#the aesthetic of them is like late 1800s early 1900s i think??

[eurekq]

Okay there is a children's book series I am trying so very hard to find. They're vintage books about a little girl and all the cooking utensils in her house are alive (the pot and kettle specifically have beef) HOWEVER the main gimmick is that the (first book at least) is filled with recipes that a child can follow. If I'm remembering right I think subsequent books focus on different types of chores. Does anyone remember these

[lietpolski]

0.) for bulgaria,,,,,u knew this was coming

ur the king and i'm the court jester doing a little hws bulgaria jig for your entertainment 🫡

1) what would their social media page/activity be like: i hate to say this... but this guy is on facebook!!!! maybe he has a twitter but he tweets like once every 9 months and it's like "Hi. I'm hungry". if this is canonverse where humans know nations exists he gets caught liking romania fancams (he doesn't know likes are public) old man bulgaria u mean the world to me

2) what animal they remind me of: your drawing of him as a black bird is the first thing that comes to mind!! :O

3) my thoughts on their design/aesthetic alone: BABYGIRL his canon uniform is SNAZZY and i just,, like how plain he is ig :,) it suits him and it's a great contrast next to ro's design!! 10/10

4) physical headcanons: i think he's a foodie!! especially when he's sad, he gives off the vibes that he curls up on the sofa with a tub of pistachio ice cream and cries the night away.... idk if this counts as a physical headcanon but i think he's physically older than ppl think!! i don't have a concrete age for him but smth like 26-29! he has a bit of a baby face though bless him (and i'm just VERY soft for romania finding him pretty,,)

5) social headcanons: he def keeps to his social circle i think!! he has a decent number of friends buuut he probably hasn't made new ones in decades :,) i think people often overlook him and don't think much of him because of his more meek disposition around new people and not being very flashy!

6) psychological headcanons: HE'S SUCH AN EMOTIONAL GUY,, which is so sweet considering i think that a lot of these characters have grown tough skin from their old age but bulgaria is so baby... he is resilient ofc!! but he shows a lot of emotions!! he wears his heart on his sleeve you can read him so easily :,) i also live for bulgaria with a,, weird fractured sense of pride? he's insecure about a lot of things, but at the same time he's prideful and a bit egotistical at times in a naive unintentional way. i feel like he also idolizes people and concepts very easily!

7) ship(s) with them that I like or at least consider: he and romania are an on-and-off married couple made for each other!!! but but but you've made me think about things like ro/bul/hungary and ro/bul/greece and those r super fun too! :O and i have this weird rarepair of him and england :,) for personal and deeply emotional reasons i also need him and serbia to fuck

8) made-up connections with other characters that weren't in the canon (friends, enemies, whatever): he likes russia a lot! and if i dare push my yugotalia agenda real quick... he adooores macedonia!! ALSO his relationship with hungary is so underexplored!! they don't have the same feud that she and romania do, but i think (at least historically) they get on each other's nerves and there's been a lot of tension there (hatefuck threesome when?) england likes to vacation at his home and b annoying. he kinda hates turkey but they're also friends (in typical balkan fashion) & he and greece would be good buds!! skiing friends too :D

9) headcanons about their past: fella has been through a shit ton!!!! if u ever ask yourself "why is he like this" the answer is what 500 years of ottoman occupation does to a mf hgjfg... and i like the hc i mentioned in my fic of him trying to get ro to marry him in the late 1800s to early 1900s :) ALSO him and greece's feud during the byzantium era!! he was scary back then!! i also loooove it when he's depicted as having been older during the ottoman years and so feeling some sense of responsibility for the other countries around him :,)

10) content about them I'd like to see more of: aaah him during either of the bulgarian empires!! under ottoman rule!! more balkan war stuff!! historical human aus!! i love him being pathetic but i want to see him angry and happy and powerful and in love and heartbroken and 🥺 also i. can never have enough vampire aus im weak

[iciatheguardess]

ARCHIVED AND OUTDATED

Okay, this is my OFFICIAL info/lore/refs for Ice Anon/Icia. I'll just give basic info about each persona, the lore, and refs when I get around to them.

This will be updated as I go- hope you enjoy!

Do note: Ice Anon no longer exists (except to a few people she didn't tell yet.) So most designs of her are irrelevant and more like casual outfits for Icia now.

Ice Anon:

Refs:

Basic Info:

Ice Anon is a newer Anon in the circus, who's a 'chill', peaceful being. She's recognizable by the cold air her body gives off, making her difficult but not unbearable to touch or hold, as well as her inhumanly stiff ice hair. She's a quiet, mysterious, nonchalant, "go-with-the-flow" person who'd rather not fight in most situations. However, she's also caring and doesn't like seeing others in pain or misery, even if she despises them. As she's grown more familiar with everyone, she's grown slightly anxious and secluded, often with a people-pleaser mentality.

She enjoys watching snow, stargazing, listening to 1920s-50s music, and dressing up. She's also oddly good at swordfighting...

Lore:

Ice Anon made her appearance not long ago, but she could have been a part of the Circus for a while, deciding to hide away. After finding Gangle digitally (but not fully) dead, she let herself become more involved in others' business as to make sure she didn't miss anything important (though she often does). Also, it's likely due to a rocky entrance into the circus, her memory isn't the best.

Icia:

Refs:

First/Usual Design:

Current design:

Info:

Icia is a very guarded individual, often feeling uneasy and distrustful of others due to being uncertain of their affiliation. However, when she trusts someone or sees them in need, she's extremely caring, loyal and motherly, being willing to tell stories of her life in The Bewitched Digital Kingdom to all who are willing to listen. However, Icia is also very protective. She will go to extreme lengths to protect those in danger.

She enjoys training, reading, telling stories, playing and dancing to classical music, and enjoys most things from the early 1900's and late 1800's (think things you'd find on a Royalty Aesthetic Pinterest board)

Lore:

Icia arrived at The Enchanted Digital Kingdom a long time ago, which was a digital realm formed as a kingdom and castle always surrounded by stars and seemed to run on magic rather than technology. As part of the royalty, Icia was immediately given the role of Head Guardess; this duty gave her power over the kingdom's army, royal guard, and turned her into the main guardian for King [....] and Queen [....]. The kingdom was ruled by the AI Ramiro, who was described as senile but loving and caring.

However, one day Ramiro was seemingly replaced with the AI Hexe who was cruel, sadistic and tempermental. Through her control, she abused her powers and would rank up or derank humans of TEDC as she pleaded, and would control their minds, emotions, and personalities for her own amusement. This often led to fights, unethical treatment of NPC citizens, and harsh misunderstandings.

Icia recalls an incident where her best friend Dunite, the royal Astronomer, manipulated the minds of young children under Hexe's control, and had no reaction to their fear. Despite her best efforts, Icia was also forced to commit unspeakable, cruel acts of violence to both the citizens she was supposed to protect and her dear friends. At this point, she had no longer been calling the kingdom as The Enchanted Digital Kingdom, now referring to it as The Bewitched Digital Kingdom.

After some time, Icia decided she had enough and searched the Castle for an exit which she eventually found. She asked a small number of people to join her, all of which were either on Hexe's side or disbelieving, until Hexe caught wind of her plan and she had to escape alone. Outside TBDK, Icia learned about many worlds all controlled by C&A, each seeming to have an AI that monitored it. She found her own files and learned how to create new ones, which she used to create unique outfit "presets" and reclaim her possessions left in TBDK.

