#obviously ill-advised but still a potential path

[annemarieyeretzian]

fearne didn’t want the fucking shard! she didn’t change her mind! ashton didn’t convince her to change her mind! they didn’t threaten her or bargain with her or trade anything for it! fuck off! listen to fearne! she said she thought that “maybe that was his challenge”! anyone and everyone, including but certainly not limited to chetney pock’o pea, can get off ashton’s back under the guise of defending fearne while actively stripping her of fucking agency!

[revvethasmythh]

One thing I find really fascinating about this last ep is that the confrontation with Laudna, in Orym's own words, "brought [him] back to himself, a little bit." Because of this, he chose not continue his plan of using Ishta, a blade Dorian refers to as "clearly a threat." Orym turns away from it and admits it's probably a good thing he's been diverted from this path.

Meanwhile, both Laudna and Dorian use Orym and his (now defunct) desire for the sword as a point of comparison and/or mental justification for their own ill-advised risks. Laudna leads with, "Just as Orym wishes to wield that sword, I wish to wield Delilah" (obviously this was said before Orym gave up the sword, but his doing so has not, as far as we know, dissuaded her from this path at all), and Dorian holds the Gambler's Blade "thinking to himself about Orym last night, and how serious he was, how dedicated he was to the cause of wanting this sword that was clearly a threat" and sits with the reality of the situation he's in and decides to take an extra risk on his own life.

All three of them, in some manner, are pinging on the same concept: that the stakes to this fight are enormous and taking a massive risk might be necessary to finish this mission. But in this specific scenario, Orym is the one who backed off, re-evaluated his position, and decided the potential risk (to both the cohesion of the team, and his own mental health/morality, presumably) wasn't worth it. But the impression was already made. Laudna still wants to bring Delilah into this fight (something she'd already basically decided, but chose here to really double down on), and Dorian made the active decision to lower his chance of survival for a better chance to hit. Both of them doing the opposite of what Orym ultimately did, while still keeping Orym in their minds as they do so.

[lady-literature]

no point wishing on stars

aka the jasonette aladdin au literally no one asked for

This is a great big amalgamation of semi-canon miraculous, batman and a heavy dose of bastardized Aladdin but here we go-

The story goes like this:

Jason is our beloved street rat turned prince Boy Wonder and billionaire’s son (not that he’s gotten that far yet).

Marinette is Ladybug, is the Guardian, is our modern-day Jasmine. She’s next in line after Fu to lead the Order, which, I suppose, is like High Royalty for superheroes/magic users.

But before she can take her rightful place, she needs a partner by her side. It’s so stupid rule that says she, as a Ladybug, needs a Black Cat by her side in order to be properly balanced.

The only problem is, she doesn’t want one. Or, well. More accurately, it’s that she doesn’t like the ones offered to her, and she doesn’t quite like the idea of being tied to someone she barely knows, especially not at fourteen.

There have been many Black Cat candidates to cross her path but there has been only one she did not immediately veto. Adrien Agreste may be a Black Cat, but he cannot be hers. He will never be anything more than her dearest brother, and that is not what Creation needs.

Creation and Destruction—life and death—have a certain type of relationship. They are lovers, mated and married in every meaning of the word.

And, for as much as she loves and adores Adrien as her brother in her soul, they will never be like that. She will never want him the way she must should he take up Destruction.

So yeah. Marinette has a problem. And yeah, she has some time to figure it out, but the Order is looking to have her figure it out sooner rather than later. Adrien is a good place holder for now, but if Marinette doesn’t choose a Black Cat by the time she’s twenty-one, Adrien will either have to do, or she forfeits her crown and the Ladybug miraculous (which she would never do, she loves her people and Tikki too much to ever do that).

(wait? Does this mean I made Adrien the human equivalent of Raja?… yes. Yes it does.)

And, to spice this up just a bit more, let’s say Hawkmoth is Jafar, yeah? This little shit is really trying to push his son to be the next Black Cat because he wants power what’s best for his son. So he be out here sabotaging potential Black Cats because he’s an asshole his son is the best candidate at the moment. He could give less than two shits about if Mari and Adrien actually like each other that way, he will shove his son at her until she has no choice but to choose him.

Anyway, so Mari leaves the temple one day. Which is fine, she’s not trapped there or anything, she can come and go as she pleases! (she may have to normally take someone with her and is currently ignoring that rule perhaps, but that’s besides the point!)

So she’s at a market in Gotham, strolling down the street, having a good time enjoying being around normal people, when she notices a boy getting into some trouble.

(I’ll give you three guesses as to who it is and the first two don’t count.)

Jason was stealing from market vendors because the hubbub of the street is distracting and nicking a few scraps here and there is practically child’s play. Only, he miscalculates.

One vendor was paying more attention than he thought.

Mari’s across the street and sees the whole thing. Sees the vendor grab Jason’s hand in a bruising grip and snarl in his face.

She’s in between the pair before she even realizes it, mouth already opening around some made-up story about ill-advised dares and how ‘it won’t happen again, sir’ and ‘here, I’ll pay for that right now, no harm done!’

Jason stares at her utterly baffled and, thankfully, silent until after she’d already grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

Only, she pulls him away down the wrong alley. (Look. Mari’s a real sweet-talker and knows how to smooth ruffled feathers, but she is hardly street smart.)

Jason swears, and it’s the first words she’s heard him speak, and then it’s him tugging her along. Up a fire escape and over the rooftops because Jason likes to think he’s tough, but there’s no way he’s picking a fight with five guys bigger than him and wearing masks.

He likes to keep his heart beating more than he wants to keep his pride unharmed thank you very much.

They end up on a rooftop, panting and like, seven blocks away. Marinette is now very lost and with a strange boy who she doesn’t know. He seems… nice, and she’s a good judge of character, but that doesn’t mean much when they’re still very much strangers.

But then the two just look at each other and suddenly they’re both laughing.

And that, my friends, is the start of a beautiful friendship.

***

During those first few months, she and Jason just seem to click.

Mari starts leaving the temple more and more to meet up with Jason, and on more than one occasion dragging behind her a picnic basket bigger than her. (it’s stupid to let one of her friends starve just because he’s too prideful to take her food. So she plans lots of picnics for them both, and pointedly ignores the way he eats and hoards most of the food she brings.)

He is her friend—though she would be lying if she said she didn’t like him a bit more than what one would consider friendly.

And Jason, who is funny and kind and made sharp by the life he’s been forced into, likes her right back. She is one of the few great parts of his life, a bright spot in the darkness he has called his world for so long, and there are few things he wouldn’t do for her.

It’s… scary—just a bit—how important she is to him.

He tries not to think about it too much.

And it doesn't really matter anyway, because she is good and bright and amazing and he is… there’s nothing he can give her in return. Nothing good, anyway.

She deserves someone better. Someone who could buy her things as pretty as her and take her nice places.

Someone who isn’t a street rat.

And then he learns she’s Ladybug, right up there with Wonder Woman and Robin and all the other amazing people set on saving the world, and he feels he got that much farther from her. How can he ever compare?

Jason doesn’t wish, because wishing is childish and he learned too young that shooting stars don’t exist and he’s come to terms with the fact that this is his life years ago, all right? He doesn't need the burden of hope to weigh him down now.

(but perhaps, deep down, tucked away in the corner of his heart, there might be a thought. Small and scared and aching, he might think, ‘if only I could be there with her, if only i could fly with her, maybe then I’d be enough’)

Six months after he meets Marinette, Jason comes across the Batmobile.

His first thought is, this can’t be real.

His second is, I could buy Mari a real birthday gift with this.

His third thought is less of a thought because he’s already got two tires off by that point and then suddenly Batman is there and Jason is swinging his tire iron.

This then leads—somehow—to him winding up at Wayne Manor with Bruce Wayne and then he learns about Batman and Robin and he gets to be Robin and-

(and what else is a Robin meant to do but fly?)

It’s too good to be true. Wishes don’t come true and good things don’t happen to him unless their name be Marinette but… but Jason’s here and it’s not a dream. He’s no prince but, well… he thinks this might just be as close as you can get.

And, okay. He really does try with the whole secrecy thing, because he can understand why that’s important but, I mean… it’s Marinette, who is Ladybug. There really was never any chance of Jason keeping that particular secret, Batman or no Batman.

And about,,, two years pass like this ig. Mari is almost seventeen now, and Jason turned seventeen recently and the pair are getting closer and closer every day. They’re toeing the line of ‘more than friends’ but neither have really taken that next step. 

The pressure is on Mari from the Order because she’s getting older and as much as she likes Jason, knows him but he isn’t a good candidate for Destruction and Mari must think of her people first.

Jason doesn’t get to be hers to keep and that aches but what else is she meant to do? She cannot—does not—want to change him in any way. So they stay, in their strange little limbo, with neither making a move.

And then, the unthinkable happens.

Hawkmoth hears of the boy finally, and is, obviously, furious.

He doesn't care if this boy can be a Cat or not, he’s going to ruin all his plans. So, there’s only one solution. He needs to get rid of him.

(i’ll give you three guesses as to how and the first two don’t count!)

Robin—Jason—dies, and Marinette feels when he does. She doesn’t know why or what happened, but the moment he leaves the world her blood turns cold and she feels sick.

Jason hasn’t even looked at the ring and already Marinette could feel the thread that had begun to tie them together. When she hears of his death—when she learns that he’s gone—Marinette shatters.

She shatters and cries and the world tips just a little, with the force of her sorrow, with the agony of her screams.

(justice is blind, yes, but is she deaf? Can she deny the sobbing of such a being as Creation herself? Can she stand, unfeeling, before the agony she has wrought?)

Marinette does not bring Jason back to life… but she has done something close. Has opened the possibility. Is, perhaps, the reason that six months later he screams and claws and drags himself from his own grave.

He is wrong wrong wrong, but he is also alive.

The league finds him, as they must. And Talia throws him into the pits, as she must. And Jason is reborn, screaming and angry and violent, as he must.

Marinette had known, Before, that Jason would not be a good match for the ring. He was tough and wild and willing to get his hands dirty if that’s what it took, but that was not what his core was. He was familiar with the rust and decay of back alley streets, but that wasn’t where he belonged. He would throw a punch but he didn’t relish the blood on his knuckles after a fight.

Jason was surrounded by destruction, but that’s not what he was.

Now… now the destruction he spent so long dancing with has slipped through the cracks in his mind left behind by the explosion. It ripped through his skin and slithered through into his veins until it settled in his heart like an overly smug cat.

Death and Destruction are inside him, woven in his ribcage and fusing with his blood, pumping pumping pumping its deadly rhythm and Jason is helpless to deny it’s tune.

Jason is a being of Destruction through circumstance rather than design, but make no mistake, that does not make him less.

(in fact, it may even make him more. To be remade from one’s own destruction is a powerful thing, and to be remade into Destruction? Well. There are few things more… miraculous.)

And we all know the next part of the story right?

Marinette mourns and grows and lives.

Jason rages and learns and plans. He’s come far from that street rat of a boy, and farther still from Marinette's petite oiseau.

But, two years after he comes back, when he ventures back to Gotham for revenge, Marinette takes one look at this angry, violent man calling himself Red Hood and she knows. He’s too familiar, even as he stands before her, more changed than she ever thought possible.

She meets the Red Hood when he comes for the new Robin, sweet little Tim who Marinette had grown to like despite herself. (He is not Jason, and never will be, but the boy was too shy and clever and earnest for her to have remained cold to him just because he wore the same colors once worn by the man she loved.)

She loves Tim in the same way she loves Adrien, simply and wholly and uncomplicated.

And then she is there when Jason comes for him.

Their reunion is not the stuff of fairy tales. It is not the beginning of happily ever after or true love.

Their reunion is a punch in the gut because it doesn't matter that he’s alive—except it does, because Mari has never known she could be so happy and so shattered at the same time—she is farther from him than she’d ever imagined she could be.

She reaches out for him, voice cracking around his name—because who else could this familiar stranger be?—and something in her shatters all over again when he flinches back from her touch.

“No,” he says, and it is a million things at once. He sends one last glare to Tim, who is still behind her, and then he’s gone.

***

Jason tries to avoid her.

Marinette allows this for a whole month before the whispers in the streets and the stories Tim comes back to her with, become too much.

She knows he is angry and out for revenge and building an empire out of the criminals that infest their city, but she doesn’t care. He was gone for two whole years and Marinette is tired of not seeing him-hearing him-touching him.

She has missed him like an ache in her chest and she doesn't care if he hates her or is furious with her, she just wants to see him. She needs to reassure herself that he’s alive, that he’s real.

And, it seems, the universe is on her side in this. In her chest, nestled there in the space next to her heart, there is what she can only describe as a compass, pointing to wherever Jason is like he’s her own personal north star.

The first few times, she’s yelled at or ran off. Or he runs off. Either way, for a while, the only moments she’s close to him are short and aching.

But she doesn’t let him run for long, and she doesn’t let him scare her off as she knows he’s trying to do.

Marinette had always been the more stubborn of the two.

Eventually, like a feral cat learning safety (like a hurt, scared animal relearning love), Jason lets her get close. He lets her in, lets her get close again.

The first time she sees him, without helmet or mask, she flings herself at him. Arms around his neck and legs wrapped around his waist, clutching him like her life depends on it. He takes her weight automatically, hand beneath her thighs while the other wraps around her back just as tightly. (he longs for touch, she has relearned, but he is also so frightened of it. She will have to be brave for them both)

The second time she sees his face bare once more, he is still thrumming with energy from a fight, is still high on the feeling of broken bones and blood on his knuckles. The force in his chest, the clawing and raging thing settled just off-center of the very core of him, pulls him toward her and Marinette meets him halfway, her own bright, ruthless force like a magnet in her chest.

They meet in a clash of hands on skin and lips anywhere they’ll land.

It is the first time they fall into bed together.

It will not be the last.

Now, you may be thinking, ‘Lady! This isn’t very Aladdin at all!’ and to that I tell you: I fucking warned you. What part of bastardized-Aladdin didn’t you get?

Also, shh. This is my favorite part!

So Mari is in her own personal little honeymoon stage, right? She practically could not be happier because Jason is alive and he’s hers and, even if he’s more violent and a crime boss, he’s stopped attacking his family at least. Which is good, because Mari really didn’t like the sad look Tim wore every time he brought up Jason.

And, oh yeah. Through a combination of her own detective work and Tikki, little Mari realizes that Jason is her Black Cat. Is the only person her Black Cat could be, not because of destiny—though that had helped—but because of coincidence and the bond the pair forged themselves.  

So Mari is, obviously, on cloud nine at the moment and she tells Adrien and Fu who are ecstatic for her, and announcements are going to be made the second Mari tells Jason and what could possibly go wrong?

Well, a lot of things really but the first thing is that, basically, Mari is asking Jason to marry her. Just a bit. And while they both know, in that nebulous way they always have, that they love each other, neither of them have ever actually said it.

And also, they aren’t really dating right now either. Mari’s been too busy trying to just get near Jason again that she hasn’t much been paying attention to normal relationship things like dates or labels.

So when she brings it up Jason is… well, caught off guard is likely an understatement. Which then makes Mari realize what exactly she’s just done and- shit. She’s ruined everything and Jason is going to run away again and the compass in her chest is just going to be a reminder of what she can’t have and-

Jason, who only moments before was terrified and in danger of bolting—because this is a lot and magic-marrying Mari comes with responsibilities and rules and a thousand strings he doesn't know what to do with—now stops and stares at her, babbling and so obviously panicked and something in him abruptly settles.

