#its literally beatings will continue until morale improves

[ledenews]

Santorine: Nothing Personal? It’s Just Business?

One of the things I’ve wanted for all of our children is for them to have the experience of working with a really great boss. It’s quite literally life-changing. Maybe “boss” isn’t the right term. I think it’s more like “coach.” “Leader.” Gifted bosses lead with you at their side, and don’t beat you with the organizational chart. Truly great bosses inspire those around them, and they tend to attract the very best talent. People want to work for a gifted boss. They want to produce 110% and do everything they can to further their common purpose. Truly gifted bosses don’t hire. They recruit. They realize they are “center stage” with the spotlight on them every minute, and they know every word they utter is important, and weigh every syllable and its effect on all present. "Bring your passion. Bring your people. Bring your best. Make it intensely personal." They never lead from anger, and they observe with eyes that encourage. More importantly, they add value. Passion, too. I don’t know if or how much of this can be taught, and I don’t know if any of our elite universities have a curriculum that produces inspired leaders, but when you’re working with a gifted boss, you know it, and you learn. Your gifted boss wants you to have his job, and he expects you to step up and demonstrate to everyone that you are up to the task. I’ve used clips from “This Is It!”, a documentary about Michael Jackson, in management classes I’ve taught. There is a scene of him reviewing choreography and working with talented dancers and musicians. He was completely brilliant with what he was doing. Time after time, he would say “pretty good,” all the while complimenting the team but while also relentlessly pressing for something better. When it was obvious that his team, his people, had delivered, he exclaimed “This Is IT!” Getting there he was subtly positive. When it was right, he liberally spread the credit around. It was true leadership coupled with extreme passion. Gifted bosses tend to attract people like flypaper, and the good ones stay with the gifted boss until it is their time to lead, and then they do - with their former boss’s blessing and good wishes. Great bosses relentlessly pursue the creation of value. Much of that value is human capital. Conversely, I’ve watched really good people leave great companies where they were making wages that were spectacular, and where it was clear they had a path to the position of their dreams. But they were reporting to a bad boss. Bad bosses can be old school, or micro-managers, or narcissist who just knows “the beatings will continue until morale improves” is a viable strategy. People don’t leave jobs. People leave bad bosses. The same is true for organizations, from the Lions club to your local church. At some point, you’re going to get a placeholder in a position of authority - someone who has been faithful and has been “in line” and feels entitled to the position. And (shuffling of feet), well, it’s just a year, so they let him or her take the helm. Best case, you waste a year. Worst case, 50% of members leave, and 100% of the members realize they are going to have to rebuild the entire organization once “just a year” is over. You’re not likely to get those fifty percenters back, either. Many of our traditional institutions are under huge stresses, and the only way they can continue to serve their community is by making changes. Change is not and will never be easy. It’s difficult, and it is for good reason. Change occurs when three things are present - inspired leadership, people and passion. There is a line that has been used in a number of motion pictures that I disdain - “Nothing personal; it’s just business.” If that’s what you think about anything you’re doing, you’re doing it wrong. If it’s not personal, please find something to do that is personal. Bring your passion. Bring your people. Bring your best. Make it intensely personal. Remember, no matter where you are in any organization, you are in the people business. And yes, it’s that personal. Read the full article

[3liza]

A huge chunk of funding to study a chronic illness like long Covid is rare, so any clinical trials that the NIH chooses to run are crucial choices — and some doctors and advocacy groups have voiced serious concerns about the selection of one clinical trial in particular.

That trial would test exercise as a potential long Covid treatment, despite years of research suggesting that exercise could harm patients and set back further study.

Many people with long Covid have similar symptoms to people with myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a debilitating condition that often follows viral infection. The defining feature of ME/CFS is intense fatigue and worsening of other health issues after physical or mental activity. This symptom, known as post-exertional malaise, often occurs with a lag, which can make it tough for doctors to diagnose — and even for patients to recognize themselves.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 03

(Masterpost)(Previous Episode) 

Warning: Spoilers for all 50 episodes!

 Wei Wuxian demonstrates the purple nurple technique of the Jiang Clan

Should’ve Used Trivago

The Jiang Clan’s reservation got cancelled while they were on the road, so they are going to wander around this small inn for hours being fussed about it, rather than trying another inn. Yes they say the other inns are all full but…so is this one, now. 

The Jin Clan sends an advance party to fancy up the inn for them.

Fuckboi Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian decides to use his considerable powers of prettiness to get them a room.  He drops some poetry on Mianmian and brazenly flirts with her before shifting to properly introducing himself and asking for a room. 

This actually works.

...until her boss shows up.

(Much much more after the cut!)

Worst Person // Best Jin

Jin ZIxuan is an ass and a snob. 

I guess we have to give him credit for having a beautiful sidekick and never hitting on her, given that his dad is a rapist and one of his half-brothers is (reputedly) a sex pest and the other half brother is (definitely) an incest perp. But I feel like it doesn’t take much to be the best Jin of his or his father’s generation.

The Jin folks are snobs and talk about how great their fancy and expensive stuff is. It’s an interesting contrast with true connoisseur Nie Huaisang, who loves everything that is fine and beautiful and can quote stacks of poetry off the top of his head, but is not even a little bit of a snob. 

This Tea Smells Like Farts

Ok, let’s talk about generation names in the Jin clan. Ru is the name for Jin Ling’s generation, hence his courtesy name Rulan. The name for the current generation is apparently Zi (子), because both Zixuan and his jerk cousin Zixun have that as their name.  Sect Leader Jin Guangshan would seem to be using the generation name Guang, but then names his son Jin Guangyao so…the whole system breaks down. 

Anyway, my point here is that even considering generation names, if I had a baby and named it Zixuan, and my sister-in-law promptly had a baby and named it Zixun, I would slap her. 

Find you a lover who does not make you feel like this 

Jin Zixuan is mildly intrigued by his betrothed, and expresses it by being rude to her in front of Wei Wuxian, starting a chain of events that will culminate with Wen Ning’s fist going all the way through Jin Zixuan’s chest.

Side Note: Look at these young Jiang Brothers and their casual shoulder hugs. Sigh.

Wei Wuxian’s Combat PlayBook

When Wei Wuxian wants to throw down, he starts with smack talk, moves along to boundary crossing, then to direct threats, and then brings out a weapon if he hasn’t won already. 

Here he starts shit with Jin Zixuan by complaining at him for taking up too much space and having too many sycophants.  Then he goes for the unwelcome shoulder touch. 

Having been sufficiently provocative to get someone to draw a sword and threaten him with physical violence, he shifts to formal verbal sparring. 

This gets the other guy to back down, because even at this age no-one actually wants to tangle with Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian gets to claim the moral advantage, although he still doesn’t get to keep his hotel room. 

Actually Not A Fan of My Sister’s Betrothal

Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli have the first of many, many moments of heterosexual ineptitude together. Wei Wuxian quickly rescues them.

Hi, I’m Young Master Cockblock.

Neither of the boys understands what Yanli sees in Zixuan and neither do I, at this juncture. He does improve later after multiple beatings from Wei Wuxian.

This Is The Day Your Life Will Surely Change

Yanli’s encounter in the Inn is the first step toward the inexorable end of the three of them as a unit, although it’s still a long ways off. They are all growing up and she and Wei Wuxian are both going to fall in love at summer camp, like in a 1980s teen movie but without the virginity betting (presumably). 

Meanwhile poor Jiang Cheng is going to be swept along just trying to keep up with events, which becomes the story of his life for the next two decades.

Welcome to Transylvania

We meet Wen Ruohan. He is boring and he sucks. Also I’m summarizing the Transylvania parts out of order because they break up the rhythm of the story. And are boring and suck.

We meet Xue Yang. He seems nice.

Wen Ruohan’s living room is like a shitty nightclub where everyone is too drunk to dance except Xue Yang.

Dee Jay: Undead undead undead, Bela Lugosi’s dead

[OP can’t get a video to embed in this post with looping enabled, so the alternate version of this joke has its own post right here. That will teach OP to get fancy.]

Anyhoo

We meet Wen Qing. She is the bestest most wonderful girl in the world but this isn’t actually when we find that out. 

Right now we just find out that she is absurdly pretty, that she loves her brother deeply, and that she is helping Wen Ruohan with his “take over the world by murdering cultivators” project. OKAY, PROBLEMATIC, BUT SHE IS THE BESTEST GIRL OKAY? 

Gatekeeping

The Jiang Clan don’t get another inn but they do manage to change into immaculate white robes while they’re out on the street, so - nice work, Jiang Clan. Be free!

They get stuck outside the gate because they don’t know that the secret to getting into Cloud Recesses is to set the gate guard on fire. 

Walking Thirst Trap Hanguang-Jun

Lan Wangji shows up and everyone except Yanli, who is already in love with Sir Golden Pants, makes thirst faces at him. Including Jiang Cheng tho he will never admit it. One girl in the background is actually biting her knuckle. 

Note: Lan Wangji knows exactly how fine he is. Look at his fucking hairstyle. 

He is sixteen years old. The only person in the entire cultivation world with fancier hair is Nie Mingjue, and that’s because he indulges his dìdi’s braiding hobby. 

Wei Wuxian loudly stage whispers that LWJ is their key to getting in and LWJ is is like, not fucking likely, person I didn’t glance at yet. 

But then Wei Wuxian says a smart cultivator thing about the puppet dude, and Lan Wangji turns around and has the first of many long mutual staring sessions with this boy he totally isn’t going to like at all.

Jiang Cheng has a bad feeling about the future: a 2-frame gif

Unrelated gardening note: the red-crack puppet is more commonly grown in Gusu and Dafan, while the black-line puppet is native to Yiling

I Must Arrange a Date with this Uninteresting Boy

The rest of the evening is a series of tests that Lan Wangji puts Wei Wuxian through. Wei Wuxian doesn’t know this and Lan Wangji probably doesn’t exactly know it either. 

First he sends WWX back to town to get the invitation. Yes, go get it. Not your entourage; YOU, talky person who thinks he can manipulate me and is smart and looks...intriguing. Go find it and come back. 

When Wei Wuxian complains, Lan Wangji silences him, which is literally the most boss move he could have used on smooth talking Wei Wuxian. 

You tried, Fuckboi.

Would you like to try some more because I think I would like you to try some more

Jiang Cheng is the Better Baby Brother

Sorry, he just is. Wei Wuxian is all about being taken care of and adoring Yanli without actually doing much for her. Jiang Cheng is the one who thinks about her feelings and giving her what she needs, even to the point of arranging that wedding rehearsal dinner so she can be with her favorite brother again -- the favorite who isn’t him, much as she also loves him. 

Date Test 1: Can You Get In.

Once Wei Wuxian is definitely gone, Lan Wangji shows up again and collects the entire retinue, guaranteeing that Wei Wuxian will be stranded outside the gate when he gets back.  LWJ doesn’t wait by the gate; he goes and waits up on the roof instead of going to bed or whatever else he’s supposed to be doing. Because he already knows the route Wei Wuxian will be taking. 

Wei Wuxian passes the “get in through the wards” test with no problem besides a minor headache and bent fingers. 

Is that Xiao Zhan’s hand or did they use a double-jointed hand model?

Date Test 2: Fight Me (Lan Wangji’s Combat Playbook)

As soon as Wei Wuxian shows up on the roof, Lan Wangji picks a fight with him. 

LWJ fights all the time; he’s perfectly comfortable when he’s fighting and it’s a good venue for him to express himself. His style is graceful and aggressive. 

Attack attack attack strike a pose, vogue, you know it.  

He starts by going all in on swordplay, but that doesn’t gain him the advantage; Wei Wuxian fends him off without ever drawing his sword. Which is probably the hottest thing that has ever happened to Lan Wangji in his young life.

Do you like me better when I’m horizontal? 

Next Lan Wangji deploys the pettiness by breaking WWX’s wine. Then when Wei Wuxian starts insulting him he upgrades to next level pettiness by dropping another silence spell, this time with the added bonus of preventing WWX from drinking. 

Wei Wuxian’s Combat Playbook, Redux

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian is running his own fight routine, starting with a charm attack, which doesn’t work at all. 

Are you admiring the moon? 

He keeps trying to de-escalate for the first phase of their fight, until they reach a pause and he reflects that Lan Wangji has real skills. As soon as he makes that determination he goes on the offensive - with words. 

He very formally says he’s too busy to continue fighting, and turns away, which is a pretty solid roast when you say it to someone who’s been trying really hard to kick your ass. Then he continues defending easily until Lan Wangji uses the wine against him. 

At this point the gloves come off, with Lan Wangji lecturing Wei Wuxian, Wei Wuxian making ad hominem attacks, Lan Wangji forcibly shutting him up... 

...and then throwing him on the floor in front of Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen. 

Sincere Grief for the Death of our Colleague

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen feel really bad for their disciple who has been horribly turned into an undead creature. Ha ha j/k

Date Test 3: Face the Authorities

Lan Wangji gets to pick Wei Wuxian’s punishment.  This probably won’t awaken anything in him. 

Surprise surprise, Wei Wuxian actually passes the Authority test with flying colors. Lan Qiren doesn’t like him, but listens respectfully to his thoughts about the undead cultivator. And Lan Xichen clearly does like him.

When Wei Wuxian learns that Lan Wangji was nice to his sister, his entire demeanor changes, to such an enormous degree that Lan Wangji starts to run away.

He’s not going to let this boy (who has passed all the tests oh no he passed all the tests) make out with him in front of his family like he is obviously planning. 

But once again, Wei Wuxian’s cultivation knowledge captures Lan Wangji’s attention and breaks through his reserve. 

This Hardy Boys moment is the beginning of their cultivation partnership.

Lan Wangji is brave but is extremely constrained: by the authorities in his life and by his own rigid reserve. Wei Wuxian is brave and is also free. His companionship gives Lan Wangji an opportunity to engage with a much broader range of the things that interest him than he’s ever had before. 

After Wei Wuxian has been sent to bed, Lan Wangji stands outside and -- just as WWX had suggested at the beginning of their date/fight -- admires the moon, with an expression that’s anything but upset. 

Sure, sex is cool (probably), but have you ever analyzed a walking corpse with a beautiful boy in the moonlight?

If you’ve got your true honey Life can be pretty funny If you've got money, money to burn Rooty toot toot for the moon It's the biggest star I've ever seen

The Fine-as-Hell Brothers

Alone together, Lans Xichen and Wangji talk over the various things on their minds. 

Xichen: What the fuck is up with you? ...Rooftop fights and dropping spells on boys?

