#like ok. the series in general but especially the first book is very clearly meant to be an alternative take on ender's game

[unjest]

you know what im actually so obsessed with the jackal. We spend most of the first book hyping him up as a mysterious yet distant threat who is backed by the proctors, who cuts his own hand off without hesitation, willing to do ANYTHING just to kill Darrow, and was given his nickname because he trapped himself in a cave in HE CAUSED and then ATE THE OTHER PEOPLE HE TRAPPED IN THERE WITH HIM. and then the book ends by him getting his shit kicked in by his sister off screen.

And THEN after losing hes like oh haha let's be allies <3 and seems to Actually Care about darrow and co with no hard feelings up until he Finds Out. And even then instead of doing anything right away he waits in order to betray Darrow in the MOST FUCKED UP WAY POSSIBLE. he waits until the Big Ceremony to celebrate how cool and awesome Darrow is and has someone who Darrow cared about and trusted present the severed head of Darrow's benefactor/the learder of the big insurrectionist group and then shoots his dad in the head point blank in the ensuring chaos before torturing Darrow for like a full year presumably just for his own amusement. Like what the FUCK is wrong with this kid

[firelxdykatara]

If you interpret Katara’s aggression towards Zuko as romantic affection, then you have some serious issues of your own. Is a very dangerous message for teenage girls indeed. People who ship Zutara have to seriously analyze how unhealthy the message of the pairing would be. Katara hated Zuko for a valid reason, and to twist it into something it’s not is massively disrespectful to both the character. The outdated and ridiculous notion that a girl who acts like she doesn’t like a guy is simply “confused” and “denying her feelings” is so sexist and degrading. Take her emotions at face value. It's never been

Yawn. Boring. This is the same old tired argument I’ve heard a million times before--the one that proves a) you don’t actually understand how relationships work, and b) you’ve never read a single zutara meta in your life, because that’s the only way you could seriously get the ‘good girl is secretly in love with the bad boy and hopes to fix him’ read of a relationship that bares absolutely no resemblance to that particular collection of tropes either in the show or in our fandom.

But ok! I’ll bite, since you clearly want so badly to be educated and evidently don’t have the time to watch the show yourself, nor the reading comprehension necessary to understand the sort of media analysis that goes on in a lot of atla and zutara-focused meta in this fandom.

Which probably means that anything I write here will fly right over your head, but oh well, what can you do?

At any rate, the first mistake you’ve made here is assuming that I (or zutara shippers in general, but since you came into my inbox, I’m going to be taking this just as personally as you clearly intended me to) interpret Katara’s aggression towards Zuko as romantic at any point in the series prior to their reconciliation (after which point, there is no aggression from Katara aimed at Zuko for anyone, me included, to interpret romantically in the first place). I don’t, and I never have, and neither does a vast majority of the zutara fandom in the spaces I frequent (which encompasses tumblr, occasionally twitter, and the very large zutara discord server I’ve been an active part of for two years now). Pointing out oddly suggestive tension in early parts of the series (such as the “I’ll save you from the pirates” and “you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun” lines, or the fact that Zuko wore Katara’s necklace around his wrist for like nine episodes when there was absolutely no need for it) is just that--pointing out tension.

There doesn’t need to be feelings for there to be tension, antagonistic or otherwise, but that tension is the foundation from which their relationship arc throughout the series grew, developed, and eventually evolved. This is what is generally known as relationship development, and it occurs when two characters go from having one kind of relationship to another within the course of the story.

For example, enemies, who become friends, who become lovers.

Now, your mileage may vary on this next part (although I really hope not, cause Y I K E S), but I, personally, think that ‘if a boy kisses you without your consent, but he really really loves you, then you owe it to him to love him back, especially if he just saved the world, and you should never expect an apology because since you suddenly decided you return those feelings, that means the violation of your boundaries was ok since clearly you really liked him all along’ is a much more damaging message to send to young girls--and boys, to be frank, especially since learning about consent is hugely important at young ages--than ‘if a boy who was your enemy goes to great lengths to better himself, to the point where you forgive him for when he hurt you and become close friends with him, then it’s normal for those feelings to grow and change, even to the point of becoming romantic, and it’s ok to explore them’.

And guess which one of those is canon to the AtLA finale?

Next, you say ‘Katara hated Zuko for a valid reason’ as if that was ever in dispute. It wasn’t--certainly not on my blog. I know there are some people who hate Katara because she was ‘too mean’ to Zuko, but I don’t agree with them, nor do I associate with them, since I have no time, energy, or room in my life for Katara slander. However, do you know what the operative word is in that sentence? Hated. As in past tense. As in, ‘Katara used to hate Zuko, but by the end of the show that is no longer the case, and they are extremely close friends with a deep bond and multiple life-debts between them’.

Why are you so insistent on not only denying Zuko’s hard-earned and bitterly fought for redemption, but also Katara’s emotions and feelings, which you end this weirdly disjointed ask by insisting they be taken at face value?

And it’s actually really funny (ironic funny, not so much ‘ha ha’ funny) that you use the word ‘confused’ there, followed by the phrase ‘denying her real feelings’, and then call that ‘sexist and degrading’, as if that isn’t exactly what happened in Katara’s canon endgame in the show.

She said point blank that she was confused, she showed with her words, tone, and body language that she was not open to Aang’s romantic advances, she had completely forgotten about the last time he’d kissed her without her consent, rather than reflecting on her romantic feelings as one would expect of a girl who’d been kissed by someone we’re supposed to believe she’s had feelings for since book 1, and was completely taken aback by Aang’s reaction to the play and his weird believe that they ‘were gonna be together’, when she had never once indicated that she wanted to be with him in any romantic sense. And yet, he kissed her--and while she got angry about it and stormed off in the moment, he never apologized for crossing her boundaries, and they also didn’t have a single significant scene together between that moment and the epilogue.

What happened to taking Katara’s emotions at face value? What happened to how ‘sexist and degrading’ it is to assume that if a girl says she’s confused, that must mean she’s ‘denying her feelings’? What happened to caring about Katara’s agency, even a little bit?

Anyway, I’m gonna wrap this up by saying: I do not believe Zuko and Katara should’ve been making out in the finale instead. I actually hate the fact that the final shot of AtLA was a romantic kiss (particularly for such a poorly written pairing), rather than a shot of the gaang together like it should have been to show what the series was meant to be about. I think that focusing on the romantic relationships in the finale undercut an already weak ending to an otherwise great (not perfect, but certainly good enough that it deserved much better closure) show.

That said, I also think a Zutara kiss would have been more earned, at that point in both of their narratives. Because Katara’s feelings had been the focus of their relationship throughout its entirety. Zuko’s feelings mattered, too, of course, (in stark contrast to how they were treated during his relationship with Mai), but Katara was the one who got to choose when and why and what she felt about him. She got to choose when to forgive him. She got to choose to help him, and to save his life, and her emotions were frequently the focus in a way they never were during her relationship with Aang, so nudging those into a more romantic light not only would have fit better with her character arc, it also would have been far less jarring to see that as the culmination of their respective storylines, rather than a romantic kiss coming out of nowhere when her very last scene with him was being kissed without her consent and storming off about it because it upset her.

My most fervent hope, anon, is that some day you actually watch the show, Avatar: the Last Airbender. Because Katara and Zuko are amazing characters, they have amazing storylines both separately and together, and it’s really a crime whenever someone misunderstands both of them so badly. I hope that when you do watch the show, you pay attention. You may see something amazing.

[tlbodine]

Things That Do (And Don’t) Sell Books (in my experience)

I’ve just finished reading this book:

I am both amused and a bit disheartened to have read the whole thing and discovered that I knew pretty much everything in it. Amused, because I guess I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge over the years. Disheartened, because it clearly has not led to me becoming the break-away success I always dreamed of. Ah well. Live and learn. 

I’m all about transparency in this business, so I wanted to talk honestly for a while about book marketing and what I’ve experienced in terms of what does and does not seem to work. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so chime in with your own experiences! 

Branding and Audience 

The first third of Burke’s book is dedicated to this aspect, and it’s an important marketing step that’s easy to overlook. The idea is basically that you can’t market a product unless it has a brand identity. To create your brand, you need to do the following: 

Identify the audience who you are trying to reach with your work, or who would be most receptive to what you’re writing

Identify your dreams and goals so you have a clear picture in mind of what you want to accomplish 

Figure out how to position yourself in such a way that you a.) stand out from the competition but b.) people can still relate to and understand at a glance

Find a way to communicate your brand consistently in terms of the language used, your aesthetic, the way you act online, and so forth. 

When it comes to brand-building as an author, I think I’ve got a bit of a corner nailed down. I at least hope to be perceived as someone level-headed, thoughtful, generally positive/empathetic and humanist, but also critical and looking deeper into the meanings of things -- all of which are traits I personally possess and which are baked in to the work I do. In support of that branding, I curate my activity online as best I can: I post things that are of a certain horror aesthetic that I feel overlaps with my own interests/style; I give writing advice and boost people in the community where I can; I wade into discourse selectively and thoughtfully; I give media reviews and analysis that I think would be interesting to like-minded people. 

The “identify the audience” part is much harder for me. I’m still honestly not sure who my ideal reader is, or where exactly to go to find my audience. At this point I’m kind of scattering crumbs of myself out into the wind and hoping it will attract people who will, in turn, be interested in the work that I do (and both willing and able to support it financially). 

Things I’ve Done With Varying Degrees of Success: 

Aforementioned blogging activities. I have slowly but steadily grown my following her on tumblr and other social media sites as well as my author newsletter on substack, but it’s not clear to what extent that following translates into book sales. My writing advice posts vastly out-perform all of my other content, but I haven’t seen compelling evidence that the people interested in my writing advice are especially interested in my fiction -- it seems to be two separate groups, with maybe a sliver of overlap. 

Content marketing with more short fiction. This seems like it should be the safest, surest way to find more readers, but it’s time-consuming and discouraging because of the discoverability cycle. My horror flash fiction posts don’t get nearly as many notes as my advice posts. My attempts to get into the big anthologies that pop up have so far amounted to little, although I do need to write more. It’s just that coming up with new ideas and writing them all the time is a lot of work, and if it’s not paying off maybe I’m still better off dedicating that work to my novels. 

Sending ARCs to book bloggers/reviewers/booktube etc. I sent out dozens, if not hundreds, of these and got next to no response. I do think part of the problem is that, at the time, I had no Twitter presence, and -- like it or not -- there seems to be a bit of cliqueishness to this aspect of the book world. Now that I’ve spent more time on Twitter ingratiating myself with the horror community, I suspect I’ll have a somewhat easier job securing blurbs and reviews at least from the people in my extended social circle. But I won’t know until I try it again. *I also know I would have greater success with this if I’d been sending paperback ARCs instead of digital. I didn’t, because the cost of buying more author copies + shipping was prohibitive. 

Author Newsletter. I maintain mine in conjunction with my Patreon account. I send a monthly news round-up, making a point of shouting out both industry news and the milestones/achievements of others in the community as well as providing what I hope to be value-added or interesting content (in the form of blog posts my patrons vote on). It does OK. I average a couple of new sign-ups per month this way and tend to hover around a 25% open rate, which isn’t terrible. But it’s not great, either, and I won’t know for sure whether any of those opens will actually yield sales at any point. 

Interpersonal relationships/community building. Hands down the most successful “marketing” thing I’ve ever done is make friends with people. My writing discord group is small but very close-knit and interacting with them is one of the genuine highlights of my day. I didn’t really make it with mercenary intentions of selling books, but it has directly resulted in sales. Similarly, there are a handful of authors from Twitter and Wattpad that I’ve developed genuine friendships with, and we buy each other’s books and support one another. This whole community aspect is extremely rewarding and I’d do it whether or not it sold books, but it’s also not exactly easy to scale. I can only maintain genuine friendships with so many people. 

Posting in reading groups. The books that allow self-promo are so saturated with it that nobody pays any attention. The good groups do not allow self-promo, unless it’s in the form of getting down in the comments and recommending a book on a per-person basis to people looking for a specific thing, and only then if you’re not being spammy. Again, this is time-consuming. You could spend your entire life in these groups, hand-selling books to these people, and maybe picking up a few sales. They do seem like a good place to identify trends, though, so they’re good for market research if not direct selling. 

Things I Have Not Done, But Which I Suspect Would Sell Books 

Paid promotions. The golden ticket for book sales still seems to be landing a BookBub promo. If you’re unfamiliar, this is where you price your book at 99 cents or free and then pay bookbub to include it in their deals newsletter. Bookbub is very popular and moves a lot of copies. Ideally, you want to set it up so that your cheap book is the first in a series, and people snap that up and then come back to read the rest. This requires you to have written a series. Also bookbub is expensive because these are premium ads. We’re talking hundreds of dollars for one ad. There are other book promos that are cheaper but don’t have the same buy-through rate. 

Ads on facebook/amazon. I’m only dimly familiar with the ins and outs of these ads. They can be relatively cheap, but the amount of visibility they have is tied to your budget -- so the more you can spend on a campaign, the better your performance will be. 

Calling bookstores/libraries and asking them to order. I should do this. I have not done this purely because I am a coward. 

I am not certain what more I can do to promote my books without spending money. 

I understand the “spend money to make money” concept, but I also understand the “I have a limited budget and cannot spend it willy nilly on things that still might not actually pay off, especially considering how expensive self-publishing is when you want to do it right.” 

...This post ended up in a much more bitter place than I meant for it to. Sorry. I’ll check in if I remember additional points that could be successful strategies. 

[arsonistblue]

BLUE YOU HAVE OCS???? Please tell me everything about them

AAAAAA YES I DO!!!!! I’m writing a book (technically a series) and they’re all my children

It’ll all be under the cut bc this might get long (It did) since I’ve don a fuckton of world and character building, plotting, and meticulously planning the books, and I have a feeling people will want me to shut up but it’s my blog and I get to rant about my book if I want to kjlsdfkjlsdf

(I kinda have to explain some of the worldbuilding to explain the characters)

Most of them are from a different dimension similar to the “human” dimension, called the Middle. They’re also like humans themselves, but they each have a “difference,” which is what they call their power, for lack of a better word. It’s called a difference because, even if two people have the same ability, say, they could both control water, it would still be different for each of them. They’d’ all have a calling, for lack of a better word. And their styles have to be self taught.

There are 6 people, 2 sets of triplets, who are called the Crest. The Crest were an experiment to try and create a solution to help fix a corrupted world that seemed utopian. Sector 13, a rebel organization trying to fix said corrupted world, decided to tweak the genetics of six embryos to make them more powerful. Their idea of this was for these six to have two “differences” rather than the standard one (the thing is, though, they didn’t know just how powerful the six would be). 

Two sets of parents (The Quills and the Clearlys) volunteered to carry the children and raise them. However, word of the Crest got out, and in turn sparked a massive war. 

Okay, onto the characters!!! (picrew link)

This is Alex Clearly. She’s the main character, and a member of the Crest.

She was raised in an orphanage in the human dimension. She was born in the Middle, but due to being born in the midst of a giant war about her existence, her parents wanted to keep her (as well as the rest of the Crest) hidden away. So they (The Quills and the Clearlys) hopped from safe house to safe house while still in the Middle. However, they were found by a different organization who wanted the Crest dead (or worse), and a bomb was set to their safe house. The Clearly parents thought they were the only ones to survive, but then they found Alex (keep in mind, she’s a baby at this point) and decide “fuck this, she’s going somewhere objectively safer.”

So, they took her to the human dimension to be raised in an orphanage with one of Mrs. Clearly’s old friends (read: bitter ex-friends who don’t necessarily hate each other to death but don’t vibe any more) who was hiding out there. They would’ve set her up at a foster home but they were like, about to die from sepsis so they decided “this’ll work ig.” They did their best ok 

This orphanage, unfortunately, is run by a horrible old woman who (for reasons explained in the book) absolutely despises Alex. So Alex is kind of an outcast in this orphanage because of that. The only adult who actually likes her is Gwendolyn, aka Mrs. Clearly’s old friend. She also has a best friend, Eli. 

Now, given that Alex is part of the Crest, she has 2 powers. One appeared at birth, which was telepathy, which meant she could read others’ minds and emotions. But, because the universe hated her, she couldn’t block them, so she constantly has waves of other people’s thoughts and emotions hurtling at her (this is also me projecting as an empath jklsdflkjds hyperempathy is a bitch)

I’m currently debating whether to spoil what her other power is because you find out a few chapters into the first book 

Yknow what fuck it, she’s a hydrolic. She can control water and it’s awesome

I don’t want to spoil any more of her backstory, so now I’ll give some attributes!

Me, talking about Alex: So there’s this she/they

She’s been Through Some Shit (tm) but she’s a survivor, and taught herself self-defense, how to steal without getting caught (for when she really needed food/supplies), etc

She’s also a badass and tough as nails

However do not let her badassery fool you, she is in fact a Fucking Nerd

Trust issues are rampant

Definitely Not Straight (see the undercut [important note, the undercut does not exist until book 2])

V sarcastic

If you give her dumplings she will love you forever

Definitely said ACAB after the cops took away her Big Burly Guy Friends for Robin Hood antics (read: stealing from the rich and giving to the poor)

said Big Burly Guy Friends were Big Burly Guys, taught self defense classes in their garage. She (at the time, a skinny 7 year old) showed up and asked them to teach her to fight, and at first they laughed, but she learned self defense and every saturday she showed up and they gave her a juice box and some crackers

10000% has adhd

During book 1, she’s 13-14

In just a normal high school AU, she would be a closeted memelord

But would unironically say poggers

She hates rules

A lot

She goes out of her way to break the especially stupid ones

Stubborn as all hell

She’s also super protective and if you hurt someone she loves, you fear for your life

Long story short, she’s a badass nerd with adhd who could kill a man with ease

I love her so much it’s not even funny ok?? she’s my child

Next!

