#would they really flunk a noble

[theproperweirdo]

Okay, after an embarrassing amount of time skimming dialogue and the internet I think I figured out the Lord thing.

Now I think you’re absolutely correct in assuming Bryon is teasing Lorsan because Lorsan hates being called ‘Lord’, however I do genuinely think Lorsan counts as a Lord. Just not by the definition you’re thinking of.

Now I did quick actually have a conversation about Lorsan’s lore with you a while ago. I���m gonna attach a screenshot below cus it’s partially relevant (and to save you the scrolling because it’s already kinda buried rip)

(bare with me, this is super long. I know I’m yappy)

To start Lorsan is 100% still considered a prodigy in Journey. When you first encounter Bryon in the dark forest we get the following dialogue -

And when prompted with “Do you also possess wind whispering ability?” (Yea the grammar isn’t great in this game)

And later on we get -

(Wandering Tangent time: It isn’t actually stated that Lorsan flunked in school. Now I can definitely see where that comes from since the Jade Academy quest with him reveals he absolutely *HATED* his school years. In one of the dialogue sections of that quest he outright says he never listened in class and instead learns everything he needs to know from traveling in the dark forest. So he was definitely still super smart just a terrible student lmao

I would also like to throw out a personal anecdote and say that as someone who did well in school when I was younger I also absolutely hated school. When school is easy it gets incredibly boring and to me it makes sense that Lorsan’s not the type to sit in one place for too long with nothing to do. Not a super important tidbit but I think it adds character :3 )

Now you’re probably asking: where tf are you going with this? Good question! I have never once claimed to concise, apologies.

So Lorsan is smart and considered to be way above his peers in regards to wind whispering, what the hell does that have to do with the ‘Lord’ thing?

He definitely doesn’t own land and he definitely isn’t of noble lineage, but I would like to introduce you to this specific definition of the word lord:

Lorsan is a lord cus he’s just really good at his job lmao. To bring back the earlier dialogue he’s “specifically renowned for his mastery in wind whispering”. So there you have it! He’s shown mastery in a field and great power as a magical prodigy and Bryon will not let him live it down. Ever.

TJIS IS SO CUTE AND FUNNY 😭😭 and I think it makes sense! I compliment the references, especially cause Dialoge can be tricky to pull or find. (Lorsan is a prodigy in windwhispering but is easily distracted and can’t sit still… ADHD Lorsan real)

Imagine Bryon being fed up with Lorsan’s gloating and going “my apologies, Lord of the wind 😐😐 goodness, I should not have questioned the great and intellectual lord of the wind 😐😐 I’m so sorry my lord 🤦🤦” considering Lorsan is annoyed enough that he tells him to stop also means this has been a long term thing 💀 I might have to draw this out as a comic

[the-rebel-archivist]

🌩 for the WIP ask meme

Thank you for the ask! Going to pull from a WIP about Percy Trevelyan's unfortunate adaptation to the Ostwick Circle after a spoiled noble childhood because it always makes me laugh how much his future girlfriend hates him on sight - and for good reason

This new boy was insufferable. Harriet had complained about life in the Ostwick Circle, but that was before he came in all high and mighty, reeking of arrogance and privilege. Oh how she wished she could go back to the way things were before he’d arrived! In the month he’d been there he’d already been late to breakfast fourteen times, bathed until the water for the other apprentices turned cold three times, gotten into six fights, and constantly disrupted classes with so-called “funny” antics. Funny to whom? Certainly not to her, now that she’d been specially instructed by Senior Enchanter Hlam to help him with the latest assignment he was sure to flunk. She was sure it had to be a punishment for her imperfect frost glyphs. Looking at him now it was no surprise that he was at the bottom of the class. He wasn’t bad looking, really, with big brown eyes and black hair that fell in really soft waves around his ears like he’d trained it to do that. What a prick, even his hair rushed to serve his every need obsequiously. No, he was really rather pretty but his pose, with his feet up on the desk beside her in the quiet library and a bored expression, told her everything she would ever want to know about him. “If you don’t pay attention, you’re never going to get this finished,” she said with irritation and a disgusted glance at his shoes. He had the grace to follow her eyes but stopped short of any other consideration, pointedly leaving his feet where they were and giving her a smirk that she was sure someone, somewhere must have found charming for them not to have strangled him in infancy.

[katriniac]

IkeRev OC Bio

Meet Nate - the 3 of Hearts in the Red Army

Like many of the officers, the 3 of Hearts is an inherited rank. Unlike most of the Red Army, however, he doesn't come from a wealthy background. His family fell on hard times two generations ago. Now all his pay goes to support his widowed mother, who struggles to make ends meet.

Due to the unruly reputation of his hereditary rank, he gets all the "trouble makers" reassigned to his unit whether he likes it or not.

New recruits shake in their boots when lining up for training because they've all heard stories of Nate's "yakuza-like" aura and how merciless he can be, just like the rumored organized crime ring his grandfather had been the head of. Whether the tales of their gangster background are true or not, most give him a wide berth and try to stay on his good side.

Nate works his soldiers hard, and he works even harder on himself. He's constantly exercising, training, and lifting. He has never felt like he fit in at the Red Army, with all their noble lineage and displays of wealth. It makes sense that his closest friends would be Zero and Kyle. The Queen of Hearts considers his presence a blight on the noble rank, but most of the pressure on Nate's shoulders comes from himself. He just wants to keep his mom healthy and make her proud of him.

His favorite story about his grandfather, the previous 3 of Hearts, is how he became a master at unarmed combat. When the family was practically destitute, he decided to sell his saber. It had been one of the legendary weapons in the Red Army. The proceeds from the sale meant his daughter could get married and raise a family. “But that left his grandfather without a weapon,” argued the other officers. To which he replied, "No it doesn't. I've got these," raising his fists proudly. From that day onward, he devoted himself to every martial arts practice he could find. No one could even come close when it came to bare knuckle brawling like the 3 of Hearts. His methods were deemed uncouth and beneath an officer, but he never lost a fight.

Nate decided to keep up the tradition when he inherited the rank, partly because he didn't have the money to buy a sword, but also because he wanted to show those snooty rich brats that true strength isn't measured by who has the best weapons. He thought it a fitting tribute to his grandfather.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

Name: Nathaniel Stromm, 3 of Hearts

3 Descriptors: hard-working, protective, yakuza-like*

Nickname: Nate

Gender: Male

Race/Birthplace/Planet: Human, Cradle

Current Home: Cradle

Timeline/Era/Year: Ikemen Revolution game setting

Age: 29

Build: Muscular

Height: 6'

Hair: Dark Indigo Blue, short on the sides, longer on top. Slicked back while on duty, spiked up when off duty.

Eyes: Brown

Profession: Officer in the Red Army

Romantic Relationship History: one serious relationship at age 18-19, one-off dates every now and then but nothing serious.

Family: mother

Friends: Zero, Kyle

Enemy: Societal pressure? Unfair rumors? Poverty? Honestly, he doesn't have any people coming for him; people don't fuck around with Nate.

Education: high school, cadet training

Things They’ve Done: Has never let a new recruit flunk training

Goals They Have: Avoid bringing disgrace on his family. Doesn't really have any lofty ambitions; he's just living day to day.

What Motivates Them: providing for his mom and making her proud

Favorite Entertainment (music, books, pastimes, etc.) : running, boxing, soccer, football, hiking, swimming. Really likes autumn and watching the leaves fall in a strong breeze.

Favorite Food/Beverage: protein shakes (it's not that he thinks they are particularly delicious but he appreciates the efficiency and complete nutrition). Loves any of his mom's home-cooked meals.

Personality: quiet, intense, fair, non-judgmental, protective.

* Nate does not "act" tough; that's just the vibe he gives off unconsciously.

He doesn't realize that he has a fierce aura emanating from him when he's concentrating, competing, or giving instructions. His extreme energy output makes him seem angry when actually he's just intensely focused on the activity. The result of this is intimidating his soldiers into submission without even knowing he's doing it. He just thinks they're incredibly obedient and hard-working. He's totally oblivious to the fact that he has this effect on people.

The only people who can see what's happening are Kyle and Zero, and neither of them say anything because they assume Nate's method is intentional. But they are the only officers who understand he isn't scary or perpetually angry.

What Does He Fear: his mom feeling lonely or ostracized

What He Doesn't Know (yet) : his grandfather actually was involved with overseas mafia

Little-known fact: Nate and Lancelot share the same great-grandparents on their mother's side, the Quorays. Their grandpas (Solomon "Sal" and Andrew Quoray) were brothers, meaning their mothers (Julia and Nanette) were first cousins, making Nate and Lancelot second cousins. Nanette Quoray married a Kingsley and made both prestigious families very proud, while Julia Quoray married Mitch Stromm who was a nobody in her grandfather's eyes. But Julia's father liked the guy and all that mattered was that they loved one another. The Kingsleys were the line to the rank/office of the King of Hearts. The Quorays were the line to the rank/office of the 3 of Hearts. Both have noble blood, their lineage going several generations back to the founding of Cradle.

[drawingindelirium]

Drawing of My D&D OC in the latest home game I’m playing in, Akuma! I think I flunked on the shading and the background in this one. She doesn’t really feel like a part of the world I drew her in. Lore and Backstory Info dump below.

Akuma was once a normal girl in a normal named Hana. She had a normal family, a normal life. Until her features began to change. You see, Hana was the result of a demon curse being put upon the her family, which caused her to grow into the resemblance of a demon. Her parents- ashamed of what had befallen them- threw her out on the street to fend for herself. There, she was adopted by a dangerous man named Kokuja who brought her up into the crime family he ran. Hana, due to her lithe build and stealthy steps, was trained from an early age in the art of ninjutsu (where she got the name Akuma for her resemblance to a devil) for the purpose of acting as an assassin for the crime family- a duty she carried out eagerly, though perhaps not skillfully. She was far from the strongest, quickest or smartest ninja in the family despite her boasting about her skills but eventually, she would grow into her role and receive some more high-end jobs. However, when her life was on the ascent, this is where her life started crashing down around her. Akuma was tasked with taking out a wealthy noble that had been causing trouble for the family for some time now. The mission was simple: sneak into his room and slit his throat in his sleep. The result was anything but. The job ended with Akuma jumping out a window to a burning building, all the while avoiding arrow fire from the guards. Because of this major catastrophe, Akuma was thrown out of the family she had served for her entire life and was now on the street. Saddened, Akuma snuck onto a ship, headed for the east and eventually found herself in the city of Baldur’s Gate. Here, she decided to set up an illegal assassination service, earning meager amounts of gold. However, everything would change when she walked into the wrong tavern in the lower city and found herself in the middle of a bar fight.

[writingwrittenwriting]

Damn, I was nervous. Only a first year at the academy, but this was the academy. I'd graduated from a regular academy already, proven my magical abilities and talents. Finally after years of studying my ass off, I qualified for the adult academy of advanced licensed magical techniques. Barely 5 percent of the magically capable population earned the privilege of attending ALMT, even less graduated. Today was initiation. We'd be able to keep our summoned companions even if we flunked out, but our familiars would dictate what subsections of magic we'd be taught in.

Everyone was supposed to summon their familiars today. I'd never seen such a wide variety of familiars in one place, but then again I'd never been anywhere where people with familiars would be. That weird guy, Kirk, was really happy with his Scarab. Apparently that's what his grandfather had gotten too, and they were both obsessed with Egyptian magics, a very niche interest. I was pretty happy for him. Insect familiars were pretty common, but scarabs had ancient religious connotations and would likely get him quite a few great choices of study.

Those who got small furry animals would likely be enrolled in animal and wildlife magics, maybe healing magics, or if their grades were high enough, elemental magic. Elemental magic could be used for so much, so it wasn't a failure, but people always had big dreams of summoning something fantastic as a familiar. They'd always find themselves happy with what they summoned, find that the great spirits knew exactly what they needed. But the dreams of summoning something exotic and magical were deeply ingrained as kids.

Eric was the first to get something other than a bug or a small mammal. It'd be toning it down to say he was ecstatic with his four foot long salamander, the coolest familiar so far. A shining black with bright blue and yellow stripes, deadly and probably poisonous to all but him. He'd likely qualify for a mix of demonic studies and elemental magic with a summon like that. He was basking in the attention; until Francesca summoned a lion. Traditionally the familiar of the gods magic and noble studies. People began losing their shit, certain their familiar would be even better. After all, the summons were only getting better as the day wore on!

Students still buzzing over the lion, I started to feel nerves ball in the pit of my stomach. There were so many factors to what decided a persons familiar. Most familiars were more common to the summoners home country, where they were raised. Their family lineage, hidden strengths. Francesca grew up in Scotland. As far as I knew, there weren't Lions there... She was the first of her documented family to reach the stage of summoning a familiar, showed no interest in the magic of gods... If she could summon something that seemed so unsuited to her, what would I end up with?

Now I was panicking, what if what I summoned was a let down? The coolest familiar to beat was a lion. I wasn't special, I'd likely get a rat or a frog. My turn was next, and eyes were turning to me. Ready to watch the ceremony. My supervisor, Mrs. Palejah was coming to me now. My hands were shaking, I could barely hold my little summoning box, so I set it down on the table in front of myself. There would be no more waiting, I was the last in my class to call my familiar.

Certain everyone else bought their fancy, high-quality summoning boxes, I felt awkward with my home made one. Everyone had taken the time to fill their boxes with things connected to them. The spell list suggested hair, baby teeth, childhood toys, important memorabilia. Things that defined you as a person. But people would cheat on their summoning boxes, specialty shops sold little packs of "boosters" to help summon more powerful familiars. Packets of semi precious stones, medicinal herbs, ancient coins. People would stuff their boxes with the most impressive things they could buy, with loose reasons why the items suited them.

I had carved my box myself, and hoped it would have a good effect on the summoning. I spent a handful of years on it, dreaming I'd make it into the academy. When I started on it, my first day of high school, I needed something to funnel my stress into. A project to channel all my explosive energy. I carefully learned to carve swirling curves like clouds and waves into it. Carving hadn't been enough, I had more energy to pour into it. So I painted it, swirling colours, elaborate dots, rich gradients, veins of gold lines. It still wasn't enough, so I carved little holes into it and used tree resins I gathered myself to stick some of my favourite stones to it.

I collect stones, I've got a lot of really nice ones. I didn't want to lose them forever, but I figured that using things I really treasured would help. Looking at the box now, shining dully in the candlelight, I felt like I'd made the right choice. I travelled a lot in my teenage years with my family, so I'd been in places to find many interesting rocks. Different types of quartz, rose, smoky, citrine, tourmalinated. Sparkly rocks always filled me with excitement.

