#their levels of patronising varies

[m-ayo-o]

how they say ✨ good girl ✨ JJK

Satoru

Like he's talking to a puppy xxx

Kento

Low, deep, lusty, heavy, turns you on evvvery time

Toji

Like he's talking to his daughter...

Suguru

He sounds like sex.

Megumi

Like he genuinely believes you are such a good girl

Yuji

Sweetly, shyly, as if he's a bit embarrassed to say it

Choso

He says it once, prefers when you call him good boy

[tyrannuspitch]

thinking about the very deliberate way loki varies the pitch of his voice in t1... the way he uses a higher voice (which could variously be described as feminine or childish or both) both to make the w4 think he's evil/treacherous/sinister and try to use that against them, AND to make thor think he's weak and helpless and try to use THAT against him... and neither work out in his favour.

like on one level it's so prophetic. so Destiny. becoming what he pretends to be.

the sinister image loki projects to sif and the warriors three seems to make them think he's been trying to kill off his family one by one to gain the throne, and their suspicions are what creates the circumstances that lead to loki actually trying to kill thor.

and the helpless image loki projects to thor is one of himself falling off the bridge, reaching for thor's hand, but slipping away. and then minutes later he DOES fall from the bridge. and although he is reaching upwards toward thor, he doesn't let him catch him.

and then beyond all this... there's the overall idea that being clever with your voice is suspect and shameful in general.

there's the title "silvertongue", which we see used only in mockery and which could very easily be backhanded at the best of times. (even the fact that it's silver makes it second-best to gold.)

and then there's how odin accuses loki of "twisting [his] words", as if it's a habitual thing, a known flaw in loki, when all loki is even actually doing is questioning him. loki is upset and seeking reassurance, but because he thinks and expresses himself in the "wrong" way (a way which is harder to control), he's met with suspicion and criticism instead.

and then there's this particular voice. the voice itself is seen as shameful. but the way he uses it, deliberately and cleverly to try and turn people's prejudice back on them, is even more so.

if he used that voice genuinely, without self-awareness and/or without the ability to turn it off, then he might be accepted as naturally lowly, but basically harmless. he would be patronised and disrespected but not quite so overtly othered. but instead he becomes a villain and an enemy, and violence always follows.

[constitutionalweasleymonarchy]

MOLLY: Tuesday

From the flash fic collection Days That End In Y

prompt: meeting friends or family

.

Molly Brigid Weasley was born precisely when expected, and Percy was not ready.

He’d read all the books, all but turned the house into a padded cell, and cleared that week’s calendar of meetings with anyone more important than junior level management.

He was prepared. But not ready.

Everyone said it was natural to feel that way. Not that Percy admitted the feeling aloud to anyone but Audrey; it was unsolicited advice meted out with varying levels of patronisation, assuring him that it was normal to have absolutely no idea what he was doing.

Only he knew what he was supposed to do. The execution seemed simple enough — feeding and bathing and safety; these things could be learnt.

Percy was confident in his ability to be a father; what he questioned was his aptitude for being a dad.

Bonds like that didn’t come about just because you put in the time and effort. Percy had spent years making himself useful, watching out for those he had a responsibility to, and trying probably far too hard at times… and the people meant to love him had never actually liked him.

Whatever deficiency it was in him that separated him from everyone else, it wasn’t likely to get any better with children. Percy didn’t understand children at all, and trying to talk to one was usually an exercise in madness.

It wasn’t for lack of wanting. In fact, the more he watched Bill with Victoire, the sure-footed fondness and pride he showed her — or the ease and amusement with which George handled Freddie — and the way their children so clearly adored them and instinctively sought them — the more he hoped for exactly that.

Audrey insisted he would have it. It would be different, she said, when it was his own child; he’d know her implicitly as she grew under his care, and he would be Daddy, irreplaceable by anyone else.

The problem was, Percy himself was a prime example of how this could go horribly wrong.

It didn’t matter, for the purpose of this analysis, whether it was Percy or Arthur who’d been wrong back then: The fact was that Percy had spent a not-insignificant part of his life hating his father.

Whilst he would always have lingering opinions and disagreements as to how his dad had gone about certain things — the vestiges of resentment and frustration and confusion still imprinted upon him, the way a wand remembers magic performed a decade ago — Percy had finally come to accept that, whatever their differences on the subject, Arthur had done what he’d sincerely thought was best; that he’d tried in his own way and had cared for Percy in whatever way he knew how to do.

And this realisation did not help at all, because it meant that whilst Arthur had good intentions as a parent and Percy had tried to be a perfect son, they still became strangers.

But here was the world telling Percy that this was meant to be the greatest love of his life.

Percy had never felt like the greatest love of anyone’s life, romantic or otherwise, at least not until Audrey. He wasn’t even certain what that was meant to look like.

It only took him about ten seconds holding Molly to understand.

The first five seconds were pure shock that this was actually happening. The next five seconds were sheer panic. And then he was overwhelmed by the fiercest sense of devotion he’d ever felt in his life. This should only have intensified the anxiety, but Percy was suddenly very, very sure — because failing her was simply not an option.

He’d heard some say that holding a baby was awkward, nerve-wracking, like they might break at any moment. But Percy knew intrinsically that — though Molly was tiny and perfect and breakable — she was safe with him.

“You’re so… miniature,” he marvelled, caressing her ears, nose, fingers. He let out a little laugh of disbelief. “Who gave you the right to be this small?”

It was inane talk, but Molly didn’t mind — and she didn’t mind when he babbled on quietly about things that didn’t even matter, because there was simply so much he wanted to say to her.

“You know,” he said in a low voice, like a secret between them, “I hope you’ll go easy on me. Uncle George has been taking bets on whether Ron or I will crack first.” Hermione had been due right around the same time as Audrey.

“He’s giving even odds to me and five-to-one for Ron. Obviously I put twenty Galleons on Ron. So, you know, if you cooperate, this might pay for your first broom.”

Molly yawned, and he placed a kiss atop her head.

Whether or not she decided to cooperate, Percy was finally ready.

[pi-cat000]

BNHA: something sad (Resentment)

Summary: The last time Katsuki sees Izuku alive the other boy is rushing to save him.  A ‘the Sludge Villain incident gone wrong’ aka Izuku dies.

Characters:  Katsuki Bakugo

Fandom: My Hero Academia

WARNINGS! Major Character death, swearing, heavy angst, graphic descriptions of violence

Other parts in this AU: (Something Sad),  (Anger), (Grief) 

This is the direct sequel to (Implosion)

......

“Not many people get hit with a concussive blast of this strength and walk away will so few injuries.” Is what the paramedic that looks Katsuki over says, hand glowing a faint blue as he uses some sort of diagnostic quirk.

“It looks like you have a few cuts, bruising, strained muscles and sprained wrist from what I can see. I’d recommend getting a proper examination at the hospital but there’s nothing life-threatening here.” The medic continues.

The emergency doctor at the hospital confirms the diagnosis and shakes his head in disapproval, adding, “…bruising on your ribs and a fractured finger. No concussion, thankfully, but you’ll have a nasty bump on the back of your head. If your quirk didn’t make you naturally resistant to these sorts of shock-based blasts, you would be dead..”

…

After that, everyone is practically falling over each other to lecture him on how irresponsible and reckless he is.

..

His mum arrives and there is a lot of shouting which just pisses him off.

“HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REACT WHEN I GET WOKEN UP AT ONE IN THE MORNING BY POLICE TELLING ME THAT MY IDIOT SON, WHO SHOULD BE ASLEEP, IS IN HOSPITAL!!”

 “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!

Then there is the quiet disappointment he gets from his father when his mum is done yelling which only fuels his resentment.  

“I don’t understand why you did it son. Did you want to get into that fight? Or was it a mistake? Please. We can’t help if we don’t know what’s going on.”

Eventually, he finally snaps, “I fucking felt like it! That’s why I did it! And you know what, I’d do it again.”

It wasn’t like he could or even wanted to explain that he’d jumped out his window to wander the streets at midnight because he had had a bad dream and his All Might poster had looked at him funny. That the rage and anger were preferable to that sinking empty feeling that had turned his every waking moment into a pointless repeat of everyday routines and useless interactions.  That every time he let himself pause and reflect, Deku’s stupid smiling face was mocking him from the afterlife.

Next, he spends an hour with Senior Officer Watanabe recounting every possible detail from his stroll through the streets to his climactic fight with Lanky, Tiny and Grease-Hair.

“Well, you definitely don’t do things in half measures kid. So far we have private and public property damage, unlicensed quirk usage, quirk usage with the intent to harm, vigilantly activity, assault...”

“Assault! Why the hell is that on the list. Those bastards started it.”

“You can’t go around beating people up no matter how good your intentions are!”

“So, you wanted me to just watch!”

“Yes!” A long breath, “I know it can be hard but you need to wait for the pros. You got lucky this time but what if things had been different? You had misread the situation. What if you had been badly injured? What if you had accidentally injured the victim or killed someone? There is a reason we make people get a license for Hero work. Seison Masuyama is a B-rank villain.”

“B rank? He wasn’t that strong.”

 “His quirk, Kinetic-Force, collects kinetic energy and releases it in one overpowered attack. It’s deadly to most people. You were lucky he had already used it once that day and that you were resilient enough to withstand it."

After multiple repeats of the ‘you’re lucky you’re not dead,’ with a side order of ‘it’s a good thing you’re still a minor because you could go to jail for this,’ he gets to go home.

It is three in the morning by the time he arrives back at the apartment, two exhausted parents in tow, having been issued an ‘official warning,’ an order to complete 100 hours of community service and instructions to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He has never felt angrier or more resentful.

A days later and he is back at school, wasting his time watching clocks and avoiding classmates. 

Nothing had changed.

…

…

…

The car screeches to a stop at the school gates, throwing Katsuki forward in his seat. His mum turns to fix him with a stern glare, eyes narrow.

“If you’re not waiting right here by the gate when I come to pick you up or so help me I’ll be escorting you to and from your classroom from the rest of your school life,” she threatens.

“Lay off you old bat,” Katsuki snaps as was becoming routine since his mum had started driving him the short distance to school, “I got it the first million times.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”  A finger is pointed at his nose, waving in an almost menacing fashion. “Remember. Here. School Gates. 4:00pm. Don’t you dare think about ditching again.”

 Katsuki sneers and kicks open the car door, turning to slams it shut with as much force as possible in retaliation. He stalks through the gates, shouldering his way through a group of loitering students.  They all scatter when they recognise him. In some ways, he prefers dealing with the anger and yelling of his mum than his father’s quiet disappointment. That doesn’t stop it from being annoying as hell.

A spike of pain runs through his hand from where he must have used a little too much force on the door. Maybe he should take his father up on those kickboxing classes. Sure, he had practised punching after reading a bunch of online guides, but reading and solo practice were completely different when compared with real actual fighting.  That was assuming he was going to be getting into more real fights.  He opens and closes his bandaged fist, feeling a slight sting in his wrist and fingers. He glares. Four days on and he can still feel the echo of adrenalin.  The thrill of righteous anger had been so much more satisfying than the directionless rage he was accustomed to. It had rekindled some of that fire that drove him to be the best, to win, chasing away the sickening emptiness which had been dogging his every waking step.

He wants to feel that again…He wants to do something other than listlessly go through the same daily motions as he drifts towards his now uncertain future. 

“Hey Bakugō!” 

He keeps walking, ignoring whatever loser classmates wanted to talk to him.

“HEY!”

A hand lands on his shoulder and Katsuki twitches, a hairs breath away from spinning and firing a blast point-blank into the pest’s face. Instead, he stops and deliberately turns to glower at the pathetic piece of trash behind him. Murata Taheiji from his homeroom is standing there, one hand on his hip, flanked by two other boys he doesn’t know the names of. Two more appear to stand in front of him, blocking his way. They are all puffed up like they think they’re hot shit. Katsuki scoffs. Are these failures really trying to bully him? HIM!? 

“How about you get the fuck out of my way and go find a first year to pick on. You know, someone more on your level.”

That gets him an irritated scowl that transforms into a patronising grin, “You were always such a stuck up prick Bakago…Acting so high and mighty all the time. Not anymore, I know the truth. You’re just like the rest of us.”

“Huh?” he drawls, dragging out the sound, turning so he is facing the boy, “What the fuck are you on about.”

“My dad works for Musutafu police dispatch and he told me something real interesting yesterday.” A dramatic pause, “He said that you got arrested a few nights ago.” There is a laugh that is echoed by the four surrounding him. By now the confrontation has garnered the attention of several onlookers, who are slowly drifting closer.

“All that shit about being a Hero and you got arrested. What’d you do? Steal some candy from a convenience store? We all know you don’t have money.”

Around them, the growing audience is eyeing him with varying levels of eager anticipation like they think he’ll break down and start crying because of some dumb-ass insults. Damn, if that doesn’t just piss him off. How dare these losers think him that weak.

“Don’t compare me to your loser selves,” he dismisses aggressively, making to turn and forcefully elbow his way past. He is stopped by Murata’s hand which is still on this shoulder.

“You know what I think. I think you’re all talk.”

Katsuki stills, letting the words sink and curdle in his stomach. In one short move, he turns and steps in close to Murata so they are almost nose to nose.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” he warns.  The other boy tenses, looking like he wants to say something else equally stupid. If he remembers correctly Murata has some sort of muscle-enhancer, reflex quirk. One of the only worthwhile quirks in the school.

Katsuki jerks his elbow up and around in a quick jab. It smacks into the loser’s face. Crack. Guess having fast reflexes didn’t make a difference when you never saw the blow coming.

