previously: Protect your Loved ones (Werewolf!Bakugou Katsuki X Reader)

Oct 24 of Supernatural Month

You should have run when you had the chance, but you were frozen in shock. 

That was until what is of your boyfriend buttheaded like a bull to your side to run. You whine at the force that you just received to your side, but it enough you to snap you out of your shocked state. 

The enormous blond wolf snarling and growling at you. He might be twice your size. 

However, you can actually see your grumpy boyfriend doing that, snarling and yelling in real life replacing the wolf face with his face.

His crimson red staring down your soul. 

In a strange way, you didn’t feel any fear of his actions. 

Unlike how the other wolf's actions scared the living crap out of you.

You start to move and strike forward as your sneakers squeak against the cement on how much force you were putting on your foot.

Unknown to you, that wasn’t the only two wolves in the street.  There was another one stalking within the shadows waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. 

A loud whine was heard from behind you and you turn around to see it’s Bakugou on the ground as the other wolf pinning him to the ground. 

“Katsuki!” You yelled in fear of witnessing his death. 

However, you were distracted by the distraught scene of your boyfriend. 

The hidden wolf decides to attack. Everything was happening in slow motion. 

You turned around to make eye contact at the black wolf with blue eyes. It has leap into the air as its mouth wide open to show his sharp teeth as it bites down between your shoulder and neck. 

Your scream covered the sound of a rifle gunshot that was fired at the black wolf towering your body. You fall down to the ground as the injured wolf runs away at the sight of a human with a rifle.

The black wolf escaping into the dark night.

Everything was becoming fizzy for you. You could see your vision becoming slower and fuggy. You feeling someone apply pressure to your wound as they called out your name. 

The figure looks to be Bakugou’s father due to the familiarity of his voice. 

Meanwhile, another blond wolf has passed the injured human on the ground knowing her son will look for the blood of the biter later.

If something misfortunate happens...

She bounces upon the gray wolf off of her son but biting on its neck and throw the enemy to the side, crashing into a tree. She was a bit bigger than Bakugou by a few inches. 

She lowered her head with a growl and snarling at the gray wolf who injured her pup. She was a clearly furious mother who was ready to rip the opponent in front of her into shreds. 

It was obvious the gray wolf was no longer be able to fight back due to the injuries that he has gotten from the young pup. The gray fur covered with blood. 

However, on the other hand, Katsuki has minor injuries. It shows how much his mother showed him how to protect him from others of his kind.

He wanted to check on you but he couldn’t risk this wolf coming to attack once again. 

He steps forward snapping his teeth. His beautiful blond fur was covered with dirt and a bit of blood. His mouth area was covered by the gray wolf blood. 

As expected, the gray wolf retreats and runs off into the night. 

It was two versus one. 

Immediately as the gray wolf showed signs of surrender. 

Bakugou runs over to your fallen body within his father's arms, who is trying to make an attempt to stop the bleeding but nothing seems to work. He slowly picking your body from the ground. 

Katsuki sees the blood splat on your cheek as your eyes held no shine. 

Pushing his muzzle against your hand to trying to get any reaction but nothing. 

He was about to follow his father to the car before his mother harshly stepped on his tail. He growls at his mother.

Into words of her actions, “you can’t go not like this.” 

He could only watch his car putting your body into the car before racing to the other side of the car. 

As he speeds off with your fragile body. 

Bakugou heart drops into his stomach. 

....What if your body is rejecting the bite...

Only miserable wait for him until his transform worn off. At least to the point, he is recognizably human. 

Feedback/Reactions are greatly appreciated!

October! Supernatural Month 2018

Please tell me your thoughts or any kind of reaction.

[sp4c3-0ddity]

Oct 23

So Canon Divergent AU with a ‘reunion’. I settled on my fourth idea for this (after writing a bit for the first lol) and it ended up being a reincarnation AU (which actually corresponds to one of the tropes listed on the original prompt generator whoops). anyway, i’d consider it gen with a healthy dose of plance. ~3700 words, kinda Weird(TM), but i hope you like it!!

Lance recognizes Shiro the moment he hears his name.

He’s sitting at the kitchen table, struggling throughmatrix multiplication while his older sister gnashes her teeth in frustration.“And the determinant is…five?” he asks, glancing over at her.

Veronica scowls, snatching the pencil from his hand andpulling his notebook towards her. “Look, it’s not that hard, Lance.” Shescrawls the problem on the page, walking him through each step.

Lance tries to focus, but math doesn’t come naturally tohim, so it can’t hold his attention like other subjects do. Instead, he tunesVeronica’s pointers out, the distant hum of the TV coming into focus instead.

“…making Takashi Shirogane the youngest pilot on adistant space mission in history!”the news anchor says.

Lance blinks, unsure about the prickle of familiarity that strikes him. The name Takashi Shirogane rings through hismind, and though he knows he’s neverheard it before, a distinct face follows, that of a broad-shouldered man withblack-and-white hair and a kind smile.

Just like that, Lance loses all interest in algebra,letting his sister do his homework for him like she usually does if hefrustrates her enough. But later, he retreats to his bedroom with the communallaptop and does some digging:

Lieutenant TakashiShirogane, new graduate from the Galaxy Garrison, was selected as the pilot forthe mission to Pluto’s moon Kerberos in two years’ time.

Lance stops reading; he’s not sure why he’s smiling, notwhen the man in the articles accompanying photograph is too fresh-faced to bethe strange man in his memory. But his old dreams of space travel and pilotingreturn, and the low marks in math and science on his report cards don’t matteranymore.

The next afternoon, Lance brings his homework to hissister without his mother’s prompting, and he grins when she stares up at himin surprise.

He and Hunk take to each other immediately, which makesLance wonder if Hunk senses that same strange connection as he does. It’s all too easy to fall into a routine in theirshared room, and their disagreements are infrequent. Hunk even helps Lance withhis homework, even tells Lance without prompting that there’s nothing wrongwith being on the cargo pilot track.

(”But what am I going to tell my mother when I can’t advanceby the end of the year?”

“Call it my gut, but I have a feeling it’ll work out.”

“Just like your gut had a feeling and you got food poisoning eating the commissary’slasagna?”

“Oh, very funny, Lance.”)

But Lance still can’t shake the feeling that he and Hunkmet somewhere - sometime - before theGarrison.

It doesn’t really click until a night he convinces Hunkto sneak into a bar with him. They flash fake IDs, Hunk an anxious mess whonevertheless can pass as an adult over twenty-one thanks to his bulk, andwander inside.

Hunk has only one drink, but Lance, still reeling fromKeith’s expulsion, overindulges and winds up drunk for the first time in hislife. He clings to Hunk’s arm, more sentimental and bubbly than usual - or so Hunk will tell him later - and rambles.

“I feel like I’ve known you for my entire life, man,”Lance tells him. He stares at Hunk’s earlobe and, finding it fascinating, pokesat it. “Or, no, not my entire life, because that would be stupid.”

“Ha, well, me too,” Hunk agrees with a smile, though hetwitches and bats Lance’s hand away from his face.

“No, you don’t understand, Hunk,” Lance reiterates,fisting a hand in his sleeve. “I’ve known you for longer than my entire life, or that’s how it seems.” He meetsHunk’s eyes, and in his intoxication the severity of his words don’t register.

Hunk stares back, jaw dropping slightly. “That’san…interesting way to put it,” he says.

“Oh yeah?” Lance smiles, pleased with the interestedresponse he’s getting. Maybe if he was sober, he’d worry about sounding crazy, about speaking of a recognitionin Hunk that he doesn’t even have for his own mother. “What about…how did wemeet again?”

“We met because we’re roommates at the Garrison,” Hunkreplies with more patience than Lance probably deserves.

Lance giggles. “No, that’s how we met here, Hunk,” he says with a playful andsloppy punch to his shoulder. “I mean how did we meet the first time?”

“We met…oh.” Hunk frowns and stares at his empty glass,then at the half-full pint of beer and the single shot in front of Lance. Hepushes them aside and says, “I think you’ve had enough for one night, Lance.”

“Yeah, well, if you drink more maybe you’ll remember, huh?” Lance pokes Hunk in theside, pleased to see he’s as ticklish as he recalls when he flinches, afleeting smile on his lips. “I remember…somuch right now! Wow, I didn’t know one person could have so many memories…”He trails off, lost in thoughts, of battles and fights and struggles tooinnumerable to count, along with a face, a very important face, one that makes his chest ache in a way it never hasbefore.

At least not inthis life.

Lance’s mood drops, so suddenly he thinks he’ll never behappy again. He drops his forehead against the bar and mutters, “But where’sKatie?”

“Who?” Hunk asks.

Lance shoots up and grabs Hunk’s shoulders, shaking him.“Katie!” he says. “Don’t you remember her?”

Hunk shakes his head, his eyes wide and, even to Lance’salcohol-muddled mind, worried. “Idon’t, Lance,” he says, but then he sighs and admits, “Well, it sounds familiar, but that’s such acommon name that…” He pats Lance’s hand. “Let’s get back to the dorms.”

Lance’s goes along willingly, too distracted by loosethreads of thought that end before he can follow them to the next. Shiro, Hunk, Keith, Katie… They’re allimportant, in a way he can’t begin to explain, least of all while drunk, but apart of him knows that as soon as he sobers up, the thoughts - the memories - will vanish almost as if theynever were.

Except for that…sense,that same recognition he felt when heheard the name Takashi Shirogane,when he shook Hunk’s hand, when he saw Keith’s face.

The journey back onto Garrison premises is a blur, andsomehow, they don’t get caught. Silence sits heavily between them, Lance tooconsumed and Hunk picking up his slack in avoiding detection. But once they’reback in their room, Lance collapses face-first onto his bed and says, “You’remy best friend, Hunk. You always were.”

“You’re mine too, Lance,” Hunk says, “but I don’t thinkwe should do this again.”

Lance hugs his pillow to his chest, closing his eyes andnodding into the sheets. His limbs weigh him down, making him unwilling to evenexchange his jeans for pajama pants, and Hunk’s distance hurts.

They never talk about that night again.

Keith is a different story, and one that Lance is surehe’s read before.

Top of the class, someone to whom piloting comes aseasily as breathing, and despite their instructors’ praise, he lets it fly overhim, as if it has no effect, as if he’s toogood for it.

Lance grips his pen tighter, hard enough he can imaginesnapping it in half and squirting blue ink all over his cadet uniform. Acomplex tangle of emotions always rises within him whenever he catches sight ofKeith, and he can never tell if he wants to break his jaw or pull him into ahug. Both temptations are strong, and neither really makes sense.

Sure, he dislikes Keith, covets the place he has withinthe Garrison, how effortlessly he rises to the top of the rankings, but hedoesn’t want to fight him, and hecertainly doesn’t want to show him affection.

(Absurdly, he wonders if Hunk also senses that strangekinship, but something stops him from asking.)

At first, that touchof familiarity drives him to attempt to befriend Keith, because it’s somuch - yet so different - from whathe first felt towards Hunk that he can’t help but be drawn in. But Keith showsno interest in befriending him, soLance gives up.

Maybe Keith is too goodfor him too.

Lance can’t bring himself to be surprised when he hearsthat Keith was expelled from the Garrison, but he smiles and celebrates when hespots his own name on the list of fighter pilots a few days later.

(It still feels wrong, somehow.)

There’s something familiar about Pidge, about his faceand his slight smile and even the way he dismisses them so thoroughly, butLance knows he’s never heard that name in his life.

There’s just something about Pidge that makes it hurtwhen he resists Lance’s attempts to draw him into conversation, when he tunesout his teasing and declines invitations to hang out. Of course, Lance alwaysfound it easy to make friends, though most were shallow relationships that hecould easily let go of when he started at the Garrison, but he had been brushed off before.

But when Pidge does it, when he mumbles something abouthaving homework and not having the time to sneak into town with him and Hunk,Lance’s chest aches, heart heavy with disappointment.

“You look like someone just told you your dog died,” Hunkobserves once after they successfully sneak out - without Pidge.

Lance stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets andshrugs. “I’m fine,” he tells Hunk, flashing him a smile he doesn’t quite feel.

“Is this just because Pidge won’t come out with us?” Hunkasks. When Lance doesn’t answer, he says, “Just give him some time! He’ll comearound.”

“How do you know?” Lance says.

“He always does, doesn’t he?” Hunk says with a sidewaysglance.

Lance stares at him, surprised by the ring of truth inhis words, but says, “What does that even mean?”

Hunk blinks, but then his eyes go round, as if he nevermeant to say what he did. “It just means that I…think he’ll come to us whenhe’s ready,” he says with a nervous smile, clasping his hands together.

Lance has the impression that Hunk isn’t being entirelyhonest with him, but he accepts his words anyway in favor of complaining,“We’re supposed to be bonding as a team, but Pidge doesn’t seem to care aboutthat!” He makes a wide sweeping gesture with his hands and slumps. “How are wegoing to improve our simulation scores if one of our teammates won’t even talkto us outside of class?”

Hunk claps him on the shoulder. “I don’t know, Lance,” headmits, sounding worried himself, “but I have a feeling that Pidge is dealingwith a lot more than we think.”

Lance snorts but doesn’t press his point, wanting tobelieve Hunk despite his hurt.

“You seem to care about it more than it being for a gradethough,” Hunk observes.

“Do I?” Lance says, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

Hunk nods and says, “Yeah, if I didn’t know any betterI’d think you have a crush on Pidge.”

Lance trips over a loose stone, and the only thing thatstops him from falling on his face is Hunk’s hand shooting out to catch hisarm.

The sight of Shiro, not dead after all, strapped to anoperating table makes Lance’s breath catch in his throat. There it is, thefamiliar white forelock, the scar across the bridge of his nose, and…themissing arm.

Only now a prosthetic replaces it.

It’s a strange thought, but the sight of the prostheticsomehow seems wrong.

Lance glances at Hunk, his eyes widening when he spots ashell-shocked face nearly identical to his own. Hunk’s gaze flicks up to meethis, but before he can ask if he sensesit too, Pidge decides they’ll need to free Shiro.