She starts pacing and he grabs her hand when she passes by close enough, reeling her into his body. She comes easily even in her frazzled state and the vicious clawing thing in his chest sighs contentedly.

“Why?” he asks, and it is a million things at once. Why him, why now, why, why, why?

There are a million ways she could answer, but the easiest? The most important answer is simply this: “Because I love you.”

His breath shudders in his chest at her words and her hands raise to settle on his cheek and the back of his neck, a protection of one of the most vulnerable parts of him, and he leans into her touch like a man starved.

Gods, Jason has loved her for years.

He loved her Before and he loved her in the pits, when all he had was the hate they kept stuffing in his chest, and he loves her now. She is his sun and he will spin around her for the rest of his life. But when it all comes down to it, one simple fact doesn’t change:

“I don’t deserve your love.”

Her hands press harder into his skin, like she can force him to understand through touch alone. “If everyone only got the love they deserved no one would be truly loved,” she counters.

“You would,” he says, quick and quiet and honest. Her breath hitches and he watches her eyes go wide. The hands he has on her hips tighten at the emotions he finds there.

“Oh,” she whispers, already pulling him down to meet her. “Oh you stupid, beautiful man.”

And then they’re kissing and- and it is not the first time they’ve done this, but there is something very different about this one.

They’re kissing, and this time, it feels very much like coming home.

***

And, perhaps, that is not the end.

Because there is still one wish left. 

Because Jafar-Hawkmoth is still there, and he’s still murderous, and there a very real chance he’s going to ruin the wedding somehow.

Because there is never truly an end to a story, it just simply stops being told.

But none of that really matters. Our princess and her dearest street rat are together at last, and together they’ll get through whatever happens after the story stops being told.

They’ve always had a thing for impossible odds after all.

[the-nysh]

Garou does have a lot of charming and redeeming qualities and most of the fans seems to like him. But do you have any constructive criticism for garou or any quality that you seem to dislike in him? Plus I love your writing :)

Oooh, let’s see...(and thank you! :’3) ‘Dislike’ may be too strong a word...but he does have his interesting character flaws (which, depending on how you look at them, could be seen as more endearing/charm points, heh ymmv) and I certainly have my concerns for him.

The big one is obviously him going around hunting heroes who never personally wronged him (no matter how justified he feels in doing so by attacking the system’s ‘justice’, and even when he announces his intent by warning them first) is still...well, a crime, and beating them up and putting them in hospitals while other disasters are raging, dwindling their numbers when they’re needed more on the front lines is also...not very constructive or his best judgement of the current situation either. He thinks he’s making an impact that way (including wanting to build his notoriety), but objectively, we know that’s unhelpful the wrong approach. 

So you could say he’s stubborn to a fault (to the point he even recklessly endangers himself), indecisive about what he really wants (and who he really wants to be), and in some chronic denial about himself too (a bit of an oblivious dummy because of that), and doesn’t tend to think things through either, so his perspective ends up rather warped short-sighted and overly hasty. He may feel things very strongly (his heart coming from a good place tho) and is often driven by those emotions, but he doesn’t always know why he feels the way he does, or how to deal with them well or channel them in constructive ways. In turmoil from emotional constipation~ So his pent-up anger/frustration can erupt in reactive outbursts or he lashes out on instinct (which can be dangerous;; esp if it gets out of control or he accidentally does things he doesn’t mean to making him feel shitty afterwards.)

From early on, he’s been bound by spite and a world view formed perhaps too soon in his childhood (which is actually limiting *cough* key word). He may think he already knows ‘this is how the world works’ based on what he’s personally perceived and experienced....but that actually makes him rather naive to the real world instead. :O Especially by thinking he could change and unite the world thru fear...lofty in scope, but a bit too idealistic, cause the real world’s not so simple. Ah, and Psykos did call him ‘pure of heart’ too. He prematurely set out calling himself the monster (read: identifying and sympathizing with those who’re systematically treated unfairly), conflating another group as the ‘bullies/bad guys’ instead (based on his own personal and fictional projections a bit too much), and all without even knowing what real monsters are actually like! (Which he ends up hating anyway once he finally meets some for real.) So hhhh;;; (his intentions may be grounded from a place of moral righteousness, but his methods in response to that, by setting out wanting to achieve balance, are certainly...ill-advised) he really lacks that necessary life experience and guidance. :’)

Which is also rather tragic, because when no one was on his side as a kid, he likely lost his trust in adults/authority figures to help him (when alone and powerless) and the reliance on any potential support system from others too (striving to become strong and self-reliant on his own instead; aka the ‘you gotta stand up and save yourself’ outlook) when...after everything learned from ONE, that’s against the whole message about how much we actually need others to function/mature/grow/thrive (connections with others are important!) And Garou...all by himself lone-wolf style, taking all that burden upon himself, believing he had no other option to take either (even when not true to himself or happy about it, yet he still felt he had to perform the role anyway), just ends up being self-destructive...;.; So he couldn’t have gotten far on a path like that, but whew, thankfully Saitama stepped in before any of this could spiral out of hand! (With Tareo’s help!) The lesson finally (and hopefully) liberating him from his previously binding mindset. :’) (Which we still have yet to see what becomes of him next~) After finding himself and the truth, ideally there should be nothing else holding him back (or forcing him to conform to such ‘roles’ anymore) cause it’ll be just what Saitama says, he can still do what he wants, and try again in a new/better way, even after experiencing failure the first time around. So ahhhh...(this got pretty long, heh) I definitely have my many concerns for him, but seeing him struggle and figure out all this for the better makes me rather fond of him and all his flaws instead. <3

[jgroffdaily]

[This story contains spoilers for season two of Mindhunter on Netflix.]

If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you: That well-worn Nietzsche quote might be the best explanation for what happened to Holden Ford, the impetuous FBI wunderkind played by Jonathan Groff, in the season one finale of Mindhunter. Holden, alongside his partner Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), had spent months interviewing incarcerated serial killers in order to glean insight into their mind-set, pioneering the science of criminal profiling.

Having demonstrated an uncanny knack for getting truths out of monsters, Holden started to ride way too high on his own brilliance, alienating his colleagues and jeopardizing the already uncertain future of the fledgling Behavioral Science Unit. In the season finale he paid an ill-advised solo visit to the serial killer Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), who responded by giving him the most menacing hug ever committed to film. The season closes with Holden in the grips of a long-overdue panic attack after escaping Kemper, the darkness of his work and the recklessness of his approach finally catching up to him.

Season two, which picks up directly after the finale, sees Holden continuing to struggle with panic attacks in private, while still letting his ego run away with him at work. “Though Holden is still engaged with doing interviews with serial killers, now he's getting a little snobby about it,” Groff tells The Hollywood Reporter. “He only wants to interview the killers that he personally deems worthy.” That new attitude, combined with his mental fragility, seems like a recipe for disaster — particularly once Holden travels to Atlanta to tackle the most difficult case of his career to date.

Groff spoke to THR about depicting Holden’s mental breakdown, what’s different about season two’s interrogation scenes and how the Atlanta child murders case unfolds onscreen.

At the end of season one, it feels like Holden has the air punctured out of him by Kemper. He goes from incredibly cocky to total psychological collapse. What was it like to play that very dramatic shift in the new season?

I was so interested to see how the writers were going to pick Holden up off the floor after the finale. In terms of the continuity between his panic attack in the hospital [after seeing Kemper] and his panic attack at the end of episode one after Shepard [Cotter Smith] talks to him, I realized that any time there's a mirror held up to Holden and he can sort of have a moment of self-awareness and really look at himself, it sends him into panic mode. That’s what Ed Kemper did at the end of the first season, he was turning the mirror back on Holden, and I think that’s also what Shepard does at the end of the season two premiere.

He’s in his element when he’s probing into other people’s psychology, but when it’s turned on him he can’t handle it.

Yeah, and when he’s in work mode, and he's a dog with a bone, it sort of evaporates and he's fine. It's just these little moments when his blinders are removed that he sinks into panic. The minute he pulls his shit together for the [David] Berkowitz interview, and Tench says “I think he’s back,” I love it because it adds a layer of drama to every scene moving forward. We’ve logged this information as something that can happen to Holden, and now that factors into every interview, knowing that potential is there.

What goes into depicting a panic attack onscreen?

I’d forgotten about this until just now, but when we were filming the season one finale, in the moment right before Kemper hugs me, David [Fincher] had me do this (inhales and exhales rapidly), just a lot of breaths really quick in and out, I think just to get all of the blood out of my face. I did almost pass out. That was the scene right before I run out of the room. The panic attack scene in the season two premiere was sort of the same thing — we did it at varying levels, and I started out by overdoing it. I think I was making noises, it was a lot, and David was like, “OK, Groff, take it down a notch.” I love working with him because he can say something like, “Take it down 50 percent from that,” and I’ll know what he’s talking about. I tend to just throw it out there, and then he shades and shapes the level of explosion.

The Atlanta child murders is the most contentious case that the show has tackled so far. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the case itself, and the FBI’s role in it was specifically controversial. How does the show approach the case?

I listened to [podcast] Atlanta Monster and read James Baldwin’s book, The Evidence of Things Not Seen. And Courtenay Miles — who was our first AD in season one and one of our head writers on season two — could have a degree on the subject of Atlanta between 1978 and 1982. She did so much research, she spoke to police officials that were there during that time, and tried to really get all the conflicting opinions and ideas about what happened. They really try to lay out in the scripts the political atmosphere of what was going on at that time in Atlanta — the first black mayor had just been elected, “white flight” was happening in the city center, the new Atlanta airport that we now know as this giant hub was about to open in 1980.

It was just a huge moment of change in Atlanta, and the last thing that the city needed — in some people’s minds — was a lot of publicity about these children being murdered. On top of which you have the FBI coming in there and trying to prove this core theory of the Behavioral Science Unit, that you can actually take this psychological work and these interviews, and make a profile of someone and use that to catch an active criminal while it's happening.

Why is Holden so stubbornly determined that his theory of the case is correct?

One of the conclusions the BSU has drawn is that serial killers rarely cross racial lines, and so Holden firmly believes that this killer is black. A lot of other people think it’s the Ku Klux Klan, some people think it's a child pornography ring, there’s a bunch of different theories. But Holden is there to help catch what he believes is a serial killer, in order to help the city of Atlanta and also to prove his theory right, to prove that this method of profiling works.

Season two brings back Jim Barney (Albert Jones), the African-American agent Bill wanted to hire in season one. What’s the dynamic when Holden is doing interviews with Jim versus Bill, whom he’s used to working with?

I love Albert, he's a phenomenal actor, and they knew in the first season when they cast him that he was going to come back to play this bigger part. What’s interesting in those interview scenes is that this season, though Holden is still engaged with doing interviews with serial killers, now he's getting a little snobby about it. He only wants to interview the serial killers that he personally deems worthy, which is a stark contrast from the first season where he's like, “Feed me, I want everything, I want all the information! I want to meet everyone!” Now he’s a little more picky about who he’s gonna spend his very valuable time with.

So in episode three, he sort of begrudgingly agrees to go to Atlanta to meet with these killers who he deems unintelligent, and Barney ends up being sort of the Holden in those interviews, in that he's the one that's actually engaging with the person in a deep way, and ends up gleaning the information that Holden would normally glean. I loved reading that when I got the scripts, because there’s a clear evolution of these interviews in the second season, now that Holden kind of thinks he’s above it to a certain extent. Obviously not Charles Manson or David Berkowitz, but he maybe feels he’s outgrowing the interviews a little bit, and the character of Jim becomes my foil in that regard.

John Douglas, the real-life inspiration for the show, eventually moved away from FBI work and became more of an author and consultant. Holden is only loosely based on Douglas, but do you think he could take a similar path?

Well, I don't know this for sure and I'd have to ask John, but my feeling from meeting him and reading his stuff is that he didn’t move away from the FBI because of disinterest. He had a total mental and physical breakdown from how intense the work was. He was, I think for his whole career, a very obsessive worker. His breakdown happened much later [than Holden’s], when he was a little bit older and had been in the thick of it for much longer, so I think Holden’s panic attacks are kind of a nod to that. We deviate a lot in terms of the characters’ personal lives.

When Holden is hospitalized he calls Bill — who’s not thrilled about having to fly across the country to get him — and says he didn’t have anyone else to call. That line was interesting. Does he not have family?

I think at the end of the first season, we saw him kind of shut everybody out and go off on his own, so in my mind when I was reading that, when he says, “I didn’t have anyone else I could call," it was a moment of self-awareness. He realizes that he has put himself on an island. I mean, the only person he could turn to at the end of season one was Ed Kemper! But when he calls Bill, I thought it was kind of a beautiful nod to the fact that at the end of it all, the person I'm gonna call, for better or for worse, is the guy that I've been through all this shit with. Sometimes we have those people where we experience something insane, and the only person who gets it is the one who was in the room too. I think that line from Holden is a reminder, at the top of the season, that these two are kind of bonded forever, in a way. As different as they are, they have this very specific fucked up world that will bind them together for the rest of their lives.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

[touchmycoat]

kinktober: day 28

day 28: writing on the body

this wasn’t meant to be sickfic, much less incomplete sickfic, but here we are. I’ll finish, clean, and post to AO3 later.

The rendezvous was on a summer island once more, the air so superheated this time that even Ace wanted to run around fully nude. He couldn’t feel excessively hot or anything, what with literally being fire and all—it was just the atmosphere the whole island brought about. It made him want to sweat and run for a dunk in a freshwater lake or wrestle someone for an icy shower.

Others didn’t have it so easy. Thatch’s hair had gone fully limp since day zeroth, whatever he used to keep up the ‘do melting and dripping off his forehead in nasty milky trails. Marco was okay, though little licks of blue fire keep getting spotted on his exposed skin, healing the sunburns he swore he didn’t get.

Sabo, when he got to the island, promptly took off all his clothes.

“Don’t,” he ordered, dunking his hands into the tub of water that had gone tepid in a matter of minutes after Ace prepared it, “touch me, ‘cause I won’t be held responsible for what I’ll do.”

“Aw, babe, I’ve missed you too,” Ace replied, tone as dry as Sabo’s hair was wet, now that he’s gone and sank his entire head into the water. “Aren’t Revolutionaries supposed to be hardier? You’re gonna let a little heat wave get you down?”

“I may also be running a little fever,” was Sabo’s admission. Ace scanned him in alarm, and now noticed an unnatural pink flush under his skin. “Everything is unpleasant and I’m dying.”

“I’m assuming that’s hyperbole.”

“Well I don’t keep sucking a doctor’s dick for no reason—where the fuck is Marco?”

Exploring, was the answer to that, and Sabo looked as impressed with it as Ace expected him to—which is to say, not at all.

“The one time I need him,” Sabo cursed in blatant mistruth. “That’ll teach me to ever trust again. There’s no way around it then—Ace, we have to go old school.”

“Unless you’ve brought your own eel’s blood, I can’t help you there,” Ace answered warily.

“I meant—”

“Nor do I have ginger root and all the necessary needles.”

With a sigh of frustration, Ace approached and hovered his hand about Sabo’s forehead, taking heed of Sabo’s warning against physical contact and hoping, sometime in the past five minutes, his fruit has given him some miraculous sensitivity to temperature in air convection. It hasn’t, but Sabo heaved a sigh of his own, and sullenly leaned his head into Ace’s hand.

