#wip: train story: supplemental

[sleepyowlwrites]

Sleepy, darling, it's Blorbo Blursday, and I need to hear more about Sebastian and Lunetta. 8) How would you describe their aesthetics? Like, paint me a moodboard with words. 8) 8)

Sebastian is a lazy fashionista, so he wears clothing that fits him very well and that invidually stand out, but puts them together in a haphazard fashion.

he wears a lot of button down tees in every kind of print, but especially stripes, florals and fun ones with mushrooms or cats. he wears skinny and straight jeans in several flavors of brown, green, and grey, and always matches his shoes to his shirt. he favors casual shoes and oxfords, but is not adverse to a boot here and there. he never leaves home without a jacket, even if it's sweltering outside, because he needs to be able to layer and because his favorite articles of clothing are jackets, and he has so many of them, so he has to wear them to justify it. he has leather jackets, bombers, trench coats, sport jackets, cardigans, peacoats, asymmetrical hoodie things, you name it.

he has pierced ears and wears a lot of small golden hoops but also funny studs with alien heads or knives or whatever. his hair is chestnut, and grown to his shoulders during the winter, and he trims it for summertime, but it still falls to his chin. he'll wear it half up or in a small ponytail when he's hot.

Sebastian wears gold, wire-rimmed square-ish glasses, but also has a pair of green and gold plastic frames, and a white-marbled pair as well, both of which he wears less often and when he's in need of a change. he owns contacts but rarely wears them.

in the winter he wears scarves and beanies and fingerless gloves, and he always has a camera on him even when he's not working, because he's a fellow who likes to capture a good shot whenever.

that's Sebastian.

Lunetta wears bright and bold colors, and her hair is usually some bright shade. she changes it about twice a year. in the beginning of the story she's a shade of softer mauve but by the end she's sporting an electric blue.

she wears a lot of cute tops with high-waisted pants or leggings, and also overalls and rompers. she likes a fun pattern graphic tees with pop culture references or cute illustrations. she wears almost exclusively sneakers, usually a sporty brand in a multitude of colors. she favors blues, pinks, and greens the most. she's always wearing multiple accessors, be it bows in her hair, earrings, bracelets, rings, fun bags, belts, etc. she's very eye-catching and likes to smile at herself when she sees her reflection. she dresses to make herself happy and it works. her nails are always in shades of neon, and multicolored to go with any outfit.

she doesn't wear dark colors, really, and uses white to break up all the color she's sporting. she doesn't like to be too hot, so only wears a jacket if it's cold enough to warrant one. her coats are bright colors, too.

Lunetta likes experiementing with colored contact lenses, but mostly sticks to her glasses, either her round silver ones or the bright blue ones with the screw that comes loose. she accessorizes with her makeup too, preferring bold lip and eye colors to neutral or smoky looks. she's a bright personality and dresses like it.

she always has a drink with her, usually a cold one, and consumes so much caffeine it's a wonder that she gets any sleep. she has this in common with Sebastian.

Lunetta's world is bright and saturated, full of blues and pinks, and Sebastian's is also saturated, but in richer tones, greens and purples. Lunetta's world is accented in white, Sebastian's is accented in black. she's living in vibrancy, he's living in emphasis. she's sparkling, he's sophisticated. she's looking up at the sky, he's staring at the horizon.

Lunetta is all warm blues, Sebastian is all cool orange. and they meet on a train, and they're the same.

thanks for asking, Breezy!

[tigerlilynoh]

For the WIP ask game: Game Night of the Gods

Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Charlie are made the avatars/pawns/characters in a game of Dungeons and Dragons orchestrated by Gabriel and four gods. I’m writing it as absurd garbage candy. I’ve given myself permission/the challenge of going as stupid and vulgar as possible with it. There’s no explicit sex, but it does ask important questions like, “Do Dragonborn have a cloaca?” … That’s the level of content I’m shooting for with this incredibly-fun-to-write train wreck. It’s been my silly sandbox when I need to get away from the angst that heavily populates my other works.

The goal is to finish writing part one (a complete story arc), then post one “session” every Friday night to AO3. Parts two and three are being worked on at the same time, but with a lower priority since part one is capable of being a standalone story, so I won’t feel bad about releasing it on its own in order to get something out sooner. My stretch goal is to also post some supplemental materials including character sheets, character artwork, dungeon maps, monster stat blocks, etc.

Snippet from part one, specifically character generation:

Gabriel’s disembodied voice smugly announced, “Tiefling.”

In an instant Sam’s body had changed. The basic skeletal structure of his face and overall proportions were the same, but that was about all that could be said for the similarities. His skin was rust-colored. A large pair of horns protruded from his hairline, beginning with a red hue, very much like his skin, that faded into a dark purple as the horns curled and tapered like a ram’s. White paint linework contrasted against the dark horns. His eyes were solid black and his teeth were fangs. From a new slit in the back of his pants descended a tail nearly five feet long.

Sam yelled at the sky, “It was ten fucking years ago!”

Both Dean and Charlie’s mouths hung open in shock at the transformation. After shaking the stupor from his mind, Dean managed to say, “What the hell?”

Sam glowered, making his black eyes glow a bit as if there were embers inside. “It’s a joke. Tieflings have some devil or demon blood in them. I’m gonna murder Gabriel.”

[i-like-eyes]

DevLog 2

We are at log 2 and real life has already got in the way. As I don't got a lot to show off I'll post some non-spoilery asset stuff and hide the rambling under read more.

While I did get a good chunk of the script done, there is still plenty of dialogue I need to get to. As a result, I didn't get any maps done. I'm trying to make this game with RPG Paper Maker's strengths in mind, but every once in awhile I'll realize I made an assumption of what the engine can do and the script has to be put on pause because of it. For example, a lot of this game I had already planned out having pictures on screen for more cinematic scenes. Literally two days ago I realized I don't actually know how to do that in the engine. Thankfully there is a Discord for RPGPM and the people there have been a huge help.

To supplement my question I had drawn a reference of what I meant; it's nothing significant I just think it looks funny.

I'm probably not going to show off the script itself because words on a doc isn't terribly interesting. Here are talk sprites in the mean time.

In order they are Holly, Jim, and Micheal. I might talk more about them next month.

Grant herself I debating making a talk sprite for, I probably will in the end but I'm wondering if how she reacts in those sections should be left up to the player to interpret. I'm thinking about how you see Phoenix clearly while in a courtroom because of the more cinematic approach to that section of the game, but when talking to other characters you don't see his face; instead the characters are talking directly to you because it's more personal. That (and a stupid amount of over analyzing the portraits of FE13-16 because FETH criticism is fucking weird) contributed to the npcs in this game looking directly at you. Also because horror game, things are supposed to be a bit unnerving. If Grant had a sprite she wouldn't look at the player because you are playing as he;, she should reflect the fact that you are looking at the npcs.

While this is the first game I've taken really seriously as a personal project, it's development cycle still throws me off because of what I've done beforehand for school.

It's weird, normally when making a game I'd focus on gameplay first and story last. I've done a handful of small scale projects at school, and the number one thing teachers drill into your head is to have the gameplay and the narrative play off each other. Most students go in with this epic idea for a story and only really want to make it a game because games are cool, not that they think they can have the gameplay enhance the plot. This combined with a lot of demos we made were based on popular genres (FPS for example) meant our development cycle looked a lot like gameplay first then story built to compliment that. My other game ideas either looked like that or smth more equally balanced, I think of a story element and a gameplay element I thought of happens to compliment that, but I've never had to come up with the majority of the plot first then the gameplay afterwards. Part of it was trying to discourage students from doing that, because they tend to have far too ambitious plotlines in mind. The other part was like fucking hell they are teaching us that weird niche visual novel shit because we are being trained to work for some company's Toronto division pumping out sequels.

But ultimately I've just never had an idea like this one before. Half my game ideas are fighting games and the rest are platformers, puzzle games, etc. I have thought of two -ish TRPG's, and briefly came up with a couple of other visual novel ideas, but they never stuck with me as long as the likes of Red Spikey Hair Guy Needs To Let Out Some Anger The Platformer (WIP name). If that title is any indication, the plot isn't my main concern for that game yet. That's because I want to figure out the gameplay more before I further flesh the story out because I want it to blend together. And then it gets put on hold because I forget how to program. Anyways, with Riverside there is very minimal gameplay. The reason why it is still a game and not just a comic or smth is because I think it is very important that you are put in the shoes of a patient at a nursing home, because you can't really get the same empathy with any other medium. Or hell, you don't get that same experience in real life until it's too late.

[kmlaney]

14 Days of Storybible: Day 3

Methods of travel:

How do your characters move across the setting where your story takes place? What preparations do they have to make? Do they have a favorite way of getting around?

Bonus: Sketch out a moment where something went wrong during travel.

@the-wip-project 

In Mistlands, most travel is on foot, on horseback, or in animal-drawn carts and carriages. In the less hospitable places outside of the lake valley, these are pretty much the only means of travel. In the north, animal-drawn may include dogs or large, semi-domesticated deer. In the south, horses, mules, and oxen are typical. 