Wangji: You and uncle were ignoring me so I was making my own fun

Xichen: Yeah, we are dealing with this zombie situation; shit’s going to hit the fan

Wangji: what are you going to do about it?

Xichen: fuck-all

Wangji: Well, you can rely on me

Xichen: I totally do. So how about you get to know this Wei kid, he seems like a fun ride.

Wangji: *death glare*

Xichen: You know, since Dad died you’ve become even more uptight. I wonder if I’ve been too strict with you?

Wangji: Um, you think? 3000 fucking rules, dude. Fortunately I’m not going to go off the rails and fall in love with my polar opposite and cause havoc in the cultivation world or anything like that.

Xichen: good, me neither

Outtro

Writing prompt: Lan Xichen’s secret nightly letter to his Mom’s memory or spirit (your choice), in which he confides in her about his day. May be written in flute solo form. 

(As always if you use this prompt feel free to post a link to your fic in comments!)

Soundtrack: 1. This Is The Day by The The  2.  Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus 3. Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon, Greg Brown version 4. Madonna, Vogue

Bonus: FineAsHell-Jun

Episode 04 Restless Rewatch coming soon!

[tonyhightowerv1]

The NHL, Boxing, & Ignoring The Right Thing To Do

Some days I wake up & pay attention to the news a bit, just to see what's happening.

The NHL Draft was last night, and I shouldn't have bothered with it, because I'm still angry at my Leafs for shitting the bed, again, in the playoffs (it's been 17 years since we last won a playoff round, and they've not won the Cup in my lifetime), but apparently the Montreal Canadiens, the most storied team in the sport, a team currently managed by Marc Bergevin, a guy who 10 years ago, when he ran player personnel for the Chicago Blackhawks, was somehow (it isn't clear) involved in hiring and/or protecting a video coach who sexually assaulted a bunch of teenaged players, the facts about which are only coming out now, and which look pretty damning for everyone involved, Marc Bergevin is now the General Manager of the Canadiens, and in the first round, they picked a guy who's been found guilty of sexual assault.

He apparently circulated pictures of a girl without her consent or knowledge while playing minor hockey in Sweden, and was found guilty under Sweden's assault laws. Now, he's expressed remorse, sure; he specifically asked the NHL to not draft him this year, so he could spend time and focus on improving himself and atoning for this in some way. And he's not some ultra hotshot phenom kid that people couldn't keep their hands off.

He's a guy, and even if you just think he made some kind of youthful mistake -- that would be a very bad take, which says a lot about you, not much of it good -- there's no need to reward him with getting picked, especially when he specifically asked not to.

But Bergevin, with the Blackhawks scandal hanging over him, chose this guy anyway. In the first round.

Not only that, the Canadiens had a statement about him pre-loaded & ready to go. Shareable graphic and everything.

https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1418780212469411841

But no, instead, it's about this guy. Not even the girl he victimized. Him.

He tried to warn everyone off drafting him, which is to his credit, I guess. But Bergevin saw this kid, and decided, we need him in our organization. As is.

How good is he? Not that it matters in the slightest, but... he's a late 1st round defenseman. If he continues to develop, he'd basically make the show in 5 years or so. No one's projecting him to be an all-star or anything. There was no urgency; he was never going to make the cover of a Wheaties box or carry the flag at the Olympics. Even without the sexual assault conviction.

Marc Bergevin is a Hockey Guy, to the bitter end. But he's got a history -- and, apparently, a present -- of ignoring sexual abuse. There's no place in the sport, or in polite society, for that mindset. Certainly not now.

* * *

So, all this made me think about boxing.

For most of the 20th century, boxing was the biggest sport in the world. Fights filled arenas and stadiums around the world. The Heavyweight Champion was treated like a Head Of State; they'd dine with royalty, speak at major world events, their fights would be recorded and shown in theaters (and run for months), and then when television appeared, fights would be shown in prime time, and draw ratings better than any other sport.

In the early 1970s, Muhammad Ali was known, famously, as the most famous human being alive. (And Neil Armstrong and Chairman Mao were, like, right there.)

But boxing was deeply corrupt, and many of its stars were more than merely flawed, and every once in a while, someone would die in the ring, and so they stopped showing the fights in prime time, and the champions didn't really add much to the global conversation, and the promoters were ignoring a lot of bad things their star fighters were doing, because they were more focused on getting their cut of the gate receipts than they were in maintaining a product that kept new fans coming through the turnstiles.

And sometime in the mid-1980s, boxing's popularity started to wane. After Ali & George Foreman retired, there was a bit of a charisma vacuum at the top of the sport (I mean, Holmes & Holyfield seem like relatively decent guys, but the Crown Prince of Monaco isn't inviting them to a state dinner anytime soon); the welterweights & middleweights (Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran) were compelling in the ring, but aside from Sugar Ray Leonard, none of them were particularly interested in being terribly showy.

And then Mike Tyson showed up at the end of the decade, and everyone was excited again, until he raped someone & went to prison for it, and got a face tattoo, and the slow decline of the sport became clear to everyone, and that was pretty much it for boxing as a major global sporting concern.

Sure, it still exists, but it's nowhere near what it was. If you want to watch boxing somewhere, you need to find a stream from somewhere on the other side of the world. Fans of hand-to-hand combat sports have gravitated to UFC & MMA, sports that 40 years ago literally no one outside of Brazil or Thailand had ever heard of; fans of the spectacle of fighting, the weigh-ins & pre-fight braggadocio, the As The Buckle Turns, well, they'll always have WWE & the other Steroid Soaps.

Boxing is irrelevant now. They took the biggest sport in the world, and through neglect and ignoring the serious problems at its core, they just... pissed it away.

I'm not usually the kind of person to bemoan moral depravity. (I actually like GG Allin's music. I think it's kinda funny.) But sports are entertainment that uses actual people instead of actors. Like entertainment, you want a compelling story, or at least some kind of ethos, or a thought-shape, that keeps people interested and wanting to come back. You can be heroic, or villainous, but you don't want people to see your product and think, eww, yeah, no.

With actors or songwriters (or pro wrestlers), you can build a storyline out, write a script, point the lights in a certain direction. Each game lasts this long, it builds to a crescendo in this way, when our team scores, we shoot off this cannon, when Mariano Rivera enters from the bullpen we play Metallica; the crowd expects those beats, and they're all part of the drama build. But the players are actual people, and there is no script, so you want to start with a cast that people will want to cheer for (or against) without feeling awful.

If you deny people that basic pleasure for long enough, they'll start looking elsewhere.

I've been a serious hockey fan my whole life. It's been my favorite sport since I was old enough to have an opinion. I've gone in & out on baseball, and over the years, the NFL has lost me to their CTE issues & their tone-deaf billionaire owners treating their players like chattel. But hockey, despite having some of those issues, and my Toronto Maple Leafs, as historically disappointing as they have been, have stuck with me. And I with them.

But the way the Blackhawks have dealt with these abuse allegations, and Montreal choosing this convicted assaulter with their first choice (and there've been a couple of other events; last year, Arizona chose a guy who repeatedly & publicly harassed a disabled person of color, and who has never apologized; they later rescinded their pick), I'm starting to wonder if hockey, a sport that doesn't have the mass momentum of boxing or football in their heydays, has already seen its zenith.

And that thought just makes me so very sad.

[gravitasfalls]

A rant on fandom etiquette, the GF fandom, and what they did 4 years ago (and now)

By now, my “bullshit” tag has refuted most of the ridiculous hot takes, fun policing, and harassment that fans of Stanford Pines have had to face from the wider Gravity Falls fandom. But these rebuttals fall short of naming the real problem with anti-Ford wank: we never should have seen it in the first place.

People might have genuinely forgotten this, but fandom used to have etiquette against character hate. We called it “wank” and “bashing” instead of dignifying it as “discourse”. As late as 2014, fandoms on this very site had “X hate” or “anti-X” tagging systems for blacklisting, as courtesy to people who liked X thing...

...a far cry from GF fans of 2015 demonizing Ford in the most inexplicable ways, making every post a platform for that, siccing their followers on anyone fully positive about him, then pretending that never happened post-finale as they continue the bashing more insidiously to this day.

Like, what even was that? There’s a lot to unpack in those people’s arguments but let’s just throw out the whole suitcase.

(Under the cut: Snapshots of discourse I shouldn’t have had to put up with over the years, and snark-based coping with that. It gets ugly, you’ve been warned.)

Ford is irredeemable/deserves to suffer, why he didn’t even thank Stan!!1

Thanks I hate it! “It” being your apparent decision that, because you can’t make the fictional character suffer, real people who like him are the next best thing.

Ford is egotistical! Have I mentioned on literally every post I think his only trait is “egotistical”?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. But while that is just, like, your opinion man, you’re entitled to it on your own posts; you’re falsely entitled about it by forcing it on dissenters’ posts and inboxes.

*dumps negativity into inboxes anyway*

Your Hot Takes have disturbed and insulted me. You fools are unworthy of my great knowledge. The era of human enlightenment shall never come to pass.

You really think Ford is some kind of hero?

Only after you told me I wasn’t Allowed to see him as one and I Examined My Desires™ like you demanded! Funny how critical thinking ≠ agreeing with you.

Ford is your favorite? WHY DO YOU HATE MABEL.

Better question, why are you copying “WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA” logic? 9/11 did fan drama I swear

Ford is NOT PURE OF HEEEAAART, so you have to Constantly Explicitly Acknowledge his Sins and interrogate what relating to him says about you.

I got no friends ‘cause they read the papers. It’s funny, actually, projecting onto him got me dangerously close to processing some negative experiences from my past... good thing I have you here to shut those thoughts down <3 Thanks for saving me from myself uwu

If you just want to project onto a comfort character in peace, Stan is right there! His lack of fantasy elements makes him more relatable anyway!

Ford brought Bill’s manipulation on himself!

Damn fandom, back at it again with the GROSS VICTIM BLAMING

FFS why is this take as prominent now as ever??? at least the outlandish criticisms were funny, this one just makes me want to be dead.

Ford is abusive/manipulative because he doesn’t make fun of Dipper/ made a case for his apprenticeship/ called Mabel good/ complimented her personality!

(Yes, people did these mental gymnastics; yes, my soul left my body instantly.)

STOP trying to justify Ford’s actio-ma’am this is an Arby’s. also:

Ford is the Epitome of Toxic Masculinity, if you defend him either he’s your Male Power Fantasy or you’re a ditzy fangirl broad with ovaries for brains!

Ah yes, the two genders. Pack it in, everyone, we’ve reached peak feminism and patriarchy is over.

Someone negativity-tagged my Ford post, WTF?! I’m not “anti-Ford”, I’m “pro Ford-learning-a-lesson”!

And pro his-fans-never-having-a-moment-of-peace, apparently! Sorry I assumed you were a hater by your complete lack of positive things to say about him tho

Ford is a sociopath/deserves death for having no empathy!

"Tumblr is as ableist as any majority-conservative site," I say into the mic. The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room. "You’re right," they say. I look for the owner of the voice. There in the 3rd row stands: tumblr.

*Dozens of 10000+ note posts calling Ford stupid, manipulative, solely at fault for everything that went wrong, other inanities*

(This is the fandom that made me get Xkit. I’m sure hundreds of my 1000+ blocked posts are theirs.)

If you like Ford on any terms but ours then I’m sorry, but Gravity Falls just isn’t for you, k?

I don’t have a flippant response to this one. Just... stop. No one has to agree with you about this character; no, nor with me. No one even has to engage with fandom moralistically; I promise it wouldn’t hurt anyone if I were to watch this show without having to Interrogate its Morality. It wouldn’t even hurt if people voiced character hate within reasonable bounds of tagging, as I’ve said. But instead they spread it like the plague in the name of Purity and insinuated (using ages-old “ur a fake fan!!1″ no less) that we don’t get to have outlets. I’m tired.

Look at my hilarious/satisfying art of Ford saying OOC strawman things, Stan beating him up, the kids turning their backs on him! (Srsly look at it I’ve put it in all the tags)

You’re madness, Gravity Falls fandom. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you.

This is only a fraction of shit we’ve had to wade through, practically every day while the show was running. You couldn’t avoid it if you followed popular blogs. I saw the best meta writers of my fandom dogpiled by BNFs, dragging themselves through the blue hellsite at dawn looking for a fix-it fix. And people now expect me to believe it was “just Discourse” or that anything equivalent happened “in reverse” toward Stan. If I didn’t know better that they don’t know better, I’d call gaslighting.

I don’t expect to change anything. In fact, until this blog’s next go-around I don’t intend on seeking out new content anymore. I can’t keep looking at a fandom where the consensus on a canonically abused character’s victimization is that it was stupid, funny, a moral failing, or deserved, and expect anything to improve.

But to anyone else these people hurt: your anger or upset is valid, and I’m sorry. None of us deserved this. And I’m not letting it follow me into the next decade and make me forget why I liked this show in the first place, even if the only way to do that right now is cut off from the fandom a bit. I’m telling you, it never should have come to that. I don’t know if negativity-tagging can ever catch on here, considering tumblr has no boundaries by design and fandom no boundaries by choice... but for the sake of everyone who comes next, Gravity Falls fandom, make an effort.

[dicecast]

How're you finding The Dragon Prince? I saw you mentioned that you find it frustrating. I've watched some of it, but I haven't had time to get very far.

Hey thanks a lot.  Yeah mean and @afriendtokilltime are watching it while in quarantine and....it is kind of a mess.  As of this writing I am 2 episodes away from finishing season 3 and its kind has been a whole mess of complaining around the apartment for the last few days.  This show fails in so many different ways but its like...really close to being absolutely amazing.   I have complicated feels

First off a Disclaimer 

 I thought Avatar was mostly great, though it had a lot of problems which I think its overall success and enthusiastic fan base kinda clouded, which are mostly found in the first half of season 1 and the last half of Season 3.  Mostly that any time the show attempts simplicity, it does it badly.  I thought Legend of Korra had some of the best moments in both shows, but also some of the worse, often seconds away from each other, but it at least tried some new things.  WE talk about the problems with Avatar here 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/11553648 

And Legend of Korra here 

https://soundcloud.com/randomshoes/fatal-flaw-legend-of-korra

So Dragon Prince has the components to be in my mind, even better than Avatar and there is a ton of stuff i like.  

