#i wanted to give everyone a design that sorta reflected their builds as well!!

[weaselmcdiesel]

Here are my designs for my povs in season 9 :)

#grian #zedaph #mumbo jumbo #tangotek #hermitcraft #hermitcraft season 9 #mcyt #my art #fan art #i wanted to give everyone a design that sorta reflected their builds as well!! #this took me a long wild i hope you like ^^ #while** #also no one talks about tangos insane nether build bro i love it so much

[brattyfics]

Savage

Summary: Miguel Galindo’s wife accidentally shows off her new lingerie set to Nestor and other members of the security team. Inspired by @sheeshgivemeabreak head cannon of Miguel’s significant other being seen by Nestor in her lingerie.

Pairing: Miguel Galindo x Black!OC

Warnings: Some cringy use of the word savage, Miguel Galindo quoting Beyonce and Megan Thee Stallion, exhibitionism (sorta?), rough sex.

Word count: 2K+

Placing the Chanel #5 perfume on the vanity, Ava, leaned back to admire her handiwork. 

Her normally big, thick hair had been pressed and curled to perfection, falling down into beautiful barrel curls past her shoulders. Long-lashed eyes blinked back at her in the mirror, glossy, pink lips gleaming despite the low lighting. 

Ava’s eyes trailed down to her breasts, shifting and adjusting to make sure everything was perfect. A white lingerie set from Agent Provocateur’s latest line clung to soft curves. The set was see-through for the most part, exposing her chocolate nipples and brown mound. Lace frilled the edges of the bra cups and panties, completing the naughty angel look. 

Satisfied, she turned from her reflection to strap on a pair of vintage designer heels, one of many gifts from her fiance, Miguel Galindo. She spared one final look at herself in the mirror before embarking on the mission to get her man in bed.

It wasn’t unheard of for him to spend long lengths of time in his personal study, the nature of his business called for it. Ava understood, but that didn’t mean she liked it. She tried to let him work uninterrupted for the most part, but sometimes he needed to be reminded of what was waiting for him in bed.

The short silk robe that covered her body did very little to preserve her modesty, so she was extra careful when scanning the hallway for bodies. Miguel normally kept his men off the second floor. It was hard for her to adjust to having someone watching her at all times, and this compromise did give her a small semblance of normalcy.

Confident no one would see her, she crept towards the office door, wanting to maintain the element of surprise. The two of them understood that she should know everything or nothing at all. Before getting married, they agreed on full disclosure. Still, Miguel didn’t want his two worlds completely fused together. Ava could tell he didn’t like her to be in the office, but she figured she would quickly be forgiven. As soon as the ties of her robe opened, Miguel would be focused on one thing.

Ava had seen Marcus leave earlier, it was rare that he did so. Being Miguel’s advisor meant he needed to be accessible 24/7, but everyone needed a break sometimes. For that reason, Ava was confident the two of them would be alone when she twisted the door knob and entered.

As soon as the door closed behind her, her fingers went to work at undoing the silk ties, and with a quick shrug Ava let gravity do the rest. Miguel’s head lifted from his papers in just enough time to watch it hit the ground, his mouth falling open, eyes widening in surprise.

Then movement to her right caused her to shriek and stumble back into the door. It was Ava’s turn for a surprise. 

Her own mouth fell open in horror. To her right stood a stunned Nestor, who had previously been occupied with something on the bookshelf.

“Shit!”

All three of them seemed to curse at the same time. Nestor scrambled to cover his eyes, books raining down with a thud in his haste. Eventually, he managed to turn so his back was facing Ava. Miguel dropped the papers he had been holding, locking eyes with Ava, communicating without saying a word. Your ass is in big trouble, missy. 

That tore her out of the shocked, frozen trance she had been in. She spun to open the door, her palms sweaty and clumsy, making the task ten times harder. Her heels clicked against the floor as she shuffled her feet impatiently. The tops of her ears burned, the thump of her heart sounding off within them.

The door opened, but not because of Ava’s doing. Hearing the scream and thump had caused the security team to run up the stairs. 

“Shit!” She shrieked again, bending down to scoop up the silk robe. Her nipples pebbled against the thin fabric as the gust of air from the door swinging open hit her. 

Nestor took that as his opportunity to make a dash for it, Miguel right behind him to slam the door in everyone’s face with a swear.

Harsh breathing were the only sounds to be heard on their side of the door, sounds of dress shoes clicking away on the other side.

Without a doubt, this was her most embarrassing moment. Ever.

The two of them stood there, Miguel’s hands above her head on the door, trapping her against it with his body as a gate. She tried in vain to calm herself and she was sure her man was trying to do the same. Waves of anger radiated off of him, and she knew there was an epic punishment coming her way.

“I-I’m sooo sorry, babe.” She apologized, slowly turning so she was facing him. 

He reminded her of an angry bull in that moment-- full of rage with a clear (and easy) target in front of him. Unfortunately, she happened to be the target stupid enough to provoke him. His eyebrows pinched together, lips downturned in that dangerous scowl he usually reserved for employees that disappointed him. The dark look in his eyes told her to stop while she was ahead, but she felt the urge to break up some of the tension.

“I didn’t--” His hand rose, and there was no more room for explaining. She gnawed on her gloss covered bottom lip.

“You are without a doubt the most disobedient, infuriating person I’ve ever met. I deal with bikers, drug traffickers, hitmen, all kinds of fucking degenerates and yet no one manages to piss me off more than you.” His hand found its way back to her collarbone, tossing her hair back behind her shoulders.

“I give you everything. Try to treat you like the princess I know you can be, but you insist on being an insolent brat. I give you free reign of this house-- this fucking city, but you have to show up in the one place you shouldn’t. Why is that?” He leaned down to look in her eyes, fingertips ghosting over her neck until she shifted to stare up at him. 

Miguel watched, fascinated as she transformed into the most demure version of herself, one she reserved for times like this when he was really angry. Her arms left her sides to lock around his neck, batting her eyelashes in hopes of a little mercy.

“Don’t act like a good girl now.” He scoffed, enjoying the closeness despite himself. He leaned in to nibble at her neck. “We both know you’re not.” She hisses at the sting, fire back in her eyes as if she was telling him she would bite back.

“You’re a bad bitch, right? A savage— or whatever that damn song you’re always singing says, right? So act like it.” He always acted as if he was annoyed by her mini-concerts, but she knew he was secretly her biggest fan. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing out loud. He didn’t allow her amusement to distract him. “Get on your knees. Now.”

Back in submissive character, she dropped to her knees.

“Now you listen.” He tsks, hands moving to unbuckle his pants. “Probably because you think there’s something in it for you. Sucking cock is your favorite pastime. Isn’t that right, sucia? You get off on being on your knees but I can promise you, this isn’t for your pleasure.” 

Ava tried her best to look disappointed. No matter what he said, there absolutely was something in it for her. They both knew it. She resisted the urge to help him undress and instead watched him, resting her weight on the backs of her legs. He finally stepped out of his dress pants and underwear, tossing them to the side.

He stood in front of her, stroking his thick cock in her face. Her eyes watched him stroke, back and forth, milking it until precum puddled around the tip. She leaned forward, her lips puckered to give it a kiss, only to be pushed back into position. 

Ava gave him a cross look. “Don’t look at me like that. You don’t decide. I do. It’s time you learned that.” She felt hypnotized as he continued to pump his hard dick. She felt like a puppy, eager, desperately wanting to drool and wag her tongue. Her eyes darted back and forth between his beautiful brown dick and his face, squirming and shifting her knees.

“Open your mouth.” She presented her long, pink tongue to him.

He teased her with the tip at the opening of her mouth, tapping it on her tongue. She begged him with her eyes to continue. 

“Take it as deep as you can.” He used that firm tone that always made her pussy throb, the fat tip invading her mouth. She sighed in relief, her tongue softly massaging the bottom of his dick as she struggled to take it all with no build-up. When he hit the back of her throat, her eyes closed, concentrating on controlling her gag reflex.

He withdrew from her mouth, causing her eyes to snap open. “Look at me while you suck my dick.” Ava nodded in understanding, letting the storm brewing in his eyes egg her on. She let him feed her dick, her eyes trained on his.

More often than not, Miguel was soft with her. She was always mi amor or bebita, perched in his lap while he read the newspaper or holding his hand across the table while they breakfast. He loved to shower her with expensive gifts and lavish trips. In return, she was his oasis. She navigated the duality of her complex man with grace, always managing to be exactly what he needed. Still, she lived for the moments where she could get under his skin.

He groaned as he watched her gag around his dick, water welling up in her pretty eyes. She pushed herself further, thick lips moving up and down his length. Her face alone could do him in-- but the looks she gave, the sounds she made, the way she expressed her love all over his dick had him ready to melt. He could barely breathe from trying to hold his moans in, stroking the top of her head with affection.

Her hands went up to rest on the tops of his legs as she throated him to the best of her ability, moaning and making it as wet as she could. Tasting him, breathing him in, swallowing him, and looking at him all at once overwhelmed her. Her panties flooded, eyes fluttering closed again.

She heard the sound ricocheting off her ass before she felt the sting, hands going back soothe her ass cheek with a whimper. Her mouth fell open in surprise.

“Did I tell you to close your eyes?” 

“No, sir.”

Miguel’s hand gripped her neck firmly.

“Did I tell you to take my dick out of your mouth?”

Another negative. “No--”

“You can’t do anything right.” Her eyebrows pulled together, lips falling into a pout. “Don’t worry, princesa, I’ll do it for you.”

He guided her by the neck, pushing her back towards the door, reaching down to pull her legs from under her, so her head could rest flush against it. The only way his dick would leave her mouth would be if he took it out. 

He used her mouth like a pussy, pumping in and out to soothe his temper. Ava was sure to maintain eye contact this time, even as spit dribbled out of her mouth onto his dick and down her chin. Down it went and Miguel didn’t let up, watching it spill between the valley of her breasts. 

She tracked his eyes, reaching up to pull down her bra straps to free her breasts. He could see the mischief in her eyes as she jiggled them at him.

He slapped her hands away with a grunt, replacing them with his own. He tugged on each nipple, loving the feeling of her moaning around his dick.

Her drenched panties clung uncomfortably to her womanhood. She needed him to take his frustration out on her pussy next.

Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes, but she refused to look away, telling him with her eyes how much she wanted his release. I want that big load so bad. Come all down my throat, daddy. Feed your princess. 

Miguel cursed under his breath, thrusts faltering as he looked up to the ceiling. Relishing in his moment of weakness, she hummed around his length. “Fuck…” He pulled out immediately. “Get up.” He grabbed her up by her shoulders, spinning her so she faced the door. 

He clawed at her panties like a lion with its prey. The mushroom tip poked at her entrance, further coating the tip in the moisture. “You’re so fucking wet.” He slid himself between her fat lips, trying to prepare himself before he came prematurely. 

Ava jumped forward when his tip met her clit. “Stop moving.” He hissed as she rocked back against him, begging to be put out of her misery. His hand rained down smacks in retaliation.

She tired, but couldn’t stop her wiggling, desperately needing relief. She felt near tears. “Please.” She whined.

With a forceful thrust in, he knocked the wind out of her, giving her no time to adjust. “So fucking hardheaded.” Ava bit her lip, turning to look at him only to find his eyes focused on her ass, watching it ripple with each thrust in. 

“Fuck me.” She whimpered, using the door for leverage to push back against him. Ava fucked him the way he liked, making it nasty while looking at him innocently. “I’m sorry for being bad, daddy. I wanna be your good girl again. I wanna be daddy’s princess--” His hand came up to cover her mouth, silencing her before she made him bust. 

“Shut. Up.” He breathed harshly, whispering dirty words in her ear. “Just do your job and fuck me. Shake that fat ass.” No, you do your job and fuck me. She couldn’t talk so she licked the palm of his hand in retaliation.

He rained down slaps on her ass until he could see a red undertone on her brown skin. 

She wailed his name and he did his best to muffle her screams, but there was no doubt everyone in the house knew what they were up to.

“You want everyone to hear you being a desperate slut?” He pounded into her, no longer caring about the sound of her hips thudding against the door. “You’re the most cock-hungry bitch I ever met. You don’t care who knows as long as I pound you the way you like, baby?” 

She tried to deny his accusation, shaking her head. There was always someone around to watch their backs so being heard and occasionally walked in on didn’t bother either of them much. 

But men that worked for Miguel, amongst them his very best friend had seen his wife practically naked. He poured his anger into every stroke, pulling on her hair until it rested on his shoulder. His fingers snaked down to massage her soaking clit, sending her over the edge. 

“Fuckkkkkkkkkk.” She cried out as he continued his assault, more frenzied than ever in his movements. Her legs shook as she tried to remain upright, her pussy walls clenching and pulling him in even deeper. 

“Fuckkkk.” He groaned his own release, strokes slowing as he filled her pussy. 

Ava’s head fell forward out of exhaustion but before she could lose her balance, his arms wrapped around her midsection. He pulled her into him, peppering kisses on her neck, behind her ear, and finally in her fruity smelling hair. 

Even as he held her up soothing her, Ava worried he would hold onto his anger as he sometimes did because of pride. Her worries dissipated when he spoke. 

“I’m definitely the savage in the relationship.”

#mayans mc #miguel galindo #miguel galindo x reader #miguel galindo x oc #miguel galindo x black!reader

[rokkr-witness]

Primordial Thurs: Ymir and Surtr

So this project started because quarantine has been keeping my kindred apart, so we’ve been doing zoom meetings to discuss some interesting themes in Norse Mythology. I haven’t cited all the references used for these but I hope I got enough of them. This particular work is going to talk about several important concepts, them being Chaos, creation and Destruction and how those concepts are represented by the Primordial Thurs Ymir and Surtr. I will say I’m not a scholar, and a good portion of this is UPG, take it or leave it.

Ymir

Ymir is the first of the giants in Norse mythology, he dates back to the primal times before Odin, Thor or any other God existed. He is created when the fires of muspelheim meet the ice and rime of niflheim in the ginnungagap, the void. He’s representative of the first shared Ancestor, but also the first “consciousness” to come out of Chaos. When referring to consciousness we do not mean sentience here. Thematically, Ymir is the personification of the chaos before creation, which is also depicted as the impersonal void of Ginnungagap. Both Ymir and Ginnungagap are ways of talking about limitless potential that isn’t actualized, that hasn’t yet become the particular things that we find in the world around us. His name means Screamer so connect that to birth, not just the birth of the womb but also the birth of the universe (the Big Bang).

