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lingthusiasm · 1 year

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Transcript Episode 78: Bringing stories to life in Auslan - Interview with Gabrielle Hodge

This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm episode ‘Bringing stories to life in Auslan - Interview with Gabrielle Hodge’. It’s been lightly edited to reflect the Auslan used in the interview. Watch the bilingual Auslan/English video episode here, and listen to the audio only version here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Links to studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the episode show notes page.

[Music]

L: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! I’m Gretchen McCulloch. I’m here with Dr. Gabrielle Hodge who’s a deaf researcher and writer based in Melbourne, Australia. She specialises in research relating to d/Deaf people, signed languages, and communication, and has worked with Auslan and British Sign Language (BSL) in Australia and the UK. Today, we’re getting enthusiastic about how we bring stories to life. But first, if you’re listening to this episode in the normal Lingthusiasm audio feed or reading the transcript, you are missing out. This episode is in Auslan and English. We’re working with an interpreter, Julie Judd, so you definitely want to see the video version to see the full interview with Gab. You can see the video with captions at youtube.com/lingthusiasm. If you’re already seeing my face, you’re in the right spot! It’s thanks to our patrons that we’re able to do these occasional video episodes. To become a patreon, go to patreon.com/lingthusiasm.

[Music]

Gretchen: Hello, Gab, welcome!

Gabrielle: Hi! Hi, everyone.

Gretchen: Thanks so much for joining us.

Gabrielle: Ah, thanks for having me. I would like to, before we start, just acknowledge the Country and where we are at the moment is at La Trobe University Bundoora campus. It’s beautiful Wurundjeri country. I want to pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Gretchen: Thanks for sharing that. My first question is “How did you get into linguistics?”

Gabrielle: Wow! A big question. I think that I began my journey into linguistics when I was at school. Originally, I was very enthusiastic about plants. Things like biology, the life system, how things grow, and how we’re all connected. I thought I might become a nurse. So, I registered in a course, and then I pulled out because there wasn’t any role models. Deaf nurses were not there. I felt that I couldn’t do that and dropped it. In a few years, I went to work, realised as a deaf person seeing a world very differently, it was very different from being in school, being in the big wide world, and communication was very difficult. There were many barriers. I started to get interested in language, communication, speech, and sign. I started to think, “Okay, I want to go into a university course and look at linguistics.” Auslan being my language, I wanted to bring those two together. I enrolled here at La Trobe University way back.

Gretchen: Did you start enrolling in linguistics courses right away or do some other things as well?

Gabrielle: No, I went straight to linguistics – the whole gamut – seriously.

Gretchen: What parts of linguistics were you excited about?

Gabrielle: Originally, I was interested in speech and phonetics. And like I said before, it was really speech, for me, that was quite puzzling. It was throughout my life. When I went into this course and started studying linguistics, I had the opportunity to pull it apart – what speech was like. I looked at phonetics. I had an amazing teacher here, Professor Marija Tabain. She was a big supporter. She brought in another skilled person to teach me one-on-one about speech. And then, at the same time I was learning Auslan and sign language linguistics from two amazing Deaf teachers, Berna Hutchins and also Anne Bremner. Those were the two teachers who were working here at La Trobe back then. I was very lucky to have had that speech and linguistic training and also sign language training.

Gretchen: You started doing research at some point in this?

Gabrielle: Yes, I did. I did my Honours here. I did a small research project, and that was about Auslan. My supervisor – his name is Professor David Bradley – who used to work here at La Trobe as well. He was a marvellous support, too. He would say, “Go! Go overseas! Go to London! There’s a summer school there that’s specifically on sign linguistics,” so off I went with my small Auslan research project and presented. I met so many marvellous d/Deaf scholars there. People like Lina Hou –

Gretchen: We’ve done an interview with Lina Hou, actually.

Gabrielle: Yes, yes! And also, I met with Julie Hochgesang. Oh, many other wonderful, wonderful people.

Gretchen: What happened because of this?

Gabrielle: Well, from that summer school in London where I knew that this was the right thing to be doing – I wanted to continue researching sign language, I wanted to look at linguistics and look at other d/Deaf people, to get that support for sign language, and also to support the Deaf community. I came back to Australia, and I signed up for a PhD programme. That was under Professor Trevor Johnston. At that time, he was at Macquarie University. He set up the Auslan Corpus.

Gretchen: So, you were making a corpus, like a big body of videos, I guess, of people signing in Auslan?

Gabrielle: That’s right. I didn’t do that. He actually created the corpus, did the filming of over 200 people producing signs. This meant there was already a rich set of resources available for those who were skilled enough to do research into Auslan and be able to select different elements and recognise certain things and understand how d/Deaf people actually used sign. It wasn’t like sign linguists in the past. A lot of people had thought certain things, but it wasn’t the actual researcher saying a sign was used naturally. Trevor Johnston’s Auslan Corpus, for the first time, we were able to then analyse signing as it was produced more naturally.

Gretchen: Where was he getting this data? Like, bringing people into a lab?

Gabrielle: The Auslan Corpus was the first sign language corpus. It was created following traditional language recording and documentation methods and done in a lab. There was filming. There were several cameras sitting in that lab filming people chatting.

Gretchen: Sort of like what we’re doing right now?

Gabrielle: Yeah, pretty similar, yes.

Gretchen: But eventually you wanna know what people are talking about when they’re not in a university campus in two chairs. Did they take it somewhere more natural?

Gabrielle: For the Auslan Corpus, no. What they did was only in the lab. That influenced other people in the projects that they then began filming in more natural environments.

Gretchen: You were using this corpus for your PhD studies – analysing what was being depicted in it?

Gabrielle: Yes, yes. That corpus had a number of different elements, and different people signing. There were stories. There were conversations. There were also different games – a whole number of things. At that time, when I was studying in 2010, conversations at that time – you know, analysing people in conversation, that hadn’t really been looked into for signed languages. It was more signed narratives that people looked at because, at the time, we were still trying to address barriers with applying linguistics theories to signed languages. We had problems with how we would research a 3-dimensional language, face-to-face language. How could we capture the signs? When you actually identify the signs, you had to think about what type of signs they were. Were they conventional signs, like where people agree on particular signs and the meaning of those signs, which makes them conventional, or were they more unusual and improvised signs, depending heavily on context to be understood? That was one of the biggest problems that we had at that time. I would analyse a narrative and analyse the signs and the signer’s body as one whole.

Gretchen: Some parts of that are conventional signs, like here’s a word for “book” or something, and then some parts of that are more depicting what it’s like when you’re holding a particular book, which is a large book or a heavy book or a small book or something like that?

Gabrielle: Exactly. That’s a perfect example, yes.

Gretchen: What did you find? What were you looking at?

Gabrielle: Well, from those narratives that I was looking at, I found a various number of things. My view at the time was that I was researching clause structure. I did things like – as an example, spoken language has word order. But with sign language it was different because it’s 3-dimensional. What was interesting was that, at first, was it the subject that came first or the verb? I was looking at that. Because the research that was being done in sign, narratives have a lot of components. There’s “role shift” or “enactment.” It can also be called “constructed action.” Some people call it “quotatives.” That’s where you become a character, become another person or another being, an animal, whatever. You will say or show what that particular entity did with your body. I looked at how enactment and other less conventional things were incorporated into the clause structure.

Gretchen: I’ve seen sometimes when people are doing enactment, like, let’s say you have a story with two people, and you’re saying, “Okay, this person does this [gestures right]. This person does this [gestures left],” and showing what their different actions are like.

Gabrielle: Yes, it’s just like that. At the time, I was working very closely with a very good friend of mine – and a colleague – that was Lindsay Ferrara. She was studying at Gallaudet University. She came to Australia to do her PhD with Trevor too. She had marvellous knowledge from what they taught at Gallaudet University at the time and brought that here. We sat and chatted. We looked at the way signs were being produced and tried to work out the best way to describe what people were doing.

Gretchen: What did you find out?

Gabrielle: Well, one study that we looked at together was sign narratives. It was very basic, very simple, this narrative. It was a retelling genre. We had 20 people who told one story, and another 20 people telling another story. Each 20 people had the same story. We compared how people would produce the story in sign, then looked at when, why, and how they incorporated enactment.

Gretchen: What were the two narratives that you compared?

Gabrielle: Okay. We had one narrative which was The Frog Story. That was involving 20 people signing The Frog Story. Lindsay did that work. Then there was another story called The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Again, 20 people relayed that story. I focused on that. The Frog Story was based on an illustrated picture book, and the pictures created the story, whereas The Boy Who Cried Wolf followed a written English narrative. So, the person had to read the story, think about it, and then reproduce it to another person. It was very worthwhile comparing notes with Lindsay because the two of us were able to see, from those narratives, similarities and differences in how the stories were conveyed in Auslan.

Gretchen: The Frog Story is a classic story that’s used in various areas of linguistics because it’s this wordless picture book, right, but I think I’ve seen you have this boy who’s lost a frog and has to find it with a dog and stuff. And then The Boy Who Cried Wolf is more a folktale that people might’ve been familiar with before the study.

Gabrielle: Yeah, it was more a moral – there was a moral to that story. So, you know, don’t lie, pretty much. Don’t trust a wolf. Things like that.

Gretchen: Don’t raise false alarms.

Gabrielle: Yes, exactly.

Gretchen: Did you find that there were differences in how people told those two stories?

Gabrielle: Yes. What we found was huge differences. The Frog Story – that was more repetitive in terms of depicting signs. For example, it discussed a jar with a lid and various elements, so a tree, beehive – people fingerspelled “beehive” and then showed a depicting sign to represent the beehive. Then The Boy Who Cried Wolf – in that narrative, that followed more English structure. There was a big influence with English. There were more words about what people had said and what people did in that retelling. So, with The Frog Story, there was no dialogue within it, whereas The Boy Who Cried Wolf had more dialogue. It was very interesting to be able to compare both retellings across these signers and look at how enactment would occur in both stories.