The Animation is amazing and unique

Some really cool fantasy vistas and locations 

Cool distinct types of elves with cool unique magic and powers and cultures 

Some great efforts towards increasing diversity in terms of race, and sexuality.  Ironically it is actually less diverse in some ways than Avatar/Korra 100% non white cast, but it is very nice to have a fantasy world that is inclusive in regards to race and sexuality.  Sadly it actually has a lot of problem with gender which i could talk about in a whole post another time if you are interested. (Dead Moms, so many dead moms)

I like both of the main characters, which is unusual for a fantasy series.  Callum is fantastic, Rayla is great, and of course Claudia is by far the best character in the series.  All of them have interesting motives, characterizations, dynamics and I enjoy seeing them on screen.  The problem is that the show rarely uses them well 

Magic looks awesome in this series, especially Dark Magic 

The Show wants to delve into more complicated themes than most fantasy, and attempts to get at moral ambiguity, pacifism, questions of monarchy, the nature of villainy, racism, and pulling away from fantasy cliches, and it is really admirable.  Unfortunately the show is really bad at actually delivering on any of these interesting themes, which makes the show a colossal mess 

This show has a lot going for it.  Except it...kinda fails on so many different levels.  Each one of these could be a whole detailed post, so if you are interested let me know, but i’ll try to be brief on what doesn't work 

The Role of Dark Magic.

  Dark Magic is the core of the show’s plot and conflict.  So its pretty frustrating about how the show completely fails to actually use this plot element correctly, because in contrast to like Maho from Legend of the Five Rings, or Mages from Dragon Age, its never really established why Dark Magic is evil.  Like Claudia kills a deer in order to cure her brother of total paralysis, which...yeah that sounds like a good deal to me.  Some of the characters get angry at Claudia for killing butterflies to make really good pancakes but like...pancakes are made with eggs.   Which I suppose could be acceptable if the show as embracing a Jainism style world view, but it never bothers to deliver on that perspective or makes an argument for it, it just expects you to accept Dark Magic is wrong because Viren is a bit of a dick.  And honestly, since humans are born without magic and Dark magic is a way for them to have a home, the opposition to Dark Magic frankly just feels...conservative.  Like for all its inclusive casting the show really has an anti progress traditional feel to it which rubs me the wrong way.  Which directly leads into

Problems with Themes.  Fantasy stories usually are about moral themes, and Dragon Prince is no exception, a lot of scenes are delivered with a strong moral overtone.  The problem is that it is utterly confused and inconsistent, usually approach the topic of Dark Magic.  In the first 2 seasons, Viren is chided for “doing things the easy way” and even if ignore the libertarian undertones of that, most of the time, there isn’t really a hard way solution, and a ton of situations have Viren just being correct and characters ignoring him, or treating him like his ideas are far more nasty than they really are.  This gets even more confusing when it comes to the shows attempts to address racism, because it keeps treating humans like they are the group with privilege, but according to the opening narration, the entire human population were basically forcibly located to the Western continent, which is often considered a genocide) and Rayla is casually racist to Callum regularly.  More importantly, the show seems to want to do a Princess Mononoke pacifist argument, but keeps messing it up by its desire to simplify the conflicts it sets up. This gets worse when the show doubles down on the pro monarchist sentiments that underlie almost all fantasy. Which leads to

Being unwilling to commit to flawed characters.  Dragon Prince seems to not want to just be another cliche fantasy story and keeps trying to add details to prevent the characters from just being cliches.  however it doesn’t seem to want to commit to this, and keeps reverting to simplistic morality.  Again going off the racism angle, Callum has comments which imply Elves are seen as like Demons to the humans, and its implied that propaganda is regularly spread concerning them.  And it seems like Dark Magic is just normal in the human kingdoms, that is why they were kicked out after all.  But any time we have a “good” character, they just...don’t have that Bias.  King Harrow is just inexplicably good when it comes to certain issues, which basically means in a story about racism and people learning to look past stereotypes, all of the good guys are already doing that from the start.  This is at its most frustrating with the 5 kings council scene, where despite the fact that it is 100% true that moonshadow elves did in fact assassinate a monarch, the most annoying character in the series is like “Well I read the script and I know this is a wrong action so screw you”.  In a story about overcoming racism and nationalism, there is a is a total unwillingness to have characters have real flaws in that direciton, Verin starts out as a sympathetic villain but then basically turns into Jafar in the 4th episode and it just goes down hill from there 

There are some really bad characters in this, Ezran is intolerable, Bate just wastes screen time, Queen Aanya is the worse thing in the show, and i’m not even getting into the minor characters.  the show also really has some problems with certain female tropes, I don’t think it passes the Bechtel test until season 3 and the writers continue their “Saintly missing mom trope” from season 1 even more so here.  

(remove these two and the show is just massively improved) 

The human kingdoms are boring and we spend 2 whole seasons there.  The appeal of this show is Xadia and the elves, having to deal with discount children’s version of Game of Thrones is just frustrating.  

But everything above are problems with the story and the characters, and that isn’t actually what makes this show so goddamn frustrating.  This show has some of the worse examples of storyboarding, editing, pacing, and just basic narrative structure I’ve seen from actually competent people.  LIke its on Netflix, a company that doesn’t seem to understand what pacing is, and these are the guys who made legend of Korra which was more montage than show at times, but nothing prepared me for this nightmare.  A lot of it comes down to it being 9 episodes per season, which is even worse than Korra, which was rushed at 12 episodes per season, but even within that, every single episode is just a glut of content jumping from story beat to story beat without taking a breath.  Most of the story elements have no set up, let alone build up, the editing constantly takes you out of emotional moments to deal with a totally different subplot, sometimes entire necessary scenes are literally just...not there and we keep missing establishment shots. 

This show is just screaming for self contained one shot episodes, where the characters can have mini arch within the episode and just kinda chill out.  Despite the fact that I like Rayla and Callum, I actually don’t know them all that well because most of their screen time is running from one plot event to the next, rather than the smaller moments between scenes that really grow the character.  Just some episodes to breath, watching this show is exhausting because you spend most of it utterly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of plot happening.  Maybe season 3 will surprise me, but each one of the seasons thus far have ended on a narrative dissonant note and I’m sure this one will follow suit.  I think the reason why this show is weirdly addcitive is the same reason why Baby shark gets stuck in your head so easily, its a bunch of leading tones.  Like the editor in my just wants to hack this show to pieces and recreate it where characters, themes and tones can evolve organically.  

In short, a show with a lot of good in it, but I kinda of hate it, but I can’t stop watching it.  

[theculturedmarxist]

The New York Times is literally a propaganda outlet and Timothy Egan is a deceitful chode. His every word drips with the anxious desperation of the Democrats who know their goose is cooked.

Watching “Succession,” the HBO show about the most despicable plutocrats to seize the public imagination since the Trumps were forced on us, made me want to tax the ultrarich into a homeless shelter. And it almost made a Bernie Bro of me.

That’s the thing about class loathing: It feels good, a moral high with its own endorphins, but is ultimately self-defeating. A Bernie Sanders rally is a hit from the same pipe: Screw those greedy billionaire bastards!

Sanders has passion going for him. He has authenticity. He certainly has consistency: His bumper-sticker sloganeering hasn’t changed for half a century. He was, “even as a young man, an old man,” as Time magazine said.

But he cannot beat Donald Trump, for the same reason people do not translate their hatred of the odious rich into pitchfork brigades against walled estates.

Because powerful oligarchs that own their government murder them with impunity when they do.

>March 7 was a bitterly cold day in Detroit, and a crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 gathered near the Dearborn city limits, about a mile from the Ford plant. The Detroit Times called it "one of the coldest days of the winter, with a frigid gale whooping out of the northwest". Marchers carried banners reading "Give Us Work, "We Want Bread Not Crumbs", and "Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor". Albert Goetz gave a speech, asking that the marchers avoid violence. The march proceeded peacefully along the streets of Detroit until it reached the Dearborn city limits.

>There, the Dearborn police attempted to stop the march by firing tear gas into the crowd and began hitting marchers with clubs. One officer fired a gun at the marchers. The unarmed crowd scattered into a field covered with stones, picked them up, and began throwing stones at the police. The angry marchers regrouped and advanced nearly a mile toward the plant. There, two fire engines began spraying cold water onto the marchers from an overpass. The police were joined by Ford security guards and began shooting into the crowd. Marchers Joe York, Coleman Leny and Joe DeBlasio were killed, and at least 22 others were wounded by gunfire.

>The leaders decided to call off the march at that point and began an orderly retreat. Harry Bennett, head of Ford security, drove up in a car, opened a window, and fired a pistol into the crowd. Immediately, the car was pelted with rocks, and Bennett was injured. He got out of the car and continued firing at the retreating marchers. Dearborn police and Ford security men opened fire with machine guns on the retreating marchers. Joe Bussell, 16 years old, was killed, and dozens more men were wounded. Bennett was hospitalized for his injury.

> All of the seriously wounded marchers were arrested, and the police chained many to their hospital beds after they were admitted for treatment. A nationwide search was conducted for William Z. Foster, but he was not arrested. No law enforcement or Ford security officer was arrested, although all reliable reports showed that they had engaged in all the gunfire, resulting in deaths, injuries and property damage. The New York Times reported that "Dearborn streets were stained with blood, streets were littered with broken glass and the wreckage of bullet-riddled automobiles, and nearly every window in the Ford plant's employment building had been broken".

The United States has never been a socialist country, even when it most likely should have been one, during the robber baron tyranny of the Gilded Age or the desperation of the Great Depression, and it never will be. Which isn’t to say that American capitalism is working; it needs Teddy Roosevelt-style trustbusting and restructuring. We’re coming for you, Facebook.

Yeah, just look how well that’s worked out, you fucking idiot.

The next month presents the last chance for serious scrutiny of Sanders, who is leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire. After that, Republicans will rip the bark off him. When they’re done, you will not recognize the aging, mouth-frothing, business-destroying commie from Ben and Jerry’s dystopian dairy. Demagogy is what Republicans do best. And Sanders is ripe for caricature. 

The same Republicans that got their breakfast ate by the dottering windbag cheetoman? The same Republicans that are unpopular with over half the fucking country? The same Republicans which have shown majority support for Sanders’s policies in the past? Those are the Republicans you’re talking about, right, Timothy, you fucking asshole?

I’m not worried about the Russian stuff — Bernie’s self-described “very strange honeymoon” to the totalitarian hell of the Soviet Union in 1988, and his kind words for similar regimes. Compared with a president who is a willing stooge for the Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, a little vodka-induced dancing with the red bear is peanuts.

Nor am I worried about the legitimate questions concerning the candidate’s wife, Jane Sanders, who ran a Vermont college into the ground. Again, Trump’s family of grifters — from Ivanka securing her patents from China while Daddy made other promises to Beijing, to Don Jr.’s using the White House to leverage the family brand — give Democrats more than enough ammunition to return the fire.

This is fun. Due to a complete lack of incriminating conduct, little Timmy has to invent wrongdoing to libel Jane Sanders. I suppose he’s relying on his readers being too stupid to read the article that he himself links, another NYT hitpiece that desperately tries to paint Ms Sanders as a shady character without anything in the way of tangible proof.

>Federal prosecutors have not spoken publicly about their investigation, though late last year, Ms. Sanders’s lead lawyer said he had been told it had been closed. And while doubts remain about the contribution pledges claimed by the college, the lawyer has said that neither Ms. Sanders nor her husband was even questioned by investigators, indicating a lack of significant evidence of a crime.

>After Ms. Sanders’s ouster, the college’s troubles worsened. It abandoned a promising effort she had undertaken to sell some of its new land to improve its finances, interviews show. A few years later, when it did begin selling, it was to a consortium that secretly included at least one member of its board, raising conflict-of-interest questions.

>There is little question that the college’s 2016 demise can be traced to Ms. Sanders’s decision to champion an aggressive — critics say reckless — plan to buy the land. But with potential students put off by the lack of a campus, and with many such colleges struggling at the time, her move was the academic equivalent of a Hail Mary. Her allies said she never had a chance to fulfill her vision.

>“Jane made an audacious gambit to save the college,” said Genevieve Jacobs, a former faculty member. “It seemed to be a moment of ‘change or die.’”

>In interviews and emails, Ms. Sanders expressed frustration at her dismissal and the college’s failure to continue her rescue plan.

>“They went a completely different direction in every way than what we had proposed and decided upon as a board — with the bank, with the diocese, the bonding agency,” she said. “They didn’t carry out any of the plan. It was very confusing and upsetting at the time.”

The TL;DR seems to be: Jane Sanders tried to save a struggling school with an audacious but risky plan that ended up being aborted when she was let go by by a board, some of the members of which may have had a stake in seeing it fail. At the very least, a much more complex situation than the aspersion of “running it into the ground.”

Trump bragged about sexual assault, paid off a porn star and ran a fraudulent university. He sucks up to dictators and tells a half-dozen lies before he puts his socks on in the morning. A weird column about a rape fantasy from 1972 is not going to sink Bernie when Trump has debased all public discourse.

No, what will get the Trump demagogue factory working at full throttle is the central message of the Sanders campaign: that the United States needs a political revolution. It may very well need one. But most people don’t think so, as Barack Obama has argued. And getting two million new progressive votes in the usual area codes is not going to change that.

“Ah jeez, ah fuck, he has no sexual indiscretions that I can dredge up and his Feminist polemic against pornography and the rape culture that it engenders is old news, and if I actually reported on it honestly people might actually read it and support his ideas. Oh, well, you see, despite the incredible groundswell of support for just such a thing, Barack Obama, the man that gave the banks trillions of dollars and then allowed the state apparatus to function as their gestapo-cum-storm troopers, says we don’t need one!”

Timothy Egan wants to dismiss “two million new progressive votes” after doing a little gaslighting. His Democrat masters don’t want people to remember that it was Obama’s promises of Hope and Change after 8 years of Republican tyranny that generated a record breaking voter turnout. They would also like you to forget that 2016 was a 20-year low in voter turnout. Do you think those things are related, Mr Egan? Do you think that there might be some connection between Obama taking advantage of the desperation of millions of people, betraying them, and then those people not fucking showing up next time, causing your party to lose to the dimwit that they themselves boosted to the position?

Give Sanders credit for moving public opinion along on a living wage, higher taxes on the rich and the need for immediate action to stem the immolation of the planet. Most great ideas start on the fringe and move to the middle.

But some of his other ideas are stillborn, or never get beyond the fringe. Socialism, despite its flavor-of-the-month appeal to young people, is not popular with the general public. Just 39 percent of Americans view socialism positively, a bare uptick from 2010, compared with 87 percent who have a positive view of free enterprise, Gallup found last fall.

