#they won’t do that if we come out of the gate with classics
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there is a thing about the ‘replace the classics with ya lit’ thing thta I think a good chunk of tumblr is ignoring
And it’s the fact that argument originated as a pushback against the idea that ya lit is worthless vs canon (the gender and racial identities of the authors being a major contributor to their perceived value)
The other part is that it was largely a conversation centered around education
When was the last time you tried to convince a teenager to read A Tale or Two Cities? The Scarlet Letter? Goddamn Shakespeare even?
Education has to be responsive to students and students are not responding to the classics
Some are, sure, but the grand majority are not.
You know what they are responding to? The Hate U Give. Dear Justyce. The Long Way Down. And a million other books written by people and focusing on characters that look like them and act like them and have the same experiences as them. Stories somehow deeply concerned with the issues they deal with daily and that aren’t written in absurdly complex ways in a dialect of English that is painful to read even when you’re a native speaker.
Yes the classics have value and getting rid of them completely isn’t smart. Challenging literature has its place and learning to engage with it is very important.
But you can’t get kids to do that if they hate reading.
If all they do is read verbose old dead white men they feel is utterly removed their interests and experiences, they will grow to hate reading and they’ll simply sparknotes the answers to the deep questions you want them to engage with. That’s what educators observe daily.
So yeah. Ditch the classics. Bring in the YA. You can do deep, intellectual analysis of literally anything. Let’s make sure the kids actually want to try.
#on my soapbox for a minute#i just want my kids to actually read#they won’t do that if we come out of the gate with classics#the classics - as much as I love them - suck#at least when it comes to fostering a love of reading in a wide variety of students
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Unknown caller. Tate Langdon smut.
You get a call from a familiar voice from a movie you watched last night. And you’re in for a exciting treat. WARNINGS! Fingering. Knife play. Mask Kink. Lemme know if y’all want a part two hehe.
Last fic of the day! But don’t worry. More are coming!
You were walking home from college, exhausted from your class in psychology today. Your phone rang, an unknown number came through but you answered anyway.
“Hello?”
“Hello, y/n.” The voice was changed, by some sort of automated voice. But you couldn’t help but notice it sounded weirdly like Ghostface. Which was weird. You just watched the movie with your boyfriend last night.
“Um. Hi? Who’s this?” You asked, crossing the street. Your house was a few blocks away but your pace slowed as you held the phone close to your ear.
“Oh. Nobody special. But you’re special. Y/n.” The voice replied. You squinted your eyes.
“Why’s that?”
“For many reasons. I’m sure your boyfriend thinks your special.” You almost smirked. Tate. You knew it was him. The little fucker was always up to something. But he gave himself away.
“Tate? Is that you?” You questioned. Silence met you and you laughed. “Funny. But I think you’re cutting it a little too close. I know it’s you.”
“Maybe. But maybe not. If you don’t want a knife against your neck, you’d be wise to answer a few questions.” Tate answered. Ghostface answered.
“What are your questions, ghostface?” You teased.
“Do you like being scared?” He asked. You kept walking. Your house growing closer.
“Sometimes. It depends on what’s on screen.”
“I think you’d enjoy the movie, scream. Scary men in masks. Tormenting innocent girls.” He challenged and you giggled.
“Oh? Like you?”
“Im not scary. Im just curious.” He teased. You hummed and made it to your front lawn. He could come out this far, the murder house allowing him this space of access but you didn’t want to ruin the fun right away.
“How did you even change your voice, Tate?” You asked him.
“Sorry. I get to ask the questions. Not you.” He retorted and you smirked.
“Really?”
“That’s right. What’s your favorite scary movie?” The classic line.
You took your time answering. “Probably Saw. Or maybe hostel.”
“You like dismemberment? Interesting. An innocent girl like you. Liking such scary movies. It kind of turns me on.” You leaned across the gate, scaring at your window.
“Who said I’m an innocent girl?”
“Again. I get to ask the questions.” Ghostface said to you with a little more aggression. “Are you wearing any underwear?” You snickered and decided to lie.
“Nope.”
“Bad girl.” He said to you over the phone. You walked to the front door and emptiness met you as you went inside. “I hope you’re not lying to me. Bad things happen to liars.”
“And bad things happen to serial killers.” You responded, walking through the entrance. He was nowhere to be seen. You slowly started walking up the stairs.
“I haven’t even started asking the fun questions yet.” He whined.
“Ask away.”
“The real question is not who am I…the question is where am I?” Ah, another classic line.
“Tate, if you’re going to be ghostface. You can at least come up with something original.” You quipped, your hand gripping the stairway. You turned and walked into your room, which was his old room.
He wasn’t in there either. You sat on the bed.
“You want original? Then answer this. Your boyfriend. Does he make you wet?” Ghostface asked.
“Yes.” You answered simply.
“Good answer. But maybe we should test that theory. go ahead and put two pretty fingers inside you. Tell me how wet you are.”
You reached down, obeying him. You almost moan at the slick growing and you pulled them out. “I’m soaking.” You told him.
“Good girl. Now, put those fingers in your mouth. Tell me how sweet you taste.”
“Don’t you want to find out for yourself?” You asked him.
“Do as I say and you won’t get hurt.” You heard the clink, possibly a knife over the phone. You listened and put your fingers in your mouth, sucking the taste off.
“It tastes sweet.” You confessed.
“Lay back on the bed, open your legs.” You followed suit, waiting for his next message.
“Hello?” You asked, open and ready.
Your closet door burst open, Tate stood there but instead of his usual sweater and jeans. He wore a black long gown with black pants and boots. Along with the Ghostface mask. He looked formidable as he held a knife.
“Tate?” You questioned but he gave no answer as he grew closer, holding the blade out. He traced it on your bare legs, your skirt hiked up around your hips. The tip of the edge pressed against your thigh before he pulled it away.
“Take off your shirt.” He commanded, voice still altered. You listened and peeled off your shirt, leaving you in just your bra.
He ran the knife over your breasts, his hands bare. You recognized those big hands, you arched your back from the cool metal as it grazed your flesh. He’s never done that before. He maneuvered the knife around your breast, scraping your nipple. You shuddered as he pushed you flat against the bed. “Did I tell you, that you could move without my permission?” He asked you.
He placed the tip of the knife underneath your chin as his other hand disappeared in between your thigh. He expertly rubbed your clit with his fingers, circling the nub slowly. You pressed your thighs together, trying to create more friction but he slid the knife down, right over your stomach. “Don’t fucking move.” He barked at you.
You tried your best to listen as his pointer and middle finger slid easily inside you. He started pumping slowly and you desperately wanted to take the mask off and kiss him. You reached up but he pinned your wrists down with one hand as he pumped faster. Your core clenched around him as he smoothly curled his fingers up, hitting your spot.
“Tate. Please. Kiss me.” You moaned. Hoping he’ll listen to you.
He shook his head, mask still securely attached to his face as he finger fucked you. “I don’t think so. You don’t make the orders today.”
Your climax reached its peak as he pressed the knife harder against your stomach. You groaned, rolling your hips to his fingers as they didn’t slow down.
Finally, he stopped and pulled the mask off. He smirked wickedly at you. “Enjoy yourself?” He asked.
You smacked his arm. “That wasn’t fair.”
“Who said I played fair, baby?”
Taglist. @spill-the-t @evanpetersfansblog @icannot3 @howtobesasha
Message or comment if you’d like to be part of my Taglist.
#evan peters#evan peters imagine#american horror story#evan peters fanfiction#evan peters x reader#ahs#ahs fanfic#tate langdon#kit walker#ahs murder house#tate langdon fanfic#tate langdon imagine#tate langdon x reader#tate langdon angst#tate langdon smut#evan peters x y/n#evan peters x female reader#evan peters fanfic#evan peters smut#evan peters characters#evan peters x you
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“Father knows best”
It had been two days since Y/n Negan's daughter ran away from the saviors with Daryl, at first it was just about Y/n getting to leave the gates and help Alexandria win the war, it broke Y/n heart at what her father did to so many people, so she wanted to help. Her and Daryl still had some ways to go till they get to Alexandria, so they stop and camp for the night. While Daryl was out getting more firewood, Y/N was sitting on a log waiting for him till she heard a bratch snap behind her. She turns around and sees her father Negan, he has his classic smirk on and lucille on his shoulder,”Well I though he’d never leave!” said Negan “Father” “Hello darlin” “H-how did you find me?” asked Y/n, Negan goes up and gives Y/n a hug “Oh it was easy really, I just followed the sound of complete and uterbeytral and followed that” “dad-” Y/n behind but Negan cuts her off by pulling her toward home by her arm “Come on Darlin we are going home” Y/n pulls her arm away and hold his hands in hers, “Dad wait, you don’t get it, I’ve learned so much out here and dad you’ve wronged so many people maybe I can talk to them and figure out a way for everyone to live, and no one has to die. I-I even met someone-” Negan interrupts her by patting her on the head “Yes ,my little Daryl don't worry we’ll come pick him up later can’t have him getting away, now come on” Negan pulls at her again “Dad wait-” Y/n pull her arm away, Negan stops, Y/n look from his back to the floor.
“I think he likes me.
Likes you? Please,Y/n, that's demented (But Father I-)
This is why you never should have left
Dear, this whole romance that you've invented
Just proves you're too naive to be here”
Negan puts his hand on Y/n shoulder making her look into his eyes, Negan backs up from Y/n and motions to her stature, He backs away again this time holding his arms out for a hug
“Why would he like you? Come on now, really!
Look at you, you think that he's impressed?
Don't be a dummy
Come with Daddy
Father-”
Y/n has had enough of her father telling her what to do, she’s a grown woman, she can make her own choices.
“No!”
Negan drops his arms, he looks surprised for a moment, but he puts his smirk back on once he realizes how he can win this game.
“No?! Oh, I see how it is.
Y/n knows best
Y/n's so mature now
Negan waves his hand side to side motioning to Y/n stature once more,
Such a clever grown-up Miss
then he pat’sY/n’s head
Y/n knows best
He gently swipes her face with his hand
Fine, if you're so sure now
Go ahead, then give him this-”
Negan pulls out RIck’s Python from the back of his pants, Y/n had hidden the gun back at home so that Alexandria would agree to an equal trading deal then she would bring it back as a sign of peace.