Gretchen: Do you think that’s related to the plot of these stories, or the fact that one was in pictures and one was in words when they initially encountered it?

Gabrielle: I think that’s what we did find. We looked at it, and we thought, “What will we do?” We wanted to compare how the event structure proceeded when the signers conveyed these stories. So, Western stories usually have a beginning, and then one or two events where people start to become a bit fascinated and interested because something’s happening within the narrative. Then it becomes the climax of the event and the resolution at the end – or the summary. Lindsay and I looked at both narratives and how the events occurred throughout the narrative. We looked at when enactment occurred. What we found were very similar things in relation to enactment. When the story became very active and exciting, people would use more enactment to demonstrate a lot more of that action, and it became much more alive and interesting. And then the boring parts were less active.

Gretchen: More of the telling rather than showing at that point.

Gabrielle: Yeah. Basic information and then the enactment would occur in the signing during the more exciting parts.

Gretchen: What happened after this? Your research in enactment there – it’s led into future projects?

Gabrielle: Yes, yes. That project was really important for Lindsay and I because we already knew how enactment was very important for sign language. It was not just gesture. It was not a “pretend” form of language if you like, an acting out. It was a very integral part – and very important part – for sign languages. We became more interested in looking at it, and we became more interested to research how enactment would combine with other strategic elements within sign, for example, how you would use more conventional signs with enactment; how you would use depicting signs with enactment.

Gretchen: So, conventional signs versus depicting signs?

Gabrielle: So, conventional signs are those signs, as you mentioned before, things like “book,” and then depicting signs – it might be a book and how big the book is. You’re showing how big or how small the book is. You would sign the conventional first and then the depicting sign. If you’re using the depicting sign, you would often also see enactment occur at the same time. Not always – but commonly you would.

Gretchen: When you’re telling a story or something, you’re doing the conventional signs, and then you’re – as you’re enacting it or coming up with how it fits into the story or the narrative – you’re doing more depicting to show that?

Gabrielle: Yes, possibly.

Gretchen: Did you go onto other types of things other than stories?

Gabrielle: Yeah. Lindsay and I continued the work that we were doing. Yes, so we became more excited about referencing. This is how people explain who did what to do whom. It’s a very important topic to look at, and it’s easy to research that. Also, with other languages it’s easy to research that. So, our obsession with only enactment went on hold for a little while. We became a little bit more global , and looked at referencing in narratives. We went back to those narratives, and every time referencing occurred, such as when somebody mentioned “the boy” or “the dog” or “the wolf” or “the village people,” we noted down what had happened – if it was mentioned first or mentioned later. Then we looked at how a person would deliver that reference.

Gretchen: If the boy is more central to the story, then maybe “the boy” is being said a lot or being said first, or conversely maybe doesn’t need to be said very much at all because we know the whole story’s about the boy.

Gabrielle: Yes. What we commonly found was the first time somebody was mentioned, like “the boy,” you would use the conventional sign “boy” and possibly point to where the boy is situated in the sign space, and then point to the boy. And then if you’re talking about the boy again throughout the story, then you would just enact the boy. That does the work of who is doing what to whom.

Gretchen: You can depict what he’s doing or embodying him?

Gabrielle: Yes, exactly. You can do it quite easily and demonstrate it clearly and easily because you already know from context that that’s who it is.

Gretchen: Because if it was someone else, you’d have to introduce that person instead.

Gabrielle: Yes, sort of. [Laughter] It just depends on the reference – depends what it is. For example, there are some referents in the story that were specific animals. Well, they were animals that we don’t have in Australia. There were some animals that did crop up like there were “ground rats.” I think they’re called “moles” or something.

Gretchen: Sure. “Groundhogs,” “moles.”

Gabrielle: Yeah, something like that. If you look at The Frog Story book, you can see what the animal is there, but with the wolf story, there were sheep. And we do have sheep in Australia. Whereas, yeah, everyone knows what a wolf is. It was different for the other story with the groundhogs or moles. We did look at that. And it wasn’t just the specific referent but also what animal or object was known to d/Deaf people to be able to then reproduce that, so that people knew what you were talking about. Clearly, depicting signs were very important when the referent wasn’t known or when you needed to add additional information. That helped to then develop the understanding of the viewer. That’s a big reason why depiction is very important.

Gretchen: You can just say, you know, “some sort of small critter” even if you don’t have a specific name for it or don’t recognise it and don’t expect the other person to recognise it.

Gabrielle: Yeah, you can just show it.

Gretchen: So, you worked on narratives. You worked on how reference works. And what else?

Gabrielle: Well, I also did a lot of community projects. One example is I worked with a really exciting project – an English to Auslan translation project. In Australia, we have many online translations where there’s a person signing a translation of information on the screen. Back in 2014, people were noticing that some translations were very good and some were not. Della Goswell, who’s at Macquarie University, set up a project to look into what d/Deaf people thought good translations look like and also to discuss d/Deaf and hearing interpreters and their translation abilities, and who would be the translators. We collected information about what would make a good translation. With that project, I worked very closely with a wonderful Deaf interpreter and translator who’s extremely knowledgeable. Her name is Stef Linder. We worked with a number of other people in a team and went to different places in Australia talking about Auslan translations with a wide range of people.

Gretchen: Are these live translations on a stage or video translations of official material?

Gabrielle: Video translations of – yeah. Usually, live is called “interpretation,” if it’s live. And if it’s something that you prepare for and unpack and film, then that is what we would understand as a “translation.” That’s the theory, anyway.

Gretchen: In principle. What kinds of genres were these translations in?

Gabrielle: Oh, there was a number. It was more about the Deaf community here who often view translations. It might be information that is health related. It could be Government services like Centrelink information. It could be news like the Deaf Society might distribute news and events – information about that. It could be a number of different topics.

Gretchen: What did you find about the quality of translation?

Gabrielle: With that translation project, what we looked into and found was that it was vital that any online translation in Auslan matches the intended audience – the specific audience. The Deaf community have a variety of different signers, and some people are fluent in English, other people are not. It’s really important that any translation can suit those that don’t have access to English. They can then access the information in Auslan.

Gretchen: That makes sense. You also went overseas, right?

Gabrielle: Yes, I did. I finished that project, and I had a wonderful opportunity to go overseas. I worked at a well-known research centre, DCAL. It’s the “Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre.” That’s under UCL in London.

Gretchen: Yeah, University College London. What did you look into there?

Gabrielle: Well, when I was there, I was working on a project with Professor Kearsy Cormier. She set up a project looking at BSL (British Sign Language), and using the BSL Corpus, similar to the Auslan Corpus that we have here in Australia. They created a BSL Corpus, and the project I worked on didn’t look at narratives but rather at conversations – so people having conversations naturally with each other.

Gretchen: That sounds fun! Now you have two people to analyse – or more.

Gabrielle: Well, there were two people, yes. We didn’t have groups. It was still only two people.

Gretchen: Just keep it simple for the first stage.

Gabrielle: Yeah, I think so. But there are many people internationally that are now looking at group conversations for a variety of signed languages. It’s quite complex.

Gretchen: It’s so hard. I mean, I’ve done some annotation of audio data and annotating video data for, like, “Okay, who’s saying what and when and what linguistic factors are going on?” That’s got to be a whole lot of work.

Gabrielle: Definitely.

Gretchen: What were you looking at in this corpus?

Gabrielle: Well, what we were doing was three things. We were looking at BSL and how people make sentences or clauses and how the grammar works. Secondly, we looked at negation. We were interested in how people were negating clauses, such as how they would use the sign “can’t” and how that head moved and fitted with the production of that sign, such as with a headshake. Then thirdly, how people asked questions. Were there manual signs in terms of “who,” “what,” and “why”? I mean, I’m signing the BSL sign for “why” while I’m talking about it. So, yeah, and what expressions on their face were then produced to show the person was asking a question. So, how that all fitted together.

Gretchen: That sounds neat. We can link to some of the papers and stuff that are about these various projects if people wanna learn more.

Gabrielle: Yes, well, it depends when this episode’s going to air if those papers are published by that time, but you can check my website or the DCAL website for those publications that are to come.

Gretchen: Awesome! Yeah, I’m sure it’s a long process. Gab, thanks so much for joining us.

Gabrielle: Aw, thank you for having me.

Gretchen: If you could leave people knowing one thing about linguistics, what would that be?

Gabrielle: Okay. Well, linguistics is really important. But if we want to really understand a language and understand communication, linguistics is not enough. I strongly believe that we need to have a variety of different disciplines of research, for example, the work that I’ve done over my career on language and translation and the Deaf community. Linguistics doesn’t cover everything. You need to take many points of view into consideration. I would encourage people to keep an open mind, and be creative, and look at different ways that linguistics can be applied.

[Music]

Gretchen: For more Lingthusiasm and links to all the things mentioned in this episode, including our previous video episodes on gesture and an interview with Lina Hou, go to lingthusiasm.com. You can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can follow @lingthusiasm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. You can get IPA scarves, “Not Judging Your Grammar” stickers, esoteric symbols mugs, and other Lingthusiasm merch at lingthusiasm.com/merch. I can be found as @GretchenAMcC on Twitter, my blog is AllThingsLinguistic.com, and my book about internet language is called Because Internet. Lauren tweets and blogs as Superlinguo. Our guest, Gabrielle Hodge, can be found on Twitter as @gab_hodge and her website is gabriellehodge.com. Have you listened to all the Lingthusiasm episodes, and you wish there were more? You can get access to an extra Lingthusiasm episode to listen to every month plus our entire archive of bonus episodes to listen to right now at patreon.com/lingthusiasm or follow the links from our website. Have you gotten really into linguistics, and you wish you had more people to talk with about it? Patrons can also get access to our Discord chatroom to talk with other linguistics fans. Plus, all patrons help keep the show ad-free. Can’t afford to pledge? That’s okay, too. We also really appreciate it if you can recommend Lingthusiasm to anyone in your life who’s curious about language. Lingthusiasm is created and produced by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our Senior Producer is Claire Gawne, our Editorial Producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our Production Assistant is Martha Tsutsui-Billins. Our music is “Ancient City” by The Triangles. The interpreter for this episode is Julie Judd.