“Just” 39 percent of Americans, up 4% from 2016. This is ignoring for the moment that due to Americans’ piss-poor education system they have no idea what “Socialism” means aside from “more government.” Looking at the breakdown of results, it seems as though they just asked people off the top of their head what they thought about X, no definition or elaboration given. Unsurprisingly, when you look at the actual numbers on specific issues, you can see exactly why Egan has to play this deceptive bullshit: of respondents 18-34, 52% have a favorable view of “Socialism,” as opposed to 47% supporting “Capitalism.” This is in sharp contrast to the 35-54 and 55+ cohorts. 65% of Democrats have a favorable view of “Socialism.” Those with a “Liberal” ideology are even more in favor at 74%, Timothy Egan, you massive shithead.

What’s more, American confidence in the economy is now at the highest level in nearly two decades. That’s hardly the best condition for overthrowing the system.

"The highest level in nearly two decades.” That’s faint fucking praise right there.

You can see the tremendous fucking crater caused by the crash in 2007/8, a reversal of a whopping -81 points from the previous year. With many economists forecasting recession beginning either this year or the next, we’ll see how long the confidence lasts. 

So-called Medicare for all, once people understand that it involves eliminating all private insurance, polls at barely above 40 percent in some surveys, versus the 70 percent who favor the option of Medicare for all who want it. Other polls show majority support. But cost is a huge concern. And even Sanders cannot give a price tag for nationalizing more than one-sixth of the economy.

A ban on fracking is a poison pill in a must-win state like Pennsylvania, which Democrats lost by just over 44,000 votes in 2016. Eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another Sanders plan, is hugely unpopular with the general public.

“Medicare for all is really unpopular, except when it isn’t.”

Hmm, you know? Hmmm.

As for fracking, from his own link:

>A November poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cook Political Report found that only 39 percent of Pennsylvania swing voters saw a fracking ban as a good idea, even as nearly 7 in 10 of those same voters said they supported the idea of a “Green New Deal” for the environment.

Democrats are whinging on the jobs “lost” to a fracking ban as though it exists in isolation. 39% might support a fracking ban, but 70% support the GND, which could potentially offset the “job loss” with industry that has the potential not to leave their state as a fucking environmentally ruined horror show. I haven’t run the numbers on this, but not living in a cesspool of polluted air and water tends to be pretty popular, Timbo.

More shellgames from Mr Egan regarding abolishing ICE.

> Only 1 in 4 voters in the poll, 25 percent, believe the federal government should get rid of ICE. The majority, 54 percent, think the government should keep ICE. Twenty-one percent of voters are undecided. 

That sounds bad. Maybe it’s not such a good ide

>But a plurality of Democratic voters do support abolishing ICE, the poll shows. Among Democrats, 43 percent say the government should get rid of ICE, while only 34 percent say it should keep ICE.

Oh.

Sanders is a rigid man, and he projects grumpy-old-man rigidity, with his policy prescriptions frozen in failed Marxist pipe dreams. He’s unlikely to change. I sort of like that about his character, in the same way I like that he didn’t cave to the politically correct bullies who went after him for accepting the support of the influential podcaster Joe Rogan.

Democrats win with broad-vision optimists who still shake up the system — Franklin Roosevelt, of course, but also Obama. The D’s flipped 40 House seats in 2018 without using any of Sanders’s stringent medicine. If they stick to that elixir they’ll oust Trump, the goal of a majority of Americans.

Democrats lose with fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists. Three times, the party nominated William Jennings Bryan, the quirky progressive with great oratorical pipes, and three times they were trounced. Look him up, kids. Your grandchildren will do a similar search for Bernie Sanders when they wonder how Donald Trump won a second term.

“Failed Marxist pipe dreams.” Aaaaay lmao. You should also have an inkling something is wrong when you have to go all the way back to FDR to find someone that supports your point. Talk about “poison pills,” Obama proved himself to be as much of a snake as the rest, and the effects of that resonated in 2016 when the Dems ran on a platform of “that’s a nice country you have there, you wouldn’t want Trump to get elected, would you?” How did that work out? You ran one of the most unpopular politicians in the country—after very blatantly rigging the primaries against Sanders to do so—against one of the most unpopular capitalists in the country, and lost, dipshit!

Ironically, I think Timbob’s closing statement will prove true, though not in the way his clown ass intends. Shills like Egan are doing everything they can to try and poison public perception against Sanders and his policies, who only proves increasingly popular as time goes on, so much so in fact that the DNC is already biting its nails and muttering to itself about ways it can try and cheat his supporters again.

In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.

They deny it in the article, claim that changing the rules would be “bad sportsmanship,” but one would be a fool to believe them. If anything, their ambivalence towards relying on Superdelegates would make me even more nervous at this stage. Politico wants it to seem like the DNC is bent on playing fair, but more likely than not they have no intention of changing the convention rules because they believe there’s no need. With Warren’s flagging support and the luke-warm response to Biden, I doubt they’re overcome with optimism of beating Sanders in an honest primary. With all the shenanigans from last time’s primaries in mind, it’s likely that the machinery to rig the results their way is already in place—the primary could already be over before it even begins.

[ccorinnef]

The Art of Kindness

Kindness to self; kindness to others; kindness to all.

No matter what religion or belief system you adhere to, kindness is always considered a core foundation on which everything else is built. The golden rule, for example, is to always treat others how you would like to be treated or putting that another way, if you want to be treated nicely and with compassion, you must treat others nicely and with compassion. 

Hinduism says: "One should not behave towards others in a way that is disagreeable to oneself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish nature." (Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva 113.8) The Christian Bible announces: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5-7:27, King James Bible) In Judaism it is taught: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." (Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a) Islam says: "Not  one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13) Buddhism teaches: "The bodhisattva vow is the commitment to put others before oneself. It is a statement of willingness to give up one's own well-being, even one's own enlightenment, for the sake of others" (Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche) And while the Native American Code of Ethics translates it as 'respect' rather than 'kindness' the meaning is still the same: "Respect means 'To feel or show honour or esteem for someone or something; to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or something with deference or courtesy.' Showing respect is a basic law of life." (Native American Code of Ethics).

Kindness is one of the great qualities that humans are able to embody and I think it should be celebrated more than ever. Think about it this way: if you have a loved one in your life, someone who you talk to everyday, someone who you only ever want the best for, would you make mean comments to them or about them? No, if you are a nice person, you would tell them empowering and encouraging things all the time and shower them with love and kind words and compliments. Now why, if you want yourself to flourish would you be so harsh to yourself? If telling loved ones that they are worthy and lovely encourages them, why would telling yourself that you are unworthy and horrible encourage you? It doesn't make logical sense, does it? The things that we tell ourselves, how we talk to ourselves matters; shower yourself with kindness and compassion and the way you perceive yourself changes, which in turn makes you a nicer, more confident person. 

“My religion is simple. My religion is kindness.” ~Dalai Lama

Kindness is the act of showing compassion and empathy towards life. Whether yourself, someone else, an animal, a plant or a situation, kindness allows you to care for something. According to a quick google search kindness is defined as: the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate. Kindness is one of the most essential qualities which evolved in the human brain. Kindness enabled communities to grow and people to live together in ever larger groups. By being able to care for others, people were able to establish society and culture as we know it today. Studies have shown that when we act kind, receive kindness, or even witness acts of kindness the brain releases serotonin (the happy hormone). Your brain literally gets a buzz from kindness. Human beings are completely and utterly unable to survive without other people: even the most isolated people rely on others to bring fuel or equipment which in turn is made and processed by other people. Once we realise that all humans are dependent on all other humans, it is impossible to continue to ignore the impact of kindness on the world.

The benefits of practicing and encouraging kindness within yourself and those around you are enormous. Studies have shown that kindness can improve your health and boost your immune system. Kindness enables better mental health too - when you stop beating yourself up and start accepting yourself as you are and showing kindness to yourself, you can experience less anxiety and low mood symptoms as well as being better able to take care of yourself. Kindness encourages better community spirit and allows for unfortunate to receive the care they need.

How can we practice being kind to ourselves?

One really clever tip that I came across once is to treat yourself like you would a child - i.e. feed yourself, wash yourself, make sure you sleep enough, talk to yourself with kind words.

Start learning to notice when you have unkind thoughts about/ to yourself or others and then actively challenge them. I used to think "I'm so useless, i cant do anything," but then I changed it over time to "I am talented at a lot of things, i have anxiety which tires me out often and it is okay to rest when i need to." in doing that I was able to learn to cope better with managing my mental illness.

Another experiment you could try is to talk to yourself out loud for a whole day - saying all your thoughts out loud makes it a lot easier to notice the unhelpful and unkind thoughts and then you can challenge them. See how many unkind thoughts you have in a day and take each one as an opportunity to practice kindness. Practice rephrasing thoughts as though you are reassuring a loved one. 

Kindness is contagious.

Once you start to change your self talk like this, the opposite of the serotonin-kindness process means that it becomes really painful to see and listen to other people saying unkind things about themselves and you very naturally seek to make them feel better by rephrasing whatever they have said. For example, my partner often says things like "I'm a bad person," but what I was able to show him was "You're not a bad person, you are a person who struggles with mental health issues and has Asperger’s, neither of which are bad things." 

Once you start doing it with those closest to you, it has a domino effect and they pass these skills onto more people who pass it onto more people. And so, if you want to change the world, you have to start by being kind to yourself first.

Living with mental health issues, practicing kindness has allowed me to get to a place where I am able to cope reasonably well with the ups and downs of life and of mental illness. For me, showing myself kindness includes showing myself care, respect and love. It means telling myself probably 4000 times a day that "It is okay," whether that is "Its okay to feel this way," "Its okay to rest," "Its going to be okay," "You're doing okay," or "Its okay to eat/sleep/wash/move/whatever other basic self care is needed." I tell myself some variation of "its okay" all the time and by doing that I am practicing acknowledging thoughts and feelings as well as accepting that life is hard, even more so with mental illness, but being kind to myself regardless. 

[recentanimenews]

ESSAY: Dropping The Weights — How The Chunin Exams Define Naruto

  Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto is one of the defining series of both the '00s and the 2010s, the original manga spanning 15 years and the accompanying anime lasting a few years after. It is a touchstone franchise that was often compared by critics and even by some fans to Dragon Ball Z when it reached American soil on the Toonami programming block. Its story of Naruto Uzumaki’s quest to not only become Hokage but learn the secrets of his past are equal parts epic and empathetic. Naruto is relatable to anyone who has ever strived for success while feeling out of place. Heck, Naruto could be a stand-in for anime itself in the 2000s, capable of accomplishing great things, yet treated like a juvenile foreign “other” by mainstream media pundits. 

  And when you look back at Naruto’s early chapters and episodes, it’s obvious why fans were so quick to latch onto the series. The characters are funny, action-ready, and layered, each one striving for their own brand of ninja greatness and each one devoted to ideals that are desperately personal. As a setting, the Hidden Leaf Village rides the line between fantastical and approachable. The plot from the onset has many working gears, but nothing too overwhelming. Unlike some series that bog themselves down in copious, plodding exposition, Naruto has, well, stuff going on. 

    These strengths of the early parts of the series come to a head with the Chunin Exams, an arc that is not only known as one of the best in the entirety of Naruto, but also one of the best “tournament arcs” in the history of anime. The tournament arc is a lauded staple of the medium, and when done well, like in My Hero Academia’s Sports Festival or Yu Yu Hakusho’s Dark Tournament, they’re a series of memorable contests that accentuate the running themes of the show while also exemplifying the struggles of the beloved characters. However, when done poorly, they mostly seem like an excuse to just get everyone in the same arena, a “Get Out Of Character Development Free” card that can be played when the cast is too big to adequately balance.

  Not only does the Chunin Exams manage to balance Naruto’s burgeoning league of characters, it thrives in the escalating counts and chaos. This is because of its disbursement of goals, a process that ensures that not only does every character have a common quest to conquer (reach the Chunin rank of being a ninja) but side achievements and inner victories. Thanks to Kishimoto’s deft hand, none of these ambitions usurp the others, and none of the characters come off as looking unimportant or especially weak. A side-effect of tournament arcs is often that they wreak havoc on the “power levels” and scales of the series, fixing the rank of characters due to their placement relative to the finals. The Chunin Exams, which starts as a series of tests and challenges and slowly advances to a proper tournament, never lets this happen.

  It’s not enough that I just tell you this, so let’s explore these strengths in play with a look into the four most prominent participants of the Exams — Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Rock Lee.

  Naruto

    Out of anyone, Naruto’s intentions are probably the most simple: He wants to become a Chunin because being a Chunin is another important stepping stone toward being Hokage. He has a rivalry with Sasuke, a tumultuous friendship with Sakura, and is eager to please his team leader Kakashi. He is the main character and the series is named after him, so he constantly teeters toward the precipice of “Everyone stop and pay attention to what Naruto is doing.” But the Chunin Exams doesn’t allow that. Rather, it delights in subverting it. 

  In the written portion of the exam, Naruto doesn’t answer any of the questions. Rather, he makes it clear that failing the test won’t block his ambitions. Along with maintaining a thematic thru-line that was established during the earlier Bell Test in which Team 7 didn’t technically win, but passed thanks to their devotion toward the betterment of each other, it establishes that Naruto is imperfect. He might seem “destined” for the role of Hokage, but the road will not be an easy one.

  This continues with the Forest of Death, in which Naruto and Sasuke face Orochimaru, a villain whose power towers over all of them. Naruto is eager to fight and puts up a valiant effort, but is eventually rendered unconscious. Naruto being taken out allows for other characters to step in and gain the spotlight, but it also shows that this will not be a case of “New bad guy emerges, Naruto gets powerful and defeats new bad guy, repeat.” 

  The after-effects of this battle last into the actual tournament portion where Naruto puts up a poor showing in the preliminaries against Kiba until he literally farts out a victory. He trains with Jiraiya, mid-tournament, to cover some of the weaknesses he’s experienced thus far and he is eventually able to beat Neji using his improved skills. Naruto succeeds, not because he’s able to 100 percent all of the objectives of the exam, but rather because he works to cover his weaknesses. 

  Sasuke

    Sasuke’s intention is to pass the Chunin Exams as well, but this goal is almost over-shadowed by the other things he has going on. His relationship with Naruto is evolving into a kind of troubling rivalry, and his various obsessions lead him to constantly cast a blind eye toward Sakura. He relates to Kakashi in ways that have yet to be fully explored and he harnesses a grudge against Rock Lee, whose strength angers and befuddles him. Meanwhile, he searches for his murderous brother Itachi and his arc involving Orochimaru is set to soon begin. 