“How did you?-”
Y/n was about to question how he found it, she was sure it was well hidden.
“This is why he's here!
Don't let him deceive you!
Negan tosses her the gun, she catches it
Give it to him, watch, you'll see!
(I will)
Trust me, my dear
That's how fast he'll leave you
Negan snaps his fingers
I won't say I told you so”
Negan grabs Y/n hand and spins her around in a circle
“No, Y/n knows best!
So if he's such a dreamboat
Go and put him to the test!”
(Dad, wait!)
Y/n reaches out to Negan but he moves back to the trees, in the darkness
“If he's lying
Don't come crying
Father knows best!”
Negan shakes his finger at her, and with the last say he turns away from her with the swish of his jacket, and is gone, leaving Y/n alone with Rick’s Python.
#daryl x reader#daryl dixon#daryl x you#daryl x y/n#negan's daughter#twd imagine#norman reedus#jeffery dean morgan
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The Prophetic D&D Game, Part 17
Grant gets to tell the rest of the players what's happened, along with a warning about what's coming. The freshmen ask some strange questions, and then everyone comes up with a plan.
(master post)
Back at the main table, everyone was waiting for the news. They’d stayed far enough away that they hadn’t heard the details, but had clearly been waiting with bated breath. Eddie took his seat and let them stew for a bit as Grant got settled in.
Gareth leaned on his elbows and asked, “So is Natalia dead? Is Grant going to play a new character now?”
“Despite your best efforts, you do not find a song for Natalia. However, she snaps out of it before she starts to float,” Eddie said. “She needs some help getting through the portal, but once there, well...” He held his hand out to Grant. “Do you want to tell them what you’ve learned?”
So Grant got to do some storytelling for a bit. He was really quite good at it, and Eddie wished once again that he was willing to DM. Despite what the other members of the club said, Eddie was not actually a control freak, and it would be nice to occasionally get to play a character instead of running an entire game. But Grant could not be swayed. He could come up with a story, but he hated keeping track of monsters and plot twists and dealing with player diversions.
Still, he got through the tale of Jamie Englund, who everyone had thought of as the demon lord up until now. When Grant described the tattoo on his arm, the three freshmen gasped in unison. Eddie took this as a sign that they’d been paying attention, but was quickly proven wrong.
“Wait, Millie had a tattoo?” Mike asked. “Where did it say that?”
“There was a triangle in the notes,” Dustin said. “I didn’t realize it was a tattoo. I thought it was, like, something she carried with her.”
“It’s not a triangle. It’s a lambda,” Grant said. At their blank looks, he added, “The Greek letter? Really? None of you studied the classics?”
Dustin pouted. “I’m failing Latin,” he said. He glanced at Mike and Lucas. “I was going to see if Suzie could change my grade.”
“Right, your ‘girlfriend’ in Utah,” Gareth said, making little air quotes as he did.
“Oh, she’s real,” Lucas said. He grinned at Dustin. “She’s a great singer, too.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” Dustin said. “So Millie has a lambda tattoo? What, uh... What letter of the alphabet is that?”
Grant was the only one who knew. Eddie had picked it at random, because he liked the shape and because he knew it would be something his friend would appreciate. Now, Eddie watched as Grant ran through the alphabet for them, wiggling his fingers as he counted them out. “The eleventh one,” he said.
“Of course it is,” Lucas said.
Dustin nodded. “That’s... That’s too weird.”
“Why?” Gareth asked. “What’s so special about the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet?”
Mike put his hands on his friends’ shoulders and shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “It’s just a weird coincidence to a game we played a couple of years ago. It doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t it?” Dustin asked. “What if—”
“Later,” Mike said. He gave Dustin a stern look. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Eddie sighed and crossed his arms. “Okay, so now that you’re all caught up, do you want to fill in the rest of the group with your theories? Quinn has no idea what any of this means.”
“It means that this Jamie guy is using psionics to kill people from the demon realm,” Grant said. “But he’s doing it with a bigger goal in place. He’s going to open a giant gate and have the demon realm spill into Kiteshire. Massive destruction, monsters everywhere, that kind of thing.”
“End of the world shit,” Gareth said. “The town won’t know what hit them.”
“Yeah, because the king is keeping the whole thing secret,” Mike said. “He isn’t even here, right? Like this isn’t the capital of the kingdom. Are there even any of the king’s men here? Do they even know what’s going on?”
“None of them have contacted you,” Eddie said. “But then again, none of you have tried to contact them.”
“Do we even have a way to do that?” Grant asked.
“You could send them a carrier pigeon,” Eddie said. “Possibly get to a magic shop and see if they have some other means of communication.”
“If we were going to do that, we’d be better off contacting Millie,” Mike said. “Especially if this guy is a psionicist like her, from the same corrupt guild.”
Dustin clapped his hands together. “Aha!” he cried out. “That gives us a chance, doesn’t it?”
“What, to contact Millie?” Mike asked.
“No, to fight back.” Dustin shuffled through the pages of backstory that Eddie brought out every session. “Millie has powers, right? But she also has weaknesses. When she tries to do something really powerful, she goes into a trancelike state. Her physical body becomes vulnerable. We should assume it’s the same for Jamie.”
“You’re right!” Lucas said. “Now we just have to figure out where he is when he goes into a trance—”
“His house,” Gareth said. “I mean, the Englund mansion, right? We saw the weird stuff happening in it while the guard was getting cursed.”
“Yeah, but not in our version of the Englund mansion. There wasn’t anyone there,” Grant said. “Eddie, what are the chances we went past the mansion while we were in the demon realm?”
Eddie picked up one of his D20s and held it over the middle of the table. “Call high or low,” he said. Grant called high, and Eddie rolled a fifteen. “Nice. You did, in fact, travel within sight of Englund mansion while sneaking through demonic Kiteshire. It was surrounded by the terrifying monstrous bats, far more than accosted you at the lake.”
“Well, that points to it being the location of the big bad,” Gareth said. “So that means we can plan a counter attack, right?”
The group argued for a while about a plan. They were pretty split in what they wanted to do. Some of them wanted to try to send a message out to get help, either from the king’s men or from their faraway friends, while the others wanted to gear up and try to take the fight to the evil psychic wizard.
“We can’t attack him directly,” Mike said with an air of finality. “We can’t predict when he’s going to attack someone next. We have to get in contact with El—Mel—Millie.” He stumbled a little over the name at the end and grimaced.
Dustin ignored his verbal hiccup. “We kind of can, though,” he said. Eddie could see the gears turning in his head. “We know where Jamie attacks from, and we know that the demonic realm is close enough to the material plane that you can actually hear people’s voices, if they’re talking from a place that’s mirrored to your own. I mean, you guys could hear us in the guard’s barracks, right?”
“Yeah? So what?” Mike wasn’t following Dustin’s line of reasoning, but Grant looked thoughtful.
Dustin continued. “So the Englund mansion is abandoned most of the time. He probably heard us when we were there last.”
“He did it on purpose,” Gareth said. “When we were there, he attacked that guard to demonstrate his power.”
Grant nodded. “Of course he did. It’s the same reason why he showed me what was going to happen but let me go free. It’s a trap.” He steepled his fingers together. “The real question is, who is the trap for?”
Mike went pale. “It’s for Millie,” he said. “She banished him to the demonic realm and now he wants revenge.”
The rest of the table nodded in agreement. Eddie sat back and waited for them to continue. Dustin really looked like he wanted to say something, and he kept looking at Lucas. But it was Grant who took over the discussion.
“So we’re in agreement, then? He wants us to try to bring Millie here to fight him,” he said. “Instead, we should fight him directly. Get a bunch of weapons and go back into the demonic realm to confront him.”
“It’s not that simple,” Dustin said. “We need to be sure he’ll be in a trance when we attack. We need to coordinate it. We need to lure him into a counter-trap.”
Lucas groaned. “No,” he said. “I see what you’re doing, Dustin. I’m not using Sadie as bait.”
Gareth sucked his breath in through his teeth. “Oh, yeah. I get it. You have Sadie get cursed again, and we kill him while he’s attacking her. That’s a decent plan.”
Dustin turned to Lucas and clasped his hands together. “Lucas, think about it,” he said. “Don’t make the decision based on what you would want Sadie to do. Make it based on what Sadie would want Sadie to do.”
Eddie had no idea what Dustin was trying to say, but it sounded like quality bullshit. “Wise words, my friend,” he said. “So, what actions has the party decided on? Or are you going to continue to hide so very, very close to the first murder scene after having narrowly escaped the city guards?”
Taglist: @weirdandabsurd42, @10moonymhrivertam, @blueskiesandstarrynights
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The Silence of the Next Universe
When we finally build a window to the next universe over, no one will speak to us there. Dr. Camry had a hard time convincing anyone it was even that. Skeptics said she was pointing it in the wrong direction—gazing out into the next solar system or snagging on an old tv show transmission. She had to record it for weeks, tearing her hair out and pointing at the screen and everything that looked like our universe, but wasn’t. The dust settled more slowly. The light refracted more brightly. The people walked with a sloping gate of one extra vertebra.
They look like us. We think they’re human, human in their own sense. And they won’t talk to us.
We motion and hand signal and tap on the walls and flash morse code at them, holding up letters to the screen and slowly mouthing the alphabet. Newer interns point at themselves and yell their own names, louder and louder like that might break the distance between dimensions through yelling. The residents of the next universe walk on. Some older scientists attempt conversation using color theory and wolf howls—just in case, you know? Just in case they howl like wolves, I suppose.
Desperation breeds fools of everyone and Dr. Camry’s team dearly wants that Nebula Prize. I do too.
We know they see us—the people who are not quiet people—their brows pinch together, and their lips purse and they walk a little faster. The screen is in some kind of hallway. There are gray walls of wide smooth panels and corner-less ceilings, a modernistic sensibility for the palette of someone partial to drinking unsweetened cereal milk.