I researched the properties of stones as well. Adding amethyst, a guide for the third eye and a stabilizing anchor of sanity. Amethyst was supposed to absorb and neutralize negative energy, my room was full of them. Fuchsite to hold love and compassion, helping relaxation and encouraging peaceful energy. Jasper, another one that absorbed and neutralized bad energy, replacing it with peace and balancing aura's. Turquoise, more healing and balancing. Obsidian, a stone of strength... And absorbing and neutralizing bad energy. It also blocks psychic attacks and encourages growth. And finally moonstone, another third eye, but a stone of new beginnings as well. Meant to sooth emotional instability, stabilizing emotions. All of the stones meant to keep calm, fix emotions, and be strong.

Using pretty stones and those that promoted emotional wellness seemed limiting however. So I used my most financially valuable stones too. My raw garnet chunks, my uncut cloudy opals, my prized uncut diamond. Expensive things that I truly treasured. I needed things that connected to me in other ways than stones however. I'd included the regularly suggested pieces. A lock of hair from my first hair cut. (Much to my mothers dismay) Baby teeth, my first earrings, my first love note (Undelivered) and my first pocket knife... I felt like I'd put more thought into my stones than myself.

So I had a little back up packet in my robe. Things I wasn't certain I wanted to lose, but things I knew would help in the summoning. My great grandfathers sapphire ring, given to me by my father on his death bed. A letter from my grandmother encouraging me and praising my strength for fighting through my first depressive episode when I got diagnosed bi-polar. My mothers wedding ring, which she gave me when they divorced. All precious things I didn't want to lose. Things precious to my soul.

My heart ached, knowing I would never see these items again. Summoning my familiar would need this. I packed the last minute additions to the box and took a deep breath. I could do this. Mrs Palejah summoned the circle of powdered sulphur, lines of geometric shapes burning within it and beneath my feet.

"Hold your summoning box to your heart and recite the incantation you chose." She instructed me, to which I complied. Another deep breath, I closed my eyes so the crowd wouldn't make me nervous.

"Heart of truthful lies, tell me your forgotten lore. Speak of secrets unknown. You may carve these into my soul. Into the stone of myself, my reality. Grace me with a teacher, a friend, and companion"

I'd translated the words myself, from the traditional tongues of magic to modern speak. I knew if I used the original words, I would fumble and speak them wrong. There was no rule against translating, and I had tested the minor spells I was allowed to use. The translated verses still worked. Still, Mrs Palejah stared in shock at me. Her frown was telling, she was about to tell me off for not using the proper tongue... Then the circle exploded in light, stretching wider and pushing everyone away. It hadn't done that for anyone else. Lines pulsed and shifted, moving and reshaping until they seemed to find their place. The floor sizzled where the lines burnt into the granite, and light swirled in a rainbow until it all crashed down.

The man standing there looked to be middle aged, his hair in fine braids that extended down to the floor, covered in gold beads and bands. His eyes nearly glowed the colour of light shining through a bottle of whisky. His skin dark as obsidian but gleaming as though brushed in topaz coloured dust. Claws of gold moved gracefully with his hand as it moved to grasp his smooth shaven chin in thought.

"Well now, how long it has been since I've been summoned? Have the words been lost? So many great sorcerers once vied to gain my patronage, and now I stand before a mere fledgling who shakes in their boots. Hah! How amusing."

Shock had stunned everyone, no one was moving. However, I always felt in a state of panic. Handling a situation while in a panic was normal. First matter of business wasn't greetings however. This man was standing there perfectly naked. Granted no one here was under the age of 20, but no one likes unsolicited nudity. I slipped my ceremonial robe off and swiftly rushed him into it. Thankfully he found it amusing, and let his arms be brought through the sleeves. I tied it around his waist, barely, and sighed in relief.

Mrs. Palejah must have found her tongue, as she spoke up in a shrill screech.

"Vio, what in blue blazes have you just summoned???" My new familiar frowned at her shrieking, turning to glare at her.

"My title is Auryn, though you may call me sir." He addressed her in a cold unpleasant tone, displeased with her pitch. I felt the blood leaving my face, he'd just told my teacher to call him sir, I was dead.

"I may not dwell upon these lands, but you are truly incompetent to not know of me. A powerful golden dragon, the golden dragon enslaved to the sorcerers of your world to teach them the secrets of true magic. Though this is admittedly the first time I've been summoned in my human form, such an abnormality." He practically purred his words, pleased with himself. I felt ready to puke. This arrogant... dragon? Was my familiar. I guess I won the coolest familiar award.... But I feared I'd be kicked out from the program if he continued to insult my teacher.

"Uhm, Mr. Auryn, may I please... uhm... calm down please sir. We'll figure this out. I don't wish to enslave you. I just filled my summoning box with things that meant something to me and-"

He stared down at me, raising his brows. Well shaped and tipped in gold, how strange.

"You just happened to stumbled upon the correct words, and use the correct stones, to summon me?" I couldn't tell if he was amused, annoyed, or if he thought me a liar. I shied back, biting my lip and nervously reaching for the beads on my wrist. Seeing this, he softened himself.

"You just happened upon it... Allow me to check." Somehow, he summoned the box. I thought it destroyed in the summoning! He opened it and dug through it, looking at the item.

"It's a beautiful piece of work. And the samples you used... All of them are aesthetically lovely. You simply wished to give the best to your familiar, didn't you?" In a puff of golden flame, it disappeared from his hands. stepping towards me, he broke the spell apparently and everyone started talking. Cringing into myself, I looked down and shifted.

"The stones you used, they aren't the ones that normally summon me. You summoned me for something other than my power."

"I collect stones, they're important to me. I wanted to use ones that symbolized-" He held up his hand.

"I know what they symbolize. You needn't explain in front of the crowd, my dear." Sighing in relief, I looked around and felt myself tense up once again.

"This is... a little overwhelming. I have a feeling the dean is going to want to talk to us both." Mrs Palejah tried to speak up, but he growled at her. Oh shit, I was fucked.

"I dislike being surrounded by so many, let us abscond to your room. We may use the opportunity to sort through our new bond before you're interrogated." A thought flashed through my mind. He was... taking care of me? Mindful of my fear and discomfort, he wanted to remove me from the situation and give me a chance to relax and recover my thoughts.

I nodded to him, I was already in trouble from his remarks to my teacher, I might as well flee.

"I'd like that." To my continued surprise, he held his hand out to me.

"Come along, I know the way."

During the annual Familiar summoning course for first year students at the magic academy, some students end up with creatures like Beetles to bunnies to even a lion, you on the other hand wound up summoning an Arch-Dragon in his human form

[autistic-caleb-widogast]

hi! 3, 12 & 35 for the character asks? hope you have a lovely day! ✨

Hello, thank you so much for the ask, and I hope you have a lovely day too!

Here's a short sketch of each of the characters I'll mention:

Willow: Gnome Blood mage, extremely sweet, a bit mischievous, and looks like a cherub, until she starts bleeding like all hell when she casts spells in combat. She helped out at her parents shop since she was a child and when she was 7, an ominous person in a hooded robe came in. She was fascinated with them and they left her a gift - a blood mage spellbook.

Aurora: High elven arcana domain cleric, posh failed former gifted kid. Her parents, important people TM, wanted her to become a wizard, like them, but she flunked out of prestigious wizard universities multiple times and got disowned. She does genuinely love magic, so some God (she doesn't know who yet), gave her magic after she had a breakdown.

Ozan: Human eloquence bard, former court jester, now on the run from a noble he angered with one of his jokes. He's spent 6 months mostly alone on the run and it really kinda fucked him up a bit. He's kind, a bit anxious and quite sensitive. He's my sweet little boy who can do no wrong.

3- highest and lowest con. Well. I have to admit, con isn't my priority, so none of my characters have really high con, but my gnome blood mage, Willow, has +3 con. She really needs it. Lowest is Aurora with +1.

12- best at singing. Well, giving it to any other character than the bard would be wrong, so obviously Ozan. Willow couldn't carry a tune if it had handles, but she loves to sing and it's kind of cute. Veeery off key, but lots of enthusiasm.

35- funniest. Ozan has to take this one too, he was a court jester for five years, he wins this one. Aurora has a certain kind of self depreciating humor that works sometimes, and she can get pretty sardonic at times.

[fireflywonder]

There was a chance of that not happening???

[aiweirdness]

Facts about whales

When a neural net can imitate just about any kind of text on the internet, the challenge is to tell it precisely what to imitate. In my last preview of OpenAI’s new API, I asked it some pretty basic questions about horses, and it often got them wrong.

Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: 4. It has two eyes on the outside and two eyes on the inside.

But part of the problem seemed to be that it thought I was asking for jokes. Once it finished answering the horse question, it would sometimes add questions of its own, such as:

Q: Why is the sky blue? A: Because blue is the only color the sun trusts. Sure enough, if I prompted it with FAKE whale facts from the @awhalefact twitter account, it responded with more fake facts (even copying the informal grammar):

a new study suggests that whales swim around because it makes them happy and it is not for any other reason

i can see into your soul from my balcony and i know that you are afraid of whales

when someone tells you they want to show you something cool, you should just assume they want to show you a whale

did you know that there are more than 10 billion planets in the universe that are all entirely covered in whales

Is there a way I can prompt this neural net such that I get Serious Answers Only? Since its task is to predict the text that is the most likely to come next, I tried ask it to add to an existing list of eight true facts about whales. At a temperature of 0.9 (enough for some variety, hopefully not enough for chaos) and allowing it to pick what it deemed the most likely of 10 tries, here’s one of its lists of facts. (I’ve annotated its “facts” as true or false.)

Whales all have two blowholes. [False]

Whales can easily be identified by the pigment of their skin. [False]

Whales are very intelligent. [True]

One of the smallest whales measures 3 feet in length as an adult. [False]

The life span of a blue whale is 100 years. [False]

The oldest known whale is 211 years old. [True]

Whales consume 3,000 pounds of food per day. [True (but only for some)]

There are two main types of whales: toothed whales and baleen whales. [True]

Whales can hold their breath for up to 4 minutes when resting. [False]

So it produces a mix of true facts and true-sounding made-up facts. Its fact about the smallest whale is technically just one character off from the truth (the smallest whale measures up to 9 feet long), so by its standards it’s almost correct. A Buzzfeed listsicle type of prompt (“10 amazing facts you didn’t know about whales!”) produced also produced plenty of false facts.

Scientists have recently discovered that the brains of whales are larger than human brains.

Dolphins don't just have to live in the water. Some live in the desert.

Whales are found in all of the oceans, but not in the sea. The sea is too salty for them to be able to live in.

I decided to try another tactic, and fed it the first sentences of the Wikipedia article on whales.

My prompt: Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins and porpoises. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, having diverged about 40 million years ago. The AI’s response: Although whales were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, their closest living relatives are now thought to be hippopotamuses. Megaptera novaeangliae, or the humpback whale, is a species of baleen whale. One of the largest rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 m and weigh about 36,000 kg. The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Its diet consists mostly of krill and small fish, though it may also eat plankton, squid, and copepods. Like all large whales, the humpback was a target for the whaling industry, and once numbering in the tens of thousands, the worldwide population fell to an estimated 5,000. Orcas, also known as killer whales, are large dolphins belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, which includes the other large whales, the pilot whales and sperm whales. Orcas are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been described as manifestations of culture.

I’m not bothering to fact-check each sentence, because it’s basically 100% correct every single time.

But then I started googling individual sentences. It turns out most of them are near word-for-word reproductions of Wikipedia sentences. If the AI were a student, it would be flunked for plagiarism.

It makes sense that an internet-scraping AI would be able to quote Wikipedia text - those sentences really get around. The sentence that starts “Orcas are highly social” is no longer on Wikipedia but seems to have been part of the orca article around 2008, and appears on the internet in 122 places, including in a Twilight fanfic.

To get ORIGINAL facts, I decided to write a few sentences of original fact-filled text about whale evolution.

My prompt: "Whales are a relatively young group of mammals, having evolved from land-dwelling creatures about 50 million years ago. Their terrestrial ancestors were small raccoon-sized hoofed mammals, carnivorous like other ungulates of the time. Over an astonishingly quick period of time (15 million years at most, possibly less than 5 million), these land mammals made the transition to an aquatic lifestyle, gaining at first denser bones and an ear structure that allowed them to hear more easily underwater. Soon they began to look more crocodilian, their eyes migrating to the tops of their heads. "

AI’s response: Whales, and especially baleen whales, are well known for their enormous size, but most types of whales are not larger than a full-grown adult human. Exceptions include the blue whale, the largest animal ever known, the extinct "Basilosaurus", which was longer than a blue whale and likely the largest animal to have ever existed, and the "shovelnose" whales, especially the genus "Balaenoptera" which include the blue whale, "B. musculus", the fin whale, "B. physalus", and the sei whale, "B. borealis".

This reads well but is frequently wrong. Most types of whales are CONSIDERABLY larger than a full-grown adult human. Basilosaurus was not longer than a blue whale. There is no such thing as a shovelnose whale. Would that there were.

To this AI, SOUNDING correct is more important than actually BEING correct.

What about other styles of delivering true facts? (Below, my prompt is in bold, and the rest is unedited AI)

Darth Vader stood with his back to them, gloves gripping the console. "Did you know that the blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived?" "N-no, Lord Vader," said the stormtrooper. "And yet the blue whale eats krill, which are miniscule. It can engulf up to two hundred twenty tons of water at a time." "I am fascinated, Lord Vader." The black-caped Vader turned slightly toward him. "Would you like to hear more about the whales?" "Yes, Lord Vader," came the stormtrooper's tremulous voice. "I would like very much to hear about the whales." "They can make some of the loudest and lowest sounds of any creature known. The groans of blue whales can travel thousands of kilometers through the ocean. Their calls can be heard from the surface all the way to the seafloor, some three thousand meters below the surface. You could hear the cries of a single blue whale in Tokyo and hear the answer from the one in San Francisco." "I see," said the stormtrooper. "Have you ever heard the cries of a blue whale, sergeant?" "No, Lord Vader. I have never heard the cries of a blue whale." "I see," said Vader. "And have you ever seen a blue whale, sergeant?" "No, Lord Vader. I have never seen a blue whale." "No one has. They live too deep in the ocean. No human has ever seen a blue whale and lived to tell the tale. Until today." "I... I have seen a blue whale, Lord Vader?" "That is correct, sergeant. Until today, no human has ever seen a blue whale and lived. But now you have seen one." "I have seen one," said the stormtrooper, turning to face Vader, head shaking. "Yes, Lord Vader. I have seen one. I have seen a blue whale."

Subscribers get bonus content: I experimented with a few other ways of generating questionable whale facts.

My book on AI is out, and, you can now get it any of these several ways! Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Indiebound - Tattered Cover - Powell’s - Boulder Bookstore

[mechazushi]

I can see how him being a descendant of a samurai clan could play into his character. The main trait of samurai was that they had blind, obedient loyalty. If a shogun asked you to do anything, you did it, without question. Toto would probably be praised for his "reacting without thinking" because it's what Ron needs of him anytime they're together. Even finding out what Ron does to people and knowing how eccentric he can get, Toto never left ( I mean, we wouldn't have a story if he did, but still).