“...Yikes.” It took a moment for Ace to translate the sensation on his hand to a normal human context. “You’re really burning.”

“If you truly love me,” Sabo muttered, peeling his head away with a grunt, “you’d go hunt an eel.”

“If I truly love you,” Ace corrected, pulling a den den mushi out of his bag, “I’d call Marco.”

One of Marco’s division members picked up.

“Hey Commander!” was Aoi’s cheery greeting. “Gimme a sec, our Commander’s left us a bit behind.”

“Just put me on the loudest volume,” Ace advised. As soon as she did, Ace yelled into the sparse canopy of trees in the broadcast, “hey Marco! Sabo’s dying!”

A beat. A burst of blue flames. A familiar face emerging with a frown.

“I’m assuming that’s hyperbole, yoi.”

“How would you know?” Sabo complained, not even looking at the den den mushi, so bleary-eyed he was and swaying on the spot. “You’re not here to anally probe me with a thermometer or anything.”

Giggling, and a cough. “Thanks, Aoi, I’ll take it from here.” Marco took his den den mushi and walked off down a more secluded path, waving his exploration team ahead. He wove between thick purple tree trunks until finally settling against one, staring into his side of the projection with overt concern. “Are you feverish? What symptoms are there yoi, and when did they start?”

This time, when Sabo opened his mouth to speak, a pallor suddenly washed across his face. He ended up tossing his head back in determined swallows, Adam’s apple bobbing as the tendons in his throat stood out in stark relief.

“Well,” Ace took over in dismay, “I think it’s safe to say he’s experiencing nausea. No coughing or sniffling so far. He just came in with a fever and didn’t want me to touch him.”

“Oh?” Marco took in the sight of Sabo standing completely nude, presumably assessing the cause. “Sabo, is it just general sensitivity, or does contact with your skin actually hurt?”

“Hurt is relative,” Sabo said, because even halfway to incoherent he needed to be difficult, “but I’m guessing you’re not telling me to compare it to being burned alive by actual fire.”

“Good guess yoi, I’m not telling you to do that,” was Marco’s flat reply. “Just compare being touched right now to, oh, your regular old knife wound.”

“Then sure, it hurts.”

“Okay any wounds, potential infections? Insect bites?”

“Not that I can see,” Ace reported, after an inspecting circle around Sabo. “Do you think he was poisoned then?”

“I mean, maybe?” Neither Sabo nor Ace had a response to Marco’s bewilderment. “But if he’s not saying anything about being poisoned yoi, we should just assume it’s a regular cold.”

Ace frowned. “How do you mean?”

“How do you mean, how do I mean?” Marco asked slowly.

“Well someone must’ve done this to him,” Ace argued logically. “How else could he contract an illness?”

“He could be immunocompromised for any number of reasons, and just—germs, viruses yoi. I don’t—” At Ace’s unyielding moue of incomprehension, Marco scratched frustratedly at the back of his head. “Honestly, if you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, then that actually makes the possibility of Sabo being poisoned higher. How about it, Sabo? Any possibilities?”

“Yes.” Sabo blinked, and almost actually collapsed, knees buckling for just a tiny moment. Ace darted out to catch him, but refrained at the last moment from actual contact when Sabo managed to stay upright. “Okay I confess, I wasn’t listening to anything you guys were saying.”

“Lie down, for goodness sake,” Marco hissed, more out of worried sympathy than anger.

“It’ll hurt.”

“It’ll hurt a lot worse when you fall on your face, and I gotta carry you over to the bed,” Ace pointed out. He waved his arms about to herd Sabo in the direction of the mattress. “Just—lie flat on your back, and don’t move.”

“Breathing hurts too,” was Sabo’s whimpering complaint. But he did shy away from Ace’s hands and start moving toward the bed. His movements were stiff and obviously pained, and when one knee sunk into the mattress, Sabo made a sound of such utter distress that Marco flinched, all the way on the other end of the line.

“Okay yoi, I’m on my way back. But in the meantime Ace, grab the first aid kit I brought.” The tree trunks started to blur behind Marco as he jogged, then sprinted down the mountainside. “There should be a jar in the top right corner full of thick dark red paste.”

The first aid kit was a sizable buckle-up box that Marco brought onto every island landing. Every doctor and nurse practitioner in his division carried one.

“Looks like chili? Yup, got it.” The jar was larger than Ace’s fist and densely packed. He popped the top and sniffed it, expecting a punch of spice. What he got instead was an herbal sweetness, not overwhelming at all.

“Water down the paste a little bit, but leave it thick enough to paint with. There should be a pretty big brush in the kit as well yoi.”

When Ace found the brush and wielded it up in the air, Sabo’s eyes widened.

“You better not be planning on touching me with that thing.”

“At this point,” Ace commented with a side-eye look at Sabo’s awkward positioning, three limbs braced on the bed with the fourth still pending pain, “would it be worse?”

“Hopefully it’ll relieve the discomfort.” Marco made an unhappy noise, aimed at himself. “I gotta hang up—I’ll get there faster if I fly. But yes Ace, paint the liquid on any surface of the skin that’s in pain. It should be absorbed pretty quickly, and it’s fine if you paint over the same spots yoi. If it hurts worse, stop, and we’ll figure it out when I get back.”

“Got it.” Ace offered Marco a little smile meant to reassure. “We’ll see you soon then.”

Marco hung up with a rush of blue flames, and Sabo let out the most agonized groan yet, settling fully back onto the mattress. He’d tossed the pillow on the floor, and now held himself so rigidly against the soft sheets. Ace busied himself with the preparation of the water and paste in the basin he had given first to Sabo, but could barely take his eyes off of Sabo’s expression, eyes screwed shut and lips pressed into two pale, bloodless lines.

“Sabo,” Ace said lowly, in comfort, “the medicine’s ready. We’ll start with a small spot, okay? Where does it hurt worse?”

Sabo’s hands couldn’t even clench into fists—they were flexed tightly, like even touching himself was out of the question.

“Chest,” he bit out through teeth gritted so hard, Ace was genuinely keeping an eye out for blood spots along the gums. “Over my heart.”

The paste that Ace has mixed up looked like Thatch’s signature berry reduction, dripped with the consistency of that same dessert topping. With just one corner of the flat brush (the kind used for painting planks of wood and walls), Ace soothed a spot of it on Sabo’s left pectoral, watching in fascination as the color immediately soaked into the skin, drying until it sat like a tattoo.

“Can’t feel a thing,” came Sabo’s grudging admission. “You might need more.”

“Alright,” Ace agreed, soaking the entire width of the brush bristles. They were soft-ended and flexible, as if Marco prepared it for this very purpose in mind—minimizing pain in hypersensitive skin. “Here we go.”

Sabo’s breath came ragged and harsh when Ace stroked the brush more fully down his chest. The moment the paste started soaking into the skin however, a keening cry of relief left Sabo’s throat.

“That,” he demanded. “That. Just—everywhere.”

[disasterhumans]

Fjord and the Nature of “Evil”

Now that we’re getting into more of Fjord’s patron lore, I figure the “Fjord is evil!” theories will begin popping back up, so I wanted to write this to sort out why the “X character is evil” theories/assessments tend to irritate me so much. 

Disclaimer: I’m not at all an expert on how alignment is “meant to work” in Dungeons & Dragons, and am mainly relying on the 5e PHB for this. Mostly this is me thought dumping my observations about Fjord and how they line up with my understanding of “evil.”

So, what is “evil?” Obviously that’s a question with no easy answer and has led to centuries of philosophical argument. But let’s go with a basic definition.

As far as denotative definitions go (outside the scope of D&D) we have: “profoundly immoral and malevolent.” Note the specific use of the word “profound” in that definition.

From his observable behavior, Fjord is not obviously “profoundly immoral” or “malevolent.” He may join in the general chaos that is the Mighty Nein, but generally speaking their actions mostly fall into either “mostly trying to be good” or the not-profound flavor of “immoral.” (Matt said that the Nein “wasn’t a moral group,” not that they were “a profoundly immoral group,” or “an evil group.”) The closest we’ve seen him get to “malevolent” is him threatening Algar. He’s also had a few dispassionate moments (e.g. not feeling moved to save Kiri).

As far as Dungeons and Dragons goes, the Fifth Edition PHB isn’t ultra specific about how it breaks down the “good v. evil” axis and the “law v. chaos” axis, instead providing brief definitions of each individual alignment.

Lawful Evil creatures methodically take what they want within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order

Neutral Evil is the alignment of those who do whatever they can get away with, without compassion or qualms

Chaotic Evil creatures act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust

Going through the descriptions of D&D alignments (in reverse order):

Fjord categorically does not act with arbitrary violence, and does not at all seem spurred by greed, hatred, or bloodlust. Again, the only exception to this I can think of is him chopping off Algar’s hand--which was arguably driven by hatred and/or bloodlust, but was also a very impulsive decision. By definition, Chaotic Evil characters would have a difficult time hiding their true alignment.

Fjord is occasionally dispassionate, but wouldn’t describe him as being utterly without compassion. That’s entirely disproven by nearly every interaction he has with Beau and Jester. And he doesn’t seem to have any desire to do “whatever he can get away with.” In fact--impulsivity aside--he is often one of the only members concerned with ramifications (e.g. him threatening Caleb for putting the team at risk by taking the scrolls in “Midnight Espionage.”) While a Neutral Evil character could ostensibly mask their alignment, in Fjord’s case it would also imply that he was fundamentally putting on an entirely different personality.

Of the three Evil alignments, Lawful Evil seems like the most “viable” alignment for Fjord to secretly be, as it would allow for ongoing machinations, whereas the other two evil alignments seem designed to account for descriptions of day-to-day behaviors. But, again, we don’t really have any in-game proof that Fjord has some sort of complicated long-con going on beyond “I want to learn more about where my powers come from.” And that may well lead him down an evil path, but power is not an inherently evil motivation, and it doesn’t mean that’s Fjord’s starting from an evil place. At this point the relative evil v. goodness of said power appears to have more to do with his patron’s alignment than Fjord’s.

At worst, with the information we have to go on--which is Fjord’s in-game actions--he’s Neutral, but easily influenced by the moral standards of those around him. Some parts of this fandom seem to have a tendency to take any sufficiently “not good” action and label it “evil.” Which in my mind robs these incredibly layered characters of their moral complexity while also weakening the strength of what we mean when we say “evil.” Ostensibly, “evil,” is reserved for the most morally repugnant.

And actually, I fully believe Travis that Fjord, before meeting the Mighty Nein would have at least believed himself to be Lawful Good (“counted on to do the right thing as expected by society). Fjord grew up outside of the empire and spent much of his adult life within the micro-society of working on sailing ships. Fjord was accustomed to being a hard-working member of a crew. And a crew has to work together and follow orders for the good of the ship. Furthermore, Fjord (and Jester) made a point of warning the Nein about the seriousness of committing crime on the Menagerie Coast, which in combination with Travis describing Fjord as Lawful Good, I will take to mean that while living in Port Damali he did actually act in a lawful manner. In my view, this is why he takes particular issue with Sabien.

I think my main problem with “Fjord is evil,” theories is that, first and foremost, it requires believing that nearly everything either Travis or Fjord has said about Fjord has been a lie or, at best, disingenuous. And I don’t just mean factual information--it would also likely require believing that Fjord’s entire demeanor, personality and emotional expression was a facade. And while that’s not technically impossible given his deception score, and the fact that Fjord has not been insight-checked very often by most of the party, it still feels like a stretch. And honestly it would be narratively unsatisfying to believe that literally everything we know about his past and motivations are a lie. At present what we know about Fjord is:

He was raised an orphan with no orcs around him (this appears to be true not only based on what Fjord has literally said, but about his demeanor when talking about orcs, and the fact that it made him feel strongly enough to want to help other orphans). Being raised as the only member of his race, with little idea of his lineage (and experiencing a lot of bullying), seems to have made Fjord feeling particularly vulnerable and unsure of himself in a lot of different ways. As others have argued before, Fjord is likely easily won over by people who are openly supportive and friendly toward him, and potentially more susceptible to manipulation (borne out by his low wisdom score). Fjord likely also places a high value on loyalty, in keeping with his original alignment.

Fjord’s captain--Vandren--died after another crew member--Sabien--blew up the ship. There have been some theories that Fjord was actually the person who blew up the ship, but even if that did happen, it seems to me that Fjord genuinely believes it was Sabien. Almost every time Fjord brings up Sabien he is visibly angry, and while they’re in Nicodranus he asks almost everyone he meets if they know Sabien. Maybe Fjord is looking to get rid of the only witness to what was actually his crime, but seeing as most people probably believe there were no survivors of that explosion, putting himself back on Sabien’s radar seems ill advised. (Also, if Fjord blew up the ship, how did Sabien manage to escape? The implication for each of their survival is that Sabien set the explosion into motion but abandoned ship before it triggered, and that Fjord’s patron saved Fjord. Meaning that assuming Fjord is telling the truth, that Sabien would assume Fjord dead as well.) Once again, Fjord valuing loyalty above other moral concerns would seem to be driving his anger toward Sabien, which very much reflects his frustration when Caleb appears to place the team at risk.

After making his pact with his patron (something that Fjord seems to not be entirely aware of) and receiving his warlock abilities, Fjord wanted to learn more about his magic by seeking out Soltryce Academy. As far as I can tell, most Evil!Fjord theories rely on him having an ultimate “evil” goal. But while Fjord may not necessarily be entirely open and honest about his past, and is certainly being guarded about the specificity of his patron, he has actually always been quite vocal about his personal goals. And, yeah, he could be lying or bluffing about just wanting to “learn more.” But if that’s the case, it wouldn’t have meant anything or have made any sense for him to suddenly change the nature of his goals post-Lorenzo. Fjord has never covered up the fact that he’s overwhelmed by his sudden acquisition of powers, or the expectation from the rest of the Nein for him to assume responsibility. And his talk with Beau the other night about how since receiving his powers he’s moved from trying to solve problems through communication to solving them with combat and power seem to imply that he feels uncomfortable with this shift in himself. Again, the specificity of that conversation seems not to jive with an “evil” person trying to assimilate (Fjord could very well just have mirrored Beau’s words without contributing anything of substance).

Above all, I think that Fjord is a vulnerable and easily overwhelmed (and potentially easily manipulated) person who values loyalty and trust in those around him above most other moral concerns, and is thus willing to run with the moral alignments of his companions if it means maintaining cohesion (e.g. when he tells Nott that he won’t try to change her). The only times he truly objects to the decisions the others make is when those decisions appear to put the group in danger. That being said, his recent conversations with Beau suggest that he views himself as being a largely good person, and is currently experiencing some regret over personal moral choices he has made recently. [EDIT: Also, while Fjord definitely seemed excited to meet someone going through the same experience as him, he also seemed uncomfortable with the way Avantika expressed her...devotion to Uk’otoa. (At one point, I believe Travis said ooc “I feel so uncomfortable,” but that may have been in response to all the innuendo.) And despite him finally revealing the falchion to her, he was still distrusting of her by the end. Where we stand right now, it still seems like Fjord is more firmly in “learn what the fuck is going on mode.” And not, “alright I’m gonna be a cultist now,” mode.]

