#still trying to find a kelsey design actually

[cowboyskeletons]

kelsey don't be mean

[undercoverbisexualfrog]

Fazbear Frights AU

The members of the Foot Clan (plus me and my mutual’s OCs) are high school students who tale the place of Fnaf Fazbear Frights stories. Now they’re all stuck living in purgatory together and get to watch each other’s stories during 'observation'. @solofanatic64 helped me a bunch with this so thank you SO much I can't thank you enough literally 90% of the stuff below is from her.

Characters in Order of Death:

Anton, To Be Beautiful

Made up of scrap metal and sewn on body parts, but he’s pretty shit at sewing so Ivan does it for him

Has major speech problems, really only Ivan understands him so has been designated as his translator

Only has one working eye, can’t fix it but there’s no mirrors around and his hands are really shaky

Mason is replaced by Ivan

If he loses a limb during observation he'll get it back once they get to purgatory (he still tries to find it)

Sometimes he still hears Eleanor's song when he's trying to sleep

Hair is a mix of his natural hair and ‘beautiful’ hair and can’t style it differently

Anton's limbs were discovered in his home but not before Eleanor fled, his death is considered a cold case

TC, Count the Ways

Possesses Funtime Freddy so can go back to Earth via him

Has Funtime Freddy in place of his head, has to hold his human head in his arms

Can’t remove Funtime Freddy head because that’s what killed him

Missing his right hand

TC stands for Takeshi Chouriki, not Tiger Claw

TC is the least unsettling to look at since the decapitation was clean

Get dizzy very easily due to the constant movement of his head, sometimes the others think it’s funny to take it and throw it around

Body was found by his grandfather eventually, it is believed he was murdered then put there to hide the body, no one suspects the actual animatronic

Ivan, The New Kid

The oldest of the many souls possessing Golden Freddy

Possesses Golden Freddy so can go back to Earth via him, can pick stuff up but is limited to inside the pizzeria

Wears a Golden Freddy mask, can’t remove it since he was killed by the animatronic

Completely mangled arm, covers it up with oversized clothing, he has limited movement in it now

Voice is raspy but not as raspy as Yasmin’s since he died of blood loss

Even after all the bodies were found at the abandoned pizzeria, it was never taken down and Kelsey continues to lure kids there, it breaks Ivan’s heart every time

Instead of having an obsession over Heather, Ivan is having issues coping with Anton’s disappearance, the story at the start isn’t about Heather’s sisters being killed but instead a love story that ends gory

Mick eventually told someone about Ivan's plan to find Kelsey, but it was far too late to save him

Diamonte 'Di' (OC), Hide-and-Seek

Has shadowy rabbit ears and a tail

Still has wooden stakes poking out of his torso

His shadow is sentient, it's unknown whether it's his own or Shadow Bonnie

Bloods leaking out of his mouth constantly and it will never stop

Constant discomfort on his back from the scrubbing

Di’s shadow can’t talk, but it’s very expressive and makes a lot of sounds

He’s the only one with a shadow

When his body was found, it was thought to be either him taking his own life or a 'horrible accident'

Chris, The Breaking Wheel

Takes Julius’s place, not Reed

Can’t move at all without the exoskeleton

Has these spasms where he goes and attacks the others until they turn of the exoskeleton

They also turn off the exoskeleton a lot, just to be dicks

Tries to justify being an asshole by saying it's fair since he's the only one who feels pain after death

Bloods leaking out of his mouth constantly and it will never stop

The only one who feels actual pain, everyone else just feel discomfort

He was found by Pickle and Shelly, but escaped, there have been search parties for him but no luck so far

Baxter, Gumdrop Angel

Missing body parts because of being eaten and all

Gumdrop nose is gone and already eaten by some other poor kid

Doesn’t have legs but Ivan found a wheelchair for him at the abandoned pizzeria, Di or TC usually pushes him (if it's TC Baxter had to hold his head)

Has tried working on prosthetics and stuff for himself but he has only one arm

Completely numb in gummy parts

Constantly has a sugary taste in his mouth

Some of his human body has been restored but it's still mostly gummy

No one will ever find out what happened to him, it'll just be a cold case

Xever, Jump for Tickets

Possesses Coils the Clown so can go back to Earth via him, can pick stuff up but only when in control of Coils

Has a Coils the Clown mask, can remove it since he wasn’t killed by the animatronic, he never wears it because he thinks it makes him look dumb and makes a massive deal out of it

Arms are kinda lanky like Coils’s post-death

There's a second soul in Coils but he doesn't know who it is, he’s never seen them but has talked to them multiple times, all he knows is they tried to warn him before his death

Bloods leaking out of his mouth constantly and it will never stop

Coils’ speech is limited to a few prerecorded lines so Xever can’t communicate to anyone

Sometimes goes down to control Coils just to get away from everyone else, always tries to stop people from going to the Jump for Tickets machine

His body was found by a maintenance worker after hours, there are theories on the series of events that led him underneath the Ticker Pulveriser but no conclusive evidence

Comet (@solofanatic64’s OC), Sea Bonnies

Body is made up of only water, sea bonnies, brain, and eyes, but she has impaired vision

Doesn't have vocal cords so sea bonnies talk for her, they sound like hundreds of blubbery high-pitched voices speaking at once

Usually carried in a fish tank because she tends to lose sea bonnies when she steps

Has some extra watery features such as sea bonnie ears and a tail, along with having a few sea bonnies to act as her eyebrows, she’s also wearing a purple raincoat with a hot pink bow on the top front

Sea bonnies died with her, now they're a hive mind that she semi-controls (she gets them to talk for her, can move the eyebrow ones, and can hear each other's thoughts)

Can't completely contain the water (e.g. anytime she takes a step, she leaves a puddle of water behind, anytime she touches/hits somebody, she splashes them), sea bonnies also sometimes fall out so when that happens they disintegrate and respawn inside her

The sensation of the sea bonnies swimming around doesn’t hurt her (anymore), but it still feels weird

Claudia watched her disintegrate, but no one believes her and Comet is considered missing

Yasmin (OC), Find Player Two!

Doesn’t have any physical injuries like the others do (yet), her soul form will resemble her mummifying corpse as time passes

Rather than everyone waiting 10 years or so for observation, they’re shown a flashback of what’s happened in her story

Developed claustrophobia after her death

Still trying to find Mary Jo in the afterlife, but she hasn’t yet

She's grown extremely attached to Xever since their deaths

Yasmin’s voice is very raspy due to dehydration having a part in her death, drinking water doesn’t help at all

She and Xever are the only ones who were friends in life, she was devastated to know she’d lost another friend, he was devastated to know that she was next

No one will ever find her body, it'll just be a cold case

Ask Me Stuff!

[aevyk-ing]

DreamWorks4Me

If you've seen the news, DreamWorks as a studio is going through a huge change. They're going to start outsourcing every movie from now on and laying off almost 50% of their staff.

This makes me really sad for them and their legacy, so I wanted to share with you my fondest memories of their movies. Feel free to do the same!:

I didn't have a The Road to el Dorado copy while growing up. My best friend and neighbor had one and we would have an afternoon snack in her home, watch The Road... and then play. This was one of the two movies we rewatched the most.

I've always loved Chicken Run. I had this huge poster of it, but threw it away when I had a nightmare where the chickens started jumping from it. I still think it's Aardman's best movie and the one with the best soundtrack (which was also my introduction to both Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell!).

I sort of remember how Shrek knocked it out the park. There was a before and an after in animated movies.

While a lot of people say it's a bad movie, I kinda like Sinbad. The adventure, the character design, the places and Eris, of course.

I like Puss since his first appearance in Shrek 2.

I really like Over the Hedge. The music is great and the concept interesting. I remember reading the actual comic strips in the Sunday newspaper and I still have some of them.

While Shrek the Third is not that good, I really liked Artie for some reason. That's why one of the characters from my book Gotxinka is called Artii!

I wasn't much interested in Kung Fu Panda at the beginning, but it grew on me. One afternoon, the second and third movies were on TV, so I watched the first one and then put the other two on TV, binge watching the three!

How to train your dragon was the movie that helped me out of my depression and got me into cosplaying, drawing fancomics and writing fanfiction. And also got me into watching almost everything in English.

I love Megamind and will be forever mad I couldn't watch in on cinemas.

I know people don't like it much, but I find the Puss in Boots movie enjoyable.

I really liked Rise of the Guardians and it's a pity they didn't make more stuff with those characters. I almost cosplayed Toothiana, but did a casual version of her instead.

I couldn't watch The Croods in cinemas either, but I watched it in English a while after and fell in love with it! It's so creative and the relationship of Guy and Eep is so sweet.

I did my hair like Astrid to watch HTTYD2. That version of her outfit is my favorite cosplay of her.

And, of course, Riders of Berk were the first series I watched in full English. I didn't have Netflix when Race to the Edge aired, so I would get up early to watch someone streaming it and I had a blast. I didn't know if I should watch Trollhunters, but I saw a video with Kelsey Grammer and I'm so glad I gave it a try! The show helped me in one of my lowest moments (like HTTYD had done years before).

[chaosverse-mainblog]

Kelsey

“Kelsey” Kelechi Siqiniq Darling

-15/16yrs old

-Afro-indigenous, ½ Nigerian (Igbo) ½ Inuit (Iñupiaq)

-Has a dark skin tone, almost like a Aicha Faye

-Has a mole under his right eye/close to his cheek, one on the right side of his bottom lip, another near the left side of his chin, one in between his eyes/on his nose bridge and one on his nose, also has freckles (mostly on his body, a few scattered across his nose)

-Tooth Gap

-He has light blue eyes but for some reason his eyes tend to reflect light like in pictures regardless of actual lighting, basically it constantly looks like he has red pupils/the red-eye effect, he also has monolids/monolid eyes + a bulbous/broad nose

-Chubby

-6’2 (THE HELL THEY FEEDING HIM??) but he slouches when talking to people shorter than him (basically almost every kid his age) so he looks about 6ft max most of the time

-4B, 8 inch, golden blonde (like ebonyboadu’s) with brown-black roots, afro (it’s kinda big, it looks like Chelsea Boatey’s)

-Has ocular albinism + mild(ish) photophobia

-Nostril piercing (gold) on the left side

-Voice HC: Steve Lacy or Marshall Lee (Donald Glover)(still considering multiple options), Can speak English (2nd), Igbo (1st), French (3rd) and trying to practise Iñupiaq

-ASD + Depression

-Stromae, Vendredi sur Mer, Vanessa Paradis, Kali Uchis, LVL1, ZUTOMAYO, Nastyona, Doja Cat, Eve, Yemi Alade, Azealia Banks, Amerie, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Destiny’s Child, TLC, Tinashe, PinkPanthress, Erykah Badu, Eve, WILLOW, The Internet, Gorillaz, Tame Impala, MF DOOM, Odd Future, Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the creator, Outkast, Frank Ocean, Bruno Mars, Steve Lacy, Bell Biv DeVoe, Easy-E, Michael Jackson, MARINA, Madonna, Melanie Martinez, Elita, Mitski, Lady Gaga, Millionaires, Gwen Stefani, Blondie, The Cramps, Mother Mother, ICP, Metallica, Rammstein, October Country, Foster the People, Sohodolls, The Dresden Dolls, Le Tigre

-Interest in knifes, like pocket-knifes, switchblades, etc. He has like a whole mini collection

-He also likes drawing and sketching, has one HUGE sketchbook now and some old one that was his first ever official one, works on painting projects, now he’s trying out Graffiti + he likes drawing little comics and stuff in his his sketchbook

-He likes shows like: Boondocks, For Colored Girls, Ride the Cyclone, Heathers, Pose, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Carrie, The Butterfly Effect (2004), Jennifer’s body, Get out, Us, Suspiria, Boxing Helena, Hellraiser, Lolita, girl interrupted and more, he also likes anime.

-He likes writing poems

-Can Skate (Mostly Skateboarding) and play violin

-Has a Nintendo DSI XL(Metallic Rose), He likes Animal Crossing, Kirby games, Zelda games, Pokemon games, and he LOVES Princess Peach

-Either freezes up/zones out or walks out of awkward/uncomfortable situations

-Can't make proper/his own decisons for shit,

-Can be very blunt or too honest or comes on strong

-Really quiet in front of other ppl (except Dev and Mick)

-He can Waack and Vouge

-He’s into urban exploration, sometimes he’ll take some cool trinkets if he can find any, maybe take some inspiration of some random graffiti

-Interested in the Arts and Criminology

-Mostly prefers smaller crowds of people, can easily get overwhelmed

-Classes: Literature, Chemistry, Algebra, P.E (in the school basketball team), Art and Design, French, Business, Geography, ICT

-Contortionist + Intersex

-His natural hair color is in fact blonde but the rest of the hair on his body seems to be a dark brown

-Says really creepy shit out of the blue then just, “forgets”, after

-Damn I wonder why he wears that one earring on his right ear

[cayden-grayson-mitchell]

Carter: *Lying in bed sick with a stuffy node, dry sore throat. Feeling meh*

Joel: Hey guys Y'all've seen Carter anywhere round here?