This is Eli Marcus. He was Alex’s best (only) friend at the orphanage. He’s also from the human dimension. 

Eli was at the orphanage since he was five. He was always friends with Alex, and tried to help her with her headaches, though Alex never told him she was a telepath. 

He’s a loyal friend, and always tries to cheer people up

He has a bad habit of forgetting to take off his binder at night, much to Alex’s annoyance

He loves to play the drums. There’s constantly a song stuck in his head, and he taps his fingers on tables or chairs or whatever to try to get them out

It works, then it’s replaced by another song

He probably has adhd too

He has tried to dye his own hair. It did Not work

Alex kept reminding him that he had dark hair but he was just “I am looking Away, I do not see it” so it only dyed his scalp red

So far we haven’t seen very much of him, he’s in the first few chapters of book 1. I’m planning on putting him in book 2 or 3 though!

This is Jazzi LeCiel, one of Alex’s best friends. 

Jazzi lives in The Middle, and she’s the same age as Alex. She’s a stratic, meaning she can control the air (like an airbender), but like most people, she didn’t discover it until she was around middle school age. Her backstory isn’t as developed since she’s not the main character, and the story is told from Alex’s perspective. 

She’s a disaster bisexual

She would unironically cuff her jeans

Loves causing chaos 

She’s pretty trusting up front but if you break her trust it takes awhile to get it back

Farily petite

Also a badass like Alex, but she’s also a dork jlsfljdfk

I love her so much it’s not even funny 

She’s one of the classic short-but-deadly people. By this I mean she could easily kill a man with her eyes closed and one hand behind her back, and probably would if he pissed her off enough

Very strong sense of community

She’s independent but knows when to rely on her friends and family, something she’s trying to teach Alex (since she always had to be independent)

She’s extremely creative and thinks outside the box, hell, she probably doesn’t even know where the box is

Next!

This is Torrent Rush. He’s another of Alex’s friends in the Middle.

Torrent is about the same age as Alex and Jazzi, maybe a few months older. He’s also a visidem, meaning he can turn himself (and, if he focuses, other people) invisible. (Also that’s not really what his hair looks like, but it was the closest I could find)

Daddy issuuuuuuues

His dad’s a piece of shit

He’s got an older brother, and thus is very competitive

He’s generally very caring and outspoken, also very kind even if you’re a total stranger

Though he has trouble keeping his emotions under control, and when he gets angry or upset enough, he tends to lash out

Someone get this boy some therapy

His favorite color is purple

Idk why I added that, it’s not relevant at all lkjfdskljdfs

He tries to be smooth and he kind of is ngl, but like not as smooth as he could be

He kinda has White Boy energy but he tries to not be like that, you know? Like he was raised with toxic masculinity but he’s trying to outgrow it

tl;dr he needs therapy and a nap

This is Ezra Quill, another of Alex’s friends and a member of the Crest. 

He’s lived in the Middle all his life as well, and is both a pyre (controlling fire) and a hypnolic (basically he can control other people’s minds and therefore bodies as well). He’s lived at a Sector 13 base for awhile, too. 

Imagine sunshine given human form. You have Ezra

Seriously he’s a cinnamon roll

I love him so much

He has on multiple occasions had fucking butterflies land on his nose. This is not an exaggeration. It happens multiple times

He’s a fucking NERD and will hyperfixate on anything 

He specifically loves baking 

Cracks a lot of jokes but he’s generally very sincere

Also he’s a tol bean???? child what are you doing up there

He’s quite fond of mango lassi and payasam

He plays with his fire a lot, purely to have fun. He loves lighting his hand on fire to scare people (Loretta, mostly) 

He fidgets

a lot

He always has to be moving, whether it’s tapping his fingers or doing that fuckin wave squiggle motion with his arms (he’s also really good at it)

He also hums to himself, but it always ends up with him making random sounds and making Alex think there’s a cryptid toddler in the other room

He loves big sweaters, not just because of how cozy they are, but also because he can slap people (read: Alex) with the long, flappy sleeves 

Next is Loretta, Alex’s adoptive mother and all-around wonderful woman.

Loretta is a master hydrolic, and teaches at the academy. She’s probably a repressed lesbian too lkjsdflkjdfs

She was a part of Sector 13 from the beginning of their work on creating the Crest, and when she met Alex, she almost cried because of the strong young woman Alex was becoming. 

Loretta will see a child (read: anyone younger than her), say “is anyone gonna adopt that thing” and then not wait for an answer

She had to physically stop herself from making Alex sign the adoption papers she keeps in her pocket at all times the first time they met

If you hurt somebody she loves, run

Faster

She has some dark spots in her past, in her present, too, but she’s working to illuminate them 

Also she’s in love with her best-friend-turned-enemy but she doesn’t know it

She is a fierce fighter when she wants to be. Nobody expects it, either. They see her and think she’s more laid-back, some daresay delicate, but she’s anything but. She’s taken down a full grown man while wearing heels

She’s basically adopted Torrent, Ezra and Jazzi too

She adopted Alex, but she also saw Torrent and Ezra and Jazzi and decided they were hers too

“How many children do you have?” “Biologically, legally, or emotionally?” 

I love her sm 

[thegirlwholied]

SW anon - So I have tried to watch the whole thing before but I could never really get past the start. I watched ep IV a few years back (and in 2018 I watched it while it playing with a live orchestra which really enhanced the experience) and ofc I’ve known most of what happens bc my mom and brother have been fans of it (and ofc all the references to it in shows and it being everywhere) but the thing about the original trilogy that I found difficult to watch was very much the acting being off

Gov SW anon continued - but I think I’m gonna watch the clone wars show next as I feel like the general universe and people speak to me more than the skywalker and co. story speaks to me. But I’ll probably try and get back to the prequels afterwards (at least just to have seen them) but also bc I’ve been on tumblr for so long and I’ve encountered so much about the new movies with Finn, Poe and rey (I already know I don’t like kylo) that I’m interested to see what comes before that

Seeing Ep IV with a live orchestra sounds fantastic as the music is incredible. <3

I must admit I haven’t gotten properly into the Clone Wars show! I’ve tried, & did jump in to (and enjoy) the finale ~ and certain Mandalorian episodes strongly remind me of the show’s tone ~ but it has yet to hit me right in the place where I care. What I appreciate about it & what it’s brought into the Star Wars universe is still on a more distant level, not visceral. 

I most love that The Mandalorian is truly exploring & taking advantage of the wider Star Wars universe beyond Skywalker & co. (but boy do I also love Skywalker & co.) There is an exciting amount of potential in the newly-announced projects too I love characters outside of a universe’s main chosen-one story. In 6th grade, I was obsessed with the X-Wing book series, which were definitely really marketed toward adult guys but whoops, I had found the deep Star Wars section of the library! And the first line of that series, introducing the main character, is “You’re good, but you’re no Luke Skywalker.” And in a way, that’s the Mandalorian too, to the audience if not himself ~ good, but no Luke Skywalker. Not a Jedi, not meant to bring balance to the Force, a sidestory in the main universe’s struggle.  I (from what I’ve seen/know of) get the impression that’s how Ahsoka sees herself ~ ‘you’re good, but you’re no Anakin Skywalker’. 

Of course, for that contrast to work, first you need a Luke Skywalker.

it’s interesting you mention OT acting feeling off as I would use that exact word to describe how I feel about the acting in some episodes of The Mandalorian. In some I love it! Other times... I hesitate to say ‘like a video game’ as I mean no insult to the well-developed video game characters out there but yeah, it hits me like the actor’s aware they’re essentially in a live-action video game cut scene.

But. I truly love the acting in the original trilogy! ...but also as I type this I’m watching a movie from 1944 and acting style certainly varies by decade, & mileage varies as to personal taste... but also I will never be objective about Star Wars which I have loved since I was six... but also I studied film history in college and firmly believe Star Wars, the original trilogy is just objectively good if not quite everybody’s cup of tea (...okay maybe Return of the Jedi is not quite as objectively good, but I still love it so much and given the work it had to do wrapping up the original trilogy, hey, it did its job successfully and with Ewoks). 

I love the twinkling, wry humor & also gravitas of Alec Guinness. There’s that sense of amusement as he talks to Han, as he waves off the storm troopers, and even in the “let go, Luke”... but always the right weight in the right moments imho

Luke & Han particularly can both be petulant in different ways, & they’re all quippy & brash & even cavalier at times in what in context ~ especially when you rewatch A New Hope right after Rogue One ~ in Very Serious Situations! and I love them for it. 

Carrie Fisher’s accent does shift in the one scene (which I have never minded and definitely went around as a kid trying to say ‘Governor Tarkin’ exactly the way she does), and young Mark Hamill’s Luke can be Dramatic & the Most Petulant but understandably (& prettily) so, and... yeah I probably could muster a criticism for Harrison Ford but also I *can’t*! There are some ridiculous Han Solo moments in Return of the Jedi especially, but also I love him/them/just about every choice these movies made. They just hit on magic.

The magic’s there for me from the music swelling as Luke looks yearningly into the twin suns (the cinematography!), but where it really hits is the up-and-running chemistry between all three of the main actors starting the “Luke, we’re gonna have company” scene, and then, boom, it’s the garbage chute, it’s the you’re-braver-than-I-thought/he-certainly-has-courage, for-luck, here-they-come of it all and the movie is flying. 

...and I will never forgive the sequels for, avoiding spoilers as it sounds like you’re familiar but haven’t seen them, not giving us any true interaction scenes between Rey & Finn & Poe all together until the 3rd movie. While I still so appreciated finally getting that & what we got, for me it was just not just too little but too late. I love the casting & acting for all 3 of those characters, but while fandom’s taken and run with the combination, and they had plenty of chemistry... it should have been up-and-running so much sooner. 

And the prequels just... well, even seeing them in theaters at a susceptible age, the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out at the same time and that did them no favors in comparison. As someone who judges movies above all on dialogue, that... also did them no favors. (Beyond the OT I may have a Nontraditional ranking of Star Wars movies). 

The short version of my prequels & sequels take is that both missed that cinematic magic for me, outside of certain scenes, though I still enjoy them as part of The Whole Thing That Is Star Wars Which I Love. Rogue One had that magic; I know and see the criticism of the early editing & introduction-of-Jyn’s-background-and-Krennic-and-Galen scene, but, to me, that movie is perfect. Solo was solid - maybe not magic, but reliably enjoyable, and I’ve been meaning to rewatch. The prequels & sequels... the lows are very low and the highs are very high, in terms of how they hit me. 

I feel like I’d probably sum them up as Prequels: Good Star Wars, Bad Movies, and Sequels: Good Movies, Bad Star Wars, which may seem a little harsh or too kind on one side or another but gets at my take at the worldbuilding vs. just the cinema of it all. The bread scene in Force Awakens, the salt planet in Last Jedi, the dyad-duel-in-dual-locations in Rise of Skywalker? Gorgeous. Individual scenes’ acting & dialogue is sound for me. And yet. All three sequels’ choices in respect to the entire Star Wars universe and existing characters AND its new characters? ...Tonally inconsistent with each other *and* ultimately with the themes of the OT. Whereas the prequels did so much worldbuilding, and its politics, and I’ll see gifs and think ‘yes actually, is it better than I remember?’... and then I’ll catch one on TV & it’s the Padme & Anakin romance or even Anakin & Obi-Wan’s buddy scene dialogue at the beginning of Rise of Skywalker and the answer will come, clearly: “noooooooooooooooo.”

(...this got long. Which I tend to do when I care, about fiction in any form, and with the prequels/sequels: the ingredients were there to be magic. And just-misses are more frustrating than swing-and-misses. A la, you won’t find me complaining about the Star Wars Holiday Special!) 

(...OK so I haven’t seen all of the Star Wars Holiday Special, and I’m sort of aiming to watch it through this holiday season, since what other year than 2020 seems more appropriate? So I won’t promise not to complain about the Holiday Special but I mostly expect to laugh at it.)

(That said I found the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special an absolute, surprising, laugh-out-loud delight; 9/10 would recommend & yes, 1 point deduction as I will nitpick character consistency even when they are Legos.)

[dumdeeedum]

Some Queliot Queries & Exploration, hah! Shaddap.

So I really want to dive into some shit with this fandom because I really don’t understand, I really and truly don’t. And bear with me because this is going to get long but ideally it would open up a discussion and the dialogue can be a learning opportunity for me if someone comes correct or for others if someone takes something away from all of this: Why shouldn’t the writers have to deal with the fact that season 4′s decision to allude to Eliot and Quentin as a couple is a ret-con? Why shouldn’t they have to deal with the fact that for all intents and purposes Quentin’s bisexuality and Eliot and Quentin’s relationship has never been explicit (there’s allusions to it in season 1- maybe, season 3- barely, and now season 4)? Why shouldn’t they have to deal with the fact that the audience was never told that Eliot and Quentin were explicitly a couple in Fillory until season 4 and even then they can’t erase the fact that Quentin married a woman after having something with Eliot and that they then chose to ignore the entire episode until halfway into season 4? Why shouldn’t the writers have to deal with their poor decisions and poor writing in a meaningful way? Why is fandom trying to erase these things? I’m not being facetious or an asshole here, I’m truly curious. 

And I really want to preface all of this with a critique of something I’ve been seeing a lot on here and that’s that fandom and Eliot are somehow erasing Quenin’s bisexuality. They’re not, the writers are.

The thing is, television is a mostly visual medium, you have freedoms that come with that but also limitations. There’s the freedom to show and not have to tell so as to not have to go into long descriptions and “show don’t tell” has really become a fundamental rule in visual media because it’s really hard to pull off the kind of exposition literary media can get away with in visual media. This has been true since visual media was limited to the stage and has only become more true as technology has caught up with the more fantastical things creators want show now. So it becomes imperative, given this show don’t tell rule, to find another way to express certain things you’d simply be able to cover in a book by describing somebody’s thought process or having a character narrate their story. 

You can have a narrator in visual media but you really have to be careful with how much you use them and for what otherwise you’ve made bad visual media, especially when you’ve already set things up another way. Case in point, the show Veronica Mars started the show with Veronica narrating and normalized it so that it was never grating, never too much, and was generally never used when it was better to show instead of tell.The Magicians, on the other hand, has used narration very sparingly and it’s never become an aspect of the show that gives us those same glimpses into Quentin’s mind, especially since he no longer seems to be the sole focal point of the show. 

So when it comes to representation on visual media it simply isn’t enough to imply or allude and then never bring it up again. Or, in our case, to overtly display certain aspect of someone’s sexuality while explicitly ignoring the other aspects with the expectation that the audience go with it when the creators call the character “bisexual.” This is especially true on a week-to-week television show where not everyone’s been watching from the beginning or has that long a memory that they can remember every aspect of what came before, or hasn’t or can’t rewatch the series several times on Netflix or some other streaming service to refresh. It just doesn’t work that way on television, that’s not how you do visual media representation. 

And when we have so little visibility for certain groups and when part of representation means normalizing those groups in the mainstream so that in the future their presence or their expressions of sexuality aren’t taboo, you have to do that by showing those people and by showing those expressions of their sexuality, and not just the “palatable” ones or in a “palatable” way where you can just say it and not offend anyone by showing it. And usually it’s best to show them in a good light so as to off-set the amount of bad that’s out there that was outside of their control because of systemic oppression. It’s best to have a good balance of good and bad from the very beginning and that’s something that White, het-cis people have been able to enjoy for much of the time visual media has been around. We can argue about representations of women in media, especially White cis-het women, but that’s another topic for another day and they’ve still enjoyed more of a balance than anyone else besides White, cis-het men. It’s the same reason why we can’t simply have “queer-coded” villains or the “kill your gays” tropes be so rampant, it isn’t offsetting the tons of negative that already exists for the lgbtqa community in media.

That being said:

Narratively speaking, when Eliot rejected Quentin I strongly believe that at least in this the writers were doing right by them given the ret-con and I’d like to see it explored more. Season 4 episode 5 was a good start but only a start. Now do I think that Eliot should have implied that he wouldn’t choose Quentin? Fuck no, he absolutely should apologize for that and explain where that came from because it’s clearly the result of a defense mechanism, but that’s really it. I still think the decision for Eliot to reject Quentin was the right one if only to give Quentin the chance to think about what he wants within the confines of this shitshow of a “love” story they tried to ret-con and then staple and glue together as though we’d forget everything that ever happened before season 4 episode 5 and rewrite season 3 episode 5 in our heads. If you’re saying it’s OK to erase all of that for the sake of your ship you’re asking for a bad story, which kind of sucks and I kind of feel you, but it kind of sucks. I mean, their straight relationships haven’t been the most amazingly written either but they actually happened in a meaningfully explicit way. We were given a narrative where even after Quentin kisses Eliot for the first time in Fillory (a year after they got there) and presumably has a relationship with him in Fillory after that, which, really, we didn’t know for sure because they’ve never said it, it could just have been a drunken fuck for them up until that point, Quentin marries and goes on to have a life with a woman until she dies or leaves (I was never clear on which it was). The relationship with Eliot after that is only alluded to in season 4 and still hasn’t been explicitly shown, no kisses, nothing, not outside of Eliot’s mind. And for some people that may be enough to call Quentin canonically bisexual and to call Eliot and Quentin a canonical couple that will be together in the future and while I agree he probably is and that they might, I don’t think it’s a good example of queer representation in visual media, especially when season 3′s episode was never meant to be taken that way.