However, she also saw her files linked to another individual's: Starro, from The Amazing Digital Circus. Feeling he would be trustworthy, Icia found her way into the circus and made close friends with him, explaining her situation. Due to her belief that all AI were linked, she grew fearful and distrusting of Caine, believing he would recognize her and send her back to TBDK. Therefore, she created a new persona and outfit, blending in with the many Anons that visited as a new anon: Ice Anon.

Powers/Abilities:

Being an embodiment of ice, Icia's constantly cooling off things around her. The air around her is cold, and certain things frost over if she touches them. This effect grows heavier when Icia experiences high emotions, as when anxious she can fully freeze anything she touches and cause large ice crystals to spike up from them, also inflicting frostbite. During high-emotion moments, she can grab onto someone and channel all her power into her hand, effectively freezing them almost entirely and causing excruciating pain. At her most powerful, Icia can use her sword to channel a blizzard in a small area, disrupting vision and even cutting opponents with sharp ice crystals.

However, Icia prefers combat with her sword. She's extremely skilled in swordfighting, having an elegant yet speedy style that's nearly impossible to counter. Her sword has a halo of frost and flurries, which can effectively freeze ice on contact. She sharpens it often, in case of emergencies.

Icia is also very strong and agile.

~~~~~~~

I know this is probably not very fun or what you would've hoped from this post, but I'm going to regularly update it the more her lore gets uncovered. Ask her whatever questions you'd like, I'll be keeping this post pinned for now!

-Mod Star ✨️

[hearts401]

!!! I dont have a ton planned out juuust yet but it has a lot of journalism evil space ceos and pollution. sooo much pollution. i havent decided if i want them on a different planet or like. floating in space. but probably the former bc i love it and. space suits. also with steampunk comes child labor. classism. factory disasters. their ship is built to prioritize infrastructure over. workers' lives.

honestly almost all my inspiration comes from. industrial era and muckrakers, late 1800s AUGH i love it.

as for what the ship looks like... a lot of ppl go for blimps but blimps werent invented until the late 1900's. so itd make more sense to go for the wright brothers' plane. but thats not super space-y

but i could also take inspo from early early space craft. sputnic, bumper-WAC, Apollo 11, you get it. but more gears and levers.

or 1800's submarines would work.

tell me this shit aint steampunk as hell. nautilus byyyy rober fulton. well a recreation but still. built in the 1800's. but the FIRST submarine was made in 1620 which is neat

so the story mainly surrounds journalism and abuse of workers and whatnot. because i think factory disasters and muckrakers really build up that steampunk vibe well.

main character is a new-ish journalist who keeps her head down mostly but yknow. she's got freedom of speech guys. terrible regulations, horrible factory stuff. made to possibly study things in space id think. a FEW sci-fi references. because it IS technically sci-fi.

also her last name is riis for no reason in particular.

and while the punk aesthetic might not fit in the vibe im going for, the themes are. put the punk in steampunk guys please. one of the earliest places it was in was new york. guys guess what new york is built off of. INDUSTRIALIZATION!!! its very important i dont think its explored enough. ppl dont explore enough of the horrible government parts of steampunk.

i do love the big corporations yknow. killing people. for their own gain. i love the trusts and monopolies. augh.

anyways guys i lost the plot here remember that steampunk may be a cool aesthetic but there's also deeper themes you can explore with it and i think we should!!

if u think abt it steampunk astronauts would just look like rlly old diving suits

do you see my vision

[marzipanandminutiae]

Why did the early-mid century culture hate the victorians so much? Was it just "my grandparents lived through it so I associate growing up around this stuff with being outdated and yucky" kinda like how I've seen the 1970s-80s regarded? Or was there something else going on there culturally?

I suspect it's partially that, and partially just. How much everything changed aesthetically in a relatively short span of time.

I mean, if you look at the feminine fashion differences between 1860 and 1880, the trim and silhouette obviously differ greatly but the basic composition of the outfit is the same. Same under-layers, same general bodice-and-skirt format for most dresses, same hemlines, same broad expectation for the hair (long, mostly one-length, natural colors) even though the popular styling of women's updos changed.

and then you look at, say, 1905- Edwardian, but that same general outfit format -to 1925.

(Le Costume Moderne, 1905.)

(The Delineator, 1925.)

There had been radical aesthetic shifts over relatively short periods before- see also: 1780 vs. 1800 -but to my knowledge few of them involved changing the composition of outfits so radically. The 1920s saw the beginning of the now-familiar bra and panties model of conventionally feminine undergarments, for example, as opposed to the immediately prior "chemise and drawers, or combinations, and corset" model. In a very real way, that decade seems to me to have introduced the way we wear clothing today. Obviously some things like girdles and slips have mostly fallen by the wayside, but. It's the beginning of a clothing system that seems vastly more familiar to most of us now than what came before. And with that shift came a lack of understanding of how the earlier model actually worked in everyday life. Combined with new strides being made in women's rights compared to the previous status quo, it could be all too easy to see such totally foreign fashions as awkward and oppressive.

Also it was very much a time that emphasized all things new and exciting, as humans are often wont to do. So the past, and all it represented, cut very little ice. Especially the relatively recent past.

I mean, look at Art Deco and Midcentury Modern. They're basically the polar opposite of Victorian styles that emphasize heavy ornamentation, natural materials, maximalist decor, organic lines, historical inspiration, etc. It's not hard to see that someone raised in that environment might look on the very alien houses- and clothing -of the past and recoil a bit.

And yeah, I think there may have been a bit of a Granny Effect going on- something you grew up associating with fusty old people is bound to have less romance than something you've no direct connection to. Indeed, we do see a bit of Colonial Revival architecture popping up in the 1940s-50s U.S., suggesting that it wasn't necessarily the past as a whole that people of the early-mid 1900s objected to.

(Also, you do occasionally get bits of Victorian nostalgia. Often in the form of art depicting earlier times with varying degrees of accuracy, dolls costumed in past styles ditto, movies set in the mid-late 19th century, recommendations about how to make one or two bits of Victorian furniture into "quaint" statement pieces for a room, etc. Still, it's often a general damnation with faint praise.)

So those are my rough thoughts on the subject!

[carewyncromwell]

“Everybody's been there, everybody's been stared down By the enemy, Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing -- Bow down to the mighty... But don't run...stop holding your tongue! Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live; Maybe one of these days you can let the light in... Show me how big your brave is! Say what you wanna say and let the words fall out! Honestly...I wanna see you be brave With what you want to say and let the words fall out Honestly...I wanna see you be brave!”

~“Brave,” by Sara Bareilles

x~x~x~x

For my next installment in my Valentine’s Day series where I focus on each of my MC’s with someone that they care about, I’m going to do something different again for my MC Anastasia “Ana” Read and focus on her relationship with her beloved stepfather, Bradley Pinkstone!

After Ana’s mother Bonnie divorced her father John Read, Bonnie -- being the sort of person who’s unable to be on her own -- dated several other men in rapid succession. Unfortunately none of those men were much in the mood to “share” their new girlfriend with her daughter from a previous marriage. Not only was Ana a constant reminder of Bonnie’s relationship with “the ex,” but she also was a socially awkward, chubby little girl who would cause weird “accidents” whenever her mother’s boyfriends were over. Ana would claim she never meant to do anything wrong (and honestly, how could she have done those things anyway, one might think -- no one can make a glass shatter from the other side of the room), but she nonetheless took the blame onto her shoulders and, in response to those boyfriends’ active dislike for or avoidance of her, soon learned to hide away in her room whenever they came over. After all, none of them came to see her, and none of them wanted to -- so it was probably best that she just stay out of the way. And she thought things would be the exact same way when her mother met and fell in love with Bradley Pinkstone.