According to Snorri Sturlson Ymir was suckled by the cow Audhumla for his nourishment, but whether this is a Christian literary device or not has been debated. It may be that Audhumla, who also licked Buri out of the ice, was introduced as a way to present a dichotomy in the myths, that being Buri, Ancestor of Odin as Good and lawful, and Ymir, primordial chaos as inherently Bad and therefore deserving of destruction. But we’ll get to that.

When he slept, several other giants were conceived asexually in Ymir’s hermaphroditic body, and spontaneously sprang from his legs and the sweat from his armpits. A man and a woman grew under his arms and a six headed son under his foot. Þrúðgelmir is the name of one son, who’s son Bergelmir is the only one to survive the ocean of Ymir’s blood after his slaying. This is accounted in the book Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda.

There is some suggestion that Buri might have been one of the beings created from Ymir’s body, and by extension so Bor and Bestla, the parents of Odin. I actually prefer this interpretation, because it removes the dichotomy of jotun = bad because they are inherently evil and the descendents of Buri, imposed(cultivated) order, are inherently good. With all beings originating from Ymir you have one source for creation and one "race" for lack of a better term, and it changes the designation of Aesir, Jotunar and vanir to a more tribal understanding, that being the family or group we choose to belong to.

Anyway, Ymir’s son Þrúðgelmir appears in the poem Vafþrúðnismál from the Poetic Edda. When Odin (speaking under the assumed name Gagnrad) asks who was the eldest of the Æsir or of the giants in bygone days, Vafþrúðnir answers:

"Uncountable winters before the earth was made,

then Bergelmir was born,

Thrudgelmir was his father,

and Aurgelmir his grandfather."

—Vafþrúðnismá

Odin, Vili and Ve, The divine brothers then slew Ymir and fashioned the realm of midgard from his corpse. His flesh made the earth, his bones the mountains, his blood the oceans and his brains the clouds. It is also during this creation that the Gods establish Utangard and Innangard by giving the giants the shoreline and using Ymir's eyelashes to build a wall between the rest of the Cosmos and Midgard- the realm of future humans. Through this the tribe of the Aesir, imposes the order necessary for life(as we understand it) to thrive and begins the push and pull between that order and the primordial chaos of the Giants. A push and Pull that ultimately culminates in Ragnarok.

Surtr

And that brings us to Surtr. If Ymir can be considered your primordial Rime, or Frost Thurs, then Surtr is your primordial Fire Thurs. Likewise if Ymir represents the chaos of creation, Surtr represents the Chaos of destruction and the completion of the natural life cycle. Because he is associated with the south (Muspelheim), Surtr is then associated with the idea of fire, which is common in Icelandic Norse mythology. It can be argued that the figure of Surtr was, at the very least, a local figure given over to Iceland’s relatively tumultuous volcanic geography that was incorporated in part into the larger Nordic cycle by Icelandic-born writers, but this theory has never been proven.

His Consort is Sinmora. Less is known of this figure than Surtr himself, save she possesses/is the guardian of the legendary weapon Lævateinn*. Some theories suggest Sinmora as the Same entity as Hela, but personally I find they hold very little water.

Surtr is demonized as a malevolent antagonist to the gods, positioning himself against the world as a whole. And, I want to dispense with the idea, immediately, that Surtr is inherently demonic or otherwise evil. I cannot emphasize this enough.

“If we associate Surtr with the Icelandic writers, an etin with an affinity towards fire and the volcanic landscape of their homeland, then it is easy to see how they could put a greater derogatory emphasis on the being. After all, fire is well attested to being both a savior and a potential threat to civilization, ” Marc, Axe and Plough

It is my understanding that Surtr is in Muspelheim before the worlds are created. Which makes him the perhaps oldest entity in the Northern Pantheon. (excluding some ideas that the Void itself is an entity) Surtr is the lord of Múspellsheimr and the leader of that realm. We do not know when he became the lord of Múspellsheimr, so it is fair to assume that he has always been. That Surtr has always been. This is supported by Muspell, the primordial world of fire, as the primary impetus for the creation of the universe. The interactions between Muspell and Niflheim, within the great void of Ginnungagap was what birthed the universe (Faulkes 1995: 10).

This Idea is one we see regularly, paths of Destruction as paths to rebirth, creation. It is possible that Surtr is a regular arbiter for that rebirth, and has been through the founding and destruction of several universes. What can be gathered from this is something we see regularly in Northern Traditions, the understanding that though things die, life continues, renews and grows.

Natural science does a good way of illustrating Surtr’s importance in this example.

Take Andisols for instance. These are soils that form on volcanic ash and contain volcanic glass and compounds of elements such as Fe, Al and Si. (Ions of those elements, which are released by leaching and weathering of volcanic rock, can form complexes with organic matter; in addition to an andisol’s ability to retain water, this can make for very fertile growing conditions, after it has had the chance to weather, break down and release it´s nutrients. Eruption(destruction), break down, and then growth.

Now let's stop right there for a second. There is very little information on Surtr however there are some conclusions that can be drawn with some mental gymnastics about his role at ragnarok. His role at Ragnarok is to do battle with Freyr, be victorious and cover all the realms with Fire. After Balder will return from Hel and a new cycle of life will begin.

If you look at Ymir as the beginning and Surtr as the end, and both of them in a system of chaotic creation and destruction, then Freyr, the vanic god of fertility and agriculture( one of the ways in which humans mastered the natural world), is the obvious Foe. Freyr represents creation in the system created by Odin Vili and Ve after Ymir’s slaying. To return to the primordial creation you have to remove it, you have to remove everything. And Surtr is the obvious answer to that, an ever present being that sees the same cycle completed over and over. I’d even argue that Balders return to the world of the living is christianized to reflect Christ and maybe a better ending to ragnarok is simply to return to the natural state of the cosmos, Muspelheim in the south, Niflheim in the north and the Void between them.

Conclusion

So i Started this with very little information and so have had to draw a lot of my own conclusions. Some heathens who have also written on this subject, like raven kaldera and his associates, i think over humanize Surtr and by extension Ymir in ways to make the entities more approachable. but i see that for myself as sort of counterproductive. Others like Ljossal Lodursson idk, i just don’t find that his conclusions hold up to my interpretations, that is I don’t support Audumla as an essential part of the cosmos, but that’s my UPG and so i think it’s important to remind everyone that your UPG is yours and you’ll draw your own conclusions through journey work and research. My dissatisfaction with others who follow the path of the jotnar is not a reflection of the validity or quality of their works.

How you choose to incorporate any deity is really up to you.

For myself, I like Ymir for organic inspiration, but I also just sort of feel close to him as I'm a human living on earth, obsessed with the way the universe is held together. If you accept the big bang theory as the scientific beginning of the universe there is a place you can drop ymir in there. Ymir, Screamer, Bang...you get it. I have found if you stare too long at Ymir you sorta fall in and getting out again is rather difficult. I began to feel very unconnected to other parts of my faith, including Loki the longer i stayed trying to connect to Ymir.

Surtr is sorta similar for me. When you want to start over with a clean slate he'd be the one to help you, or rather his is the power you would seek since I'm not certain I could see something omnipresent and everlasting, that is the personification of ultimate entropy as being able to offer conscious help.

I don’t think of them as meeting people or interacting with persons. Try seeing them as simply being, events or states. Powers, elements, eldritch entities beyond sentient consciousness. Like some kind of Norse Jellyfish or giant space Apatosaurus. They just are, they have functions and they are or have fulfilled them.

***

*Lævateinn

Lævateinn is etymologically considered to be a kenning for a sword (Old Norse "damage twig"[1]

Henry Adams Bellows translation:

41. Svipdag spake:

"Now answer me, Fjolsvith, the question I ask,

For now the truth would I know:

What weapon can send Vithofnir to seek

The house of Hel below?"

42. Fjolsvith spake:

"Lævatein is there, that Lopt with runes

Once made by the doors of death;

In Lægjarn's chest by Sinmora lies it,

And nine locks fasten it firm."[3]

Bellows comments that Lægjarn means "Lover of Ill" and, like the name Lopt, refers to Loki

There is some suggestion that the weapon may be the misteltoe used to kill Baldur but this theory has never been proven.

More Reading

Arith Hargar- he has an excellent video on Ymir

http://www.northernpaganism.org/

a site with lots of information on various Jotnar as well as digital shrines

Raven Kaldera's Jotunbok

https://axeandplough.com/

Marc has several articles of interest- including one of the few written about Surtr

Ljossal Lodursson has written several texts on Thursatru that offer unique perspectives

#heathenry #heathen #rokkatru #asatru #norse #norse pagan #pagan #ymir #surtr

[ceruleanwhore]

Let’s talk about LoK’s shit worldbuilding

Technology is what I’ve seen the most people the most opinionated about, so that’s where I’ll start. Plenty of people out there share my opinion that having LoK be set in basically the American 20s is just some really shitty worldbuilding but I’ve also encountered plenty more who are of the opinion that since it’s technically possible, that means it’s good. For those who aren’t aware: just because something is technically possible does NOT make it good. AtLA is set in a more traditional fantasy world with a hard magic system where the setting, character design, and everything else are meant to feel older (even though this time it isn’t modeled after Europe). There is some technology in AtLA and what is shown works with the nature of their world and their society so it isn’t like, say, a lamppost from England being dropped right into this little fantasy world and disrupting things. The trains in Ba Sing Se are a perfect example of this with how they are operated by benders and also fit, visually, with the surrounding buildings and whatnot.

The issue with LoK is that it seems that there was no real thought around the development and incorporation of new technology in the context of the world. Instead, it’s as though they copied and pasted the American 20s in there and it’s really jarring. This would be the part where I said that just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s good writing- just because our industrial revolution was at breakneck speed doesn’t mean that having your fantasy world develop the same way is a good idea. For a little context, let’s compare this to the Lord of the Rings. Imagine that Christopher Tolkien one day decided to write a whole new four part series set a century after the end of Return of the King. So now, seemingly out of nowhere, boom, technology. Minas Tirith is basically 1920s Chicago, they have cars and stuff. And the thing is that there was a little bit of technology in LotR, just like with AtLA, so that is a fair comparison. 

Also, like I said earlier, it feels lazy with how they’re just throwing in some of these different types of technology. For example, a glove that electrocutes people with no explanation whatsoever on how it works doesn’t make sense. Not to mention, the fact that anything relies on lightning bending, which is SUPPOSED to be super fucking rare (more on that later) is beyond stupid. 

I think this reflects an ongoing issue with Korra where they clearly think that they should be trying to make things more “realistic” but either don’t realize or don’t care that in the process they’re wrecking that ‘fantasy’ feel their world used to have, which brings us to our next topic: people.

Just like how they decided to go the ‘realism’ route with a breakneck industrial revolution, they also decided to go that same route with homosexuality and, more importantly, homophobia. Friendly reminder that if you’re writing fantasy and you spice it some with some good, wholesome gay content, you DO NOT have to ruin it with fucking homophobia. It’s supposed to be fantasy, you dense fuck. It has its own problems but the Dragon Prince is an absolutely perfect example of how to write gayness in fantasy, i.e., perfectly common with zero homophobia to be seen. Writing it like Bryke did just to double down on “it’s been like 90 years since the war ended but did you know the Fire Nation is fucking TERRIBLE and Sozin is basically HITLER?” is weak, stupid, and fucking annoying.

The other thing I want to touch on is race. Basically, put whoever you want in your story and have them look however you want them to look but keep in mind that the way you do or do not introduce groups of people can affect the quality of your writing. What I mean is that with a fantasy universe like this, it’s all wysiwyg. When the gaang traveled around *the world* meeting and interacting with all kinds of people from all kinds of places in all 3 remaining nations (and showing memories of the air nomads that are now gone), that’s your chance to showcase all that wonderful diversity. By the end of the series, when their tour of the whole world is over, you should have a complete picture. 

Again, think about LotR for a second. By the end of Return of the King, you’ve encountered all the different types of men that ever existed in any of Tolkien’s writings (kinda sorta including the dunedain, and there’s even a reference or two in there with Aragorn tying that in all nicely), multiple kinds of elves, dwarves, goblins, hobbits, ents, huorns, the eagles, Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, the Nazgul, and multiple maiar (some good, some corrupt). The only race that hasn’t appeared in any of this that does exist in Tolkien’s other works is the valar but, otherwise, you, as the reader, along with characters like Frodo have been introduced to each and every race in middle earth, and, frankly, the Valar can be excused because they all are in the Undying Lands (plus Manwe might have been mentioned with the eagles.) Now, compare that to LoK where, with a Rowling level of retconning, they decided to just add some more races out of nowhere with no explanation 90 years or whatever after the original series. 

I just know that, for myself, I would’ve loved to see all this included from the beginning and incorporated into the original series and the travels of the gaang. Instead, we have it so AtLA is pretty set one way and then in LoK there’s just that one random dude with an afro and then, going into the comics afterwards, they decided to start incorporating different races in a way that feels like a JK Rowling tweet (“Hermione was black all along, even though I described her in the books as having light skin and picked a white actress to play her, I swear!”) So, basically, when you’re writing fantasy, you kind of have to include everything like that because that’s how the genre works and it’s not like in normal fiction where you can just have a black character without any explanation. Once again, the difference between how fantasy writing works and things being “realistic”.

As for realism, yanking the white lotus out into the open by their ear like an errant child is so unspeakably dumb and unrealistic. They’re a SECRET society who transcend the four nations and operate in SECRET jfc. After the war ended and the old folks home was no longer fighting the Fire Nation, the rest of them should’ve been able to go back into hiding no problem. But to drag their asses into this mess just to make them like Korra’s personal bodyguards and guards at high security prisons is so fucking stupid it hurts.

So then, to finish this up, let’s talk about bending. First off, there’s the issue of how bending forms have just… ceased to exist and/or been replaced with vague yet aggressive punching. Remember when Katara had to learn all those water bending stances and there was even a scroll of them? Or when Aang had to learn fire bending forms from Zuko? Well fuck that, now everyone can just punch at stuff instead. Never been able to airbend even with what should be proper form? Try waving your fist around!

The other thing is how so many of these characters are just “so naturally gifted” and can either successfully bend well with little to no experience or casually do stuff that’s supposed to be hella difficult. An example of the first point is Zaheer who just got his airbending like 3 days prior but suddenly can fucking fly and an example of the latter would be the blood bending, just all of it. That’s kind of another thing, though, how they’ve taken these things that were special and notoriously difficult and then watered them down and made it so literally everyone can do it. You know how lightning bending was a really cool thing only Ozai and Azula, the Fire Lord and princess who are both also known to be especially skilled benders, could do? Not anymore, now pretty much any fire bender with a pulse can shoot lightning out of their fingers. Same goes for blood and metal bending.