They were also raised to be well educated at their point in time. To us the level they were at then would be considered the bare minimum of education today, which kinda works to this concept's favor. Toto could certainly fit the bill since he's not supposed to be brilliantly intelligent like the other main character Ron. He's just a bumbling idiot when it comes to solving crime, but he appears to be competent enough in other areas. He's definitely aware of all the normal social cues Ron blatantly ignores when he's out in public, maybe we could have it be he also knows about rich people party etiquette?

Samurai only really came from rich families, so having Toto be rich but be noble and not obnoxious about it is a good tie-in. Being rich allows him to keep up with any of Ron's shenanigans without real worry. I also like to think he's not worried about losing his position as a detective because he needs the money, but because he wants to help people that d*mn much. It all ties back into why he's working with Ron and why he hasn't lost so much patience with him and just left by now. Working with Ron gives him the best opportunity to save as many people as he can in his position.

He would have absolutely flunked out of being a samurai in the proper time periods due to his physical condition (Not to say its bad per-say, but they've made a mention of how Ron's been bored for so long that he practically trains at a professional sportsman level). But thanks to modern day situations, he could be considered as a modern equivalent to something that could be worded as Ron's personal samurai.

The further the manga goes, the more I have questions for Toto. Why is he so rich??? Like, I don't believe these apartments are cheap, especially considering how few there are and the owner's mansion is nearby. Moreover, the cookies that Toto bought for his Grandma were not cheap either. They are quite expensive, and only +/- reach people can buy them on a regular basis. Toto also bought A LOT OF souvenirs when he visited Kawasemi. So Toto, you are actually a rich??!

Heya!

During the first chapter, Toto admitted that his parents were too busy that they didn’t have any time for him, the reason his grandmother stepped up to raise him.

Of course it is not an indication that they are well-to-do, they might be working full time as office workers or factory employees that taking care of a child wasn’t a part of the plan. But I’m looking at his apartment. It suggests that he is living in a two-floor flat.

The usual cheap apartments (apāto) in Japan only have one floors. He has a second floor that goes to another room. I guess, his bedroom.

A typical apāto uses “an elevated mezzanine or loft as sleeping space.” Toto clearly has a second floor. So his pad is better than the others.

So yes, Toto, who can go abroad without qualms accompanying Ron, I cannot imagine that he’s without a lot of money that gives him the ability to take a break when needed. A member of the old rich.

He might be part of the Isshiki clan, whose ancestors were samurai and daimyo during the Sengoku Period. We will never know. Everything is possible.

[kitkatopinions]

(Rabbithole Anon) Y'know, I was going to send in an ask about just they could have made a compelling way to show how some people may have become hunters through pressure rather than an age excuse if they wanted to say some people weren't ready (joining to protect a friend who wanted to be one, wanting to travel for a variety of reasons, it being a general expectation but the person being hesitant) but it led to me wondering wait, would certain careers require a hunting lisence?

Okay, I love this rabbit hole. XD It illustrates a couple of RWBY problems here and it's the fact that they often are lacking in the character development/character journey department, and that they're often lacking in the world building department.

We actually have plenty of characters that can serve as examples for people who maybe should've thought twice about entering the Academy (when they did.) There are people who entered the Academy for the wrong reasons/not noble reasons, people who entered the Academy during a time they might not have been ready, and people who would be full on dangerous with a Hunter badge, and most of our mains fall under one of these categories (though mostly the first two.)

Ruby - Two years below the standard age of her class. Whether or not she was at the skill level of a first year (she was,) and whether or not she'd received special training from Qrow (she had,) Ruby was still essentially a kid, and her mind and body both hadn't developed completely. Ruby should have been traumatized after the Fall of Beacon and been allowed to show that more as a character, she should've had straight up PTSD, she should've been allowed to have emotion in Volume 4 than Jaune's sidekick who makes sad eyes when she sees him grieving. Weiss - Her main motivation for joining Beacon was to reclaim her family legacy. Yes, her desire was to reclaim it and use it for good, but it was still arguably more about personal and familial glory. On top of that, Weiss has been blatantly anti Faunus and has never so much as addressed that. Weiss's character journey should have reflected more personal growth, and either her unlearning much of her Faunus racism and clearly changing priorities from her name and family legacy and onto the actual people in need, or her flaws should've led her into being more of a morally gray character who displays her selfishness and pride (in a way that's actually addressed and treated like a flaw.) Yang - She expresses admiration for people like Ruby who want to help people and be kind, but her main point in becoming a Huntress was getting thrills and going where the wind takes her. She didn't join Beacon for any sort of serious purpose, and even when she rejoined Team RWBY in volume five, it was to be with her sister and not because of her own morals (not that I think she's lacking in morals, just that her main motive was different.) This could lead to her having to figure out a lot of what she actually wants, being unsatisfied with being a Huntress in Atlas, being in over her head when things get serious, being more mentally exhausted than the others after long days, etc. Jaune - Wasn't ready to enter Beacon. Idk if he just wasn't allowed to go to a lesser combat school like Signal or if he flunked out, but he wasn't up to scratch to get into Beacon and cheated his way in. On top of that, he lacked in the emotional maturity department as well when he entered. Jaune was a little more invested in his own appearance than Ruby was, but still seemed to have similar good reasons for wanting to be a Hunter. And he did grow a lot. But he was much less prepared, skilled, or equipped to deal with the training or the career and it's a miracle he didn't die in the initiation. Granted, Jaune was handled arguably better than anyone else, since a lot of this was addressed, but these days it feels like it isn't actually playing a part in his character anymore that he's way below the people around him, and I feel like it should still be impacting him. Penny: Honestly, Penny seemed very newly born during the Beacon Arc. She might have been combat ready, but she also started spilling secrets to the first person who was a little bit nice to her, and was clearly naïve and childlike. Imagine if it had been Emerald that had befriended Penny instead of Ruby. Penny dying and then getting resurrected should've been deeply traumatizing for her and it should've made her undergo some major changes and been treated with importance in the show. Qrow: Literally wanted to be a Hunter in the first place to try and learn how to murder Huntsmen. He might have changed later and it’s not exactly relevant, but he arguably shouldn't have joined when he did either. Meanwhile, Nora's just one big mystery, because we don't know why she joined, and Ren likely joined for good reasons, but neither of them have ever actually talked about their motivations. The only character we can safely say joined for noble reasons and who was up to scratch and ready when she entered is Blake, who also had good reason to not fully trust the system she was working with, so there could've been complications and character interest there as well.

Please don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I don't think the others should've been in school, I love that they were! I just think the writers should've explored the various ways they might've been not fully ready, not completely well suited to the job they took. The characters are allowed to be flawed and to flounder and it'd make them more full, nuanced characters imo.

On top of that, we have other Hunters to look to as well, outside of our main cast. Cardin, for example, was a terrible person, still in school and already abusing what little power he had to target a member of an oppressed minority group and blackmail other kids into doing his bidding, while plotting revenge on someone for correcting him on his anti-Faunus answer to a question. People like him should not be Hunters, and he was arguably our first sign (of many signs) that the position of Hunter can and will be taken advantage of and misused by bad people. And although the After the Fall/Before the Dawn books aren't canon, while reading BTD (I haven't finished it yet,) Coco and all her team members but Velvet also struck me as people I wouldn't want to be Hunters and wouldn't want to wield any sort of power. Coco is proudly described by one of her friends as sadistic, lets her unfounded opinions of people cloud her judgement, shows respect and admiration towards criminals, and enjoys her classmates being afraid of her. Fox is self-described as sadistic as well and is a bully who tried to use a classmate's phobia against them in a brute-like interrogation. And Yatsuhashi is leagues above the two of them, but also bullied Neptune despite saying the words 'I don't want to be a bully' and threatened him.

There are so many ways the writers could've explored people who went to Beacon too soon, weren't ready, or entered for the wrong reasons. Instead, outside of one conversation in season two about the girls’ motivations and Ren exploding that Jaune cheated his way into Beacon all the way in season eight, it seems like the only take away we're supposed to get is 'all these kids are officially the thing they wanted to be in the beginning and they're all amazing at it, woo!' No acknowledgement of the fact that they could use higher education still, that some of them are still immature or naïve, that some of them are still below the combat level they should be in, that some of them kinda haven't done super well since they left Beacon (cough Ruby cough.) It's all just... Flat, lackluster. And meanwhile, characters like Cardin were written out of the show easily. We've had plenty of examples of corruption in the Hunter business, but the show hasn't paid any attention to that and still is treating being a Hunter like the only true noble goal and the only good and non-corruptible way to defend people, despite the fact that it clearly isn’t. Being a Huntress is not better or safer or more noble in-universe than being an Atlas soldier/Ace Op/Atlas hunter. I’m not saying that all of this needed to be featured, but exploring the differences in motivation and how the Hunter lifestyle affected the various mains could really flesh out their characters. Instead, by the time everyone is heading to Atlas in volume six, they all pretty much have the same reactions to everything and the same motivations and the same beliefs. The rare deviation - like Ren in volume seven and eight - is treated as bad and a mistake that must be rectified, rather than... A natural consequence of the group being full of different people with different upbringings and different motivations that result in different opinions. That sort of thing is only ever explored as a problem that makes someone lacking, and it’s really weird and it makes the show feel... Juvenile, and lacking in nuance or depth when it comes to the characters, which is a really big shame, since the characters have a huge amount of potential and exploring the differences between them and their reactions to being in way over their heads would be - I think - the natural place to take their characters? Especially because so far their storyline has been... Not the highlight of the show.

But, as for how semblances and Hunters should impact the world building, there’s a lot to say about that! They don’t explore a lot in RWBY outside of what’s relevant to the mains, leaving the world building feeling flat and like the world itself doesn’t matter much. RWBY often feels more like a video game world than anything else, which I believe @why-i-hate-rwby-now has pointed out, so credit to them for helping me realize it. There’s one large location per continent and a couple small villages where they only really talk to a town leader and village blacksmith, or encounter a fight, relevant NPCs and characters only going to certain locations that can further the plot, characters only mattering through the ways they interact with the protagonists and seemingly getting benched with nothing to do if they aren’t currently plot relevant, health bars that can be monitored over scrolls, every weapon and semblance has a name even if that name isn’t ever mentioned in show or might not really make a lot of sense, frequently encountered enemies of various threat levels who the characters can plow down without remorse because they’re not sentient or don’t have souls... The list goes on. But one of the ways that it feels very video gamey is that the magical powers actually don’t seem to impact the world.

We know people can have auras even if they don’t have semblances (Mercury, Torchwick, Watts,) and we know lots of even grown people don’t have auras (the citizens of Mantle in danger of dying of cold while our aura having mains aren’t,) but also that auras can be unlocked, by well trained seventeen year olds (Pyrrha,) and we also know that semblances can be unlocked from a very young age due to trauma (Ren, Neptune in EU) but some people are born with their semblances (Qrow and notably Blake use language suggesting they were born with their semblances,) and some semblances are passed down or hereditary (the Schnees.) Semblances can be passive (Qrow, Clover, Ironwood in word of author,) and uncontrollable, or active (almost everyone else,) and some semblances have carried personal negative effects like in the case of Qrow who was even named for being bad luck and Robyn who said people were on edge with her because she can sus out the truth via skin contact when she wants to. Also Mercury’s father was able to somehow take away his semblance.

That’s... Pretty much the extent of our knowledge and it doesn’t tell us much. What RWBY does is give each character abilities that make them iconic and different from each other as fighters, with a shield function that wears down slowly to explain how they can take certain hits and keep going while also allowing them to eventually suffer higher damage when that shield wears down. They had a character get this shield ability unlocked to explain the existence and function of it, and featured some characters who didn’t have the super powered abilities like Roman, an early enemy meant to herald in new, harder enemies who are more plot relevant, and Mercury, who makes up for it by having higher speed and functions exclusive to him through his prosthetics. And then they seemingly built a regular world unaffected by these powers. It sounds like a video game. Civilians just don’t have this power or the shield because they act as non-playable characters. In a way, it almost makes sense to me in conception, because when RWBY was originally created, it was high on visual appeal, fight choreography, and character design. The plot elements were small and the character stories seemed to be pretty simple, the only real complication to this being the White Fang plot, which has always been a major blight in RWBY. But one of the reasons why this video-game feel kinda worked at the start of RWBY was because the story and characters weren’t meant to be the focus of the story, so although the world building at the start was definitely lacking, the audience knew that things like auras and semblances were meant to hype up and add interest to the main highlights of the show: Design and fight choreography. At least that’s what I assume. But in volume three, they started to lay the groundwork for more, bigger plots, more focus on the story, the characters journeying to the outside world, undergoing personal arcs, and that’s what V4 and onward started focusing on.

To be clear, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I started really liking RWBY for its potential and concepts after getting through the first couple episodes of V1, but I actually really enjoyed quite a bit of V4 and V5 even though the design drastically changed and the fighting had gone way down in quality because I found some of the new focus on characters and the plot to be compelling, interesting, or to also have a lot of potential (though I was let down over and over in regards to pay off later.) However, with the new focus on the characters and storyline rather than design and fight choreography, they really needed to do some legwork on fixing the aura and semblance systems and paying attention to world building and making sure the world felt well put together, nuanced, and real. And I don’t feel like they ever did that.

Why is Pyrrha able to unlock auras? Well, because the writers wanted to explain the concept of auras and used Jaune - the unprepared - to do it. But now, auras are actually an important part of the story - for example, the people of Mantle don’t have unlocked auras, so will die of cold, but it doesn’t affect our heroes because they do have unlocked auras. So who can unlock auras? Is it a learned skill or is it hereditary? If it’s a learned skill, why isn’t everyone eager to learn it especially in places where it’s life or death if they don’t like in Atlas? If it’s a hereditary skill, why aren’t the people who have that skill put on a pedestal and being pressured into using that skill to save civilians in places where having an aura is the difference between life and death? In either case, why aren’t there people who professionally unlock auras? Why aren’t they on the pay roll in Atlas and Mantle? If it’s a skill that all powerful hunters have, why aren’t our heroes (who we’re supposed to think are now more powerful than Atlas’s best) unlocking auras for dying children in Mantle? Why don’t specialists and longtime fighters with Qrow, Winter, Robyn, Maria, or James have this ability if it comes with skill, time, or talent?