Ana had heard plenty about her mother’s new fiance before meeting him, but it was only after she received her Hogwarts letter that Bonnie -- looking oddly nervous -- told her that Bradley would be coming over to have dinner with them. Ana dreaded the prospect: she just knew something was going to go wrong. All of the weird things that had happened to her mother’s old boyfriends had to have been her fault, after all -- what if she messed everything up for her mum again, just like she always did? And sure enough, not long after the bright-eyed, curly-haired man in the obnoxious yellow-diamond-patterned pants named Bradley Pinkstone had entered their flat and walked over to Ana as if to offer her a handshake, part of the floor disappeared out from under him, making him trip right into a side table and send several knick-knacks crashing to the floor. Distraught and ashamed, Ana bolted out of the room and up the stairs, even as Bonnie tried to call her back. Ana slammed the door of her room, locking it behind her, and then huddled up in a miserable ball on her bed, dead-set on never coming out again.

You can imagine Ana’s surprise, therefore, when her bedroom door swung open, unlocked, to reveal Bradley Pinkstone standing there, a small smile on his face.

“Hey,” he greeted gently.

Ana flinched, but didn’t answer. What could she even say? Should she apologize? How could she, without explaining that what had happened was her fault? Witches and wizards weren’t supposed to talk about their magic, right?

Noting the girl’s nerves, Bradley entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him, and slowly migrated over toward her bed in the same manner one might approach a scared animal.

“That...wasn’t my smoothest introduction, was it?” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve fallen flat on my face plenty of times figuratively, but never literally.”

Ana hugged her knees close to her chest. She hated him standing over her -- it made her feel even smaller and more pathetic than she already did.

Bradley tilted his head to the side and considered Ana for a moment, his expression becoming more serious.

“...I know it wasn’t your fault, Anastasia.”

Ana looked up at him, startled.

“Those sorts of things happen, when you’re feeling an intense emotion,” said Bradley sympathetically, “and what you did was easily undone. The floor’s been put right, everything on the side table’s fixed...even my pride will recover eventually.”

He gave a bright white grin.

Ana stared at him, very confused, as she absently let go of her knees. The way he was talking was so matter-of-fact, so nonplussed. It was...well, bizarre.

Bradley raised an eyebrow, his dark eyes twinkling.

“Would you like to know a secret?” he asked.

Ana’s throat was too tight to speak, but she gave a small nod.

Bradley reached into the back pocket of his yellow-diamond-patterned pants and slid out a long stick made of ebony wood with an intricately carved, gold-encrusted hilt for her to see.

It was a wand.

Ana’s gray eyes grew very, very wide.

“You...?”

Bradley tucked his wand back into his pocket with a white smile. “Yep -- I’m one too.”

Ana was stunned. Her mother’s fiance...was a wizard? So he...he knew everything? About the Wizarding World, about Hogwarts, about...how to do magic? ...Was that what he meant, by everything being fixed? He’d been able to undo what she did with magic?!

Her posture was still slightly guarded as Bradley lowered himself down onto the bed next to her.

“This is why your mother and I decided it was time we meet, before the school year begins,” he explained. “I hadn’t known you had magic when I met your mother...I couldn’t tell her about me being a wizard, thanks to the Statute of Secrecy, so I had to act as if I was non-magical myself. Admittedly I don’t like to use magic as much as many wizards do. There are many non-magical methods that work just as well if not better than magical ones. And there are many advancements people who don’t use magic have made that witches and wizards are still woefully ignorant of.”

He gave Ana a small wry smile.

“But...well, Bonnie would talk about you sometimes on our dates, and some of the things she said...well, it reminded me of Jasper and Preston, when they first started showing signs of magic. My sons,” he added, upon seeing Ana’s confused expression. “They’re both quite a bit older than you...but they went to Hogwarts too. Preston just graduated, actually. I’m sure Jasper and he will be really happy to tell you all about Hogwarts. And after you and Bonnie move in, I can always help you with some spells over the summer. Normally you shouldn’t do magic outside of school, of course, but the Ministry won’t punish you if you’re in a house that’s already filled with magical signatures...”

Ana could hardly believe what she was hearing. Of all the people in the world her mother could’ve decided to date, she’d somehow managed to meet a wizard? Not only that...but he actually wanted to help her with her magic?

“...Why...”

Bradley raised his eyebrows. “Hm?”

“...Why do you care?”

Bradley blinked in surprise. Ana knew her question had come out more harshly than she meant, so she tried to backpedal slightly.

“I mean...thank you -- for putting right what I did, but...I’m not your kid. You don’t even know me. I mean...”

She bit her lip and looked down at her hands in her lap.Everything she said kept coming out sounding rude, despite her best efforts.

Bradley, however, didn’t look the least bit offended or hurt. Instead his eyes looked a bit sad.

“You’re right,” he said quietly. “I don’t know you. But, for what it’s worth...I think I’d like to.”

Ana looked up at Bradley, whose face had grown a bit more gentle.

“Let me tell you something, Anastasia -- I’ve lost a lot of people in my life...many people I loved dearly. I even lost my mother when I was about your age. It hasn’t been easy to bounce back from any of that...but one thing I have learned is the value of loving the people in your life, as best you can. We Pinkstones...aren’t the most popular in the Wizarding World, for our stance on magical and non-magical integration...so family is very important to us. And if your mother and I are going to be married, then you will be my family. And that means I’ll do everything I can to love and protect you -- because that’s what family should be.”

He tapped his heart with his fist lightly.

“I know I’m not your father, nor do I ever want to replace him -- but I’d love to learn more about you from you, rather than just from your mother. As nice as it is to hear about how bright and imaginative you are...I’d love to see that for myself.”

Ana stared at Bradley for a long, long moment. Her gray eyes were still guarded and faintly nervous, rather like a stray cat hesitating before letting someone pet them for the first time. Then, after a very long silence, she nodded mutely. Bradley smiled.

“To start with...what are these books here you’ve got lined up on the bottom shelf?” he asked curiously. “They’re perfectly organized by number...I assume they’re volumes of something?”

Ana nodded.

“They’re manga,” she mumbled. “Japanese comic books.”

Bradley’s eyes lit up. “Really? May I?”

Ana nodded again, and he bent down to slide one of them from the shelf and look at the cover, which depicted a blond, blue-eyed girl with a blue-skirted white jumpsuit, a red-ribbon choker, and round red barrettes in her hair buns.

“‘Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon,’“ he read off the front cover.

He glanced from Ana to the book and back and his smile grew brighter and larger still.

“...Ahh, so that’s why you’re wearing a red ribbon around your neck -- you’re dressed as this character today!”

Ana looked down at her lap, her cheeks flushing as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her blue skirt self-consciously. “Mm-hmm.”

“That’s brilliant,” said Bradley brightly. “Oh, Jasper is going to be thrilled -- he’s quite a fashion icon himself. He’s into the ‘Gothic Victorian subculture’ -- from what I understand, it’s a fashion movement that celebrates both period clothing from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, as well as the darker Gothic aesthetic. Jasper has quite a collection of top hats and waist coats.”

Ana perked up slightly. “...So your son likes to dress up too?”