Now we can always assume that it was a consensually poly-amorous relationship between Eliot and Quentin when Arielle came along but then why was Quentin the only one who had someone? Is the assumption here also that Eliot is OK being a sister wife or some shit? Why didn’t Eliot have another boyfriend to split his time with since Quentin had a wife that needed attention? They’ve established that homosexuality isn’t bad in Fillory so why not give him someone if the poly thing was what was meant to be inferred here? I’m not saying it definitively can’t be the case but I’m working with what we have and raising questions because we’ve been given very little information otherwise and I’m not sure I buy that Eliot would be OK with sharing Quentin because up until now (outside of his marriage with Fen) Eliot has not been shown to be poly-amorous and has even shown that he gets jealous if his significant other looks at someone else. And I know that when it’s discussed in a relationship it’s different and jealousy isn’t an issue but we don’t have any information on the subject as it pertains to them. Earlier in the series Eliot said that being with women is not his preference, so no, Eliot is not bisexual even if he’s had to fuck Fen; he fucked Fen because he had to and it’s a problematic as fuck storyline that effectively worked to pad anything Eliot might have had with a man with a woman. So I’m also not sure it’s too realistic an idea to have him in bed fucking Arielle with Quentin if he’s in a consensually poly-amorous relationship with them. Maybe once in a while like, as he said, one would have Thai food, but if anything we’ll give him a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey scale? (for lack of a better way to put it) So why not given him someone for him while Quentin has someone for Quentin? At the very least we’d get a non-toxic homosexual relationship for Eliot too, right? 

And no, I don’t consider anything to do with the season 1′s threesome to be rooted in anything but what we’ve been told over and over that it was: the result of a lot of alcohol and emotion magic. Otherwise you have something else to deal with and that’s that Quentin is a fucking untrustworthy asshole for cheating on Alice whom he claims to have loved and that Margo and Eliot are shit friends for going with it. It could be the case but they’ve made it a point to tell us it was a result of all 3 of them being compromised and even Margo refuses to allow people to blame her for it because of that compromise.

That being said, I can understand why a gay man like Eliot would be hesitant at the idea of jumping into a monogamous relationship with a man like Quentin without giving Quentin pause to really think about it. Remember, Quentin wanting to be with Eliot happened right after he got his memories of Fillory back so it was a pretty rash, emotionally-charged decision on his part. And we already know Quentin gravitates toward escapism because of his psychological issues. Why would Eliot jump into a relationship with a man whom, from Eliot’s perspective and, more importantly, from the viewer’s perspective, has been chasing a woman since season 1 and even in Fillory decided to marry a woman when Eliot was explicitly shown to be an option? And literally the first woman he met there. Outside of Eliot, Quentin has sought out and has had relationships with exclusively female partners except for season 1 and except for Fillory which was another time and place and which was never explicitly shown to us and is only alluded to in season 4, that’s bad representation and something that requires further examination within the story!

From Eliot’s perspective it absolutely makes sense that he’d wonder if Quentin would truly be happy with him given other options, especially given the enduring presence of a woman Quentin has been chasing since season 1. We don’t know if Alice would be OK with sharing Quentin either, it’s never been explored because most of anything to do with Eliot and Quentin as a romantic couple has simply been ignored! The writers were the ones who shit the bed by giving Quentin exclusively female partners (even in Fillory) that would make Eliot wonder if he and his penis were enough. If we had some more clear and explicit depictions of Quentin’s bisexuality, especially in Fillory, Eliot wouldn’t have to worry about this shit as much. But even in Fillory Quentin chose Arielle until she was no longer an option and the writers chose to do that, the writers decided to show us one kiss between Eliot and Quentin before giving Quentin a rando wife, making her fuck off to who knows where but subsequently never showing Eliot and Quentin in a romantically intimate setting again. Some bisexual representation!

Eliot and Quentin as a pairing only comes back up literally a season later, 13 episodes later! Something has to be done about this ret-con and pretending it wasn’t a ret-con is never good writing, not the way they’re doing it! Because even after Quentin confesses his feelings during season 3x5, which we only actually find out he did in 4x5, it’s never brought up again even by depression Quentin the very episode after 3x5! The whole situation was ret-conned for season 4!

Moving forward either there has to be some mutually agreed upon, explicitly stated, explicitly shown, poly-amorous relationship set-up where they could both be fulfilled by both having someone else if they so choose to or  Eliot has to have Quentin’s assurance that Quentin sees him and that he is now Quentin’s first and only choice. And both of these options have to be a show don’t tell situation! It’s actually what I hope happens in episode 12, especially since they’re once again making Quentin and Alice kiss each other and showing us yet another expression of heterosexual love while stringing us along with the idea of a homosexual one that really hasn’t happened yet.

And perhaps some people might find that to be feeding into stereotypes about bisexual people that leave a bad taste but realistically speaking exclusivity is a conversation every romantic relationship has to have and mistrust will occur if the person you’re with has only had partners of the opposite sex, has only expressed interest in people of the opposite sex, and is still hung up on someone of the opposite sex they used to date and whom is still a romantic possibility for them. That’s just how it is unless you’re one of those miraculous people who don’t experience jealousy or insecurity or have had those conversations with your partner. In this scenario it wouldn’t be that Eliot doesn’t trust bisexual people, it’d be that Eliot doesn’t know who Quentin really wants and he doesn’t think Quentin truly, deep down, would want him if he took the time to think about it. That’s fair given the givens!

And the poly thing is certainly an option but feels like a more radical move, given what we know of these characters, than having Eliot and Quentin in a monogamous relationship and given how little they’ve given us of that prospect I’m not even sure what they’ll decide to do moving forward. Maybe they’ll decide it’s more palatable to include a woman in any capacity seeing as media is still really about padding anything to do with homosexual male love scenes with heterosexual love scenes or naked women, that could also be the case and then we’d have to decide how we feel about that. We know they did that with Fillory because Arielle was pulled out of someone’s ass because it could just have been Eliot with Quentin but it wasn’t. But as of now we don’t even know if the poly thing was ever really a thing with them to begin with, we just don’t, it’s just conjecture and I’m just exploring of the possibility, they could have gotten together after Arielle dipped. I’m not saying any of this to shit on the Eliot and Quentin pairing at all, or to shit on Quentin’s bisexuality, per say, I like the idea of them and I think it should happen and I like the idea of a bisexual Quentin. But I do think these are the consequences of the way the writers have chosen to navigate these things and now they have to deal with those consequences because otherwise this pairing is silly and unrealistic moving forward outside of Fillory, and if they don’t want to pursue it then that could explain why.  So why haven’t they been dealing with this by showing us a more explicitly bisexual Quentin or at the very least a more explicitly interested in Eliot Quentin outside of his confession to Eliot in 4x5? And I’m not saying he has to jump on the first dick he sees but even having a conversation with his best childhood friend about his feelings, regardless of what he thinks Eliot’s are, would be a really great jumping off point to show us that Quentin’s feelings for Eliot are trustworthy and real and not just alluded to or the result of an emotional compromise. At this point people are expecting this confession and really want it to happen for a reason.

I’d just really like to see the writers make a decision about this and stick with it because this specific type of will they, won’t they shit is why they can’t be trusted and why it’s so easy to wonder whether they’re queerbaiting. If they can explore Julia and Penny23, Kady and Penny, Margo and Josh, and even Alice and Quentin’s relationships during this monster arc without it taking away from the life or death severity of the situations they’re in then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be exploring Quentin and Eliot’s even if it’s just Quentin being introspective but showing us that introspection in some way. We’ve gotten Eliot’s but we really haven’t gotten Quentin’s and I think that’s what we’re all waiting for or should be waiting for and it’s imperative that it happens to build the trust in the writers the viewers need to become emotionally attached to the idea that a pairing will actually happen on screen and that the viewers aren’t just being fucked with for views. It isn’t fair to expect the blind faith from viewers towards the writers and show-runners that too many people in this fandom are demanding!

We shouldn’t have to go on a fucking deep-dive, clue-finding mission to break down every single fucking interaction to look for a relationship the writers are supposedly explicitly trying to build because that’s not how they’ve built any other relationship. They’ve jumped right into every straight pairing but somehow this one is the one they have to draw out to an almost unrealistic degree and add 50,000 layers of nuance to? The one with the most history and proof that it worked based on what the writers themselves have told us? Alice and Quentin were fucking within a season, Kady and Penny within a season, Margo and Josh within a season for some godforsaken reason, Julia and Penny23 are macking and seeing each other naked within a season but we can’t even get Quentin to be introspective about being in love with Eliot for one episode? We have to settle for allusions to their pairing and a couple of blink and you miss them kisses, one of which wasn’t even between the two men themselves? I’m not saying that the Eliot and Quentin pairing won’t happen but it absolutely hasn’t yet and I’m not here to pretend it has. Alice and Quentin were “in love” within a season, why can’t we explore Eliot and Quentin’s love in a meaningful way after a canonical 50+ years? Why has it been OK so far that the writers aren’t exploring Quentin’s part of this relationship at all if it’s their intention to pursue it? And why should we trust them and take it as faith that this pairing isn’t something they thought of doing but have long since thrown out?

Is it bad writing? Is it not gonna happen? What is it because I’m confused as fuck and nothing that’s been happening recently has helped because the writers have opted to waste a shitload of time in a 13 episode season rather than explore what they ought to be exploring in that limited amount of time.

I say all that to ask this: Can we just hold the writers and show-runners accountable to their shitty decisions already? That’s really what I want because I don’t think underrepresented communities should have to settle or take the scraps thrown at them in 2019 and that feels like what a lot of people are saying ought to be done. No, they absolutely should not be happy with the bullshit they’ve been given. The community didn’t come together with pitchforks and torches to storm their writer’s room and demand Eliot and Quentin be a couple, the writers and show-runners decided to move in that direction.

If people shipped them then there’s already parts of the fandom for that and people would have made due with fic as they always have done. So why the fuck is jerking the community around like this acceptable? 

I sincerely hope that there are consequences from the community if the writers and show-runners go back on this, I really do, because it was the writers’ and show-runners’ fuckup and they don’t deserve to be rewarded for bad behavior. Make them work for the good graces of the communities they’re courting and stop allowing them to do this to these already marginalized communities!

It’s well past time that they show us Quentin’s bisexuality and feelings for Eliot in a meaningful way or drop it altogether and never pick it up again and accept that they’re pieces of shit for doing this and should be cancelled, although as far as I’m concerned the damage has already done and there’s no going back without them admitting they’re garbage.

[nodensreviews]

The Witcher (Netflix)

The Witcher is one of those shows that I have been postponing for a while to watch. There was something about it that didn't appeal to me at all, I think mostly is related to the fact that gritty dark fantasy worlds are all the rage now, to the point they get repetitive.

A note here to point out that I'm reviewing the show as what it is, the show. I haven't read the books or played the games, that going by what my thoughts are about the show, are surely better than the TV adaptation. There is obviously time for improvement, since this is only the first season, but the feeling it left me after watching it is enough to wonder if I'll feel compelled to watch any future seasons of the show.

I think the main problem I encountered with The Witcher were the time jumps, unless you already know the story it was painful to follow, there were zero markers anywhere that would indicate if it was the present or the past, and even now after finishing the whole season there are parts of the story that I can't place in the timeline. It's especially more difficult to tell the time apart when your characters are not aging or changing in any way that would make it obvious. There is only one change in the show that makes it obvious that anything that happened to that character was before, and that's Yennefer's physical change. The pacing was also slow in general, and combined with the timeline problem made the first episodes hard to watch, to the point I almost gave up.

As far as I know, the books are supposed to have Slavic roots, in its folklore and culture and other details. I saw nothing of that here, what made Netflix's The Witcher a generic dark fantasy show. How interesting would it have been if the cultures, the costumes and the stories told had that element, it would have been new and fresher than what we got. Since it's an American production I didn't expect much more. I guess the show had to be americanised in some way or another, and I guess when americans think of fantasy setting they think of England. Because this is another issue that gets old and boring to me whenever I see new fantasy shows appearing, they always take English actors, and British accents to play most of the characters (or maybe with an American lead or leads). Breaking news, the Middle Ages took place in all Europe, not only Great Britain. But it has become this kind of staple of the fantasy genre across all platforms that I think, personally, gets boring. Look at a show like Norsemen, they speak in English with norwegian accent and it's beautiful. And it's a more historically inspired series, so why can't you be original in a completely fantasy setting? I don't see any reason not to be. But again, it is made by the US, so it was meant to happen because it usually does.

Another of the big issues The Witcher has is a lack of character developement, except maybe Geralt that gets more. I have to admit I wasn't keen at the idea of Henry Cavill as The Witcher, not because I had any idea of how Geralt should be, but because it looked to me like the typical blown-up macho guy with zero feelings that, well, kind of is. But surprisingly as the episodes went by I warmed up to him as the character and although it is not the type of character I gravitate towards, I do have certain appreciation for him. Yennefer, on the other hand, had potential and started as a very interesting character but got lost in the process. In fact, she lost all her soul when she changed physically because after that we are not shown much about her life during those years, and she didn't have any changes and the little ones that seem to happen are off screen, we're not even told, and obviously not shown. We're supposed to believe she's very powerful and intelligent, but we're not shown the moments were she acts that way and at times it feels like she's only there to be the romantic interest of Geralt, but also stretching it out so it can cover so many seasons. And talking about this, their interest for one another was very rushed, and I'm supposed to believe, because the cheesy music played on, that they're romantically invested in one another, and somehow that I'm presented with a great love story, only that I am not. Ciri is a bit of a mistery. Generic girl with some superpowers for killing. Not much is really known of her and despite the fact we see a lot of her on screen, we really don't see much of her as a character. With Ciri I have to specifically mention the contact lenses, those were horrible and I don't even understand why. I saw the actress has natural blue eyes, so why? And I saw the character in the books is supposed to have green eyes, so again, why? I hope this improves or is completely removed for the second season as it adds nothing positive nor it's accurate to the book character and makes her look so lifeless. For some reason this problem is not as concerning with Geralt, maybe because we know he's essentially not human. Still, I have read he's supposed to have cat eyes, and that would have been ten times cooler.

Secondary characters were mostly background noise, Jaskier specifically was as annoying to me as he was to Geralt. I guess they tried some sort of dumb-funny companion thing there, but I think it fails miserably. He has nothing to say, he's just there to get into trouble, use modern colloquialisms and play a bit the comic-relief. Ultimately I can't connect with him nor I want to.

Costumes were on and off for me. Some were ok, others looked too much like a modern take of a fantasy costume, like some of the dresses Yennefer wears. I know she has magic and can do anything, but it makes me wonder where is her inspiration for such clothes, they don't seem the fashion around her nor I think anyone around her would find her more attractive because of them, because they're weird dresses no one around could identify as fashionable. I could go here also about how inappropiate I find when in shows women sleep with full make up on, or they seem to wear it 24/7, and you see this woman with mascara on waking up in perfect white sheets. I know it's probably a silly detail to point out in the big scale of things, but it totally breaks the atmosphere for me every single time it happens, and The Witcher in this respect is no exception.

Overall I think the show has entertaining value, but not without drawbacks. I would say the time jumps are the worst part of it and it would have been more enjoyable without these. I think it was generally rushed at places where it shouldn't and then slowed down in scenes that were not needed. Some of the side plots are interesting and I found them more entertaining than the main plot line. I think the show needs improvement and a more focused, linear plot (or showing clearly the time jumps), with more character developement and more details to understand the direction and the reasoning. Maybe we'll see those changes in the second season.

~A~

[galileosunshine]

Leah’s merry crisis

Rating: General Series: Love Live! Sunshine!! Pairings: RubyLeah Words: 3857

Summary:  Saint Snow and Aqours are holding a Christmas party at Chika's inn, but Leah can only think of one thing - kissing Ruby underneath the mistletoe. 

This is my gift to @dart-hfluffy as part of the Love Live Secret Santa 2018 exchange! @lovelivesecretsanta2018 Merry Christmas to you, I’m sorry this is so late. My life’s been so hectic ;A; but! I hope you enjoy this!!!

Read on AO3

It was Christmas time in Uchiura, and the city’s decorations reflected the season. Every house had lights hung, bathing them in swathes of red and green light. Wreaths were adorned on streetlights, ornamented Christmas trees were set in park corners, and festive music filled the air.

And for Kazuno Leah, there was one more thing that made the season all the livelier. She and her sister had come down from Hokkaido to spend Christmas Eve with the rest of Aqours… which meant she got to see Ruby. Leah didn’t want to just see Ruby, however. For this Christmas party, Leah had a very specific plan in mind.

She was going to kiss Ruby underneath the mistletoe.

Just thinking about it made her face flare up in red. Usually she’d never do something so bold, not to mention something so cheesy, but given the current status of their relationship Leah thought she had to take some drastic measures.

In the past year that they’ve been dating, Ruby never wanted to take their relationship any further. They had held hands, sure, and they had cuddled. They would spend the night in each other’s rooms anytime one of them visited the other on holidays.

Ruby even surprised Leah once with a peck on the cheek, when she felt especially emotional seeing Leah leave for her gate at the airport. But it was a quick, chaste kiss that passed so quickly, Leah barely had time to register that it happened before it was over.

And any other time Leah thought the mood was good, that the flow of the situation might lead to something… more, Ruby would suddenly back away, red dusting across her features. It would be maddeningly frustrating if she weren’t so cute.

