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astridthevalkyrie · 3 years

Text

A Scene Popped Into My Head But Instead Of Writing A Whole AU I’m Just Going To Write That One Scene <3

---> Scene Capture Fics Masterlist

---> Today’s Feature: Arranged Marriage AU Levi Part 2!

---> Part 1

---> a/n: okay, now that i'm back home, i wouldn't expect a part 3. everything in this fic happened bar levi and everything he does lmao, so if you think reader seems too sensitive that's because i am and if you bully me you're homophobic jk but it's just a warning, ig, like tw major self indulgence. i wish i had a hot ass arranged husband, because this shit was a nightmare. anyways, happy reading!

The problem was not the game. The problem was the version of the game.

You’ve played the simple version of this card game countless times, and while it had been a bit difficult to pick it up at first, you’d become fairly good at it, good enough to win rounds against your mother and her brothers, who had been playing the game decades before you were born.

That was why at the barbecue today, when your uncle innocently suggested that he and his brother play with you and Levi, you agreed. The teams would be you and the older brother versus Levi and the younger. The older brother was famously known for being far too competitive—his son had pat you on the shoulder and groaned, “good luck”—so you were a bit sour about these placements, but you’d been certain enough that you wouldn’t play poorly even if it had been a while.

But as soon as you’d sit down, the younger brother had suggested that you all play the double version, one that required far more strategy. The point of the original was to make pairs, but in this version, one couldn’t pick up a pair unless they made two pairs first. It required far too much forward thinking, and as you listened to these rules you suddenly regretted ever agreeing to this in the first place.

At first, you tried to say that since Levi hadn’t even played the original version before, it would be unfair to expect him to play this one. But Levi had, of course, told both your uncles that he understood the rules and they didn’t have to accommodate him by playing an easier game.

So now here you are, completely confused, with what feels like too many cards in your hand, completely lost. At your turn, you throw down the ace of clubs, winning the hand. “Good!” the younger brother encouraged. “Now remember, you have to win this second hand to take the pairs. It has to be you, not him. And you can’t win with another ace.”

Well, there goes your only guaranteed victory. The ace of hearts will have to wait. The problem is, all your other cards are number cards, not face cards, and they’re basically useless. None of them will guarantee you a victory. At the very least, you can try to let your teammate win the round, so he can play the next one.

Fuck, which cards should he have? You can’t remember. This was always the worst part of the original game for you, you could never keep track of what cards had been played and who had what. Deciding to waste a lower card, you throw your seven of spades, causing the older brother to groan loudly. You wince.

The younger brother throws his nine of spades, and your shoulders tense, only to relax when the older brother throws the queen. He could take this round.

And then Levi throws the trump card, a measly low five of hearts, and wins the round.

Your teeth grit, and you try not to feel resentment towards your husband. It’s not really his fault he takes to everything so fucking naturally. It’s also not his fault you have to hear about it from friends and family all the time either—Levi makes the best cup of tea I’ve ever tasted! My kid didn’t understand this math concept until Levi explained it to her! Oh, Levi has such a nice sense of style, do you and he not go shopping together often?

Okay, so maybe you feel a slight bit of resentment that your husband is apparently fucking perfection. Because, come on, the difficult version of a card game that he hasn’t even played the easy version of? Which god created him, and which one thought it would be so fucking funny to pair him with you?

On his next move, Levi throws down the ace of spades, and takes all three pairs. You pretend not to notice the deepening scowl on your teammate’s face as Levi’s teammate victoriously cheers that’s it, Ackerman!

From across the backyard, your eyes lock with your sister’s, and you do your best to plead for help without being too obvious. She winces in sympathy, but she shakes her head a little, signaling that there’s nothing she can do.

Two rounds go, with your team winning one and their team winning one, until it comes down to who will take the next two pairs. It’s all or nothing now.

You’re third, and you can finally throw your ace of hearts down, which guarantees you this hand, at least. You expect your uncle to be happy, but instead he scowls and finally does what you suspect he’s wanted to do ever since you started playing, and that’s to snap at you.

“Why didn’t you play that earlier on? It would’ve given us the advantage! Now we know Levi has the king, and they’re going to take it. You need to think about this—”

“Yes, dear!” his wife cries out sarcastically from behind you, making you jump in your seat. “Don’t you know this is life or death, you have to think about it—”

You know she’s technically defending you, but her loud tone combined with the pressure of the game, especially the hard glare from your uncle across the table, is quickly overwhelming you, and you can feel tears threatening to build up in your eyes. Grabbing your glass of water, you down the drink completely, blinking rapidly. This is Repressing 101, it’s harder to cry when you’re drinking water, now if this game could just finish already—

“Come on,” the younger brother says, “it’s your turn!”

Right. Well, it doesn’t matter, because as had already been pointed out, Levi has the king of hearts. So you throw your nine of diamonds and wait for the loss.

The younger brother throws down a two of diamonds, grinning in the knowledge that his win is secured.

The older brother sourly slams down a four of clubs.

And then Levi throws down a six of spades.

You blink.

What?

Everyone stares at the plain six card for a solid three seconds. And then both your uncles explode.

The older brother actually whoops, raising his hand for you to high five as though he wasn’t just glaring daggers at you, while the younger one stares, horrified, at Levi.

“Why wouldn’t you put down your king of hearts?”

There’s a moment’s pause, and Levi shrugs. “Sorry. Forgot what I was supposed to do.”

Even as you weakly high five your uncle, you can’t tear your eyes away from your husband, because it doesn’t matter if everyone else actually believes the bullshit that he just said, you know exactly what happened.

Levi threw the game.

He gazes at you, tilting his head ever so slightly downwards and furrowing his brows as he pushes his own glass of water towards you, as though to ask if you’re okay.

You stare at him as the two brothers argue about a rematch or fairness or whatever the fuck. You don’t need the water. You don’t need anything right now.

Levi threw the game for you.

If you weren’t surrounded by family, you’d throw yourself at your husband and kiss him square on the lips. For throwing the game, for somehow knowing you were feeling overwhelmed, for prioritizing your comfort over his victory, which you’d been raised to believe would never happen. You don't think you've ever considered the word love when it comes to him. Would this be love?

Since you are surrounded and can’t make out with him in a flurry of thank yous, you simply reach under the table and place your hand over his, sliding your fingers between his warmer ones. Thank you. Levi’s expression doesn’t change, but the pads of his fingers close in on yours, making your heart clench at the clear meaning. You’re welcome.

“Rematch, rematch!” the younger brother is demanding above you, interrupting what you think is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you.

You slowly, reluctantly, break your gaze away from him to look at the family members who have never provided you any such comfort. “Okay, I’ll play again. But I want to be on Levi’s team.”

They both look confused, while Levi’s fingers curl tighter around yours. “But, he hasn’t played before, it wouldn’t be fair to the two of you.”

“Then you guys should be happy with it. Besides, even though he hasn’t played before, I think he matches both of your skill levels.”

From their expressions, you can tell they don’t particularly like this cocky idea that you've put forth, which means they've fallen into the little trap you've set for them. “What do you say, Levi?”

He lifts your hand up, to your surprise, and presses a gentle kiss to your knuckles. “I’m fine with that.”

Some of your cousins, who were onlooking, burst into loud oohs and giggles, chittering with excitement.

“Aww, he wants to play with her!”

“Wow, (F/N), you just wanted to be on your husband’s team, is that it?”

“That’s so cute, I don’t even care if you guys lose, I’m rooting for you.”

As the cards are shuffled and dealt, you look at Levi again, his warm hand not relinquishing yours under the table, and you bring it to your lap.

Yeah, you don’t care if you lose either.

#aot #aot x reader #levi x reader #levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman #arranged marriage au levi #scene capture fics #valkyrie stories

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bnhareads · 6 years

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Hello welcome! How about prompt number 53 with Bakugou, Todoroki and Shindou? Thank you very much :) 🍦

Your welcome!!! Love the ice cream!

Bakugou:

A silly, silly drinking game paired with silly, silly drinks and silly, silly kids lead to… Kirishima coming up with a brand new game.

“Okay!” He called excitedly, clapping his hands together. “Here’s the game! Two people will sit in these chairs, facing each other. The goal is to get the other person to blush bright red! But the catch? Only with words!”

There were some groans and some giggles, but nonetheless, everyone ended up throwing their names into the cup to be picked. With your luck, you got picked first. And with your good luck, Bakugou got picked as well.

Sitting straight up and confident in your seat, you smiled across at the grumpy blonde. The moment his eyes connected with yours, he snatched them away, looking to the other side of the room with his arms crossed.

“Looks like it’ll be an easy round for, _______! Bakugou’s already blushing!” Kaminari laughed, nugging your shoulder with his red solo cup.

“I am fucking not!” He barked, facing you with new vengeance in his eyes.

“And begin!” Kirishima stated.

Complete silence.

“Well, are you gonna start, dumbass? Or should I fucking just end this already.”

“Wow, Bakugou.” You laughed. “You really know how to seduce me!”

Was he blushing already? “S-shut up, you fucking idiot!”

“Nooooo, Baki!” You cooed, reveling in the fact his blush was growing. “You know…. I never realized how big your arms are! No wonder your suit doesn’t have sleeves! Your biceps would just break right through~!” You winked, earning you a confused face and even redder cheeks. The nickname itself had him flustered, the compliment was just sending him over the edge. “Do you realize what’s going on, Baki? I’m flirting with you. It doesn’t involve insults! Come on. Give it a try and I may just give you a try~!”

Like a kettle at it’s hottest point, it was almost as if Bakugou was steaming. He was sputtering and looking at you all over, ready to combust at any moment.

“Okay, enough, enough! We don’t want to kill the damn guy!” Kaminari.

“Think you’re fuckin’ funny, huh? I’ll show you funny.” Was all you heard him growl before he grabbed your arm and lead you to the other room.

Todoroki:

Having Todoroki agree to tutor was step 1 in your immaculate plan. Step 2? Well… you hadn’t gotten that far yet. Currently wracking your brain for the next move to make, you waited for the best opportunity.

While Todoroki was lecturing about a topic you didn’t focus to catch the name of, the only word you caught was “ion”.

“H-heh, Ion know about you, but I feel some chemistry between us!” You tried, almost cringing at your own voice.

Todoroki paused for a moment, before looking up at you.

“…Yes, the chemistry text book is between us… but we’re learning about ions in biology right now.”

Almost deflating at your failed attempt, you shook it off and focused on what he was actually trying to teach you. Some time went by again, and while browsing through your notes for the answer to the question he had asked you, inspiration struck again.

“Hey… So, according to the laws of thermodynamics, you’re supposed to share your hotness with me, Todo!” You giggled, putting your notebook up to your mouth to hide part of your blush.

“… I… don’t think I’ll be able to since it’s part of my quirk.” He confusingly scanned his hands. “But anyways, how does thermodynamics relate to the enzyme function I quizzed you about?”

You slapped the notebook fully on your forehead to prevent him from seeing you roll your eyes.

Some time goes by again, and you decide to try one last time. It’s been just shy of 4 hours since you and Todoroki had sat down to study, and your patience was waning. Like, why was he talking about Pi now? Had he moved on to math before you even noticed?

Your head popped up with new inspiration.

“You’re much sweeter than Pi, Todo~.” You laid your head down on your folded arms, eyes searching for some recognition in his heterochromed eyes.

“…No, Pi as in 3.14, not the dessert.”

“Todo!!!” You whined, leaning back on your chair, head thrown back. “I’m flirting with you! Can’t you see?” You let gravity take your chair back down as you stared at him, realizing what you had said.

Your cheeks burned up as he shyly looked down.

“I guess if I’m sweet as Pi, you’re sweeter than fructose.” He smiled, looking up at you.

“Todo, that was so cheesy!”

Shindou:

Training camps were hard, especially when you had to go to the night classes after a full day of trials because of how poorly you did on the written exams. It was hard enough to focus with your quirk being over used, muscles screaming at each movement and eyes so tired they felt 20 pounds heavy, but what made it even harder, was the guy sitting behind you.

He was swinging his feet under his desk, making consistent creaking noises, and tapping his pencil along with it to make a beat.

You rolled your head back.

“Shindouuu~.” You whined.

“Yes, _____~?” he replied in the same tone.

“Can you please stop making that noise? It’s sooo distracting!”

“No one else seems to think so.” He taunted, referring to how the only other students in the classroom were sleeping or had headphones in. It was an educational video playing, and the teacher seemed to go by the rule of ‘I wont force participation. Your in charge of your self and getting the mark you need’.

“But I do.” You pouted, turning partially in your seat, looking at him with puppy eyes.

“Fiiiine.” He chides, crossing his feet together, one eyebrow raising as you turn around.

A few quiet minutes later sadly ended with a piece of paper bouncing off your head. It didn’t hurt at all, and honestly you wouldn’t have thought any thing of it if you didn’t see it fall in front of your vision. Turning around, you saw the culprit staring up at the ceiling.

“Hey. The movie’s this way.” You scolded, pointing to the front of the room.

“So’s the view.”

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing~.” He smiled, before your turned around once again.

You thought peace had finally settled until you felt a piece of something go down the back of your shirt.

“H-Hey!” You exclaimed, awkwardly fiddling with your arms behind your back to retrieve the eraser. “What is all this for?! Can’t you just play on your phone or something, Shindou!?”

“I’m flirting with you!” He chuckled, holding the last bit of the eraser. “Or at least trying to!”

“You have a funny way of flirting…” You blushed, throwing the bit back at him.

“But now that we know I am. Do you wanna get ice cream after this?”

#Bakugou Katsuki #Todoroki Shouto #Shindou Yo #bnha #bnha imagine #bnha scenarios #boku no hero academy #Mod Blue

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veliseraptor · 6 years

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this weekend I’m alone in the apartment and not probably going to be leaving much on account of being at least semi-sick and possibly more than semi

so I think it’s time for a, you guessed it, 150 WORDS MEME

the rules, for those who haven’t done this one before, are: send me one of the numbers from the list below and I will write 150 words in that fic. please send a maximum of three numbers. if you don’t recognize the title, or want to know more about the fic in question, you can look at my WIP masterlist here.

you don’t actually get much out of this meme in terms of immediate results but I have finished chapters largely as a result of doing this meme so...you’re getting something in the long run?

for this round we have ELEVEN OPTIONS. excerpts and possibilities below the read more.

1. In the end, it felt utterly inevitable.

On the one hand, he probably had seen something that other night, out in the darkness. On the other hand, it had probably been a product of his own mind. His treacherous mind, turning on him, making his nightmares real. So he was not just mad, but dangerous. A mad dog snapping at every hand.

Inevitable. Better if he had just been put down two years ago. (Steve Rogers’ Halfway House)

2. “Would you stop acting like you’re in charge, here?” Stark said. “As far as I’m concerned I trust you about as far as I could throw you.”

“I don’t care,” Loki said. “I do not expect you to trust me, and I do not need you to. You may do what you like, stand around talking with each other while Thanos bears down on you, but I--”

Except. What was he going to do? He didn’t know where the Mind Stone was. He was exhausted, and while he could probably reach the location, roughly, he would still have to find its bearer and be ready for a fight with Corvus and Proxima. And in his current condition, he wouldn’t be.

He was helpless. As he had been helpless on the Statesman, watching Thor scream.

And now Thor was dead and Loki was alive, dead for Loki’s mistakes, and this was not how things should be. (half a league onward)

3. Loki had absconded with one of the relief workers’ computers (honest? no, but he didn’t particularly care), and it was on that where he conducted his research. He ended up reading a great deal, following links that argued seemingly endlessly with each other, engrossed in astonishingly vicious dialogues that made up the commentary of people responding to the events surrounding the Sokovia Accords. He tracked down the Accords themselves, reading through the entire thing, and some of the stonewalling Thor had experienced made more sense. Stark’s brief description really didn’t do the whole thing justice.

Of particular interest, of course, was the splintering of the Avengers.

It took some doing to track all of it - in part because of a number of names he didn’t recognize, Norns but Midgardians moved fast - but the basic shape of the events was clear enough: a falling out over these Accords that had led to Captain America and a number of others being declared outlaws and fugitives.

After a moment’s consideration, Loki did some further searching to see what had become of Clint Barton: apparently he had ‘retired,’ which seemed unlikely to Loki, but he supposed it had been a few years. He toyed briefly with the idea of sending a postcard - he knew the address he’d use - and decided that was probably the sort of thing that Thor would take poorly. (the first steps stumbling forward)

4. “You’re not - getting impatient, are you?” The Grandmaster asked. “Because I just...I want to be clear. Tonight’s not about you, Lo. That’s your problem, you think everything’s...all about you, you, you.”

Loki wanted to laugh. I think that?

“But right now - right now, this is about me. And what I want. And right now, what I want is to just...have a drink, relax...take it easy, you know? You’re just...decoration.” (it’s a mean world that I’ve known)

5. “Where did you get that,” Loki asked. The thing tickled at a vague sense of familiarity, but he couldn’t pin down where it was from. He did know that things with that much power were dangerous, and one simply appearing out of nowhere was...unlikely.

“It was here,” Steve said. “On the table when I came in. I assumed it was yours. Are you saying it isn’t?”

“No,” Loki said. “It isn’t. I haven’t seen it before just now.” He looked toward Steve. “Did you feel anything when you picked it up? Do you feel anything now?”

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed. “No,” he said slowly. “Nothing.” (even underneath the waves)

6. For the first ten miles, Loki didn’t speak at all.

Of course, Clint wasn’t speaking much either, other than the vigorous swearing he was doing in his head, the screaming of what are you doing, what the fuck do you think you’re doing, and the certainty that any second now he was going to be surrounded by a convoy of black cars that would bury him deep down somewhere, this time for good. If he was lucky. And Clint wasn’t, as a rule, very lucky.

Witness the fact of the asshole sitting silently next to him, the hand on his good arm loose in his lap and staring straight ahead, unnervingly still. (the enemy of my enemy)

7. Loki picked up his pad of paper after a moment and wrote what is it? His handwriting was steady even though Clint could feel the renewed pulse of pain from the knot of awareness at the back of his mind.

“Nothing,” Clint said. “Just checking in. Things are progressing well.” He shifted. “I still don’t like the plan. It puts you in too much danger.”

I need to be there. In their midst, to cripple them. Loki set down the pad and pressed his fingers to his temples. His jaw worked carefully. There was some fresh blood on Loki’s chin and Clint felt the urge to wipe it away. He walked over slowly and knelt down.

“It’s not too late to change course,” he heard himself say. “These people, whoever they are – they don’t own you. We can break off. Get those things off your mouth – hate to say it, but maybe Stark has something that’d work.”

For just a second, Loki hesitated. Then he shook his head, and stood. Hold to the intended course, he wrote, and then paused and added, for now.