At the very least, we’ve determined what kind of space the window is pointed to, it's some kind of communal corridor. Who builds an interdimensional flatscreen in an indoor crosswalk is the next question, but at least there’s a variety of people (who are like us, but not). Families with fathers and mothers holding strangely gangling toddles pass by along with people in red blazers going to work or grandmas in fleecy sweaters getting home from the store or early morning joggers passing toward stairwells or gyms with sweat-slicked foreheads.
We’ve never seen their shoes which somehow bothers me.
There is something familiar about their angular outfits and chin-length bobs, something I could imagine coming into style in our universe in maybe 10 or 20 years. And they won’t talk to us. They don’t even want to look at us.
Most nights, I dream of windows. When my shift ends and I leave our watch room which feels tinier and tinier by the day, and lie down for the mandatory rest, there are windows. Windows that open into skies blue as dreams or else clouds purpling at the edges or a watery green color I haven’t imagined yet. Birds that float instead of fly, cobbled streets and pools and people that tell me their name. Tell me your name.
They whisper back, Welcome, hello, we’ve been waiting for you.
Still, the days string together, and they don’t say that.
We’ve determined they can hear us even if they must keep the volume on low or whatever else they do to ignore us when we’re playing elephant trumpeting or whale noises directly into their universe. We play the classics at first, orchestra performances and opera singers.
Now, after everything and all the write-offs of a failed project, I play love songs. Pop music on missing your baby, Christmas classics, and weepy waifs singing about broken hearts. We dance sometimes and write in our notes: They seem to like Cher.
There’s a blonde in the next universe over, tired-looking and walks at a speed of a small tractor that flattens fields in its wake. She looks at us sometimes when we play music, and I dream about that too.
I play the love songs a little louder, just in case they don’t howl like wolves, but also have music about wanting to be with you tonight.
Still, the people in the next universe over don't talk to us—even after we found them, begged them, cried out to them. Even after they built their own screen first. We found their frequency, Dr. Camry to tuned into it all those years ago, and they built that screen. Or at least, that’s what we assumed.
I was there on our last shift.
I was humming along to a Dark District ballad called Love that Only Grows—modern music which would make old Dr. Louis excommunicate me from every science convention into the outer districts.
The blonde appears, the one that walks like she has somewhere to be or else something to get away from. We call her Lady B, just as have nicknames for the old man called Whiskers Laury and the woman with smudged mascara we call Divorced Juliet.
Lady B glances toward the screen. I maybe smile a little dopily and sing louder, “she’s a flower, a bloom, a love that only grows!”
Lady B’s eyebrows skyrocket. She wobbles in place and straightens up with her spine with an extra vertebra. Maybe they have the exact same song in their universe. Or maybe I finally sang loud enough.
My heart squeezes and her eyes meet mine. They are brown like oak trees (do they have oak trees?) and lashes long enough to make wishes on (I hope they have wishes in that universe). Her pupils expand slightly and her eyes are just like ours.
I smile; she doesn’t smile back. She nods, one small jerk of her head, eyes fixed on something behind us. Behind us. And then she’s gone. She must have ducked or ran or I blinked too long, but it almost seems like a magic trick, there one moment and gone the next.
And perhaps they have altruism in the next universe over.
I am still high on everything about the way her eyes caught on me when I turn. My smile slowly falls. There something behind us. Caught in the glass of the far door there is a glowing faint reflection. A reflection that’s maybe always been there-- on their screen, or just beyond our own, or in every screen in all the universes. There isn’t a hallway in that reflection of people who are like us but not, or a reflection of our tiny dark room with papers spread out and my own slack face. It doesn’t blink.
An eye peers back.
Staring from within the reflection, large, singular, unblinking and yellow as moons and dogs and smoggy morning air. Robotic in ways, utterly unreal. We realize too late that perhaps all those people we’ve tried to talk have already met other universes. We realize, too late, too late, that maybe it isn’t us they don’t want to talk to.
We realize, too late, they didn’t build that screen.
------------------------
Heya, I write spooky stories but also Sapphic romance. Get a copy of my Sapphic urban fantasy collection here. If you enjoyed the story, leave a tip either here on Tumblr or Ko-Fi, thank you!
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Dragonblade Deep Dive - Chapter Twenty
Chapter Nineteen
It’s time for another round on the torture mill that is Dragonblade. Also that Big Spoiler still hasn’t happened. Perhaps it won’t until heavy handed hints have been dropped about every possible character it could possibly be.
Chapter Twenty – Broken Dreams
We open with Jane preparing for the wolf attack, castigating herself for not following Theodore’s direction and having her sword on her at all times. The sword Lavinia stole? The one Jane probably should have just grabbed and used to summon Dragon back? Assuming she knows where it is, which is hard to be sure of right now. Luckily she has a dagger!
The wolves attack and she slices one open before bathing in its blood like a twisted Bathory. Maybe it will be good for her skin? Things aren’t going great for Jane but hark! Robert appears (despite literally just being taken aside by Theodore for a “chat” and also supposedly being under guard) and together they fight, killing the wolves in a messy battle. Although Jane has been training all her life she isn’t focused, and constantly berates herself for her mistakes, while also noticing how intent Robert is. So glad that he’s better than Jane at fighting, too. Whatta man.
Jane is covered in blood, alarming Robert, but tells him it isn’t hers. Robert is sitting so she pulls him to his feet. Insert “why are you holding my hand~” stupidity here, I kid you not. Jane sets off for the village, explaining to Robert along the way why she is worried about Lavinia’s safety, including “Gunther’s little conspiracy” WHICH IT IS NOT ARGH. Robert starts to run but Jane can’t keep up, collapsing. It seems she was bitten by a wolf during the fight and despite this section being told from Jane’s POV, that information has not been shared with the reader until now.
Robert moves to heroically carry her, but Jane tells him he needn’t bother, as Dragon will have felt the bite and be on his way. Couldn’t he have smelled the wolves when Jane did and come then? Just a thought.
Jump to Jester’s POV, where we rehash/rewrite the moment he already had last chapter seeing Lavinia and Dragon flying past the moon, this time in more irritating detail as he wallows in his misery.
Jester realises that Lavinia will be going to confront the Merchant, which finally motivates him to do something, and he runs to the stables, where Smithy intercepts him.
Smithy assumes that Jester is hurrying to get to the tavern, which seems like a pretty safe bet. Jester even says “No tavern, not tonight!” so it’s obviously a regular part of his evenings.
Jester tells Smithy where Lavinia is, and Smithy says they might stand a chance of getting some sleep tonight after all. Robert made a similar comment to Jane. It’s only early, guys.
Jester tells Smithy all is not well and he must tell Sir Theodore where Lavinia is while Jester goes ahead to find her. Smithy wants to know what’s going on but Jester won’t tell him for… reasons? Reasons which are very moot at this point? IDK. Smithy says he will alert Theodore but that Jester must take a guard from the gate with him.
We get lots of detail about the night gate and warm flagstones and bed warmers as two unnamed guards decline to help Jester (EVEN THOUGH THE LITERAL PRINCESS IS CURRENTLY MISSING. Use some INITIATIVE, guys!) so Jester runs to the village alone. Where he finds no one.
Cut to inside the Merchant’s house, where Lavinia is making herself at home and can’t get over how much nice food Magnus and his friends have been eating. She is especially excited about the figs, which she says they haven’t had at the castle for some time. Gunther is brought in by our dear friend Pincher and forced to sit beside his father. Lavinia has all of Magnus’ henchmen, who are engaging in classic henchmen behaviour such as picking meat from their teeth and pandering to their boss, sent out so she can speak to Magnus in private. Gunther is made to stay. The situation is clearly very tense and unpleasant, but Lavinia is clearly not blessed with the ability to read a room, and blabs out everything she has overheard of what Gunther was saying earlier. It’s difficult reading, especially as it is told from Gunther’s POV and he CAN read his father’s true feelings under his false smile.
Magnus takes Gunther out or the room, and let’s just say physical abuse is confirmed, although I didn’t see the eye-gouging coming. After a loud and violent tantrum, Magnus starts plotting to murder Lavinia and frame Dragon.
End chapter.
Thoughts:
Oh Robert. The man, the myth, the teeth. How did he get away from what I’m sure will be shown to be a very long conversation with Theodore in time to save Jane so soon after she left the castle? Or am I asking too much by wanting time to make sense in this book?
Robert is there to fight with Jane, and banter with her, and help her when she is injured and to slip seamlessly into the role of her partner in combat. AKA all the things Gunther is supposed to be doing. Robert is so clearly designed to step into the place of Gunther, one of the most popular characters in the fandom, and take his place. Except he can’t, because Gunther is Jane’s peer, her friend, her rival, her training partner, her motivator, her intended knightly partner since childhood, and he knows her. Robert isn’t a “better version” of Gunther, he’s a poor imitation. A grown man preying on a child, a manipulator, a user and an unwanted intrusion.
Why is Jane so shit at being a knight?? She can’t clear her head and fight because she’s always thinking about Theodore telling her to clear her head, or some other stupid reason. Was she seriously criticising herself out loud during that fight? So that Robert could hear? Well, I’m sure he won’t use her insecurities against her, because it’s not like he has a history of doing that multiple times in the less than 48 hours since they met. Phew!
Jester continues to be deeply self-absorbed and Smithy pretty much confirms that he probably has a drinking problem. Maybe he will be the one to die (of alcohol poisoning). When he finally gets motivated to do something to help Lavinia (as instructed by Ivon) he won’t even give a clear reason for his alarm. As far as anyone else knows, Lavinia is safe and sound in the village, just meters from the castle. Jester hasn’t really got a good reason to keep any secrets now that he knows she is going to tell the Merchant what she knows and since he wanted Gunther to tell the King he’s obviously not worried about his safety at all. So no, no one will come to help him save Lavinia with the required urgency because they don’t have any reason to think she’s in danger.
While the information about the night gate and the bed warmers is interesting and potentially useful, it should have been given during the early chapters, perhaps when they were bringing Haroldus (remember him?) to the castle and not in the middle of a tensely urgent moment. Like is Jester really thinking about warm flagstones being like the bedwarmers Pepper heats in the kitchen fire on winter nights while he’s frantically running to save Lavinia? Really?