There is a cry of surprised pain and shouts of alarm from the peanut gallery. The other boy falls back, tripping over his own feet. It is ridiculously simple to lift a leg and deliver a kick to the stomach, not even a strong kick, so his failed bully thuds onto the ground, tossing up a small puff of sand. Unlike the fight in the ally, there is no rush of excitement, no spike of anger or adrenaline. No exhilaration. He is just irritated and maybe a bit disappointed. That’s what he gets for expecting anything out of the pathetic losers that went Aldera Middle School. They were more annoying than anything else.  

Murata rolls around in the dirt, wheezing, trying to draw breath. He can almost imagine Deku running up to complain about his violent tendencies or sprout some shit about Hero’s needing to protect people like Murata didn’t ask for it when he decided to try his luck bullying someone obviously stronger than him.

The reminder of Deku sours his already shitty mood.

“Ah…you broke my nose. YOU BOKE IT…ah…it hurts. Do something!” The idiot calls to his equally idiotic friends as he tries to stop blood from pouring down his face.

Katsuki gazes coolly at the boy before directing his attention at the four other ‘bullies’ standing frozen around him.

“You extras got something else to add to that?” With Murata out of the game, the rest of the pathetic group shuffles about uncertainly.

“Ah…we’re good,” The tallest one says nervously, “Sorry about that Bakugō. No hard feelings right?”

He scoffs.

One of the boys moves forward to pull Murata upright, kneeling and pulling out a tissue to help stem the flow of blood. “Crap. I…I think Murata needs to go to the nurse. This looks serious.” There are a few more apprehensive glances in his direction like the other boys think he’ll insist on continuing the ‘fight’-ha! like this has been anything near a fight- until they are all bloody messes on the ground. Kaksuki rolls his eyes. As if he has the patience to deal with any more of these losers.

“Cowards,” he mutters, shoving past. The crowd of students who had gathered to watch the failed confrontation, scramble to get out of his way. A strong breeze rushes through the school’s courtyard, drawing attention to how quiet it has suddenly gotten. Barely audible whispers follow in his wake and he can feel many sets of eyes on his back, watching.

“He always did have a bad attitude.” They murmur.

“Guess he’s a real delinquent now.”

“…did you hear what Murata said. Do you think Bakugō actually got arrested?”

“That’s got to be fake right? Murata is full of hot air.”

“No way. I believe it. You don’t have to share a class with him, I’m telling you, Bakugō’s gone nuts.”

“Kind of scary when you think about it. With a quirk like that...”

He doesn’t know why they’re all so shocked. This isn’t the first fight he has gotten into on school grounds. Okay, so maybe he’d held off doing any real harm before now, well aware that U.A. would probably check his school record. It had never mattered to him because there was no point in beating up weaklings when he was obviously superior. Except for Deku…the only person he had ever really hurt, the only person he could get away with hurting without repercussions. And now he feels like extra shit. God, what a huge farce it had all been. Kaksuki clenches his fist and growls, wondering if it isn’t too late to ditch and go find somewhere secluded to blow off steam. Anything to escape this feeling of frustration.

 He doesn’t have time to make a proper decision because news of his ‘fight’ had obviously spread to the staffroom. One of the second year homeroom teachers comes barrelling out of the school’s front entrance, eyes immediately landing on him.

“What happened!” Their eyes move past him to the bloody Murata, “Go wait in the principles office. Now.”

Well, he didn’t want to deal with his annoying classmates anyway. He stalks away, the sounds of the teacher fussing over Murata growing fainter behind him. When he arrives, the principal’s office is empty and he flings himself down into one of the comfy couches, irritated. The bell for homeroom goes off and Kaksuki remains sprawled across the couch, arm across his face to block out the light and his view of the clock slowly ticking away.  

Just as he begins to contemplate leaving, Principle Fukuhara comes strolling into the room. 

“ Bakugō,” the man lets out an exasperated sigh, “Sit up please.”

Katsuki moves his arm to peek out and glare at the man, deliberately ignoring the instruction.

“I just finished talking to Ms Yuki and the school’s nurse.  You broke Murata Taheiji’s nose. I hope you realise how serious this situation is and that there will be major consequences. Aldera Middle School does not tolerate this sort of violence on its grounds.”

Silence. That was a fucking lie. Slowly, Katsuki pulls himself upright, meeting the man’s hard stare with his own. 

“Well, do you have anything to say for yourself and your disgraceful behaviour..”

Katsuki narrows his eyes, “The idiot was asking for it.”

Obviously, it's the wrong response going by how the skin tightens around the man’s eyes, “I see...I’m sorry you feel that way. Up until now, our school has been more than lenient. We have overlooked your shameful behaviour these last few weeks because we wanted to give you time to settle after going through such as tragic incident. However, I am afraid that this time you have gone too far. Your parents will be notified. You’ll see the school councillor. You will be staying back for after school detention. Since this is your first major incident we…”

“First?” He cuts the man off. He is sick of hearing the moron’s voice. “Hahaha and people say you don’t have a sense of humour.” He laughs an unpleasant laugh which increases in volume until he is almost shouting.

 “What sort of shit hole are you running? Three years I’ve been beating up the dumb idiots that come here and now you decide to care. Why is that huh? Is it because I’m no longer going to put this shitty place on the map and become a famous hero! HA!”

He lets his voice quieten, sneering “I’ll never be a hero so you’re shit out of luck.” Finally saying it out loud is like throwing a bucket of water over the embers of an already struggling fire. It hurts deep in his chest. The expression of shocked disbelief is almost worth it.

“Thanks for proving what a worthless profession it is,” he finishes with another hash laugh, rage simmering under his skin. When he tries to stand and leave a hand lands on his shoulder, pushing him back down.

The principal, who still looks somewhat stunned at his sudden outburst, orders, “Sit back down Bakugō! I am far from finished.”

Why do people always feel the need to grab him. He is so fucking sick of everyone pulling and tugging on him, trying to control him and hold him down. Katsuki turns slowly, that simmering rage pulsing, running down his limbs. Pop pop pop go his hands. He feels as explosive fire gathering in behind his eyes and in his shadowy stare. It is not the dramatic, adrenaline-induced anger he had felt when preparing for the ally fight. No, this is a dark burning rage, fuelled by his growing resentment.

“Touch me again,” he growls, low and intimidating, “and I’ll kill you.”

The principal snatches his hand back like he has just been burnt. A poignant silence follows in the wake of his threat.

“Suspension,” the man says, swallowing,  “You’re suspended. I’m calling your parents right now.” And is it just him or does he look genuinely worried? There is even a hint of fear in his wrinkled face. Katsuki takes vindictive joy in the achievement. Finally…finally the worthless morons are seeing him, truly seeing him and not whatever Bakugō -delusion they’d all cooked up in their heads.

[sexy-trash-can]

240 Words to Describe Someone’s Tone/Voice

Abrasive - showing little concern for the feelings of others; harsh

Absurd - wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate

Accusatory - suggesting someone has done something wrong, complaining

Acerbic - sharp and forthright

Acidic - harsh or critical

Admiring - approving; think highly of; respectful; praising

Aggressive - hostile; determined; forceful; argumentative

Aggrieved -  angry and sad because you think you have been unfairly treated

Airy -  giving an impression of being unconcerned or not serious

Ambivalent - having mixed feelings; uncertain; in a dilemma; undecided

Amused - pleasantly; entertain or divert in an enjoyable or cheerful manner

Angry - incensed or enraged; threatening or menacing

Animated - full of life or excitement; lively; spirited; impassioned; vibrant

Anxious -  typically with a feeling of unease

Apathetic - showing little interest; lacking concern; indifferent; unemotional

Apologetic - full of regret; repentant; remorseful; acknowledging failure

Appreciative - grateful; thankful; showing pleasure; enthusiastic

Ardent - enthusiastic; passionate

Arrogant - pompous; disdainful; overbearing; condescending; vain; scoffing

Assertive - self-confident; strong-willed; authoritative; insistent

Authoritative - commanding and self-confident

Awestruck - amazed, filled with wonder/awe; reverential

Barbed - deliberately hurtful

Barking - utter a command or question abruptly or aggressively

Belligerent - hostile; aggressive; combatant

Benevolent - sympathetic; tolerant; generous; caring; well meaning

Bitter - angry; acrimonious; antagonistic; spiteful; nasty

Blasé - unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before

Bleak - without hope or encouragement; depressing; dreary

Bombastic - high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated

Booming - loud, deep, and resonant

Bored - to tire or make weary by being dull, repetitious, or uninteresting

Brash - self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way

Braying - speak or laugh loudly and harshly

Breathy - producing or causing an audible sound of breathing, often related to physical exertion or strong feelings

Breezy - appearing relaxed, informal, and cheerily brisk

Brittle - lacking warmth, sensitivity, or compassion; aloof

Bubbly - full of cheerful high spirits

Burbling - speak in an unintelligible or silly way, typically at unnecessary length

Callous - cruel disregard; unfeeling; uncaring; indifferent; ruthless

Candid - truthful, straightforward; honest; unreserved

Caustic - making biting, corrosive comments; critical

Cautionary - gives warning; raises awareness; reminding

Celebratory - praising; pay tribute to; glorify; honour

Chatty - informal; lively; conversational; familiar

Cheery - happy and optimistic

Childish - silly and immature

Chirping - say something in a lively and cheerful way

Clipped - speech that is fast, that uses short sounds and few words, and that is often unfriendly or rude

Cloying - disgust or sicken (someone) with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment

Coarse - rude, crude, or vulgar

Colloquial - familiar; everyday language; informal; colloquial; casual

Comic - humorous; witty; entertaining; diverting

Compassionate - sympathetic; empathetic; warm-hearted; tolerant; kind

Complex - having many varying characteristics; complicated

Compliant - agree or obey rules; acquiescent; flexible; submissive

Concerned - worried; anxious; apprehensive

Conciliatory - intended to placate or pacify; appeasing

Condescending - stooping to the level of one’s inferiors; patronising

Confused - unable to think clearly; bewildered; vague

Contemptuous - showing contempt; scornful; insolent; mocking

Crisp - briskly decisive and matter-of-fact, without hesitation or unnecessary detail

Critical - finding fault; disapproving; scathing; criticizing

Croaking - a characteristic deep hoarse sound

Cruel - causing pain and suffering; unkind; spiteful; severe

Curious - wanting to find out more; inquisitive; questioning

Curt - rudely brief

Cynical - scornful of motives/virtues of others; mocking; sneering

Defensive - defending a position; shielding; guarding; watchful

Defiant - obstinate; argumentative; defiant; contentious

Demeaning - disrespectful; undignified

Depressing - sad, melancholic; discouraging; pessimistic

Derisive - snide; sarcastic; mocking; dismissive; scornful

Detached - aloof; objective; unfeeling; distant

Dignified - serious; respectful; formal; proper

Diplomatic - tactful; subtle; sensitive; thoughtful

Disapproving - displeased; critical; condemnatory

Disheartening - discouraging; demoralising; undermining; depressing

Disparaging - dismissive; critical; scornful

Direct - straightforward; honest

Disappointed - discouraged; unhappy because something has gone wrong

Discordant - harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony

Dispassionate - impartial; indifferent; unsentimental; cold; unsympathetic

Dispirited - having lost enthusiasm and hope; disheartened

Distressing - heart-breaking; sad; troubling

Docile - compliant; submissive; deferential; accommodating

Drawling - speak in a slow, lazy way with prolonged vowel sounds

Dulcet - sweet and soothing

Dull - lacking interest or excitement

Earnest - showing deep sincerity or feeling; serious

Egotistical - self-absorbed; selfish; conceited; boastful

Empathetic - understanding; kind; sensitive

Encouraging - optimistic; supportive

Enthusiastic - excited; energetic

Evasive - ambiguous; cryptic; unclear

Excited - emotionally aroused; stirred

Facetious - inappropriate; flippant

Farcical - ludicrous; absurd; mocking; humorous and highly improbable

Feathery - extremely light and soft or delicate

Flippant - superficial; glib; shallow; thoughtless; frivolous

Forceful - powerful; energetic; confident; assertive

Formal - respectful; stilted; factual; following accepted styles/rules

Frank - honest; direct; plain; matter-of-fact

Fretful - expressing distress or irritation

Frustrated - annoyed; discouraged

Gentle - kind; considerate; mild; soft

Ghoulish - delighting in the revolting or the loathsome

Glum - dejected; morose

Goofy - foolish; harmlessly eccentric

Grating - harsh and unpleasant

Gravelly - deep and rough-sounding

Grim - serious; gloomy; depressing; lacking humour;macabre

Growling - low grating voice, typically in a threatening manner

Gruff - rough and low in pitch

Gullible - naive; innocent; ignorant

Guttural - produced in the throat; harsh-sounding

Hard - unfeeling; hard-hearted; unyielding

Harsh - cruel or severe

Hearty - loudly vigorous and cheerful

Hoarse - sounding rough and harsh, typically as the result of a sore throat or of shouting

Honeyed - soothing, soft, and intended to please or flatter

Humble - deferential; modest

Humorous - amusing; entertaining; playful

Husky - sounding low-pitched and slightly hoarse

Hypercritical - unreasonably critical; hair splitting; nitpicking

Impartial - unbiased; neutral; objective

Impassioned - filled with emotion; ardent

Imploring - pleading; begging

Impressionable - trusting; child-like

Inane - silly; foolish; stupid; nonsensical

Incensed - enraged

Incredulous - disbelieving; unconvinced; questioning; suspicious

Indifferent - having no particular interest or sympathy; unconcerned

Indignant - annoyed; angry; dissatisfied

Informative - instructive; factual; educational

Insinuating - suggest or hint in an indirect and unpleasant way

Inspirational - encouraging; reassuring

Intense - earnest; passionate; concentrated; deeply felt

Intimate - familiar; informal; confidential; confessional

Ironic - the opposite of what is meant

Irreverent - lacking respect for things that are generally taken seriously

Jaded - bored; having had too much of the same thing; lack enthusiasm

Joyful - positive; optimistic; cheerful; elated

Jubilant - expressing great happiness and triumph

Judgmental - critical; finding fault; disparaging

Laudatory - praising; recommending

Lifeless - lacking vigor, vitality, or excitement

Light-Hearted - carefree; relaxed; chatty; humorous

Lively - full of life and energy; active and outgoing

Loving - affectionate; showing intense, deep concern

Macabre - gruesome; horrifying; frightening

Malicious - desiring to harm others or to see others suffer; ill-willed; spiteful

Matter-of-fact - unemotional and practical

Mean-Spirited - inconsiderate; unsympathetic

Mellifluous - sweet or musical; pleasant to hear

Melodious - pleasant-sounding

Mocking - scornful; ridiculing; making fun of someone

Monotonous - lacking in variation in tone or pitch

Mourning - grieving; lamenting; woeful

Muffled - not loud because of being obstructed in some way; muted

Naive - innocent; unsophisticated; immature

Narcissistic - self-admiring; selfish; boastful; self-pitying

Nasty - unpleasant; unkind; disagreeable; abusive

Negative - unhappy, pessimistic

Nonchalant - casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm

Nostalgic - thinking about the past; wishing for something from the past

Objective - without prejudice; without discrimination; fair; based on fact

Obsequious - overly obedient and/or submissive; fawning; grovelling

Oily - unpleasantly smooth and ingratiating

Optimistic - hopeful; cheerful

Outraged - angered and resentful; furious; extremely angered

Outspoken - frank; candid; spoken without reserv

Pathetic - expressing pity, sympathy, tenderness

Patronizing - condescending; scornful; pompous

Pensive - reflective; introspective; philosophical; contemplative

Persuasive - convincing; eloquent; influential; plausible

Pessimistic - seeing the negative side of things

Philosophical - theoretical; analytical; rational; logical

Piping - high-pitched.