The situation is eerie, makes the hair on the back ofLance’s neck stand on end, and it only gets stranger when light and soundexplode from the desert, smoke billowing into the sky. Lance presses Pidge’sbinoculars to his face, inspecting the direction of the explosion, and when hesees Keith he shoots up.

They have toget Shiro now.

Luckily Pidge and Hunk - if reluctantly - agree.

Lance sleeps fitfully in Keith’s shack, partly becausethe only thing between his back and the floor is a thin blanket, and partlybecause he can feel four other mindsbuzzing within this small space. And from the sound of the others’ breathing,Lance isn’t the only one struggling to fall asleep.

He eventually slips into a doze, snatches of dreamsplaying through his mind. They’re of scenes he doesn’t recognize from now, of cities he’s never visited andviews he’s never witnessed. Faces dance in and out, but some linger,indistinct; as they resolve themselves, Lance recognizes them.

There’s Shiro, his teacher once, a brother-in-arms moreoften, and always his mentor; Keith is always with him, or so it seems, andLance knows he can call him a friend. Hunk smiles warmly, except during aflicker of danger, whether it’s a gun or a blade held to his throat. Andthere’s Pidge - no, there’s Katie,balancing an open book in one hand and spinning a pen between her fingers inthe other. She glances up from her reading and meets Lance’s eyes, and a smilehe’d never seen her wear - yet one she’d smiled, just for him, countless times- graced her lips.

Her mouth moves, but Lance can’t hear the words as thesparse background details fade. His heart skips a beat, alarmed, and he extendsa hand out to Katie. She only stares at it, uncomprehending, and Lance tries toshout for her.

Darkness swallows her first, and Lance bolts upright,dizzy and gasping for breath. He lies back down once he catches it, staringaround and heart pounding as he remembers that he’s not in his own bed in theGarrison dorms.

No light peeks in through the curtains over the shack’ssingle window, so Lance turns onto his side and closes his eyes again.

He passes the rest of the time until morning trying toremember the name that almost escaped his lips.

“I had some weird dreams last night,” Hunk says asthey’re trekking through the desert.

“What about?” Lance asks.

“I don’t know,” Hunk admits without taking his eyes offthe path in front of them. “I just remember it was…weird. I think you werethere.”

“Aw, Hunk,” Lance says with a grin, elbowing him in theside, “I’m honored to star in your dream.”

“I never said you starredin it.” Hunk rolls his eyes.

“Well, since we’re talking about dreams…” Lance makessure Shiro, Keith, and Pidge are a little ahead of him, then lowers his voiceand says, “I had some strange ones too. You, Shiro, and Keith were there.”

Hunk raises an eyebrow at him. “Pidge wasn’t?”

Lance opens his mouth to deny it, then closes it again.“I…don’t think so?” he says, Hunk’s question making him second-guess hismemory. “She could’ve been though, since I don’t remember much else.” Heshrugs, trying to make it look like he was unbothered, though…

Well, he hasn’t been able to look Pidge in the eye allday; the worst part is that he can’t even beginto explain why.

They enter the cave with the paintings around noon, afterseveral hours of walking. Lance mourns his lack of a water bottle, at leastuntil the paintings glow as soon as he rests a hand on one, and the ensuinglandslide distracts him from a mere physical discomfort.

The Blue Lion is even more diverting.

A low rumble echoes through his mind, and no matter whichdirection Lance weaves yellow eyes track his movement. The fact that no oneelse can sense it isn’t comforting at all…

…at least until the sphere around the Lion descends, andan alien voice sounds in his mind.

Lance sits in the chair inside the Lion as soon as herecognizes the room as a cockpit. He can’t help the smugness, the excitement,the impatience - all of which may notbe entirely his own. But he freezes as soon as he rests his hands on thecontrols, and—

The sounds ofbattle wash over him, of gunfire and the grunting of hardworking men and thescreams and groans of the dying. Lance leans against the wall of the trench,Hunk and Keith on either side of him, his rifle loose in his sweat-damp grip.

“This is rotten,”Keith observes.

“Yeah, we’re goingto die here,” Hunk says, sounding surprisingly calm.

Lance grimaces andsays, “God, I hope not. Katie will kill us if we do.”

Hunk nods, andKeith hums in agreement.

A shrill whistlethen sounds, and Lance’s eyes widen. “Duck!” he yells, right before theexplosive lands in their midst.

Lance opens his eyes; he can feel sweat beading down hisforehead as he tries to shake off whatever…thatwas. But he smirks and, as the Blue Lion feeds information directly intohis brain, says, “Let’s see what this baby can do.”

“Lance, mind if I ask you something about the Blue Lion?”

Lance raises an eyebrow at Pidge, surprised and a littleflattered that he addressed him. “Go for it,” he says cheerfully.

Pidge smiles, but before Lance can smile back he asks,“Did you get some weird…vision thingwhen you touched its controls the first time?”

Lance stares at her, his mind slow to process his words,but when it does his heart starts to race, mouth going dry. “What kind of vision?”

Pidge shuffles his feet, directs his gaze away from him,and if Lance doesn’t know any better he’d say he looks embarrassed. “A vision of…us.I mean, not us us,” he amends, wavinghis hands dismissively. “I mean all five ofus, but sort of in a different time or place?”

Lance blinks at him, but then he sighs and admits, “Yeah,except, well, you weren’t in mine.”

“Oh, then…the others were?” He sounds so disappointed bythe idea that he might’ve been left out that Lance grins and flings an armaround his shoulders.

“Pidge, you may not have been in my vision - or whatever it was - but I promise we’re friends.”Lance frowns. “Or we will be as soon as we figure out this Voltron business.”

Pidge snorts, but to Lance’s surprise he doesn’t pullaway. “So who was in yours?”

“Keith and Hunk,” Lance says with a shrug. “It wasa…trench of some kind, in the middle of a battle. I think we…” He swallows, thememory - because that’s how it feels,like something remembered rather thandaydreamed - hitting him all overagain. “What was yours about?”

Now Pidge withdraws, taking a step away from him.“Nothing like that,” he says. “I was reading some…old journals of my father’s.”He crosses his arms, a scowl upon his face. “It seems like even in daydreamshe’s gone.”

Lance frowns at him, uncertain what he means, but he canread the misery and anger on hisface. He rests a hand on her shoulder, reassurance like he did for him beforehe nudged the Blue Lion through the wormhole, and smiles when he looks up.“Hey,” he says, “I still have no idea what’s going on with you, but I hopeit’ll work out.” 

Pidge bites her lip and meets his eyes, but then he nodsand says, “Thanks, Lance. You’re really…not so bad.”

Lance scowls, but when he spots the teasing glint inPidge’s eyes it softens into a smile.

Lance stumbles out of the Blue Lion, fumbling his helmetoff and throwing it to the side without a second glance. He presses an armagainst his stomach, nausea threatening to empty it, and doubles hover.

His mind still fills with images and thoughts andmemories that do not belong to him,ones both familiar and unrecognizable. He sees a hundred lives in a hundredtimes, a hundred births and a hundred deaths. All the emotions and pain that accompany these new threadsthreaten to overwhelm him, and Lance experiences the collection agony of ahundred deaths’ worth of injury, disease, and weakness.

He doesn’t know how long it takes for it to pass, butwhen it does, he’s curled up on the hangar floor, tears streaming down hisface. Other memories lie in wait, and distantly Lance wonders how the rest ofthe team is coping, because he knows.

They all know.

The only constants in a hundred lifetimes is them.

Eventually, Lance manages to dismiss the memories thatdon’t belong, the ones to be mulled over later - like laughing with Keith,drinking with Shiro, studying with Hunk, and kissing Pidge.

Kissing Pidge.

Lance groans, burying his face in his hands once he sitsup. He can hear worried voices rising from the speakers in his discarded helmetand reaches for it.

“Shiro?” Allura says as he puts the helmet on. “Keith,Lance, Hunk, Pidge? Are you all right? Why haven’t you returned to the bridgeyet for debriefing?”

Lance grimaces, unable to muster much surprise that thebeautiful princess would be so businesslikeafter a major battle. He’s about to reply, or at least attempt to, butShiro beats him to it:

“Please give us all a moment, Princess,” he says, voicefainter than it should be. “We won, but I think forming Voltron took a toll onus.”

Lance chuckles, and fondly thinks of every suchunderstatement Shiro made, whether in this life or one of the last hundred.

[aion-rsa]

Top New YA Books in October 2020

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The YA genre is still booming, providing romance, adventure, and more for teens and adults alike. Here are some of the YA books from August 2020 we’re most looking forward to…

Top New Young Adult Books October 2020

Return of the Thief by Megan Whelan Turner 

Type: Novel Publisher: Greenwillow Books Release date: Oct. 6

Den of Geek says: The latest book in this acclaimed, long-running series known for intricate plotting and twists follows the continuing political machinations of Eugenides, the titular thief, in fantasy world-building based loosely on Greek mythology. 

Publisher’s summary: This beloved and award-winning series began with the acclaimed novel The Thief. It and four more stand-alone volumes bring to life a world of epics, myths, and legends, and feature one of the most charismatic and incorrigible characters of fiction, Eugenides the thief. Now more powerful and cunning than ever before, Eugenides must navigate a perilous future in this sweeping conclusion. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, Patrick Rothfuss, and Sarah J. Maas.

Neither accepted nor beloved, Eugenides is the uneasy linchpin of a truce on the Lesser Peninsula, where he has risen to be high king of Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis. As the treacherous Baron Erondites schemes anew and a prophecy appears to foretell the death of the king, the ruthless Mede empire prepares to strike.

The New York Times–bestselling Queen’s Thief novels are rich with political machinations, divine intervention, dangerous journeys, battles lost and won, power, passion, and deception. Features a cast list of the characters in the Queen’s Thief novels, as well as two maps—a map of the world of the Queen’s Thief, and a map exclusive to this edition.

Buy Return of the Thief by Megan Whelan Turner.

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker (Seanan McGuire) 

Type: Novel Publisher: Tordotcom Release date: Oct. 6

Den of Geek says: An experimental companion to McGuire’s intricate novel Middlegame, Over the Woodward Wall first came to life as a middle grade story that serves as a pop culture touchstone for the characters in that adult novel. It’s also a story by a master in its own right, although how well it holds up outside the companion novel is yet to be determined.

Publisher’s summary: Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.

They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.

Buy Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker.

Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz

Type: Novel  Publisher: Page Street Kids Release date: Oct. 6 

Den of Geek says: This sounds like a sports anime with dragons in book form. A compelling mystery as a tour of a fantastical racing league promises action and ambitious characters. 

Publisher’s summary: Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner―the only player without a dragon steed―is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.

But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire―a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form―the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport.

Buy Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz. 

Top New Young Adult Books September 2020

Night Shine by Tessa Gratton 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books  Release date: Sept. 8

Den of Geek says: We’re all about crossovers between fantasy and YA here, and this looks like a good stepping stone for a kid who is just about ready to start reading high fantasy. The prose style is slow and deliberate as the author tells a tale of romance, kidnapping, and friendship.

Publisher’s summary: In the vast palace of the empress lives an orphan girl called Nothing. She slips within the shadows of the Court, unseen except by the Great Demon of the palace and her true friend, Prince Kirin, heir to the throne. When Kirin is kidnapped, only Nothing and the prince’s bodyguard suspect that Kirin may have been taken by the Sorceress Who Eats Girls, a powerful woman who has plagued the land for decades. The sorceress has never bothered with boys before, but Nothing has uncovered many secrets in her sixteen years in the palace, including a few about the prince.

As the empress’s army searches fruitlessly, Nothing and the bodyguard set out on a rescue mission, through demon-filled rain forests and past crossroads guarded by spirits. Their journey takes them to the gates of the Fifth Mountain, where the sorceress wields her power. There, Nothing will discover that all magic is a bargain, and she may be more powerful than she ever imagined. But the price the Sorceress demands for Kirin may very well cost Nothing her heart.

Buy Night Shine by Tessa Gratton on Amazon. 

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Type: Novel in Verse Publisher: Balzer + Bray  Release date: Sept. 1

Den of Geek says: Authors like Tochi Onyebuchi have taken hold of the moment to write political novels about incarceration in the last few years. This mix of poetry and prose adds to that genre with real world experience from prison reform activist Yusef Salaam. Publisher’s summary: The story that I thought 

was my life 

didn’t start on the day 

I was born  

Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.  

The story that I think 

will be my life  

starts today 

Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?  

With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.

Buy Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam on Amazon.

Gold Wings Rising (The Skybound Saga) by Alex London 

Type: Novel Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux  Release date: Sept. 1

Den of Geek says: It’s always nice to see a fantasy series that moves away from the staple creatures, even if I love dragons, and this series replaces them with ghostly birds that give it a horror movie flavor. 

Publisher’s summary: The war on the ground has ended, but the war with the sky has just begun. After the Siege of the Six Villages, the ghost eagles have trapped Uztaris on both sides of the conflict. The villagers and Kartami alike hide in caves, huddled in terror as they await nightly attacks. Kylee aims to plunge her arrows into each and every ghost eagle; in her mind, killing the birds is the only way to unshackle the city’s chains. But Brysen has other plans.

While the humans fly familiar circles around each other, the ghost eagles create schemes far greater and more terrible than either Kylee or Brysen could have imagined. Now, the tug-of-war between love and power begins to fray, threatening bonds of siblinghood and humanity alike.

Buy Gold Wings Rising by Alex London on Amazon.

Top New Young Adult Books August 2020

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon 

Type: Novel Publisher: Simon & Schuster Release date: Aug. 18

Den of Geek says: This looks like it could be an incisive and hard-hitting book that speaks to the way American Latinx students experience racism and navigate high school social life. It has gained high praise from authors including Celeste Ng. 

Publisher’s Summary: Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall—or rather, walls.

There’s the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana’s dad left—again.

There’s the wall that delineates Liliana’s diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy—and white—suburban high school she’s just been accepted into.

