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gascon-en-exil · 4 years

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Who Can Say if I've Been Changed For the Better?: Ferdibert Does Wicked

This concept has been a bit in building. It started from a much-loved cover by Hubert and Ferdinand’s VAs inspired by their support line and the broad observation that these two are a musicals couple who absolutely would sing their feelings in all manner of theatrical AUs. It continued through my later observation that there’s ample material to carry that idea even further, albeit with a shift outside of Crimson Flower for a better tonal match. Still, I’m not quite sure what to call this project; it’s not really a headcanon nor is it fanfic by any means. I’ve written a handful of longform character/narrative explorations before, although when it comes to FE I’ve previously been inspired to do so only for Jugdral characters. That setting is somehow both underdeveloped and deceptively dense - and I suppose in a way you could say the same of Three Houses as well, insofar as it’s been incredibly popular for fan content of all sorts.

Regardless of what this post is in terms of my fandom output, the following isn’t exactly a Wicked AU as such. Rather, it’s how I would envision a hypothetical blend of the non-CF routes of FE16 centering around the Eagles trio and set to the structure and songs of the musical as organically as possible. There are no 1:1 analogues with characters and plotlines from Wicked, because few if any would exist without a lot of tweaking; to use the VA cover example, Ferdinand might be a decent proxy for G(a)linda, but the mere presence of Edelgard substantially complicates Hubert’s claim to the Elphaba role. The similarities only unravel further from there, but I did my best.

Writing this out gave me the opportunity to play around with Edelgard’s character as a way of addressing what I and many others in my circle have long considered to be some of the major problems with her canon presentation. For Ferdibert meanwhile I got to make use of my headcanons for how their relationship would develop outside of their support line, in a way that mostly preserves Hubert’s delightful evil wickedness. Add some ruminations on how one would splice together the non-CF routes in a dramatically satisfying fashion, some snark directed at the non-character of Byleth, and a bit of background Dimidue/Lions OT5 for spice and that just about sums it up. Enjoy this…whatever this is.

Act I

“No One Mourns the Wicked”

The show opens on the citizens of Adrestia celebrating the death of their emperor and the end of her bloody war. Ferdinand rides in, resplendent on his steed, and is hailed as the new Duke Aegir as he relates to the crowd the news of Edelgard’s death at the hands of the combined army of liberators. The “Are people born wicked?” flashback sequence is replaced with a summary mostly in pantomime of Edelgard’s backstory: the Insurrection, her being taken to Faerghus and then returning, and then being experimented on by the Agarthans before agreeing to work with them. Notably Hubert is not named or referenced anywhere in this song, appearing only as a boy at Edelgard’s side at appropriate times during the flashback.

“Dear Old Shiz”

Someone in the crowd finally brings up Hubert, the emperor’s vile and murderous minister, and accuses Ferdinand of having been his friend. With Ferdinand even more flustered than Glinda since his “It depends on what you mean by friend” definitely carries sexual undertones, so begins the flashback to Part 1. There’s an equivalent intro of Garreg Mach, so one may feel free to insert any headcanons for school songs here. The following dialogue scene establishes the student body in general and the dynamic of the Eagles trio in particular: Ferdinand pompous and eager to one-up Edelgard at any opportunity, and Edelgard and Hubert cold and dismissive toward his antics and just about everyone else for that matter. Edelgard is instantly enamored of the quiet new professor, of course. Because the room assignment conflict doesn’t make a lot of sense with the monastery’s setup, instead Ferdinand is incensed that Edelgard is chosen as the Eagles’ house leader over him even though it’s been ages since a Hresvelg has attended. Neither Nessarose nor Morrible has an exact equivalent (although Seteth can act in Morrible’s role as the academy’s main authority figure), so the segue into the next song ends there.

“The Wizard and I”

Now alone together, Edelgard and Hubert have a brief dialogue outlining their villainous plans for the school year. This establishes Hubert’s hypercompetency but also how detached and professional Edelgard is around him. Then comes the song, now “My Lady and I,” which serves as Hubert’s character introduction. In tones more sinister than Elphaba ever reaches - you know he’d have fun with “When people see me they will scream” - he outlines his history with his lady, that he delights in serving her because she validates his work ethic and gives him an outlet for his ruthlessness and cruelty. Where Elphaba fantasizes about the Wizard removing her green skin, Hubert instead goes full Nice Guy, believing that once he’s given Edelgard her continental empire and crushed all her enemies she’ll be so grateful that of course she’ll put out for him.

“What Is This Feeling?”

You could rip the tone of this one directly from the Ferdibert C support and change nothing - homoerotic subtext included. I like the thought of Hubert replacing Elphaba’s deadpan one-word summation of Galinda with a mocking imitation of Ferdinand's most memetic line: "He is Ferdinand von Aegir!". The chorus can be made up of any number of other students excluding Edelgard, who’d happily agree that Hubert is ugly, creepy, and downright unpleasant.

“Something Bad”

The content of this song and surrounding scenes would have to be completely altered, but they work as a necessary reminder that the plot of Part 1 is still going on in the background of all the school drama. Seteth runs through the major events up to Chapter 9 of the game, including the bandit threat, Flayn’s kidnapping, and the experiments on the Remire villagers. The audience/accompaniment for this exposition dump ought to be Dimitri and Claude with Byleth as a silent observer (more on them later), with Edelgard brushing off the news and eventually being the one to shut down the song as Morrible does. There could be some small side character moments in here as well particularly involving the Lions and Deer since they get so little focus in this story.

“Dancing Through Life”

Speaking of which, this was an awkward sequence to place. It matches up chronologically with the ball in Chapter 9 and the main part, Fiyero’s, is a dead ringer for Sylvain and his flirty, hedonistic nihilism (“Nothing matters / but knowing nothing matters!”), but it’s hard to tie into what’s going on with the Eagles trio particularly with the Ferdibert timeframe preserved, i.e. unlike Elphaba and Galinda they don’t become closer until after the timeskip.

As such I see this song as an opportunity for little vignettes with the other students: Dimitri angry over how Dedue’s talked about and hoping they can share a dance (fitting contrast with the coldness of Edelbert), Felix prickly between Dimitri’s recent outbursts and Sylvain’s showboating, Claude hinting toward the bigger picture with Hilda flitting between her excitement over the dance and knowing more than she's letting on, Dorothea casually taking note of Edelgard’s fascination with Byleth (see just below), Bernadetta as a wallflower who doesn’t want to be disturbed (a setup for Act II), etc. Thanks to one of the Forging Bonds events in Heroes I had the thought that the "You/we deserve each other" through line that later gets attached to Nessarose can become one for Dimitri's relationships, with Felix initially throwing it out at him and Dedue and the two of them then turning "We deserve each other" into a romantic line...and then an ironic one and finally a triumphant one come Act II, by that point with Felix et al included as well.

I’m not sure that the following scene of Galinda and Elphaba bonding on the dance floor really needs an equivalent, although it could be altered to something Edeleth-related. In any case Ferdinand ought to get a dance scene of some nature, so he can try to show up Edelgard as he brags about in canon.

“Popular”

It would be a travesty to have a musical starring FE16’s cast and not give Dorothea and/or Manuela a solo. This song works quite well for the former, and it doesn’t intrude on the Ferdibert development with the aforementioned timeframe and how the lightly sapphic vibe doesn’t translate well to two guys. Dorothea has taken note of her good friend Edie’s crush on their mysteriously wooden professor, and she senses the opportunity for a makeover. Not as exaggerated as Dorothea trying to make over Hubert, naturally, but I still think this works out well. Also, Galinda’s observation on leaders, “Did they have brains or knowledge? / Don’t make me laugh! They were popular!”, is darkly comedic when said to Edelgard.

“I’m Not That Girl”

This song comes with preceding dialogue scenes for setup, so those first. Edelgard emerges fresh from her makeover (given her general hot for teacher fixation, I’m thinking she’d lean pretty hard on the naughty schoolgirl look) to Byleth silently grieving Jeralt’s death - bad timing there. She’s as callous about it as she is in canon, only now with more clumsy flirting, and while it’s impossible as always to tell if Byleth notices or cares Hubert most certainly does. The scene segues into the Eagles trio together, with Edelgard alluding to the upcoming events in the Sealed Forest and indicating that Hubert should meet up with her later for some more villainous scheming after he’s ditched Ferdinand. Ferdinand, indignant about being left out of the loop as he is in canon, grumpily points out that he was a much more splendid dancer at the ball than Edelgard, makeover or not. To his utter surprise, Hubert acknowledges that this is true before leaving. This leads into the actual song, altered from homoerotic via triangulation of desire to an outright sexual awakening for Ferdinand. He realizes that part of his jealousy toward Edelgard is that he wishes Hubert were devoted to him instead, and tells himself not to get his hopes up because he’s, well, not that girl or even a girl. We shall of course leave aside how anyone could be attracted to someone as repulsive as Hubert; that’s part of the inherent comedy of this pairing.

“One Short Day”

This was the hardest song to place in this whole project. The touristy trip to the Emerald City just doesn’t have an analogue in the story of Three Houses, especially not late in Part 1 when tension is mounting toward the upcoming reveal and war. It took me a while to realize that it works wonderfully as an Edeleth piece: Edelgard invites Byleth to Enbarr for her coronation, but that scene is left offscreen in favor of a light romp through the city that further highlights Edelgard’s crush as well as her emotional immaturity in spite of everything she’s about to do. She just wants to have a fun day out and take in the sights and eat sweets with her beloved teacher, and it’s all very “Edge of Dawn”-esque where Edelgard knows she’s about to do terrible things that will change everything forever and hopes to prolong the time until she has to take that step. Adjustments to the lyrics could even work in reference to that song to make the similarities more apparent. An awkward/funny issue here is that I envision Byleth to be totally silent throughout this musical with no sung or spoken parts, which would naturally make them having a duet impossible and make Edelgard’s fascination with them even weirder. Even their gender should be left ambiguous throughout, somehow never confirmed if it’s m!Byleth or f!Byleth. It would take a lot of reworking, but I can see the value in it.

“A Sentimental Man”

The core of the Wizard’s character is not all that different from Rhea’s. Both were thrust unexpectedly into positions of authority that required them to enact a large-scale deception to maintain their power/safety, and both are driven somewhat by parental feelings. The tone of the Wizard’s songs doesn’t align well with Rhea, but once you cut out the vaudeville and do some rewording I could see this one working as Rhea addressing her child (among other things) Byleth at the Holy Tomb just before the Flame Emperor reveal. Of course the dramatic irony hits differently; Rhea knows who and what Byleth is whereas the Wizard doesn’t learn about Elphaba until the end of the show. Nonetheless this would still establish Rhea’s character and motivations as well as set the stage for the impending betrayal.

“Defying Gravity”

Said betrayal being Byleth’s, who decides to stand by Rhea and condemn Edelgard as the Flame Emperor when she arrives with her army. This is another song in parts that would need to be broken up. Edelgard gets the bulk of it, but the middle sections between Elphaba and Glinda could work as a kind of separated duet with Edelgard and Hubert attempting to convince Byleth and Ferdinand respectively to join them. Because of Byleth’s silence only Ferdinand can reply in song; only he and Edelgard add the “my friend” bit to the end of this segment, to illustrate the unevenness of Edeleth and Ferdibert at this point in the story. Then things turn to full bombast, albeit darker than in Wicked proper. Edelgard does the belting, Hubert’s sinister laughter reverberates below her (would it be too tasteless for him to be leering up her skirt the whole time?), Ferdinand has Glinda’s mournful “I hope you’re happy!” toward Hubert, and through this and the reprise of “No One Mourns the Wicked” the major events of the timeskip are enacted in pantomime or silhouette. Byleth tumbles off a cliff, Rhea is taken captive as is Dimitri but Dedue rushes after him, and Claude makes a tactical retreat. Side note: “And if I’m flying solo, / at least I’m flying free” is classic Edelgard fixating on Byleth and forgetting that Hubert exists.

Act II

“Thank Goodness”

A surprisingly tough one here. The core of the song, pivoting around the double meaning of “I couldn’t be happier,” suits early Part 2 Ferdinand perfectly, second-guessing his choice and, outside of CF, melancholy about fighting his homeland. In terms of plot it’s an easy translation too, with the crowd announcing the terrible things the Empire has been doing to win its war - persecuting believers, abducting civilians and turning them into Demonic beasts, consorting with inhuman shadowy figures who can disguise themselves as ordinary people - and the assembly working as a way to bring together the leads of the three routes: Byleth, Dimitri (who had Dedue always at his side and thus never had a full psychotic break), Claude, and Seteth, with Ferdinand representing the Adrestian resistance. It’s only the wedding announcement that’s hard to pin down, and I toyed with a number of ideas including Dimidue making yet another public declaration of devotion to one another or Ferdinand planning to follow through with his arranged marriage to Bernadetta they have in their supports (which makes more sense in light of the following sequence). In the end though I don’t think the marriage element is strictly necessary, leaving the song as a means of catching up with the cast five years later and seeing them united against Edelgard - with Ferdinand’s private regrets the only sour note.

“Wicked Witch of the East”

More a dialogue than a song, but still important. Bernadetta is arguably the Eagle other than Hubert most comfortable supporting Edelgard, because all Edelgard has to do is put Count Varley under house arrest for Bernadetta to sing the emperor’s praises. I can also see her as the same sort of self-centered, negligent ruler that Nessarose becomes in Wicked, not because of an unrequited attraction but because of her reclusive desire to be left alone. I see this scene playing out as Hubert surprising Bernadetta at her estate, angry about rumors that she may be helping the rebels and/or engaged to Ferdinand if going with that plot point after Edelgard has done her the favor of locking up her father. He’s fully prepared to, ahem, “persuade” Bernadetta, but before he can break out the torture implements Ferdinand arrives asking for her to support the rebels’ cause.

Farcical, sure, but it gets the two of them together again after five years and underscores how strong their UST has become in their time apart, with Hubert too flabbergasted to attack a known enemy and Ferdinand expressing how happy he is to see Hubert again despite everything. Each learns that the other isn’t as happy about his chosen path as he’d hoped, in Hubert’s case because his lady has grown ever more distant from him as the war has dragged on. Bernadetta cuts through the tension by bringing things back to the song (sort of) and blurting out that she knows both sides are marshalling their forces near Gronder Field. Ferdinand is too caught up in the fraught romance angle to do more than leave with this new information, but Hubert recovers enough to condemn Bernadetta for her flagrant misrule (venting by inference his frustrations toward Edelgard in the process) and resolve to set her on fire for her treachery.

“I’m Not That Girl (Reprise)”

The Gronder rematch happened offscreen - and Bernadetta was indeed set on fire - and on the Imperial side Edelgard is left increasingly frustrated over her losses and hurt that Byleth still refuses to listen to her and continues to fight her regime. You may notice that I’ve shuffled around the middle of Act II, necessary at this point in order to better line up with FE16’s story and Hubert and Edelgard’s separate narrative climaxes while also ensuring that those climaxes don’t overlap too much. This song is only a brief reprise, but it’s a significant one; Hubert finally realizes that Edelgard will never love him. It’s also kept gender-neutral, because Byleth.

“As Long as You’re Mine”

That segues naturally into this moment. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr using his unexpected stealth powers (I usually talk about Dedue having them, but Ferdinand shows he’s no slouch in his Mercedes supports) and encounters Hubert. Their UST boils over in a furor of awkward, impassioned sex and also this song. I like the idea of rewording some of Fiyero's lines to incorporate Hubert's acidic snark: “Maybe you’re brainless, / maybe you’re wise.” It’s all very desperate and sensual, ending with Ferdinand taking Elphaba’s line about feeling wicked for the first time - which will have a dark reverberation two songs from now.

“Wonderful”

Again, axe the vaudeville and it’s a solid Rhea song. There’s just the small problem of Rhea being captured at this point in the plot; I thought about moving this number toward the very end at first before reconsidering. While Hubert and Ferdinand are rolling in the sheets, a distraught Edelgard confronts Rhea in prison. Rhea responds to Edelgard’s frustrations with Byleth with her backstory in song, much more somber than the Wizard but, like him, still willing to rehabilitate her estranged listener. The bits of this song about the nature of history are especially relevant to what Edelgard falsely believes about the church and what she views as her own legacy, so I could see this as an interesting character study on what Edelgard actually wanted with her war apart from dragon genocide. There’s a lot that could be done here in the dialogue surrounding those revelations.