Playful - full of fun and good spirits; humorous; jesting

Pragmatic - realistic; sensible

Pretentious - affected; artificial; grandiose; rhetorical; flashy

Quavering - shake or tremble in speaking, typically through nervousness or emotion

Querulous - complaining in a petulant or whining manner

Rasping - harsh-sounding and unpleasant; grating

Reedy - high and thin in tone

Refined -  elegant; cultured

Regretful - apologetic; remorseful

Resentful - aggrieved; offended; displeased; bitter

Resigned - accepting; unhappy

Restrained - controlled; quiet; unemotional

Reverent - showing deep respect and esteem

Righteous - morally right and just; guiltless; pious; god-fearing

Robust - strong and healthy; vigorous

Saccharine - excessively sweet or sentimental

Satirical - making fun to show a weakness; ridiculing; derisive

Sarcastic - scornful; mocking; ridiculing

Scathing - critical; stinging; unsparing; harsh

Scornful - expressing contempt or derision; scathing; dismissive

Scratchy - rough; grating

Sensationalist - provocative; inaccurate; distasteful

Sentimental - thinking about feelings, especially when remembering the past

Shrill - high-pitched and piercing

Silvery - gentle, clear, and melodious

Sincere - honest; truthful; earnest

Skeptical - disbelieving; unconvinced; doubting

Smarmy -  excessively or unctuously flattering; ingratiating; servile

Smoky - a raspy, coarse and tone of quality that is deeper than usual

Snide - derogatory or mocking in an indirect way

Solemn - not funny; in earnest; serious

Somber - oppressively solemn or sober in mood; grave

Sonorous - imposingly deep and full

Sour - resentment, disappointment, or anger

Steely - coldly determined; hard

Strident - loud and harsh; grating

Stony - not having or showing feeling or sympathy

Suave - charming, confident, and elegant

Subjective - prejudiced; biased

Submissive - compliant; passive; accommodating; obedient

Sulking - bad-tempered; grumpy; resentful; sullen

Surly - bad-tempered and unfriendly

Sympathetic - compassionate; understanding of how someone feels

Thoughtful - reflective; serious; absorbed

Throaty - deep and rasping

Tolerant - open-minded; charitable; patient; sympathetic; lenient

Tragic - disastrous; calamitous

Tremulous - shaking or quivering slightly

Unassuming - modest; self-effacing; restrained

Unctuous - excessive piousness or moralistic fervor, especially in an affected manner; excessively smooth, suave, or smug

Uneasy - worried; uncomfortable; edgy; nervous

Urgent - insistent; saying something must be done soon

Velvety - soft; smooth

Vindictive - vengeful; spiteful; bitter; unforgiving

Virtuous - lawful; righteous; moral; upstanding

Whimsical - quaint; playful; mischievous; offbeat

Witty - clever; quick-witted; entertaining

Wonder - awe-struck; admiring; fascinating

World-Weary - bored; cynical; tired

Worried - anxious; stressed; fearful

Wretched - miserable; despairing; sorrowful; distressed

[thessalian]

Thess vs Exploitation

Seeing a post that I don’t want to hijack because it does make a good point, but I do want to add to it because it’s both a good point and a terribly oversimplistic one.

Basically, the message is, “The world as it is? The mess that capitalism’s become? It’s all our fault”. Because ... well, the example given was a cheap T-shirt. A bargain that “no one can resist”. One that we buy “Not for best, no, but it’s good enough”. One that earns the shopkeeper like five cents and the sweatshop worker who made it a penny at most. But we keep buying it.

Yeah, for some people, this is a true thing. For others? Here’s the thinking about that $1 T-shirt.

“Okay. Here’s a T-shirt that costs $1. I know that this was made by underpaid, overworked, abused people and earns some corporation more than it does anyone who actually did the work. ...But the thing is? I need a T-shirt, because all the other cheap ones I had to buy in the same circumstances have holes in them. And if I buy this T-shirt instead of making do with the ones with holes in until I can afford a better one, I get a healthier and more varied diet this month instead of subsisting on ramen again.”

The corporations that benefit from the state the world is in? They make damn sure that their exploitative model stays a self-perpetuating cycle. We don’t get paid enough, so we have to settle for cheap crap that is made by abusing people who get paid even less, and those people? They’re generally waved in our faces about how lucky we are to be paid a pittance and the threat is that our job could go to someone who’d be happy to settle for less, so we stick with it because a pittance is hard to survive on but easier to survive on than nothing, so we don’t get paid enough. And on and on ad infinitum.

We do need to accept that we are fuelling this self-perpetuating cycle of abuse and corporate exploitation. Thing is, there’s a difference between acceptance and blame. Blame suggests that we could do better if we wanted to badly enough. That we lack moral fibre. That we’re greedy and lazy and credulous. That we’re bad.

No. No, we’re not bad. The odds are stacked against us. Even those of us who desperately want to do right and do try to aren’t actually helping, because the corporations have arranged it that way. That more expensive t-shirt? Still sweatshop labour. Often the same ones that made the $1 T-shirt. Just they paid someone else a pittance to put a nice design on it. Maybe it lasts longer, but that’s because people treat it better because it’s more expensive.

Some of us - most of us - have to choose between the most ethical option or the one that actually provides for our needs. That is not our fault. It’s not our fault that we have to choose between patronising places that seem to treat their workers more ethically (but probably don’t) and going without, or patronising places that we know exploit their workforce and having enough to live. Not just ‘survive’ - live. I get that we want to be better people, but when you’re in a crashing plane, you put your own oxygen mask on first before you start helping others with theirs.

There is no ethical consumption under late stage capitalism. This isn’t something that people can fix with a change of spending habits. Given the sheer number of other interests any single corporation has, all they’d do even if a mass boycott got big enough to lose them even a tiny bit of money is to keep it as a tax write-off. This kind of shit has to happen at an international, corporate level. It’s going to take international standards on employee welfare, pay, food safety, goods quality, everything. This cannot be solved by one person, or one generation, denying themselves ... especially not when it comes to goods that are required for survival, like food and clothing.

And honestly, is this really the time to give people grief about buying as cheaply as possible? In the middle of a pandemic? With unemployment at a record high? When lockdown gets essential workers bullied about coming in despite government advice, giving them a choice between staying home (losing them shifts and possibly getting fired) or coming in despite government advice (risking them getting sick and at best not being able to stay home even when they test positive so spreading more disease, and at worse ending up in the hospital with no health insurance or, worst of all, dead)?

I know that this situation is tailor-made for exploitation by corporations. There is literally nothing we can do about that. Just for right now, maybe chill on the “BUY ETHICAL OR DON’T BUY AT ALL”. You can’t buy ethical anyway - it is literally impossible the way capitalism has been set up - so forget it. Maybe it would have been possible when this trend started way back when, but I can tell you from having watched through the eighties on up that that ship has sailed.

I don’t know of a polite way to say this, but it has to be said: video games are made in very exploitative environments. The CEOs are jackasses who do mass layoffs when they want to line their pockets, and force their underpaid staff to work in some cases up to 100 hour work weeks during crunch periods that last for months. These are non-essential items, and we buy them. Maybe when reblogging that post about how it’s all our fault that capitalism is how it is (when it isn’t; we’d have to go back a few decades to get to a point where we could have stopped this) where they cite essential items like clothing? Maybe consider reblogging a different post about non-essential items instead, or adding a note about the difference, or even just not reblogging it because it’s drastically unfair. Honestly, I’m not even blaming anyone for buying video games at this point; mental health is as important as physical health, and sometimes a good distraction and a bit of retail therapy helps. Plus all denying yourself all things that make you happy does is trigger or deepen depression and depth-charge one’s sense of self-worth Just ... I guess it’s kind of a combination of “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and “before removing the mote from my eye, attend the beam in thine own”. I get wanting to save the world from the capitalist nightmare it’s become. I want the same. I’m just realistic on how we do it. It’s not about boycotts; we’re well past that. It won’t help. All we’ll do by blaming people is cause more mental health issues in people than they already have, at a time when we need fewer, not more.

Just ... be kind to people, rather than even indirectly judgmental. You don’t know what they’re going through, and their reasons for doing things. Don’t shunt blame from the corporations onto the people. It was wrong when it was done regarding the environment, and it’s wrong now. We win through votes and lobbying our politicians, not through boycotts and bullying those who won’t or can’t do the same.

Incidentally, this message is brought to you by the country that literally wants to strip down employee protections about the maximum-48-hour work week and paid leave and any accountability about employee hours (even as they say that the proposals leaked in the Financial Times are lies, somehow), so I have a feeling I’m going to be finding out a lot about employee exploitation in the next couple of years.

[thewreckkelly]

I never got the appeal and apparent influential nature of Oprah Winfrey as a serious commentator on any consequential subject that requires an actual depth of learning and expertise. I do understand the concept of asinine entertainment along with its marketing practices and am often impressed when copious amounts of money are spent on unseen highly professional artisans and their often successful endeavours to conceal a lack of substance within the shiny.

I’m not singling out Oprah but merely highlighting her as the most successful example of; ‘Lights Action, Patronising Pandering’ that constitutes what has become a sea of whatever is between diabolical and diabolical mediocrity in the world of that phrase; ‘Celebrity Influencers’.

(Again this is not an exclusive on Oprah - She is obviously a bright woman and her performance in ‘The Colour Purple’ proves an acting talent of proportion.)

However the balancing act of entertaining and informing in an effort to appeal to all and sundry must surely include a high degree of compromise in content and satisfaction which is something that is no doubt possible but not easy – like fornicating with a flying frog I suppose.

An inherent safety valve in our species survival is the exercising of the instinct of curiosity with varying degrees of caution. At our most simple we do not stick our fingers in the fire while levels of complexity include a consideration of how and why light bends – if indeed it does.

Like most people I like to;

·         Laugh

·         Lose myself for a time in the ridiculous, simple and macabre

·         Be gentle yet firm with well meaning idiots who actually believe the ill-considered rubbish they are spewing

·         Be angry and frustrated with charlatans who actually do not believe the rubbish they are spewing

·         Embrace and accept the difference of individuality

·         Cope with and shroud my own obvious shortcomings

·         Accept that taste is ..... well ..... a matter of taste

Lazy stupidity and / or an apathetic approach to curiosity - for truth and better understanding regarding bald populist statements - are a whole different Kettle of Pisces though.

Oprah and her trailing imitators are what they are and - when they make the big bucks - fair play to them is what I say. Other than that there’s little or no reason to elevate their public persona beyond the glossy and surface – watch for an hour / forget in a minute - unless of course something is said or done that goes beyond the mindlessness of pulp magazine entertainment.

[letterboxd]

Human Resources.

Kitty Green talks to our London correspondent Ella Kemp about “putting the audience in the shoes of the youngest woman in a toxic work environment” in her new film, The Assistant.

The long-undervalued job of a Hollywood assistant has come into stark relief thanks to recent events, and the stories that are being told of assistants’ experiences, working conditions and pay rates are jaw-dropping. (Episode 422 of the Scriptnotes podcast is well worth a listen.)

Filmmaker Kitty Green was well ahead of the conversation; her first narrative feature, The Assistant, quietly premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last August (and the Berlinale in February). Dubbed by many as ‘the first post-#MeToo movie’, it is a remarkable portrait of a young woman navigating just another day in the office. Except this is not just another office, and so many things are wrong about this day.

Starring Julia Garner (Grandma, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Electrick Children) as Jane, the assistant to the predatory head of a New York-based film studio, the story zooms in on the details of her routine—the tedious tasks, the belittlement from her colleagues, the oppression from her mostly faceless boss—with such laser-sharp vision that by the end we feel we know Jane deep in our bones.

Green has previously directed the documentary features Ukraine is Not a Brothel (2013) and Casting JonBenét (2017), the latter a meta-documentary that also hones in on the neglect and exploitation of young women, albeit under a different light (it is now streaming on Netflix). While Green’s documentary experience bears fruit in her attention to detail, the narrative form of The Assistant allows for a focus on mundane tasks and micro-reactions that documentary might not have access to.