  In short, Sasuke and Naruto are reversed heading into this arc. Sasuke actually cheats to answer the questions in the written exam, while Naruto passes through a kind of dramatic showcase of his morals. For Naruto, becoming Chunin and becoming Hokage IS the goal, and the rest is leading up to it. For Sasuke, gaining this kind of power is the lead-up to the revenge he aspires for. 

  Sasuke “copying” to progress in the exams comes into play again with his fight against Yoroi, as he is “inspired” by a move he saw Rock Lee use and delivers his own variation. And finally, in his match against Gaara, he unleashes the Chidori, a move he learned from Kakashi. All of these imitations don’t imply that Sasuke is any less of a warrior. Rather, they reveal the cracks in Sasuke’s own delusions (“I don’t need anybody! I can find my brother/beat Orochimaru/do all the cool ninja stuff I want all by myself!”), while hinting at his eventual reconciliation with his friends and the Hidden Leaf Village. Sasuke needs others just as much as they need him.

  Sakura

    Out of anyone, Sakura has the most complicated tie to the exams. Already, Sakura feels relegated to being a supporting player, both by the events of the story and by her own personality. Constantly second-guessing herself and others, she struggles to deliver on her own strengths. So the Chunin Exams don’t just test her abilities, but they also establish what her abilities even are.

  First off, she answers all of the questions on the written test, and then, when Naruto and Sasuke become injured by Orochimaru, she’s quick to provide aid. However, she soon finds herself tangling with Kin of Team Dosu, who taunts her while grabbing her hair. It is here that Sakura surpasses her original conception of herself as she cuts her hair off and turns the tables on her opponent. 

  This kind of revelation of inner strength is on display again during Sakura’s fight with Ino, her rival. While lacking the big “power” moments of Rock Lee and Sasuke’s fights, it brings Sakura’s arc in this storyline full circle. She does not have the combative skill of Naruto or Sasuke, but she is a warrior nonetheless and her double KO with Ino illustrates her willingness to go the distance, just as her peers do.

  In a way, Sakura has the most to gain from something strenuous like the Chunin Exams, which places emphasis on her skills as both a team player and a solo fighter. Naruto has made it clear that his success is outside of the bounds of what any formal examination can provide, and Sasuke has no personal ties to the rigors of the contest. But Sakura needs it, a structured push that ends up with an emotional breakthrough. 

  Rock Lee

    If any character delivers the defining moment of the arc, it’s Rock Lee as he drops the weights in the fight against Gaara. It’s a moment that would go on the Mt. Rushmore of memorable Naruto moments if such a thing existed. And it epitomizes the theme that Rock Lee stands for: That, despite extremely human weaknesses, we’re capable of wonderful, awe-inspiring things. 

  Unlike the rest of the characters here, Rock Lee’s performance in the Chunin Exams is funneled toward one specific moment. Though he is able to compete with Sasuke, his time in the Forest of Death is fairly unremarkable, especially when compared to Gaara, who is the Naruto equivalent of a slasher movie character, easily dealing with anyone in his path. This contrast is built for a reason, and Rock Lee constantly wanting to prove himself matches nicely with Gaara’s feeling that he has nothing to prove.

  The fact that Rock Lee’s Taijutsu stuns Gaara and that he nearly dies in his fight with the sand-controlling ninja is more important than any victory would’ve been. Like Sakura, Rock Lee is searching for a way to affirm his place in the world, but the way he does it calls into question the entire process of becoming a ninja. Is it wrong to push these children this way? How far is too far? Rock Lee’s inability to use any other Jutsu than Taijutsu brings all of these concerns down to earth and reverberates around the other characters. An integral part of Rock Lee’s arc is the sudden realization that the other ninjas aren’t just superpowered anime characters but teenagers trying to accomplish their dreams while grappling with terrifying, potentially deadly obstacles.

  In short, the Chunin Exams doesn’t just provide a series of cool tests and match-ups, but it examines the importance of the main characters’ personal goals. It explores who they are, what they want, and why they want it. And in the end, it reveals that, for young ninja, triumph is secondary, the main mission, often, is to survive.

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

  By: Daniel Dockery

[imaginedsoldier]

I keep seeing posts and stuff about how Robert E. Lee was a kind gentleman and an abolitionist. This isn’t just historical illiteracy, its patently false revisionism.

Lee was not an abolitionist- he clarified his thoughts on the matter in a letter where he enumerated his feelings on the institution of slavery:

“There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. The doctrines and miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day. Although the abolitionist must know this, must know that he has neither the right not the power of operating, except by moral means; that to benefit the slave he must not excite angry feelings in the master; that, although he may not approve the mode by which Providence accomplishes its purpose, the results will be the same; and that the reason he gives for interference in matters he has no concern with, holds good for every kind of interference with our neighbor, -still, I fear he will persevere in his evil course. . . . ” [1] 

To sum that up- slavery is bad for white people since they have to bear the weight of responsibility (read: The White Man’s Burden, Rudyard Kipling), good for Black people, the violent punishments inflicted on the slaves were for their own betterment as a people, and the only way they should be emancipated is by literal divine intervention. He suggested that abolitionists run the risk of angering the slave master and indirectly harming the slaves as the result of their attempts at abolition, which reads like a backhanded threat. His perspective was at best Christian lip service as an excuse for continued slavery and at worst the ramblings of a racist religious fundamentalist. He considered abolition in the manner that it was being carried out to be evil.

He wasn’t some kind man bearing the weight of an unfortunate institution; its a matter of historical fact that he was a violent, sadistic master with his contemporaries writing of him in no uncertain terms- his slaves regarded him as “the worst man I ever see. [sic]” He intentionally separated slave families, something even his slave-owning contemporaries viewed as inhuman, and would carry out intensely violent punishment on runaways and resistant slaves. In a letter to the editor, published in the NY Tribune, 24 June, 1859 regarding Lee’s treatment of slaves:

“Some three or four weeks ago, three, more courageous than the rest, thinking their five years would never come to an end, came to the conclusion to leave for the North. They were most valuable servants, but they were never advertised, and there was no effort made to regain them which looks exceedingly as though Mr. Lee, the present proprietor, knew he had no lawful claim to them. They had not proceeded far before their progress was intercepted by some brute in human form, who suspected them to be fugitives, and probably wished a reward. They were lodged in jail, and frightened into telling where they had started from. Mr. Lee was forthwith acquainted with their whereabouts, when they were transported back, taken into a barn, stripped, and the men received thirty and nine lashes each, from the hands of the slave-whipper, when he refused to whip the girl, and Mr. Lee himself administered the thirty and nine lashes to her. They were then sent to Richmond jail, where they are now lodged.” [3]

I will spare you detail upon detail, but the interested don’t have to look very hard or very far to find records and testimony of Lee’s horrific treatment of slaves, firsthand. 

The narrative of Lee as an abolitionist is somewhat harmed by the fact as well that his father-in-law’s will dictated that his slaves be set free immediately upon the event of his death, yet Lee, as the executor, maintained ownership of his slaves, looking to use their labor to save his dying estate through legal manipulation and a generous interpretation of his father-in-law’s will, attempted to maintain ownership of them.

As executor of the Custis estate, General Lee was, in fact, bound by principles of equity to carry out the wishes of the testator under circumstances in which he believed the testator's wishes were in conflict. Custis apparently wished that the slaves be emancipated immediately, yet the only way payment of his legacies to General Lee's daughters could be funded was through the cash received from the labor of the slaves. To resolve this conflict, General Lee applied to the circuit court of Arlington for an interpretation of the will provisions, and for an order specifying the point in time when the will’s provision regarding emancipation must be executed. Eventually, the Court ruled that Lee was legally empowered to hold the slaves in service to the estate until the legacies were satisfied, but that, notwithstanding this, the slaves had to be freed no later than five years from the date of Custis's death, October 10, 1857. [4]

"The will of the late George W.P. Custis directs that all his slaves, some 200 or 300, shall be set free within the next five years, leaving it to his executors to provide the necessary funds from his estate to remove them from the Commonwealth."

According to contemporary sources, the slaves at Arlington had thought they were being freed immediately; some newspaper stories said Custis had told them as much on his deathbed.

But the executor of the estate -- Lee -- had something else in mind.

Lee, then a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, "determined that the slave labor was necessary to improve Arlington's financial status," according to a story about slavery at Arlington on the National Park Service website. And so he freed no one.

The controversy over the will and the slaves' future was addressed in a letter to the editor of The New York Times in January 1858, in response to a story published Dec. 30 that speculated that Custis' wishes were not being followed.

"It is there charged that the emancipation of the slaves will be much retarded, if not wholly prevented, by his heirs; that all attempts to see the will of Mr. Custis have proved abortive; that it is whispered about Washington that foul play is in progress in regard to the negroes on his plantations in Virginia; that they are now being sold South; that all of them will be consigned to hopeless slavery unless something is done; and that nothing can be done unless the will is produced, etc.," the letter says. 

Lee did not just keep the slaves, he relished in their abuse, whipping and beating them himself despite the work of their management being delegated to others. Not just that, but he exceeded even his broadly interpreted will’s terms:

The terms of the will stipulated that the slaves had to be free within five years of Custis' death. But Lee kept them beyond even that, eventually freeing them in early 1863.  [5] 

This post is kind of losing form and speed, and its already pretty long so I will terminate with this- historical revisionism is what permits neo-Nazis, boneheads, white supremacists, and even soft conservatives to push a narrative that paints them as reasonable. They are anything but. They are liars, they are cowards, and they are aggressors. The narrative currently being painted by Trump about “both sides being in the wrong” at Charlottesville is a perpetuation of their proud legacy of pretending they were good guys all along and silently cowering until they can be brazen again. Don’t let them.

[scriptmedic]

Hey Auntie! I have a character who ODs himself with sleeping pills that he washes down with vodka. His friends find him just before he goes into CA, they call an ambulance and do CPR. (One is a nurse.) After following you for a while I’m sure what I wrote is a medical BS Trope, so what actually happens when the Paramedics arrive? (I have a DeusExMachina to save him and everything after he arrives in the ICU falls under the I-break-it-I-buy-it-rule, so I just need to get him there.) Thank you!

Hey there! Welcome back!

Okay. Your character surviving a cardiac arrest from sleeping pills washed down with alcohol is, unfortunately, a slim shot. (Fiction writers live for long shots, so no judgment.) The reason for that is that most sleeping pills, in overdose, suppress cardiac function, which means that even if they get his heart beating again, it won’t be beating well.

So here’s what happens when EMS roll up on a cardiac arrest. I’ll give you a few high-tech and low-tech options, because of course I will!

1) They get their stuff off of the truck (usually 2-3 bags and a cardiac monitor).

2) They come in, ask a few questions -- “What happened? Did you see him stop breathing? How long has he been down? How long have you been doing CPR?”

3) They’ll take over CPR, and hook up their monitor to check a rhythm. If it’s a shockable rhythm (V-tach / V-fib) they’ll shock every 2 minutes, though rhythms can change with no rhyme or reason. They may need a few rounds of CPR before they’re “shockable”.

           a) Chest compressions may be done by a device such as a LUCAS or AutoPulse, both of which wrap around the chest and do CPR for you. This is the “high tech” option, if you want a touch of sci-fi. It really does free up providers to do the non-mechanical stuff. With the AutoPulse, you basically haul the patient up by their arms, wrap the device around their chest, lay them down, and it just goes to town.

4) In addition to CPR (hands-on-chest), they’ll use a bag-valve-mask to “bag” the patient / breathe for them.

5) One of the EMSkin will start an IV and start giving drugs. If you want to be fancy, have them have trouble finding a vein, and use an IO gun -- basically a hand drill -- to put a needle in the lateral shoulder. It works like an IV, it’s just infinitely more brutal.

          a) Sample meds might include epinephrine (1mg, every 3-ish minutes), D50 (25g, usually just called “1 amp”, sugar water, given once); if the person has been shocked  more than twice, a med called amiodarone (300mg, given once).

6) Another will perform intubation, place a breathing tube, by putting a metal blade into the mouth and sliding a plastic tube down the throat and into the airway, then secure it with tape. It’s a thousand times harder than that description makes it sound.

7) Moving a cardiac arrest patient to an ambulance is a theatrical production of its own. The medics will bring a stretcher to the front of the house and, if there are no steps or just one or two, into the house. If there are steps or the patient is upstairs, they’ll grab something called a scoop stretcher, which is a metal carrying stretcher that literally breaks apart, “scoops” under the patient, and then they’ll be strapped down (with the cardiac monitor and oxygen tank), and carried down the stairs. The scoop will likely just stay under them for transport, because taking it off with all that stuff strapped in is a pain in the ass.

8) The beatings CPR and bagging will continue until morale the patient improves.

You ultimately wanted the resuscitation to be successful. So let’s have it be successful. At one point during a pulse check someone should, in fact, find a pulse! This can happen on the scene or in the ambulance, up to you.

Once pulses come back, they might -- actually will probably -- need to give a drip of a vasopressor like Levophed (norepinephrine) to maintain a blood pressure.

Alternatively, you could have them go to the ER, and have the ER put them on a type of heart bypass called ECMO, which will do the circulaty bits for them while the heart itself recovers. This is, again, the super high tech road, and involves putting some VERY BIG LINES into the leg and the neck.

Whew! That was a lot of work! And, if you’re following your EMS characters, they’ll be sweating, tired, etc. -- it’s pretty back-breaking. 

I hope this gets you down the right road!!

Oh, one note: you say once the Paramedics arrive, but it’s actually just once the paramedics arrive. Professions aren’t capitalized unless they’re being used as part of a direct call-out of a particular person’s name; for example, Scripty is a paramedic, but you might refer to her as Paramedic Scripty (the same way Jackie is a nurse, but she might be Nurse Jackie). Capitalization FTW!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

disclaimer    

Becoming a Patron lets you see the freaking future. Have youconsidered becoming a clairvoyant?

FreeeBook: 10 BS “Medical” Tropes that Need to Die TODAY!  

[segadores-y-soldados]

Soldier: 76 Fact Sheet, References, and Some Analyses

Alright, so this is a list of facts, ideas, and analyses based on: 1) current issues or hypothesized trajectories for history, 2) confirmed Soldier: 76 lore and personal history, and 3) confirmed Overwatch timeline stuff. Note that all of these can change since Blizzard basically says “fuck it” and changes their lore every three months.  Some of these are analysis-based; stuff that is hypothesized/headcanon/food-for-thought status will be denoted as such.  Some NSFW language and swearing is included.  Also some political and social hypotheses and interpretations.