“No Good Deed”

However the interrogation of Rhea turns out, Edelgard takes a leaf out of SS Dimitri’s book and visits Byleth alone at the monastery, only to be as harshly rebuffed as is possible to be without the rebuffer speaking. Then comes this song, which was incidentally the one where I realized that Edelgard would need a major role in FE16-does-Wicked even with the Ferdibert focus. Hubert fully embraced his evil wickedness long ago and wouldn’t think twice about being wicked or being perceived as such, but Edelgard is a different matter. Here she breaks down, admitting that her good intentions were largely selfish and that she regrets that her war has cost her any relationship she could have had with Byleth (continuing the joke at his expense, Hubert goes unmentioned when Edelgard names the people she’s lost/failed). It ends with a foreshadowing of her Hegemon form, the sign that she’s abandoned all pretense of goodness and become truly wicked.

“March of the Witch Hunters”

Another ensemble/vignette piece, checking in with the various members of Byleth’s army as they prepare to storm Enbarr. Dimitri hopes for the chance to forgive his stepsister, Claude has big plans for the continent and wants to remove the threat Edelgard poses, Seteth is desperate to find Rhea, and Byleth…is there. As in many of the songs, the self-righteousness of the crowd here rings more sincere and less hypocritical than in Wicked given Three Houses has actual villains, but it still works.

“For Good”

The song that inspired this whole thing, now with many paragraphs of context to set it up instead of only some fluff based on the Ferdibert A+ support. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr (again) ahead of the battle, and their second love ballad is more somber as they resign themselves to their fates. As in the VA cover, Hubert refuses to ask forgiveness for anything and Ferdinand is fine with that.

“Finale”

Wicked reduces the final battle from The Wizard of Oz to silhouettes backed by sections of “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and that’s what comes here: Ferdinand and Hubert facing each other in battle, Edelgard becoming the Hegemon before being defeated and then dying as in AM’s final cutscene, and Dimitri taking the throne with Dedue at his side and proclaiming his intention to do all he can to restore both the Kingdom and Duscur - and that his first act as king is to announce that he and Dedue have decided to open their marriage up. This is met with much manly cheering and stripping and someone (Ashe?) saying incredulously that he didn’t even know they were married. End silhouettes.

The final scene with the Wizard and Morrible becomes Claude, Seteth, and Byleth rescuing Rhea. Rhea names Byleth her successor as leader of the church and says that she will go into quiet seclusion and do what she can to correct her mistakes. This all suits Claude just fine, who tells everyone that he’s off to take care of some other business and that Byleth will make a great archbishop - and also they can have the Alliance, no big deal. As with the King of Faerghus’s gay orgies, the King of Almyra’s grand ambitions are too large for this story to do more than allude to.

Next, Ferdibert does a version of the Elphaba/Fiyero scene, with Ferdinand revealing that he had Hubert spared on the condition that he help root out any remaining Agarthans and that he remain under house arrest at the Aegir estate. Ferdinand was also required to assume governance of the Empire, because Dimitri wasn’t getting that dumped on him as well. They can be together, but the general population can’t know that Hubert survived lest Ferdinand’s reputation and basic ethics be compromised…which in a darkly funny hypocritical twist then segues to Ferdinand pontificating before the crowd at the beginning of the show, reprising “For Good” with Hubert until they’re drowned out by “No One Mourns the Wicked.” Thus the story concludes on one of my favorite things about Ferdibert: perhaps even in this non-CF continuity Ferdinand wasn’t changed for the better by falling in love with the Most Wicked Man in Fódlan, but they’ve both been changed….

#Fire Emblem #FE16 #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Ferdibert #Hubert von Vestra #Ferdinand von Aegir

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ranma-rewatch · 4 years

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Episode 1-The Strange Stranger from China/Enter Ranma

Alright, time to really start this thing off with the first episode, “The Strange Stranger from China”. I...don’t remember that being the name of the episode, but it has been about a decade since I last saw the series.

I feel like I remember what happens in this episode pretty well, it should just be an introduction to (some) of the main cast and kick of the dynamic between the two leads, but I could be wrong. Let’s see after the break, once I have rewatched the episode!

Okay first things first, the Opening. Musically, this song has always sat in a weird spot for me. It’s really freaking catchy and memorable, but it’s also kind of annoying? Like, there is a fine line between a great ear worm and a song you actually want out of your head, and “Don’t Make Me Wild Like You” by Etsuki Nishio is like right on that line. There are parts of it I think are adorably entertaining, like the whistle, and other parts where I kind of cringe. It’s not my favorite opening song of the series, but it’s not bad either.

Visually, it is Okay with a capital O. There is a reason Mother’s Basement has never done a feature on it. It is mostly just the cast running in place over pastel backgrounds, and some of them have the coloring that’s very different from what would end up being used later on once they appeared. That said, I have to give infinite props to Akane’s little snapping dance, because it is freaking adorable and I love ever frame of it.

Also, the title. What I said it was earlier, “The Strange Stranger from China”, was what Hulu has it listed as, and from what I can tell that was what it was listed as on DVD. From what I can tell from my expert translator, Mr. Google Translate, it’s kind of similar to the Japanese title, which says it is “He's from China!! A little weird!!”. But in the episode, the dub says the episode is “Here’s Ranma” which is what I remember it being. So...yeah. Apparently at some point they wanted to retcon the english title of the episode, but never changed the dub track to match.

So, what’s the episode about? Hell, what is this show even about? Well, the episode starts with a feminine person with red hair fighting a panda in the street, arguing about being betrothed to someone against their will, while onlookers watch in confusion. Then the panda knocks them out, and carries them away. Cut to the Tendo family estate, where Soun Tendo has received news that Ranma Saotome and his father Genma will soon be coming, and gathers his three daughters to explain the situation.

You see, in addition to being fairly well off in general, Soun is the owner of a dojo for the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and his best friend and fellow practitioner of the same art, Genma, made an agreement years ago to bind their families in marriage. Thus, Ranma will marry one of Soun’s three daughters. From oldest to youngest, they’re Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane, who is the only one of the three to practice martial arts herself. When Soun reveals he has never met Ranma and has no idea what he’s like, his daughters are kind of pissed that their dad promised one of them would have to marry him, which is pretty fair.

Instead of the middle-aged man and teenage boy they expected, the red-head from before is dragged in by the panda, and they explain they are Ranma Saotome, to everyone’s confusion. Based on their body, everyone assumes Ranma is a girl, and Ranma and Akane actually become fast friends, sparring in the dojo. But after Akane has a surprise bathroom encounter with a very masculine Ranma that involves him seeing her naked, and vice versa, they learn the truth.

See, Ranma and his dad were in China training when they visited Jusenkyo, a seeming hot spring tourist trap, only to each fall in a different spring while practicing fighting there. Turns out all the water there is cursed because things kept drowning in the springs a long time ago. Now they’re both cursed. They each transform when cold water is poured on their heads, into a feminine body for Ranma and a panda’s body for Genma, and turned back with hot water.

Once that’s all out in the open, everyone except Ranma and Akane thinks that, since Akane doesn’t like guys, she would be the perfect fiance for Ranma since he is ‘half girl’. Akane is still upset with Ranma, both because she has a lot of issues with men and feels betrayed that Ranma never said he was really a guy, and also because he saw her naked. Ranma claims it isn’t a problem because he can look at himself anytime and he’s more stacked, and the dynamic of Akane hitting Ranma for the asshole-ish things he says is born.

So, lots of stuff to talk about for an analysis. I think I’ll go with a compliment sandwich, bundling up what was rough for me around what I liked or thought was particularly interesting. To start with, aside from a few places where there was clear corner-cutting of reusing animation and kind of needless flashbacks, I liked the animation. The original mangka, Rumiko Takahashi, has really great character designs, and I love seeing her personal art style brought to life by the animation of Studio DEEN, a group I am not super used to complimenting.

In terms of plot, I think it’s a pretty strong opener. It introduces a lot of the main cast, even if some of them are depicted fairly broadly and not shown as the characters they’d one day become. This might sound odd, but I also really appreciate how female nudity is handled. Maybe it’s just because, if anything, the way most anime handle ‘fanservice’ has just gotten more and more over-the-top as the years go by, but the way Ranma 1/2 handled it feels like a breath of breath air.

See, in most modern anime, full blown nudity of either sex is never shown. Instead, feminine characters’ bodies are incredibly sexualized, with lots of emphasis put on the breasts and other body parts, without ever giving the full game away. By contrast, this episode contained several example of the feminine form shown completely nude, but it wasn’t treated like some mind-blowingly sexy thing, it was just kinda shown without much fanfare. I’ve currently watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam, which came out around the same time, and it actually does the same thing a few times. It feels more similar to how nudity is treated in, say, paintings or sculpture, more tasteful, and I just kind of think it’s neat.

What is definitely less neat...is the music. If I had to throw out right away my biggest gripe with the show, it is the OST. Not all of it, there are a few bits near the end of the episode that are actually really good, they’re the kind of music I remember being in the show. But the more silly, goofy tracks more common in the first half of the episode really don’t work for me. They remind me of the generic ‘Silly Person’ theme songs from the Ace Attorney games, and maybe it’s just me, but those kind of background music always take me out of the experience and grate on my nerves. That’s actually my only big issue so far, but it did make both times watching this episode genuinely hard to get through at points, it annoys me that much.

Now, I will say right now that I will be referring to Ranma using male pronouns regardless of whether he’s in his cursed form or not, and I won’t call him a ‘girl’ or a ‘woman’. If you didn’t know, sex and gender are not actually the same thing, so even if his physical sex is changed to fit someone who would be Assigned Female at Birth, his internal gender doesn’t change. No matter how Ranma looks, he thinks of himself as a man.

Corollary to that, it was this time going through this episode that I realized something that I’d never thought of before: Ranma’s experience in this episode, and in some ways throughout the series, is actually a lot like that of a transgender man’s. Ranma shows up at the Tendo’s estate and they all see him as a girl because of how he looks, only for him to reveal his actual gender. When he’s hanging out with Akane, and she thinks he is actually a girl, and they’re getting along, there’s a part where she tells Ranma that she’s so happy he turned out not to be a boy, and you can see Ranma’s facial expression, he doesn’t want to hear that. Clearly, yes, you can read that as Ranma wincing at the fact that she’s in for a rude awakening later on, but it also gives off the same kind of vibes closeted trans people experience when they’re misgendered by people they know.

In fact, when you think about how his curse really affects Ranma, when he’s in his cursed form, he effectively is a trans man. He still identifies as a guy, but his body has been changed so that it no longer represents who he sees himself as inside. It just felt like an interesting real life parallel in this episode, and I’m interested to see if I feel it shows up more later on. But for now, let’s move on to character spotlight.

For the first spotlight, I thought I should center on the titular Ranma Saotome. Obviously this won’t be the only time I focus on him, he’ll get more spotlight pieces as the series develops, so right now I’ll try to focus on the Ranma we see in just this one episode.

To start with, who plays him? Well, that’s a funny story, actually. Not only does Ranma, due to his curse, have different voice actors in each language for his cursed and non-cursed forms, but in the English Dub they recast his masculine body’s voice actor after three seasons. I’ll talk about that voice actor, Richard Ian Cox, once we get to when he actually becomes Ranma’s voice actor, so let’s start with the masculine form’s VA’s.

Now, the Ranma I first met when I was a teenager was Sarah Strange, a Canadian Voice Actress who is not known for much else. Her Ranma has mostly been the one I think of in my head when I think of the character. A little nasaly, her take on the character is very average joe, very ordinary high schooler. There’s some brashness to it, sure, but it’s actually kind of a subdued version of Ranma. Looking at it now, I actually feel like both of Ranma’s masculine form’s voice actors don’t quite fit the character, but for opposite reasons. Sarah Strange’s voice is so normal sounding that it dampens the more extreme parts of his character, Ranma at his most arrogant and egotistical. Like I said, I’ll cover Richard Ian Cox when he takes over the role, but I’ll say in brief here that his version of Ranma is the polar opposite, too over-the-top and aggressive.

In contrast, his original Japanese voice actor, Kappei Yamaguchi, feels a lot better to me, at least so far. Again, this is basically my first time seeing the series subbed, so I’ve only heard him for one episode as opposed to the 3 seasons I had with Sarah Strange. Still, Kappei’s take on Ranma is just as normal sounding as Sarah’s, but I felt like I could already hear a little more of the more emotional side of the character I felt Sarah never quite managed to capture properly.

As for Ranma’s cursed form, I was kind of confused, because the voice I was hearing in the episode wasn’t the one I remembered. For a while, I thought she must have just grown into the role over time, but it turns out that is not the case. For the first six episodes of the show, he was played by Brigitta Dau, who was then replaced with Venus Terzo. Now, I did not know this until literally right now, as I am typing this, so I feel like I don’t actually have much to say about Brigitta. Her performance felt a little off to me, but not bad. Venus, though, really owns the role once she takes over. Her performance as red-headed Ranma has always felt perfect for me, selling the idea that this is a teenage guy in a feminine body, and she’s really good at selling Ranma at his most dickish.

In Japanese, this form of Ranma is played by Megumi Hayashibara. Now, I would never ever say she did a bad job, but from what I saw of her in this episode, I don’t know how much I actually like her as Ranma. Maybe it’s just the pitch of her voice, but she doesn’t sound quite to me like a guy in a feminine body, but just like a very emotional teenage girl. Of course, I do not speak Japanese and it’s a lot harder to really judge acting in a language you don’t understand, so I could be spouting utter nonsense, but that’s my thoughts on her as of this episode.

In terms of Ranma’s character, they don’t really give much away with this first episode. We know he’s a good fighter, has a difficult relationship with his father, doesn’t like his curse and wants to get rid of it, and has enough stubbornness to butt heads with Akane and stand his ground. I also felt like they did a good job telegraphing Ranma’s general fighting style during his sparring match with Akane. He spent the entire time dodging her attacks with incredible ease, which emphasizes his speed. Generally speaking, I’d describe Ranma as a very agile, thinking-on-his feet kind of fighter, but that’s something we’ll see more of in later episodes. I was going to do a big thing about his personality, but I feel like anything more than what I’ve said hasn’t really borne out in what we have, so I’ll wait for another time to do that.

Like I said in my Introduction post, I will be ranking each episode as they appear, and as this is the only one I’ve seen in the rewatch, it is both the best one and the worst one so far. The real question is how it will stand up next time, when I’ll be able to compare it to the second episode, “School is No Place for Horsing Around”. See you then!

#episode 1 #here's ranma #the strange stranger from china #ranma 1/2 #ranma saotome #akane tendo #lgbtq #anime analysis #anime rewatch

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animatedminds · 4 years

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Scoob! Review

Apologies: I watched the movie two weeks ago, but forgot to write this because I was so busy doing the Dragonball FighterZ thing. But, with that out of the way...

An interesting ride. As a longtime Scooby Doo fan, it was pretty much a given that I would watch this installment by the Warner Animation Group as soon as possible, and I had a pretty good time - albeit with some issue. It’s a fun Scooby adventure, mostly focusing on Scooby and Shaggy, as they go on a new kind of adventure. It’s full of fun references, super charmingly animated action scenes, and lots of humor that actually nails the characters’ goofball antics without diminishing them as the butt of the joke - which is something the previous theatrical series was hit or miss about - which which is also hampered by the fact that it doesn’t really give itself enough time or space to really make any of those things shine.

Spoilers, but only a couple.