Most people in rural areas know how to ride horses, though whether they own or have access to one is less universal. Driving a team is a rarer, though not uncommon skill. The larger the team, the fewer people are likely to know how to manage them. A teamster familiar with horses may not know how to drive oxen, and vice versa. 

Southern areas have limited train travel. They connect large towns only. Smaller towns connect via coach services on regular routes, and the roads they travel range in quality from ‘smooth, graded, and well-metalled’ to ‘move the biggest rocks and maybe pull out the brush and call it good.’ Station managers dispatch crews to repair damaged road, but how well they do so and how quickly depends on the whims of the stage company and the personality of the station manager.

The lake valley contains the largest towns and cities. Train travel here is more reliable and common and supplemented with airships. Good roads are common and in good repair. Passengers and freight move by boat on the rivers and around the shore of the lake. All the vessels have trained pilots, usually drawn from the ranks of smaller, similar vessel pilots and taught on the job. The vast majority started out as apprentices, either formal (a contracted arrangement) or informal (it’s the family business). Coaches fill in for the distances between towns not served by rail.

In the largest cities, one will find technological marvels such as personal steam-powered vehicles, mechanical horses, autonomous carts, velocipedes, and the like. For trips within town people employ carriages, rickshaws, or palanquins, all of which are available to hail from the street or engage at stands and carry varying numbers of passengers. Depending on the city the proportions skew toward animal, human, or mechanically powered, though all are present. City-dwellers are unlikely to know how to ride, and unless they operate a for-hire conveyance they won’t know how to drive at all. 

Phil’s seen trains but never ridden one. They know about rowboats, rafts, and canoes from personal experience, but larger boats and ships only from descriptions and drawings in newspapers and novels. Travelers told them about the lake and the sea, but bodies of water that large are inconceivable. They’ve heard of airships and other modern marvels but never seen any of them. 

In life, Phil was quite fond of animals in general and horses and mules in particular. They enjoyed caring for them, riding, and driving, though they didn't routinely drive more than two-in-hand. Death complicated matters. Humans might be easily fooled but animals turn snappish and irritable toward Phil regardless of how well they’re treated. They’ve lost two mounts already. Phil won’t bother wasting any more money than they have to on an animal they’re not likely to have long. Their current mule is deaf and mostly blind, named Lucky, as in “it’ll be Lucky if it don't run off.” He hates everyone but Phil, and he doesn’t like Phil all that much. 

The Dragon and Agnes Gister

Agnes Gister was a ferry pilot on Little Lake, east of Starlight up the Mistborn, near the big Blue Spur river. She learned the trade from her father and inherited the ferry when he passed. It was a pretty thing, bright green with its name, Opalina, painted proudly on its bow in gold. She ran the ferry with her wife Meridith and their passel of children, each assigned tasks according to their age and abilities. They were a well-known fixture on Little Lake.

Everyone knows the stories about the creatures in the lake. Everyone believes them, even if they won't admit to believing the more outlandish ones. The creatures were supposed to stay in the lake, though, the big lake. Starlight Lake. Strange shapes in Little Lake? That’s an eel, or a log, or weed. School of fish, maybe. Definitely not a lost lake creature. Most assuredly not.

It was their last trip of the day, heading back home to their little house on the Blue Spur side of Little Lake. Meridith and most of the children were already there. Agnes had a skeleton crew of the four oldest with her and only a single passenger, a location scout for Walter Green’s Traveling Warehouse. 

The sky was purple and the stars began to poke bright holes in the canopy when they felt the thump. The water was deep and cold with mountain runoff; lantern fishers had yet to put out; nothing had gone down recently. There was nothing to hit. One of the crew--a boy big enough to start out on his own if he wanted--ordered the rest to check for loose line hanging over the side or a buoy gone adrift, while he went to tell Agnes.

The thump came again, from the other side this time. Agnes had the boy dial the engine to minimum and turned the Opalina into the Little Lake’s slow current to hold station. She assigned another to hold the wheel and keep the ferry steady in place while she investigated. 

The children reported there was nothing amiss. All gear was secure and they saw no debris in the water. Agnes peered over the side herself into the indigo depths of Little Lake. She saw a shadow. A shadow that moved. Sinuous but too large for an eel. Too solid to be a school of fish. And dark, so dark it stood out against the background to her experienced eye as wrong, but nothing else. She asked for a lantern to put out over the water in order to see better. 

The light illuminated a pale violet circle beside Opalina’s green side. The water was clearer than it usually was during the melt, when upstream wash brought down all kinds of sediment. As Agnes puzzled over the mystery, the boat rocked with another thump, this time quite clearly from the keel, and the creature swam into the light. 

Its face was a combination of dog and horse, with a long snout and nostrils clamped shut. Weed or hair drifted from its chin and jowls and flowed around its head like a mane. The body stretched out behind, thick and round, legs folded up tight, with a stiff fin along its spine and black irregular stripes on either side. The skin surrounding them shimmered green, blue, and violet, changeable as the water it swam in. It turned that hideous head up toward the light and its eyes, faceted like jewels with neither pupil nor white, shone red and fixed on Agnes. Lips pulled back revealing a maw full of translucent teeth crammed together with no space between them.

Agnes jerked back, bringing the light with her but it was too late. The teeth came over the rail first, snout and nostrils following after. Then the eyes, the great faceted eyes, seeking the light and the person who held it. A six-fingered hand with talons like knives seized the wooden rail. The Opalina dipped to the side with the added weight. A second hand appeared beside the first. Its finned neck rose up behind its head. Its mane hung wet and dripping, flooding the deck with cold lake water. It opened its jaws and flicked a forked tongue the color of unripe apples toward Agnes and the lantern. She ordered the crew--her children, all of them--to collect their passenger and make for the stern and fire the rescue flare. Then she tossed the lantern toward the bow to distract the creature while she joined them. 

The horrible head with its unnatural eyes followed the light. The glass broke and phosphor oil flooded out, coating the deck in foxfire. Then a third hand came over the side. Opalina lurched as the creature heaved its bulk over the rail and onto the deck.

As lake creatures go, it was small. Maybe twenty feet long from its now-gaping-wide nostrils to the tip of its tail still hanging off the side. But Opalina itself was only sixty feet long and fifteen in beam. Almost too small to stay afloat if the thing hauled all the way out, which was what it seemed intent on doing. Three pairs of legs and their taloned feet scrabbled and clawed the little ferry’s polished deck. A fourth set shoved against the abused rail, levering the body out of the water. It opened its mouth and its tongue lapped out to sample the glowing phosphor. It hissed in distaste and sought out new prey more to its liking. 

That was the moment the rescue flare went up. Blue-white against the darkening sky, followed by a red one, together the signal for a vessel capsizing. Little Lake had no signal for creature attack. There had never been one. The light was ill-timed. The beast fixated on the glow. It spotted the six people gathered on the stern and slithered toward them.

“Where’s your lake gun?” the passenger asked.

Agnes stared at him. “We don’t have one.” They didn’t. Why would they? No monsters lived in Little Lake. The biggest fish were no longer than her arm.

They heard a sharp splintering sound as the rail gave way beneath the creature’s weight.

The passenger sucked in a breath. “I’ll check in the back,” he said, and darted off through the door into the pilot house. He reappeared a moment later with a massive, double-barreled lake gun. “Here!” he yelled, pushing the weapon into Agnes’s hands.

The awful head with its dripping head and gemstone eyes passed the corner of the pilot house. One forepaw gripped the rail. The other pushed off the corner. Its forked tongue darted out toward the people clustered at the stern.

Agnes had never fired a gun in her life aside from the signal flares. She had seen it done, of course, but she was a ferry pilot, not a hunter. Still, she shouldered the weapon as best she knew how, heaved it to bear on the creature threatening her family, and pulled both triggers.

The gun flashed brighter than the flare and the report was deafening. The stock slammed into her collarbone, shattering it. Smoke clouded her view of anything beyond the end of the barrels. 

There was a wet gurgle and the monstrous head fell to the deck with a loud thump. The creature inched its way toward the group, teeth gnashing. But it didn't make it. It slowed to a stop with only a few feet to spare. The apple-green tongue lolled out and came to rest on Agnes’s shoe.

She stood stock-still for a moment. The passenger plucked the still-smoking gun from her hands. “I’ll just put this away, shall I?” He disappeared into the pilot house, and returned without it.

By the time the harbor patrol aid ship pulled alongside, the children already had Agnes’s arm in a sling. The doctor wrapped it further to prevent movement but it took half a year to heal. She never recovered full use of her arm. 

Opalina did not capsize. Hauled back into port, the community contributed funds for its repair. By fall, about the time Agnes was on the mend, it put back out on its familiar route with their eldest son at the helm. 

The creature attracted curious visitors from miles around until it rotted and the stench forced a hasty disposal. All attempts at preservation--salt, alcohol, alchemical preparations--failed to halt its decay. 

With the attraction gone, the mayor commissioned a sculpture of the beast. It graces the green in the village square with a bronze plaque commemorating Agnes’s heroism. The two lead balls Agnes fired at it serve as its eyes. It is an impressive feature, if not exactly accurate.