Carter: *Walking out of his room, sneezing and coughing with this mask on his mouth, green lanyard holding it on to his face, by the white strings* (I used mine cuz Google was being dumb and not letting me find that design) I'm here.

Joel: You okay there Buddy? You feeling okay?

Carter: Yea I'm fine. *Turns away, coughing, pulling his mask up, sneezing a bit* Okay maybe I'm not feeling okay.

Dana: It's back to bed with you Mr. Grayson. We'll all be in soon to help you okay?

Carter: *Confused* If any of you have that Buckley's crap, I am NOT taking it. It is so BAD!

Kelsey: Don't worry. It won't be it. Trust us. If it happened to be THE ONLY ONE LEFT than you would have to take it. It's ok.

Chad: Mhm. And as of today, no showers for you. We definitely don't want you to slip and get hurt if you were to sneeze. You my friend are gonna get either a warm or cold bath.

Carter: *Nods* I can deal with that.

William: Heard you're sick. Got you a Lil two somethings to help you out. *Hands him a Smart Heart Care Bear Plush* (I WANT IT SO BADLY! IT'S SO CUTE!) And a Moonlight Kitty Bat Plush* Here. Keep em.

Carter: *Happily in tears as his Biological Parents never gave him stuff like this, or cared when he got sick or helped him* Thank you Papa. Oh Sorry.

William: Carter, if you really think of me as a Father Figure. I can Adopt you since you never had the best childhood.

Carter: I'd like that. *Turns away, sneezing*

Dana: Yay! I'll finally have a Little Brother to take care of! I'll be the Big Sister and Little Sister!

Ryan: Same! It'll be great having a Lil Brother

William: Now off to bed. We'll be there soon

Chad: *Goes to run Carter a warm bath, with Epson Salts* This'll help him

William: Yes it will help him Chad. He's gonna need this. And if he's up for it he might tell you all how and why he's called me Papa.

Chad: If he's up to it, we'll be there for him

*Time skip after the bath, bit of soup, etc*

Carter: Okay *Fidgets* I think it is time I tell you why I never had a proper childhood and also the reason how and why I called Captain Mitchell Papa. Well you see. It was around 9:30 at night. I was 4 years old. I was so sick that I thought I was dying. I went to my parents' room and told them but of course they didn't believe me. So I stole Dad's wallet, small flashlights, got my bag of stuff and went to the hospital. Yes I actually did that at 4 years old. They told me I probably had the Flu and they let me stay at the hospital in the Kids Ward because it was late at night and they didn't want me in the normal section. They also said they'd call CPS on Mom and Dad for neglecting me since the only time they would ever feed me is if we were in public so they did not seem like horrible people. But they had always forgotten that the stuff Bear that I had and still have had a video camera inside that recorded every single thing that they did. It just happened to be like that Captain Mitchell came by that day and seen me. He bought me apple slices and juice and said he'd bring his Son and Daughter to visit me. I'm so glad I met you and Ryan at the hospital rather than my home cuz it was not a good place to be. Infortunately I had to go back since Mom and Dad lied an said they never did anything to me. Turns out they set up that Fire in my room to try and kill me. If you had not shown up that day Captain, I'd probably not even be here. For that i am so thankful for that.

Chad: *Hugging Carter* I'm so sorry they did that to you. I'm glad everything good happened to you.

(More coming when I think of it.)

[ace-in-a-shopping-cart]

Day 19

Prompt: Everyone is born with a compass on their wrist, the needle of the compass points towards your soulmate.

Word Count: 2,161

Main Taglist: (Send an ask to be added or removed!) @starlocked01,​​​ @spoopy-turtle,​​​ @lizluvscupcakes,​​ @more-fandon-than-friends​, @i-cant-find-a-good-username, @vindicatedvirgil, @star-crossed-shipper, @justaqueercactus, @gayboopnoodle, @sanderssidesweirdo, @the-sympathetic-villain, @8-writes, @lizzy-lineart, @battlebunnyteardropsinthesun, sirprplsnail

Soulmate taglist:(Send an ask to be added or removed!) @elizabutgayer, @melodiread, @tsshipmonth2020, @mikalya12, @8-writes, @lizzy-lineart

Virgil’s thumb ran over the compass needle, comforted by the raised skin telling him he wasn’t alone. For as long as he’d been aware of it, he’d loved it. Loved knowing there was someone on the other end of it, loved knowing he wasn’t trudging through life alone, that no matter how broken and messed up he thought he was there was always going to be someone out there destined to love him.

He was jostled out of his thoughts by the sound of someone calling his name. Looking up, he found it was his turn to present. He took a deep breath, let his thumb brush over the compass one last time, and moved to do it. Once he was up there, he performed with minimal flaws.

He collapsed back into his chair, mentally exhausted already and the morning wasn’t even over yet. He stared at his compass needle, watching the tip waver slightly but stay steady in the same direction, off to his right and behind him slightly. He smiled at the thought of his soulmate being the north for his compass.

He tuned back into the meeting as his supervisor stood. “Now, we’ve only got one last order of business.” Roman said, hands on his hips as he tried to grab everyone’s attention. “We have a new member on the development team so if you could all give him a warm welcome, that’d be appreciated.”

Virgil shrugged and clapped half-heartedly. A man stood as Virgil watched his compass shift, following the man’s movements as he made his way to the front of the room and stood beside their supervisor. He straightened his tie, allowing Virgil to notice that his compass was covered with a wide leather cuff. “Salutations. My name is Logan Kelsey and I’m pleased to have joined the team.”

An hour later, Virgil was staring at his wrist. He twisted in his chair, watching the needle swing back and forth, staying steady on Logan across the room. He still had Roman’s voice ringing in his ears, asking Virgil to partner with Logan for the project the man was already halfway done with, showing the new guy the ropes and all that.

The man that was now advancing across the room, straight for him. Virgil turned his wrist over and put it palm down on his leg. “Can I help you with anything, Kelsey?”

Logan nodded, looking down at him. “I’d like to begin working on the project now, if you have the time.”

Virgil smiled, swinging the chair around and scooting into the desk. “Sure! Pull up a chair while I get this set up.” He wiggled the mouse, causing the screen to power on. Clicking through a few files, he set up the next stages of what he’d been working on before the meeting.

A chair rolled over and Logan sat beside him, a notepad propped up on his knee and a pen in his hand. “You’re going to have to brief me on what you’re working on as I was given no directions on what I am to learn from you.”

Virgil nodded, picking up a pencil to twirl between his fingers. “I’m just working on a simple graphic at the moment. Really, this could have been done by one person.” He glanced to the side. “Are you working more on the graphics department or the slogans? I’m asking because you look like you belong in the finances department instead of down here with everyone else.”

Logan looked at him then, eyes dragging over Virgil’s frame. The emo felt like he was being judged, as if his comfortable hoodie and ripped jeans were suddenly inadequate to Logan’s slacks and dress shirt and tie. Logan shrugged. “I don’t see the problem. I didn’t know the dress code was more casual than other departments. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Virgil couldn’t help but let out a laugh at that. “No, there’s no dress code here.” He paused. “Do the other departments have dress codes?”

Logan bobbled his head. “Yes and no. They don’t have official dress codes but everyone is pretentious and stuck up so they think they’re better than everyone else and dress like it.”

Virgil nodded. “I like you better than I thought I would.”

Logan coughed into his fist, his eyes darting down to the notepad on his lap. “We should probably get started.”

“Right!” Virgil directed his gaze back to the screen and briefly ran over what he’d done to get to this stage of development for the ad before explaining his process as he did the next few parts.

The next day, they picked up from where they left off. Virgil pulled Logan into the decision making, asking him what colors he thought would contrast well and why, asking where he would put the text, and slowly getting him used to making these kinds of decisions himself.

Soon, a month and two projects had gone by. The pair had bumped into each other in the parking garage and rode the elevator up, talking about personal interests and other things. When they got to the floor, they were pulled into a meeting by Roman. Most of the team was already there with a few others trickling in around them. As they waited, the conversation turned to soulmates.

Logan nodded to Virgil’s wrist, the compass covered by a leather cuff since that first day. “May I ask why you decided to cover it?”

Virgil shrugged. “I met him already and I have no idea how he feels about me. So, I covered it. I’d rather be accused of having a broken compass than actually have a broken heart.”

Logan nodded. “I can understand that. I’ll admit, it scares me a little, knowing there’s someone the compass points to. So, I cover it, not wanting to look at it. I don’t know why I’m so scared of the inevitable.”

Virgil internally released a sigh of relief, knowing now why Logan covered his wrist. “It’s not like that for me. In the beginning, I was glad to have the compass. I have pretty bad anxiety so it was nice to be able to run my fingers over it and know someone was there for me, that someone would always be there on the other end, waiting just for me. Now that I’ve met him, I don’t think he’ll feel the same about it. So, I covered it.”

Before Logan could respond, Roman called the meeting to order. “So, it seems that Mr. Kelsey now knows what he’s doing when it comes to graphic design. Is that correct, Mr. Storm?”

Virgil nodded. “Sounds right to me, sir. He’s a fast learner and a hard worker.”

Roman nodded, smiling. “With that in mind, it’s time to say goodbye to Mr. Kelsey as he’s now off to the advertisement department.”

Virgil looked at his soulmate. “Is that true? You’re leaving us?” He shouldn’t feel so hurt or betrayed by this revelation but here he was, his heart feeling like it’d been torn to pieces.

Logan had an apology in his eyes that never made it past his throat as Roman called attention back to himself. “I know it’s sad to see him go. However, we have to realize that he was always going to be with us for a short time. We should learn to appreciate the time we’ve had with him.”

Virgil smiled, sadness lingering at the edges and tears damming behind his eyes. “Yeah, appreciate him.”

Logan looked over at him, probably wondering how he was, but Virgil turned away. He ignored the man for the rest of the meeting, focusing on keeping the tears inside and trying to pay attention to Roman.

When it was over, he was the first to leave. Before Logan came that wouldn’t be abnormal but ever since the other man had been there, Virgil had socialized a bit more, he’d become friends with Logan in a way he’d never done with anyone else. He’d trusted the man, not knowing he was leaving.

He walked away, the heels of his hands swiping at his eyes. He heard a voice behind him, someone calling his name, but he ignored it and continued on. He pushed through a door, not knowing where he was going. The voice sounded again but he was barely paying attention.  A hand landed on his shoulder, spinning him around as Logan said his name for the third time. 

“Virgil, is there something wrong?”

Virgil covered his face with his hands, knowing he was being childish. “No, nothing’s wrong.” He lied.

Logan’s hand stayed on his shoulder. “Then why won’t you look at me? Or even say goodbye to me?”

Virgil squeaked at the mention of his soulmate’s imminent departure. His hand fluttered, wanting to curl around Logan’s tie, wanted to keep him from leaving, but he knew that wasn’t an option. So, the hand never landed, just went to his side as the other hand stayed over his tear-tracked face.

Logan sighed, pulling him into a hug, one arm around his waist and the other hand cradling his head. “Talk to me, please.” His voice was a whisper in his ear, easily making itself heard over the roaring battle between fears in Virgil’s head.

Virgil leaned his head on Logan’s shoulder, the hand covering his face coming down to grip weakly at his own belt loop. He wanted to explain, to say he felt betrayed, but didn’t have the words. So, he stayed silent.

They stayed like that as Virgil’s tears slowly dried and his breathing went back to normal. Some time into the hug, Logan’s hand had started rubbing the length of Virgil’s spine in a soothing manner, the other hand staying still on his head. When Virgil’s breathing evened out, he felt Logan pull away, hands coming to cup the graphic designer’s face.

“Will you tell me what’s wrong?” His voice was still soft so Virgil wasn’t sure if he imagined the tone of impatience hidden beneath it.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” Virgil had no way of explaining his feelings, so he asked about the root cause of them instead.

Logan’s face revealed his surprise before it softened. “Don’t you remember? You were told at the very beginning that I was only here temporarily.”

Virgil thought back to that day, when he was still in love with the idea of a soulmate rather than actually in love with his soulmate. He had a vague memory of Roman mentioning a temporary member of the team. He felt heat rise to his cheeks as he knew this was his inability to listen correctly that had caused this. “Oh.”

Logan chuckled. “I’m sure this is also a communication error on my part. I should have told you rather than rely on Roman’s less than stellar memory.”

Virgil giggled softly as he used his hoodie sleeve to scrub at the salt crusted on his cheeks. “So, what do we do from here?”

Logan looked around. “Maybe we should go back to your desk and talk about why you had this reaction to news of me leaving. Besides, I’m not leaving until the end of the day anyways so we might as well get some work done.”