Well, if Ruby was going to be all shy about this, then Leah was going to have to take matters into her own hands. Of course, there was no way could she could kiss Ruby on her own either, and in this respect she understood the girl. And so… the mistletoe plan was clearly the only option, right?

If it all seemed set up, then she didn’t have to be embarrassed about initiating a kiss… right?

Right…

And that’s how Leah found herself, gathered with the rest of Aqours, in Chika’s inn. Chika’s family allowed them to use a special large parlor room, so long as they didn’t make too much noise and bother the guests. Leah had already hung the mistletoe earlier.

There was really only one place to put it. The ceiling of the room was too high for her to reach on her own. And so, as she and her sister were coming in, Leah had walked just slightly behind everybody, and while no one was looking behind her, she slapped on the fake piece of leafage on the frame of the doorway. It wasn’t the most ideal position, but she knew going in that much of the plan would have to be extemporaneous, so she contented herself with that.

Now it was just a matter of trying to get Ruby underneath it.

Meanwhile, across the room, Chika was practically bouncing on her haunches as she talked with Sarah as they sat at a low table. “I’m so glad you two could make it!” she was saying.

“Yeah, us too,” Sarah answered. “It’s really been a while!”

“Hard to believe that it’s been a year since everyone was together like this,” Dia said next to her. “How’s college treating you by the way?”

Sarah laughed and scratched the back of her head. “Well, like I said, busy. But at the same time, compared to high school I feel like I’ve never had more free time in my life… if that makes sense.”

“I know what you mean! This year I…”

And so they went on.

In contrast, Leah remained quiet. She was content to let her older sister do the talking, while she tried to think of some way to have both her and Ruby end up underneath the mistletoe as naturally as possible.

Well, with everyone moving around, Ruby was sure to end up by the door at some point, right? So perhaps the easiest way was to just stand by the door and wait for Ruby to come to her. Yeah, that was as good a place to start as any. She just needed a decent excuse to stand by the door.

Leah stood up. “Excuse me, I have to… uh, use the bathroom!”

“Oh, but you just got here!” Chika said.

“… it was a long trip,” Leah fibbed.

“Well, okay! Do you remember where it is?”

“Yeah! I think remember from last time.” Before she lost her nerve, Leah quickly exited the room and made her way through the corridors to the restroom.

When she got there, she took the opportunity to wash her face with water. This was a lot more nerve-wracking then she thought it’d be. Or maybe it was just her own mind working against her. There was nothing weird about asking to use the bathroom right?

Oh well, it was no use worrying about it now…

Leah stayed in the bathroom for a minute or two, just for good measure, before heading back. When she reached the living room, instead of going to her previous spot at the table, she stayed by the entrance, right underneath where she hung the mistletoe.

She was in position. Now to wait for Ruby.

While she was away in the bathroom, Yoshiko had started some kind of mystical ritual, waving her hands over her pentagram tarp that had been spread across the table and chanting nonsensical words. Mari was encouraging her by filming it all on her smartphone and cheering along, and Riko was sighing all the while besides.

Kanan was also shaking her head at the two, but she was more focused on flipping through channels on the TV. Hanamaru sat a ways away, absorbed in her own book. Chika, You, and Dia were still talking with Sarah.

…where was Ruby? The whole plan hinged on her.

And that’s when the redhead decided to sneak up behind Leah and tap her on the shoulder.

“Hi Leah-chan! How are you?” Ruby said with an affectionate smile.

“Uwah!” Leah jumped in a very undignified way. She gathered herself together as quickly as she could. “I’m uh… I’m good!”

Leah blushed over how dumb and unrevealing the reply was. She wasn’t good with spontaneous conversation. Ruby, however, only giggled in that oh-so-cute and oh-so very Ruby way that set Leah’s heart aflutter.

“Good is good!” she said encouragingly.

Heck, I love you, Leah thought. And then, No wait! Focus!

The plan! Ruby was here now. She just had to point out the mistletoe above them.

Ah, but not right away. She had to make it seem like she didn’t know it was up there either, like she only just noticed. She had to keep the conversation going for a bit first…

“Uh, how are you, Ruby?” Leah said.

“I’m… good too,” Ruby answered, giggling again for repeating what Leah had said. “It’s nice to be with everyone after so long! Especially my big sister, I’ve missed her.” Ruby got this dreamy look in her eyes as she turned to look at Dia.

“That’s good,” Leah said. Sheesh, couldn’t she say anything else besides the word ‘good’?

“And…” Ruby continued. “I’m really happy to see you again, Leah-chan! I’ve missed you too!”

Leah gulped. “S-same here. I missed you too, Ruby.”

They really hadn’t been apart that long since they last saw each other. Ruby had visited her in Hakodate on Labor Thanksgiving Day*, which was only a month ago. But still, for the two long-distance lovers, any amount of time apart seemed like years. No amount of texting could beat seeing Ruby face to face.

Ruby also seemed to realize the implications of what she said, and a small tinge of pink began to bloom on her face.

Ah man, the mood is really good! Leah thought. Now was the perfect time to spring the mistletoe. Leah opened her mouth to speak–

“By the way!” Ruby cut her off. “Why are you just standing by the door Leah-chan?”

“Eh?” Leah stammered. “W-well, no reason really…”

“You should come join everyone!”

“No, I…”

“C’mon!” Ruby grabbed her hand, and started to lead her further inside the room…

…away from the mistletoe.

“No, Ruby, I’m…!” Leah resisted, and Ruby stopped in her tracks, looking back at Leah with a questioning look. Leah scrambled to find some excuse not to leave the spot, but her mind was coming up blank.

“Oh…are you feeling nervous?” Ruby said. “It has been a while since you last saw everyone.”

That was completely off the mark, but Leah couldn’t say that without revealing her intentions. Not to mention, Ruby was being so considerate. Maybe that was why Leah didn’t resist again when Ruby pulled on her hand the second time.

“It’s ok!” Ruby said with a small laugh. “I promise everyone’s still as nice as before!”

Leah’s heart melted, and she let herself be dragged into the room.

There goes her chance. Oh well, she’d just have to think of another plan. And besides, being able to hold Ruby’s hand wasn’t so bad either…

“Welcome back!” You welcomed Leah back with a little salute.

“Uh, yeah, I’m back,” Leah said.

“Leah-chan was feeling a little shy,” Ruby teased, and Leah wilted.

“Well, you’re just in time to see Yoshiko exorcise this mikan!”

Apparently, the orange had spontaneously rolled off the table and surprised Chika, and Yoshiko was convinced that it must’ve been possessed. The excising process now also involved candles, and Riko was quick to point out the fire hazard. Mari called her a party-pooper and continued filming, while Maru was fact-checking proper exorcism techniques on her own phone, and pointing out all the things Yoshiko was doing wrong.

Leah sighed and settled herself in for what might be a long night of this group’s antics.

After having chatted with the rest of Aqours for a while, and played some other party games, Leah thought it might be time to make another attempt at the mistletoe.

“Chika-san, I’m a bit thirsty. Mind if I get a drink?”

“Sure, no problem!” came Chika’s reply.

“Actually, I might as well get everyone drinks, while I’m at it. Ruby, wanna help me?”

“Of course!” Ruby said.

Leah cheered on the inside. A perfect set up! Knowing Ruby, Leah knew she’d agree to help. And that meant both of them would have to get up and go toward the door together. Which meant they would both end up underneath the mistletoe again. Leah gave herself a mental pat on the back and started getting up.

“Ahhh, wait!” Chika said, stumbling over herself to stop Leah. “Actually, you don’t have to go, I’ll go get the drinks!”

Oh great, another obstacle. And so soon…

“It’s ok Chika-san, I offered,” Leah said, putting on her best service smile. But Chika wasn’t having any of that.

“Uh-uh, I’m not gonna let my guests serve me drinks in my own inn! Mito-nee will kill me if she found out that happened!”

“But…”

“It’s sweet of you to want to help Leah,” her sister Sarah chimed in. “But think about if it was at our house. You wouldn’t want any of them serving you drinks either, right?”

Darn it, why did Sarah have to be so sensible? Well she was always sensible, and Leah loved that about her older sister… but why now?

“Fine…” Leah relented. There goes that plan, too.

The rest of the night was pretty much the same. Sometime later they started playing music from a set of home speakers, which eventually devolved into dancing along to some of the choreography they knew from other idol groups. With everyone up, Leah tried again to get Ruby and herself together, and then steer them toward the door, but as expected, with all the bustling about it was pretty much impossible.

And yet another time Leah tried to ask Ruby if she wanted to take a picture. She was getting pretty desperate with her ideas now. But again, when she tried to steer the two of them toward the door, Ruby said a picture that included all the going-on’s of the party would be more scenic. So that failed too.

Who knew getting two people in the same spot could be so darn difficult?

Her frustration was probably showing, because eventually, Ruby started picking up on something wrong too. Ruby snuck up to her, after some of the commotion had died down.

“Leah-chan, are you ok?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“Well… you’re scowling.”

“Huh? No, I’m not!” Leah quickly wiped the scowl from her face.

“But you were…” Ruby said, but then let it drop. Arguing about whether she was or wasn’t wouldn’t get to the heart of the matter. “You’ve been acting strange all night, actually. Are you sure you’re ok?”

Leah sighed. “Ruby, I’m fine. You’re worrying for nothing.”

“Well I don’t know if it’s nothing,” Ruby said tentatively, not wanting to provoke. “It’s just… it seemed like you kept wanting to get away from everyone.”

Leah stiffened slightly. Her statement rang true. Or, partly true. Leah was trying to get them both away from everyone, so they’d be under the mistletoe together. But seriously, Ruby was blowing this way out of proportion.

“Ruby, I promise you, I’m ok.”

“I just wondered if… you weren’t having fun with everyone anymore…”

“No, it’s definitely not that.”

“Then what is it?” Ruby said with a force in her voice that made Leah take a mental step back in surprise. Oh gosh, the girl was really worried wasn’t she? For the first time that night, Leah wondered if all of this was really worth it. She really wanted that kiss, but she didn’t mean to make Ruby worry so much…

“Hey, you two,” Mari cooed from a short distance away. “Having a lover’s spat?”

Leah felt her blood rising into a blush.

“You should really take that kind of thing outside.”

“No, we’re not–!”

Ruby grabbed her hand, and she stopped. “Leah-chan, can we? Talk outside?”

Staring into Ruby’s eyes, Leah withered. As much as she wanted to deny Mari the pleasure of her teasing, she really needed to clear this misunderstanding up. And so she relented.

“Sure.”

The night air was cool and peaceful with no hint of a breeze, and shielded from the noise of the party behind them. The quietness made Leah feel exposed, like the air was empty and ready to accept all your secrets. And Leah had a lot to reveal.

“So what’s up?” Ruby said, turning to face her after having led them out into the night.

Leah let out a defeated sigh and tried to steel herself for the inevitable embarrassment that this was going to result in.

“Ok first of all,” Leah said, hoping to give herself a little buffer before divulging the rest. “It’s nothing to do with me, ok?” Ruby nodded her head, though Leah could tell that she was not completely convinced. “It’s about… us.”

Leah immediately regretted saying that when saw the shock and fear on Ruby’s face.

“Wait wait wait, that came out wrong!” Leah quickly tried to correct herself. “It’s just I feel like where we’re at right now isn’t the best, and I want us to be something more, and…”

Ruby wasn’t looking at her anymore. In fact, she looked like she was about to cry. Leah slapped her palm to her forehead. Why was she so bad at this? Ok, enough talking in circles then, she’d just have to say it.

“Ruby, look,” she said, and grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing Ruby to look at her. “I’m not breaking up with you, ok? I lo… I love you.” She tripped up a little on that last part, but that seemed to work.

Ruby’s shoulders visibly slackened, and a relieved smile returned to her.

“Just tell me what it is, then,” Ruby said softly, and placed her hands over Leah’s face. “I’m not going to judge.”

Leah sighed. “Alright, promise you won’t laugh.”

Ruby nodded. “I promise.”

Leah took a deep breath. “I was… trying to get us to kiss under the mistletoe…”

In the next few seconds, Ruby was silent, and now it was Leah who couldn’t bring herself to look at Ruby. She felt her face gradually grow warmer and warmer, until she was sure she was as red as the Christmas lights around her.

“What mistletoe?” Ruby finally said.

Leah blinked. “It was above the door frame. I put it there, because I wanted us to…. No wait, that’s what you’re wondering about!?”

“So that’s why you were always hanging out by the door…”

“Yeah…”

Ruby finally let out a little giggle, to which she quickly stopped and placed a hand over her mouth.

“Hey, you promised!” Leah whined. The redness on her face had probably reached her ears by now. She wanted to bury herself in some snow to cool off.

“Sorry, sorry!” Ruby said, smiling sheepishly. “It’s just… why did you think you have to go so far as using mistletoe?”

“Because every time I thought we were gonna kiss in the past, you always backed off!”

“Ohh…”

Suddenly Ruby was blushing, which confused Leah. What did she have to be embarrassed about? Ruby took a few more seconds to speak next, but when she did so, she sounded apologetic.

“Sorry, Leah-chan, I’ve always backed away because…. I wasn’t sure if you were ready.”

The world spun around Leah. The next few seconds were probably the most awkward moments in all the girl’s life, as she flashed back to each and every time she thought Ruby had been too shy to kiss her, when really it was the exact opposite – Ruby thought it was Leah who didn’t want to kiss. The misunderstanding went so much deeper than Leah thought.

Leah buried her face in her hands and groaned. “We’re a bunch of idiots aren’t we?”

Ruby couldn’t stop herself from laughing then. And although Leah felt the heat of embarrassment still warming her face, Ruby’s laughter was so sweet and irresistible that Leah found herself chuckling along.

All things considered, she was probably more of an idiot than Ruby was. After all, she was the one who came up with the dumb idea of using mistletoe. Part of her wondered why Ruby even bothered sticking around with her, but she could only hope that her clumsy attempts at romance were somehow endearing to the redheaded girl.

“So Leah-chan,” Ruby said, after they had finally calmed down from their laugher. “We’re clear now? You’re ok with us… kissing?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Ok, good!” Ruby’s eyes then took on an odd twinkle. “And just so you know, you don’t have to use mistletoe. You can kiss me anytime, ok?”

Leah smiled. “Yeah, ok.”

“Anytime.”

“Right…”

Why did Ruby repeat it? Did she think she didn’t hear? No, the night was too quiet for that. And then there were her eyes, who held Leah’s own and wouldn’t let her go, as though she waiting for her. Expecting her… to do what?

And then it hit her.

Leah, you’re more than an idiot, you’re a complete moron, she thought and gave herself a metaphorical slap in the face. She wants you to kiss her! Like, right now!

Was it to recompense her for all the failed attempts at a mistletoe kiss? It didn’t matter. They were both ready, and they both wanted it. They’d just said as much to each other – it was the whole point of them clearing up that misunderstanding.

So Leah swallowed, and stepped closer to Ruby. Their faces were only inches apart, and Leah could feel Ruby’s breath warm against the cool night air.

Ruby closed her eyes.

They were really going to do it, and the sudden acknowledgement made Leah’s heart pounded in her chest, reverberating all the way up to her skull. She almost backed out of the kiss. But the way Ruby was presenting herself, leaning slightly forward, her lips slightly apart… it was so enticing, and Leah knew she wanted this, more than anything.

She closed the gap between them.

The first thing she felt was the softness of Ruby’s lips, and then the warmth of her so close to her body, and then a tug on her shoulder, as Ruby pulled on her sleeve, and she sank deeper into the kiss. It was like she was melting, all her sensations and thoughts were blending together. To her surprise, Leah found herself letting out a small whimper. She’d be more embarrassed about it if she wasn’t feeling so desperate, so wanting of more. And Ruby obliged, wrapping her arms around Leah’s neck and pulling her closer.

Everything was Ruby. Her pillow-like lips between her own, her taste, slightly tangy but sweet nonetheless, her hair caught in her own hands, the warmth shared between them.

When they finally parted, they were both out of breath and glossy eyed. Leah didn’t know how much time had passed. It probably only lasted a minute at most, but it felt as though the moment had been stretched into a million and then into eternity.

All she knew was, it felt good.

“That was… nice,” Ruby whispered. They were still hugging each other by the waist, and her words did not need to be loud to reach Leah’s ears.

“Yeah,” Leah whispered back, dreamily, the high of the kiss still on the edges of her mind.

“Merry Christmas,” Ruby said with a grin.

“That was some Christmas gift,” Leah muttered, but she found herself smiling back.

And then they were both blushing, coming out of their stupor, the full realization of what they just did settling in.

“It was worth the wait.”

“Yeah?” Ruby said. And Leah nodded in affirmation. “Then… do you want to do it again?”

Breathless, Leah nodded, and they closed their eyes again, leaning in.

But just as they were about to kiss again, a piercing voice from behind them sounded, getting closer. “Hey, how long are you two gonna take out there? Oh…!”

It was Mari.

As soon as they heard, Leah and Ruby disentangled themselves from each other in a hurry. But it was too late. Mari had saw them leaning in, and the glint in her eyes danced with that secret knowledge.

“I’ll…just leave you be,” she said, unable to suppress a smirk from forming in the corner of her mouth. “Take as long as you want.” Mari waved her hands graciously as she turned to head back inside.

“No! We’re done here!” Leah quickly sputtered. She looked to her girlfriend for support. “Right, Ruby?”