Also, can I just say that I’m mad at how pro bending was done? The earth bending stuff with the Boulder and all that worked because that framework of wrestling is really well suited to the element. Now, it’s what I’ve been saying where it’s like ‘oh yeah we can just put all the elements together in this boxing type shit because everyone in this fucking series can bend by punching, right?’ They had an awesome opportunity here to figure out different styles of fighting sports tailored to the different types of bending and they said ‘nope, fuck you’ and gave us that shit. Or just sports, in general, based around if the people playing and benders and, if so, what type of bending they have.

The last main thing with bending though is the absolute horseshit of harmonic convergence and kinda just season 2 in general. For starters, Korra getting her bending back because dead Aang was like “here ya go” was bullshit. I feel like it would’ve been better if that had been when Unalaq got introduced as her spiritual guide and, through working with him, she eventually was able to reach Wan, see his whole backstory like we got in episode 7, and then, afterwards, she could contact Raava directly and somehow with her get her bending back. Then, afterwards, she could go back to Republic City and give everyone their bending back and start helping with reconstruction from Amon. Season 2 doesn’t need a villain and it most certainly does NOT need that dumbass ‘dark avatar’ bullshit. 

Also, in terms of the air bending, seriously, fuck that shit. If air bending is going to come back then maybe, I don’t know, after following my other advice have Korra realize that not only can she take bending away (like Aang) but she can also give it so she could just go around to all the acolytes and make them airbenders. Or, if that would fuck up the balance or some shit, have her go around and make all the people who lost their bending to Amon into a fresh batch of air benders. You can’t really introduce something like energy bending and then expect us to believe that the only way to bring air bending back is for Aang to fuck a lot and then rely on following generations and subsequent incest, plus hc is fucking stupid when you have a character who can straight up just give people bending.

Oh and all that convergence shit brings up my last point of discussion, the way they retconned and fucked up the lore. Just like with what they did with lightning, blood, lava, and metal bending, they also decided to just do everything they could with those fucking turtles. Just like with Azula’s lightning bending, the entire fucking reason the lion turtle works so well is because of how it is so rare and special and all that so once you take that away, it doesn’t matter anymore smh. For most peope, champagne is special. You know why? Because most of us aren’t out here drinking the shit by the gallon every day. So yeah, between that and the way they threw away already established lore (that was further reinforced by experiences of characters in the show) makes it just a big old “yike”. All they had to do was fanagle a bit to keep Raava and Vaatu but ditch the whole hc shitshow and just maintain the parts that are already established.

#anti lok #bad worldbuilding #bad writing #anti legend of korra #lok #legend of korra #avatar #lok critical #lok criticism #legend of korra criticism #korra criticism #korra critical

[attract-mode-collective]

The Attract Mode Holiday Gift Guide For 2019, Part 2

Alright, there's officially one week left, seven days till Christmas! And if you're still looking for that special something for that special someone, time is running out.

Thankfully, options do still exist... kinda, sorta. Also, you might have to pay a premium.... but dems are the breaks. First up is Love Hultén's logical follow-up to the FC-PVM from earlier this year, the SNES-PVM! Here's some additional beauty shots...

Going by the product page, it's more or less identical to the predecessor, so the same 9" Sony Trinitron PVM-9042QM. It also appears to utilize the same 8BitDo driven controller mods as well; it's not listed on their made-to-order​ page, but I'm sure if you ask nicely... as well as offer enough money to make it worth their time... they might be willing to make a deal?

Though I do have an alternative, cuz even if there was a SNES-PVM ready to go, imagine how much guaranteed by Christmas shipping from Sweden would cost? Your next best bet is Bithead1000, who can build you a Super Nintendo Fish Tank made in the good ole’ U.S. of A....

For those of you finally pulling the trigger on a PlayStation 4 Pro this holiday, and are considering the Limited Edition Death Stranding bundle... but are a bit underwhelmed by the included DualShock 4... consider We Are Robot's alternative. Which costs about as much as the aforementioned system, oh well...

But if you're interested in something for the whole family, then how about a block of Bridge Baby cheese? Am sure this will be the centerpiece of this year’s Hideo Kojima Christmas gathering...

And guess what can be the centerpiece of your Christmas gathering? Why Hideo Kojima of course, or a 1/6 replica from @bayuarafat...

I myself am simply going to get a lil Ludens for my desk, to hold my glasses (seen here as part of Jean-François Rey's collab with Kojima Pro) which will pair nicely with my lil Venom Snake bionic arm (from the Metal Gear Solid V Collector's Edition), aka my wedding ring holder...

Am still kicking myself for missing out on this DS Lite covered with Swarovski crystals; suppermariobroth notes that it was on sale at the Nintendo New York in '07 for only $600 (I have no idea how I could miss that)...

Here's a motorcycle jacket from THUNDERBOX that’s supposed to evoke the Game Boy; would be nice if one could somehow hook one up to it & have the jacket be a controller of sorts, silly as that sounds...

As someone who could care less about Kirby (sorry everyone), I nonetheless adore the Shogo Sekine portion of Laforet Harajuku's PLAYFUL KIRBY line (be sure to check out miki800.com to see Converse Stars’s half, or maybe not, cuz it kinda sucks)...

Though miki800's Instagram recently reminded me of the one person/place/thing I absolutely need to visit when making my triumphant return to Japan: wherever VIDEOGAMETOKYO is at stationed at that moment, to finally obtain this Salamander/Life Force sweatshirt...

I’ll probably want to also track down whatever pop-up GAMES GLORIOUS is at during my stay, cuz I’ve long been interested in their Sega Master System/Mark III button-up...

Along wit their SEGA HARD GIRLS shirt; even with the detail of the pattern handy, I still need a closer look...

I previously showcased Eri Kitamura's work a little over a year ago; nowadays, not only does she draw pretty girls on Game Boys, but pretty girls with Game Boys as well, which forms the basis of her zine GAME GIRL...

For those who haven't heard, the latest release from Data Discs is the soundtrack to Radiant Silvergun...

As for myself, I've recently begun collecting old Japanese 45s, and as @marosahi19 demonstrates, I won't have any trouble finding a copy of Takahashi “16 shots per second” Meijin hit single while in Tokyo later this weekend...

This is what it sounds like, btw...

Hey, did I mention that I'm going to Japan? Cuz I am! Yup, the grand return is actually happening, again, in just a few days. Hence why part two of my holiday gift guide is so late. Anyhow, I'm also going to be on the lookout for the Famicom copy of Athena, cuz of the included bonus audio cassette (or I guess I could make an mp3 of Jeremy Parish's rip for YouTube)...

But yeah, this blog post is way overdue; if I had filed it in time, perhaps there would have been enough of a heads up for my buddy Joe Simko's Good Nite Fortnite! card, which was available from Topps for just 24 hours (perhaps a card collector out there might have one for sale on eBay or something)...

It's also why I didn't get to mention in time that Retro-Ko had not just one, but two pink Hello Kitty Dreamcasts available (hopefully you saw my mention on Twitter, but more importantly, following @retro_ko will guarantee that you'll know when they next have three in stock)...

Remember my mention of Read-Only Memory's Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works from, gee, two years ago? Guess what; it's finally here...

Here's an old Dreamcast jacket from Cobles in mint condition. For those interested, make James Mielke an offer...

Back to the subject of Death Stranding; if you regret not picking up that game's Collector's Edition... or simply couldn't afford to... you can still carrying around a BB, so long as you attach him to your coat zipper or the like: @mxgicdave's FUNKY FETUS Acrylic Charm...

Guess what else is super fashionable? Japanese arcade cabs of course; anyone interested in @VVCollectiv's Astro City inspired pins & keychains should send them a DM...

This holiday season, show your Switch how much you truly care by finally giving it a pair of legs, courtesy of... am not sure, to be honest. The problem with Instagram these days is how everyone basically swipes content from everyone else; saw it here in case anyone’s interested...

Hey, remember that girl with that Sega Saturn on her head that I wrote about a few years ago as well? Well, these days she's making art & designing apparel...

And here's a closer look via @miaumiauzmiau's Twitter...

If you'd rather adorn your love for candy cabs on your wall and not on your body, then SURUDENISE can help with that, with this super spiffy print...

My wife & I are always looking to furnish the apartment with things that reflect both of our interests; for myself it’s video games & for Ashley it’s cats. So this PixelEyeBat print from The Yetee seems right up our alley…

Actually, we recently got something along those lines, which was acquired at Anime NYC from loststreetkat.com…

She also had this keychain, which we naturally had to get…

Full-disclosure: my original plan for part two of my holiday gift guide was going to be a round-up of all my fave findings at the show, but since time was running out… guess that’ll have to wait till 2020. Cuz one again, I’m going to be in Japan in just a few days!!!

Though one last thing: if none of the above works out for you, remember, there’s always Mercari...

[vickie-believe]

Soooo. Yeah. Ahem. This might be a long post but I’m gonna just put a read more after a point.

I redesigned an OC from last year. And this is a major change (I have her old design in one of my art dumps). And it isn’t just that, I did more for her in both writing and character development. I also have more art stuff I did on her past self but gonna put that as a separate post.

Anyhow, this is Mad Jack, the Wild Dog. My Dying Light 30-year-old-plus crazy  OC with a sorta like Chloe Frazer, Rachel from Animorphs and Junkrat mash personality, I created for my fanfic, The Descent.

And you can see a year between different styles, levels of art and all that. So I wanna say that no matter how many years, you’ll get even better. You’ll learn new tricks and techniques, new things every day by keeping at your passion. You’ll get better. Any form you did whether simple, stick-man, anything is still a good art because you’re doing it - you’re not stopping because someone says it’s bad, you’re doing it for yourself. And you keep going and seeing the improvements that prove those people, you can create something awesome. 

So keep drawing. There’s absolutely no stopping, not even for me. I’m still going to improve myself. 

Now then, more on the character. Boring stuff. X’D

SOOOO, the story behind this character creation. I really enjoy Dying Light and I wish the best and all for Techland on their release with Dying Light 2 (and PLEASE GOD BRING THE BROTHER TWINS BACK so that my friend can go “shiiiiit!” X’D I really mean it! He hates them! AHAHAHAHA) and the Following. It was thanks to the ending that got me to start a writing about what happens to Kyle Crane days after the ending. Which means he becomes a sentient zombie in the fic.

What got me into making Mad Jack was two things: one is I realized Crane would need a middleman because you know, he would kill people uncontrollably (and that person needs to be mad enough to even stick with infected Crane) and two, three characters in Dying Light got me thinking of Jack as a common person between them. 

So yeah. Fic’s summary is Crane’s back, he meets an ex-kickboxer from the Outskirts of Harran in the middle of a city named Scanderoon and he learns she and a group called the Ravs are trying to find out why the virus recently spiked up with new mutations, affecting the zombies and the survivors, in hopes that the virus isn’t adapting too fast for a cure to beat it. 

Now the read-more cuz I don’t want you ppl seeing me as a rambling idiot.

Alright. Let’s get to the meat. So for one, when I first thought of the fic, I was thinking Crane is, of course, the main protagonist but with a few elements: he’s kinda like the Mother (sorta, I need to make his character design now lol) but as a Night Hunter sort and would still be himself. His character development would be on the verge of struggle and insanity between himself and his other self. So I couldn’t see himself being able to fully control himself without someone helping him, regardless how strong his willpower is after going through everything. So he needed someone to keep him in his grips. Jack in my fic is sorta of a red-herring first protagonist but is actually a  deuteragonist.

There’s also another point that I wanted to tackle his struggles from the main game, that meeting someone who knew the people he met and learning they’re gone would be the ultimate, powerful and bittersweet development for him. Which is about the three persons I said earlier that is what I based around for Jack.

So the three people were Harris Brecken, Jade and Rahim Aldemir. When I first played the game, I always found it strange how protective Brecken was to both of them which made me wonder if they had a backstory before the outbreak. Sure, many could say, Rahim was one of Brecken’s students or Rais was after the Scorpion before Crane came into the picture. A lot of theories anyone of us could think of. I still felt like there was someone in their lives that crossed paths. The first person I went brainstorming more on was Jade and her kickboxing career.

I made Jack, aka Mad Jack, as Jade’s previous rival and opponent for the last martial arts championship. The Scorpion versus the Wild Dog. The professional 3-year world champion versus the rising star until Jade won and Jack retired. And since their first meeting, the two kids have been friends with her with Jack being that kinda guardian looking out for them. I made Harris be, surprisingly, Jack as that unwanted cousin who you both love and hate a lot. Cough. But with whatever happened to all of them in the past gave me a better structure of why Brecken would care more about the kids if they knew someone who cared about them. Not directly but enough that Brecken wouldn’t tell his cousin they’re gone.

An incident did also cause a bit of friction from Jade’s victory, and that’s something I’ll reveal in my fic later on. And it also did change Jack a lot. The current Jack is more ballistic, unhinged, daring, hungry for a fight and uh...kinda scary the more I describe her now that I think of it. She’s still a good person (sorta) who helps those in need because she’s used to it before, being a legend that inspired people in the past. I even had a small idea that she sings a lullaby to calm the Screamers or infected children before killing them. She thinks of wild ideas that don’t often go the way she wants, a trait Rahim picked up, which is what made him decide to blow up the nest. Go Wild or don’t, which is one thing why those two connected well in the past. Jack’s an unlikely character on the search for why the virus had a kickstarter and being Crane’s hired wingman. 

Moreover, it’s a slow trust building between these two. Jack’s philosophy is sorta kinda like Rais and Crane can see that in her. There are also secrets she has that will put that trust to the test but it won’t just be her but Crane testing that trust with his own sins.

What makes this fic so interesting to me the more I write isn’t just Crane’s constant regret that he has to work with this loony woman in a desperate hope of finding that cure and the funny banter development between a sane zombie and a crazy human but the fact Crane’s past will catch up to him and Jack will learn about Jade and Rahim’s fates. And it’s not just Jack herself but others he’ll learn had some connection to someone in Harran. And that moment he can’t keep the lies in anymore and has to tell Jack the truth, that will be something powerful and heartbreaking - that he met a person who knew them and has to give the grim news they’re gone. Because no one had told Jack yet. What’s more, this will reflect on Jack too - that her influence on the two kids was what got them killed like her way of thinking in going big for Rahim and her philosophy in kickboxing got Jade to sacrifice herself.