The passenger vanished into the crowd, presumably continuing his work for Walter Green’s Traveling Warehouse. The lake gun, which all agreed was of Old Testament Arms manufacture and given the size of the shot recovered from the carcass most likely their 2-bore Moses model (guaranteed to part the seas), was not found anywhere on the Opalina. No one recalled seeing the passenger take it with him. It seemed to have vanished completely. 

The harbor patrol established two red flares as the signal for a lake creature attack. It’s never been used in the years since. 

It’s said that Agnes rose Anathema later, but that’s a different tale.

[mjmnorwood]

Worldbuilding questions! In your world... What is medicine typically like? Advanced or primitive? Traditionally based or more modern-like? Who are the medical practitioners, and how are they treated by society? | How are visuals recorded? Photography, painting, sculptures, or other mediums? What materials are typically used? How accessible are these to the general populace? | What do people use as a light source aside from the sun? Fire, electricity, magic? Or do they not need light?

Eeee thank you for these!

1) Medicine

Medicine is a big thing in my WIP as Syra, the MC, is an apothecary’s apprentice (also I just find it a fascinating area so I tend to include it a lot in my writing). Medicine in Ildafir is practised with the same resources that would be available in medieval Europe, but with a higher base of knowledge. They know about infection control⁠—things like using saline to clean wounds and sterilising tools before use (though knowledge hasn’t advanced enough that they know about microbes, so they see heating their tools as a form of blessing).

Medicine is practised by apothecaries, surgeons, and midwives, who all receive training in guilds. These professions are generally regarded as middle-class. In more isolated areas, things are less formalised, and healers tend to not get specific training, rather they act on general knowledge.

Apothecaries are experts in making medicines, and many supplement their incomes by making cosmetics and perfumes as well. Surgeons deal with operations and wound care. Midwives specialise in births and the health of babies and pregnant people. The boundaries between these three occupations are a bit blurry, e.g. Syra also helps at a birth (a midwife’s speciality), and suturing is included in her training (a skill more commonly associated with surgeons).

At the time the story is set, university-educated doctors are only just starting to emerge. Astrinity, the principle religion in Ildafir, is focused on heavenly bodies, so earthly professions (like medicine) tend to be seen as less scholarly. As a result, medicine has only recently become an option in universities.

2) Visuals and Imagery

Again, the technology is at a medieval European level (mostly 14th-15th century inspired but I grab from all over). Painting, tapestry, and sculpture are the most well-regarded methods of recording images, but they are expensive. Woodblock printing is the primary way the masses can get hold of images, as lots of copies can be made from one block, so this form of art is much cheaper. Painters, sculptors, and woodblock printers all tend to be trained in guilds, whereas tapestry is seen as the pursuit of noblewomen.

3) Light sources

Rushlights, oil lamps, and candles are all available as light sources (with rushlights being the cheaper end of things and fine beeswax candles the most expensive). For the most part, these are the only things available; however, some mages specifically have the ability to control light (these are called luxmages). Luxmages can cast light that is much cleaner and brighter than that from non-magical sources, but as mages are quite rare, this is not an option available to most people.

[gffa]

Every time I try to sum up why I love STAR WARS fandom and the fic so much, I’m just sort of at a loss and can only flail wildly in the direction of about three dozen different fics to encompass everything that is just so good. Sometimes I want happy fic, sometimes I want fic that will break my heart further, sometimes I want to focus on the characters that don’t get enough story (LEIA ORGANA AND PADME AMIDALA BOTH DESERVE MORE STORY, ALSO PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT APHRA AND BREHA AND MORE) or I want to roll around in shippy feelings, sometimes I want to read time travel fix it fic, sometimes I want a completely different universe! And Star Wars fic really provides so, so many different things, that there should hopefully be at least something for almost everyone, no matter what you’re here for! I have a lot of love for this fandom and I just want to share it with everyone! So, here, please read a bunch of fic and cry from feelings with me. STAR WARS FIC RECS: PREQUELS RECS: ✦ The Uses of a Sandwich by Laura Kaye (laurakaye), obi-wan & qui-gon & oc & cast, 17.6k    A few months after being taken as a Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi faces a challenge: meeting his Master’s first apprentice. ✦ Ghosts of the Present by randomlyimagine, plo & aayla & jedi & cast, 5k wip    Every single Jedi killed during Order 66 becomes a Force ghost, often before their bodies even hit the floor. ✦ Soaked by CJinn, obi-wan & cast, 1.8k    Little Obi-Wan Kenobi is left behind in the garden during a rainshower. Oneshot. ✦ Night Shift at the Temple by ReneeoftheStars, oc jedi & cast, 1.8k    A Jedi Temple Guard sees all, speaks to few, and has attachments to no one. One must be prepared for any threats that may arise, especially at night, while most of the Temple sleeps. ✦ Problems with the Neighbors by spaceyquill, obi-wan & ahsoka, 1.1k    Ahsoka visits Obi-Wan for the first time on Tatooine and gets wrapped up in a sudden scheme against the local Jawas. ✦ Frayed At The Edges by zed_pm, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k    Anakin counts Obi-Wan’s wounds. ✦ Jedi of Light by Sannah, obi-wan/anakin/padme & mace & yoda & plo & even & jocasta & cast, 7k wip    Out of irritation with the war and with permission from the Council, several talk show hosts create a show that airs weekly about the Jedi. They name the show *Jedi of Light,* and go around following Jedi and asking them questions. ✦ Every Moment Points Toward the Aftermath by HiNerdsItsCat (HiLarpItsCat), obi-wan & anakin/padme & palpatine & mace & cast, 5.9k    In a strange sort of way, this is the story of how, in the final days of the Clone Wars, Mace Windu saved the galaxy by taking a nap. ✦ untitled by elfpen, obi-wan & qui-gon, 3.1k    Anonymous asked: if you’re still accepting prompts: smol padawan obi-wan letting slip his law abiding exterior and letting loose the terrifying intensity beneath it. preferably in defense of qui-gon or something. ✦ Shadows of Dathomir by Artemis1000, asajj/padme, 3.5k    Hunted by the Emperor, Padmé Amidala needs a sanctuary for herself and her newborn twins. Asajj Ventress is an unlikely protector and Dathomir an even more unlikely sanctuary, but beggars can’t be choosers. It’s a sensible arrangement. Padmé certainly hadn’t expected that she would ever care so much. ✦ Falling Upwards by Pandora151, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 1.8k    He didn’t exactly remember how he ended up here. He remembered returning to the apartment after a long Council meeting. He remembered thinking about making himself some tea because of the headache that pounded in his skull. ✦ Sith of Old by esama, obi-wan & anakin & asajj & ahsoka & rex & asssassin’s creed characters, crossover, 22.6k wip    In which generals Skywalker and Kenobi investigate an Ancient Sith Temple and Desmond Miles isn’t really a Sith, promise. ✦ still burning by skatzaa, ahsoka/kaeden, 2.9k    “Sith spit,” she hisses, reaching out and jabbing at the far wall of the ‘fresher with her free hand until the water turns off entirely. The skin on her arm and shoulder is tender and inflamed when she steps out into the rest of the room, dripping water on the durasteel floor. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, yoda & ellé & cast, 1.2k    Worried, Yoda is. Brought up a terrible thought, his conversation with young Skywalker and Tano did. ✦ yoda would vape send tweet by destiny919, yoda & mace, ~1k    A few years before even the Battle of Naboo, Master Yoda agrees to retire as Grand Master of the Order. ✦ To Live and Die and Live Again by AriesOnMars, ahsoka/barriss, 12.9k    Ahsoka has escaped from the Sith Temple with the knowledge of who Darth Vader truly is and she begins to seek help to understand what it was that could change him so completely. Intel leads her to believe Barriss is still alive and Ahsoka goes to find her, thinking that by undestanding her former friend’s fall from grace she can better understand her Master’s. ✦ The will of the Force by Lysore, obi-wan & yoda & qui-gon, 2.7k    Obi-Wan piqued Yoda’s interest early on, except the Grand Master of the Order had known for just as long that the Initiate was destined to be Qui-Gon Jinn’s Padawan. OBI-WAN/ANAKIN RECS: ✦ Alcohol and demonic rituals don’t mix by anecdotalist, obi-wan/anakin, supernatural au, modern au, 1.4k    Written for the prompt: “Do you guys hear the demonic frat-chanting outside too?” ✦ Bedroom Hymns by JediMistress, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, spanking, bondage, bdsm, d/s, 16k wip    Anakin Skywalker is a young student with some kinky interests, and his search for a Dom leads him to Obi-Wan, a former professional. Obi-Wan has retired, but their purely professional kinky relationship changes the lives of both men. How long can they keep it professional? And what happens when they start falling for each other? ✦ One touch and I ignite by Paper_cut, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & padme & cast, nsfw, 59k    Anakin makes a bit different choices, and learns better communication. So does Obi-Wan. Eventually. ✦ Passionate Reunion by bluebell26, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 2.4k    Obi-Wan comes back to the Jedi Temple after a dangerous mission. In the privacy of their shared apartment, he meets with Anakin, with whom he shares a secret relationship, and passion ensues. ✦ Upfall by bell (belldreams), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & obi-wan/satine & ahsoka & cast, NSFW, 27.2k wip    Anakin is doing just about everything he can to hold himself together; it won’t last. ✦ Across the Darkness by xpityx, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & clones & cast, 12.4k wip    Obi-Wan knew they had hit the temple’s inner security measures when Anakin went from calm to clutching both Obi-Wan and his lightsaber between one step and the next. ✦ Drums in the deep by liv_k, obi-wan/anakin & cast, 6.5k    On the inside, Anakin was devoured by his own inner fire. A moth to the flame, Obi-Wan knew that sooner or later he would be caught in the firestorm too. ✦ Maintenance by orphan_account, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, spanking, ~1k    Written for the FFA 1000 Prompt and Fill Fest. Obi-Wan ends up with Anakin over his lap and learns a new trick. ✦ Stability by SingManyFaces, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, mild d/s, mild bondage implied, ~1k    Anakin loves it when Obi-Wan quiets the noise in his head, Obi-Wan loves taking care of him after. ✦ You Don’t Know the Hair of the Dark Side by SmileAndASong, obi-wan/anakin & luke & leia, modern au, 3.5k    Obi-Wan comes home one night and discovers that Luke decided to give Anakin an impromptu haircut. Why? To defeat the dark side, of course. ✦ Penciling in sleep by anecdotalist, obi-wan/anakin, 2.6k    It’s two years after the Battle of Geonosis. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Jedi War General and leads the GAR. Anakin Skywalker had just been Knighted 6 months ago after completing supplemental healer training under Master Che and is now the Commander of the Relief and Support Forces. He’s just returned from a trip and learned that Obi-Wan has not been taking care of himself so he takes matters into his own hands. ✦ untitled by subskywalker, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 1k    Obi-Wan kissed his shoulders as he settled behind him. “Oh, dear one, you’re so very beautiful like this. You’re such a good boy for me Anakin.” ✦ Rumpled Collar by Corde_And_Dorme, obi-wan/padme (/anakin?) & cast, white collar fusion, 3.4k    The White Collar! AU that absolutely NOBODY asked for except one Discord channel like… months ago. ORIGINAL TRILOGY RECS: ✦ cinched by spookykingdomstarlight, aphra & padme, 4.7k    The woman leaned forward and folded her hands over her knees. “What would it take? For you to tell me about him?” ✦ Coming Home by Ljparis, bail/breha & leia, 1.4k    Wherein Bail returns home to Alderaan from Coruscant and brings with him surprises for both his wife and daughter. ✦ Endings and Beginnings by AngelQueen, bail/brehan & leia & cast, 2k    Leia is four hours old the first time Bail holds her. ✦ The Forking Path by McBangle, obi-wan & leia & cast, 1.6k    Leia Skywalker had long known there was more to Ben Kenobi than her Uncle Owen had told her. Once she realized that her aunt and uncle didn’t want her to ask about the strange hermit, she was too stubborn not to track him down. ✦ The Joy of Cooking by victoria_p (musesfool), obi-wan & anakin & leia & kanan & finn, 1.5k    “Cooking is like flying. Once you’ve got the basics down, you just do what feels right.” ✦ Salvage by celeste9, obi-wan/owen/beru & luke, 1k    Luke takes to rescuing the abandoned droids of Tatooine, much to the perplexity of his guardians. ✦ At Sunrise on the Forest Moon by victoria_p (musesfool), luke & ahsoka, ~1k    She finds her way to Luke’s side at the site of Vader’s pyre, after the flames have died down to embers. SEQUELS RECS: ✦ Coins, Flasks, Sabers, Staves by Meggory, rey & chewbacca & r2-d2 & lando & maz & hondo & cast, 5.8k    Chewie and Rey set out from D'Qar to find Luke Skywalker, but that bantha’s arse can wait, because Chewie has something he has to do, first. ✦ a gate to many wonders by melannen, luke & yoda & han & anakin & ben & cast, force ghosts, 3.6k    Dying, for a Jedi Master in the line of Yoda, was a gentle thing. or “Hi, Not Listening To This Anymore,” Han said, appearing suddenly. “I’m dead.” ✦ Mother and Child Reunion by victoria_p (musesfool), leia & ben, 1.3k    “I’m your mother and I will always love you, but I can’t save you from this path you’ve chosen. Only you can do that.” ✦ out of the dust by maplemood, han & rey & chewbacca & ben, 3.1k    He drops by Jakku for a steal on old engine parts and leaves with a half-starved, more than half-feral child. FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE!