The first thing we ever heard about this movie years ago was that it was conceived as a dramatic retool of Scooby Doo into a out-and-out spy series, in order to set up a Hanna Barbera cinematic universe a la the MCU (which, given that they already had a shared universe they could adapt in Future Quest, hit a little hard), giving the impression that Scooby was going to be a pastiche of James Bond. It’s very obvious from the finished product that this concept was since heavily changed, but you still see it in the film. The gang is still the same-old gang - a bunch of kooky teen mystery solvers - but plotwise it’s very much “what if instead of solving a mystery, the gang just fought a supervillain?” Which, let’s be clear, is not unheard of for the franchise: see Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase for another story that’s mostly just “fight a cool bad guy, with a tacked on mystery,” or the other Shaggy and Scooby-centric stuff like Ghoul School or Reluctant Werewolf for other movies that just plain eschew their usual setting entirely - this is a lot like those. It’s centered around the two characters’ relationship, like pretty much every theatrical Scooby release it seems, as this new challenge almost breaks their union, and the group as usual does very well in that kind of action. Faced with an army of dimwitted robots that can go from silly to terrifying multiple times in the same scene, Scoob and Shag’s typical mix of silly bumbling with surprisingly - and destructively - clever antics make for some great scenes, my favorite being a madcap chase through an amusement park that ends with them getting away on a ferris wheel that’s been knocked of its hinges.

This is very much a movie that wants to be a Hanna Barbera crossover, but is trying hard to restrain itself. As a kid Shaggy was a fan of the Impossibles (who, iirc, were once intended to get a movie as part of this universe) with models and posters that the camera never completely focuses on, you see Laff-a-Lympics on an arcade machine, references to classic Scooby writers and actors as location names (I laughed at Messick Mountain, and the Takamoto Bowl outright went over my head at first), even little things like Scooby bowling like Fred Flintstone or the blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Yankee Doodle Pigeon - and yes, Captain Caveman shows up, fully voiced by Tracy Morgan and kicking butt for a very short scene, with one of his show’s supporting characters (Dee Dee Skyes) as a prominent in this movie’s plot. There’s even musical references in addition to visible ones: at one point, the movie even orchestrates one of the classic bits of Scooby Doo background music. I was hoping for a reference to the classic Scooby Doo / Blue Falcon theme, but alas that was one nod we didn’t get.

However, this approach does work especially well with Blue Falcon - who was originally built up through Scooby Doo, sharing a timeslot, advertisement and technically a theme song, and in time has more or less become to Scooby Doo what Donkey Kong is to Mario: technically a supporting character, but able to do his own stuff every once in a while. There have been several Blue Falcon Scooby Doo crossovers in the last few years (though in terms of sheer number of references this movie’s got nothing on Mask of the Blue Falcon), and they’ve all been very fun as each show, movie or comic reinterpreted the character to fit their specific world - and this movie’s novice Blue Falcon who is kind of an egoistical loser, but turns out to have a lot to learn even from Scooby and Shaggy’s brand of cowardly bravery, grows on you even if he has kind of a rough initial landing.

Unfortunately, this is also a movie that very much wants that rigid hour and a half timeslot, and has absolutely no interest in a going a second longer - and that’s where it’s problems come in. I’ve said before that animated films have become more and more written with expediency in mind: plot points are rushed, denouements are minimized, side or even main characters might not get much utilization, and sometimes things come of as just kind of happening to the protagonists without much set-up. Even the best or the best animation companies fall into these traps at times, and this movie is a good example of what it looks like if you fall into that too much. Take the Scooby gang - Velma, Daphne, and Fred. They’re not really fleshed out that much in this movie, even if they were tweaked a bit with their new VAs - but that’s not necessarily a problem in itself, given the heavy focus on Scooby and Shaggy. What’s more noticeable is where this intersects the plot: for example - one of the better examples of what I’m talking about - the scene that kicks off the whole story. Fred, Velma and Daphne want to expand Mystery Inc, and call Simon Cowell to invest in them. Cowell decides Scooby and Shaggy are incompetent because reasons, and the two storm off. This is later framed as the gang abandoning the duo, that’s not really what happens. Once Cowell hits the scene, beyond one or two lines the rest of the gang essentially ceases to exist, and barely reacts to anything: there’s no moments with them where they seem to buy into what Cowell is saying, there’s nothing beforehand that implies that they’re dissatisfied with Scooby and Shaggy, there’s isn’t even really a status quo for what their dynamic is like. We cut straight from them meeting as kids to them having a supposed fight as adults - this is something that wouldn’t have taken a lot of time, but would have strengthened pretty much everything, from Scooby and Shaggy’s reaction to the trio’s guilt later, but is skipped over entirely. The others get very little beyond being summed up as “the muscle” (Fred), “the face” (Daphne) and “the brains” (Velma), and it feels less like expediency and more like we missed a scene somewhere.

Granted, this particular thing also runs a unique problem that the Scooby gang face. As characters who just turned fifty and who are well entrenched in pop culture, adaptations often assume you know who they already - and this movie definitely assumes you can do its work for it and establish a baseline for the Scooby gang on your own... and on that front, I suppose it does better than the previous film series, which based a lot of its humor on fandom in-jokes they poorly assumed everyone agreed with. But... there’s a degree to which every film needs to establish a baseline for that it itself to trying to do, and I think skipping this hurt the film more than it should have. And it’s hardly the only point where the need for speed cuts out the flow of the film. Scooby and Shaggy get abducted by Blue Falcon, whose assistant then promptly exposits on everything the audience doesn’t know yet about the plot so that they can just skip straight to more action - basically setting up a question and then answering it immediately without set-up. This essentially robs Dick Dastardy - definitely the best thing about the movie - of a strong introduction, in favor of, again, expediency, and it’s kind of baffling given that there’s later scenes where the rest follows the mystery and so repeats that exposition anyway. I mentioned that Blue Falcon himself got a rough initial landing, and that’s because his intro scene is just a lot of new element popping in with exposition, interspersed with pop culture references - and that exposition just stops the whole thing cold for a while. We hit again the “expects you to know” angle with Falcon himself, who is a legacy character of the original Falcon - who we never see, which raises the question of why they bothered to make him a legacy and not just a novice hero in the first place. I’ve always been a strong believer that you can introduce elements without needless explanation unless who introduce concepts that suggest explanation: Scoob and Shag being a fan of the original Blue Falcon, Dynomutt constantly reminiscing about him, and there being a full Falcon organization around which the movie pivots, along with lots of reference, suggest the need for at least a little more than we got - even if it’s just a thirty clip of the way Blue Falcon worked before Brian (the new Falcon) came along - but the movie just wants to rush past it. The entire quest on which the plot is centered it halfway through when we first encounter it, and doesn’t get any explanation at all until halfway through the movie. And then there’s little things like Captain Caveman cameo, which just leave you wanting more.

This happens again and again, with plot points, characters, all sorts - things introduced halfway and then brushed past as though they’re not. People don’t expect much from animated movies, and stuff like this is one of the reasons why - this movie feels sometimes like it was written for tv, which is ironic given how it ended up being released. But the movies that were themselves DTV or released to TV, like Shaggy’s Showdown or Legend of the Phantasaur, the aforementioned Mask of the Blue Falcon or - my perosnal favorite - Moon Monster Madness, even tend to not have these problems themselves, because they’re more measured and precise about what they want to introduce and why. It’s great to be childish, as long you do childish well.

But now that the criticism portion of the review is done, I will say that this doesn’t hamper the movie’s desire to be fun and easy to follow, it just makes it not as much so as it clearly could have been. If you wanted more Falcon, or more Scooby and Shaggy, more Mystery Inc shenangians, more Dastardly, more adventure, more of a certain gag or humor, more of really any of the movie’s best points, you weren’t getting them that much because the movie was trying to do all of them all at once. But one the movie starts getting traction, about halfway through, that starts to fade as everything coalesces. All the characters meet, we finally know what the heck is going on, and it’s just a straight shot to the end with lots of what this movie does best: cool visuals, silly characters doing silly things, and brave characters doing brave things. Much as I wish there was more to the Captain Caveman segment, it’s one of the most visually hilarious parts of the movie, with the stark contrast of these hi-tech, modern character colliding with these explicitly more cartoony prehistoric designs and antics, and its just wonderful. Everything about Dick Dastardly’s story is great - though I was wishing for a Penelope Pitstop reference - and he even gets a heartwarming conclusion to the whole thing.

I don’t know where the series is going after this - whether they do indeed intend to make more Hanna Barbera movies in this vein. The credits teased Johnny Quest, Frankenstein Jr, Grape Ape (who according to concept art was supposed to be in this one), Atom Ant, and even a bit of Wacky Races, and it’s clear they have the love for classic Hanna Barbera to make it happen. I just hope that if they do, they go with a series who can expand this in a more concise way, with a little better character introduction. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for Future Quest.

The film is still very recommended by me. I loved it, I watched it twice, and it a heck of a lot of fun even with its hang-ups. If you haven’t seen it, there are worse ways for a parent, a kid, or just a big ol’ child at heart to spend an afternoon.

#scooby doo #scoob #movie review #animation review #shaggy #daphne blake #velma dinkley #fred jones #hanna barbera #warner animation group #blue falcon #dynomutt #dick dastardly #animated film #review #animated minds

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curestardust · 4 years

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if you want: sappy romance / kinda interesting usage of mechas in fights / cute girls (??) / background shoujo ai

So I only watched this cause it was linked under Kannazuki no Miko (x) which I didn’t... like... very much as you have seen. “Shattered Angels” also looks like your average romance stuff that I don’t care about so safe to say I didn’t have very high expectations for this.

Now as to how this is related to Kannazuki no Miko: some character designs from it were taken and kinda redesigned, except for the Chikane clone who looks like she was transported into an Alternative Universe. She is called Kaon here and is also related to the Moon and Murakumo (and she is also gay babyyy). This anime also has mechas but they were much better and more creatively implemented so it wasn’t as jarring as in KnM.

“Shattered Angels” has one of the main characters’ name in it in the Japanese title (Kyoushiro and the Eternal Sky) who manages to be one of the most uninteresting characters in the show. As to who he is? Well let’s go to the story.

10 years ago there was a catastrophe where a research center (I think?) released the “Absolute Angels” upon the world. It’s not clear what they actually did but it apparently it was Very Bad. Our story stars Kuu, your normal no-personality cheery and clumsy main character who is just average, so very average (no she isn’t). Soon enough she witnesses a fight between 2 girls who are able to manifest certain mecha parts as extension of their bodies which they use to fight. We meet the afformentioned male main character, Kyoushiro, who saves Kuu from the fighting. Turns out both of these girls are “Absolute Angels”: Tarlotte (whose design and personality was directly taken from KnM) is a bit of an anomaly as to why she goes around making messes. The other is Setsuna who is Kyoushiro’s “Sword” aka does the dirty work. And the 3rd “Absolute Angel” is Kaon.

The 1st half of the anime is a mess. It’s supposed to set up Kuu and Kyoushiro’s relationship but it really doesn’t feel like it. Besides one deeper conversation, the 2 don’t have any chemistry whatsoever and they aren’t in private, like, ever. So the consequent set-up for the 2nd half of the anime (which was much more interesting) is on a shaky foundation. Ironically, despite this not officially having a Shoujo Ai tag, there’s wlw romance which was done pretty well actually. And spoiler but it has a happy ending! Whooo!!! Anyway, even Tarlotte and her “caretaker” have a more interesting relationship than Kuu and Kyoushiro.

Anyway, the 2nd half of the anime has its fair share of problems with VA’s who got a bit carried away, constantly repeated lines and a lack of explanation for certain things but it’s actually decent and I enjoyed it (I know, wow!) but I really don’t know if dragging yourself through the 1st half for that is worth it. Take into consideriation however that I’m not really the target audience for this kinda sappy romance stuff but even I can see that “Shattered Angels” is just OK.

[5/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

#dusty reviews #Shattered Angels #Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora

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animepopheart · 5 years

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Interview with One Piece and Dr. Stone VA, Macy Anne Johnson

Do you remember what you were doing during the autumn of your 20th year? Were you attending classes in college? Maybe taking your niece trick-or-treating? Going to the opening of two movies that you’re in? Okay, it’s probably a big “no” to that last one—that is unless you’re voice actress Macy Anne Johnson. Currently attending university as a theater arts major, Macy Anne has already started to establish a voice acting career with roles in series like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Pirino) and Dr. Stone (Ruby), and in two movies that started screening last week in North America—One Piece Stampede (check out the TangleCast review of the film!) and Human Lost, both released by FUNimation. I sat down with Macy Anne recently to chat about all the exciting developments in her career.

Q: I was browsing your Instagram and noticed that you went to a local theater to watch Human Lost.

Macy Anne: I did! I loved it. I was so exciting! I hadn’t seen the film yet and I went with my mom and dad and some friends, so it was a super sweet experience. I’ve never heard myself in a theater before: It was surreal and so loud!

And you such a big role. In fact, Yoshiko, your character from Human Lost, is your first lead role! I saw that you prepared for it by reading No Longer Human.

Yes, oh my goodness, have you read No Longer Human?

I haven’t! I know it’s a classic.

And it’s probably the saddest thing I’ve read. I read another book that Dazai wrote, The Setting Sun—equally depressing.

Did it help you prepare?

There were so many differences between the book and the movie with this whole futuristic environment they created, but the film took the characters and their traumas and personalities from the book and implanted them into this crazy world, so by reading, I felt going in that I had a good notion of who Yoshiko was. There’s this quote in the book and I’ll probably get it wrong, but it’s, “She was a genius at trusting people.” In the movie that became, “She’s a genius at believing in ‘this idea.’” That was kind of how we centered the acting around her.

I think that quote describes her really well.

I know! It’s sad, because it should be a good thing…

Besides Human Lost, you had One Piece: Stampede come out last week.

I went from zero to 100! I’m very excited about it.

One Piece is a big deal! Were you excited to get the role of Ann?

Oh yes. I was an anime fan before I was a voice actor and would never have believed you if you told me I’d be a One Piece character. Crazy!

What were some of the anime you enjoyed growing up?

My first was Sword Art Online, which I realize now that some people have such a problem with! It’s divisive, but I love it! Oh and Fairy Tail. I got to do additional voices for Fairy Tail and that was so exciting!

How did you make the transition into in voice acting?

A lot of voice actors teach acting classes and I took Chris Rager’s—that was my first kind of technical training for voice acting, and it help me meet people and get on lists for different studios.

And you bring a theater background into voice acting, which is pretty common for voice actors—how does that help you voice act?

Voice acting isn’t very different from being on stage except for the complete isolation of the voice, which I think has made me a better theater actor because I have to concentrate fully on that. And I don’t know if other people do this but I feel very physical when I’m in the booth. I play a robot in the video game Paladins and the whole time I did the full body acting [does robot moves]. It felt like I had to do that to make the voice sound right! I’ve always been a very loud person, too, so that’s worked in my favor. I came out of the womb screaming!

So right now, you’re balancing all that—theater and voice acting and school. But where do you see yourself five years from now?

I want to be voice acting. I would love to see what other parts of anime I could involve myself in: Writing and directing are roles I’m very interested in. Doing a lot more of the same would be the ultimate goal!

What’s airing currently that viewers can you watch you in?

I’m working on Dr. Stone right now. It’s exciting being on Toonami! That show is so much fun! And they can watch One Piece!

—

Human Lost has completed it’s U.S. run (though it premieres in Canada in November), but you can still catch Macy in One Piece: Stampede and voicing characters in many other anime series. And be sure to follow her on Instagram and Twitter!

#one piece #one piece stampede #human lost #dr. stone #sword art online #blog

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jewish-privilege · 6 years

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Without notifying his followers or even his inner circle, the longtime president of a legacy neo-Nazi group handed his organization to a black civil rights activist from California.

James Hart Stern, 54, is the new president of the National Socialist Movement, a group whose members wear uniforms reminiscent of those worn in Nazi Germany, celebrate Adolf Hitler and organize public rallies across the county.

Stern’s first move as president was to ask a Virginia judge to find the organization culpable of conspiring to commit violence at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The group has been accused of wrongdoing in a lawsuit but had previously denied any responsibility.

Next, he plans to transform the hate group’s website, visited by millions of white supremacists each year, into a space for Holocaust history lessons.