And there’s the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can’t just lighten up, she has to whiten up.

So what if she changes her name? So what if she changes the way she talks? So what if she’s seeing her neighborhood in a different way? But then light is shed on some hard truths: It isn’t that her father doesn’t want to come home—he can’t…and her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable.

But a wall isn’t always a barrier. It can be a foundation for something better. And Liliana must choose: Use this foundation as a platform to speak her truth, or risk crumbling under its weight.

Buy Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From By Jennifer De Leon on Amazon.

Lobizona by Romina Garber 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Wednesday Books (Macmillan)  Release date: Aug. 4 

Den of Geek says: Described as a Hogwarts-style fantasy world with werewolves, this fantasy doesn’t flinch from the real world effects of ICE and deportation. 

Publisher’s summary: Some people ARE illegal. 

Lobizonas do NOT exist.

Both of these statements are false.

Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who’s on the run from her father’s Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida. 

Until Manu’s protective bubble is shattered. 

Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past―a mysterious “Z” emblem―which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong. 

As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it’s not just her U.S. residency that’s illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.

Buy Lobizona by Jennifer De Leon on Amazon.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Levine Querido Release date: Aug. 25 

Den of Geek says: Charming illustrations and a ghost story deeply tied to a family’s history promise a richly textured tale from this Lipan Apache author. 

Publisher’s summary: Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.

There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

Darcie Little Badger is an extraordinary debut talent in the world of speculative fiction. We have paired her with her artistic match, illustrator Rovina Cai. This is a book singular in feeling and beauty.

Buy Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger on Amazon.

The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska

Type: Novel Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire  Release date: Aug. 4

Den of Geek says: Described as atmospheric and salt-soaked, this F/F romance might be a good introduction to readers who want to switch from post-apocalyptic YA to dark fantasy. 

Publisher’s summary: A gripping, dark LGBT YA fantasy about two girls who must choose between saving themselves, each other, or their sinking island.

Every year on St. Walpurga’s Eve, Caldella’s Witch Queen lures a boy back to her palace. An innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking. 

Lina Kirk is convinced her brother is going to be taken this year. To save him, she enlists the help of Thomas Lin, the boy she secretly loves, and the only person to ever escape from the palace. But they draw the queen’s attention, and Thomas is chosen as the sacrifice. 

Queen Eva watched her sister die to save the boy she loved. Now as queen, she won’t make the same mistake. She’s willing to sacrifice anyone if it means saving herself and her city.

When Lina offers herself to the queen in exchange for Thomas’s freedom, the two girls await the full moon together. But Lina is not at all what Eva expected, and the queen is nothing like Lina envisioned. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other as water floods Caldella’s streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice.

Buy The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska on Amazon.

Top New Young Adult Books In July 2020

Feathertide by Beth Cartwright 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Del Rey  Release date: July 30 

Den of Geek says: This has won a lot of praise for its prose. While some fairy tale adaptations can come off as empty, not actually adding anything to the context of the tradition they’re supposedly writing in, this one’s specificity seems like it might set it apart and add detail to the central metaphor about a young girl’s search for her family. 

Publisher’s summary: Born covered in the feathers of a bird, and kept hidden in a crumbling house full of secrets, Marea has always known she was different, but never known why. And so to find answers, she goes in search of the father she has never met.

The hunt leads her to the City of Murmurs, a place of mermaids and mystery, where jars of swirling mist are carried through the streets by the broken-hearted.

And Mara will never forget what she learns there.

Buy Feathertide by Beth Cartwright on Amazon.

Running by Natalia Sylvester 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Clarion Books Release date: July 14 

Den of Geek says: A political novel of a different type. This fantasy of being part of a presidential campaign seems like it has a lot to say about family and change. 

Publisher’s summary: In this authentic, humorous, and gorgeously written debut novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family, from a 60 Minutes–style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was.

But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? When it means disagreeing with your father—publicly? What do you do when your dad stops being your hero? Will Mari get a chance to confront her father? If she does, will she have the courage to seize it? 

Buy Running by Natalia Sylvester on Amazon.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Dutton  Release date: July 7 

Den of Geek says: YouTube sensation Hank Green’s science fiction debut, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, kicked off this series about alien robots. The sequel shows the aftermath, and continues to engage with the author’s internet in internet culture and science. 

Publisher’s summary: The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While the robots were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction with only their presence. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories. 

Months later, April’s friends are trying to find their footing in a post-Carl world. Andy has picked up April’s mantle of fame, speaking at conferences and online; Maya, ravaged by grief, begins to follow a string of mysteries that she is convinced will lead her to April; and Miranda is contemplating defying her friends’ advice and pursuing a new scientific operation…one that might have repercussions beyond anyone’s comprehension. Just as it is starting to seem like the gang may never learn the real story behind the events that changed their lives forever, a series of clues arrive—mysterious books that seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers—all of which seems to suggest that April could be very much alive. 

In the midst of the search for the truth and the search for April is a growing force, something that wants to capture our consciousness and even control our reality. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is the bold and brilliant follow-up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It is a fast-paced adventure that is also a biting social commentary, asking hard, urgent questions about the way we live, our freedoms, our future, and how we handle the unknown.

Buy A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green on Amazon.

Top New YA Books June 2020 

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow 

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Teen Release date: June 2 

Den of Geek says: After reading The Deep, I’m on board with the idea of black mermaids meeting YA fantasy world-building. The friendship at the center of this novel sounds cute and sweet. 

Publisher’s summary: In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers. 

Meanwhile, Effie is fighting her own family struggles, pitted against literal demons from her past. Together, these best friends must navigate through the perils of high school’s junior year.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice at the worst possible moment.

Soon, nothing in Portland, Oregon, seems safe. To save themselves from drowning, it’s only Tavia and Effie’s unbreakable sisterhood that proves to be the strongest magic of all.

Buy A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow on Amazon Read our interview with Bethany C. Morrow

Hood by Jenny Elder Moke 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Disney-Hyperion  Release date: June 9

Den of Geek says: An adventure in which a young girl joins Robin Hood’s adventures, this one reminds me of fanfic in the best way. A re-examination of legendary characters with the pacing of contemporary YA could be cinematic fun. 

Publisher’s summary: You have the blood of kings and rebels within you, love. Let it rise to meet the call.

Isabelle of Kirklees has only ever known a quiet life inside the sheltered walls of the convent, where she lives with her mother, Marien. But after she is arrested by royal soldiers for defending innocent villagers, Isabelle becomes the target of the Wolf, King John’s ruthless right hand. Desperate to keep her daughter safe, Marien helps Isabelle escape and sends her on a mission to find the one person who can help: Isabelle’s father, Robin Hood. 

As Isabelle races to stay out of the Wolf’s clutches and find the father she’s never known, she is thrust into a world of thieves and mercenaries, handsome young outlaws, new enemies with old grudges, and a king who wants her entire family dead. As she joins forces with Robin and his Merry Men in a final battle against the Wolf, will Isabelle find the strength to defy the crown and save the lives of everyone she holds dear?

In Hood, author Jenny Elder Moke reimagines the world of Robin Hood in lush, historical detail and imbues her story with more breathless action than has ever come out of Sherwood Forest before. This novel is a must-read for historical-fiction fans, adventure lovers, and reluctant readers alike!

Buy Hood by Jenny Elder Moke on Amazon

Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross 

Type: Novel Publisher: HarperTeen Release date: June 23

Den of Geek says: A sisterly bond provides the heart at the center of this story of magic and war. The Ancient Greece-inspired world and the promise of magic and battles look good, but the emphasis on characterization and familial love raise this one above the rest. 

Publisher’s summary: After eight years, Evadne will finally be reunited with her older sister, Halcyon, who has been serving in the queen’s army. But when Halcyon unexpectedly appears a day early, Eva knows something is wrong. Halcyon has charged with a heinous crime, and though her life is spared, she is sentenced to 15 years. 

Suspicious of the charges, brought forth by Halcyon’s army commander, as well as the details of the crime, Eva volunteers to take part of her sister’s sentence. If there’s a way to absolve Halcyon, she’ll find it. But as the sisters begin their sentences, they quickly learn that there are fates worse than death.

Buy Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross on Amazon 

Top New YA in May 2020 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 

Type: Novel  Publisher: Scholastic Press  Release date: May 19 

Den of Geek says: It’s arguable whether a new Hunger Games book from the point of view of the man who will become the despotic President Snow is really what readers wanted, but it’s here. Inevitably this one will spark a lot of conversation after the runaway success of the original series. 

Publisher’s summary: It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Buy The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.

House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess  

Type: Novel  Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers Release date: May 12 

Den of Geek says: This YA fantasy distinguishes itself primarily by a varied cast of five characters, making it a good introduction to epic fantasy plus the “fun group of friends” appeal of a superhero squad. Also, there are dragons and a frightening fantasy job interview, two of my favorite things. 

Publisher’s summary: When the Emperor dies, the five royal houses of Etrusia attend the Call, where one of their own will be selected to compete for the throne. It is always the oldest child, the one who has been preparing for years to compete in the Trial. But this year is different. This year these five outcasts will answer the call. . . .

THE LIAR: Emilia must hide her dark magic or be put to death.

THE SOLDIER: Lucian is a warrior who has sworn to never lift a sword again.

THE SERVANT: Vespir is a dragon trainer whose skills alone will keep her in the game.

THE THIEF: Ajax knows that nothing is free–he must take what he wants.

THE MURDERER: Hyperia was born to rule and will stop at nothing to take her throne.

Buy House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo 

Type: Novel 

Publisher: Quill Tree Books 

Release date: May 5 

Den of Geek says: This looks like it could be both a tearjerker and a sweet story of sisterly love. The tragic death of their father brings Camino and Yahaira Rios into each other’s lives in a new way. 

Publisher’s summary: Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. 

Buy Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo.

Top New YA in April 2020

Little Universes by Heather Demetrios

Type: Novel  Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.  Release date: April 7 

Den of Geek says: It’s not often that YA books focus on family, and the sisterly relationship at the heart of Little Universes looks well-crafted and heart-wrenching. When tragedy strikes, each sister will need to find a way to move on. 

Publisher’s summary: One wave: that’s all it takes for the rest of Mae and Hannah Winters’ lives to change.

When a tsunami strikes the island their parents are vacationing on in Malaysia, it soon becomes clear that their parents are never coming home. Forced to move to Boston from their sunny California home for the rest of their senior year, each girl struggles with secrets their parents’ death has brought to light and with their uncertainty about the future. Instead of getting closer, it feels like the wave has torn them apart.

Little Universes explores the powerful bond of sisters, the kinds of love that never die, and the journey we all must make through the baffling cruelty and unexpected beauty of human life in an incomprehensible universe.

Buy Little Universes by Heather Demetrios on Amazon.

What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

Type: Novel  Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Release date: April 7 

Den of Geek says: YA romance, and digital age romance in particular, can easily come off as cheesy or derivative. But this ‘love triangle between two people’ looks like a twist on relationships and online identity, plus the coziness of a crush story. 

Publisher’s summary: There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels. 

Buy What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter on Amazon.

Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost 

Type: Novel Publisher: Disney-Hyperion Release date: April 14 

Den of Geek says: It’s an interesting time for historical fantasy, and this looks a bit like a YA cousin of Upright Women Wanted, with more robots and monsters. Check out the crunchy mechanical horses on that cover. 

Publisher’s summary: In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.

When Sal is named Successor to Mother Morevna, a powerful witch and leader of Elysium, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to the town. Ever since she was a kid, Sal has been plagued by false visions of rain, and though people think she’s a liar, she knows she’s a leader. Even the arrival of enigmatic outsider Asa-a human-obsessed demon in disguise-doesn’t shake her confidence in her ability. Until a terrible mistake results in both Sal and Asa’s exile into the Desert of Dust and Steel.

Face-to-face with a brutal, unforgiving landscape, Sal and Asa join a gang of girls headed by another Elysium exile-and young witch herself-Olivia Rosales. In order to atone for their mistake, they create a cavalry of magic powered, scrap metal horses to save Elysium from the coming apocalypse. But Sal, Asa, and Olivia must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium’s favor-only by reinventing the rules can they beat the Life and Death at their own game. 

Buy Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost on Amazon.

Top New YA Books in March 2020 

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

Type: Novel Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers Release date: March 3, 2020 Den of Geek says: To put a twist on historical fantasy, author Marie Lu focuses just to the side of a world-changing life. Nannerl Mozart was a real person, and has appeared in fiction before with the aim of bringing some recognition to the famous musician’s talented but forgotten sister. The fairy tale element sounds like it will provide strong atmosphere in this musical novel. Publisher’s Summary: Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish–to be remembered forever. But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she’ll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform only until she reaches a marriageable age–her tyrannical father has made that much clear.

And as Nannerl’s hope grows dimmer with each passing year, the talents of her beloved younger brother, Wolfgang, only seem to shine brighter. His brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true–but his help may cost her everything.

In her first work of historical fiction, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu spins a lush, lyrically-told story of music, magic, and the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.

Buy The Kingdom of Back on Amazon.

The Fire Never Goes Out by Noelle Stevenson

Type: Illustrated memoir  Publisher: HarperTeen Release date: March 3 Den of Geek says: Stevenson’s cute illustrations and enthusiastic storytelling have delighted me in her adaptation She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, so a look into her life and career sounds like an interesting look into the business of art, the animation industry, and living as a creative person. Publisher’s Summary: From Noelle Stevenson, the New York Times bestselling author-illustrator of Nimona, comes a captivating, honest illustrated memoir that finds her turning an important corner in her creative journey—and inviting readers along for the ride.

In a collection of essays and personal mini-comics that span eight years of her young adult life, author-illustrator Noelle Stevenson charts the highs and lows of being a creative human in the world. Whether it’s hearing the wrong name called at her art school graduation ceremony or becoming a National Book Award finalist for her debut graphic novel, Nimona, Noelle captures the little and big moments that make up a real life, with a wit, wisdom, and vulnerability that are all her own.