From there, well, there’s more I have up my sleeve. And hopefully not break these two in the process. :Y

I made Jack for a long of reasons but the one main thing is, I realized after everything Crane’s gone, he really needed someone, an emotional pillar of support for sure. And he hasn’t had that the entire time in Dying Light or the Following - everyone sought him as a hero and never questioned it. Which...I kinda thought was a little sad. So yeah, I made Mad Jack - someone who had fallen from grace and accepted her current self, be that dog of Harran who fully takes in the fact the whole world has gone to hell and has pulled off the chains. Jack’s history, which some parts I won’t go into details, sorta reflects his that she had done a lot and sacrificed a lot before and during the outbreak came. And with Crane being stuck as a monster for good with moments of losing his shit, he’d need support a lot more than ever. The same goes for Jack with her own problems to deal with that Crane decides to help her like he has always done for people in the main game. And how this will all end, I dunno. I know exactly what might be a fitting end for Jack but how all of this will end, that’s something I’m going to have to see towards the end and how Crane would rise back from his descent thanks to Jack. Whether good or bad.

And there you go, Mad Jack. She really had a huge development based on so many people, as well as Crane himself. And I really enjoy pushing that development further into her, to see how far her trials go on her moral and psyche. 

uh....hope you get it. Probably a bore though. :Y I’m open to anything btw if you think it’s silly or bad. Been editing a lot in this character, others and my writing.

If people are interested, there’s already 15 chps, 1 small intermission chp and the next one is being worked on. Here’s the fic.

I feel like a dork...Im gonna draw other DL fanart. Maybe like banter between the Wild Dog and Scorpion in the past or something...

#my art #my artwork #dying light #Dying-Light #Dying Light Game #dying light fanart #oc #Mad Jack #techland #fanfic #fanart #the following game

[monkey-network]

redPill Your Mind [Part 1]

This is gonna be one of the drunken things I’ll ever write, but there needed to be balance so I hope you enjoy.

So, you know what I expected when I saw the title Change Your Mind? A sequel to Sorry to Bother You, in which Rebecca Sugar and Noelle Stevenson’s [self inserts] head to a Penthouse house party hosted by Buzzfeed type millennial hetero CEOs and they eventually have to slaughter their way out of there before they’re injected with a serum that turns people into jungle cat human hybrids......... instead we got a special that one could say had too many cooks in the kitchen, only for all to season the roast with the same salt, water, & pepper. But hey, whence you read all of this, know that it was all very entertaining to me. Okay, so...

We return to Rapunzel’s tower where Steven is still locked away in his sequin suit where Blue comes in and has an argument with him who is actually Pink and it’s all a dream that apparently took place in the past but the question here is when? Like it supposedly takes place before Pink got Earth but after she started acting like less of a brat? So it’s like... she was a pretty entitled brat at one point but here she’s restrained and regretful of herself here now. What?

I’m honestly at a lost at how I should feel about Pink Diamond cuz on the one hand she basically lied, used, and manipulated others into false realities and subconsciously relied on a 14 year old to be their guiding key to relieving the weight they had on themselves because she wasn’t mature enough to face this herself. On the other hand, she is seen as somebody that’s in a strict, estranged relationship with her parental figures and comes across as the one gets the rod and yet is pretty spoiled. On one hand, she sent Steven some positives vibes before her death, so that’s great. But on the other hand with this dream scene, we, or at least I, don’t really see her getting abused by the diamonds as much as having to be disciplined and told to for goofing around? Like Blue Diamond agreed to letting Pink keep the rainbow worms, Pink took advantage of that and did something unruly, and she’s put in time-out because of it. Like yeah, that tower is pretty depressing even if you can escape from it with your shapeshift and floaty powers, but it’s not like she’s in there because the others think she’s always a waste of space but because she acted headstrong and is sent there to have some time to reflect on her repercussions. Blue doesn’t figuratively looks down on Pink, think of her as any less in that scene in particular, she just appears disappointed that Pink isn’t acting like an expectedly responsible leader. Like yeah, Pink’s treated like a child but the show made me believe that she was only a child back then.

Not to mention, her “parents” are dictators, explicit dictators that are trying to maintain a galaxy wide empire full of destroyed planets and massive use of structural militarization. They have to chastise Pink for not living up to their expectations because their expectations amounts to being sith lords that seek to kill, look grandiose, and control at will. They weren’t trying to get Pink into an Ivy League and get a million dollar business afloat, they were trying to build her into the next conqueror and I’m at a lost as whether I’m supposed to empathize with that. The show made little effort in helping me think of her as anything more than a based ass bitch among a group of the same stitch that sorta kept the cycle of control going when she finally stepped up to be a leader and yet the show wants me to think that her intentions overall meant something sincere but fuck, man. Intentions work when the outcome is most probable and soluble on all accounts, it doesn’t help with three mentally stunted alien women that apparently haven’t integrated too well into society despite the fact that there are entire libraries to learn from and grasp the ups and downs that humanity have gone through since one of the purposes of staying on Earth is to protect the life on Earth as well as coexist with the inhabitants otherwise a World War 0 would’ve been imminent from the get go. Honestly, WW0 would’ve probably been cool too. I guess that’s why Russia is nonexistent cuz the fight between Russians and Gems would’ve been too epic to be detailed.

Also, we see the Diamonds do the truth bomb again and it’s like were they trying to kill or corrupt the gems cuz it seems that they weren’t aware of how their powers work and it’s like what the fuck. You just throw up your hand and expect the worst? They didn’t test this power far beforehand before decidedly saying “You know what? Let’s try these hand beams. I’m sure they’ll be super effective in wiping them out.” On top of that, the Diamonds didn’t bother to see what happened afterward? They just nuked the planet and left not caring if there were any survivors to squash out? Like yeah, if I set off a nuke then I’m certain many would die but if I wanted to make sure everyone dead, I’d cover my tracks and send some drones down to comb the area to make sure of no survivors and if the corrupted gem count were overwhelming then yeah I’d step in and take care of it again. Just saying, I would be a far more tactile villain but apparently there are no villains in this show so I guess not doing this is consistency? Wonderful.

We cut to the present where a Deja Blue, that isn’t ass tasting water, happens and Blue is like “Dang it, I try to be the better, more lenient dictator mom and you just soiling the good order and my patience. I’m putting my foot down this time.” And they mention dehydration and starvation but it’s like how would Blue know what those are? This small moment comes off as Blue being quite a brick wall but that’s the fact she doesn’t know what human customs are because.... she was never informed or obligated to care of such things. 

In any case, Steven tells Blue that this dynamic of theirs ain’t gucci, and Blue breaks down coming to terms with her estranged behavior with Pink. And I gotta look a little further into this. So the scene amounts to Blue realizing that Earth suited Pink or Steven better than the likes of Homeworld and yet it didn’t feel earned in the sense that Blue truly saw what Steven saw in Earth.  

Remember the episode When It Rains where Peridot felt more comfortable with Earth after experiencing raindrops for the first time? That could’ve been for the Diamonds, somewhat. Legs from Here to Homeworld rushed and brushed off what could’ve been a chance for Blue and Yellow to at least grasp the perspective Pink had all those years ago before they came to a full realization in this episode. They didn’t have to be as blown away as Peridot was, but they should’ve had some time before to somewhat get a sense of conflict in their own ideals and how Pink was probably in the right of her actions before falling in line to Steven’s gospel.

Like we can point the finger at Blue for being an emotionally controlling parent but like I said, she is a dictator, one whom, based on what we got, didn’t figuratively looked down on Pink as much as wanted better from her, and punished her accordingly when she went against the order that the Diamonds built for themselves. She was negligible to Pink’s real desires, but then again she had to run an empire and had to make sure Pink would follow suit so it’s like what Pink wanted was irrelevant to what was expected of her. The chamber’s a bit much, and I ain’t excusing it, but it’s like they could’ve done far worse to make Pink see things their way. And we never really see Blue enforce any control over Pink, be emotionally dysfunctional towards her, or diminish her sense of self as much as give her a stern talking about what she must uphold as a Diamond, what she born to be, as any sense to diverge from that should be absolved, while being consistent in her soft-spoken yet straightforward tone. I’ve seen a few say that she alludes to abusive parenting but the show never indicates that her disappointment and frustration enabled a subtly abusive side of her. Only one moment presents such a case where she uses her power blue balls on Steven and he takes this as a regular occurrence, but this only happens when Steven pushes her to do so out of frustration not long after trying to reason with him. For the sake of Pink Diamond, Blue really just agrees with Steven instead of understanding this for herself. Yeah, this is meant to feel like a one sided argument, but it didn’t feel like Steven had to think that much to get her on his side. While it makes sense that she would be the first who comes to terms with her past transgressions, those transgressions aren’t exhibited well to say that she was truly in the wrong for everything she did to Pink, based on what we’ve seen and heard of her. I ain’t trying to defend the Diamonds, but Blue’s revelation feels more by design of the plot and less out of earnest rationale that’s emotional resonating.

And trying to say the Crystal Gems are better parents than Blue and Yellow is a big ass understatement because their expectations weren’t as necessarily impactful as being a responsible ruler of a fucking galactic empire. Those are two different planes of settlement and standards, and Steven trying to say what is normal or not rings hallow when he didn’t make any case back on Earth for what is considerably normal there. Not to mention, Pink and Steven, despite how it may seem, are two different characters. The show tries to provide that Steven is his own person yet has to work out the complicated relationship of somebody he’s never seen and still knows minute about with her emotionally stunted parents, or his other family, by making believe that they’re almost one in the same based on pattern recognition? Say what? I mean we’ll get to this later... but let’s say Pink is quite the catalyst in this special and the uphill battle is only the slight incline from here.

So after Blue joins the party temporarily, she hides Steven and Connie in her boobs, they head to Pink’s quarters, the two eat, get clothed, and head out to get the gems back. And this is where I stop for now cuz I’m tired.

Continued in Part 2 (eventually...)

#su critical #su criticism #su critique #long post

[callmeakumatized]

My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend - Ch 10

[[ SURPRISE!!! Another Chapter! :D ]]

Ao3 ff.net previous chapter

Marinette had never responded to Adrien's message from Friday night, and she didn't try to call him, despite her threat to do so. Adrien both liked and disliked this development. While he hated not hearing about how she was feeling – because, really, he loved her, dang it – he desperately needed the time to quell his own feelings and decide what to do from here. Because he knew he needed to make the next move. He just didn't know if he was brave enough to do it, especially without the loving support he had come to rely on so heavily from Ladybug – Marinette…Maribug?

So he ignored Nino's small-talk texts. And Alya's Ladyblog update messages. Instead, he focused on what he could do for his Lady.

So far? He had a big dollop of Nuttin' atop a sundae of Diddly-Squat.

What could he say that he hadn't already said? 'Purr-pose' instead of 'Porpoise'?

(Yeah, he didn't think so either.)

Needless to say, the main sounds he heard throughout his weekend were cheese-eating (normal), Ladyblog update blips (normal), and a lot – a lot – of (maybe melodramatic, to a degree) sighing (not as normal).

When Monday came around, Adrien seriously considered telling Nathalie he was sick. Or running away. Or joining the circus. Anything to be anywhere but there was a viable option in his arsenal of excuses at this point. The Saturday evening Akuma was still fresh on his mind, and it had been especially nasty. It wasn't hard, per se, but Ladybug, while playing up a scary version of "Nothing's wrong why would anything be wrong!?" had taken turns roughly vaulting him toward the danger (grinning wickedly while she did so) and getting ridiculously close to him in very intimate ways (trying to maintain appearances, maybe, but running her fingers through his hair while there were explosions was toying with his brain and totally on purr-pose, don't try to tell him otherwise).

And he was pretty sure the "mistake" where they went for a fist bump and she broke his nose was totally not the accident she had pretended it was. Especially because she had insisted on the fist bump before the Miraculous cure, which would, admittedly, fix it, but not completely. Which she, of course, knew.

Even thinking about it now, Adrien could feel the bruising.

The unexpected sloppy kiss she had planted on him and the desperate look in her eyes afterward did nothing – N-O-T-H-I-N-G – to help his hurting heart. Or his reeling emotions.

So when Adrien pulled up to the school, he already had expectations of what he would see, what he would find. A girl crushed under the weight of a broken heart? Maybe. A woman angry over her lover's quarrel? More likely. What Adrien expected to see when he walked into the school building was, perhaps, based on his own feelings. He felt down, and he felt confused, and he felt anxious, so maybe he assumed Marinette would feel the same way too.

He was SO. WRONG.

What he saw was Ladybug in fleshy form. A girl with a planned plan planned to planny precision. It was disgusting. And Adrien had to pick his school stuff and his jaw off the floor when he first saw her.

She looked gorgeous. Just enough make-up to keep it subtle. Just enough hairs coming loose from her up-do to keep it casual. Sneaker heels and a cute skirt instead of flats and pants. The girl was siphoning the oxygen straight out of his lungs, using it to fuel her full laughs and playful jabs at her classmates.

He first spotted her in the locker room where she was putting on red lipstick in the mirror of her locker, giggling with Alya, Rose, and Alix about something. As he gazed at the back of her head, he could have sworn she saw him reflected there. He definitely saw the flash of hard blue eyes before she leaned over, grabbing Alya's head and planting a puckering kiss onto her best friend's cheek. The girls all giggled, and she turned right to him and winked. Adrien gulped in response, reaching down to pick up the books he had dropped. He rubbed his still-sore nose self-consciously.

When he looked back up, Nino had joined Alya, and Marinette had put on his headphones to listen in on the music he were talking about.

The girls walked by a few minutes later, passing a statue-like Adrien who had frozen when Marinette had shown him how adorable she looked with red lipstick and headphones.

He was captivated by visions of dark lashes and red lips.

He was jealous of Alya's kissed cheek.

He was jealous of Nino, Alix, and Rose's close proximity.

He was terrified of Marinette.

As the girl walked up to him, Adrien tried to tighten his grip on his bag and his books, trying to not repeat the action for a third time that morning, but to no avail. They clattered everywhere, only accentuated by his efforts to keep himself upright. The familiar warmth of embarrassment manifested itself in his cheeks, neck, and ears, and Adrien concentrated heavily on picking up his stuff and not looking up. Until Marinette's shoes paused in front of him.

When he had finished with his books, a hand shot out in front of his face. Adrien still didn't raise his eyes, but he was not one to turn away a hand offered to him…especially when this was the girl of your dreams (and maybe his nightmares the night before, but he didn't want to think about that). Marinette's grip was strong, and she pulled him up with ease. Then she paused for a moment before lifting up on of his hands and kissing his palm. Adrien might have made a whimpering sound at this.

Marinette only smiled, their eyes finally meeting…and then purposefully flicking him on the nose before sauntering off.

"Do you deserve it?"

"Huh?" Adrien's reply was about an octave higher than normal. He was too busy rubbing his throbbing nose and blinking the sudden tears of pain from his eyes.

Adrien's blurry vision finally started to focus. His best friend stood there looking at him, lips pursed but eyes twinkling.

"Do you deserve it?" the DJ repeated, slower this time.