Gretchen: Stay lingthusiastic! [Gabrielle signs “Stay lingthusiastic!”]

[Music]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

#language #linguistics #lingthusiasm #episode 78 #interview #transcripts #Gabrielle Hodge #Auslan #BSL #british sign language #signed languages #sign language linguistics #enactment #narrative #translation

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safefort · 1 year

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I am underestimated and sick so here this is

What your favourite amphibia character says about you (or just the one you kin)

Calamity trio edition

First up Anne

If the one and only Anne boocu is your favourite or the one you relate to:

Your a big softie! And in the best was possible! Your kind, loving, sensitive, see the best in others, and with those your close with your fiercely loyal and protective. Your goofy and Your also the mom friend! Your the friend that everyone needs

Your most likely an extrovert or at the very least an extroverted introvert

You love sweets

You give off the vibes of “family is everything”

Your strong. you’ve been through a lot and no one talks about it, but you keep on fighting and continue to grow

High emotional intelligence

Your someone who is constantly learning, growing and changing! Your amazing at adampting to new environments

Loves memes and cute cat videos

Your super likeable

For the negative side: you do or have in the past struggled with standing up for yourself and gave into people pleasing. With how your naturally sensitive, it can sometimes make you passive. You or have had people who take advantage of your more passive side and you may have or had just gone along with it.

Your really competitive and sometimes it can get a little too intense

When you feel unsure of who you are or don’t feel confident you can be unmotivated, lacking passion.

When your sorounded by positive people, who give you unconditional love and believe in you, you thrive! The lesson you need to learn is to find those people if you haven’t and not put up with anything less!

Next up Sasha

If you Sasha is your favourite character or the one you relate to:

A natural leader and independent. Your out going and have good people skills, you don’t let anyone push you around and know how both take charge and get people to listen to you. You this natural charisma that makes people wanna follow you. Also despite your tough appearance you deeply care for your friends

Your a rebel and like to break the rules

Out going and popular

Makes friends easily

Your have a tough and strong attuide but you have a sercet soft side and vulnerable side for those close to you

Your most likely an air sign, give strong aqurious vibes

Condfident in who you are and sassy

Likes action movies

The cool one out of the friend group

Sarcastic

Now for Negative: because your so strong and independent you have a tendency to put a wall up, getting close to people but only at a certain amount and not letting others know when your hurting. Keeping all problems to yourself. Due to this or/and other your hot temper and get aggressive sometimes.

Can be mainplative without knowing it, your so good at leading sometimes you don’t know when it’s time to let others have a turn having there way, and you may even fear letting go of that control. You could have been a villan in some life without knowing it

When your powers need to be used for good! That’s when amazing things happen, when there used not used for good, you can easily lose people and end up hurt

Last but certainly not least marcy

If Marcy is your favourite or you relate to her:

Your optimistic, really intelligent, and passionate. Your a life long learner! You love learning and have a lot of knowledge, with lots of passions. But that’s not all there is too you, your someone who deeply cares for you friends and all you want is to be toeghter with your friends! Your also engertic or were when you were younger and that makes you fun to be around.

Neurodivgent of some kind

Either burnt out gift kid, gift kid that is not burnt out yet, or someone who struggled in school (there is no inbetween)

Loveable nerd

Has a small but close circle of friends

In some kind of fandom and probably has a niche interest(s)

Similar to Anne, your strong. You’ve been through a ton of trauma but you keep fighting and learning from life

Loves puzzles and are an amazing problem solver

You always have your friends best intentions at heart, your logical but when it comes to people you are about emotional

You have a good sense of humour

You know a bit about everything but also have certain interests that you know a ton about

Clumsy or uncoordinated

Your on a different level than everyone else, there’s no other way to explain it

Now for the negative: you find it hard to make friends and have troubles with understanding social cues, this can either lead to being alone or depent on the friends you do have. People have may have tendency to label you as harmless and want to protect you, as a result you may think you need protecting to and relay on this.

When you get emotional (usually over your friends) you can be impolvisive.

Similar to Anne, your more of a passive person and a bit of a people pleaser, this can lead you get walked over or for people who don’t understand you passions for to either supress your interests or allow them to ignore your interests

You also have a fear of abandonment or being alone

Put an environment with your interests, that allows you to be independent, you thrive! you need to learn that you don’t always need others to hold your hand even if you scared and not to supress any part of yourself for anyone! your awesome the way you are! Also go to thearpy please, you have unresolved trauma.

#amphibia disney #amphibia fandom #amphiblr #marcy amphibia #amphibia #amphibia sasha #amphibia anne #clamity trio #autism #my post #post #blog post #thoughts #what your favorite character says about you

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balmasque · 1 year

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Happy Holidays, Azel!

@magicparade / @alolansun

Like I said in Anne's letter, I am so grateful to have gotten to know you both more this year and grown even closer as best friends! It makes me so happy that you consider me family, I feel the same way!! You're so kind and welcoming, I appreciate you always being willing to listen to me whether venting or gushing about media. Your own takes are always extremely interesting to me; I admire how good you are at explaining things I could never verbalize concisely. Your knowledge for all of them is incredible, especially for pkmn and pmmm! Your editing skills are fantastic, I always love seeing new stimboards from you because of how good you are at matching colors and aesthetics.

Thank you for being such a great friend, and here's to a fun and amazing new year!

- from; Zora/Kyoko ❤️

#txt #❤️ holiday loving!

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oryoucouldstay · 4 years

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Chandler Bing is a big fat mood in 2020.

#friendsedit #chandler bing #bbelcher #chewieblog #userstream #filmtv #tusersoph #nessa007 #coronavirus #anne's amazing editing skills #1k

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calamity-unlocked · 3 years

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So @themissakat's Lost and Found AU has fully taken over my soul. The concept is absolutely incredible and this amazing artist has continuously blessed us with excellent art and storytelling. I wanted to show my love by making these screencap edits of some very worried girls.

Credit for the design goes to themissakat. If this AU has somehow passed under your radar, please check it out.

I also took a stab at Anne, but sadly I lacked the time and skill to finish it. I'll post the WIP below the cut for those who are curious, but know that it's very rough and nowhere near completed.

(Big hair... my enemy.)

#amphibia #calamity's edits #themissakat #sasha waybright #marcy wu

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fictionadventurer · 3 years

Note

Top 5 unpublished stories (unfinished, in-progress, etc. yours or others' - things posted on tumblr fit, but not indie or traditional publishing)

To be clear, I’m limiting this to:

Works that have at least a partial scene drafted. If it exists only in outline or in idea form, it’s ineligible. There has to be some writing for me to reread and like.

Stories that are not current WIPs.

So, in no particular order, here are five favorites that I’m fond of.

(Warning: Very Long Post)

1. Airship Sleeping Beauty.

In this world, parents buy fairy gifts for their children at birth. Most people are limited to two or three. Seraphina Crowne (please call her Sara) was gifted with twelve. Her impoverished parents had friends among fairy kind who were able to bend the rules to give this child enough gifts to survive in their harsh environment. Thus, Sara has everything from enhanced beauty and grace to strength and speed and musical skill, which makes her an unstoppable force of (super)nature. She loves a challenge and decides to support her parents by becoming a sailor on a flying sailing ship, where she rockets up through the ranks.

Our POV character is Jack Sanders, who serves under her as second lieutenant. Jack has spent years struggling through the ranks with only one unsuitable fairy gift. The father who chose his gift was an insomniac, and gave his son the gift of helping people fall asleep. Surrounded by people with more useful skills like strength or navigation, Jack languished as a midshipman for years until he served under a captain who realized the greater uses of his gift. Jack hates Seraphina Crowne, assuming that she’s the daughter of a rich man who has enough money to bend all the fairy gifting rules for his precious princess.

As they travel through a tropical land, they run into many adventures, and Jack starts to respect Sara. He learns that she comes from a much less privileged background than he’d assumed, and they slowly become friends. Then one day, they’re taking a day of shore leave on a flying island when they get into a fight with some local ruffians. Sara falls over the edge and is impaled on one of the metal spikes that serve as a barrier between the island and the open sky. But she doesn’t die. She climbs up with a gaping hole through her torso, and the should-be fatal wound heals within hours.

Sara is forced to tell Jack her greatest secret--she actually has a (highly illegal) thirteenth gift. Her mother’s greatest friend among fairy kind was a fairy who was banished from the guild for giving gifts that were too powerful. This fairy wanted to make absolutely certain that her friend couldn’t possibly lose this child at a young age. Her gift to Sara was that she would die by being pricked on the spindle of a spinning wheel--which means that nothing else can kill her. Not disease, injury, old age--she is invulnerable as long as she stays away from spinning wheels, which is easy to do in this industrialized age when your average person has never seen such a thing.

Jack promises to keep Sara’s secret and they return to the ship. But Jack isn’t the only one who heard her confession. There’s a local airship pirate who supports his business by adopting infants and getting them the illegal fairy gift of being able to transform into birds. One of these bird-children also heard Sara’s story, and they inform their pirate father, who make plans to attack the ship and take out its most powerful asset.

I never finished the story because the climax falls apart. The pirates were going to attack and stab Sara, but Jack is able to stall her death by putting her to sleep--and I could never figure out a way to save Sara without it feeling cheap and predictable and/or detouring into a completely different plotline that takes us away from the story. But I think of the rest of it as one of the best fairy tale retellings I never wrote.

2. Faraway House

This one is my middle-grade portal fantasy for adults. Mara meets Adrian, a mysterious, magical man whose house sits in a space that connects to three different universes--ours, one that has a more medieval fairy tale vibe, and one that’s more steampunky and involves lots of chimeras and people with animal traits. People in need of help tend to fall into this in-between space, and Adrian lets them stay at Faraway House for as long as they need.