Virgil nodded and the pair headed back to Virgil’s desk. Virgil dabbed a bit of water from his thermos onto a nearby tissue and scrubbed the lingering salt from his cheeks. Logan sat silently and patiently, waiting for him. When that was done, Virgil stalled by booting up the computer and flicking open the files they’d need for the day. Logan softly said his name to get his attention.

Virgil sighed, his hand moving from the mouse to unlatch the cuff on his wrist. Logan watched, curiosity in his gaze. He revealed the back of his wrist and quietly muttered, “I got attached to you, you idiot,” before turning it to show him.

Logan pulled it closer, turning it left and right as he tried to see if it was true, that he was Virgil’s soulmate. At last, he put Virgil’s wrist down and unlatched his own cuff. He chuckled at Virgil’s words. “To tell the truth,” his voice was louder than Virgil’s but no less sincere, “I developed feelings for you as well.” He turned his wrist to show Virgil his compass, the needle firmly fixed on Virgil.

Virgil smiled but it was still tinged with sadness. “But you’re still leaving.”

Logan laughed, reaching to draw Virgil close, pressing their foreheads together. “Two floors up. I'm heading to advertisement.”

Virgil frowned. “What do you even do?”

“I survey the different departments to see how they use their budgets. I actually have an office three floors up.”

Virgil laughed, pushing his shoulder just hard enough to rock him but not enough to push him away entirely. “You jerk.” Still, he tilted his head for a kiss that was quickly granted.

[not-the-blue]

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (2019) - review

this pretty much wrote itself. contains much, much negativity about Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, be warned! 

An artist - I honestly don’t remember who - once told me, “be careful when you make art about making art. You can easily get stuck in a cycle of cynical meta and your work will have no substance.” - and he was right. It’s easy to get lost in your feelings about creation, and end up making something that’s basically feeding on itself, with nothing to hold it up as a work of art that’s actually about something. 

Few have done this right. Kelsey’s Wroten’s Cannonball comes to mind, as does Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s The Wicked And The Divine. Many have done this wrong - think every parody worthy “I’m a cynic who drinks whiskey, fucks models and writes the Great American Novel” type. Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen manages to get even worse than that, because it’s not even trying to sound deep. It’s above sounding deep. It’s above being anything. 

The story - if it can even be called that - follows, as the title suggests, Jimmy Olsen, who’s friends with Superman (Clark Kent, but you didn’t hear it from me). The red headed, butt headed menace has a knack for shenanigans, and he’s sometimes a dick. That’s pretty much everything the reader gets to know about the main character. That, and his apparently problematic family legacy, from before Metropolis was even called Metropolis. As of issue #6, the two plot threads - the modern adventures of Jimmy and the life story of his “great-great-grand-something” Joachim Olsson - have not yet been connected. I’m sure they will. I’m sure it’ll be very clever. 

Jimmy Olsen gets in trouble. Jimmy Olsen flees from Metropolis. Jimmy Olsen fakes his death. There’s a conspiracy - I think - and Batman shows up at some point, but if there’s an actual plot - a story that develops and follows some kind of thread to a satisfying, earned conclusion - it’s lost between flashbacks, flash forwards, Joachim’s side plot, mini chapters, faux cliff hangers and gags. 

This review is actually kind of heartbreaking for me to write, because I love Matt Fraction’s work. Well, I love Sex Criminals and Hawkeye (2012), but I love them so much, I thought loving his work was a guarantee at this point. Hawkeye is smart, well structured, deeply personal and innovative without being showy about it. Sex Criminals is heartfelt, complex and cares a lot about its characters. Hawkeye, in second reading, can be a bit gimmicky, self important and sexist. Sex criminals is a bit hard to follow and at some point, a character being an asshole stops being interesting and starts being annoying. The only reason I’ve noticed these flaws is because Jimmy Olsen takes all of them and plays them up to eleven, making it impossible not to notice them in Fraction’s better works, which makes the comic, in my opinion, actively worse than just a bad story. 

The art of Jimmy Olsen is very good. The lines evoke a nice vintage comic vibe, but it’s still extremely dynamic and expressive. It’s a very “the good ol’ times” wholesome, almost self parodying feel. Lieber does an excellent job at taking a classic character and modernizing it in a way that feels slightly off but still very pleasing to look at. It’s classic, it’s iconic, and it’s so completely wasted that it makes me want to cry a bit. 

Now, a disclaimer: this is my introduction to Jimmy Olsen as a character. I also don’t read a lot of stuff published by DC comics. This is not by design - I don’t believe in the marvel vs. DC debate, they’re publishers, you can read both - I just haven’t found anything I like yet. My standards when it comes to superhero comics are, with some exceptions, “involved a woman somewhere in the making process”, so, uh, yeah. There isn’t much. 

I don’t feel like knowing Jimmy Olsen would’ve made me like this better, though. On the contrary - this comic book mocks its reader for the mere possibility that they’d ever want to like, relate to or enjoy the content or the character in any way. It mocks the format of old comic books with long, ridiculous chapter openers that stop the story completely for a couple of paragraphs at a time just to tell you that no, the story doesn’t take itself seriously, god forbid. 

Sometimes when a story doesn’t take itself too seriously, you get something delightful, like Kyle Starks’ Kill Them All, that’s basically just one big action sequence where three main characters kill a bunch of bad guys and it’s great. Sometimes you get the vintage comic Jimmy Olsen gets out of its way to mock - I managed to get some old West Coast Avengers (1989) issues recently, and reading through them, missing arcs and water damages and all, has been lovely. It’s over the top! It doesn’t make sense! But we’re all here to have fun. The writers, the artists, the readers - there’s a value in this kind of stories, a value Jimmy Olsen refuses to see. It starts with someone, or someones, REALLY WANTING to tell a certain story. These stories might not take themselves too seriously - they’re not here to say anything important, to be capital a Art - but they are treated seriously in that we all know what kind of experience we’re in for, and the creators make sure it’s delivered to the best of their ability, because they’re passionate about it. 

To paraphrase Hannah Montana, Matt Fraction gets the worst of both worlds here. It is - or at least it feels like it is - trying to be capital a Art, like it’s trying to say something important and deep. But with the same breath it tells you, you know what, you won’t get it, and fuck you for wanting to enjoy a story. This is not what serious comic readers do. Serious comic readers sit in the dark and stew in their own meta, and if passion tries to get anywhere near them they instantly destroy it with a ray of cynicism so concentrated it will tear through Hawkeye’s suit and leave him shirtless for the rest of the story (no, YOU’VE been reading too much West Coast Avengers). 

When Matt Fraction is passionate about telling a story, it makes up for the less good bits and the story becomes an instant classic. It seems like when he’s not, though, it’s everyone else’s fault. I hope he finds that spark again, but i’m not sticking through issues #7-#12 to find out. I prefer comics that wants to be read.

[kita-lavellan]

2019 Writer’s Round-Up

I was tagged by both @pikapeppa​ and @elveny​ so I figured I’d better put some effort in and try to figure this out. It’s not going to be easy since I have my writings scattered everywhere, including handwritten snippets, but I’ll give it my best shot!

Word Count

I can only really get an approximate number for this since, as I mentioned, my writing is scattered all over. Having said that, I’ve gone through my Googledocs going back to January, checked 4TheWords, double-checked what I’ve posted on AO3, and skimmed my last 3 months of Tumblr Posts, and totally ignored my handwritten stuff (I’m not word-counting that for you :p).

After dividing the word counts from my collaborative Original Fiction pieces by 2, and adding it all together with the help of a spreadsheet...

2019 Total Wordcount: 127,565

Number of Smut Scenes

Three.

A low number for me, but I’ve been writing a lot of original fiction that hasn’t centred around the topic.

New Things I’ve Tried This Year

Science Fiction!

I’m usually a strictly Fantasy writer in my original works, but @skekiss​ challenged me to try my hand at some Sci-Fi, and not only was it surprisingly fun, but it also didn’t turn out terribly, so I might do some more of that next year.

Favourite Thing I’ve Written This Year

My Favourite piece of Original Fiction was that Science Fiction piece my friend challenged me to do. It still doesn’t have a title, but here’s a snippet...

In the year 2421, the colonization of Mars finally became more than a simple societal need to expand, it also became a financially viable option for the over-crowded people of Earth.

The ship, destined to terraform Mars into a planet that humans could not only live on, but thrive upon, was named ‘The Scout’, and set out for the red planet in the year 2436, from a launchpad that had been constructed in international waters.

The Project was funded by nations from across Earth, and ‘The Scout’ was outfitted with the most advanced technology from all of the participating countries.

It was designed to be capable of terraforming Mars into a state that would allow for the development of permanent settlements in a sustainable manner, and construction was completed in under ten years.

The subsequent five years between it’s completed construction and the eventual launch date was spent finding and training a crew of over 3,000 officers, medical staff, scientists, and civilians from all walks of life so that they would be fully prepared for the challenges ahead.

It was a joyous and celebrated day when ‘The Scout’ launched from Earth, it’s state of the art quantum drive meant that travel to Mars would take the ship only sixty days.

Somewhere along their journey between the two planets, ‘The Scout’ encountered the sudden creation of a wormhole close enough to them to disrupt the ship’s controls and, unable to steer away from the pull of the forming singularity, the ship was pulled inside.

By chance, the addition of quantum energy from the ship’s drive core to the forming wormhole stabilised its throat long enough for ‘The Scout’ to emerge from the other side before it collapsed upon itself, stranding ‘The Scout’ and all three thousand souls in an unknown galaxy...

“Kelsey!”

The shout of her name drew her golden-brown eyes from the presentation, complete with an interactive holographic projection, to her employer.

He looked angry, she noticed, which wasn’t surprising really since he’d sent her to get fresh stock from the workshop an hour ago.

“Branner-”

“What do you think you’re doing, girl!?” he snapped as he used his broad shoulders and tall frame to force his way between crowds of early morning shoppers and over to where she was standing.

“Umm…” Kelsey turned her eyes back to the presentation for a moment, the display had continued to explain about ‘The Scout’s’ settlement on an uninhabited planet with permission from the other races of the odd galaxy they’d found themselves in.

The young children were chasing holographic stars and barely paying any attention to their own history, their supervising teacher looked ready to tear her own hair out, and Kelsey turned back to Branner guiltily.

“Nothing?”

He glared at her for a long moment, his own gaze flicking to the presentation and his eyes narrowing.

“Get those ship parts back to the stall, I’ll be along in a minute,” he growled, and Kelsey nodded, moving quickly past him and dodging the smack he aimed at the back of her head with practised ease.

As for fanfiction... I think my Favourite piece of 2019 is probably “Fascinating”. A little Solavellan one-shot I did about my favourite flirt with the bald elf. 

Fascinating can be found here

Favourite Fic I’ve Read This Year

Asking the tough questions now... hmm. I do even less reading than I do writing when my depression flares up, but I’m gonna scour my AO3 for my top 3 of the year...

In no particular order;

1) Begin Again by Anthropasaurus A recent find of mine. There are only two chapters, but AO3 says I’ve visited this fic 7 times, so that should tell you how invested I am already. It looks like it’s going to be interesting and clever, so I’m excited to see where this one goes. Rating: M Pairing: Solas/Lavellan Tropes or Tags: Time-travel, Self Harm/Suicide mention, Angst, Slowburn, Fixit-Fic. Summary: “There’s a small moment, as you’re harvesting a person when you feel their soul almost literally in your hands. All you would need to do is cast your spell right at that moment. We know where my body and Solas were at that time. It’s the only chance we have Dorian.” The years following the Exalted Council had not been kind to Raven or Dorian. Years of thwarting Solas at every turn took everything they and what few allies still survived had. They all knew the end was drawing near and if they didn’t act fast, southern Thedas would fall. But not even Solas could have foreseen what would happen when the Veil fell. Her memories of Redcliffe paled in comparison to the atrocities that now spread across the land. The Evanuris were free and roamed the lands like a plague. Whatever plans Solas had had failed. It had been weeks since she had seen him on the edges of her dreams. She feared the worst.

2) Spark of Hope Series by Elveny I don’t read series often, I like all the story in one place, but Elveny’s Lyssa/Solas story just sucks you in, and you’re clicking “Next Chapter/Next Story” without even realising it until you’ve read the whole thing in one night and are DESPERATELY left wanting for more. *coughs awkwardly* It’s not finished, but there are 147,000 words (approximately) over 5 stories, and a new one coming sometime in 2020, so it’s absolutely worth reading. Rating: E Pairing: Solas/Lavellan Tropes or Tags: Anxiety/Panic Attacks, Emotional Hurt, Break Up, Prequel Story Included. Summary: Everything has gone wrong. Corypheus has opened the orb and the magic did not return to Solas. A giant Breach is throbbing in the air, threatening the whole of Thedas before he is powerful enough to do what he set out to do. Instead of following his plans, he finds himself in Haven, caring for an unconscious elven woman whose palm sizzles with green magic... his magic. He needs to keep her alive if he wants any chance to get it back. But then... she wakes.