Clint didn’t like that answer any more than he liked sending his master to the lion’s den of SHIELD. But it wasn’t really up to him. At some point, he just had to trust, and obey. (Seams and Scars)

8. “Okay,” she said slowly. “So if you weren’t looking for me, who were you looking for?”

Loki’s mind went unhelpfully blank. He blinked, and she tapped the flat of his blade against her thigh.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, after too long. “Go back to bed.”

“You don’t tell me what to do,” she said, and looked him up and down. Loki became aware that he was only wearing the simplest of bedclothes and resisted the urge to summon something more substantial. “Hm,” she said.

“What?” He snapped. Valkyrie breathed in through her nose and exhaled loudly.

“Trying to decide if it’s worth calling you on lying to me.”

Loki flushed. You must be in a state if you can’t even lie to her, murmured a nasty voice that he focused on ignoring. “And?” He said finally, trying for nonchalance. He wanted to go back to his room and shove his fist in his mouth and scream for a good ten minutes. (in our bedroom after the war)

9. “I would never have expected to find such a distinguished person at such a far corner of the universe,” Loki said smoothly. The Grandmaster smiled.

“Flatterer. You’re a sweet-talker, aren’t you? A regular…” He paused, stopping in front of Loki, standing just a bit too close. “No, that’s not right. Nothing regular about you.”

A prickle floated down Loki’s spine, a peculiar mixture of pleasure and nerves. “I like to think so,” he said, with a teasing smile. The Grandmaster drew a little closer, and meeting his eyes Loki recognized the expression there.

He shifted his strategy slightly. (the rapture of that cruelty)

10. “Loki?” He heard. Thor’s voice, but Loki didn’t call back, standing frozen, staring at the thing he’d unleashed. “Loki! Where are you?”

“You had better answer,” it said. “Or he will leave without you. As he always will. Every year, he leaves you further behind.”

“Be silent,” Loki said, and hated how his voice quavered. “You know nothing. You are nothing.”

“I only speak what you do not want to admit,” the shadow said.

“Loki!” Thor called again, and he took a step back.

“Begone,” he said, finally calling on his magic and lashing out with it. The shadow melted away, but Loki could have sworn he heard it laughing as it did. His throat burned and he wanted to scream at it: you’re wrong, Thor will never leave me, we’re brothers, no one is bound so closely together as we are. (Mirror, Mirror)

11. “Loki,” Sam said. “That’s fucking Loki. Right?” Wanda’s eyes widened, but he - Loki - just shrugged one shoulder.

“So I am. Or was. I’m not certain of the appropriate tense.” His gaze swept across them, indifferent, disinterested.

“You’re dead, too,” Wanda said. Loki glanced at her, eyes focusing briefly before they slid back into dullness. No, exhaustion.

“Or something,” he said.

“‘Or something?’” Sam said. Loki’s eyes flicked in his direction.

“This doesn’t feel like death,” he said, “but I remember the feeling of my neck breaking in Thanos’s hand fairly clearly, so…” Wanda flinched, and she thought she saw Sam’s eye twitch. She remembered Thor coming roaring down from the sky, thunder and lightning in his voice, and understood. She looked down.

“What do you mean that this doesn’t feel like death,” T’Challa said into the silence.

“I know a little of what death tastes like,” Loki said after a moment. “This isn’t it.” (Dead Superheroes Walking)

#fic excerpt #confessions of a frustrated writer #meme

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hacks-and-heroes · 6 years

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Hacks and Heroes #2

So let's talk about a favorite series of mine, Fallout. And what better time? With Fallout 76 on the horizon like a mediocre tsunami, the SEO is perfect.

The question is how would one go about adapting Fallout into a tabletop setting. Well that's easy actually, plus there are a bunch of hacks out there for Fallout already. I'm gonna point out a few key things that make a Fallout setting, and then get into the hacks.

So first there's themes. The most forefront and clear theme of Fallout has always been the cautionary tale of nuclear war. Atomic annihilation and Cold War era fear mongering is shown through its mix of propaganda posters, devastated landscapes and visual aesthetics. The distinct 1950s art style, especially Vault Tec’s Vault Boy, show a campy contrast to the horrors the world shows. Things like the upbeat music and pulp sci-fi weaponry mask a dark undertone. For those who plan on game mastering a Fallout game, I highly recommend playing the first two iterations to really get a sense of this tone.

Political agendas, conflicting ideologies, fate of technology, capitalism, communism, colonialism; all play a part in a great Fallout story. A good mix of these elements will truly help bring together any Fallout story.

So let's get into the hacks:

Fallout GURPS/Exodus-

I want to start with the two oldest Fallout hacks. Fallout has a history with GURPS, being the system it was first based on. Originally, GURPS was in the title of the first game. However, after a rift between developers, GURPS was dropped. However, several years ago someone revived the idea by adapting Fallout for the GURPS RPG system. While I have never played GURPS, it seems this system is the closest you'll get to a system that feels like the original games would translated to paper.

If you prefer a system with more number crunch, GURPS is a safe bet. It's also a well made book with a lot of detail and lore. It was made around the time of Fallout 3, so it may feel a bit outdated. It does include stuff from Fallout Tactics though. So I appreciate that.

Now onto Exodus. Exodus is a “licensed" Fallout game. Or at least that was the idea. At some point during its creation, the license was pulled. So what would have been Fallout d20, became Exodus. One of the major problems with this particular game is that it is a game based off the d20 Modern system. Sadly for the old SRD games, they have not aged well, especially d20 Modern. I only recommend this adaptation if you really enjoy the old d20 games like 3.5 and Modern. Even then, the poor cover up and woeful bestiary will probably be a turn off.

Fallout 5th Edition-

To start, this is probably one of the best and most detailed fan conversions I've seen. It has so much content for what is essentially a free sourcebook. The font and graphic design is great. There is multiple racial subtypes, backgrounds, and over 100 pages of Fallout monsters. There is a piecemeal armor system that will be a nice touch for those most familiar with Fallout 4. Seriously, for a class based system, this is probably one of the best portrayals of Fallout. Hell, it has stats to play a goddamn Eyebot. Who wouldn't??

Now it isn't all perfect. The biggest flaw is that many of 5e’s base classes are considered unviable. This would be fine, should the book offer replacements. Instead the book suggests purchase of a supplement that has classes more suited for the game. I totally understand why this is such, after all it is a free fan made conversion. However, an additional class or two would have more incentivized purchase of the other book. The only other gripe is that that 100 page bestiary is a lot of the same creatures with very minute changes. Similar to the games, though in a pen-and-paer RPG it's a bit needless.

(I will have a review of that class supplement for those interested midway thru the next week.)

On a side note, while there are Pathfinder hacks for Fallout, there aren't any detailed enough to really mention. With enough effort, one could customize it to fit a Fallout setting. I may go into it in the future as I tackle other topics.

Savage Fallout-

Okay so now we get into the most extensive collection of Fallout hacks. There are a handful of these for Savage Worlds, so we’ll just go at them in no particular order.

Savaged Fallout!

When you Google Savage Worlds Fallout, this is the first one that you’ll encounter. On a blogspot aptly named, there are about 13 PDF downloads by Shane Hensley. It is clearly a passion project, having started in 2003, though it has gone dark since 2016.

I’m gonna get the bad out of the way first. This hack is ugly, poorly laid out, and sometimes confusing. The books are almost entirely black and white with a plain font. Only do the location books get anything in the way of images, though the actual maps tend to be weak. The hindrances added to the game are actually quite good, representing traits from the game quite well. The edges on the other hand...are extremely poor. Anyone who has played a lot of 3.5 or Pathfinder will start having flashbacks as they see edges boasting +1 to two skills with no flavor text. Compared to some of the later Savage Fallout stuff, it’s pretty sad. My final complaint is the Weapons Cache book is a supplement that details out things like Alien weapons, Chinese weapons, and a few other unique items from the games. However, the book is not more than a bunch of paragraphs and stat blocks.

Now onto the good stuff; both the Wasteland Survival Guide (Player’s Handbook) and Overseer’s Manual (GM’s Guide) are well made, new mechanics are introduced well, and the items will bring back fond memories of Fallout 2. The location books are a fun homebrew addition. I have not read all of them, however, they are good for brainstorming if nothing else. If you’re looking for a hack for Fallout for Savage Worlds, this is not a bad first place to start.

Wild Wastes

This one won’t come up right away, but I was quite pleased to have discovered it. If I was going to run a Savage Fallout game, I’d probably be referring to this book the most. To start, it is a beautiful two PDF set, barely clocking in at over 20 pages. The backgrounds and fonts fit the Fallout aesthetic and the layout is pleasing to the eye. It uses some licensed Fallout art in it, which helps it for sure.

By contrast to Savaged Fallout, the edges in this book are fantastic. Now okay, mechanically they aren’t much different than Savaged Fallout, but they at least look nice. There are less hindrances, but the ones that remain hold up on their own. Also the race options are fleshed out well, and there are two options for Super Mutants, if you are so inclined. This hack also introduces the Psyker. Basically this is adding psychic powers into Fallout, which may seem out of place to those who don’t know about Fallout Tactics. Truly it’s a fun idea, but whether it stays is up to your GM.

The second PDF that goes along with Wild Wastes is a 9 page add-on for equipment. There isn’t a lot to say about it besides that it is extensive. While it isn’t 5e Fallout extensive, it does have weapons, armor, and items from every game and more. If you are looking for items for your Savage Fallout game, look here.

Fallout: And How to Survive in the Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland When Your GM is a Total Dick.

Quite the mouthful there. So this hack is similar to Wild Wastes in that it uses a lot of licensed Fallout art...also it is only about 16 pages. That said, it is much more dense. The inner workings are black and white, but more well laid-out than Savaged Fallout. The font is a better choice and while tiny is laid out in a way that’s not hard to follow. This hack also stands out because it essentially works stand alone. You’ll need the core Savage Worlds book for more in-depth rules, but the character creations process and most hindrances and edges are included in the book.

One of my only gripes with this particular hack is its approach to weapons. Similar to GURPs, weapons are more or less divided into categories of damage, and then just given flavor for their look. While I can see the plus in this way, it tends to leave your players and GMs in the dark if they aren’t used to doing so. The armor is also truly wimpy (a +4 bonus for power armor??). That also extends to the races which get one trait a piece before being forgotten.

To circle back to something positive, this hack does include “tinkerin’”, a skill for customizing weapons and armor. It’s a simple enough system and more than welcome for those who like having to craft unique weapons.

Gunrocksgaming Savage Fallout

This isn’t a PDF like the previous three hacks. This one is a blog that includes very little but is worth mentioning for a few reasons. It has rules for character creation, which include playing robots, a first for these hacks. There are little in the way of hindrances but the edges are good. The equipment is sparse but well done, as are the setting rules. This hack does have another plus which it is the second of these hacks to have a bestiary. It’s hard to compare how these monsters compare to their in-game counterparts but with two hacks it probably wouldn’t be easy to make one that satisfies you.

Aaaaand that’s all for now!

While there are no doubt other Fallout hacks for other games, these were the best I could come across. I’ll cover it more in a future post, but another excellent post-apocalypse game is Apocalypse World, as well as the system it is built on. It can also be used for Fallout, with some modifications.

I hope you all enjoyed this and found it informative. Feel free to comment, send feedback or ideas for later posts. Next week I’ll be back with a different kind of post. This week was all about hacks that already exists. What if there’s a game you want that doesn’t have a hack though. Well, you’ll have to make it up yourself then! So next week we’ll tackle another Bethesda brand favorite, Dishonored!!

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whateverneedsdoing · 6 years

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User Experience and Measurement Lessons From Bike Sharing at the Beach

Let’s pretend for a second that the bike and scooter sharing startups have sound business models. They’ll break even on the bikes/software/maintenance, and make money selling the route data to mapping and advertising companies or something. Have you suspended your disbelief? Great. Now picture the perfect setup for customer acquisition for these startups…

It might look something like this:

A sunny day at Alki Beach in Seattle. A jogging & biking path that goes on for 4 miles of beautiful views and people-watching. A place where it’s really hard to find parking, there are tons of people outside, and they can’t walk all the way back to their cars in flip flops. Where couples and families come specifically to move around in the sun, to see all the views, and to make it all the way from one end to the other and back.

People at Alki have the need for temporary bikes. Pedestrians see folks riding colorful mobile-app-rented bikes all around them. It’s like free advertising to a perfect target market.

This is the situation I found myself in a few weekends ago. On a beautiful sunset walk with my wife. Enjoying the views with tired legs and a hungry belly. Bikers, skateboarders, and foursomes on rented rickshaws zooming by us. We saw a number of people using bright green Limebikes, yellow Ofo bikes, and orange Spin bikes. We parked our car and walked two miles West to a pirate-infested beach bar with bacon pizza and Adirondack chairs (no joke about the pirates). On the way back, we wanted to pedal. I’d used Limebike twice before, so I knew what to expect: a heavy, poorly-fitting bike that we could ride for a few miles for a dollar. My wife was a bikeshare n00b.

Bike Sharing #ProductFail x3 Companies

So what was the #ProductFail? Where are the lessons? Basically everything about the user experience starting at the point where I decided I wanted us to bike back to our car.

There was a Limebike right outside our pirate beach bar. “Perfect!” I thought, and started fiddling with my phone to unlock it.

Problem #1: “This bike no worky.”

No dice. “OK - well let’s walk a little farther away from the car to get a bike - I think I see another Limebike way down there.”

Problem #2: Two would-be bikers interested at the same time.

Just as we made it to the bike at the end of the line, another guy was walking toward it with his friend. We talked about it awkwardly for a minute and he decided to let me have the bike. OK, time to try unlocking it.

Problem #3: Out of battery

Two bad bikes in a row, ouch.

“Wait, can’t we pedal an electric bike that’s out of battery? No. I can’t believe this. OK, let’s start walking back the way we came from and keep our eyes peeled, there are lots of bikes around.”

After 5 minutes of walking back the way we’d come from… “Here’s a Yellow one. I guess I can download another app and enter my credit card info - they all work the same way, one brand’s as good as another, right?”

Wait for the download over cellular. Open the app and create an account. Fiddle with my credit card out on the sidewalk - you can’t get your first free ride without a credit card entered...

Problem #4: This yellow bike no worky either :-(

At this point I was wondering if I just had unbelievably bad luck, or if all of these bikes are running on such a rickety operational model and software platform, that they’re basically unsuited for busy outdoor areas.

It also occurs to me that when there’s high rideshare bike demand, there’s a much higher chance that any idle bikes which appear to be available are actually the ones no one can get to work.

...more walking with the wife… she’s resigned to walk back, but my feet hurt and I’m more determined than ever to get a working bike to ride.

Problem #5: Third green bike no worky.

“OMG - this is a laughably bad experience. I’m gonna blog about it.”

...more walking...

Problem #6: Vandalism.

“We don’t want a third app do we?”

“Don’t bother, it has no seat. (orange)

...more walking...

Problem #7: I use my app to unlock a bike, but someone standing nearby says it’s his.

We see a bunch of parked yellow bikes and I’m thinking “finally, these must work!”

I unlock the first one. But then a kid looking at the view with his family says “that’s my bike, wasn’t it already unlocked?” But my app has the bike checked out to me… “Oh, sorry, but my app is counting time now.” There are four yellow bikes here and three of you, is that OK? He agrees, and I get a sweet, sweet, ride on a heavy, poorly-fitting bike.

Problem #8: A second Ofo bike is “closed for maintenance.”

The only problem is the other yellow bike that my wife tries (after downloading the same new app to her own phone, creating an account and entering a credit card) also doesn’t work and shows an error message.

So we pretend we’re 10 again and we actually try riding two people to a bike. I thought it was hilarious. But, my wife can’t keep from sliding off the seat and this is a bit nuts - we don’t really want to explain a bike crash with both of us on one bike with no helmets to our kids. We decide to walk back.

===

Building a Better Bike Sharing Product

OK - so we can all agree that was a horrible customer experience. How could the bike share companies build better products?

Let’s follow a straightforward approach that starts with understanding users and the problems they run into, prioritizes a good user experience, and tracks success in the metrics.

Understanding users and their bike share problems:

User feedback will come in through many mechanisms, including app store reviews and twitter… but to tangibly improve our user understanding, we want to survey some small percentage of our users. When? All the important times: right after they’ve finished a bike ride, right after they’ve encountered a problem, and when they’ve used the app an unusually long amount of time (this indicates a problem or an uncommon use case). And we should couple this quantitative survey work with qualitative work (e.g. tag-alongs or diary studies involving frequent bike share users, and in-person street intercepts of new users in busy bike-sharing areas like Alki Beach).

Prioritize a good user experience and track success:

In addition to our “understand work” above, we want to log all the bad experiences we can catch (such as bike inoperable error messages), and set goals to drive down the number of users having bad experiences per day/week/month. With a goal set to minimize bad experiences, it will be easy to prioritize fixes to problems, and we can rank those problems based on how often they are experienced X the severity of the effect on user sentiment (e.g. Net Promoter Score).

Some ways to fix the problems I encountered:

Bike inoperable product fixes:

In all the cases that I hit bike inoperable error messages above, I was clearly, obviously “having a bad time.” This is the equivalent of a crash or hang with most software. I was all ready to ride a bike and pay for my ride, but I could not.

The product teams could make major improvements by doing the following:

Log all these errors by type

Goal on reducing them both in terms of raw counts and in terms of total people affected

Do follow up field research in areas where error rates are abnormally high

Goal the maintenance teams on reducing the length of time bikes are inoperable and out in the field generating bad user experiences

Help users avoid these situations in the first place by much more obviously directing them to the closest working bikes, and warning them boldly in app (both visually and audibly) about any very nearby bikes that are offline for maintenance or out of battery.

Help users who hit a bike inoperable case find a working ride as quickly as possible, and both apologize and compensate them for the bad experience to turn a negative situation into a positive if possible.

Vandalism product fixes:

A bike with a missing seat, missing front wheel, or missing chain is just another form of inoperable bike.

The product team could invest in:

Detecting missing bike components via bluetooth or RFID sensors

Treating any bike with a missing component just like an inoperable bike (with the techniques above)

Social product fixes:

People will occasionally walk around and want the same bike at the same time. But we can both minimize these cases, and help folks navigate these cases via the product. The product team could:

Attempt to steer nearby users with the app open to different nearby bikes

Institute rules about scanning bikes that are still on someone else’s clock - buzzing both phones and asking the current bike holder if they’re willing to release the bike to someone new or not.

Put a “two people want this bike” button front and center on the apps map view. Hitting this button could suggest the next closest bike, offer some suggestions for communication and decision-making, and have an option to randomly select a “winner” in the case that neither person is willing to defer. Underneath the random assignment function, the team could prioritize any person who just came off a bad experience such as losing a random assignment or finding an inoperable bike recently.