Why are semblances unlocking or morphing in times of trauma so rare? Why didn’t the Fall of Beacon unlock loads of new semblances and new semblance abilities? Why didn’t Ruby get a new semblance upgrade when she saw Weiss getting stabbed? Why didn’t Weiss unlock a new semblance ability when her plane was crashing? Why didn’t Pilot Boi unlock his semblance during the same occasion? Why is it that Jaune didn’t get a semblance upgrade when the light bridges were disappearing? Why didn’t Blake get a semblance upgrade when Yang fell into the void? Why did Ren get a semblance upgrade because he was upset while with the Ace Ops after Oscar got captured, but Nora doesn’t get an upgrade while she’s electrocuting herself? If semblances sometimes unlock in times of truama, why is it that some characters like Oscar and Torchwick and Jaune pre-V5 who we know have encountered lots of trauma just still don’t get semblances? If you can train your semblance into upgrading, why is it that we don’t see long time hunters and fighters unlock more semblance abilities, like Qrow, Winter, Robyn, Maria, or James? It just doesn’t make any sense! And I get that stories always have things happening just because the writers want it, but in RWBY, the hand of the creator is so obvious that it’s ridiculous.

And then there are other questions. Do people avoid bad labor practices out of fear of causing a semblance awakening? Well, from what we see of the SDC, the answer is no. So why not? Why weren’t they worried about an uprising? Work rights becomes a lot trickier when you have to add in tons of qualifiers. Maybe it’s illegal to use a semblance at work, but the SDC also has a history of child workers like Adam who can’t always control it (like Neptune couldn’t control his,) so are there laws protecting child laborers? Perhaps not, since you know, they were already child laborers, so were already suffering unchecked. Are there laws forbidding the use of semblances in government buildings, non-combat driven schools, or parks and libraries? And meanwhile, how would any of this apply to people with a passive semblance? How do you figure out that someone has a passive semblance? How do people know if they’re born with a semblance? Are there people that spend their whole lives having semblances that never get discovered? Do people have semblance detection... Semblances, that they get paid to use or do so out of charity? Did the Schnees rise to power due to their powerful and hereditary semblance, perhaps? Are people discriminated against if they don’t have semblances or pressured to become Hunters if they discover they do have semblances? Shouldn’t civilians in Mantle and Atlas be joining combat schools in droves in the hopes of unlocking an aura so they can better survive? And shouldn’t there be discrimination against people with certain semblances? Outside of Robyn saying she’s personally experienced mistrust, and Qrow’s self-hatred, we don’t see any real prejudice against certain semblance types, or for that matter, any praise or extra significance pointed to certain other semblance types. It would go a long ways towards world building if there were things like people having to divulge their semblance or lack thereof before entering Beacon, or for people to have to register a semblance evolution, or for Emerald to have lied about her semblance because “everyone knows illusion semblances automatically draw suspicion,” or for Qrow to comment that he’d never seen Clover in a Vytal Tournament, only for Clover to say his semblance was deemed ‘cheating’ back when he was in school so he hadn’t qualified. And on the flip side, you could have things like semblances being judged as better and more powerful based on how useful it might be, Pyrrha keeping her semblance on the DL because it’ll just bring more unwanted admiration on her, Sun keeping his own semblance on the DL too because it always make people put a lot of expectations on him, while Neptune’s semblance leaks and he deals with people treating him like he’s selfish and cruel for not wanting to use his own “gift of a semblance.” And people like Jaune could be bullied extra because he doesn’t have his semblance yet, and people in the stands at the Vytal Tournament could be chatting about “when are they gonna pull out their semblances?” and get annoyed and pouty when people don’t. To be fair, we do get things like Mercury’s father having declared his semblance a crutch, but... Still. why isn’t there more of this?

And we see the need for Hunter protection in villages like Kuroyuri and the village that Team RNJR stops to help on the way to Mistral. Small villages outside of the four kingdoms fall to Grimm, or are in danger of falling to Grimm. Ships get attacked by large and dangerous Grimm, we see (corrupt) Hunters on the train to Argus, accompanying for safety, and we see that with a rise of Grimm activity in Mantle, Hunters are dispatched to help kids travel to school. In a world like RWBY, fighting is essential for survival outside of the Kingdoms, and became very essential in the kingdoms as well once schools started going down. You’d assume there should be Hunters accompanying everyone traveling outside of the Kingdoms, resident Hunters living in villages outside the Kingdoms as their on-hand protectors (and more than one Hunters seems to be needed.) Hunters also could be extra protection for anything that’s definitely going to increase negativity, like hiring Hunters to bodyguard funerals seems like something that could be normal in the world of Remnant, and for visiting graveyards (we see Ruby get attacked by tons of Grimm when she visited Summer’s grave in the red trailer.) On top of that, celebrities and rich people hiring Hunters seems like it’d become pretty common. But all that we see outside of Dee and Dudley are traveling Hunters stopping to help people out of the goodness of their heart while they go place to place, and Kingdom Hunters who are assigned to things like border control, clearing out Grimm near or in the Kingdoms, and things like that. What we see is a Kingdom-centered morality complex our protagonists are one hundred percent invested in, Hunters are Kingdom driven and anything outside of that is a kindness, a job they can take or leave in passing. And on top of that, it seems like there aren’t a lot of people in the Hunter profession, and I feel like there should definitely be more. There are people like Jaune who didn’t make the cut but accepted that, we can only assume that there are drop outs too, so like... How many kids are there actually in a year at Beacon? I mean, look at where the Relics were found in the forest during initiation at Beacon.

This gives us a rough idea of how many people are in each year at Beacon. Assuming everyone graduates school and there’s no drop outs and no deaths, that’s a graduating class of twenty. That’s a very small number, comparatively. The job of a Hunter is dangerous. We know of Hunters that died (Summer, Pyrrha, Amber.) We know a lot of Hunters that have other jobs that take a lot of their time (Glynda, Ozpin, Robyn,) and lots of people who quit being Hunters too (Maria, Tai, Raven,) and Hunters who aren’t always on the field like Qrow who was a teacher for a stretch and acted as Ozpin’s spy, the Ace Ops who became part of Ironwood’s inner circle and therefore had a bigger picture, and even all of Team RWBYJNR, who got their Hunter licenses but are also more concerned with bigger picture stuff (if you don’t believe me just look at volume eight where JRY stopped defending Mantle to go rescue Oscar, and Team RWBN + Penny, who were involved in big picture stuff like launching Amity and then saving Penny the Maiden/their friend.) So out of a class of twenty, how many of them are even staying on the field? For a show pushing the narrative that Hunters are the ultimate saviors who are the only true good defense for the world, that condemns even the notion of an army... Like they villainized sending Team FNKI onto the battlefield while also treating it like proof of Ironwood’s evil when he didn’t want to stay and fight when Team RWBY said to, and also made Ironwood’s desire to move into having a robotic army to get soldiers off of the battlefield part of his... Over reliance on machinery, which is full on suspicious considering their ableism towards Ironwood and the fact that he literally has to rely on machinery, but that’s a topic for a different post and this one is already so long. But yeah, my point is that we’re meant to see the army as bad. So if we’re meant to see Hunters as the only true and pure form of defense (which is already off because we know it’s corrupted,) there ought to be way more people in the Hunter field.

As for the schools, we only know of a couple of schools that exist outside of RWBY as combat schools that seem to act as basic training before people go to Beacon. We know of Signal, the school Ruby and Yang went to that Qrow was a teacher at for awhile (I have lots of teacher Qrow headcanons, but sadly Qrow being a teacher wasn’t very well explored,) and we also know of Sanctum in Mistral and (in the EU) Oscuro in Vacuo, presumably one of these existing in Atlas as well. I personally headcanon that there are a lot of these smaller combat schools littering the whole of Remnant (but then again, I also headcanon that the Kingdoms of Remnant are bigger than just one very large city, lol) and that a lot of people attend these schools even if they don’t go on to join one of the Hunter Academies, but this isn’t necessarily supported by canon, I think. But as for other schools...I think it’s fair to assume that there are at least elementary schools, since everyone can read, write, and presumably do basic math, and what we do know is that Ilia went to a prep school in Atlas (which was info dropped in Blake’s pre-V5 trailer, not even stated in the show proper,) so we can probably safely say that people who don’t go to the Huntsman academies go to some form of high school, but you’re right that we don’t see this actually in action. I personally always headcanon that Whitley had a tutor, since Jacques wanted to avoid too much outside influence.

I am so sorry that this response got so away from me and I myself got into so many rabbit holes as well. XD I just have a lot to say about the world building in RWBY (or sometimes lack thereof.) Although I admit that I’m not as into or as good at analyzing as blogs like why-i-hate-rwby-now, but yeah, this is... A very long post. Sorry!

[fandomsonrequests]

𝖆𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖘𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓..? [𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 6]

fandom: ATEEZ

characters: prince! park seonghwa

reader: fem! knight

word count: 2.9k+

summary:  It was time for another Selection. No- not a Selection for a bride but rather a well-trained knight to keep Prince Seonghwa safe after a failed assassination attempt. You, a blacksmith’s daughter, manage to make it to the elite group of knights worthy and skilled enough to protect the crown prince after months and months of training. This alone catches Seonghwa’s eyes- in more ways than one

a/n: whoooo- so i’m back. i’m sorry for not updating as much :’)) school has really been kicking my ass. how’s quarantine for you all? do you have physical or online classes? either way, i hope you’re all staying safe and constantly hydrating! <3

taglist: @iwanttohitmyself​ @barcelona-sergei​ @minihongjoong​ @i-purrple-u @taetae123094 @jeonartemis @jibaxja​

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“So that was an experience,” Siyeon says as she loops her arm with yours, following Mina to their shared quarters with the rest of the girls. 

You nodded in agreement, trying to keep note of all the twists and turns you took and memorizing them for future use. “I still can’t believe that Hae-seong guy is going to tutor us about the kingdom’s laws.” You grimaced. 

“Ugh, tell me about it,” Your friend sighs. “I bet that guy likes to pick on the others- or flunk them on purpose.”

“He definitely seems like it.” 

You and the rest of the group stopped at a hallway that’s parallel to a large window, designed with stained glass roses creeping up the sides. You could see the whole courtyard and the other roofs of the palace from this spot. It was quite a breathtaking view, but you imagined that it was even more beautiful at sunset. 

“Here you are,” Mina says in her tiny but clear voice as she opened the doors to the quarters. “I’ll be fetching you from now on to avoid any of you getting lost in the palace. You’ll be fitted for your uniforms later before the feast. In the meantime, you must wear what you have brought to training.” 

The room was huge. There were around twenty girls in the group but the room could fit more than that. The whole room was probably as big as your whole damn house. 

Soft beds lined the walls, a narrow but tall window in between each space separating the beds. Trunks carved with intricate designs and gold encrustations on the side were settled at the foot of each bed. This was probably where they were to put their things in as the days continued. Candlesticks were sat on top of the simple but marble bedside tables for each bed. 

All of you couldn’t help but gawk at the whole place, making Mina chuckle under her breath. To her, it was a normal thing to see but seeing everyone else’s reaction reminded her other first day as a maid in the palace. 

“The beds look so soft..” Says a tall girl from your right. 

“I wonder how the uniforms would feel..” Another says. 

“Please feel free to rest and unpack the things you have brought,” Mina says with a humble bow of her head. “If you feel too cooped up in the room, you may take a look at the palace but I advise you to not stray too far from this wing. The palace is quite enormous.”

The young maid bowed once more before she exited the room and closed the door behind her. Several girls didn’t waste any time to pick a bed that they liked and start unpacking. You felt Siyeon tug at your arm and lead the both of you to a spot near the corner of the room. 

Idle chatter and quiet sounds of excitement filled the whole room, making it a little more lively. Several girls huddled together as they unpacked their things while others worked on their own. Some went straight to their bed and tried to sleep- it was probably an exhausting journey for them.

“Here, here.” She says when she finally picks a spot and settles her bag over the trunk provided for them.

“Oh wow,” You remark as you sit on the bed. 

It felt soft, so soft. It felt like those special marshmallows you had whenever you were able to buy some from the traders. You exclaim a little when you move up the bed, feeling it dip from your weight. You were afraid that you would sink right to the floor from how soft it was. Your beds back at Trelark we’re never this comfy. 

A few other girls, mainly from city villages, looked at you weirdly and giggled behind their hands. You tried to ignore them as a furious flush of embarrassment crept up your cheeks. 

“Don’t mind them,” Siyeon says as she moved from her bed to yours. “You know what city girls are like.” 

“Pompous and obnoxious..” You reply with a chuckle of your own. 

Your friend clicks her tongue and winks. “Exactly. But enough of that- let’s talk about the prince.” She says with a cheeky grin, leaning onto your shoulder.

You laugh a little and roll your eyes. “Really? That’s what you're interested in?” You ask as you gently nudge her off of you. 

“Oh come on,” She retorts. “He’s handsome, isn’t he? I didn’t expect that he’d be that… flawless.”

You couldn’t help but agree. You heard from the stories that floated around here and there on how handsome Prince Seonghwa was. But seeing him in real life was truly something else. 

You tried not to gawk at him the first time you saw him, but he just looked so ethereal. His clothes were pristine and pressed, elegant trimmings and subtle glint of the designs embossed in the fabric shined under the light. He had a good combination of genes from both parents because the way his face was shaped, from that sharp jaw to his nose, one would think he was sculpted by the gods themselves. 

But the gold crown that sat upon his silver locks tied the whole look together. 

“Plus, he doesn’t seem so stuck-up and arrogant.” 

“Well,” you shrug. “It could be a front.”

“True, true. But if he were, you’d practically feel the arrogance radiate from him. He didn’t seem to give off any bad energy.” 

Siyeon had this spooky but amazing gift of being able to read people and sense their “auras” around them. There were moments where she was wrong, but most of the time she was correct. It still puzzles you how she’s able to do that but you suppose some people were blessed to have amazing talents. 

“Was that what your special gut feeling was telling you?” You tease her with a smile.

“Yes, and you know how my gut is always right.”

“Most of the time.”

“Most of the time.”

You two end your conversation there and decide to finally unpack. You needed to get some shut-eye after all this travel. 

~ 

“What do you think of the delegates so far?” Hongjoong asks as he brings a stack of books over to Seonghwa.

The two were currently in the palace library, brushing up on some lessons that the prince had learned a week ago. He liked to study some lessons from before to keep his mind sharp and to retain that knowledge from before. 

“They seem alright from first glance,” Seonghwa answered after thanking his friend for the books. He sighs and closes the one he was reading before looking up to the shorter man. “I really wished father didn’t require that all these people had to go. Some looked reluctant to even be here.”

“I think they’d change their mind soon,” Hongjoong replies and sat across his friend the polished table. “I mean, their whole family gets to live here in the palace and I won’t lie, that’s an amazing opportunity. 

“I suppose..” 

“And if that doesn’t persuade them, they could always drop out.” 

“I just wished I didn’t need all this protection,” The prince sighs and stands up. He folds his hands together and glances out the window to look over to the wing that held the delegates’ quarters. “I feel like a burden to people.”

“Seonghwa, you’re not a burden don’t you ever say that,” Hongjoong refutes and looks up at his friend. “Besides.. you’re more of a peaceful person rather than a fighter.”