3) Elastic Heart by cedarmoons I’ve read this half a dozen times, and the end of the first chapter STILL makes my heart stop >.< This is the fic that convinced me there were actually good Solavellan Writers hiding out there.  I’ve found many since then, but this was my launchpad moment. Rating: E Pairing: Solas/Lavellan Tropes or Tags: None Summary: For the DA Kinkmeme. After making love to Lavellan, Solas accidentally tells her his identity.

Writing Goals for 2020

At least, an easy question! Write More. I’ve had a rough year for writing with many depression flare-ups. I’m hoping that 2020 I can get back to a more regular schedule, starting with a whole day of it on Jan 1st, I’ve cleared my schedule to get some writing time in and have my fingers crossed that it will be a good starting point for the rest of the year.

Thank you’s and Tagging...

Firstly, thank you PikkaPeppa and Elveny for tagging me! I’ve written more this year than I thought I had, and that’s been a lovely surprise, and a bit of a mood boost too. Thank you @skekiss​ for getting me into Tumblr. I’m not sure if I should thank you for this since it’s EATING my life, but regardless, I’ve met some fun people here in the last three months. Also, Thank You to @the-solavellan-archive​ for giving me a place to hang out, and share my Solavellan works, and for welcoming me with open arms ^_^

Now to tag people who may want to take part in this...

@rivainisomniari​, @lyrium-lavellan​, @solas-disapproves​, @cornfedcryptid​, @skekiss​, @faerieavalon​, @ranawaytothedas​

If you feel like doing this and I’ve not tagged you, feel free, and @ me so I can be nosey! :D

[adelinemckenna]

i swear i just saw REINA HARDESTY out on the streets but it turned out to be ADELINE MCKENNA. SHE was born on AUGUST 3RD making them only 25 years old. They’re known to be +ALERT +PERSISTENT and -VENGEFUL -IMPULSIVE. They spend most of their time being a WEBSITE DESIGNER/HACKER. Rumour has it they’re PANSEXUAL, and can be found in WASHINGTON HEIGHTS. You know you’ve found them when you come across DARK ROOMS WITH LIT UP COMPUTER SCREENS, UNDERLYING FEELINGS OF GUILT THAT ARE BURIED DEEP DOWN AND THE SMELL OF FRESHLY GROUND COFFEE .

TW: death, faking a death, crime

History

Her mother was only seventeen years old when she fell pregnant with her, the father was an eighteen-year-old high school graduate on his year abroad in Japan and was already gone by the time the pregnancy was discovered

The mother's parents told her she had two choices, either she'd give the child up for adoption or she would be disowned and they would no longer consider her their daughter - she went with the first option and immediately went to an adoption agency

Born in Japan, she was adopted shortly after her birth and taken to the United States. She was given the name Kelsey Quinn.

She grew up in San Francisco with a close-knit family, which included two older brothers - her adoption was never a secret, her parents were always very open about it and considering she was the only Asian kid in an otherwise white family, it was pretty obvious

Got really into everything computers and programming at eight years old and quickly showed to have quite her way with it, even being able to build a computer from scratch

Around twelve she discovered the magical world of hacking, she was very good at it too, but she also already knew the kind of trouble she could get into and so she steered away from it (or at least made sure she couldn't get discovered and never actually took anything)

Despite being a complete computer nerd, Kelsey was pretty popular in high school. She was just kind of friendly with everyone and everyone liked her plenty.

When she was eighteen, one of her brothers died in an 'accident'. Her family was told that he had gotten behind the wheel drunk and that he'd gotten in car accident that way - she didn't believe it for even one second, because she knew her brother knew better than to do that.

So she did what she did best and she hacked her way into some databases and other places she wasn't supposed to find her way into and ended up discovering that the detective on her bother's case was dirty and had been paid off by a gang to cover up the death of her brother, who had fallen victim of mistaken identity due to a mistake of one of the gang members.

Pissed off by the whole thing, Kelsey did what she felt was only right and anonymously sent out the file that she had built up to all the newspapers and online bloggers she could find and it kind of blew up. The detective on the case was fired and sentenced to time in prison, but unfortunately despite the fact that the leaders of the gang were prosecuted, nothing ever happened and they got away with it all.

Of course Kelsey couldn't leave it like that, and so she decided to hit the gang where it hurt them the most - their wallet. She hacked into all of their bank accounts and cleared them out, donating the majority to various charities and putting away some of it for herself and her family- it seemed to her the least of what they deserved.

Unfortunately for her, she was sloppy due to her anger and left behind a trace that pointed the gang in her direction and so a kill order was put on her head. Knowing that she had inadvertently put her family and friends in danger, Kelsey faked her death and ran away.

That's when she became Adeline McKenna. It was pretty easy to create a new identity for herself, what she couldn't do herself, she found the right (albeit shady) people to help her with.

At nineteen she was just keeping her head low, taking money from people who gave her odd little jobs that required her skills and always keeping an eye out in case she was recognized.

Through one of these odd jobs she met Jimmy, impressed with her skills he decided to recruit her to his ragtag team. She was hesitant about it at first, but eventually she realised how much safer she would be in his team and how much more comfortable she'd be and so she said yes.

It wasn't that long after she'd joined the team that Jimmy was arrested - it spooked her for a bit but the second in command was able to convince her to stick around and to this day she still doesn't regret her choice.

As far as the outside world is concerned, she's a website designer. It's a cover story she's created just in case, and to keep it alive she'll occasionally take on a job so she doesn't get find out. All of her time is spent on being the hacker for the team though.

Even though she knows that she covered herself well, she's lowkey still worried that one day the gang that she pissed off might come after her - but even then she knows she has her new family, and knowing what kind of people they are, she's aware that she shouldn't be too worried.

Personality

Once believing about the good in people, Adeline has become far more weary of people's intentions.

She doesn't believe in good or bad, she's seen supposedly good people be bad and so now she's more than happy to just believe in money. It's far easier that way.

Can be the most energetic, upbeat person one moment and a sarcastic lil' shit the next.

Isn't scared to call people out on their shit and doesn't really worry about the consequences.

She's not easy to piss off, but if someone does - fully expect her to get back at them. Whether it'll be something subtle like hacking into their social media accounts and wreaking havoc that way, or something less subtle like punching them in the face - she doesn't let go of a grudge until after she's retaliated.

A disaster in the kitchen. Has like a handful of dishes that she can actually make pretty well, everything else is awful and you’d take a huge risk trying a bite of.

Wanted/possible connections

The rest of the team, ofc

Drinking buddies

People who always come to her for all kind of tech issues

People who've hired her to design their website (0/3)

People that she’s worked for with Jimmy’s team

People she's slept with / is sleeping with

Exes since she’s gotten to New York - no relationship would’ve lasted long as she would’ve doubted all of their intentions so it could be angsty

Someone who’s all genuine good intentions that Adeline’s always weary about and basically looking for their (non-existent) hidden agenda and might end up actually giving her hope that there’s still some actual good people around

Honestly - give me drama and give me someone that reminds her of/looks a lot like her dead brother

Someone from the gang in San Francisco she’s running from that’s come to New York and maybe recognizes her when they bump into each other and decides not to report it to the gang just yet and tries to befriend her to see if they can play her or use her or even just a totally different path tbh

Someone that she totally clashes with to the point where they piss her off all the time and it takes her everything not to completely wreck their life or get into a fight with - might even just end up in hate sex sometimes

Anything tbh, *Sharpay Evans voice* I WANT IT ALL

[misscrawfords]

I can’t stop thinking about that terrible movie, The Christmas Wedding Planner. It doesn’t deserve 1/10th of the mental energy I’m giving it and yet here we are.

The main problem is that just a few tweaks could have made it a decent film and that the things that were wrong with it were just so wrong. So I’m making two lists. The first is its greatest atrocities. The second is what I’d tweak to turn it into something watchable, even good.

The premise: Kelsey is a rookie wedding planner, about to get her big break with her rich cousin Emily’s wedding to the oh so charming, Todd. Then she bumps into Connor, Emily’s ex, a private investigator mysteriously charged with investigating Todd. He wants to recruit Kelsey to help him with his investigation. She wants him to piss off. Sparks fly while my suspension of disbelief remains firmly rooted to the ground.

This post will contain spoilers. I really wouldn’t bother caring. Buckle yourself in - we’re going for a very inane ride!

Problems

The leads have no chemistry at all. This is obviously a problem. Buying a romance and attraction between them was just impossible. Their first kiss was meant to be awkward but, my god, surely not THAT awkward! 

This lack of chemistry was added to a flat script that clearly was trying to present Kelsey and Connor as a sparring love-hate dynamic who grow to appreciate each other and eventually come to realise that their connection is really deep as they share the same values. But, uh, that may have been the intention but not the story that came across on the screen. Which was just two people who irritated each other suddenly and for no reason getting upset about how the other was behaving after knowing each other for about three days and then...

THEY GOT FLIPPING MARRIED. I mean. WHAT. They’ve kissed twice. They know basically nothing about each other. Half an hour previously she thought he was a villain. This isn’t romantic, this is INSANE. I give them till the end of the honeymoon.

She’s called Kelsey. Like, that’s not a name. It’s just a random word. (This is petty as hell, but still.)

Kelsey has a “tragic backstory” where her mum died and she’s narrating her life in text messages to her mum which are text message overlays of exposition in case the viewer is finding the plot too complex to follow. I have no idea why this exists. It goes nowhere.

A romantic comedy ends with Emily, described as the most perfectly lovely and sweet person, discovering at the altar that her almost-husband was cheating on her and got a maid pregnant and then dumping him. And then she watches her wedding planner get married to her ex-boyfriend who she barely knows. I don’t particularly care about Kelsey and Connor but I’m very, very concerned about Emily! Make your beta couple happy, you cowards!

Todd was cheating with the maid. Wow, what a radical secret. And then Emily just doesn’t even talk about it. She just accepts the wedding is off and wants to plan a girls trip away instead. She was going to MARRY this guy. Doesn’t she want to IDK hear his side of the story? Why so quick to believe the worst? I mean, wow, clearly she shouldn’t be marrying this guy if she doesn’t care, but she’s meant to be intelligent as well as beautiful!

So basically none of the characterisation makes sense. In that there basically isn’t any. Just plot points that apparently have to be hit. Like, Aunt Olivia is a bitchy Rich White Woman (tm) half the time and a caring, mother-figure the other half. I was getting whiplash keeping up with her 180 degree character changes.

Connor isn’t even vaguely attractive. Physically or emotionally. That’s kind of a problem in a romance film. (I mean, YMMV with the physical aspect but, eurgh really.) He’s as charismatic as a block of wood. She’s... eh. She’s a generic Hallmark movie protagonist.

The way these characters dress and look. It’s so... 90s? I don’t mean that exactly. I mean, everyone looks the same and it’s a kind of glossy Clueless vibe. The women are all in tailored mini dresses and with long waves of hair. The men wear slacks and a shirt and have a bit of stubble. They all live in massive mansions or cute apartments that are all spotlessly clean and neat. They literally look like Barbie dolls except even my dollhouse was more realistically lived in than any of these sets. It’s such a weird aesthetic. And it makes no sense for the demographic these people supposedly belong to.

Perfect, sweet Jane Bennet Emily has three caricatured bridesmaids who are horrible. Why? Why are bridesmaids always jealous, miserable bitches? WHERE ARE HER ACTUAL FRIENDS? Speaking of, who even has weddings like this? What is the deal? Who WANTS this kind of wedding? Who behaves like this about their wedding or their child’s wedding? I’m so confused. If this is some kind of fantasy, I wonder whose it is, because everything about it is horrible. Which brings me back to this all feeling very dated in its aesthetic and early 2000s obsession with skinny women getting carried away with designer weddings in romcoms written by men. IDEK. This is 2018 and we have Set It Up and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. This kind of film just doesn’t belong any more.

So that’s quite enough issues. Let’s try to solve a few and make this a better film.

Most of the problems could be solved by making the lead couple appealing. Cast different actors and write the script that they think they already have. If you can actually buy the narrative of two people who have more in common than they think growing closer from antagonists to partners, then the ridiculous ending where they decide to just get married could potentially work. POTENTIALLY. If they had more lingering looks that were genuinely hot, their awkward kiss melted into something real, their interactions sizzled with wit and suppressed passion then... yeah. Maybe then the spontaneous decision at the end would make you think, “Actually, yes, it’s mad but LOOK AT THOSE TWO CRAZY KIDS!”

Work on characterisation. So Kelsey’s deal is she’s concentrating on managing other people’s happiness instead of concentrating on her own because she can’t let go after her mother’s death. This is kind of heavy for a romcom. Let’s scrap the dead mother altogether. Make Emily her actual sister instead of the cousin who is like a sister and make Aunt Olivia her mum. Streamlines everything. This is better. So Emily is the perfect daughter who is beautiful and sweet and having the perfect wedding and Kelsey is the younger daughter who is determined to make her way in the world without the family money. This causes friction because she thinks her mum favours Emily and her determination leads her to believe that if she gets involved in a serious relationship which would please her mother then she is compromising her desire to be independent. Cue touching moment near the end when her mother admits she’s got it all wrong and she admires Kelsey’s entrepreneurial spirit and reveals that it’s possible to have a career AND a relationship. None of this is rocket science or even that interesting but I’m trying to make this a better Hallmark movie, not Citizen Kane.