Ruby’s face was as red as if she ate one of Yoshiko’s fallen angel tears, and she could only nod.

“Let’s go back inside!”

Taking Ruby’s hand, and faces burning, they both followed the snickering Mari back to the party.

[our-elven-lady-of-chaos]

You are my Home Ch 4

The days quickly fell into a somewhat normal routine.  Wake up.  Light breakfast. Quick warm-up, then weapons practice with the Lady Lysandra.  Lunch.  A brief nap, or some quiet time to read in peace, whichever the day called for.  Seider practice, with Lysandra again.  Dinner was usually just him, Lys, and his brother, although at least once a week they made a point to sit down together as a team.

Once dinner was over, sometimes he discussed books with Lys, both magical texts and fictional works,  and sometimes they just sat and watched shows on the big glowing screen the mortals referred to as a ‘television’.  So far his favorite show was the one about a sarcastic, ornery doctor with a limp, who liked solving puzzles.  

Loki took much joy in solving life’s mysteries as well.  Mostly he was adjusting well to the Midgardian way of life, although there were a few minor hiccups along the way, like the time when he dumped a whole bottle of Dawn into the dishwasher and the entire kitchen became a magical wonderland of soapy bubbles and inconspicuous tripping hazards, the infamous microwave incident, for which there were tally marks on the wall for how many times both he and his brother had caused the small appliance to explode (Thor was at three to Loki’s one), or his general disregard of normal clothing in favor of expensive designer suits or whatever he brought with him from Asgard.  Most of the time they allowed him this small comfort of home; as long as he wasn’t wandering the streets looking like he belonged in a renaissance faire, the team tended not to question it.

After a month or so of Loki gradually settling in amongst Midgard’s Greatest Heroes, he was surprised to find that it was the Man of Iron, of all people, who was the first to warm up to him.  It all started when Stark had asked him to give him a hand in the lab with something or other on one of the days where Lys was out taking care of business elsewhere, much too busy to babysit the wayward god.  Much to his surprise, Loki was actually pretty useful to have around, or at least when he was given enough mental stimulation to not lose interest and resort to what Thor referred to as “Small Mischiefs” around the tower.  When that happened, Loki generally got to everyone but Bruce, Nat, and Lysandra.  Bruce, because the god was still (mildly) fearful of the green rage monster, after his previous trip to Midgard, but mostly they got along and just gave one another a large berthe.  Natasha he had formed some strange sort of truce with based almost entirely on respect, and the knowledge that she would totally kick his ass if he set so much as his pinky toe in her room.  And Lysandra...Lys was a different story altogether.  It could have been the fact that his mother had brought him up to be more respectful to women than that,  the fact that he knew very well that he wasn’t the only seider wielder in the tower and a fight between the two of them could end badly, or perhaps it was because he was slowly developing...feelings for her, perhaps?  Or was it just the sort of caring that came from being friends?  He couldn’t say.

It was some time shortly after this that Stark had agreed that Loki had earned his first supervised trip out of the tower.  Lys had received a note on a rolled up piece of parchment, delivered by a cat, of all things.  It was a large black cat with a single white splotch on its chest, tenderly dubbed “Smudge”.  He wasn’t quite sure how the cat had gotten into the tower in the first place, with both Jarvis and the massive elevator system clearly being obstacles for the portly feline, but he merely looked on as Lysandra gave him a good sized hunk of cooked chicken breast from the refrigerator, then deftly penned a new note for him in some odd dialect of the fae tongue and sent him on his way.  And then the cat just up and disappeared.  Just. Like. That!

Loki’s mouth hung open in shock.  Even in Asgard, which was a much more magical realm than most of Midgard ever had been even centuries ago, they did not have cats that could do that.  Or any mundane ground-dwelling beast that had some underlying seider abilities, especially one that was typically seen as a common housepet.

“Umm...Lysandra?  What just happened?”  Loki finally managed to sputter out.  “I know the people of Midgard used to rely on birds as a method of relaying messages, but a magical disappearing cat?”

Lysandra looked up after scanning the note once more.  “The fae still rely on cats, much like the goddess Freya, yes?”

“Well yes but...are there really still traces of the fae here?  I thought my fa….Odin and King Oberon agreed to lock them up in Faerie, in the Nevernever centuries ago.”

“As I’ve told you before, there is a thriving underground magical community, but most of them are probably half breeds or cast-offs at best nowadays.  The pathways were closed long ago, so the bloodlines got pretty diluted, you know?”

Loki nodded, stroking his chin absentmindedly as he pondered a thought.  Norns, how he wished he was still at his full strength so that he could dive head first into this mystery, but he was wise enough to know that the fae were fickle creatures at best, and on his own he would get nowhere. Or worse, in a world of pain.  Trouble he could handle, hell it was something he took great joy in instigating.   He was practically the god of it, for Odin’s sake!  But the fae were a dangerous lot, even for the silver tongued liesmith himself.

Lys gave him a small smile, seemingly reading his mind.  “I know you’re just itching to get out of here.  Come on, Tony already gave the OK for you to come with me today while I run a few errands.”

He looked taken aback for a moment, but this was soon overtaken by glee once he overcame the initial shock.  Not quite the typical malicious glee that most probably (mistakenly) associated with him, but more akin to that of a housecat finally being released into the yard to terrorize the local wildlife, or a dog stealing a cheeseburger from an unsuspecting hand and devouring it in one bite.  Loki was a creature of chaos, and thusly had to exercise that muscle every so often, for the good of everyone else in the tower.

She led him through the bustling streets, pausing momentarily to wave at the spider-kid Tony had recently “adopted”.  Loki had trouble keeping up between the unfamiliar miasma that came with such an overcrowded city and even stranger architecture, but was more than pleased when Lys finally relented and grabbed his hand as to not get separated from him.  While he wasn’t pleased to have been forced into more “plebeian” midgardian attire - dark jeans and a t-shirt that would have been much more suited to Stark’s closet, at least the sunglasses and leather jacket weren’t half bad.  The infernal device around his wrist, however….

Eventually the pair reached a darker corner of the city that gave off an eerie aura.  Well, eerie to any non-magic user, but it was really just one huge confusion spell meant to keep the mortals from sticking their noses into places they didn’t belong.  Lysandra produced a bag of piskie dust from somewhere in her bag, which she used to draw a series of runes on the wall to open the dimensional gate.  Upon finishing, she wiped the excess dust off on her jeans, then touched the amethyst stone on her ring to the center of the circle created by the glowing fae script.  The doorway suddenly lit up, etched in a pure white light.

“This way,” she instructed, reaching out to take his hand to cement their connection as was necessary with a non-magical companion, but she drew it back when she remembered who she was with.  Loki grabbed hold of it anyways.  “I take no offense,” he said with his signature smirk.

Loki’s eyes immediately widened once they were on the other side.  For starters, the space the underground market occupied was huge, and although he had somewhat anticipated that, it was still a bit of a shock once he actually saw it.  It was much like the outdoor markets on Asgard, except the patrons were decidedly less humanoid in appearance, and magic was everywhere.  Girls with green skin and leaves in their hair sold tonics, salves, and herbs with magical properties.  Dwarves boasted about the strength and durability of their wares, and haggled for precious elvish silver.  Piskies flitted about, chattering noisily in the ears of anyone who would listen, much like mosquitos.  

“Hurry up, slowpoke!”  Lys bade him with a laugh.  “We’ll have time to shop later, I have to meet up with a friend first, and I can’t just leave you here unattended.”

Loki huffed in annoyance.  “I’m not a child.  I’m over a thousand years old, I’ll have you know.”

“Yes, yes, you’re older than me by two centuries or so,”  Lys remarked.  “But, as a rule, I trust most of the fae here less than you, and that’s saying something, Mister God-of-Lies.”

Loki wore a broad grin on his face as they traipsed the rest of the way to the stall she was looking for.  He was slightly confused as to why so many of them bowed or curtsied as they passed by - sure he was a prince and all, but of a completely different realm, and there were few who knew of his presence or status even in these parts.  He’d have to ask Lys about it later, or perhaps her friend, as he didn’t think she’d give him a straight answer on the matter.  She was rather secretive of her past, although she had let down enough of her glamour to reveal a pair of perfectly pointed ears and sharper facial features.

“Are we being followed?,” he asked Lys at one point.

Lysandra merely shrugged at the thought.  “Nah, if anything it’s just the piskies.  If they get too close to your hair, just swat them away.”

Loki nodded mutely.  

“We are the two most powerful magical beings this side of the divide.  Trust me, no one’s gonna be stupid enough to mess with us, unless they have a death wish.  We literally radiate power - the fae can sense that.”

While he had assumed it would be a stall they were looking for, much like the other vendors, of course her mysterious contact would have enough wealth to have an actual building to conduct whatever sort of business happened in New York’s underbelly.  

The bell on the door jingled when she opened it, alerting its occupants to their arrival.  Lys gave an approving nod to Smudge, who had taken his place on a shelf that gave him a good vantage point to guard the door.  Loki quickly noted that there were nearly a dozen other cats in various shapes and colors lounging in different corners of the room - no surface was off limits.  And, what’s more, a good bit of the furniture seemed almost child sized, perhaps to suit the differing size in fae clientele?

“Hey Soren!  I hope you don’t mind that I brought a friend along this time,” Lysandra called out by means of greeting.

A massive stack of books walked towards them.  Well, in comparison to the one who was carrying them, at least.

“You bring that overly muscular prince again?” it spoke.  “You’re responsible for whatever he breaks.”

Loki laughed.  “That does sound like Thor.”

Soren set his stack down on a low lying coffee table to get a better look at the new visitor, wiping off his monocle with one paw before replacing it over one eye.  While he most closely resembled a Maine Coon, he stood a little over three feet tall on two legs, and wore a pair of leather boots and a bowtie in addition to the eyepiece.  His long twisted whiskers and thick coat made him look old and wise, although his age was a guess as with most of the fae.

Loki squinted to make sure he was seeing everything correctly, before turning to Lysandra, gaping like a fish.  Surely cats could not walk and talk, unless…

Soren chuckled.  “I’m a cait sith, my dear boy.”

I hope this was well worth the wait!  Please let me know how I’m doing, if you want a link to my AO3 page if you like that format better for comments, ect.  I don’t bite.

[dippedanddripped]

As retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to get shoppers (particularly new, young ones) into their brick-and-mortar stores, a slew of luxury brands seem to have a strategy for engaging consumers: Get them to go somewhere else — not to shop, but to hang out.

This summer, Dolce & Gabbana opened a "cultural hub," as it's calling it, on Mercer St. in Soho, New York. While one can shop there during the day, the space is first and foremost a luxurious, Instagrammable clubhouse for the youths. It hosts monthly events, like a concert featuring up-and-coming bands, or a "drink and draw" night.

Also this summer, Coach debuted Life Coach, an experiential pop-up in New York meant to "lead guests on a journey of self-discovery." It contained exactly zero products for sale; instead, it housed immersive and photogenic rooms. Perhaps you saw one made to look like a New York City subway station, where guests could graffiti the walls, on your social media feeds; there was also a Coney Island-inspired room with games and a mystical forest with tarot card readings.

Over the past few months, Hermès, the most exclusive and luxurious of all exclusive, luxurious brands, opened "Carré Club" (carré means "scarf") pop-ups in New York, Toronto, Singapore, Los Angeles and Milan. With free public admission, guests could get photos taken, sing karaoke (sorry, Carré-Ok), enjoy complimentary refreshments from a café and watch artists and designers work in an on-set atelier. Scarves were available to purchase, but they were in no way the main focus of the event.

A guest at Dolce & Gabbana Mercer St. Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

In September in London, Matchesfashion.com opened 5 Carlos Place, a Mayfair townhouse with a retail component that most notably serves as a community space where all sorts of event programming has and will take place, as well as live streaming and podcasts for those who can't visit it in person — think high-level events like book signings, panel discussions, supper clubs, luxury brand installations and intimate musical performances. The opening follows a series of temporary residencies the retailer held in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Hong Kong for its 30th anniversary featuring similar types of engaging, often-educational events.

Chances are, you've seen at least one of these activations on Instagram, but aside from their photogenic designs, they all have one major (and initially surprising) thing in common: Unlike the many ephemeral retail concepts that came before them, the main goal here is not to sell you stuff. These brands are investing in physical spaces and events without any expectation that they will see a return on that investment — at least not a return that can be measured in dollars.

This concept didn't exactly come out of nowhere. There was February’s Chanel Beauty House in LA featuring room after room of Instagrammable moments. Tiffany & Co.opened its Blue Box Cafe last fall, resulting in a robin's-egg-blue flood of "breakfast at Tiffany" Instagram posts, and it's still tough to get a reservation there. Nordstrom debuted its Local concept in 2018, where service is prioritized over inventory. All the way back in 2016, Burberry opened Makers House in London, a pop-up featuring activities and installations meant to showcase the work of British artisans, which it revived in 2017.

The Carré Cafe at Carré Club. Photo: Courtesy of Hermès

Brands and retailers have also started to create Instagrammable moments and/or host workouts, Q&As and panel discussions in their existing stores with increasing frequency, some going so far as to host their own festivals and conferences (see: the In Goop Health wellness summit, Beautycon and Sephoria). Outside of the luxury fashion and beauty markets, Instagram-fueled experiential spaces have reached a fever pitch in cities like New York and LA, from Refinery29's 29Rooms to the Museum of Ice Cream to the Rosé Mansion that draw lines of people simply hoping to get some good content out of their outing.

"Lululemon really started this shift a number of years ago when it started offering yoga classes in-store," explains Petah Marian, senior editor for WGSN Insight. "It's evolved as other brands saw how consumers bought into this strategy, and then evolved it for their brands."

Today, we're seeing more instances of brands creating these experiences outside of their stores, simply because people don't need to go to stores anymore. "There is a shift taking place where people aren't as keen to spend Saturday afternoons wandering around the mall looking at stuff, because they're largely doing that on their phones," says Marian. "Experiences give them a reason to come into a retailer's space and have an interaction with a brand."

For luxury labels, which tend to be especially precious about their messaging and often shy away from inclusivity and accessibility for fear of brand dilution, the goal should be to convey the value of their brand and product to people who aren't going to visit their store to find that out. "Consumers are increasingly discerning, and simply placing an expensive item on a rail is not going to convince the customer of its worth," says Marian. "These events help create the perception of a product or retailer as a purveyor of valuable goods." Take the Hermès Carré Club, which was clearly about educating attendees about the brand's heritage in an accessible, entertaining way.

Coach's Chief Marketing Officer Carlos Becil tells Fashionista how the company chose to promote its signature collection from Spring 2018: "Instead of being more precious with it, we really set out a plan to be much more inclusive." Hosting the pop-up in a separate space from its retail stores and having nothing to sell were both conscious decisions. "We deliberately wanted to create a new environment and not have the limitations of a pre-designed retail space," he says. That way, guests could "roam throughout the spaces and be on a discovery mission and explore." The goal? That "every single person that walked through it had a very unique experience and walked out of there with a sense of what Coach was about."

Matchesfashion Chief Brand Officer Jess Christie explains that it now takes more than offering free champagne in a store to create a community-like experience. After the 30th anniversary residency events, she realized, "People were looking to make more connections, and the storytelling and content aspects were more important." With the residencies and 5 Carlos Place, the goal is to create community and inspire loyalty, acquiring new customers while engaging existing ones with sophisticated events and educational talks. Marian thinks this is the right way to go about things. "The events they host fit in with ideas of modern luxury around intellectual sophistication," he says. The retailer's sales rose 44 percent last year, so whatever it's doing seems to be working.

Another goal of these experiences is, of course, to generate social media content that those who aren't in attendance will see. "A lot of times, you're like, does it make a good picture for Instagram? That wasn't our first thought," Becil claims. "Our first thought was: How does this space make you feel? If it makes you feel a certain way, you're going to want to capture it; you're going to want to share it."

A rep for Dolce & Gabbana who preferred not to be quoted was open about the fact that the Italian house's space was largely meant to generate social media content. As with its entire marketing strategy lately, from runway shows to campaigns, it's designed to engage younger shoppers, namely millennials, who might not otherwise feel inclined to walk into a regular Dolce & Gabbana store.

"It surprised us when we did In Residence in the U.S., the reach we got was just incredible," says Christie. "In New York and LA, a few thousand customers [in attendence] across all events reached over 21 million on social and Facebook Live."

For most of these events, the metric of success is engagement. Becil says that visitors spent an average of an hour inside the Life Coach space and that social media engagement and editorial coverage exceeded the brand's expectations. He confirmed Coach plans to debut different versions of Life Coach in China, Japan and across North America over the next year, starting with Shanghai, where it's staging its Pre-Fall show on Dec. 8, suggesting the first pop-up was a success.

A panel discussion at Matchesfashion.com In Residence. Photo: Courtesy of Matchesfashion.com

Many of these experiential concepts are meant to engage young people and generate social media content, but, increasingly, that's not enough. "We are going to get to a point where consumers tire of 'brand museums,' those that are just backdrops for Instagram shots," says Marian. "They will start to seek more from those experiences — to learn, play, connect (with a brand or likeminded individuals) or feel a sense of wonder."

Indeed, the brands mentioned in this story seem to be getting that. Matchesfashion's programming has expanded beyond fashion to encompass a 360-degree lifestyle, including workouts and panels on wellness, spirituality and how to become an art collector. Culturally, Christie feels luxury shoppers have "moved away from being on the surface and about status; it's about all what makes you an interesting person, and that's the music you listen to, your food, wellness ... it feels very considered."