There are tons of characters who drop into this story and provide little subplots, but my favorite part was an overarching plotline involving Adrian and Mara. Adrian, who was originally from the fairy tale world, was the evil magician of every childhood nightmare, a powerful man who did all sorts of horrible things to people. He became obsessed with immortality and eventually got it--at a great price to the rest of the world and to himself. He was caught, stripped of a lot of power, and left to live his long life and see the consequences of his actions. He spent a few centuries wandering the three different worlds and undergoing a ton of character development. As a newly humbled man, he was given charge of Faraway House, since his magical talents would be valuable to keep the area and the portals stable. Now, he’s the nicest, sweetest guy you’d ever want to meet. He rarely tells anyone about his past, and most people wouldn’t believe it if you told them.

Anyhow, after Mara’s been staying at Faraway for a long time, she and Adrian go through a portal that links to Adrian’s home universe. They soon realize that it links to his world several centuries in the past, when Evil Adrian was at the height of his power. And he’s very interested in Mara, because her adventures in Faraway have given her some kind of magic that will help him reach the Well of Immortality (or something like that--it’s a very nebulous, fairy tale idea). Unfortunately, taking this magic will kill Mara, so Older Adrian does all he can to save Mara. He succeeds and gets her back home. But his younger self is still on the lookout for her, and he eventually makes his way to Faraway, where he drains the magic and escapes, leaving Mara dying.

And I know this is the most cliche way to end this, but I like my stories predictable and cheesy, and Older Adrian ends up saving Mara by giving up his immortality, which kills him. It’s all very Disney-moving. The story ends with Mara being made the new caretaker of Faraway. And I give away the ending because I’m never going to write this, but I’m still fonder of this story than it deserves.

3. The Island

Anne of Green Gables meets fairy tales.

The Island is a place full of magic. Amphibious mermaids swim along its shores. A fairy forest fills the heart of the Island. Selkie live on the tiny islands off its shore. Pixies cause trouble in the farmyard’s back garden. It’s amazing to the relatively low-magic areas of the rest of the world, but it’s all part of daily life to the farmers and fishermen who live here.

The Fairy’s Daughters, a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”, had the most words written in it, but I think I’m fonder of some of the shorter sketches set a generation earlier that highlight little bits and pieces of the world. I started with the tale of Lizbet, an ordinary orphan girl living with her aunt who befriends Gideon, a half-fairy boy who eventually becomes the town’s magical doctor. Their friends include the widow lighthouse keeper who tries to adopt an orphan boy and is surprised to get Amy, who’s a girl--and a mermaid. There’s Captain Avery, a fierce-looking old sailor with a gentle heart and a surprising amount of experience with magical creatures. There’s Auberon, a fairy prince and eventually king who’s racist against humans, spends some of his younger years traveling in human lands to import human-made products, and becomes even more racist because of it.

I think my favorite thing in this universe are the sylphs. I borrowed Andersen’s idea of the “Daughters of the Air”, and made my sylphs into invisible, benevolent creatures who do good deeds for people, and can accomplish magical feats far beyond what any fairy can do. The sketch I reread most often is a scene where Amy, out for a swim in a storm, is rescued by a sylph who has taken a human (though translucent) form, and gets invited in for tea by Amy’s grateful friends.

It’s a fun universe to play in, but not one that I’m very good at finishing stories in, so I think it needs to stay as a pretty aesthetic and a fun sandbox.

4. Clever Anne

A retelling of “Kate Crackernuts” set in a non-magical Regency-esque setting. Anne is the beautiful, intelligent daughter of a duke. Kate is her bold, daring stepsister. They are deeply devoted to each other, but Kate’s mother hates Anne for being so much more beautiful than her daughter. She gets one of the servants to push Anne into the embers of the fire, leaving her face badly burned. Kate throws a veil over Anne’s face and gets her out of the house, insisting they’ll go off to make their fortune.

Anne was childhood friends with a young man who, through a convoluted succession crisis, unexpectedly finds himself on the throne. They stumble upon him in their travels, and find themselves able to help him by investigating the mysterious behavior of his half-brother, who resents that he was passed over for the throne and may be plotting something sinister. I was never able to figure out a good political-intrigue parallel to the “dancing all night with fairies” portion of the plot, so it never got written. The only really good scene I wrote from this story was the moment where Kate finds out about Anne’s injury and insists on leaving the house. But even in that one scene, their relationship is so strong and so vivid in my mind that I love their story even if I never finish it.

5. The Beast’s Mechanic

This is the one on the list that’s closest to being a WIP. I actually edited some of the beginning in March. It’s a sci-fi take on “Beauty and the Beast” set in a world where two planetary empires are at war. The war destroyed Monique’s father’s shipping business, forcing the whole family to move to a desert planet where they run a small spaceport. Monique is a top-notch mechanic, her sister Gemma is a pilot, Gemma’s twin Joanne stays at home to take care of the house and the two youngest siblings, and Leo is a seventeen-year-old rapscallion who is desperate to join the war as soon as possible.

Their world is upended when, for the first time in years, their mother wants to meet with them. A former starship captain, she and her husband disagreed over the war, and she left the family years ago to join the war effort. But now her starship is in for repairs and she wants to take some time to reconnect with her family. There’s some controversy among the family--do they really want to open these wounds again when they’ve finally moved on?--but Monique the peacemaker insists that, even though it’s impossible for the whole family to make the trip, her father should take the chance. He goes to meet his wife, but on the way there, his spaceship breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and he’s rescued by the Beast, an infamous cyborg outlaw. He also breaks important equipment on the Beast’s ship, and is only able to keep from being thrown out of the airlock by insisting that his daughter can fix it.

Monique nearly does, except that the authorities show up just before she’s done with repairs, forcing the Beast to take off with her in the ship. She comes to learn that the Beast is far from an evil criminal and has been helping people wronged by the government, and she helps him get home to his family (in the enemy empire), but her patriotic starship captain of a mother takes all of these events in very much the wrong light.

I’m very fond of this story for the ways that it avoids some of the usual BatB retelling tropes. There’s much more to this story than the romance, and little focus on the mystery of how the Beast became a Beast, and there’s much more focus on family. The Beast hasn’t even shown up yet, but I’m just incredibly fond of Monique’s family and their everyday working-class life on a desert planet. I hope I can make more progress on it someday.

#answered asks #valiantarcher #adventures in writing #the fairy's daughters #clever anne #i very much loved this ask and i'm sorry for taking so long to get to it #but i'm hoping the extreme length will go some way to explaining why i delayed so long #i've been wanting to do a 'best stories i've never written' feature for quite some time and you gave me the perfect chance to do it #so i waited until i was able to ramble on at length #and i'm extremely grateful for the opportunity

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stargazer-balladeer · 4 years

Text

Asking Out A Clueless Reader [Persona 5]

anon: can i ask for a college au! hcs of p5 thieves & mishima crushing on a ~clueless~ fem reader & maybe asking her out? fem reader even for the girl thieves please coz i like them too oop-

Characters Included: Akira Kurusu, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Yusuke Kitagawa, Makito Niijima, Haru Okumura, Futaba Sakura, Goro Akechi & Yuuki Mishima

Note: Can I edit it a bit? I’m not so familiar with College AU that much (The College AU I’ve read so far contains NSFW), so Imma do it in Highschool setting (though the setting isn’t really mention here), if that’s alright with you. If you want, you can request again. :) Hope ya’ll enjoy this!

Reader’s Gender: Female

Warning: Spoiler warning!

Akira Kurusu

What attracted him to you is your personality at most, how innocent you were, how you never had any trouble communicating with him (even though he has a bad reputation), and how you stick up for yourself when you’re getting bullied. Those traits were just the beginning, and before Akira knew it, he’s already in love with you.

But the one thing he hated yet loved about you is how oblivious and clueless you are. Like you can’t pick up someone flirting with you unless someone told you about it, though you’ll still deny it stating they were just being nice.

This has an advantage and disadvantage at the same time.

Advantage because that means you weren’t interested in any boys and friendzone them immediately. Disadvantage, he gets friendzone as well.

Like the rest of the Phantom Thieves can tell their leader is already in love with you, and they tried helping him by making hints about it to your clueless self. Futaba practically screamed, “he’s in love with you!”. And you’ll be like, “Oh! I love him too! I also love all of you!” shots fire

But nevertheless, Akira never gave up. He persisted through your oblivious self by giving you your favorite flowers, favorite food and things you like.

You, of course, thought he was just a caring friend (even though you wanted to believe he likes you just the same way you like him, but that’s just a secret).

I can see him taking his time in confessing to you, and when he does. You immediately friendzone him down.

But he never gave up. He persisted that you two should go out, and you always thinking it’s a friendly hang-out. Akira’s actually, surprise surprise, on the verge of giving up, he actually doesn’t know what to do.

Even though you were clueless, you managed to notice his personality towards you shift. You thought, at first, it was something you did. But you realized (with the help of the Phantom Thieves) that Akira love you as much as you love him.

This time, you were the one who confessed to him. To say he was shock was an understatement. He was overjoyed when you confessed to him your feelings, he literally grab you and hug you in pure joy.

Ryuji Sakamoto

Ohh... boy.. here we go.

What attracted him to you is your willingness to support him, to befriend him and to take care of him, even though Kamoshida forbids everyone to talk to Ryuji. This poor bby admires your determination and willingness to break the rules just to take care of his body.

He has never admired you this much before, but now, he’s falling deeper in love with you.

His two friends, Ann and Akira, noticed his attraction to you so they endlessly teased him about it. The two of them even managed to pair you two up for a project, how they manage to do that, Ryuji doesn’t even want to know.

However, doing this said-project, is when he confessed his feelings to you. You. being clueless and oblivious, state you feel the same as him and hope you two continue being friends. OuCH--

Even though Ryuji wanted to give up, the now Phantom Thieves slap him back to his senses (Well.. Ann did the slapping). Now, Ryuji is more determined than ever.