Connor’s turn. Good grief, get a better actor for a start. And the entire plot here needs to change now. Because the PI bit is good but being hired by Aunt Olivia because Todd is cheating is just... so BORING. So before we can improve Connor we need to work on what he’s there to do.

Time to look at the actual plot. Wedding planner forced to work against her will with PI to investigate the wedding she’s planning is a genuinely cool concept. We have a bunch of tropes here: spies! we had to kiss for cover! love to hate! fake dating! All of these need to be fully exploited and above all the spying has to be funny. This needs to be the centre of the film. Not a single montage. It needs to circle through every conceivable trope to romantic and comic effect. We need to see these two bickering and flirting and denying their attraction in ridiculous undercover situations. This should be basically 90% of the film. Because that I would watch. But “Todd is cheating” is beyond boring. So what will the scenario be?

A couple of options and I’m not sure what I’d go with at present. Firstly would be sticking with the “Todd is cheating” plotline but... he isn’t. He’s a great guy! The spying is all pointless and both Kelsey and Connor realise that but... just... can’t quite bring themselves... to stop... because that’s their excuse to see each other. Todd and Emily find out in the most embarrassing way possible, and find it hilarious. Because they’re a well-adjusted couple ready to take the next step into married life. Either Aunt-now-Mum Olivia did start it and then has to eat humble pie and realise she was wrong about everything or someone else instigated it. Maybe a jealous ex? IDK. It doesn’t really matter. They’re proved totally wrong and true love triumphs!

The alternative is that Todd is really a bad egg but in that case we need to play his relationship with Emily differently so she doesn’t come out looking like a robot or an idiot. We can do a Much Ado situation where their superficial relationship - Emily desperately trying to please her mother as much as Kelsey is trying to distance herself (two sides of the same coin) - is contrasted with the real and flawed relationship that develops between Kelsey and Connor. Meanwhile, because this is a romcom, while Todd and Emily’s relationship is obviously wrong from the start, Emily builds up a cute friendship with the adorable baker making her wedding cake - who is the only appealing character in the film as it stands. Once Emily’s relationship with Todd is exploded, then give her a shoulder to cry on and the hope of something real with the lovely baker in the future.

But even if Todd is a genuinely rotter, the spying needs to be a smokescreen. If Kelsey and Connor do discover whatever is dodgy about Todd, it needs to happen accidentally and so all their spy antics need to be a complete waste of time except to lead to them falling in love. Because actually spying on people and so on is... not very nice and turns this into a spy film rather than a romcom. Even better, let Emily come to the realisation herself. When Kelsey breaks the news to her (she has to do it, not Connor for maximum emotion, and not ridiculously while she’s at the altar) then Emily has to admit she already worked it out so she can make a really informed decision.

If you’re going to have Connor propose at the end (which is stupid) then the correct response is for Kelsey to laugh hysterically and say something like, “Are you crazy? But you can take me out for a real date!” Cue kiss, applause and credits.

So Connor. Firstly, his background needs to be simplified. He shouldn’t be Emily’s ex. That’s just weird. And the whole money business is dubious and overly-complicated and doesn’t make him look great and is just shoe-horned in for ~drama. He’s just a stranger who is a PI. The end. This ought to be an easy job for him, a boring one. He didn’t count on the genuinely smart, witty wedding planner he got entangled with. Bless his snarky, so over-it cotton socks.

So, I can see you wondering, haven’t I removed all sources of tension? No issue with the ex, no money problems, Kelsey and Connor don’t even affect Emily’s relationship. What is the massive problem that will occur 4/5ths the way through and make our hero and heroine desperately miserable for five minutes before the final denouement? But, my friend, if you think this is a problem, then you’ve completely missed the central premise of this story. They think they’re just forced to work together! As spies! Undercover! But actually! They have real feelings! For each other! Isn’t that enough of a plot? When Emily and Todd’s wedding either goes ahead without problem or is broken up no thanks to the inept spy duo, they have no longer any reason to see each other! And thinking that the other one doesn’t care, they just sadly say goodbye and prepare to part for ever... BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU. Look, this is all the level of conflict this film needs. Nobody is watching this because they want this part of the film to last more than a couple of minutes maximum. Just let them roll their eyes at each other like the Beatrice and Benedick dynamic they so desperately wish they had and kiss!

THE END.

[seynabri]

Tokyo in Tulsa 2018

It is time for the story of Tokyo in Tulsa 2018. It all starts on a Wednesday....

Wednesday

The Wednesday was where all the craziness started. Being newly married and living in a house I was the one whose place was best suited for everyone staying over before leaving the next day. So that meant my brother, Kelsey, and Dani sleeping at my place. But wait! There's more! Skyler and Erin decided the drive from Minnesota to Tulsa was not something they wanted to do again. So they drove down to Omaha on Wednesday as well. To also stay with me! Full house!

So fun story about the korok costumes. While I went to church that night Dani and Kelsey went outside and spray painted the three of them and left them laying on the lawn. When you drive into our neighborhood toward our house there’s a part of the street where you can see our backyard. I look over. What are those colorful things on our lawn??? Those skiiiiins???

Well Dani came over first and we spent the day working on cosplay. Since you know... we're so great at getting things done on time. Kelsey came over a little later and... worked on cosplay. Then I had to leave for a bit. But then I came back and Brock arrived and we ate dinner and... worked on cosplay. Until eventually Dani and were like. Okay. We HAVE to get the skit audio recorded. Because it's not just cosplay that we do last minute.

Enter. The Husband. Remember the mention of newly married? Said husband has a little mini studio. Recording equipment. Instruments. Recording software. Clearly I married him so our skit audio could be better than previous years. (Like the time we used the mic on a pair of iphone earbuds in the hotel room closet. Good times.) So he got that all set up. And we proceeded to take several hours to record a 3 minute skit...

It was just so scary! Dani and I, two can't get any whiter girls, trying to rap the Zelda/Hamilton parody we had written. But honestly. The rapping wasn't the worst. It was when we got to the singing. No one in our group could get past the auditions on American Idol. Let's just say that. But being the least worst I got stuck with the singing. Which was... super fun. I maybe cringe a bit every time I hear the audio. But that could just be one of those "you're your own worst critic" scenarios.

Eventually Skyler and Erin showed up and we all talked and worked on stuff and got stuff ready and passed out way later than we should've. But we were ready! To go to Tulsa. Not.. the cosplays. But they were ready to be brought down to get finished!

Thursday

So we got a later start than we usually do on Thursday. On purpose. We wanted sleep. And since Skyler and Erin came down and there were six of us we split between two cars. It was finally my year. Year nine of us going down and I was finally the one who had to drive. I mean. I did finally get a car last year. A Prius. With it's excellent gas milage. So naturally it was my turn. In my car we had myself... obviously, Kelsey, and Brock. So the other car was Skyler, Erin, and Dani.

Before leaving Omaha we hit up Walmart to get our groceries for the weekend. And then we were off! The usual, non eventful, drive down to Tulsa. Although Dani almost died so there was that. She was sitting in the back in the other car and Erin noticed the door open light was on. Dani's back there, leaning on the door, listening to music, no seatbelt, oblivious to the whistling from the door.... She survived though!

So we get to Tulsa, check into our hotel. Haul all our stuff up to the 3rd floor. And there was a lot of stuff. But the 3rd floor was great because it's only one floor above the floor that leads to the sky bridge that goes over to the convention center. So we basically got to avoid the elevators the whole weekend. Which if anyone here has been to a convention at a hotel with elevators you know how crazy those waits can get.

After getting a little settled Brock and I ran down to go pick up our badges. We were the only ones who happened to pre-register. Which ended up being not as convenient as it sounds because the line we ended up in because of our last names was the longest one. It took... a while. And then when the others got their badges the next morning they were back to fast. Jealous.

THIS MONSTROSITY

The rest of the night was working on cosplay. I still had my wig to finish but I pushed that one off until the next day and worked on some other miscellaneous things. Little things here and there with the other cosplays and painted the props for the skit with Erin. A few of our Tulsa friends also stopped by to say hello. Other than that it was a pretty chill night.

Friday

Friday morning, after waking up and treating ourselves to the free breakfast the hotel provided it was back to cosplay work! I actually worked on my wig this time and finally finished that monstrosity! When it was time to go down to the con I threw on my K-ON! uniform because it's comfy and I didn't know what else to bring for Friday. Dani was Tsukimi, Brock was Spider-Man, Kelsey was comfortable, and Skyler and Erin were casual Hawke and Fenris.

Aww yiss Fenris.

Friday was a lot of wandering and getting the lay of the land. We hit up the vendors room first and that might have been when I bought a couple of new phone charms. In the artist alley we found the cosplay contest sign up and went ahead and did that. Honestly I can't remember much of what we did on Friday at the convention center. I know there was a lot of finding each other, losing each other, and then window shopping. At one point, Kelsey, Brock and I spend a couple hours very slowly going through the artists alley making mental notes of what we liked.

The one picture I have of me from Friday.

After all that though we went back to the room to eat some food and continue our work on the costumes that needed to be ready for the next day. That's kinda how last minute we were. At some point we had to stop and go practice our skit. So it was down to our usual practice spot!

d’awwwww

I'd say this was the longest we spent practicing. We had a lot of blocking to do. We wanted to make sure we had movement and plenty of fun things to look at. Dani and I by the nature of our skit were mostly just standing to the sides for the whole thing so the two of us were the ones who stood back and did the blocking. I kind of felt like a crazy, demanding person telling people where to go and what to do. I'm sorry if I got a little bossy guys! But it was fun and I think it turned out very successful!

We were super mature about this way this looked...

Also I've heard that song we did so many times that I now sometimes mix the lyrics with the song it's actually based off of. Yikes. Afterwards we made sure we finished everything else that needed to be finished and then passed out so we could get up in time to go to pre-judging.

Saturday

So pre-judging! It was a mad dash getting ready in the morning. I had to get up particularly early because I hadn't had time to do a makeup practice. And my character had a mildly intricate design on the face. Which... mostly got covered up by the wig later. But it still looked cool, I promise! Our koroks got to get ready the quickest since they weren't going to be seen underneath the costume. On the flip side though because they were so covered they were dying from the heat the whole time they wore those things.

Paya is ready for her day!

Paya and Purah checking in!

Too much cute!

Selfie with the hero!

It was humid and boring while we waited. But we had our fun!

One of the few full body shots of me. All those layers killed any curves I have. I need to figure that out for next time. Paya most definitely has some definitive curves.

The Tator Jaegars!!!

So we go down to the convention center and... had to wait for a while before they opened it up. We get up to the room we'll be judged in and also where the contest will be and... more waiting. There was a shift in the cosplay staff this year and it definitely had some of those... transitioning feels. So not as smooth as we're used to but oh well. After a while the skits were called to go backstage and... guess what! More waiting! But eventually we did get to go on and perform and outside of a couple of timing issues it went pretty well!!

Practicing while we waited.

I love when we look nice and colorful!

Waiting backstage to perform.

Right afterwards we went back to the room. Our poor koroks were dying from the heat. We ate some food and our koroks changed to more comfortable clothes. And then... it's been a month since the con. I've been so busy that I've been writing this in little spurts. Stuff happened on Saturday! I know there was a lot of wandering around. I ordered a couple of commissions in the artist alley.

Caught!

Model alert!

Something about those eyes.....

Taking a quick break.

Hmm. What did we do. Mostly lots of walking around. We didn't go to a single panel. So we did a lot of shopping. Ate some Dippin' Dots at one point. Yum. Poor Dani wanted to go outside and take pictures but we kept getting distracted. And when we finally did make it outside we only got a couple of pictures in before. Dun dun DUUUUN. It started raining. And with the wigs Dani and I were wearing. Rain would have been disastrous. So we had to run inside. I'msorryDani.

The beautiful before the rain started pictures.

See! It exists!

So adorable!

Silly times in Hyrule....

Some pics from The photoshoot our Link and Purah did together!

Mmmmm.

I know we went to the hotel room then. I think we were hungry so we ate some food. And by then it was about time to be getting to the contest. After getting all ready we went down to the convention center and waited until we were let into the room. Unlike previous years the skits went backstage right away and got to hang out in this curtained off area. Which had a little bit of seating, which was nice. So we sat back there waiting to go on. Playing on our phones. Chatting. Peaking out at the walk on line every so often to see if it was getting close to the skits yet.

Speak no evil. Hear no evil. See no evil. :D

Guys! It’s picture time!

Yay!