Main article: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/19809396/

Other resources:

Reaper Art Assets

Reaper References

Reaper and Soldier: American Cultural References

Here we go:

Indiana:

This is by no means an exhaustive list of stuff about Indiana, but these are basically quick soundbites for people who want a jumping off point.

Bloomington, Indiana currently has a population of about 90k in the city proper, and about 180k in the metropolitan area. It’s not a massive city by any means, but it’s not some small country town either.

Bloomington is a “college town”: it has the most populated public university in the state.

This means that just under half of the population is roughly young, college-educated adults and students.

“Bloomington is a regional economic center anchored by Indiana University and home to a diverse business community involved in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, technology, health care, and the arts. Bloomington's concentration of employment in the life sciences is six times greater than the U.S. average, and employment in the technology sector has grown by over 80 percent in recent years.” - Wikipedia

In heavy contrast to this, Indiana is currently the meth capital of the U.S. Indiana is also currently facing a massive heroin and HIV epidemic.

And I’m not talking that “glamorized Breaking Bad” shit.

Things could’ve stood a chance of improving before the U.S.’s new Vice President and former governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, royally fucked over many of the state’s social structures and services.

Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/53c313/mike_pence_says_his_role_model_for_vice_president/d7rxk07/

Read this too: http://www.idsnews.com/article/2017/01/indiana-opiod-problem

Let me reiterate: Mike Pence fucked up Indiana so hard there’s a fucking HIV epidemic in parts of the state. He bullied a female elected official out of office. He cut funding for fucking preschools. He destroyed Indiana’s energy system.

Now imagine being Jack Morrison, born probably in the next year to 7 years, living in the aftermath of this.

Watching business cut positions, watching people pursue higher education in your home city, but knowing that every other person in your school has a family member who got ruined by meth or HIV or struggled to make ends’ meet. Roughly 40% of the people in your home city are young adult students attending the largest public university in your state. The city is predominantly politically liberal. Your state is struggling. Your country elected the man who helped devastate it into the White House. You grow up in the aftermath of a Pence governorship and a Trump presidency.  

“On the rare occasions when I cross paths with other living souls, they describe young Morrison in different ways. He was a rambunctious youth. A humble, salt-of-the-earth farmer's son. But these people all agree on one thing: Morrison was never destined to live out his days in the land of rolling plains and deep blue skies. At eighteen, Morrison packed his bags and joined the military. He had planned to serve a brief stint in the armed forces and then return home to the family farm, but his work ethic and courage caught the eye of the military brass.”

Military:

Canon: Jack Morrison joined the military at 18 years old and was eventually brought into the Supersoldier Enhancement Program.

There, he met Gabriel Reyes and the two became best friends.

Analysis: I have a hard time believing that Reyes would’ve been friends with Morrison if he’d been a huge jerk or ultra politically conservative.

Gabriel Reyes grew up in LA, which is by and large liberal within the metropolitan area.

This may be unknown to many people, but California is EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE outside of the majority cities.  Even within the majority cities, you are likely to encounter people who are NOT liberal on a regular basis.  The odds of Gabriel having never met “a conservative individual” are literally less than zero.

However, the odds of Jack being “politically and/or social conservative” are also pretty damn low.  Naive possibly, but Jack “being shocked” over crime, drug problems, gang violence, cultural differences, or urban lifestyle stuff is less likely than I think many in the fandom realize.

So it’s not exactly an age-old tale of “young, naive, wide-eyed man from the Midwest meets a hardened, sarcastic, street-smart man from the urban jungle,” although that is what Overwatch lore wants to portray it as. When you dig a little deeper, things get more complex.

Omnic Crisis:

Jack was probably the only member of the First Strike team to double as a medic.  This is evidenced by him carrying Biotic Fields as both Soldier: 76 and Strike-Commander Morrison.

Ana’s Biotic Rifle was not invented until sometime later, after Angela Ziegler (Mercy) had joined Overwatch.  We know this because of the released blueprints of the Biotic Rifle with notes by both Torbjörn and Angela (the blueprints are addressed to “J. Morrison” and “G. Reyes”), in which Angela expresses concerns about the “weaponization” of her biotechnology.

We also know from concept art and the first “Ana” comic that Ana functioned primarily as a regular sniper before the development of the Biotic Rifle.

This means that Jack probably performed most of the healing in the field and during battles for the majority of the Omnic Crisis.

Analysis: this may be one of the reasons why the United Nations considered Morrison to be the “heart and soul” of the First Strike team: “Leadership of Overwatch fell to Reyes, but Morrison would have a greater impact on the group in the long term. He brought out the best in the people around him and helped mold Overwatch's diverse (and sometimes conflicting) agents into a cohesive fighting force. In unity, they found the strength to defeat the robots and end the Omnic Crisis.”

Hypothesis: this may provide a lore-based reason for why Solder: 76 always announces the deployment of his Biotic Fields to his teammates in-game.

Overwatch:

Hypothesis/Speculation: I find it INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE that Gabriel Reyes would continue to work for an organization - more specifically, to under Jack Morrison - for another twenty years if he truly hated it.  I take this bit of “canon lore” with a massive pinch of salt.

Timeline: It is very likely that the first major playable character hired by Jack after he became Strike-Commander is Mei-ling Zhou, probably for her breakthroughs in climatology.

Jack almost certainly approved of the “hiring” of other playable characters like Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada, even with all the problems and issues surrounding them.

Jack probably recruited Angela Ziegler (Mercy) to be the head of the medical sciences division at Overwatch.

Jack probably saved, rescued, or assisted Winston after his escape from the moon colony.

Jack almost certainly had a familial relationship with Fareeha Amari, given their in-game interactions and the Ana Origins video.

Jack and the other early members of Overwatch canonically participated in Halloween parties where they all dressed in costumes.

It is implied by the same Halloween comic that Gabriel Reyes designed the uniforms for Overwatch, probably including Jack’s Strike-Commander uniform.

Canon: Jack liked Old Western films.

Probable Canon: Jack has been to many different places around the globe - all the known Watchpoints, and likely all the U.N. Headquarters as well.  As Strike-Commander of Overwatch, he may have spent a considerable amount of time in New York City, which is where the main U.N. Headquarters are located.

“Strike Commander Morrison envisioned a bright new future for humanity. Under his leadership, Overwatch served as a global peacekeeping force and an engine for innovation, making advances in scientific fields as varied as space exploration and medical research. But even as Overwatch grew in power, Morrison stayed dedicated to the people around him. He trained new agents, instilling in them Overwatch's noble goals and ideals. At Morrison's memorial service, Reinhardt Wilhelm, one of the group's original members, said, "He devoted everything he was to Overwatch. He was our moral compass. Our inspiration. Our friend."”

Analysis: Jack Morrison was dedicated to helping develop the betterment and progress of humanity through medicine, technology, and the sciences.

Contrary to what Reaper says in the “Old Soldiers” comic, Jack did not actually deliberately leave Ana in the field.  In the “Ana” comic, Ana chooses to turn off her comms and chooses to continue pursuing the enemy sniper.  The last thing Jack says to her is “Everyone, move!  Ana, you too!  Evac’s on its way!  Wheels up in two!  Now beat feet!  Disengage, Ana!  That’s an order -” (emphasis from comic).

Given all the controversies around Reaper and how long he has “existed,” it is important to point out that Gabriel/Reaper blames Jack for a very specific event, probably the event where he became Reaper (although when specifically this event occurs is...well, debatable, I guess).  This is described in the Old Soldiers comic through direct dialogue from Reaper.  Ana removes Reaper’s mask and asks “what happened to you…?” (probably about whatever his current appearance is), and Reaper replies: “He did this to me, Ana.  They left me to become this thing.  They left you to die.  They left me to suffer… ...Never forget that.” (emphasis from comic itself).

Food for Thought: there is no mention of the promotion or anything related to it in the Old Soldiers comic, which implies that perhaps the decision was actually not as big an issue between Jack and Gabriel as stated (or as other people thought?).  In fact, there’s no mention of the promotion in any of Jack or Gabriel’s lines, dialogue, or character interactions.  At best, Gabriel throws some shade through lines like “Finally, some recognition.” but neither character actually mentions the issue directly, nor do any of the others.

Hypothesis: it is entirely possible that the “problems over the promotion” have been largely dropped from the “lore,” and Old Soldiers more closely represents “the new direction” Blizzard is moving towards with regards to the Jack-Gabriel rivalry, split, fall-out, fight, battle, whatever you want to call it.

Post-Fall/Soldier: 76:

Canon: Soldier considers “a part of himself” to have died in the Swiss Base explosion (Origin video).  It is not stated what “part of him” that is - take it as you will.

Canon: Soldier does not consider himself a “vigilante”: “Truth is...I’m just a soldier.”

Canon: Soldier: 76 is canonically anti-corporation.  This is evidenced by his personal investigation into LumériCo, as well as him breaking, entering, and vandalizing corporations and financial institutions in the U.S.: “A masked vigilante whom authorities have named "Soldier: 76" is considered the prime suspect in these incidents. In addition to bombing corporate offices and financial institutions in the United States, this individual has breached a number of former Overwatch bases. Soldier: 76 has stolen valuable technologies from these sites, including experimental weaponry, causing untold damages in the process.”

Analysis/Hypothesis: Given the current state of Indiana and U.S. national politics, the above bullet point is not particularly surprising.

Canon: Soldier: 76 is anti-gang or anti-crime-organization.  Just...watch Hero again or something.  But also consider that Soldier has the line “Reyes should’ve cleaned up the Deadlock Gang a long time ago,” said with mild frustration that the Deadlock Gang still exists.

Canon: Soldier: 76 does not want Overwatch restored.  This is demonstrated by his Gibraltar lines, and his new interaction with Winston.  He considers Winston’s actions “illegal” and “breaking the law” - “same as me.”

Canon: Soldier: 76 does have many memories of Gibraltar - “they weren’t all bad.”

Canon: Soldier: 76 feels “terrible” for all the scientists of Overwatch (Ecopoint Antarctica specifically).  He has a new interaction with Mei, where he says that the frontlines of the battlefield are no place for a scientist.  Mei teases him as a retort, saying, “I guess it’s a good thing I have you to watch my back.”

Analysis/Hypothesis: Mei recognizes who Soldier: 76 is and is referencing the fact that Jack hired her, and watched over her progress.

Canon: Soldier: 76 has numerous voicelines about activating a Biotic Field, all of which are directed at his teammates.  He never activates a Biotic Field for himself (although as a Soldier main I can tell you that I absolutely activate Biotic Field for myself 95% of the time.  The other 5% of the time is for the tank.  On extremely rare occasions, I have activated Biotic Fields for friendly DPS or Defense units who stay close to me or ask for healing from me).

Canon: the worst “insults” that Soldier has ever said about Reaper is that he’s a “bad guy” and “kind of a jerk” (on the flipside, Reaper’s sitting at a solid “boy scout” as his only insult for Soldier).

Canon: Reaper addresses Soldier by the name of “Jack” in Old Soldiers.  The only other character to do this is Ana (on the flipside, the only two characters to call Reaper by the name “Gabriel/Gabe” are Ana and Sombra).

Alternate (?) Canon - Junkenstein’s Revenge: Immortal: 76 “does not care for the nobility” but is siding with the lord of the castle to take down “a common foe - The Reaper.”  He tells Hanzo that The Reaper is “the worst kind” of monster there is - “a wicked man.”

Alternate (?) Canon - Junkenstein’s Revenge: Immortal: 76’s faith is in science and alchemy as “the things that keep him alive.”  In an interaction with McCree, McCree states that “pumping someone full of chemicals and electricity and whatnot” makes the individual “not a man, but a monster.”  This is a reference to Junkenstein’s Monster, but also to Jack and Gabriel “in the main canon,” who were “pumped full of chemicals” in SEP.

Alternate (?) Canon - Junkenstein’s Revenge: Ana describes that Immortal: 76 “attracts strange companions” - “just as it has always been.”  This is yet another reference to Jack assembling Overwatch’s diverse crew during its peacetime era.

Interpretation: While some of Soldier’s interactions can be seen as patronizing, I believe it’s more likely that he is strongly concerned for characters like D.Va, Tracer, and McCree.  As shown with the Mei interaction, he comes across as gruff or harsh, but well-meaning.  His other interactions with Ana and even Reaper to an extent show that Soldier is extremely tired, jaded, and possibly depressed from the wars he has waged - both physical and political/social - and that he likely does not want to see young people get drawn into similar situations.

Hopefully people keep finding these little essays and fact sheets useful.  I’m less familiar with the Midwest than the West Coast, but I figured it was useful to throw down some pointers for people who may not know where to start.  I also hope that condensing a lot of the “lore” around Jack Morrison/Soldier: 76 helps people get hone in on some key characteristics and ideas about him.

[machinakrp]

>> OPEN SEO GUN’S FILE …

:// AGE — 26 :// OCCUPATION — owner of absolution :// CLASS — elysium native

>> LOADING DEVELOPMENT …

:// MAGIC —  

gun’s magic is barely that. it’s an enhancement that sounds like an augmentation anyone could buy if they had enough money. but his is innate, an enhanced charisma he was born with and cannot turn on or off at whim. the type of unusually irresistible charm and an enticing sparkle in his eyes that money can’t, in fact, buy. not at the same level as his, anyway. no augmentation can make someone as likable and persuasive and easy to trust all while having a certain reputation that might suggest otherwise. despite what neon-lit signs might advertise, no augmentation can give someone the same ability to instinctively know just what to say or do in social situations to most likely get him what he wants or needs with little chance of backfire. it’s a helpful ability for a conman like gun, but it’s a double-edged sword that keeps him wondering who’s only there because of it.