Nino's voice was usually a welcomed anchor to this sea of chaos that was his life (though it was slowly turning into a hurricane of madness, a sharknado, a flippin' Bermuda triangle centered around him). The question, however, was not welcomed.

"Uh…" Adrien easily understood the meaning of the simple question. He just didn't know where to start.

"Just answer me, bro."

"Yes…?"

"That's the first step. How you gonna fix it?"

"I – what? How do you even know – ?"

Nino closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head and placing a hand on Adrien's shoulder.

"Dude, you are just lucky that it was me you sent that message to and not her."

…Wut.

"The girl is shooting daggers at you already. Have you talked to her since Friday at all?"

Talked with? Nah, not really. Fought with? Yeah, absolutely. And in more ways than one.

"No? What message?"

"You seriously thought that that girl – that girl – would cheat on you?"

Oh. That message. How had he…? Nevermind. Whatever. WHAT. EVER.

"Nino…I…I don't know how to explain. But, yes?"

"You know that that girl has been in love with you since you started public school, right?"

"WHAT?"

"The girl has your schedule memorized." Nino chuckled for a second before sobering instantly. "Do not tell her I told you that. Cause honestly, I do not want that," – he motioned toward the direction Marinette had gone – "after me. And you better figure this out soon. Mari is seriously ticked."

"I…but…"

Nino only shook his head and walked away, a salute and a smile his only departing graces.

Adrien blinked stupidly at nothing. Then he lost control of his books again. He couldn't help but see it as an awful metaphor for what his life was: a mess.

qpqpqpqpqp

Adrien could handle the cutesy gushing over hat designs with Myléne and the discussion of the new Jagged Stone/Zombie Skullcrushers duet with Ivan. Heck, he could even deal with hearing Marinette gush about LadyNoir with Alya, the conversation so close it was almost in his flippin' ear. But this? Ah nah. He drew the line at the "gun show" she started participating in with Kim and Alix during their lunch hour. Particularly when Kim started feeling her gorgeous, glittery (how is that possible?) muscles.

Not to sound like he was a masochist, or that he owned Maribug or anything attached to her, but…those muscles were his.

Without warning, Adrien unceremoniously grabbed Marinette by the arm and dragged her away from the group of classmates, giving Kim the stink eye. They only made it a couple tables away before Marinette slipped her arm out from his grasp.

"Excuse you!" she shot out, placing a hand on her hip and popping it out in such an adorablewayshewasgoingtokillhim.

"Excuse me?" Adrien shot back, matching her quiet tone. "Excuse you! Letting him feel you up like that…"

"He was not feeling me up!"

"He might as well have been."

She snorted.

Adrien walked a step away, grabbing at his hair before going back to her and pointing a finger just passed her face. "Stop flirting with everyone! It's – It's killing me, Marinette! If you're going to touch anyone, or kiss anyone, or for goodness' sake share headphones with anyone, it should be with me!"

Marinette stared blankly at him for a moment. "Huh. You'd think I would have seen this coming or something. I mean, you do tend to get jealous over the silliest things…like yourself."

Adrien sat on the nearest table, covering his face with his hands and groaning loudly. This day didn't turn out how he imagined; it was worse. Removing one hand from his face he reached out and caught hold of an escaping Marinette, pulling her to him again, but more gently. She came willingly and he pulled her into some semblance of an embrace. Mostly so he could continue the conversation through whispers in her ear. Mostly.

"I thought you didn't know, Mari."

"And I thought you did know."

This was something he had sorta figured out, but it still left questions.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Uh, er…well, you see…" Marinette pulled away a bit and Adrien saw the crack in her confident façade for the first time that day. It almost gave him confidence. But, since he didn't know why she was hesitating to answer, courage quickly dissolved into nervousness.

"You asked me out!" she finally whisper-yelled at him.

"You said 'yes'! Why – Why would you say 'yes' to that!?"

Marinette flushed before suddenly grabbing both sides of his face. "You just…you have that – that face! You shouldn't just walk around with th-that face and expect unsuspecting females to be able to answer, uh, logically!"

Adrien couldn't help it. He knew he was in deep trouble, but…he snickered. Marinette immediately let go of him and flicked his nose again. With a cry, his hands grabbed her wrists to block off anymore attacks. She struggled against him, gritting her teeth.

"And you came to my house, and you called me MY NICKNAME!" Her voice was getting louder. "Or do you go to everyone's house and call them 'M'Lady' and say 'See you tomorrow' and KISS THEIR HAND!?"

Adrien froze. When had he…?

Oh. Oh gosh.

He…he had done that, hadn't he?

"Well, I-I-I, I mean, you're not wrong…" his voice drifted with his gaze as he thought back to that time with Marinette, poking around her room and flirting – teasing – her. Marinette stopped struggling, the lack of movement bringing Adrien's eyes back to his partner's. He was shocked to see them a little watery, and when she spoke, her voice was very small.

"You do do that to everyone?"

"WHAT? No! NO, Marinette, that's not –"

"I thought that that was just for me…"

"It IS! What I meant was that you're right, I did do that, but I don't do that to anyone else! I've never done that to anyone else!"

"Just to me? And well…me?"

There was a mixture of skepticism with hopefulness in her eyes. It was a fear for both of them: Marinette fearing Adrien's disloyalty, and Adrien facing the fear of letting her down. Again.

"Yes," Adrien said firmly, letting go of her wrists finally and placing them tentatively on either side of her face. "And I just, I didn't mean to those times with you-you either, it must have j-just slipped out, I-I mean, I didn't…" His face felt warm. Why…why had he done that? It had flowed so easily. Had he…but no, he couldn't have…?

He had had a crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

And Marinette seemed to have simultaneously reached this same conclusion.

"Oh my gosh, you filthy hypocrite!" she spat at him, pushing his hands away. "You were hitting on me!"

"WHAT! I was not – not – hitting on you!"

He was totally hitting on her.

"Oh, 'Princess'," Marinette pulled away before adorning what he assumed was supposed to be a fake Chat Noir voice and a fake Chat Noir walk, twirling around and fluttering her lashes at him (even in pretend, Chat Noir still had swag). "Oh, it's raining! Please, please let me in! EVEN THOUGH I LIVE A BLOCK AWAY."

"I wasn't hitting on you! I was flirting, and that is not the same!"

HE WAS TOTALLY HITTING ON HER.

"You had a crush on me! ADMIT IT!"

"Says the girl who has more posters on her wall of me than La Mode magazine!"

Several gasps sounded throughout the cafeteria. One of them was Marinette's. One of them was also Adrien's.

That was a low blow, and they all knew it, even those in the unwitting audience.

The next thing Adrien knew, he was sprawled across one of the long lunch tables, Marinette shoving a thick slab of pudding into his face.

All he could do for a moment was blink stupidly at the ceiling. That is, until he heard the "Oooo's" coming from the kids around them. When he sat up, he saw a smug, red, and angry Marinette. But he was done playing around.

Adrien made a show of licking off what he could before looking around and making a grab for whatever was around him – mashed potatoes, perfect – and flicking it into her own face.

Or, he would have.

But she was Ladybug. The blithe girl deftly dodged the potato slop easily. Instead, the wad of starchy goodness landed in a young girl's hair. The young lady yelped at the surprising impact.

A stillness broke over the cafeteria…until a voice that sounded suspicious like Alya's yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!"

"DETENTION!" a stronger voice rang out, bringing the lunch room into another quiet lull. Adrien and Marinette's gazes snapped to each other. Both their hands had more globs of food in them, aimed toward each other. Audible gulps sounded. They then looked to the person whose heels now clicked against the tiled floor in a heavy rhythm.

Ah. It looks like Principal Damocles decided to join them all for lunch today.

Great.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ladynoir #ladybug #chat noir #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #adrienette #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #ladrien #marichat #My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

[cupcakeshakesnake]

Watching The Pilot for the first time

Series 10, here we go.

-The first episode of Series 10.  So we could say this is the...  PILOT episode

-I’m sorry. That joke doesn’t work, I know.

---Spoilers ahead!---

-Ooh, is this Bill’s theme? I like it?

-TARDIS!!

-Why is it out of order though...

-Oh my god he has a photo of River Song on his desk ;-;

-And oh god is that Susan

Sonic screwdrivers! Did he keep all his sonic screwdrivers after all this time?

-The guitar again!

-Two minutes in and I’m already losing track of the dialogue

-Fifty years... So the Doctor’s been laying low again, has he?

-”Poetry, physics, same thing.”  You know what, I bet he didn’t even get hired through the normal procedure, he just walked in one day telling everyone he was the new professor, or even an old professor who left and decided to return, and he just bullshitted his way through any and all obstacles he came across during his stay

-”How is it the same?”  “Because of the rhymes.”  Let’s see,  poetry  physics  Yep, doesn’t rhyme.

-Oh Doctor...

-”I don’t care who’s dying, never ever be late, I’m very particular about time.”  Says the guy who was twelve years late when he said five minutes once.

-”Doctor what?”

-*cue changed intro logo DOCTOR WHAT*

-Okay, the intro visuals seem to have changed a little, but the melody sounds unchanged.

-OH SHIT IT’S MOFFAT

The inside of his coat is blue now?

AKA the pain of frame-by-frame or stopmotion animation

-Is Moffat trying to get us scared of slowmotion

-I feel like the students are very confused as to what to take notes of

-”Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, in means life.”  I thought your granddaughter made that up?

-BILL BE QUIET WHEN YOU’RE SNEAKING

-SNEAKING IS SUPPOSED TO BE QUIET

-There we go.

-WHAT THE

-NOPE

-I don’t like background music, it says jumpscare music

-It’s scary music

-Thank goodness, no jumpscares

-SCARY MUSIC AGAIN

-WHAT THE FUCK

-WHAT THE FUCK

-WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

-MOFFAT’S NOT TRYING TO GET US SCARED OF SLOW MOTION, HE’S TRYING TO GET US SCARED OF PUDDLES

-Aw, she gave him a Christmas present

Look at those poor paper crowns trying to hold all that hair omygosh

-”With some people you can smell the wind in their clothes”  I guess it’s supposed to be more philosophical, but for me that reminds me of how people have the cold air around them when they just came in from outside.

-R.I.P. Bill’s mom.

-”But if someone’s gone, do pictures really help?”  That glace he makes at the photos on his desk.  At his wife and granddaughter.  That, is just heartbreaking.

Hey, Moffat, do you have a heart, because you’re breaking mine with fictional photographs

the FUCK

-So the Doctor, took a picture of the mother, of a student that he is currently teaching, back when said student wasn’t even born?

-Eyyy he’s using the rug

-But did he really tilt the Tardis himself to put a rug under it?  I mean, it’s incredibly light compared to its actual size, but it’s still a phone box. Sure, if someone ran at full speed and slammed their body against it that might give it a good jolt or even make it fall over but...

-There’s something deeply unsettling about that girl’s stare

WHOA BITCH

-REMIND ME TO NEVER STEP IN EVERY PUDDLE THAT I SEE EVER AGAIN

-Well the Doctor certainly knows how to escape silently...

His clothes are blue now!

-You’re blue now! That’s my attack!

-Cue Twelfth Doctor theme, woohoo!

-”Why do you run like that?”  “Like what?”  “Like a penguin with its ass on fire.”  “Ergonomics.”  Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as HF&E), also known as comfort design, functional design, and systems,[1 is the practice of designing products, systems, or processes to take proper account of the interaction between them and the people who use them. (Source: Wikipedia)

-PAHAHAJHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

-BEST LINE TEN OUTTA TEN

-I’VE BEEN LAUGHING FOR THIRTY SECONDS NOW

-Ahahahahaha hah ahahaha ha ha

-Brilliant.

What’s with the burn marks on the ground

-”Do you know any scifi?”  “Bitch, I AM scifi.”

-Possession usually has to do with fantasy or horror, not scifi...

-”There’s this thing on Netflix. Lizards in people’s brains.”  First Pokemon, now Netflix. BBC REALLY doesn’t care.

-What’s the show though, it sounds interesting.

-” So, you meet a girl with a discolored iris and your first thought is she might have a lizard in her brain? I can see I'm going to have to up my game.“

-Doctor Who dialogue just gets better and better

-Actually, you can sorta see your face the ‘right way’ if you align two mirrors together so they’re perpendicular. The middle line might stand out, but you’re looking at your face the way anyone else sees it. The elevator in my apartment building has three reflective sides, so I can see my ‘right’ face quite often. I just have to stare at a corner of said elevator.

-They’re finally getting to the burn marks, thank you.

-”Tutorial's over, take the night off. It's all cancelled. Go and be a proper student. Texts, snogging, a vegan wrap.” How does any of that make me a proper student

-”Oh, it's just some freak optical effect. I'm bored already.”  Like hell you are

SHIT

-IT’S NOT FUNNY LAPIS

-oh shit she’s alone in the flat

You could’ve gone to the kitchen and grabbed a knife

-But then, an umbrella is bigger and easier to wield and is great at deflecting water, so, not bad I guess

-Well I’m still getting myself a knife

-That’s it, I’m sitting in front of the monitor with a kitchen knife in my hand

-WHOA BITCH

DON’T BLINK.

-oh shit

-OH SHIT

-OH SHIT

-DON’T SAY HELLO TO YOUR POSSESSED GHOST FRIEND

-OH GOD THIS IS MIDNIGHT ALL OVER AGAIN

IT’S MIDNIGHT AND WATERS OF MARS ALL OVER AGAIN

-WHOA HIT

-shit shit shit shit SHIT

-EYY BIGGER ON THE INSIDE MOMENT

-EYY THE BIT FROM THE TRAILER

“Well, that’s a first...”

-So the Tardis does have a bathroom. After all these years. After FIFTY-FOUR years, the BBC finally gives us the answer no one really asked for but everybody kind of wanted anyway.

-”Human alert, do you want me to repel her?”

-”Oh, my God! This isn't just a room, is it?”  “No, it's not just a room.”  “This is a lift!”  “...wELL oKAY tHeN”

-”It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!”  “Heh-hey! We got there!”

-HahAhahahaha

-”Well, first you have to imagine a very big box fitting inside a very small box. Then you have to make one. It's the second part people normally get stuck on.”

-Of course, one could always scumple the big box and stuff it inside the small box, but then, the big box wouldn’t be big anymore, would it?

-”If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?”  “I don't know. Maybe it's a student?”  So it’s too afraid of life and consequences and generally overwhelmed by the looming weight of its duties to get itself to do anything?

-Wait, is the the room Bill followed them into earlier?

-RUN

-IT’S A BANSHEE AS WELL AS A MIDNIGHT CREATURE AND A WATER MONSTER

ah yes the three primary colors (not to mention Misty from Pokemon)

-You’re escaping from a water monster and you went to a beach, good idea, 10/10.