Ryuji took Akira’s advice to take it slow, though Ryuji prefers a fast-pace since he’s impatient, he decided to do it. He waited patiently for you, giving you little trinkets he found and give you flowers he managed to steal from the flower shop.

How you still remain clueless is beyond him. Practically EVERYONE KNOWS HIS FEELINGS FOR YOU. ARE YOU THAT BLIND?!

Anyway, for you to realize his feelings for you is one way, someone has to tell you and stick it through your thick skull. Which, in this case, is Ann.

Ann might not seem like it but she deeply cares for Ryuji (AnnxRyuji fan here) and seeing him on the verge of giving up upsets her. So she confronted you.

After this encounter with Ann, you immediately confessed to Ryuji the next day. How stupid you were, how you never realize you were hurting him so much, how you already love him as well.

Ryuji, at first was awestruck and speechless, like he’ll stand there, staring at you with mouth open. You need to say his name several times before he could snap out of his trance. He immediately screamed happily as he jumps around like a madman, screaming “I FINALLY GOT HER! WHOOO!”

You could only giggle at the sight.

Ann Takamaki

What attracted her to you is your willingness to stand up for what you believe is right and how you stood up for your friend. She was amazed when you started screaming at Kamoshida, who was about to hit your friend. She has grown to respect you, and soon came to love you even.

Of course she would subtle about this and try to act like everything was normal (alongside her bad acting skills). You and her immediately hit it off, much to her immense pleasure.

She found out your favorites and you two frequently hang out with each other. When she realized she likes you more of a friend, she panic. I mean, not everyone is accepting about LGBTQ+ community, hOW WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO TELL YOU THIS?!

Ann would DEFINITELY confined to Akira, Morgana and Ryuji about this, two of the people she could trust at the time being, alongside you. Morgana would probably be upset but he’ll eventually accept it. Both Akira and Ryuji said the same thing though, much to her displeasure, “be yourself”, “if you like her, go get her!” and “we’ll be here supporting you two.”

She knew they mean well, but that only makes her anxiety skyrocket. So she decided to just tell you directly. You, being your clueless self, thought she meant being your best friend, but she shot it down saying she wants to be your girlfriend, which made you blush.

Ann thought you were disgusted of her so she decided to walk away with a sad, teary face. You could only watch her as she walk away, like her, you were also conflicted.

For the next few days, everyone could tell something was wrong with the two of you. They always see you two hanging out together, but now, it’s like you two were strangers to one another.

You, having enough of this, gathered your courage and march over to her classroom. When she tried to ignore you, you huff and welcome yourself to their classroom and walk towards her. She panic as she tried to run away, but you grab her wrist in time.

“When will you stop running away from me?!”

“When the tension between us is gone!”

“But.. I like you too, Ann!”

This cause her eyes to widen at your confession. And tears began to pour out of her eyes, she doesn’t know if its relief or happiness, but now she knew her feelings were requited and you feel the same about her.

She promises that the two of you will go through everyone’s criticism together.

Yusuke Kitagawa

What attracted him to you is your artistic skills, yes, nothing more. Jk. No, that’s only the beginning. He does admit he admires your skills in art, but what he adores about you is how you smile to him, welcome him to the school, how you gave him some of your food and help him in buying art supplies by halving your allowance. He’s forever grateful to you.

Unfortunately, this boy is the same as you, being oblivious to the fact he loves you MORE than a FRIEND. Which made his friends sigh at the two of you. Well, you know the saying, “Two idiots are better together.”

“There’s no such saying like that.” -Makoto

Though Yusuke’s case is much more understandable, since he didn’t grow up in a favorable household, with no one telling him love and such. He devoted his life in his arts, and was pick up by his master, Madarame. But was ultimately betrayed by him.

Anyway, you two will hang out like normal. But, unlike your clueless self, Yusuke will pick up on his heart beating faster around you, how he started to become nervous whenever he’s near you and how he started to view you in a different light.

He thought he was ill, really. Until the Phantom Thieves explained to him that he was in love with you.

He decided to believe in them, I mean, there’s no reason for them to lie, right? So he asked their advice.

“Ooh! Ask her to paint her nude!”

“NO! FUTABA-CHAN!”

“That’s brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“...”

“...Yusuke.. no.”

So Yusuke decided to just tell you, but he didn’t account to the fact that you were also clueless and oblivious. So when he confessed to you, you were confused.

Yusuke decided to explain to you what he understand from his friends. And you started to understand it as well.

And the two of you decided to try it out, if it fails, then the two of you can still be friends. But not to worry! Luckily, the feeling of love is mutual between the two of you, and you two were NOT planning to break it off any time sooner.

Makoto Niijima

What attracted you to her is your dedication to your studies and beliefs, how you also carry yourself in such a prideful manner yet everyone around you respects you (which she’s totally not jealous of) and the fact that you will stand up to yourself if you feel them saying something bad about you or the people. Makoto admires these traits of yours from afar as she watches you animatedly argue to the teacher about something which she doesn’t understand, she marvels at the sight of you.

If you’re in the Student Council, she would try to befriend you. But she’s so socially awkward that you decided to be her friend, probably out of pity. She was BEYOND embarrassed at this encounter, it was so unlike her! But nevertheless, she was happy that you’re her friend now.

You two can be seen hanging out in Makoto’s office as she signs all the papers while you are either helping her or just talking to her about your day. She’s happy either way really, but she much enjoys hearing your voice over her scribbles on the papers.

You might think Makoto is also oblivious or clueless, but I don’t think she’s that kind of person. I think she knows that she’s falling in love with you and, like Ann, panics about it.

Unlike Ann though, Makoto doesn’t confides it to her friends, preferring to keep it to herself. But if Akira max out her friendship, she would bring it up to him. Akira just listens as she explains it to him, before saying the same thing he said to Ann.

Nervous would be an understatement for Makoto. You might think she’ll confront you about her feelings, oh no no my dear. I believe she’ll outright IGNORE it.

You’ll slowly notice how Makoto tries to ignore you and avoid you. You think that you must’ve done something wrong for Makoto to act like this. So, you did the most logical thing, you did a Kabedon on her.

She shriek a bit when your hand slammed on the wall behind her as she stares at your innocent face. “W-Wha--?”

“Why’re you ignoring me, Mako-chan?”

She b l u s h e s.

She tried run away from you but you hold her in place with your hand on either side of her body.

With no other options, she decided to just tell you about her feelings.

You listened as she spills out her secret to you, that she’s bi, that she likes you for a while and that if she tells you, she’ll risk getting told off by other people and risking losing you.

I think, even though you’re clueless and oblivious, you knew that she meant more than a friend. You told her the truth, that you don’t really know what kind of love you hold for her (she saddened at that) but when she confessed, it made your chest beat faster and float.

Makoto blinks, once, twice, thrice, before flashing you a smile and bringing you in a relieved hug. Tears started to build on her eyes as she exhale a sigh of relief.

She also promises you that you two will go through the criticism of society together.

Haru Okumura

What attracted her to you is how you also took an interest to plants and take care of them. She’s also attracted to your strong will to be yourself despite everyone telling you to change, you paid them no heed. You also don’t let others push you around, not even your parents (if you have one).

Out of all the girls, she’ll immediately accept the fact she’s bi and in love with you.

I would like to think she’ll also take it slow in asking you out, Like Akira, she’ll start out with giving you small trinkets that reminded her of you, giving you your favorite food and giving you meaningful flowers. (I would like to think she knows Victorian Flower Language).

She would probably be subtle about her affection towards you. But I would DEFINITELY see her giving you flowers that means admiration, affection and love. (With you being clueless about the meaning of the flowers).

Haru, unlike the others, doesn’t mind if you’re clueless and oblivious to her affection. In fact, she enjoys seeing you being your clueless self.

I think she’ll be open about her feelings to you to her Phantom Thieves, with them accepting her for who she is.

Unlike before, she had to hide the fact she’s bi since her father thought it was a disgrace to the Okumura’s family name. But now, no longer in her father’s control, she can be open about her sexuality and no longer feels insecure about it.

When she confesses to you, expect it being simple enough. She would bring you two flowers that means love (White Carnation and Red Carnation). You would accept them, of course, and then she would confess her love to you.

You, being your clueless self, thought meant that she wants to be more than friends. “So.. we’re best friends now?”

Haru, nonetheless, giggles as she shakes her head. “Nope. I want to be your partner for life, [Y/N]-chan! Your girlfriend!”

When it finally register in your mind, you immediately became twins to the Red Carnation. Haru giggles once more to your cute expression as she brings you to a hug.

(I hope you accept her confession, or else you’ll feel the wrath of the Phantom Thieves...)

You two will DEFINITELY promise to each other that you’ll love each other, no matter what anyone says.

Futaba Sakura

What attracted her to you is how funny you can be and how good you are in programming, like hacking and encoding codes. How you speak for yourself if you’re being downgraded by someone. How you speak so easily to someone about technical stuff. She REALLY wants to befriend you, but she’s still a socially-awkward NEET girl.

You’ll probably notice her staring at you, before her turning her head away in embarrassment. You have to be the one befriending her in this case.

When you befriend her, you two will be inseparable. You two will do everything together, prank calling someone, hacking into a website, encoding codes, and probably make a game together.

Futaba was so happy that she finally has a friend that’s almost like her, seeing the world in the same yet different point.

I can totally see her like Yusuke, being oblivious and clueless about her feelings to you.

When Futaba started to feel something weird happening to her, she freaks out. IS SHE SICK?!

The Phantom Thieves, and Sojiro, explained to her that no, she’s not sick and no, she’s not gonna die. They’ll explain to her that she’s in love with you.

Futaba is aware of the LGBTQ+ but she didn’t think it was possible to a girl like her. But she guess it’s the case where you’re disclose to everyone and someone comes in and you’re immediately in love with them.

“No Futaba. That’s called obsession.”

“... same thing.”