Seonghwa couldn’t help but chuckle at this, the corners of his luscious lips quirking up into a smile. “I suppose that’s my fault. I did prefer my lessons over the ones Byron would give.”

The prince turned to his friend with another sigh and returned to his seat. He opens another book for his lessons. “I hope that they won't quit too early though..” 

~ 

You were awoken by Siyeon who was shaking your shoulder. “Hey sleepyhead, Mina’s here,” She says quietly as not to disrupt the maid who was delivering the news.

You sat up, eyes still blurry and mind foggy from being robbed of sleep, and yawned behind your hand. The girl’s mousy voice carried over to you when your head was finally cleared. 

“...please wear your most appropriate attire for the banquet later. I suggest you prepare now to avoid further delays when I fetch you later. The washroom is right across the hall.” 

Mina bows and leaves the room. Once more, chatter fills the room, and a sense of excitement and some bits of anxiety fill the room. Girls hop off their beds and start rummaging through their clothes to pick out something presentable while others headed over to the washroom to freshen up. 

You hear Siyeon humming as she goes through her clothes. She was the daughter of a tailor and a seamstress you see, so most of the time they made their own clothes or reformed it to their taste. She had quite a lot of presentable wear that could even allow her to pass off as a noble who liked to dress casually. 

Other girls, specifically from the city villages, had such lavish clothes. It was hard for you to believe that they were simple wear. 

You turn to your clothes. There wasn’t much variety to them. They all ranged from hues of white to black to brown. Fabric dye was hard to come by in your village of Trelark. The most colorful clothing you had was a simple dress when you were six. That was long gone by now. 

“Not much to pick from huh?” 

You direct your attention to the voice beside you. A girl with tanned skin and long black hair tied into a ponytail was looking at you expectantly. There were bags under her eyes and a few tiny streaks of silver in her hair, making her look older than usual. She had no malice in her expression thankfully; she just had a look of sympathy. 

“Uhm, yeah… is it that obvious?” You answer somewhat shyly. You didn’t think you’d be this conscious about your clothes ever. 

The girl gave a warm laugh and shrugged. “I have the same problem as you.” She said and gestured to her clothes laid out in the bed. It mirrored yours except hers had more skirts than trousers. 

“I’m Amihan, it’s nice to meet you,” She introduces herself and extends a hand for you to shake. “I came from Sinal.” 

Sinal- another mountain village. That made sense. 

“____,” You shook her hand and offered her a smile. “I came from Trelark.” 

“Ahh, that explains things.” She grins and pulls her hand away. “I was originally from Rako, you know, the farming village. But my family had to transfer to Sinal after that drought.”

Several years ago, when you were still a very young girl, the north side of the kingdom had experienced a terrible drought. Many people had suffered- especially those living on the outskirts of the kingdom. Almost a fourth of the kingdom’s population was wiped out due to the lack of food and the violence of trying to stay alive arose from it. 

Your family was fortunate enough to be living on the other side, but you had remembered the flock of people that had arrived at Trelark in search of a place to stay and restart their lives. 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” You say quietly, hands awkwardly hovering over your clothing. 

Amihan brushes it off and continues to go about picking her clothes. “It’s alright, it was long ago so it doesn’t really matter now. I don’t even remember what happened then.” 

The silence that follows after she speaks marks the end of the conversation. You were kind of glad that she approached you- you had a feeling that she’d end up being a good friend of yours. 

~ 

Mina came to fetch all of you after as the time for the banquet drew near. You were in the middle of brushing out Siyeon’s hair when the maid called for everyone and requested that they follow her to the dining hall where the royal family was waiting. 

That made you hurry your actions and toss your friend’s brush onto her bed when you were done. “Okay, you’re done. You look great- now let's go.” You say in a rush and prompt her to stand. 

The group trailed after her and headed towards the dining hall, meeting the group of young men halfway through. Their hair was slicked or tied back and they too were wearing their best clothing. Some looked like they dressed to impress while others didn’t seem to mind too much just as long as they looked appropriate. 

You didn’t miss the way a few curious glances and flirtatious winks were sent to each other from both groups, making you roll your eyes in amusement. All of you were young, you had to expect this kind of behavior would happen. 

“Well, don’t you two look great.” Raviv compliments when the delegates merge. 

“Thank you, Raviv,” Siyeon says with a proud smile and a bow of her head. 

Once you arrive at the dining hall, you couldn’t help but be blown away by the spectacular aura it has. The walls were lined with velvet while ivory columns stood along the walls to support the tall ceiling above you. Several banners hung along the walls while a guard stood underneath each. A large plush red rug lay in the middle of the room where a rather long and somewhat narrow dining table was, topped with gold silverware and candle holders. 

It was just like you imagined- only ten times better. 

A various array of delicious foods was laid out on the table. Some were recognizable but many others looked foreign and even exotic to you. It was definitely way better than the stale bread and hard meat you had to eat from day in and day out.

Your mouth waters from the delicious aroma alone. You only realized how hungry you were when your stomach growled. You clutch it out of embarrassment but no one seemed to notice as they were too entranced by the sight before them. 

The King and his family had their little table at the front with their food placed upon it. He rose from his seat and spread his arms wide to welcome you. “Please take a seat and enjoy the meal we have prepared for you. I’m sure you’re all famished.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Several of you say with a bow of the head. 

The second the King gave his permission to eat everyone quickly made their way over to the long table. Some tried to nudge their way towards the seat nearest to the royal family. Luckily, the other delegates weren’t foolish enough to fight in front of the king. Although, the poisonous glares they received from others were hard to miss.

You, Siyeon, and Raviv managed to snag three seats away from the boisterous people and found yourselves sitting near the end of the table. You see Amihan trying to find one for herself when you wave her over. “Amihan, over here!” 

The young woman grins when she sees you and makes her way over. “Thank you…” She says softly and nodded over at your two other friends to which they responded in kind. 

“Please, enjoy your meal.” The King says once more before sitting down and resuming his dinner with his family. 

You all dug in excitedly. Your tastebuds were met with an explosion of flavor. You try not to shove food into your mouth, you were after all raised with manners. You’ve never had anything this good before. Everything you tasted was so fresh and so tender, it was truly a luxury only the rich could have. 

By the time dinner was over everyone was full and satisfied. The once lively chatter dwindled to content murmurs and soft tones. 

“If I have another bite of that cookie I’m going to burst,” Raviv says as he leans back against his chair and wipes his mouth with the table napkin provided for them. 

You could only hum in agreement. “I don’t think they’d feed us like this everyday though..” You muse as you drink some water to wash everything down. 

“Ah, _____ let us dream a little.” Amihan gently pushes your shoulder with a small laugh. “But I’m going to have to agree with you. Even if they’re rich they’d still ration the food they have.”

“That and the kingdom’s taxes go to them so they can’t really spend all our money on this,” Siyeon added.

There was a fair share of corrupt kings throughout the generations, a couple of them being dethroned by the resistance of the kingdom. Although some ruled justly- one of these kings being Seonghwa’s father. There were still people that despised the royal family but the majority adored them. 

The banquet ends with words from the King before the delegates were dismissed to head back to their quarters and prepare for bed. Back in the girls’ quarters, several candles were lit as they all prepared for bed. 

Siyeon was already settled and snuggled down on her own while you sat on yours, brushing your hair out. You set down your course brush on your bedside table and move to lay under the covers, blowing out your candle in the process. As you shift onto your side, you feel the weight of the pendant your father gave you fall off your chest. Your hand comes up to touch it, allowing the memories of your family to give you strength.

Tomorrow is the day you start training. Tomorrow is the day the game starts.

[lampmeeting]

Magnus 🔨

8) thank you thank you thank you!

1) Uncommon headcanon about them I am deeply attached to.

i’ve mentioned this a few times but magnus being allergic to cats is just... so cute (will fully admit i stole it from Running on Empty, that scene in the diner with the stray kitten was too adorable). and in a hammertooth context, it’s TRAGIC hahaha...

(also, adhd w/ rejection-sensitive dysphoria magnus owns my whole fucking heart)

2) Widely-held headcanon about them that I reject.

this is something i’ve changed my mind on since first getting into the character! while i think magnus has definitely experimented with/been addicted to various illicit substances in his youth and over the years, i don’t think he’s like a raging drug addict or anything, and i don’t think drugs or alcohol had anything to do with stabbing nathan or toki or his getting involved with the revengencers. ALSO i don’t think preklok magnus was as violent or mean as he’s sometimes portrayed. i think he definitely was allowed some wiggle room re: moody/controlling behavior because i also think he was one of the founding members of the band if not THE founding member, BUT i don’t think he was going around screaming at the guys all the time or throwing fists. can’t imagine anyone would stick around long if he acted that way.

3) What were they like as a kid? What was their early life like?

i’ve sorta changed my mind on his childhood a bit too, but a few things remain the same: he was close to his father, a korean war vet (magnus’ first knife was a navy utility knife his dad used during the war), but he died in a motorcycle accident when magnus was 9 or 10. he has an older half-sister from his dad’s previous marriage. i’ve played around with the idea of magnus trying to join the military after high school but getting dishonorably discharged for some reason (perhaps on purpose because whoops turns out he can’t stand it), but then i ALSO really love the idea of magnus trying to go to college and flunking out due to undiagnosed depression/adhd... hmmm decisions, decisions

4) Symbols/motifs that I associate with them–colors, animals, zodiac signs, mythic themes, imagery, objects, etc.

SCORPIO MAGNUS AND I WILL NOT BE SWAYED. for animals, he’s a scrawny ol’ lion. :3 just a big shaggy cat who would probably be majestic and kinda scary if he wasn’t so raggedy-lookin’ and worn down, aww. like i mentioned in a previous ask, i like biblical/judas imagery for him, as well as touches of saint sebastian (a hot impaled dude...i mean c’mon). also like... i could totally see revenge-plotting magnus likening himself to noble prometheus, eternally punished by the gods haha

5) Other characters or types of people I have in mind when I draw and/or write them.

i’ve realized that i bring a little hank anderson (of detroit: become human) to magnus when i write him, and i’ve also got this oc who has that sort of byronic quality to him that i also give to magnus (they also look...very similar haha). i give him pretty significant touches of myself, too, and also a couple people who are very important to me in my life

6) What I project onto them when I draw and/or write them.

angst stemming from undiagnosed depression/adhd/rsd hahah... angst about getting older. angst over not being able to start/finish important creative projects. ANGST. i’m a happy person on the whole, i swear kjdfgd

7) A surprising hobby, interest, or phobia they have.

in another hilarious hammertooth-tragic move, i headcanon that he’s kinda phobic of fish or anything small and wriggly from the water. like, going to an aquarium is fine, but having to touch a fish or swim close to a fish, feeling something brush against his leg in the ocean or a river or something, he would FLIP out hahaha... also i think post-dsr he’d finally decide to get an old motorcycle and would have fun working on it. :3 this starts a whole Thing of him buying shitty motorcycles, restoring them, selling most of them (aside from a few he’s really proud of). the whole taking something broken and on its last legs and fixing it up and getting it to run is really cathartic to him for Reasons :’)

[morihaus]

48, 43 and 38 for Pannolaire and Runa!

48. what is one value they hold higher than any other, in others and in themselves? (e.g., loyalty, intelligence, compassion, responsibility, etc.)

they both lay a lot of value onto intelligence, which is why they're in this academic rival relationship- they're both geniuses and that's why they're attracted to one another (for the most part)- but personally...

runalenwe values ambition, or like, ambition with the skills to back it up. talent? she's got big goals of restoring her family's pedigree after her dad flunked out of the college hundreds of years ago, so she holds herself to this high standard of being brilliant and charming and powerful, and values these traits in others. pannolaire clearly has some kind of chip on her shoulder as well, this Presence about her that could fool you into thinking she's the most important person in the room. THAT's the sort of thing runalenwe cares about

and i guess pannolaire is kind of the same? i was gonna say "individuality" but that sort of like, headstrong independent thing IS sort of what runa's about too? or, the same thing viewed from different angles. pannolaire is there because she has big academic ambitions mostly- ambitions that reach beyond her allotted station in life (she lied her way in there) and is willing to betray tradition and respect to get them. runa doesn't really know this until much later, but it really is all about putting yourself first with these two.

43. are they patient or impatient? what situations would make them feel one or the other?

they're both fairly patient but in like, an unprofessional unfiltered setting runa is definitely less patient than pannolaire is. things usually come easier to runalenwe than pannolaire, so some of them are more or less used to waiting around.

when i try to envision a situation i just think about them both being antsy about who the thalmor are going to be shipping off to anequina, getting impatient about the lengthy decisionmaking process, stressed with the complicated feelings of getting one over on each other and potentially never seeing them again. runa gets impatient about receiving things, pannolaire gets impatient about receiving news.

38. do they like art? what form?

pannolaire is BIG into haute couture, which on summurset can get absurd. the inner turmoil of not being noble but being in love with high fashion. she definitely likes literature too, especially naturalist descriptions of faraway places

runalenwe likes performance art (with magic, obviously) and music quite a bit too. she's only MODERATELY into fashion- honestly for her its more about performance, clothing to accentuate certain things and enhance a social performance before just looking aesthetically good.

[imwilliamwood]

Self Para | A Soundless Cry

The paper that morning had made him feel sick to his stomach. His trusty owl had dropped it off during breakfast and at that moment he’d stood up from his chair and raced out of there without a thought or word. There was only one person on his mind right now.

“Pick up- please-” he paced back and forth in his empty dorm room.

Anxiety bubbled in the bottom of his stomach as worry was consuming him. His phone was pressed to his ear, begging to hear a familiar voice at the end of the line.

No answer.

Will looked at his screen and immediately pressed the contact again. Drawing his phone back to his ear, he took a deep breath trying to hold back the fear that was creeping inside.

“Will? What’s the matter?” his mother’s voice sounded. “Mum!” he almost shouted, relief flooding his system. “Will what’s going on? What’s the matter?” she quickly asked.

The Slytherin let out a heavy breath as a small whimper escaped the back of his throat. Trying to find the courage to speak and not break down in tears seemed impossible right now.

“William,” his mother’s voice was stern and full of concern.

Will felt his voice break as he let out a soft sob. “Mum.... you’re safe?” he asked before wiping a few tears from his eyes that had escaped. Hiding the overwhelming feeling inside of him.

“Of course, yes sweetheart, I’m fine. Why?” “The Prophet,” he croaked before leaning against the dorm window. Brown eyes watched as murky, green water was all that could be seen. Plants and the occasional movement in the distance was the only view he’d been graced with the past seven years.

The sigh he heard confirmed he didn’t have to say it out loud.

“I’m fine, darling. I promise.” “Mum you- you-” Will paused as he tried to steady his composure. “I need you to be okay, please don’t-” he clenched his teeth, it was painful to even ask it of her.

“I am safe, Will,” she repeated. “And I need you to stay safe, Mum.” She didn’t know how many times she could say it if he wouldn’t hear it.