:// MODIFICATIONS —

prior to his business, gun never had any modifications beyond basic ones (techhair and shift-tacts to change the colors of his hair and eyes at whim, and a then-buggy voice mask that changed the timbre and pitch of his voice) that benefitted his conning ways. since then, however, he’s gotten a few more valuable augmentations, and why not if most were given for free in exchange for information? giving up his moral integrity costs nothing if he never had it to begin with, anyway.  

datalock: since perfecting his absolution tech, the first thing gun did was seek out someone willing to experiment and lock down his memories, denying external access to it, not wanting to fall prey to his own scheme. no one knows better than him how valuable memories can be, after all. the datalock in his brain was built specifically to protect against the inner workings of his machine, and for that he’s proven it foolproof time and time again (once every other week, just in case). should different means of accessing memories arise, however, he may or may not be defenseless and he’ll never know until it happens.  

biomonitor detonator: as another precaution, gun had a biomonitor detonator installed on him and connected to his absolution database and machine. the biomonitor watches his current physiological state, and any time his life is in serious peril, it will go off unless he overrides it within ten seconds. if anyone tries to severely beat information or memories out of him without paying his asking price (or kill him), for example, his detonator will fire off and all the memories in his database will be wiped and the machine will self-destruct. the outcome isn’t ideal for him either, of course, since he’d lose all his work and leverage. but, he tends to tout this as a deterrent to anyone who might dare to think of it.

microrecorder link: his absolution machine is not his only source of valuable information, since not everyone influential uses it, of course. so even now he’ll run long cons every so often or just sweet talk and charm things out of people, and his microrecorder link will catch every second and upload it directly to his database. his very own messenger, of sorts. built into his cornea, it can be turned on and off on either audio or video or both as he pleases on a retinal display. as it just live-records and does not deal with his internal memories, his datalock does not interfere with it.

ambidex chip: gun mostly got this chip installed because it was offered in exchange for what he considered useless information and figured why not? it makes him ambidextrous, giving his sleight of hand more fluidity and ease since one side is no longer more dominant and more natural to sleight.

>> LOADING BIOGRAPHY …

gun knows the streets like the back of his hands, can guide you through it with eyes shut, ears plugged, and with muscle memory alone. he knows it in the light of day when everything’s concrete and dirty, and he knows it in the middle of the night when it’s bathed in neon haze and easier to pretend – visually, at least – like maybe elysium isn’t the dirty heel of neo seoul.

he knows it because it’s home. not just his city, his hometown, but home.

abandoned at birth by his mother who could barely afford to feed herself in the hands of his father who struggled just as much, he became a tool at an early age. paraded around the streets, made to cry (physically as an infant, and then on command as soon as he was able) and pull sympathy from uncomfortable passers. oh no you poor thing, they’d call him, before handing over small amounts of money his dad eventually spent on drugs and maybe half an expired roll of kimbap tossed his way.

this is how he first learns the city, one corner at a time until they’re shooed away or out of suckers to fool.

and next when he’s five and their landlord kicks them out of their tiny studio apartment without warning, the street literally is home.

an abandoned alleyway, an “old friend’s”, a cramped community house, a shelter, a jjimjilbang, an old run-down car of days passed that no longer works. by six he knows his way from one convenience store to another across the entire city, purposefully taking the long way around and ruffling his hair and scuffing his knees and elbows. he’s still small, still cute enough that they continue to say, oh no you poor thing, and hand him money. half of which he stashes away somewhere secret before returning to wherever home is that day and gives the rest to his withering father.

so, unsurprisingly, he grows up quickly. it’s hard not to when the following day is never ensured.

they barely get by with the money gun scrounges up and odd jobs his dad picks up when he’s sober enough, motivated enough. but by the time he’s eight, gun finds them permanent shelter with an old granny that insists he come stay with her in her son’s old room. she calls him a charming little boy instead of you poor little thing and he grins and agrees.

she continues, over the years, telling him he reminds her of her son. gun isn’t quite sure that’s a good thing, even at eight, but he just smiles and nods and humors her because having warmth and constant food that isn’t expired is nice. he’d died a few years back, but he was just as charming, just as smart, and into all the newest tech, she tells him. that, at least, piques gun’s interest. prompts him to ransack the room for books and journals and old computers and code and strange machines he takes apart just to figure out how to put them back together. prompts him to learn, to teach himself with everything her son left behind.

and without having to worry about where to sleep next or how to get food or if his sorry excuse of a dad is still even alive, he thrives in that small little room over the next few years. always restless, always needing something to do, his hands find themselves busy tinkering and typing away. putting together his own machines after he’s gotten the hang of it and his mind starts churning, starts coming up with his own ideas.

by eleven he’s built his own little fighting robot. by twelve he’s made it able to be voice controlled with a few select responses. by thirteen, he’s patched in machine learning into it, allowing it to learn and predict an opponent’s moves and act accordingly.

then, at fourteen his grandma (as he calls her now) dies.

she leaves them the house and what very little fortune she has left. he’s too young to claim the money, so his father receives it, and everyone knows how that story goes. at fifteen, gun’s sick of it and leaves in the middle of the night with his hidden stash and the cash his father foolishly left laying around. the house has lost its warmth and use anyway. it’s the last time he sees his father, and the streets become home once more.

much older now and seen as a damn teenager instead of a poor little thing, it’s harder to get people to stop for him on the streets. he finds other ways instead, like slick fingers and thick charm hallmarked by a lopsided grin. it’s when he successfully starts talking himself out of larger five-finger discounts like a pair of shift-tacts that he thinks something must be up. by the time he’s eighteen and he’s talked himself out of various sticky situations with even the purposefully stupidest reasons, he figures it has to do with his being, his charisma – and he uses it to his advantage.

like smooth talking his way into dirt-cheap apartment leases, and reading people with ease to use what he can against them, long-conning them out of their life savings, their motorbikes, their tech parts and machinery he puts to good use. and so at twenty, he’s doing quite well for someone with no real job but swindling and picking pockets.

for the first time in a while, he’s fine, he’s doing okay, he’s got a bit of saved money to spare. the city is still his home and he spends much of his time in it, but when he’s not, he’s back home. tinkering like he used to, but with better parts now. more knowledge, greater ideas.

he starts with the idea of turning vr on its head. instead of living a designed life, why not live someone else’s literal life through their eyes? he runs wild with it, tinkers and programs and spends endless nights until he comes up with the first prototype a year later. a machine that can target a specific memory area in the brain and save all of it to a chip.

he’s close and pushes further. comes up with an improved prototype another year later that can select specific memories now. it’s still a little buggy, but for the most part it works. he tries it on himself, extracts his memories from eight to fourteen, watches them and feels a pang in his chest he only ever feels when those memories come to mind. he hates it, wonders idly if there’s a way he can remove them. wonders, excitedly, that there must be a way to remove them.

the track switches quickly. forget vr, consider: absolution. deliverance from sin, from pain, from heartache, from anything you want to forget. purify yourself, save yourself.

it take a little over another year, but he finds it. the way to offer salvation.

he’s his first customer and grandma becomes a forgotten memory, burnt chip ashes tossed onto the dreary concrete floor outside his building. it’s the first and last time he uses the machine on himself, soon after finding someone to lock his brain against it. but it’s far from the last time the machine is ever used.

the absolver, he calls it, his machine. it becomes synonymous for him on the streets as well, spoken like a promise. forget everything for a small price, he offers to anyone he meets. salvation is a hot commodity in a city like elysium, and he thrives on that alone.

but he wants more. seo gun always wants more.

not just money, but leverage – and by way of information, he gives himself plenty.

a far less advertised part of his business on a need-to-know basis, a database of memories sits in a hidden room of absolution. therein lies thousands of chips claimed to be destroyed after extraction sitting perfectly pretty, already mined for any pertinent information. and for the highest bidders? he’ll sell that information away.

it’s easy now for a man like gun to thrive in elysium.

bathed in sin and on the brink of revolution, absolution and information are invaluable – and gun has a stronghold on both.

[machinakrpx]

>> OPEN SEO GUN’S FILE …

:// AGE — 26 :// OCCUPATION — owner of absolution :// CLASS — elysium native

>> LOADING DEVELOPMENT …

:// MAGIC —  

gun’s magic is barely that. it’s an enhancement that sounds like an augmentation anyone could buy if they had enough money. but his is innate, an enhanced charisma he was born with and cannot turn on or off at whim. the type of unusually irresistible charm and an enticing sparkle in his eyes that money can’t, in fact, buy. not at the same level as his, anyway. no augmentation can make someone as likable and persuasive and easy to trust all while having a certain reputation that might suggest otherwise. despite what neon-lit signs might advertise, no augmentation can give someone the same ability to instinctively know just what to say or do in social situations to most likely get him what he wants or needs with little chance of backfire. it’s a helpful ability for a conman like gun, but it’s a double-edged sword that keeps him wondering who’s only there because of it.

:// MODIFICATIONS —

prior to his business, gun never had any modifications beyond basic ones (techhair and shift-tacts to change the colors of his hair and eyes at whim, and a then-buggy voice mask that changed the timbre and pitch of his voice) that benefitted his conning ways. since then, however, he’s gotten a few more valuable augmentations, and why not if most were given for free in exchange for information? giving up his moral integrity costs nothing if he never had it to begin with, anyway.  

datalock: since perfecting his absolution tech, the first thing gun did was seek out someone willing to experiment and lock down his memories, denying external access to it, not wanting to fall prey to his own scheme. no one knows better than him how valuable memories can be, after all. the datalock in his brain was built specifically to protect against the inner workings of his machine, and for that he’s proven it foolproof time and time again (once every other week, just in case). should different means of accessing memories arise, however, he may or may not be defenseless and he’ll never know until it happens.  

biomonitor detonator: as another precaution, gun had a biomonitor detonator installed on him and connected to his absolution database and machine. the biomonitor watches his current physiological state, and any time his life is in serious peril, it will go off unless he overrides it within ten seconds. if anyone tries to severely beat information or memories out of him without paying his asking price (or kill him), for example, his detonator will fire off and all the memories in his database will be wiped and the machine will self-destruct. the outcome isn’t ideal for him either, of course, since he’d lose all his work and leverage. but, he tends to tout this as a deterrent to anyone who might dare to think of it.

microrecorder link: his absolution machine is not his only source of valuable information, since not everyone influential uses it, of course. so even now he’ll run long cons every so often or just sweet talk and charm things out of people, and his microrecorder link will catch every second and upload it directly to his database. his very own messenger, of sorts. built into his cornea, it can be turned on and off on either audio or video or both as he pleases on a retinal display. as it just live-records and does not deal with his internal memories, his datalock does not interfere with it.

ambidex chip: gun mostly got this chip installed because it was offered in exchange for what he considered useless information and figured why not? it makes him ambidextrous, giving his sleight of hand more fluidity and ease since one side is no longer more dominant and more natural to sleight.

>> LOADING BIOGRAPHY …

gun knows the streets like the back of his hands, can guide you through it with eyes shut, ears plugged, and with muscle memory alone. he knows it in the light of day when everything’s concrete and dirty, and he knows it in the middle of the night when it’s bathed in neon haze and easier to pretend – visually, at least – like maybe elysium isn’t the dirty heel of neo seoul.

he knows it because it’s home. not just his city, his hometown, but home.

abandoned at birth by his mother who could barely afford to feed herself in the hands of his father who struggled just as much, he became a tool at an early age. paraded around the streets, made to cry (physically as an infant, and then on command as soon as he was able) and pull sympathy from uncomfortable passers. oh no you poor thing, they’d call him, before handing over small amounts of money his dad eventually spent on drugs and maybe half an expired roll of kimbap tossed his way.

this is how he first learns the city, one corner at a time until they’re shooed away or out of suckers to fool.

and next when he’s five and their landlord kicks them out of their tiny studio apartment without warning, the street literally is home.

an abandoned alleyway, an “old friend’s”, a cramped community house, a shelter, a jjimjilbang, an old run-down car of days passed that no longer works. by six he knows his way from one convenience store to another across the entire city, purposefully taking the long way around and ruffling his hair and scuffing his knees and elbows. he’s still small, still cute enough that they continue to say, oh no you poor thing, and hand him money. half of which he stashes away somewhere secret before returning to wherever home is that day and gives the rest to his withering father.

so, unsurprisingly, he grows up quickly. it’s hard not to when the following day is never ensured.

they barely get by with the money gun scrounges up and odd jobs his dad picks up when he’s sober enough, motivated enough. but by the time he’s eight, gun finds them permanent shelter with an old granny that insists he come stay with her in her son’s old room. she calls him a charming little boy instead of you poor little thing and he grins and agrees.

she continues, over the years, telling him he reminds her of her son. gun isn’t quite sure that’s a good thing, even at eight, but he just smiles and nods and humors her because having warmth and constant food that isn’t expired is nice. he’d died a few years back, but he was just as charming, just as smart, and into all the newest tech, she tells him. that, at least, piques gun’s interest. prompts him to ransack the room for books and journals and old computers and code and strange machines he takes apart just to figure out how to put them back together. prompts him to learn, to teach himself with everything her son left behind.

and without having to worry about where to sleep next or how to get food or if his sorry excuse of a dad is still even alive, he thrives in that small little room over the next few years. always restless, always needing something to do, his hands find themselves busy tinkering and typing away. putting together his own machines after he’s gotten the hang of it and his mind starts churning, starts coming up with his own ideas.

by eleven he’s built his own little fighting robot. by twelve he’s made it able to be voice controlled with a few select responses. by thirteen, he’s patched in machine learning into it, allowing it to learn and predict an opponent’s moves and act accordingly.

then, at fourteen his grandma (as he calls her now) dies.

she leaves them the house and what very little fortune she has left. he’s too young to claim the money, so his father receives it, and everyone knows how that story goes. at fifteen, gun’s sick of it and leaves in the middle of the night with his hidden stash and the cash his father foolishly left laying around. the house has lost its warmth and use anyway. it’s the last time he sees his father, and the streets become home once more.

much older now and seen as a damn teenager instead of a poor little thing, it’s harder to get people to stop for him on the streets. he finds other ways instead, like slick fingers and thick charm hallmarked by a lopsided grin. it’s when he successfully starts talking himself out of larger five-finger discounts like a pair of shift-tacts that he thinks something must be up. by the time he’s eighteen and he’s talked himself out of various sticky situations with even the purposefully stupidest reasons, he figures it has to do with his being, his charisma – and he uses it to his advantage.

like smooth talking his way into dirt-cheap apartment leases, and reading people with ease to use what he can against them, long-conning them out of their life savings, their motorbikes, their tech parts and machinery he puts to good use. and so at twenty, he’s doing quite well for someone with no real job but swindling and picking pockets.

for the first time in a while, he’s fine, he’s doing okay, he’s got a bit of saved money to spare. the city is still his home and he spends much of his time in it, but when he’s not, he’s back home. tinkering like he used to, but with better parts now. more knowledge, greater ideas.

he starts with the idea of turning vr on its head. instead of living a designed life, why not live someone else’s literal life through their eyes? he runs wild with it, tinkers and programs and spends endless nights until he comes up with the first prototype a year later. a machine that can target a specific memory area in the brain and save all of it to a chip.

he’s close and pushes further. comes up with an improved prototype another year later that can select specific memories now. it’s still a little buggy, but for the most part it works. he tries it on himself, extracts his memories from eight to fourteen, watches them and feels a pang in his chest he only ever feels when those memories come to mind. he hates it, wonders idly if there’s a way he can remove them. wonders, excitedly, that there must be a way to remove them.

the track switches quickly. forget vr, consider: absolution. deliverance from sin, from pain, from heartache, from anything you want to forget. purify yourself, save yourself.

it take a little over another year, but he finds it. the way to offer salvation.

he’s his first customer and grandma becomes a forgotten memory, burnt chip ashes tossed onto the dreary concrete floor outside his building. it’s the first and last time he uses the machine on himself, soon after finding someone to lock his brain against it. but it’s far from the last time the machine is ever used.

the absolver, he calls it, his machine. it becomes synonymous for him on the streets as well, spoken like a promise. forget everything for a small price, he offers to anyone he meets. salvation is a hot commodity in a city like elysium, and he thrives on that alone.

but he wants more. seo gun always wants more.

not just money, but leverage – and by way of information, he gives himself plenty.

a far less advertised part of his business on a need-to-know basis, a database of memories sits in a hidden room of absolution. therein lies thousands of chips claimed to be destroyed after extraction sitting perfectly pretty, already mined for any pertinent information. and for the highest bidders? he’ll sell that information away.

it’s easy now for a man like gun to thrive in elysium.

bathed in sin and on the brink of revolution, absolution and information are invaluable – and gun has a stronghold on both.