Like the Futaba we all know and love, she doesn’t know what to do. She panics whenever you show up or she thinks about her feelings.

Then, one day, she decided to just tell you and get it over with. But she decided to do it very uniquely.

She programmed a website that reveals to you about her feelings. When you open it, it pops out, “I ❤ u. Would u be my girlfriend?”

You immediately knew what she meant, even though you’re clueless and oblivious. You threw yourself to a anxiously waiting and fidgeting Futaba, who screams as she catches you and both of you falling to the ground.

You two promise that no matter what anyone says, you two will be together forever. She’s your number one after all~

Goro Akechi

What attracted him to you is how you carried yourself, similar to Makoto basically, and your intellectual ability. He’s also attracted to your observant and quiet nature, and how you appear to be aloof at times, you were also listening to others conversation (COUGH so me COUGH). And the fact that you saw him through his mask and lies.

He befriends you immediately and the two of you hit it off fairly easily. The two of your personality coinciding with each other.

If he feels himself falling in love with you, he’ll deny it. He doesn’t want you involve any more than this, he already befriended you, he doesn’t need to give you anymore danger. But he couldn’t help the fact that he already has opened his heart to you.

But he knew you were clueless and oblivious, so he decided to go along with it. Hiding away his feelings.

He thought he was being sneaky, but the Phantom Thieves caught on his feelings for you. At first, they don’t encourage him, since he’s a traitor still. But they soon accepted it and supported him.

Akechi was still hesitant to follow his heart but Akira encourages him. So he decided to court you in a traditional way.

He started out slow, similar to Haru’s and Akira’s. Giving you small trinkets, buying your favorite food and taking you places to places.

He thought you’ll leave him after his reputation was tarnish after Shido admitting his crimes. But you stayed with him, so he decided to confess to you.

You, being clueless, thought he was referring not wanting to be friends with you since he’s wording goes, “I don’t wanna be friends with you anymore.. I can’ take it..-”

You started to tear up and Akechi flinch when he sees tears in your eyes. Wha-?

“You don’t want to be friends with me, Akechi-kun?” You sniffed and Akechi now realized his mistake.

“N-NO! I MEAN--!”

You bursted out crying, which attracted attention to the both of you. “Akechi-kun doesn’t like me anymore!”

“[Y-Y/N]! C-Calm down! I love you!” Akechi proclaims as he held your crying face between his hands.

You sniff as you stared at him. “.. you do?”

Akechi nodded his head. “Yeah.. and I want to be your boyfriend, [Y/N].”

You decided to just nodded your head, not trusting your voice as Akechi held you in pure ecstatically, completely ignoring the stares you two are getting.

Yuuki Mishima

What attracted him to you is the fact you stood up to him when he was getting bullied, and your determination to stand up against the bullies, even though it got you wounded. He was forever grateful to you though, that’s a plus. He’s also attracted to the fact that you believe in the Phantom Thieves’ justice, just like him.

He already knew he was in love with you since a long time ago. (fun fact: you two are childhood friends). He’ll always worry about you if you get beaten up by bullies,

The fact that you were clueless and oblivious is what Mishima GREATLY dislikes about you. It’s already embarrassing that you’re the one sticking up for him, but the fact that HE has to make the first move.

Mishima might need encouragement before actually doing something, that someone would be Akira ofc. After him encouraging the bby fanboy, Mishima would be walking up to you but his confidence would slowly go down and would ultimately back out at the last second. (Akira and Morgana sighing in the background).

I would think Mishima would confess on you by accident rlly. While doing the project, he’ll accidentally slip it out.

You (ofc) thought he meant being best friends. Mishima decided to let you believe he meant that.

Akira would sigh in frustration and just resort in talking to you directly.

He would explain that Mishima loves you, and not as a friend, as a girlfriend and he’ll also add that Mishima is a chicken.

You would ultimately be the one confessing to his flustered self, who just nodded his head.

[I tried, okay? But I’m not used to Mishima’s character yet ;-; srry bby boi]

[x] Main Page || [x] Persona 5 Page

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thedancefloorsilly · 3 years

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Hi! Congrats on 300 that's amazing!🎉 can I participate in the f/o's event please? I choose Chrollo and Kurapika (seperate). I don't have any absolutely necessary hcs for the relationships that I need to mention, except for that both are loving of course.

I'm really sorry if this is too long or too much! I tend to be open to a horribly obnoxious extent. I just overshare a lot. I had to reread this multiple times and shorten it as much as I could make myself.

Basic about me: I'm an aries sun w/ a gemini moon and leo rising, personality type is INFP. Hobbies I like are writing (normal fictional stories and fanfic), reading, drawing, painting, digital editing, walking around in nature (not quite hiking), Minecraft, and adventuring to places near me.

I get attached to random things and get really excited whenever I see them. Some examples are flowers, moths, shiny/pretty rocks or crystals, and anything similar to bottle caps/can tabs, safety pins, and other little shiny thingies.

While I tend to pride myself on how mature I can be and just how intelligent I am- normally in unique critical thinking, language skills, and imagination/creation, I'm also just a little kid at heart. I have wildly exaggerate reactions to things I like no matter how small or big they are, and due to rejection sensitive dysphoria I can be a little childish in turmoil no matter how many big words I use.

I actually like that I express joy so much and can romanticize any scenario + fall in love with insignificant objects. It took me a while to realize I even liked to do this because I didn't realize I had been masking my entire life. Due to other things being masked and whatever I have issues connecting the image of myself now to the image of myself when I was little to an alarming amount, yet still have a connection to her on the inside because I know she would be similar to now if she could.

I have ADHD and maladaptive daydreaming issues, possibly autism but I'm still doing research.

I really like praise and I need someone telling me good things about me, and I have envy problems. I wouldn't call it jealousy because I never act on anything, nor do I wish bad for the people who are doing good. My main issue, I guess, Is the "never enough" kind of thing. That's the only way I can describe it. When I'm upset, the only way to describe how I feel about myself is that I'm never enough, and no matter how much I try people won't like me as much as healthy me likes me...does that make sense? It's like I blame other people but I aim the hate and hurt feelings towards myself?

The words I'd use to describe myself are creative, intelligent, sensitive, affectionate, exaggerative, wondrous, and open

I kin Gon. Other characters are: Reki (sk8 the infinity), Anne (anne with an e), Coraline, Syd (I am not ok with this), lance (voltron), and Kaido (saiki k)

Very random details that don't matter: •I have wavey-curly hair but it can change wildly. It can be really curly, fluffy and insane, or completely flat without much at all. I've never used curling product or whatever to get it curly I just have to tightly braid it for a day and it's completely there. •I wear basic clothes but extra af accessories everywhere and somewhat crazy eyeliner. I like little trinkets as accessories like safety pins, paper clip necklaces, or hair ties on my wrist. Also some normal ones like rings, chokers, and bracelets. •I am definitely a spiritual bitch and I'm all for the moon and crystals and herbs (very basic I know), of course actual witchcraft work, but a little basic romanticizing doesn't harm nothin'

Let me know if i didn't do something right! I'm happy to be one of your 300 followers <3

Hi!! Thank you so much and ofc!! Ah don't apologize the more info the easier it is (I liked reading all of this, and plus I got so many ideas bc of it :D) !!! I also have that habit LOL. you did everything right so dw (and omg thats so nice the at the end mah heart :,)). Have a great day and enjoy <333

Event: Closed

Kurapika

- It’s not a surprise on why Kurapika loves you so much, as there are many things about you guys that make such a great fit. Having you as his lover just makes Kurapika appreciate one more thing about his life.

- Lets start off with the fact that you romanticize the scenarios and objects in your life. To Kurapika, he views this as you having an appreciation for the little things in life. For someone to express joy through the seemingly “insignificant things” is such a beautiful thing to him, and to Kurapika, he also thinks of it as a reminder to enjoy life’s little gift’s.

- This also reflects off his own way of thinking. For someone who has lost almost everything, Kurapika reminds himself to be grateful for all the things life has to offer. When life gets tough, he remembers some of the big and small things that he is appreciative for: seeing the sunrise each morning, his friends, how he’s able to wake up to see another day, and one of the most important things of all, you.

- There is not a day where Kurapika does not remind you how important you are to him, how much you’ve changed part of his outlook on life, how you’ve gave his little dark and grey world some color. For that, he’s just so exceedingly grateful, and his heart is full of this everlasting love for you. Having said that, those days where you feel as if you’re never enough always make him upset to hear.

- Though Kurapika might be a littleee uncertain with his advice, he tries to solace you the best that he can. With his calm voice, he’ll try and reassure you that you are enough, even if you might no see that in your eyes. One thing Kurapika wishes for you is to one day view yourself the way that he always does.

- Kurapika and you also share your love for nature, which was one thing you later learned about him. Growing up in a beautiful forest in the Lukso Province as a kid, he was surrounded by nature almost all through his life. He has such an appreciation for the beauty that the naturel world has. Kurapika and you sometimes set up dates where nature is most present, such as in a forest, or maybe in a field of flowers at night when the two of you can stargaze in each others arms.

- These have to be one of his favorite kinds of dates with you. The serene atmosphere that the environment brings Kurapika puts him at such ease, and having you by his side the whole time just perfects everything. While these moments can be filled with exchanged laughter from your conversations, or a calm silence from taking in the presence of your surroundings and each other, you guys always have such a wonderful time out of it. The ending to these dates can be topped with a heartfelt kiss from the two of you, as a reminder that your love and appreciation for each other is so deep-hearted and sincere.

Chrollo

- As the leader of an infamous group of thieves who can steal as much as they desire, Chrollo knew that he couldn’t just ‘steal’ someone’s love. You intrigued him from the start, and being that you guys seemed to be very different in personality, Chrollo was willing to know more about you.

- In his eyes, you were like this divine gem that somehow ended up in his grasp, except without the use of “stealing” it. Now that you and him are dating, there’s not a day where Chrollo doesn’t try and show how much he loves you. Let’s start with how every time he call’s you, it’s with the use of an endearing name. He usually goes back and forth between calling you “my love”, “my dear” and “sweetheart”.