-”Have we traveled in time?”  “No, we traveled to Australia.”  That’s also a first.

-Bill, you can’t just drink from the bathroom sink!

-”Can I ask you a personal question?”  “No!”  “Can I anyway?”  “...Yes.”

-”If you're from another planet, why would you name your box in English? Those initials wouldn't work in any other language!”  THANK YOU BILL  THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BRINGING THAT UP

-Well, that wasn’t exactly a shark, but thanks for proving the point, Heather.

-”Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?“  In case you’re trying to start a vegan argument with this, no offense but your broccoli doesn’t love you back either.

-So that’s why the episode is titled ‘The Pilot’.

-Also, now that Bill’s found a puddle here, they better rUN THE FUCK AWAY.

wHAT THE FUCK

-Nope nope nope nope nope

Heyyy it’s the old sonic!

-The Fourth Doctor’s sonic, to be precise.

-Soooo did BBC make some new props for this episode or did they keep all the screwdrivers from the sixties and on

-”Hey John, while you’re throwing out those old props, would you mind putting these sonic screwdrivers in the recycle bin?”  “Nah, let’s keep them, they don’t take up a lot of space. Besides, we might need them again some decades later.”  “Good point.”

-OH SHIT THEY RAN INTO A BUNCH OF DALEKS

-ON PURPOSE

-Twelve: “We’ve got this annoying creature on our tail, let’s try to shake it off by running through a ton of Daleks.”  Ten: “What went wrong with you”  Eleven: “What happened to me”

WHAT

-THEY’RE FIGHTING DALEKS??

-Yep, it’s not going well for those lot

-”EXTERMINATE!”  “Exterminate!”  “EXTERMINATE!”  “Exterminate!”  yeah you two do that and be friends while we run away thank you

-It’s like the Doctor isn’t even taking the Daleks seriously anymore

-”YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!”  “lol what else would i be”

-Daleks have stormtrooper level aim now. gg BBC, gg

Tbh that’s even freakier than a normal dalek eyestalk

-BANSHEE, MIDNIGHT MONSTER, WATER CREATURE AND DALEK

-MOFFAT’S HAVING THE TIME OF HIS LIFE ISN’T HE

-Oh wait, this is only the first episode, does that mean  Moffat hasn’t even started yet

-Is he planning to give heart attacks to all of us

-”The last thing she said to me. She promised she wouldn't leave without me.”  And now my heart’s breaking

-shit shit shit shit shit

Ehhh it’s okay Moffat, I didn’t need that heart anyway lol

-”That's the Doctor for you. Never notices the tears.“  Never acknowledges his own tears either...

-”Yeah, because I think you're going to wipe my memory. I'm not stupid, you know. That's the trouble with you. You don't think anyone's ever seen a movie. I know what a mind-wipe looks like!“  THANK YOU BILL

-”Imagine, just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you.“  They just HAD to put Clara’s theme in there, didn’t they?

-All slowed down and more tragic

-And they HAD to make the Doctor sound like he’s holding back tears

-*distant crying noises*

“Shut up.”

“You shut up as well.”

-Someone fucking end me

-Come to my house and stop my sinful hands

-I am allowed too much power

-*ahem* Anyway

-Did the Doctor just leave for a hundred years to mull this over and come back to the present

-”It means, what the hell.”  That’s a first, AGAIN.

-I love that theme at the end!

-Oh boy I can’t wait for more episodes, they all look so exciting--

nOOO

iS THAt john simm

-WhAT tEh FUcK

#watching for the first time #doctor who #dw series 10 #twelfth doctor #peter capaldi #bill potts #pearl mackie #reaction #review #long post #whovian #the pilot #doctor who the pilot #oh shit #fashion #nardole #matt lucas #daleks #wtf #moffat #moffaaat #i'm screwed #we're all screwed #spoilers

[katrinratto]

15 Tips To Successfully Market Your Small Business This Holiday Season

It’s that time of year again!

It’s just-past-Halloween and stores are filled with cinnamon-scented pinecones, turkey decor, and Christmas ornaments.

The holidays are here.

And, if you don’t have your holiday marketing strategy ironed out, you’re already behind. Way behind.

While consumers are thinking about how they plan to celebrate and what gifts they plan to buy, businesses across the nation are focused on how they can capitalize on the epic holiday spending that is about to commence.

The holidays are a major source of revenue for many businesses.

Retailers can make up to 30% of their annual income during the holidays. And, some sources argue that holiday shopping is integral to the health of the economy itself.

There’s no question that the holiday season poses a great financial opportunity for any business that plans appropriately.

As a small business, you probably don’t have the budget or resources to create a national holiday television ad or a digital interactive extravaganza like Google’s annual Santa Tracker website. But, don’t let that get you down. There’s plenty that you can do.

So, jump-start your small business’s holiday marketing strategy with these holiday marketing suggestions for 2018.

2018 Holiday Marketing Ideas

Deliver a package worth unboxing

Like it or not, gift-giving is an inescapable focus of the holidays.

And, whether you prefer giving or receiving, beautifully-packaged presents have become a visual shorthand for the holiday season. So, conjure the spirit of the holidays and make your customers feel special with a fabulous unboxing experience.

As we recommended previously:

…it’s time to start thinking about how you can make your unboxing process special. What does the outside of the box look like? What do you see as soon as the box is opened? How is the product wrapped? Is there a message or gift inside?

Treat each step of the unboxing process as a new opportunity to impress, surprise or delight the recipient.

Heading into this holiday season, let your clients or customers unwrap a wonderful experience (and some cleverly placed marketing materials) along with their most recent purchase.

Timing will be important for this tactic, as you want to make sure your intended audience receives this package early enough for them to act on any marketing call to action you include in the packaging.

And, if you want to reach out to new leads as well as existing clients and customers, consider sending a small free gift instead of relying on the packaging for an item they’ve already purchased. This will also trigger the psychological principle of reciprocity, encouraging the recipients to make a purchase.

If you need help with your product packaging design (the design of the product packaging) or package graphics (the design of the graphics on the packaging), consider reaching out for professional help.

And, for goodness’ sake, make sure to offer free shipping. In this day and age, consumers expect it. Failure to meet that expectation could sour their experience and undermine your efforts.

Target your current customers

Every year millions of people travel home for the holidays to be with their families. The holiday season is positively steeped in images and stories emphasizing the importance of our families and loved ones.

And during this time, people’s sense of loyalty and desire to connect is heightened. This makes it an ideal time to reconnect with past and current customers.

Research shows that it is 5-25 times less expensive to maintain relationships with current customers than it is to acquire new ones. So, it is definitely worth the effort to strengthen your connection with current and past customers at the holidays.

Consider sending special offers designed to re-engage with clients or customers you haven’t heard from in a while. Remember that emotional appeals are more effective than logical ones. (In fact, this might be a perfect opportunity to put that holiday unboxing tactic to work!) For a more in-depth look at how to successfully re-engage with past customers, check out this article.

And, don’t forget to consider what comes next. It’s all well and good to reach out at the holidays, but if you don’t have a strategy in place to follow up and cultivate these relationships then you’re going to lose any gains that you’ve made.

Optimize your content for the holidays

#LetItSnow

The holidays are important to your business’s bottom line. And it’s worth pulling some new tricks out of your marketing hat to get the most from the opportunity the holidays present.

But, don’t forget what you already know.

Search engine optimization and social media should still play an important role in your holiday marketing strategy.

Incorporate seasonal keywords into your marketing copy and your written content when appropriate. And, share holiday content on social media with appropriate images and hashtags.

Publishing search-engine-optimized web copy, blog content, and apt seasonal social media content should be tactics that you’re already employing regularly. Don’t forget to take advantage of this low-hanging fruit by tweaking it for the holidays.

Using generic holiday hashtags and keywords may draw in audience members who wouldn’t ordinarily find your content. For more targeted results, research industry-specific holiday keywords and hashtags to include with your content and social media posts.

For some terrific examples of effective holiday marketing campaigns, take a look at this post from Hubspot.

Show how your product or service is relevant this holiday season

What holiday-related challenge can your business solve?

This is the big question you should be asking as you prepare your business for the coming holiday season.

The holidays are coming. The money will be spent – it’s inevitable. And, every business is trying to figure out how to get their slice of that pumpkin pie.

You could just throw a big sale. Consumers love (and frankly expect) a good discount. Whether you’re a Black Friday or a Cyber Monday sorta business, discounts and sales should be a part of your holiday marketing strategy.

But, that’s not going to set your business apart from the competition. Not when everyone is throwing sales and offering discounts.

If you want to stand out from the crowd (and reap a larger percentage of the profits) you need to show your audience that you’re not just saving them money – you’re also solving a problem.

Does your e-commerce business offer unique and exotic gifts for those impossible-to-shop-for men in your family? Maybe your catering business can offer Thanksgiving meal planning services for families with food allergy sufferers. Or your spa can offer packages to help moms escape from the holiday bustle or recover after New Years.

Whatever your business, find a way to show how you can make your client or customers’ holiday experience a bit less stressful and a lot more jolly.

Stay True to Your Brand

Not every brand embodies the spirit of Norman Rockwell. But, that doesn’t stop many businesses from leaning into that Rockwellian interpretation of idyllic holiday coziness.

I can’t emphasize this enough – don’t toe the standard holiday line if it doesn’t suit your brand.

Your holiday marketing choices must reflect your brand. If they don’t, they’ll come across as insincere and disjointed from your brand identity.

Celebrate the holidays, but do it in your way.

Is your brand cheeky and snarky? Then your holiday marketing should be, too. If your brand is casual and geeky,  formal and conservative, or chic and cozy then lean into that.  Don’t let your brand voice or message be pulled off course by the desire to fit in with what a holiday message “should” look like.

Outdoor gear and apparel retailer REI does a great job of celebrating the holidays in their own, on-brand, way.

Marketer, project manager, and podcast host Justine Timoteo explains:

The entire product line of REI is centered around outdoor clothing and gear. Instead of just marketing their products for people to purchase this holiday season, they crafted a new, outside-of-the-box message — one that even went against the commercialization of the season, but stayed true to their brand…

REI broke with traditional messaging and encouraged people to get outside and enjoy the outdoors rather than spending Black Friday inside shopping.

Follow REI’s lead. As you plan your holiday marketing strategy, be true to your brand. Your authenticity will inspire consumers and clients to trust and engage with your business.

Here are more holiday marketing ideas that can help your small business improve its bottom line in 2018:

Partner with another business and run a cross-promotion campaign with them.

Partner with a local charity and donate a portion of your holiday sales to that charity.

If you sell products, offer special holiday gift-wrapping.

Give away free samples of your products or offer a free gift if people buy something.

Update your branding for the holidays with a cheerful, holiday-themed logo design to show your holiday spirit.

Offer gift cards (and gift card bonuses). These are very popular, especially during the holidays.

Have a holiday photo contest for your customers.

Create a holiday-themed website landing page to showcase your special promotions.

Send special holiday-themed emails and newsletters.

If you have a physical location, dress it up with lights and a fun holiday display.

There are many more ways to get in the holiday spirit and help your customers celebrate. Let your imagination guide you to build trust and engagement with your customers and prospects.

After all, trust and engagement lead to purchases consumers can feel good about – and happy holidays for everyone.

  from http://bit.ly/2SH8VHj

#Marketing

[seburath-aryes-ancunin]

So I just woke up...

And found a ton of posts of the Avengers/non Avengers when they get mad and.....just.......

They get like a rage dominance or something. So my brain goes "dude, as a dragon Kage should do that" but I failed to realize she DOES but it's different.

Allow me to explain:

I'm writing Kage's origin story (which starts in Iron Man 2008) and it introduces her and a slight rage issue she has. When Yinsen dies, he goes after some of the people outside but when Kage comes out, he bare recognizes her as she is a huge black dragon 3 times bigger than him. When of the terrorists try to shoot an rpg at them she literally catches that bad boy in her jaws, snaps it in half and eats that SoB. No shits given when it explodes in her mouth cuz she uses the shrapnel to fire back at them all while shielding Tony as he blasts off to get away (may I also mention she has Yinsen's body coiled in her tail because she can't leave him, even tho he's dead, there since he didn't deserve to die for saving her and Tony).

Later on after Tony builds her arms and her partial suit and they go to the desert to save the village from the same terrorists, she ends up getting really mad for seeing a terrorist kill a child and ends up eating the man in a rage. When she calms down she sees the village people are terrified of her so she returns to Tony with blood (and said guy's leg hanging from her mouth) on her, she flies off not wanting to scare any one else but is caught by the military when Tony catches up. [Bonus: she goes back to the village at a later day in her normal form to apologize for scaring everyone and they all praise her as a hero, Tony doesn't know about that]

When Obidiah comes to take Tony's Arc Reactor, Kage is there but he has her subdued with a "special toy" he made (I'm still doing research but I'm thinking a chain with electricity or something since it kinda is her weakness) for her. Tony and Rhodey end up saving her but Tony tells her to stay there at Stark Manor while he goes after Obi since the electricity caused a short in her arc reactor and it was shooting out sparks. She agreed but she found out about what Obi had done and the file he had on her, via her derping around on Tony's pc, she donned her rage form and flew straight over to where Tony and War Monger were. She was able to catch war monger off guard and with Tony's help draw him into the upper atmosphere. Tony's suit as well as war monger were not equipped to handle being this high but Kage's was. Once her body had entered into the cold her body morphed into its galaxy form and she held Tony in her talons but war monger grabbed her tail and ended up pulling them both back down so Kage flung Tony away from them and dived. Tony was almost sure that drop killed them both but when he came down war monger had Kage in his hands by her neck, clearly broken. Pepper was taking a bit longer to put the huge arc reactor into overdrive and War Monger had caught on to it so he was just out of range so Kage, who wasn't actually dead, charges into him and is dragged into the explosion as well but unlike Tony, her arc reactor had completed exploded in the blast.

Over the years, Kage has a bad habit of when in rage mode she kinda sorta eats people. After nearly eating Tony when her HUD display was hacked while fighting, she secretly designed a helmet that acted as a muzzle. Tony wasn't aware of this until when She tried to defend Tony from Bucky (in Civil War) and Steve's shield accidently busted off a huge chunk of the helmet and revealed it. Tony of course questioned her (after Steve and Bucky left) as to why she did it and she finally broke down and told him why.

Since she had to go into hiding, it was Tony's idea that instead of hurting people she should help them so because of that she went to medical school and ended up meeting Stephen Strange, the neurosurgeon.