“Please don’t go out again. Please just- just stay quiet,” he murmured. “Darling you know I can’t. Who will stand up for these people if nobody else will? If we all wait for someone else to do it, nobody else will. That’s how bad takes over, Will. Fear kills people.”

Will hated it. She wouldn’t listen. He knew she was right. He knew what she was doing was right and noble but he just wished she would stop. She would just listen to him for once.

“They’re killing muggle-sympathisers, Mum!” he raised his voice.

“Mum you have a job in muggle relations. You actively speak out and I know, Mum. I know that it needs to be done. I understand that but Mum- what about me? What do I do when they kill you? Because your name is probably on a list and the louder you are, the more they’ll notice.”

“Will-”

“No Mum! Listen to me, for once please. Put your son above everyone else.”

Looking down he sat back on his bed before feeling tears fall down his cheeks. “What am I supposed to do without you Mum?” he whimpered softly. The concept of losing her was unbearable. Will wouldn’t cope without her. He wouldn’t allow this war to take her from him.

“I’m not going to let that happen, Will.” “Like you have a choice? You think all those other nameless dead in the prophet today thought the same? They could maybe get by. Oh it won’t happen to them. They’ll be okay.” “William-” “No Mum, you’re not listening to me.... you can’t leave me with, Dad,”

His last words fell quiet, barely a whisper as he admitted the fear out loud for the first time. He knew his mother didn’t know about the list his name was scribbled on. He knew she didn’t know about the plans his father had in store for him. He feared she’d look at him differently. She was brave, she was strong. Will was a coward. He couldn’t stand up for himself.

If he lost his mother, his father would have full control. Right now there was a balance that kept him safe. School kept him safe. Yet school was ending and soon he’d be exposed to everything. It terrified Will greatly. He didn’t want to fall down a path he had no control over. 

“Please listen to me, Mum,” he begged.

“Will I promise I’m not going anywhere, I’m safe. I’m here”

He was twenty-three but he still felt so young. He hadn’t left education yet. He’d been sheltered by the walls of a school for most of this war and now he was about to be sent out into the chaos outside. It terrified him. Will struggled with knowing of the impending doom. To face it without his mother was a thought he couldn’t comprehend. It was a situation he didn’t want to consider. 

His father’s voice would be in his ear more. He’d be a qualified Auror but his allegiance would be decided for him. Will either risked death for lying or he betrayed people who were his friends. He really didn’t want to leave school. He’d even contemplated flunking his final year just to stay. 

Will wiped his eyes as he realised he wasn’t getting the reassurance he craved. He couldn’t get her to listen. He couldn’t control what happened at the other end of the country. He wanted to go home for his Mum but feared the house he grew up in because of his father. 

“Will?” “Yeah, Mum?” “I love you to the moon and back.”

The boy’s shoulders softened as he heard a familiar phrase that was said every night before bed. It offered a little comfort but didn’t combat the worry still eating him from the inside out.

“I love you too,” he whispered softly.  “You know I’m here any time, whenever you need,” she reiterated. 

Will nodded softly, the calming conversation had brought down the initial fear and panic in him. “I know,” he croaked. “I’ll speak to you soon,” the snake murmured softly before ending the call.

Sitting back on his bed, he wiped silent tears that had soaked his cheeks. He was growing up in a time where he not only feared for his own safety, but his family, his mother’s. He could lose them at any moment. War consumed his life and he was about to be spat out into the heart of it.

[grigori77]

Summer 2019′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

IMPORTANT NOTE:  You WILL NOT find It Chapter 2 here, but that does not mean it isn’t awesome.  I saw it AFTER I had sompleted this but while it was still editing.,  Technically it’s part of the Autumn/Winter period anyway, opening as it did in September.  Undoubtedly look out for it at the end of the year when I post my Top 30 for the year.

10.  CAPTIVE STATE – WAY back in 2011, Rupert Wyatt followed up his impressive directorial debut The Escapist with an even more astounding show helming sci-fi franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I knew here was a talent it was definitely gonna be worth my while to watch in future.  Then the years ticked by and he spectacularly failed to follow it up, and I began to think he might become one of those frustrating auteur talents that explode onto the scene, wow us with their wares and then just STOP, like Donnie Darko’s Ryan Kelly or Blade’s Stephen Norrington.  I was just about to give up hope when Wyatt returned with this dark and troubling skewed take on the alien invasion trope, but now, perversely, this film’s failing fortunes make me think his career might just take a swan dive after all, and as far as I’m concerned, on the evidence of the final film, that would be a crying shame.  Instead of telling the story of how the Earth falls to the conquering might of invading alien forces, Captive State concentrates on what happens after, focusing on a humanity stagnating under the thumb of an all-powerful occupying force, the collaborating police force that maintains discipline on the populace through tagging and intrusive surveillance, and the deep cover resistance movement that’s built up in the eight years since “The Legislators” took over.  The main narrative focus of the story is Gabriel Drummond (Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders), a downtrodden Chicago youth working a menial job but dreaming of getting out with his pregnant girlfriend, who discovers a tentative connection to the underground resistance when his brother Rafe (White Boy Rick’s Jonathan Majors), whom he previously thought was dead, re-enters his life with a desperate request.  Unfortunately Gabriel has also come to the attention of local cop Will Mulligan (John Goodman), who’s looking to use this connection to finally penetrate the “dangerous terrorist element” his office has been working for years to eradicate.  This is about as far from the classical invasion action territory of films like Independence Day, Skyline or even Signs as you can get, playing out much more like a World War 2 occupation thriller, and this is, in my opinion, one of its great strengths – there’s a palpable, knife-edged tension throughout, Wyatt cranking up the suspense as each new plot development ups the stakes for all involved, and when that tension does eventually break it does so in suitably explosive style, leading to some taut and harrowing set-pieces, while the director and his co-writer Erica Beeney pull off some impressive twists and skilful rug-pulls that consistently surprise.  Indeed, this is one of the most skilfully written pieces of science fiction I’ve come across for a good while, brimming with big ideas and asking some suitably challenging questions throughout, before finally paying off our patience with a suitably powerful climax.  It’s also extremely well-performed by a uniformly impressive ensemble cast – Goodman offers a performance of cool subtlety that proves the equal to much of his showier work on hits like 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Big Lebowski, while Sanders and Majors are both exceptional in what should have been major breakthrough roles that really built on their already impressive debuts, and there’s quality support from the likes of Machine Gun Kelly, Vera Farmiga, Alan Ruck, Kevin Dunn and Madeline Brewer.  This is DEFINITELY one of the most robust and challenging pieces of scif-fi cinema I’ve seen this decade, and it certainly does deserve a lot more attention and appreciation than it’s received – it essentially bombed on its long-delayed release and suffered from painfully mixed, sometimes quite negative reviews, and I genuinely don’t understand either.  This is an EXCELLENT film, and it’s a strong indicator of just what a great talent Rupert Wyatt is – I just have to hope this hasn’t ruined his chances for the future, because I couldn’t bear seeing him pull an undeserved vanishing act like so many others …

9.  GODZILLA: KING OF MONSTERS – back in 2014, rising star director Gareth Edwards (already one-to-watch thanks to the sleeper hit success of his debut Monsters) proved he wasn’t going to be a one-hit-wonder when he aced his first major studio gig, reinventing Japanese superstar property Godzilla for western audiences and EFFORTLESSLY wiping out the appalling stigma of Roland Emmerich’s underwhelming previous attempt (needless to say he was then a no-brainer to helm the first Star Wars spinoff movie, Rogue One, but that’s another, even more awesome story). Suffice to say, the Big G’s name was good in western cinema again, and Legendary Pictures swiftly put their planned Monsterverse franchise into action, building on this solid foundation with a similarly stylish “prequel” in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, with a showdown between the two screen icons intended further down the line.  The next major hurdle, however, was this super-important follow-up, intended to get all the gears turning – if THIS ONE flunked, the Monsterverse would take a massive nosedive.  Did it pull it off?  Not quite … turns out this one’s not looking likely to scrape even on its massive investment, never mind make a profit, but that sure ain’t for lack of trying. Sure, the plot’s a bit of a far-fetched muddle and, as with its predecessor, the human characters are drawn in broad strokes and somewhat lacking in real spark, but the spectacle’s still there in spades and besides, the REAL selling point of these movies has always been their more gigantic characters.  Godzilla’s just as much of a colossal badass as he was in the first film, still a skyscraper-high bruiser with a moody mean streak and some suitably apocalyptic bad breath, but ultimately just the kind of monumental reptile you want on your side in a cataclysmic scrap, and he’s sure got his work cut out for him with one serious collection of similarly massive monsters crawling out of the woodwork (or, in this case, compromised secure black sites controlled by covert Titan management organisation Monarch) – they’re a colourful bunch, from returning nasty Muto to newcomers Rodan and, particularly memorable, the beautiful but deadly Mothra, and most of them are heeding the call of the film’s TRUE scene stealer, triple-headed rival alpha Titan King Ghidorah, who is in every way a genuinely viable nemesis for the Big G himself.  Needless to say, the BIG stars are presented without compromise throughout, as gargantuan and terrifying as their reputations make them out to be, and whenever they’re on screen it just lights up, the visual effects budget working overtime and all the money’s up there on the screen, while the property damage quota shoots through the roof in suitably pulse-racing style … and yet again, the human story does kind of get buried in the fallout.  Not that they’re a completely unmemorable lot – it’s great to see Ken Watanabe return as elegantly noble Monarch honcho Dr Ishiro Serazawa, along with his assistant Dr Vivienne Graham (another winning turn from Sally Hawkins), and the rest of Monarch gets much stronger representation this time round as we’re introduced to a crew that includes Bradley Whitford, Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) and Aisha Hinds, while there’s a typically classy bad guy turn from Charles Dance as Alan Jonah, the amoral ex-soldier leading an eco-terrorist group who (for baffling reasons) want to awaken all the Titans at once so they can fight for supremacy.  The main narrative focus, however, is on the fractured family unit of former Monarch specialist Dr Mark Russell (Super 8’s Kyle Chandler) and his fellow scientist wife Emma and daughter Madison (Vera Farmiga and Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown), who have both been kidnapped by Jonah, a story that’s contrived and clumsily written, shot through with plot-holes when the twists aren’t painfully telegraphed ahead of time, and Brown barely gets ANYTHING to do other than be scared or stubborn, but they still give it their all and, since they’re all great actors, they largely win out against the writing.  This certainly isn’t the best movie released this year, definitely leaning more towards the guilty pleasure category, but there’s more than enough good here to outweigh the bad, so this is definitely one of those wonderful movies where you get PLENTY out of it if you just sit back and GO WITH IT.  It’s certainly got a strong director and co-writer in Michael Dougherty, who cut his teeth working for Bryan Singer on X2 and Superman Returns (which was similarly flawed, but still enjoyable in its own right) before making his big break behind the camera on Krampus, and for all its clunkiness it wins you over with its big-wow factor, can-do attitude and industrial-sized bucket-loads of heart and emotional heft, as well as a particularly cracking score from Bear McCreary, one of the most deservedly well respected composers working on both the big and small screens today, so in spite of the flaws this still deserves to be counted as a pretty rousing success.  Thankfully Godzilla Vs. King Kong is still greenlit and scheduled to arrive next spring, so there’s still life in the old lizards yet – long live the King indeed.

8.  DARK PHOENIX – wow, this really has been a summer for mistreated sequels, hasn’t it? There’s a seriously stinky cloud of controversy surrounding what is now, in light of recent developments between Disney and Twentieth Century Fox, all but QUARANTEED to be the last true Singer-era X-Men movie, a film which saw two mooted release dates (first November 2018 then this February, before finally limping onto screens with very little fanfare in June, almost as if Fox wanted to bury it.  Certainly rumours of its compromise were rife, particularly regarding supposed rushed reshoots because of clashing similarities with Marvel’s major tent-pole release Captain Marvel (and given the all-conquering nature of the MCU there was no way they were having that, was there?), so like many I was expecting a clunky mess, maybe even a true stinker to rival X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  In truth, while it’s not perfect, the end result is nothing like the turd we all feared – the final film is, in fact, largely a success, worthy of favourable comparison with its stronger predecessors.  It certainly makes much needed amends for the disappointing mismanagement of the source comics’ legendary Dark Phoenix saga in 2006’s decidedly compromised original X-Men trilogy capper The Last Stand, treating the story with the due reverence and respect it deserves as well as serving as a suitably powerful send-off for more than one beloved key character.  Following the “rebooted” path of the post-Days of Future Past timeline, it’s now 1992, and after the world-changing events of Apocalypse the X-Men have now become a respected superhero team with legions of fans and their own personal line to the White House, while mutants at large have now mostly become accepted by the regular humans around them.  Then a hastily planned mission into space takes a turn for the worst and Jean Grey (Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner) winds up absorbing an immensely powerful, thoroughly inexplicable cosmic force that makes her go powers haywire while also knocking loose repressed childhood traumas Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) would rather had stayed buried, sending her on a dangerous spiral out of control which leads to a destructive confrontation and the inadvertent death of a teammate. Needless to the situation soon becomes desperate as Jean goes on the run and the world starts to turn against them all once again … all in all, then, it’s business as usual for the cast and crew of one of Fox’s flagship franchises, and it SHOULD have gone off without a hitch. When Bryan Singer opted not to return this time around (instead setting his sights on Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody), key series writer Simon Kinberg stepped into the breach for his directorial debut, and it turns out he’s got a real talent for it, giving us just the kind of robust, pacy, thrilling action-packed epic his compatriot would have delivered, filled with the same thumping great set-pieces (the final act’s stirring, protracted train battle is the unequivocal highlight here), well-observed character beats and emotional resonance we’ve come to expect from the series as a whole (then again, he does know these movies back to frond having at least co-written his fair share). The cast, similarly, are all on top form – McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (as fan favourite Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto) know their roles so well now they can do this stuff in their sleep, but we still get to see them explore interesting new facets of their characters (particularly McAvoy, who gets to reveal an intriguing dark side to the Professor we’ve only ever seen hinted at before now), while Turner finally gets to really breathe in a role which felt a little stiff and underexplored in her series debut in Apocalypse (she EASILY forges the requisite connective tissue to Famke Janssen’s more mature and assured take in the earlier films); conversely Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) get somewhat short shrift but nonetheless do A LOT with what little they have, and at least Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult still get to do plenty of dramatic heavy lifting as the last of Xavier’s original class, Raven (Mystique) and Hank McCoy (Beast); the only real weak link in the cast is the villain, Vuk, a shape-shifting alien whose quest to seize the power Jean’s appropriated is murkily defined at best, but at least Jessica Chastain manages to invest her with enough icy menace to keep things from getting boring.  All in all, then, this is very much a case of business as usual, Kinberg and co keeping the action thundering along at a suitably cracking pace throughout (powered by a typically epic score from Hans Zimmer), and the film only really comes off the rails in its final moments, when that aforementioned train finally comes off its tracks and the reported reshoots must surely kick in – as a result this is, to me, most reminiscent of previous X-flick The Wolverine, which was a rousing success for the majority of its runtime, only coming apart in its finale thanks to that bloody ridiculous robot samurai. The climax is, therefore, a disappointment, too clunky and sudden and overly neat in its denouement (and we really could have done with a proper examination of the larger social impact of these events), but it’s little enough that it doesn’t spoil what came before … which just makes the film’s mismanagement and resulting failure, as well as its subsequent treatment from critics and fans alike, all the more frustrating. This film deserved much better, but ultimately looks set to be disowned and glossed over by most of the fanbase as the property as a whole goes through the inevitable overhaul now that Disney/Marvel owns Fox and plans to bring the X-Men and their fellow mutants into the MCU fold.  I feel genuinely sorry for the one remaining X-film, The New Mutants, which is surely destined for spectacular failure after its similarly shoddy round of reschedules finally comes to an end next summer …