[prompts-and-micro-stories]

Okay guys, I’ve decided to post something longer for a change, because sometimes one gets ideas for story bits that you feel are intriguing, but there is no way you can integrate this in one of your WIPs. So not to forget them I inserted just enough stuff around that it works as a rough outline for a story. Will this ever be turned into a final product? Who knows, but at least I won’t forget the idea ;)  Of course if I feel like there is substantial interest I might put some more time into this.

The story takes place in a fantasy world (it does not really need many elements to work, just that there is no modern tech and that the divine is a tangible real influence). Demons are a constant thread for this world, that’s why there are places where people are instructed to become paladins, which fight those and close the rifts where they step into the world. Anyone can enter the school, but to succeed you need to pass on a series of tests which don’t only include fighting skills but also things like history and the like. Paladins are held to a very high standard.

Our protagonist is one that wants to become a paladin, but she has a hard time with school. She’s not dumb, but just can’t manage to concentrate properly on her text studies and she also gets constantly distracted by minor shit happening around her during physical lessons. Just looking at her personality would suggest she’ll make for a fine paladin; but all those constant mistakes take a huge toll on her sense of self-worth; not only do others tell her constantly that she ought be much farther in her studies, but she herself constantly compares herself to others which seem to have a worse starting point, but do manage to do so much better.

The story starts in the week before a big test, one that the protagonist cannot under any circumstances allow herself to fail, because that would be the end of her dream; but despite her trying even harder than usual and isolating herself from her peers to get less distracted she feels like concentrating just gets harder.

But then things get massively shaken up when a message arrives at the school. Some cult has build a massive portal to the demonic realm. They could shatter the group, but there is not way to destroy that portal until it opens up in a few days, spewing out a giant demonic army. On te plus side they now know of this, so they can assemble their own troupes to fight back the moment they emerge. But even when using not only every paladin and paladin-in-training available things are looking extremely grim.

So the higher ups send up their prayers to the gods, asking for their divine help, and indeed, they recieve an answer in the form of a messenger angel.

The angel explains that they cannot directly supplement the proper paladins, just those in training and even this not for free, because of cosmic balance reasons.

The angel gives them instructions: Everyone viable can get a divine tool in exchange for something that they are willing to sacrifice for the goal. To do so they need to write the things (which don’t have to be tangible objects) on a blessed piece of paper that they have to keep with them; it will transform into a divine tool when the time is near; the more precious the god considers the pledge to be (and the more honest the intentions seem), the more powerful the tool they recieve can be.

The protagonist is eager to participate, but has a very, very hard time to decide what to pledge. All her worldly possessions seem not good enough and promising to to some service just does not seem adequate (in the light of her self-worth). So she starts writing down what she thinks of all of this, and finally comes to a conclusion and pledges the only thing that comes to her mind that seems to have at least a tiny bit of value for the good, at least theoretically.

(At this point the readers are not told what she pledges.)

The day of the fight arrives and exacly like the angel had said, the papers start to turn into divine tools. The people who simply followed their guts get them first, while the people who take longer also need to wait longer.

Our protagonist is one of those who recieves a tool before the portal opens, but she’s determined to be let down by disappointment. Demons are invading, and even if the system has come to the conclusion she’s not worthy of becoming a proper paladin she still can fight.

She throws herself into battle and it turns out that automatically reacting to any little things happening around you is actually great if everyone and their mother is trying to kill you. The battle starts out great for the forces of good, but for each demon slain two new seems to pop out of the portal turning the tide of battle to their favour.

And just when the protagonist is sure that she won’t survive that next attack, finally her own divine tool, a sword, appears, just in time. She is not the only one to recieve it very late and three of the last ones stand out to be of a distinctly higher level than the ones dished out so far.

But that sword she got is awesome, too, emanating a cold so fierce it simply burns demons away. She does not really get the big picture, but with the appearance if those four tools the paladins’ side gets the upper hand back, and pushes the invasion back where it came from, sealing the portal, The victory is sweet, but an oath from a boss demon to return with an even bigger army leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Directly afterwards the messenger angel reappears and informs them that the proper collection of sacrifices will be postponed until after the second fight, but this who already can give should do so, because they’ll recieve new tools for the next fight (the old ones already disappeared) and showing their seriousness for their pledge ups their chances to be getting a good tool (or a worse one, if the payment is disappointing). People also can add to their pledge if they feel that this will make it more precious, but there is no compulsion to do so.