Of course the accident happened and she lost her wings and arms then she went with him to Kamar Taj and learned magic. She had honestly thought she had her rage side contained due to all the meditation and training with the ancient one but when Kacelius attacked the sanctum and separated her and Stephen it had returned and with a vengeance. This time around her rage side was so uncontrollable due to pent up rage that the ancient one had to lock her in the mirror dimension for nearly a week until she calmed down. It was then that she was given a special collar made by the ancient one to help her channel her rage and she ONLY entrusted Stephen with the special spell to use it (due to her knowing her death was approaching).

Since then, Stephen was the only one that could truly control her (and she trusted him completely) when she became enraged.

Thus brings us to Infinity War. When everyone fought thanos, Kage begged Stephen to release the collar from her so she could go after him but being her keeper (and seeing the future) he knew he couldnt since it would only lead to her demise. When thanos got away she questioned him and he only answered with "I have my reasons my love as you will soon see" then he pulled Tony aside and gave him special set of gloves saying "don't ask questions but when she gets too hard to handle, use these against her.

Being distraught over her loss of Stephen she when into rage mode and her control collar broke but Tony being severely mentally and physically distressed didn't think to use what Stephen gave him to calm her and due to this she was hurt badly.

Once they got back to earth, Kage stayed with Tony but she was pretty much a ticking time bomb of rage. All it took was one misplaced word and she was instantly in rage mode but this time Tony remembered the gloves. When he put them on, instantly they formed a barrier around Kage and she seemed to be held in a statis but when he walked inside the barrier she was wrapped in what looked like Stephen's magic. Tony held out his hands and she lowered her head to him then leaned into his touch and said "I know you are Tony, but please allow me to see you as Stephen just a moment longer" she whispered and he saw his reflection in her eyes and he was Stephen. He then knew why he was given the gloves, he was the only one that knew she wouldn't hurt him and he would not hurt her even when she was enraged. He was now her keeper.

Eventually, he had built the gloves into his suit (with Kage's help) so when she became uncontrollable he could nearly calm her instantly but there came a day when the gloves didn't work.

They were fighting against an unknown enemy (I'm getting there, eventually) and one of them ended up gaining mental control of Kage and no matter what Tony did the gloves didn't do anything. She knocked him out of the sky then held him down and he thought it was the end. Suddenly he felt as if he was transported to a dream and Kage stood there not as a dragon but as a human. She told him that this was her human form she took while in hiding and he said she made a beautiful human. Not giving any thought, she ran to him and kissed him and whispered that she knew she was being controlled and this was the only way she could be saved. With that she faded away and a searing pain spread surged thru his body. When he returned he found he was face to face with Kage but as a dragon too. She had given him the gift of dragon transformation.

With his newfound self, he fought against her and ended up driving out what possessed her but at a great cost. Because she transferred nearly all her power to him using her clan's forbidden magic, she was then on the brink of death, in the middle of the battlefield. Not knowing how to save her, he flew her back to his home so she could at least have a few last moments of peace. She tells him that she was sorry she had to do it but without it he wouldn't have the energy to destroy what had taken over her but he resents not being able to save her. With the last of her energy her body morphed into a human and told him that he wanted her to stay, she would have to be a human but he shook his head and said he wouldnt have her any other way than as a dragon. With that she faded away but then it seemed as time froze around him. She reappeared but in a different type of dragon, "you didn't really think id leave you Tony" she joked and he ran to her and hugged her, "what happened? I really did think you were gone" he asked, "oh a bit of time travel thanks to a friend of mine. Sorry it took this long" she grinned showing him a watch (if you get this reference imma hug you).

Anyways this post got dark sad and angsty real fast so imma go back to sleep now. All of this was typed in my half sleep delirious state so I dunno if the latter half (after the IW bit I mean) will be actual but now I sleep.

#long ass text post #gotta stop sleep rambling #kage info #gonna sleep now

[meganfloreyprintdesign]

Interview with Ali Cottrell via Facebook on 27/02/17

1.     What is your job title and do you work for a company?

“I work for a digital print company called Think Positive. We actually digitally print for customers and work on commission design work. The company is still classed as a startup and have been going for just under two years. We have 12 full time members of staff and a sister company in Australia. In one way the startup aspect makes the job pretty hard cos it's long days and the company is continually evolving and growing, and I have to help push the business, but on the good side I am learning so much about setting up and running a business and it means I grow with the business - I've already had two pay rises in 7 months and I am expecting a promotion soon. With a new business you can move up the ranks so quickly as it grows.”

 2.     What do you do on a daily basis?

  “At the moment I am Artroom Coordinator but it is starting to evolve into more of a management role. It is great for my cv but means I am doing less and less of my own design work. I still work on improving and getting the most out of our customer’s design work that they send us to print using Photoshop and have learnt a ridiculous amount about digital design since working here.

 Most days I am in the office speaking with customers, preparing files and managing the Artroom, and I also do a lot of visits to London and to shows all over the place. Last week I went to London twice and to a big interiors show in Dunblane and visited customers in Edinburgh.

It's hard juggling it all but so with it as the contacts I'm making and the networking is something I love and that will help me as I start out on my own which I what I hope to do at some point.”

 3.     Do you get to work as part of a team much or mostly design on your own?

When designing for commissions 4 or 5 of us sit around the table and design to a brief. Sometimes bits of everyone's work goes into one design.

 4.     How regular are your deadlines and how much are you expected to produce?

“We don't have deadlines really, it's more focused on getting the design right and the customer accepts drafts and then we get feedback and make amendments.”

5.     Do you find it mostly stressful compared to the amount of enjoyment you get out of the job?

“The job is quite stressful, but rewarding. I don't want to be doing it forever but can see it as a great opportunity and a varied job to have at this point straight after graduating. I have a lot of responsibility and meet some really cool people.

I was really worrying about what sort of job I wanted after uni, but since leaving I look at it differently. Getting that first job is the hard part and it may not be the thing you want to do forever but you have to get out of it what you can.

That first job doesn't have to last for long before you move onto something closer to what you really want. It's easier to get that second job once you've got some experience, but seeing how few people I went to uni with who have an actual job in design, it's worth going after anything just to get your foot in the door without being overly picky. Plus, the momentum totally drops after uni so go for it straight away or it gets harder the longer you leave it.

Also I don't know what sort of thing you're doing but if you're looking to get into a commercial print house they want florals. Make sure you have lots of different styles of commercial stuff in your portfolio, and don't stop designing when you finish uni, so you're constantly refreshing your portfolio.  

Have a look at the types of places you want to work on Instagram and the type of thing they design, that’s what you need.  

 I hope this helps, ask me anything - happy to help.

Hope your third year is going well and sorry for the GIANT essay! I just remember how stressed I was about finding the right job and it's not worth it! If you put in the work and push it'll happen.”

 My reply

 I replied with this below message which shows me reflecting on what Ali has said to me in the her above answers.

 I said, “Thank you so much Ali! That sounds really exciting but also a lot of hard work, working for a startup business. I can imagine it’s really good learning so much about a startup business because as you said, you’re constantly growing and improving with Think Positive. Wow, that’s amazing Ali!! You really deserve it though. You’ve got a really quirky and amazing style so I’m not surprised that you’re doing so well  

 I see, but it’s good to have experience within a management role! It also gives you a good opportunity to see what you like more and the role you prefer. I love that aspect of your job, that you aren’t just doing one thing but you’re also speaking to customers, researching and preparing files. That’s the sort of job I think I would like where it’s not just one thing but a variety of things! I really enjoy speaking to people and working as a team but I also love designing so I think I would quite like that mix. I’m not sure where to look or who offers a job like this?

 Ah yes, that’s a really good idea. I can really imagine you with your own business and from this job, you’ll have all the knowledge behind you and skills to create a successful business! I’m drawn to what you said about not really having a deadline, I like that! I’m not really great with deadlines, I can do them but I like the idea of doing it until you get it right!  Yeah your job is a great job to start with out of University! I would be extremely happy with that! Ah that’s really good, shows how good you are at your job!

 That’s incredibly true. That’s definitely a good approach to looking at it as your right, it doesn’t have to be a job that I do forever, it can be a starting to point into getting closer to what I want to do.  I think I need to remember that and realise that any job is experience and a step closer. If I got offered a job and it wasn’t exactly where I would like it be, I wouldn’t turn it down! An experience is an experience.  That’s so true, not many people seemed to get a design job when you all left, must be really hard! Yeah, I can imagine it gets harder the longer I leave it to get a job. I would like to try and get a placement lined up just as something, whilst I hope to get a job in the meantime.

 I did Japanese designs for the last projects and I’m now looking at florals and geometrics. That’s very true, I think a lot of people forget to carry on designing when they leave University! Yeah that’s a good idea, I will look on Instagram and try and find where I might fit.

 Thank you so much Ali! That must have taken you a while to write but I really appreciate. It’s really helpful! That’s very true. I guess it’s more about making a beautiful portfolio, than worrying about if I get a job. I guess it’s good to have a sort of direction. Your job has made me wonder though if I would fit better at a company like Think Positive. I really like the idea of working as a team to produce a commission and also having a varied job. I’m not sure if having a strict deadline, churning out a million designs and just designing would be right for me. I wouldn’t know where to really look to find opportunities like Think Positive though. It’s so hard to know where you fit until you start working.

 Sorry to ask more questions but your job has really sparked my interest but if you have any free time, I would really appreciate it!

 What would you say are the most important skills that Think Positive want?

 If you were employing someone new onto your team, what would you look for?

  Ali’s reply

As I said above, I was attracted to her job because of the variation it offers. Ali said, “The variety is one thing I really love. I like using my brain as well as doing some design work but I would love to be doing a little more of my own design work. It's something I can build up in my own time though so I'm happy my employers support me doing that.”

 1.     I’m not sure where to look for a varied job role?

 “I would think if you want a varied role you would be better looking for a smaller company where you get to do different things rather than full on design.  I found that internships and placements are a key thing employers are looking for too so setting some decent ones up for after graduation would be a great idea. Maybe try to get placements at different types of places cos it'll help you narrow down a bit more what you want to do and you never know if it might lead to a job if it goes well. “

 2. What would you say are the most important skills that Think Positive want?

 “The thing that my company look for is passion and drive. A lot of places are the same, they want people who are excited about the industry and who are hungry! You can be pushy to a degree, if people can see you are keen and want it enough, someone will give you a chance!

 There are so many small design businesses out there, look on Instagram, I know a few people who got internships and jobs from getting their Instagram really good and then contacting companies on there!  

 New designers was fantastic for me. I got lots of opportunities from it, mainly cos I pounced on anyone who looked at my work and tried to be open and chatty and interested in what people had to say even when I had the biggest hangover ha.  

 I'd just work hard on your portfolio and keep passionate about your work even if you have a couple of knock backs. And your bubbly personality will help so much!!”

  3.     What do you want to see in a portfolio?

 “Honestly with my portfolio I've had to do so much since Uni to help fill all areas. Literally google design jobs as you would do when you leave uni and for the jobs you'd want to apply for, have a think about what you'd need in your portfolio to apply for those jobs. You'll realise that you need stuff that works for quite a few different contexts. Literally start adding that sorta stuff to your portfolio!”

 Reflection

 My interview with Ali was extremely informative, inspiring and helpful as she raised many good points which I’ve highlighted in yellow. I’m not sure where to start as there’s loads of things Ali has mentioned to help me with thinking about careers and portfolios. I reflected on her job and on her first set of answers to my questions which are highlighted in yellow in my reply. I think it’s amazing that she’s landed herself such a great job as it’s given her the opportunity to basically learn a business from scratch and this experience will help her build her own one. As I mentioned, I was really drawn to the versatility in her job as I like the fact that she’s working as part of team and engaging with clients and with commissions. It sounds, exciting, informative, hard work but fun. Even though as Ali said, there’s less designing with this job, I really think I would enjoy the team work atmosphere and the variety in the job. I would love to a have a job like Ali’s as it’s an amazing starting point because she’s learning everything as she’s growing with the business. Once again, there’s a worry that I would miss the designing but like what Ali does, I could build a portfolio in my spare time so it’s not impossible. Also, she raised a very good point that I keep mentioning throughout my reflections. She said that my first job doesn’t have to be forever, it gets me on the career ladder and it makes it a lot easier for me to get a second job. The longer I’m out of it, the harder it will be to get my first job. I’ve already said I’d hundred percent say yes to any opportunity that came my way because whatever happens, I’ll learn something from the job and I’ll discover if it’s for me or if it isn’t. I could then look for another job if it’s not for me as I would finally have enough experience behind me.

 One thing that also stood out to me was that she said that she doesn’t really have a deadline. It’s more focused on getting the design right which I really like. I get very stressed with deadlines, even though I am easily capable to deal with them but this more relaxed approach might be the way forward with me. Although, it seems quite unrealistic as most design jobs have deadlines but it could be interesting to look further into.

 Also, Ali commented that if I wanted a more varied role, she said to look at smaller companies as you get to other things rather than full on design that’s associated with the larger companies. Therefore, I will definitely research further into this and read the descriptions and discover what I might prefer.

 Ali also made a good point about my portfolio and said to basically google what companies I want to work for and find out what I need to have and put it in my portfolio This is what I’m doing currently but I’m being more generalised and looking at a range of companies and writing down what they all want in a portfolio. I want to make sure I’m covering all aspects so I can appeal to most companies.  She also reiterated that I need to keep refreshing my portfolio as she started to working on the gaps in her own portfolio. As a result of this, I will make sure I keep updating and refreshing my portfolio to keep it on trend so I appeal commercially and to keep improving my drawing and design skills.

#reflection

[kaikeidou-backstage-blog]

Kaikeidou Ibun: M.c.s. - Tale of Shrine Migration, part 2

♪： New Land Inquiry ~ Sea of Stratagem (NicoCommons) (YouTube) "For starters, let's just try building a branch shrine in the modern world or wherever, and see how it goes? Somewhere where there's already an ocean in the first place, while we're at it."

 ...So Otohime encouragingly said, as casually as if she was suggesting that they go for a hike.

"...And that's Lady Otohime's proposal. Megumi? Everyone else? What do you think?"

 Mikoto asked the assembled members for their opinion. However, she and Megumi weren't trying to have such a lofty discussion with them in the first place. Only a few of the Kai sisters had properly understood the conversation; the "lower four" from Iroha on down, in particular, were nowhere near mature enough to follow along. Sensing this, one of the mermaids who had understood now took the opportunity to speak up.

"Well, we will always obey the will of our Great Mother. Plus, making a branch shrine would ensure that Elder Sister Owari's efforts are rewarded, too."

Expressor of Ten Colours Hananishiki

 Hananishiki, as a go-between for Mikoto and the younger sisters, gave Mikoto her opinion. Meanwhile, the sisters in question saw that Hananishiki was on board, and thus nodded in agreement.