Eventually it was time! As usual the time onstage was a bit of a blur. The thing I most distinctly remember was the clatter as Dani's chopsticks from her hair fell one by one and hit the stage. I don't think the audience heard it but I was definitely very confused for a minute there. Other than that though things went wonderfully! And after leaving stage we were pretty excited about getting through it and hearing the crowd cheer and laugh. After a bit we were escorted to the back of the room to watch the rest of the skits and the results.

They killed him. D:

No remorse.

Passionate pointing!

There he go.

git it gurl

YAAAAAH

Giving my to-do list to Link.

Link is not amused.

More pointing!

So we get to the results and as usual they announce the hall cosplay winners first and then get to the skits. This is where things got crazy! They announce third place and lo and behold it's the people who have won first place every year we've done this. We were shook. And let that little hope into our hearts. Although Dani and I kept looking at each other and saying not to get our hopes up. And then second place is announced. Not us. So we're like. Okay. There's no way. Right?? Right?!?!

BUT GUESS WHAT!!!!! WE GOT FIIIIIIIRST!!!! We were shooken as Dani says. We walk on upstage all smiles because OMGWEWON. And then we had to stand there for a while with our certificates but it was so awesome!!! Once they ended everything we had to go and get our prize (moniiies) and fill out forms for the best prize. Badges for next year!!! So that was pretty exciting!

So happy!!!

We went outside after to get some pictures of all of us. Finally got some outdoor pictures because it had stopped raining. Which was nice. After that we went up to the room to order our celebration pizza! Which we used the money we won to buy. And divided up the rest. Which... took me way longer than it should have. I'll admit that. Even with a calculator I was having a rough time. Mostly with how the bills were divided.

It’s research time!

Waiting for that hero to appear!

Creeeepyyyy.

FIRST PLAAAACE

Paya getting ready in the morning. :D

Some koroks are very close with each other..

Cuties. All of them.

fab

Super sneaky korok <_<

Oh boy. We all know what time it is! Climbing!

So now that’s it’s been announced officially online elsewhere. Kelsey is having a babyyyyyy!!!!!!! 

Anyway. We ate pizza. We watched tv. Our friends visited. We had a good time! By the end of the night I was exhausted. Somehow everyone else still had energy enough to go to the rave but I just couldn't. I really am the great grandma of the group. My age is showing! So I passed out while they went and did that.

The best my hair has ever looked after being under a wig all day. Plus a good shot of that makeup because I’m proud of it!

Sunday

Sunday, Sunday. The last day. I'll admit I was alone for most of Sunday. After getting all packed and checked out I wanted to do the last of my shopping. And I kept getting separated from everyone else so I kinda just wandered alone. I mostly bought stuff in the artist alley. Although I did get some stuff for my husband's birthday in the vendors room. I picked up a commission. Had some long, fun talks with some artists. Bought myself some more Dippin Dots. Just generally had a good time wandering around.

The Tator Jaegers about to say goodbye to Tulsa for another year!

I did eventually meet up with Dani and Brock. And we sat around in the hallway exhausted and people watching. By the time we found everyone else we were also finding our Oklahoma friends. So there was some meeting and talking and we figured while we had everyone we may as well say our goodbyes and get going. So there were hugs and well wishes and we were off!

TULSA FRIIIIEEENDS!!!

Well. Off to find lunch. At Arby's! And then really on the road! For the most part it was uneventful. Until we drove through a storm. Which happened to also be when we had to take a detour. So that was interesting. Driving through small towns on an unknown road while it's storming. Apparently the other car saw a mini tornado! We didn't get anything quite as scary.

Otherwise we made it home okay and all was well. Another year of Tokyo in Tulsa. It had a slightly different vibe than previous years what with the staff changes. But otherwise it was a blast! Winning the skit contest was most definitely the highlight of the weekend! Thanks to everyone who made that possible. And just thanks to all my friends for being the best and making the con such a good time. I love you all and until next year!

Our short shenanigans video! 

[xxlittle-miss-horrorxx]

Okay besides shipping myself with Eddie/Venom.... I’m just gonna be honest and let you know the main reason why I resulted to self shipping. All because of this fluffy monster right here <3

His name is Bartholomew and he’s actually an original character of mine that I made for self coping reasons. But because me and friends of mine love his design so much, we decided to create an original story called Hunter Brutality.

So he’s basically an ex mercenary that used to work for a mafia but due to some tragic events, he left the mafia for some regrets he made and later meets my persona Kelsey. He actually found himself lost in the human world when he went away after the death of his foster parents and came across this human girl that got intoxicated by a creep from a goth club. Bartholomew witnessed this, jumped into action, and tied the creep up so the police could get him. And he carried Kelsey back to safety to see if she was still intoxicated or not.

And of course she woke up to see the mysterious stranger who rescued her turned out to be Bartholomew and she was a bit scared and shocked, but he reassured her she was okay and that he will thank him later. (Bartholomew basically saved Kelsey from being a victim under date rape since he had witnessed men do this to women in bars back in the monster world when he was still a mercenary and due to his foster parents' death and some innocent lives he once took.... He didn't want to risk another life to be taken since he felt like it was his responsibility to redeem himself after the regrets he's done in his past job)

As the next day came, Kelsey kept telling herself it was only a dream until the news came on about the same creep she avoided got arrested and was found tied up to a pole, had a slash mark on his arm, and found camera footage of him trying to assault Kelsey until a figure came and stopped him ) which lead people to rush to Kelsey and asked her many questions about her assault and who was the stranger that rescued her to safety.

Since that incident, Kelsey now was curious to see if that monsterous creature she's seen was actually the same stranger from the news when she recalled his words "Fear not my dear, you're safe now. I believe you'll thank me later." So she decided to go out again during night so she can catch his sightings. Though she couldn't find him the first few nights until there was a huge criminal outbreak of a robbery, where she managed to see Bartholomew back in action to take down those robbers. After he handled them and tied them up to another pole for the police to take them, Kelsey followed him to see where he came from.... Which ended up leading her to a bridge that connected to the monster world.

She was a bit started when she came to the monster world but couldn't believe her own eyes that monsters actually do live amongst humans. Then she came across Jack Erickson and some of the other monsters when they caught her and asked her questions and before Jack was going to hold her under arrest, Bartholomew stopped him to beg her to let her go, and it was an awkward reunion with her and Bartholomew. While he was in trouble to cross the human world, Kelsey begged them to not be hard in him because she saved her life when he got stuck there, and promised to keep it as a secret.

Since then, she and Bartholomew became close as friends and he develops a romantic interest in her (even if its one sided for Barth's end) and made a promise to her that he will protect her as his guardian and help serve to fight injustice in her world.

So yeah unlike her with Venom for the Marvel universe, she and Bartholomew have more of a platonic relationship. Another monster anti-hero that goes through a big redemption since he wants to make up for all his past regrets as a mercenary.

So expect to see her also be in drawings with this other monster vigilante since this is where my self insert originated from. :)  Let me know if you guys are interested to see me share things from my original story since its also filled with monsters.

This is why I gave her a different name from mine since I also still want her to be treated as an oc if my story ever becomes a thing.

[picloblog]

Meet the team: developing Piclo Flex into a multi-market platform

Meet Piclo's developers, innovation managers, leaders and designers. They're behind all the innovation and project management that's developing Piclo into a multi-market platform!

Kelsey, Innovation Project Manager

Mike, Product Designer

Stu, Product Engineer

Alice, co-founder and CPO

As part of the UK Government Department for Business Energy Industrial Strategy (BEIS) FleX Exchange project, Piclo is developing Piclo Flex into a multi-market platform that facilitates “secondary trading” of flexibility requirements, focusing on National Grid ESO’s Capacity Market first. Secondary trading is the transfer of one company's contracted flexibility obligations to another, you can read more about secondary markets in our previous blog. The innovation project is currently trialling secondary trading on the platform in beta-mode with a small number of participants.

Q1. What is your role in developing Piclo into a multi-market platform?

My role is to make sure that the platform continues to evolve and grow, through participation in different innovation projects and managing the day to day work around these projects. I work with different teams internally throughout the life of a project to deliver new markets and features, as well as with a variety of external stakeholders (System Operators, Flex Providers, Government, Regulators, etc) to make sure that projects are closely aligned with industry needs and policy.

Q2. What do you enjoy most about working on this?

I love having a problem to solve and developing Piclo into a multi-market platform presents new challenges every day. It’s been really interesting to strategise and brainstorm ideas about new markets with the team and see them come to life. Building a product that will shape or change how an industry will work is a really cool thing!

Q3. Are there particular skills you need for this role?

Flexibility (pun intended). The industry is changing so quickly and projects and products need to keep up with that. Our innovation projects and really any work we do is based on the needs of our users and if those needs change, we need to be ready to adapt our ideas. As a project manager, I think the natural instinct is to have a detailed plan of attack to stick with but I’ve quickly learned at Piclo that those plans need to be flexible and more than likely will be changing on a regular basis.

Q4. Other than working on this project, what else does your role include?

In order to understand what new features we should be looking into, I also spend a lot of time in project meetings with clients and stakeholders as well as researching what is going on in the industry. Pre-Covid I also got to do a bit of travel! One of my projects (Project LEO) is based in Oxford and we frequently got to eat lunch in the “Harry Potter Great Hall”.

Q5. What did you do before joining Piclo?

I worked in renewable energy district energy systems in Vancouver, Canada. Our main project was converting a legacy gas-powered steam plant (that provided energy to over 200 buildings) to renewable sources.

Q6. Why did you like the look of the job?

Having previously worked in the energy industry, I wanted to stay in that space but this role was a great opportunity to get introduced to the tech world as well. There is a lot of change going on in how our energy systems work and where our energy comes from but in such a big established industry, that change can often take a long time and requires a lot of regulatory and government oversight. Working on the tech side of the industry is a lot more fast-paced, with room for innovation as there are fewer legacy systems and regulations we are working against.

Q7. Piclo is built on the belief that we are not powerless against climate change. Is tackling climate change important to you? Is there anything you do to contribute?

Yes, it is! I try to do as many little things in my day to day life as possible that hopefully are having a positive impact! Just to name a few are cycling, avoiding single-use plastics, buying as much as I can second-hand and working in an industry and for a company whose mission is to positively impact climate change.

Q8. What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow a similar career to yours?

For those that are in a standard slow-moving industry like energy and are looking for a change up to something more innovative and fast-paced, moving over to the tech side of the industry is a great move.

Q1. What is your role in developing Piclo into a multi-market platform?

As a product designer on the team, my job is to help us work towards solutions that balance the needs of users with the needs of Piclo. From qualitative user research interviews, through to workshop facilitation, the creation of production-ready UI artefacts in Figma and providing input and guidance on implementation details, I work end-to-end to ensure a high-quality outcome.

Q2. What do you enjoy most about working on this?

Ultimately, getting to work on ideas from start to finish that positively contribute towards the transition to Net Zero is immensely satisfying and worth all the hard work.

Q3. Are there particular skills you need for this role?

There are many, but probably the most underrated category of skills is that of the ‘soft skills’ needed to collaborate effectively in a cross-functional team. Being able to work smoothly with and talk the same language as colleagues with different specialisms and backgrounds is essential.

Q4. Other than working on this project, what else does your role include?

I work across two product teams, and also support what the business' design needs from a marketing, brand and operations perspective. This also includes a focus on building out the team’s design ops capabilities, such as maintaining UI libraries in Figma and evolving our fledgling design system.

Q5. What did you do before joining Piclo?

Just prior to joining Piclo, I’d taken a career break to figure out what I wanted to do next. Before that, I worked for six years in the Fintech space, working across brand, marketing and product functions for a startup in the consumer credit space. Prior to that, I worked as an agency-side graphic and web designer.

Q6. Why did you like the look of the job?

So, in my case, Piclo actually approached me via Hired.com. I wasn’t super keen right away, however after meeting the team and getting a better understanding of the mission, I was sold. As mentioned above, I’d taken a career break to figure out what I wanted to do next, and Piclo seemed to tick all the boxes, both from a career development as well as industry perspective.

Q7. Piclo is built on the belief that we are not powerless against climate change. Is tackling climate change important to you? Is there anything you do to contribute?

Yes, absolutely. Like a lot of people, I’m looking for and figuring out ways to live a life that is more sustainable and in balance with the wider world, and I want the work I do on a daily basis to have a net-positive contribution to that cause.

Q8. What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow a similar career to yours?

It’s a great time to be an aspiring designer. We come in all different shapes and sizes, from Graphic Design, through to Service Design or Motion Design, there is a specialism out there to suit everyone. If you’re early on in your career, don’t be afraid to try out new things, change roles often and expose yourself to as many different ways of working as possible. If you’re more experienced and have been around the block a few times, never rest on your laurels, always be learning and be open to change.

Q1. What is your role in developing Piclo into a multi-market platform?