Buy The Fire Never Goes Out on Amazon.

A Phoenix First Must Burn, edited by Patrice Caldwell

Type: Anthology Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers Release Date: March 10

Den of Geek says: A grab-bag of some of the best writers of color in the YA space today,this anthology faces challenges head-on to tell stories of Black women and gender-non-conforming people. It looks like a good mix of realistic and fantastical stories, set past, future, and present.

Publisher’s summary: Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.

Buy A Phoenix First Must Burn on Amazon.

Top New YA Books in March 2020 

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

Type: Novel (Second in series) Publisher: Balzer + Bray Release date: 2/4/20

Den of Geek says: Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation was a buzzy historical zombie novel with a keen awareness of racial dynamics in Civil War-era America. The sequel looks to be just as intense as the first. 

Publisher’s summary: The sequel to the New York Times bestselling epic Dread Nation is an unforgettable journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.

After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother.

But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodemus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880s America.

What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears—as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her.

But she won’t be in it alone.

Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by—and that Jane needs her too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not.

Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive—even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her.

Buy Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland on Amazon.

Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye 

Type: Poetry Publisher: Greenwillow Books Release date: 2/11/2020

Den of Geek says: This unique book of poetry seems perfectly suited to today’s environmental and humanitarian issues. What happens to the things we throw away? What happens to the people who aren’t wanted? The metaphor is rich.

Publisher’s summary: Acclaimed poet and Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye shines a spotlight on the things we cast away, from plastic water bottles to those less fortunate, in this collection of more than eighty original and never-before-published poems. A deeply moving, sometimes funny, and always provocative poetry collection for all ages.

“Nye at her engaging, insightful best.”―Kirkus (starred review)

“How much have you thrown away in your lifetime already? Do you ever think about it? Where does this plethora of leavings come from? How long does it take you, even one little you, to fill the can by your desk?”―Naomi Shihab Nye

National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Poet Laureate, and devoted trash-picker-upper Naomi Shihab Nye explores these questions and more in this original collection of poetry that features more than eighty new poems. “I couldn’t save the world, but I could pick up trash,” she says in her introduction to this stunning volume.

With poems about food wrappers, lost mittens, plastic straws, refugee children, trashy talk, the environment, connection, community, responsibility to the planet, politics, immigration, time, junk mail, trash collectors, garbage trucks, all that we carry and all that we discard, this is a rich, engaging, moving, and sometimes humorous collection for readers ages twelve to adult.

Buy Cast Away: Poems for Our Time on Amazon.

Rebelwing by Andrea Tang 

Type: Novel Publisher: Razorbill Release date: 2/25/20

Den of Geek says: Robot dragons? What more to say? The fantastical war story setting and high-energy cast of characters looks like it’ll make this one a good read for fans of Pacific Rim.

Publisher’s summary: Things just got weird for Prudence Wu. 

One minute, she’s cashing in on a routine smuggling deal. The next, she’s escaping enforcers on the wings of what very much appears to be a sentient cybernetic dragon. 

Pru is used to life throwing her some unpleasant surprises–she goes to prep school, after all, and selling banned media across the border in a country with a ruthless corporate government obviously has its risks. But a cybernetic dragon? That’s new. 

She tries to forget about the fact that the only reason she’s not in jail is because some sort of robot saved her, and that she’s going to have to get a new side job now that enforcers are on to her. So she’s not exactly thrilled when Rebelwing shows up again. 

Even worse, it’s become increasingly clear that the rogue machine has imprinted on her permanently, which means she’d better figure out this whole piloting-a-dragon thing–fast. Because Rebelwing just happens to be the ridiculously expensive weapon her government needs in a brewing war with its neighbor, and Pru’s the only one who can fly it. 

Set in a wonderfully inventive near-future Washington, D.C., this hilarious, defiant debut sparkles with wit and wisdom, deftly exploring media consumption, personal freedoms, and the weight of one life as Pru, rather reluctantly, takes to the skies.

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Why You Didn’t Fall In Love In 2017, Based On Your Zodiac Sign

Aries (Mar 21st - Apr 19th)

Because you looked at love as something that would only hold you back. 

Instead of looking at love as something that adds to your life, you only saw it as something that would stifle you or disrupt you from living the life you want to live. You still haven’t allowed yourself to believe that – with the right person – love is actually something that lifts you up, supports you, encourages you & even carries you when you’re struggling. On the contrary, you’re convinced that falling in love means you have to give up your adventurous & exciting lifestyle, when in reality love only makes everything more exciting when you’ve found the right person for yourself.

Taurus (April 20th - May 21st)

Because you wanted love to follow one, controllable, predictable formula – even though it never, ever does. 

Even though you’re a sincerely loving & warm person, you yourself have struggled to fall in love – but only because you’ve wanted to control every aspect of how it happens & how it pans out. Because of your need for security & serenity, you have had (and still have) a hard time accepting the fact that love is crazy, unpredictable & all over the place. Instead of giving into the process & enjoying the thrill of it all once you know you’ve found the right person, you can’t get around your need to control the process & plan it out yourself. The reason you didn’t fall in love in 2017 is because you wanted to write the story ahead of time, instead of coming to terms with the fact that love is a spontaneous, ever-changing story that involves two very different & independent minds.

Gemini (May 22nd - Jun 21st)

Because you aren’t letting yourself believe that you deserve a true, genuine & happiness-inducing connection with another person.

As fun & seemingly carefree as you appear to be, you're actually incredibly hard on yourself. You won’t give yourself permission to let someone into your life, even if you can tell that they’re the type of person you could actually be yourself around. While you’re great at ‘going with the flow’ & always embracing the fun of situations, you haven’t yet learned how to be truly vulnerable with another person.

Cancer (Jun 22nd - Jul 22nd)

Because you let the little things get to you. 

When it comes to love, you're admirably open & tender. Your problem is that you let yourself get upset by small things that, while relatively harmless in & of themselves, end up causing your relationships harm because of your reactions to them. It’s very important that you have standards & that you remember you're deserving of someone great – that should never change. But you need to work on being understanding of your significant other’s flaws & of the fact that they might possibly emote differently than you & that not everyone will be sensitive of the same things you will be sensitive about. If your partner is a few minutes late to dinner or if they have trouble expressing their feelings easily on the first try, it doesn’t mean they don’t love you. It’s just something they’re still working on. When you learn to not waste energy on the little things, you’ll be a lot happier in love.

Leo (Jul 23rd - Aug 22nd)

Because you let your ego run your relationships for you. 

Rather than letting your natural warmth & charm take over, you got too caught up in trying to plan out your relationships in accordance with the rest of your life timeline. You always wanted your relationships to be perfect, to follow a certain guideline & to work in a way that was best for you, instead of remembering that dating & relationships are things that are made up of two souls on two journeys.

Virgo (Aug 23rd - Sep 22nd)

Because you spent too much time living inside your own head & not enough time focusing on the people in front of you. 

You let yourself focus too much on why things wouldn’t work out with someone, or on trying to find enough shortcomings in them to have an excuse to move on (mostly because you wanted an excuse to wall yourself off). Even though your brain convinced you that you were doing this to ‘protect’ yourself, all you were really doing was looking for reasons not to let yourself be happy, because all the ‘what if’s’ & the unpredictability of love were too frightening to you that you weren’t willing to risk it, even if it meant incredible happiness was waiting on the other side.

Libra (Sep 23rd - Oct 22nd)

Because you wanted too many things at once. 

You wanted the comfort & reassurance of a long-term significant other while also having the thrill & giddiness of a brand new fling, while also never missing out on a social event, while also putting 100% of yourself into a career – and all of that at once is simply not possible. You didn’t find love in 2017 because you weren’t yet ready to make small sacrifices for another person. You haven’t yet realized that falling in love & committing yourself to one person doesn't mean that you have to give up your independent life, friends, or sense of fun – you can absolutely strike a balance between both, you just have to work on it.

Scorpio (Oct 23rd - Nov 22nd)

Because you wanted to keep a large part of yourself hidden, but you wanted the other person to be an open book. 

You didn’t fall in love in 2017 & you didn’t find the one because your outlook on dating wasn’t fair. You wanted to have your secrets, your privacy & your separateness – but you also wanted the other person to be 100% available, open & ready at your beck and call so that you never had to worry about jealousy or insecurity. You haven’t yet figured out a way to strike a healthy balance in your dating life & until you do you’ll continue to be single.

Sagittarius (Nov 23rd - Dec 21st)

Because you didn’t make active choices in your own love life. 

Your optimism & sense of positivity are great but they can also mean that sometimes you are too passive, carefree & ‘whatever’ about your love life. You’re wonderful & fun to be around but you have always waited for the other person to be the brave one – to be vulnerable & to stick their neck out first. Until you start stepping it up & making active decisions for your own dating life, you’re not going to find the right person.

Capricorn (Dec 22nd - Jan 20th)

Because you didn’t actually prioritize love.

Your ambition & your focus on your career are admirable qualities, and it’s fine to be channeling everything towards your work if you don’t care about falling in love right now. But if you’re starting to get lonely & you’re starting to feel frustrated about the fact that you’re not meeting anyone, you need to be willing to make some adjustments. You have to be willing to make room for someone in your life, to prioritize them, to not make them compete with your career. You can strike a fair & healthy balance between work & love, you just have to actually try first.

Aquarius (Jan 21st - Feb 18th)

Because you refused to go below the surface level with anyone when it came to emotional connection.

Rather than letting yourself experience the joy & delight of risking your heart and opening up to someone who truly made you happy, you kept yourself distanced & shut off from every person who tried to get close to you. You confused having standards with being totally detached from every person who tried to show you their heart. Until you learn that you can’t find genuine joy without a little risk too, you’re going to continue to remain alone.

Pisces (Feb 19th - Mar 20th)

Because you were afraid of looking at love practically.

There's nothing wrong with being optimistic & hopeful. But your struggle came from looking at love as something that should always be perfect, romantic & flawless. You got scared away any time things got too comfortable, or you realized someone wasn’t absolutely perfect, or the relationship – though wonderful – wasn’t happening the same way you imagined it would. Your imagination is wonderful, but with love, you need to be careful that it doesn’t distract you from finding something real because you’re too caught up on finding something that only exists in a storybook. 