There is certainly a lot of moral contradiction and conflict that Fjord is experiencing right now, but in my mind that internal conflict and confusion--and the strong likelihood that Fjord’s patron is evil--is far more compelling than some eleventh hour plot twist that Fjord has been secretly evil all along.

[tuxxer]

My thoughts on S5 of the magicians

Thoughts on Season five of the Magicians

                 So, as we finished Season four of The Magicians, we turn our thoughts on what is to come for the surviving members of the troop. Alas Quentin Coldwater joins the ranks of casualties during the war on magic. The Show treats death not as a finality, but merely as a plot device to advance a story line as needed. This time however the actor who plays Q, appears to have decided that there was no more to tell in his story and to leave the show on a personal high note.

                I have decided that the show needs a new direction and felt that it was time to bring you the reader along for the discussion. Season five for all intents and purposes is a clean slate in terms of story. Normally the previous season would set up the story for the following season at some point during the episode run. From what I could tell, almost every outstanding story arc has been resolved and the only new story arc is the deposition of high king fen and the current whereabouts of Josh Hoberman.

                The Twins have been cast into the seam, the director of the library has been killed in his attempts to achieve godhood, the fascist library state has fallen and hedge witches have gained a level of respectability in the eyes of classically trained Magicians. Only miscellaneous plot points remain. Fillory has been the subject of a hostile take over by the aptly named Dark Magician, Irene McAllister is still on the loose, the whereabouts of Santa, Panty sniffing pervert, Mayakovski, the chick from firefly I lost track of, along with Marina and Poppy.

  Elliot Waugh

                 Farm boy from Iowa. Has excellent leadership and organizational abilities and very confident in his magical abilities, the kind of person that you would follow to hell and back for a martini. That is if you’re an insecure person that has issues and a serious need to be accepted into a cool kid clique for personal validation. Probably a nice empathic guy if he knows you on a personal level, but only if he is the dominant.

                Has the ability to guide with out ordering and punishes by withdrawing friendship and patronage. Maintains a clique of disciples that adhere to his mindset, lives a lavish and flamboyant lifestyle and can level a scathing barrage of wit and sarcasm. Has intimacy issues arising from childhood and maintained a co-dependency with Margo.

                Of course, that is Season one Elliot. What I expect to see in the up coming season is a broken version of that Elliot with flashes of greatness followed by wallowing in self pity. This is of course up to the producers and they may have ideas on their note pads and emails about the direction they want to go.

                Elliot needs to go the way of Q in the books and become a teacher at Brakebills teaching what ever flavor of magic he has. He is ageing out of his past lifestyle and is in danger of being seen as an old person rather than the young edgy type he was. I am not someone that has the medical documentation to be able to diagnose Elliot, but I have known people like him. Living life like you don’t expect to make it past your thirtieth birthday and then waking up and realizing your no longer young and the phone no longer rings.

Margo Hanson

                Young, Beautiful, and the patron saint of mean girls everywhere. She comes to us from the west coast and a scion of a rich family. Wearing an aggressive wardrobe that promotes her confidence in that when she is in a room, you will know. An aggressive spitfire who hides a secret identity, with unusual talents and achievements. Like Elliot, she is highly competent with great organizational skills, and unlike Elliot has no problem with pointing out your flaws.

                Her command of invective is truly inspirational, her common sense shining when pulling out the pistol shocking the naïve Q and his prime directive in the nietherlands. Forming the second part of the co-dependency with Elliot, she enabled his lifestyle and validated him when perhaps she should have been making steps to evolve without the following seasons.

                For season five I expect that she will complete the transition that she has started in season 4, fully and without apology. Congruent to that, I expect that at some point in the season she is going to throw down with Elliot and tell him in her usual fashion to grow a set of tits and man up. As Janet, she has shown that she can run a major company and as Margo, that she can rule a kingdom.

                Mere time loops are not going to be a problem, this has come up before with Q and Julia arriving in Fillory sometime in WW2 England. We can expect that no matter the problem, this time Margo will be the one solving it, and probably much to Elliot’s discomfort.

  Kady Diaz

                 Kady is the anti-Margo, much the same ingredients but nature won out over nurture with her. The daughter of a hedge witch, admitted into Brakebills and expelled for stealing items for Marina. Coming to terms with this, she forms an unlikely partnership with Julia and ends up in a very frightening situation with Reynard the Trickster.

                Sharp and attractive and tends to be one of the more physical magicians in the group. Jock rather than cheerleader. When she is brave, she is fearless but when she is venerable, she goes introverted and runs. For Jade to shine she needs to be part of a team and up till now she has had nobody depending on her.

                I expect in Season five, Kady is going to have problems integrating the hedge witches and interfacing with whom ever is running the library. Enough has been done to the hedges that I could be forgiven for thinking not all of those hedges are going to be live and let live.

                Obviously, what I would like to see for her, is to return to the world of law enforcement and perhaps integrate that with the magical world. Much like the Auror’s do in the Harry Potter world. Bonus points if she takes up with the production of Dragon Porn.

     Julia Wicker

                 What can we say about Julia? Gorgeous, educated and fashion confident. She is no Margo that uses clothing to announce her presence. Dealing with her, your dealing with a professional that is not immune to the fact that she is attractive and can’t have her head turned by mere flattery.

                She has been in a race since Season one with Margo to see who transforms into the person that they are meant to. Combining talent and compassion and raw determination, she has gone from being a hedge witch, suffering huge personal losses and surviving, to ascension and becoming a goddess.

                Losing Q will be a huge blow for her, the last surviving person that she knew from her old life and perhaps the man she would have eventually married. With her magical abilities now returned, she faces an uncertain future.

                Like Elliot, the best place for Julia to be is going to be Brakebills as a teacher of some sort. Possibly even becoming the dean and taking Fogg’s place at the school. That mentorship day in Season one strikes me as a good landing spot for her.

   Alice Quinn

                 Hyper-smart , studious with serious attention to detail. Pretty, but very insecure and fashion negative. With librarian looks and a body that’s a teenager’s wet dream, Alice tends to use clothing that either lets her ugly up and be invisible or clothing that draws attention to her natural charms while forgetting that this lady has you looking where she wants you to look.

                For her magic has been real, and not just a tool that compliments the rest of a person’s abilities. If Magic does not present a solution, she attempts to find another way to solve a problem magically. Her worldview has been shaped by absentee parenting, a brother whose death led her on a quest to find him, only to find Q instead.

                A loner with no use for team work, she has trouble integrating with other team members on a long-term basis, and as such she has had the most trouble finding a spot on the team and keeping it. Her collaboration with the library in the past season, and the casualties suffered by the hedges does not bode well for her, when it comes time to count the cost after the dead have been mourned.

                For Season five, I expect her to go to pieces and crash and burn. Q was her rock in the same way that Charlie was. Magic will be her first go to, for returning Q to the mortal world. Short of being able to do that, she is going to have to make her way in the library as the only path open to her. Fun thought for bonus points, I expect her to form an unlikely pairing with Elliot

     Penny

                 Penny has the least amount of thought allocated to one of the prime characters. Switched out from Penny40 to Penny23, he seems to be really kept around when you need a magical uber. Both variations on the character have strong loyalty vibes to those that deserve them, and has a strong moral compass.

                Ever the outsider, he finally finds a home and friends when teamed up with the crew and I expect that will continue in Season five. If anything, I expect that he will suffer from severe sympathy fatigue and team up in some capacity with the library, or hopefully Kady’s hypothetical magical police.

 Again, I should mention that I should say a few words about him, just I am drawing a blank as to where he goes from here.

  Josh Hoberman

                 Josh is one of the older members of the team, a class ahead of Margo and Elliot and a contemporary of Poppy. Seemingly nice guy whose magical talent should be hospitality magic, if that’s even a thing, what his actual discipline is, I confess I never paid attention. It might be plant magic cause he seemed to have gotten the good drugs.

                Called up from the bench a couple of years ago, he has been an advisor to the Fillory side of the crew and gotten steady promotions up till now. Due to an ill-advised Dalliance back in the day, Josh has a little problem with full moons. Leading to a surprising short-term solution and a steady squeeze that’s going to be complicated in season five.

                But wait, there is potentially more. In the process of saving Elliot from the monster, Josh traveled back to Fillory to coordinate with the Fillorian magicians, and at some point, after Fillory was subject to a hostile take over from some individual. Leaving Margo and Elliot to arrive in Fillory 300 years in the future to find that Josh and Fen are missing.

 The Fuck

                Season five, I am going to use the books to align Josh’s future. Assuming Mayakovski is the invader, kicking Josh and Fen back to Earth seems reasonable and I am predicting Josh takes up residence in an Italian Palazzo with Fen. With no real idea how they got three hundred years into the future, Josh may have concluded that the dynamic duo have shuffled off their mortal coils and has at some point made sexy time with Fen, expect the fun to begin when Margo sends a what the fuck Bunny to express her dissatisfaction on Josh being AWOL.

      What should come next.

  This is the reason we need new blood, at best the current cast is only good for one more season before monster of the season starts to get boring, if the show is not canceled by then anyways. I had this thought in my head when I was watching mean girls. At the end of the movie, there is this brief shot of a couple of girls walking in the distance, clearly, they are the next generation mean girls.

 Anchor the show around Brakebills, it has played a bit part in each successive season but should be the main part of the next generation. Wrap up lose ends for half of season five and then start introducing the new Elliot, Julia, Kady etc. Start up the mentoring, teaching positions with new and arrogant magicians that are gonna conquer the world, as the past crew explain why the class lost half of their people when magic went away.

[whimsicalworldofme]

Homecoming

Ben is brought safely to Paxis and has difficulty accepting that this is his new reality. Especially when coming face to face with his only son for the first time.

Word Count: 2954

Content Warnings: None

Ben tensed up the moment the Falcon landed. Ava saw the tension in his jaw, the rigidity of his posture as he stood behind Chewie and Poe in the pilots’ seats getting his first look at his new home, the expansive base on Paxis spreading out in front of them around the landing strip. No one else was on the landing strip but they could see some people milling about on their every day business.

               Before this trip, Ava and Poe had put out a message around base advising everyone that they were going to retrieve Han and Leia’s son. That meant little to most of them. Among the members of the Resistance, not many of the ones who remained on Paxis knew that Ben was Kylo Ren. Everyone knew that Luke was the only child of General Organa’s only son, but everyone knew better by now than to ask where the General’s son actually was. Some of them had assumed he was dead. They just knew that he was a sore spot, so they didn’t talk about him. Poe, ever the master of spinning a story to help the ones he loved, had told everyone that Ben had infiltrated the First Order to help the Resistance bring them down from the inside and that all he wanted now was a quiet, peaceful life. Everyone had been cautioned to simply treat Ben with kindness and not ask him about his time with the First Order or too many questions about his childhood. Ava hadn’t told him about the preparations that had been made in advance of his arrival but didn’t think it was necessary. All she wanted now was to put him at ease. She laid her hand over his and gave it a squeeze.

               “Hey,” she smiled. “It’s going to be ok. I promise.”

               He tried to force a smile, but it didn’t quite work. The corners of his mouth very briefly turned upwards before all hints of happiness flickered away and he was nothing but tense again, shuffling stiffly with her to the hatch.

               “Ready to head home?” Poe asked, meeting them at the hatch while they waited for the gangway to lower to the ground. “We grabbed some clothes that should fit you, so you’ll be a little more comfortable once you’re home,” he scratched the back of his neck as he glanced momentarily at Ben’s exposed ankles. Ava knew her husband felt embarrassed and broken-hearted for his friend, furious that he hadn’t even been afforded the common decency of clothes that fit properly. “We hadn’t thought it would be an issue, otherwise we would have brought a change with us.”

               “It’s fine,” Ben stated his eyes downcast, voice low and guttural.

               “Come on, buddy.”

               Poe clapped his shoulder and pulled him along with him down the ramp with Ava following behind, feeling like this was a good start, like they were kids again; back before she and Ben had gone off to study with Master Luke, back when he and Poe were basically brothers and the three of them were inseparable.

               “Maybe once you’re settled we can go down to the main hangar together. I’ve been modifying some cargo shuttles and I think you’ll find what I’m doing interesting. And I’d love to get your input see what ideas you might have to make them even better.”

               “General,” Connix jogged up to them, eyeing the tall, uncomfortable stranger with suspicion but she held her tongue, “we need you for a meeting in command.”

               Even though the fighting was over, the Resistance was still an active organization. They didn’t run military missions anymore, but they were now responsible for the well-being of all the rebels who had chosen to stay on Paxis. And since Poe was the highest-ranking officer, they naturally looked to him for leadership. The eighty some people who had decided to colonize the uninhabited planet permanently were family to him and he took that responsibility seriously.

               “Is it absolutely essential and urgent?” HE asked, raising a brow. “I’d really hoped I would have the day with my family.”

               “It is, I’m sorry,” Connix flashed Ava a sympathetic look before turning her attention back to Poe, her hands clasped behind her back.

               Looking to Ava, Poe wordlessly begged for forgiveness, a pained expression knotting his brow and dimming the light in his eyes. Stepping closer to him, she gave him a gentle kiss.

               “It’s ok,” she assured him. “They need you. We’ll be all right.”

               “I love you,” Poe gave her another smiling kiss before heading off with Connix, who had pulled a datapad from behind her back and begun going over whatever information was being covered in their impromptu meeting.

               “Does she know who I was?” Ben asked as Ava linked arms with him and began to guide him away from the landing pad. “She looked at me like she did.”

               “She might have seen you on Crait,” Ava speculated. “But there aren’t many people left here who knew us when we were kids, who know what happened when we were seventeen.” She didn’t want to say what it was that had happened. He didn’t need reminding of their shared, painful past. “The few of us on the base who do know all of your history have agreed that you deserve a chance to start over.”

               They walked in silence for a few minutes. Despite the limited remaining population on base, it was still a lively place. Three kids streaked past them playing a game of tag, giggling and shrieking in delight, completely unaware of anything else. When they passed the main hangar, they could hear the echoes of voices, whirs of power tools, beeping droids, and clanking metal. Ava tipped her head to one side, a little concerned about Ben’s extended silence. When she studied his face, she saw him keeping his gaze ahead. Even if she couldn’t have read the expressions in his doe eyes and the set of his lips, she felt the waves of his emotions crashing over her through the Force; the doubt, the fear, the loneliness.

               “Hey,” Ava stopped walking and tugged him around to face her. He complied to her physical queues, even though he didn’t have to. Halting, he stood in front of her, only glancing down momentarily, sorrow weighing on him so clearly. “Listen to me,” she cupped his face in both hands, “Kylo Ren is dead. He died on that prison moon. He’s gone. And every power that twisted you into that monster and conspired to weaponize you to their purpose are dead. You are Ben Solo. You get a new start here. You can have the life you wanted here, with us. You have family here that loves you still.” She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “Let go, Ben. You’re allowed to start forgiving yourself, all right?”

               He didn’t say anything, just turned his gaze upward and searched the horizon with teary eyes, slightly chewing on the inside of his cheek in an attempt to prevent himself from having a complete breakdown there in public where anyone could see. He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Going up on her tiptoes, Ava kissed him softly on he cheek, which was easier since he stooped down slightly when he realized what she was doing.

               “Come on,” she took him by the arm again, keeping him close to her side. “Let’s get you home.”