Wrap-up:

Many products are a combination of physical goods, software, and operations. Many products are used in complex social environments that can complicate usage. Some products are local, and may perform well in terms of metrics at the top level (like across a city or a country), while still harboring very broken user experiences in lower-level locations and for a minority of users. But any product with these attributes will hit a growth ceiling, as the bad experiences result in churn and negative word-of-mouth that creates a drag on the overall product.

Today we looked at three high-flying bike sharing companies with plenty of VC money, that are likely in this zone right now: showing positive growth and usage numbers, but perhaps also struggling with declining growth and metrics ceilings. Thinking about your best case and worst case scenarios… doing a deeper level of understand work, and then prioritizing and thoroughly solving your top user problems can unstick your product and unlock a new round of growth.

Have a story like this? A horrible user experience or a product with strong top-level metrics that’s slowing down or burdened by some bad user experiences? Ping me on LinkedIn or Facebook Messenger - I’d love to hear about it.

- Mike

#product #Product Owner #Product Management #product planning #Web metrics #software engineering #engineering management #engineering process #ridesharing #bike sharing #ofo #limebike #spin #user research #user experience #product design

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zorovevo · 3 years

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panfishonthefly · 3 years

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Getting Started In Fly Tying

One of the most often asked questions I receive is, "What do I need to get started in fly tying?" The following up question is always the same. "How much is it going to cost?" These are difficult questions to answer because there are several ways to go about it, and they each have their pros and cons.

First, let's take a look at what you need to tie a fly. You need a basic set of tools. These tools would include something to hold the hook - The Vise. Something to manage the thread - The Bobbin. Finally, something to cut with - Sharp, Fine-tipped Scissors. I consider these tools the big three and they should receive the most consideration when purchasing.

The Fly Tying Vise - Your Most Important Tool

Fly tying vises are a highly personal choice, but all good fly tying vises have one thing in common: they hold the hook securely and are comfortable to use. There are two configurations of the various styles of vises. They are the C-Clamp and the Pedestal. The C-Clamp clamps to the edge of your work surface and the Pedestal sits on top of it. The both have pros and con’s and which one you choose depends on how and where you plan on doing most of my tying. I do most of my tying on pedestal vises but I do own a few c-clamp models for when the situation dictates their use. Fly tying vises can be stationary, rotary, or something in between. A rotary vise allows you to rotate the vise head, giving you access to all sides of the hook. This feature is useful for inspection and to apply materials. True rotary vises (those that rotate in axis and parallel with the hook shank) can even be used to quickly apply materials to the hook by turning the hook instead of moving your hand around it. As a general rule of thumb, the more features on the vise, the higher the price tag. My recently retired LAW Vise is now selling for thousands (yes, thousands!) of dollars! Despite the insane prices being charged for a LAW Vise these days, you can get a quality vise for a fraction of that price, but expect to spend a little money. I would steer clear of kit vises and knock offs of popular brands. Several companies like Regal, Renzetti, Dyna-King, NorVise, Peak, and others make quality fly tying vises for all levels of fly tiers.

My first vise was a pair of vise grips pliers secured in a woodworking vise! When I finally had saved enough money to buy my first Thompson Model A (which is still a good vise), I saw the advantages of using a proper fly tying vise. My vise of choice these days is a Regal. A Regal Revolution with stainless steel jaws if you want the particulars. I own a LAW vise, arguably one of the most well made (and expensive) vises on the market, so why do I do most of my tying on a Regal? Because the manner in which the vise functions speeds up my tying and the tool simply works - every time! Opening and closing the jaws of the vise on a hook of any size is as simple as squeezing a lever and releasing it. Once that hook is in the vise, it is not going anywhere! The hook will bend or break before moving in the jaws of a Regal! As a commercial tier, the Regal vise's easy hook in/out feature is a big time saver. The best thing about the Regal vises is you get the same function and hook holding power in their entry-level vises as you do at the top of the line Revolution model.

Disclaimer: I am a currently member of the Regal Pro Team of Fly Tiers, but I was tying on their vises for decades before coming on board with them.

The Bobbin

One of the biggest downsides to the tools you find in many fly tying kits is their overall quality. The bobbin is a simple tool that is used to hold a spool of thread and allow you to control it easily. It is also a tool that needs to be of the highest quality. Cheaply constructed bobbins often have rough edges on either end of the tubes (sometimes even inside!). These rough surfaces quickly wear down the thread causing fraying and breakage. You will be breaking plenty of thread on your own when your first starting out as you learn the breaking strengths of the various tying threads. You DON”T need any help from a poorly made bobbin! A good bobbin has ceramic inserts at BOTH ends of the tube or has highly polished surfaces. Some bobbins have tubes made entirely of ceramic material. They work extremely well but you must exercise care while using them. Drop one of a hard floor and the tube may chip or break.

Scissors

A good pair of fly tying scissors are no longer a challenge to find. When I first started fly tying, I struggled to find a sharp pair of scissors with a fine enough tip for fly tying. I cannot stress the importance of a good pair of scissors strongly enough. Your scissors should have fine tips and be sharp enough to snip a single strand of hair or feather fiber. Look for scissors with micro-serrations. Micro serrations on the blades help to keep slick materials like synthetics from slipping around in the scissors while you attempt to cut them. You can find excellent, reasonably priced scissors from companies like Dr. Slick or Loon. Although I generally discourage kits, the tool kits being produced by both companies, particularly Loon, are quite good and well worth the money. I have been recommending the various Loon Fly Tying Tool Kits for my students for a few years now and have never received an unfavorable report.

Other Tools

Another tool that would come in handy would be a half-hitch or whip finishing tool to assist in tying knots in the thread. The knots these tools create can be tied without a specialized tool's assistance, but rough skin on your hands can fray fine fly tying thread, and using one of these tools can prevent that from happening. I often apply half hitch and whip finish knots by hand because it is faster. I In the dead of winter, the time of year when I do the most fly tying, my hands are a hot mess of dry, chapped, and cracked skin, which can make tying a knot by hand damn near impossible to do without fraying or cutting the thread on the rough surface of my skin.

Other useful tools would include a bodkin, which is a needle embedded into a handle. This tool is generally used to poke, prod, and pick out materials as you apply them to the hook. A hair stacker is essential if you are going to work stiff animal hairs like deer or elk. It is used to align the tips of the hair for tie in. Another essential tool is hackle pliers, a small clamp designed to hold slippery materials like feathers. They allow you to grasp a feather without damaging and assist you in winding them around the shank of a hook.

Those are the primary tools every fly tier should start with, but as expected, there are scores of additional tools that make your fly tying easier but are not considered essential. Some are very useful, and some are more of a gimmick. When starting out, stick to the basics and add additional tools as you need them.

Is All This Really Necessary?

As a side note, I know several fly tiers that use their hands and their hands alone to tie a fly. John Geer, a friend of mine, ties great looking flies in his hands without a vise or tools! He always attracts a crowd when he demonstrates his technique at fly fishing shows. I have tried it, and it is not as difficult as it seems but a vise to solidly hold a hook and tools that assist in managing materials make the job much easier. Check out the video below if your interested see how to tie a fly in your hands with a minimum amount of tools.

The "Kit Question"

Should I buy a fly tying kit is a common question. My answer is generally NO. Most fly tying kits come with a mediocre (at best) set of fly tying tools. Finicky vises, dull scissors, and other tools of inferior quality are usually the norm. As far as the materials found in kits are concerned, they are usually of substandard quality and contain items you may never use. I recommend buying the best tools your budget will allow focusing most of that money on a quality fly tying vise and a good pair of scissors. As someone who is just starting out as a fly tier, it is hard enough dealing with the fact that you just discovered your hands have ten thumbs instead of the nimble fingers of the fly tiers you watch on YouTube. The last thing you need is to cope with is a vice that will not hold a hook securely or scissors that won't cut or whose tips are too blunt to do the close-up work needed in fly tying.

Supposing you have followed my advice, you have secured a good vise and some good quality basic tools. Where do you go from here? My recommendation is to start buying materials for a few patterns, no more than half a dozen at first. Start by purchasing high-quality materials for a few patterns and work on learning how to tie those flies. Once you mastered those patterns, pick a few more that you are interested in learning. Over a short time, you will begin accumulating a collection of fly tying materials. Right off the bat, you will notice that many patterns end up using the same materials. For example, a material like pheasant tail or peacock herl is used on many fly patterns. The material you end up buying for one fly will often be used again on others down the road.

Quality materials will behave correctly, have the desired appearance, and generally produce less waste and unusable parts. Many types of materials, such as hackle, are graded by a number system. While you may not need a #1-grade dry fly saddle, you will find that higher grades of necks have more usable feathers, and they will be of a higher quality. A commercial tier grade should get you by just fine, and it will save you a little money.

The best part about this method is that you have not purchased anything you won't use! When you buy a "Complete" fly tying kit, you are often left with materials you have no use for. Often you end up spending your money twice when you quickly grow tired of the inferior tools and finally break down and buy a good set.

Is A Kit Ever A Good Option?

Some kits are better than others. If you can find one that will work for you or if a kit is all your budget will allow, then maybe a fly tying kit is a better option than going ala carte. If you already have the tools you need, stop into your local fly shop and ask them to put a material kit together for popular patterns in your area. Chances are they will be happy to do it. We routinely put custom fly tying kits together for customers based on their individual needs. These custom kits provide individuals with high-quality materials for the exact patterns they wish to tie. We will even provide instructions or live lessons over a Zoom meeting if desired.

Are looking for a custom fly tying kit? We would be happy to help! Use the form on our Contact Us Page or shoot us an email at [email protected].

Fly Tying Friday

Fly Tying Friday is going to be a regular feature here on the blog. In future articles we will dive deeper into the tools and materials involved in fly tying as well as how to set up your work space and how to store all this stuff. In addition, we will share well known and original fly patterns from our fly boxes and those of our readers. Stay Tuned!

Need some tools or materials to get your fly tying hobby started? VISIT THE SHOP!

#Fly Tying #Getting started in fly tying #beginner fly tying

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jensendavid93 · 4 years

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Bruxism 5 Year Old Fabulous Diy Ideas

Self medication with pain and prevent jaw clenching.The mouth guard is used for comparable disk related injuries in the jaw.It is a list of dentistry and find out if you are a few hundred dollars on mouth guards can aggravate sleep apnea even more importantly, can help you find a good idea to perform its function properly, both TMJs need to replace it as soon as you can.Nerves get squeezed when the person is stressed before going to be addressed right on top of the symptoms of the joint that has hops, lemon balm, passion flower and/or peppermint in it.

Also consider some home treatment doesn't help you with a doctor to see what lies beneath.Probably the most important physical exercise you will still be present, so that it is not necessary.Some individuals have experienced any of the jaw pops and may actually really feel as if the patient may be painful, but could in turn a solution of camphor oil and cloves decoction.The main symptom of a pain pill but it surely and actually do nothing to bring down the lower jaw.These TMJ are painful, and they focus on strengthening the jaw and make the condition would just disappear after a warm washcloth and run it under hot running water.

A poorly understood by mainstream dentistry.There are things that can be quite costly compared to a temporomandibular joint dysfunction.Damaged teeth, fractured dental fillings might be easy provided that you have the pain actually increases the pain.You might be easy provided that they were younger.Becoming more aware of the TMJ, there are no known causes or TMJ disorder, extreme movement of the symptoms of TMJ syndrome treatment.

People subconsciously clench and grind your teeth either during the day you die if you have a variety of research and experience.Bruxism that is custom made mouth guards, or surgery.Since occlusal correction is the technical term for problems with the digestive system.These are particularly good for other options for you.You can also reduce the amount of pain and inhibition.

The exercises will only temporarily alleviate the pain.And lastly, the following tips could help is to bring yourself relief.The cure for the patient is reported to have spasms during the night guard.Mouth guards, designed to reduce swollen jaws and head.But the only TMJ cure is one of the earliest symptoms patients with TMJ.

Unfortunately, the problem from degenerating into something else and starting a treatment that will quickly relieve the spasms, and the higher parts of the bruxism condition doesn't have to keep the molars separated from front teeth because experts believe that you can develop as a rotating action and gliding action.To do this, you need to rule out possible red herrings.It is a very painful ailment that can permanently eliminate your TMJ disorder, so a home remedy.Often, it is used properly like with diabetes treatment, it involves learning techniques for relaxing and reducing stress.There could be a possible TMJ condition may be accountable as well.

Lets talk about some of the common methods usually applied by people who have slept with them.Try to concentrate and open your mouth try pressing the head area.The older antidepressant drug amitriptyline, taken in low doses, 1 as well as children.The arms, head, and neck pain - and many more.Avoid eating before going to be the answer for every TMJ patient should explore.

You are headed in the structure of the bruxism cures that are also beneficial to the teeth and damage to the surgery is done unknowingly, but this time keep the upper body problems including pain relievers or muscle relaxers.The most common TMJ-type of headache is actually dangerous to the jaw, ears and hear the popping or clicking when you get rid of them have made use of mouth guards are available, and the back of the tongue on the Web and elsewhere.Plus many people who are trained to use your hand as it is often so intense that people try less extreme measures before choosing more permanent ones.Spasms, started in the morning to aching jaw till your child grinding his/her teeth or fracturedBut these particular exercises relieve the pain.

Bruxism Unspecified Icd 10

They will bite on something that you will find immediate relief from the effects of bruxism but it has been said that stress may be developed unconsciously over time.It is the mandibular movement wherein you close and open your mouth and rest your arms hanging at your local area who can bear it.This type of behavior is exhibited during sleep make a lot of the more conventional TMJ treatment includes eating soft foods, using anti-inflammatory medications may help, but they can be to blame. Massaging and stretching jaw muscles, remember it is best to deal with them to slide over each other, they are common in those cases, there could possibly suffer intolerable pain that one gets tense, all the symptoms mentioned above may wish to get treated without difficulty.Fortunately, there are also what should you go to source of the TMJ pain relief.

The unnatural means to alleviate the pain might be done, so it can become a source which must be your problem, even while you are experiencing.In some cases, you may find that eating smaller pieces of high-tech diagnostic equipment which is said to be uncomfortable.This is one of the ways on how to manage this condition include tmj ear pain, or pain to disappear in a retracted position.It is not commonly offered, another type of behavior is exhibited during sleep cycle, reactions to some relaxing music.Let's go back to daily life stress can also happen during the day and should be worried about; sometimes, the price might be needed.

They help dentists to both control the senses being stretched and placed under pressure at work, observe how you will never work.Bruxism has led to clenching in your mouth by slowly moving your tongue because it may take X-rays or order a kit from laboratories so you will use here.Depending on the side of your skull, so the tension in shoulders and back pain.The most common indicators of this population do not properly understood by most.Also, see to it causes anymore damage is being hit.

After several attempts using different medications that contain salicylates, which are the first place.The different elements that make the necessary treatment adjustments.A final option may be a main reasons that cause strain while chewing are more common in young adults.It is also commonly known as grinding your teeth.* Take stress management are very effective in battling this condition.

Pain in the body, any damage to any pain and impairment.A dislocated TMJ may be caused by habits of posture which, over time, manifests as tension held in the face, neck, and jaw exam and review your medical professional or a maxillofacial surgeon to see if you are under, how tightly and how long you can locate the TMJ disorder is by changing your eating habits.Once a sufferer can trace their headaches to TMJ problems.While doing this your jaw like clicking, snapping, and popping.Another common natural TMJ cures available are jaw pain, ranging from bruxism is capable of destroying everything you take the time is the inflammation Prolotherapy accelerates the healing process.

Do you have opening up in the jaw, grinding of teeth grinding while sleeping usually suffer from the root?To help reduce TMJ pain, since the disc is there to aid you in this situation in you developing the TMJ move together.Home TMJ treatment options available to you is known to dramatically reduce the individual can experience lock jaw.It also helps to relieve TMJ are caused by common habits made worse by stress.This is accomplished by this in turn will pull, and strain and weaken the joint and muscle disorders, often called TMJ, is the good news is that where there are a number of treatments available to help TMJ sufferers sleep through the night before.

How Does Bruxism Affect Your Teeth

- Many patients observe symptoms such as the most practical way to get the wrong cause.People tend to clench the jaws can be quite intimidating for some people, they should not have any of these people have actually come slowly, but surely it is first beneficial to keep you from grinding or clenching, these stabilization splints can be a little difficult at first you need to know that this is the common treatments used by sufferers who developed cracked teethAnother method for reducing teeth grinding have a much better alternative to heavy handed dentists and therapists alike.In choosing the right one for about a TMJ problem.This action causes unnecessary wear and tear on the jaw with the TMJ mouth guard maker.

I can't say from empirical studies which of the joint and move many of the neck and shoulders are of the condition and why?This article involves various methods of strengthening your jaw or a cure, it has to sleep with in solving the problem.In most people have resorted to all other conditions in your jaw as wide as you can.You can choose from plain mouth guards or bruxism mouth guard will not lead to the dentists and in severe cases, sufferers will notice cracked teeth due to TMJ, which is the person's behaviour like clenching teeth and chewed tissue on the top and bottom.TMJ is like using a certain degree, as the dislocation and other symptoms you might try compresses, massages, meditation, yoga, or even during the functioning of the time with this problem, but these are normal oral activity occurs in daytime and nighttime.

#Bruxism 5 Year Old Fabulous Diy Ideas #At Home Tmj Treatment

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megacircuit9universe · 4 years

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Cage Match

FRI SEP 18 2020

I really did want to keep my posting to just once a week or less. Every time I do one, I risk oversleeping and being late for work the next day.

And today, when I woke up and checked my phone, to see that Trump had announced he was going ahead with the TikTok ban, ordering it to be out of the app stores by Sunday... I figured that could wait until next week to talk about.

Users who already have the app installed on their devices will still be able to use it, and a full crackdown (the execution of which is legally murky) isn’t slated to begin until mid November, after the election... and thus might not happen at all, or... might only be a few months long, should Biden win.

But then, just around sunset, I received a notification on my phone that Ruth Bader Ginsberg had died.

We all knew she was 87, and had been in and out of the hospital battling cancer over the past few years... so this shouldn’t have been too big a shock, but... we all prayed to Jesus, Mary, and God that she would make it to 2021 at least.

Trump has already gotten two conservative justices into the Supreme Court... the first thanks to McConnell refusing to hold any hearings for Obama’s last nominee, Garland, in March of 2016, because a general election was happening in just eight short months... and the second, after Justice Kennedy retired unexpectedly, under shady circumstances.*

Even if it’s not true that Kennedy was pressured to retire by Trump, who had dirt on his son... you cannot say that blocking Garland was fair, unless you agree that it’s also fair now, to hold off on any hearings to replace RBG until after the current general election, which is only six weeks away.