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DAILY ASTROLOGY REPORTS AND HOROSCOPES FOR, 10-9-17

Astrology Cafe Daily Astrology ABOUT TODAY DAILY MONTHLY CHART You are here: Home / Daily Astrology / Astrology of Today – Monday, October 9, 2017 Astrology of Today – Monday, October 9, 2017 Oct 8, 2017 by Annie Leave a Comment  The Moon is in Gemini. The Moon is waning and in its Waning Gibbous phase. The Full Moon occurred on the 5th in the sign of Aries, and the Last Quarter Moon will occur on October 12th. **Times are EDT. Horoscopes Aries  Aries The tendency to worry about your work, performance, or achievements can interfere in other life departments today, dear Aries — most notably, in your relationships, and this is especially the case if you’ve been feeling others don’t truly understand your concerns and goals. The chances are high that you’re stressing yourself out unnecessarily, or that if there are looming problems, you’re better off working on making changes and improvements rather than stressing out. Even so, keep in mind that people are on edge in general right now, so don’t be surprised if you end up keeping your own counsel until things calm down. Watch for a possible obsession with an idea, problem, or line of thought that doesn’t serve you well. Try your best to get over attitudes or thought patterns that are too negative to do you any good. Taurus  Taurus Tensions can emerge over differences of methods, approaches, and opinions today, dear Taurus, and your job or daily routines can be disrupted as a result. Something communicated can get to you, but it’s probably best not to react as it’s a no-win situation. Words can really bite today with Pluto active and challenged, and yet everyone seems to want to express themselves! If there have been problems brewing under the surface of things in your relationships or regarding workloads, they’re likely to erupt now. Avoid getting caught in power plays. Sore spots can be revealing, however, since they’re areas of your psyche that need extra attention. Take the pressure off, as you may be making mountains out of molehills at the moment. Or, harness the energy to think up solutions to ongoing problems. Gemini  Gemini Your desire to go your own way and to do your own thing is compelling right now, dear Gemini, but you could also fear leaving something or someone alone. It will be important not to act out as a result of this inner tension. There can be a struggle between the desire for lighthearted, fun connections and a longing for something deeper. Mixed messages are given and received now, and they’re hard to make sense of. If you’re holding onto resentment, this can come up to the surface in disruptive ways. Consider that just for today, you are thinking in extremes and, as such, your judgment may be a little off regarding financial and love matters. Take a step back, since even you will get a hint that you may be over-reacting to a situation, and this tells you where you could use a little detachment or cooling off before making big decisions. Cancer  Cancer You may feel pressed to decide a matter, or you may be making a huge deal of an issue that hasn’t yet happened, dear Cancer. This is due to Pluto’s influence on Mercury and the Sun, active today, leading us to think and possibly act in extremes. However, the conundrum could be useful now if it stimulates you to protect your interests better, so allow yourself to feel it, but take the pressure off to resolve the problem right away. However, watch for people playing mind games now, and consider that there can be strings attached if you go a certain way. You don’t have to be paranoid with others now, but you may want to wait to make big moves until you feel calmer and more composed. Leo  Leo The atmosphere can be on the charged side today as your ruler, the Sun, and Mercury come up against Pluto, dear Leo. Power games may happen, particularly with people who share your daily schedules, work, or routines, or pressures to get things done can be unrelenting. Still, some of this pressure may come from within and may be excessive, as you can be thinking in extremes now. Try not to push yourself too hard. You can be so attached to your routines and methods that you clash with others. Save topics that require a soft touch for another day, as words can be harsh now, that is, until tonight, when it’s far easier to let things go, gain perspective. Virgo  Virgo If you’re not careful today, dear Virgo, you might get caught up in others’ dramas with both the Sun and Mercury in challenging aspect to Pluto. Someone wants attention, and you don’t want to give it when you feel pushed to do so. Worries about money and love, or how they mix, can surface. There can be drama in your romantic life or with kids and money. Alternatively, part of you is seeking security and another part, excitement, and it can be difficult to reconcile the two. Attempts to over-control or micromanage people and situations can be a warning sign that you’re overly attached, and you can benefit from some disengagement! There’s a push-pull energy going on that’s likely to frustrate, although if you observe, you might find ways to strike a balance. Libra  Libra Concerns about matters on the home front can undermine your confidence today, dear Libra, and the desire for independence and the escape of your responsibilities can be strong. Restlessness is the likely result! Power games are unlikely to help matters. Take a deep breath and find a balance. Avoid dwelling on matters that you can’t change. Consider that a square from Pluto to both the Sun and Mercury in your sign today can act to magnify fears as well as “un-bury” old grievances. What surfaces today may have been a long time coming, however, and can help break you away from past negative patterns. Scorpio  Scorpio Your mood can be up and down today until tonight, dear Scorpio. Part of the reason is that you may be reading too much into others’ actions and words, looking for something wrong. Perhaps because you fear the worst, you’re jumping ahead of yourself trying to find it so that you’re not taken off guard. Try to nip this problem in the bud right away! Emotional satisfaction today comes from truly connecting with others on a deep level, and defensiveness or suspicion is not going to get you any closer — to others or yourself. There can also be a tendency to be provocative in your communications now with both the Sun and Mercury forming a square to your ruler, Pluto. By tonight, you’re ready to begin letting things go, and this is good for you. Sagittarius  Sagittarius Frustration, resentment, and anger can be brewing very close to the surface today, Sagittarius, and can be very easy to set off now. Pushing with others leads to defensiveness which sets you back, so if you really want to get to the truth of a matter, a softer approach is probably better. However, before even going there, ask yourself if you are seeking the truth or just power-tripping! With Pluto so strong now, it can be difficult knowing the difference. Find ways to loosen up and relax, and if this means removing yourself from tense situations, do so if you can. Watch also for overattachment to your traditions and methods, which can lead to frustrations with friends. You may be nervous about change. Focus less on others and more on bettering yourself now for best results. Make plans to improve your life rather than dwell on past mistakes. Capricorn  Capricorn Communications are loaded today, Capricorn, and you may feel as if you’re under a microscope. Insecurities about a work project or function can be magnified, and you may be wrestling with a bit of paranoia now. Watch for poor behavior stemming from fears of not being “in the know. ” Fear of being out of the loop can lead to all sorts of problems in your relationships, and possibly to your reputation. Go forward with the resolve to manage your life more efficiently. There can be frustration with people who seem to have an ulterior motive or an agenda now, and while you can’t control others, you can control where you put your energies. Use your intensity for constructive projects today. Aquarius  Aquarius Watch out for processing so much information that you suffer from sensory overload today, dear Aquarius. It’s best to be discriminating with what you take in. However, don’t run away from problems today, either. Keep in mind that there’s something precious to learn from your interactions with others. Events of today reveal where you’ve been over-attached, and this gives you the chance to take steps to free yourself from fear in these areas of life. You may be experiencing difficulties that relate to the keeping of secrets, or differing belief systems can trigger buried frustration today. Consider that micromanaging or obsessing over an area of your life is likely to be self-destructive. Detach yourself enough to regain your composure. Pisces  Pisces The illumination of a tricky subject or a buried frustration can emerge today, dear Pisces, with Pluto active and challenged. Although it’s meant to surface so that you can finally deal with it, you may be feeling a tad irritable now, and perhaps even offended! Find ways to build your sense of self-worth, value, security, and comfort now instead of focusing on what’s missing. Relations with others can get heated, whether it’s because someone feels overly attached or threatened by changes you are making. Also, try not to read too much into a situation. We tend to overthink and jump to negative conclusions today. Sorting through the truths and more profound emotions that surface now can be helpful. * Remember to read horoscopes for your Ascendant sign and Sun sign. If you don’t know your Ascendant sign (and you know your birth time), you can look it up here. If Your Birthday is October 9th, If Today is Your Birthday full horoscope here. Astrology of Today – The Details: If you’re astrologically inclined and interested in the details of the Astrology of today, here are some of the factors considered in the forecasts (for the astrology of the week, see This Week in Astrology):    Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 0:00 am Event: Moon in Gemini Description: The Moon in Gemini We are attracted to new ideas, but we need to discriminate more so that we don’t become too scattered. Communications mean more to us than usual. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 0:51 am Event: Tr-Tr Mon Sqq Plu Description: Transiting Moon SesquiSquare Transiting Pluto Deeper feelings emerge suddenly, and possibly in a disruptive way. We may be over-reacting or going to extremes. Wait for the tension to subside before taking action. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 6:16 am Event: Tr-Tr Mon Sxt Cer Description: Transiting Moon Sextile Transiting Ceres We can be feeling pleasantly attached to, or supported by, our loved ones or family. We are seeking out security, nurturing, and warmth, and we are more likely to express these things towards others. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 10:57 am Event: Tr-Tr Mon Qnx Jun Description: Transiting Moon Quincunx Transiting Juno There can be some inclination to manipulate others to further our own goals, which should be avoided. There may be indecision regarding feelings about a relationship. Alternatively, there can be a conundrum regarding family and a relationship. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 3:44 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Tri Ves Description: Transiting Moon Trine Transiting Vesta We can derive a nice feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment from tending to our responsibilities, work, or other commitment. We are more able to make sacrifices or put our emotions aside in order to get something important done. Alternatively, we can bring more sensitivity to our practical affairs. This can be a good time to commit fully to something – especially health and healing matters. It’s also a strong time for taking care of domestic matters. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 5:29 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon SSq Ura Description: Transiting Moon SemiSquare Transiting Uranus We can easily find ourselves all wound up and nervous. Unpredictable responses from others (and ourselves). Emotional eruptions are possible. Not a good time to make permanent decisions, particularly about relationships and family/domestic matters. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 5:33 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Sqr Nep Description: Transiting Moon Square Transiting Neptune There can be confusion, misunderstanding, or some level of chaos and uncertainty. Avoid money transactions or new business initiatives – it can be difficult to think clearly. There may be deception or self-deception to deal with. We might have an emotional urge to escape. Feeling out of sorts and don’t know why? Relax and listen to some inspirational music. Honor your need to feed your more refined or spiritual side, and the difficult feelings will soon fade away. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 10:25 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Sqq Jup Description: Transiting Moon SesquiSquare Transiting Jupiter Time to show some restraint. Grandiosity is not appealing. Neither is excess. Practice self-control. Self-indulgence is more likely now. We’re not as inclined to consider the consequences of over-eating, over-drinking, or overdoing in general. We may be acting in a haughty manner. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 8:11 pm Event: Tr-Tr Sun Sqr Plu Description: Transiting Sun Square Transiting Pluto We may be tempted to control or manipulate events and people, and can have difficulty reaching a compromise. We might need to reevaluate expectations, face our fears, manage power struggles, and deal with urges to control others and situations. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 8:26 am Event: Tr-Tr Mer Sqr Plu Description: Transiting Mercury Square Transiting Pluto We can be worried or troubled, a little paranoid, and possibly suspicious with this combination. We are defensive about our ideas, intelligence, or perceptions, and might take it personally if others are not agreeing with or adopting our opinions. Date & Time: Oct 9 2017 0:54 am Event: Tr-Tr Sat Tri Nod Description: Transiting Saturn Trine Transiting North Node Destiny now gives you the chance to let go of the past and incorporate new people, projects and habits. Strong Signs, Elements, Modes BALANCE OF SIGNS GEMINI STRONG Agile, versatile, inquisitive, flowing, conversational, airy, many ideas. Can be volatile, superficial, changeable, restless and inconsistent. VIRGO STRONG Meticulous, discriminating, pure, practical, health conscious, hard working. Can be hyper-critical, petty and perfectionistic. LIBRA STRONG Even-handed, harmonious, artistic, diplomatic, balancing, strong sense of fairness. Can be over- compromising, appeasing, judgmental. BALANCE OF ELEMENTS FIRE WEAK We are not very goal-oriented right now, or motivation to pursue our goals may be waning/lacking. Changes feel overwhelming. Enthusiasm may be low, we argue less, and we think more than we take action. AIR STRONG We tend to favor rational, objective thought over emotions, impulses, and feelings at this time. We are more intellectual, fair-minded, and logical in our approach, Ideas flow easily and quickly, we are more communicative and guided by principles, and also somewhat dispassionate or impersonal. WATER WEAK There may be some insensitivity or lack of empathy now. We may be out of touch with what we’re feeling or with our emotional needs. We may be tougher than usual now, and more inclined to follow mental or practical considerations than we are to listen to our intuition. BALANCE OF MODES FIXED WEAK We may be open to change but may not have much follow-through. MUTABLE STRONG We are flexible, adaptable, willing, open to change, and possibly flighty or nervous. LUNAR PHASE: DISSEMINATING Moon 135 to 90 degrees behind the Sun. Sharing our knowledge with the world is a major motivation at this stage. We believe we have gained much knowledge and wisdom through our experiences, and want to ensure others have the benefit as well. The following aspects (major only) and positions are at noon (EDT) on October 9th: Note that when an aspect is applying, it has not yet happened but is within orb – it’s pending. When an aspect is separating, it has already happened/perfected and is moving away from the aspect. Depending on the speed of the planet/body involved, the aspect will have perfected–or will perfect–in a matter of hours (often the case with the Moon), days, months, and possibly years in the case of the very slow-moving outer planets and bodies. Note that the Moon moves at a rate of approximately one degree every 2 hours so that if an aspect involving the Moon is applying and has an orb of 5 degrees, the aspect will perfect (be exact) in about 10 hours. If the Moon is separating from an aspect with an orb of 2 degrees, it has already formed said aspect approximately 4 hours ago (since the following are positions at noon today, then it would have occurred at about 8 AM today). **I suggest paying close attention to applying aspects. The energy of the aspect builds as it gets closer to exact. Once an aspect involving inner planets has happened, it’s over. Separating aspects are good to know for context, but in terms of energy that is with us today, applying aspects are most important. (This is the case for daily astrology influences involving inner planets, which pass quickly, and not natal astrology aspects, which are with us for a lifetime). THE MOON THE MOON IN GEMINI We are attracted to new ideas and are especially curious. We may need to discriminate so that we don’t become too scattered. Communications mean more to us than usual. 9TH DEGREE OF GEMINI Part of Body: Pulmonary arteries Sabian Symbol: A quiver filled with arrows. ASPECTS OF THE MOON TRINE THE SUN Orb 7°55′ Applying We are supportive, cooperative, open, genuine, and more relaxed than usual. SQUARE NEPTUNE Orb 3°21′ Applying We may feel a need to escape or to rewrite our lives in various ways – by seeing what we want to see, for example. This is a short time in which there can be lack of clarity. Emotional and physical sensitivity. THE SUN THE SUN IN LIBRA You are diplomatic, and have a strong need for peace and harmony. Beauty is important to you, and you could be vain. 17TH DEGREE OF LIBRA Part of Body: Suprarenal arteries Sabian Symbol: A retired sea captain. ASPECTS OF THE SUN CONJUNCTION MERCURY Orb 0°35′ Separating Thoughts and communications about ourselves and our goals. We are expressing ourselves confidently, directly, and clearly. SQUARE PLUTO Orb 0°20′ Applying We may be tempted to control or manipulate events and people, and can have difficulty reaching a compromise. We might need to reevaluate expectations, face our fears, manage power struggles, and deal with urges to control others and situations. MERCURY MERCURY IN LIBRA You are a diplomat and peacemaker, often acting as a go-between in relationships. You a good communicator, putting others at their ease. Arguments may upset you, as you prefer harmony in communications. 18TH DEGREE OF LIBRA Part of Body: Fatty capsule of kidneys Sabian Symbol: Two men placed under arrest. ASPECTS OF MERCURY SQUARE PLUTO Orb 0°15′ Separating We can be worried or troubled, a little paranoid, and possibly suspicious with this combination. We are defensive about our ideas, intelligence, or perceptions, and might take it personally if others are not agreeing with or adopting our opinions. VENUS VENUS IN VIRGO This is a time when we express our love through practical means and gestures – running errands, doing detail work, or just being there. What we love, what we decide to buy and the types of entertainment we enjoy during this cycle are ruled by whether or not things make sense. 25TH DEGREE OF VIRGO Part of Body: Liver Sabian Symbol: A flag at half-mast in front of a large public building. ASPECTS OF VENUS CONJUNCTION MARS Orb 2°23′ Separating This is a passionate, lively, expressive influence. Social relations are impassioned, and perhaps demanding or combative. We may also feel compelled to do something creative or artistic. We have a chance to express our needs, passions, and desires now in effective ways. Venus can act to soften Mars’ aggressiveness, or Mars can make Venus’ romantic impulses more forceful and pressing. Some level of competition is present in our interactions. Impulsive purchases are possible. SQUARE SATURN Orb 1°19′ Separating Lack of spontaneity when it comes to expressions of affection and the pursuit of pleasure, likely due to insecurities or fear. We may be reserved, withdrawn, cautious, and tight with money and/or feelings. Feelings of being alone and not getting what we want/need can be experienced now. OPPOSITION CHIRON Orb 1°32′ Applying You tend to suffer emotional pain in your personal relationships. You are so busy caring for your loved ones that you neglect your own needs. This imbalance can lead to you resenting your partners . You also tend to become the peacemaker as you are so sensitive to disharmony. You need to learn to nurture yourself and trust your own wisdom. MARS MARS IN VIRGO You will pursue your personal desires in a practical and methodical manner. You may be critical if opposed. 22ND DEGREE OF VIRGO Part of Body: Gall-bladder Sabian Symbol: A royal coat of arms. ASPECTS OF MARS SQUARE SATURN Orb 1°04′ Applying We can feel thwarted, blocked, or slowed down. Enthusiasm wanes. Delays are possible, but might lead to important edits and adjustments. TRINE PLUTO Orb 4°49′ Separating Ambitions and determination increase to pursue our goals. It’s easier to see what we want and to devise a plan to pursue it. We may be focusing on redoing or reworking something from the ground up. OPPOSITION CHIRON Orb 3°56′ Applying We can be quite touchy and easily aggravated at this time if we are not dealing with the source of our anger issues and frustrations. With these emerging, we can more easily see what’s tripping us up. Physical activity might also help release stress now. JUPITER JUPITER IN LIBRA You have a strong concern for justice. You are a diplomatic teacher, and express your spiritual values in your relationships. 30TH DEGREE OF LIBRA Part of Body: Left ureter Sabian Symbol: Three mounds of knowledge on a philosopher’s head. ASPECTS OF JUPITER OPPOSITION URANUS Orb 2°52′ Separating You are keen to change things in this world as you see no reason to continue with the old traditions. You speak out against injustice, but may lack the patience and persistence to see through the changes. SATURN SATURN IN SAGITTARIUS Saturn in Sagittarius asks us to take on the responsibility of living according to our personal truths and principles — and to be loyal to these. This is a time for turning a critical eye to those beliefs and principles that don’t accurately reflect our authentic selves. (December 23, 2014, to June 14, 2015, then September 17, 2015, to December 20, 2017) 23RD DEGREE OF SAGITTARIUS Part of Body: Left trochanter Sabian Symbol: Immigrants entering a new country. ASPECTS OF SATURN TRINE URANUS Orb 4°08′ Applying You have a talent for investigation. You look at new ideas and are able then to put them into action. In business you achieve much in your own independent way. SQUARE CHIRON Orb 2°52′ Applying There can be fears now of not being competent or effective enough to meet our responsibilities, or we could find it hard to strike out on a unique path, again due to fears or insecurities. The desire to break from the status quo is strong, but we may not have the necessary confidence to do so. We may have difficulties empathizing with others and understanding ourselves. URANUS URANUS IN ARIES The urge to start fresh, to break free from restrictive attitudes or circumstances, to totally redesign an area of our lives (or even our personalities), and to gain freedom through independence is strong during this cycle. (May 27, 2010, to August 13, 2010, then March 11th, 2011, to May 15, 2018, then November 6, 2018, to March 6, 2019). 27TH DEGREE OF ARIES Part of Body: Fornix/frontal bone Sabian Symbol: Through imagination, a lost opportunity is regained. NEPTUNE NEPTUNE IN PISCES A long-term influence in which fantasy, imagination, compassion, and spirituality are in stronger focus. (April 4, 2011, to August 4, 2011, then February 3, 2012, to March 30, 2025, then October 22, 2025, to January 26, 2026) 12TH DEGREE OF PISCES Part of Body: Plantar artery of right foot Sabian Symbol: An examination of initiates. PLUTO PLUTO IN CAPRICORN Tests of our boundaries; breaking down and rebuilding structures and rules. (From January 25, 2008, to June 14, 2008, then November 26, 2008, to March 23, 2023, then June 11, 2023, to January 20, 2024, then September 1, 2024, to November 19, 2024). 17TH DEGREE OF CAPRICORN Part of Body: Condyle of left tibia Sabian Symbol: A person surreptitiously bathing in the nude. Chiron, Major Asteroids, and Moon’s Nodes: in Sign and in Aspect CHIRON CHIRON IN PISCES Strong awareness of our own vulnerabilities and humanity stimulates compassion for others. (April 20 to July 20, 2010, then February 8, 2011, to April 17, 2018, then September 25, 2018, to February 18, 2019). 26TH DEGREE OF PISCES Part of Body: Plantar nerves Sabian Symbol: A new moon that divides its influences. VESTA IN LIBRA You prefer to work with other people, rather than on your own. You like to share work resources and yet need to watch that you don’t become too competitive. You want to be recognized as an equal. 11TH DEGREE OF LIBRA Part of Body: Nerve supply to kidney and renal pelvis Sabian Symbol: A professor peering over his glasses. PALLAS PALLAS IN TAURUS You have the ability to see the beauty in nature and the arts. You have much common sense and wisdom. You may become involved in either healing with your hands or healing the earth through environmental movements. 12TH DEGREE OF TAURUS Part of Body: Cervical and brachial plexi Sabian Symbol: A young couple walk down main-street, window-shopping. JUNO JUNO IN CAPRICORN You want a partner who you can respect, and who respects you. You seek long-term commitment and may marry later in life. 8TH DEGREE OF CAPRICORN Part of Body: Lymph vessels of knee Sabian Symbol: Birds in the house singing happily. CERES CERES IN LEO You feel cared for when other people play with you and praise you. You like to show others you care for them by encouraging their creative talents and sense of fun. 6TH DEGREE OF LEO Part of Body: Entrance of pulmonary artery Sabian Symbol: An old fashioned woman and an up-to-date girl. THE NORTH NODE THE NORTH NODE IN LEO This a quest to develop your inner strength. You may find that you experience times of loneliness. These times are part of your lesson to forge your own creative life in order to give generously to the world. 23RD DEGREE OF LEO Part of Body: Left auricle Sabian Symbol: A bareback rider in a circus thrills excited crowds. THE SOUTH NODE THE SOUTH NODE IN AQUARIUS This a quest to develop your inner strength. You may find that you experience times of loneliness. These times are part of your lesson to forge your own creative life in order to give generously to the world. 23RD DEGREE OF AQUARIUS Part of Body: Left gastroscnemius muscle Sabian Symbol: A big bear sitting down and waving all its paws. *** CONJUNCTIONS TO SELECT FIXED STARS *** Transits 9 October 2017 Aspects to Mars 21°Vi42 +04°21′ Cnj 21°Vi51 DENEBOLA To go against society Aspects to Saturn 22°Sg47 -22°11′ Cnj 22°Sg41 RAS ALHAGUE The desire to heal a wound. Aspects to Pluto 16°Cp52 -21°46′ Cnj 16°Cp52 RUKBAT Steadiness and strength. Aspects to Juno 07°Cp59 -12°51′ Cnj 08°Cp32 FACIES — Ruthlessness or the victim. Aspects to Black Moon 26°Sg35 -19°11′ Cnj 25°Sg58 ACULEUS Enduring attacks but success  SHARE THIS: EmailFacebook1TwitterTumblrGoogleReddit Filed Under: Daily Astrology Tagged With: Mercury Pluto transit, Mercury square Pluto, October 9, Sun Pluto transit, Sun square Pluto transit  « Astrology of Today – Sunday, October 8, 2017Astrology of Today – Tuesday, October 10, 2017 » Leave a Reply   Search this website … Search Cafe Astrology Cafe Astrology Home Cafe Astrology Free Reports Recent Astrology of Today – Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Astrology of Today – Monday, October 9, 2017 Astrology of Today – Sunday, October 8, 2017 Astrology of Today – Saturday, October 7, 2017 Astrology of Today – Friday, October 6, 2017 In this post Full Moon‌ Last Quarter Moon‌ The Moon is waning‌ Tags Jupiter Neptune transit Mars-Pluto transit Mars Chiron transit Mars Jupiter transit Mars Neptune transit Mars Pluto transit Mars Saturn transit Mars Saturn transit Mars Uranus transit Mercury Chiron transit Mercury Jupiter transit Mercury Mars transit Mercury Neptune transit Mercury Pluto transit Mercury quincunx Neptune Mercury Saturn transit Mercury semi-square Venus Mercury square Jupiter Mercury square Mars Mercury square Neptune Mercury square Pluto Mercury trine Pluto Mercury Uranus transit Mercury Venus transit October 6 Sun Chiron transit Sun conjunct Mercury Sun Jupiter transit Sun Mars transit Sun Mercury transit Sun Neptune transit Sun Pluto transit Sun Saturn transit Sun trine Saturn Sun Uranus transit Venus-Mars transit Venus Chiron transit Venus Jupiter transit Venus Mars transit Venus Neptune transit Venus Pluto transit Venus Saturn transit Venus sextile Uranus Venus square Saturn Venus Uranus transit  Previous  Subscribe via Email Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Email Address Subscribe Current Planetary Positions 10/9/2017 8:29:00 AM Sun 16° Libra 31' 36" Moon 08° Gemini 18' 11" Mercury 17° Libra 06' 05" Venus 24° Virgo 04' 46" Mars 21° Virgo 42' 10" Jupiter 29° Libra 48' 16" Saturn 22° Sagittarius 47' 05" Uranus 26° Aries 55' 57" R Neptune 11° Pisces 58' 28" R Pluto 16° Capricorn 52' 00" Chiron 25° Pisces 39' 20" R TrueNode 22° Leo 42' 31" R Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Email Address Subscribe Categories  Archives  October 2017 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Copyright © 2017 · Astrology Cafe by Cafe Astrology