Nice of the gate guards to compliment him on his skills as a singer though.
That whole scene with Magnus, Lavinia and Gunther was painful to read. It also shows how stupid it is that everyone is blowing off Gunther’s concerns and calling his plan a “little conspiracy” and blaming him for so much when this scene makes it painfully clear how right he is, and how dangerous his father is. Gunther’s lack of shock when Magnus starts beating him goes to show it’s probably not a new experience for him. This poor kid just keeps getting screwed over.
If Jester is lurking outside and overhearing this, will he suddenly realise how wrong he has been and that the danger to Gunther’s life is 100% real? Probably not.
With Robert ready to step into Gunther’s still warm shoes and Gunther being forced into a corner where he needs to “redeem” himself (because that’s what the narrative wants us to think and not because of anything he’s done) I don’t have much hope that he’s going to get out of this alive.
Time passed since the start of the novel: Day Two –early night
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Now first listen of the Anthology tracks!
Overall thoughts: I probably won’t come back to these as much? But, I am very much a more full production girl so those who like the guitar centric and piano ballad songs are going to love these. The one outlier here is “imgonnagetyouback” not sure why tf that’s in here and not on the main album bc it doesn’t match the rest of the anthology tracks but it may be my favorite on the album as a whole idk
Fave 3
imgonnagetyouback
So Highschool
The Prophecy
Best 3
Cassandra
The Bolter
The Manuscript
The Black Dog
Oh we are sad again. Oh wait are we sad? The beat is picking up? OH SCREAMING oh back down? This production is throwing me but I get that it is intentional lmao. “Play him” actor shade. I think this song is what we all expected for this album. Also “esoteric joke”? Part of me wants to believe she wanted to write “making fun of me with an esoteric bloke” but I (like Taylor) am delusional sometimes. Sell my house 🥺 8/10
imgonnagetyouback
This production screams The 1975 at the beginning. Yes girl, know you’re hot! OH MY GOD THIS CHORUS. The classic “get you back” entendre. “I’m an Aston Martin”???? OMG. Loving the synths in this. This song was made for me and me alone. HOLY FUCK. we stan Jack Antonoff in this house. 100/10
The Albatross
The plucky type strings in the back are nice. I think this one is going to have to grow on me? It isn’t resonating with me on this first listen. Again Taylor Swift and threatening men, I love to see it. 6/10
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
First of all this song title is ridiculous. Saw me with someone who looked like they would bully you in school? LMAO. Did she just say “needed drugs more”??? Oh my god? Oh this one is hurtful? She changed to do anything for him and the way to break her heart is to say “I loved you as you were” … as a people pleaser I am sobbing on the floor. 7/10
How Did It End?
I’m going to need to research these lyrics more but this is interesting since it seems to be critical and self aware of how the public devours her pain. Also, this song must be a favorite of hers because all good chunk of the lyrics we got as part of the rollout are in this songs. D-Y-I-N-G????? Oh girl. The pen is penning here. 8/10
So High School
Not the Spotify vertical video being football lights, girl you are not subtle. Also this production sounds like something but I can’t place it??? Honestly this and 3am by Halsey are in the same genre. STIFLE YOUR SIGHS?!?! yes ma’am!!! You know ball, I know Aristotle??? You know who you wanted and you got her??? OH MY GOD. I do wish the production was a little quieter? But overall I like this!! 8/10
I Hate It Here
Sister song of the Lakes? She does love the word precocious doesn’t she. I wonder where the here is? 1830s but without the racists???? Girl what??? This song also would have done numbers on 2014-2015 with girls stuck in midwestern small towns. I can tell this is one is going to grow on me 7/10
thanK you aIMee
Bronze spray tan statue????? Oh my god we are coming out swinging out the gate. The definition of the bad times make us better. Yeah FUCK YOU AIMEE with the happiest fucking guitar in the background lmao. Oh mama swift!! WISHING SHE WAS DEAD?!?! Oh fucking get her Taylor lmao 8/10
I Look in People’s Windows
The slight echoing on her voice is interesting. Also you can tell Aaron Desner is all over these tracks. Taylor is in her peeping Tom era now. Like I’m so deranged weirdo? yeah that’s going to become a viral tiktok audio at some point lol 6/10
The Prophecy
Oh her delivery is in that cadence that scratches my brain again!!!! Oh the yearning is so painful here. Wanting so badly to be someone’s first pick, wanting to be loved so badly. Going directly to the pain. playlist oh my god 9/10
Cassandra
The backing piano reminds me of something but I can’t tell. BURN THE BITCH????? Oh my GOD. Cell with snakes??? The imagery of this is so fucking good. This is also shots towards Kimye. I’m glad we got this retrospective type song vs songs on rep right after it happened. I almost wonder if it’s coming up again because she wonders how much of the fake phone call caused her heartache? Like would she have ever been with Joe and had to go through all this pain if they hadn’t faked that call and she went into hiding?? 10/10
Peter
Vaguely champagne problem chords??? Okay English major!! Not one of my favorites? Not sure honestly because there’s times where I love her voice but piano ballads are never really my jam anyway? So this may just not be for me! 6/10
The Bolter
Singer songwriter vibes!! Honestly is it wrong that I could see someone like Zach Bryan doing really well on this? The vibe of this is so good! 9/10
Robin
Strings tied to lovers? Invisible String?? Way to go tiger?? Huh?? Again another piano ballad at 30/31 songs is a struggle for me to personally get through 5/10
The Manuscript
The reverb (?) on these piano notes!! Oh it’s retrospective 🥺 sex is half as good????? Strollers?!?!? Oh lord have mercy. 30? Oh so this is not about recent events. OH FUCK THIS IS ABOUT JOHN OR JAKE. Oh younger Taylor 🥺 story isn’t mine anymore?? Is this about All Too Well ??? 10/10
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Zygon Invasion novel coming
The Radio Times is reporting that a new set of novels based on “new era” Doctor Who done in the old Target Books style is coming from BBC Books this spring. Among the selections is The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness.
This is significant for Twelve-Clara fans as this is the first time a story from the Whouffaldi era (Series 8/9) has been adapted as a novel. Harness, of course, co-wrote the two-parter with Steven Moffat.
I confess to a few concerns. Putting aside the fact I have general apathy for the Who franchise (the last 5 years did a real job on the show for me), so I just can’t get as excited for this as I might have been back in 2016, there have been a few cases of the new-era novelizations inserting characters that had no business being in them (one reason why the novels based on Rose and Day of the Doctor were no-sells for me and based on that I initially skipped the one based on Crimson Horror, even though I don’t believe Mark Gatiss did that to his book). Also, there’s the chance that despite Zygon Invasion/Inversion being considered a major source for Whouffaldi references ( “Once Clara gets into your head, she doesn’t leave”; “I’ll be the judge of time” etc) there’s always the chance that Harness could somehow downplay or contradict some of that. (Though we might get an answer as to why Clara is dressed to the nines at the start - I’m sorry, she was NOT dressed for teaching.) A chapter consisting of Twelve doing nothing but leaving messages on her mobile would be funny though. And seeing how Harness adapts the Doctor’s war speech will be interesting. And there may be opportunities for Harness to enhance Whouffaldi, too, so I’m not assuming it’ll go one way or the other. I’m in Canada and we won’t get the books till later in the year if not 2024 (there was quite a lag when the last set of Targets came out), so I’ll wait to hear from folks who actually read it when it comes out in a few months. The one I’m really waiting for, though, is a novel based on the Raven Trilogy.
Other books in the new set include adaptations of the Tennant story Waters of Mars and Planet of the Ood, as well as a new edition of Warriors’ Gate by the Fourth Doctor story’s original writer, Stephen Gallagher. Gallagher, under the pseudonym John Lydecker, wrote the original Target book around 1981; this appears to be an expanded version as opposed to a rewrite (some classic-era stories have been “readapted” in this new Target Books line), and interestingly is supposed to include some new short stories, which will be a first for the Target line. According to the RT article the stories explore the “consequences” of the original TV story, which famously wrote out Romana. It’s possible the new stories might hint at Romana’s adventures in E-Space with K9?
#the zygon invasion#the zygon inversion#zygon invasion novel#twelfth doctor#clara oswald#target books
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Moon Memory #3: The Palace and the Forest
Narrator: Inside the underground palace of Pigeon Capital.
Narrator: The mirror-like surface of the Original Crystal shines softly. Mary, the maid of the Elf Queen, keeps staring at it with a worried look.
Narrator: A silver-haired court musician fiddles with a delicate harp and unconsciously looks at the Original Crystal from time to time.
Mary: I don’t understand why the Queen did such a dangerous thing. The Original Crystal is failing, but maybe there are other less risky ways...
Modric: Queen Ophelia knows the Original Crystal is in severe danger. If its light goes out completely, it’ll be a disaster for Pigeon Kingdom.
Modric: The ancient elvish classics found by the Queen do record unknown history. After the Blazemoon War, the Ancestor of Fire fell with Arionus.
Modric: Fire Elves disappeared. Light Elves were born from the ashes. Awakening the Ancestor of Fire can ignite the initial light of the Original Crystal.
Mary: But the Queen’s teacher Alan... We suspect that he works for Mercury...
Modric: The Queen and I considered that. The ancient elvish classics collected in the forbidden area can’t be faked. We need to bear some risks.
Modric: The Queen has trusted followers in her close guards. If Alan really wants to snatch away the Holy Grail, it won’t be that easy.
Modric: The Cyrant family will wait for the Queen at the rest stop. There are few people the Queen can trust in this royal city.
Mary: But... What if other accidents happen?
Narrator: Modric remains silent for a long time and sighs slightly.
Modric: It’s the price that must be paid. If the light of the Original Crystal is allowed to fade, what awaits us is the Doomsday of Pigeon Kingdom.
Narrator: Mary looks back at the Original Crystal. Its light now comes from Queen Ophelia. If something bad happens to her, the light will disappear.