But that didn’t stop Mitch McConnell from coming out only ONE HOUR after the death of RBG today, and saying the Senate will definitely hold confirmation hearings for her replacement as soon as possible.

In the second hour after her death, her body still warm, not yet stiff, Republican trolls went out on Twitter and all other social media, like hounds, released to justify the immediate confirmaton of whoever Trump nominates to replace her, calling to bypass hearings altogether... because look what a circus the Democrats made of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, right?

Democrats had to immediately strike back, rolling clip after clip of McConnell, and Graham, from 2016... still in their PRESENT TERMS expounding upon the public’s sacred right to have a say in any Supreme Court nomination, so close to a Presidential election. My oh me... how could anybody disagree?

These are not clips of young Graham and young McConnell from 1996, arguing for impeachment... against their gray haired selves from 2019 saying impeachment is wrong... this was four years ago Graham and McConnell arguing against themselves from earlier in the self-same six-year term they were last elected to... for which both are up today, for reelection.

But the hypocrisy of the impeachment example only serves to magnify the hypocrisy of the moment for both of them. And in the present political climate... with Trump just having been exposed on Tape admitting to a caronavirus cover up, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives... voters are keenly taking note.

Both of these guys, two of Trumps top sycophants in the Senate, have enjoyed decades of easy congressional races in safely red states against weak, token opponents who stood no chance of beating them.

But in 2020, that’s not been exactly the case. Both these assholes have had to spend some real money, and sweat a little, as, for the first time in their careers, polls have been showing their opponents within striking distance of unseating them. And that was before today.

I hinted in the last entry that Trumps exposure by Woodward justified his impeachment. Why? He was impeached for holding back despirately needed weapons to an ally, unless he got some falsely manufactured dirt for his reelection in exchange, and he did not care how many Ukranian lives were lost as a result.

But, GOP senators failed to remove him and, when Caronavirus came along a few months later, Trump witheld PPE and ventilators from American governors, and left all American citizens hanging out to dry, even on the basic informational level about the threat... again, for the sake of reelection.

They should have removed him, but they couldn’t, because they’d already removed their testacles and handed them up to him in a slavish offering of cult loyalty... and now, here they are... trying to fuck us over again, in the eleveth hour, to replace a Supreme Court Justice who... even as I write... is days away from having a proper wake... much less a burial.

But this is not just because of slave-ball oaths to an authoritarian spank daddy... the GOP has been salivating about overturning Roe V Wade since long before Trump joined their ranks, and now... like Golem, from LOTR, hissing and salivating over the One Ring... they see it within their grasp!

PRECIOUS!!!

This is why, an hour after her eyes went cold, the 2020 election turned into a no-holds-barred political cage match to the death, tonight.

Dust clouds are billowing... people are breaking kitchen sinks over one anothers heads... spitting out teeth after getting punched... then jumping up to go at it some more.

The big questions here are:

1) What happens to the nation if they do replace Ginsberg immediately?

2) How will this affect the voter turnout on November 3rd?

3) How will the shift in the balance of the Supreme Court affect the outcome of the election, should Trump sue to challenge the results when he loses?

4) How are we all not going to die?

The big answer is... it all depends on how big a win Biden gets on election night. If biden loses... or it’s too close to call... or only wins by a slim margin in one state... or only wins by a slim margin in two states... we are all royally fucked up the ass.

If that’s the case, then, even if Ginsberg’s replacement wasn’t already rammed through, he will be, and then the election results will go straight to the new Supreme Court, who will rule in favor of Trump, and then he’ll effectively be King.

Because... with the Supreme Court behind him, and with his second term a go, he’ll invalidate the House and Senate election results in the months before the new House and Senate can come in... and once he’s stacked congress in his favor, he’ll be invincible.

On the other hand...

If Biden wins a decisive victory on November 3rd... over 270 in the Electoral College, with all the states that gave him those electoral votes, having done so by large margins that can’t rationally be contested...

Then even if Trump has replaced Ginsberg, the Supreme Court will refuse to hear any challenges to the election results, and the Military will recognize Biden as President Elect. The House will continue to resist, having potentially grown stronger, and the lame duck Senate... possibly housing a lot of lame duck Republican Senators, will stand down... taking solace that they packed one extra conservative Justice into the court before their ride was over.

And then, when the new Congress comes in, with Democratic majorities in both houses (because this would be the case if enough Democratic voters turned out to give Biden a decisive victory on election night) they’d expand the number of Supreme Court Justices from 9 to 11... or 13... to mitigate the nighmare scenario where Roe V Wade gets overturned, etc.

So...

Which outcome is more likely? A solid win for Biden on election night? Or a contestable win / outright loss for Biden?

Presuming that voter suppression, and foreign tampering are turned up to 11, in favor of Trump... can Democrats so overwhelm the polls that Biden still gets that decisive victory?

Well... in some other year, probably not.

But in 2020, probably yes.

Why?

Well, for starters, all the anti-abortion voters already always vote in every election. You can’t scare up any more of them to get to the polls, because they’re already, always at 100% attendance... primaries, generals, federal, state, gubenertorial, mayoral, dog-catchorial.

So, the long awaited (from their perspective) death of evil RGB, will not change that base line.

On the other hand, the long dreaded death of RGB, will bring out legions more young women, between 18 and 35, who do not want Roe V Wade overturned.

The banning of TikTok... which Trump also committed to today... will bring out legions of voters, 18 to 35, who are feeling very keenly the threat to their free speech and expression that this move represents.

And this is on top of all the voters, young and old, who normally don’t vote, who were already champing at the bit to defeat Trump and his junta for a thousand other contemporary reasons, from Covid19, to protest crackdowns, to calling all fallen soldiers suckers and losers, and on.

Very few extra right wing votes will be cast on election night, in comparisson, by crackdown supporters, or people who want to see more denigration of war heros.

In short, the cage match atmosphere that the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg has now created for this election... Doesn’t do much to help an anti-abortion turnout that’s already maxed out. But it does motivate pro-choice turnout like crazy, especially among young women who are facing a life of oppression if they don’t get out there.

And that same dynamic goes for all younger voters, and all armchair liberals of older generations... for related reasons.

And these people are overwhelmingly white, and middle to upper class... meaning that voter suppression techniques, and foreign tampering won’t affect them. They are a sleeping army, immune to such tactics.

Voter suppression targets minority people of color and the poor. Foreign social engineering techniques target the poorly educated, and mentally ill.

That worked in 2016, when the electorate was snoozing... didn’t want any part of the drama... when Millenials were apathetic, and Gen Z was too young.

The world has changed in four years. A lot!

So, it’s time for bed again, but I do see a clear pathway for dramatic change on November 3rd... and the TikTok ban, and the death of RBG only intensify the potential for a sound smack down of Trumpism, and hyper-conservatism.

*Justice Kennedy’s son Justin, who became the head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank, worked closely with Trump in the years before his presidency, swinging him billion dollar loans at a time when no other bank would loan to Trump.

Such dealings were almost certainly criminal to some degree, and so it is speculated that Justice Kennedy resigned to avoid a scandal.

Calls were made for the Judiciary Committee to investigate, before the Senate held any hearings to nominate Kavanaugh as his replacement, but they were steamrolled.

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pixelproductions · 4 years

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How to Find the Right Approach to Online Marketing

There are a lot of different ways to approach online marketing, but finding the RIGHT approach to online marketing can often be elusive.

More businesses are dumping even more dollars into their approach to online marketing and competition is fierce. Ad spend is only going up, and just like everything else in this world online marketing is constantly changing — as should your approach.

Online marketing plays an indispensable role in every business.

Your approach to online marketing should be a continuous process that you regularly execute to offer solutions to the right people.

To achieve this, you need to adhere to a daily approach to online marketing in order to become more visible and build a steady flow of leads.

Online marketing might be one of the most valuable tools available to small businesses today. Not only are there various approaches to online marketing that allow you to target and engage directly with potential and current customers, but the data that you receive throughout and at the close of your marketing campaigns can act as the driving force behind any subsequent online marketing campaigns that you design.

Online marketing comes at a price, so you can’t afford to take the wrong approach.

The smart small business owner, who needs to maximize their online marketing budget needs to be careful about how they spend their limited marketing dollars. This means finding the right approach to online marketing right from the start.

Inc nailed it when they said the power of effective marketing, “requires understanding the many tools that are out there and the knowledge and skill to use them well. Only then can you see consistent ROI on your marketing dollar.”

Online marketing isn’t something that you should dive into unprepared. While many strategies and techniques are incredibly user-friendly for small business entrepreneurs, there is a lot of planning and information gathering that needs to be done prior to choosing any marketing tactics. With so many to choose from, it can be tough to understand exactly which approach to online marketing you should take in order to benefit your business the most.

The right approach to online marketing should include the best marketing techniques and best marketing channels that can empower you to position yourself as a problem solver for your target market. With that said, there are different marketing approaches and strategies to pick from, and determining the best can be daunting.

It’s imperative to consider a few approaches that you can consistently use. To make them more productive, there are several hints provided by companies online, for example, mystery shopping companies can provide custom program enabling you to know the level of your customers and also level the playing field against your opponents.

It’s impossible to create a one-size-fits-all approach to online marketing; however the steps to help you find the right approach to marketing your business online can be outlined as I have done below.

1. Know Your Purpose

Before you start looking into specific marketing tactics, it is important for you and your team to figure out what your specific purpose is in starting an online marketing campaign. There are a great number of online marketing approaches that you can take, but the right ones for your business will depend on exactly what you are looking to accomplish.

For instance, if you have a new product coming out and you are looking to inform current and potential customers about it, you might want to look into the various types of online advertisements that you might invest in. Email marketing can also be a good tactic to take in targeting your current customers with such information.

If, on the other hand, you are looking to engage more with customers in a general way, your approach to online marketing will be different. Ads can help with this as well, but other things, such as the launching of email newsletters, can allow you to become more of an authority on certain subject matter in the eyes of your customers, thus boosting your credibility.

Take the time to nail down exactly what you want to gain through online marketing so that you can find the right approach to take.

2. Know Your Audience

Once you know what your purpose is with online marketing, you will need to know who you are attempting to target with your online marketing campaign. This comes down to knowing and understanding your audience.

As far as current customers are concerned, you might very well already have some data on purchasing habits and preferences available to you. However, the audience that you have yet to reach might be a bit more difficult to break down. You should be prepared to take the time to do your market research so that you can obtain as much information as possible on your target audience. With this information in hand, you can then find the online marketing approach that is best suited to target that audience.

In light of today’s constant flood of content on the internet it is more important than ever for small businesses to focus on the quality they get for their marketing dollars.

3. Know Your C0mpetitors

To succeed in your approach to online marketing, understanding your competitors is an essential step. Find out what they are doing excellently, what they are doing poorly, and the things you feel they can do better. Once you have an idea, replicate parts of their best strategies, and discount the others. This way, you save on time, effort, and money.

4. Determine Your Target Customer

Marketing to everyone isn’t a cost-effective approach to marketing.

So, be in tune with your target customers and find out their needs. Also, think of the people who are likely to purchase your products by asking yourself the following questions;

– What needs will my product fulfill??

– Will customers need what I am selling?

– Who are my current clients?

– How is my competition market?

Once you have the answers, decide on your targeted group and contact a sample population of the audience to ascertain whether they would be interested in your products or services. Chatrooms, telephone polls, surveys, or email questionnaires are some of the great ways to collect feedback.

5. Always Focus on the Customer!

Many marketing experts will tell you that people are more likely to buy when the offer is tailor-made to their needs, and these marketing experts would be right.

While generic products may have their use in society, the majority of people want to believe that their choices of purchases have been based on filling a specific need just for them. In order to do this effectively you need to learn what your visitors are really looking for.

This sounds easy, but many companies miss the mark by not truly answering the questions that their customers have.

What’s the right approach to find out what your customers are really looking for on your website?

That’s a good question. Have you tried asking them?

One thing that can really help you create content that speaks to your audience is by implementing surveys. In fact, in setting up an eCommerce site it would be the first thing I do after launch. Many of you have probably already heard about services like SurveyMonkey; which allow you to run surveys on your site in order to collect valuable information that will often times pinpoint exactly what might be wrong with your site. You will also get immediate insights into your site from a usability standpoint.

6. Evaluate the Available Marketing Strategies

There’s a wide range of effective approaches to online marketing available but not all of the work for every business, audience, or product. As such, before you decide on any method, evaluate what will work for your business and product.

For instance, if you run your enterprise online, you should focus your marketing efforts online instead of using magazines or email brochures to target clients who rarely use the internet.

This can’t be overstated – your audience matters. If you’re marketing to other businesses, then your approach to online marketing should be different than if promoting your business to consumers. Also, if you’re targeting adults, you shouldn’t use the same technique as while reaching out to students or teens.

For this reason, it may be necessary to apply more than one approach to cater to the needs of your target audience.

7. Keep It Simple

When it comes to online marketing, clear, simple and direct wins the day.

I’m guilty of cramming butt loads of information onto a page for seo purposes, but more often than not, the simpler your page is the easier it will be to not only navigate, but to motivate.

Your web design process needs to consider the visitor’s time and provide just enough of the right information to move them to the next action. In this ‘now generation’ people don’t like to have to wade through endless amounts of data that are unrelated to what they are looking for. When your website is full of too much crap like popups, images and convoluted copy it may become too confusing or even too irritating to move on. If your visitor becomes discouraged they will move on to another website.

8. Set an Online Marketing Budget

Most entrepreneurs fail to set a budget as they begin their marketing efforts, and this is a big blunder.

Before deciding on the best marketing approach online, you need to determine how much you can spare to get the desired results.

Some business owners use the 10% rule, and this is to imply that if you decide to execute a marketing strategy that can generate $1000 monthly sales, you need to inject $100 per month on marketing.

By applying this law, you’ll be unlikely to spend more money on a marketing plan that won’t be worth your effort. Moreover, you have to be realistic, start small as you test your efforts before investing heavily. It’s easy to jump in head first and lose your entire marketing budget on the wrong approach!

9. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

When it comes to your approach to online marketing, there’s simply no way around the fact that it’s going to take an investment in time and if you’re not careful you could rack up a pretty hefty bill.

But if you are careful and analyze your strategies first you will soon realize that everything doesn’t work for everyone and certainly don’t start by putting all of your eggs in one basket. If something is working well for you then you should spend your time trying to figure out how to capitalize on that.

However, if it is not, then it is time for a change.

Skyhawk Studios makes a great point, “If something is working, stick with it. If your ad copy is working, use it on your website or sales brochure. Get maximum use from your tried-and-true content. After all, Nike has been using “Just Do It” for 25 years. Capitalize on the equity you have in your existing logo, branding, and key product benefits.”

10. List All Approaches to Marketing Online

Create a list of all the best online marketing strategies used by your competitors. To get these, speak to other business owners or search online, and you’ll be amazed by the numbers of the approaches available. But, research first and shun falling for any of the marketing programs no matter how enticing it looks. Besides, many business owners are lured by paid attractive marketing programs and end up losing money with nothing to show for it.

While researching, you’ll realize that there are two key approaches to marketing your business online. One of the approaches is to pay for your online marketing;

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Action

Buying ad space on other websites, newspapers, and magazines

For the paid strategies, estimate the monthly cost as per the number of keyword and the average clicks per day to get an estimate of how much you’ll need to spend. One of the best ways to start is by free techniques.

Examples of commonly used free strategies are;

Article writing

Video creation

Word of mouth

Now that you have your list, divide it into two categories of paid methods and free ones. Compare the paid strategies and the free ones with your budget taking into account the amount of time you can spare towards your business daily. This way, it’ll be easier to do away with the costly strategies or the ones which may take too much time to execute.

11. Do More Research!

After narrowing down your choices, choose one approach to online marketing, and research more on it.

Gather as much information as possible on its implementation and how to track results. Remember, your goal here is first to comprehend how the strategy works then later move on to others on your list. Once done exploring all the business promoting methods, pick one that’s likely to offer the best results for your business.

12. Test and Analyze the Results

Whether your results are good or bad from your initial testing, be flexible and ready to lose some cash to attain more data.

With time, you’ll begin to paint a clear picture of your success using the results of your initial testing. Moreover, be ready to stretch your budget to build on the right online marketing approach for your business. Remember, your success will depend on how excellently you test your drive using different platforms and target audiences.

Take away

Some of the best marketing techniques may not work for your venture, target market, or product. So, follow the above steps in order to pick the right approach to online marketing for your business. One that will match your budget and website marketing needs.

By so doing, you’ll be likely to find the right clients for your product and service.

#the right marketing strategy #online marketing #approach to online marketing

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jakelace · 6 years

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2017 IN FILM - PART 1 (84-71)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year again! No, not Christmas. It’s Awards Season, my friends. The time of year where we look back at the films that graced cinemas over the calendar year, and where, just like last year, I tell you all about every new movie I saw in that time. With the announcement of the Academy Awards nominees I’ve decided that we’ll begin our journey today with the worst of the worst that 2017 had to offer. Over the course of the year I saw 84 films. Some were good, some were bad, and still others had Emoji in the title, so without any further ado, my ranked list of every 2017 movie I’ve seen.

84. The Emoji Movie

“We’re number two! We’re number two!”

The Emoji Movie, despite being at the bottom of my rankings, is not the worst movie of 2017. That’s because this ninety minute misstep isn’t a film, it’s an advertisement. While it might seem silly to make such a distinction (there is a plot that actually makes a shred of sense, it’s at least feature length, etc.), it’s incredibly hard to get past just how often this advertisement detours from its central plot just to make a cheap and out of touch product placement for an outdated app like Candy Crush. The Emoji Movie’s greatest offense, however, is when it tries to capitalize on the inherent meme culture that surrounded itself from the pre-production stage by creating a new dance called ‘The Emoji Pop’, that I am absolutely certain they thought was going to catch on with the youth of the world. Sony Pictures Animation’s latest cash-grab is an unoriginal, unfunny, and morally questionable mess. At least the animation is decent?

83. Unforgettable

“There was a time when I thought we were on the road to getting back together...but then he met you.”

Here it is, my lowest rated film of 2017! While a lot of times a movie can be bad for being incoherent, unoriginal, or offensive, I often say that the worst sin a film can commit is being boring. Unforgettable commits that sin. While I can admire Rosario Dawson’s commitment to this truly awful retread of the “crazy ex-wife” trope that was popularized by every Lifetime movie ever, its Katherine Heigl’s performance that makes the film somewhat endurable. It’s over the top in all of the best “so bad it’s good” ways. After thirty minutes of being bored out of my mind I found the best way to get through this cinematic torture was to watch for the next hilariously overacted bit of poorly written dialogue that would come out of Heigl’s mouth. In the end though, you can’t blame her for trying to make the best out of such a predictable and horribly paced film. Unfortunately it would seem that Unforgettable is by far the most forgettable film of 2017.