Suprisingly things turn back to business as usual afterwards, at least as far as the protagonist is concerned. She has no idea how to actually start paying off her pledge, and spends quite some time to think about what to do. In the end she decides to strive for self-improvement, because even if it does not count as payment, she still hopes that it pleases the god. She starts doing social services on top of studies, something a lot of the others also do, which does not make her stand out, which she thinks is a good thing.

She kinda feels like a fraud getting such a great tool in the first fight when her pledge still seems to her so worthless. 

The test is still on the horizon, and she learns for it, but her constantly nagging self-doubts are making it even harder to focus. On the day of the exam she even sleeps in, and hurries to it after the official starting time.

The examiner meets her with bewilderment and it turns out that she completely managed to miss the repeated announcement that everyone will get bonus points for that fight; and she is one of the four people who earned enough credits this way that the only way to fail the test would be to actively cheat. Not attending would result in a passing (but low) grade. (Turns out that her tool was one legendary sword called “Gefrierbrand” - which she would have found out herself if she had been able to learn her materials properly.)

The news hit her like a brick, and instead of feeling validated (because clearly the higher ups have interpreted this as her having the official approval of a god) her self-doubts grow stronger and she even starts questioning her faith.

Trying to make sense of things, she seeks out the other three that got high-level tools to find out how they are and what they pledged, hoping to find out more about herself in the process.

Turns out those three are also quite quirky and don’t have much in common with each other at first glance. Number one is extremely calm and collected and hardly fazed by anything. Number two is fierce and eager to figth, because that’s what makes them happy. Number three is a dedicated rules lawyer, determined to twist any rule they come across to its breaking point, to uncover hidden flaws.

On closer examination though, they turn out to have kinda similar pledges: Number one pledged “my gratitude” and spend now a while each day to think about stuff they feel grateful about. Number two pledged “my love” and now prepared little gestures and presents for the god, as if they were some person they’re dating. Number three pledged “my doubts” and now writes elaborate essays to sort out their thoughts.

The protagonist befriends those three (not on purpose, it just happens over time) and starts to regain a little bit piece of mind (because having good friends is awesome).

Time flies by and things seem to go the usual way, and the thread of the second invasion turns into a mere background thought, but a constantly nagging one. The protagonist manages to build up her sense of self worth slowly with encouragement from her friends and finally decides that she needs to stop worrying about how her pledge might have been missjudged. She’s doing her best and simply can’t offer more than that, so regardless of what tools she will get the second time, it should not be the sole thing that determines her value as a person, she needs to do that herself.

She even manages to deal with the expectations of the higher ups which think of her as some kind of trump card and count on her to pull out something legendary again. All the time she keeps her own pledge to herself and not even tells her friends.

The portal finally opens again, and the paladins’ army reassembles at the drop of a hat. Again, tools pop up and people recieve multiple ones this time, and our protagonist is among the first to get some, but they are worse than the gear she already has, so she puts them away. She groups with her friends, which unlike her are generously gifted again. But this time there are not the only ones, there are many high level tools on the battlefield this time, it’s now the norm, not an exception.

And how they need it! the onslaugh of demons is seemingly endless and paints the last battle as a piece of cake. The protagonist fights at her best, but is utterly outclassed without better tools, and only sheer determination and her friends keep her from immediatly joining the casualties.

Then the demons use their secret weapon: Their boss summons a thick darkness that wraps around anyone, stealing the light away and muting any sounds to a whispering. This turns the table into their favour immediately, because they are in no way incapicitated, so they start chipping away gleefully at the seriously incapacitated paladins.

Our protagonist loses her sword, and that’s the moment she had it. She starts cursing out like a sailor and angrily berating her good, even getting her current attacker to stop his charge because that emotional outbreak amuses them.

She starts complaining that she feels misstreated and that she does not deserve to be humilated this way, because she had done nothing that would justify first elevating her and then dropping her like a hot potatoe - and even if she had done something wrong this was still a shitty thing to do! This was not about someone worthy or not this was about stopping an invading army of demons and the god should stop from plaing dumb games and give them what they need to even the odds. She doesn’t want some superweapon, just a fair chance, because that was enough for a paladin. And if they had trouble with her they could wait till after the battle.

Another tool appears. It’s no weapon, just a big ring, gently glowing and filling one with a sense of hope and warmth. She recognizes what it is and decides on a whim to put it on, then attacking the nearest demon with her bare fists.

And with her determination the ring glows brighter and brigther, cutting through the darkness, marking her as a target, but also spotlightning the courage she found. She does almost now damage, but still feels her comrade with inspiration, enough to access their last reserves, and hitting back with all they got.

And then the fight is over. An eerie silence lies over the battlefield, until suddenly the tools start disappearing as they had appeared. Then pledges start to vanish, like one guy who had pledges his majestic bard, finds himself suddenly cleanly shaven.

Our protagonist sights heavy from relieve and vanishes just a moment later, while the paper with her pledge drops onto the ground.

[flauntpage]

Deadspin Writer Shreds NJ.Com Sports Director, Again

Background information:

A few weeks ago Kevin Manahan, the sports director over at NJ.com, put up a somewhat snarky and condescending job post on his Twitter account. He was looking for a super-motivated reporter to cover the 76ers for a monthly stipend, and the description of the gig was widely-panned because he just sort of sounded like a dick.

This job posting resulted in an internet-wide referendum on the sports writing business, with people conflicted over the concept of wanting to work a real job with real wages and real benefits vs. the potential of taking a fringe opportunity and turning it into something bigger. Most of us went down the latter path, working shit jobs for shit money until we could make a full-time living off of our work.

Laura Wagner at Deadspin wrote a story about the posting, titled “NJ.com Sports Director Advertises Shitty Job, Is A Real Asshole About It.” It was a short post ripping him for coming across like, well, an asshole. Manahan later pushed back while reiterating that he didn’t specify the dollar amount of the monthly stipend or the amount of hours this employee was expected to work.

Just when it seemed like all of this stuff had subsided, Wagner came back today with a 3,000 word follow-up, revealing that Manahan deleted his Twitter account while quoting local guys like Joe Giglio in an effort to get a read on whether or not Manahan was, in fact, a douche bag.

It’s an interesting read. Wagner says she spoke to “more than a dozen current and former NJ.com employees, people who worked with (Manahan) at other companies, and various other people in the industry who have come into contact with him.”

I wanna pull some of the most relevant parts of the story and respond to those, after the jump:

The website features tabs for the Giants, the Jets, the Knicks, the Nets, the Devils, the Mets, the Yankees, Rutgers football, Rutgers basketball, the Eagles, the Flyers, the Red Bulls, the Rangers, the Phillies, Seton Hall, and the 76ers. It’s unclear how many of these teams are covered by part-time staff and how many are full-time. (It’s worth noting that full-time staffers are paid competitive salaries and receive benefits.) In an email to the president of NJ Advance Media, Steve Alessi, I asked about the size of the sports department; Alessi did not respond.

Several people pointed to Manahan as the reason there is so much turnover at NJ.com. Some leave because they get other jobs; Manahan sours on some; others won’t put up with him and quit. In the past year alone, at least seven employees have left the NJ.com sports department for various reasons.

Among them: Eliot Shorr-Parks, who went to 94 WIP, and Chris Sheridan, who did the Sixers beat for something like two weeks before parting ways with the company.

Former 97.5 the Fanatic host Matt Lombardo is still with NJ.Com, but swapped the Eagles beat for the Giants beat, which resulted in Zack Rosenblatt sliding over to NovaCare this season alongside Mike Kaye, who formerly covered the Jaguars and spent some time with Bleeding Green Nation. Anthony Gilbert, who does a variety of freelance gigs, was brought in to be a 76ers guy in place of Sheridan and Rosenblatt.

Of all the people I spoke to, and all the people I reached out to to ask about their experience working with Manahan, good or bad, only one person spoke about him glowingly. Joe Giglio, whose NJ.com bio describes him as a “Sports Engagement Specialist,” emailed me saying:

“Kevin’s been nothing but a good boss to me. I’m not available (two little kids and two jobs!) for a longer conversation, but nothing but positive things from my perspective, on or off the record. Thanks for reaching out.”

Joe was writing articles for NJ.Com while covering shifts at WIP a few years back. He also did radio in New York, similar to how Jody Mac splits time between NY and Philly. Giglio is now anchoring the evening shift on a nightly basis at 94.1, so his role at NJ.Com is limited to NFL picks and predictions along with some baseball free agency and trade rumor posts as well. Most of Joe’s writing is national in scope these days.

The defining pattern that emerged through all these conversations? People were wary of allowing specific anecdotes to be included in this story because they feared Manahan would have the ability and the vindictiveness to identify them and seek revenge.

This is what happened when we wrote the NBC Sports Philadelphia story. People were worried that Michelle Murray and the bosses over there would spend more time trying to identify who spoke to us, rather than considering what people had to say about morale.