“Yes,“ said Bradley. “He comes by it honestly, really -- I don’t know if your mother told you, but my sons and I work in a theater, in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Jasper’s the most ‘stage-oriented’ out of the three of us: he works as an actor and stage-combat choreographer. Meanwhile my younger son, Preston, works in our tech department -- he’s a master of special effects. Though that’s partially because he likes to cheat and make some of the stage magic a bit more literal than it probably should be.”

Despite a mild attempt at disapproval, he was smiling mischievously. Ana felt her shoulders loosening a bit.

“What do you do?” she asked.

“I’m a stage manager,” said Bradley, “so I do a little bit of everything. Casting. Marketing. Settling disputes. Putting right what goes wrong.”

Ana shifted over slightly to better face him. “I guess with magic...doing that’s a bit easier, huh?”

“Sometimes,” said Bradley. “But magic isn’t always like how people who don’t use magic depict it, in stories. There are limits to what magic can do -- just as there are limits to what people who don’t use magic can do. Magic is just like any other talent you might have, in the end...like fencing, or mechanics...”

“Or writing?” asked Ana.

Bradley grinned. “Absolutely. It’s something you have to practice at and constantly refine, in order to be good at it...but once you have mastered it, you can be capable of amazing things. Once that happens, though, you then have a responsibility to use those talents for the benefit of others.”

Ana’s gray eyes were very bright as she nodded in agreement.

“‘You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed,’” she said softly. “‘You’re responsible for your rose.’”

Bradley quirked an eyebrow in interest. “Which book is that from?”

“The Little Prince.”

“I’ve yet to read that one. Would you recommend it?”

Ana bit her lip in amusement. “Well, it’s a children’s book...but the man who wrote it ended up writing it after escaping France, when the Nazis took over. I have a biography about him.”

She got down on her hands and knees to reach into the corner of one of her other bookcases, take a white-covered paperback off the shelf, and hand it to Bradley. He took it and turned it over to read the summary on the back.

“‘From a master biographer, the life story of the daring French aviator who became one of the twentieth century's most beloved authors,’” he read aloud.

Bradley’s grin grew a bit broader. “I must say, you have quite an extensive library. Might we exchange book recommendations, once I’ve finished with this one?”

Ana’s face at long last burst into a smile too and she nodded eagerly.

“Yeah.”

[thepenultimateunicorn]

Notes from my Samarkand reread

I basically marked up my whole book (yeah I write in my books sue me) and there’s honestly too much to be said in one post but there were some things I forgot about until rereading, particularly odd character tidbits that might be relevant to any fanfics I attempt to write, and also some stuff that made me do a double take either cause it was funny or I have questions about it or I didn’t absorb it fully the first time or cause it lines up suspiciously with the next two books.

Under a cut cause longposting and incoherent

Mrs. Underwood makes an offhanded comment about Nat looking for the chocolate spread for breakfast. This is almost entirely conjecture, but I do find the idea of Nat liking Nutella cute.

Nat is a swimmer. He took lessons twice every week as a kid with the Underwoods, and in the months leading up to summon Bartimaeus it mentions he swam every morning to improve his stamina and to “grow strong in body”. Summoning has a physical element to it, so being athletic is actually vaguely relevant to magicians. This is a long-winded way of saying I don’t think Nat is as weak and pathetic as we tend to think of him. Idk how much he continued exercising into books 2 and 3, but I find it doubtful he would have just stopped entirely especially with his fixation on remaining in control and staying strong in front of his demons. He’s kind of portrayed as frail and out of breath in parts of Ptolemy’s Gate, but that might be more due to exhaustion than him being a wimp? The bottom line is, he’s not about to get into a fist fight or anything, but I think he could probably take Artemis Fowl if he had to.

In conjuncture with the swimming point, Nat apparently took classes with commoner kids, but was too awkward to make friends early on, and by the age of 8 they were actively avoiding him due to his status :(

Nat knows how to play a lyre (yeah yeah I guess I’m just rehashing his education regimen but this stuff was all things I’d forgotten).

Music also appears to be a trigger for Nathaniel, since it leads to ‘distant memories’ resurfacing, presumably of his life before the Underwoods. This makes me wonder if maybe one of his parents was a musician. Or maybe they just had a lot of music playing in their house. Either way, Nat is sensitive to it.

“You don’t want to die just yet, do you Nathaniel?” StroUD?????

Nathaniel’s birthday is in November. He’s most likely a Scorpio. Could be sagittarius but assuming the first book still takes place in November, but after Nat’s birthday, I’m going with Scorpio. I don’t even believe in astrology, so idk what the significance of this is but it seemed funny.

“Do you beat him?” “Rarely.” is in fact in the book and not just a graphic novel addition. Anyway, Underwood? We’re going to have words.

“He made swift progress with his studies, for his mind was fired with hate.” Ah, spite, the best motivator. Also, what a mood.

“Too much hate is bad for you.” “Why?” The fact that Nat just does not get it...I stan an emotional illiterate.

Nat at 12 and Ptolemy at 14 are the exact same height, according to Bart. Either Nat’s a bit tall or Ptolemy is a bit short. Given the fact that people are on average taller than they used to be, and also Bart labels Nat as very average, I’m rolling with Ptolemy being short by our standards. Kitty at 13 is also slightly taller than Ptolemy, and ergo slightly taller than Nat.

When was Bart’s last pre-Nathaniel summoning? He knows what a Yellow Pages book is, and is familiar with kids playing marbles (both things that started late 1800s/early 1900s as far as I know), so presumably sometime within the last century? I’m really curious what his other adventures during the modernish era looked like.

“Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it. If it is too obvious, you will find yourself brought down in flames before you reach your twenties.” StROUD????????

“I shall get that stamped at the ministry directly and you will then officially exist. However, don’t go getting above yourself.” wow such an ego rush, being publically acknowledged to exist. If it isn’t obvious the reread doubled my hatred of Underwood.

Think it’s interesting to note that at the Prime Minister’s address, there are other apprentices and they appear to know each other and the magicians. Nathaniel not having any kind of peer group is an oddity even among magicians, and more so than his powers singling him out, it’s probably because Underwood forcibly isolated him.

“His face mottled with rage, he took two quick steps in Nathaniel’s direction, his hand raised to strike. Nathaniel flinched, but the blow did not fall.” Nat flinches. Underwood has done this before. If he weren’t already dead I’d kill him myself.

I only relate to Underwood once in this whole book and that’s at how upset he is when Lovelace breaks his best teapot.

Nathaniel ran straight into fire, toward Jabor, just because he thought there might still be a slight chance of saving Mrs. Underwood. My heart.

“He was going to his death. Which would have been fine, except he was taking me along for the ride.” I know this isn’t necessarily foreshadowing but why are there so many references to Nathaniel dying in this book? The comparison to Ptolemy and not living very long, most magicians not being as ‘suicidal’ as Nat? The two quotes I marked earlier? Was Stroud really laying the groundwork that early?

More evidence for Nat being high-int/low-wis; he just takes off his pants while swapping into the grocer uniform and when Bart tells him not to put the uniform ones on because he didn’t realize he’d taken his off, Nat just...goes with it? And doesn’t question why Bart is telling him to just ditch his pants????

I forgot that Nathaniel straight up murders someone in this book. And not even in that usual way of children’s stories where the villain’s own mistakes do them in??? Nat just. lobs some mild explosives at him like huh let’s see what this’ll do. (granted Schyler was trying to kill him but it’s still not usual to kid’s books)

“Surrender to my tender claws” “Nathaniel went white” Nat is so freaking scared of Bart? Earlier he was having nightmares about Bart eating him. It really makes their relationship that much sadder.

Bart shouts Nathaniel’s name in the hall at the end. How did nobody hear that and connect the dots? Then again I guess nobody noticed much of Bart towards the end. Nat did manage to pass him off as a foliot.