On Thursday, Anya Hindmarch will begin a four-day series of events at her Sloane Street store in London geared towards helping attendees get more organized, literally. There will be talks led by productivity enhancement experts who train Google employees, as well as Gill Hasson, the author of "Declutter Your Life," and Helena Morrissey, a financier and mother-of-nine, according to WWD.

That's exactly the sort of thing Marian thinks we'll start seeing brands do next: "Experiences that add more value to a consumers' life, stuff around co-creation, learning new skills, and helping people to live their best lives."

It makes sense given that millennials are increasingly prioritizing self-care and self-improvement when it comes to how they spend their money. It's probably why the name Life Coach resonated so well: In the U.S., the self-improvement market is expected to grow 5.6 percent per year, reaching $13.6 billion by 2022. Millennials reportedly spend twice as much as baby boomers on things like exercise, diet plans, therapy and, yes, actual life coaching.

Brands are just starting to reach millennials where their money is, and while these inventory-less experiences might not drive sales immediately, they will put those brands at top of mind for said millennials when they are ready to make a big purchase, which is increasingly important and invaluable in today's crowded landscape

[dangermousie]

Like Georgians, Jacobites and some of the most awesome romance novels? A Patricia Veryan pusher post

I have just discovered that Patricia Veryan, a writer of romance novels set in Georgian and Regency time, has had the bulk of her books reissued on kindle.

So this is a giant pusher post.

Who is Patricia Veryan, you may ask. She was a British writer of romance novels who was old school enough to belong to the style of Georgette Heyer and Jeffery Farnol (who deserves his own pusher post), instead of the newer but now old “bodice ripper, rapey” school like Woodiwiss, Rogers et al. Her novels have plots, no sex scenes and are swoonily, amazingly romantic. She also did her research and they feel like true period novels, not modern people in period clothes prancing about.

They are full of swashbuckling, angsty heroes with awful families, strong heroines fighting off villains, conspiracies unmasked, swords at dawn, tons of hero torture and gorgeousness. Does it sound good? It should.

As I mentioned above, she wrote both regencies and Georgians, but I am gonna talk about the latter series today, because they are all on kindle. Her two Georgian series are The Golden Chronicles (set in the aftermath of Bonnie Prince Charlie's 1745 uprising) and Tales of the Jeweled Men (ditto). TGC follow the supposed treasure that Bonnie Prince Charlie amassed to help his Rebellion, which disappears, and which now the good guys are trying to get to the donors and bad guys want for themselves. There are six books in the series (though there are two earlier books, Mistress of Willowale and The Wicked Widow, which tie into it too. MoW is not available on kindle but TWW is and is a delightful Georgian romp with a rakish, cynical hero who ends up adoring the spunky, cheerful, pragmatic heroine. I am rereading it RN). * Practice to Deceive - Penelope Montgomery always meant to marry Quentin Chandler but he went off and joined the Jacobite rebellion and her family died and she's stuck with her awful aunt and uncle. Quentin resurfaces when he comes to her for assistance but he gets captured by her psycho family and tortured for info about the treasure. Penelope rescues him and they go on the run. I loooove this book. Penny is not flighty or dim or anything but calm, a little reserved, very ladylike, yet awesome. And I have a crush on charming, funny, h/c magnet Quentin. My fave Veryan character, Roland Mathieson, first appears in this one as the bad guy's henchman who kinda wants Penelope. * Journey to Enchantment - the hero of this one is Penelope's brother Geoffrey and heroine a Scottish gal Prudence McTavish. I remember liking it OK (short version - Geoffrey is Jacobite Scarlet Pimpernel) but was not particularly in love. * The Tyrant - love this one. Phoebe Ramsay ends up being stuck in an engagement to Meredith Carruthers as a cover for some Jacobite-related smuggling. I love both fashionable, fun Phoebe and cool, common-sense, angstmuffin Mededith (we are introduced to the first but not the last of Veryan's horrific parents in this one - I am not sure whether I hate his father or his mother more) and we see more of Roland who actually ends up helping the lead couple, in a very ironic, standoffish way, while sneaking bad guy bits now and then. * Love Alters Not - super super super obsession. Dimity Cranford, in order to lead soldiers away from an injured Jacobite family friend, ends up in all sorts of complicated embroglios which ultimately lead her pretending to be someone else entirely, that someone a woman trying to disposess Sir Anthony Farrar, an English army captain in the late Rebellion, who has been ostracized by everyone for running at the battle of Prestopans, leading to the rout of his unit and *da-dun* making Dimity's brother crippled. So much angst and hurt/comfort and awesomeness, you have NO idea. I think Dimity/Anthony are my favorite Veryan OTP which is saying a huge huge deal. Also, I believe I was gibbering and screaming at my book during Anthony's trial. Roland appears again and this is the book I fell for him in - he's sort of Anthony's friend and is thoroughly delicious. * Cherished Enemy - follows Robert McTavish (Prudence's brother) and Rosamond Albritton, sister of a recurring character. Tbh, it's my least fave in the series, though I don't hate it or anything, so I don't remember it much. * The Dedicated Villain - LOOOOOOVE! Roland gets a book! And what a book! Roland is on the hunt for the Jacobite treasure, comes across a troupe of actors (or are they?), which includes the tiny (short ladies represent!) but fierce and awesome Fiona Bradford - will he actually change his mind about his obsession? The Dedicated Villain is my favorite of her Georgians (well, that, and Love Alters Not are probably tied). I mean, Roland and Fiona! This series actually manages to do a convincing job of moving Roland from villain to antihero to hero with me buying the transition; also it explains why he starts out the way he does without making it a full excuse. TDV is also one of the very few books that maxed out my hurt/comfort love - PV never really went much for h/c of the physical as opposed to emotional sort in general but Roland's torture scenes in TDV are beyond brutal, I was kinda reading through my fingers and bawling (one of my vivid memories is being high school age, sitting under a tree during the very hot summer, reading that stuff and sniffling). But oddly, it didn't feel gratuitous because it was sort of karma for some of the stuff he did, especially to Quentin in Practice to Deceive (though what happened to him was miles worse than what happened to Quentin). And props to Veryan for having the guts to give him permanent damage. Jeweled Men follows a nefarious conspiracy to take over certain strategic properties to stage an invasion and a bunch of sexay aristocrats who stumble on the plot and decide to fight it (think 18th century Pimpernel). * Time's Fool - follows Gideon Rossiter, a discharged officer who's just returned from the Continent, and his attempts to figure out why his family's properties and wealth imploded. Heroine is Naomi Lutonville, Gideon's erstwhile fiancee. I normally wouldn't like Naomi - she's high-maintenance and dramatic, but I adore her to bits. I ship them like crazy, too. * Had We Never Loved - my first Veryan! Clearly, I was impressed. Horatio Glendenning (remember Jacobite family friend in Love Alters Not? That's him) fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie so his future is not so good. His OTP is a feisty gypsy, Amy Consett, who is NOT discovered to be a Duke's daughter in disguise or anything. It's a lovely lovely book and they are a lovely lovely OTP. * Ask Me No Questions - Quentin's staid older brother Gordon gets his own books. There are all sorts of machinations, but this is not a huge favorite. Gordon and Ruth Allington are nice people but give me Penny and Quentin's humor and reckless courage any day. If you like nice and mature leads though, this one is for you. * A Shadow's Bliss - like amnesia? This book is for you. Ruth's amnesiac bro Jonathan tries to solve the mystery of a shipwreck he was involved in blah blah heroine is Jennifer Britewell and I literally remember nothing about her. Or Jonathan, for that matter, other than he has amnesia. The reason to read this book is the recurring characters of August Falcon, Jamie Morris, and Gwendolyn Rossiter. I read Jeweled Men as if was coming out and remember devouring each book for even the slightest hint of progress between cynical, cutting August and smart, unimpressed Gwendolyn - they are one of my fave Veryan OTPs, together with Dimity/Anthony, Roland/Fiona, and Mitchell/Charity from Sanguinet books. * Never Doubt I Love - Dimity's bro finds love. Once again, I was in it for finding out what makes August tick, Jamie's adoration of August's sis Katrina, and Gwen and August's sexy sparkle. It’s a good book on its own merits though and has a hero with a disability, which was unusual at the time. * The Mandarin of Mayfair - EEEE! EEEEE! I still remember pre-ordering this book and rolling in mad glee (hyperbole. Or is it?) August and Gwen get their own book, plus the conspiracy gets finally unmasked, there is kissing and hurt/comfort and gals being the ones to propose. The OTP is beyond amazing - August is so smart and lethal and functional despite his major issues arising out of the fact that as 1/4 Chinese he’s looked down as a mongrel by “polite” society (I love that Veryan's heroes never wallow), Gwendolyn is full of common-sense and rescues him from prisons and bad guys and won't let anyone bash him (himself included, but also their friends, which turn on him for spoilery reasons. I still have residual rage about it. Katrina, you are the worst sister ever and dead to me!) I think the ending is a little pat to resolve the very real issues he has with marrying Gwendolyn and dragging her into his life, but at that point they've been through so much hell, I didn't even care.

My favorite OTPs in her Georgian series are are four-way time between ladylike Penelope x incorrigible adventurer Quentin in PtD, tormented and self-abasing Anthony and fearless Dimity in LAN, reformed villain Roland x not really an actress Fiona in TDV, and deadly and messed up August x fearless and clever Gwen (btw, Gwen is a heroine with a disability, which, once again, was an unusual thing at the time.)   Worst father award goes to Roland's father (die in a fire, please!) and worst mother is either August's or Meredith's. Coolest family is either Dimity's or Horatio's. Favorite brother-sister pair are Gwen and Gideon Rossiters.

Basically, you should go read them yesterday!

PS Disclaimer. I used to run a Veryan listserve in the really old days. So I am biased. But she is a rare author I am rereading 20 years later and still love.

PPS If you are a Veryan fan, come talk to me!

[wildlyplanted]

Part 2 of 3: “Bus Station? Dog Bar? What ever happened to Eagle-Eye Cherry?” – Budapest | Prague | Berlin Travels

Hello! Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and if you fancy, a treat too. I hope you enjoy this blog post (the second in a 3-part series) about my trip to Budapest, Prague and Berlin. In the series, I share my hosteling and general overall experience in all three cities, the challenges, randomness and realizations I came to along the way of this splendid journey.

Budapest to Prague

We booked our bus ride from Budapest to Prague, on a third-party website called omio.com (formerly GoEuro.com – it was called GoEuro at the time of our booking), with RegioJet bus. The website was recommended by our hostel roommate who is currently living and studying in Prague (she mentioned a different bus company, Flick Bus, but it wasn’t among the choices).

Something that we could have done but didn’t do, was to go book directly with RegioJet (I was in total chill mode on this trip, and I wasn’t checking various sites or planning as hard as I normally would, if I’m being honest). Usually, when I find tickets on third party sites, whether it be for a plane, train or bus, I go and book directly with the airline, train or bus company. It’s usually the same price or sometimes cheaper, and if there are any issues, I feel better dealing directly with the company.

In this instance, it would have benefited us to book directly with RegioJet because GoEuro did not explain that the RegioJet pick up was from the tram stop. The “station” listed on our ticket had the same name as the tram stop, so we expected that once we got off, there would be a bus station. We were further put under this impression because while purchasing our tram ticket, I stopped inside the customer service office to confirm we were taking the correct tram and the associate said the tram stop and bus “station” share the same name. Later, I realized this may have possibly been a language barrier and she meant that the tram stop, and bus station are the same.  

Once we got off the tram, there was some confusion. We were in the middle of a suburban neighborhood next to a school with no bus station in sight and no other travelers to give us an indication that we were in the right place. We asked a local passing by and she pointed us to a nearby bus/train station (one tram stop and also a short walk away) but we found that it wasn’t where we needed to be. Luckily with the help of another local who explained that RegioJet most likely stops on the street, not in the bus station, it clicked, and we dashed back on foot to our original stop. There we found the bus, which clearly arrived while we were searching for the “bus station,” parked a few feet from the tram stop.

*I later checked the RegioJet site and on the homepage, they explain that due to construction at the bus station in Budapest, they will pick up from that tram stop. So, I would recommend, whenever possible, book directly with the company or at least check the company website for details and information. This is something I will always remember to do even if I’m in full on chill mode.

Riding with RegioJet was a great experience. The driver and an attendant checked us in and handled our luggage. The bus was much nicer than I anticipated. The faux leather seats were spacious and reclined. The bus had Wi-Fi, USB charging ports, a tv monitor at each seat and there was complimentary bottled water and coffee service. The attendant was very nice, and even let us keep the headphones with the bus’s logo as a souvenir.

The 6-hour ride was scenic, comfortable and felt shorter. The bus made a stop in Bratislava, Slovakia, to pick-up more passengers, and a quick stop for officials to check passports before crossing the border into Czech Republic.

Before leaving Budapest, we looked up a few hostels on Hostelworld, but didn’t decide on one until we were on the bus (if I remember correctly). Our Budapest hostel, Hostel One, had a location in Prague but it was not as central as we wanted, or else we would have stayed at their sister location since we really enjoyed the Hostel One vibe.

48 Hours in Prague

We chose Rosemary hostel because it seemed perfectly located in the new town, and a very short walk to the old town; from the bus station it’s just 3 or 4 stops, on the tram or about a 15-20-minute walk. We did not make a reservation, and we also only paid for one night in case we wanted to switch and stay elsewhere. We did inquire at check-in if there were enough beds available for the following nights, in case we decided to stay, and there were. We did stay at Rosemary for the duration of our visit (2 nights). We were hoping to stay in Prague longer, but we couldn’t, and it’s ok because I know I’ll definitely return in the very near future.

I really loved the location of Rosemary hostel, and how clean it was. It’s off a main street, Jindrisska, where you can easily find grocery stores, currency exchange, restaurants and cafes. I became fond of Caffe Milani, which I stumbled upon within 30 minutes of arriving at the hostel, while taking a walk to the grocery store for water. They make fresh juice and have delicious coffee and croissants.

Our accommodation was in an apartment, with two bedrooms. Once inside the apartment, the kitchen, bedrooms, toilet room and showers are each separately located off the hallway. There is one entrance into the two bedrooms. You have to walk through the main bedroom – large with a sitting area to get into the smaller one which is where we slept. Each room had 6 beds (there were stairs to a loft in the larger room, so there may have been a couple of single beds up there). The apartment was mixed gender, although the smaller room remained all female during our stay.

The sinks and showers in the apartment are not private, as they are in the same room. There are two sinks and two separate shower stalls with doors. With that said, there was never an issue or feeling of discomfort, and only the same genders were in the shower room at the same time (not sure if this was mindful or just coincidence). Additionally, the door locks, so you have the option for privacy. I left the door unlocked while I showered since the stalls are spacious enough to undress and dress inside, however, I never had to get dressed inside the stall since no one else was in the shower room, and I locked the door for a brief moment while I moisturized and dressed.

I was extremely happy about how clean the bathrooms were, and the shower was so comfortable with great water pressure, so I honestly did not care that it wasn’t necessarily private. Rosemary hostel does have various set-ups – private rooms, with private bathrooms and kitchens, 4 bed female rooms, etc. Most hostels have private room options, and more times than not, with private bathrooms.

Upon arriving at the hostel, we met a couple of our roommates; one guy staying in the larger room, who was our instant resource about Prague since he had been there the longest, and a young lady staying in our smaller room who we shared deep and touching conversation with. She was from China, studying in Germany and visiting Prague and Budapest on her way back home for her semester break. Her concerns and worries were so familiar and like the ones I had while I was in college, or Uni, as it’s referred to in most parts of Europe. All I could do was offer words of comfort and advice, that I hope would spare her some of the unnecessary worry I went through. I told her what I wish I knew then that I know now.

From a young age, we are learning about ourselves, about the world and as we mature and grow, we are trying to form our own identities, and explore the desires of our hearts and express ourselves; but for some of us, somewhere along the way, we are told we need to be a certain way, to do certain things, not to listen to ourselves or what our hearts tell us. We’re discouraged from being ourselves, so we try to quiet the voice in our hearts. We try to dissolve who we naturally are to be someone acceptable to our parents, our family and friends, and society.

The thing is; the soul never forgets who it is. We are reminded of our authentic selves in so many ways –when we do things that bring us happiness, through the experiences that make us feel alive and resonate with us, in moments when our life makes sense; that is our soul reminding us of who we are. It takes so much courage to shape our own happiness, to write our own story; seeing it through, day in and day out. It takes perseverance to endure falling and picking ourselves up many times over in pursuit of joy. It takes strength of mind to stand and walk alone in pursuit of our calling. It takes unwavering faith to believe, when it seems like God is our only cheerleader in this world.

It can take years to undue the damage that one seed of doubt can plant in our mind. Sometimes being human seems so complicated, and it’s easy to let go of what we truly desire and grasp instead to what others tell us we should want.

For me, it’s a daily process of reminding myself that my life is sacred. I have a purpose, and the desires of my soul would not be there if they weren’t meant to be lived out. Being born is confirmation enough. You and I are made of stardust for a reason. God meant for me, for you to shine just as bright as the stars.

Speaking of stars, we made the best of our two nights in beautiful Prague. Our first night, we had dinner at a typical Czech restaurant called Café Svatého Václava in Wenceslas Square. What a beautiful view, especially of the remarkably lit Národní muzeum (natural science and history). It’s definitely a tourist area, but it didn’t feel that way during that time of day. We spent the rest of the evening walking around the city before turning in for the night.