Various Letterboxd reviews mention the anxiety-inducing way The Assistant allows us to watch Jane “probe her place in the established, tacit system of complacency… knowing that everyone around her is motivated by self-interest to pretend it doesn’t exist” (Josh Lewis). “Green encourages her viewers to pay close attention to what’s really going on beneath the surface,” (KristineJean) in “a horror movie of soul-sickening ambience” (Scott Tobias).

Though The Assistant’s film festival run was cut short, and the closure of cinemas around the world hurts for a lot of us, there’s something about the claustrophobia of social distancing and the intimacy of the small screen that maybe suits this picture. Nevertheless, seeing the film in a cinema in ‘the before time’ highlighted for Alyssa Heflin the ocean of different opinions that can come from misunderstood subtext: “Watching this in a room where you can hear people snickering at the girl and asking what the point of all this is adds a certain extra… incendiary level to an already deeply angry viewing experience.” Indeed, discomfort and crossed wires seem to define the messages at the core of The Assistant.

Kitty Green talks to Ella Kemp about the influence of Chantal Akerman, the infinite watchability of Julia Garner, and the oddness of growing up with a Nazi-free edit of The Sound of Music.

Jane (Julia Garner) takes another call from the boss in ‘The Assistant’.

The Assistant is your first fiction feature. The subject matter feels so immediate—what made you choose to not make a documentary of this, given your track record in that realm? Kitty Green: I went to fiction film school, and I made fiction short films. I then found work in documentary, so I made two feature-length docs. With this one, I was looking at exploring the micro-aggressions, the tiny moments, gestures, looks, glances, behaviors that often go overlooked when covering the #MeToo movement. We often talk about the bad men and the misconduct, but this is more about a cultural, structural problem. So I was hoping to amplify the more quietly insidious behavior that we need to address if we really want things to improve. A fiction film allowed me to hone in on details—close up—and the way you can take an annoyance through the emotional experience, putting the audience in the shoes of the youngest woman in a toxic work environment.

How did you decide to keep the timeframe to just one day in Jane’s life rather than fleshing it out over a longer period? The lead character is in such a complicated position. It’s such a difficult set of circumstances, the machinery that this predator has created around himself. I wanted to untick that, to discuss how difficult it is to be a young woman in that environment. So the day, the routine, was really important. What she was experiencing, how she was experiencing it; every task she did I gave equal weight to. Whether she was photocopying, binding something suspicious, you experience it as you would if you were in her shoes. That was important to me.

I had my fists clenched the whole time, when she’d be eating cereal, or washing up mugs, waiting for something awful to happen. Totally. It’s exploring misconduct, but it’s also looking at a whole spectrum, from gendered work environments, toxic work environments, through all these environments that support predatory behavior. I was interested in what the entry points are, without conflating those issues and being able to explore all the cultural systemic things we need to unpick to move forward.

The film is so focused on Jane, played by Julia Garner. How did you choose her? The script is pretty bare when it describes who she is, she’s just Jane. I didn’t have anyone in mind, really. I told my casting agent that we’re watching this character do the most mundane tasks, so it was important that she was striking. I said I needed someone infinitely watchable. I had seen Julia in The Americans and I remembered being struck by her, so I immediately wanted to meet her. She really understood the script, it worked out beautifully. We got to create the character together, we had a month of rehearsals where we really went through where she was emotionally at any given point, and Julia is wonderful so it was great.

Matthew Macfadyen and Kitty Green discuss a scene in ‘The Assistant’. / Photo: Ty Johnson

And Matthew Macfadyen—his character feels so crucial and his performance so pivotal, even in just one scene. What were you looking for when casting him? I’ve been a fan of his for forever, but I hadn’t seen Succession. Apparently the character has some similarities? I’ve only watched Succession in the past week… Somebody had to send me a clip to prove he could do an American accent! Matthew really brought something to that character and took it to another level. It’s so insidious what he does. He and Julia worked so beautifully together, it just got better and better every time.

How did you feel watching Succession now and seeing Matthew as Tom Wambsgans? Tom still feels different somehow. But I’ve had a good time watching it, he’s so great. There are parallels for sure!

The language you use in the film is so careful, so much is in the subtext. How do you build tension from these empty spaces? We had a great visual team who were lighting it in an interesting way. There was a lot of oppressive fluorescent lights. The sound was also very important—we had an amazing sound designer, Leslie Schatz, who does a lot of Todd Haynes’ stuff and Gus Van Sant’s. He’d done Elephant, which I thought was phenomenally sound designed. He sent out a team to record every kind of buzz, hum, whir, and we created a lot of tension in that soundscape. It heightens these moments when you can really feel the hum of the fluorescent lights or the alarm of the copier. Things like that are authentic to the world, so it doesn’t feel like you’re manipulating an audience, but they do add a dramatic tension.

During The Assistant’s various film festival screenings so far, audience reactions have been quite varied. Some people find it uncomfortable, some have found it funny. What would you hope an audience member would take from it? Who found it funny…? That’s a strange reaction, and a little terrifying. I think it makes some men uncomfortable and maybe their reaction is to laugh as a way to hide that discomfort. I get a lot of men come up to me afterwards and say, “There are things in that film that maybe I have done.” Those conversations are really important. There’s a scene where the men lean over Jane’s chair and correct her email, little things like that which can be quite patronising even if a lot of men think are helpful. But there’s a point where they cross a line, where maybe it isn’t helpful anymore and it’s a little insulting. I’ve had a few people who are bosses with their own assistants who have watched the film and have said they’re going to treat them a little better, and that maybe they’re wrestling with their own guilt. I think those conversations are great.

Julia Garner prepares for a take on the set of ‘The Assistant’. / Photo: Ty Johnson

What is your favorite one-woman-show performance, where one female actor entirely carries the film? A big influence on The Assistant was Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. It’s just one woman going about her housework. I remember seeing that in film school and being bowled over by it, I’d never seen anything like it.

Do you have a favorite scene that has ever taken place in an office environment? Offices… I mean, I love The Office? I watched it in preparation for this, even though there’s seemingly nothing in common except for the ways of the photocopier…

It’s important to inhale that kind of comedy while working on something more intense, right? For sure, that helps.

What is your favorite on-screen argument? I watched a lot of them to prepare for the HR scene, as it’s a confrontation between two characters. There’s a scene in Steve McQueen’s Hunger, which is a seventeen-minute dialogue. It’s an incredible scene. It’s not an argument but still some sort of confrontation. I was interested in scenes like that which are really long and stand out from the rest of the movie. James Schamus, one of my producers, made a film called Indignation, which has a confrontation between two characters, which also influenced the structure of what I was doing. I also just watched the latest episode of Better Call Saul in which there’s a sixteen-minute confrontation, which I thought was pretty remarkable.

What was the first film that made you want to be a filmmaker? To be honest I’m not sure. I got a video camera when I was eleven, and I started playing with it in our backyard, making little movies. It wasn’t that I saw a film and tried to replicate it necessarily. But I do have a strange story…

I had a copy of The Sound of Music in which my father had edited out the Nazis, because he was worried I’d be scared of them as a kid. So I have this strange 40-minute version of the film that ends at the wedding scene… And I always thought that was The Sound of Music, and then in high school I figured out there’s this whole other storyline I never knew existed. I guess that taught me the power of editing! I had to go back and rewatch what I’d seen, and it definitely made me think of the craft more as a viewer.

‘The Assistant’ is available to watch on VOD platforms (including Hulu) as of late July.

[marvellous-fangirl]

Laughter

Ava Starr is welcomed into the compound and you can’t help but notice how miserable she is - so you make it your mission to make her laugh

Oneshot

Word Count: 1,303

Pairings: Ava x Reader, Mentor!Scott x Ava

Warnings: Fluffy

A/N: I tried. Literally why does the opening sound like an angsty emo 12 year old writing a fanfic lmaoooo

She was broken. So broken that it made your heart hurt to see her. You would do anything just to see her smile, so you made it your mission.

The day that Ava Starr came to the compound, you had been out on a mission with some of the others. When you returned in the middle of the night, Ava had been sitting on the sofa with Scott and a lightly snoring Hope. Scott rose to his feet when he saw you enter and Ava turned in her seat, face hiding behind her hair, avoiding eye contact with all of you. Scott introduced her to all of you as Ava Starr. He did not explain what she had gone through but anyone who looked at her unkempt hair and dirty clothes could see she’d been through a lot. 

Those with injuries made their way to the medical bay, but you decided your bruises and scrapes were less important than welcoming Ava to the compound. “So Ava,” You began, clutching at straws. “Do you know your way around yet?” You asked, pulling your multiple guns and knives out of your suit and unloading those that required it. Ava eyed your weapons nervously before murmuring a not yet quietly. You unbuckled the gear on your torso and tugged it off, revealing a plain t-shirt beneath it. You wrapped your various tools in it and hugged it to your chest. “Uh do you want a tour?” Ava looked at Scott for advice, who smiled reassuringly. “Alright then.” She mumbled, still quiet and avoiding eye contact. Ava rose to her feet, looking at her hands and followed you out of the room. “Jarvis is the spare room ready?” You asked thin air. “The spare room is prepared and currently available to house a guest Y/N.” A disembodied voice responded, causing Ava to jump and squeal slightly. “That’s Jarvis.” You told her kindly, trying not to patronise her. Ava nodded, no sign of positivity on her face. “Uh right so this is your room.” You said, pushing open the door and letting her walk inside before you. Ava stood still, clearly not wanting to enter the room first. You withheld a sigh and stepped through. “Um the en suite is just through that door on the left. If you need me for anything then I’m just two doors down on the left.” You smiled slightly before starting to move out of the room. “Thank you.” Ava said quietly, the smallest hint of a smile on her face. You turned back and grinned, glad to see that progress was being made, before stepping out the door and softly closing it behind you. 

You emerged downstairs, having had a shower and having changed into some clean clothes, insomnia getting the best of you once again. You padded over to the fridge in your fluffy socks and began to rummage for something to eat, not hearing Ava creep up behind you. “Could I have something to eat?” She whispered. You let out a yelp as you jumped and hit your head on the fridge as you emerged too quickly. You looked around rubbing your head, about to verbally abuse whoever had just crept up behind you, but you held your tongue when you saw Ava, still not having washed and looking rather bedraggled. Ava giggled, the first sign of her humanity and you attempted to suppress her grin. “Sure!” You whispered in response, pulling out a couple of yoghurts. You closed the door and handed Ava the yoghurt and a spoon you had dug out of a drawer. The pair of you made your way over to the sofa, both gradually feeling more comfortable with each other. “Can’t sleep?” You whispered. “I find it hard to.” Replied the ghost of a girl. “What about you?” Ava asked, after eating a spoonful of the cool dairy. “Insomnia.” You replied with a half smile. It didn’t really deserve a full one. “I like it here.” Ava murmured after a few minutes of silence. “I’m glad.” You replied, once again trying to hide your joy. “I’m glad you’re starting to feel comfortable here.” You grinned. Ava chuckled. “Do you know how long you’re going to be staying here?” Ava looked at her hands. “No.” She responded bluntly. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.” You caught her eye and smiled. “You can stay here as long as you want.” Ava smiled, fully this time and your heart grew warm at the sight of it. 

Over time, Ava adjusted to life at the compound, gradually sliding out of her shell and charisma levels rising. She had no proper belongings and seemed to wear the same clothes constantly, rarely washing them, so you jumped out of bed one day, deciding to take her shopping. You frantically knocked on Ava’s door, fully dressed with a coffee in one hand and your wallet in the other. A considerable time since you had began knocking, Ava opened the door, hunched over and yawning. She was about to grumble when she saw you, and half laughed as she smiled. Before Ava could say anything you rushed:  “Get dressed, I’m taking you shopping.” Before stumbling hurriedly down to the kitchen, leaving Ava to roll her eyes with no audience. 

The pair of you had a wonderful time at the mall, you found Ava all kinds of clothes, and made her feel like a superstar, spoiling her beyond belief. When Ava showed the smallest interest in makeup and how she didn’t have any nice products, you had started piling any lipsticks or palette that Ava pointed to into your arms and payed for them straight away without consent and not caring about the price. You walked back to the compound, enjoying the company and not minding the weight of the two dozen heavy shopping bags as you laughed your way home, snacking on donuts and sipping hot drinks. “Thank you so much Y/N.” Ava smiled, after the smallest period of silence. “It’s my pleasure Ava.” You grinned, stuffing your mouth with another donut, causing Ava to laugh again. 

You helped Ava organise all of her clothes into her wardrobe, now overflowing with new items and her drawers filled to the brim with new products and trinkets. Afterwards you and Ava flopped onto the sofa to watch some TV, snuggling into each other absent-mindedly. Scott entered the room quietly, grinning at the sight of the you.  “I’m glad to see you two are getting along.” You hushed him in unison as seconds later they clapped to the ‘Friends’ theme tune, laughing immediately afterwards. Scott chuckled before adding “I see you have some new clothes Ava.” She smiled and nodded. “Y/N took me shopping this morning.” You grinned, resting your head on Ava’s as Scott left the room and you continued to binge your favourite show. 

Ava came home one night, having gone out with a few of her friends that weren’t in the compound and saw you grinning like an idiot when she came in. Ava raised an eyebrow. You laughed and pulled her over to the sofa, where there was a stack of DVDs and several pizza boxes of varying sizes. The sofa was adorned with cushions and blankets and Ava smiled when she saw how much effort you had put into it. You were wearing sweats and Ava quickly rushed upstairs to change into more comfortable clothes. 

When Ava came back down, you were holding out some flowers for her. Ava grinned and took them, placing them on a countertop.  “Is this a date?” She asked quietly. You shrugged. Ava kissed you very gently and you froze, completely shocked by the action. Then you regained the ability to move and grinned once again, before settling down on the sofa with her.