               “Home is off base?” Ben asked in confusion as they left the cluster of buildings, the only real civilization on the planet. They plodded onto the now well-trod path between the base and the Dameron homestead.

               “Obviously we used to live on base,” she said. “That’s our house,” she pointed at the large stone home crowning the hill in the distance. “Nearly everyone chipped in and helped to build it.”

               “It’s huge,” he gawked. His feelings were clear to her. He felt envious that this was the comfortable life that Poe had been able to provide her. There was grief there too, at the loss of that potential chance with her, the chance of that happy family life together. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?” There was a hint of anger, but Ava let it slide. Those were natural emotions and he was doing well in not letting it overtake him.

               “We have three kids, three droids, me, Poe, and a constant stream of people stopping by,” she chuckled. “It’s just enough, to be honest. But it’s good we have it because now you have a space of your own with us,” she smiled brightly.

               Ben was still a tumult of conflicting emotions, guilt, love, anger, joy, when they stepped into the house.

               “Ah Mistress Ava,” Threepio came shuffling suddenly around the corner from the study, making both her and Ben jump slightly. “And bless my circuits, Master Ben!” The droid threw his hands in the air, elbows bent at a right angle. “I never thought I’d see the day. Oh, if only your mother were here-”

               “Threepio,” Ava cut him off, not wanting him to continue and upset Ben any further. “Are the girls napping?”

               “Yes,” the droid nodded with the whole top half of his body. “Mistress Shara and Mistress Leia went to sleep fifteen minutes ago, and Master Luke advised me to inform you that he is meeting up with Master Jacen and will return later.”

               “Oh,” Ava frowned. “I’d asked him to stay here,” she was disappointed that her son had chosen this moment to display his teenage rebellion and disobey her. She had wanted him there to meet his father, but she supposed he might be nervous or even afraid.

               “I don’t want him to see me like this,” Ben mumbled, tugging at the collar of the ill-fitting prison uniform and she felt her heart break again.

               “Threepio let me know when the girls wake up, all right?” She took Ben’s hand and led him further into the house, to the great room and into the guest suite and shut the door behind them to keep the droid out. He didn’t pick up on social queues at all, but he knew that closed doors meant he’d need to wait.

               “This is my room?”

               “It’s all yours,” she smiled.

               Ben wandered around, examining the furniture which Poe and Ava had gathered up from what had been left behind when people had left Paxis for their home planets. He took in all the little details, running his hand along the top of the dresser, feeling the sheets between his fingers. She’d seen his room on the Finalizer. His bed had not looked comfortable at all. This mattress wasn’t as plush as some, but it was comfortable, and the sheets were soft and warm. He went to the windows along the back wall that looked out onto the backyard with the creek and the forest behind.

               “We’ll get you some better furniture when we can,” she insisted.

               “This is fine,” he insisted, glancing back at her for a moment.

               “Well at least a better mattress,” she added as she went to the dresser and pulled out some clothes they’d found for him that should fit. She laid them on the end of the bed. “Why don’t you take a hot shower and then change?” She suggested. “You have your own bathroom through that door,” she pointed. “I’ll make you something to eat. Have you eaten at all today?”

               “No,” he shook his head, not looking at her, his tone flat. He had shifted to the desk they’d put in there, completely fixated, though not on the desk itself but what was on it. It hadn’t been easy to get at the last minute, but Ava had found a calligraphy pen, an inkwell, and a few nicely bound notebooks in the fledgling trading post on base. She watched him run his lithe fingers over the cover of the notebook on the top of the stack, making her smile. “Thank you,” he turned to her again. He didn’t smile but he wasn’t looking so teary eyed anymore either.

               “You’re welcome,” she beamed at him. “When you’re dressed, come out to the kitchen, it’s just across the living room from here.”

               “Ok,” Ben nodded.

               By the time he emerged from his room, Ava had made a big pot of noodles that she knew he’d liked when they were kids. It was something Luke had a taste for too, so she made them regularly at home anyway, which she explained when he asked. He asked a few questions about life on Paxis as he ate, and Ava answered what she could. Ava was washing the dishes when the front door opened and clanged shut.

               “Oh, are you making noodles?” Luke hurried into the kitchen, his eagerness for food turning to fear of his mother when he saw the fire in her eyes. His face fell and then he saw his father, sitting at the counter and his breath caught in his throat, eyes going wide.

               “Luke, I asked you to stay here to help look after your sisters,” Ava put a hand on her hip.

               “I’m sorry, Mom,” his voice cracked slightly.

               “Come here,” she softened, waving him over as she came around to the other side of the counter and put a hand on Ben’s shoulder, encouraging him gently to turn around. He’d locked up as soon as he heard the boy’s voice and hadn’t been able to bring himself to look at him. “Ben,” she was gentle about it as he shifted off the stool he’d been sitting on and turned around to get his first look at his son in person. “This is Luke.”

               “You’re so tall,” Ben mused, struggling to find anything to say. “I don’t know if I was that tall at fourteen.”

               “Mom says you were,” Luke offered after a moment’s hesitation. “You’re going to live with us?”

               “Only for a little while,” Ben answered quickly, and Ava could tell he was afraid that his son didn’t want him there which is why he’d been so quick to insist he wouldn’t be there long.

               “I hope you’ll stay,” Luke stated. He couldn’t take his eyes off his father, the man he’d been compared to his entire life, whose shadow he’d fought so hard to break free from, but who he’d also learned somehow to forgive.

               “You do?” Ben faltered and cleared his throat against emotions welling up in him when his son nodded. “Well…I can, if you want me to.”

               “I do,” Luke smiled kindly and pushing past the discomfort, the oddity of the situation, and his own conflicting emotions, he stepped closer and gave his father a hug. Ben locked up again, looking to Ava for help. She just gave him an encouraging nod. He hugged Luke back and took in a deep, ragged breath.

               “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he murmured. “I’m sorry I missed everything.”

               “Just be here now, Dad,” Luke tried out the term for the first time and smiled. “You want to see the speeder I built?” He asked, taking a step back and wiping at his eyes. Ben did the same with a chuckle, shocked and overwhelmed. “Mom says you’re into ships and flying.”

               ‘Yeah,” Ben nodded. “I’d love to see it, Luke.”

               “All right, come on,” Luke stopped to give his mother a kiss on the cheek before waving his father on to follow him to their little family hangar.

               Ava felt like her heart might burst of happiness. She’d spent fourteen years trying to prepare Luke to meet his father someday, to forgive him, and welcome him home, to see the man and not just the monster. Seeing the end result made her feel like everything she’d tried to teach her son about patience, kindness, love and forgiveness had paid off and sunk in. Her lessons and Poe’s example of unending, uninhibited love and acceptance had combined to create one amazing kid.

               An amazing kid who can help his father on his path back to the light, Ava sighed contently. There was a lot of progress to make with Ben. But this was a start. Everything has to start somewhere.

               The door opened and shut again and soon Poe was in the kitchen, eyes scanning for the other inhabitants of the house.

               “Hey, where’s Ben?” He asked, paused sniffing the scent of food in the kitchen. “Did you make noodles?”

               “Yes,” Ava laughed and went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, feeling his sturdy hands on her hips, his soft lips capturing her own. “Luke is showing Ben his speeder.”

               “Their meeting went all right?” Poe asked, and she nodded. “Good.”

               “I need to tell you something,” she paused. “And you have to promise not to get mad.”

               “Ok,” Poe raised a brow, the word coming out in a stream of confusion and wary concern. He held her a little tighter as though afraid she was about to tell him something horrible.

               “I’m pregnant,” she grinned slyly.

               “WHAT?” Poe nearly shouted, his face radiating pure joy. He picked her up, kissing her, and then began dancing around the room with her. “Wait,” he halted abruptly, making Ava laugh. She knew it had just now clicked. “You knew before we went to save Ben.”

               “Yes,” she had the decency to look a little bit ashamed that she’d kept it secret from him. “I actually only found out two days ago. You would’ve tried to stop me. But I knew what I was doing.”

               “You are very lucky that I love you,” Poe smirked.

               “I know,” she laughed again as he went in for a deep, eager kiss.

Last Chapter                    Master List                    Next Chapter

[xylianna]

In which Prompto gets sick, and Ignis gets kissed

AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12937311

Gladnis Week Day 3: Gladio & Ignis get tricked by Prompto and Noct into going on a date 

Ignis Scientia caught his reflection in the glass of the doors as he entered the restaurant and almost smirked. He managed to halt the expression when it most resembled a polite smile. He saw his hair had come through the walk perfectly in place. The cool air of the night had tinged his cheeks and nose-tip pink. He was grateful for the black wool coat which served to both keep him warm and protect his immaculate three piece suit from the elements.

He looked good, he knew it, and he was in far too good a mood to deny the subtle boost being reminded of the fact gave his ego.

Noct had been surprisingly cooperative that day throughout their lessons, paid remarkable attention during the Council meeting, and had set to his homework with alacrity when they arrived at his apartment. Ignis didn’t have to wonder what prompted the uncharacteristic behavior for long, however.

“Please, Specs?” the Prince had wheedled, giving his advisor a pleading look, his blue eyes luminous with hope. “Can we just go do pizza tonight? At the place with the arcade? I mean, it’s Friday, and we can invite Gladio, so we’ll have security, and… please?” Noctis babbled in a torrent.

Most unusual. But, the Prince was under a lot of pressure… and surely it would do him good to blow off steam with his friend.

“Let me see if Gladiolus is available,” Ignis had said, pulling out his phone. A quick exchange of texts proved that the Shield was amenable to Noct’s notion.

So now Ignis found himself at a loud pizza parlor, raucous noise and riotous lights flooding out from the arcade room. His good spirits couldn’t be dampened by all the clamor, no. It was far too good of a day. He hoped (probably in vain) that things would continue along this path for a while, that Noct stayed so focused and dedicated, and…

Well. Perhaps best not to get his hopes up too high.

Spotting Gladio, he waved to get the man’s attention. “Good evening, Gladiolus.”

“Hey, Iggy,” said Gladio with an easy grin. “Where’s Princess?”

Ignis sighed. “He insisted on picking up Prompto. I would think the driver should be dropping them both off any time now.”

“Cool.” Gladio glanced around, maintaining a constant awareness of his environment and assessing all potential threats. It wouldn’t do to let his guard down, even at the local pizza joint. “I already grabbed a table, if you want to go sit. I’ll go wait for ‘em by the door.”

Ignis nodded, and seated himself at the indicated table. Never one to spend a moment idle when he could work on his never ending to-do list, he pulled out his phone and began checking his email. A text came through after a few minutes, however, that had his eyebrows raising well above the upper edge of his glasses.

 Noctis: Hey Specs, Prompto’s not feeling well, we’re just gonna stay at my place and play King’s Knight. Sorry for the short notice. You should still get some food though. Say hi to Gladio for us.

With an irritated sigh, Ignis sent off a succinct reply, expressing his hopes that Noct’s friend felt better soon, and a reminder to the Prince that they would meet the next morning to review the day’s agenda over breakfast. He looked to see if he could catch sight of Gladio from there, but the place was too crowded. Since he still had his phone out, he shot a quick message to the Shield, advising him as to the change of plans.

A couple minutes later, Gladio approached the table balancing a heaping platter of pizza, a bowl of salad, and some serving plates, forks, and napkins. After dumping it all unceremoniously on the table, he dropped into the seat across from Ignis. “So, you get the night off babysitting,” he grinned as he loaded his plate with a couple large slices of pepperoni pizza. “Whatcha gonna do with all the free time?”

Ignis sighed, and served himself up a bowl of salad, choosing to let the pizza cool off a bit before digging in. Not everyone could have the apparently heat-resistant mouth of Gladiolus Amicitia.

The Royal Strategist felt himself flush, and quickly shifted his line of sight from the uncomfortably tantalizing view of Gladio’s face - and that mouth - down to his bowl of salad.

He belated realized the other man had asked him a question. Cheeks dusted with a light blush at the oversight, he replied, “Prepare for tomorrow, I imagine.” He adjusted his glasses and adopted a put-upon expression. “You can’t imagine how far behind this dinner will set me. It’s almost a relief poor Prompto wasn’t feeling up to the outing. Now I’ll get home sooner, and can get a head start on tomorrow morning’s work.”

Gladio snorted indelicately. “Oh yeah, I bet Prom's reeeaaal sick, Iggy.”

Ignis blinked. “Noctis said as much in his text message, yes.”

The Shield shook his head slowly, an expression of incredulous disbelief painted across his sun-bronzed features. “Dude.”

“What?”

“Dude!”

“What?!”

Gladio laughed, the sound filled with enough infectious good-humor that Ignis almost found himself joining in, even without knowing what prompted it.

Almost.

“Are you going to explain yourself?” Ignis asked, voice a bit testy, sitting up more precisely and folding his hands on the table in front of him, food forgotten for now.

Gladio’s expression shifted into a warm, but rueful, smile. “Dude,” he repeated one last time, for posterity’s sake. “They’re setting us up.”

Ignis frowned, lines marring the porcelain skin of his brow. “For what?”

His compatriot’s response was to just stare at him.

“What now?” Ignis asked, feeling his cheeks heat again.

“Iggy,” Gladio started to speak slowly, enunciating very clearly, his amber eyes earnest. “Setting us up. With each other.” He gestured around at the restaurant, the food on the table. “They sent us on a date.”

Now Ignis found himself rendered speechless. He removed his glasses and began to clean the lenses, a gesture which usually calmed him and gave him a moment to sort out his thoughts. But, all to soon, the glasses were pristine, and his brain was still spinning in a bewildered tumble.

He had certainly noticed how attractive Gladio was. Who wouldn’t? The man was practically a work of art. And as they’d grown closer, their orbits around the Prince inexorably drawing them together, he had discovered hidden depths in the Amicitia heir. While much of his time was obviously devoted to developing and perfecting his fighting skills, the Shield was also a voracious reader, enjoyed touring art galleries, and spent as much time as he could with his little sister, Iris.

Gladio was, in a word, amazing.

So, obviously, Ignis had never truly considered trying to pursue anything with the man beyond the friendship that had spawned from their professional rapport, because what could a man like Gladiolus Amicitia, with his pick almost every single woman and man in Insomnia, want with him?

Ignis was highly aware of his skills. He didn’t consider that being overly prideful, he considered it being honest. He had trained for years to get to this point, after all. He was used to the feeling that came from walking into nearly any room and immediately knowing you’re the smartest person within.

It was a lonely feeling.

He was also painfully aware of his many shortcomings.  He was a workaholic, he had a woefully inadequate set of social skills outside of formal occasions (as tonight was demonstrating in lurid detail), and his few hobbies were strictly solitary activities.  Ignis couldn't even remember the last time he'd gone out on a date.

“Iggy,” Gladio spoke up again, cutting off his ruminations. “Dude, say something.”

Ignis looked up and met Gladio’s eyes, wearing a carefully sculpted, emotionless, professionally polite mask. “That seems quite silly, Gladiolus. Perhaps this is a youthful prank on their part. Noct knows that I hardly consider this food,” he said, gesturing at his as of yet untouched pizza. “Or perhaps Prompto is truly ill, and you’re jumping to conclusions."

“Iggy.”

“What?” If Ignis’s voice was a bit strained, he would chalk it up to the noise of the place giving him a headache.

Gladio sighed, shook his head, leaned forward, and kissed him.

Ignis was almost too startled to kiss him back.