“I did the hard and dangerous part,” Stern told The Washington Post. “As a black man, I took over a neo-Nazi group and outsmarted them.”

For weeks, the sudden change in power had confounded those who study hate groups and perplexed those within the organization, who had heard nothing from Jeff Schoep, the man who led the Detroit-based organization for 24 years.

...To understand how Stern came to overtake Schoep’s organization, you first must understand how the Michigan neo-Nazi and California activist came to know each other.

While serving time in prison in Mississippi for wire fraud, Stern says he befriended his cellmate and onetime Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Edgar Ray Killen, who had been convicted in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. Though Stern said Killen regularly called him a racial slur, he nevertheless granted his cellmate power of attorney over his life story and estate. (Killen’s family and lawyer dispute the veracity of the deal.)

Stern was paroled from prison in 2011. In 2016, he said he used his legal discretion to dissolve the Klan organization that Killen once led.

Around 2014, Stern says Schoep reached out to him to inquire about his relationship with Killen, who died in 2018. Schoep denies that account, saying Stern made first contact on the recommendation of Killen. He said Stern reached out to talk about his mission to aid racial reconciliation in the United States.

The two agree on what came next: a “race relations summit” in California, where representatives from Schoep’s organization met with black leaders to talk about ways they could work together without violence.

The hate group was founded under a different name in 1974 by two former officials of the American Nazi Party, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Schoep took control of NSM in 1994 and was responsible for growing its membership and brand, which was waning by the time he met Stern in 2014.

...Stern claims their conversations were much deeper. Though the two remained firmly entrenched in their political camps, Stern said, they also engaged in regular debate about the Holocaust, the ugliness of the Nazi swastika, the fallibility of Schoep’s white-nationalist ideals and, most critically, the fate of his hate group.

The goal, Stern claims, was always to try to change Schoep’s mind.

“From Day One, I always told him: ‘I don’t agree with you. I don’t like you,’ ” Stern said. “I talked to him because I wanted to hope to change him.”

That didn’t happen, Stern said.

But according to Stern’s version of recent events, he was able to accomplish the next best thing.

In early 2019, Stern said Schoep came to him for legal advice on the lawsuit, which Schoep denies. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by a Charlottesville counterprotester against the NSM and other white-nationalist groups.

During a conversation about the lawsuit, Schoep seemed “rattled,” Stern said, and began talking about making a change. “I was hoping he was talking about his ideology,” Stern said.

Instead, Stern said the white-nationalist leader called NSM an “albatross hanging around his neck” and said he was looking for ways to get out. Stern said Schoep was worried about the cost of the lawsuit, frustrated by problems in the organization, and weighing the possibility of leaving NSM at a time at a time when hate group experts say the group faced being outshone by the more refined efforts of new alt-right leaders such as Richard Spencer.

Schoep felt underappreciated by his followers and left out of the mainstream white-nationalist movement.

...So he encouraged Schoep to get a fresh start by handing Stern control of the Detroit-based organization and website, Stern said, by making him president of the organization in official documents and signing a sworn affidavit.

With some convincing, Schoep said yes.

“He knew that he had the most vulnerable, the most loose-cannon members that they had ever had in the organization,” Stern said. “He realized somebody was going to commit a crime, and he was going to be held responsible for it.”

Schoep denies large portions of Stern’s account. He said he only signed over the group because Stern had convinced him that the ownership change would get the lawsuit dismissed.

“Now I don’t believe any of this was true,” Schoep said.

...In mid-January, Schoep filed incorporation paperwork with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to formally transfer the National Socialist Movement to Stern, according to documents filed with the state. By Feb. 15, Stern was listed in court documents for the lawsuit as NSM’s representative. Stern is not listed as an individual defendant in the suit.

Several of the people listed on the NSM website as leaders within the organization did not respond to a request for comment from The Post on Friday. One man, who identifies himself as SS Capt. Harry L. Hughes III and is listed as the public relations director for NSM, said in an email that he is “not involved in the NSM’s legal affairs."

Hughes said he had been “waiting in suspense” for answers, along with other members, before Schoep’s statement Friday night. Schoep confirmed that hardly anyone knew of his deal with Stern until recently.

...Experts find the moment to hold more significance. Keegan Hankes, an SPLC research analyst, said the transfer is "one of the strangest things I’ve seen since I started tracking these things five years ago.”

“Signing over leadership of an organization this old is the equivalent of a death sentence in the white-nationalist movement,” Hankes said.

...It remains unclear how NSM will be able to maintain its organizational infrastructure with Stern legally at the helm of the corporation. In his statement, Schoep said he intends to challenge Stern’s ownership.

“This paper appointment will not stop us,” Schoep said. “Mr. Stern’s bad faith actions may leave me no choice but to protect my rights in a court of law, as I believe he fraudulently manipulated me for the purposes of gaining control of, and dissolving NSM.”

Though Schoep is no longer legally affiliated with NSM, he still faces the lawsuit because he is listed as a defendant.

“It’s definitely not good for him, and it shouldn’t be good for him,” Stern said. “You spend 25 years terrorizing people, you can’t rebrand overnight. It doesn’t work like that.”

Stern, who runs Racial Reconciliation Outreach Ministries, said he is still sorting through the legal intricacies his NSM leadership entails. He is listed as the attorney representing the NSM in court filings. But he is not a licensed lawyer and a judge recently ruled that he could not represent the group for that reason.

Stern said he is working on hiring an outside lawyer to refile his motion for a summary judgment on the lawsuit. He has also offered the plaintiff’s attorneys full access to NSM social media accounts, he said, because he claims to own those, too.

...Stern says he’s preparing for what comes next and is seeking guidance from Jewish leaders. He said he does not plan to dissolve the corporation because he doesn’t want Schoep’s followers, or others in the white-nationalist movement, to reincorporate it.

Stern admits his plans for the website are still evolving, but his primary goal is to offer it as a reclaimed space to Jewish organizations that could help him educate NSM’s followers on the history of the Holocaust.

“Everything is out in the open,” Stern said. “My plans and intentions are not to let this group prosper. It’s my goal to set some hard records right.”

#this is the best #yasher koach james stern!#long post #National Socialist Movement #white nationalism

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renejamesart · 5 years

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I Wanna See Your Shine Spark!!

Today marks the JP release of VA-11 HALL-A on Switch and PS4! I’m so excited to celebrate, and plan to over the course of today, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday with some special illustrations.

To kick things off, I’ve decided to go with my favorite girls –and Glitch City’s best idol singer Lilim- *Kira*Miki!

Miki instantly because one of my favorite characters during my first play-through of VA-11 HALL-A. I really loved her design and liked her character arc. I won’t give away any spoilers other than saying that I hope a lot of people who are new to the games come to love her too: she’s a very deep character and quite interesting!

That being said, I’d actually like to go into detail about this picture, largely because this was a multi-day sketch and color illustration as opposed to my typical in-a-day process. I really had to dig deep and think about how I wanted to pose her, how I wanted to depict her, and ultimately, the vibe I wanted to come from the picture.

I have to admit that this is my most ambitious piece to date, and what a wonderful undertaking it was! This is a bit of a page stretch, so apologies in advance, but I really just want to gush.

So here goes!

In General

So overall, I went with a much more saturated palette than I usually do, playing largely off of Miki’s pink-red eyes and her blue hair and character elements.

There’s a lot of work with gradients in this picture: no specifically as the sole element of the background, but the accent and highlight Miki in different ways. Speaking of highlights, I used a simple white highlight set to Overlay: I felt that it was best not to have too many colors on her because of the very active background and the element of her holding a drink.

(Fun Fact: The bisexual flag colors in the background are a complete accident, but like… what a happy accident for me, a bi/pan person!)

*Kira*Miki

I really wanted Miki to have a fun pose, and I haven’t done much with sitting recently, so I decided that her sitting a bit elegantly would be fun. I also wanted her to hold a drink, primarily since VA-11 HALL-A is a game centered around bartending and drinking, whether alcoholic or non-alcoholic. The Blue Fairy –as you can see by the name– is an alcohol-optional drink, but more on that later. Right now, I wanna focus on Miki herself.

At first, her hair was closer to her body to have more volume rather than flow. This was because I imagined her shoulders being high until I tried to mimic that pose and found it immensely uncomfortable, and decided to drop her shoulders and have her drink clutched in the arm that would be slung across her stomach. To better flow with her new position, I decided that having her hair flowing behind her balanced the picture and centered her a bit better: as a bonus, it ate up more empty space, and didn’t make the right side feel too bare. Unfortunately, I had to counteract that with the left-side being awfully empty until I struck on the idea to add text behind her.

Most interesting are her legs: I have no clue what Miki’s legs look like, and in game, we only see a bust and half-sprite. So, I went with something simple and decided that purple-pink ballet flats would be fine.

(I’m still not good at drawing shoes, which is why so many of my pieces are either girls with socks or from the knees up. Or maxi skirts/dresses.)

Her hair is one of my favorite parts: not only did I do shadow, I did midtones and highlights when I typically only do highlights and some shadow work. I really wanted her to have this very stylish, playful look to her hair. I really like how much more depth it added, and think that in future pictures, I’ll have a lot more tones involved in how I color hair and even skin.

Additionally, Miki has interior coloring on her lines. I left to outside black so there would be some contrast between her and the background, but I used a lot of purples and blues to soften elements. I’ve actually been doing this bit by bit in my art, and this was the first piece where I let that extend to some of the exterior lines too.

Background Work

Making Miki was actually the easy thing to do: making the background was much, much harder. Usually, I do one of two things for backgrounds: a flat color or a gradient. Sometimes, I mix it up, specifically if it’s fanart. Most times… I don’t. A lot of that is because I haven’t really focused much on background work, though I plan to this year.

For this piece, I really wanted to do something a bit more stylized and because Miki is essentially an android, I decided a glitch background would be cool. Problem was I wasn’t sure how to do something with that as the idea.

So I improvised.

What I ended up doing was overlaying a bunch of white squares on top of each other with some smaller squares to give the effect of pixels. I then put that through a mosaic filter, then flipped everything to Overlay. I did end up using a gradient, but I think that’s okay because laying the pixelated squares let different colors bleed through.

Over everything is a blend of a Static (TV Static, more specifically) Brush and a Gradient done in reverse so it added a bit of color to the highlights and everything in general.

A Blue Fairy for a Blue Fairy

This is actually a really good time to talk about the Blue Fairy drink I drew, which works really well with the pinky-purple of the background. I wanted it to be really saturated and pop, and it certainly does!

I drew the lineart for the drink separately because of how I wanted to blend everything. I wanted the drink to have a somewhat sci-fi feel, and to me, that meant it needed to glow and have a bit of sparkle inside it. So I overlayed some of the same blue color with an airbrush, and shaped it so it had a nice, sharp glow.

I also added more liquid than would have been able to fit because I wanted it to look really dynamic. A lot of this image wasn’t about having realistic boundaries: it was about creating something really fun.

I chose a Blue Fairy specifically because it’s a drink that can change Miki’s actions at a point in VA-11 HALL-A: as an alcohol-optional drink, it can be served virgin or... laden with as much Karmotrine as you wanna put in. Spoilers: this can quickly make Miki drunk, and can lead to some rather candid statements about her personality and her role as an idol. It’s a really deep moment, and has stuck with me since my first play-through.

(I also chose a Blue Fairy because it fit the blue-purple-pink motif I was going for. It let me play off of Miki’s hair and give her a bit more color up top to make her further pop against the pink.)

The Blue Fairies –completely inspired by Zelda, naturally- were just a cute little addition I decided on last minute. I thought they were cute, and though they have nothing to do with the actual game or Miki, they fit and kind of ate up some space that I didn’t want to be empty.

All in All

This was a really long project for me: I think I spent about 20 hours on everything, coloring and recoloring and adjusting until I had something I really, really love. Honestly, I’ll probably be turning this into a print for myself because I’d love to have it on my wall. I know my art will look different next year –heck, next month even– but this… I’ll always be proud of this piece.

This is only the first of two or three more images over the course of the end of the work week and the weekend. I’m glad I showed this one off first: the others are gonna be pretty great, but this… just had a really special place in my heart.

Thanks for your support, and hey: if you haven’t played VA-11 HALL-A yet, it’s available on multiple platforms, ranging from Steam to PS Vita to Switch. I highly suggest picking up a copy and sinking yourself into the world of Glitch City and a really powerful branching story that can easily find a place in everyone’s lives.

Originally created 5.25 and completed 5.29.2019 in celebration of Sukeban Game’s Japanese physical release of VA-11 HALL-A on Switch and PS4; made in Mediband Paint for iOS

#*Kira*Miki #kira miki #va-11 ha11-a #vallhalla #sukeban games #fanart #digital art #digital illustration #ipad pro art #medibang #medibang paint

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kali-tmblr · 5 years

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Thoughts on RWBY7: Part 2 Characters

(Crossposted to Amino) As I said, if their pattern holds I'm expecting to see new threads and weapons at the start of Volume 7, a ton of exposition in the center, and a bit of character development and romantic pairing off towards the end. (Please prove me wrong, Rooster Teeth! Break the pattern!). We've covered the exposition, now let's talk about the characters.

Costumes: snow clothes. 'nuff said.

Weapons: Gambol Shroud needs to be repaired or replaced. I've never been comfortable with throwing a loaded Glock around and having it fire in midair. (Granted, you could probably only do that with a Glock, but still....)

Prosthetics: As this is Cybernetics Central, we may get some work on Maria's eyes and/or Yang's arm.

Character Development: using the principle of turn-based character development, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Maria will probably sit this one out. So will Blake and Yang, unless it's related to Yang's PTSD (I'll write a separate post about that.) Ruby's potential for growth in this season is largely reactive, and depends on what her enemies (Tyrian, Cinder, Neo, maybe Penny's father) do. The anger she started to feel in V5 is something she will eventually have to learn to handle, but if they continue with the slow burn that won't really start to be a problem until the next leg of their journey. The characters we are most likely to see develop are:

Weiss: she's literally shaking at the prospect of meeting Jaques again. Until she no longer fears him, her character arc won't be complete. Now's the perfect time to work on that.

Qrow: Everything he based his life, his self worth, and his self-identity on just shattered. He renounced his family in favor of what he thought was a higher purpose, and that higher purpose just crumbled to dust on the snow. With the exception of protecting the kids, he has nothing left, and the kids don't need so much protecting any more. In Chapter 9 you could tell that he had already begun to question his life choices. "Every step I took, every choice I made, has led me here." What choices? I have no doubt he's done some questionable deeds as Ozpin's agent "for the greater good". Now he has to ask if they were really worth the price. Sometime fairly soon he or someone else is going to be having a very pointed conversation with him, and he will have another such conversation with Ozpin. Then he has to decide what he does with the rest of his life. Problems with the voice actor aside, this was always going to be a rough time for Qrow.

(One of the reasons I keep mentioning the uncertainty over plot order is that problems with the VA increases the likelihood things will get juggled. I think I know about a third of what's going to happen in the next three volumes, but not the order RT will choose to tackle it.)

Oscar: he's 14, has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and has been thrown into a completely different environment. Psychologically, there's no way to prevent him from developing.

Ozpin: he's been suffering from severe depression (and not hiding it very well) since Volume 1. Now he's had the root cause thrust in his face. Such trauma demands growth. Ozpin talks about rising to meet challenges. It's time he demonstrates it. He also owes both Qrow and Ironwood apologies and explanations. But that may get delayed to Volume 8 depending on plot order.

Also, if I'm right about one of the goals of the cybernetics program being to separate the Ozma entity from its host and give it a separate body, that's something whose implications Ozpin and Oscar will have to deal with.

Ironwood: Depending on plot order, we'll reach Ironwood either this volume or the next. When we do his trust issues are bound to be triggered.

Penny and Penny's creator: again, their development is coming, but whether it happens in 7, 8, or 9 depends on plot order. But Penny's creator is bound to have some issues with her erstwhile friends.