[sleepylop]

Fairytale Getaway (Of Cherry Skies and Sour Apples)

I.

His tongue is a slab of rotting pulp. That same mutant sugar embeds itself into each outcoming word. This, at the very least, explains the unconditional notes of fermenting orange in his breath. Or, maybe, it’s just the rejection of oral hygiene. He’s not exactly keen toward mouthwash.

The reality is, I’ve grown up knowing that someday, whenever I was to skim the surface of womanhood, I’d be married off. I’ve spent just as long with intrusive thoughts, silently begging for a tolerable husband. Most suitors have met this low-bar threshold. Elric Bliss, however, has fallen fatally short. So short, in fact, that each time he over-enunciates his “t” sound, I now have to restrain myself from wringing his skinny neck—every movement he makes seems to aggravate me further.

Elric is also the sole candidate to earn my mother’s approval. Read: He was the only man of royal blood to proposition me. Royal blood so thick, that clearly, it’s congealing inside his skull. No person with such a self-important worldview could ever be in full control of his brain function.

Nonetheless, as a fairytale protagonist, I’ve found ways to hold onto hope. Although, there will always be something morale-gnawing about having such flimsy control over your own destiny. Which daydream-tier tropes will consume the remainder of my life? Is my unwilling existence only satire? Or, possibly, I’m only the victim of some sort of macabre snuff fantasy. Soon enough, I’m certain that this smog will clear, and I’ll meet my fate. After all, my story doesn’t truly begin until I’m forcibly thrust into my first prince-aligned chronicle of drama—please, disregard Elric’s lack of literal princehood. It’s not as if my mother can tell the difference, either.

“You know, my dearest Connie, I look forward to boiling alive the flesh of any man who dares interfere with our union. Ha! I’m hilarious, aren’t I? Please, dearest Connie, tell me that I’m the unmatched master of relatable comedy.” Elric spits each word like a spongy bullet, squeezing out from between chipped teeth and settling into my lap. Soon enough, my own vomit is likely to take their place.

His muddy eyes are glazed over and look as if they’d be as malleable as flan. On that note, I could certainly benefit from some midday dessert, right now. Maybe just some freshly-picked fruit.

I roll the tulle of my dress between my fingertips, shrugging from across the table. “Well, of course. Clearly, you’re a very relatable person, with in-touch life experience. How else would you be able to channel the thoughts of a common person so accurately? Anyway, could I have a sip of your gin?” I ask in my most milk chocolate-drenched voice, slowly beginning to snake my arm across the tabletop.

Elric contorts his face in disgust. “You may not be familiar yet, but distinguished ladies keep away from alcoholic drinks,” he says, curling his fingers around his glass, lightly sloshing the liquid. “Soon enough, I’m sure you’ll be able to unlearn such savage habits. No need to worry.”

Then, following a beat of heavy silence, “It should still be some time until our meal is finished being prepared,” I say. “Would you mind if I step out, privately, for a minute? I just need to stretch my legs. I’ve been sitting here for quite a long time.” It feels like it’s been decades.

“Do you not want me to join you?” Elric questions as we continue to hold eye-contact, the suspense nearly visible between us.

I force a taut smile, the strawberry tone of my lips turning pale from the tension. “Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to burden you. I’ll only be a moment.”

I begin to stand as Elric scoffs. “Fine,” he says, before snorting. “Please, be back soon. I’m sure our food will arrive from the kitchen soon enough.”

I scuttle toward the door, the tapping of my heels echoing off the dining room walls. Those same vinyl heels are abandoned shortly thereafter, as I begin to jog down the hallway.

Sun-faded portraits track me with their eyes.

The air of this estate is slowly poisoning me—as is the heir.

II.

Just beyond the manicured gardens, at the point where weeds are spared and allowed to curl up from the dirt, I slow from a gallop to a trudge. I finally attempt to catch my breath.

Faded cherry skies are hanging above and around me, gelatinous, and infused almost comically with specks of glitter. The clouds swirl like the mouths of paralyzed tornadoes. There’s a faintly nutty scent in the air, mingling with the much more potent smell of soil and artificial berries.  

What an incredibly ordinary, mundane day.

Shortly off the edge of the property, I come to a halt. Clusters upon clusters of trees stare down at me, scrutinizing me, bone by bone. What would a royal estate be without a forbidden forest, conveniently placed nearby?

A lopsided sign, its wood beginning to grow fungus and moss, offers a message:

“Warning!

Forbidden forest! Very forbidden! Boo!

Do not enter, Connie!”

My shoulders tense ever-so-slightly as I drift past.

The sky above me seems to darken under the canopy of rich greens and browns. Beneath my bare feet, the ground begins to resemble crusted-over custard. The sounds of chirping and squawking and intermittent crunching drown out my thoughts.

So, it seems, this is where I’m meant to be. Cool.

I begin to hum softly, matching the tempo of my movement.

Finally, I can breathe again.

III.

My feet are stained nearly ink-black by the time I see it. Meanwhile, the burning in the back of my calves is nagging me like a frustrated toddler.

A pastel-toned cottage sits under darkness. The roof and walls are sloped, curving into the shape of a colossal mushroom. I can only vaguely distinguish the shades of candied orange and petal pink from one another. A single door and slit-like window sit on the surface.

Well, that looks wonderfully suspicious and likely sinister. Perfect. Clearly, I’m right where I’m meant to be.

I rap twice on the door, which appears tall enough to accommodate a bipedal horse.

After a minute or so, when the cocoon of darkness is just beginning to weigh down on me, the door begins to inch open. A soft, orange glow creeps into the forest, along with a waft of burning sage.

A pair of seemingly backlit eyes rapidly dim as they meet my own.

Dressed entirely in black velvet, a sheet-pale woman looms above me. Her wide-brimmed hat comes up to a perfectly crisp point. While pursing her already thin lips, a boney, lithe hand reaches into her pocket. As she turns her nose downward, its sharp hook becomes all-the-more visible.

Meanwhile, the generic woodland backtrack seems to reach its end.

I stay still and quiet.

The harsh-angled woman pulls out a single piece of fruit, before holding it out toward me. Her razorblade nails dig into the flesh of an otherwise flawless apple, juice beginning to trail down her fingers.

“I assume you came for this?” she asks, her voice like soured honey.

“Did I? Oh. That makes sense,” I mutter, pulling the fruit from her grip. “Thanks.”

With only the lightest hesitation, I close my eyes, and push my teeth into the offering.

Her lips twist into a smile.

“Enjoy,” she whispers, voice practically dissolving into the space between us.

IV. Epilogue.

Nearly a year has passed since Gardenia and I first met. Since then, her dedication to her orchard has only deepened, as I have continued to support and encourage her agricultural hobbies. The quality of her product has also improved, now notably less sour, in contrast with that first sample she’d gifted me. I no longer taste her pickings at the front doorway. Rather, I often find myself enjoying at least a pair of freshly harvested apples, sitting by Gardenia at the dining room table. The thick scent of baking pie blankets us both.

Spread across the surrounding walls, there sits several clusters of wildflowers; which, are enchanted so as to cling, mummified in shades of spell-enhanced neon, to the darkwood. Gardenia is thumbing through her newest bread-focused recipe-book, sucking on the inside of her cheek as she jots another note in the margin. She’s absolutely beautiful like this. So entrenched in her passions, her moss-green eyes glowing—quite literally. Gardenia is a magical being with magical quirks, after all.

“Oh, wow, I have to try this out… sometime soon,” she says, pointing a sharp nail at the surface of the page, beside a grey-toned illustration of a dinner roll. “I’m not sure I’ve ever thought to add vanilla to this sort of mixture, before. Hm.”

As it turns out, settling into a domestic relationship with a witch comes with a wonderful bonus: It’s much simpler to hide from your family’s periodic search-parties. Of course, it isn’t as if I’d need that particular perk to keep me willingly tethered here.

I’d never planned to fall in love—rather, I’d begun to wilfully grapple against the notion—but I’m grateful to be in the position that I am, now.

After all, I’d choose my dearest Gardenia over all else, anyone, anyday.

Particularly over Elric Bliss.

[badforyourheartgoodforyourart]

A Rare Breed

Courage is like any other personality trait, in the sense that it is deep-seeded and innate. It goes unnoticed until given the opportunity to establish itself. Even a genius is not labeled smart until he is tested. An athlete is not considered fast until he races. And a man does not know he is courageous until he faces fear.

                      • • • • •

Charles G. “Chick” Cleveland gazed into the sky with the fascination of any eight-year-old. His mom had let him go see The Dawn Patrol at the picture show, and after, as he looked up at the clouds, he imagined the World War I planes flying overhead.

Years later, Cleveland entered West Point Military Academy, and upon graduation chose to be a part of the newly independent Air Force, with dreams of being a fighter pilot. The war beckoned him to South Korea. He flew 60 missions as a wingman and was then promoted to Flight Commander. In his first lethal encounter, his F-86 zoomed past the enemy MIG-15, and they both turned for each other’s tails. It was in that moment of fear and adrenaline — after all the dreaming, enlisting and training — that it was undeniable he was a courageous man.

“This is not practice anymore,” he recalls thinking. “One of us is not going home tonight.”

                     • • • • •

Courage is unlike any other personality trait, however, in its denotation. There are millions of kind, strong, even brave men that we are blessed to have among us; but the courageous surpass even those. Kindness lights the dark, warms the coldest heart, and smiles amid the desolate. Strength protects and inspires the weak. Bravery will fight back fear and danger, but it is power of mind. Courage beats from the heart. The courageous are a rare breed — one full of honor and love. They do not do their duty because told to or made to, but because it pumps through their body with their blood. Because courage is moral, and they are moral.

                     • • • • •

In the first three weeks of the war, while Cleveland was still in training, the U.S. Air Force annihilated that of North Korea’s. The Russians, who flew 75 percent of North Korean missions, then introduced the MIG-15, “a swept-wing, high altitude, short-range, lethal fighter” and the tables quickly turned.

The U.S. regained air superiority and was fighting to maintain it when Cleveland arrived in Korea. Waiting for a bus in the rain, a staff car offered him a lift — and a lasting lesson.

“Get in, Lieutenant,” a colonel shouted. The remainder of the ride, there was no further direct acknowledgement of him. Cleveland listened as the two colonels spoke to each other about their last victory. “… Wherever you get these guys — whether it’s north of the river, over the river, south of the river, wherever — that’s one less that’s gonna be up the next day shootin’ at your buddies.”

                     • • • • •

It was all for something so much bigger than the cramped cockpit he was confined to. It was for the rest of the Air Force, the rest of the military and ultimately America, 7,000 miles away. But it all started in that cramped cockpit, fighting for control of the skies.

Cleveland committed his career and quite literally his life to ensure U.S. air superiority, because that was the basis for everything else in the war. Without the dedication of the fighter pilots, American bombers could not reach North Korea, and the communist forces would be free to drop bombs and fire rockets onto the United Nations ground forces as they pleased. From there, the entire war effort would crumble.

Hence, the fighter pilot’s duty was colossal, and the recognition for those whom excelled admirable. To obtain five or more kills and be named a Fighter Ace was, and still is, a distinguished accomplishment. However, it is one that may very well have seen its day.

                     • • • • •

In order for fighter pilots to have the opportunity to excel, there first must be a confrontation between two large air forces that engage in air-to-air combat. But the nature of war has changed drastically over the last half century. Now, two nations no longer challenge each other face-to-face. Most aggression is contactless — one side attacks and then the other retaliates. Returning to traditional dogfights is unlikely, though not impossible.

In addition, if two big nations went to war with one another head-on, there is a growing possibility that pilots would not be flying their planes from inside them. Unmanned aerial vehicles are on the rise in the U.S. Air Force. These drones are flying missions in the Middle East today, while being piloted from Creech Air Force Base, an hour outside of Las Vegas. While it is debated which is better (more accurate, less dangerous, easier to recruit and train pilots) the coming revolution is inevitable.

Technology has continually transformed the Air Force since it’s beginning. The first aerial encounters were with simple pistols attached to the most basic planes. Next they graduated to rifles, followed by machine guns and synchronized machine guns through the propeller, and eventually cannons. Accuracy and speed continue to improve exponentially. So what is to come?

In the future, drones will become more common and play a bigger role for the Air Force. But that change does not shake the valor of the Fighter Aces. The courage of these men is incomparable and irrevocable. That is not to say that the pilots of the unmanned aerial vehicles are not courageous. They might be, but given today’s circumstances, they may never be given an opportunity to face true fear and prove themselves.

“The march of technology is inevitable,” Cleveland said. “It’s going to happen, and I’m very comfortable with that. But I also know when my time in the barrel came, back in the 50’s in combat, I was there.”

The Fighter Aces are heroes who have made an outsized and permanent mark in our history books. Such a small group of people has made a large impact on our country. They are men who, like all, will age and pass away, but what they have accomplished in their time will never be forgotten. Those still with us today — including my Grampa Chick — deserve the respect and admiration for what they are: the last of a legacy.

“… I may well be the last named Fighter Ace,” and that is special.

A rare breed, indeed.