I work closely with other developers, designers and managers to ensure we build a product that delivers for its users while staying lean and efficient. This involves understanding and prioritising user needs, finding the simplest ways to solve problems, planning technical architecture, ensuring the team works well together, coding (mostly Python/Django and JavaScript/Vue), reviewing code, and proving it works and meets quality expectations. My role overlaps with a lot of other roles, so is highly collaborative, often using Trello and Miro to discuss, visualise ideas, and decide together.

Q2. What do you enjoy most about working on this?

I’ve loved creating something new and useful, avoiding over-engineering, learning as we go, and collaborating closely. Building upon the existing Piclo Flex platform gives us a great toolkit of components to use, so combined with careful prioritisation, we’ve been able to move very quickly and get a sense of achievement seeing people using the product very early on.

Q3. Are there particular skills you need for this role?

I think curiosity and adaptability are the most important skills for working in product development. No matter how much knowledge and experience you have, you still regularly encounter new problems: curiosity enables you to understand them, and adaptability enables you to learn how to solve them.

Q4. Other than working on this project, what else does your role include?

I’m also part of the Integrations team, whose remit is to help Piclo’s users optimise processes through API integrations with users’ systems and other partners. In this team, I support my teammates in their careers at Piclo, guide strategy and prioritisation for our workstream, participate in user interviews, and whatever else is necessary to make our work a success.

Q5. What did you do before joining Piclo?

I was at a digital product agency for 9 years, where I worked on a range of different apps and campaigns for big brands, in roles across engineering, product management, coaching, and consultancy. Prior to that, I worked in electronic engineering for networking and communications systems.

Q6. Why did you like the look of the job?

I was keen to be involved in clean electricity generation, and was intrigued by the part flexibility can play. I love Piclo’s open and supportive ethos. I knew it was somewhere I would learn a lot and would be able to help others to develop too while doing important and interesting work.

Q7. Piclo is built on the belief that we are not powerless against climate change. Is tackling climate change important to you? Is there anything you do to contribute?

It’s hugely important, which is why I wanted to work in clean electricity generation: I see it as the backbone supporting all other efforts. I could do more to contribute personally, but I drive a hybrid (but walk as often as possible!), compost veg waste in my tiny garden, and am looking into gas-free heating.

Q8. What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow a similar career to yours?

If you want to be a generalist or span multiple roles: don’t wait for someone to give you permission to explore outside your immediate responsibilities. A lot of organisations define roles to be very specific, so it can take some initiative to get exposure to new areas. Ask different people questions, read a lot, and offer to help out with things you find interesting!

Q1. What is your role in developing Piclo into a multi-market platform?

My role across Piclo is often non-typical. As a founder, one of my key responsibilities is to keep the project and product on the right track according to the strategy of the business. I’ve been lightly involved in the multi-market platform from the beginning, working with Kelsey and James in the early days to identify the opportunities for us in the market. Then later when we hired Mike to join, giving him the support to work on the more detailed design, consciously considering how the new product markets we’re testing will be integrated into the platform when we commercially launch.

Q2. What do you enjoy most about working on this?

I enjoy working with a team who all have different skills to pull together on a project like this. When a team is working well, they can meet the challenges that are inevitable to face and come out with learnings from failure and value from success.

Q3. Are there particular skills you need for this role?

To do my role you need to be good at observing and finding patterns (a kind of analytics that isn’t directly numbers based). Empathy is also a requirement as you need to easily consider the implications of a project both across your team, but also the potential customers.

Q4. Other than working on this project, what else does your role include?

When not working on new projects like this, I'm responsible in general for the product direction i.e. what’s the medium and long term roadmap for the Piclo Flex marketplace. I’m also responsible for product delivery and having happy customers. I spend a lot of time learning from our customers (currently the network operators) to understand their needs better and bring that information into the commercial team when talking to potential new customers. There’s also the team support work and hiring that goes on, as well as governance responsibilities that comes with being on the board.

Q5. What did you do before joining Piclo?

I was working for a digital agency as a UX designer

Q6. Why did you like the look of the job?

My friend Andy (the CTO) approached me with James (our CEO) and we talked about the early ideas of the business. I saw an opportunity to bring my design thinking skills into a vision-driven business that I thought had a decent chance of making a significant impact in the industry.

Q7. Piclo is built on the belief that we are not powerless against climate change. Is tackling climate change important to you? Is there anything you do to contribute?

As 1 of the 3 founders, this is obviously my personal driving passion. Other than restoring natural habitats I don’t think there’s anything more important than driving our energy industry towards Net Zero (and hopefully beyond that).

Q8. What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow a similar career to yours?

A design degree is a fantastic way to start a variety of careers. It gives one the skills to apply a design process to any problem. If someone wanted to also be a founder of a startup, my advice would be to choose an idea that drives you and find a friend or two (who have skills you don’t) to work on it with. It’s a really difficult job, you’ll need to feel like there’s a real value for you to push through those hard times, and having co-founders you can rely on is important.

[hoynovoy]

'Younger's Best Author Parodies, From Quinn Tyler To Edward L.L. Moore

New York media has been the backdrop for what feels like millions of TV shows about women chasing their dreams. But so few get it right. (I’ll never forget the series in which a magazine editor berates a writer, “You didn’t even leave space in this story for ads!” Which, for the uninitiated, is something an editor would never be concerned with.) But despite Younger’s outlandish premise — a rom-com about a 40-year-old woman passing for 26 — it’s become perhaps the most authentic show ever about the world of book publishing. Through seven seasons, it’s delivered plots that lived and died by the peculiar inner workings of publishing — and managed to make dishy twists out of inside-baseball stuff like bulk sales and imprint/parent company dynamics. Don’t tell anyone who worked on my own novel, but the jargon I tossed off in conversation? Hilary Duff taught me all of it.

The best part of Younger’s evolution into an industry love letter is its prescient author characters, who always feel ripped from the splashiest book world conversations. See: this season’s Greta Thunberg dupe, played to yellow-slickered perfection by Nadia Alexander. “She has our favorite name from Season 7,” writer and executive producer Dottie Zicklin tells Bustle. “Füpa Grünhoff. Her name wouldn’t clear [with the show’s lawyers] until the umlauts were added!”

Füpa is just the latest in the show’s list of standout faux scribes, whose spot-on plotlines were in part the work of the show’s anonymous publishing consultant, who helped guide the staff on the industry’s trends and conversations. We still can’t reveal his or her identity, but we did get to talk to the consultant — along with Younger creator Darren Star, Dottie Zicklin, and fellow executive producer and writer Eric Zicklin — to get the stories behind how the show’s most iconic fake authors came to life.

Season 1: Jane Krakowski as Annabelle Bancroft

Bancroft, played with nightmare-diva energy by the 30 Rock star, was based on Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell. Star famously made the series based on that book, so an homage to Bushnell — in the form of Bancroft’s iconic scenester who spends her book launch party smoking indoors and fixating on the size of the crowd — felt like a safe place to start testing author parodies. “I thought Jane was hilarious playing [a version] of my friend Candace,” Star says. “She really made me laugh.” Writer and executive producer Eric Zicklin adds: “We loved her double-bounce off the glass door most of all.” (Bancroft runs into the door while chasing her coke dealer. Twice.)

Season 2: Kobi Libii as Rob Olive

This caricature of John Green — complete with a soulful leather necklace — hit just as I realized I was reading books about dying teen lovers almost exclusively. Libii is perfectly troubled and self-serious as the bestseller workshopping a Fault in Our Stars-style YA romance with Hilary Duff’s Kelsey at lunch. (Ever the brilliant brainstormer, it’s Kelsey who comes up with the idea for a hospice prom.) “We learned the term ‘sick lit,’ and the genre seemed natural for Millennial Press’ readers,” Dottie Zicklin says. “Trying to say John Green” — aka the author of Fault — “without using the words ‘John’ or ‘Green’ led to a great name.” Long live Rob Olive.

Season 2: Justine Lupe as Jade Winslow

With Lupe’s flaky influencer character, Younger dipped into the hazards of traditional publishing chasing Instagram sensations — Winslow gets a huge memoir advance, then fails to deliver a single page of work. (Liza has to cobble together a draft from the girl’s Instagram captions.) “The younger Younger writers brought up Cat Marnell as inspiration,” Eric Zicklin says. Marnell, a former beauty editor and socialite, wrote the smash 2017 memoir How to Murder Your Lifeabout her drug addiction and magazine-world adventures. “That story led Kelsey and Liza into learning about the balance between hype and substance.”

Season 2: Richard Masur as Edward L.L. Moore

Between his aggressive rascalling around the office and his misogyny, the show’s George R.R. Martin homage became its best work in terms of authentic publishing tension holding up plotlines. Martin’s Crown of Kings fantasy series is key to Empirical staying afloat, so he gets away with — well, not murder, but making Liza wear a fur bikini in Times Square might actually be worse? It takes Empirical far too long to do the right thing and drop the author. (Right around the time Moore debuted on the show, publishing was scrambling to reckon with its own legacy of harassment.) And when they do, Moore strikes back, outing Liza as the 40-something she is. The writers didn’t know when they started writing the character’s arc that he would unpin the show’s central secret. “We had no idea how instrumental he would become in exposing Liza,” Star says. “But Richard Masur was so hilarious that I wanted to bring him back and back and back.”

Season 3: Jay Wilkison as Colin McNichol

Remember the guy who asked Kelsey at the end of their first date to take a look at his novel? Or did you try to forget you ever heard the chilling invitation, “Come on in, I’ll print you out a copy”? Ah, the perils of being a single girl presiding over New York’s hottest imprint. Kelsey actually dates Colin for a while anyway — his 600-page epic turns out to be good, by her measure — but it doesn’t stop the character from feeling It-Boy insufferable all the way through his arc. (Which includes Netflix jumping on the option for his book, naturally.) As for the trend that inspired Colin? The big-money debut epic that seemed to dominate publishing years ago — see books that scored massive paydays like The Art of Fielding or City on Fire — has subsided somewhat. But Younger’s publishing consultant says it’s never really gone. “I think there was a moment where books like that were happening more often, but it could still happen,” the consultant says. “Everyone knows attention spans are shrinking, but people still want to find that ‘It Book’ of the year.”

Season 4: Kristin Chenoweth as Marylynne Keller

Younger’s first episode in the post-Trump era featured Chenoweth as a Kellyanne Conway sendup who declares the world post-facts and claims that “Truth is a four-letter word.” (When Charles corrects her math, saying truth has five letters, she purrs: “Not the way I spell it.”) One trillion bonus points to costume design for the jacket that mirrors Conway’s inauguration outfit. “Not to say the show was ahead of the culture,” Dottie Zicklin jokes, “but when the national conversation became about Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer cajoling the truth, we felt like we were already on that topic. Liza was living it from episode one.”

Season 5: Gina Gershon as Chrissie Hart

If you had Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Chrissie Hynde’s Reckless on your rockstar memoir shelf, you were so ready for this plotline starring Gershon in heavy bangs and week-old eyeliner. She plays Chrissie Hart, a famous singer whose memoir Charles and Liza chase to Shelter Island. (Obviously, Chrissie Hart doesn’t email drafts, because the internet is suspect.) The head of a major publisher personally retrieving a manuscript, messenger-style? Zany but plausible, the show’s consultant confirms. “If anyone’s ever worked on celebrity books, they are their own beasts — totally fun and awful and amazing,” the consultant says. “You know what you’re in for, and yet we can’t help ourselves because they sell and they’re glamorous to work on.”

Season 6: Willa Fitzgerald as Audrey Colbert

Fitzgerald, um, kills it in this tribute to wink-wink-did-I-murder-someone-or-not books. Her character goes around shopping a memoir meant to refute her villain status on a Serial-like podcast; she’s chaperoned by Michael Urie’s Redmond. (The only lit agent in New York, according to Younger, but would I want Urie sharing screen time? I would not.) Fitzgerald’s dead-eyed smize is what gives this character her hall of fame status. As Dottie Zicklin says, “Willa was able to give that staredown that says ‘beware’ and ‘I might have sex with you right now.’” Eventually, though, a press outcry kills the project — totally realistic, according to the show’s consultant. “If you are dealing with someone who the public believes to be guilty, or unworthy of a book deal, that can bring a major backlash,” the consultant says. “See Jonathan Mattingly or Josh Hawley — and, years ago, O.J. Simpson.” Yeah, remember If I Did It? Unlike Beaufort Books, the shop behind that one, Empirical eventually declined to publish Colbert’s book.

Season 6-7: Laura Benanti as Quinn Tyler

Quinn is the one Younger author who’s transcended cameo status. Once a Sheryl Sandberg parody in a wiggle dress, she’s become a prolonged meditation on the subject of women doing it all. “To us, the key to Quinn was understanding that she’s just as smart and successful and impulsive, and just as tone-deaf, as any male billionaire,” Eric Zicklin says. This season, Quinn becomes much more than a villain with an endless font of ice-queen comebacks — proof that Younger is well versed in publishing’s golden rule: Never judge a book by its cover.

Get More Dating Advice Here

[acuppellarp]

Welcome to A Cup-pella, Mads! We’re excited to have you and Grace Fitzgerald in the game! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours.