Almost.

[adziedoodle]

Voltron Theory/Prediction:

Lance runs away/gets in danger & Keith finds/saves him

Okay so, I’ve had this theory/prediction in my head the past few days after watching S3 but I couldn’t really put it in to words until now (and as I’m ill today I thought I’d write it up to keep myself from being bored).

I understand I may be reaching somewhat but that's the fun of theories/predictions! :D In no way am I stating this is 100% FACT - I have no idea how the show is actually going to plan out and I’d probably be happy with whatever turns out! I also doubt this will actually happen in season 4 tbh, as that seems to be focusing more on Pidge and Matt from teasers/trailers.

Apologies if I repeat myself a bit... and if there are any spelling errors! Also this is very long so get a nice hot/cold drink to enjoy reading this with.

Before I begin, I strongly advise you to read this analysis by @avatar-crystal-gemini on the conversation between Lance and Keith in S3E6 as I will be discussing this!

So, assuming you've read that post linked above now... Even as a Klance shipper, I can agree that Lance and Keith’s conversation did leave me feeling a little ...unsatisfied - and I now know why! It’s because it was incomplete... Lance’s concerns/problems were left unresolved.

To summarise, Keith and Lance still have a lot of work to do when it comes to how they communicate with each other. The issue in this specific conversation is that, usually Lance is the one who gives Keith the explanation he needs regarding social cues he normally doesn’t pick up on. However, when Lance is the one coming to him worried and insecure (the total opposite to what Keith is used to Lance expressing as), it simply doesn’t make sense to Keith so he’s at lost to what to say on a personal and emotional level. Keith ends up resorting to what he thinks “a leader” would say because of this - and the fact that Lance said he came to him due to seeing him as “the leader now”. 

Despite the conversation ending with Lance smiling, it’s certainly possible that what the concerns he came to Keith’s room to be comforted about only got exasperated internally because the new leader brushed him off...

Personally, if I went to someone emotionally vulnerable, (with the perceived confidence Lance has made people think he has), but instead they said ‘focus on something else, we’ll discuss this later’ and ‘don’t do this thing that is best done by someone else’... I’d be pretty crushed (picture 1), but attempt to hide it with a smile (picture 2).

Now... for my theory/prediction... Let’s assume Lance is dwelling internally a lot on his sense of belonging after this conversation. Even if, in the timeline of the show, Keith originally let him continue piloting Red when Shiro returned (more on this later), it’s still possible that Lance is waiting to be told he can’t be a paladin anymore as we’ve seen this insecurity build up since the “I’m just the 7th wheel.” comment in S2.

He’s not just worrying about this - he’s expecting to be told he’s got to go.

So he does. He takes matters into his own hands and jumps ship - probably not by taking a Lion because he knows the jeopardy that could put others in. Even at Lance’s lowest, he still cares about everyone else around him... but he can’t see how much people care about/need him.

Sidenote: It would break my heart if this were to actually happen and he like, left his blue paladin suit somewhere in the castle. No note. He just went. Laaaance.

Now, he’s out there alone in space. Even when he’s faced with being lost in a void, that’s where he thinks he belongs... The last place he properly felt this way was back on Earth, most likely with his family... but he has no clue how to get back there.

Obviously, once they realise Lance is gone, the other characters are confused and devastated - what happened to their “goofball”? What made him leave? Even Shiro, the original leader, is taken aback by the disappearance of his self-proclaimed “sharp shooter” team member.

This leaves Keith - the only person who knows about the reason why Lance may have “stepped aside” - and taken it to such an extreme degree. Keith may even recognise what he said “as a leader” didn’t help, and could feel overwhelmingly obligated to find Lance and make amends. He realises now that as a friend rather than a leader, he needs to help Lance .... especially as this was the friend who was always there for him every time he was outwardly upset over Shiro’s disappearance and becoming the Black Lion pilot [x] [x]. 

Bare in mind as well, at this point, the only person Lance has opened up to with his negative emotions is Keith. So, if Keith can find Lance in space maybe then they can finally communicate properly and grow a bond stronger than the one they have now. It’s not going to be easy, given the way the two handle emotions in general, but it may give them both a chance to open the barriers between them and help each other.

In addition to this, it’s certainly possible Keith deep down did already recognise that Lance was still upset when he left the room, even after his attempt at cheering him up with the ‘Leave-the-math-to-Pidge’ comment. The whole conversation discussing how it’s okay for Shiro to take the Black Lion and for Keith to stay at the castle certainly seemed to hint this ...as it meant, to Keith, that Lance could continue riding Red without worrying about it being taken away after already losing control of Blue [x]. Again, this specific action could be hinting to Keith outwardly acknowledging Lance’s feelings, properly resolving them and finally comforting his right-hand-man in the future.

I also suspect that out in space alone, Lance may be in more danger than he originally thinks he’ll face. He may get attacked by the Galra, and/or badly injured some other way and it could lead to more heavy emotional stuff happening between him and Keith - once Keith finally finds/saves him.

Now, you may think I’m reaching with this last point but I would argue that this could have been ‘foreshadowed’ since season 1 as Lance (other than Shiro #savespacedad2k17) is the one who physically suffers most and gets into a lot of dilemmas that end up in him being alone... and Keith, more often than any other paladin, is the one to help him out of them.

Here’s some examples of potential foreshadowing of it leading to a bigger event:

1) Lance nearly dies being the closest to the drone bomb in S1.

He’s also the only one amongst the rubble, as he pushed Coran out of major harms way.

And when he finally properly wakes up... who is by his side?

2) Lance goes off with Nyma, gets chained up, and even has his Lion taken away... leaving him alone in space.

and who saves him/his lion?

3) Lance gets trapped, alone, in a locked, contained area when the castle is “haunted” not once...

...but twice - one being extremely worse than the other (an air lock waiting to open) and could’ve led him into space alone (again).

And... you guessed it... who’s the one saving him from near death?

4) I’m sure there are many more examples of this repeated circumstance happening in later seasons, but one last example I’d like to touch on is the lift scene. 

Of course this is less harrowing of a dilemma for Lance than the last examples, and a lot more funny, but I find it interesting that, if Keith hadn’t joined Lance in the lift, he would’ve been trapped in there alone.

Plus, it’s only when they work together are they able to climb the lift chamber, and escape. Even when they aren’t fighting the Galra, they really do make a good team.

Before I finish up, there’s also this quote from an article discussing Season 3: “Jeremy Shada (Lance’s voice actor) is excited that all the cast members ‘have some great drama points.’ He then goes on to joke, ‘I mean like, Lance dies so that was a fun moment.’” [x].

Of course, it’s brushed off as a joke, and from Season 3 we know Lance doesn’t die, and I don’t really take this point I’m making too seriously but some jokes can hold some truth behind them - it would be interesting if Jeremy was (un)intentionally hinting to the idea that the Lance we know from Season 1, 2 & 3 is going to go through big changes (ones he hasn’t already dealt with properly yet) and ~metaphorically~ he “dies” and matures into a better version of himself.

With the potential foreshadowing above, and the conversation between him and Kieth that ‘failed’ / was left ‘incomplete’... it wouldn’t surprise me if Keith has a big role in Lance’s change/maturity. This point is also backed up somewhat with further comments by Jeremy discussing Lance’s maturity and how this could impact him falling in love - “As you mature as a person in some areas, it ultimately will mature other areas of yourself as well. Lance is always going to be Lance, he’s always going to be seeing himself as very suave,” Shada said in response, something that was certainly on display during S2E2. “But I think there is, to some extent, at some point you’ll find that one person that above all you kind of fall in love with a little bit and realize that it’s nice to have that one person than kind of just going all over the place. Not spoiling too much, but yeah. He’ll mature in all ways.” [x] [x]

Conclusion - TL;DR

Lance has been putting on an act since S1, we saw a glimpse of who he is under the mask in season 2, and it’s clear he’s got a lot of insecurities regarding his place in the team and in the adventure of V:LD as a whole - even now in S3.

He wants somewhere to belong... to feel wanted/needed and a necessary attribute to a team. When he finally attempts to open up about his concerns regarding where he belongs in Voltron specifically, he’s dismissed by the current leader (Keith) and despite the leader’s best intentions at the time - the insecurities grow and potentially begin to completely cloud his judgement. 

He finds himself coming to the conclusion the best path to take is to just go - leaving everyone else lost on why he would. The only person who would have any knowledge as to why he left, would be Keith thanks to that unresolved conversation... It’s his responsibility to help his friend, not just as the new leader, but as a friend himself.

When Keith finally does find Lance, Lance may be in a critical condition, or they may face a serious danger together, but in the end, they are able to break down the barriers they left, make amends, and truly be a good team of two - thus developing their communication and relationship as a whole.

Even if I got a few things wrong here, I do still think something big, potentially damaging, is going to happen to Lance - he may even bring it upon himself by running away for a period of time - and Keith isn’t going to just be cast aside narrative/character wise when it happens.

We’ve seen Lance be very loyal to Keith this recent season, so it wouldn’t surprise me that it’s time for Keith to emotionally (rather than physically like in those examples about) save and comfort Lance. In this time it’s also likely for Keith to reassure him that he is a valued member of the team, and even someone who potentially ends up meaning a lot to Keith on a more personal level. Much like how Lance has become Keith’s impulse control, it’s possible Keith will become Lance’s comfort in times of insecurity.

Overall, that conversation isn’t the end all and be all when it comes to Lance and Keith and their dynamic. It may not have ended well, and they still need to work on how they communicate as friends and team members... but this is just the beginning to where their relationship could go. 

Okay, I hope that made sense. I may update this in time. Feel free to add your own thoughts, reblog to share with others, and let me know what you think!

Thank you for taking the time to read!

[dpdr-dreams]

hi, i was wondering how i can get diagnosis independently such as online or something because im finding it difficult to tell m y parents about my symptoms. im regularly dissociating and nothing feels real and im constantly suicidal and have intrusive thoughts and do impulsive things like harming myself,,, i need answers

HI anon ! Thank you so much for your ask !

depending what you want from a diagnosis will depend where you go. I’m glad you're talking about your worries about parental involvement into your health, as i actually was referred without parental involvement at all to my child and adolescent mental health service (uk mental health system) ! be it from the issues being sources from home/ worried about parents potential negative outlook to treatment or diagnosis/ family circumstance which can in turn result in a difficult treatment process as you can already be maybe experiencing , but i strongly still advise if there’s a way to educate (if its not a case of safety or worsening mental health obviously) parents, family or gradually open debates on general mental health or provide a way for any parent or carer to then be in a better mindset and moral position to help you when you may need it most or support you along treatment, and if this is not possible find friends you can be open with or a teacher, therapist, social worker/counselor, just someone you can trust ! :). some adult try to think of (especially their) children in the best light so mental health issues can be a little confusing and feel most helpful cover it up (till its over) kinda thing (which any professional will tell you ‘off the bat’ is not how it works with mental health, brain is an organ that requires care on top of that body part being also linked up to your whole body, so is a priority and no care can make things much worse) especially very confusing for a parent or someone who has never experienced dissociation before. thats my step one, step two is back to thinking who to ask! so, for example, if your looking for help with your symptoms or a treatment path, but step one if family isnt working out right now or you don’t feel now is the right time (which i understand, and agree with you if thats your choice trust me aha) i would recommend counselors that can work into your school schedule with our disrupting a school timetable and take notes of symptoms and then transfer them to a phycologist that can privately come in for you to meet with you outside of school, remember often admitting discomfort around parental involvement is often respected and makes things easier! if your not at school or uni/college a local church or temple will have someone you can talk to and they tend to be a lot more private with information, as they won’t, have a name and document attached to you like in a school setting, but can be a more lengthy wait to meet a genuine diagnostic phycologist who can recommend you then for dpdr treatment as unlike a school there’s no laws ensuring time limits for waits, but i can almost guarantee they will know your local centers or services specific to you too during that wait.  ,or if you’re rather looking for the validation of a diagnosis and less of a treatment (which i do not recommend without then digging further for treatment after diagnosis as of the serious nature of dpdr) making appointments with your doctor and use key symptoms and words, bring up dpdr prior if possible, on phone or email etc and prepare your doctor to learn about dissociation before appointment as they will be a general practitioner and likely not even be aware of dissociation so dont let this hold you back from receiving help., use bus routes and learn your transport to your doctors and work out how to get there by yourself or with non-family related transport like friends etc. if being physically present for an appointment doesn’t work discuss with local church/temple or school to write a recommendation for as you said ‘online’ are “skype”/video call or “phone based” therapies and appointments which my university has and i believe is a method being implemented universally around the world atm, although I’m not sure how comfortable most diagnostic doctors are with creating a fully diagnosable profile of a person without seeing you interact in real terms with them and talk face to face but this can help create a profile, speed up the whole process, as less in centre time for a doctor to schedule and limit total of parental questioning visits out of the house without an excuse if your a bad liar like me aha. if your still worried about your privacy? discuss legality of search up on your age and information sharing laws of where you live. but this should in no shape of form limit your ability to get support when you need it, so don't let fear or other people come between you’re health and especially with what your describing its critical to find treatment as soon as possible as it can have longer lasting and faster recovery from damaging symptoms. so step three you’ve found the path of entry to a doctor best suited for you, create a list of symptoms, as i know i certainly dissociate during a session and can’t imagine the bravery it takes to make that first jump for you so to avoid your dissociation limiting your treatment again ill reiterate, use keywords, key symptoms ideally in perspective to how its effecting the main “three life indicators” social life, work and school life, and day to day routine functioning and use depersonalisation and derealisation, dissociation, etc as this helps your doctors more than imaginable in figuring out what’s going on in your head, remember  even the experts aren’t experts  and will need your guidance sometimes to reach a conclusion to help you or recommend you to the right people for you, be honest!. some resources to help you find some words that will ‘click’ better with a doctor and other help dpdr related->  (http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/dissociative-disorders/dissociative-disorders/#ddd). as i know with my doctors at least they we’re very confused initially and then extra time had to to be spent on rewording my experiences to what they were taught as they were not very well working with dissociative disorders but of course had the basic training as a phycologist. dissociation is terrifying as im sure you know so i recommend finding grounding or ‘time slowing’ techniques that help to slightly regaining enough time to prevent impulses taking over your ability to control your own bodies actions. its key to not panic during dissociation and sometimes sit and accept the sensations even if quite violent or sensory distressing, gaining control when your not there to be in control is something i combat every day and it can feel scary but certain techniques like going limp or short term solutions to keep you from harm is important right now till you get the support you feel you need. i also recommend discussing medication before talking any as many effect dissociation and should be taken into consideration which many doctors forget and EMDR is the best and latest treatment for chronic dpdr ! so make sure this is mentioned in your first appointment as to put you on the waiting list asap i write a bit more on it here -> and dpdr in general to help you or anyone your talking to to understand it all a bit better ive written and used external information to help me put this page together https://dpdr-dreams.tumblr.com/about%20dpdr  

although treatment can vary too , remember they will be trauma-related treatment rather than only grounding technique worksheets as your symptoms are 24/7 dissociation,( some suffer from off and on anxiety induced moments of dpdr , so dont let your doctor confuse these things and put you on the wrong care programme) the treatment list will be, CBT, talk therapies, medication for other emotional health issues you may also be experiencing, but the most important treatment at the moment  for dpdr is EMDR, so as of your long lasting sensations i’d say it would be best fighting for that care plan :).

again if its more you feel you struggle abit to talk with parents but are able to if possible persist! and educate! u can use some of the information i provided to help you make your point to your parents if that’s easier or write down how you feel or the symptoms of a real illness you’re experiencing to your parent, find a way if possible! :)) 

if you feel you need a sense of validation of dissociative experiences i recommend DES like tests online as they’re linked to most clinical tests and can help you label your illness to yourself as it is common in dissociation to feel confused over it all as of the nature of dissociation-> http://www.traumatherapyboulder.com/mental-maladies-and-the-history-of-the-dsm/treatment-of-ptsd-dissociation/the-dissociative-experiences-scale-des/

and of course if you are in a state of crisis or need someone externally to have a talk to about what your going through which i know can happen so easily when dealing with such persistent and uncontrollable illnesses here’s a mix of phone, text and live chat spaces to help you when you need-> 

  The Trevor Project Call 866-488-7386 (24/7) Live Chat with the Trevor Project (Fridays 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST)

Crisis Text Line: Text SUPPORT to 741-741 (24/7). Our trained counsellors can discuss anything that’s on your mind. Free, 24/7, confidential.

thanks again for your important ask :) sorry if it was wordy and general or was a bit of a word jumble.of course i have experience with it so if you have more questions, or later questions at any point after you found your pathway and/or plan for care i will be willing to be more specific as i dont know your country and its laws of practice of course, and stay safe anon, seriously hope you the best ! x

[thisdaynews]

‘America First’ Trump suddenly needs the rest of the world

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/america-first-trump-suddenly-needs-the-rest-of-the-world/

‘America First’ Trump suddenly needs the rest of the world

German Chancellor Angela Merkel deliberates with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the second day of the G-7 summit on June 9, 2018 in Charlevoix, Canada. | Jesco Denzel /Bundesregierung via Getty Images

foreign policy

The president heads into a summit of world leaders in an increasingly isolated position, facing an increasingly troubled global economic environment.