[brajeshupadhyay]

Live Coronavirus News: Full Analysis

W.H.O. member nations reject Trump demands, but agree to study the organization’s virus response.

President Trump’s angry demands for punitive action against the World Health Organization were rebuffed on Tuesday by the organization’s other member nations, who decided instead to conduct an “impartial, independent” examination of the W.H.O.’s response to the pandemic.

In a four-page letter late Monday night, Mr. Trump had threatened to permanently cut off all United States funding of the W.H.O. unless it committed to “major, substantive improvements” within 30 days. It was a significant escalation of his repeated attempts to blame the W.H.O. and China for the spread of the virus and deflect responsibility for his own handling of a worldwide crisis that has killed more than 90,000 people in the United States.

But representatives of the organization’s member nations rallied around the W.H.O. at its annual meeting in Geneva, largely ignoring Mr. Trump’s demand for an overhaul and calling for a global show of support in the face of a deadly pandemic.

That left the United States isolated as officials from China, Russia and the European Union chided Mr. Trump’s heated rhetoric even as they acknowledged the need to review the W.H.O.’s response as the virus spread from China to the rest of the world.

Public health experts noted that Mr. Trump’s threats to withdraw from the organization and halt funding ignored the reality that any such moves would require the consent of Congress, something many analysts said was unlikely to occur.

But the president’s continued attacks on the W.H.O., experts said, threatened to hobble the organization at a critical moment and seriously damage international efforts to combat the virus, especially in poorer countries that heavily depend on the agency.

In a joint appearance on Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Jerome H. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered a stark assessment of the fragile state of the economy, warning of more severe job losses in the months to come.

But they offered contrasting views of how best to buttress the economy: Mr. Powell suggested that more fiscal support to states and businesses might be needed to avoid permanent job losses. Mr. Mnuchin suggested that without an expeditious reopening, the economy might never fully recover. Here are key highlights from their testimony.

Mr. Mnuchin warned that the economy might sustain “permanent damage” if states extend their shutdowns for months.

Mr. Powell warned that the economy could face long-term damage if the policy response was not forceful enough and reiterated that the economy might need more help to make it through the pandemic without lasting scars. But he was careful to avoid giving Congress explicit advice and made sure to cushion his suggestions as a conditionality.

Mr. Powell suggested that the central bank might expand its program to buy municipal debt and agreed that state and local governments could slow the economic recovery if they laid off workers amid budget crunches.

Mr. Mnuchin, who previously said he expected that Treasury would return all $454 billion from Congress, changed that benchmark on Tuesday, saying the “base case” now was that the government would lose money.

“Our intention is that we expect to take some losses on these facilities,” he said. Some lawmakers have been pressing Treasury and the Fed to deploy their capital aggressively and not worry about taking losses.

Mr. Powell said even after states reopened, a full recovery would not come until the health crisis was resolved.

“The No. 1 thing, of course, is people believing that it’s safe to go back to work. And that’s about having a sensible, thoughtful reopening of the economy, something that we all want — and something that we’re in the early stages of now,” he said. “It will be a combination of getting the virus under control, development of therapeutics, development of a vaccine.”

Those comments were underscored by new economic projections released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which suggested the recovery would depend in large part on the virus’s trajectory. The budget office projected that gross domestic product would contract by 11 percent in the second quarter and the jobless rate would hit 15 percent, with industries such as travel, hospitality and retail bearing the brunt of the losses.

“The range of uncertainty about social distancing, as well as its effects on economic activity and implications for the economic recovery over the next two years, is especially large,” the report noted, adding that “future waves could be smaller, of a similar size or larger than the initial wave experienced this spring.”

Missouri carried out the nation’s first execution in months on Tuesday.

Missouri executed a 64-year-old man on Tuesday night, the first execution since March 5, when there were fewer than 230 known virus cases in the United States.

Since then, judges in several states — including Tennessee and Texas — have postponed at least half a dozen executions after prisoners’ lawyers argued that they were needlessly risky or that their appeals had been delayed because of the pandemic.

But this week, a federal appeals court cleared the way for Missouri’s execution of Walter Barton, 64, who was convicted in 2006 of murdering an 81-year-old mobile home park manager in 1991 after being evicted. The Supreme Court declined to intervene on Tuesday evening.

Mr. Barton was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Central time, following a lethal injection at a state prison in Bonne Terre, which is called the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center.

Everyone who enters the prison, including each of the nine witnesses who were scheduled to attend the execution, is required to have their temperatures taken, said Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections. She said before the execution that the witnesses would also be given hand sanitizer and face coverings.

Mr. Barton’s murder conviction came during his fifth trial over the murder, after two mistrials and two guilty verdicts that he successfully appealed. Mr. Barton had long maintained his innocence.

Fever checkpoints at the entrances to academic buildings. One-way paths across the grassy quad. Face masks required in classrooms and dining halls. And a dormitory-turned-quarantine building for any students exposed to the virus.

Similar discussions are taking place at almost every college and university in the United States. Administrators are fiercely debating whether they can safely reopen their campuses, even as most provide students with encouraging messages about the prospects of returning in the fall.

On Monday, Notre Dame became one of the first major universities in the country to announce detailed plans for bringing back students, saying it would establish a regimen of testing and contact tracing, put quarantine and isolation protocols in place, and require students to maintain social distancing and wear masks in public.