- Every time you feel envious, or have those feelings of inadequacy, Chrollo pulls you close to him, and tries to comfort you with the sweetest of words. Now usually if he would ever say something this heartfelt to someone, it would be for personal gain in return. But, whenever he pulls you into his arms and whispers his own advice, it’s because it’s genuine. All the praise you hear coming from your mouth is something that Chrollo truly means, and wants you to understand.

- He also really enjoys your personality in which you romanticize everything. Chrolo finds it very cute to him, and loves seeing how you get excited with the smaller things. As someone who could steal almost anything for you (large jewel, rare items, etc.) Chrollo finds it funny that you just like to pay attention to the little things. With that being said, anything that he finds that reminds Chrollo of you, whether it be out on his missions or a daily stroll), he’ll always bring back. He loves seeing the visible excitement on your face, the way your eyes bright up and that lovable grin to follow. He just can never get enough of it.

- Knowing that you also love these, Chrollo will always gift you with a bunch of rare flowers that he saw. He will usually give you about three or four of the most prettiest flowers you’ve seen, and he’ll tie it with a small ribbon just for you. While you’re expressing your love to how beautiful these flowers are, of course, he’ll sneak in some lovey compliment (“yes they look nice, but they don’t look as amazing as you”. Normally these are very cheesy, but Chrolllo says it in a way that just works).

- Reading dates are very common with you and him. Chrollo is an avid reader, and going on a date based on his interest next to someone he so deeply loves would just be perfect. You guys could just cuddle on the couch or bed, maybe light some nice candles around, and just... read next to each other!! It might not sound like much, but it’s very enjoyable when you’re around each other.

- All in all, the love Chrollo has for you cannot so simply be described in just words. Even though there might come danger from his own role, he will promise to protect you. Chrollo is just so happy to have met you, to be with you, to call you each other’s, and to develop this mutually genuine love that you and him have.

a/n: this was very very fun to write nd I rlly hope u like it :D ty for participating again !!

#hm you know #reading some of the things u said reminded me of me #lol #reki kinnie wavelength :')#I wish u the best and only the best bc u deserve that <3 !!#300 followers event #kurapika #f/o #selfship

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Link Tank: Why You Should Watch Oxygen on Netflix

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Netflix’s latest French indie film, Oxygen, is the first great sci-fi thriller to come out of the pandemic lockdown.

“Netflix’s latest sci-fi movie was first announced in 2017 with Anne Hathaway in the starring role. In 2020, Noomi Rapace replaced Hathaway, but that version fell apart, too. Finally, French movie star Mélanie Laurent replaced Rapace, transforming Oxygen into the French indie now streaming on Netflix.”

Read more at The Mary Sue.

The post Link Tank: Why You Should Watch Oxygen on Netflix appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3obYc7L

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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lev-1athan · 4 years

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Fear the Reaper, but just a lil bit: Guide to fighting the Reaper in P5R

Since the Flu Season tactic doesn’t work in Royal, I actually had to fight the Reaper for real. I tried following a couple guides I saw online, but each time I did I would die within a few turns. So, I trial-and-errored it and after maybe seven fights I was consistently getting him past half health, and then finally after... ten or twelve tries, I defeated that bastard! Note: I was level 67 for this fight.

I figured I would write up my strategy for anyone it may help! This is just what worked for me--ymmv. Tl;dr: evasion, null insta-kills, buffs and debuffs Below the cut!

First Things First: Social Links

It’s important to use party members you have reached max confidant level with, since they have a chance to evade their weaknesses once they get their Second Tier Personae. They will also be able to Endure one attack and slam you out of the way to protect you from an otherwise deadly attack.

It’s also helpful to get rank 10 with Takemi, so you can have access to some helpful items (more on that later).

Important Skills

It’s crucial to have a Persona who is immune to curse and bless skills. I used Trumpeter for this--extra helpful because he has Samerecarm. Healing skills are a must.

Trumpeter doesn’t have very strong attack and I wanted to conserve most of my SP for reviving, so I also used a Persona with strong attack (Raphael) that also had inherited Enduring Soul, which is an ability that revives you to full health once after dying. It’s a good ability to have when The Reaper uses so many insta-death skills when using a Persona who doesn’t Null that.

I also used Heat Riser with Raphael, which buffs all stats (att/def/agility) for one party member for three turns. I pretty much stuck with those two Personae. A Persona with Debilitate (debuffs all enemy stats for three turns) would also be helpful, but I didn’t have one (Trumpeter gets it at a later level than I had him at).

Items

Items saved my ass in this fight. Don’t be like me and go “Oh, it’s 12/24 and my last change to fight The Reaper! I should do that now!” Do it beforehand, please god, so then you can restock your inventory after (I have made.... a mistake...) EDIT: At the time, I... did not realize I could leave Mementos to stock up on items, so went on to the Depths without doing so. So, as a note to those who don’t know: You can do that.

Go give Takemi all your money. Seriously. Stock up on Reviv-All, which is an item that revives all party members to half health. They’re expensive, but beyond worth it. I only had two, unfortunately, and only had 7 items that revived to full health (hence the Samerecarm being useful). It’s also good to have good healing items, for when your healers don’t have the opportunity to do so.

SP restoring items, since you’ll be using skills that take up a lot of SP and you’ll be using them a lot (Mediarahan and Samerecarm and buff/debuff skills)

Buff/Debuff items like Idaten Ofuda (increases agility for all party members for three turns) and Ultimate Spray (decreases all enemy stats for three turns... wish I’d had more than one...) are also great.

Magatama items (deal a set 150 damage to an enemy) saved my ass when the Reaper was almost dead and was spamming powerful attacks.

As far as accessories: you want anything that boosts stats, especially evasion. Agility is more important than defense in this battle, as defense does fuck-all against insta-kill attacks. Give Futaba something that ups her luck stat, since that affects how often she pops in and helps you out.

Party Members

I switched around my party members every couple battles, and honestly it’s up to you. The party I ended up winning with was Makoto, Ann, and Haru, but that’s not anything set in stone. I also did pretty well with Ryuji and Yusuke in my team.

What’s important to have in your party is:

A set healer. I used Makoto for this, with Mediarahan. I also used Diarahan with Ann as needed when I had her in my party.

Someone with Samerecarm. I used Akiren for this, with Trumpeter. You can use Morgana as well.

As mentioned before: buff and debuff skills. Without these, I wouldn’t have won. I had Makoto use Marakukaja (defense up) and Ann use Matarunda (debuffs enemy attack). Ryuji with Matarukaja (attack up) was super useful, but I happened to not have him in my team the time I won. I had Yusuke use Masukukaja (agility up) when I had him in my lineup, but since I hadn’t gotten him to Rank 10 I had to switch him out because he kept getting downed with fire attacks. Otherwise, I would definitely have kept him in.

Reaper Skills

The Reaper will use gun, physical, and magical skills of all elements. Contrary to what the guides suggest, do not use any skill that will reflect a physical or magical attack, otherwise he will wreck your party within a few turns by using Concentrate and then Megidolaon every turn.

He has no weaknesses and is immune to all status effects, including shock/burn/freeze. He also is immune to critical hits (except for Down Shot).

He gets two moves every turn. Cheater.

He will focus on party member’s weaknesses specifically. If he hits someone with their weakness, he’ll keep getting more turns, so again: evasion boosts are great (and more important than defense, though of course that does help a lot too). Make sure the Persona you have equipped does not have any weaknesses.

He spends some turns nullifying element immunities. Those turns are my favorite because he isn’t hurting you. Breathe a sigh of relief when he does so.

He will use Mudoon and Hamaon on occasion. Having high agility helps keep your party alive! As he gets down to half health, he’ll start using Mamudoon and Mahamaon, and once he’s under a quarter health he will spam the HELL out of them every turn. Cheer each time your party evades them. Keep morale up!

Having High Counter on someone is helpful for when he uses Riot Gun and Vorpal Blade, since it’ll reflect 100+ damage at him.

Later in the fight, he will occasionally use attacks that drain HP and SP. The absolute fucker.

Even if Akiren has an amazing Persona equipped with all strengths, he can still wreck you with Megidolaon.

The Actual Fight!

This isn’t set in stone, but this is how I got to the point where I was getting The Reaper down past half health consistently:

Start out the battle using buffs right away, before you attack. Agility buffs, as mentioned before, are the most important! If you don’t have Yusuke in your party, use Idaten Ofuda to buff up everyone.

The Reaper usually uses Concentrate at the beginning of the battle, which drastically increases his magic attack. Don’t bother with guarding, just buff defense and evasion and start attacking!

Your attacks won’t do much damage. Mine ranged from 17-24 depending on the party member and skill used (while at level 67, so it will vary depending on your level). Buffing your attack will get that up to the 30s-40s. I didn’t focus on buffing my attack as much as the other buffs, but debuffing The Reaper’s defense was helpful. He has 5000 HP, I believe, so just keep at it.

If you have the Down Shot skill, which automatically shoots down an enemy for an All-Out Attack: boost your attack and decrease The Reaper’s defense beforehand to do the max amount of damage! Ended up doing around 100 for me, and around 60 the times I didn’t buff/debuff.

Showtimes!! Are!! THE BEST! No way I could’ve won without them. I love them. So good, so fun to watch. For me, they ranged from ~450-850 damage, depending on who was attacking and if there were buffs/debuffs.

Even if your party members are down a small amount of HP, use Mediarahan.

Since your attacks do very little damage and you’ll be healing/buffing/debuffing frequently, it takes a while to chip him down.

Save your Reviv-Alls for when he’s around a quarter health. That’s when he starts spamming the insta-kills every turn, and if you use them up earlier in the battle you’ll be stuck reviving one member at a time. You can also attack just by yourself, but a) he can still take you down with Almighty skills and b) none of your other team members will get xp if you win! Before that point, use Balm of Life (or revival items that heal 50% if your healer hasn’t taken their turn yet), or Samerecarm if you aren’t too worried about SP. Since I was low on items from the start, I focused on using Samerecarm.