The reality distortion toward the ending reminded me of Annihilation (a spell turning to flowers, a chandelier turning to a flock of birds). Feel like it could be aesthetically interesting if they ever make that movie.

Devereaux flinching when a literal twelve year old approaches him. How did this man become Prime Minister (yeah yeah, I know, a coup and nepotism, but still)

That’s about it.

Also feel like the climax of this book could have been speeded up if someone had a gun. It wouldn’t be as dramatic but it sure would be funny. Let’s see the Amulet of Samarkand try to defend against bullets.

Okay that’s it.

Also Nathaniel deserved better.

I’m done.

[bookofmirth]

Can you tell us about your favorite non-living authors, also classified by their writing style?

Yes! Most of them have written what are considered classics, but I explain the themes.

1) Edith Wharton. Without a doubt, my favorite writer in terms of prose. My old url was based on a book of hers. She wrote a lot about old New York society during the Gilded Age, so late 1800s, though she published in the early 1900s. There were poor women trying to marry rich (The House of Mirth), fallen women who wanted to marry the love of their lives but couldn’t (The Age of Innocence), a nouveau riche woman who went through husbands like it was a contest (The Custom of the Country). If you know Gossip Girl, there are a few references to my girl in there.

2) Colette. The Claudine novels were the ones that caught my attention, but they were more salacious than anything else (schoolgirls and their inappropriately attentive doctor, lesbian teachers, oh my!). But one she got out from under her husband’s thumb and started writing what she wanted, wow. She has this way of writing about the senses that I try to remember when I write. Always thinking about the way the sun feels on a character’s face, the taste of wine, the rustle of silk, etc.

3) Henry James. He and my girl Edith were really good friends and so he also wrote about New York, but he preferred to examine the psychology of individual characters rather than the social dynamics. I did a presentation for my capstone English lit course about their influence on one another. The Portrait of a Lady is heartbreaking.

4) Virginia Woolf. Ohhhh my gosh Virginia. Probably rivals Edith Wharton for my favorite writer ever. She can write about someone going to the market to get food for dinner and make you feel like you are there and having the same crises and questioning the world and the nature of art. She was an amazing soul.

5) John Steinbeck. When I read East of Eden, I wanted to stop and highlight every other sentence for its quotability. He usually writes about people living in the Dust Bowl (1930s America, rural, poor.)

6) Jane Austen. It’s Austen, duh. But I just love her syntax and sass. (what a good blog name btw someone should snag that)

7) Anaïs Nin. She’s mostly known for her diaries. She has a similar aesthetic to Colette, very descriptive in terms of senses - and unabashedly sexual, the both of them.

You have seriously inspired me to reread some of these because it’s been ages! I have been in classics mood lately…

[straykats]

lemon, prussian azure, oxide of chromium, violet rose and mars brown for the ask game :))

send me a watercolour ask!

thanks rina for the qs! will answer the rest under the cut <3 the book question is to blame imo

lemon; what’s your comfort food?

m-mashed potatoes... (with some butter and a dash of salt and pepper! also, throwing some croutons ontop for some crunch. yes i realise how weird this all is.) also, a good bowl of pho?? and rice with... thit kho... google is saying its called braise pork belly and (boiled) eggs. when we were younger, my grandma made it a certain way (she cuts the pork and eggs up really small and mixes it in with the rice and adds a bit of the ??? the broth water thing so that its not dry. it was so good and to this day there is no better way to eat thit kho for me, even though i realise that's a very childish way to eat it. super good if you have a sore throat though). also recently, zambreros' burrito bowl. haven't had it too often but i just know it would make me feel better.

prussian azure; what’s your favorite scent?

the chloe eu de parfum?? marc jacob's daisy love eu so sweet??? those are at the top of my head bc i sprayed them for someone at work lol // warm coffee on a cold day. why do i suddenly feel like i havent smelt anything for the last year?? nothing comes to mind. oh! you know when the days are like.. super nice and the air both doesnt smell but it has a really fresh smell too? that makes no sense. OH AND AND AND!!!! i think it's// night jasmine? and/or white camelias???? i forgot what they're called and i cant grab my book rn but i think we have both at home and they both smell really gOOD

oxide of chromium; what’s your favorite book?

i don't like that this question is singular so i will pretend it gave the option of answering with more than one book.

on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong // his way with words is.. just.. woah. you sit there thinking, 'i wonder where this metaphor/analogy is going', and then suddenly it makes perfect sense and you're so blown away you feel like you've ascended time and space. also, lots of relatability in there (it's an autobiography)

the infernal devices trilogy and the last hours trilogy by cassandra clare // to be honest i love all the characters and the entirity of the shadowhunter chronicles (i know that it's not 'the best' series out there but hey to each their own. i fully recognise and agree with a lot of the things people don't like about these books though) i may be highly biased towards these two trilogies because they take place in the late 1800s/early 1900s respectiveley.. so the aesthetics of it all??? also, god the characters, i could go on about them and each individual character relationship/dynamic for ages (this applies to the greater majority of the shadowhutner characters oops)

and honorary mentions but also i love them just as much, i just wont type a whole paragraph again: the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky // a dark and hollow star by ashley shuttleworth // dark rise by c.s.pacat. AND THE PERCY JAKCSON/HEROES OF OLYMPUS SREIES OH MY GOD how could i forget them like this

violet rose; what does your dream house look like?

hm. this is a really hard one to think about for personal reasons lol but i really want to live in a unit/flat/apartment etc as opposed to.. a standalone house? not sure why. i would have a room for books!! not a library, but one thats primarily books. and one for the piano (electric piano, if im $$$ AHHA) and i wouldn't need a massive kitchen but an extended counter or an island would be nice.. um. yeah i'm not too descriptive for this one, sorry.

mars brown; what’s a movie that always puts a smile on your face/makes you laugh?

any barbie movie NCDKNCJDK they're uh kinda comfort movies lol so they can always put a smile on my face. i'm lying if i say i don't rewatch a lot of movies, i just can't think of any right now that fit this question??

[princepriestandpirate]

oooh do the aesthetics for Lael !!!!

1. season - what season represents your oc the best? 

if i’m being honest probably spring, a season of change, renewal, and growth. but in my heart i associate them more with fall, mostly because of the color associations

2. song - what song fits best with your oc?

press restart by walk the moon! 

3. era - what era fits best with your oc?

probably like…. late 1800′s early 1900′s, vaguely victorian but also with a lot of New Cool Shit happening. altho that might just bc their setting is kinda steampunk. or that i just like a lot of modernist stuff.

4. colour - what colour fits best with your oc?

i associate them with bronze and gold colors, and warm metallics in general

5. city - which city fits best with your oc?

this is difficult because lael is so much not a city person but in general more industrial midwest cities? little pockets of industry and machinery in the middle of otherwise pretty rural areas

6. fashion - what style fits your oc? what would they wear?

their sense of style is deeply casual and practical lol. it doesn’t look bad per se, but they’re not dressing up for anyone. lots of tool belts, boots, overalls, light loose shirts, etc. color wise they go for a lot of warm colors and browns. imagine just the most boring steampunk character ever basically.

7. art - what work of art fits with your oc?

i can’t think of any specific piece off the top of my head, but i associate them a lot with art nouveau, especially the architecture of the period? its sense of being very new and modern while at the same time drawing a lot on natural forms is very lael, to say the least (check out buildings by antoni gaudi especially– technically catalan modernisme but it’s part of the same movement)

8. vibe - what vibe fits with your oc?

a general vibe of study, exploration, and constant curiousity. a kid poking at bugs with a stick in their backyard, long sleepless nights where you’re kept awake by new ideas, the feeling of making something new with your own hands.