[tyrannuspitch]

pre-t1 loki fucking haunts me but like especially the way people patronise him and he clearly expects to be patronised... like asgardians as a collective are all so quick to distrust him but there's clearly also this undercurrent of "loki is harmless, loki is helpless, loki is soft and weak and can't fight back" and. like... they've been taking comfort in his powerlessness. if he has power that's scary and wrong. but the loki they KNOW does NOT. the loki thor knows and misses and loved for so long was someone he saw as not just inherently subordinate but like. WEAK. never truly an adult. and it's also super gendered. loki is seen as "soft", childish, effeminate, and perhaps, at times, hysterical.

and then for thor we have this weird complicated mess where it's like. well on one hand he wants to be like... urgh loki man up you can't keep acting like this. you're a prince you need to act like one. because he knows that this is a stigmatised, shameful state and he wants better than that for loki.

but on the other hand, it's very convenient to thor for loki to be Lesser than him. and it makes him easier to keep in line, which thor sees as protective in itself. so loki being "soft" is acceptable as long as thor is there to compensate. because the danger and the protection go hand in hand.

and there's also violence involved in keeping loki "in his place". this is true of the power dynamics in general, but again, they're also super gendered - the body language in the throne room scene with sif and the warriors three, the way loki deliberately varies the pitch of his voice... people are threatened by the idea of loki being powerful, and loki being powerful is to a certain extent synonymous with loki being masculine to these characters. (including to loki.)

AND. loki acting more masculine directly coincides with him Turning Evil. so obviously thor will be nostalgic for the older, "softer" loki... even though on some level he must think he shouldn't want loki to be that way. but both states are deeply stigmatised.

and then there's ALSO the idea that queerness is unnatural, but queerness = weakness = lowliness, and lowliness is loki's natural state... there's literally no winning. whatever loki is, asgardian society will always claim he's meant to be something else, so they can always punish him for it.

like i kind of want to frame it as, oh, no-one would ever have suspected loki before he actually became a villain. he could be quiet/stiff, but for the most part he was seen as gentle, soft, and vulnerable. which would already be A Lot. but. the thing is. he was kind of seen that way. but - besides thor - they would still suspect him. he got the worst of presumed innocence (powerlessness) AND the worst of presumed guilt (shunning) at the same time.

he was always seen as small and weak and harmless, and he was always seen as a dangerous monster. and no-one cared that that doesn't make sense.

[mymelancholiesblues]

Could you do a headcanons one for Ada?

[I posted this earlier, but tumblr wasn’t showing it in the tags search, so I asked for a friend to send in the anonymous question to see if the tracking would work and well, it did. Go figure this fuckin’ site].

So, similarly to what I did with my Leon’s family and background headcanons, I’ll post here my Ada ones too. I’d like to repeat to please keep in mind that these are (obviously) my headcanons for Ada’s background and family and in no way is anyone else under the obligation to accept nor fully agree with them.

I’m glad that Capcom still hasn’t tackled Ada’s personal plot and character background, deciding instead to keep the mystery surrounding her character – and only opening very tiny holes for us to speculate.

My headcanons for Ada are very precious to me since I think that these would be the best way to further add complexity to her character and break down her purposes in the lore while also adding more layers to her relationship with Leon – and the rest of the main characters we saw her interacting with –, as the divisive line that separates Ada to the rest of them would transcend “work motives” and fall into conflicting worldviews, cultural convictions and ideology. I love to think that “as much as I wanted to trust you… I didn’t” line also applies to Ada, considering that her difficulties to trust in people would hold her back from ever explaining what she really believes in and is working towards to Leon, thinking that the prejudices his country always encouraged on the matter wouldn’t allow him to understand or even try to. We, as audience, know that the bond they share goes beyond that and would allow them to overcome these differences, but these characters aren’t aware of it.

Anyway:

– All she knows about her biological family is that her parents were political dissidents who left her behind when she was still a baby to flee China’s Cultural Revolution (let’s remember she was born in 1974);

– Lived in a very impoverished orphanage located in China–Vietnam border area that just barely had the resources to maintain the kids they sheltered. In light of that, she had to learn how to steal at an early age (six years old) so she wouldn’t starve to death;

– One day she tried to steal this Vietnamese man’s wallet, but he noticed what she was doing and of course caught up with her when she tried to escape;

– Realising she was just a hungry kid, he ended up paying something for her to eat, talked to her for a while and told her that if she ever felt hungry like that again she could find him at that plaza by noon. From that day on she would go back every day to that spot and hope to see him again;

– Despite life at the orphanage cultivating her to be a very wary and circumspect kid, she was still a small child, so it wasn’t particularly hard to gain her trust, which the man rapidly did so: talking to her every day and paying for something for her to eat;

– They talked about food, people, work, money… He spoke to her in a kind, friendly and comprehensible way, never in a patronising tone nor meaning to talk down to her just because she was a child;

– She started “working” at like… eight, carrying stuff around or fetching things people asked her to for the sufficient amount of money so she could have something to eat;

– Noticing that the man who helped her would occasionally disappear for an uncertain amount of time before reappearing as if nothing ever happened, she started asking questions. He would always respond to her in a straightforward tone, telling her that he was “working to help their people”;

– At thirteen, more inquiring than ever, she proposed helping him “to help their people” so she could pay back what he did for her;

– This Vietnamese along with two other men (a Chinese and, later, a Russian) were founders of an independent orthodox Marxist party. They helped working-class people that were marginalized by conflicts and man-made tragedies;

– Ever read about Unit 731 in Pingfang? So, here’s what I propose to you: Tao Shangzhi lost a precious part of him there (family, comrades, you decide). Met Thang Nguyên, who lost a son to the south vs north Vietnamese tension that the USA was financing, in a worker’s protest in 1965. Early 1976 they met trotskyan Vitaly Grebenshchikov, ex-KGB who defected the Soviet Union for their dawning participation in biowarfare programs, believing this to be the utmost unforgivable sign of URSS’ continued and escalating distortion of the communist agenda;

– Vitaly had the connections who possessed financial resources to make viable turning their party of three into a structured organization capable of acting;

– It was never clear to Ada if all along they planned in concentrating in particular individuals of oppressed groups specifically with the purpose of recruiting agents for the future, but the fact remains that throughout the years, Vitaly, the Russian, recruited three agents (two females, one Italian and one Romanian, and a German male), Tao recruited three (an Ethiopian female, a Mozambican male and a Cuban male) and Thang recruited two other females, one Korean and one Japanese, as well as Ada;

– Ada was the ninth member to be recruited;

– Having more people at varied age-groups, the party’s main focus was established in working to completely destroy the biological warfare and chemical arms trade industry by undermining it from the inside, as well as to collect information on biological threats to be at the forefront of the vaccination grounds;

– Although settling with twelve “fixed” members, the organization also had what they call “allied operatives”, individuals that weren’t fully recruited to their cause and in virtue of it, weren’t fully aware of their goals and means to achieve them, but could sympathize with part of the causes they did got to be informed of;

– Starting at fourteen years and a half, Ada trained with the rigour to be an Olympic class gymnast (she already had some sort of starting pointing in physical conditioning since she had to be fast to be a thief and strong to carry things around later in childhood);

– She also had thorough classes on history, geography, sociology and philosophy and some essentially basic-level in biology, mathematics, physics and chemistry;

– She can fluently speak in Mandarin, English, Japanese and Korean. Furthermore, she possesses reading and listening fluency in Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese;

– In her training, the most severe exigences were: knowing how to speak in English without ever giving away that it wasn’t her first language, and to maintain her composure in the most adverse of situations;

– Knows her way around Taekwondo;

– Prepared to be perfectly capable of handling various automatic weapons and firearms;

– She believes in her party’s cause, always did. She doesn’t believe, however, that humankind is worth the trouble since she was sixteen;

– Hates imperialism and was convinced that the North-American population consisted of conceited, self-absorbed and egotistical people (till she fell in love with one, ha)

– Only completed her trainings by twenty years of age, although she was already participating in “gathering intelligence” missions since fifteen;

– I love LOVE to think that even though she was bit more experienced than Leon, she wasn’t that further away from him in terms of “field capability”;

– I don’t think John Clemens was retconned with RE2R, but, rather, Capcom’s choice to suppress mentioning him in this game was just logical and appropriate since the guy died early JUNE of 1998 and it wasn’t even minimally plausible that Ada didn’t know about that (come on, she’s a spy ffs!);

– Anyway, remember Clemens was “transferred to the Arklay Laboratory outside Raccoon City to take over Birkin’s role as chief of research” but “did not have the stomach for Umbrella’s illegal weapons research” and “started to question the motives of the research there and repeatedly questioned the superiors”? Well, at first, Ada’s mission was to get close to John precisely because he could be an “allied associate” and help in exposing and dismantling Umbrella;

– Despite the respect and comradery between the organization’s members, the only member she was really close to was Thang, but he died in a mission. Seung-chae Lee and Shimizu Yuuko (not their birth/real names), Thang’s other recruits, aren’t emotionally close to Ada, but the three of them share a deeper level of mutual reverence and camaraderie in comparison to what they feel to the rest of the organization’s members;

– Also, the two know about Leon. They suggested recruiting him to Ada, but she strongly prohibited them to do so;

– When Leon says things about helping people and putting an end to injustice and inequalities, Ada almost reveals everything there is to be revealed about her to him. Almost;

And… that’s it! Next “headcanons post” will focus on more simple things I have in mind for RE Characters (including Chris, Claire, Jill, Sherry, Helena). Ada and Leon get a bit more because they’re my faves. Hope you guys enjoy.

[teatipsforthea]

240 Words to Describe Someone’s Tone/Voice

Abrasive - showing little concern for the feelings of others; harsh

Absurd - wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate

Accusatory - suggesting someone has done something wrong, complaining

Acerbic - sharp and forthright

Acidic - harsh or critical

Admiring - approving; think highly of; respectful; praising

Aggressive - hostile; determined; forceful; argumentative

Aggrieved -  angry and sad because you think you have been unfairly treated

Airy -  giving an impression of being unconcerned or not serious

Ambivalent - having mixed feelings; uncertain; in a dilemma; undecided

Amused - pleasantly; entertain or divert in an enjoyable or cheerful manner

Angry - incensed or enraged; threatening or menacing

Animated - full of life or excitement; lively; spirited; impassioned; vibrant

Anxious -  typically with a feeling of unease

Apathetic - showing little interest; lacking concern; indifferent; unemotional

Apologetic - full of regret; repentant; remorseful; acknowledging failure

Appreciative - grateful; thankful; showing pleasure; enthusiastic

Ardent - enthusiastic; passionate

Arrogant - pompous; disdainful; overbearing; condescending; vain; scoffing

Assertive - self-confident; strong-willed; authoritative; insistent

Authoritative - commanding and self-confident

Awestruck - amazed, filled with wonder/awe; reverential

Barbed - deliberately hurtful

Barking - utter a command or question abruptly or aggressively

Belligerent - hostile; aggressive; combatant

Benevolent - sympathetic; tolerant; generous; caring; well meaning

Bitter - angry; acrimonious; antagonistic; spiteful; nasty

Blasé - unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before

Bleak - without hope or encouragement; depressing; dreary

Bombastic - high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated

Booming - loud, deep, and resonant

Bored - to tire or make weary by being dull, repetitious, or uninteresting

Brash - self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way

Braying - speak or laugh loudly and harshly

Breathy - producing or causing an audible sound of breathing, often related to physical exertion or strong feelings

Breezy - appearing relaxed, informal, and cheerily brisk

Brittle - lacking warmth, sensitivity, or compassion; aloof

Bubbly - full of cheerful high spirits

Burbling - speak in an unintelligible or silly way, typically at unnecessary length

Callous - cruel disregard; unfeeling; uncaring; indifferent; ruthless

Candid - truthful, straightforward; honest; unreserved

Caustic - making biting, corrosive comments; critical

Cautionary - gives warning; raises awareness; reminding

Celebratory - praising; pay tribute to; glorify; honour

Chatty - informal; lively; conversational; familiar

Cheery - happy and optimistic

Childish - silly and immature

Chirping - say something in a lively and cheerful way

Clipped - speech that is fast, that uses short sounds and few words, and that is often unfriendly or rude

Cloying - disgust or sicken (someone) with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment

Coarse - rude, crude, or vulgar

Colloquial - familiar; everyday language; informal; colloquial; casual

Comic - humorous; witty; entertaining; diverting

Compassionate - sympathetic; empathetic; warm-hearted; tolerant; kind

Complex - having many varying characteristics; complicated

Compliant - agree or obey rules; acquiescent; flexible; submissive

Concerned - worried; anxious; apprehensive

Conciliatory - intended to placate or pacify; appeasing

Condescending - stooping to the level of one’s inferiors; patronising

Confused - unable to think clearly; bewildered; vague

Contemptuous - showing contempt; scornful; insolent; mocking

Crisp - briskly decisive and matter-of-fact, without hesitation or unnecessary detail