Narrator: The light on the crystal is weak, but it never disappears. Perhaps the Queen’s journey will bring good results.
Narrator: At the same time, in the Mist Forest.
Narrator: Bright fire embraces Ophelia. The warm hands of the Ancestor of Fire are about to answer her prayers. The first light covers Ophelia’s wings.
Narrator: Just as the Ancestor of Fire is about to fully reveal the figure, the eyes of the New Moon find the altar in the mist.
Narrator: A blue light like a thunderbolt shakes the earth and the outline of the Ancestor of Fire disappears. Pitch darkness comes again.
Narrator: It’s not mist, but cold sea water. It comes from the Holy Grail and douses the flame. Only a dark vortex is left in the Grail.
Ophelia: That’s...
Narrator: A huge dark outline emerges from the Holy Grail, but it’s not the Ancestor of Fire. The hair is woven by moonlight of the deep sea and eyes filled with thousands of years of dark chaos.
Narrator: Ophelia doesn’t know it, who has strong power. With a wave of hands, an overwhelming black tide hits Ophelia.
Narrator: The vortex carries Ophelia down into the center of darkness. Before being swallowed up, Ophelia sees a strange but familiar figure.
Narrator: It seems to be the phantom of a silver-haired boy. He has pointed ears of elves, but no wings.
Youth: Run, Ophelia.
Narrator: The boy runs to the free void and waves at Ophelia. She reaches out her hand and only catches a remnant of memory...
Narrator: Mercury watches the Elf Queen disappear. Black tide flows back into the Holy Grail, which has fulfilled its mission and returned to silence.
Narrator: He seems to be pondering something, but loud roars interrupts his thinking. The Ancestor of Water, Arionus, untied the bondage and went to the sea.
Narrator: In the palace, the light of the Original Crystal goes out instantly. The crystal that no longer shines seems to have lost its eternal life.
Narrator: Mary lets out a cry of surprise. Modric looks at the crystal as if he has devised a plan. He puts down the harp and strides to the gate.
Narrator: Modric finds some heavily armed elven knights are waiting outside the gate. Modric steps onto a horse. Mary gives him a cloak and a sword.
Mary: The shortest way to get there is through Lake Bovaly. Please be sure to bring back the Queen.
Narrator: Modric’s face shows a long-lost serious look and he nods solemnly. He turns around his horse and goes to Pigeon Forest.
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Cheshire Album listen-thru~~
I would have liked to do this earlier. I have been thoroughly listening through the album, but it came out during finals week, and I had to put this off because of that, and then it just reminded me finals to think about doing this for a while so--
I have been enjoying the album on my own. But I’ve only just worked up the energy to be able to do this (see my other essay on Cheshire thanks to Mera), and now you all must suffer the energy of me being absolutely Insane about this album, because thanks to Sunny, I am Off-The-Walls-Crazy about this album.
Cheshire: What a track! What a title track! This is hypnotizing, sitting with Maleficent at the chessboard, playing politics with the queen over tea, and dancing in a ballroom poised on the edge of battle with all the cards in your hands. This track has the girls on the outside of the status quo, peeking in and out of a serious plot with airy power they can flaunt if they want, but instead they hide under sly smiles. This track is everything.
From the moment “La-la-la~” came out, I knew we had a hit. This wasn’t the ungrounded base beat of Sneakers with the floating “Ye! Ye!” flying with no support, this wasn’t the teasing fresh beats from the debut trilogy, or the teasing opening lines of the previous costume-changing Itzy. This Itzy came out of the gate with layered vocals, fresh sounds with their classic powerhouse beat. And their voices, oh sweet heaven, their voices! Not a single line felt anything short of tailored for the member it was given to. The staircase-falling sound motif in the chorus provided just enough mystery, and the pitched up choir in the back providing the depth to an Itzy track that tells us this group is maturing and moving up. Harmonies! Members singing with each other! And in their range!
The core of this is subtlety. From the building of the track, to the music video, to the dance itself. There are less huge movement, more little movements of incredible complexity. Everything is in the details, and the details are bedazzling! The video itself grew in how stunning it was the more I watched it, and I can attribute a lot of my awe to Jordan Orme and his analysis of it.
Lyrically, I see we are comfortably in the identity era, and we’ve returned back to our debut era of being in-your-face, and still not as complex. But I’ll take my victories-- perhaps lyrical complexity is the place they aim to grow... or perhaps not. Perhaps being blaringly obvious about identity and what they want to do and sticking it to people who tell them otherwise will be the think Itzy carry with them as their group identity. Who knows! It’ll be interesting to watch...
Personally, this track feels like the product of ten months (next to the japanese titles, those are gold). Had the company not been planning the english release for when they had, and maybe tried to preempt it with Sneakers... or maybe if they hadn’t decided on using Mama as their comeback stage... (what a power move, by the way! SkzItzy were unashamed of owning those stages, and we love them for that.) I can muse about Sneakers being the b-side track of the century, and not stealing time and money from Cheshire, and I can muse about how much well-deserved traction Cheshire could have gotten on it’s own two feet after their little break... I could, but I won’t. This is the title track of queens, and you can feel every bit of their growth in this track, and their confidence in who they are. I hope the company doesn’t get cold feet like they did with Twice after I Can’t Stop Me and Cry For Me (I loved Talk That Talk don’t come after me) and see this evolution to it’s end!
Snowy: Here’s a halloween witch, waving the hypnotizing watch in front of your face, and transforming into a cat that leaps into the snow and laughs back at you with the little “Nyan-nah-nan-nah-nah-nah’s.” A fantasy power character dancing along the edge, with the power to mold the plot to her favor, but instead throwing in cryptic words of wisdom for the character to grapple the whole journey and realize they could’ve finished much earlier. This song, is the real Cheshire.
Also, let’s talk about classical music sampling done right. The sister the chorus trickled down, I was in love. My sister had it on loop. I didn’t know why until my sister figured it out-- Fur Elise melody sampling. Brilliant. And highly effective. Hats off to the lyricism for stepping towards immersive, descriptive languages that shows and doesn’t just tell me what it’s trying to convey. The members are in a comfortable range, and they own their lines-- it’s every bit a beautiful b-side to be promoted and showcase their abilties. Top notch, love it!
Freaky: What a chill bop. It’s the mood of walking the streets while Christmas shopping, two weeks before, when there’s no pressure or rush, just hanging out with your friends in the soft glow and twinkling of Christmas decor. It’s got a a cozy, by the fireplace playing games feel, steeped in all the character and sass of Itzy in Ryujin and Yuna, with the easy confidence of Yeji, Lia, and Chaeryeong’s voices. Throw in some casual vocal runs, teetering on the edge of jazzy bounces, unseriously tinkering around.
I have to say though, I am surprised as how contrasting the actual content of the lyrics are. How very Han Jisung of this song. I know they didn’t write it, but it’s got a maturity in lyric writing, in description and emotion, that I really love. It feels a little like 3racha lyricism, and no, that’s not me willing a collab into the universe.
Boys Like You: This is a sophomore year of high school romance. Singing from the window into a hairdryer, laughing with your friends over the love-blind days. It’s very cute.
I get it. Sure, it sounds like Taylor Swift in the chorus, but other than that? I like the stamp of independence, confidence, and girl crushness in pop. My first thought was “Why are they trying Twice with Itzy?” but this isn’t a Twice track. It’s an expansion of Itzy. I support experimenting. It experimented better than Sneakers anyway. Also, Chaeryeong high note!!! What a win! And Lia fits this song like a glove, like she fits covering Taylor Swift songs. (Speaking of which, more please? Can I get them to cover I Know Places? Please? No? Okay sorry--)
The music video is so so cute, I love the style, and how it’s not as bold, but leans into the small sideplot, storybook, scrap-booked horror in a journal. Their outfits were cute, the acting was cute, it was all very cute.
....but I hope they don’t bring it to their Korean and Japanese titles, with all due respect. Sorry girlies!
All in all? Very solid mini album, not one throwaway song to be found. It’s a crying shame they couldn’t have started their tour with this under their belt, but ah well, c’est la vie, we can’t everything I suppose.
However, I think it would be a shame to pass up this opportunity to speculate what a gorgeous and cohesive album Checkmate and Cheshire would have been together. @the-sunshine-dragon and I went through both mini albums and put together, with much careful thought and consideration, what we believe would have been a solid full album, Checkshire.
But regardless, what we do have, is the growth of an iconic group, that absolutely has my attention. Anywho, would love to talk and discuss with people~
#Red's album dissections#Album Listen-Through#itzy cheshire#Red's personal sitcom#an open invitation to talk to meeeee#Youtube#red's album listen-thrus
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Dancing in circles chapter 11: turbulence
Read on ao3
Words: 42k+
Rating: M
Pairing: beiguang mafia au
Summary: You can't change the past, but perhaps you can change our fate.
Sneak peek:
A key benefit of knowing your way around Liyue’s largest mountain range, Ningguang thinks, is that you can easily shake off pursuers and ‘disappear’ into rock and shelter. Somewhere along the massive base of Mount Tianheng is an entrance hewn into stone. Water drips rhythmically from its ceiling, and the air within is moist and suffocating. But press into the darkness long enough, and you will come across a steel gate with a piece of plaustrite locking it.
That plaustrite reacts only to a key containing cor lapis.
Ningguang created this mechanism while she was sequestered away by her parents and learning her place in the triads. It was here, in this safehouse deep within Mount Tianheng, that her will was broken. It was here that she learned not to shed a single tear, to stand in defiance even when her father played Russian roulette with her head.
The gun wasn’t loaded, he later said. But the damage was done.
It was also here that she plotted their deaths from within, to seize their power and rule the triad the way she desires. No more hiding in the shadows and relying on senseless violence to gain power. No, she will weave the upper echelons into her tapestry; she will make the Liyue Qixing indispensable to the city of commerce. She will sink her fingers into every business and every industry, so that they will rule from the shadows.