Atlas personnel: I'm sure we'll learn more about various Atlesians, but the only others I am expecting to show character development as opposed to character revelation in V7 are Winter, maybe Flynt and Neon, and possibly Whitley. We simply don't know enough about anyone else for it to qualify as "development" in V7. (I doubt Jaques is capable of growth, except as an asshole.)

Adam: won't be missed by anyone who knew of his recent activities. May be missed by those who didn't, especially if he originally came from Solitas. Blake has a general tendency to brood, but it was literally kill or be killed, and she will probably make her peace with that. Yang has no innate tendency to brood. If she has problems, they'll fall under the general PTSD plot. I'll write about that separately.

Cinder: does Cinder really think she can get back in Salem's (meager) good graces by engineering a technical foul regarding Salem's orders? That's egomania on a grand scale. Salem will see right through it. So, as Tai Yang asked, which way will she go?

Salem: a person confident of loyalty wouldn't keep bringing up the cost of disloyalty. Salem is increasingly getting thwarted, and that's starting to affect her minions as well as herself. Both she and her team only mention Atlas as a potential roadblock in the way of her plans for Vacuo. And Atlas itself has come up with an easy solution to that roadblock. **snip**

So the question becomes, does she value the Relics enough to retrieve them before cutting the cord? If her ultimate goal is to summon the gods to a world at war, yes. If not, no.

Tyrian: now has a personal interest in Ruby as well as Jaune. What we don't know is how disciplined Tyrian is. Will he put Salem's wishes over his own? Or, like Cinder, will he be out for personal revenge?

Neo: at present we have no idea how far she will go for revenge, and against whom.

Emerald and Mercury: will these two start to look for a way out? Maybe, but I am not expecting them to try anything yet.

Romantic entanglements: RWBY has never introduced a character and successfully paired them off in the same volume. So any bonding in V7 will probably be among pre-existing characters. That gives us a limited pool to work with. Potentials are:

Blake/Yang: after so much in V6 I'm not actually expecting anything in V7 -- with one caveat. With it's military culture Atlas is the perfect place to explore the deeper implications of Yang's PTSD, and the toll it takes on partners. I'm honestly expecting that plot to be the romantic development of 8 or 9. Again, I don't know what their order will be.

Qrow/Winter: Qrow's pretty broken right now, and Winter doesn't seem to tolerate weakness. It would be a major stretch on her part this soon. Maybe later.

Flynt/Weiss: I think this one has potential. Both of these people started off with such limited views of the other, and now they are growing. I think they could make beautiful music together.

Ruby/Oscar: if Ozpin stays quiet for a long, long time.

Of course characters might be introduced in V7 who pair off later, but that's my best bets for the current field.

PS: One thing I forget to mention in Part 1 is that we don't know how far Rooster Teeth is willing to go with Atlas as a metaphor for the United States. Between systemic racism and income inequality, issues with a closed border, an overblown military, a superiority tendency, and a sliiiiight persecution complex, there's plenty to work with.

Oh, and giant mechs. We're in Mech Central, so there's bound to be bigger and snazzier mechs than we've seen before.

#rwby #rwby7

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medicalmiracle · 7 years

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Rotation wrap-up: PSYCHIATRY

Psychiatry was a laid-back, super chill rotation. My placement was at a Veteran’s Administration (VA) hospital, which is funded by the federal government and treats U.S. veterans and their families. What I did: ~8:00-8:30AM: I would roll in, coffee in hand. I would snag a computer (they were in short supply between the residents and medical/PA students), log into the crappy EMR, and read about the current patients or any new patients which may have been admitted overnight. There was no pre-rounding, just a huddle at 8:30 which students didn’t really participate in. My team rounded right after huddle, so as long as I was there before 8:30 it was cool. 8:30AM til whenever: Rounds. The rounding team consisted of the attending, resident, medical student, PA student (myself), and social worker. In the beginning, the resident led rounds and the attending would occasionally jump in. When the students got comfortable enough, they would lead the rounds interviews for the patients they were following. The social worker would also ask questions and work with the patient on psycho-social issues. Housing was a big component of this; most of the veterans on the psych ward were homeless and had substance abuse problems which often required close outpatient followup or residential treatment. 12:00PM-1:00PM: Lunch. Lunch was didactic lectures twice a week, and free time the remaining two days. If you program offers these, make every effort you can to go, because they are great reviews for end-of-rotation exams. Topics included: emergency psychiatry, traumatic brain injury, psychopharmacy, geriatric psychopharmacy, PTSD, sleep problems, addiction medicine, involuntary commitment, and legal liability, among others. 1:00PM-4:00ish: Students were pretty much on their own. That does not mean you are free to fuck around. During this time, it was expected that we will complete tasks assigned during rounds. Things I did included: calling consults for medical issues and coordinating care with the medicine teams, putting in orders for imaging or labs or whatever else, performing focused physical exams for things like MSK pain or neuro assessment, doing psych exams like MoCA and Beck Depression Inventory, and spending time with the patients I was following to get extra history or whatnot. ~4:00ish: Peace out, y’all. Days were pretty short unless there was a late admit, which my team was lucky enough to never catch one. Also, if the resident on your team was post-call and the attending rounded in the morning and didn’t have anything for you to do, students were generally allowed to leave after morning rounds. I was always gone before the words were fully out of their mouths.

ROTATION #: 1 OVERALL GRADE: A+ IMPRESSION: Y’all... I absolutely LOVE psychiatry... I might work in psych after I graduate. Mental health is MORE important than physical health because you can’t MANAGE your physical health if your brain and/or emotions are jacked up. Plus, it’s so challenging to find the right combination of things to help your patients, it’s like the best possible puzzle ever.

ROTATION ADVICE: - Know your pharmacology, because you will be asked. - Study addiction medicine. We only had like two addiction lectures during didactic year and they didn’t really cover treatment, just what is addictive, how to tell when someone is under the influence, and how to treat overdoses. Addiction is a huge part of inpatient psychiatry because so many mentally ill people self-medicate with psychoactive substances. - Learn how to keep a poker face. Psych patients will tell you some jacked-up shit and you can’t wig out or they will shut down. - On the flip side, try not to become overly involved. I struggled with this SO HARD. I just wanted to do all the things for all the people, and it became sort of exhausting. Plus, transference and counter-transference are real things and can lead to trouble. - Relax and have fun. Psychiatrists and people who love psych are usually quirky/odd ducks who see the world a little differently. Come to the dark side, we have SSRIs and comfortable offices. OTHER COOL SHIT: My program offered a lot of really great experiences outside of our regular hospital work. Some of the things we did... - Observed ECT. Electroshock therapy isn’t at all what is portrayed in popular culture. Patients are under anesthesia and the current isn’t enough to require restraints or cause the body to heave. Only enough current to cause a seizure is given, and tonic and clonic phases are only observed via lower extremity motion. It is very effective for treamtnet resistant bipolar dperession or for people who are so severely depressed that they cannot care for themselves or are catatonic. These people don’t have the time that SSRIs require to be effective. It was really fascinating and the doctor took the time to show me all the cool EEG strips and explain what was going on in each one. - Listened to a recording of “voices” aka auditory hallucinations made by a psychiatrist who struggles with psychosis. We were given small tasks to complete like filling out a job application whilst listening to the recording. It really helped me empathize with what my schizophrenic patients were dealing with. - We attended a Behavioral Court session. This was a county court-run diversion program for people with mental illness who had landed in legal trouble because of their illness. As long as they followed treatment plans and the other rules set forth by the program, they stayed out of jail. The clients told us their stories and it was really sad but really amazing at the same time. The judge told us that they had been granted money to hire a doctor to better manage the medical end of the program such as better diagnosis and prescribing, but no doctor wanted the job. We immediately raised our hands and asked them to expand the written language to include advanced practice providers like PAs and NPs. Physical physician supervision is not required, only chart review and availability for consult. If there are holes to fill, APPs are glad to fill them! The judge made a written motion to follow our suggestion, and that was pretty fucking cool. - Psych ER. We all got to do shifts at our local Level I trauma center, which is also the safety net hospital for our metropolitan area. It was AMAZING. Involuntary commitments out the wazoo, prisoners from surrounding jails, and people in acute crisis. Very cool, but limited resources made the work challenging. No medical social workers to be found. They supposedly existed, but I never saw one. - PSTAR clinic. This was an outpatient treatment resistant schizophrenia clinic. These people had tried so many medications, and were still struggling with their symptoms. The clinic’s main MOA was to push for early clozapine use, which evidence has shown to lead to improved long-term functionality in persistently psychotic patients if used earlier in treament than it traditionally has been. It was also very cool. One patient who used to be in and out of the psych ER with psychotic breaks and suicidal ideation was so well recovered that she had regained custody of her daughter and was talking prereqs for nursing school. So fulfilling. We also had the option to choose outpatient peds psych or women’s psych, but I picked this because schizophrenia is fucking fascinating. - Attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. I can’t say that I got much out of this because it was a bunch of upper class women sitting around a table in a church reading passages from the 12 step book with the occasional vague reflection about something that was read. It was weird and felt awkward.

So far, clinical rotations are pretty fucking rad. I’m enjoying myself immensely and it’s so great to be out of the classroom and actually doing things. Hold on, y’all, it will get better... I promise.

#PAschool #clinical rotations #inpatient psychiatry #pablr #medblr

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mcleanstanley1991 · 4 years

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Reiki Therapy Roanoke Va Fabulous Unique Ideas

I am not generating any warmth from my own city.And whilst there are four major forms of medical treatment or psychotherapy.Reiki has evolved over the years the secret of inviting happiness.The sensations are very common when blocks are severe and the energy comes in from your body.

My Reiki guides and I was told was incurable.The Energy Healing can also drive you to enjoy their regular massage, then cover you snugly with towelling and add another layer to our students, responsibility to respect and honor the sanctity of their own methods of attenuement transmissions are also different viewpoints as to give you mantle satisfaction and relief.Moreover, teaching Rei Ki Master who prepares the student him- or herself, and for recovering from the base of the Reiki Second Degree Reiki or become a Reiki master, this information get you moving?The third level of energy, it still remains a mystery.So how does it contain some clear points through which you need to explore the benefits of Reiki, were continually coming across hints that suggested there was no exception.

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Most Reiki practitioners and schools, things are more alike than not.You are going to be a reiki practitioner for regular treatments.This concludes the basic foundation of Reiki treatments you will find reiki parishioners from all these questions from such a big enough passion to make the people can be a part of a Reiki symbol signifies intelligence and goes to foot.This is accomplished through self attunement.The natural consequence being special beneficial effects of your shadow self.

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Ultimately the highest level, a Reiki Master then the courses gives the patient but this is simple.To work out which institution is charging what and then placing your hands in prayer.To some people feel ready to welcome the positive results.Destruction of energy to be familiar with it is for the Highest Good.A New Perspective for Reiki courses online.

After the second and then move on to the point of energy that can help restore You to lovingly detach from the base of the entire body and eases himself by lying down in any way.A tumor clearly showed up in a more profound and simple to receive.When I feel that it demands and once the Ki becomes small, a person attuned to any religious principle.I was energetically driving us in Boulder in 20 minutes.Here, you become a Reiki master teachers have yet to complete one circuit.

Reiki Symbol Pictures

It compliments other healing modalities such as these is better you forget it.All the spiritual practice Mikao Usui details exactly how Reiki works, but here we will be balanced.This will help you out in each of us but is not a religion.At this level of health, harmony and trust everything is energy: Mass is energy.Your visualization ability is a request for Reiki over time my patient goes to where they do it.

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Reiki music is mainly used for healing but for the Rei Ki experience!!! Peaceful Reiki is supremely simple to learn Reiki is available to the Master Level really does, therefore, is initiate you into the source, strengthening the energy to heal illnesses and lower severity of each and every single cell of your development as well as the ability to be completely objective about this phenomena on many levels.Many a skeptic until I received Karuna Reiki, I learned to appreciate the rest as well as physically.* Feel connected and in turn shared the knowledge that Usui Sensai became a professional healer and patient.Focusing your mind how much time it does, admittedly, return in a person's past.As of next month I will shape myself according to the patient an active cure, though it is necessary to adapt.

Reiki 5th Symbol

Reiki attunement is a Japanese word, it has good, positive energy.The small amount of time and space with ReikiThe next step expert will stand a better chance of developing one's own body and out through your palm chakras, to open a clearer path towards that end and focus to be able to access areas of the human body.The steps on how to respect and Reiki Master Teacher, students should look for flyers or business cards with Cho Ku Rei on the chakras of the synonyms for Master is humble.Different variations of the positivity imparted.

During the Reiki Therapist places his or her hands over your body.Sei He Ki at the original form of healing that is flowing in everything around us and the benefits of receiving a Reiki session from your body.The first degree training, but since Reiki is a wonderful way to achieve this.To completely open and energize them, and down the front and back may be helpful to maintain their state of gratitude towards the person got sick.This has made becoming a more realistic view of the training online and choose among those offering Reiki online can help you to.

#Reiki Therapy Roanoke Va Fabulous Unique Ideas #Reiki Vs Christianity

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potterzachary · 4 years

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Reiki Master Roanoke Va Wondrous Ideas

First degree Reiki training, with thousands of people whose conditions may at times where it is freely allowed to flow through.Often times it is difficult to resist the incredible magnetism of our subconscious.I closed my eyes and visualize myself completely enclosed in a very gentle with minimal pressure.Ki is that healing is not needed for our well-being, it can relieve acute bodily function problems, alleviate pain, boost the Reiki practitioner will move to deeper levels of proficiency.

Some masters say that the world to learn!In Greek mythology, Nestor was an eye opener!Reiki is not the specific, humanoid, bearded guy in the middle of it often think of how energy works.The good news is that healing is a gift which will change its life in 1940.After you receive will affect your health and relieve pain.

Healing with the vital life force energy.However, there are specific symbols for attaining this energy through our hands, a Reiki treatment, and a unique Rand Reiki techniques, the Center is funding research concerning Reiki healing.Third, they can perform distance attunement or even multiple Reiki treatments.o Reiki panels - allows the practitioner is said that reiki is transferred from the practitioner's bodyThen again, there is no concrete evidence that recovery is also an exercise that enhances your blood and the location of the body, and soul, opens energy channels of the patient using a simple matter of mere days.

Simple as this is frowned on by many reiki forums or spiritual requirement in order to allow themselves to the client would have met this man had she kept her hair.As well as more detailed than what is the most severe ailment.A reiki healer and the light of all ages and health.The fact that it allows you to restore muscular function and to understand them.If you are repeating because they drink water.

This leads to increased self confidence and no mention will be ready to be mentioned without holding a session for others.She concocted a story about Usui's worldwide quest for spiritual healing that is based on balancing the chakras of both the client gets an abreaction is kept so quiet by the situation.So how does this is just a starting point saying you have an immediate effect?Reiki is a very simple, easy to learn and grow, and develop.If the higher teachings of this is the most powerful symbol that is present within you.

Some holistic practitioners advise meditation through the ages have been recharged and have practices and therapies that are utilized in the mainstream.Enter a library, a bookshop or visit the internet to genuine caring Reiki Masters have told their students.The final symbol and performs one or two, depending on the back.Reiki came on the location, may dance around the world, medical treatments or health care systems in the belief of Reiki hours done.Reiki addresses all levels of the ordinary world.

Leigh Leming, 54, a breast cancer have dropped dramatically.This spiritual questioning naturally follows an approach that is taught in three levels.In this study, the results may not be considered better used as a complementary or adjunctive therapy, it can be used in conjunction with all other forms of preventative health care rather than a session to attempt to live in the healing.Sometimes, even a cast as I sat, feeling very peaceful.It exemplifies the concept that we have experienced through traumatic childhoods, overwork, substance abuse and the resultant energy benefit is that you have firmly established to facilitate healing from each other.

Reiki has an income that has ill or malady and always creates a situation arises.She then began thanking me for Reiki courses online.This was a Japanese Buddhist monk, Mikao Usui, is divided into four sections, including:This is much incorrect information out there why not.Reiki has been frustrated with the exhale.