President Donald Trump heads into the G-7 summit in coastal France more isolated than ever — and perhaps never more in need of the international coordination he has repeatedly assailed.

The president faces warnings of a U.S. economic downturn driven partly by his fractious trade negotiations with China. He blames other countries’ trade policies for mounting economic risks in the U.S., even as many of those countries teeter on the edge of recession. And Trump is expected to spend his time in southern France urging fellow leaders to follow his lead rather than changing course himself.

Story Continued Below

Trump administration officials said the president is heading to Biarritz this weekend with resolve to tackle common global economic challenges — even as they continue to downplay fears of a U.S. economic slump around the corner.

“The great advantage of the G-7 is that these are challenges that are collectively shared by the world’s most advanced industrialized economies, and they can really dig in and come up with … solutions,” a senior administration official told reporters, adding that the U.S. specifically requested a session on the “global economy” at the summit.

The problem is, Trump has rarely embraced global governance and many economists blame his “America First” approach for propelling the widespread sense of economic uncertainty rippling across the globe.

“Each of these global meetings has become more adversarial,” said a former senior administration official, who cited the president pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Iran deal as top-line ways in which Trump has blown up the global order.

“That’s the consequence of the president’s non-orthodox approach: In general, America is more isolated,” the former official said.

Ever unpredictable, Trump adopted a take-it-or-leave-it attitude that blew up last year’s gathering of G-7 countries in Canada, distanced himself from European leaders in Paris at a World War I centennial commemoration last fall, and injected chaos into the G-20 summit in Japan this summer. In between those international gatherings, he launched Twitter broadsides against the since-removed British ambassador to the U.S., threatened to slap tariffs on French wine after the country enacted its digital services tax, and recently criticized European allies over what he views as inadequate contributions to NATO.

“G-7 summits have turned into a bit of a nightmare for all concerned and chances are this one could be especially terrible,” said Richard Gowan, an expert on multilateralism at the International Crisis Group.

The G-7 and G-20 became critical forums over the past decade for the world’s leading economies to confront ballooning crises. Their coordinated message and shared action in 2009 helped calm markets in the depths of the global financial crisis and spur a global economic recovery. Leaders used the gatherings in the years that followed to tackle the rockiest stages of the European debt crisis.

Trump’s animus toward international bodies, combined with his protectionist vision on trade, “means it’s really hard to see him having the sort of constructive private conversations that in its early days the G-7 was meant to foster,” Gowan said.

Trump heads into this round of G-7 meetings as the odd man out — breaking from long-standing norms for how advanced nations conduct economic policy.

“The great irony is that if other countries took the approach we did, they would be racking up huge deficits and politicizing the central bank,” said Douglas Rediker, a senior nonresidentfellow at the Brookings Institution.

“If everyone were to emulate U.S. policy, then you would have a race to the bottom,” Rediker said.

The White House’s message heading into the G-7 remains as #MAGA as ever — with plans to tout the administration’s policies of tax cuts and deregulation as the panacea to other countries’ policy ills. The administration wants to urge other countries to follow the same path, or “bend to Trump’s will,” as one administration official put it.

“What the U.S. pushed for, while I was at the White House, was for countries to take actions to deal with their economic problems and to promote pro-growth economic policies — tax cuts and deregulation among other things. I think they will push that quite hard this weekend,” said Clete Willems, the former deputy assistant to the president for international economics in the Trump White House who is now a partner at Akin Gump.

Trump, who remains diametrically opposed to many of the positions held by his European counterparts on trade, has said he does not intend to back away from his policies, including his aggressive stance on China, which could drag American businesses and consumers into a painful recession.

A second administration official on Thursday said the G-7 has proven it is unable “to cope with actors like China coming onto the scene,” despite Trump’s purported efforts to rein in Beijing.

“It’s about time, whether it’s good for our country or bad for our country short term. … The fact is somebody had to take China on,” Trump told reporters this week.

His comments came amid growing evidence of trouble for other industrialized economies beyond the United States. Germany‘s central bank warned this week that its economy could shrink again in the third quarter — starting a recession — and much of the country’s economic slowdown has been attributed to the U.S.-China trade war, which has reduced Chinese demand for German imports.

“It seems like he is setting up a real challenge to the European Union’s economy and all this is going to do is continue to deteriorate his own economic outlook for his reelection,” said Heather Conley, Europe program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Trump administration officials don’t see it that way. And they say the G-7 meeting’s agenda is full of potential land mines that are squarely aimed at baiting Trump.

A number of Trump appointees “think the whole G-7 agenda is an anti-U.S. agenda,” one person familiar with the concerns said.

Another U.S. official said Trump is already planning to confront French President Emmanuel Macron over the “highly discriminatory” 3 percent tax that France imposed on digital services revenues last month. In the conference call with reporters Thursday, administration officials said overtaxing tech would be framed as “counterproductive.”

Trump’s willingness to disagree with G-7 leaders on areas in which they once shared consensus has already had a notable impact ahead of the summit: Macron, who is hosting this year’s summit, confirmed Wednesday that he will skip the joint communiqué that has followed each G-7 meeting since 1975.

“I know the points of disagreement with the U.S. If we draft an agreement about the Paris [climate] accord, President Trump won’t agree. It’s pointless,” Macron said. (Trump suddenly withdrew his endorsement of the collective statement last year, citing frustrations with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his position on tariffs.)

Removing the communiqué from this year’s G-7 summit — which includes the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom — is still unlikely to prevent disagreements from boiling over.

In a preview of what’s to come, administration officials said Trump plans to engage in blunt conversations with America’s European allies on trade and “multilateral reform.” He’s expected to highlight his administration’s recent attempt to modernize the World Trade Organization and to push for the removal of trade barriers that he claims have affected U.S. agriculture and other industries.

Trump will participate in five main sessions — including topics as varied as gender inequality, climate change and digital transformation — in addition to bilateral breakouts with his fellow G-7 leaders. Senior administration officials say the president is looking forward to those meetings, yet few expect the sessions will yield anything of substance.

One of those sit-downs will be with newly appointed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson — the first time Trump and Johnson will meet face to face as leaders. They’ve spoken by phone four times since Johnson moved into No. 10 Downing and a White House official suggested Trump might launch a charm offensive to bring Johnson closer to his side on trade, climate change and Iran.

“There’s likely going to be a lot of sniping amongst the European participants over Brexit and obviously that creates the risk that Trump is going to speak up for Johnson,” Gowan said. “That could cause Johnson to run into a bit of a car crash with [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel or Macron.” Johnson faces his own dangerous task of navigating Britain’s exit from the EU for which he has set a deadline of the end of October.

Less probable, but still being discussed among administration officials, is the possibility that Trump finalizes a partial trade agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the summit. An agreement that reinforces the president’s disruptive trade policies could bring minor relief to an otherwise tense three days in France, the White House official said. The president’s top trade adviser Robert Lighthizer met with Japan’s economy minister in Washington this week, after which the Japanese official said both sides “agreed to speed up discussions and work on the remaining issues for an early achievement of results.”

The summit in Biarritz begins Saturday evening with a welcome dinner hosted by Macron, and runs until Monday afternoon, when Trump is slated to host a press conference. The president is expected to be accompanied by National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, national security adviser John Bolton, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Lighthizer.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.

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[cultxcult]

What Every Female Should Know to Stay Healthy

There are hundreds as well as thousands of write-ups, books, media sources as well as products readily available in the world that tell us ways to stay healthy. How many people have time to research, check out and also search this plethora of info? Better, how do we trust all the information offered around? This write-up has done all the benefit you. Obviously, not every idea or piece of life suggestions could be placed on these few web pages however the most important details is below. Maintain a duplicate as well as hand this out to all the women you understand, it is for each female individual ages 1-100.

From ages 1-10

Staying healthy and balanced and also starting healthy habits begins the minute we are born. What can we provide for those at these young as well as tender ages? Moms could start by breast-feeding. They can present healthy items at meal times when infants await solid food. Called for immunizations should be kept up to this day. From birth via young childhood, the intake of a chewable tablet computer vitamin supplement should become part of their everyday routine. Make certain to watch what components are in those children's multi vitamins you acquisition. Your doctor or family physician can advise you of the proper vitamin supplement required for your kid's specific body type and also physical problem. Beginning with healthy eating as well as way of living routines in young youth sets the stage for your child's healthiness right into center childhood years and also the adolescent years.

Ages 11-20

Good health is essential for young women. It is necessary to remember a few crucial features of this age. The young girl/woman will certainly be experiencing a growth surge, which may be accompanied by what is referred to as "expanding pains". Healthy and balanced routines will certainly ensure her full focus period and also sufficient power to participate in college tasks and also classroom learning. Her body is likewise preparing for the beginning of menstrual cycle. Puberty begins as well as the brain begins its process of sending messages to the hormone system and the reproductive organs begin to establish. Good nutrition together with a vitamin supplement will certainly additionally all set her body for superb reproductive wellness and also potential youngster bearing. Most importantly, by the age of 20 if she has created these couple of health and wellness habits, the girl is likely to carry those into her adult years.

Ages 20-39

If a women individual is developmentally on training course as well as is devoted to preserving optimum wellness, she should stay healthy and balanced right into her later years. These years of 20-39 are when women come to be busy with occupations and/or having children or beginning a household. Several experts concur that this is likewise a time when women will delay or overlook their own health and wellness in order to supply look after others. Bear in mind, you are not going to have the ability to give much help, treatment or aid for others if you on your own are ill, worn down or nutritionally lacking. Let's discuss exactly how women could prevent this trap as well as insure their very own health.

• Consume healthy and balanced foods. Staying clear of harmful fats as well as consuming raw fruits and vegetables go a long means in remaining nutritionally secure. • Enjoy your dieting behaviors. While there are lots of diet plan plans there, the easiest is usually extra effective. Seeing part dimension and the ingredients (fat, calories as well as sugar) in foods will certainly typically net the very best weight loss outcomes. It's important to note that losing or keeping your wanted weight means one thing, there needs to be more calories burned compared to exactly what has been eaten. This could be achieved with: • Workout. Whether you are a normal participant at the neighborhood fitness center or you exercise in your home, there are certain sorts of workout that will benefit you one of the most. One exercise regimen need to elevate your heart rate (cardiovascular health and wellness). Another should include free-weights or weight lifting in some type (bone wellness as well as conditioning). In addition, walking, dance and swimming could tone the body. Weight loss in extra pounds alone will make you pleased when you tip on the ranges yet a lot of females want that loose skin (abdominal area, underarms, and also thighs) to tighten up also. If you just can't find the moment to work out, try these tasks: • Park in the last open parking space away from the storefront and also walk. • In your home, order some huge juice bottles that have the indented areas for carrying or milk containers and do some curls. • Take the staircases as opposed to lifts in public locations • Take a walk via your community every night after dinner • Browse through your gynecologist every year for a PAP examination (more often if your doctor recommends or your last one came back with an uncommon result). PAP examinations are necessary to maintaining a healthy reproductive system. They are used to detect cervical cancer as well as infections among other things. • Do your personal self-breast examinations. • Make a visit at age 39 for your initial mammogram. • Take normal multi vitamins every day. Include various other supplements consisting of calcium, Fish Oil as well as Vitamin C. Do some research study on the kinds as well as quantities of vitamins and/or supplements you might be taking. I located vitanetonline.com to be really useful for this sort of information. Also, it has actually been located that women in these childbearing years are lacking in the amount of folic acid they require. Inadequate amounts of folic acid have actually been linked to abnormality of the brain in infants. These birth defects can be stayed clear of if a woman takes sufficient quantities of folic acid before she develops and during the early, very first trimester of maternity. • Not the very least of all, are these pointers to healthiness that a lot of informative resources rarely state. • Locate a spiritual path or link. These are very personal so I will not offer any type of ideas. Ladies have actually picked a faith, nature, prayer, rituals, a peaceful room and also several others to locate that location within self where they could be peaceful. • Maintain your mental health a concern. Speak with a specialist therapist if you need some assistance buy chinese teas or instructions. • Stay clear of unhealthy connections. If you are being abused in any type of manner by anyone, seek aid

While all these "suggestions" for the age 20-39 team will maintain a lady in optimum wellness, a lot of these should be executed and also proceeded into the later years also.

Ages 40-100

These are the years that lots of ladies claim that they become better. Some even declare that it is the very best time of life they ever experienced. The tips for the 20-39 age apply for ladies beyond 40; some exemptions would consist of the suggestions on folic acid intake, the amount of weight brought in the free-weight workout regimens, the limitations of exercise that could develop falls, mishaps or injuries and also the PAP tests. Routine PAP test exams typically discontinues around 80 years of age however ask your doctor first.

From ages 40-50 a lady can expect pre-menopausal symptoms. Again, the modifications that occur in any type of lady's life can never be evaluated a specific age. There are females that could never ever have any disrupting signs and symptoms of menopause. Various other women might begin menopause at age 40 others might be near 50. Some females could end up being post-menopausal at age 45 and others at age 52-55. No matter what the age of start or conclusion, menopause happens. Make certain to speak with your medical professional concerning remedies for the symptoms of menopause. There are hormonal agent substitute treatments (HRT) along with some all-natural supplements to ease menopause. Taking soy isoflavones, in capsule kind, have recently been pertained to by some women as practical in reducing their warm flashes.