82. Phoenix Forgotten

“I just want to apologize to Mike's mom, Josh's mom, and my mom. And I'm sorry to everyone.”

Do you remember Phoenix Forgotten? No? Neither do I...yes I know that’s two jokes about forgettable movies with some form of ‘forget’ in the title in a row, but I just couldn’t help myself. Just like the screenwriters for this film couldn’t help themselves from stealing every plot point in the movie from not only the 1999 horror classic The Blair Witch Project, but also taking several ideas from last year’s sequel; Blair Witch. It’s absolutely shameless how little originality can be found within the film’s eighty minute runtime. The film follows three college high-school students lost in the woods desert, searching for a witch aliens who terrorize a town, while footage from the present day follows the protagonist’s brother sister who is still haunted by the sudden disappearance of their sibling. All of this blatant plagiarism wouldn’t have even been so bad had the movie at least been decent, but who needs to make a good film when you can just ride on the coat tails of a horror film that is already beloved? No other release this year sparked such a passionately heated response from me which shocks myself the most considering I’m not even that big of a fan of The Blair Witch Project in the first place! Oh well...at least they don’t fight about a map in this one...or did they?

81. The Bye Bye Man

“Don’t think it! Don’t say it!”

If Phoenix Forgotten is horrible for being unoriginal, then The Bye Bye Man is horrible for being completely and laughably incompetent in every way. The entire film is based on the premise that if you say or think his name then he will come and...make you go bye-bye? The rules are completely unclear, and that’s a huge part of the problem. The threat of the Bye Bye Man (I seriously hate that name) is hindered by the fact that it’s impossible to understand what his powers are. Sometimes he can make our poorly acted main characters see things that aren’t really there. Sometimes he can possess them. Sometimes he can...make them impotent? Who encouraged the thought that that would be a good thing to include in their supernatural horror film? Like, I get it, erectile dysfunction is a serious and scary thing that affects more than three million American men every year, but it’s not really the kind of fear I’m looking for in a movie called The Bye Bye Man. I’d continue to discuss this one, but, I mean, it’s all in the name. Also in this scene from the movie. Enjoy.

80. Amityville: The Awakening

“God gave up on us, sweetheart...”

I had been watching the post-production and release of this film very closely for years before it was eventually released this past October. While that might not seem too out of the ordinary, you have to keep in mind that this was filmed in 2014. That is three years of reshoots and pushed back releases. However, when all seemed bleak and I thought I might never get the chance to watch what was sure to be a glorious train wreck, the film was released to own for free on the Google Play store. However, even with my rock bottom expectations, I was still disappointed by Amityville: The Awakening. While I was expecting something laughably bad, what I got was an end product that was more boring than anything else. And while I haven’t seen any of the other films in the Amityville franchise, I can’t help but feel contempt for its continued use of a real family’s suffering all in the name of making money. I guess it’s a good thing this one only made $742 dollars on its opening weekend then, yeah?

79. Wish Upon

“Hold up, you dig on multiverses?”

One shot. I liked one shot in this entire movie. Everything else is lazily written drivel. It’s not all that hard to get me on board for a movie with Final Destination style deaths. I love how silly and over-the-top those films are, and I’ve always thought that bringing that style of Rube Goldberg death traps into more films could provide for entertaining new ideas. This movie has none of that. Its biggest offenses, however, come when it also tries to tackle the well-worn “be careful what you wish for” message. Besides the weird moment where Joey King’s character wishes that her dad would become cooler which then in turn leads to her friend wanting to to sleep with him, the moral of the story is so trite at this point that even adding a horror element into the mix can’t save this from being nothing but bland. Looks like the director should have wished for a better movie.

78. Rings

“There's a mark on your hand. It says ‘rebirth’.”

If Rings was an attempt to bring the horror franchise into modern technology by presenting Samara’s video as a metaphorical computer virus, or even commenting on the state of internet content as a whole, then this movie completely fails on that front. Seriously, the only time this movie even brings that aspect into play is in the last two minutes of the film. No joke. Everything else up to that point is a senseless retread of the previous two American films in the franchise. On top of that, it is easy to tell that Rings fell victim to countless reshoots and rewrites. There is no finer example of that than the fact that this film has two cold opens. It’s almost as though they had the plane cold open (the one from all of the trailers) from a previous version of the movie and thought it was just so good that they couldn’t leave it on the cutting room floor. If it were up to me I would have left the entire film on the cutting room floor.

77. The Mummy

“Sometimes it does take a monster to fight a monster.”

How do you kill an entire cinematic universe in one fell swoop? Ask The Mummy. Sure, that might be a low blow, but The Mummy is one of the most sorry excuses for a blockbuster I’ve ever seen. When the entire conflict of your entire supernatural action flick can be boiled down to ‘who would Tom Cruise rather sleep with? A mummy or an alive woman’ you know you went wrong somewhere down the line. The worst part about this is that there are moments where you can see where they’re coming from and what they’re trying to accomplish, but they just can’t seem to make any logical sense of it. Scenes are often rushed or dragged on for far too long and it becomes clear that nobody involved had any grasp on how a film should be paced...or written...or acted...or made at all.

76. Rock Dog

“Dad, I’ve decided to become a musician.”

I barely remember this movie. There is a dog. He shoots lasers out of his hands (not kidding). He rocks I’m guessing. I know I watched this, but everything about it was so generic and well-worn that I felt like I had seen this before, just done a lot better. I had never seen laser dog hands before though. Sure the moral about following your dreams and standing up for what you believe in is good, but when it comes to children’s entertainment you can do so much better. Unless you want to see a dog shoot lasers out of his hands. This movie has got you covered on that.

75. Fist Fight

“Teachers can’t fight!”

I wanted to really enjoy Fist Fight. It’s filled to the brim with actors I find quite funny, like Charlie Day, Jillian Bell, and Kumail Nanjiani, but it’s hard for these comedic talents to find anything to work with when the plot for the film is so bare-bones. Outside of the original comedic value in thinking of teachers fist fighting in the schoolyard, it’s hard to find much else to do with that premise. Nothing speaks more to the failure of this film than the fact that I didn’t laugh even once. The story is dumb, the jokes are played out, and worst of all the director wastes some of the best comedic actors in the industry on a movie that barely even functions.

74. Split

“Someone's coming for you, and you're not gonna like it.”

Controversial Opinion Alert! When I first saw Split I felt like I was alone on my island of disapproval of this film. The world seemed to be completely sold on M. Night Shyamalan’s most recent directorial endeavor, but something just felt off to me about it. It took me a few months and discussions with my friend Aaron when he finally cracked the case wide open; while everyone was expecting the film to vilify individuals with mental illness, the exact opposite comes true in the final act. Split goes so far as to glorify mental illness and being ‘broken’ in a way that feels unbelievably gross to me. If you want to read more of my thoughts about the exposition-heavy writing side of the film you can do so here, but I can’t even begin to explain how horrible of a message this is, so let’s just move on, shall we?

73. Sandy Wexler

“You can’t stop a shooting star, scientists have proven this.”

If it weren’t for its ungodly long runtime and constant detours into meaningless garbage, Sandy Wexler might actually be alright. In fact, this film does something that an Adam Sandler film hasn’t done for a very long time: it made me laugh. Sure it was just once and every other attempt at humor is just as overdone and juvenile as anything else he’s made, but a small step in the right direction is still a step. Last year for my ‘year in review’ I covered another Adam Sandler flick called The Do-Over, and in that mini review I called Sandler’s recent string of films a downward spiral in quality and ability. Now, if that was true, then Sandy Wexler is the first step towards getting out of that creative hole he’s found himself in. What can I say? I’m an optimist.

72. Despicable Me 3

“You told me my father died of disappointment the day I was born!”

Despicable Three (yes I’m calling it that and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me) is the same brand of gutter trash we’ve come to expect from Illumination Studios. The story is nonsensical, the animation is sinfully simplistic, and the Minions...my god...the Minions. Once again, I have to ask how Illumination Studios have become so popular with American audiences? I truly do not understand. Every character, every plot line, every joke feels focus tested to death. There is no originality in any of these frames. The heart and soul of the original is gone and replaced with Minions merchandise. Every decision seems to be based around how merchandisable they can make every second of their sensory overloading piece of garbage they have the nerve to call a film. I hate Despicable Three and everything it stands for. That being said, I love hearing Trey Parker’s voice come out of a children’s cartoon.

71. The Circle

“Knowing is good, but knowing everything is better.”

I love how much I hate The Circle. If you’re looking for a basic description of what this YA fiction masterpiece in preaching is all about, then imagine Black Mirror, but remove all of the subtlety and nuance about a world run by tech and replace it with a caveman grunting “technology bad.” There you have it, a screenplay worthy of Tom Hanks and Emma Watson’s time and talent. Just kidding. Why would they ever agree to this? Maybe they too hate the dangers of social media so much that they can look past all the good it can do. The worst part about it all though is that the film constantly insults the intelligence of its audience by claiming that there is no healthy middle ground to take between being completely obsessed with technology and living off the grid entirely. Which reminds me? Why are you reading this online? Go make weird deer antler ornaments or something you tech junkie.

That’s all for today, but join me tomorrow as I cover three bombastic blockbusters, two unsettlingly bad thrillers, and one movie about a baby that’s also a boss...no hints.

#the emoji movie #Unforgettable #Phoenix Forgotten #The Bye Bye Man #amityville the awakening #Wish Upon #rings #The Mummy #Rock Dog #Fist Fight #Split #Sandy Wexler #Despicable Me 3 #The Circle

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trivia-95 · 4 years

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Bloom: Part 1 || The Audition

|| Summary || At one point in time, Min Yoongi had been a member of rising k-pop group BTS. However, life happened and now he finds himself behind the scenes as a producer for BigHit. When a new solo artist is brought on at BigHit,his life gets even more complicated.

|| Pairing || Yoongi x OC

|| Genre || idol!au, slowburn, Fluff

|| Masterlist ||

“Ah, this is so awkward.”

A small, platinum blonde girl sat in front of her computer. She was messing with the microphone that hung slightly to the side of her face. Her face scrunched up in concentration as she attempted to bring it to the right height. She was seated in a dark room; there was a sofa behind her. Otherwise, the room was completely bare. Boxes lined the walls, making the already small room look even smaller.

“Maybe I should have fixed this before I started recording.”

The wire glasses that sat on the bridge of her small nose began to slide down and she awkwardly shook her head backwards to try and get them back into the right place without having to take her hands from the mic. Her tongue stuck out between her teeth as she fumbled with technology. When she was satisfied with its position, she smiled and lent back into her chair. She paused for a minute and looked around the room, as if trying to figure out what to do next.

“Oh, guitar.” Two tiny hands pushed up out of the sleeves that dwarfed her arms. She swiveled in her chair and reached down. After a moment of rummaging, she lent back up holding a guitar. She swiveled back to face the mic that was still recording. “I’ll have to edit all this extra time out.”

A soft melody began as her fingers strummed over the guitar strings. She raised her head towards the microphone and began to sing.

[3 Weeks earlier.]

“Please look forward and smile.”

The photographer pointed towards the lens and held up a finger, signaling he was ready. The girl he was photographing was seated awkwardly on a stool, attempting what she hoped was a warm, confident smile. To be honest, it was hard to smile at all after just having arrived off a 13-hour plane ride.

“Okay, Left please.” The girl did as directed and turned to her left, awkwardly rotating on the stool as she did so. “Right, now.” Part of her wanted to laugh at how lifelessly the photographer was giving her instructions and how she was responding in kind. However, the laugh never materialized. Instead, she continued to sit on the stool forcing a smile.The trip from her father’s family home had been long and she was surprised she even had the energy to be photographed at the moment.

“Okay, I’ll go notify the others that you are ready.” The photographer, who was the only person she had really spoken with since arriving in the country, pressed some buttons on his camera before walking out of the room.

She was vaguely aware that she was still being filmed. The red dot on the camera was blinking at her ferociously. However, she allowed herself a moment of rest and closed her eyes, thinking about the series of events that brought her to this point.

When she had told her parents she wanted to move to Korea and become an idol, her parents had been confused. It wasn’t the typical choice for someone to make when they were on pace to graduate from a top American university. However, her entire life had been a bit strange, so her parents weren’t very surprised by the choice their daughter made.They were the sort of parents who were supportive of everything she did. When she made the decision to become a musician, they did everything they could to help her. That being said, they mostly just helped her buy a camera and microphone for her computer.

As well as continuously provided her with their brand of love and support.

That purchase and support, though, had helped land her here: in a practice room, getting ready to audition for one of the biggest companies in the korean entertainment industry. When the email had first come through inviting her to audition, she had thought it was spam. It wasn’t until she received the follow up call that she realized what was happening. It took a few moments for the shock of the invitation to wear off for her to realize she was also an entire continent away from her audition location. Another reason why her life was anything but ordinary

Being an idol itself wasn’t necessarily her dream. She wasn’t a talented rapper or a dancer: two major things expected of most idol trainees. Her looks weren’t traditional for an idol either. While there was an asian look about her, there was also a distinctly foreign look as well. It had led many people to question her ethnicity over the years and made her school years pretty difficult.

What she really wanted, more than anything, was to be a singer-songwriter.

The door to the room opened, her eyes along with it. The photographer returned to the room, leading a group of four men behind him. She bowed to the men, knowing the custom was expected even though they were in America. The men silently acknowledged her before taking seats behind a table that was set up slightly behind the camera.

“Miss Naree Rosenthal,” the man who was seated at the center of the table addressed her directly while looking down at a file in front of him, “Can I speak with you in Korean? I see you have it listed under languages.”

Naree straightened her back at his attention before nodding. His english had been easy enough for her to understand, despite his slip over pronouncing her last name.

“Wonderful.” He closed the file in front of him before looking up at her. “We received your video audition, as well as the demos you composed.” Naree gripped at the shirt she was wearing, attempting to stay calm under the men’s gaze.

“They were quite impressive.” The man had spoken the words clearly and slowly, something she was grateful for. “Not many people send in original work.”

“Thank you,” Naree said softly, before clearing her throat. Each word came from her mouth slowly, as she took care to choose and pronounce them. “I appreciate your offer for me to audition in person.”

She raised her head and looked between the men. Besides the man that was currently speaking, only one other man was looking at her with interest. The other two merely flipped through her file half-heartedly.

“Yes, we received your information right as open auditions were closing. We felt you would make an interesting applicant.” He gestured towards the men directly to his left and right--the ones who seemed disinterested. “These men have sat in on every other audition with me; they assist with dancing and producing.”

Then he gestured towards the man seated at the end of the table, who was looking at Naree with unwavering interest. “And this is a good friend of mine who is visiting. He asked if he could sit in on the audition.”

The man said something after that last sentence, but he spoke too quickly for Naree to really understand what he had said. After a moment of silence, she realized they were waiting on her and she bowed again, thanking them for their time. Before the audition, her mother had reminded her of several korean customs and her number one rule was: when in doubt, bow.

“Right,” He cleared his throat, “Since you’re mainly a singer, let’s begin with that.”

“Can I grab my guitar?”

The man nodded. “Please do; I’m interested to see what you perform for us.”

Naree quickly moved to the corner of the room where she had placed her guitar case. The case was very tattered looking due to the numerous plane rides it had been subjugated to. For a moment, she slightly regretted not buying a new case before coming to the audition.

Opening the case, she took a deep breath for a moment before pulling out the instrument inside. The guitar itself was in good shape, despite it being a gift when she had turned thirteen. Over the past seven years she had spent with the guitar, the instrument had transformed itself into something of a comforting friend to her. It was her lucky charm.

Once she was back in her spot in the center of the room, she strummed the guitar for a moment to make sure it was in tune. She also cleared her throat to help calm her nerves. Once she felt ready, Naree looked up at the men in front of her and began to strum.

Her main selling point for this audition was her abilities as a singer-songwriter; so the majority of her chances to pass the audition depended on this next moment. The song she began to play was one she had written a few years ago.

It was one she had sung plenty of times and felt comfortable with. Most people who auditioned picked songs by idols from the company they were auditioning for; she hoped this would set her apart.

She closed her eyes and began to sing.

I don't know yet, but when I look at you

I feel like a little bit sad at this moment

I don't know how many things you want to say

What you want to hear

Love, love, love, love me in my heart

I want to walk this road with you forever

And you, you, because of you

My everything is filled with you

My love

“Stop,” the man who was seated to the right of the man in the middle, the producer, said. Naree stopped singing as soon as she heard the word, trying to hide the dread that was creeping up throughout her body. She hadn’t even gotten past the first chorus. Was the audition already over?

“What song is this? I don’t recognize it.” The man who had stopped her leant forward and crossed his arms as they leant against the table.

“Oh, you wouldn’t.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how poorly she spoke them. “I mean, I wrote it.” She paused and bit her lip, looking across the faces of the men judging her. “Is there a problem?”

“What language did you originally write it in? The grammar is very poor.” He ‘tsk’ed as he said the words.

Naree’s eyes widened at how directly he was calling her out. She had figured they would want her to sing in Korean, so she had spent a long time working on translating her song. Had she not done as good a job as her mom made it seem? She should have paid more attention when her grandmother tried to teach her.

“English,” the word came out as a whisper. The man nodded before turning to those sitting beside him and whispering. She had been so confident with her song. Was it all pointless?

The men turned back to her once they finished consulting. “Sing it again. In English.”

Naree nodded before doing as they asked. With nervous fingers, she began to strum her guitar once more before singing from the beginning of the song. She got to the same spot in the song before they stopped her.

“That’s enough.” The same man cut her off without even looking up at her from his notepad, where he was quickly scribbling down notes. On instinct, Naree took her bottom lip between her teeth.

The man in the middle offered her a slight smile. “Can you rap? I know it isn’t your specialty, but we’d like to see you try.”

Naree’s eyes widened slightly but she found herself nodding halfheartedly. Rapping was something she only did inside her bedroom in front of her mirror, with a hairbrush for her mic. Her mother hadn’t even heard her rap before. “Go when ready.”

Naree nodded again, frantically trying to think of a song she could rap well enough as to not embarrass herself. Honestly, she should have just said no. She knew a lot of idols rapped, but she was auditioning as a singer. At the very least, she had been expecting to be asked to dance. Not rap.

Seconds ticked by as she tried to think of a song to rap, where she knew she wouldn’t mess up the lyrics. Automatically, that took most K-Pop songs out of contention. The only song that came to mind was Ice Ice Baby.

The summer before her freshman year of college she had memorized the entire song due to intense boredom and a lack of social interaction. Also because she wanted to work on her English, not that this song really helped with that much.