Notre Dame said it would start its fall semester early, on Aug. 10, and skip fall break so that students could go home at Thanksgiving and not return. The University of South Carolina announced a similar schedule, saying its students would finish the semester online after Thanksgiving because its “best current modeling predicts a spike in cases” at the beginning of December. Rice University in Houston also plans a shortened fall semester, with a mixture of remote and in-person classes. And Ithaca College will go in the other direction, starting its fall semester late, on Oct. 5, to provide more time to prepare for returning students.

New York University plans to hold in-person classes in the fall, the university’s provost said on Tuesday. “We’re planning to convene in person, with great care, in the fall (subject to government health directives), both in New York and at our global sites,” the provost said.

Those decisions are in contrast to an announcement last week by the California State University System, which will keep its 23 campuses largely shut and teach nearly half a million students remotely.

Meatpacking plants across the country that have been forced to close because of outbreaks among workers are not the only food facilities that have been hit hard by the virus. A large-scale bakery, a date packing house and a mushroom farm also have emerged with clusters of cases.

Officials said the virus spread through other food facilities in the same manner as in meat-processing factories: Workers must stand close together to do their jobs and crowd into locker rooms and cafeterias.

Some of the major clusters include a Tennessee mushroom farm where more than 50 cases have been identified and the Birds Eye vegetable processing facility in Darien, Wis., which has at least 100 cases. In Abilene, Texas, the AbiMar Foods bakery has at least 52 cases. The Leprino Foods dairy facility in Fort Morgan, Colo., has more than 80 cases; a second Leprino facility in Greeley, Colo., has at least 20. And the SunDate date packinghouse in Coachella, Calif., has at least 20 cases.

More than 100 people have been sickened at Louisiana crawfish farms, but officials did not name the facilities. At a news conference on Monday, Alex Billioux, the assistant secretary of health, said some of the workers were migrants and some lived in dormitory-like settings.

Some of the employees, who are in the middle of apple processing season and are gearing up for cherry harvests, said they had not been offered testing nor ample personal protection equipment, and that they had faced recriminations from employers when they complained. Officials at one company told The Seattle Times that it did not have any cases and had provided masks and gloves as equipment became available, and was surprised by the strike. Some of the fruit processing workers said they were going on a hunger strike until conditions improved.

Some churches that tried to reopen are closing again as the virus spreads.

After briefly reopening for in-person worship services, a few churches have had to close again as the virus spread in their pews.

Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Houston closed after five leaders tested positive last weekend, following the death of one priest, Rev. Donnell Kirchner, who had been diagnosed with pneumonia. His immediate cause of death was unknown.

The church had reopened for limited Mass on May 2, and two of the priests who tested positive had been active in celebrations. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston recommended that people who attended get tested.

In Ringgold, Ga., Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle started in-person services again in late April but stopped on May 11 after learning that members of several families had contracted the virus. Local health officials have been investigating three cases connected to the church. Services are currently closed indefinitely.

Officials remain concerned that worship gatherings could be particularly susceptible to viral spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released a report about an outbreak in March at a rural Arkansas church. Of the 92 people who attended the church between March 6 and March 11, 35 tested positive and three died, the report said. The report said investigators found that 26 other people who were in contact with the people from the church events later tested positive. One person died.

Allison James, an author of the C.D.C. report, praised the pastor for closing the Arkansas church as soon as he heard of people getting sick.

“They were very proactive in closing the church to prevent further transmission,” Dr. James said. “At the time, they knew people were getting sick, but they didn’t know necessarily that it was Covid or flu or any other infectious disease. They just knew they had a cluster of something going on, and they wanted to prevent transmission. I really commend them for acting quickly.”

Visitors will be allowed at 16 hospitals around New York State, nine of them in New York City, as part of a pilot program, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday. They will be required to wear personal protective equipment, including masks, and will be subject to temperature checks.

In March, state officials issued guidance asking hospitals to suspend visitation as the virus appeared to be rapidly spreading.

“It is terrible to have someone in the hospital and then that person is isolated, not being able to see their family or friends,” Mr. Cuomo said. He added that the program was “to see if we can bring visitors in and do it safely.”

The governor’s announcement comes as only three regions in downstate New York will remain under the state’s shutdown orders; the Albany area can begin reopening on Wednesday, he said.

New York City, Long Island and the counties just north of the city known as the Mid-Hudson region all have yet to meet at least two of the seven health-related benchmarks that the governor set for parts of the state to start restarting their economies. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City reiterated on Monday that he ​did not ​expect​ the city ​to meet the ​state’s criteria to begin to reopen until “the first half of June.”​

Mr. Cuomo — who arrived at his daily briefing wearing a face mask — also said that the state would allow Memorial Day festivities, so long as they had no more than 10 people. The state will also allow vehicle parades, provided that they are held safely and participants adhere to social distancing.

Mr. de Blasio said on Tuesday that nearly 16 percent of the city’s 1.1 million students would be asked to attend online summer school for about six weeks after the academic year ends on June 26 — about four times as many as were asked to attend summer school last year.

On Monday, police officers answering a complaint found about 60 students studying at a Hasidic yeshiva in Brooklyn, the latest of several episodes that have ignited tensions between the authorities and Hasidic Jews over enforcement of social-distancing rules. The school was closed.

Statewide, another 105 people had died, Mr. Cuomo said Tuesday. Data was released on Monday that offered the most granular picture yet of the ​pandemic’s rampage through New York City, reinforcing earlier ​signs​ that ​the virus had disproportionately affected immigrant​, black and Hispanic residents.

Michigan will mail absentee ballot applications to all of its voters for its congressional primary elections in August and the general election in November.

The goal is to help mitigate the spread of the virus, which has hit the state particularly hard, and to take advantage of a new law that was passed in 2018 and allows all voters to cast absentee ballots.

“By mailing applications, we have ensured that no Michigander has to choose between their health and their right to vote,” Michigan’s secretary of state said.

The state’s March 10 presidential primary saw half of the 2.3 million people who cast ballots use the absentee option. By May 5, when local elections were held, officials reported that 99 percent of the people who voted used absentee ballots and turnout had doubled, going from an average of 12 percent in the last nine years to 25 percent.

Local clerks in Michigan already send absentee ballot applications to 1.3 million voters, but the state will now mail applications to the rest of the 7.7 million registered voters, using $4.5 million in federal funds.

The pandemic has led many states to consider increasing absentee and mail-in voting. Mr. Trump and Republicans have been trying to limit absentee voting and voting by mail.

Increased turnout could be particularly troubling for Republicans in key battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Mr. Trump won in 2016 by tiny margins, delivering the electoral votes he needed to win the White House.

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania both allow anyone to cast absentee or mail-in ballots. The Wisconsin Election Commission is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday and will decide whether to send absentee ballot applications to all of the state’s 3.3 million registered voters.

A top Democrat will oppose Trump’s nominee to be coronavirus watchdog.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on Tuesday that he would vote against Mr. Trump’s nominee to serve as special inspector general scrutinizing the pandemic recovery efforts, citing concerns about his independence from the president.

The nominee, Brian D. Miller, is currently a White House lawyer. Mr. Schumer said that in a private conversation, Mr. Miller would not share details about his current work responsibilities and refused to comment on Mr. Trump’s abrupt dismissal of a handful of inspectors general in recent weeks, apparently for political purposes.

“Mr. Miller’s inability to demonstrate independence from his current employer, and speak out when he sees actions from administration officials that are clearly out of bounds, is deeply troubling given that this president seems to demand blind loyalty from federal inspectors general,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “For those reasons, I will oppose Mr. Miller’s nomination.”

Mr. Schumer’s criticism is a strong indication that Senate Democrats will oppose Mr. Miller en masse when they vote on his nomination in the weeks to come. Mr. Miller had tried to win over Democrats in a confirmation hearing earlier this month, pledging to resist any undue influence.

Republicans are likely to have the votes to confirm him anyway, but the nomination is still winding through the Senate’s committee process.

The drug should only be used in clinical trials, the F.D.A. said, or in hospitals where patients could be closely monitored for heart problems.

Then Mr. Trump made the announcement this week that he was taking the drug himself, to try to ward off infection.

When the subject came up on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting, Mr. Trump turned to Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees the F.D.A. Mr. Azar did not dwell on the risks the F.D.A. had highlighted, noting instead that hydroxychloroquine had long been F.D.A. approved to prevent or treat lupus, malaria and rheumatoid arthritis.

“The system we have here in the United States is that, once a drug is approved and on the market, a doctor in consultation with a patient may use it for what we call off-label purposes, which are indications that are not yet proven and not yet on the label,” he said.

The study had found that hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, did not help patients avoid the need for ventilators. And it found that hydroxychloroquine alone was associated with an increased risk of death.

But the study was not a controlled trial, and patients who received the drugs were sicker to begin with. “These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs,” the authors wrote.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Trump seemed to take aim at that study, saying, “If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape.” He went on to say, without clarifying, that it was “a Trump enemy statement.”

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie, spoke about the study.

“That was not a V.A. study,” Mr. Wilkie said. “Researchers took V.A. numbers, and they did not clinically review them. They were not peer reviewed.”

Mr. Trump’s announcement that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine drew criticism from a range of medical experts.

“My concern would be that the public not hear comments about the use of hydroxychloroquine and believe that taking this drug to prevent Covid-19 infection is without hazards,” said Dr. Steven E. Nissen, the chief academic officer of the Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. “In fact, there are serious hazards.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said on Tuesday that the border between his country and the United States, where the outbreak is more severe, would remain closed for at least another month. The two nations reached an agreement to extend the closing, which was introduced in March and set to expire on Thursday.

Recently, several Canadian provincial leaders have said that they oppose a rapid reopening of the border. The United States has reported about 463 virus cases per 100,000 people, more than double Canada’s rate.

Most cases in Israel are linked genetically to the United States, a new study found.

People arriving in Israel from the United States played a significant role in spreading the virus, an Israeli nationwide genomic study of cases has found.

The analysis, led by biologists at Tel Aviv University, sequenced the genomes of virus samples from a randomly chosen representative group of more than 200 patients at six hospitals across Israel and then compared those to samples sequenced worldwide.

The findings, which have not yet been peer reviewed, called into question the Israeli government’s decision to admit travelers from the United States until March 9, though visitors from some European countries were barred as early as Feb. 26.

While only 27 percent of all travelers who tested positive for the virus had arrived in Israel from the United States, more than 70 percent of virus samples sequenced had originated in the U.S. Israel has reported 16,650 cases and 277 deaths linked to the virus.

Therese Kelly arrived for her shift at an Amazon warehouse in Hazle Township, Pa., on March 27 to find her co-workers clustered in the cavernous space. Over a loudspeaker, a manager told them what they had feared: For the first time, an employee had tested positive.

Some of the workers cut short their shifts and went home. Ms. Kelly, 63, got to work.

In the months since then, the warehouse in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania has become Amazon’s biggest hot spot.

Local lawmakers believe that more than 100 workers have contracted the disease, but the exact number is unknown. At first, Amazon told workers about each new case. But when the total reached about 60, the announcements stopped giving specific numbers.

The best estimate is that more than 900 of the company’s 400,000 blue-collar workers have had the disease. But that number, crowdsourced by Jana Jumpp, an Amazon worker, almost certainly understates the spread.

The company has been hit by the biggest surge of orders it has ever experienced and has paid workers extra to stay on the job.

Need some tips for talking to your children?

Parents are learning how to navigate difficult conversations about death, job loss and sickness, all while trying to answer questions they barely understand. Hopefully, we can help.

Reporting was contributed by Alan Blinder, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Benedict Carey, Michael Cooper, Michael Crowley, Elizabeth Dias, Nicholas Fandos, Michael Gold, Kathleen Gray, David M. Halbfinger, Anemona Hartocollis, Andrew Jacobs, Annie Karni, Dan Levin, Patricia Mazzei, Eduardo Porter, Alan Rappeport, Dagny Salas, Dionne Searcey, Eliza Shapiro, Michael D. Shear, Natasha Singer, Jeanna Smialek, Mitch Smith, Kaly Soto, Robin Stein, Matt Stevens, Eileen Sullivan, Jim Tankersley, Katie Thomas, Karen Weise, Edward Wong and David Yaffe-Bellany.

The post Live Coronavirus News: Full Analysis appeared first on Sansaar Times.

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Will Brexit Trigger England’s Second Civil War?