9. deity - reimagine your oc as a deity, who would they be?

a god of science, invention, and progress– committed to truth, to finding the new and remarkable in everything, to moving forward no matter the cost. patron god of inventors and scientists. 

10. emotion - what emotion do you associate strongly with your oc?

like, you know that feeling you get when you finally understand  something, like all of the pieces are coming together and you get a burst of energy and inspiration? that’s lael

[queerloveandspaceships]

Hey baby. It is your wife again. This time I have an actual writing question. Assign your character a time period that most accurately relates to their speaking habits. (Like I did, Hadrian = American 1920's (and alternative, 1990's), Seymour = British 1890's, Douglas = American 1780's, Gretchen = German 1950's). Explain why. Use examples. I love you.

I love you too, baby!! And thank you for explaining this in more detail just now. I think I get you now!! SO … here we go.

BEN:

Ben has a very casual, familiar way of speaking, no matter who he’s talking to. He uses a lot of phrases like “Just saying…” and “I could’ve guessed.” Contractions fuckin’ everywhere, very Small Town East Coast. If I were to place him in any time period based on his jargon or the way he relates to people in conversation, I’d say early 1990′s, ‘cause he’s still POLITE he’s just not formal. Plus my vision of the ~~future~~ in which this is set is very much aesthetically based on sci-fi that bridges that gap between the ‘80s and ‘90s, and I hope in writing Ben I reflect that aesthetic! God, now I want to just make him say “radical” all the time for the hell of it. The year is 2595 and the 1990s are back. 

IPEIVIE:

Now, because ANY Terran language is a second language for The Dris, and because their tongues are wider and flatter and their language a lot more flowing, the Dris are very very very intentional with how they speak, and they try very hard to mirror how humans speak. As such, Ip uses contractions, but speaks much more formally than a human, because he’s so intent about getting things right. He’ll use a lot of “Incidentally” and “Therefore” and “However,” like he’s pulling $10 words from his Terran dictionary, and his grammar is impeccable. SO in thinking that through, I think I’d put him in the late 1800s to very early 1900s. He’s also very concerned with being inoffensive (to a point, haha).

Anyway, I think that’s right? And I think that answers your question! As I write them more, I might change my mind, but this is where they stand now!

[hamsandlich]

On Steampunk

I’ve been trying to get into Jim Butcher’s Aeronaut’s Windlass, but I just can’t. I can tell from the first few chapters that i’ve already read it before, or I may as well have.

Lately, when I try to read steampunk stories, I have trouble investing myself into the story, because there’s a trend in the modern steampunk genre(moreso in the short stories than the novels) where the story and characters have become secondary to the superficial trappings of steampunk. Needlessly large brass gears everywhere, mustaches, excessively long vaguely British names, and tophats. So. Many. Tophats. There are steampunk stories where the genre has become an over the top parody of itself (similar to what happens sometimes with cyberpunk and the concept of grimdark). And I think this is a problem, steampunk isn’t about the superficial trappings of the genre: the clockwork robots, the sci-fi weapons made of brass and wood, the airships, these things are good in small doses, but they’re just set pieces, that is the absolute upper limit of their potential, they exist for characters to interact with, but often times, I see steampunk stories where the set pieces are a sizable chunk of the narrative. And no matter how good with imagery an author is, I guarantee you that you can’t make a story out of adjectives and descriptors alone, not in print format.

Continuing this, if a good chunk of your story is little more than airships, robots, and lightning guns, why is it a steampunk story instead of a science fantasy or high fantasy story? What about it mandates that your story be steampunk if its all about flashy toys and action, other than the fact that you like the aesthetic of brass gears and tophats? Think about how advanced technologically(or magically) your setting would have to be to necessitate those things being common place, how those advances could be applied to society outside of action scenes. If you ignore this too much, it becomes science fantasy or high fantasy at a certain point, and there’s nothing wrong with science fantasy or high fantasy, just don’t classify it as steampunk.

The thing is, a lot of science fantasy (and thus common steampunk) tropes are just versions of pre-existing technology and concepts that have been simultaneously simplified(the science aspect) and exaggerated(the fantasy aspect). And that’s not good, because the setting can often become too fantastic to be relatable to. When we read fiction, we do it partially for escapism, but we also do it to find relatable characters and experiences.

I think a lot of the potential of steampunk has been buried under the superficial trappings, the social and intellectual aspects of the genre have been buried under all the brass gears. Most steampunk evokes the late 1800s and early 1900s, particularly Victorian Britain and the Wild West. Cowboys, Gunslingers, Explorers, and Nobility, etc. These are the standard steampunk characters for most stories and very rarely does the aspiring steampunk author think to go outside this comfort zone. Maybe there’s a working class hero every once, but their story is often simplified into a caricature for the sake of impressive set pieces or obvious aesops. 

When I think late 1800s and early 1900s, I think Victorian Britain and the Wild West, but I also think the of Industrialization(on the East Coast of the US and throughout other parts of Europe), the ascendancy of reason and science, the formation of the German Empire, revolutions in Latin America, and the rise of Meiji Japan. And I think of all the horrors that went along with them: the abuses of colonialism, aristocracy, and business interests; the decline and humiliation of Imperial China and other nations; the corrupting influences of racism and laissez-fair capitalism on intellectualism; and the backlash against various forms progress by luddites and regressives smart enough to understand that their livelihoods were at risk, but too foolish or too stubborn to realize that the wheel would turn eventually, whether they liked it or not. This is the essence of steampunk, the story of mankind. Steampunk, and all forms of fiction, serve to provide a lens through which we can view society, science, and all the works of mankind and how we react to such things. And steampunk(and dieselpunk) lets us do this for both the past, the future, and the present, because its ultimately about reaching across time and bringing the traits and developments of different eras together. Its not about swashbuckling, clockwork robots, and airship fleets. And its definitely not about tophats.

For me, gunpowder fantasy(like The Shadow Campaigns[don’t spoil, i’m not caught up]  and The Powder Mage series) does a similar job of what steampunk is supposed to do; its often low magic, which cuts back on the fantastical elements and allows authors to prioritize characterization and narrative; and it often takes a closer look at examining the social developments of the time periods that it borrows from.

[free-essays]

AP English III - Essay

Sex, Stigma, and Students

This society is surrounded by myths about sex, and about people’s very own bodies. From girls who start menstruating at 9 and boys growing facial hair at 10. to the teens and adults who do not know the ins and outs of birth control; every person deserves to know vital information about their body. Sex education needs to be built upon, enriched, and improved for three reasons: there are far too many harmful myths about sex, people who do not conform to heterosexual standards are left in the dust, and non-abstinence programs have been shown to be more effective.

Sex education, how detailed and at what age, has always been a hot topic. Where did it all begin? Support for this movement started in the 1800s, emphasizing upon risk-reductive habits to help prevent cholera and syphilis. Groups hopped on this bandwagon, making it necessary in the national curriculum before puberty. The trend continued into the 1900s when the first birth control clinic was opened, and even more groups joined the league of sex education: such as the U.S Public Health Service, U.S government, American Medical Association, and so forth. The Birth Control Federation became Planned Parenthood in 1942, and there was a nationwide program in family life education. Despite these movements in favor of ‘sex ed’, in 1975, 20 states voted to restrict or abolish sexuality education. In the 80’s an act to start promoting abstinence before marriage was passed. Abstinence has always been a huge portion of teaching, even today, although in 2008 a total of 25 states has rejected funding for abstinence-only programs (Advocatesforyouth.org).