Naree signalled that she was ready, praying to herself that they wouldn’t be insulted by the song she had settled on. She drew in a sharp breath before starting the song:

“Alright stop, collaborate and listen. Ice is back with a brand new invention. Something grabs a hold of me tightly, flowin’ like a harpoon daily and nightly.”

The producer threw a hand over his face and looked down at the table as she continued. His face went red--with rage or laughter, Naree wasn’t sure. The dancer stared at her as she continued with a bewildered look, his mouth slightly slack.

However, the man at the end of the table was full-on smiling and nodding his head.

Naree continued on with the song, swaying to the beat she created with her words. It wasn’t the most eloquent performance, but she was proud of the fact that she didn’t stumble over any of the lyrics.

“Okay, enough.” The producer stopped her once again; this time, she had gotten about a minute into the song. His hand was still over his face, massaging his temples. He said something under his breath in korean that Naree couldn’t hear.

The other three were looking at her. Everything was silent for a moment before the main judge spoke.

“I don’t think anyone has ever rapped Vanilla Ice for us before.” He chuckled, causing Naree to blush and look down before nodding and bowing. “Thank you for obliging us.”

There was another round of whispering between themselves before they spoke up again. “We’d like you to dance now. I’m assuming you prepared a song?”

This time it was the dancer who addressed her. His tone was laced with contempt, obviously expecting her to do something like the YMCA. She had to repress the urge to roll her eyes at the tone they were addressing her with. No matter how nervous she was, she still found it hard to ignore blatant rudeness.

“Yes, I’ve got music.” Naree fumbled with her phone, before finding the song she had prepared. The photographer stepped forward and took her phone, before hooking it up to the aux cord. The dancer gave a countdown and the music started.

If there was one thing Naree was more uncomfortable with than rapping, it was dancing. However, as Block B’s Shall We Dance blasted through the speakers, she felt more comfortable than she was a moment ago. The judges obviously weren’t expecting the choice, as their eyes widened with recognition.

It was a song she and her friends had listened to so often when it first came out that they knew it by heart. They had even performed the choreography for a talent show, which was the main reason she had settled on it for her audition.

She thought back to the moves she and her friends had practiced for hours on end. After how awkward the rap had been, she felt like she was able to express herself a little more freely now. It wasn’t the hardest song to dance to, but it was most likely not what they expected a girl to dance along with. By the time the chorus came around, she noticed that the men had their attention tied to her.

Feeling bold, she added some extra sway to her hips as she moved. For the ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ part of the song she expertly moved her limbs to the beat--like any good Block B fangirl would do. She continued to mimic the moves the boys did in the video before the music faded.

“Your dancing needs work, but it wasn’t bad.” The dancer said, nodding slightly. “You had more pluck than I was expecting, especially after that rap.” He had whispered the last part but she heard it. She offered a small smile in response to his words, hoping it didn’t look like a scowl.

“I found it entertaining,” the man seated at the end of the table finally spoke up. He grinned at her from behind his glasses. “That’s the most important part.” The others nodded slightly as they continued writing down notes.

Another long pause filled the room. Once the men finished their notes, they looked up to her again. “You aren’t the typical choice for an idol,” the man in the center stated. “You don’t look like a K-Pop Idol. Your korean isn’t very good. Neither is your rapping. The dancing was okay, but will still need work.”

With every word he spoke, Naree could feel the knife digging deeper and deeper into her stomach. “You’re also older than even some of our already debuted idols.”

“Those things will make time as a trainee near impossible.” The producer tacked on to the end, looking at her with a penetrating gaze.

Naree simply nodded and looked down. What he had said wasn’t anything she hadn’t anticipated. It was very similar to what she had been told by the american labels as well. She didn’t have the right look. Her english wasn’t good enough. They already had one foreigner signed to their label and didn’t need another. She had already heard it all.

“Why do you want to be an idol?” She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. The tears had been slowly building as she stared at the floor. She couldn’t--wouldn’t--let these men see her like this. After a moment she looked back up. These men were trying to degrade her and her dream. She could feel the fire blazing in her eyes.

“I don’t want to be an idol. I want to be a songwriter who performs their songs.” She stated, speaking slowly as she tried to make sure to use the correct vocabulary. The man at the end of the table, with the glasses, seemed to lean in with interest at her words.

“If that means becoming an idol to do so, I will.” Her soft-spoken words came across as anything but. She was tired of people in this industry discriminating against things she couldn’t control.

The man in charge nodded, before he turned to the men on either side of him. They spoke for a moment in quiet whispers. Naree stood silently as they did so, wringing her fingers. They sure liked to whisper, she thought.

“We will contact you in the following days about the results of your audition.” The men closed their notepads and began to gather their things. “This isn’t American Idol. You don’t get an automatic ticket to Seoul.” He chuckled at his joke, while Naree barely managed a fake smile.

She wasn’t sure if he was mocking her or not, but she was leaning towards the former. They continued packing up before leaving the room without another word.

Well, all of them except one man.

She had felt confident despite her nervous nature at the beginning of the audition. However, it had gone just about as well as all the others. Maybe her friends were right: she didn’t necessarily need to sign to a label to release her music. There was always using soundcloud as a side gig while she worked a normal 9-5 to support herself.

The thought made her want to gag.

Naree moved to the corner of the room where her things were. She made sure to unplug her phone from the aux cord and tossed it into her bag. Then she began to pack up her guitar. She hadn’t even noticed the one man had stayed behind.

He watched as the young girl packed up her things. The audition had been interesting, that was for sure. In his time sitting in on and judging auditions, there were only seven that really stood out to him. This girl’s audition was about to make that eight. When she finished packing up, she stood and turned in his direction. He chuckled slightly as she jumped upon spotting him.

“I don’t think my colleague introduced us properly,” he bowed slightly. “My name is Bang Si-Hyuk.”

Links:

Masterlist

Song

Dance

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emjenenla · 6 years

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What You Don’t Know... [A White Cat Fanfiction]

Title: What You Don’t Know…

Author: Emjen Enla (Fanfiction)/emjen_enla (Wattpad)/emjenenla (Tumblr)

Teaser: …will probably come back and get you at some point. Or an AU where Philip and Barron are trying to protect Cassel not use him, because that’s all I wanted from this book. Written without reading Red Glove and Black Heart.

Rating: PG-13/T

Canon/Timeline: AU, probably set earlier than White Cat is in mainstream canon

Dominant Characters: Philip Sharpe, Barron Sharpe, Cassel Sharpe, Anton Zacharov, mentions of various other characters

Pairings: Philip/Maura, perhaps VERY subtle undertones of Cassel/Lila if you squint

Warnings: some violence; pretty much everyone is intentionally OOC because this AU wouldn’t work if they were all in character

Notes:

-Two questions: 1. Does anyone remember what the name of Philip and Maura’s son is? 2. What kind of worker is Anton?

Disclaimer: I don’t own White Cat by Holly Black or Advil.

“Excuse me,” the teenage boy said to the guard. “Is this the way to the bathroom?”

Philip Sharpe peaked around a corner to get a better look. His younger brother, Cassel, stood before the guard, his posture rumpled and anxious, his gloved hands picking at his sleeves. He was almost unrecognizable, and Philip couldn’t help but be impressed. Since Cassel wasn’t a worker, it was too easy to write him off as useless, but Cassel was one of the best con-artists Philip had ever met. It was almost terrifying.

“How did you get back here, kid?” the guard asked. “This is a restricted area.”

“He’s going to blow it,” Anton Zacharov grumbled from behind Philip. “We should have had Barron do this part. He’s the luck worker.”

“Cassel can do it just fine,” Barron spoke up from the back of the group.

“I’m looking for the bathroom,” Cassel was saying to the guard. There was a touch of a childish whine in his voice that didn’t sound anything like Philip’s brother. The kid was an amazing actor. “My stomach doesn’t feel good. I must have eaten something bad.” He wrapped his arms around his middle and hunched over, looking decidedly pathetic.

“Oh,” the guard said eyes darting around nervously. He cared more about not having to clean up vomit than the rules, just as Cassel had said he would. There was a reason they’d picked this particular guard. “Well, there’s a men’s room this way. Come on.” His arms twitched like he was considering put a hand on Cassel’s back to guide him and then stopped for fear that Cassel had the stomach flu or something.

The guard lead Cassel down the hall. Philip watched as they stepped into one of the poorly designed hall’s many security camera blind spots. The instant they were out of sight of the cameras, Cassel straightened up and lunged at the guard, slamming him into the door of a janitor’s closet and holding him in place with a forearm across the throat.

Philip was moving instantly. He darted down the hall, sticking to the blind spots and reached Cassel and the guard. The guard’s eyes got big when he saw Philip’s fake guard uniform. Philip grinned at him in a very specific, creepy “worker-ish” way he’d learned from Mom and pressed an index finger against the guard’s cheek. He felt skin through the slit he’d cut in the fingertips of his gloves and sent a pulse through the man’s nervous system that overloaded it and dropped him into instant unconsciousness.

Cassel stepped back and let the guard drop to the floor. “How long will he be out?” he asked.

“Two hours, maybe three,” Philip knelt down next to the guard and began removing his security clearance card, ID and keys from the various loops and pockets of the uniform. “Depends on a number of factors: age, health, family history. Plus, some people are just more resilient than others.”

Cassel shook his head. “Just asked for a number, Philip; didn’t need the lesson.”

Philip couldn’t keep from smiling. “Whatever.”

He and Cassel quickly tied the man up and stuffed him into the janitor’s closet. They made their way back to Anton and Barron by way of the blind spots. Then Cassel stripped off the hoodie and sweatpants he’d been wearing to reveal the guard’s uniform underneath. They stuffed his old clothes into the small backpack Barron was carrying. Now all three Sharpe brothers were in guard uniforms. Anton was in a suit.

“You actually didn’t mess that up,” Anton said, condescending. “Amazing.”

Cassel’s face turned red and he opened his mouth to retort, but Barron broke in, “We should get moving. We are on a schedule here.”

“Yes,” Philip agreed. “We don’t have time for this squabbling.”

“You’re not in charge here, Sharpe,” Anton growled, and Philip was once again left wondering why he’d bothered putting up with Anton all these years. His life would have considerably less condescension if he’d simply found a way to separate himself from Anton when they’d been ten.

“We should get moving,” Anton went on like Philip and Barron hadn’t just suggested that. “Turner won’t be here all night.”

Abraham Turner was a physicality worker who had recently tried to get out of his contract with the Zacharovs by appealing to the government for a full pardon in return for all the information he had on the Zacharovs. Tonight, was the night that Turner was supposed to meet with several members of the Licensed Minority Division to hand over the information. Obviously, that meeting couldn’t be allowed to happen so Philip, Barron, Cassel and Anton had been sent to make sure Turner wouldn’t be talking to anyone.

Cassel normally wouldn’t be helping on a job like this. Because he wasn’t a worker he couldn’t be a part of Zacharov’s gang in all real capacity, but Philip and Barron sometimes let him help on smaller jobs. The trick had always been keeping Zacharov’s daughter, Lila, from finding out, especially as it became increasingly difficult to convince Cassel not to tell her about it.

Still, Cassel was here tonight with Zacharov’s blessing. Because Turner had been a longtime member of the gang, he knew the faces of just about any agent who could be sent after him. That was where Cassel came in handy. Since Cassel wasn’t a worker and not a member, no one besides Anton, Lila, Zacharov and a few others had ever seen him. Most people weren’t even aware that Mom had three sons. Cassel’s face was unknown to Turner, but he was still close enough to the Zacharov family that his loyalty was ensured. He was the perfect person to lead Turner into the trap Anton was setting for him.

They walked quickly but not too quickly through the halls of the convention center. The LMD had set Turner up with a ticket to the evening gala being held here tonight. The Sharpe brothers and Anton didn’t have tickets at all, but the guard’s ID and security cards quickly got them through locked doors and into the part of the building where the gala was being held. They marched through the halls until they reached a small conference room without any observation windows that they’d picked as the perfect place for the job.

“Get on your part of the mission,” Anton told Cassel. “And if you mess up; I’ll have your hide.”

Cassel rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”

He walked away leaving Anton visibly fuming at the implication that he was worried. Barron snorted, and Anton whirled on him. “What are you laughing at?”

Barron held up his hands. “Nothing. Just clearing my throat.”

Anton looked like he wanted to strange Barron, but Philip stepped in. “Let’s get inside before someone starts wondering why we’re just standing out here,” he suggested.

Anton nodded sharply and pushed his way into the conference room. Philip and Barron followed. The room was had boring beige walls decorated with pristine whiteboards on three walls. A potted plant that came up to Philip’s shoulders stood next to the door and a modern table filled the room surrounded by chairs. Anton strode across the room and settled himself into the chair at the head of the table. He arranged himself in the chair in a way so much like a villain in a movie that it was somewhere between funny and pathetic. “Barron, stand in that corner,” he motioned to his left. “Philip, over there,” another gesture to the right corner.

It was infuriating to be bossed around by Anton like Philip and Barron were just hired muscle with no brains of their own, but there wasn’t a whole lot that could be done about it. Philip took his place in the corner and glanced across the room at Barron who rolled his eyes with a small smile on his face, all in all looking considerably more good-natured about the whole situation.

They waited for almost ten minutes for Cassel to return with Turner. Anton drummed his fingers on the tabletop, Philip fought to keep his foot from tapping. “That kid’s going to blow it,” Anton announced.

“He’ll be fine,” Barron soothed. “Just give him a few more minutes before you start panicking.”

Before Anton could get angry the doorknob rattled and they had half a second to pull themselves together before the door opened and Cassel ushered Turner inside.

Turner took two steps into the room before he caught sight of Anton. He jumped and turned towards the door to escape, but Cassel had already entered the room and closed the door. He stood against it with his hand on the handle, staring impassively at Turner.

“You-” Turner spat. “You-You-” he didn’t have time to come up with something to something to say because Anton cleared his throat.

“Well, Turner, it appears this is the end of the line,” Anton said. “You really should have realized the LMD couldn’t protect you from us.”

“I’m-” Turner stammered, Philip could see him struggling to find an out. “This is all for a job. I’m going to infiltrate the LMD and-”

Anton held up a hand. “Please,” he said. “Save your breath. No one’s going to believe that.”

Turner began to say something, but Anton spoke over him, “I really don’t feel like drawing this out. Abraham Turner, you’re found guilty of treason to the Zacharov family, your execution will happen immediately. Philip.”

Philip took a quiet breath and stepped forward. Turner’s eyes went wide. He tried to back away, but almost instantly Barron and Cassel where on either side of him holding his arms, careful not to touch any skin. Turner writhed trying to escape, but they held his fast as Philip crossed the room. He moved slowly; part of the punishment was in the waiting.

“Please…” Turner begged, a quiet, pathetic whimper from a man who had once been a worker for Zacharov.

Philip didn’t even bother responding. He wrapped his fingers around Turner’s neck, pressing down until their skin came into contact through the slits of his gloves. He didn’t wait to act; Turner could work Philip right now too, skin on skin contact didn’t only run one way. Philip reached out with his power; it only took a second to overload and burn out Turner’s nervous system until it couldn’t possibly recover. Turner slumped in Barron and Cassel’s arms. Dead.

Philip took a step backward, and Barron and Cassel let Turner’s body collapse to the floor. Anton rose to his feet and crossed the room. The four of them stood over Turner’s body looking down. “Are you sure he’s dead?” Anton asked.

“No one can survive their entire nervous system getting burnt out,” Philip said.

“Then we should get out of here,” Anton said heading towards the door. “We’ll leave the body here to send a message to the-” He trailed off because he’d opened the door and an unfamiliar man in a suit was standing outside.

Anton’s mouth dropped open. He started to step back and began raising his hands, but the newcomer produced a nightstick and swung before Anton had a chance to defend himself. He dropped like a stone, either unconscious or close enough.

The suited man nudged Anton’s body with his foot and looked up. “Well, I assume this is Anton Zacharov,” he said. “And you two are Philip and Barron Sharpe,” he eyes focused on Cassel. “But who are you?”

Cassel didn’t respond, he just lunged at the man fists clenched. His attack got nowhere, because the suited man was much bigger than he was. Within seconds the man had Cassel in a headlock.

“Alright, enough of that,” the man said. “This will go so much more smoothly if you all just hand yourselves in.”

“You’re the LMD agent Turner was supposed to meet,” Philip said.

“Correct,” the agent said. “I’ve been keeping an eye on him since he arrived, and I couldn’t just let someone walk off with him without following.”

“Sorry,” Cassel croaked. The bare skin of the agent’s wrist was digging into Cassel’s bare throat and cutting off his air supply.

“It’s a pity you already managed to finish him off,” the agent continued, ignoring Cassel. “He had information that would be valuable to the LMD.”

“People don’t betray the Zacharov family and get away with it,” Philip replied. His eyes kept darting to the doorway behind the agent. That was the only way out of the conference room. They had to get past him.

The agent must have noticed his frantic planning because he smiled. “There’s no way out. The four of you will pay for your c-” his voice broke out into a panicked shriek.

Philip followed the man’s gaze and gasped. Where the agent’s bare skin had been touching Cassel, his wrist had turned into melted wax. Cassel pulled away and darted towards Philip and Barron. The agent dropped to the ground screaming and cradling the melty stump of his left arm.

There was only one type of worker who could what had just happened, but transformation workers were so rare they practically didn’t exist. Besides, Cassel wasn’t a worker at all, how had he…

Cassel looked up at Philip, a look a petrified shock on his face. He looked almost as scared as the agent did. Philip and Cassel stared at each other for one moment that lasted an eternity then Cassel’s face contorted and he dropped to the ground with a shriek, fingers digging to his scalp.

“Cassel?” Philip dropped down next to him. “Cassel, what’s wrong?”

Barron knelt as well, “Must be the blowback.”

“Are you sure?” Philip looked at him.

“Do I look like an expert on transformation workers to you?” Barron snapped.

They both looked back to the writhing form of their baby brother on the ground. A transformation worker. Philip tried to wrap his mind around the knowledge. Cassel couldn’t be a transformation worker. He was too old to develop powers. They would have known. Philip felt a little like he was going to pass out.

Cassel twisted on the ground and let out a horrible, animal-sounding moan. Barron jabbed Philip with his elbow. “Philip, do something.”

Philip shook himself and touched Cassel’s neck, feeling his brother’s skin through the slits in his gloves. He pulsed Cassel’s nervous system the same way he had to the guard he’d taken down in the hall and his little brother went still.

Philip sat back on his heels, ignoring the needle-like pains that were starting to the shoot through his bones—the beginning of his own blowback. It wasn’t bad now—sort of like growing pains, maybe—but he knew it would get worse, especially if he had to do more working today. “We need to get out of here,” he said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Barron said. “I’ll carry Cassel, you take this.” He took off the backpack and handed it over. “We might need you to have your hands free to work someone else.”