(Bloomberg) -- At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, Warwick Castle was attacked by soldiers loyal to the king who tried without success to unseat the Parliamentarian forces that held it. While a minor skirmish, the outcome would foreshadow the broader struggle for the country.Today, the town of Warwick is under siege of another kind, one that may similarly decide where the divided nation is headed after an escalation in the political drama over Brexit.The U.K. is witnessing an historic period of upheaval that has invited comparisons with events almost 400 years ago. Parliament has been suspended – illegally, a court in Scotland ruled on Wednesday. The prime minister is threatening to flout the law to get his way while lawmakers on all sides are in open revolt and Ireland’s future, north and south, is at stake. Even the Queen has become embroiled in the standoff. And violence is brewing, with scuffles outside Parliament last week.Lawmakers this week channeled an event from the runup to the civil war in the House of Commons to protest the so-called prorogation of the legislature. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, one of the main architects of the vote to leave the European Union, has described the present constitutional crisis as the worst since that tumultuous period.A tour last week through some English counties scarred by the conflict suggests he may be right. With positions hardening and no obvious release for rising tensions, it’s anybody’s guess where the Brexit dilemma ends.Voters in Warwick opposed leaving the EU, seeing a departure as a threat to a key employer — the automotive industry — and to the university town’s international outlook. But as a pro-EU bastion amid a sea of Brexit territory, Warwick is at odds with neighboring districts, the U.K. as a whole and with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. Those same divisions run through swaths of the country.“If we get out of the current impasse without shots being fired, we will be doing better than I expected,” said Diane Purkiss, author of “The English Civil War: A People’s History” and a professor of English literature at Oxford University. “The question from here is whether we can at the last minute and in the eleventh hour muddle together some kind of final British compromise.”With its timber framed houses, country parks and association with William Shakespeare, the county of Warwickshire is picture postcard England. But beneath the patina of Olde Worlde charm lie stark divisions in attitudes to Brexit.Of course the U.K. has always diverged along political lines, from Thatcherism to Blairism. What attracts today’s comparisons with the 17th century is the constitutional chaos on top. Then, the country chose sides as Parliament and Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans asserted authority over King Charles I and his Catholic household in a standoff over religion and power that ultimately led to war and regicide.  In an echo of Brexit’s patchwork of “leave” and “remain” voting areas, the civil war cleaved along the lines of individual towns and cities depending on which way they declared, for Parliament or the King. Indeed, the political map of the Brexit vote resembles the distribution of support for both sides in the civil war, Stefan Collignon, a professor at the London School of Economics wrote in March last year.In Warwickshire, Stratford-upon-Avon was sandwiched between Parliamentarian and Royalist forces, and took in casualties from the war’s first major battle at Edgehill.  Stratford, Shakespeare’s birthplace, is a 20 minute drive to the southwest of Warwick but a different world in its Brexit outlook. Whereas Warwick and its surroundings are home to workers from the nearby Jaguar Land Rover plants and left-leaning, pro-European students and academics from Warwick University, Stratford relies on tourism, the hospitality industry and foreign workers to staff it.Warwick voted 59% to 41% in favor of remaining in the EU. Stratford voted 52% to 48% to Leave, bang in line with the country as a whole.Walking around Stratford, past the Tudor houses and boats on the river Avon, there is little outward evidence of tension. That’s no comfort to Sophie Clausen, an artist and author originally from Denmark who first came to Britain as an art student in 1984.For Clausen, that sense of indifference cannot be excused by any amount of Brexit fatigue, and is the most worrying aspect of all. “People switch off, they don’t care, and that’s really dangerous,” she said.“People say they just want Brexit over with, but I don’t think it will ever end,” said Clausen. “Because if it doesn’t happen, the divisions will get even deeper and people who voted Leave will be even more angry,” she said. “No-one knows the way out any more.”Johnson has a little over a month to try and strike a new deal with the EU that’s palatable to enough parliamentarians to enable Britain to leave the bloc in an orderly way on Oct. 31. If he fails to do so, he is now required by law to ask for an extension, something that will almost inevitably lead to the general election he wants to break the impasse.  QuicktakeHow to Follow the Latest Brexit TwistsComparisons between Johnson and Charles I over their treatment of Parliament are unhelpful, according to Purkiss, the civil war author, since the king waited 11 years to recall the legislature rather than the present five weeks. Yet there is a common “persistent ongoing failure of compromise” that contributed to the descent into conflict, she said.Other parallels lie in the existence of concurrent crises in “the three kingdoms” of England, Ireland and Scotland; and in the emergent print media’s alarmist headlines that mirror today’s social media posts, “weaponizing fear mongering,” said Purkiss. “I don’t think people are taking this threat seriously enough,” she said in an interview at Keble College in Oxford, one block away from St. Giles Church, which carries a plaque describing its damage in the civil war.At root, Brexit is the symptom of a crisis of parliamentary democracy, with both main parties pushed to extremes and the middle ground erased, eroding willingness to reach consensus. That presents a challenge for politicians like Jack Rankin, selected to contest the Warwick and Leamington constituency for the Conservatives at the next election.The district was held by the Conservatives for much of the 20th century, falling to Labour in 1997 as the Blair government came to power, and has changed hands between the two parties since. Matt Western retook it for Labour in 2017 with a majority of just 1,200 votes.His pro-European views were reinforced by a previous life as a marketing manager for French carmaker Peugeot in places like Vienna and Paris. Bridging the division “is very hard because both sides of the debate are becoming quite entrenched in their view,” said Western. “I’m really alarmed about what’s going on in society,” he said.To win the seat from Labour, Rankin, who voted for Brexit, will have to appeal to a strongly anti-Brexit electorate.He said that his experience on voter doorsteps shows “the overwhelming majority are fundamentally democrats and just want to get on with it.” The divisions are not as deep as commonly presented, he said in an email response to questions, and healing the Conservative rift “won't happen until we deliver what we said we would.” He said the future is bright regardless of how Brexit plays out.That may be wishful thinking. Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth warned last year that a bad Brexit could put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. Warwick University’s Vice Chancellor Stuart Croft has called Brexit a “disaster” and said that losing access to international research networks could shut the U.K. out of the science vanguard and risk jobs.The warnings were not lost on Barry Archer, a maker of clay models used in car industry design who has worked across Europe, most recently for Skoda in the Czech Republic. He was at a “Stop the Coup” demonstration last week in Coventry, the city whose outskirts include Warwick University’s leafy campus, to protest the proroguing of Parliament. Archer was among the 200 or so who showed up.His latest job was canceled as a result of the uncertainty over Brexit. His two adult sons feel their future is being settled without their say, with freedom of movement set to go in the name of the “will of the people.” For Archer, Brexit is personal – his wife is German – but he still doesn’t see any chance to roll it back.“The problem is it’s divided the country so much there’s going to be no easy way around it,” he said as an autumn wind blew in the city’s Friargate. “Damage to the foundation of who we are, what we are has been done. It’s just damage control now.”  Bernard Capp, an emeritus professor of history at Warwick, has seen the university’s development from its earliest days in the 1960s and still teaches a class on radicalism and the English Civil War. He sees parallels with the sort of polarization witnessed between 1640 and 1642, when the war broke out, and says that’s a cause for concern.During the civil war, Coventry was a Parliamentarian center, known for its extensive medieval city walls. Capp related that Charles I arrived in late summer 1642 on his way to raise an army, and demanded entrance. The mayor of Coventry refused, the first real act of defiance before the fighting started.“We should all be very wary because nobody wanted a civil war, nobody expected a civil war and look where that happened,” he said. Even at the war’s end, “no one thought there would be a revolution and the king would get his head chopped off, and yet that’s where it ended up,” he said.“So no one knows what the final destination will be once you get into a constitutional crisis.”To contact the author of this story: Alan Crawford in Berlin at acrawford6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rodney Jefferson at r.jefferson@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

(Bloomberg) -- At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, Warwick Castle was attacked by soldiers loyal to the king who tried without success to unseat the Parliamentarian forces that held it. While a minor skirmish, the outcome would foreshadow the broader struggle for the country.Today, the town of Warwick is under siege of another kind, one that may similarly decide where the divided nation is headed after an escalation in the political drama over Brexit.The U.K. is witnessing an historic period of upheaval that has invited comparisons with events almost 400 years ago. Parliament has been suspended – illegally, a court in Scotland ruled on Wednesday. The prime minister is threatening to flout the law to get his way while lawmakers on all sides are in open revolt and Ireland’s future, north and south, is at stake. Even the Queen has become embroiled in the standoff. And violence is brewing, with scuffles outside Parliament last week.Lawmakers this week channeled an event from the runup to the civil war in the House of Commons to protest the so-called prorogation of the legislature. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, one of the main architects of the vote to leave the European Union, has described the present constitutional crisis as the worst since that tumultuous period.A tour last week through some English counties scarred by the conflict suggests he may be right. With positions hardening and no obvious release for rising tensions, it’s anybody’s guess where the Brexit dilemma ends.Voters in Warwick opposed leaving the EU, seeing a departure as a threat to a key employer — the automotive industry — and to the university town’s international outlook. But as a pro-EU bastion amid a sea of Brexit territory, Warwick is at odds with neighboring districts, the U.K. as a whole and with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. Those same divisions run through swaths of the country.“If we get out of the current impasse without shots being fired, we will be doing better than I expected,” said Diane Purkiss, author of “The English Civil War: A People’s History” and a professor of English literature at Oxford University. “The question from here is whether we can at the last minute and in the eleventh hour muddle together some kind of final British compromise.”With its timber framed houses, country parks and association with William Shakespeare, the county of Warwickshire is picture postcard England. But beneath the patina of Olde Worlde charm lie stark divisions in attitudes to Brexit.Of course the U.K. has always diverged along political lines, from Thatcherism to Blairism. What attracts today’s comparisons with the 17th century is the constitutional chaos on top. Then, the country chose sides as Parliament and Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans asserted authority over King Charles I and his Catholic household in a standoff over religion and power that ultimately led to war and regicide.  In an echo of Brexit’s patchwork of “leave” and “remain” voting areas, the civil war cleaved along the lines of individual towns and cities depending on which way they declared, for Parliament or the King. Indeed, the political map of the Brexit vote resembles the distribution of support for both sides in the civil war, Stefan Collignon, a professor at the London School of Economics wrote in March last year.In Warwickshire, Stratford-upon-Avon was sandwiched between Parliamentarian and Royalist forces, and took in casualties from the war’s first major battle at Edgehill.  Stratford, Shakespeare’s birthplace, is a 20 minute drive to the southwest of Warwick but a different world in its Brexit outlook. Whereas Warwick and its surroundings are home to workers from the nearby Jaguar Land Rover plants and left-leaning, pro-European students and academics from Warwick University, Stratford relies on tourism, the hospitality industry and foreign workers to staff it.Warwick voted 59% to 41% in favor of remaining in the EU. Stratford voted 52% to 48% to Leave, bang in line with the country as a whole.Walking around Stratford, past the Tudor houses and boats on the river Avon, there is little outward evidence of tension. That’s no comfort to Sophie Clausen, an artist and author originally from Denmark who first came to Britain as an art student in 1984.For Clausen, that sense of indifference cannot be excused by any amount of Brexit fatigue, and is the most worrying aspect of all. “People switch off, they don’t care, and that’s really dangerous,” she said.“People say they just want Brexit over with, but I don’t think it will ever end,” said Clausen. “Because if it doesn’t happen, the divisions will get even deeper and people who voted Leave will be even more angry,” she said. “No-one knows the way out any more.”Johnson has a little over a month to try and strike a new deal with the EU that’s palatable to enough parliamentarians to enable Britain to leave the bloc in an orderly way on Oct. 31. If he fails to do so, he is now required by law to ask for an extension, something that will almost inevitably lead to the general election he wants to break the impasse.  QuicktakeHow to Follow the Latest Brexit TwistsComparisons between Johnson and Charles I over their treatment of Parliament are unhelpful, according to Purkiss, the civil war author, since the king waited 11 years to recall the legislature rather than the present five weeks. Yet there is a common “persistent ongoing failure of compromise” that contributed to the descent into conflict, she said.Other parallels lie in the existence of concurrent crises in “the three kingdoms” of England, Ireland and Scotland; and in the emergent print media’s alarmist headlines that mirror today’s social media posts, “weaponizing fear mongering,” said Purkiss. “I don’t think people are taking this threat seriously enough,” she said in an interview at Keble College in Oxford, one block away from St. Giles Church, which carries a plaque describing its damage in the civil war.At root, Brexit is the symptom of a crisis of parliamentary democracy, with both main parties pushed to extremes and the middle ground erased, eroding willingness to reach consensus. That presents a challenge for politicians like Jack Rankin, selected to contest the Warwick and Leamington constituency for the Conservatives at the next election.The district was held by the Conservatives for much of the 20th century, falling to Labour in 1997 as the Blair government came to power, and has changed hands between the two parties since. Matt Western retook it for Labour in 2017 with a majority of just 1,200 votes.His pro-European views were reinforced by a previous life as a marketing manager for French carmaker Peugeot in places like Vienna and Paris. Bridging the division “is very hard because both sides of the debate are becoming quite entrenched in their view,” said Western. “I’m really alarmed about what’s going on in society,” he said.To win the seat from Labour, Rankin, who voted for Brexit, will have to appeal to a strongly anti-Brexit electorate.He said that his experience on voter doorsteps shows “the overwhelming majority are fundamentally democrats and just want to get on with it.” The divisions are not as deep as commonly presented, he said in an email response to questions, and healing the Conservative rift “won't happen until we deliver what we said we would.” He said the future is bright regardless of how Brexit plays out.That may be wishful thinking. Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth warned last year that a bad Brexit could put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. Warwick University’s Vice Chancellor Stuart Croft has called Brexit a “disaster” and said that losing access to international research networks could shut the U.K. out of the science vanguard and risk jobs.The warnings were not lost on Barry Archer, a maker of clay models used in car industry design who has worked across Europe, most recently for Skoda in the Czech Republic. He was at a “Stop the Coup” demonstration last week in Coventry, the city whose outskirts include Warwick University’s leafy campus, to protest the proroguing of Parliament. Archer was among the 200 or so who showed up.His latest job was canceled as a result of the uncertainty over Brexit. His two adult sons feel their future is being settled without their say, with freedom of movement set to go in the name of the “will of the people.” For Archer, Brexit is personal – his wife is German – but he still doesn’t see any chance to roll it back.“The problem is it’s divided the country so much there’s going to be no easy way around it,” he said as an autumn wind blew in the city’s Friargate. “Damage to the foundation of who we are, what we are has been done. It’s just damage control now.”  Bernard Capp, an emeritus professor of history at Warwick, has seen the university’s development from its earliest days in the 1960s and still teaches a class on radicalism and the English Civil War. He sees parallels with the sort of polarization witnessed between 1640 and 1642, when the war broke out, and says that’s a cause for concern.During the civil war, Coventry was a Parliamentarian center, known for its extensive medieval city walls. Capp related that Charles I arrived in late summer 1642 on his way to raise an army, and demanded entrance. The mayor of Coventry refused, the first real act of defiance before the fighting started.“We should all be very wary because nobody wanted a civil war, nobody expected a civil war and look where that happened,” he said. Even at the war’s end, “no one thought there would be a revolution and the king would get his head chopped off, and yet that’s where it ended up,” he said.“So no one knows what the final destination will be once you get into a constitutional crisis.”To contact the author of this story: Alan Crawford in Berlin at acrawford6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rodney Jefferson at r.jefferson@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

September 12, 2019 at 05:01AM via IFTTT