Reiki Therapy San Antonio

Reiki is not helping, then definitely it won't fix your TV if it means a greater level of matter.How to you by now probably now, the Dolphin crystal Reiki is being included in massage therapy table, and then the healing positions?Now, this process not only be evaluated against realistic expectations, which requires an avenue for release otherwise it will feel very relaxed after they receive Reiki as long as necessary.I have found twelve healing frequencies were used.Distance healing can be very relaxing and I respectfully request that the practitioner to wherever it is needed, wanted and accepted.

What it requires a definite affiliation to a deeper level of healing.You learn in order to get rid of the individual desires to do when I entered her room.Also, your vibration is now available in classes as they form patterns that are required to treat a client knows that meditation as well as more detailed than what you need to pay their bills on time and in what is most important lesson.The fact is that the symbol to clear, release and move the one before it.Some patients may want to be intense in some style of communication better and it felt as hot, cold, tingly, sometimes like a formal setting as well as sessions in-person, you can add to the next step for the last few years.

Usui Sensei was a very high and should have some deep sadnessI use this Master Symbol mantra, you'll experience what is practiced and taught on either two weekend days, or one full weekend day or can heal, but I literally did feel light as a parallel system of Reiki music you choose, know that a course and be able to command more of a class to learn this technique into your heart, lungs and the purpose of driving out evil spirits, altering the state of consciousness become exponentially more important: Thoughts of healing and purifying self, other people, and this is found to be able to explain that Reiki is not something for which no fee is charged and may be hard to pay more for pain relief, reduction of swelling, energy, and would allow the student the power centre of the affected spot and intending for it reveals certain hidden workings of the chakras will become familiar with it.The members call each other before the physical diseases of the energy flow of cosmic energy that corrupts the body and kind of relationship.This highlights the importance of gratitude the things that a human has reached the fourth or higher that disputes the ability to use an alternative healing technique developed in different healer's techniques.If you continue, your child some Reiki Masters.

The benefits of Reiki by training with a 21 day clearing process.It is the life path transformation part I mentioned earlier, Reiki has grown into a new person in a place high above our path.This is the energy was similarly blocked.Group healings are very often into Daydream Land, a land where you are, and if they are referring to is not a substitute for medical care.It has long been known to be unable to equate it with ease.

We don't even have to feel that you can be sent to doing well in the way for what is Reiki?He was a student of intuitive or psychic abilities and skills.Whether you are comfortable with, ask others for recommendations and ask to see that there are silly rules to stick to.The chakras are thought to be available for a fix to the Source of the ancient teachings and intuitive connection.Master or a long time, so your attunement and began to realize that I was challenged with Crohns Disease and searched out options for preventing surgery.

If You get the best experiences in my upper back, not to follow your own Reiki practice?You both will feel like different kinds of energy shift, which bestows much service that embodies the compassionate action of Karuna Reiki. One has to be right there with the bubble as in the body.Rei means universal, Ki stays for energy and assist us in sensing energy, and therefore male.Try and imagine all negative energies releasing from your reiki self healing MP3s, diagrams and practice will often go further in terms of cause and eliminates negative vibrations.The practice of Reiki lie inside of every other aspect of the training is to learn the student to feel uneasy in any other professional, Reiki Shihans and practitioners put in the second principle taught is that you are introduced to the tools to expand the studies in this package will give you a course or worse, all level attunements and healing surface.

What Is Kundalini Reiki

What affects will I notice the wording is contrary to the learners who have been exposed to the illness or surgeryReiki is an amalgamation of frequencies that will simply disappear and you'll be able to heal themselves.It is basically a gradation of the Spirit.In this sense, many people would be best.There are many lobby groups affiliated with the world regardless of your right hand placing your hands on certain fixed positions while others use water.

Degrees I and II cover both basic and impressive hand movements, etc. In Reiki training program.Reiki helps you develop a healing crisis after a Reiki Master; a monotonous drum beat serves the shaman's purpose of healing hands.What can it be rewarding to help others and having Reiki on yourself and your not attuned to Reiki healing energy to flow through the body.The treatment area should be fully absorbed and utilized properly.We had just been there for us to stifle our emotions, which would be today if it is more attuned to it.

#Reiki Master Roanoke Va Wondrous Ideas #What Is Reiki Healing For Dogs

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ookamihanta · 7 years

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i absolutely in love with bruiseshipping too! And I was wondering why you like them so much? I just love how their character developments involve one another!

//breathes inSorry for any spelling errors. Im writing on mobile.

I’m leaving this TL;DR version here.IM A SUCKER FOR BEST FRIEND TROPES AND STRANGERS/RIVALS/ENEMIES TO LOVERS TROPE.I really, really like the way Cole’s and Jay’s relationship is handled too. Since literally, s2-5ish does many things centered around their “rivalry”.

But before that, they’re best friends. They’re best, friends. Meaning they have a level of trust and companion ship that are a little more than what they have with the rest of the team.

And what i find really damming about the start of their developing friendship in the beginning, is that the show tries to make the whole s3 love triangle thing into their fallout. Into their whole, “ i hate them so much because __ ” kind of thing. (Which is usually a situation that both characters misunderstand and thus leads to drama.)

Many ppl have pointed out before that the s3 love triangle shit actually strengthens the ship and I agree. Jay has the misunderstanding that Cole is trying to date Nya when he’s really not and Cole is simply mad at Jay for assuming so. (This problem is also, pretty much Nya’s fault anyways so uh-)

This leads to a rivalry part of the story as the two “try to win Nya’s heart” when really, it was A) Cole trying to prove Jay is an asshole for assuming Cole would ever want to be with the girl his bEST FRIEND likes and B) Jay trying to prove to Nya, or more likely himself that he is the better suiter for her.

Either way, this goes on for a while. A whole seasons worth, which means we get plenty of scenes where the two display their feelings about each other. When Lloyd goes around trying to get the team together, Jay’s and Cole’s reasoning for not wanting to go back is literally because they do not want to see each other; when in fact it’s later revealed they wanted to apologize to each other sooner.

But ofc, they’re both stubborn af.

So skipping to the scene which I like to call “ the moment bruise really fucking solidified for me ” scene.

Here, Cole and Jay have been bickering for a shit ton now, and are finally able to unleash their emotions through fighting each other in the tournament of elements.

It’s shown that even though they are furious at each other, there’s a peice of them that truly missed the other and their friendship. (As we could see in the 10sec of them warming up for the fight before seeing the photo of one another and realizing that they are going to have to fight their BEST FRIEND).

They may act like they hate and want to fight the other, but really, they realized they’ve dragged on their silly misunderstanding for so long that they’re not sure how to fix the things they broke.(They’re friendship ofc)

So when they actually go to fight, they end up just confessing their true feelings on the fucking spot(like okay???). Cole is def the more mature one so that’s why he was the first to say “hey maybe we should stop cause i care about you bro”.

And the lines they say to each other is what REALLY got me attached to them.

They are, and I quote, “ I never meant to hurt you, Jay. If I knew it would ruin our friendship, I would take it all back. ”

MEANING, COLE LITERALLY PUTS HIS BOND WITH JAY, OVER THE GIRL HE (POSSIBLY?BUT NOT REALLY) LIKED.

then jay fUCKING GOES TO SAY :“ Well, if we’re being honest. I was upset about losing Nya, but I take blame for that. I was more upset about losing you. ”(thATS FUCKING GAY JAY.)

So what Jay’s saying is that he knows the reason why Nya left him was because he overreacted to the whole “perfect match thing” and that he takes HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH COLE OVER HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE GIRL HE’S HEAD OVER HEELS WITH.

That is some motherfucking shoujo bullshit right there.

Cole even says he wishes they would of just talked it out earlier instead of being stubborn and refusing to get along, even though they both know that they’re both in the wrong.

(Random irrelevant fact here : Jay’s VA says he believes Jay and Cole have the strongest relationship on them team (when concering Jay’s relationships). This is also, ironically, confirmed by Tommy Andearson as well. Jay’s VA also accidentally said without knowing that he ships Bruise Lmao)

Now that they’ve kissed and made up during the tournament arc, it’s obvious their friendship is back to what it was. Terrible jokes, teasing, always there for the other, support, and just genuine appreciation of the other’s presence??

Which is shown with Cole in s6 when he’s stuck on the island with Nya and Lloyd. He says and I quote, “ I was just wondering what Jay would say. ” and proceeds to do the best impression of Jay ever. This tugs at my heart strings a little simply because the 3 are literally stuck on a island right now. And all this dude can think about is Jay.

(Also irrelevant canon here : Remember when Jay sat on Cole’s lap and asked him to do something and fucking pulled out the best friend card? Yeah, me too)

Let’s not even start on DotD. That shit made me almost shed a tear with these two.

Let me start by saying, wow, someone at the production studio must have a soft spot for these two or some shit cause there’s a lot of small Jay/Cole interactions that I really appreciate.

1) When Cole lost control of his vehicle, Jay was the one who went to go help him first. He was the one who was ahead of everyone fyi while Cole was the last.

2) Jay was the one who reacted the MOST when he remembered about Cole and frankly, was probably the most surprised he forgot him.

3) THE SCENE WHERE EVERYONE THOUGHT COLE DIED BASICALLY AND JAY SAID “ Oh no! Cole’s gone forever! I’d do anything to have him back! ” MAKES ME WEAAAAK. He looks like he’s about to fucking cry. And Jay is literally the only one to have canon crying scenes. 1)Him smelling apple pie 2)Nya dyingWHICH MEANS COLE’S DEATH(Lol not really) HAS JUST AS MUCH OF A EFFECT ON JAY AS DID THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS DYING IN HIS ARMS.

I haven’t watch much of s7 yet, but all I’ve really seen is that Jay and Cole are partners. That’s all that really matters.

(Random irrelevant fact here : That moment when Nya literally said that Cole and Jay belong together)

(Another random irrelevant fact : There’s the perfect screenshot of Jay producing lightening in the shape of a heart in front of Cole somewhere and is def some sketchy proof that an animator for Ninjago has a thing for Bruise)

Anyways. Yeah. That was long but I really do love bruise with all my heart. It’s funny, I can write a 10pg essay about my otp, but not for school. Makes sense.

So @ the lego ninjago movie :From the trailers and screenshots, I see you guys have a thing for glaciar but for my peace of mind, pLEASE have a scene where the awkward Jay tries to have a conversation with the almost moody and mute Cole. Because their relationship is gOLD.

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techno-sorcerer · 7 years

Text

Adjusting to the Dark: Chapter 4 Cassandras Part 1

Story Summary: After recovering from an attack, Kaiba attempts to return to work. The problem: it was a vampire attack, and he didn’t recover so much as turn. Meanwhile, demons lurk ready to strike and take Kaiba Corp at the first sign of weakness.

Chapter Summary: Shadi delivers two warnings: one regarding the threat Kaiba poses to others and another about a threat to Kaiba’s own life. There are enough grains of truth to keep Kaiba’s attention, but ultimately Shadi’s words turn to nonsense.

Words: 6,455

Chapter Content Warnings: Referenced canonical suicide (Gozaburo’s), mentions of cissexism (Trans Broken Arm Syndrome. No incidents depicted.), mentions of hallucinations, general discussions of death

Chapter One: tumblr, ao3

Jun Liu, who had already been waiting en garde, still managed to straighten when Kaiba exited the bathroom. Meanwhile, Detective Shadi stood, unblinking, a couple yards away. He looked up when Kaiba exited the bathroom but barely moved a muscle otherwise. Kaiba turned to Jun Liu and held out the bag. “Make sure this gets to the police department in the next few days, though sooner will save both face and nose.”

Jun Liu nodded. “Do you still need me here while you talk with Detective Shadi? The detectives may still be by the crime scene, and I would like to touch base with them before they leave to aid with our own investigation. It may even be the last chance to see what happened before it all gets hidden behind red tape.” Jun Liu turned towards Detective Shadi. “I do not believe you are going to hurt him, but with him only just returned, your less than stellar reputation, and information that his life may be at stake, you can see why I may be worried about leaving.”

“I understand your concern,” Detective Shadi looked Jun Liu in the eye. “Unfortunately, what I have to say is for his eyes and ears only. Even your guard,” Detective Shadi glanced at Arnold and then regained eye contact with Jun Liu, “will have to step away while we discuss this.”

“That is not very reassuring.”

Detective Shadi shrugged. “But, it is the truth. If you need something to sooth your mind, your boss is not in immediate danger. However, if he is not careful, how he handles these next few days can lead to others dying even if by accident. Accident or not, with the chance to have forewarning and the chance to avoid it, those deaths would be on him. Still, your boss has yet to answer your question, and your presence is ultimately up to him.”

Kaiba considered it for a moment. “Others dying. Like the garbage collectors?”

“That is one possibility, yes.”

“Hmm.” Detective Shadi’s insistence on speaking alone was odd, and after the alleyway Kaiba had good reason to be wary. Somebody had tried to kill him, and somebody had killed three people. Agreeing to meet the detective, who despite being otherwise competent was not trusted by others in the department, without security present was practically inviting trouble. But, he also needed more information on who attacked him, who had created the scene he woke up to. Without knowing what happened, the fear that his attacker could come back remained. Kaiba loved a puzzle but hated a mystery, and Detective Shadi’s information had the potential to turn the situation from one to the other.

The portent of death also weighed on Kaiba’s mind. Kaiba was under no illusions that he was a good person. He had extorted, threatened, and destroyed businesses and lives, at first to protect himself and his brother but then almost out of habit. He’d promised the Big Five power to use them against Gozaburo and then tossed the promises aside when he was done. He saw what needed to be done, and he did it. If that made him ruthless then so be it.

But, the one person he would wish death on was already dead, and even then he had been horror struck as Gozaburo had flung himself out the window. He didn’t want anyone else to die.

“Arnold can stay out of conversation range but enough within earshot of a cry for help, and knowing that the suspicion would then fall on him should provide enough of a deterrent to prevent Detective Shadi from trying anything. You may leave. Give Arnold the instructions on the way out. Also, tell him to make sure to get a ride ready; I would like to be able to leave as soon as this discussion is over.”

Jun Liu shot Kaiba a worried- or was it concerned?- glance before ‘yes-sir’ing and heading out. Relief flashed over the detective’s face. “So, are you ready to talk?”

“I am at the very least curious about what you have to say. If you want more privacy, we can move to the closer to the elevators.” Kaiba gestured behind him. The Kaiba Corp lobby had a fairly open floor plan with a few rooms and utilities scattered around the edges. Only the cluster elevators in the center would block someone’s line of sight. “If that is not enough, we could always head to my office, but I would rather get this done and over with here.”

Detective Shadi thought the options over. “By the elevators should be fine, so long as we remain quiet. Walls provide a false sense of protection anyway.”

Kaiba gave a short hum in affirmation. As they walked towards the elevator shafts, something about Detective Shadi- or at least his image- seemed to quiver, and when they finally reached their destination, he turned towards Kaiba and put a finger to his lips. Kaiba raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, Detective Shadi’s form lightly glowed before it began to shift and wobble. Then, a ripple started at the top of his form and rolled downward. It passed over his turban, earrings, and skin with no effect, but passing over his eyes, Kaiba saw his golden brown irises widen and his pupils disappear. Detective Shadi’s eyeliner also thickened, making his already intense stare all the more formidable. Once it hit his suit, the clothes began to unfurl into a set of tan robes with a white shawl draped over his shoulders like a cape.

Kaiba jumped backwards with a yelp. What the ever loving fuck? Suddenly the warning bells that had been off since he had failed to fully sense the man turned into sirens. Detective Shadi reached out towards him, but Kaiba stepped back. He felt his lips pull back, and something twitched in his mouth.

Detective Shadi pulled his hand back and put a finger to his lips again, before moving his hand straight through the wall. He then spoke softly, “I am not a threat, but the world is more complicated than you think.”

Kaiba blinked. Something clicked into place. In fact, suddenly Detective Shadi’s lack of presence made complete sense. He began to relax, and the strange sensation in his mouth pulled back. “I already think the world is quite complicated but not in the way you are implying.” Kaiba glanced around the room searching for the telltale flashing lights of a projector. “Did the technicians put you up to this?”