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Mads & she/her Age: 24 Timezone: MST Ships: Chemistry Anti-Ships: Forced

IC INFO

Full Name: Grace Lynn Fitzgerald Face Claim: Kelsey Chow Age/Birthday: 25 / August 13th, 1992 Occupation: 3rd Grade Teacher / Newly Recruited to April’s Showers (Forward) Personality: intelligent, judgmental, perpetually insecure, curious, impulsive, well-traveled, resilient Hometown: Greensboro, Georgia Bio: Christianity isn’t something to mess around with. At least, that’s what Grace’s parents always told her. God would provide when no one else could and there was nothing more to say than that. Charles and Rebecca (nee Chen) Fitzgerald raised their three daughters – Grace, Faith, and Hope to be strong women of faith who never backed down no matter what was thrown at them. Church and religion were spoken about more than any struggles they may face as mixed, privileged women. In fact, their race was rarely spoken about (mostly only for college applications). When life was hard, you got on your knees and prayed. When you felt like everything against you, the response you got was ‘God isn’t’. Bible beating, Catholic guilt kind of feelings were all that were allowed in the Fitzgerald household.

So, imagine being fifteen and the only person who makes your heart skip a beat is your best friend. Your best friend who is a woman. Somewhere along the line, she wasn’t sure when, Grace was taught that men and women were meant to be together. God designed them specifically for that, but when Lucy’s lips touched hers and the entire world washed away? How could that be wrong? Of course, it wasn’t like ridding oneself of consistently patterned brainwashing was all that easy. The amount that Lucy made her feel was… well, beyond explanation, even to this day.

The kissing, cuddling, and all kinds of big feelings were everything to Grace, no matter how much she wanted to deny that fact. It was mere months that it lasted before she had to stop it. Before the Catholic guilt almost ate her alive and the little jokes her sisters made actually got to her. But no one knew. Not a soul had ever found out and maybe that was why Grace pushed Lucy to date men and they’d be best friends no matter what. The kissing wasn’t what made them friends. Their unending love was. But friends didn’t get jealous when other friends made out with boys or held their hands. High school was hard, but stuffing your gay in the closet was harder.

When Lucy left Greensboro, it was almost impossible for Grace to come back from. She threw everything she had into school and trying to distract herself from the broken heart that would never truly heal. Mathletes was her ultimate companion, clinging to numbers was the only thing she truly knew how to do. That, and her Quarterback boyfriend who was incredibly attractive. Or, so she was told. Men still didn’t have much of an effect on her and maybe that was for the best.

By the time she graduated high school there was already a ring on her finger and her parents couldn’t be more proud. Wedding bells rang with her hellish husband at the end of the aisle, Xanax in her system and her sisters by her side. Why she wasn’t able to stop herself from living a life for other people, she still doesn’t know, but it all happened so fast. The marriage. The failed attempt to bear children. The lack of ability to connect to her husband. The divorce. Grief rippled through her over and over again and it felt that with a snap of her fingers, 22 year old Grace Fitzgerald was back on her knees, this time cursing God instead of praising him.

After her world came crashing down right before her eyes, the world she had worked so hard to achieve, there was only one thing a woman could do. Run. So, Grace immediately left Greensboro, fled to California and found a home there. A home where those around her gave her the freedom to be herself. A home that allowed for exploration of half of her ancestry she’d never known. A home where weekends in San Francisco opened up the gates of the grief her heart held onto. A home where late night glasses of wine turned into tear filled confessions that did more than a Catholic one ever had. A home that showed her who she truly was - a fiercely strong, empowered, gay, half Chinese woman.

It was when she came to terms with herself a few years after moving to California that she decided to limit communication with her family. All of them had given her enough flack for not having children and then for getting divorced. Ties with family were somewhat shortened and the sunshine was just a little too much. Too much blaspheme, too much anger, too much uncertainty. In fact, all of the time she’d spent worrying so much about her family was now energy she put into running an LGBT+ sports(kickball, soccer, tennis) league just outside of San Francisco. She learned a lot about herself, the community, and gained an intense love for the sport she’d never imagined: Soccer. All of her time after being divorced and moving away, Grace spent any breaks she had traveling – it was what had sparked her love for New York in the first place. For all that California was to her, New York City was calling her name.

So, Grace moved to New York City a few months ago, filling a position at the school just after a faculty member decided to leave mid-year. Becoming involved with school things and trying to find a community she can call her own like she had back in California are proving to be difficult (hence her trying out for April’s Showers). But if Grace is anything, it’s resilient.

Pets: Grace has a 2 year old British short hair munchkin cat named Raya that she was gifted by a friend in California when they could no longer keep her. The cat’s name was originally Ray, but it soon became obvious that she was most definitely a female cat. (fc: @littlemunchiepooky)

RELATIONSHIPS

Lucy Quinn Fabray

Never quite lovers, but practically so in every way. Big feelings were had and the relationship that Grace chose to sever in the first place has haunted her ever since. There was so much that she experienced with the blonde and so much that she desired that she has never been able to fully shut down. With a relationship where everything prohibited was all that they wanted, Grace’s past with Quinn is likely to influence a lot of her time in New York.

Rowan Flanagan, Samantha Evans, and Fiona Hudson

All four of the girls work at the same Elementary school and are bound to run into each other from time to time. It’s been such a short amount of time that Grace has been working there that she feels she can’t actually say if they get along or not.

April’s Showers

As the newest recruit, it’s unlikely that she’s gotten close to most (if any) of the girls on the team. In order to foster a new community for herself and a large, unknown city, Grace has dedicated herself to the team even if she’s only been part of it for a brief time. Of course, the fact that her first lady love is on the team too is bound to cause some sort of internal conflict.

EXTRA INFO

Twitter name/twitter URL/description: g. fitzgerald / @savegrace / we could never learn to be brave or patient if there were only joy in the world. ((teaching kids that life is hard one day at a time.))

Five latest tweets:

@savegrace: hi @olivegarden – love you, miss you, just thought you should know xo @savegrace: Yet another day where my eyes won’t open fully. Do you think parents notice or just think I’m extra Asian?? @savegrace: sorry for last night’s live tweeting of are you smarter than a fifth grader?… I felt some type of way. @savegrace: if I wear black to school one more day this week, do you think my boss will comment on it again? @savegrace: flight attendant: “we’ve landed 36 minutes ahead of schedule. So, next time you fly with us and we’re late, let’s call it even.” #myhero #usingthisforwork

[roc-thoughtblog]

IDORU READTHROUGH CHAPTER 1-21 RECAP

Transhumanist rockstar Johnny Silverhand announces his engagement to virtual idol Hatsune Miku, and everyone is upset. A fired data analyst and a teenage Silverhand stan are both sent to Japan to find out why he's gone crazy. Or has he?

I'm joking but that kind of is the story. It's great.

I haven't picked this book up in at least half a year so I can barely remember where I was at (this is more a reflection of myself than of the book). I need this recap for myself, too.

For my previous post on thoughts on the genre, click here.

CONTENTS:

Personal Context

Story So Far

General Thoughts

Predictions

PERSONAL CONTEXT: When I visited Adelaide in 2019, I found a fairly large second-hand bookstore called O'Connell's Bookshop, which I believe is family-owned. It is super cool, one of those bookstores where the shelves are overflowing and you could probably find somebody's great-grandparents' childhood diary if you looked hard enough. Also, they have a dog! And the dog's name is my name! I'm a bookstore dog! Ahem. I will never not be excited about that. Please visit if you're in Adelaide and say hi to my canine counterpart.

Anyway, I was perusing and randomly spotted a book called Idoru, and my first thought was, "huh this seems like a romanisation of idol in japanese, is this just an old book about japanese idols?" And then I saw William Gibson's name attached to the book called Idoru, and my second thought was "wait, that William Gibson? What has that William Gibson got to do with japanese idols?"

Dumb question, really. The influence of east-asia in general on the development of the cyberpunk genre is huge, so the convergence shouldn't have been surprising. Also, the book's from 1996, so it's relatively recent; I had pigeonholed Gibson to the 80s because I didn't know better, and wondered whether virtual idols were even a thing then.

Either way, the novelty of an intersection between William Gibson and Hatsune Miku was more than compelling enough for me to buy the heck outta that book, and I've been enjoying it.

STORY SO FAR: Idoru separately follows two protagonists, former data analyst Colin Laney and teenage music fan Chia McKenzie. Both have been sent to Tokyo to figure out what's going on with an old-school rockstar named Lo/Rez, and why he's become engaged to virtual idol Rei Toei.

Colin has just been fired from his job at SlitScan, some kind of pop celebrity dirt-digging company. When his metadata analysis revealed that a teen celebrity was about to commit suicide (after it helped drive her to that point to begin with), he tried to intervene. He failed, a scandal ensued, and he was fired for trying to whistleblow to a media-company-dirt-digging-company. He was dropped when they found out he was once a test subject of a questionable experimental drug, compromising the legitimacy of his story.

Out of job, he's sent to Tokyo to get picked up by Lo/Rez's loyal bodyguard, Keith Blackwell. Blackwell wants to know if his boss has gone off the deep end, and suspects foul play, manipulation or tech-mediated brainwashing. He wants Laney to figure out who's behind it. All Laney can figure out so far, however, is that Lo/Rez leaves astonishingly little metadata to analyse, but has been lying about his activities to Blackwell. Also, Laney's old boss Kathy Torrance wants to blackmail him for dirt on Lo/Rez.

Meanwhile, Chia's VR Lo/Rez fanclub is upset that Lo/Rez has made a marriage announcement, to a virtual idol of all things. The rich one in their group uses her father's credit card to sponsor Chia to go to Tokyo and meet with the fanclub's Tokyo chapter to find out what's up.

On the flight over, Chia unknowingly falls in with some kind of smuggler, Maryalice, who uses her as a patsy to smuggle something into Japan. She takes Chia to her boyfriend's place, where Maryalice and her boyfriend start having a violent argument over Chia's involvement. Chia takes the chance to flee, but unknowingly still has the mysterious smuggled item in her bag.

She meets the Tokyo chapter's representative Mitsuko, who says that nothing is wrong, but Chia is unconvinced. Mitsuko's brother Masahiko takes Chia out to help her investigate, but both their friends warn them they are being stalked by a dangerous unknown group, and the credit card Chia is using is being tracked.

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Each character in Idoru is described by Gibson with great vividness. They're also colourful to the extent that I feel like I'm experiencing the literary equivalent of the silhouette test for character identity. The descriptions are conveyed with great efficiency. At no point is the story stopping to exposit to you how a character appears, you figure out their appearance alongside their actions and personality as the scene progresses. In that sense, appearance, personality and actions are fused such that the character feels incredibly whole. It's very cool, I wanna emulate that. Also, they'd make great prompts for character design illustration exercises.

Having said that, I feel like this is another story where the supporting cast seem more interesting than the protagonists. Laney is alright; he seems to only be a creased suit-shirt, but at least he's a creased suit-shirt with a backstory. Chia suffers a little though; I can't even remember what she looks like and there wasn't terribly much going on in her life.

I really like Blackwell. Partly for Australian bias, but partly because I think he exemplifies this approach to character writing the best. His image is incredibly solid and unique among the case, he's dripping with personality, and it all works in harmony with every little action we see him take to bring his character to life. He makes a great study for close reading.

There's a very simple and predictable prose structure to the story so far; one chapter of Laney followed by one chapter of Chia, repeat. I'm not really sure how well it works; on the one hand it's nice to know exactly what's coming next, but on the other I feel like it's affecting the pacing a bit in some places. It's hard to end a chapter of Laney thinking, "I want to know what's next," and having to enter a chapter of Chia starting something entirely different.

Sometimes the writing is just unintentionally funny because I live 24 years into the future and japanese culture is now fairly mainstream. "Kelsey drew her nymph-self up with elvin dignity, batting manga-doe eyelashes in disbelief," while referring to a VR anime avatar, just makes me crack up. At the same time, props to Gibson for calling out VRchat anime avvies in 1996.

I'm not sure what's with cyberpunk and automatically taking place in an alternate world history - actually it suddenly made sense to me when I was typing; it's partly alternate to me because I live in the future, and it's partly that their setting is shaped by more extreme fictional, governments, corporations and man-made disasters. Having said, some changes still seem casually random and just thrown in to make the whole world feel different. Australia seems to have had a civil war that created a southern identity, Russia seems to be... fully controlled by the kombinat? Native American countries build laptops. Lots of strange details dotted through the setting.

PREDICTIONS: None, I'm halfway through the book but I still have no idea what's really going on or what's about to happen. Lo/Rez hasn't shown up yet outside of recordings, and people rarely even mention the idol.

If I had to guess, Chia and Laney's stories seeming to still have nothing to do with each other suggests that whatever connects them has already been revealed. I'd take that to be Chia's accidentally smuggled contraband then, or whatever group is stalking her, though I have no idea what that is yet.