Our second day – we had breakfast at Caffe Milani before going to the old town square and joining a walking tour to hear some history about the astronomical clock tower, Charles University and other sites. Rather than continuing the tour, we explored the rest of the town square on our own and made our way to Charles bridge and Prague castle. We opted to walk and explore more of the area instead of touring inside the castle (next time). Just as in Budapest, I was fascinated by the architecture and charm of Prague. While strolling through one of the many beautiful streets, my travel buddy asked which city I liked more, I couldn’t decide. From my personal experience, Budapest is bold and trendy, while Prague is chic with a touch of romance, and I appreciated both.

We had the loveliest dinner at a restaurant whose name I can’t remember, and sadly, I mistakenly erased some of my notes. I do know the second half of the name is “Garten.” I tried searching on google maps since I remembered the general area of the restaurant but couldn’t find it. It was located halfway between our hostel the bus station.

After dinner we walked to the station to purchase our tickets for the ride to Berlin (and ensure the bus left from the station, ha!). There were a number of bus company ticket booths, none of them had a sign for RegioJet, and because we recognized Flickbus (the same hostel roommate in Budapest who told us about GoEuro mentioned that she uses this bus company), so that’s the company we went with.

On our final night in Prague, our hostel roommate (the guy who was in Prague the longest) suggested we go to the Dog Bar. Although, he had never been, he said he heard it was a cool place.

It’s located on a fairly quiet street and behind a huge wooden door. No sign, noise or indication that there’s nightlife going on inside. Once you enter, you first must see the cashier and pre-load money onto a card to use for drink purchases. On your way out, you return the card, and whatever you don’t use is refunded. We only loaded the very minimum as we were not drinking much, and, I wasn’t about to find out if they actually return the money or not. Once the transaction is complete, you make your way downstairs.

Picture an underground maze-like cave with numerous rooms. We settled into a room where the tables and seats are made from doors, and the seats are suspended from the ceiling like swings. Dog Bar must be where, particularly American, exchange students hang out because there were a good number of young Americans there. Members of the band also turned out to be American, and the last thing I could have ever guessed was that I’d be sitting in a bar in Prague, Czech Republic, listening to a band perform “Save Tonight�� by Eagle Eye Cherry. I think I was the only person in the room who knew the words (or so I thought at the time). We didn’t stay very long, but it was long enough to see why the place was called “Dog Bar” when a huge, shaggy dog slowly made its way into and around the room. – in context, Dog Bar is a “cool” place to pass through and check out. I understand the interest; but I would not stay longer than the hour that we did. Also, I can’t with the bathrooms there.

As we were leaving the venue, we met a few other people who were also on their way out. We all recognized we were from the states, and one of them happened to be from my hometown, Philly and the others from Long Island. The one young lady was studying abroad in the city. She showed us around a bit more and took us to one of her local hang outs. While hanging out with our American friends, Eagle-Eye Cherry came up, and I was happy to find out that 2 out of 3 knew the artist and the words to “Save Tonight.” We all wondered, what happened to Eagle-Eye Cherry? He is a talented artist and we shared in the disbelief that his other music did not reach the commercial success of “Save Tonight.”

The city of Prague is a beauty. It’s easy to navigate and it’s walkable. I only used the tram a couple of times, (I didn’t use the underground so I’ll make it a point to do so next time), and it was easy to figure out. I’m excited to return in the future to experience much more.

Look for the final blog post in this series:

Part 3 of 3:“Leaving Prague, Berlin, I love you and Final Reflections & Tips” – Budapest | Prague | Berlin Travels

Where you can find me/how to contact me:

IG: wildlyplanted (check out photos)

YouTube: Wildly Planted ( I uploaded short video and photo reels)

Email: wildlyplanted@zoho.com

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 8/14/19

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 15 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – Nino has been struggling for so long against herself, or at the very least against Miou, that it’s worth seeing how she fares against actual professional singer at a concert. We find out here when one of the other bands covers an In No Hurry song and asks Nino to join in—which shows off how far she has to go, but also gives her a bit more drive. Meanwhile rain threatens to dwindle their audience, but also inspires them to bring out an older song—one associated with the band’s first vocalist. It helps tie into the theme of moving on and growing that is in this book. Which is good, as the romance is fairly static, though Kurose looks to be stumbling towards a revelation, at least. Still quite good. – Sean Gaffney

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 4 | By Riku Misora and Kotaro Yamada | Yen Press – This volume is at its best when the prodigies are not having it quite as easy as they’d like. The local Duke is furious at what they’re trying to achieve, and launches a fearsome weapon that the heroes to eventually stop, but it manages to cause major damage to the city and causes some deaths as well. Thankfully, the Duke is killed off. Yup, totally dead, despite not finding a body. There’s no way he can come back from that. The service is also less in this volume, though it’s still present, especially in the extra chapter which is basically “why am I surrounded by girls with bigger tits than me?” Next volume promises a love triangle. This is OK, but I think I’d like the LN more. – Sean Gaffney

Killing Me!, Vol. 1 | By Akiyama | Yen Press – There were two volumes of yuri released last month, and one was fascinating enough for me to devote a full review to it. This is the other one, which is far less fascinating, though if you like yuri tsunderes it might be for you. A vampire hunter and vampire are both in high school, and the hunter keeps trying—and failing—to kill the vampire, partly as the vampire does things like attempting to seduce her, etc. and partly as she’s clearly in love but unaware of it. What happens is a series of somewhat tedious scenes that show off this love. There’s also age difference at play here, given the vampire tropes present. Not sure if there’s a second volume of this, but I was going to pass anyway. – Sean Gaffney

My Sweet Girl, Vol. 5 | By Rumi Ichinohe | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – I’ve been waiting for My Sweet Girl to do something that might distinguish it from the pack. It’s been pleasant and cute, but through volume four, it was sticking to the standard shoujo plot lines. I mean, really, the introduction of Kiyodo, the similarly frail classmate whom Koeda befriended in junior high, is just another example of the childhood friend romantic rival trope. But Kiyodo is an interesting tsundere, and I really appreciated seeing Koeda through his eyes, especially his appreciation of how much she’s changed. I hope we’re not supposed to take him seriously as a threat to Masamune-kun, though. Finally kind of good! – Michelle Smith

One-Punch Man, Vol. 17 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | VIZ Media – Man, it seems like it’s been forever since we’ve seen Saitama show up to a scene and destroy a monster in a single punch, so his arrival at the battle between Genos, two elderly martial arts practitioners, and a nigh indestructable giant centipede—including an epic, eight-page spread for his punch—was immensely gratifying. I’ll just pretend the gag about King pooping his pants didn’t happen. Unfortunately, the arc about the Monster Association is still ongoing, with no end in sight. Hero-hunter Garo I can at least sympathize with a little bit, and now he’s in league with the monsters, so perhaps he’ll make them more interesting by association. This is still a fun title, despite my gripes. – Michelle Smith

Oresama Teacher, Vol. 26 | By Izumi Tsubaki | Viz Media – Arguably kidnapping Mafuyu and locking her in a mansion was not the best move plot-wise, as it takes us away from the school and devotes too much attention to Miyabi’s sister Toko and our villain of the arc, Mr. Maki. Toko fares better here than she has before, but is no Miyabi, and Maki’s tragic backstory does not really tear at the heartstrings like it should. Fortunately, there is always Mafuyu being an absolutely dense pile of girl, and we get that in spades. Every time I found myself laughing hard it was due to Mafuyu reaching new depths of stupidity that I didn’t think were possible—”You’re telling me to make more friends” had me in hysterics. This needs to end soon, but I still love it. – Sean Gaffney

Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General, Vol. 4 | By jin | Seven Seas – The author almost apologizes for this volume having a plot that runs all the way through it, as it turns out that the heroes organization has been compromised, and after Secretary, of all people, is kidnapped, it’s up to Braveman and Black General to team up and head into the base. This is not to say there’s not a lot of the silly humor that’s the reason to read this—the antagonist realizing how the General had snuck into the hero training course earlier is a great series of “oh crap” images, and while Black General’s solution ended up humiliating her, it also included a very satisfying kick to the groin which was desperately needed. Still more fun than you’d expect. – Sean Gaffney

Requiem of the Rose King, Vol. 10 | By Aya Kanno | Viz Media – So I put off reviewing this for a long time, and while it’s difficult to do a content warning in a brief, here is one: there’s a non-consensual sex scene in this, and while it’s handled in a way that’s not meant to be titillating but disturbing, it’s still here and did not make me happy. It doesn’t help that Buckingham is sitting there on the cover smiling at the reader as if to say “Yeah, I did that. And?” That said, there is one fantastic reason to read this, and it’s Elizabeth, who, like Margaret before her, is getting more and more furious and unhinged, and the faces that Kanno draws to convey this are first rate. This is not an easy read, but I still want to see how it all plays out. – Sean Gaffney

UQ Holder, Vol. 17 | By Ken Akamatsu | Kodansha Comics – This is at its best when it’s revisiting its past, as with earlier volumes. While fifteen wrapped up Negima and gave us an ultra-happy ending, this is not that universe, and there will be no wedding between Chisame and anyone here, as we discover just how Negi got to be what he is and why Nodoka and Yue are on his side. Less impressive is the resolution of the bomb on the space station plot, which involves one of the characters sacrificing their immortality to save the day ’til an ass pull that’s so out of nowhere that even I, a very forgiving person, can’t accept it. Oh yes, and not a fan of Eva/Touta, so seeing Chachazero (revived briefly) nagging her about it did not thrill me. Sill, the Negima stuff was great. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 19 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – Zeno’s sad backstory has concluded, so volume nineteen is mostly transitional. Still, because this is Yona, it’s still really good. First, the group runs into the former site of a Blue Dragon village, whereupon the spirit of a previous Blue Dragon possesses Sinha. He threatens to use the rest of the party as vessels for the spirits of the bandits with whom he was trapped long ago, but then he meets Yona. I loved the panel where this guy just involuntarily starts weeping from being in her presence. She’s able to soothe him in no time, and then she and the boys end up accompanying Riri on a journey to another country. Or, rather, they *would* if they weren’t ambushed in a pleasant-seeming town on this side of the border. Yona is always fabulous, even when it’s just moving the plot along. – Michelle Smith

Yuri Is My Job!, Vol. 4 | By miman | Kodansha Comics – We finally get the climax of the arc here, and it’s handled pretty well given that this series is reveling in yuri tropes while trying to steer clear of any actual yuri relationships. Sumika’s past shows us that, to my surprise, she was not the one involved in the past “tragedy,” though I did like seeing how said tragedy seems to have merely led to an Important Haircut rather than anything more drastic. Still, it does help Sumika realize that she’s not there to stop Kanoko from confessing—Kanoko’s never going to do that—but to be there when the emotions of burying her love get to be too much. As a result, we get two new soeurs… erm, schwesters, and a final lighter chapter whose plot is “Yano’s large chest is too sexy for our room.” Decently handled. – Sean Gaffney

By: Sean Gaffney

[theconservativebrief]

The online retailer Yandy quickly pulled a Halloween costume from its website on September 20 after critics said it made light of rape. Clearly inspired by the dystopian novel and TV series The Handmaid’s Tale, Yandy’s “Brave Red Maiden” costume resembles the outfits women forced into concubinage wear in writer Margaret Atwood’s fictional hellscape. There’s just one notable difference: Yandy reinterpreted the floor-length robe that handmaids wear as a body-hugging mini-dress, eroticizing a garment many fans of the book and TV show associate with the sexual abuse of women.

“It has become obvious that our ‘Yandy Brave Red Maiden Costume’ is being seen as a symbol of women’s oppression, rather than an expression of women’s empowerment,” the company said in a statement. “This is unfortunate, as it was not our intention on any level.”

Likely to avoid a copyright infringement suit, Yandy’s controversial red number does not directly reference The Handmaid’s Tale, but it looks enough like the outfits women wear on the series to leave no doubt about its inspiration. While the retailer quickly pulled the offensive knock-off, Yandy’s critics argue that the company has routinely ignored the plight of a real-life group of women often subject to abuse: Native Americans.

They say Yandy, and outfitters like Party City and Spirit Halloween, sell costumes that sexually objectify indigenous women. In fact, Yandy has an entire collection of ensembles described as “sexy Indian” or “sexy Pocahontas” looks. Also known as “Pocahottie” costumes, these getups are a stereotypical and provocative take on Native dress. With fringe and feathers, the frocks are hiked up to the thighs, low-cut, or belly bearing.

Hol up…so ur telling me bc this Handmaiden costume is sexist and women aren’t having it so the costume gets taken down, BUT costumes exploiting & stereotyping American Indian women that go missing frequently &in some cases also murdered.. are still ok? Sounds about white. pic.twitter.com/3N5rAcY5py

— wozek (@ghostcalf) September 21, 2018

The ensembles not only disregard the struggles of indigenous women historically but also the fact that today, Native American women experience high rates of sexual assault, often perpetrated by non-Native men. Outraged that Yandy pulled a costume linked to the oppression of fictional white women while ignoring Native women’s very real oppression, more than 8,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Yandy to remove its “sexy Indian” collection.

The hashtag #CancelYandy is circulating on Twitter, and a small group of protesters recently demonstrated outside Yandy’s corporate office in Phoenix. These efforts aren’t new. Native American scholars, organizations, and individuals have described these costumes as harmful for years.

Like sports mascots, they say, these costumes make caricatures of indigenous peoples. They portray them as mythological princesses and maidens rather than contemporary Americans facing overlapping forms of oppression — environmental racism, police violence, and sexual exploitation. Yet, “Pocahottie” styles continue to be sold.

An online search for Native American costumes reveals that hundreds of retailers sell these ensembles. Often labeled “Indian maiden” or “Indian princess” costumes, they also sometimes bear the names of women like Pocahontas or Sacagawea or of tribes like the Cherokee. They come in straight sizes and plus sizes; they’re available for men, kids, toddlers, and babies. Frankly, they’re everywhere.

Native Americans like Zoe Dejecacion are well aware of this fact. In September, the San Diego makeup artist started the Change.org petition to get Yandy to remove its inventory of Native-style costumes. She told me that the brand stands out because it immediately pulled its Brave Red Maiden costumes after complaints that they were insensitive, while ignoring earlier concerns about its “sexy Indian” collection.

Last year, Yandy executives told Cosmopolitan that the company had made $150,000 on its Native American line, one of its most popular. It has no plans to scrap the costumes unless “it gets to the point where there is, I guess, significant demonstrations or it gets to a point of contentiousness that maybe is along the lines of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Jeff Watton, now Yandy’s co-CEO, told Cosmo.

Yandy did not respond to requests for comment from Vox about the current petition to pull the costumes, but Dejecacion said she considers the retailer’s response, or lack thereof, “a slap in the face.”

“We [Native Americans] are not worth more than $150,000 to them,” she said. “The fictional costumes have been pulled, but these costumes that are meant to show real, living people are still being sold. These costumes paint Native American history like it’s part of a fairy tale. But we’re real people. We’re still here.”

Starting the Change.org petition is one way for Dejecacion to show the retailer that indigenous peoples have a voice and won’t tolerate costumes that erase their reality. She points to the story of Pocahontas to make her argument. Glamorized by Disney and sexualized by a slew of retailers, Pocahontas was a child when she first encountered the English, who later kidnapped and raped her, according to the Mattaponi tribe’s oral history.

And Sacagawea, another mythologized Native woman, was also kidnapped and sexually exploited. Her French “husband,” Toussaint Charbonneau, reportedly purchased Sacagawea when she was a young teen and regarded her as his slave. (He bought other indigenous girls, too.) The grim true stories of Pocahontas and Sacagawea are disregarded by costumes that frame them as sexy or mythical “Indian princesses.”

“The fictional costumes have been pulled, but these costumes that are meant to show real, living people are still being sold”

“These costumes are taking our real stories, twisting them, and sexualizing them, and furthering the dehumanization of Native women,” Dejecacion said.

Dani Miller of St. Paul, Minnesota, started the hashtag #CancelYandy because she had similar concerns. Of Dakota ancestry, she said that Halloween and Thanksgiving are particularly trying times for indigenous peoples due to how they’re represented during these occasions, but she acknowledged that Native Americans are dehumanized year-round — be it as mascots, at parties with racist themes, or in society generally.

Miller said the costumes intersect with the colonialism, imperialism, and erasure indigenous peoples face on a global level. She calls Yandy’s decision to yank the Brave Red Maiden costumes while keeping its “sexy Indian” collection in place “hypocrisy.”

“We need a paradigm shift in general,” she said. “We need people to stop normalizing these costumes. They create an exotic ‘other’ for people who are not white. People are making a choice; they are participating in upholding colonialism by purchasing these costumes. They’re reinforcing the fetishization of indigenous women without our consent. It sets up a slippery slope to be dehumanized and invisible-ized.”

Miller also takes issue with the idea that the opposition to Native American costumes and mascots stems from a new trend toward political correctness. She references books like 2015’s The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America or 1992’s The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions that examined pressing issues in the lives of indigenous women years before the #MeToo movement. Additionally, blogs like Native Appropriations and books like #Notyourprincess: Voices of Native American Women have countered stereotypical representations of Native people in popular culture.

“This has been a movement,” Miller said. “It’s not going away.”

Fifteen years have passed since Emmy Scott saw one of her white high school classmates walk down the hall in buckskin and fringe, but she still remembers how the encounter made her feel.

“It was one of those spirit days, and it was supposed to be like cowboy day,” she said. “I went to a majority white school but lived on the reservation. I saw this girl dressed in one of those costumes. It made me upset to my stomach, but I wasn’t confident enough to either confront her or bring it up to the administration.”