Critical - finding fault; disapproving; scathing; criticizing

Croaking - a characteristic deep hoarse sound

Cruel - causing pain and suffering; unkind; spiteful; severe

Curious - wanting to find out more; inquisitive; questioning

Curt - rudely brief

Cynical - scornful of motives/virtues of others; mocking; sneering

Defensive - defending a position; shielding; guarding; watchful

Defiant - obstinate; argumentative; defiant; contentious

Demeaning - disrespectful; undignified

Depressing - sad, melancholic; discouraging; pessimistic

Derisive - snide; sarcastic; mocking; dismissive; scornful

Detached - aloof; objective; unfeeling; distant

Dignified - serious; respectful; formal; proper

Diplomatic - tactful; subtle; sensitive; thoughtful

Disapproving - displeased; critical; condemnatory

Disheartening - discouraging; demoralising; undermining; depressing

Disparaging - dismissive; critical; scornful

Direct - straightforward; honest

Disappointed - discouraged; unhappy because something has gone wrong

Discordant - harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony

Dispassionate - impartial; indifferent; unsentimental; cold; unsympathetic

Dispirited - having lost enthusiasm and hope; disheartened

Distressing - heart-breaking; sad; troubling

Docile - compliant; submissive; deferential; accommodating

Drawling - speak in a slow, lazy way with prolonged vowel sounds

Dulcet - sweet and soothing

Dull - lacking interest or excitement

Earnest - showing deep sincerity or feeling; serious

Egotistical - self-absorbed; selfish; conceited; boastful

Empathetic - understanding; kind; sensitive

Encouraging - optimistic; supportive

Enthusiastic - excited; energetic

Evasive - ambiguous; cryptic; unclear

Excited - emotionally aroused; stirred

Facetious - inappropriate; flippant

Farcical - ludicrous; absurd; mocking; humorous and highly improbable

Feathery - extremely light and soft or delicate

Flippant - superficial; glib; shallow; thoughtless; frivolous

Forceful - powerful; energetic; confident; assertive

Formal - respectful; stilted; factual; following accepted styles/rules

Frank - honest; direct; plain; matter-of-fact

Fretful - expressing distress or irritation

Frustrated - annoyed; discouraged

Gentle - kind; considerate; mild; soft

Ghoulish - delighting in the revolting or the loathsome

Glum - dejected; morose

Goofy - foolish; harmlessly eccentric

Grating - harsh and unpleasant

Gravelly - deep and rough-sounding

Grim - serious; gloomy; depressing; lacking humour;macabre

Growling - low grating voice, typically in a threatening manner

Gruff - rough and low in pitch

Gullible - naive; innocent; ignorant

Guttural - produced in the throat; harsh-sounding

Hard - unfeeling; hard-hearted; unyielding

Harsh - cruel or severe

Hearty - loudly vigorous and cheerful

Hoarse - sounding rough and harsh, typically as the result of a sore throat or of shouting

Honeyed - soothing, soft, and intended to please or flatter

Humble - deferential; modest

Humorous - amusing; entertaining; playful

Husky - sounding low-pitched and slightly hoarse

Hypercritical - unreasonably critical; hair splitting; nitpicking

Impartial - unbiased; neutral; objective

Impassioned - filled with emotion; ardent

Imploring - pleading; begging

Impressionable - trusting; child-like

Inane - silly; foolish; stupid; nonsensical

Incensed - enraged

Incredulous - disbelieving; unconvinced; questioning; suspicious

Indifferent - having no particular interest or sympathy; unconcerned

Indignant - annoyed; angry; dissatisfied

Informative - instructive; factual; educational

Insinuating - suggest or hint in an indirect and unpleasant way

Inspirational - encouraging; reassuring

Intense - earnest; passionate; concentrated; deeply felt

Intimate - familiar; informal; confidential; confessional

Ironic - the opposite of what is meant

Irreverent - lacking respect for things that are generally taken seriously

Jaded - bored; having had too much of the same thing; lack enthusiasm

Joyful - positive; optimistic; cheerful; elated

Jubilant - expressing great happiness and triumph

Judgmental - critical; finding fault; disparaging

Laudatory - praising; recommending

Lifeless - lacking vigor, vitality, or excitement

Light-Hearted - carefree; relaxed; chatty; humorous

Lively - full of life and energy; active and outgoing

Loving - affectionate; showing intense, deep concern

Macabre - gruesome; horrifying; frightening

Malicious - desiring to harm others or to see others suffer; ill-willed; spiteful

Matter-of-fact - unemotional and practical

Mean-Spirited - inconsiderate; unsympathetic

Mellifluous - sweet or musical; pleasant to hear

Melodious - pleasant-sounding

Mocking - scornful; ridiculing; making fun of someone

Monotonous - lacking in variation in tone or pitch

Mourning - grieving; lamenting; woeful

Muffled - not loud because of being obstructed in some way; muted

Naive - innocent; unsophisticated; immature

Narcissistic - self-admiring; selfish; boastful; self-pitying

Nasty - unpleasant; unkind; disagreeable; abusive

Negative - unhappy, pessimistic

Nonchalant - casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm

Nostalgic - thinking about the past; wishing for something from the past

Objective - without prejudice; without discrimination; fair; based on fact

Obsequious - overly obedient and/or submissive; fawning; grovelling

Oily - unpleasantly smooth and ingratiating

Optimistic - hopeful; cheerful

Outraged - angered and resentful; furious; extremely angered

Outspoken - frank; candid; spoken without reserv

Pathetic - expressing pity, sympathy, tenderness

Patronizing - condescending; scornful; pompous

Pensive - reflective; introspective; philosophical; contemplative

Persuasive - convincing; eloquent; influential; plausible

Pessimistic - seeing the negative side of things

Philosophical - theoretical; analytical; rational; logical

Piping - high-pitched.

Playful - full of fun and good spirits; humorous; jesting

Pragmatic - realistic; sensible

Pretentious - affected; artificial; grandiose; rhetorical; flashy

Quavering - shake or tremble in speaking, typically through nervousness or emotion

Querulous - complaining in a petulant or whining manner

Rasping - harsh-sounding and unpleasant; grating

Reedy - high and thin in tone

Refined -  elegant; cultured

Regretful - apologetic; remorseful

Resentful - aggrieved; offended; displeased; bitter

Resigned - accepting; unhappy

Restrained - controlled; quiet; unemotional

Reverent - showing deep respect and esteem

Righteous - morally right and just; guiltless; pious; god-fearing

Robust - strong and healthy; vigorous

Saccharine - excessively sweet or sentimental  

Satirical - making fun to show a weakness; ridiculing; derisive

Sarcastic - scornful; mocking; ridiculing

Scathing - critical; stinging; unsparing; harsh

Scornful - expressing contempt or derision; scathing; dismissive

Scratchy -  rough; grating  

Sensationalist - provocative; inaccurate; distasteful

Sentimental - thinking about feelings, especially when remembering the past

Shrill -  high-pitched and piercing  

Silvery - gentle, clear, and melodious  

Sincere - honest; truthful; earnest

Skeptical - disbelieving; unconvinced; doubting

Smarmy -  excessively or unctuously flattering; ingratiating; servile  

Smoky - a raspy, coarse and tone of quality that is deeper than usual

Snide - derogatory or mocking in an indirect way  

Solemn - not funny; in earnest; serious

Somber - oppressively solemn or sober in mood; grave  

Sonorous -  imposingly deep and full

Sour - resentment, disappointment, or anger

Steely - coldly determined; hard  

Strident -  loud and harsh; grating  

Stony - not having or showing feeling or sympathy  

Suave - charming, confident, and elegant

Subjective - prejudiced; biased

Submissive - compliant; passive; accommodating; obedient

Sulking - bad-tempered; grumpy; resentful; sullen

Surly -  bad-tempered and unfriendly  

Sympathetic - compassionate; understanding of how someone feels

Thoughtful - reflective; serious; absorbed

Throaty -   deep and rasping  

Tolerant - open-minded; charitable; patient; sympathetic; lenient

Tragic - disastrous; calamitous

Tremulous -  shaking or quivering slightly

Unassuming - modest; self-effacing; restrained

Unctuous - excessive piousness or moralistic fervor, especially in an affected manner; excessively smooth, suave, or smug  

Uneasy - worried; uncomfortable; edgy; nervous

Urgent - insistent; saying something must be done soon

Velvety - soft; smooth

Vindictive - vengeful; spiteful; bitter; unforgiving

Virtuous - lawful; righteous; moral; upstanding

Whimsical - quaint; playful; mischievous; offbeat

Witty - clever; quick-witted; entertaining

Wonder - awe-struck; admiring; fascinating

World-Weary - bored; cynical; tired

Worried - anxious; stressed; fearful

Wretched - miserable; despairing; sorrowful; distressed

[gokul2181]

Thanjavur Art Plates artisans look to revive their heritage craft

New Post has been published on https://jordarnews.in/thanjavur-art-plates-artisans-look-to-revive-their-heritage-craft/

Thanjavur Art Plates artisans look to revive their heritage craft

The makers of the Thanjavur Art Plate, with its roots in a craft that dates back to the Marathas of the 1800s, are banding together for its cultural and commercial rejuvenation

At his home in Nanayakarar Chetty Street, Thanjavur, which doubles up as his workshop, M Paramasivam, 72, covers a brass kodam (water pot) with ornate etchings of floral motifs, using a tiny chisel.

Paramasivam, who started working at the age of 16, is one of a dwindling number of old-school artisans who specialise in what used to be known as ‘Thanjavur kalai’ (an umbrella term for an art that incorporates embossing, etching, engraving and filigree on metallic surfaces).

Thanjavur kalai requires the skills of a metalworker, jeweller and a designer of not just patterns, but also tools. That is why it is quite common to see four or more people work on each step of an artefact.

“I am the last in five generations of my family in Thanjavur kalai; I hope the glory days of our craft will come back in my lifetime,” says Paramasivam.

Vintage craft

Patronised by Maratha ruler Serfoji II (1777-1832),Thanjavur kalai craftsmen were kept busy with orders for royal gifts, mostly decorative salvers, jewel boxes and vessels like water pots and ewers. In its contemporary version, the craft has been commercially reinterpreted as ‘Thanjavur kalai thattu’ or Thanjavur Art Plate, a ceremonial platter made with silver, copper and brass layers in three stages: the base plate with alternate copper and silver panels, a bigger embossed silver motif on the central section, and the setting of globular jigna or sequins in the secondary relief.

  Thanjavur Art Plate was given a Geographical Indications (GI) tag in 2007, as a proof of its long heritage.

Once prized as the pinnacle of artistry in Tamil Nadu, it was often presented to visiting dignitaries by the State Government. In 1980, for instance, an elaborately embellished Thanjavur Art Plate was gifted by the then-Governor Sadiq Ali to Britain’s Prince Charles during his visit to India.

With prices fixed according to size, Thanjavur Art Plates can fetch anywhere upwards of ₹4,000.

Artisan M. Paramasivam has been working on Thanjavur Art vessels since the age of 16. Photo: Special Arrangement/THE HINDU  

“Every Thanjavur kalai piece is unique, because the artisan will customise the design to suit the surface. It is a pity that it has become confined to a single product,” says N Paramasivam, president of the district-level Thanjavur Art Plate Artisans’ Welfare Association.

The recently-formed industry body has 200 members.

“We formed the welfare association mainly to protect the authenticity of our products,” says PGA Babu, the secretary. “While a genuine 10-inch Thanjavur Art Plate in the Government-run Poompuhar showroom costs ₹4,500, you can find something similar with fake metal adhesive strips for as less as ₹700 just a few shops down the road. Customers should respect the workmanship, and patronise only genuine outlets for buying our plates,” he says.

Designer ware

Watching the artisans work requires several trips to the home-based pattrais (workshops) in the Therku Veedhi area in Thanjavur, where plates travel from hand to hand in different stages of completion.

Traditional artisans tend to buy old brassware from shops because their thicker gauge allows them to work on intricate designs from scratch.

A hot paste of pungaliya tree resin and brick powder or red sand is poured into orifices of vessels which solidifies as it cools, allowing the artisan to work on the outer surface without denting the base. Once the design is finished, the solid paste is carefully removed from the interiors.

A similar waxy background fixes plates firmly to the work surface until the embellishment is over.

An artisan working on the central image of a Thanjavur Art Plate. Photo: Special Arrangement/THE HINDU  

While religious motifs such as Ashtalakshmi (eight avatars of Goddess Lakshmi) and Dasavatharam (10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu), are commonly used on Thanjavur Art Plates, designs can be varied to include corporate logos and Nature themes.

Aided by lathes, iron tools and ground-level forges, the artisans also create lead dies for the motifs from scratch, transferring paper patterns to copper and silver foil by punching tiny dots through the diagram.

“Artisans of my father’s generation worked long hours to keep up with orders. There was a healthy competition among peers to see who would come up with the prettiest product,” says Babu.

Changing times

The cottage industry has been witnessing a slow decline despite its protected status. Once employing over 200 artisans and their families in Thanjavur, today there are only around 60 people still active in this art form.

Primed for the market

The din of ringing metal announces the presence of the temporary workshop in the basement of the Poompuhar showroom on Gandhiji Road in Thanjavur. Ten Thanjavur kalai craftsmen are hard at work here on different stages of platters for a corporate function.

“The silver that we use in these plates is 99.9% pure, because foil work cannot be done alloyed metal,” says workshop supervisor S Palanivel. “We make plates from five inches to 24 inches in size here. Plates up to 16 inches sell well; bigger sizes are available on order. Every step is equally complicated. For example, a less experienced person can damage the foil work or the copper embossing if they don’t know how to fill it with hot wax,” says Palanivel as he shows us around the tiny workspace.

As the last step, acrylic domes are affixed on the plates to prevent the metals from getting tarnished.

Many artisans feel that the concentration on plates has left little scope for them to work on other items like vessels and devotional images that used to be valued both as artefacts and for religious worship.

“I used to participate in workshops held by handicraft emporia across India, and also send products to the bigger cities. But for the past 15 years, the market for other items bearing Thanjavur kalai embellishments has died out,” says artisan Paramasivam. “If art lovers and artisans both return to the heritage roots of the craft, it will definitely flourish again.”

Poompuhar, the State Government-run handicraft emporium, is the sole authorised source for genuine Thanjavur Art Plates, and so, saw a steady demand that kept sales as high as ₹6-10 lakh per month. The recent lockdown changed that.

“The orders have stopped because of the restrictions on public meetings, especially Government functions where our plates are usually given away as mementoes,” says K Arun, the showroom manager.