While recognition of the relevance of calcium as well as its intake should be well established by age 15, lots of older women still don't discover it a concern. Weakening of bones (bone weakness) can start to occur as early as age 35. By the time you get into this age of 40+ and you haven't been taking care of your calcium requires, you might anticipate by age 60 to see the lead to your body. We have all seen the females with humps below their neck at the spinal column. We have seen the stooped strolls and heard of women in this age group having drops that damage their hips and also other bone structures. This is an outcome of weak bones. There are likewise genetic aspects that play right into whether or not we obtain weakening of bones. Take your calcium women.

In summation:

• Maintain working out but understand your limitations • Continue getting mammograms • Keep consuming healthy. If you like horticulture, that's light exercise and also you could consume healthy and balanced as well. • Remain socially active

Ladies are living much longer. We are living longer because the importance of diet plan, workout, vitamin and supplement consumption as well as other info has come to be conveniently readily available. However living longer is not necessarily a good thing if the QUALITY of our lives is not taken into consideration. If you follow these ideas and also commit on your own to making healthy and balanced way of living choices then all your years can be filled with happiness, peace as well as health.

[blackmagicvoodoo]

What Every Female Should Know to Stay Healthy

There are hundreds as well as thousands of write-ups, books, media sources as well as products readily available in the world that tell us ways to stay healthy. How many people have time to research, check out and also search this plethora of info? Better, how do we trust all the information offered around? This write-up has done all the benefit you. Obviously, not every idea or piece of life suggestions could be placed on these few web pages however the most important details is below. Maintain a duplicate as well as hand this out to all the women you understand, it is for each female individual ages 1-100.

From ages 1-10

Staying healthy and balanced and also starting healthy habits begins the minute we are born. What can we provide for those at these young as well as tender ages? Moms could start by breast-feeding. They can present healthy items at meal times when infants await solid food. Called for immunizations should be kept up to this day. From birth via young childhood, the intake of a chewable tablet computer vitamin supplement should become part of their everyday routine. Make certain to watch what components are in those children's multi vitamins you acquisition. Your doctor or family physician can advise you of the proper vitamin supplement required for your kid's specific body type and also physical problem. Beginning with healthy eating as well as way of living routines in young youth sets the stage for your child's healthiness right into center childhood years and also the adolescent years.

Ages 11-20

Good health is essential for young women. It is necessary to remember a few crucial features of this age. The young girl/woman will certainly be experiencing a growth surge, which may be accompanied by what is referred to as "expanding pains". Healthy and balanced routines will certainly ensure her full focus period and also sufficient power to participate in college tasks and also classroom learning. Her body is likewise preparing for the beginning of menstrual cycle. Puberty begins as well as the brain begins its process of sending messages to the hormone system and the reproductive organs begin to establish. Good nutrition together with a vitamin supplement will certainly additionally all set her body for superb reproductive wellness and also potential youngster bearing. Most importantly, by the age of 20 if she has created these couple of health and wellness habits, the girl is likely to carry those into her adult years.

Ages 20-39

If a women individual is developmentally on training course as well as is devoted to preserving optimum wellness, she should stay healthy and balanced right into her later years. These years of 20-39 are when women come to be busy with occupations and/or having children or beginning a household. Several experts concur that this is likewise a time when women will delay or overlook their own health and wellness in order to supply look after others. Bear in mind, you are not going to have the ability to give much help, treatment or aid for others if you on your own are ill, worn down or nutritionally lacking. Let's discuss exactly how women could prevent this trap as well as insure their very own health.

• Consume healthy and balanced foods. Staying clear of harmful fats as well as consuming raw fruits and vegetables go a long means in remaining nutritionally secure. • Enjoy your dieting behaviors. While there are lots of diet plan plans there, the easiest is usually extra effective. Seeing part dimension and the ingredients (fat, calories as well as sugar) in foods will certainly typically net the very best weight loss outcomes. It's important to note that losing or keeping your wanted weight means one thing, there needs to be more calories burned compared to exactly what has been eaten. This could be achieved with: • Workout. Whether you are a normal participant at the neighborhood fitness center or you exercise in your home, there are certain sorts of workout that will benefit you one of the most. One exercise regimen need to elevate your heart rate (cardiovascular health and wellness). Another should include free-weights or weight lifting in some type (bone wellness as well as conditioning). In addition, walking, dance and swimming could tone the body. Weight loss in extra pounds alone will make you pleased when you tip on the ranges yet a lot of females want that loose skin (abdominal area, underarms, and also thighs) to tighten up also. If you just can't find the moment to work out, try these tasks: • Park in the last open parking space away from the storefront and also walk. • In your home, order some huge juice bottles that have the indented areas for carrying or milk containers and do some curls. • Take the staircases as opposed to lifts in public locations • Take a walk via your community every night after dinner • Browse through your gynecologist every year for a PAP examination (more often if your doctor recommends or your last one came back with an uncommon result). PAP examinations are necessary to maintaining a healthy reproductive system. They are used to detect cervical cancer as well as infections among other things. • Do your personal self-breast examinations. • Make a visit at age 39 for your initial mammogram. • Take normal multi vitamins every day. Include various other supplements consisting of calcium, Fish Oil as well as Vitamin C. Do some research study on the kinds as well as quantities of vitamins and/or supplements you might be taking. I located vitanetonline.com to be really useful for this sort of information. Also, it has actually been located that women in these childbearing years are lacking in the amount of folic acid they require. Inadequate amounts of folic acid have actually been linked to abnormality of the brain in infants. These birth defects can be stayed clear of if a woman takes sufficient quantities of folic acid before she develops and during the early, very first trimester of maternity. • Not the very least of all, are these pointers to healthiness that a lot of informative resources rarely state. • Locate a spiritual path or link. These are very personal so I will not offer any type of ideas. Ladies have actually picked a faith, nature, prayer, rituals, a peaceful room and also several others to locate that location within self where they could be peaceful. • Maintain your mental health a concern. Speak with a specialist therapist if you need some assistance buy chinese teas or instructions. • Stay clear of unhealthy connections. If you are being abused in any type of manner by anyone, seek aid

While all these "suggestions" for the age 20-39 team will maintain a lady in optimum wellness, a lot of these should be executed and also proceeded into the later years also.

Ages 40-100

These are the years that lots of ladies claim that they become better. Some even declare that it is the very best time of life they ever experienced. The tips for the 20-39 age apply for ladies beyond 40; some exemptions would consist of the suggestions on folic acid intake, the amount of weight brought in the free-weight workout regimens, the limitations of exercise that could develop falls, mishaps or injuries and also the PAP tests. Routine PAP test exams typically discontinues around 80 years of age however ask your doctor first.

From ages 40-50 a lady can expect pre-menopausal symptoms. Again, the modifications that occur in any type of lady's life can never be evaluated a specific age. There are females that could never ever have any disrupting signs and symptoms of menopause. Various other women might begin menopause at age 40 others might be near 50. Some females could end up being post-menopausal at age 45 and others at age 52-55. No matter what the age of start or conclusion, menopause happens. Make certain to speak with your medical professional concerning remedies for the symptoms of menopause. There are hormonal agent substitute treatments (HRT) along with some all-natural supplements to ease menopause. Taking soy isoflavones, in capsule kind, have recently been pertained to by some women as practical in reducing their warm flashes.

While recognition of the relevance of calcium as well as its intake should be well established by age 15, lots of older women still don't discover it a concern. Weakening of bones (bone weakness) can start to occur as early as age 35. By the time you get into this age of 40+ and you haven't been taking care of your calcium requires, you might anticipate by age 60 to see the lead to your body. We have all seen the females with humps below their neck at the spinal column. We have seen the stooped strolls and heard of women in this age group having drops that damage their hips and also other bone structures. This is an outcome of weak bones. There are likewise genetic aspects that play right into whether or not we obtain weakening of bones. Take your calcium women.

In summation:

• Maintain working out but understand your limitations • Continue getting mammograms • Keep consuming healthy. If you like horticulture, that's light exercise and also you could consume healthy and balanced as well. • Remain socially active

Ladies are living much longer. We are living longer because the importance of diet plan, workout, vitamin and supplement consumption as well as other info has come to be conveniently readily available. However living longer is not necessarily a good thing if the QUALITY of our lives is not taken into consideration. If you follow these ideas and also commit on your own to making healthy and balanced way of living choices then all your years can be filled with happiness, peace as well as health.

[bourgeois-sea-blog]

What Every Female Should Know to Stay Healthy

There are hundreds as well as thousands of write-ups, books, media sources as well as products readily available in the world that tell us ways to stay healthy. How many people have time to research, check out and also search this plethora of info? Better, how do we trust all the information offered around? This write-up has done all the benefit you. Obviously, not every idea or piece of life suggestions could be placed on these few web pages however the most important details is below. Maintain a duplicate as well as hand this out to all the women you understand, it is for each female individual ages 1-100.

From ages 1-10

Staying healthy and balanced and also starting healthy habits begins the minute we are born. What can we provide for those at these young as well as tender ages? Moms could start by breast-feeding. They can present healthy items at meal times when infants await solid food. Called for immunizations should be kept up to this day. From birth via young childhood, the intake of a chewable tablet computer vitamin supplement should become part of their everyday routine. Make certain to watch what components are in those children's multi vitamins you acquisition. Your doctor or family physician can advise you of the proper vitamin supplement required for your kid's specific body type and also physical problem. Beginning with healthy eating as well as way of living routines in young youth sets the stage for your child's healthiness right into center childhood years and also the adolescent years.

Ages 11-20

Good health is essential for young women. It is necessary to remember a few crucial features of this age. The young girl/woman will certainly be experiencing a growth surge, which may be accompanied by what is referred to as "expanding pains". Healthy and balanced routines will certainly ensure her full focus period and also sufficient power to participate in college tasks and also classroom learning. Her body is likewise preparing for the beginning of menstrual cycle. Puberty begins as well as the brain begins its process of sending messages to the hormone system and the reproductive organs begin to establish. Good nutrition together with a vitamin supplement will certainly additionally all set her body for superb reproductive wellness and also potential youngster bearing. Most importantly, by the age of 20 if she has created these couple of health and wellness habits, the girl is likely to carry those into her adult years.

Ages 20-39

If a women individual is developmentally on training course as well as is devoted to preserving optimum wellness, she should stay healthy and balanced right into her later years. These years of 20-39 are when women come to be busy with occupations and/or having children or beginning a household. Several experts concur that this is likewise a time when women will delay or overlook their own health and wellness in order to supply look after others. Bear in mind, you are not going to have the ability to give much help, treatment or aid for others if you on your own are ill, worn down or nutritionally lacking. Let's discuss exactly how women could prevent this trap as well as insure their very own health.

• Consume healthy and balanced foods. Staying clear of harmful fats as well as consuming raw fruits and vegetables go a long means in remaining nutritionally secure. • Enjoy your dieting behaviors. While there are lots of diet plan plans there, the easiest is usually extra effective. Seeing part dimension and the ingredients (fat, calories as well as sugar) in foods will certainly typically net the very best weight loss outcomes. It's important to note that losing or keeping your wanted weight means one thing, there needs to be more calories burned compared to exactly what has been eaten. This could be achieved with: • Workout. Whether you are a normal participant at the neighborhood fitness center or you exercise in your home, there are certain sorts of workout that will benefit you one of the most. One exercise regimen need to elevate your heart rate (cardiovascular health and wellness). Another should include free-weights or weight lifting in some type (bone wellness as well as conditioning). In addition, walking, dance and swimming could tone the body. Weight loss in extra pounds alone will make you pleased when you tip on the ranges yet a lot of females want that loose skin (abdominal area, underarms, and also thighs) to tighten up also. If you just can't find the moment to work out, try these tasks: • Park in the last open parking space away from the storefront and also walk. • In your home, order some huge juice bottles that have the indented areas for carrying or milk containers and do some curls. • Take the staircases as opposed to lifts in public locations • Take a walk via your community every night after dinner • Browse through your gynecologist every year for a PAP examination (more often if your doctor recommends or your last one came back with an uncommon result). PAP examinations are necessary to maintaining a healthy reproductive system. They are used to detect cervical cancer as well as infections among other things. • Do your personal self-breast examinations. • Make a visit at age 39 for your initial mammogram. • Take normal multi vitamins every day. Include various other supplements consisting of calcium, Fish Oil as well as Vitamin C. Do some research study on the kinds as well as quantities of vitamins and/or supplements you might be taking. I located vitanetonline.com to be really useful for this sort of information. Also, it has actually been located that women in these childbearing years are lacking in the amount of folic acid they require. Inadequate amounts of folic acid have actually been linked to abnormality of the brain in infants. These birth defects can be stayed clear of if a woman takes sufficient quantities of folic acid before she develops and during the early, very first trimester of maternity. • Not the very least of all, are these pointers to healthiness that a lot of informative resources rarely state. • Locate a spiritual path or link. These are very personal so I will not offer any type of ideas. Ladies have actually picked a faith, nature, prayer, rituals, a peaceful room and also several others to locate that location within self where they could be peaceful. • Maintain your mental health a concern. Speak with a specialist therapist if you need some assistance buy chinese teas or instructions. • Stay clear of unhealthy connections. If you are being abused in any type of manner by anyone, seek aid

While all these "suggestions" for the age 20-39 team will maintain a lady in optimum wellness, a lot of these should be executed and also proceeded into the later years also.

Ages 40-100

These are the years that lots of ladies claim that they become better. Some even declare that it is the very best time of life they ever experienced. The tips for the 20-39 age apply for ladies beyond 40; some exemptions would consist of the suggestions on folic acid intake, the amount of weight brought in the free-weight workout regimens, the limitations of exercise that could develop falls, mishaps or injuries and also the PAP tests. Routine PAP test exams typically discontinues around 80 years of age however ask your doctor first.

From ages 40-50 a lady can expect pre-menopausal symptoms. Again, the modifications that occur in any type of lady's life can never be evaluated a specific age. There are females that could never ever have any disrupting signs and symptoms of menopause. Various other women might begin menopause at age 40 others might be near 50. Some females could end up being post-menopausal at age 45 and others at age 52-55. No matter what the age of start or conclusion, menopause happens. Make certain to speak with your medical professional concerning remedies for the symptoms of menopause. There are hormonal agent substitute treatments (HRT) along with some all-natural supplements to ease menopause. Taking soy isoflavones, in capsule kind, have recently been pertained to by some women as practical in reducing their warm flashes.

While recognition of the relevance of calcium as well as its intake should be well established by age 15, lots of older women still don't discover it a concern. Weakening of bones (bone weakness) can start to occur as early as age 35. By the time you get into this age of 40+ and you haven't been taking care of your calcium requires, you might anticipate by age 60 to see the lead to your body. We have all seen the females with humps below their neck at the spinal column. We have seen the stooped strolls and heard of women in this age group having drops that damage their hips and also other bone structures. This is an outcome of weak bones. There are likewise genetic aspects that play right into whether or not we obtain weakening of bones. Take your calcium women.

In summation:

• Maintain working out but understand your limitations • Continue getting mammograms • Keep consuming healthy. If you like horticulture, that's light exercise and also you could consume healthy and balanced as well. • Remain socially active

Ladies are living much longer. We are living longer because the importance of diet plan, workout, vitamin and supplement consumption as well as other info has come to be conveniently readily available. However living longer is not necessarily a good thing if the QUALITY of our lives is not taken into consideration. If you follow these ideas and also commit on your own to making healthy and balanced way of living choices then all your years can be filled with happiness, peace as well as health.