Before her ascension, the violence was widespread. Nowhere in Liyue was safe from turf wars and gang fights. Her parents only encouraged this state of affairs. Even when Ningguang told them of its impact on the people, on Beidou — they did not relent. And after that fateful night where the assassination on their home almost succeeded, they’d accused her of betraying them with a dagger to her neck.
You told her where we lived, didn’t you? You told Beidou!
Ningguang sighs, expelling the memory together with smoke through her nose. Coming back here, to the Jade Chamber, is the last thing she wants to do — but it’s also the most secluded of the Qixing’s safehouses. She sealed it when she first left, and never opened it again until now.
The Tianquan sinks into the leather chair and takes another drag. She lets the smoke escape from her lips, carrying the dull ache in her heart away, and idly wishes she could be as light as the vapour dissipating into the air.
Two knocks on the door. “Enter,” she breathes. Her two most trusted associates silently file into her old room-turned-study.
The walls of the Jade Chamber are reinforced steel, its numerous rooms carved into Mount Tianheng. The octagonal safehouse is furnished with classic Liyue-style furniture — walnut desks, ceramic lamps and lacquered screens. This room, in particular, once bore a bamboo bed for a child; now it holds a long table carved from a single trunk and several leather chairs.
Yelan and Tian settle on the opposite side of the table, motionless. The silence hangs between them like a taut rubber band, trembling ever so faintly.
“The Fatui must go,” Ningguang says, swiftly snapping the band with a twang. Its two ends bounce back, slapping both the Tianshu and Kaiyang into action.
“The Rooster?” Yelan asks.
“Captured. Alive enough to talk.” As much as it irks her, she needs a confession from Pulcinella to clear her name.
Tian leans forward. “They’ve spread their bases; striking Heyu Teahouse alone won’t be sufficient.”
“That will not be a concern.” Ningguang takes another drag, willing it to calm her fraying nerves. “Prior to this, Pulcinella and I made an agreement.” She puffs the smoke out, fondly recalling how Keqing would angrily swat it away. It’s funny how the police’s mole turned out to be one of their best Yuhengs in a while.
Unfortunate. A good many things in this situation are unfortunate, and one of them is how the vapour seems to do nothing for her constricting chest.
She sets the vape pen on the table. “He is supposed to deliver the remaining ammo in our deal on Saturday night.” Ningguang slides a piece of paper across the wood; Yelan and Tian swiftly catch it. “Memorise the details. I want every one of our people at this deal to seal off all exits.”
“What makes you think Pulcinella will be there?” Yelan muses.
“He will.” Ningguang stands. Her chest feels far too tight, and her mouth is drier than a desert. She really doesn’t like being here, in a safehouse that teems with unpleasant memories. If she stares long enough, the walls seem to move, closing in around her and only adding fuel to a monstrous fear starting to stir deep within. Her nostrils flare in defiance. “I’ve made the arrangements; he knows I’ll see to the deal myself.”
“That’s a big risk,” Tian replies, “If they tip the police off—”
“I’m counting on the police to be there,” she interrupts, glancing at Yelan. Her heart is pounding hard, rattling her ribs and screaming to be freed. “Their mole hasn’t been outed, I presume?”
“They’ve hidden the spy well,” the blue-haired woman admits. “My men are certain the Fatui’s mole is a police captain or an inspector, but we don’t know who.”
“Then they already know this deal is happening. It’s the perfect time to nab me, since I apparently killed the Minister of Civil Affairs.” Ningguang turns away, restlessly pacing the length of the room. She hates it. She hates the Jade Chamber. She forces herself to return to the pressing matters at hand, though it feels like trying to gain control of a speeding car whose brakes have failed.
Yes, of course she’d murder the one man in the government whom she had painstakingly wrapped around her little finger over the years. It’s painfully obvious their enemies are behind this, and all she’s lacking is proof.
As for Tongtong … the poor boy’s only crime was to be Bolai’s beloved son. It’s a smart move, Ningguang admits to herself — frame the child’s death on her so that Bolai would turn on the Qixing. Now, she is blind to the activities of both the police force and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Two of her most important allies were felled in one blind swoop while she drowned in melancholy.
In her mind’s eye, the damned car approaches a guard rail she can’t avoid.
Tian brings a lighter to the paper, and Ningguang watches it dissolve into ashes — a sign of their acknowledgement. Her two associates bow; Tian comes to her side, lifting her hand and pressing it to his lips reverently. She waits, keeping her expression impassive, till the door shuts.
Ningguang scrambles for her bag immediately, digging through it as her heart thuds furiously against her ribs. It pounds so hard she can hear the roar of blood in her head. Archons, she hasn’t had to pop pills in years , but stepping in here — where it all began — is almost unbearable. She dry-swallows two benzos and slumps against the wall, shakily feeling around the table for her vape pen.
Her head spins like it once did long ago. Ningguang closes her eyes, patiently waiting for the medication to kick in. It does, soothing her heart and making her thoughts fuzzy, like brocade fraying at the edges. She takes a drag with trembling fingers, letting the pen drop to the floor with a clatter. Ningguang has always known, of course, that her life would end in violence. There’s no peace for those who rule the triads — it’s the price they pay for unimaginable power. She’d always thought that it wouldn’t matter, that she’d welcome death with open arms when it finally came for her in blood and pain.
And yet, now that she has looked death in the eye… it is not at all what she’d expected. Death is an overbearing, intangible presence in every room. Death has stalked her from the moment she received the Tianxuan’s severed hands and went into hiding. Death is formless, shapeless, a void. Death is absence . And here in the Jade Chamber, where she’d stared down the empty eye of a gun at death, it has become all the more powerful. It holds her by the neck in these reinforced walls and she cannot rest.
It brings her back to that memory she’d shoved aside, and she’s once again holding back tears in her bedroom, unable to believe her own parents would accuse her of betraying them.
But this time, she looks her parents in the eyes, ignoring the flare of pain in her neck.
I didn’t tell Beidou.
She only wished she did.
#im tired of tagging#le motivation where#beiguang#yuniewrites#yuniefics#genshin fanfic#beiguang triad au#beiguang fic
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Hello! I’m a 21+ writer looking for a few fandoms and pairings, my preferred character is in bold! 👀🧡
I am advanced-literate and write multi-paragraph to novella style replies, usually longer for things like starters and transitional scenes and shorter on dialogue heavy replies. I am an Active partner at the moment and only looking for the same.
I love slow burn stories and enjoy angst a lot. I’m good with action, darker themes and themes such as mpreg but also fluff. I have no limits so throw anything my way. Let’s discuss some of the themes that could come up in advance. I am happy to write side characters and explore relationships outside of the main pairing as I have a lot of love for the other characters in these fandoms. I’m good with OOC conversations, for plotting and such, like sharing memes and photos and just buzzing together over the story!
Like and I’ll hit you up OR, even better, DM me. Please, please send me a decent introduction too as as I love nothing better than having a partner there with their info and their thoughts from the get-go. We want to write together so show me that, please? I likely won’t reply to a ‘yes i’m interested in ____’ type reply.
Loki
Loki/Mobius
My idea for them is as follows
• Messing with the timeline slightly, what if Mobius was sent back to the moment of his abduction by the TVA? And in classic Loki style, what if he decided that the sane thing to do was stalk Mobius on Earth. I’m picturing Professor Mobius? I’m also definitely picturing single-dad Mobius because of how good he was with the kid at the church.
• Anyway. Loki figures he’ll watch for a few days. Check Mobius is happy. Flash forward to a week later and he’s getting a member of the faculty fired, framing himself as a substitute and introducing himself to Mobius at work.
• Office romance, re-falling in love, slow burn… all leading to angst when the TVA inevitably reappears and suddenly Loki and Mobius find themselves on the run (with a toddler). Perhaps they end up on Asgard? We can tweak the timeline all we want.
Kingsman
• Eggsy/Harry
I have an idea for an Apocalypse AU - maybe with Harry being from an affluent, gated community run by Arthur who refuses to let anyone new in. Eggsy from a scrappy, rundown group made up of the characters from the estate (Dean, Michelle etc). They could meet on a run and have to spend the night together trapped, negotiating a plan out and divvying up supplies. Perhaps the second meeting could also be a coincidence, but enough of one to make them feel the spark between them.
The Umbrella Academy
Klaus/Diego
- Open to anything with these two, canon divergent through to AU’s. 60’s story where they land together and need to make a life of their own? Pushing Daisies AU, with Detective Diego working with Klaus to solve murders, pre-S1 story where they stayed close… Anything and everything.
Klaus/Ben
- Open to lovely canon Ben or a darker Sparrow Ben, depending on what you feel up for writing! Twisting the story to where Ben doesn’t die? 60’s story where they do something other than starting a cult? Post S2 tale where Ben is returned to life and suddenly has to deal with feelings for Klaus / being back in the land of the living. AU’s aplenty. Give me your thoughts!
Klaus/Five
- I’ve got a bit of an idea for a couple of plots.
- One starts as smut and develops as we go on. I’m thinking, at some point in the timeline, we find them taking a break. Five is stuck in this body and that comes with being overwhelmingly turned on. I’d love for him to go to Klaus and for them to come to a no-strings-attached arrangement where Five can experiment all he wants until he’s bored. But, as time goes on, it becomes less business and he is certainly not getting bored. Cue him realising he’s got feelings.
- Another is more of an antsy time-loop story. With the Brellies having settled down, Klaus decides he’s quite fine with ending things and takes his own life (no immortality ofc) and Five is the one that finds him. Of course he responds by going back in time. Why wouldn’t he? He thinks that’s it but when it happens again a week later, he realises simply blinking isn’t the solution and he has to take a more hands on approach by spending time with Klaus. He starts calculating data on how to fix things each time and, along the way, makes the mistake of falling for Klaus.
- Apocalypse AU where Klaus wakes up in the middle of Five burying him
- 60s AU where they land together and Five realises just how much time they might have on their hands - the two of them finding shelter, creating something of a happy life together that neither are keen to have torn apart. I’m just imagining them falling in love in the closest thing to a happy home and domestic bliss any of them have ever had. Where, for a while, their problems aren’t the end of the world as they become each others world. Five can be physically aged up a little for this, if you like!