To encourage revival, the authorities are planning to open a dedicated unit to produce Thanjavur Art Plates. “The machines will be available in our common workshop, which can be used by artisans for a nominal charge,” says Arun. “We may be able to draw a younger crop of artisans to this craft if we use technology to ease some of the hard physical labour involved in plate production.”

To create a genuine Thanjavur Art Plate, artisans need to develop a high level of artistic skill that requires knowledge of mathematics, geometry and metallurgy, besides drawing.

Many of the older artisans achieved this despite never having attended school. “The young people in our community are getting educated these days, to find better-paying jobs. I hope education will inspire them to reinvigorate our profession,” says Babu.

Silver foil being prepared for embossing at the Poompuhar workshop. Photo: Nahla Nainar/THE HINDU  

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[thessalian]

Thess vs Reception

So, as promised, my week:

I am currently working as ... well, the title is ‘waiting list coordinator’ for my local hospital campus’ dental hospital. I’m not really doing anything with the waiting list, mind. See, my actual job is a bit more ... varied? A lot of it is receptionist duties - signing patients in, signing patients out, patient booking, etc etc etc - at the reception desk for oral surgery. The rest of it is file clerk and records management, as I found out yesterday when I was handed a sheet of A4 printed on both sides with names of people who my predecessors in this gig hadn’t properly cashed out on the system, and ordered to basically fix it despite having no documentation with which to do so - which means more records management and file clerking as I haunt the records library like a stressed-out spectre, pulling files out of the badly-organised records shelves - not enough space and too many notes, basically.

My colleague is ... stressed. I can see why - we’re busy as fuck and there’s a lot of multitasking, and it’s the NHS so we tend towards the issue-laden due to badly cobbled together computer systems, miscommunication, improperly filled-out forms and bureaucracy that impedes actually getting things done in the name of recording how many things aren’t getting done. (Yeah, logic that one out. I’ll wait). The thing is that I’m still in the middle of training and my colleague doesn’t really have time to train me with so much else going on, so the times I get actually stuck, I get the distinct feeling that I’m an inconvenience. This isn’t helped by her attitude - alternatively patronising and huffy-impatient. I know it’s because there’s a lot of stress from other quarters, but it’s not really helpful to the mood in the office. Not to mention that she’s one of those people who isn’t always the best with words, so when she explains things, it’s not entirely thorough. Like, I have one patient who needs booking to the undergrads, and she doesn’t explain in what circumstances patients coming through the door need booking to the undergrads, and then insists that she did in fact explain that thing to me when she walked me through the first one. If she did, I did not recognise it as an explanation of that type, so there’s clearly miscommunication going on somewhere. I’m trying to translate on the fly, but when there’s three people waiting to be seen at reception and someone else freaking out because we don’t have an available appointment until October, it can be hard to translate and I wish she’d make shit clearer.

(Just as a for example, when looking at a scrollable list on the computer, she refers to heading towards the bottom of the list as ‘scrolling up’. This is counterintuitive to me on a number of levels, and she always gives me the patronising, “No no no no no, UP” when I am moving towards the top of the list out of instinct. Dumb part is that she does the same thing when I hesitate to get past the counterintuitive wording; “I said UP!”)

Apparently there have been a lot of people in that job that have just ... left. This does not bode well. I don’t know how long this contract lasts but right now ... I spent about forty minutes yesterday digging out about a dozen files for Monday’s clinic list, I tend to have to cut through clinical areas to drag files back to the office and then find that the doctors haven’t filled in vital information that I need to properly cash the patient out, I am tired of trying to figure out whether I’m doing a good job or not... Look, one minute my colleague will be reassuring me that I’m still learning and have been doing well so far, and the next minute she’s giving me that impatient patronising huffy tone that suggests that she thinks I’m stupid for not knowing that. I’m not sure how much of this my stress levels can take, y’know?

One thing I will say, though, is that I do have one thing over my colleague - volume. Well, more projection, I suppose. Years in various drama departments have taught me how to make myself heard in the worst of circumstances without sounding like I’m yelling, which is good when I’m having to try to talk over a too-high desk and through a plate of centimetre-thick glass to patients with hearing issues. Doesn’t help with letting me hear them, mind you, but... Anyway, my throat’d be in an awful state from shouting if I didn’t know instinctively how to speak from the diaphragm.

[groundbreaking-science]

1-10 - Breaking Down the Power Level

From the start of my patchy teaching career, beginning as a brother then a parent, my general ethos towards explaining the world has been to never patronise. I have developed some semblance of self-awareness over the years and so may at times simplify or reign in tangents - not everyone needs to know the minutiae to gain a broad understanding of a topic. My aim though is to never shy away from trying to provide a full answer to a question posed, no matter the age or background of the poser. An earnest and enthusiastic question deserves a considered answer with all the nuance one’s expertise can provide in the situation. I trust those listening to instead communicate where clarification would be helpful, or sift through what they need in the moment and chew over the rest later.

In contrast, there’s a trend in wider media to cling to ‘consumers’ of scientific content by ratcheting up the the sensational, the over-simplified, the drama that may or may not be manufactured for entertainment. Narratives within popular science help guide and contain the message within (no one wants to be subjected to a list of facts, even regarding ki) but often the science is so watered down the only substance of the piece is the fluff. Those with a genuine palate for science (or history, or literature, or…) are left underwhelmed on repeated readings and sometimes even mistrusting of the expertise involved.

It is for those reasons I decided to include this section as a hat tip to the insatiably curious, though for those among you with little appetite for a smattering of mathematics, I first bring you a tangential, and completely true, offering in the form of a fish.

I have spoken frequently of a model for ki. By that I mean a story that explains the effects of ki we see using fundamental quantities. The story links cause and effect in the form of equations, transforming the qualitative to the quantitative.

The model presented here is not perfect. All models are an approximation to the truth and there are many simplifications (particularly in this version and I will highlight where), but broadly the model performs well and the limitations of the model are well defined. I trust you to take away what is most useful to you now, and I hope this treatment gives potential undergraduates a taster for some of the more theoretical aspects of a course on ki-use I hope will materialise in the near-future.

When in battle one question sits on the tip of everyone’s tongue: “What is the enemy’s power level?” This is proxy phrase to ask many questions at once. What is the opponent’s potential? How many people will be required to tackle them? How much strength should I use straight out of the gate? What is the risk to the local environment, the nearby populace, the planet? The highest power level will not always win a fight. Power level differences of an order of magnitude, even sometimes two, can be overcome with teamwork and sound strategy. Getting an early indication of the opponent’s location and power can give your team vital time to plan and distribute yourselves effectively.

As we discussed in a previous section, the idea of a power-level measuring device - the scouter - was first introduced to us by Freeza’s personal army and deconstructed by Bulma.

The original scouters performed perfectly well in the situation they were designed for, searching for clusters of life-forms with power levels of 0-2 (encompassing the vast majority of people in the Universe) to allow the possessors to commit mass murder extremely efficiently. The scouters were able to stretch beyond this range, reaching higher power levels of 5.3; any higher and the harmonic oscillator arrays constructed to respond to the vibrations in the ki field (with technology developed along a similar branch to Dr Gero’s) would break. Specifically: the atomic ‘pendulums’ of varied masses contained within ion traps would be kicked out of the holding magnetic fields and flung away into the rest of the structure, shorting the electronics and usually exploding the device. The designers believed the likelihood of any of Freeza’s forces  encountering someone that strong so low they didn’t deem it necessary to prioritise the scouter-wearer’s safety. Clearly Freeza’s true strength, peaking above a power level of eight at that time, was hidden from the vast majority of his forces.

The fully artificial scouters were not flexible enough to cope with everything life could throw at it. Life itself on the other hand has an amazing capacity to give as good as it gets. I can sense everything from tiny fogs of ki in less-than-clean water to the brightest kis in the Universe standing almost blindingly close, and I can do it all without shorting my own circuitry. Whilst the mechanical scouters have a range of 0 to 5.3, the newer versions developed on Earth can cope with -1 to 14, (or 0.1 to 100,000,000,000,000 unlogged). That is tested. Hypothetically they should remain accurate up to a power level of 17 but we never want to be in situation where we’re reading that. Our method’s downside is the loss of precision compared to the original scouter, which was able to differentiate just as well between power levels of 1 and 2 and 10,000 and 10,001. Our scouters do maintain a 0.1% precision however, which is usually sufficient. Anyone wanting finer precision to monitor and argue their progress needs another hobby.

Capsule Corp employees have for the most part stayed away from playing with the biophysics of life, knowing the trouble and potential backfire meddling can cause through the work of Dr Gero. What little research and development that has been done in this field has been led by Bulma and Mai through all above-board personal funding. The new scouters are a result of this off-piste research and utilise a genetic modification of bioluminescent bacteria found in a tropical fish.

The fish in question - the blue-finned angelfish - exclusively inhabits the coral reefs around one of the many South Sea archipelagos. They’re crepuscular feeders, making use of the changing light levels at dawn and dusk that other fish and invertebrates struggle to cope with. When hunting for prey like small fish and krill they spread into what can appear to be a dangerously loose shoal. What makes this strategy effective is the beautiful symbiotic relationship the fish has with a bacteria within the fish’s transparent skin along the fins and tail. The bacteria glows neon yellow using bioluminescence near low power levels (-2 to -1.5) and flickers in a predictable pattern with the ki signature, the wave of flickering allowing for the triangulation of distance. When the glow starts, the fish play a game of hot and cold until close enough to pinpoint their prey through smell. The now brighter glow brings the rest of the shoal to feed into the early night.

Why then are are these fish known as the blue-finned and not yellow-finned angelfish? Well, they are named as yellow locally, though zoologists from the mainland way-back-when never much listened to local expertise, routinely removing chosen specimens from their natural environment to study in the comfort of the lab. As the scientists approached the fish in the tank back home their fins glowed a bright blue and the fish reacted poorly, racing to escape. It transpires the bacteria can luminesce over two colours, yellow for prey and blue for predators - the latter covering intensities of 0.3-2. This range catches the bigger fish and reef sharks that home in on the yellow glow of a feeding shoal. When a wave of blue creeps across the shoal in the near-dark, the fish know to hide. It just so happens this range encompasses the scientists’ own power levels, too. To the scientists with clipboards then, these were only ever blue-finned glowing fish.

The locals know of the fish’s defence intimately and is a source of great amusement. There’s a shallow, natural harbour in one of the smaller islands that, very rarely, a large shoal of angelfish will chase prey into. The harbour is sealed and all the boats dragged onto the shore. A call is then sent to the other islands for an impromptu night-long festival - a spontaneous get-together and chance to catch-up. Traditionally, the arrival of the fish had been seen as a mixed omen, that bad luck is ongoing or shortly arriving. Assembling a group to challenge the fish twice-touched by a creator god (once for each colour) however will guide the selection of the warrior or leader to pull the islands through a time of strife.

The challenge is as follows. Representatives from each attending island volunteer to take on the fish. Their true reasons for participating are varied: trained warriors, children nearing adulthood, people looking to impress an onlooker they’re sweet on, older fishermen showing off their talent, the local clown putting on a show. Each representative is then painted over the course of the afternoon by friends and family with a glowing set of pigments (not made from the fish fins, I hasten to add). Some designs are beautifully intricate; most are messy, child-sized handprints. Everyone then waits for twilight with great anticipation.

The participants take their turn to wade in and try to catch a fish in the harbour with only a net - the great difficulty being of course that the fish will glow blue and alert the shoal to avoid the intruder. This leaves an ever-moving empty ring of water around the participant to flounder in, struggling to cast the net and maybe just reaching the shoal edge. The larger their genki, the wider that ring and the greater the challenge. The winner is decided by elected older folk, and is usually a combination of how fast a fish was caught and how much paint was left on the challenger’s body. About half of participants catch and release a fish, nearly everyone trips, and the spectators have a great time.

Nowadays the omens and winners are not taken seriously beyond passing on fantastical stories, spooking the children or for gaining bragging rights. Usually.

The year before the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament, a shoal made their way into the harbour. The residents of one of many islands answered the call, the group including the young Papayaman and his family. Their island hadn’t been doing so well in recent years; the Moon’s twice vanishing and reappearing act dampened the tides for a time and their delicate yellow mangrove trees took a hit. The entire food chain around the islands and reef was disrupted and the trees would take decades to recover. As the slow-growing tree bark is prized for its tannin, the island’s economy took a brutal hit, too. The residents, previously relatively comfortable, had eaten into their savings and were near the brink. Going to the festival was supposed to be a rare fun day out. As the eldest sibling at nine years old, the boy who would become Papayaman had already resolved to compete in the hope he would be worthy enough to help his family.

The evening went smoothly until the boy took the long walk down towards the water. As he hit the shoreline the fish retreated, that blue ring growing to taunt him, he believed. When in the water the scale of the challenge stretched before him. There was no way he would be able to throw the net that far out, let alone hold onto it to drag a fish back. He became more and more frustrated as his time and paint dwindled and his anger, something he rarely felt, rose… then burst. For a moment the entire bay was full of blue stars, lighting up the dusk. Then the fish bolted, some even jumping onto the shore in a frantic escape attempt, causing pandemonium amongst the younger children.

The boy did not catch a fish himself in the end. But there was no doubt about his potential throughout the archipelago, and he was brought into warrior training as soon as he returned home. He was then selected to attend the tournament on nearby Papaya Island to earn money for his village. Although he didn’t win, due to his efforts and subsequent training the island eventually did recover.

A number of years later the shoal returned and the now young man eventually found a way to catch that fish, finally marking (from his own perspective at least) his graduation from training with my father. And as they say, the rest is history.