The first reason that sex education needs to be empowered rather than overlooked is that this first world society is littered with harmful myths about sex, and about the body. Just to name a few, a female’s first time is not supposed to hurt, hymens do not really tear so there should be no blood. The only time any of that happens is likely when the female is not actually aroused and this myth of “cherry popping” adds onto the trope of men’s needs coming first; especially in a sexual environment. There are also many people who believe, or likely were not taught otherwise, that oral sex cannot get a person pregnant, and this can lead some people to believe the best way to be safe is to actually throw up after sex (Newsome). Many people also think that porn is an activity only the male population partakes in, yet a study found that one out of three women watches it at least once a week (WITW). Many females feel ostracized and immoral for doing taking part in an activity that most people of both genders do, and it should be normalized instead of being laced with current double standards. Another extremely common misbelief is that to be amazing at sex, a man must have a penis length far above average, and often this causes insecurity among the males with this body part; along with stress and anxiety if they are average, below average, or not a whopping 12 inches. Aesthetics aside, four to five inches does what it needs to in sex, considering a female’s actual vaginal length is only four to five inches when aroused. The list goes on and on; there are countless myths about sex that continue to stigmatize most of the population, and really just instill shame in exploring teenagers. A school’s sex ed needs to debunk these common, but wrong beliefs with dignity and understanding.

According to a National Health Survey, around, “2.3 percent of US citizens identify as gay or bisexual” (Somashekhar). That might seem a touch small when it is taken into account that less than 50 percent of teens today identify as heterosexual (Brathwaite). Considering only half of the middle schoolers and high schoolers today say they are straight, we need to start addressing sexuality in sexual education classes. An innumerable amount of coming-out stories involve the words, “I thought I was broken,” or “I thought something was wrong with me”. That should never be the case; that a teen goes through schooling thinking that he or she is alone, broken, too young to make these decisions. It is simple, whether or not all of the public supports the LGBT+ group, different genders and sexualities do exist and the youth should not suffer because of this. Explaining early that people can identify differently and love anyone they want would save so many people large amounts of heartbreak and confusion as a teenager. Even if schools only had to cover the basics: being gay, bisexual, straight, or asexual. Asexuality is one that is often brushed off, considered to be some sort false identity made up for purposes like attention. In fact, most people do not even know that it exists, but regardless it does and there are in fact people who do not feel sexual attraction. Sex Ed needs to reassure those students that abstinence is okay, having sex is okay, but also just not feeling sexual attraction is okay. Heteronormative teachings leave several groups of teens in the dust, feeling outcast.

Not only is sex education supposed to be there to teach us that differences are to be embraced and to debunk myths, it also should not be abstinence-only based, and there are more than enough statistics to prove it. National data shows that more comprehensive sex education teaching is actually more effective at lowering teen pregnancy than only teaching abstinence. This makes sense; that if teens are going to have sex, then they’re going to do so no matter how many times a burly gym teacher says, “abstinence is the only way you can be TOTALLY safe!”, but if teens are taught how to have sex responsibly, then it is safer for all parties involved. In fact, “47 percent of high school teens have reported being sexually active in 2013” (Mcgee). That is half of high school students, so no one can say that it is not important enough. Teaching abstinence only is like saying “You want to learn how to be a safer swimmer? Just don’t swim!” This mentality is not beneficial to teens, and the data proves this. Regardless of whether the students would rather stay abstinent or not, the fact is that the teachings associated with it are often twisted and misleading, “Representative Henry A. Waxman released  a report showing that over 80 percent of federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs use curricula that distort information about the effectiveness of contraceptives, misrepresent the risks of abortion, blur religion and science, treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact, and contain basic scientific errors”(“Top Five Reasons”). Even if not having sex until marriage is the path some want to take, it should be because they have been well educated in an unbiased and truthful way. This is further backed by the fact that only 19 states actually call for teaching that is medically accurate (Karimi). Less than half of this country’s teens could be getting properly informed about their bodies, and how to protect them. Looking at the map below, it highlights just how skewed this abstinence-based system is. In these states, they assume that telling the students not to have sex will be enough, without a single lesson on any sort of birth control methods. (Klein) It is obvious that relying only on the teachings of abstinence is not only irresponsible, but it works only based on a select few moral beliefs. In fact, the data of the passage written by Karimi says that “comprehensive learning was 50 percent more effective than teaching abstinence.” That is no coincidence.

One main point that opposers usually throw out is that “Kids and teens are too young!” Usually, they think that until a student is in high school or late middle school can they be exposed to the mature concepts involving their own body. They also generally believe that sexual discussions in detail are too inappropriate for preteens and teenagers. Along with and often fueled by these morals comes common misconceptions on how sex education would be handled in a younger environment, which is shown in “Start Proper Sex Education Early”: with parents assuming that it would start in kindergarten, and expose their children to porn, and teach them how to masturbate. In the same article, more parents have called early sex ed “disgusting” and that “[sex ed] rapes their children of innocence”. In teaching sex early, it would likely be taught in simple terms; certainly nothing that would be inappropriate to show at any age of audience. Even so, when is it ‘too young’ to learn about the bodily functions that start anywhere from nine to 14? Sex should be talked about openly, rather than made oppressive and taboo. Many girls get embarrassed and shamed for talking about their periods, but why? It is a natural bodily occurrence that should be embraced with a person’s femininity. Males should be exposed and well-versed in this too, considering it affects half the human population every month. Many teens do not come to their parents with questions and concerns because they wait too long to have a real, honest discussion with them about sex (if ever at all). Parent’s should start early and are open with their children about the most necessary function of survival of humans, sex, and the important themes within that such as menstruation, it would leave less room for this shame to talk about it.

Another huge argument on the other side is that topics like sex are material that parents need to teach their children themselves. This is an educational step that some parents think is personal, and they do not want their children learning information that they do not think that they should. A parent, though their intentions could be morally right, can often be biased; and they should not get to decide what is and is not relevant for their child. That is not to say that a parent cannot be the first to teach their kid; if they start having these discussions earlier, as stated in the refutation above, then they would get to have that personal conversation with their child regardless. Another reason why it should not just be left to the parents to teach is that just like most people are lost in these sexual myths, often adults and even said parents are too. They can be, and probably are, just as easily misled as anyone else, so who knows if what they are teaching their kids is even correct? Although in some states teachers can be just as choosy with what they teach as parents, it is at least done in a more open and stress-free environment. Often teens feel embarrassed to ask their parents questions, and sweat over the dreaded “sex talk”, but in a classroom with peers that are in that same boat; there are much less pressure and shame. Anyone of any age can be biased, easily swayed, or uneducated in some fields of knowledge, and even more likely the parents, thinking they know best for their children. Considering that simple understanding; unless they are a doctor, or so well knowledged that they could write a textbook on sexual education, it is probably best left to the teachers to educate the masses on how to stay safe sexually.