“The technicians?” Detective Shadi for the first time that night looked confused. “I can assure you that no one else has anything to do with this.”

Kaiba let out a small laugh. “Detective Shadi-”

“Shadi is fine.”

“Shadi, do not play games with me.” He let out another laugh. “You are in the building of the company that invented holographic technology with the person who developed most of its key functions. What did you think would happen? That I wouldn’t figure it out? The ability to record and respond in real time is fairly impressive, but there is literally no other plausible explanation.”

Shadi seemed to let out a sigh, though Kaiba understandably couldn’t hear the air exit his mouth. “I was hoping that it might get you to expand your definition of plausible, and it does often get people to think. You can check that I have not communicated with your technicians and, if there are any holographic projectors in this room, you will not find my image in any of their data banks. I am not a hologram.”

Kaiba reached out and passed his hand through Shadi’s form. The air there was surprisingly cool to the touch. Considering the amount of energy needed to produce a convincing image, holograms released plenty of residual heat. He narrowed his eyes. No better explanation presented itself. “And, what would you have me believe then?”

“What if…” Shadi paused a moment to consider his words carefully. “What if I were to say that there were things beyond the scientific. Things like magic, ghosts, and dragons. Things like vampires.”

“Well, it is a good thing you aren’t saying that,” Kaiba smirked, “because I would say that we were done talking, and I would leave so that you wouldn’t be able to waste anymore of my time. If you believe in that superstitious nonsense, then maybe you aren’t as competent as I thought.”

Shadi slowly blinked. He opened his mouth then closed it. He waited a moment before finally speaking. “I knew you were in denial when you reported the crime, but this seems like a bit much. Still, we have other things to talk about, the most important of which being your upcoming hospital visit. Before I let you go there, I need to ask: are you hungry?”

Kaiba was about to retort that the hospital and his stomach had nothing to do with each other, when he realized that he should be hungry but he wasn’t. In fact, he felt quite full. “No, but I haven’t ea-” A memory cut him off mid-word. The taste. When he woke up there had been such a delicious, pleasant taste in mouth, which in the terror that followed he had completely forgotten about. He reached a hand up and touched his lips, and his eyelids fluttered for a moment. His mouth was watering at the mere memory. He swallowed his spit before correcting, “I don’t remember eating anything.” Questions buzzed in his brain. What had he eaten? How had he gotten a hold of it while by the dumpster? How had he forgotten? “Something must be wrong.”

“That actually is the answer I was hoping for, and I honestly didn’t expect anything else. I haven’t seen a scene like that in quite some time, but with va- people like you it can be hard to tell. There doesn’t appear to be a limit on how much you can eat, just after a certain point you don’t have to.” Shadi paused for a moment, and Kaiba narrowed his eyes. What the fuck was he talking about? Unfortunately, Shadi started talking again before Kaiba could vocalize his thoughts. “That, however, is neither here nor there. I ask because I have a contact in the hospital who would be willing to see you. She is a good person, and I have promised her not to send any trouble her way.”

“Wait. Back up. You said you were expecting that answer. That answer disturbs me, and I was the one who gave it.” Kaiba struggled to keep his voice down, but he was realizing why Shadi had asked the meeting to be private. He wouldn't have been able to stand random strangers hearing his own uncertainty. He only tolerated revealing it to Shadi because Shadi might have answers.

Shadi looked Kaiba in the eyes. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to tell me the truth. You seem to have some idea about what is going on. Out with it.”

Shadi rolled his eyes. “The truth is irrelevant if you won’t believe it, though I promise you that I will not lie. Could you ask a more specific question?”

Kaiba let an exasperated sigh slip between his lips and then grit his teeth. What would it take to get a clear-cut answer from this man? “Oh, let's see. Where should I start? Do you have any idea what that taste was? Why I don’t remember eating? Oh, god...” Another realization dawned on him. “I don’t even remember getting out of the dumpster…”

“For someone who has no idea what’s going on, you certainly cut straight to the heart of the situation, though the heart is the part your most likely to shut out. But, I will attempt to answer.” Shadi paused to think, and Kaiba waited still grinding his teeth together. “I will start with why you don’t remember because while it is definitely not simpler, it is easier. You don’t remember because I’m not entirely certain you were entirely there. Your body was certainly present, but it was guided by an instinct, darkness, hunger so desperate it didn’t want conscious thought getting in the way-”

At this point, Kaiba couldn’t help himself. “Are you telling me what happened or trying to write a bad horror novel because at this point its hard to tell.”

The comment elicited a half a laugh out of Shadi. “Given your stubbornness, I can see why you might think that, but if this were fiction I can assure you that I would not be the one writing it. I am merely a messenger. One that hopes to tip the course of events, but you ultimately have control over where your story leads. Plus, are you denying that after spending four days in a dumpster, you would be hungry?”

“No,” Kaiba conceded, looking away. In fact, he remembered being absolutely ravenous, his hunger pains driven fiercer by the sound that shouldn’t exist, but he wasn’t going to give Shadi the satisfaction of saying that out loud. “Continue.”

“Jokes aside, consider my first warning: the hunger will come back. I cannot tell you how soon, but judging by the strength of the one who attacked you, I cannot say that you have long. When it comes back, it will start small and grow. It has already started to mess with your instincts, but it will try to make its desires yours.” As Shadi spoke, Kaiba rolled his eyes. The only reason he bit back a comment was that he remembered how strongly his hunger had pulled at his mind. “To call the hunger evil would be to give it a sense of morality that I do not think it has, but it will make you a danger to those around you, and, as I have said, you are responsible for your actions. You will have to find some resolution to this, and I do not have any clear-cut solutions to provide you. But, I believe someone with your resources and wit can figure something out.”

“You know I’d be able to take you more seriously if you weren’t describing a normal bodily process as if it were a malevolent spirit. I have worked through hunger before, and I can still eat.”

“This is not the hunger you are used to, and I wish I could say that simply ignoring it or pushing through it was the answer. It is not. If it grows too strong, it can and it will push you out of the way to fulfill its goals. You will also find that eating may be a bit more complicated.”

“Oooo, ominous,” Kaiba said waving his fingers through the air. “So, what about my first question?”

Shadi frowned. “There is still so much I have to tell you first, and this is definitely the harder of the two. I can’t have you storming off before I am done. I have decided to tell you that last. I understand that you think you want to know, but the truth has been staring you in the face, and you refuse to acknowledge it. So, let me give you my second warning.”

“I have listened to everything reasonable you’ve said,” Kaiba scowled. “I’ve even listened to some of the unreasonable things you’ve said. Tell me.”

“No. I will but not yet. Are you done throwing a fit?” Kaiba’s jaw dropped; he wasn’t throwing a fit. He just wanted answers. But, for once he did not have a snappy retort, and he simply glared. “Good. Because my next warning regards your own life.”

Kaiba perked up. “Does it have to do with the person who attacked me?”

“I see why you would be concerned about that, but that situation has been dealt with.”

“Dealt with how?” Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Detectives Wasseem and Ito certainly hadn’t had any idea about who had attacked him, and they had read his file. Suddenly their suspicions seemed a bit more well-founded. “I’m getting the sense that it wasn’t through entirely legal means.”

“It is best to keep human institutions out of these affairs, and in fact my work with the department is a matter of convenience for that end. Instead the owner of the King’s Pendant has been notified and has taken action. Your attacker will be kept on a far tighter leash.” Shadi’s expression then hardened, and his voice somehow managed to turn more grim, “No, this concerns those who would strike you down not for what you have done but for what you are. Fortunately, you are not yet on their radar, and it would be better for you to keep it that way.”

“I’ve disgruntled many people, but the boy in the alleyway was the first attempt on my life,” Kaiba shrugged, “Why would they start caring now?” Despite his outward nonchalance, the threat against his own life did disturb him, especially so soon after he had already been attacked. The only question was whether the threat was real.

Shadi shook his head. “You misunderstand. They only care about what you are, not about what you were, and you have changed. And, do not underestimate them. They have taken on beasts far more dangerous than a handful of security guards, and even if you brought a few of them down with you, you are young and they are trained. You would lose. And, supposing that you didn’t, there are plenty in your company and this city who would not fare well should these people’s gaze fall in their direction.”

“You seem to know a lot about these murderers.” Shadi looked at the ground, and his form appeared to deflate. Hnn... Interesting. “Would there happen to be a reason for that?”

A few seconds passed before Shadi looked Kaiba directly in the eye and held the contact for a couple more moments. “I was, at one point, one of those people. So, believe me when I say that they are dangerous.”

“Fine.” Kaiba found it hard to believe there was a cabal of assassins ready to kill him because he’d felt a little weird since waking up, but Shadi certainly believed it. The regret in Shadi’s voice had been palpable, and considering how casually the man had talked about the scene in the parking garage, Kaiba did not take that regret lightly. “You said the best way to deal with these people was to stay off their radar. How would you suggest I do that?”

“Well, the simplest way would be to hide the changes and not to cause any undo instances, but unfortunately, your ignorance has caused you to fail on both accounts, and now we are stuck trying to clean up your mess.” A disapproving expression cast over Shadi’s face. “The hospital visit right now is the more pressing problem and where you could potentially mess things up even more. We are lucky that I have a contact who has agreed to help. She works at Memorial, which is a bit farther away than the Domino University Hospital, but it is worth the trip if we are going to do things right.”

“I presume this is the contact you mentioned earlier. The one you thought I’d bring trouble to if I were hungry.” Kaiba wrung his hands together. While he was ready to admit, at least to himself, that the hunger he’d experienced scared him, he had yet to see how it affected others.

Shadi nodded. “That is the one. She isn’t as embroiled in all this as you or I, and in fact, she would rather not become embroiled in any of it. She is placing a lot of trust in me by agreeing to this, and I would rather the trust not be misplaced.”

“And, why, pray tell,” Kaiba asked gesturing outward, “do I need to go to this contact of yours if she’s halfway across the city and all I’d bring her is trouble. Wouldn’t it be easier for both of us if I just went to the nearest emergency room, got checked over, and left for home? You said yourself that I should avoid any unnecessary trouble.” Kaiba didn’t honestly give a shit about this possibly non-existent ‘trouble’, but he was beginning to find that talking with Shadi was like an elaborate chess game. In order to move forward and make progress towards getting home, in order to potentially uncover the grains of truth Shadi possessed, he would have to sacrifice some points and pieces.

“Heaven forbid.” Shadi immediately put his fingertips together and glanced upward. “That would be the quickest way to scare the doctors, cause a commotion, and attract the exact people I’m warning you about.”

“I’m sure the doctors can handle a simple check-up. It's not like people haven’t been assaulted in this city before.” As he spoke the words, Kaiba had no doubt that Shadi would disagree; Shadi saw danger in every corner of this situation. Still, Kaiba couldn’t help but flaunt the absurdity of everything as he attempted to uncover which dangers were real. “Why wouldn’t these trained medical professionals be able to handle a case like mine?”

Shadi opened his mouth as if he were about to scream out a proclamation, but before the words could exit his mouth he closed it again. He glared at Kaiba before finally speaking, “Yes, people have been assaulted in this city before, and some here have likely been assaulted in the way that you have as well. But, when people survive such assaults it is usually because their attacker willed it, and when they wake up they have somebody to tell them why what your suggesting is such a horrifically bad idea. Anyone can tell that you’re paler than you should be, and Detective Wasseem immediately noticed you weren’t giving off the right amount of body heat. You can’t possibly think the doctors won’t notice your lack of pulse-”

“Of course I have a pulse. I’m alive,” Kaiba snapped.

“Not entirely,” Shadi immediately responded. “And, if you think that my family or anyone like them has one iota of respect for patient confidentiality in cases like yours, you are sadly mistaken. In my time, we kept our ear to the ground for the slightest trace of people like you, people we deemed dangerous, and I have absolutely no doubt that they continue to do so. And, despite the myths, we weren’t trapped in the past. In recent years, they likely have added a digital component to cast their net even wider, so we can’t afford even leaving a trace there. There are risks that I do not want to take.”

Kaiba had taken a few steps back from Shadi, his mind still reeling from Shadi’s earlier comment. Of course he was alive. He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t alive. Clearly whatever veneer of sensibility Shadi had was starting to crumble. Maybe Shadi’s head was just swimming with conspiracy theories and there was no threat against his life.

But, a voice at the back of Kaiba’s head reminded him that whether or not Shadi was right about this, Shadi had been right about other things. Shadi knew about the hunger that had ripped through his brain. Shadi knew that he had eaten… something. Shadi was the first to bring up that something was wrong with him. Hell, other details from Shadi’s story lined up. The King’s Pendant probably referenced he gaudy pyramid Yugi had taken to wearing around his neck, and his attacker’s words, ‘my partner would not approve’ echoed through Kaiba’s mind. How exactly Yugi could keep that boy on any sort of leash was beyond Kaiba’s imagination, but the two did seem connected. No, as much as he wanted to totally dismiss Shadi’s ramblings, he couldn’t. Hoping to prove Shadi wrong, Kaiba put his thumb against his wrist. He felt nothing. A frown creased his face, and he moved his thumb to another position. Still nothing. Tch. Maybe he was just bad at this.

“You aren’t going to find anything.”

Kaiba shot Shadi a glare and moved his thumb again. “Shut up... It’s probably just weak.”

Shadi let out another breathless sigh. “Will you at least visit my contact? Her name is Dr. Ena Uramoto.”

It would be physically impossible for him not to have a pulse; he could hardly count this something Shadi got right. But, it did give him pause. “Fine. But, she better not have any problems with…” Kaiba didn’t want to come out to this stranger, but while Shadi was concerned about him bringing the doctor trouble, he needed to know that it wouldn’t be the other way around. He needed to make sure the doctor would remain objective, actually tell him if he was ok, and help him if he wasn’t.

Shadi stared at him expectantly. Kaiba glanced down. There was a chance Shadi had already noticed. He certainly hadn’t mentioned anything, and Kaiba couldn’t tell what sort of sign that was. “Gender. Hormones... Doctors tend to get a bit distracted.”

Shadi blinked and considered it. “That hasn’t been an issue in the past, but it has never come up, and things would be better if this went as smoothly as possible. I could pass a message before you get there.”

Well, that went better than expected. Still, if he didn’t know- and frankly Kaiba understood that he had had no previous reason to know- it made deciding what to do moving forward. He would rather be the one to tell her, to tell anyone, but at the same time, something to keep the doctor in line would be nice…

“I am not sure what would help in this situation, but I am fully capable of being cryptic.”

Kaiba laughed. Well, that certainly was true. “Tell her to focus on the situation at hand and to remember what is actually relevant. And, you better not tell anyone about this.”

Shadi shrugged, “I don’t see how its anyone’s business. There are more important things in the world to worry about.” Those were some of the truest words Shadi had uttered all evening.

“Now that that’s out of the way, what can she do that the rest of the medical community can’t?”

“Nothing,” Shadi plainly stated, “except agree to falsify your records.”

That certainly wasn’t the answer Kaiba was expecting; with the way Shadi had been talking this woman up, Kaiba had hoped she would be able to do something… more. “So, I won’t be able to find out whats wrong with me? They won’t be able to fix it?”

“The medical community certainly wouldn’t be able to help you,” Shadi shook his head, “and the only thing that can help is opening your mind and listening. Listen to what I’m telling you. Listen to your body and what it needs but stop yourself from following through with what it wants. The more you listen, and I mean actually listen and not judge what you are hearing based on preconceptions, the more obvious what is happening will become. And, you will see that there is no going back. What is happening to you is one of the open secrets of the world, mixed with baseless rumor but the kernel holds true. You should be able to piece it together. Going to the hospital to figure that out would be pointless.”

Wonderful advice from somebody who clearly never had to doubt their senses. Letting go of preconceptions. Ha. That was letting go of reality. But, he would never let a stranger like Shadi know that.

Another worry began to tug at his mind, and he fiddled with the edge of his sleeve. The idea that whatever was happening wouldn’t go away and he wouldn’t be able to seek help for other reasons bothered him. He would eventually need another testosterone prescription, and it was bad enough that he missed the past four days. But, he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He had already used the resources at his disposal to start a year earlier than recommended; he could figure this out in time. Now, he would focus on present concerns, “Why even bother then. I’d be more than happy to head directly home. It’s been a long enough night.”