Why Manahan has been able to attract talent even when offering poor pay to work under bad conditions is clear enough: Young writers are understandably eager to jump at the chance to cover a pro sports beat. Thirty, 20, or even 10 years ago, when newspapers still reigned supreme, there were plenty of entry-level sports reporting jobs to go around, and the career track was clear: A writer would make his or her star at a small local paper, move on to a bigger regional paper, and then maybe make it to the big leagues, writing for a national publication. As newspaper jobs have dried up, that traditional paths has changed. Places like the Athletic, whose stated goal is to make local newspapers’ sports coverage obsolete, primarily hire people with sizable social-media followings, meaning that to make it there, reporters have to have built a following somewhere. One way to do so might involve writing for little or no money and no benefits at somewhere like an SB Nation team site; another might involve working for a monthly stipend and no benefits at a place like NJ.com. One sportswriter recounted a conversation in which Manahan was frank about the realities of the industry, and about the ways he understands the dynamics involved.

Yeah. Welcome to the club.

That’s why most of us were freelancers. We worked 2-4 jobs and combined our salaries into something feasible. A vast majority of younger writers go this route because we know we’re not ripping off a full-time job with full-time benefits in the post-newspaper landscape that Wagner writes about.

For me, about 85% of monthly income came from working at CBS 3, while 15% came from writing about the Philadelphia Union and reffing youth soccer games. As the years went on, that number came closer to 20%,  25%, and 30%, so you start to tip the scales as you build a following and gain more experience.

It was the stability afforded by channel 3 that allowed me to grow my side career as a writer, which I think is how most people operate these days. It’s true that some people are propped up by their parents or spouse or live in their mom’s basement or whatever, but that’s certainly not the story for every middle-class college-educated kid. It’s not even close. Most of the sports writers I know had supplemental income that they themselves created. I used to wait tables and do consulting gigs on the side. That was the hustle. You weren’t propped up by your parents, you were propped up by the three other gigs you worked while trying to “make it big.” This is the same exact path that aspiring actors and musicians follow. Stunningly, there are fewer legitimate opportunities for non-essential careers.

“He essentially said why would he pay a Yankees writer $100,000 when he could pay two kids $50,000 apiece and run them into the ground for a few years,” the sportswriter said. “Then when they move on to something better or burn out, he can replace them with more young, cheap labor.”

This is common practice in every industry in the United States. I also don’t know many writers approaching anything close to six-figure salaries, but if you find them, let me know.

The reason Manahan posted the 76ers job description in the first place, according to people familiar with the situation, was that the incumbent writer, Anthony Gilbert, had been let go after only a few months for not drawing enough traffic. (His bylines are still appearing on the site every day, as he is apparently finishing out his month’s contract. Gilbert declined to comment.) Such a short amount of time doesn’t seem like enough to judge a new writer’s ability to work sources, develop their beat, or even see if they’ll be responsive to the training Manahan’s supporters claim he offers. Manahan’s primary interest, though, seems to have to do with none of that; he seems strictly focused on raw page views and on getting them on the cheap.

It’s not enough time. Not nearly enough time, especially in a city like Philadelphia where people have been working the Eagles beat for 20+ years.

It takes time to earn trust and build a following and earn respect. It usually takes years to develop sources and break your first story. If Anthony was let go “after only a few months,” then that’s really shitty on Manahan’s part. Instead of just cutting ties and moving on, maybe sit down and talk about a strategy to improve traffic. Identify stories that are doing well and stories that aren’t doing well. If you run through reporters with this frequency, then maybe you’e the problem, not the writer.

Plus, Philly can spot a fake. Anybody can walk into a new beat and start throwing hot takes around and force page views that way, but nobody is truly taking you seriously. The best beats in this town, guys like Sheil Kapadia and Zach Berman and Rich Hofmann and Derek Bodner over the Athletic, they understand the value of building your reputation via solid content without the need to throw shit at the wall, just to see if it sticks.

The $50,000 the sportswriter said Manahan bragged about paying to writers he’d then run into the ground is, for instance, far more than Manahan paid a “kid” recently to cover a beat for NJ.com. For writing 15 or 16 articles a week and doing video hits after home games, this young writer was paid $2,300 a month.

I need to know what beat this is. A lot of people are doing similar work for less than $2,300 a month, which amounts to $27,600 a year. If you work this gig in addition to something else on the side, you can easily hit $40,000, which is what most kids in their early 20s are earning as their introduction to the business.

It’s true that the industry is fucked: Sports media is chock full of companies like the previously mentioned SB Nation (which is facing a collective action lawsuit for not paying its worker as employees) and Sports Illustrated’s FanSided (which no one takes seriously), which exert downward pressure on wages by selling young writers on “exposure” and telling them it’s normal to work for little or no money. The scam digital sweatshops are running, though, is simply the logical extension of the similar one newspapers have been running since time immemorial, one that has in addition to exploiting workers for corporate profit worked to keep sportswriting far richer, far whiter, and far more male than either society generally or the part of society it covers. This is part of why it was so strange last week to see not just veteran sportswriters who’d worked with Manahan defending him, but others defending the system of which his shop and his shitty listing for a non-job are merely expressions.

It sucks, but it’s free market capitalism, so I don’t know what Wagner and other people expect. If you don’t like it, don’t work for Kevin Manahan, don’t apply for a gig at SB Nation and don’t read FanSided.

Look no further than the creators of The Athletic, who decided to build a different model and try to operate that way instead of just complaining about the industry on Twitter. This blog was created in a similar fashion, because Kyle wanted to do his own thing and had his own ideas. That’s really what America is, isn’t it? If you don’t like the way things are done, do it your own way. Build a better product with a different revenue model.

In June, NJ.com held a meeting intended for women to speak about the challenges of being a women in media, and to help the men in the newsroom understand these obstacles. That, at least, was the goal, until Manahan derailed it.

“After ONA [the Online News Association conference] this year, some female reporters from the newsroom came back and hosted a reporting/sourcing as a female workshop here. It was a space where men were also welcome and encouraged to listen and learn how to help out their female colleagues,” one newsroom source said. “About halfway through, we were talking about how it feels to be a female reporter in male-dominated spaces, and how that often happens in sports. Manahan took over and started talking over the women who were present and didn’t listen when they tried to explain how it can feel to be a female reporter in a men’s locker room, or how to navigate being condescended to.

“He was essentially [saying] that being condescended to was part of the job, while being condescending,” the source said. “The fact that he talked for so much of the meeting and was so tone-deaf in what he was saying was kind of talk of the newsroom that day and among the female staff.”

This source’s description of the event was confirmed by a second newsroom source.

“He spoke for 20 minutes,” this person said. “And ended it with, ‘ESPN keeps taking my female reporters to fill their quota.’”

Yeah, well, that’s not a great look.

Time’s yours.

The post Deadspin Writer Shreds NJ.Com Sports Director, Again appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Deadspin Writer Shreds NJ.Com Sports Director, Again published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[sleepyowlwrites]

🦋 tell us about your current wip

I dunno what that is. what is a "current wip"? I seem to recall having one such thing, long ago, in a passing dream.

uh, I guess it's Train Story.

Lunetta and Sebastian board a train to get to work every day, the same train, they assume, but actually it's a pocket dimension to hold them in stasis for the duration of the ride into the city - two different cities - and they meet each other so that they can both converse, influence, inspire, and encourage each other in their respective emotional turmoil. they barely remember that the other exits outside of their time on the train, and don't remember promises they've made or intentions set in mind while in the pocket dimension. the only thing they bring to and take away from each other is themselves. gradually, over time, they help each other process and recalibrate perceptions on each of their personal issues, offering a better future for them both. and one day, they don't meet on the train. they don't remember that they're supposed to, either, but that doesn't make the experience less real. we know it was real, because they're changed.

thanks for asking, hunter

[sleepyowlwrites]

I am here to be a menace Mother Dearest

If you'd like, please tell me what you've got in your soup pot for train story (immortal sorceress style).

Also please share some aesthetics for your train story OCs

The tags for this story are #wip: train story and #wip: train story: supplemental which you can peruse for further information.

Thanks for being a menace, I guess. It was just as painful to write this out as type it up on my phone, so. I tried to keep the handwriting legible.