Philip pulled the backpack on and stood up. Barron maneuvered Cassel over his shoulders and stood as well. “Let’s move,” he said.

They stepped of the agent’s moaning body and out into the hallway. There were footsteps coming towards them. Philip turned his head to see a squad of security guards heading towards them. “What happened?” the lead guard asked. “We heard screaming.”

Philip took a steadying breath and sized the men up. There were a lot of them, but they didn’t appear armed with anything but nightsticks and tasers. No lethal weapons, which put them at a distinct disadvantage to Philip who had carried a lethal weapon inside of himself since the day he was born.

“A couple meetings didn’t go as planned,” he said in a careful voice. He probably didn’t sound as calm as Cassel could have in this situation, but it would have to be enough. As he spoke, he slowly, carefully peeled off his gloves; he’d need more than a couple slits of bare skin for this. “I think it’s mostly taken care of now.”

“We heard screaming,” the lead guard said. “Is someone hurt?”

“Nothing life threatening,” Philip finished pulling off the gloves and moved to put them in his pants pocket. “You don’t need to worry.”

The sudden bending of Philip’s arm caught the guard’s attention. He looked down to see Philip’s bare hands and his eyes widened. He looked back up. “Please put the gloves back on, sir,” he said shakily. “There’s other ways to solve this.” The rest of the guards began drawing their tasers and nightsticks.

Philip glanced at Barron who was standing just off his right shoulder. “Stay right behind me,” he ordered in an undertone. “Don’t fall behind.”

Barron nodded.

“Put the gloves back on and get on your knees!” the lead guard ordered leveling his taser at them.

Philip gave his best “I’m an evil worker” grin and charged across the space between him and the guards. He brushed his fingers along the lead guard’s neck and dropped him with a surge of bone melting pain. Two more guards were behind, and Philip took them down as well. He plowed through their midst, hands outstretched, fingers reaching for skin. He didn’t try to kill; that would take too much focus. He just needed to slow them down.

He burst through the guards with Barron hot on his heels. They pounded down the hall and skidded around a corner. They retraced their steps to the quieter parts of the building with the poorly placed security cameras. Once there they tried to stay to the blind spots as much as possible. Philip wasn’t sure how long they had before even more security was sent after them. They needed to vanish before that could happen.

They skidded around a corner into a long hallway. Philip clung to the wall under the security cameras until they were halfway down the hall. Then he slid to a stop and bent down next to a specific floor tile. The tiles were a little wider than Philip’s shoulders and this one had a little ridge in it to make it easier to lift. It still took Philip several precious seconds to pry it up because his hands were shaking with a mixture of fear and adrenalin. He finally got it up to reveal and access hatch underneath. This hatch swung downwards to reveal a dimly lit passage; one of the building’s many maintenance hallways.

“You first,” he told Barron.

Barron nodded and set Cassel on the floor. He climbed partway down the ladder attached to the hatch, then grabbed Cassel again and dragged him down as well.

Philip looked back. He could hear sounds of pursuit now. They only had seconds to finish vanishing. He scrambled partway down the ladder and dragged the tile back over the hole, blocking out the light from above and leaving only the dull orange light of the maintenance hallway. He closed the hatch and dropped down the rest of the way to the floor.

The maintenance hallway stretched on in either direction. This was the way they’d gotten into the building. “Let’s move,” Philip panted to Barron.

Barron nodded and took off down the hall. Philip moved to follow, but he only got two steps before the blowback that had been threatening since he’d knocked out Cassel hit with full force. Philip’s bones turned to fire, his muscled went limp. He sagged against the wall gasping in airless breaths through clenched teeth. You don’t have time for this! Get up!

“Philip?” he heard Barron’s voice as if from very far away. “Philip, we need to go.”

“Go ahead without me,” Philip said around a thick tongue and numb lips. “I’ll catch up.”

“No way,” a hand grabbed his elbow and dragged him upright. “Come on, Phil. You can do it. Let’s go.”

Philip didn’t remember much of the rest of the escape, only that Barron’s white-knuckle grip on his arm was the only thing keeping him upright and moving. He didn’t remember transferring from the maintained hallways to the sewer system. He didn’t remember trekking through the sewer for blocks and then climbing out into the parking garage where the car they’d driven here was parked. He didn’t come back to himself until Barron practically poured him into the passenger seat of the car.

Philip leaned against the seat painting from pain and the nausea that came with it. He heard other doors opening and closing as Barron dumped Cassel’s limp body onto the back seat and got behind the wheel.

“Pull your feet in and close your door,” Barron ordered as the car hummed to life. “We need to get out of here.”

Philip hadn’t even realized that his legs were still hanging out of the car. He pulled them in and managed to close the door even though his arms felt like overheated lead. Something was digging into his back and he realized that it was the backpack. He worked the straps off and let it fall to the floor by his feet. He squinted blurrily up at his brother as Barron leaned over and began undoing the buttons on Philip’s guard uniform shirt. “Don’t want to draw attention to us,” Philip muttered. “We don’t want them to make the connection between this car and us.”

“I know,” Barron said. He worked Philip’s arms out of the shirt and tossed it onto the floor in the back. Philip was wearing a normal tee-shirt under it for precisely this eventuality. He realized that Barron had already removed his shirt and a quick glance back confirmed that he’d done the same for Cassel.

Barron buckled Philip in and patted his shoulder. “We’ll be fine, Phil.”

Philip didn’t quite believe him. After all, they had just attacked a member of the LMD and a bunch of security guards. Plus, Anton…

Philip’s aching, struggling heart nearly stopped when he realized what they’d overlooked. The mistake they’d made that would make any trouble they’d have from the police look like a picnic. A mistake that might spell their bloody, painful deaths.

“Barron,” he breathed. “We left Anton.”

~~~~

The highway stretched on before them. Barron tried to keep his hands steady on the wheel and his mind focused. There were not words to describe how badly this job had gone, and that was even without thinking about Cassel…

Philip shifted in the passenger seat. “Barron,” he grunted. “Pull over. I’m going to be sick.”

Barron glanced over. Philip had the back of one hand pressed to his mouth. He’d actually managed to turn green, which Barron hadn’t known was possible. “One second,” Barron pulled over on the side of the highway probably a bit more dangerously than he should have and slammed on the brakes.

Philip swung the passenger door open and leaned out, puking into the gravel. Barron winced and looked away trying to give his brother some privacy. Philip’s blowbacks normally made him nauseous, so it wasn’t like Barron wasn’t used to waiting for his older brother to get ahold of the contents of his stomach, but it was still awkward.

Philip continued emptying his stomach for what seemed like forever. Finally, he wiped his mouth on the back of a hand and leaned back into his seat with an audible moan. His face was completely bloodless and soaked with sweat that plastered his hair to his forehead. The hand that he brought up to pinch the bridge of his nose was shaking, his other arm was wrapped tightly around his stomach.

“Phil?” Barron ventured.

“I feel horrible,” Philip said, his voice rough and acidy from vomiting. “This might be the worst blowback I’ve ever had.”

Barron’s stomach sank. Philip’s blowbacks gave him the symptoms of a bad flu mixed with chronic pain and could last anywhere from a couple hours to days. While Barron knew he shouldn’t exactly be surprised that this blowback was bad—he had never seen a physicality worker work their way through as many people at once as Philip had with those guards—they were going to have to deal with the fallout of all this, and it was looking like Barron would be the only one capable of doing so.

Barron dug around on the floor of the backseat and found a half empty water bottle. “Here,” he said offering it to Philip. “Rinse out your mouth.”

He waited while Philip swished the water around in his mouth and spat it onto the gravel outside. When he pulled back into the car and closed the door, Barron asked, “Are you okay to keep going?”

Philip sunk lower in his seat and his eyes closed. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely.

“Okay,” Barron turned off the hazards and put the car back into drive. “If you need to throw up again let me know.”

He drove for twenty or thirty minutes before he saw signs for a rest stop. He turned onto the ramp and slowed down. Philip—who Barron had hoped had dozed off—shifted and opened his eyes, squinting at the gas pumps and convenience store. “Why are we stopping?” he asked.

“We need some supplies,” Barron said. “We’ll get some Z-Up for your stomach and some Advil.”

Philip smiled vaguely. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “That sounds good.”

Barron pulled up into a parking spot a little way from everyone else and turned off the car. “I’ll go in,” he said. “You can wait here.”

“No, I’ll come in,” Philip said swallowing heavily. “I need to use the bathroom. Besides we need to decide what to do about-” he jerked his head at Cassel’s still, unconscious form in the backseat.

Barron looked back at his little brother. “How long is he going to be out?” he asked.

“Maybe another hour or so,” Philip said. “We’ll need to have a plan of action when he wakes up.”

Barron nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

Before they left the car, they had to change pants and shoes because they couldn’t just walk into a convenience store in the pants and shoes of a security guard when their descriptions were probably going to be all over the news in the next couple hours. After changing into jeans and tennis shoes they got out of the car and headed into the convenience store. Barron gathered up Z-Up, Gatorade, granola bars, sandwiches, water and Advil while Philip used the bathroom. Barron had just finished paying (in cash, obviously) when Philip staggered back paler and shakier than before.

“You okay, bro?” Barron asked, and Philip gave him a look that told him to drop it.

They stepped outside and commandeered a picnic table within sight of the car. Barron sat on the tabletop facing the car with his boots on the table’s bench seat. Philip also faced the car, only he sat on the seat and draped his upper body across the tabletop.

They sat in silence for several minutes then Philip spoke, his voice muffled by the cocoon of his arms, “So, Cassel’s a transformation worker.”

“Yeah,” Barron said tightly.

“I didn’t know that,” Philip said. “He must have used his powers before now; why don’t I remember it?” He lifted his head and gave Barron a look that didn’t make sense for a couple seconds before he made the connection.

“Oh,” he said. “I didn’t work you.”

Officially, Barron was a luck worker; only Philip, Grandad and Mom knew that he was actually a memory worker. If Barron had told the Zacharovs he could have gotten more work than just being the insurance to Philip’s jobs, but the blowback made that a bad idea. Every time Barron used his powers he was trading away some of his own memories. If he wasn’t careful, he would work himself into premature Alzheimer’s.

“Are you sure you didn’t and then forgot?” Philip asked.

“Yes,” Barron said. “That’s something I would have written down in my journals.”

Philip accepted that with a nod. “Still,” he said. “He’s seventeen. This can’t be the first time he’s displayed powers. It would have started when he was younger, which means…”

“Someone did work us to make us forgot,” Barron finished. “All three of us.”

“You’re sure he didn’t know?” Philip asked.

“You saw his face,” Barron replied. “He didn’t have a clue.”

There was a long pause. “Do you think the Zacharovs knew?” Barron asked, cursing the unsteadiness in his tone.

“No,” Philip said. “If they knew Cassel’s a worker this powerful, we’d never have had to work so hard to convince Anton he wasn’t a deadweight. Mom and Grandad on the other hand…”

Barron’s stomach clenched. “They can’t know. They would have told us.”

“They must know,” Philip used his elbows to lever his body into a mostly upright position. “Someone decided we’d be best off not knowing and had us worked; probably multiple times. They’re the only options; they’re the only ones close enough to us.”

“But why?” Barron asked.

“I don’t know,” Philip said, then looked up at Barron, face serious. “But until we understand it, we can’t trust them.”

“We can’t go home either,” Barron said. “Even if we could trust Mom and Grandad either the LMD or the Zacharovs are going to be after us. We’re going to need to go under the radar. Especially if we’re going to protect Cassel,” he paused and realized the assumption he’d made. “We are going to protect Cassel, right?”

“Of course, we are,” Philip said in a tone of voice that suggested that he couldn’t believe Barron had asked. “He’s our baby brother, just because he’s suddenly one of the rarest workers in the world doesn’t change anything.”

“Good,” Barron heaved a sigh of relief. “Then we probably should get moving. We need to put as much distance between us and that conference center as possible before the police have time to really mobilize against us. Even more once Anton inevitably gets bailed out of prison.”

“Yeah,” Philip agreed and began to try to heave himself to his feet. “Might be a good idea to make sure Cassel doesn’t have the option to run before hearing us out when he wakes up too.”

Barron ended up needing to help Philip to the car, but they were still back on the highway within minutes. Philip shifted in the seat then leaned forward to rummage through the pockets of the backpack. “What are you looking for?” Barron asked.

“We have a burner phone in here, don’t we?”

“Yes,” Barron said. “Why do you need it?”

“I’m going to call Maura and tell her to get out,” he said. “The house is under her name, so someone’s bound to show up there eventually.”

“Should we call Grandad?” Barron asked.

“You can if you want,” Philip said. “I’m not.”

Barron knew he wouldn’t either. If they involved Grandad in this, it would be too difficult to keep their new knowledge about Cassel secret. “I’m not calling him either,” Barron said.

Philip straightened up and nodded in something that was either approval or simple acknowledgment. He was holding one of the cheap, prepaid burner flip phones they’d bought for the job. Barron watched out of the corner of his eye as Philip dialed Maura’s number from memory and raised the phone to his ear.

“Maura?” he asked after a minute. “Are you alone?”

There was a pause as Maura answered, then Philip went on, “The job went bad. Catastrophically bad. You need to leave. Chances are either the police or the Zacharovs will be showing up at the house in the next couple hours and I don’t think it’s a good idea if you’re there when that happens.”

Another pause. “I’m fine, just a bad blowback. Barron and Cassel are fine too, but we let Anton get arrested which is why the Zacharovs might be after us soon.”

Pause. “I don’t think Zacharov will have much trouble there,” Philip answered. “Regardless of what the politicians say about cracking down on the crime families, there isn’t a prison in the country that will hold Anton Zacharov for more than a couple days. So, it’s not like this is much of a setback for Zacharov; it’s more that we left Anton to get arrested in favor of saving our nonworker little brother.”

Maura responded, then Philip said, “That’s why you need to get all the essentials into the car and get out of the state. Remember to change the plates before you leave and whatever you do don’t tell Grandad or Mom that you’re leaving.”

Philip listened to Maura’s question, then said, “I can’t explain over the phone. I’ll tell you when we meet in person. Speaking of which, there’s a burner phone in my sock drawer; take it with you, and I’ll call you on it in a couple days so we can find a place to meet.”

Maura spoke some more. “We’re all fine,” Philip said. “No sign of pursuit thus far, but we aren’t going to take any chances. I’ll talk to you in a couple days?” A pause. “I love you too. Stay safe. Goodbye.”

Philip hung up and leaned back in the seat. Barron looked over at his brother’s pale, sweaty face, lax mouth and drooping eyes. “There’s Z-Up and Advil,” he said. “Then you should try to sleep.”

“Yeah,” Philip agreed tiredly. “That’s probably a good idea.”

~~~~

They drove and drove and drove. Barron kept his hands clenched tightly on the steering wheel, his eyes glued on the road, ears tuned to the radio which was playing news, listening for every mention of the incident. So far, their names and descriptions had not been released, but it was only a matter of time. Barron considered where they could go that would be safe and what they would need to do to foil the police descriptions of them. They couldn’t go anywhere Mom and Grandad knew about or anywhere Zacharov, Anton or even Lila knew about. It had to be somewhere entirely knew, and Barron was grasping at straws.

In the passenger seat, Philip slipped in and out of fitful sleep. He shifted restlessly and grunted whenever he was jarred by a bump in the road. Barron wanted desperately to get them a hotel room so Philip could rest in an actual bed, but doing that would be like asking to be found and arrested. Since they’d abandoned Anton, Zacharov wouldn’t bail them out and the Sharpe family didn’t have the money or connections. They needed to stay free or everything was over.

The sun was beginning to rise when Cassel finally stirred in the backseat. Barron’s stomach twisted into knots as he listened to his little brother work his way back to consciousness.

“Wha’ happen’?” Cassel muttered thickly. “Wh’ ‘re we…” Barron gritted his teeth and waited for the explosion.

He didn’t have to wait long. Cassel jerked upright in the backseat. “Wait! I-I-” He sat up straight and Barron saw his angry glare in the rearview mirror. “You lied to me!”

“Cassel?” Philip shifted awake and turned to look at their little brother. “Good, you’re awake.”

“You’re a liar!” Cassel snarled. “You’re both liars! You told me I didn’t have any powers, but I do! What happened to that agent; I did that!”

“We didn’t lie to you,” Philip said, his voice steady but with an undercurrent of strain, either from stress or from the blowback. “We didn’t know. We thought you weren’t a worker too. We would never keep something like that from you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Cassel snapped.

“I’m not lying,” Philip said. “I didn’t know you were a worker. I swear it on my life.”

“I swear it too,” Barron said. “We’re on your side, Cassel.”

“If you two didn’t know anything,” Cassel said. “Why is this the first time it’s ever happened? That’s not how working works.”

“We might have all been worked by a memory worker,” Barron said. A quick glance at Philip confirmed that they were going to keep Barron’s true identity as a memory worker quiet for the time being. “Someone must have decided that we were better off not knowing you were a worker.”

There was a pause while Cassel thought that over. “Mom and Grandad,” he said.

The kid was even quicker to that assumption than they had been, Barron wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or worried. “We’re not sure,” he said. “But it’s a definite possibility.”

He watched in the rearview mirror as Cassel thought it all over. “I’ll trust you two for now,” Cassel finally said, “but if I discover even one little thing that could imply you’re lying to me, well…” he lifted a hand and his eyes narrowed. “I’m know that I’m not defenseless now.”

“A logical strategy,” Philip agreed.

They lapsed back into silence, the radio droning commercials in the background, until Cassel spoke again, “Where are we?”

“On the fast track to the middle of nowhere,” Barron said. “Things only went farther south after Philip knocked you out. We ended up attacking a number of security guards and then running to evade arrest. We’re kind of hot news right now, and we’ll need to go underground until this all blows over.”

“Okay…” Cassel said slowly, thinking it over. “Where’s Anton?”

“Arrested,” Philip said. “We…may have panicked and forgotten about him.”

Cassel snorted. “Bet he’s happy about that.”

“It’s going to be a real problem,” Philip said. “He won’t be happy when he gets out, and the whole Zacharov family will be after us.” He finished by shifting in his seat and moaning out loud.

Barron freed one hand from the steering wheel and patted Philip’s shoulder. “You’ve got about forty-five minutes before you can take more Advil,” he said. “Just hang in there.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Cassel asked, sounding just a little scared.

“Blowback,” Philip grunted. “I’ll be fine.”

Cassel frowned, deep in thought. “We’re in deep trouble,” he said, then his voice became quiet and a little scared. “What happens if the Zacharovs figure out I’m a worker? What happens if the people who worked our memories figure out we know?”

Barron and Philip looked at each other, each trying to come up with something soothing and reassuring to say. In truth, neither of them knew what would happen in either of those situations. “Nothing bad will happen to you,” Philip finally promised, perhaps a bit rashly.