"I shall of course follow you, Great Mother, as do I follow Elder Sister Owari. It appears that we sisters of Kai are all in agreement on this."

 As Hananishiki cheerfully said that, every sister bowed her head in consensus. That was the will of the Kai sisters.

 Having heard the ten sisters' thoughts, Mikoto and Megumi-- although each of them showed a slightly different reaction-- both allowed the sisters' opinion to spread deeply within their hearts.

"...Well, if our daughters and nieces have been so kind as to say that, I guess we can't sit around doing nothing!"

"I was somewhat concerned starting out, but it seems that Lady Otohime's bright idea has opened the path for us. Once again, Lady Otohime, we must return the favour for you with our deepest gratitude."

 Thus, as Mikoto confirmed the agreement of the assembled residents, it was officially decided that they would build a new Kaikeidou as a branch shrine outside of Gensokyo. ...... "Now, what to do...?"

 As soon as the discussion ended, Megumi brought an assortment of texts to her room, and set to work searching for the optimum location for the shrine. However, documents reflecting the current outside world were extremely valuable in Gensokyo. Even the few documents they could manage to procure had no indication of what time period they depicted. As such, merely obtaining an informational resource didn't guarantee that any of the information in question would be useful.

"So why, exactly, are you making me help out with this?"

 In the corner of Megumi's room, Kasumi was fishing through more documents while smoking her pipe. She had been dragged over to assist with the research at Megumi's command, and was now tasked with being frontier exploration team personnel.

"Let's call it your punishment for not putting the brakes on Lady Otohime's meddlesome suggestion."

"Hey, I thought the proposal was quite interesting."

 Kasumi's easy-going remark just prompted Megumi to lean her head even further into her hands.

"Look, I said as much just a while ago, but building a branch shrine is a totally different thing from the Ise Shrine's shikinen sengu. Plus, trying to build a branch shrine in the modern world while living here in Gensokyo is-- I'm gonna be blunt-- basically suicide."

 Those who had entered the realm of fantasy, returning to the world of today. Once-forgotten beings returning to humanity's collective consciousness was about as hard as the extinct crested ibis making a sudden resurgence. Common sense and uncommon sense... things remembered, and things forgotten... attempting to live with one foot on either side of that line was so difficult as to be almost unmeasurable.

"And if that happened to have some bad influence on Gensokyo, we'd have a bounty on our heads from both fantasy and reality."

"Straddling the line between two incompatible worlds, eh...? ...Y'know, isn't all that sorta conceptual stuff kind of out of our league?"

"What, so you didn't even think about that while you sat there and watched?"

 Kasumi's imprudence was only giving Megumi an increasingly bad headache. "Why, what's this? Seems like someone's having a spot of trouble~."  As the pair's rambling conversation went on, Otohime-- the one who had started all this-- came in and spoke with a breezy tone. She had a somehow mischevious look in her eye, almost as if she was enjoying the trouble that Megumi and co. had wound up in.

"Yes... Lady Otohime, I apologize for saying something so terribly rude, but this request of yours may be too difficult..."

 Megumi, eyes still fixed on her book, answered Otohime. Otohime looked back and forth between Megumi, still searching through documents without so much as glancing over at her, and Kasumi, who was staring at Megumi. Kasumi turned to Otohime and raised her hands as if to say 'good grief'; Otohime smiled awkwardly at her, then gave Megumi a suggestion.

"Hmmm... in that case, how about I pop over to the modern world for a bit and have a look around?"

"Oh, yes, awesome, a preliminary inspection of the outside world, certainly, that would be quite... w-wait, EXCUSE me?! Lady Otohime?! You would?!"

 Megumi, who had been tuning Otohime out at first, got up with a start and stared at her.

"Yeah. Don't worry. You guys just work on drawing up the new shrine plans, okay? I'll take care of finding a good location outside."

"B-But Lady Otohime... You are one of the Kaikeidou's most valuable guests! We could hardly foist our personal trifles on someone whose presence honours us so..." 　Otohime Kanpukugu was, indeed, the Kaikeidou's most honoured guest. She had been deeply involved in the Kaikeidou's construction, having helped design both the building and the ocean around it; as such, Mikoto and Megumi viewed her as their 'most supreme guest', always entreating her within the hall. As her proud servants, they couldn't stand to make her help out with their work any more than she already had. That background of theirs is what gave Megumi pause.

"Nah, it's totally fine. I said as much before, right? Just sitting around being waited upon is boring too, so I'd rather find whatever new excitement I can."

 A fairly short while ago, the Kaikeidou had held a banquet to welcome a human visitor, on which the Kaikeidou's faith and Otohime's entertainment were at stake. That test of a human had been the very reason for the Kai sisters' birth. Back then, Otohime had said something very similar to what she did now.

"Also, I am the one who convinced Mikoto with that 'meddlesome suggestion' and all, sooo..."

"Lady Otohime, it seems that, um, on top of overhearing our previous conversation, you're, holding a grudge about it?"

"Eh, well, y'know. Setting aside the fine details... what do you think of my opinion?"

 Megumi thought it over for a moment.

 Judging by Otohime's past actions... it was quite possible that she already had an entire plan drawn out in her head, and that she was spurring them to action in order to realize that plan. A glimpse of this had been visible, in fact, back when they were welcoming that human in. If Megumi's hunch was right...

"...*sigh*. Understood. With that, Lady Otohime, I shall respectfully leave the new Kaikeidou's location search to you."

"All righty! Then I'll head on out to search the modern world right away!"

 Before she even heard Megumi's entire response, Otohime had dashed out of the room. Megumi and Kasumi, not having had enough time to even call out to her, both stood in stunned silence.

"...Well, that's our Lady Otohime. When she wants her plans to go exactly her way, she's always quick to act..."

"What's wrong with that? 'Quick to act' makes for a good commander, right?"

"She is supposed to be our guest. Plus, in her case, I doubt her plans are really that simple. So I can't honestly feel all that enthused about it."

 Megumi was on her guard. She knew that if Otohime had the whole plan worked out before they'd even begun, there had to be some cunning scheme lying beneath that they could hardly imagine.

 No matter how suspicious they were, though, they wouldn't get an answer just thinking about it. So despite her unease, all Megumi could do was see Otohime off as she flew away. Turning back to the room, Megumi began tidying up the documents on the desk, preparing to search for some documents relating to architecture... "OH ALSO MEGUMI!" "HYAAUH?!"

 Otohime, despite just having left the room, popped up between Megumi and the desk. Megumi gave an embarassing squawk.

"I thought I might as well borrow one of the Kaikeidou's residents to come along for the ride, is that cool?"

"Er... well, ah. I suppose that's..."

 Having been stunned by Otohime's reappearance, Megumi could do nothing but listen and nod blankly.

"Thanks! Alright, I'll go grab someone and then I'll be off. Oh, and by the way..."

 After hearing Megumi's response, Otohime made to leave the room again... but she slowly turned back around and added one thing first.

"Er, yes...?"

"...I wouldn't get too nosy around my business if I were you, okay?"

"...Understood."

 Otohime spoke with the same breezy expression she wore a moment ago. Nothing in particular was out of place, but both Megumi and Kasumi got the message that this was an unviolable order of restraint.

#touhou kaikeidou #migration to the conceptual sea #story translation

[clifi-journal-blog]

Loosed Upon the World I

Looking at the Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction

Introduction:

TL;DR: We think it’s not gonna happen to us. We thought wrong. Here’s our attempt at making fiction make things seem more real. Humanize the threat.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“Welcome to the end of the world, already in progress” (xi)—focus on already in progress, see CC. There’s no clear beginning or end, but for sure we are amidst massive climate upheaval.

“Fiction is a powerful tool for helping us contextualize the world around us.” – s/o at fiction for being able to help us understand what’s up.

Foreword:

TL;DR: Lust for techno-fix—instant gratification, instant solution. Oh, how fucking human. We keep avoiding the real problem and thinking oh yeah we’ll just go to Mars or something sci-fi like that. Multiple fantasies exists; there are stories that warn you about the dangers of climate change and then there are those that will defo tell you it isn’t real.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“If you were to live in that world…that might make an impact” (XIII) well, you think it means nothing b/c it’s not happening to you. INDIFFERENCE.

“It’s interesting that by creating a made-up world, you can show the real world more sharply and clearly” (XIV)—fiction is how we make sense of the world, ironically, forces us to empathize. A million is a statistic, one is a tragedy.

[About “feel-good technology” advertised to combat climate change] “They are, in fact, fiction, or if you really want to stick the knife in—fantasy” (XV)—less realistic than the possibilities embodied in the stories is the idea that one device can fix all these damages that we have done to the environment.

Shooting the Apocalypse, Paolo Bacigalupi

TL;DR: Timo and Lucy find trying to get some good scoop, comes across the reality of what happens when water becomes scarce. Sacrifices, fights, treason, all that BS, all about the Central Arizona Project. These people were getting ready to go to war, an army against the apocalypse—the end of the world, without water, a basic necessity.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“All anyone wants to do is tell their story, Timo. They need to know they matter.” – the power of storytelling in community and world-building (of how we interpret the world around us)

The Myth of the Rain, Seanan McGuire

TL;DR: Climate change’s effect on the local fauna (ft. migration, tourism, and the rich getting everything at the expense of the poor, of the marginalize who suffer the most even though they didn’t do as much damage as the rich people did). God Complex, manicured nature, “the great outdoors” and by doing our job, we pat ourselves in the back and say, well done.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“Forget the poor. Forget the disenfranchised. They were the ones who had done the least to destroy the world as we’d known it for so long, and now they were the ones being left behind.” – see CC, CWC, why are those countries that contributed the least amount of pollution the ones suffering the most? Unfair.

“When the world catches fire, something has to burn” – s/o at THG series, see: very dystopian society, see: role of government intervention, and how someone has to take the consequences of it all.

“Humanity was the architect of its own destruction” (34)—we did this to ourselves. Architect= design, artificiality, we designed our own end.

“Was it mercy or arrogance…Did we have the right?” (36)—God Complex, roots back to Adam and Eve and control of environment.

OUTER RIMS, Toiya Kristen Finley

TL;DR: Mother helps this dude who’s sick, ends up getting infected. Everyone in family dies in hospital with the rest of the others.

Key Quotes and what’s up: “No one regretted last chances unless they weren’t taken” (39)—BIG MOOD, mother nature @ us, “only know you love her when you let her go”

KHELDYU, Karl Schroeder

TL;DR: Bro and sis fight about how to save the world, b/c one lowkey doing it for his own good and sis is like wtf?? And sis’s friend works for the bro and it’s all complicated af, but in the end, basically try to contain the damages of the bro’s plan.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“industrial logic. About what happened when the natural world became an abstraction, and the only reality was the system you were building” (71)—see Foreword and world building through fictions and the stories we tell, also see L2DIE and system mentality.

THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR, Jean-Louis Trudel

TL;DR: Making a business out of saving the word; rescuing the old professor. Sins of before come to haunt us now, but sorta happy ending= we aren’t as doomed after all= ISOLATED events, guy from Ontario love story lol

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“Saving the world would have to yield dividends to catch this group’s attention” (71) profitability of green tech otherwise it’s useless, no one cares if you can’t make money off it.

“The world beyond the small tent…drowned cities, burning forests, shifting sand dunes…He’d stopped loving the snow when he’d realized it was an illusion” (103) effects of yesterday not so far from us but we feel distant, safe, cut-off= ILLUSION.

THE RAINY SEASON, Tobias S. Buckell

TL;DR: Acid rain, literally. Run offs and hallucinations and coming back “home”.

Key Quotes and what’s up:“The place wasn’t the same. The place you lived no longer existed.” (112)- see CC and the ending of the pastoral, nostalgic past.

A HUNDRED HUNDRED DAISIES, Nancy Kress

TL;DR: pipelines and water supply shortage, mutiny, and the loss of dreams, of “daisies”, have to make up a new, pretend one—kinda to give hope to the younger sis. PAPER DAISIES= not authentic, but an idea. Power of what’s on paper

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“I’m not a child, and this is my future, too” (129)—affects everyone, all ages, not just the oldies. Gotta take part of changing the system.

“It will be a war, won’t it, Danny? Like in history” (140)—shortages in anything triggers violence, everyone needs water=FIGHT FOR IT

“Even our small town…has a black market” (140)—making money out of the shortage of water, still people profiting from it

THE NETHERLANDS LIVES WITH WATER, Jim Shepard

TL;DR: In Netherlands, we cope with the rising water; life built around water. Public/Private interests—who wins?

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“Henk’s class is viewing a presentation at the Climate Campus—Water: the Precious Resource and Deadly Companion” (153) 1)they actually have a campus dedicated to climate studies? Explain. 2) precious resource and deadly companion—you can say that again, the necessity of water is exactly want makes it dangerous, see previous story.

(***FAVE)THE PRECEDENT, Sean McCullen

TL;DR: law, climatologist setting the precedent in this post-apocalyptic kinda war camp, being visited by figure of death all the time. Realizing it’ll be a lot harder for him because now he’s set up these high expectations of how to live. Lots of Holocaust and Nazi references, and law & econ so BAE AF.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“Economic growth was considered about as healthy as cancer” (177)—consumerism vs. environmental struggle.

“The world will go on, but your world has been unsustainable for a long time” (178)—see L2DIE and EOSC lectures about how it’s us dying, as humanity that scares us.

“Most were fools, not monsters.” “The fool kills just as dead as the monster” (186)—it doesn’t matter what the intentions are. Dead is dead. SHOOK.

“everyone born before 2000 is an eco-Nazi, guilty of climate crimes” (186)- ECO NAZI! WOWZA

“You look like me,” (@ Death) (196)—see L2DIE, death is a reflection of our own mortality.

“Without you (death), I will not be human” (201)—part of living, of being human is accepting death, see again L2DIE.

HOT SKY, Robert Silverberg

TL;DR: Delivering ice berg, ship encounters another ship, awks dilemma about mutiny and take these men who have gone crazy. Screen, a.k.a. sunscreen and going heat crazy. Question of conscience vs. survival. Helping others vs. helping yourself.

Key Quotes and what’s up:

“Who had asked for any of this…Not us. Our great-great-grandparents had, maybe, but not us. Only they’re not here to know what it’s like, and we are” (219)—lowkey guilt tripping this generation through voices of future possible grandchildren.

“No sense looking back. You look back, all you do is hurt your eyes.” (228)—survival of the fittest, that’s how it’s always gonna go.

THAT CREEPING SENSATION, Alan Dean Foster.

TL;DR: Super size me, NATURE edition.

Key Quotes and what’s up: “Humanity was adapting to changed climate…her only fear was that something else just might be adapting a little faster.” (239)—who will win?

#LUTW1