Stranger Things
- Steve Harrington/Jim Hopper
I’m thinking it starts with Hopper recruiting Steve as a babysitter for El when Hop is working late and he’s anxious to leave her alone and Steve proving himself good with her and capable. Eventually hooking up one night. Starting something hidden.
DM @lestatdelioncourted if interested!
#loki roleplay#loki rp#kingsman roleplay#kingsman rp#umbrella academy roleplay#umbrella academy rp#stranger things roleplay#stranger things rp#fandom roleplay#fandom rp#cc x cc#mild
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EastEnders run (2000-2001), Part 3/4
Warnings if you’re not keen on big shouty men, Beppe flips out in this and I took a lot of screencaps.
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Ok I did read the character summary so I know roughly what's coming now, but here goes! Last three episodes of those he's in for a few months - expect some drama! What's Sandra going to decide??
9 October 2000
Noooo, that youtube video is just the October 5 episode again :(
10 October 2000
Breakfast time at Sandra and Beppe's. Beppe wants to take her up to Leicester to see his family - the source of the original breakup (apparently they didn't like her for not being Italian) - but Sandra is cagey and heads out to work.
Guess who's on her doorstep, as usual?
He claims it's the only way he can get in touch with her and makes the usual ultimatum! He's leaving Thursday - she says she'll call him later...
The background music continues to deal me psychic damage. Tom Jones' Sex Bomb playing in the pub while Peggy acts heartbroken over Frank's spinning bow tie 🙃
Laura joking about kidnapping Ian's kids in (apparently) very poor taste but it's emphasising the subliminal messaging acting on Sandra, innit? She's worried that if she runs off with Joe though it'll be held against her in terms of custody. This is why ultimatums aren't helpful, young Mr Robbins!
Also once more, pleasantly surprised by the way Frank and Pat's affair gets into the effects of that on the friendship between Peggy and Pat - she's already lonely because of Frank, and now her best friend isn't in a position to support her because she's also hiding things.
Anyway, Beppe's being a dear about this trip to Leicester and talking about taking Joe horse riding. Do they have horse riding in Bristol, hm?
I should probably warn anyone tempted to watch these that Barry is on a strictly enforced diet and his wife is an asshole about making him stick to it. Could be triggering for anyone with issues around food.
Ian unhelpfully gives Sandra Thursday and Friday off for a trip to Leicester when Beppe asks him for her.
LMAOOO Tivik (the guy with the bust arm who Cassian shoots in Rogue One, played by Daniel Mays) has chained himself to the Slaters' gate because he loves Kat, and swallowed the key to his padlock. Among the audience he's drawn, Sandra asks what his problem is, and Beppe says "Some guys don't know what it's over." Oh ho ho ho...
Sandra's still trying to get out of going to Leicester on Thursday - she offers to bring Joe on the train on Friday pm and Beppe agrees. She asks Ian not to mention that she still wants Thursday off...
Today we have shouty Jack >:(
He goes on and on in the usual bloody way until he makes Sandra cry. You can see why the Met Police hired him 🙄
Then after all the shouting he goes all quiet and soft of course, and when Sandra says he can come to the house on Thursday because Beppe will be away he has the cheek to ask gently "Are you sure this is what you want?"
16 October 2000
DRAMA TIME
Sandra tells Beppe she's leaving. She says she can't keep pretending that she loves him (which is a contradiction of what she told Jack in the first episode)
Uh oh, Beppe heads outside "You're not taking my son!"
Jack pops out of the car 😬😬😬
"You call me mate when you sleep wiv my wife??" Classic EastEnders
Ok, I did my best with the screenshots, but apologies still
Intricate rituals....
Bless him, Jack gets a punch in but it's a 'restrain the arrestee' kind of punch not the brawling Beppe's good at. Beppe isn't taking this well at all. "I thought you were my friend?!"
That’s right, protect your face love!!!
There's an audience of course.
Sonya: "Should I call the police?"
Mo: "From what I heard, they are the police!"
Robbie's not confident he can break up this uh. Street fight on his own.
Mark gets Beppe to break it up because Sandra and Joe are watching.
Beppe grabs Joe and takes him inside.
Joe doesn't seem all that happy, and Beppe won't pick up the phone to Sandra (with grumpy Jack in the background). He is feeling guilty af though. And Laura's helping. Donkey Kong therapy :')
Laura's too good for this world - truly, she suggests Beppe talk things through! As if anyone has ever done that on EastEnders dkskjssjsjfff omg he does try it! Genuinely, Beppe is the better person at the point.
Oh goooodddd the locals are all on open-season bitch-fest about Sandra and Jack now D:
Jack thinks Sandra's letting Beppe call all the shots. He's so awful :')
"I don't remember inviting you."
"You didn't."
My god if the big dick swinging ego of these two idiots was spread evenly through the population we'd have no impostor syndrome left in the world.
Beppe finally gets the truth about how Sandra and Jack lived together for years.
(ah teen romance soundtracked by 5ive - Until the Time is Through *stares into the camera with a weak laugh*)
Now it's Beppe's turn to be a little bitch too
Ugh god I have such mixed emotions about Jack looking so protective while Sandra recounts her miscarriage woes again
Jack says a month or so later she up and left :(
Beppe: "She's good at that." But he does seem to understand...
Beppe: "It's all been about Joe, ain't it?"
Sandra: "No..."
Jack: "Uh, yeah!"
Beppe, who raised Joe alone after Sandra left him, is understandably dubious about Joe having a better family life with them.
Jack is wearing the ultimate 'no fucks given, no regrets' expression
"I'm so glad you can't have any more kids coz you don't deserve the one you've got!" Stay classy Beppe.
Sandra's had enough and Jack invokes the courts.
"And when we come back, we're taking Joe with us!"
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End of Part 3. Wow, Jack is really not boyfriend material! :’) But then again, the narrative of EastEnders doesn’t really take a moral standpoint and everyone’s behaved pretty stupidly badly. Read on to find out how things can be resolved in a(n ir)rational world!
#joplin sibtain#adventures in joplin sibtain's imdb page#jo watches eastenders#eastenders#jack robbins#i am warning u SO MANY screenshots#*pats empty seat on park bench and holds out brown paper bag* come. join me. watch with me.
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Lazarus And The Rich Man
In Luke 16, Jesus emphasized the importance of God's law and the preaching of the gospel. Right after that, He told a story of two men, one called Lazarus and the other a rich man.
People have made a doctrinal issue about the afterlife around this story. Jesus, however, revealed the story's point when He quoted Abraham's following statement.
Abraham said, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. Luke 16:31
Earlier in this chapter, Jesus told a parable that made the Pharisees very uncomfortable. It says they heard what He said and scoffed at him because they dearly loved their money.
At that point, Jesus told the story of Lazarus and the rich man. This was probably a true story and not a parable because He used the actual names of two of the men involved.
Jesus said, "There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. Luke 16:19-20
Why do you think Jesus didn't use the rich man's name? Calling him "certain" could have applied to the rich men listening to Him, including the Pharisees.
Because of his wardrobe, the rich man would have stood out in a crowd just like the Pharisees did. Jesus also included these religious leaders when He described the man's compassion.
As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man's table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores. Luke 16:21
Lazarus Died followed By the Rich Man
He went on to say that Lazarus died followed by the death of the rich man. End of the story, correct? Not by a long shot. When our physical lives end on earth, we start anew in eternity.
Jesus said when Lazarus died, angels carried him to sit beside Abraham. But when the rich man died, he went to the place of the dead.
Jesus wanted us to know where these two men ended up in eternity. Lazarus went to a heavenly banquet while the rich man suffered eternal torment. A far distance separated them.
The rich man could see across to the other side and recognized Abraham. Because he was used to giving orders while on the earth, he bellowed out for some relief.
The rich man shouted, 'Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames. Luke 16:24
Will the saved and the unsaved continually see each other in eternity? I don't think so. I believe, however, this is a true story that happened before Jesus died and got the keys to death.
Abraham's response reminded the rich man of what he did and didn't do during his earthly life. His actions determined his eternal destiny.
But Abraham said to him, 'Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. Luke 16:25
Abraham continued by telling him that even if they wanted to give him some relief, they couldn't.
And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there. Luke 16:26
The Rich Man Became Compassionate
Realizing that Lazarus could do nothing for him, the rich man changed his attitude and his tune. Since he caused this dilemma for himself, he began to think some compassionate thoughts.
Then the rich man said, Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment. Luke 16:27-28
During the Christmas season, I like to watch the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. In real life, though, people don't come back from the dead to warn or advise anyone.
Abraham told the rich man that Lazarus couldn't help them. He said his father and brothers had everything they needed to avoid ending up in the same place as him.
But Abraham said, 'Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote. Luke 16:29
He didn't accept Abraham's answer. This rich man believed if Lazarus was raised from the dead with a message for them, they would believe it.
I've heard of people who had died and come back to life. Some get popular for a while. Some even have movies made of their story, but these stories eventually fade away.
While some of us believe what the Bible says about the afterlife, others don't. In the parable Jesus told before talking about Lazarus and the rich man, He backed up what Abraham said.
The Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in. But that doesn't mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God's law to be overturned. Luke 16:16-17
Preach the Good News
In other words, the Word of God is powerful. It doesn't try to convince or manipulate anyone. Instead, because of its power, it changes lives.
A person can read the gospel's message, which points them to new life. Or they can read the Old Testament, considered our schoolmaster, which points them to the gospel.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
This brings us back to where we started with what Abraham said. "If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, why would they listen to someone raised from the dead."
What main lesson did Jesus want us to learn from this story of Lazarus and the rich man? That the choices we make while living on this earth will affect our eternal destiny.
Jesus died and rose from the dead so we could spend eternity with Him. The Bible says you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
The Lord also told us that if we love Him, we will do what He asks us. So, as we read His Word, it instructs us on how to live as Christians.
The Rich Man Regretted Overlooking Lazarus
When the rich man looked over and saw Lazarus, he regretted his earthly decisions. If you also end up in eternal torment, you will regret ignoring all the opportunities you had to accept Jesus.