Although sex education has come far, there is still so much on the horizon that the necessary teachings should strive for. Sex education should be expanded upon, and well refined. Students should be corrected about toxic myths, should be taught about differences in sexuality, and should be taught more than just, “you can have safe sex by not having any at all”. Once people start being open about sex, is the moment that many of the stigmas and confusion plaguing it can be eliminated.

Works Cited

"A SELECTIVE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES."

Advocatesforyouth.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

Brathwaite, Les Fabian. "Less Than 50% of Teens Identify as Straight, Says New Study." Out

Magazine. N.p., 11 Mar. 2016. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

Castner, Nick. "Start Proper Sex Education Early." University Wire, 12 Jan 2016, SIRS Issues

Researcher, http://sks.sirs.com.

Karimi, Honeiah. “We Need to Talk about Sex.” University Wire, 2014. SIRS Issues

Researcher, http://sks.sirs.com"

Klein, Rebecca. "These Maps Show Where Kids In America Get Terrifying Sex Ed." The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

McGee, Brice. “Teaching Abstinence Only is Not Working.” University Wire, 26 Aug 2015, SIRS

Issues Researcher, http://sks.sirs.com

"National Data Shows Comprehensive Sex Education Better at Reducing Teen Pregnancy than

Abstinence-Only Programs." SIECUS. SIECUS, Mar. 2008. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

Newsome, Teresa. "7 Totally Gross Sex Myths Debunked Once And For All." Bustle. Bustle, 08

Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

Somashekhar, Sandhya. "Health Survey Gives Government Its First Large-scale Data on Gay,

Bisexual Population." The Washington Post. WP Company, 15 July 2014. Web. 17 Jan.

2017.

"Top Five Reasons to Abandon Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs."

Advocatesforyouth.org. Advocates For Youth, n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

WITW, Staff. "Study Finds That 1 out of 3 Women Watch Porn at Least Once a Week."

NYTLive. New York Times, 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

[fengshuiatl]

Inspirations - Into The Badlands

I mentioned back in The Elevator Pitch that Feng Shui takes place across multiple time periods, known as junctures, and in my games (including the Feng Shui ATL campaign) I’ve always planned to take advantage of all of them. My first game had jaunts into the mainland China’s distant past. The prequel game took detours into Hong Kong, and Japan in the late 1800s, Mexico in the early 1900s, NYC in the 1980s, and even a post-apocalyptic future. Of them all, I’ve always been very sparring with my use of the future setting.

All the other settings in Feng Shui all owe a great deal to classic HK/South-East Asian action cinema. If you're looking for movies to tie to each juncture, you've got the below examples as just a small sample of your choices:

Distant Past or Fantasy - Hero, Tai Chi Master, Five Deadly Venoms

1800s - Once Upon a Time in China, Iron Monkey, Drunken Master II (aka The Legend of Drunken Master)

Contemporary - Royal Warriors, SPL (aka Killzone), Hard Boiled

The trouble with Feng Shui's future juncture, either in its original incarnation as a dystopian nightmare ruled by an evil corporation fueling cybernetics with chi energy, or its Feng Shui 2 version as a post-apocalyptic hellscape, blighted by the chi powered super bomb: Neither one of them fit in neatly with the other junctures or the game's major inspiration. The former owes more to Terry Gilliam's Brazil (on down to the coloquial term for one another being ‘consumer’), and the latter's clearly inspired by Mad Max. Both are settings are fine divorced from the wider world of martials arts mayhem, heroic bloodshed, and chi-as-magic. Once you have them flush up against the rest of Feng Shui, though, things like cyborg apes, grotesque bio-technology, and comically bureacractic corporations that literally rule the world, in my opinion they don't already don't sync up tonally. For a Feng Shui game like mine in particular, it's a complete splash of cold water on the proceedings.

Enter Into The Badlands. The AMC series premiered in 2015, and while I missed it when when it was first broadcast, I spent the past week binging its 6-episode first season on Netflix and was struck by the unique world that seems almost tailormade to be a natural leap into the future for your Feng Shui campaign. The show is set in a world that, after a period of natural disasters, wars, and other such chaos, has returned to a feudal state. Think Japan's Sengoku period and you're on the right track. Industry, technology, complex infrastructure has all broken down and the rulers of the day are men and women called Barons. Each of them has a resource that they control (the two major players we see most of control opium and oil, respectively), and their own personal armies. If Barons are like Daimyos, then their Samurai are known as Clippers. Loyal to their masters and highly proficient fighters, they're all trained from childhood to kill and die at the honor of their Baron.

All that world building above is served by some pretty cool aesthetic choices. The clothing and remaining technology has a steampunk, thrown together quality to it. Each Baron and their associated followers have a color scheme and insignias (you can see them and a lot more details of the setting at AMC's website, but beware of spoilers). The casting is diverse enough (an Asian lead, with a woman of color as his love interest, and tonight's season two premiere introduced a martial arts master portrayed by half-Zimbabwean, half Chinese actress Chipo Chung) that your players could easily see a variety of characters in the world with no trouble. But the narrative choice that makes the biggest visual splash, and what brought me to the dance, is that guns have managed to be outlawed throughout the land. So martial arts and melee weapons rule the day. The fight choreography, helmed by veteran Hong Kong stunt director Huan-Chiu “Dee Dee” Ku (seriously, check the resume), is simliar to a lot of latter-day Hong Kong martial arts films. Brutal, fast paced action, mixed with a bit of wirework to emphasize the impressive (and in one case, possibly mystical) nature of the combatants' abilities. It's some of the best television fight work I've ever seen, and if some of the reactions to Iron Fist are anything to go by...

Watching Danny Rand do half speed fight choreography while Colleen Wing is getting her Michelle Yeoh on is highkey frustrating...

— Dart_Adams (@Dart_Adams) March 18, 2017

It probably won't be beat anytime soon. From the variety of weapons and fighting setpieces on display, you've got plenty of grist for the fight sequence mill. As for how you could apply the world of Into The Badlands to Feng Shui, I could very easily see the situation the depicted in the show coming about if you involve The Four Monarchs. If you're unfamiliar with them, in the larger Feng Shui canon, the Four Monarchs are the four offspring of a powerful sorcerer who managed to take over the world. They subsequently lost their grip on the world due to infighting and are currently exiled to the Netherworld, a physical place outside of time. Perhaps by temporarily setting aside their differences, the Monarchs are able to retake the future juncture for themselves. Of course, their alliance being temporary coul learn to carved up territories and warring with one another, just like the Barons in the show. Or you could decide that the Secret War eventually escalated to the point where all the known player wiped themselves off the board in some way, and the few remaining feng shui sites mean relatively immense power for whoever can control them. Options abound.

The new season of Into The Badlands started tonight, and I'll definitely be tuned in for the rest of the episodes to mine for ideas. Even if you're aren't looking for an alternate future juncture for Feng Shui though, I'd highly recommend tuning in. If you're the kind of person who'd spend your free time reading a Tumblr devoted to Feng Shui, you're probably going to love it.