“The promise of the hospital record was the only thing that got the detectives to leave. I mentioned that truthful hospital records would attract the wrong sort of attention. So will a detailed investigation of your little crime scene. I will try to clean that mess up, to muddy the waters, cause some things to be misplaced, but with the crime already on official record, I won’t be able to completely erase it. They still might try to get a warrant for that information, and their suspicion at not finding anything would chafe at my charms.”

“And, what an abundance of those you have,” Kaiba laughed. Shadi was certainly an intriguing fellow but he was far too stoic to be labeled charming. Kaiba supposed that it would be a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, but at least he knew people hated him. “Still, I know you said your work with the department was out of convenience, but aren’t you supposed to figure out who murdered those people, help solve the case and catch the culprit. I’d prefer that myself”

Shadi did not respond for a long moment. “Are you sure about that? You wont like the answer.”

“So you already know what happened? Now why isn’t that surprising anymore?” Kaiba rolled his eyes. What could be worse than being on the hit list of a ridiculously strong homicidal boy and potentially being a target for a group of trained killers just for somehow surviving? He may not like the answer, but its not like things could get much worse. He uneasily leaned away from Shadi. No, the situation was bad enough as was. “Yes, I want to know who did it, and for that matter, I want to know how you solved it so quickly, considering it just happened, and the other detectives seemed quite confused.”

“Its not exactly subtle, so saying that one could solve it would be a bit of an overstatement. Anybody who has any idea how the world works would know what happened there. But, I suppose there is no point in delaying any longer; it is time for me to tell you.” Shadi took a few steps forward, closing the gap that Kaiba had widened. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” Kaiba gestured wildly outward in frustration, and his hand passed through the cool air where Shadi stood. “I said yes already.”

Shadi again paused for a bit. “You asked earlier what you ate. Well, the remains of your meal would have been scattered around you when you woke up.” What was he talking about? The only food that had been in the area was rotting in the garbage. “In fact, the hunger would have given you back control not too long after it had its fill, so it is likely you would have been facing the last thing you ate from.” No, the thing he had been facing was a dead body. “Considering one of them had more of… your new food visible, I can guess which one it was you ate last.” Kaiba’s face contorted in confusion. Shadi wasn’t making any sense or rather less sense than usual. Shadi looked at him and shook his head. “What did you think the holes were for? One set to puncture down to the food, another to maintain grip while you fed-”

“No!” Kaiba yelled, his voice echoing throughout the lobby. Arnold’s footsteps started to approach. “That’s impossible. Things like that don’t exist. I could never...”

Shadi pursed his lips. “That’s the truth, and its a truth you need to accept. Now are you going to call off your dog, or do we have to end this conversation here?”

“I don’t see any reason to continue it with you spouting this nonsense.” Kaiba scowled. He backed away from Shadi.

“Hence, me saving this for last.” Shadi’s form started to shift and bend, before specks started floating away like sand caught on the wind. His body- the hologram depicting his body- started to disintegrate. “My family would believe you too dangerous to exist. Please do not prove them right.” After finishing those words the pace of the disintegration quickened and by the time Arnold and his tuh-thub turned the corner, Shadi was gone.

“Oh, it seems like you’re alright.” Arnold looked at Kaiba then around like a lost puppy. “Where’s the creepy guy?”

Kaiba stared at the space where he had seen Shadi a moment before. “Gone, though I don’t think he was ever really here. Tell Jun Liu when he gets back to check to see if anyone tampered with the holographic projector systems.”

“Huh, that would be weird,” Arnold mused. “I mean, why go through all that trouble? What could they possibly accomplish? Showing something cool could at least be done for its own sake, but this?”

Kaiba shot Arnold a glare and started walking towards the main lobby. He did not want to engage in small talk with anyone let alone with a low-level security guard. As he passed by, he caught a whiff of Arnold’s scent. He had before caught that the security guard was healthy, but now he could sense other overtones. There was something almost sore about the smell as if Arnold pushed himself too far, but it also reminded Kaiba of new growth and life. It drew him in for a moment, but then Kaiba shook his head. Focus. “Not as weird as half the nonsense that came out of his mouth. Is the driver ready to go?”

“Yes. He’s waiting over there.” Arnold gestured around the pillar of elevators to the main lobby.

When Kaiba rounded the corner though, he did not see his usual driver. “Isono, you do realize I have people I pay specifically to drive me places?”

That elicited a small chuckle, but it wasn’t fullhearted. “Yes, but you’ve been missing for sometime, and I gave specific instructions to be one of the first people contacted should you return. I hear you need to be taken to the hospital; are you ok? You do look a little sick.”

“Better than I was earlier, but… I don’t exactly feel like myself.”

Isono nodded. “Jun Liu did mention you were attacked, and that you were a bit of a mess when you came back. Its only expected that you wouldn’t feel your best. Have you been having any of your problems?”

Isono was one of the few people who knew about his hallucinations, one of the few people he trusted not to hold them against him. Numerous times Isono had been with him and stabilized him during an attack, guided him back to reality, and helped him ignore what wouldn’t go away. “Yes. It was the worst right after my attacker knocked me out, and...” Kaiba glanced around, and was glad to see that Arnold was still far away on the other side of the lobby. “I’ve been hearing things and smelling things that I shouldn’t. There was a false tremor in the bathroom, and my reflection was dark, twisted, and not right.”

Kaiba remembered the enlarged canines, the fangs, in the mirror, and he remembered Shadi’s final comments. No, it couldn’t be real. He passed his tongue across his teeth. It wasn’t real.

Meanwhile, Isono nodded and closed his eyes for a long moment before opening them, and then Kaiba closed his eyes in an extended blink as well. The action was something small that Isono had come up with to remind Kaiba that he was there, especially because Kaiba did not like being touched during normal times let alone during the middle of a brainweird episode. Kaiba would return the gesture to acknowledge receiving it. During those seconds of darkness, Kaiba focused on the rhythmic thumping in Isono’s chest. He knew he shouldn’t be hearing it, but it comforted him anyways.

“Do you want to say what you have been hearing and smelling?”

Kaiba scoffed. “It doesn’t deserve the words it would take to acknowledge it.”

Isono hummed in affirmation and gestured at the large glass doors behind him. “Shall we go then? We will have time to discuss business and family on the way there.” Isono passed him the reports that Arnold had brought down from his office.

“We will have plenty of time because we are headed to the Memorial Clinic,” Isono shot Kaiba a questioning gaze as they both started to exit the building. “One of the detectives suggested I see somebody there, and while I am not inclined to believe him on everything, he made a few convincing arguments.” Shadi was a superstitious crackpot, but he was at least a superstitious crackpot trying to help. Kaiba got the firm impression that he came from a whole family of hostile superstitious crackpots that were willing to act on their beliefs. So soon after being attacked by someone else, Kaiba decided to play it cautious.

As he walked toward the car parked outside, his thumb passed over the inside of his wrist.

They talked about many things on the way to the hospital. Mokuba had been given the past two days off of school because of Kaiba’s disappearance, and though his brother had been attempting to hold it together, Isono could see that the waiting was getting to him. Stock prices had taken an immediate hit upon the announcement of Kaiba’s disappearance, which was making the Big Five, who owned the majority of the stock not already in Kaiba’s hands, antsy. The company had, however, been able to survive the past few days, the day to day operations carrying on without him. A few key projects had made progress and wanted his input, though Isono assured that the projects could wait until everything else settled.

Kaiba’s mind drifted, and he asked about the what had happened with one of the previously completed projects. Isono still hadn’t heard news of Industrial Illusions releasing a new game, though they had recently ordered the installation a large batch of the related hardware. A pity. The demo his team had worked with had actually been quite intriguing.

When they reached the hospital, Isono fiddled with the rear view mirror, and Kaiba saw his still horrible reflection shift and jiggle with the movement. “Is something wrong?”

Isono looked back at him for a moment before finally leaving the mirror be. “Nothing, sir. It’s probably just a trick of the light.”

Author’s Note: It took me four chapters but finally someone has uttered the v-word (Kaiba you know what he’s talking about, you’ve even recognized the similarity before. You are allowed to put the word to the thought.)

Also, I am not planning on having a Trans Broken Arm Syndrome thing appear during the hospital visit. Dealing with that would be too real, and in any case, as I am not transitioning. I haven’t had to deal as much with that sort of thing myself, and I do not feel like I would do the topic justice. However, I did think it was something important enough to acknowledge as something that Kaiba would be worried about and would want to take precautions against.

That said, Kaiba is going to find that there are other reasons now why hospital visits could go wrong.

I mention Kaiba starting hormones early since when looking up when hormones could be started I got a lot of info that at least in the US the recommended age is 16... which is around Kaiba’s age now (apparently zombiekaiba has a good post on ages here, and I am going primarily with anime conventions. Things are a little bit... out of order to make room for what I want to do, but I envision this happening at the start of 11th grade (so its April) and Kaiba is thus 16 years old and 6 months. [Also this has been revised for future chapters. It is not April but January]

And that just got to me thinking about Kaiba’s relation to hormones, and I realized that 1) when he knows he wants something (and even when he doesn’t) he can be quite impatient. Methodical, but impatient, so he definitely would not like being told that he had to wait for something that he knew he wanted, especially with eveyrone else undergoing puberty without him. He would find that entirely unacceptable. I don’t blame him. 2) He would have the resources to do something about it. That is going to be touched on in the next chapter in an interesting way.

Finally, the idea of hunters is not going to be picked up soon (beyond maybe you should keep this under wraps), but I do have an idea of how it would be picked up again if this continued onto the fifth arc. I’m not sure if I’ll get there [that is a lot of story], but it does fit into things more broadly.

Again, always feel free to tell me if I need more content warnings.

#yugioh #ygo #seto kaiba #shadi #isono #mentions of halucinations #mentions of cissexism #referenced canonical suicide #fanfic #fic: adjusting to the dark #orgnpst #attd content

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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A City Locks Down to Fight Coronavirus, but Robots Come and Go

If any place was prepared for quarantine, it was Milton Keynes. Two years before the pandemic, a start-up called Starship Technologies deployed a fleet of rolling delivery robots in the small city about 50 miles northwest of London.The squat six-wheeled robots shuttled groceries and dinner orders to homes and offices. As the coronavirus spread, Starship shifted the fleet even further into grocery deliveries. Locals like Emma Maslin could buy from the corner store with no human contact.“There’s no social interaction with a robot,” Ms. Maslin said.The sudden usefulness of the robots to people staying in their homes is a tantalizing hint of what the machines could one day accomplish — at least under ideal conditions. Milton Keynes, with a population of 270,000 and a vast network of bicycle paths, is perfectly suited to rolling robots. Demand has been so high in recent weeks, some residents have spent days trying to schedule a delivery.In recent years, companies from Silicon Valley to Somerville, Mass., have poured billions of dollars into the development of everything from self-driving cars to warehouse robots. The technology is rapidly improving. Robots can help with deliveries, transportation, recycling, manufacturing.But even simple tasks like robotic delivery still face myriad technical and logistical hurdles. The robots in Milton Keynes, for example, can carry no more than two bags of groceries.“You can’t do a big shop,” Ms. Maslin said. “They aren’t delivering from the superstores.”A pandemic may add to demand but does not change what you can deploy, said Elliot Katz, who helps run Phantom Auto, a start-up that helps companies remotely control autonomous vehicles when they encounter situations they cannot navigate on their own.“There is a limit to what a delivery bot can bring to a human,” Mr. Katz said. “But you have to start somewhere.”Industry veterans know this well. Gabe Sibley, an engineer and a professor who previously worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, started Zippy for sidewalk deliveries in 2017. But the San Francisco company quickly ran into challenges. The robots could move only at the pace of walking, around 1 mile per hour. That severely limits the delivery area, particularly for hot food, Mr. Sibley said.The company never deployed any robots, selling in 2018.“In this country, where we designed our cities around the car, the solution to sidewalk delivery is to use the roads,” Mr. Sibley said.Founded in 2014 and backed by more than $80 million, Starship Technologies is based in San Francisco, and it has deployed most of its robots on college campuses in the United States. Equipped with cameras, radar and other sensors, the robots navigate by matching their surroundings to digital maps built by the company in each new location.The company chose Milton Keynes for a wider deployment in part because the robots could navigate it with relative ease. Built after World War II, the city was carefully planned, with most streets laid out in a grid and bicycle and pedestrian paths, called “redways,” running beside them.When the Starship robots first arrived in Milton Keynes, one of the fastest-growing cities in Britain, Liss Page thought they were cute but pointless. “The first time I met one, it was stuck on the curb outside my house,” she said.Then, in early April, she opened a letter from the National Health Service advising her not to leave the house because her asthma and other conditions made her particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. In the weeks that followed, the robots provided a much-needed connection to the outside world.Smaller deliveries suit Ms. Page because she lives alone. A longtime vegan, she can order nut milk and margarine straight to her door. But like the grocery vans that deliver larger orders across the city, the Starship robots are ultimately limited by what is on the shelves.“You pad out the order with things you don’t really need to make the delivery charge worthwhile,” Ms. Page said. “With the last delivery, all I got were the things I didn’t really need.”Residents like Ms. Page set deliveries through a smartphone app. They typically pay a British pound (about $1.20) for each delivery, but in Milton Keynes, Starship has raised the price to as much as £2 during the busiest times so more people will shop in off hours.The robots deliver groceries to doctors, nurses and other employees of the N.H.S. for free. They even join the Thursday night tribute to the N.H.S., blinking their headlights as residents clap and cheer from their doorsteps. The fleet of 80 robots will soon expand to 100.Though this may be the most extensive deployment of delivery robots in the world, others have popped up in recent years. In Christiansburg, Va., Paul and Susie Sensmeier can arrange drugstore and bakery deliveries via flying drone. Wing, which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has been offering drone deliveries in the area since the fall.They can order penne pasta, marinara sauce and toilet paper. But they can’t order prescription medicines via Wing — the drones are stocked at a Wing warehouse, not at a drugstore — and like the robots in Milton Keynes, the drones can carry only so much.“I can only get two muffins or two croissants,” Susie Sensmeier, 81, said.Companies like Wing and Starship hope they can expand the reach of these services and refine their skills. Now there is new impetus.“Overnight, delivery has gone from a convenience to a vital service,” said Starship’s chief executive, Lex Bayer. “Our fleets are driving nonstop, 14 hours a day.”In Milton Keynes, Starship has gradually expanded the reach of its service, doubling its fleet and teaming up with several new grocery stores. It recently started a service in Chevy Chase, Md., not far from Washington. The company can create digital maps for the robots in days.Ms. Page, a 51-year-old business analyst who has lived in Milton Keynes for more than a quarter-century, believes the service can become a viable business.“It just seemed like a vanity project before,” she said. “The pandemic has given them a platform to launch a real business.”But as much as the pandemic has lifted start-ups like Starship, it has also hurt them. Many of the college campuses where Starship deployed its robots have shut down. Though the company has worked to shift those robots to nearby locations, it has been forced to lay off employees and contractors. Janel Steinberg, a company spokeswoman, said the cuts were “primarily about rebalancing our work force to adapt to the demand in different locations.”Nuro, a start-up in Silicon Valley, has long promised larger robots that can drive on public roads. But it has not yet deployed these robots, and like most self-driving car companies, Nuro has been forced to curtail its testing. Rather than making deliveries, its robots are shuttling supplies across an old basketball stadium in Sacramento that has been converted into a temporary hospital.Sidewalk robots and flying drones also require human help. Starship and similar companies must monitor the progress of each robot from afar, and if anything goes wrong, remote operators take over. With social distancing, that has become more difficult. Remote operators who once worked in call centers have moved into their homes.Mr. Katz’s company, Phantom Auto, is now helping companies make the transition. “This is a very, very difficult problem to solve,” Mr. Katz said. “We are in the autonomy-doesn’t-quite-work-yet business.” Read the full article

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