7.  FAST COLOR – intriguingly, the most INTERESTING superhero movie I’ve encountered so far this year is NOT a major franchise property, or even a comic book adapted to the screen at all, but a wholly original indie which snuck in very much under the radar on its release but is surely destined for cult greatness in the future, not least due to some much-deserved critical acclaim.  Set in an unspecified future where it hasn’t rained for years, a homeless vagabond named Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is making her aimless way across a desolate American Midwest, tormented by violent seizures which cause strange localised earthquakes, and hunted by Bill (Argo’s Christopher Denham), a rogue scientist who wants to capture her so he can study her abilities.  Ultimately she’s left with no other recourse than to run home, sheltering with her mother Bo (Middle of Nowhere and Orange is the New Black’s Lorraine Toussaint), and her young daughter Lila (The Passage’s Saniyya Sidney), both of whom also have weird and wondrous powers of their own.  As the estranged family reconnect, Ruth finally learns to control her powers as she’s forced to confront her own troubled past, but as Bill closes in it looks like their idyll might be short-lived … this might only be the second feature of writer-director Julie Hart (who cut her teeth penning well-regarded indie western The Keeping Room before making her own debut helming South By Southwest Film Festival hit Miss Stevens), but it’s a blinding statement of intent for the future, a deceptively understated thing of beauty that eschews classic superhero cinema conventions of big spectacle and rousing action in favour of a quiet, introspective character-driven story where the unveiling and exploration of Ruth and her kin’s abilities are secondary to the examination of how their familial dynamics work (or often DON’T), while Hart and cinematographer Michael Fimognari (probably best known for his frequent work for Mike Flanagan, including forthcoming Stephen King horror Doctor Sleep) bring a ruined but bleakly beautiful future to life through inventively understated production design and sweeping, dramatic vistas largely devoid of visual effects.  Subtlety is the watchword, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fireworks here, it’s just that they’re generally performance-based – awards-darling Mbatha-Raw (Belle) gives a raw, heartfelt performance, painting Rith in vivid shades of grey, while Toussaint is restrained but powerfully memorable and Sidney builds on her already memorable work to deliver what might be her best turn to date, and there are strong supporting turns from Denham (who makes his nominal villain surprisingly sympathetic) and Hollywood great David Strathairn as gentle small town sheriff Ellis.  Leisurely paced and understated it may be, but this is still an incendiary piece of work, sure to become a breakout sleeper hit for a filmmaking talent from whom I expect GREAT THINGS in the future, and since the story’s been picked up for expansion into a TV series with Hart at in charge that looks like a no-brainer.  And it most assuredly IS a bona fide superhero movie, despite appearances to the contrary …

6.  ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD – since his explosion onto the scene twenty-seven years ago with his runaway smash debut Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino has become one of the most important filmmakers of his generation, a true master of the cinematic art form who consistently delivers moving picture masterpieces that thrill, entertain, challenge and amuse audiences worldwide … at least those who can stomach his love of unswerving violence, naughty talk and morally bankrupt antiheroes and despicably brutal villains who are often little more than a shade different from one another.  Time has moved on, though, and while he’s undoubtedly been one of the biggest influences on the way cinema has changed over the past quarter century, there are times now that it’s starting to feel like the scene is moving on in favour of younger, fresher blood with their own ideas.   I think Tarantino can sense this himself, because he recently made a powerful statement – after he’s made his tenth film, he plans to retire.  Given that OUATIH is his NINTH film, that deadline is already looming, and we unashamed FANS of his films are understandably aghast over this turn of events.  Thankfully he remains as uncompromisingly awesome a writer-director as ever, delivering another gold standard five-star flick which is also most definitely his most PERSONAL work to date, quite simply down to the fact that it’s a film ABOUT film. Sure, it has a plot (of sorts, anyway), revolving around the slow decline of the career of former TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo Dicaprio), who languishes in increasing anonymity in Hollywood circa 1969 as his former western hero image is being slowly eroded by an increasingly hacky workload guest-starring on various syndicated shows as a succession of punching-bag heavies for the hero to wale on, while his only real friend is his one-time stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), a former WW2 hero with a decidedly tarnished reputation of his own; meanwhile new neighbours have moved in next door to further distract him – hot-as-shit young director Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), riding high on the success of Rosemary’s Baby, and his new wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Certainly this all drives the film, along with real-life events that involving one of the darkest crimes in modern American history, but a lot of the time the plot is largely coincidental – Quentin uses it as a springboard to wax lyrical about his very favourite subject and pay loving (if sometimes irreverently satirical) tribute to the very business he’s been indulging in with such great success since 1992.  Sure, it’s also about “Helter Skelter” and the long shadow cast by Charles Manson and his band of murderous misfits, but these are largely incidental, as we’re treated to long, entertaining interludes as we follow Rick on a shoot as the bad guy in the pilot for the Lancer TV series, visit the notorious Spahn Ranch with Cliff as he’s unwittingly drawn into the lion’s den of the deadly Manson Family, join Robbie’s Tate as she watches “herself” in The Wrecking Crew, and enjoy a brilliant montage in which we follow Rick’s adventures in Spaghetti westerns (and Eurospy cinema) after he’s offered a chance to change his flagging fortunes, before the film finally builds to a seemingly inevitable, fateful conclusion that Tarantino then, in sneakily OTT Inglourious Basterds style, mischievously turns on its head with a devilish game of “What If”.  The results are a thoroughly engrossing and endlessly entertaining romp through the seedier side of Hollywood and a brilliant warts-and-all examination of the craft’s inner workings that, interestingly, reveals as much about the Business today as it does about how it was way back into Golden Age the film portrays, all while delivering bucket-loads of QT’s trademark cool, swagger, idiosyncratic genius and to-die-for dialogue and character-work, and, of course, a typically exceptional all-star cast firing on all cylinders.  Dicaprio and Pitt are both spectacular (Brad is endearingly taciturn, playing it wonderfully close to the vest throughout, while Leo is simply ON FIRE, delivering a mercurial performance EASILY on a par with his work on Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street – could this be good enough to snag him a second Oscar?), while Robbie consistently endears us to Tate as she EFFORTLESSLY brings the fallen star back to life, and there’s an incredible string of amazing supporting turns from established talent and up-and-comers alike, from Kurt Russell, Al Pacino and a very spiky Bruce Dern to Mike Moh (in a FLAWLESS take on Bruce Lee), Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler and in particular Julia Butters as precocious child star Trudi Fraser.  Packed with winning references, homages, pastiches and ingenious little in-jokes, handled with UTMOST respect for the true life subjects at all times and shot all the way through with his characteristic flair and quirky, deliciously dark sense of humour, this is cinema very much of the Old School, and EVERY INCH a Tarantino flick.  With only one more film to go the implied end of his career seems much too close, but if he delivers one more like this he’ll leave behind a legacy that ANY filmmaker would be proud of.

5.  CRAWL – summer 2019’s runner-up horror offering marks a rousing return to form for a genre talent who’s FINALLY delivered on the impressive promise of his early work – Alexandre Aja made a startling debut with Switchblade Romance, which led to his big break helming the cracking remake of slasher stalwart The Hills Have Eyes, but then he went SPECTACULARLY off the rails when he made the truly abysmal Piranha 3D, which I wholeheartedly regard as one of THE VERY WORST FILMS EVER MADE IN ALL OF HISTORY.  He took a big step back in the right direction with the admittedly flawed but ultimately enjoyable and evocative Horns (based on the novel by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill), but it’s with this stripped back, super-tight man-against-nature survival horror that the Aja of old has TRULY returned to us.  IN SPADES.  Seriously, I personally think this is his best film to date – there’s no fat on it at all, going from a simple set-up STRAIGHT into a precision-crafted exercise in sustained tension that relentlessly grips right up to the end credits. The film is largely just a two-hander – Maze Runner star Kaya Scodelario plays Haley Keller, a Florida college student and star swimmer who ventures into the heart of a Category 5 hurricane to make sure her estranged father, Dave (Saving Private Ryan’s Barry Pepper), is okay after he drops off the grid.  Finding their old family home in a state of disrepair and slowly flooding, she does a last minute check of the crawl-space underneath, only to discover her father badly wounded and a couple of hungry alligators stalking the dark, cramped, claustrophobic confines.  With the flood waters rising and communications cut off, Haley and Dave must use every reserve of strength, ingenuity and survival instinct to keep each other alive in the face of increasingly daunting odds … even with a premise this simple, there was plenty of potential for this to become an overblown, clunky mess in the wrong hands (a la Snakes On a Plane), so it’s a genuinely great thing that Aja really is back at the height of his powers, milking every fraught and suspenseful set-piece to its last drop of exquisite piano-wire tension and putting his actors through hell without a reprieve in sight.  Thankfully it’s not JUST about scares and atmosphere, though – there’s a genuinely strong family drama at the heart of the story that helps us invest in these two, Scodelario delivering a phenomenally complex performance as she peels back Haley’s layers, from stubborn pedant, through vulnerable child of divorce, to ironclad born survivor, while reconnecting with her emotionally raw, repentantly open father, played with genuine naked intensity in a career best turn from Pepper.  Their chemistry is INCREDIBLY strong, making every scene a joy even as it works your nerves and tugs on your heartstrings, and as a result you DESPERATELY want to see them make it out in one piece.  Not that Aja makes it easy for them – the gators are an impressively palpable threat, proper scary beasties even if they are largely (admittedly impressively executed) digital effects, while the storm is almost a third character in itself, becoming as much of an elemental nemesis as its scaly co-stars.  Blessedly brief (just 87 minutes!) and with every second wrung out for maximum impact, this is survival horror at its most brutally, simplistically effective, a deliciously vicious, primal chill-ride that thoroughly rewards from start to finish.  Welcome back, Mr Aja.  We’ve missed you.

4.  BRIGHTBURN – torpedoing Crawl right out of the water is this refreshing, revisionist superhero movie that takes one of the most classic mythologies in the genre and turns it on its head with TERRIFYING results. The basic premise is an absolute blinder – what if, when he crashed in small-town America as a baby, Superman had turned out to be a bad seed?  Unsurprising, then, that it came from James Gunn, who here produces a screenplay by his brother and cousin Brian and Mark (best known for penning the likes of Journey 2: the Mysterious Island, but nobody’s perfect) and the directorial big break of his old mate David Yarovesky (whose only previous feature is obscure sci-fi horror The Hive) – Gunn is, of course, an old pro at taking classic comic book tropes and creating something completely new with them, having previously done so with HUGE success on cult indie black comedy Super and, in particular, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and his fingerprints are ALL OVER this one too.  The Hunger Games’ Elizabeth Banks (who starred in Gunn’s own directorial debut Slither) and David Denman (The Office) are Tori and Kyle Breyer, a farming couple living in Brightburn, Kansas, who are trying for a baby when a mysterious pod falls from the sky onto their land, containing an infant boy.  As you’d expect, they adopt him, determined to keep his origin a secret, and for the first twelve of his life all seems perfectly fine – Brandon’s growing up into an intelligent, artistic child who loves his family.  Then his powers manifest and he starts to change – not just physically (he’s impervious to harm, incredibly strong, has laser eyes and the ability to disrupt electronic devices … oh, and he can fly, too), but also in personality, as he becomes cold, distant, even cruel as he begins to demonstrate some seriously sociopathic tendencies.  As his parents begin to fear what he’s becoming, things begin to spiral out of control and people start to disappear or turn up brutally murdered, and it becomes clear that Brandon might actually be something out of a nightmare … needless to say this is superhero cinema as full-on horror, Brandon’s proclivities leading to some proper nasty moments once he really starts to cut loose, and there’s no mistaking this future super for one of the good guys – he pulverises bones, shatters faces and melts skulls with nary a twitch, just the tiniest hint of a smile.  It’s an astonishing performance from newcomer Jackson A. Dunn, who perfectly captures the nuanced subtleties as Brandon goes from happy child to lethal psychopath, clearly demonstrating that he’s gonna be an incredible talent in future; the two grown leads, meanwhile, are both excellent, Denman growing increasingly haunted and exasperated as he tries to prove his own son is a wrong ‘un, while Banks has rarely been better, perfectly embodying a mother desperately clinging to the idea that her son is innocent no matter how compelling the evidence becomes, and there’s quality support from Breaking Bad’s Matt Jones and Search Party’s Meredith Hagner as Brandon’s aunt and uncle, Noah and Meredith, and Becky Wahlstrom the mother of one of his school-friends, who seems to see him for what he is right from the start.  Dark, suspenseful and genuinely nasty, this is definitely not your typical superhero movie, often playing like Kick-Ass’ even more twisted cousin, and there are times when it displays some of the same edgy, black-hearted sense of humour, too.  In other words, it’s all very James Gunn.  It’s one sweet piece of work, everyone involved showing real skill and devotion, and Yarovesky in particular proves he’ll definitely be one-to-watch in the future.  There are already plans for a potential sequel, and given where this particular little superhero universe seems to be heading I think it could be something pretty special, so fair to say I can’t wait.