[gffa]

Time to cry about STAR WARS and I have no shortage of tears again this week. What I especially love about this collection is that there’s a number of fics exploring different possibilities, ones that diverge from canon or remix just one or two things (to go along with all the lovely character explorations here!), to highlight what might have happened. There’s just something really wonderful about getting to read these possibilities that will maybe fix things or will maybe ruin it differently, but there’s so much creativity and so many possibilities that I’m in love all over again! ✦ Time To Go by light_mantled_albatross, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 27.2k wip    A version of the “Anakin doesn’t find Ventress at the end of season 5, with the result that Ahsoka gets Dramatically Sentenced To Death” plotline. Obi-Wan makes choices, Anakin freaks out, the Jedi Council behaves somewhat questionably, Darth Sidious behaves completely reprehensibly, and Ahsoka is generally her bad-ass self. ✦ Fast, Thorough, and Sharp as a Tack by igrockspock, han/leia, 2.9k    Leia knows how to fire a blaster, survive an interrogation, and escape from the Death Star, but she’s still missing a few essential survival skills – like how to apologize, how to accept help from a friend, and okay, she might not know how to wash her own clothes or cook a real dinner. ✦ Any Scar You Give Me (I Will Endure It) by igrockspock, leia & ben & han/leia & luke, 15k    Leia and Han had escaped from Imperial assaults, been captured by Jabba the Hutt, blown up the shield generator on Endor, and helped to found the New Republic. After all that, raising a child together couldn’t be that hard, right? ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 1k    Obi-Wan idly watches Anakin pace back and forth, muttering to himself. ✦ the world, nothing less by imaginarykat, obi-wan/anakin, fusion au, modern au, 6.1k wip    Modern day London; Anakin Skywalker, a young man who’s accidentaly always in trouble with the law, is in bigger trouble than usual. ✦ Better Living Through Lack of Chemistry by avarand, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, a/b/o, alpha!obi-wan, omega!anakin, 5.5k    Anakin has hidden his Omega status his whole life. Thanks to suppressants, he passes a hot-headed Beta Jedi Knight. On a small-scale mission with Obi-Wan days away from the nearest city, he learns his suppressants have been compromised. He’s sharing a room with his long-time object of lust and desire, and about to go into heat. ✦ untitled by glare-gryphon, obi-wan/anakin, 1.1k    The door chimes once again, and Anakin pushes off the couch to find out who it is before they wake Ahsoka. He is both surprised and not to discover Obi-Wan Kenobi standing in the dark of the Naboo night. ✦ untitled by likealeafonthewind, obi-wan/anakin, 2.5k    It’s two years after the Battle of Geonosis. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Jedi War General and leads the GAR. Anakin Skywalker had just been Knighted 6 months ago after completing supplemental healer training under Master Che and is now the Commander of the Relief and Support Forces. He’s just returned from a trip and learned that Obi-Wan has not been taking care of himself. ✦ The Stars Died So That You Could Be Here Today by WinterSky101, obi-wan & anakin & padme, 4.6k    Anakin and Padmé guide Obi-Wan through his mourning for Qui-Gon. ✦ Got a lot of fight left in me by silveronthetree, obi-wan & leia & luke & cast, 3.6k    Leia meets Ben Kenobi on Tatooine. A New Hope AU. ✦ Inheritance by ambiguously, obi-wan & leia, 1.2k    The Tantive IV makes it to Tatooine, and Leia has a job to do. ✦ Mother Is the Name for God by victoria_p (musesfool), padme & leia & bail & breha, 1.8k    Leia dreams of a beautiful woman with long curly hair. Sometimes, she’s smiling brightly, and sometimes, she’s sad, but Leia knows, deep in her heart, that this is her birth mother, and that she loves Leia very much. ✦ The Wisdomless Cadet by Ignite the Stars, thrawn & eli, 1.2k    Eli Vanto isn’t very happy when he is informed that officers are required to have their Wisdom Teeth removed before commissioning. Features Cadet Vanto on drugs and Thrawn making sure he follows the post-op instructions. ✦ Split the Night by Zinga763, obi-wan & anakin/padme & ahsoka & maul & cast, 3.3k wip    Darth Maul knows exactly how to break Kenobi. In which Maul targets someone other than Satine, and it changes Obi-Wan and Anakin’s lives, along with the galaxy’s. ✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & waxer & cast, 11.8k wip    For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home. Unfortunately for Anakin, it seems his former master is always ten steps ahead of him. full details + recs under the cut!