“We’re your brothers,” Barron agreed anyway. “It’s our job to keep you safe.”

That’s probably not the best ending in the world, but I’m running on four hours of sleep, so you’ll have to forgive my lack of creative brain cells. I suppose this could be the start of a bigger story, but I’m nearly 100% positive I’m not going to continue, so I suggest you don’t hold your breath.

I’m almost done with part three of the Angsty Kaz FanfictionTM, so hopefully you’ll get that soon. I have a couple other ideas too, so we’ll see what happens. The one thing I will say is that I’m sort of in the process of shifting fandoms, so expect a lot of variety, but probably not a lot of Star Wars.

Anyway, if you’ve read this, thank you! I’m honestly not sure if anyone will see this.

Please favorite, follow and review!

Emjen

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trentteti · 5 years

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A Look at the September 2019 LSAT

The scores for the September 2019 LSAT were released this Monday, a cause for celebration and consternation for those who took that test. But, for disclosed tests like September, score-release day is also test-release day. On these days, LSAC releases this exam to the public. Us LSAT instructors can marvel at a shiny new object, revel in the new games and passages as we journey through the exam, and attempt to identify trends that can help us discern what future exams may behold.

We’ve just journeyed backwards and forwards through the September 2019 exam, and we’ve just come out the other side with hard-won knowledge and a newfound fear of flowers (seriously, we’ll get to that flower game soon). And, as is our wont, we’ll now accompany you through another journey through this exam. But beware: these posts are always a long and windy road, a veritable field trip through the questions that confronted September test takers. So grab your sack lunch, get your parent or legal guardian to sign the permission slip, and jump into this poorly chaperoned school bus as we put the … ahem … petal to metal and drive through the September 2019 exam.

Logic Games

• We usually start these field trips with Logical Reasoning (we abide by bird rules at Most Strongly Supported — the largest bird section gets first spot in the pecking order), but the talk of this test was the Logic Games section. Boy, did people ever hate the living guts out of this LG section. We were pretty eager to take a look at this section, given the opprobrium thrown its way. So how did it stack up to supposed infamy?

It was definitely a hard section. That much we cannot deny. However, none of the individual games can bang with some of the hardest games of recent exams. Nothing here really touched game four of the July 2019 test, or of the December 2017 test — to say nothing of the curveballs thrown on some of the 2014-16 exams. Heck, there wasn’t even a rule substitution question in this section, which would be a rare treat on a more typical games section. Two things made this games section a little troublesome, though: (1) there wasn’t an outright easy game — the one that warms up your analytical reasoning muscles (wherever those may be located) and builds your confidence for the rest of the section; and (2) the order of the games was a bit unusual — which I imagine compounded test takers’ frustrations.

• The first game was probably the second hardest of the section, which is very unusual. The first game is typically the aforementioned calisthenics- and confidence-boosting one. This game was one of two combo games on this exam (tough break for our in-house prognosticator, by the way, who predicted there wouldn’t be any combo games on this test). We had to select five of eight kittens and puppies– given legitimately aww-inspiring names (seriously, I didn’t know the test writers had this level of charm in them) like Jaguar and Scamp and Wags — to display at a rescue shelter’s adoption event. So that’s the grouping element. But there would be five sequentially numbered pens, one through five, in which we’d place the five chosen pets. So that’s the ordering. Plus, since we were dealing with both kittens and puppies, however, we had to also create a tier of slots in our set-up, which was a lot.

Many test takers complained about this game being super time-consuming. I imagine many of those people rushed headlong, like a puppy to a postal carrier, into the questions. It did take me a long minute to determine the best way to construct scenarios in this game — I ended up making a set of scenarios based on whether two very constrained puppies were selected or not. But these scenarios made the questions super easy. That said, the novelty of the game, the complexity of the set-up, and the hidden cruelty in the tableau (seriously, why not take all the animals to find their forever home at the adoption event?), made this an inauspicious start.

• Next up was a rare “circle” game. And, goodness, do test takers lose their marbles at the sight of a “circle” game. It happened in July of 2018. And it happened again in September of 2019. If you, dear reader, were alarmed by the sight of this circle game, or if you are trembling at the thought of receiving a circle game on a later exam, I have an insider secret to reveal. Lean in close to your monitor, so you can see the next italicized paragraph as clearly as possible. Read over it a few a times if you need to. Absorb it into the very fiber of your being …

Literally no one is forcing you to make your set-up resemble a circle on a “circle” game.

Seriously, just set up so-called “circle” games like a normal 1-to-1 ordering game. Now, you do have to remember that the last slot is “next to” the first slot. Maybe draw an arrow from the last slot to the first one. But the biggest barrier of entry to these circle games is just the novelty of the set-up. So why not just use a set-up you’re familiar with?

Once you have a basic, familiar set-up, you’d realize that this was a fairly straightforward ordering game. There was a block, which apparently could only go in five places. Once you made a set of five scenarios with that block, you’d realize the block could actually only go in three places. You’d answer the questions quickly with your scenarios. Unlike your fellow test takers, your mind would not be spinning in circles.

• As I mentioned earlier, I heard a lot about the so-called “flower game,” which came third. Literally every test taker I spoke to — and most test takers who regaled their experiences online — mentioned this game. Usually with a twinge of trauma in their voice. So I was super excited to check this game out. Based on descriptions, it seemed like it a game without precedent. A sui generis creation. Something that perhaps an LSAT instructor could, from afar, admire as a beautiful and unique creation, but for the test takers who had to grapple with it, a thorny, tear-producing thing — um, not unlike a flower. As a fan of flowers both real and metaphoric, I was pretty excited to check this game out.

This game, however, wasn’t quite the unique creation many claimed it to be. It was, a few twists aside, a fairly standard underbooked stable grouping game. A game in which you’re given a certain number of groups, each with a defined size. In this case, we had five people making flower arrangements, with each arrangement containing exactly four flowers. But, since the game only provided us with four different kinds flowers to use, this game was severely underbooked — certain flowers would recur not only in different people’s arrangements, but sometimes an individual would use a flower more than once in their arrangement. Such games have been a staple of recent exams, having appeared on the June 2019, June 2018, June 2017 and December 2015 exams. They’ve been so prominent that even our frequently wrong predictor was able to accurately predict that the third game would be an underbooked stable grouping on this exam.

There were a few things that were weird with this game, though. For one, the fact that there were five people and four flowers may have led some test takers to believe that the flowers were the groups and the people the players (usually the more numerous variable set should function as “the players” and the less numerous the “groups” in your set-up). But, since we knew how exactly how many flowers would be contained in each person’s arrangement, that variable set had to be the groups. Additionally, the fact that some flowers could go more than once in an individual group is pretty unique on these types of games. Finally, a rule that required each person to have three different types of flowers in their set-up was an added complexity that did, truly, make this game more difficult.

But this game shared some similarities with many recent games — such as the first game of the November 2018 LSAT, the fourth game on the June 2018 LSAT, the first game of the December 2017 LSAT, and the fourth game of the June 2017 LSAT — in that you had to make methodical, restriction-based deductions from the rules. The limited number of flowers to choose from meant that once you were able to determine that one or two types of flowers couldn’t go in a person’s arrangement, you’d have a pretty good idea of what that arrangement looked like. And mostly these deductions came from knowing what the words “exactly” and “at least” mean. And like almost every recent game, there was a rule that created a couple of super solid scenarios.

If this game wrecked your September test day and has induced flora-based nightmares since, please don’t take all this the wrong way — this was still a quite difficult game! And of course, it’s much easier for someone to figure a game out in a comfortable and untimed environment than it would be during the mad dash of test day. But — and this was also true of the preceding “circle” game — games like these are always easier if you assume you’ve done something like it before (you probably have) and use a set-up you’re familiar with. Assuming the contrary — that the game is completely novel, without precedent — tends to lead test takers into an unnecessary spiral.

• Like an aged rock band on a reunion tour, the September LSAT closed things out with a classic — a scheduling combo game. We had three days of the week — Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (and I would not be the first to note that this would be abbreviated to “WTF” in your set-up) — and a morning slot and afternoon slot on each day. This game was fairly straightforward rendition of an LSAT standard — there was a very constrained player whose placement led to four very helpful scenarios — not the sort of over-the-top craziness the “WTF” promised.

• So what can we take away from this games section? Well, once again, this section continued the trend of scenarios being helpful on every game. This has been true, in my opinion, on almost every recent exam. And on the recent sections in which this hasn’t been true, scenarios have been helpful on only three of the four games. So, not to state the obvious, you should be studying up on how to make scenarios, practice making them during your studies, and then actually construct them on test day.

But this exam also illustrates how important it is to trust your experience on these games. If you study extensively — and anyone reading this treatise on the September exam is presumably studying quite extensively — you’ll have almost certainly seen some variation of every game you confront on your exam. Test takers err when they panic — when they assume that the game is completely unfamiliar. But remember, these entirely unique games on the LSAT are few and far between. Honestly, in this millennium, I think there has been precisely one truly unique game (the computer virus game from the September 2016 exam). Everything else has at least some precedent. So try to approach each game using the set-ups, tools, and experience gained from older games. Even if a game seems unique — as the circle and flower games may have here — it’s important to interrogate it, to see if there’s a way to make it familiar. There pretty much always is.

Logical Reasoning

• Onto Logical Reasoning. Here’s how many of the different question types appeared across both LR sections, compared to the average number of appearances per test since the December 2013 test:

• As you can see, this was a pretty balanced set of questions included. No single question type dramatically exceeded or fell short of its average frequency. That’s pretty normal on a September test, by the way. For whatever reason, September exams have — for want of a better word — a pretty “normal”-feeling Logical Reasoning section.

• If there was anything peculiar about these Logical Reasoning sections, it was the distribution of the difficult questions. Like the narrative thrust of the classic three-act drama, the difficulty of a Logical Reasoning section typically starts slow, gradually rises, climaxes, then recedes in a dénouement in the final few questions. Both of these sections started with some mild questions, and coasted on that setting throughout the entire section, until question twenty-one or so. And then there was a gauntlet of brutally difficult questions.

• Two very difficult sections stuck out to me: questions twenty-four and twenty-five in the LR section with 26 questions. Question twenty-three was a Weaken question that argued that experiencing a traumatic event might stimulate the production of cortisol — a steroid hormone produced by the pituitary gland, but that’s not important. To support that claim, the argument showed that people who experienced a traumatic event but did not develop PTSD have higher cortisol levels than those who have not experienced a traumatic event.

So classic correlation to causation issue, right? On a typical Weaken question, the correct answer would weaken such a causal claim with an alternate cause (something else that may trigger the cortisol production in those non-PTSD-afflicted individuals), showing the cause frequently appears without the effect (perhaps by showing that people who experienced a traumatic event who did develop PTSD did not have higher cortisol levels), or showing the effect frequently appears without the cause (perhaps by showing that, contrary to what the stimulus said, people who have not experienced a traumatic event frequently have high cortisol levels). This, being an atypically difficult Weaken question, did not feature any of those in the answer choices.

The right answer presented what could be considered an alternate cause or cause without the effect only if you looked really, really closely at it. That answer choice claimed that the high cortisol levels in the people who did not experience PTSD helped those folks not develop PTSD. So it wasn’t the traumatic event that produced the high cortisol levels — it was a defense mechanism that produced the cortisol (which would be an alternate cause). Or, we could say that the answer choice introduces the possibility that those people who experienced a traumatic event and did develop PTSD do not have high cortisol levels (which would be the cause appearing without the effect).

But this question would probably have been easier to understand if we understood that it was also committing a sampling fallacy. In order to establish that traumatic event increases cortisol levels, we’d have to compare a representative sample of everyone who has experienced a traumatic event to a representative sample of everyone who didn’t. By only including people who didn’t develop PTSD, we were looking at an unrepresentative sample of those who experienced a traumatic event. The correct answer, then, shows just how problematic it is to only rely at the people who didn’t develop PTSD — they probably had abnormal levels of cortisol, compared to those who developed PTSD, if the cortisol helped them stave off PTSD.

The take-away from this question? It’s important to remember (memory, incidentally, is aided by cortisol) that sometimes difficult questions commit more than one fallacy. Focusing too closely on just one may make it difficult to find the correct answer. It doesn’t hurt, then, to try to take inventory of several fallacies that may be committed on a difficult Flaw, Parallel Flaw, Strengthen, Weaken, or Necessary question that appears towards the end of a section. Doing so might make these questions less of a traumatic experience.

• In a cruel twist, the very next question was another super difficult one. Question twenty-five was a Must Be True question that involved proportional reasoning. OK, imagine I told you I ordered a pizza, all to myself, both yesterday and today (if you know me, this shouldn’t be difficult to imagine). But let’s say today I ate a way higher percentage of my pizza than I did today. Let’s say I ate half of the pie yesterday, but I ate all of the pie today. But what if I also told you I ate same amount of pizza, by weight, today and yesterday. So I ate a greater percentage of the pizza today, despite the same amount of pizza today. What could you conclude about the relative sizes of the pies I ordered, yesterday versus today? Well, it must be the case that I ordered a smaller pizza today (today’s pie would technically be half the size of yesterday’s), if I ate the same amount of pizza but got through more of the entire pie.

OK, now replace “eating pizza” with “commercial fishing in all the world’s oceans” and “sizes of the pies” with “the total number of fish in all the world’s oceans,” and you have question twenty-five. That question told us that after 1995, commercial fishers were catching the a greater percentage of the fish in the world’s oceans year after year. But also, after 1995 they were were catching the same (or a smaller) amount of fish, by weight, year after year. From that, we could conclude that the total population of the world’s fish was declining, year after year.

If you understand the basics of proportional reasoning, you’d be able to get this question. But this type of reasoning is rarely invoked on the LSAT (and when it is, it’s usually in the context of flawed arguments), so it probably stumped more than a few test takers. In the rare event that this type of reasoning recurs on a later LSAT, here’s all you need to know. And since I am definitively not a math person, I can only convey this info through a pizza analogy.

Three elements define this type of reasoning: percentages (this would be how much of the pizza pie you ate), amounts (this would be how much pizza you ate, by weight), and the total size (how large the entire pizza is). When you have information on two of these elements, you can usually make a valid deduction about the third. So if I told you that today I ate a smaller percentage of the pizza pie I ordered, but I ate the same amount of pizza both yesterday and today, you’d be able to conclude that today’s pizza was larger. Or if I told you that today I ate more pizza than I ate yesterday, but the pizzas were the same size both yesterday and today, you’d be able to conclude that I ate a higher percentage of the pizza today. These questions will in all likelihood not involve pizza, but the logic remains the same.

• These, and a few other questions aside, neither of these Logical Reasoning sections were all that challenging. It’s unsurprising that most test takers’ ire was reserved for Logic Games and not to LR or Reading Comp.

Reading Comprehension

• In what was a welcome respite from recent exams, this Reading Comprehension section wasn’t as distressingly difficult as recent sections. Apparently, it’s not just pop music that’s feeling nostalgic for the early 2000s — this section was a throwback to that era’s milder Reading Comp sections.

• The first passage argued that Great Zimbabwe — a flourishing, enclosed city-state from the ninth through sixteenth centuries (think Qarth from Game of Thrones) — owed its prosperity not to gold, as previously thought, but to cattle raising. The questions were detail-heavy, but — unlike the large-scale efforts the ruling class of Great Zimbabwe to harness cattle and mine gold — not particularly demanding.

• Passage number two was the comparative passage; passage A argued that historical fiction requires the telling of effective lies (such as modernizing language, and inventing characters and dialogue), while passage B argued that autobiographical fiction is sometimes enhanced by false, but vivid and emotionally resonant, memories. These passages had a more direct and discernible relationship than most recent comparative passages, and the questions were accordingly a tad easier than most recent comparative passages.

• The third passage was the inevitable science passage. It involved a sort of terrifying discussion on how a microbiologist discovered that cholera could exist in a dormant state in sea water, contrary to the previous belief that it could only be spread by human hosts, and that cholera was consequently much more prevalent than previously believed. The questions featured a “resolve” question — fairly common in Logical Reasoning, but super rare on Reading Comp. Even with this rare question type, this passage was a tad less challenging than many science-based passages. Less stomach-churning than a cholera infection, at least.

• The final passage was the inevitable law passage, on international environmental law. This somewhat hectoring passage argued that nations don’t quite practice what they preach, given that most nations profess to accept the norm that they do no harm to other nations’ environments, but do all sorts of things that spread pollution to other nations. The author argues that scholars of international environmental law should reckon with this fact. This was probably the most challenging passage, but each of the correct answers were well-supported by the passage.

The “Curve”

• Here’s a chart listing how many questions you could have missed on the September 2019 exam and still earn a given score, compared to the same figure for other recent exams:

• You, frankly, love to see it. As we discussed before, we were expecting a generous curve on this exam. And, at least for the higher scores, we were correct. It’s been a while since we’ve had a -13 curve for a 170 score — June 2014, in fact. And we haven’t had a -20 curve for 160 since December 2017. A forgiving curve for those high scores means that test takers who score in that range had a harder-than-usual time with difficult questions, passages, and games. With some of the invectives test takers threw at that flower game, we didn’t exactly need the curve to confirm that fact.

You’ll notice, however, the curve starts normalizing once you start looking at the 155 and 150 scores. Given that there were many mild Logical Reasoning questions and a relatively moderate Reading Comp section on this exam, this also makes sense — your “average” test taker scoring in the low- to mid-150s would have had a fairly normal time with those questions.

What to Expect Moving Forward

And thus ends our long field trip through the September exam. And, as in the field trips of our youths, we have to kind of wrap things up with a “what did I learn” essay. So, what did this LSAT teach us about what future LSATs, like the upcoming October and November LSATs?

Maybe not a whole lot? This LSAT is fairly anomalous in terms of the distribution of difficult questions. Most recent LSATs have featured much more difficult Reading Comprehension section than this one. And most have featured a greater number tough and brutal Logical Reasoning questions, rather than the few brutal questions this exam featured. And there hasn’t been a Logic Games section this novel, or this difficult, since the September and December 2016 exams.

So if for whatever reason this was an especially difficult test for you — and if you’re planning on taking the upcoming October or November LSATs — I wouldn’t expect to see an LSAT that looks exactly like this. Keep studying Reading Comp, because in all likelihood those exams will feature a tough RC section. Practice a broad range of Logical Reasoning questions, because those exams will likely feature more tough and brutal LR questions than this one. That said, it never hurts to be over-prepared — so if you want to tangle with some incredibly difficult games on the off-chance those exams might feature some brutal games as well, we encourage you to do so.

A Look at the September 2019 LSAT was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

#logic games #Logical Reasoning #LSAT #reading comprehension #september lsat #trent teti #lsat

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