My first encounter with the fish was a little more begrudging. I had just “moved” to East City for a postdoctoral position into a cosy office with two others funded on the same grant. We got on well and I was hoping for a relatively relaxing couple of years. That was thrown out the window within the first month when the zebrafish aficionados in the labs two floors below decided to branch out, nabbing a number of blue-finned angelfish to get to grips with the bioluminescence. They’d hypothesised the glowing bacteria were responding to the fish’s excitement and stress levels (apologies for not correcting you sooner) and were planning on running behavioural studies.

Those fish hated me. Even at that distance, my natural aura was just the right strength to set them off. No one could figured out why the fish were constantly stressed during lab hours, until of course the news reached our office and I put two and two together. My chronically guilty self had the most fun five months suppressing my genki at work until the lab moved from data collection to analysis and the fish returned home. Still, I’m grateful I got to peruse the results from the bacterial DNA sequencing. I relayed the gist to Bulma and she was able to isolate, then modify, the particular colour and ki range the bacteria glowed at. I’ve contacted the old lab members for co-authorship on this new work. I hope they’re not too mad.

The new scouters use these modified bacteria to read power levels and ki signatures. Stacked into mini vials filled with agar, the bacteria respond to ki much like cone cells in the eye respond to light wavelengths. The spectrum of light emitted by the bacteria indicate the intensity of ki hitting the scouter, and the specific pulsing is monitored and decomposed to identify ki signatures - much like instruments can be isolated from a song. With at least two detector packs and accelerometers to track the movement of the wearer, ki signatures can be triangulated and located. A simple pair of glasses (less conspicuous than the original scouters) can be used display results - one lens for a simple overlay or both for a full 3D effect. The isolation isn’t fantastic at a distance as the baseline separation between the detectors isn’t that great, but in relatively close quarters they work perfectly. Better yet are the systems Mai built into the jet flier and jeep windshield that give a heads-up display of the scene for both the driver and passenger. Due to “popular” demand there is a smartphone app, though sadly the hardware is not included.

All in all we’re pretty well-equipped to quantify overall power level. The measure was rendered completely useless by Earth’s martial artists, however. As soon as Freeza’s army found we could suppress our ki and therefore their scouters were unable to accurately predict any form of maximal potential, the tech was discarded. With the new scouters, getting beyond that one measure to find all the components - genki boosts, yuuki, shouki, the base power, flow suppressions, effort - is entirely possible and we can fully model a person’s ki-use and potential. The equations for the model (omitting the calculus) are as follows. 

The overall power P (without being logged) can be defined as the total energy E_T divided by the time interval t, or

We know the total energy can be expressed as

Or, as the sum of energy derived from the field (E_F) and what is remaining of genki energy E_G,rem. This can be substituted into the first equation to form

Genki energy E_G is divided into two parts: the genki that is amplified (E_G,amp) and the remaining genki (E_G,rem), so the above is expanded to

From section 1-9 we know E_G,amp can be expressed with the fraction of genki chosen to be converted from genki to field, f_GF. Substituting for E_G,rem we get

Recall also from that section E_F is a function of E_G,amp, the converted fraction fGF and the efficiency of amplification from genki to field, a_GF,

Substituting through we get

And then simplified down:

Let’s take stock here. We’ve been able to break down the power level into a number of base stats - the amplification, the fraction converted and genki energy. As a sanity check here, if the amplification of genki (a_GF) is less than 1 this will lead to that central bracket becoming negative and the entire combined power level less than if it were from genki alone. This correctly mimics the disappointing early stages of learning to amplify genki, where you get less out than you put in. You will need to persevere!

We can further break down the genki energy into the flow rate of particles from the centre Q and the average charge per particle, q.

We use the average charge rather than an exact value due to the slight variation genki charge can possess, the variation of which is mirrored in the colour spectrum of the aura. In extreme cases (like the kaioken with a double peak in section 1-8) the two averages can be noted and incorporated in a full treatment. The assumption of only one smooth peak and therefore one mean is usually made.

From section 1-8 we also know that the flow Q is the flux Phi_p multiplied by the surface area A. This is simplified. The flux measured can be directionally dependent if the ki-user is focusing down an attack for example. For the most part though, the aura is isotropic (the same in all directions). In reality the calculation should be a closed integral over the centre surface, modelled as a sphere.This then all ties together as

and substituting in

The power level is not a static value. The surface area A can change with transformation or suppression, as can the average charge q. Both of these quantities are defined with dynamic variables. Remember from section 1-9 that yuuki (y, courage) can affect these manipulations of surface area and charge,

And

where A is the surface area at rest, q the average charge at rest, and f refers to the resultant fractional change the ki-user is affecting. e is the effort assigned to perform these changes. Theta refers to all the parameters needed to define the function translating effort and yuuki into that fractional change. From section 1-8 we know most ki-users step up in genki using those harmonically defined troughs of required effort and sit at one level rather than hovering in tricky spots. Yuuki modifies these curves by raising them, meaning the ki-user requires more effort to reach the same desired fractional change. Some levels even become ‘locked out’ entirely. These functions take the same wavey and upwards shape for everyone, though the actual width, height and ramp up of effort required will change between ki-users. Whilst these functions are complicated, a good approximation can be made with a relatively small number of parameters. Explicitly defining those functions is beyond the scope of this book, but suffice to say the parameters for those functions can be thought of as base stats, too.

Similar to yuuki, shouki (s,strength of will) feeds into the efficiency of conversion between genki and field energy in a similar fashion -

Where a_GF,0 is ones go-to conversion rate. Whereas yuuki affected the ki-users ability to change from natural outputs, in this case we do not perform any amplification naturally (though we have a habitual value) so shouki affects the ki-user’s ability to amplify genki at all - if shouki is 0, no amount of assigned effort will amplify genki.

There is an additional constraint on these values. One of course only has a limited amount of effort to give. Some must go into general thought and movement, so we can surmise

Knowing some manipulations of flow, charge and amplification would be downright impossible, this one inequality can help constrain the rest of the parameters considerably.

In full then, one rearranged form of the equation for a ki-user’s power level (omitting some nuances for legibility) is

Putting this all together, we have a number of default ‘base stats’ - A_0, q_0, a_GF,0 and Phi_p (along with the effort to flow rate, effort to genki charge and effort to amplification functions defined with θs) and the dynamic stats y, s, e_A, e_(A_GF)  and e_q. From these there are a number of derived stats like f_GF, f_q, f_(a_GF), Q, q and the most useful split of power level, E_G and E_F .

Given some loose assumptions and probabilities assigned to each of these variables - so-called priors that were discussed in section 1-3 - one can monitor a changing power level and narrow down these assumptions using increasing evidence as time passes to give parameter estimates.

What kind of priors? We know some states of particle flow and genki charge are difficult to reach due to the harmonics inherent in the process, and so ki-users are going to avoid particular power levels due to the increase in effort required to hold them. We can assume ki-users will default to a habitual level of genki amplification. Flow rate will never increase above base without particular techniques like transformation. Charge never drops below the default level unless the flow rate is unnaturally high or the ki-user is exhausted. All of these assumptions can be programmed into the model as prior assumptions.

One must be careful with priors to never attribute zero probability to a possibility otherwise that one-in-a-million chance will never appear in the probable results in the updating model. I could assume that no one with a Earthling appearance could have a power-level above 2, for example. If I turn these assumption on my Uncle Krillin the model will give the best answer it can, maybe trying to say that he has a very efficient genki to field conversion rate to compensate for the lack of flexibility in the model. Instead, by allowing some very small, highly unlikely chance for an Earthling to have such a high natural power level, the updated prior will be pulled to this region with every new data point, showing the unlikely to be more and more possible.

When encountering odd enemies one may ‘widen the priors’ to encompass highly unlikely scenarios like godly-powered Earthlings. ‘Flattening the priors’ means allowing all possible scenarios. Whilst that sounds like the best idea, flattening leads to a large number of possible solutions when you know some combination of base stats are more likely to occur than others. Choosing priors for any kind of succession analysis is an art form in itself.

There can be a lot of information and possibilities to process when building up a picture of a ki-user, but with a careful set of tasks to perform in a calm environment, someone’s base stats at least can be obtained and updated on a semi-regular basis. This narrows down the parameter space before entering battle considerably, reducing the uncertainty when finding the dynamic variables. Some tasks include running up and down ki output from fully suppressed to maximum, or how quickly one can amplify a set amount of genki. For new enemies the scouter has to work overtime, but with every second of new information our intel improves considerably. Even if all the enemies’ parameters haven’t been constrained, the more varied their attacks and strategy the faster we can build up a picture to start answering key questions such as whether the enemy is holding back their strength.

For our team, Mai is able to feed us updates about each other’s status, allowing us to adjust the plan should someone be running low and too proud to admit it, or the enemy be surprisingly resilient. For all the rudimentary single word or single image telepathy usually thrown around the field,hearing an articulate voice in your ear confirming that you’re tired  or Auntie Bulma yelling to calm down should the panic be setting in can be very disconcerting. I refer to ‘us’; I’m never very careful with the tiny earpiece and I blow it within minutes. As much as the data intrigues me I’m far too used to running from my own observations. I’m not the only one to have been on the sharp end of a scolding, the earpieces are notoriously difficult to keep intact. Pan has the longest survival time of forty-five minutes and even that’s contested as for the first half an hour she was deliberately suppressing as a feint.

The scouters are useful in the moment and for review, but their most interesting day-to-day function is how the software can track improvement. This of course leads to competition. Endless competition. From conversations I’ve overheard, the moment one of the kids feels they’ve improved the scouters are out. There are often disputes because someone is 'using the scouter wrong’ and Mai is dragged in to adjudicate or fix what turns out to be perfectly functional hardware… Bulma put her foot down very quickly on getting drawn into these arguments. Even the old guard cannot contain their curiosity and will play with them at parties for old times’ sake.

Realistically though, the live-feed technology is more a gimmick for us. We know each other well enough and are sadly so experienced that our gut reactions, whilst not quantifiable, are usually correct. In actuality, the technology as a whole continues to be developed for future use. It would be well-suited for personal status trackers across a large group to be fed back to a control hub, or to help tailor training for new ki-users to maximise their efforts.

“New ki-users”. For those who haven’t flicked to later chapters that phrase must be torture to read right now. I understand. This section now closes the ‘brief’ chapter on the theoretical framework behind ki and we will now move onto the practical elements. You can breathe. Speaking of, if you have been working on those centring exercises I’d hope you’d have found your centre by now, have fantastic posture and felt the first hints of the natural flow of genki with your breath. This is preparation that will, in the coming chapter, pay dividends.

Ah. During this chapter I did promise you a particular story. I hadn’t forgotten, nor have I left it deliberately late to tease. I wanted to put myself, friends and family in a wider context before tackling it lest there is any misunderstanding after. I also wanted to put the story front and centre in the textbook chapter I believe will be the most read because of the tale’s significance - not just to world history or tangentially to ki but to me.  

The story’s about the Cell Games, and how I came to be that little boy on the hill.

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[medieval-women]

Fredegund

Queen Consort of Neustria (western Francia)

Born ? - Died 597 CE

Claim to Fame: A brutal and formidable queen, best know for her forty year feud with her sister-in-law, Queen Brunhild of Austrasia.

Background: High-ranking women in Merovingian Gaul could hold substantial wealth and status in the fifth and sixth centuries which enabled them to exercise significant social, political and religious influence.

Born into a low-ranking family, Fredegund was a servant to the first wife of King Chilperic I of Neustria, Audovera. She seduced Chilperic and convinced him to divorce and expel Audovera. Chilperic then married a wealthy second wife, Galsuenda, but she soon died and was swiftly replaced as queen by Fredegund. Stories of Galsuenda’s death vary but it is believed that she spoke out against the immorality of Chilperic’s court so the King and his favourite mistress, Fredegund, had her strangled in bed. The powerful Queen Brunhild of Austrasia was both the sister-in-law of Chilperic (she was married to his brother) and the sister of Galsuenda. Brunhild’s fury at her sister’s death sparked a feud between the once unified houses of Austrasia and Neustria that spanned over forty years. The rivalry between Brunhild and Fredegund was particularly bitter and lead their families through generations of conflict.

Fredegund is represented in primary sources as a particularly violent woman who used her desirability to manipulate and corrupt those around her. She frequently contracted assassins as well as torturing, maiming and killing opponents. Among her many alleged misdeeds, Fredegund was suspected of ordering the assassination of Brunhild’s husband, Sigebert I, and attempting to assassinate Brunhild’s son Childebert II, her brother-in-law Guntram of Burgundy, and even Brunhild herself. In a jealous rage, she even attempted to murder her own daughter, Rigunth, by slamming the lid of a chest down on her neck as she reached for the jewelry inside. However, her violence was not limited to royal family members, and included a number of officials, clergymen and locals. In a classic example, Fredegund attempted to quell a dispute between kinsmen but ‘when she failed to reconcile them with gentle words she tamed them on both sides with the ax’ by inviting them to a feast and having them all murdered. Her formidable reputation served her well and she manipulated all levels of society through the fear of her fury.

When a dysentery epidemic struck her husband and two of her sons in 580 CE, Fredegund was plunged into remorse. Believing the epidemic was punishment for her sins, she burned unfair tax records and donated to the church and the poor after her sons succumbed to the disease.

In 584 CE, her husband, Chilperic, was mysteriously assassinated and Fredegund sought refuge in the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. She died of natural causes 8 December 597 in Paris and is entombed in Saint Denis Basilica.

Several years after Fredegund’s death, her son Clothar II defeated Brunhild in battle and, despite the Queen being in her late sixties, he had her stretched on the rack for three days and then torn apart by four horses. Such was the bitterness of their familial enmity.

Note: The main source for Fredegund’s life is Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks. Gregory was patronised by Queen Brunhild so his depictions of her qualities and the evils of her rival, Fredegund, are likely biased. Other sources recognise Fredegund’s brutality but treat her and Brunhild more equitably.

~ Much of this mini-bio is based on an essay of mine, so please PM me for sources.