✦ Time To Go by light_mantled_albatross, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 27.2k wip    A version of the “Anakin doesn’t find Ventress at the end of season 5, with the result that Ahsoka gets Dramatically Sentenced To Death” plotline. Obi-Wan makes choices, Anakin freaks out, the Jedi Council behaves somewhat questionably, Darth Sidious behaves completely reprehensibly, and Ahsoka is generally her bad-ass self.    Chapter 6: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. I’ve recommended this fic before, of course, and this chapter is more of exactly what I loved about it–it gets into the nuance and shades of gray of the war’s effect on these characters, but does so in a way that really feels thoughtful and engaging, it does so in a way that blends characterization and plot so incredibly well. While this chapter doesn’t have as much hilarious banter as some of the previous chapters did, it’s no less sharply characterized and no less high octane in the action part of the plot, in the fight scene that takes place. It continues to balance that Anakin is just this sheer well of raw power and so incredibly talented, but that doesn’t mean Mace is any less intimidating, it doesn’t mean that Obi-Wan is any less brilliant and kind of awe-inspiring, it doesn’t mean that Ahsoka is any less amazing. And the plot really is incredibly solid, there’s a story there and, wow, does the author know how to write a tense scene that even I felt wound up, just reading it! The things that happen here feel like they have genuine weight, the scene with the Council members was genuinely effective, and I love how I feel like this fic is entirely possible, had things just been nudged slightly differently, that’s how true it is to everyone and everything in this galaxy. ✦ Fast, Thorough, and Sharp as a Tack by igrockspock, han/leia, 2.9k    Leia knows how to fire a blaster, survive an interrogation, and escape from the Death Star, but she’s still missing a few essential survival skills – like how to apologize, how to accept help from a friend, and okay, she might not know how to wash her own clothes or cook a real dinner.    This was a really lovely look at Leia’s character, a combination of her prickliness and underlying vulnerability and then mixed with the banter she has with Han. It really shows so well how she can be difficult to get along with, how hard her outer shell is, while also showing how incredibly human she is, and it’s just so Leia. The writing is sharp and fantastic and it’s such a great, great look at her in these quiet moments where she’s struggling with things she’s never had to learn before, but she’s trying so hard and she’s so brilliant and yet none of this is easy. ✦ Any Scar You Give Me (I Will Endure It) by igrockspock, leia & ben & han/leia & luke, 15k    Leia and Han had escaped from Imperial assaults, been captured by Jabba the Hutt, blown up the shield generator on Endor, and helped to found the New Republic. After all that, raising a child together couldn’t be that hard, right?    I have one caveat about this fic, in that Luke doesn’t feel quite right (the idea that he would go the PT Jedi’s Buddhist-influenced route doesn’t quite sit right for me) but that I see why the author did so by the end of the fic and it’s a minor personal quibble in what’s a really lovely, bittersweet, heartbreaking look at Leia’s character and her relationship with her son. I sank into this fic and just read and read and read, in a way that worked so well for me, that it did really well with showing the sympathetic sides of everyone here, even when it was entirely in Leia’s point of view and she has such strong feelings and reactions, it showed how her relationship with Han was good but could still have turned out to have contributed to Ben’s issues, that Ben wasn’t an evil monster from the start, that even as Leia doesn’t really understand what went wrong or precisely where, I understood exactly where she was coming from and there was enough of Ben to get at least a vague sense of what happened with him.    I liked that I really cared about everyone here, that they were all flawed in their own ways, but that didn’t make them evil or wrong. And Leia’s relationship with the Force and learning to use it, how things ultimately end up, the last few moments of the fic and where she philosophically ends up, really had such an impact for me. It’s a fic that packed a lot in for something that was told across such a large span of years, but the moments chosen do a great job of illustrating the picture the fic is painting and there’s such care here, from the fic and the characters themselves, and such a strong grip of Leia’s character, that it really, really was a wonderful read. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 1k    Obi-Wan idly watches Anakin pace back and forth, muttering to himself.    This is part of a larger series that should probably be read in order by now–especially this fic and this fic. It’s a shorter piece, where Obi-Wan and Anakin wait for Ahsoka to show up, and it’s about showing the shift in their relationship after they’ve had such an important talk, that they’re still very much themselves, but something has clicked back into place again, that this is a light-hearted moment before (presumably) the shit hits the fan again. And, oh, I love that kind of fic, I love the sheer amount of affection between these characters, who have a few moments to just be, even if Anakin is, as always, a little wound up. But better. And I love love love that Anakin’s resentment is simmering back down, that he can hear about Obi-Wan having taught Ahsoka for a bit, and not start spiraling again, that it shows such a small thing can be such a major shift, that Obi-Wan isn’t discarding him, that they’re not leaving him behind, that she’s always and forever Anakin’s Padawan, that he’s still present here, is such a huge and understated and wonderful thing here, ahhhhh. ✦ the world, nothing less by imaginarykat, obi-wan/anakin, fusion au, modern au, 6.1k wip    Modern day London; Anakin Skywalker, a young man who’s accidentaly always in trouble with the law, is in bigger trouble than usual.    In a bit of a coincidence, I’d actually been reading a fair amount of Kingsman fic lately to get a fix on this dynamic that I enjoy, and then up pops an actual Kingsman fusion fic and, yeah, boy, does it ever fit together really well! The early scenes of the movie, with the Star Wars characters mapped onto them, works really well and it’s such fun and I’m already eager to see where the rest of it goes, because this first chapter flew by it was so delightful and engaging. But it’s also so enjoyable for the characterization–Anakin is the completely relatable mess that I love so dearly, he is my precious disaster son, and Obi-Wan is the polished, controlled, super hot warrior who knows how to fight really, really well, yet still warm and caring. They play off each other really well already, of course, and it’s just super super fun! ✦ Better Living Through Lack of Chemistry by avarand, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, a/b/o, alpha!obi-wan, omega!anakin, 5.5k    Anakin has hidden his Omega status his whole life. Thanks to suppressants, he passes a hot-headed Beta Jedi Knight. On a small-scale mission with Obi-Wan days away from the nearest city, he learns his suppressants have been compromised. He’s sharing a room with his long-time object of lust and desire, and about to go into heat.    You don’t even know how into a/b/o fic I am and this one was just exactly what I wanted, it happily embraces the tropes of this and it’s all about feelings and then sex, which was entirely satisfying! Anakin trying so hard to hide himself that’s paralleled just enough alongside canon to be satisfying for that as well, to have those echoes of the canon in their relationship and especially Anakin as he tries to be something he’s not, until he finally gives in and Obi-Wan discovers the truth of him and of course they fit together perfect, of course Obi-Wan opens him up and fills him up with something better. It’s one of those fics that just hit my id dead on and was so satisfying for what I wanted from it! If a/b/o isn’t your thing this may not be for you, but if you want something fun and with some nice sex, where Anakin is spread open and taken care of and is happier for it, then I enjoyed this one a lot. ✦ untitled by glare-gryphon, obi-wan/anakin, 1.1k    The door chimes once again, and Anakin pushes off the couch to find out who it is before they wake Ahsoka. He is both surprised and not to discover Obi-Wan Kenobi standing in the dark of the Naboo night.    Oh, this was just entirely the way to my feelings, to be honest. Anakin leaves the Jedi Order, he thinks Obi-Wan is here to try to convince him back, but instead their conversation takes a different turn, and it’s definitely fluffy and happy and sweet. It’s one of those fics that I need sometimes, to counterbalance all the angst, especially when it’s almost a little understated (except for, well, everything that is Anakin, of course, as it should be) but no less heartfelt. I enjoyed it a lot! ✦ untitled by likealeafonthewind, obi-wan/anakin, 2.5k    It’s two years after the Battle of Geonosis. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Jedi War General and leads the GAR. Anakin Skywalker had just been Knighted 6 months ago after completing supplemental healer training under Master Che and is now the Commander of the Relief and Support Forces. He’s just returned from a trip and learned that Obi-Wan has not been taking care of himself.    This was a really low-key sweet piece about Obi-Wan pushing himself to incredible lengths, like that guy is a goddamned tank for how far his reserves go and he’s still basically functioning, even if it’s not great compared to his usual standards. And I love that Obi-Wan is so calm about it, even when he’s dead tired and pushing himself further, while I could practically feel Anakin getting more and more wound up. It’s a softer fic, it’s meant to be fluffy, so you know things will work out and eventually Anakin does manage to lure Obi-Wan into sleep and it’s really satisfying when it finally happens and there’s some very nice cuddling. This is especially a good fic if you’ve been binging on angstier stuff latey and could use something nice! ✦ The Stars Died So That You Could Be Here Today by WinterSky101, obi-wan & anakin & padme, 4.6k    Anakin and Padmé guide Obi-Wan through his mourning for Qui-Gon.    Oh, this was so lovely for all three characters. It’s set from Padme’s point of view and she shines so much in this fic, but it’s really lovely for Obi-Wan and Anakin as well, it’s very much how these characters would react, it was so easy to see this in my head, there’s such warmth and care, framed in how these characters would express it that it had my heart from the beginning. I really can’t express enough affection for that warmth this fic had, that I came away caring very much for each of them, that Padme has such compassion to her, that Anakin is bright and shining, that Obi-Wan is loved and will find his way even when he’s struggling right now and that makes you care more for him. I want to flail over little things, the way Padme is firm without being preachy, that she gives others their space, but also won’t back down from kindness, she’s warm, she’s the kind of person I want to be around, she’s the person I recognize from the movies. And it was just really, really meaningful to me today to read this. ✦ Got a lot of fight left in me by silveronthetree, obi-wan & leia & luke & cast, 3.6k    Leia meets Ben Kenobi on Tatooine. A New Hope AU.    Oh, this was a really lovely look at Leia meeting Ben (and then Luke) on Tatooine and there’s a good weight to it, both for Leia as a character and the sense of impending history here, that things are different because Leia is not Luke (and is so much more like Anakin) and how I ended this story feeling almost hopeful for the galaxy again, beyond just that I know things generally work out, that maybe it won’t be quite so heavy a burden and cost as the canon one was. And, of course, I am always here for complicated, yet surprisingly warm interaction between Obi-Wan and Leia, which this was nicely satisfying for. ✦ Inheritance by ambiguously, obi-wan & leia, 1.2k    The Tantive IV makes it to Tatooine, and Leia has a job to do.    This was another short but solid piece about Leia making it to Tatooine and the brief conversation she has with General Kenobi, the steel in her spine and the determination she has to set the galaxy to rights. I love her banked fire here, that she draws people in, it’s so easy to know what a legend Luke will become, but Leia is just as much of one, too. ✦ Mother Is the Name for God by victoria_p (musesfool), padme & leia & bail & breha, 1.8k    Leia dreams of a beautiful woman with long curly hair. Sometimes, she’s smiling brightly, and sometimes, she’s sad, but Leia knows, deep in her heart, that this is her birth mother, and that she loves Leia very much.    I am always a sucker for Leia fics, especially Leia fic about her relationship with her parents, the adoptive ones who were her family and the biological ones that she never really knew, but was shaped by anyway. The way Padme’s influence is still present, even when she’s not really understood, is lovely and I liked the balance between her and Bail/Breha in Leia’s life. It was a nice look at the characters I really love. ✦ The Wisdomless Cadet by Ignite the Stars, thrawn & eli, 1.2k    Eli Vanto isn’t very happy when he is informed that officers are required to have their Wisdom Teeth removed before commissioning. Features Cadet Vanto on drugs and Thrawn making sure he follows the post-op instructions.    This is based on the new Thrawn novel and it fits together with the characters and their relationship in this really solid, enjoyable way! It was entirely easy to see both characters just as I did when reading the book and they’re both spot on characterization wise and I really love the way the relationship was written, that it might have been more under the surface, but it’s a bit up to the reader to decide. Which is pretty much exactly how I saw them in the book, too. This is a fun, almost fluffy kind of piece, and yet it works perfectly well with these characters and is one of those moments I could easily see slipping between the pages of canon. ✦ Split the Night by Zinga763, obi-wan & anakin/padme & ahsoka & maul & cast, 3.3k wip    Darth Maul knows exactly how to break Kenobi. In which Maul targets someone other than Satine, and it changes Obi-Wan and Anakin’s lives, along with the galaxy’s.    This fic has only just begun, so right now it’s mostly Anakin being angry at Obi-Wan, then cuddling with Padme, but eventually it will be a story about Maul targetting Anakin instead of Satine and I have been WAITING for someone to tackle that idea because, oh, man, the potential for the storyline is super delicious, especially if it’s after the Rako Hardeen arc, where Anakin thinks Obi-Wan doesn’t care about him, but Obi-Wan absolutely does. And so far the fic has been lovely about showing why both sides are understanable, there’s a lovely lack of preachiness in the writing, instead it’s characters reacting to how they feel and how others act, so that makes it me feel for them like a hundred times more. Watching Anakin be so tightly wound and unable to let go of his hurt makes me sad, too. Watching Obi-Wan not know what to say to Anakin to get him to unclench again makes me sad as well. I am ALL FOR the feelings this fic is going to give me, bring them on! ✦ Cataclasm by dendral, obi-wan & anakin & waxer & cast, 11.8k wip    For reasons unknown to all but himself, Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Jedi Order in the midst of the Clone Wars, taking with him a single clone. Anakin Skywalker has been unofficially tasked by the Order to find Obi-Wan and bring him home. Unfortunately for Anakin, it seems his former master is always ten steps ahead of him.    Chapter 4: Should I wait until there are at least two chapters before doing an update? Probably. Am I going to? No, because I have to flail about chapter 4, which is more of Obi-Wan and Waxer interaction in that way that I love, that it takes two characters who don’t necessarily have a ton of canon interaction and brings them together in such a natural fit, like it’s so easy to see this branching off canon and it has a really organic sort of feel to it, it makes sense and there’s a reason why it had to be these two characters, all while also building a friendship there, that it’s charming and solidly done. I could read a hundred thousand words of Obi-Wan wandering around the galaxy, with a mildly despairing Waxer in tow, where he kind of knows where he’s going, but also is just kind of letting the Force tell him where to stop, but there’s such a surety in who Obi-Wan is and how he acts, even a surety in when he’s not sure where he’s going, that even when potentially galaxy-shaking events are happening and he’s possibly making a lot of this up as he goes along, Obi-Wan is settled in his own skin.    But also it’s the fun of two characters forming a friendship as they go along, it’s the intriguing details of the planet they stop on, why they stopped there, what it gains them, what it will mean, and of course that Anakin is still trying to find them and Waxer is a mix of “oh what the fuck” and “I’d follow him into hell if he asked” about it and Obi-Wan is that perfect mix of mild humor and seriousness, that he’s reckless but never an unconsidered reckless. It’s lovely all the way around and one of the fics I most look forward to updating these days!