Lord, thank you for the eye-opening stories in the Bible like Lazarus and the rich man. Help us to effectively share your life-changing Word with others.
Check out these other posts related to eternal fire
- How To Survive The Judgment Of The Eternal Fire
- There Is An Eternal Fire That's Unquenchable
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How roboticists are thinking about generative AI
The topic of generative AI comes up frequently in my newsletter, Actuator. I admit that I was a bit hesitant to spend more time on the subject a few months back. Anyone who has been reporting on technology for as long as I have has lived through countless hype cycles and been burned before. Reporting on tech requires a healthy dose of skepticism, hopefully tempered by some excitement about what can be done.
This time out, it seemed generative AI was waiting in the wings, biding its time, waiting for the inevitable cratering of crypto. As the blood drained out of that category, projects like ChatGPT and DALL-E were standing by, ready to be the focus of breathless reporting, hopefulness, criticism, doomerism and all the different Kübler-Rossian stages of the tech hype bubble.
Those who follow my stuff know that I was never especially bullish on crypto. Things are, however, different with generative AI. For starters, there’s a near universal agreement that artificial intelligence/machine learning broadly will play more centralized roles in our lives going forward.
Smartphones offer great insight here. Computational photography is something I write about somewhat regularly. There have been great advances on that front in recent years, and I think many manufacturers have finally struck a good balance between hardware and software when it comes to both improving the end product and lowering the bar of entry. Google, for instance, pulls off some truly impressive tricks with editing features like Best Take and Magic Eraser.
Sure, they’re neat tricks, but they’re also useful, rather than being features for features’ sake. Moving forward, however, the real trick will be seamlessly integrating them into the experience. With ideal future workflows, most users will have little to no notion of what’s happening behind the scenes. They’ll just be happy that it works. It’s the classic Apple playbook.
Generative AI offers a similar “wow” effect out the gate, which is another way it differs from its hype cycle predecessor. When your least-tech-savvy relative can sit at a computer, type a few words into a dialogue field and then watch as the black box spits out paintings and short stories, there isn’t much conceptualizing required. That’s a big part of the reason all of this caught on as quickly as it did — most times when everyday people get pitched cutting-edge technologies, it requires them to visualize how it might look five or 10 years down the road.
With ChatGPT, DALL-E, etc., you can experience it firsthand right now. Of course, the flip side of this is how difficult it becomes to temper expectations. Much as people are inclined to imbue robots with human or animal intelligence, without a fundamental understanding of AI, it’s easy to project intentionality here. But that’s just how things go now. We lead with the attention-grabbing headline and hope people stick around long enough to read about machinations behind it.
Spoiler alert: Nine times out of 10 they won’t, and suddenly we’re spending months and years attempting to walk things back to reality.
One of the nice perks of my job is the ability to break these things down with people much smarter than me. They take the time to explain things and hopefully I do a good job translating that for readers (some attempts are more successful than others).
Once it became clear that generative AI has an important role to play in the future of robotics, I’ve been finding ways to shoehorn questions into conversations. I find that most people in the field agree with the statement in the previous sentence, and it’s fascinating to see the breadth of impact they believe it will have.
For example, in my recent conversation with Marc Raibert and Gill Pratt, the latter explained the role generative AI is playing in its approach to robot learning:We have figured out how to do something, which is use modern generative AI techniques that enable human demonstration of both position and force to essentially teach a robot from just a handful of examples. The code is not changed at all. What this is based on is something called diffusion policy. It’s work that we did in collaboration with Columbia and MIT. We’ve taught 60 different skills so far.
Last week, when I asked Nvidia’s VP and GM of Embedded and Edge Computing Deepu Talla why the company believes generative AI is more than a fad, he told me:I think it speaks in the results. You can already see the productivity improvement. It can compose an email for me. It’s not exactly right, but I don’t have to start from zero. It’s giving me 70%. There are obvious things you can already see that are definitely a step function better than how things were before. Summarizing something’s not perfect. I’m not going to let it read and summarize for me. So, you can already see some signs of productivity improvements.
Meanwhile, during my last conversation with Daniela Rus, the MIT CSAIL head explained how researchers are using generative AI to actually design the robots:It turns out that generative AI can be quite powerful for solving even motion planning problems. You can get much faster solutions and much more fluid and human-like solutions for control than with model predictive solutions. I think that’s very powerful, because the robots of the future will be much less roboticized. They will be much more fluid and human-like in their motions. We’ve also used generative AI for design. This is very powerful. It’s also very interesting, because it’s not just pattern generation for robots. You have to do something else. It can’t just be generating a pattern based on data. The machines have to make sense in the context of physics and the physical world. For that reason, we connect them to a physics-based simulation engine to make sure the designs meet their required constraints.
This week, a team at Northwestern University unveiled its own research into AI-generated robot design. The researchers showcased how they designed a “successfully walking robot in mere seconds.” It’s not much to look at, as these things go, but it’s easy enough to see how with additional research, the approach could be used to create more complex systems.
“We discovered a very fast AI-driven design algorithm that bypasses the traffic jams of evolution, without falling back on the bias of human designers,” said research lead Sam Kriegman. “We told the AI that we wanted a robot that could walk across land. Then we simply pressed a button and presto! It generated a blueprint for a robot in the blink of an eye that looks nothing like any animal that has ever walked the earth. I call this process ‘instant evolution.’”
It was the AI program’s choice to put legs on the small, squishy robot. “It’s interesting because we didn’t tell the AI that a robot should have legs,” Kriegman added. “It rediscovered that legs are a good way to move around on land. Legged locomotion is, in fact, the most efficient form of terrestrial movement.”
“From my perspective, generative AI and physical automation/robotics are what’s going to change everything we know about life on Earth,” Formant founder and CEO Jeff Linnell told me this week. “I think we’re all hip to the fact that AI is a thing and are expecting every one our jobs, every company and student will be impacted. I think it’s symbiotic with robotics. You’re not going to have to program a robot. You’re going to speak to the robot in English, request an action and then it will be figured out. It’s going to be a minute for that.”
Prior to Formant, Linnell founded and served as CEO of Bot & Dolly. The San Francisco-based firm, best known for its work on Gravity, was hoovered up by Google in 2013 as the software giant set its sights on accelerating the industry (the best-laid plans, etc.). The executive tells me that his key takeaway from that experience is that it’s all about the software (given the arrival of Intrinsic and Everyday Robots’ absorption into DeepMind, I’m inclined to say Google agrees).
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WoW Dragonflight: Best Professions To Choose
This article is aimed at people who want to make WoW Classic WLK Gold with their professions. However, with an expansion launch, the prices of things will be Volatile and more profitable things may happen. Stay tuned to Wowhead for updates. Here are Wowhead's recommendations for gold making!
Best professions to make Gold in Dragonflight
While you can theoretically make lots of Gold from any profession, there are a handful that stand out as the real money makers. Let’s get into which ones are the best.
Enchanting
Enchanting is good for a handful of reasons, but the main one is that you won’t have to switch up your playstyle much to reap the rewards. You’ll also be able to enchant your own gear, which is always nice.
You’ll also be able to disenchant weapons and gear which will help you rake in the extra goodies like Resonant Crystal. As you gather extra gear pieces throughout the expansion, you’ll be able to disenchant them, gather valuable materials, and earn Gold.
Herbalism
One of the two gathering professions we have here, Herbalism offers players the chance to make money by refining herbs as well as maxing out their collection of Rousing Essences.
To rank up your Herbalism, make sure to utilize Mastering the Elements in order to gain more Essences along the way.
Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafters can make the new Draconic Vials, which are a necessary item for other crafters. Aside from that new item, you have the standard array of rings, amulets, and the sort that Jewelcrafters are known for within World of Warcraft. While Jewelcrafting is extremely profitable, it’s also relatively boring. Great riches await those with the patience, however, as Jewelcrafters are able to offer some unique mechanics such as Soul Cages and Soul Inhalers.
If you’re looking to make the most money with this profession, converting ores into expensive gems and resources is an easy path to riches. Much like Inscription, Crafting Orders will offer you a slew of gold as well for a tidy sum. Watch the market closely, and find the unavailable gems to make a killing with this profession.
Leatherworking
Leatherworking is the best profession in Dragonflight if you want to make loads of gold. As a leatherworker, you will be making Leather and Mail gear for all classes. The amount of money you will make highly depends on the Quality mechanic. As you level up, you will get new recipes. You also have Special Elemental Patterns where you can make gear with special effects. Leatherworkers get many Equipment Recipes to start making Gold early in the game.
Tailoring
Make the cloth gear for those that try not to get hit. It’s a simple life for a tailor, but Dragonflight brings a few new mechanics for all crafters to explore, such as offering additional experience for each first recipe craft. The big money for Tailoring is with Crafting Orders, allowing the fulfillment of bulk orders for a pleasant sum of money. This is the path to riches for the Tailor, although the ability to outfit mages and the like within the guild is always an added benefit.
Tailors will also come across a few time-gated resources, much like Inscribers. Ultimately, however, there simply isn’t too much utility that a Tailor can offer aside from gear and bulk orders. Focus on first crafts to maximize experience in the new system, and roll through as many orders as possible.
Leatherworking
For Leatherworkers, they'll be making both leather and mail armor that immediately give them a huge audience to craft gear for, including the new Evoker class, so that's going to be great. They also have special Elemental patterns, which are basically special crafted gear. All of this gear comes with special effects, but those effects do count as embellishments, and you can only have two embellishments on your gear at any one time, so these effects have to be really good to take up one of those two slots. They can also make special Leatherworking reagents, some finishing materials, armor kits for leg enchants as well as one or two ranged weapons for the hunters. Leatherworkers also get a lot of profession gear recipes, almost as many as Blacksmithing, so that's another great early gold-making option.
That's all from us on the Best Professions in WoW Dragonflight. Note that we mentioned these ones as they match our playstyle. You can also check out other occupations like Enchanting, Tailoring, Inscription, and more based on your gameplay. Hope it helps. If you like this guide or buy Classic WLK Gold to help you enjoy the game, please visit https://www.igv.com/WoW-Classic-WLK-Gold
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