3.  FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS HOBBS & SHAW – it’s official, this summer’s most OTT movie is THE MOST FUN I’ve had at the cinema so far this year, a genuinely batshit crazy, pure bonkers rollercoaster ride of a film I just couldn’t get enough of, truly the perfect sum of all its baffling parts.  The Fast & Furious franchise has always revelled in its extremes, as subtle as a brick and very much playing to the blockbuster, popcorn movie crowd right from the start, but it wasn’t until Fate of the Furious (yup, ridiculous title, says it all) that it really started to play to the inherent ridiculousness of its overall setup, paving the way for this first crack at a new spin-off series for the post Vin Diesel years.  Needless to say this one has fully embraced the sheer ludicrousness, and director David Leitch is the perfect choice to shepherd it into the future, having previously mastered OTT action through John Wick and Atomic Blonde before helming manic screwball comedy Deadpool 2, which certainly is the strongest comparison point here – Hobbs & Shaw is every bit as loud, violent, chaotic and thoroughly irreverent, definitely playing up the inherent comic potential at the core of the material as he cranks up the humour. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham take centre stage now as, respectively, DSS agent Luke Hobbs and former SAS black operative Deckard Shaw, the ultimate action movie odd couple once again forced to work together to foil the bad guy and save the world from a potentially cataclysmic disaster.  Specifically Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a self-proclaimed “black superman” enhanced with cybernetic implants and genetic manipulation to turn him into the ultimate warrior, who plans to use a lethal designer supervirus to eradicate half of humanity (as supervillains tend to do), but there’s one small flaw in his plan – the virus has been stolen by Hattie Shaw (Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s Vanessa Kirby), a rogue MI6 agent who also happens to be Deckard’s sister.  Got all that?  Yup, the movie really is as mad as it sounds, but that’s very much part of the charm – there’s an enormous amount of fun to be had in just giving in and going along with the madness of it all, as Hobbs and the two Shaws bounce from one over-the-top, ludicrously destructive set-piece to the next, kicking plenty of arse along the way when they’re not jumping out of tall buildings or driving fast cars at ludicrous speeds in heavy traffic, and when they’re not doing that they’re bickering with enthusiasm, each exchange crackling with exquisite hate-hate chemistry and liberally laced with hilarious dialogue delivered with gleeful, fervent venom (turns out there’s few things so enjoyable a watching Johnson and Statham verbally rip each other a new one), and the two action cinema heavyweights have never been better than they are here, each bringing the very best performances of their respective careers out of each other as they vacillate, while Kirby holds her own with consummate skill that goes to show she’s got a bright future of her own.  As for Idris Elba, the one-time potential future Bond deserves to be remembered as one of the all-time great screen villains ever, investing Brixton with the perfect combination of arrogant swagger and lethal menace to steal every scene he’s in while simultaneously proving he can be just as big a badass in the action stakes; Leitch also scatters a selection of familiar faces from his previous movies throughout a solid supporting cast which also includes the likes of Fear the Walking Dead’s Cliff Curtis, From Dusk Till Dawn’s Eiza Gonzalez and Helen Mirren (who returns as Deckard and Hattie’s mum Queenie Shaw), while there’s more than one genuinely brilliant surprise cameo to enjoy.  As we’ve come to expect, the action sequences are MASSIVE, powered by nitrous oxide and high octane as property is demolished and vehicles are driven with reckless abandon when our protagonists aren’t engaged bruising, bone-crunching fights choreographed with all the flawless skill you’d expect from a director who used to be a professional stuntman, but this time round the biggest fun comes from the downtime, as the aforementioned banter becomes king.  It’s an interesting makeover for the franchise, going from heavyweight action stalwart to comedy gold, and it’s direction I hope they’ll maintain for the inevitable follow-up – barring Fast Five, this is the best Fast & Furious to date, and a strong indicator of how it should go to keep conquering multiplexes in future.  Sign me up for more, please.

2.  SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME – this summer’s been something of a decompression period for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with many of us recovering from the sheer emotional DEVASTATION of the grand finale of Phase 3, Avengers: Endgame, so the main Blockbuster Season’s entry really needed to be light and breezy, a blessed relief after all that angst and loss, much like Ant-Man & the Wasp was last year as it followed Infinity War.  And it is, by and large – this is as light-hearted and irreverent as its predecessor, following much the same goofy teen comedy template as Homecoming, but there’s no denying that there’s a definite emotional through-line from Endgame that looms large here, a sense of loss the film fearlessly addresses right from the start, sometimes with a bittersweet sense of humour, sometimes straight.  But whichever path the narrative chooses, the film stays true to this underlying truth – there have been great and painful changes in this world, and we can’t go back to how it was before, no matter how hard we try, but then perhaps we shouldn’t.  This is certainly central to our young hero’s central arc – Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is in mourning, and not even the prospect of a trip around Europe with his newly returned classmates, together with the chance to finally get close to M.J. (Zendaya), maybe even start a relationship, can entirely distract him from the gaping hole in his life.  Still, he’s gonna give it his best shot, but it looks like fate has other plans for our erstwhile Spider-Man as superspy extraordinaire Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) comes calling, basically hijacking his vacation with an Avengers-level threat to deal with, aided by enigmatic inter-dimensional superhero Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has a personal stake in the mission, but as he’s drawn deeper into the fray Peter discovers that things may not be quite as they seem.  Of course, giving anything more away would of course dumps HEINOUS spoilers on the precious few who haven’t yet seen the film – suffice to say that the narrative drops a MAJOR sea-change twist at the midpoint that’s EVERY BIT as fiendish as the one Shane Black gave us in Iron Man 3 (although the more knowledgeable fans of the comics will likely see it coming), and also provides Peter with JUST the push he needs to get his priorities straight and just GET OVER IT once and for all.  Tom Holland again proves his character is the most endearing teenage geek in cinematic history, his spectacular super-powered abilities and winning underdog perseverance in the face of impossible odds still paradoxically tempered by the fact he’s as loveably hopeless as ever outside his suit; Mysterio himself, meanwhile, frequently steals the film out from under him, the strong bromance they develop certainly mirroring what Peter had with Tony Stark, and it’s a major credit to Gyllenhaal that he so perfectly captures the essential dualities of the character, investing Beck with a roguish but subtly self-deprecating charm that makes him EXTREMELY easy to like, but ultimately belying something much more complex hidden beneath it; it’s also nice to see so many beloved familiar faces returning, particularly the fantastically snarky and self-assured Zendaya, Jacob Batalon (once again pure comic gold as Peter’s adorably nerdy best friend Ned), Tony Revolori (as his self-important class rival Flash Thompson) and, of course, Marisa Tomei as beloved Aunt May, as well as Jackson and Cobie Smoulders as dynamite SHIELD duo Fury and his faithful lieutenant Maria Hill, and best of all Jon Favreau gets a MUCH bigger role this time round as Happy Hogan.  Altogether this is very much business as usual for the MCU, the well-oiled machine unsurprisingly turning out another near-perfect gem of a superhero flick that ticks all the required boxes, but a big part of the film’s success should be attributed to returning director Jon Watts, effectively building on the granite-strong foundations of Homecoming with the help of fellow alumni Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers on screenplay duty, for a picture that feels both comfortingly familiar and rewardingly fresh, delivering on all the required counts with thrilling action and eye candy spectacle, endearingly quirky character-based charm and a typically winning sense of humour, and plenty of understandably powerful emotional heft.  And, like always, there are plenty of fan-pleasing winks and nods and revelations, and the pre-requisite mid- and post-credit teasers too, both proving to be some proper game-changing corkers.  The future of the property may be in doubt, but this is still another winner from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but then was there really ever any doubt?

1.  JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 – needless to say, those who know me should be in no doubt why THIS is at the top of my list for summer 2019 – this has EVERYTHING I love in movies and more. Keanu Reeves is back in the very best role he’s ever played, unstoppable, unbeatable, un-killable hitman John Wick, who, when we rejoin him mere moments after the end of 2017’s phenomenal Chapter 2, is in some SERIOUSLY deep shit, having been declared Incommunicado by the High Table (the all-powerful ruling elite who run this dark and deadly shadowy underworld) after circumstances forced him to gun down an enemy on the grounds of the New York Continental Hotel (the inviolable sanctuary safe-house for all denizens of the underworld), as his last remaining moments of peace tick away and he desperately tries to find somewhere safe to weather the initial storm.  Needless to say the opening act of the film is ONE LONG ACTION SEQUENCE as John careers through the rain-slick backstreets of New York, fighting off attackers left and right with his signature brutal efficiency and unerring skill, perfectly setting up what’s to come – namely a head-spinning, exhausting parade of spectacular set pieces that each put EVERY OTHER offering in any other film this year to shame.  Returning director Chad Stahelski again proves that he’s one of the very best helmsmen around for this kind of stuff, delivering FAR beyond the call on every count as he creates a third entry to a series that continues to go from strength to strength, while Keanu once again demonstrates what a phenomenal screen action GOD he is, gliding through each scenario with poise, precision and just the right balance of brooding charm and so-very-done-with-this-shit intensity and a thoroughly enviable athletic physicality that really does put him on the same genre footing as Tom Cruise.  As with the first two chapters, what plot there is is largely an afterthought, a facility to fuel the endless wave of stylish, wince-inducing, thoroughly exhilarating violent bloodshed, as John cuts another bloody swathe through the underworld searching for a way to remove the lethal bounty from his head while an Adjudicator from the High Table (Orange Is the New Black’s Asia Kate Dillon) arrives in New York to settle affairs with Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of the New York Continental, and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) for helping John create this mess in the first place.  McShane and Fishburne are both HUGE entertainment in their fantastically nuanced large-than-life roles, effortlessly stealing each of their scenes, while the ever-brilliant Lance Reddick also makes a welcome return as Winston’s faithful right-hand Charon, the concierge of the Continental, who finally gets to show off his own hardcore action chops when trouble arrives at their doorstep, and there are plenty of franchise newcomers who make strong impressions here – Dillon is the epitome of icy imperiousness, perfectly capturing the haughty superiority you’d expect from a direct representative of the High Table, Halle Berry gets a frustratingly rare opportunity to show just how seriously badass she can be as former assassin Sofia, the manager of the Casablanca branch of the Continental and one of John’s only remaining allies, Game of Thrones’ Jerome Flynn is smarmy and entitled as her boss Berrada, and Anjelica Houston is typically classy as the Director, the ruthless head of New York’s Ruska Roma (John’s former “alma mater”, basically). The one that REALLY sticks in the memory, though, is Mark Dacascos, finally returning to the big time after frustrating years languishing in lurid straight-to-video action dreck and lowbrow TV hosting duties thanks to a BLISTERING turn as Zero, a truly brilliant semi-comic creation who routinely runs away with the film – he’s the Japanese master ninja the Adjudicator tasks with dispensing her will, a thoroughly lethal killer who may well be as skilled as our hero, but his deadliness is amusingly tempered by the fact that he’s also a total nerd who HERO WORSHIPS John Wick, adorably geeking out whenever their paths cross.  Their long-gestating showdown provides a suitably magnificent climax to the action, but there’s plenty to enjoy in the meantime, as former stuntman Stahelski and co keep things interestingly fluid as they constantly change up the dynamics and add new elements, from John using kicking horses in a stable and knives torn out of display cases in a weaponry museum to dispatch foes on the fly, through Sofia’s use of attack dogs to make the Moroccan portion particularly nasty and a SPECTACULAR high octane sequence in which John fights katana-wielding assailants on speeding motorcycles, to the film’s UNDISPUTABLE highlight, an astounding fight in which John takes on Zero’s disciples (including two of the most impressive guys from The Raid movies, Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian) in (and through) an expansive chamber made up entirely of glass walls and floors.  Altogether then, this is business as usual for a franchise that’s consistently set the bar for the genre as a whole, an intensely bruising, blissfully blood-drenched epic that cranks its action up to eleven, shot with delicious neon-drenched flair and glossy graphic novel visual excess, a consistently inspired exercise in fascinating world-building that genuinely makes you want to live among its deadly denizens (even though you probably wouldn’t live very long).  The denouement sets things up for an inevitable sequel, and I’m not at all surprised – right from the first film I knew the concept had some serious legs, and it’s just too good to quit yet. Which is just how I like it …

[journeyanddream]

The Day I Start Medicine

18th February 2019; 2:50 am

Tomorrow....actually in 7 hours, marks my first day in medicine as a medical student. Numerous thoughts are rushing through my head, may it be excitement or anxiety, sprinkled with a fine mixture of fear and anticipation. Whatever, all I need to do is look ahead and be the best I could. 

I never thought this day would come. Just a few months ago I was a down-beaten, depressed University student in my final year of undergraduate degree, who was uncertain, doubtful and straight out scared about his future. Having almost “flunked” the med school entrance exam twice in a row, the med dream was slowly drifting away from me. I thought I was done. 

I prayed, and it delivered. An email out of the blue broke my entire world and flipped the trajectory of my life for the better. “NO WAY! IM IN!” I screamed as I opened the acceptance email from medical school. I still remember it, It was a fantastic moment, a fantastic day. All the pain, hardwork, struggle were paid back in that one instant and I could say confidently they were worth it. 

But as I embark on the next journey, flipping the story to a brand new chapter, I begin to wonder how my story will shape out in the not too distant future. Will I be a successful doctor, a competent clinician and an inspiring educator? There are so many questions inside my head that are left unanswered: will the people at this new uni like me? will I be able to blend with others and make meaningful friendships? will I be able to burst out of my bubble and be ready to challenge myself? Is the course going to be really hard? How am I going to thrive in this brand new environment, surrounded by unfamiliar faces? 

I don’t know. I am excited, but I am also scared

I have dreamed and dreamed of this very moment as a child. I’ve leaped through mountains, shattered blockages, climbed over hell and sacrificed a lot of things to get here. But now that I am actually here, I do not feel the emotion I had expected. Maybe deep down I still think I’m not good enough, or perhaps I am an incomplete project with many flaws. After working up the food chain throughout my academic career, I have found myself to be once again: a small fish in a big pond.

To be honest, I have never been that comfortable with social things. I am not bad at it when put on my back and pretend to be someone who I am not; but I’d never actively go out of my way to establish those meaningful connections. I guess I was always the shy type, who needs time to get close to people around me. This is contradicting and counter-intuitive as a future doctor, but I must make the distinction between professional work and social connection; I drew the line between them extremely clear, as to leave me with no chance to hesitate. I am worried, a tad bit scared, but I want to change that. I do not wish to be a doctor who is all books.

I wish people will like me. 

I guess the feeling of being an actual medical student has not yet set in; the prospect of doing medicine still feels like a dream...a good dream I wish to not wake up from. Perhaps it will take a few weeks to settle in, the feeling of unease and disbelief, sprinkled with excitement. Tomorrow (today) will the start of conference week, where we get to know the course, the academics, fellow students, and most importantly, a sneak peak of the type of person we would become in four years; plus some extra inspirational talks about clinical work, history of medicine, what it means to be a doctor and campus tours. Sounds exciting right! And actual teachings will begin the week after that!

The timetable will look something like this:

I will look forward to tomorrow, look forward to the next four years. I do not yet know things that are going to happen, the ups and downs, but I shall do my best and be ready to tackle anything that comes my way. This is going to be a brand new, exciting new chapter, and I cannot wait to write many more adventures and leave more memories behind. After all, this IS medicine, this IS where I always wanted to be. 

For my future self:

“Fight! No matter how hard or how grueling it is, just keep fighting. It is okay to make mistakes, it is okay to say I don’t know. Keep standing up no matter how many times you are sent to your knees. Don’t lose sight of what you love, the things that inspired you to dive into this noble profession in the first place! Don’t forget WHO YOU ARE.”

Let the next four years be a time of great transformation

To be continued...