Now a law student at Michigan State University, Scott has grown more outspoken. As a college student in North Dakota, she said she took part in a lawsuit about the state’s embrace of Native mascots. More recently, Scott has taken to Facebook to tell her law school classmates to skip the “Indian maiden” costumes, although she faced opposition after making the request, she said. She’s also tweeted about the Yandy controversy.

“The costumes themselves — they’re the ultimate deprivation of agency,” she said. “What you’re trying to do is achieve a Native look while removing the Native voice.”

The anguish she felt after seeing a white classmate dressed in such a costume isn’t unique to her. Scholarly research on stereotypical depictions of indigenous peoples, such as sports mascots and Pocahontas costumes, found that they lowered the self-esteem of Native American children. These portrayals remind them of the narrow lens through which others see them, adversely affecting their self-image. This is especially troubling given that Native American youth have high rates of suicide compared to juveniles from other groups.

Scott said Native sports mascots and costumes contribute to these alarming trends by denying indigenous peoples their humanity. Mascots essentially equate Native Americans with animals, she said, while hypersexual Halloween costumes silence indigenous women, framing them as fictionalized characters.

“We’re living people,” she said. “We may be your neighbors. We may go to school with you, and you don’t even associate that we’re human beings. That’s the issue. It’s a form of othering that’s kind of insidious.”

Scott, who is of Ho-Chunk, Spokane, and Arikara heritage, said that people who sell and buy Native-style costumes ignore the religious significance of the ensembles. She dances at pow wows and receives each piece of regalia she wears for the events during religious ceremonies. The designs and colors she wears have been customized, and the eagle feathers she’s given are considered so sacred that they’re not allowed to touch the ground.

Yet mass retailers sell the feathers as if they have no spiritual significance, she said. Meanwhile, Native American students have had to fight to wear eagle feathers at graduation ceremonies, and indigenous peoples have had to overcome barriers imposed by the US government to practice their religions.

“We’re not in a place where we’re able to fully wear our religious items in school, and, yet, non-Natives can wear them for fun,” Scott said. “The underlying messages [of the costumes] are, ‘You’re a bunch of savages, and everything you have is up for grabs. You don’t own your land. You can’t own your body. You have no rights.”

Since Native Americans have painstakingly explained why the ensembles are “more than just costumes” and affect their everyday lives, Scott contends that consumers should know that it’s wrong to dress up as another race for Halloween or any other occasion. In addition to Native American costumes, ensembles that appropriate Mexican and Romani dress have faced criticism in recent years. Blackface controversies tend to surface on Halloween as well.

But over the past decade, poster campaigns such as “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume” have tried to educate the public about why racial drag is wrong. Given the efforts of activists to teach the public about cultural appropriation, Scott said retailers can no longer claim ignorance of the issue as an excuse.

“They know it’s wrong. They understand that it’s harmful,” she said. “But because it makes them money, they don’t care.”

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Original Source -> These costumes objectify Native American women. Retailers won’t stop selling them.

via The Conservative Brief

[internetbasic9]

Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’

Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’ Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’ https://ift.tt/2Mblwhc

Business

Urbana, Illinois (CNN)Former President Barack Obama offered his most pointed critique to date of President Donald Trump, delivering a lengthy and direct indictment Friday of the last two years in American politics by arguing the President is “capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years.”

The speech before more than a thousand students at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign was a preview of the message Obama will carry into the midterm elections. But it also represented the former President’s most comprehensive condemnation of Republicans in Washington and the first time he has publicly criticized Trump by name in a speech.

“You happen to be coming of age” amid backlash to progress, Obama told the students. “It did not start with Donald Trump, he is a symptom, not the cause. He is just capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear, an anger that is rooted in our past but is also borne in our enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes.”

Obama spent a sizable portion of his remarks criticizing Republicans in Congress, saying “the politics of resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party” over the last few decades and argued that the policies GOP leaders are pursuing aren’t conservative.

The Republican National Committee responded to Obama’s criticism by saying “President Obama stepped back into the spotlight to make the case that our country is on the wrong track.”

“2016 is over, but President Obama is still dismissing the millions of voters across the country who rejected a continuation of his policies in favor of President Trump’s plan for historic tax cuts, new jobs and economic growth,” RNC spokesperson Ellie Hockenbury said in a statement. “Democrats may have a new resistor-in-chief on the campaign trail, but they’ll need more than a message of resist and obstruct to win this November.”

Trump responded to Obama’s speech by telling a crowd in North Dakota “I watched it, but I fell asleep. I’ve found he’s very good for sleeping.”

Obama questions Republicans around Trump

While Obama only mentioned Trump by name twice in the speech, it was clear that the remarks were aimed squarely at the man he handed power to in 2017.

“It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say that we don’t target groups of people because of what they look like or how they pray. … We are supposed to stand up to discrimination and we are sure as heck to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers,” Obama said, an apparent rebuke of Trump telling reporters after the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that there was good “fine people on both sides.”

“How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?” Obama said.

And he slammed Trump for his treatment of the Department of Justice and FBI.

“It should not be Democratic or Republican, it should not be partisan to say that we don’t pressure the Department of Justice or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents,” he said. “Or to explicitly call for the attorney general to protect members of own party from prosecution because elections happen to be coming up. I am not making that up. That is not hypothetical.”

Trump blasted his Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this week, lamenting the separate indictments of two GOP lawmakers who were his earliest supporters in Congress during the 2016 election, suggesting they should not have been charged because they are Republicans.

At one point, a seemingly exasperated Obama openly questioned what happened with the Republican Party, noting that one of their early organizing principles was standing up to communism.

“What happened to the Republican Party?” he said. “Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism and now they are cozying up to the former head of the KGB, actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russia attack. What happened?”

He added: “I don’t mean to pretend I am channeling Abraham Lincoln, but that is not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican Party. It is not conservative, it sure isn’t normal. It is radical. It is a vision that says the protection of our power and those that back us is all the matters even when it hurts the country.”

Obama pushes audience to vote

The remarks, Obama said, were not meant to depress the young voters in the audience, but instead inspire them to understand that their voice matters.

“Don’t tell me your vote doesn’t matter,” he said, referring to voting as the “antidote” to all that ails Washington. “And if you thought elections don’t matter, I hope these last two years have corrected the impression.”

He acknowledged that politicians — including himself — had said similar messages about the importance of upcoming elections, but he added, “just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different, the stakes really are higher, the consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire.”

The speech ended Obama’s lengthy reprieve from political public life, one that has annoyed some Democrats who believed he was sitting on on a what they call a generational fight against Trump. Obama joked at the outset of the speech that he needed time away to stay married to his wife, Michelle Obama, and to spend time with his daughters. But his decision to step back into the political fray also comes at a time when Democrats, through the midterm elections, could deliver their most potent referendum on Trump to date.

Obama viewed the speech as arguably his most important of the year, his aides said, and was editing the remarks up until he touched down in Illinois.

Obama will soon take the remarks on the road, too. On Saturday, he will headline a rally for a handful of Democratic congressional candidates in California and next Thursday an event for Richard Cordray, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio.

Obama is also planning campaign trips to Pennsylvania in September, an Obama official said, as well as a New York fundraiser

for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee

, an organization led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama’s longtime friend.

A complicated relationship

Obama has made some appearances since Trump took office — including headlining a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee earlier this year — but the Trump era has complicated Obama’s post-presidency. A series of former presidents have avoided critiquing their successors, and Obama has attempted to keep that tradition since he left office in January 2017.

Trump has not honored that tradition and has shown little to no regard for his predecessors, regularly bashing them on Twitter, to the media and at rallies. And the two have not talked since the inauguration in 2017, sources told CNN.

Obama’s remarks represented that nonexistent relationship and while he focused some of his ire on Democrats — arguing that the party cannot embrace the tactics of Trump as a way to get back at him — Obama’s speech seethed with his view that the Trump administration is not the new normal.

“And by the way the idea that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren’t following the President’s orders,” Obama said of the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times this week, published by a Senior Administration Official. “That is not a check. I am being serious here. That is not how our democracy is supposed to work.”

Democrats, especially those in the room, welcomed Obama’s decision to step back into the fray. The speech in the university’s 1,300-person auditorium has seen sizable interest from the school’s student body, according to university spokesman Jon Davis, who said they had received around 22,000 requests for tickets from students.

But Republicans also said they were eager to see Obama back in the news, arguing he is the best weapon they have to motivate their base.

“For three cycles (2010, 2012, 2014) President Obama fired up Republicans like nobody,” Rep. Steve Stivers, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters on Friday. “And I’m happy he wants to do it again.”

But Obama showed on Friday that he has a potent critique for those Republicans: Mocking them for ignoring the principles they touted during his presidency.

“Suddenly deficits do not matter, even though two years ago, when the deficit was lower, they said I couldn’t afford to help working families or seniors on Medicare because the deficit was an existential crisis,” he said. “What changed? What changed?”

And on jobs, he sought to remind those in the room – but more directly Republicans back in Washington – that his last two years were times of economic growth.

“I mention all of this because when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” he said, subtly knocking Trump, a president who often cites jobs numbers. “I am glad it has continued but when you hear about his economic miracle that has been going on, when the job number comes out, monthly job numbers and suddenly Republicans say it is a miracle, I have to kind of remind them, actually those job numbers were the same they were in 2015, in 2016. Anyway, I digress.”

Obama out of the spotlight until now

Obama has spent much of 2018 away from the political fray, focusing on writing his book and raising money for his post-presidency foundation.

And he never said Trump’s name during his fundraising speech for the DNC and instead urged Democrats to stop “moping” and get to work for candidates.

That speech, in the eyes of Obama’s team, was not a preview of the former President’s midterm message. Instead, Obama’s advisers believe his midterm message will more closely resemble the remarks the former President delivered in South Africa as part of an event honoring the late Nelson Mandela.

That speech looked to be more inspiring, and that is exactly what Obama tried to do at the close of his remarks on Friday.

“You can be the generation that at a critical moment, stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it,” he said. “I believe in you. I believe you will help lead us in the right direction and I will be right there with you every step of the way.”

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Allie Malloy contributed to this report.

Read More | Dan Merica, CNN,

Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’, in 2018-09-08 05:44:20

[blogparadiseisland]

Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’

Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’ Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’ http://www.nature-business.com/business-obama-trump-is-capitalizing-on-resentment/

Business

Urbana, Illinois (CNN)Former President Barack Obama offered his most pointed critique to date of President Donald Trump, delivering a lengthy and direct indictment Friday of the last two years in American politics by arguing the President is “capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years.”

The speech before more than a thousand students at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign was a preview of the message Obama will carry into the midterm elections. But it also represented the former President’s most comprehensive condemnation of Republicans in Washington and the first time he has publicly criticized Trump by name in a speech.

“You happen to be coming of age” amid backlash to progress, Obama told the students. “It did not start with Donald Trump, he is a symptom, not the cause. He is just capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear, an anger that is rooted in our past but is also borne in our enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes.”

Obama spent a sizable portion of his remarks criticizing Republicans in Congress, saying “the politics of resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party” over the last few decades and argued that the policies GOP leaders are pursuing aren’t conservative.

The Republican National Committee responded to Obama’s criticism by saying “President Obama stepped back into the spotlight to make the case that our country is on the wrong track.”

“2016 is over, but President Obama is still dismissing the millions of voters across the country who rejected a continuation of his policies in favor of President Trump’s plan for historic tax cuts, new jobs and economic growth,” RNC spokesperson Ellie Hockenbury said in a statement. “Democrats may have a new resistor-in-chief on the campaign trail, but they’ll need more than a message of resist and obstruct to win this November.”

Trump responded to Obama’s speech by telling a crowd in North Dakota “I watched it, but I fell asleep. I’ve found he’s very good for sleeping.”

Obama questions Republicans around Trump

While Obama only mentioned Trump by name twice in the speech, it was clear that the remarks were aimed squarely at the man he handed power to in 2017.

“It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say that we don’t target groups of people because of what they look like or how they pray. … We are supposed to stand up to discrimination and we are sure as heck to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers,” Obama said, an apparent rebuke of Trump telling reporters after the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that there was good “fine people on both sides.”

“How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?” Obama said.

And he slammed Trump for his treatment of the Department of Justice and FBI.

“It should not be Democratic or Republican, it should not be partisan to say that we don’t pressure the Department of Justice or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents,” he said. “Or to explicitly call for the attorney general to protect members of own party from prosecution because elections happen to be coming up. I am not making that up. That is not hypothetical.”

Trump blasted his Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this week, lamenting the separate indictments of two GOP lawmakers who were his earliest supporters in Congress during the 2016 election, suggesting they should not have been charged because they are Republicans.

At one point, a seemingly exasperated Obama openly questioned what happened with the Republican Party, noting that one of their early organizing principles was standing up to communism.

“What happened to the Republican Party?” he said. “Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism and now they are cozying up to the former head of the KGB, actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russia attack. What happened?”

He added: “I don’t mean to pretend I am channeling Abraham Lincoln, but that is not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican Party. It is not conservative, it sure isn’t normal. It is radical. It is a vision that says the protection of our power and those that back us is all the matters even when it hurts the country.”

Obama pushes audience to vote

The remarks, Obama said, were not meant to depress the young voters in the audience, but instead inspire them to understand that their voice matters.

“Don’t tell me your vote doesn’t matter,” he said, referring to voting as the “antidote” to all that ails Washington. “And if you thought elections don’t matter, I hope these last two years have corrected the impression.”

He acknowledged that politicians — including himself — had said similar messages about the importance of upcoming elections, but he added, “just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different, the stakes really are higher, the consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire.”

The speech ended Obama’s lengthy reprieve from political public life, one that has annoyed some Democrats who believed he was sitting on on a what they call a generational fight against Trump. Obama joked at the outset of the speech that he needed time away to stay married to his wife, Michelle Obama, and to spend time with his daughters. But his decision to step back into the political fray also comes at a time when Democrats, through the midterm elections, could deliver their most potent referendum on Trump to date.

Obama viewed the speech as arguably his most important of the year, his aides said, and was editing the remarks up until he touched down in Illinois.

Obama will soon take the remarks on the road, too. On Saturday, he will headline a rally for a handful of Democratic congressional candidates in California and next Thursday an event for Richard Cordray, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio.

Obama is also planning campaign trips to Pennsylvania in September, an Obama official said, as well as a New York fundraiser

for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee

, an organization led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama’s longtime friend.

A complicated relationship

Obama has made some appearances since Trump took office — including headlining a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee earlier this year — but the Trump era has complicated Obama’s post-presidency. A series of former presidents have avoided critiquing their successors, and Obama has attempted to keep that tradition since he left office in January 2017.

Trump has not honored that tradition and has shown little to no regard for his predecessors, regularly bashing them on Twitter, to the media and at rallies. And the two have not talked since the inauguration in 2017, sources told CNN.

Obama’s remarks represented that nonexistent relationship and while he focused some of his ire on Democrats — arguing that the party cannot embrace the tactics of Trump as a way to get back at him — Obama’s speech seethed with his view that the Trump administration is not the new normal.

“And by the way the idea that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren’t following the President’s orders,” Obama said of the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times this week, published by a Senior Administration Official. “That is not a check. I am being serious here. That is not how our democracy is supposed to work.”

Democrats, especially those in the room, welcomed Obama’s decision to step back into the fray. The speech in the university’s 1,300-person auditorium has seen sizable interest from the school’s student body, according to university spokesman Jon Davis, who said they had received around 22,000 requests for tickets from students.

But Republicans also said they were eager to see Obama back in the news, arguing he is the best weapon they have to motivate their base.

“For three cycles (2010, 2012, 2014) President Obama fired up Republicans like nobody,” Rep. Steve Stivers, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters on Friday. “And I’m happy he wants to do it again.”

But Obama showed on Friday that he has a potent critique for those Republicans: Mocking them for ignoring the principles they touted during his presidency.

“Suddenly deficits do not matter, even though two years ago, when the deficit was lower, they said I couldn’t afford to help working families or seniors on Medicare because the deficit was an existential crisis,” he said. “What changed? What changed?”

And on jobs, he sought to remind those in the room – but more directly Republicans back in Washington – that his last two years were times of economic growth.

“I mention all of this because when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” he said, subtly knocking Trump, a president who often cites jobs numbers. “I am glad it has continued but when you hear about his economic miracle that has been going on, when the job number comes out, monthly job numbers and suddenly Republicans say it is a miracle, I have to kind of remind them, actually those job numbers were the same they were in 2015, in 2016. Anyway, I digress.”

Obama out of the spotlight until now

Obama has spent much of 2018 away from the political fray, focusing on writing his book and raising money for his post-presidency foundation.

And he never said Trump’s name during his fundraising speech for the DNC and instead urged Democrats to stop “moping” and get to work for candidates.

That speech, in the eyes of Obama’s team, was not a preview of the former President’s midterm message. Instead, Obama’s advisers believe his midterm message will more closely resemble the remarks the former President delivered in South Africa as part of an event honoring the late Nelson Mandela.

That speech looked to be more inspiring, and that is exactly what Obama tried to do at the close of his remarks on Friday.

“You can be the generation that at a critical moment, stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it,” he said. “I believe in you. I believe you will help lead us in the right direction and I will be right there with you every step of the way.”

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Allie Malloy contributed to this report.

Read More | Dan Merica, CNN,

Business Obama: Trump is ‘capitalizing on resentment’, in 2018-09-08 05:44:20