Keep an eye on healing SP for everyone, especially your healer, especially if The Reaper starts using his SP absorb attack. Having items that heal full SP, like Soul Food and Soma (a godsend) is great.

Once he’s past a quarter health, you’re going to be WAY on the defensive. It’s hard to get any attacks in at that point. That’s when I started using the Magatama items.

Honestly? A lot of the fight is down to luck. I had times where he killed me within the first few turns, directly after a fight where I had gotten him past half health. If he kills any of your team members immediately, it might be worth restarting because you will already be behind.

It’ll take a while, but: YOU GOT THIS! I BELIEVE IN YOU! Go kill that bastard and get lots of XP!

#Persona 5 #P5 #Persona 5 Royal #P5R #no spoilers #Fighting the Reaper #THIS FIGHT. GODDAMN.#took me two days of trying over and over #BUT I GOT IT #lemme know if you have questions!#hopefully this is coherent I just beat him and I feel DEAD

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intoxicatingimmediacy · 4 years

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Partners S1: E5 Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal

Daveed & Rafael are best friends and artists who have collaborated across film, theater, music, and poetry. Their partnership extends beyond the normal boundaries of friendship, and the normal boundaries of a working relationship.

Rafael: There's sort of a before we met and an after we met and no gradient. Daveed: Yeah. Rafael: I don't remember— Daveed: It's like, I don't even know this guy and then this is the person I work with on everything. Rafael: And I'm pretty sure I said to him, I was like, "This is my best friend." Daveed: I'm Daveed Diggs. Rafael: I'm Rafael Casal. Daveed: And we're buddies.

Listen to it here

Full transcript under the cut...

Daveed: I'm not sure when we met or when we were formally introduced, but surely at some sort of poetry event, because we were both sort of coming up in that scene. I was older, I was four years older than him. Rafael: My freshman year, his senior year. That's a lifetime apart in high school. My memory of him in high school is Diggs always had a very nonchalant way about him. I don't know that this paints it accurately, but this is a representation of it, at some point Diggs was like, "I'm just wearing pajama pants to school every day," and I'm sure that wasn't the whole time, I got this little window of it. Daveed: It was the whole time. All of high school, for sure. Rafael: That's amazing. Daveed: It was as a rule. But we would see each other at these poetry events and he was really, really good at writing poems. A way more sort of focused writer than I had ever been in that situation, you know? So I remember that. I remember thinking that here's a person that's actually better than me at this thing and that's pretty cool. Daveed: Then over the years, also after when I was in college, when I'd come back home for the summers, sometimes I'd drop in just to watch poetry things that were happening, sort of check in on the scene. He was the dude, he had become that guy. Rafael: I remember that so differently. I barely finished high school in a very nontraditional way and then went off and did this show on HBO, Def Poetry.

Rafael: I came back and had just enough money saved up with some friends to open a very dungeon-y recording studio and we were looking for other artists. We didn't have anybody else recording at the studio. So a mutual friend of ours, one of his close friends who was the older brother of one of my close friends was like, "You know Daveed raps?" Daveed: Yeah, we really got set up on a rapper play date. So our friend Justin was like, "You guys should work together. You're two of my favorite rappers." I was like, "Yeah, yeah." And he played me his stuff and it was really good. I didn't have anywhere to record, I was recording songs in my Mom's closet, in the little closet in my room. I hadn't been in a lot of studio spaces, so I was like, oh, a studio? Rafael: I don't know that this qualified as an actual studio. Daveed: I didn't know that yet because I hadn't been there yet. Rafael: But I don't think we had any idea what meeting each other and actually getting time was going to be like. Daveed: Finally we started. It was like, this is the song we're going to work. We had listened through some beats and it was like, "Let's work on this one." I just started writing and, yeah, it happened really fast. At some point we looked up and everyone else was gone and it was just the two of us in there and we were still making music. Rafael: We just made music until the sun came up and began the ritual that day of going to the car at 8:00 AM and playing everything that you'd recorded and then dragging your body home to sleep and kind of doing it all over again. Daveed: I'd been making music for many, many years and it had never been that much fun before. Rafael: Suddenly there's this person that writes a verse in five minutes and can nail it in a take. And at the time we were working with some random singers and stuff that couldn't ever sing the line and rappers who took an hour to get a verse down. It was just like, "Wow, this is so easy," and then we'd just have songs done.

Daveed: As a young artist early on when I'm still trying to figure things out and creating is hard for me, being around somebody who just creates all the time, it's addictive. I don't have the technical skill set that Rafa has, so he was so fast in Pro Tools. He was all of these things that I just would have to labor over and then all of that stuff became really impressive too. Once, as we started working together and I became aware that he had taught himself all of these things, nobody ever really showed him how to do anything, it seemed like... and he was editing videos and shooting things, the whole range of what it takes to be a music artist out in the world he had taught himself to do. I didn't really know anybody like that. Rafael: Over the next four or five years we recorded hundreds of songs- Daveed: So many more songs- Rafael:...that no-one's heard. Daveed:...that no-one will ever hear. Rafael: Legit hundreds and wrote a play together and then we lived together and it was like, oh man. When we're around each other this much it's like we have too many ideas. It was the right amount of proximity for the full version of creativity that we had always... we had thought we'd already tapped it and we did so much shit that year. I think artistically we were doing great. Daveed: Yeah, we're definitely making it and we were definitely broke. Rafael: People knew us. Daveed: It was just a combination of the thing, it was like- Rafael: We got on the radio. Daveed: This is also great, listen to how he says we. Because really Rafa was known, right? He had a song that got played on Clear Channel radio and then got named one of the Bay Area Freshmen '10. Rafael: Best new whatever. Daveed: He got named one of those, but Rafa never would take that for himself, it was always us. We are. We played those shows together and would end up making no money on these gigs because he would bring me and a band, four or five other people to play music, use the entire fee to fly us out to wherever, Georgia and play a show where no-one would make any money but we got to play a show. He was doing that from jump for so long. Hrishikesh: Why was that how you would always do it? Rafael: Well because, one, I don't, I'm uncomfortable with I statements. Daveed: Berkeley is shit. Rafael: Berkeley is shit. I'm not good to roll with I statements, they feel self indulgent. I was raised to not feed an ego that feels constantly eager for food. What I love about that period is we were all pushing to little different degrees of success. We're just kind of weirdos almost in a scene that we kind of make sense in. They didn't understand Diggs very much at all, I feel like the more commercial Bay Areas scene and they only sort of understood me. It was very you're in, but don't try to make any changes, you know? And I think that's a big reason that we went to LA. We could see the top of the ladder and it's not getting any friendlier or more receptive. We maybe can make this movie and maybe there's different music opportunities down there, but it's definitely not going to happen here. And then suddenly we packed up from the West Oakland place and moved to LA. Daveed: Also we had already been, we were working on Blindspotting, so we'd been traveling up and down. Our producers, we had been driving to meet with them really frequently. Rafael: We were slumming it so hard when we got to LA, we were so poor. Diggs was delivering tacos. Daveed: Yeah. I was like... I couldn't be an actor in LA, is what I decided. Rafael: We're just swinging and missing, just trying to figure out what does it mean to be in the bigger pond and want to be artists professionally. We did five years in LA before Diggs went to New York to do Hamilton. I think that was one of those things that came about for Diggs really organically. Hamilton was such an interesting... it was a play, it was legit written for him to flex all the things he's good at. They were like, "Who's this rap kid that turns out can also act?" And the rest of us were like, "Turns out? He's been doing that more than a lot of y'all." And the world saw Diggs in the light that best showed everything and they not only accepted, but obsessed over it. And then I went to visit him in New York when the show was picking up steam and the first thing that happened is this girl grabs my arm and looks at Diggs and goes, "Oh my God, is that Daveed Diggs?" to me and I start to realize that this woman is Anne Hathaway and she's fan-girling out. I'm like, "Oh man, a major shift is happening."

Daveed: My life is changing very, very quickly. I was under stress constantly. Rafa is calling and texting and emailing and I'm getting back to the degree that I can. So yes, obviously it would have been so much easier and nicer if my best friend was also living in New York and somebody who has context for me outside of this thing. Rafael: I remember [inaudible 00:10:39] I turned to Diggs and I was like, "I'm thinking about moving to New York so you'll respond more in person." I remember Diggs goes, "I didn't want to ask." Daveed: That's a big ask and I'm doing eight shows a week. It's not like, move to New York and let's go kick it in the Berkshires, you know? It's like, move to New York and I'll see you at midnight sometimes. Rafael: But I was like, well it's just good for him to have a friend there. But also can I run your social media? Because you're not posting enough and people want to see this adventure and there's a sincere way to do it. And I had done a little bit of it with his Twitter and stuff in the Bay and in LA, but this was like, "Give me your passwords." I probably already had them. Daveed: This was an admission that he was going to use them. Rafael: I was letting him know that I was going to do it. Daveed: On a regular basis. And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, do that." Rafael: And especially if you actually hadn't been able to do it, you didn't have to be self-indulgent, I'm doing it. There's a year of his Instagram that's just his friend's version of how awesome he is.

Rafael: Blindspotting got started because, around when I was 21, one of my friends got killed in a way that sort of didn't make a lot of sense to most people in the community. And it was sort of the breaking point because it was a woman, because it was somebody who wasn't really involved in the violence of the world that we were existing in at the time. Some other people had been killed and other people I sort of was close to. There was a series of funerals people had gone to in succession and this was the button on it. It was just a breaking point for me. So I had written this poem about sort of the numbness of that experience of like, "God, is this what life is? People die and we get numb and we care a little less every time? How does this go?" And then we just kind of started coming up with a story that was a movie that's in verse starring the two of us. We kept almost making Blindspotting and not making it. Diggs, he finishes this massive sensation in New York. He had 30 days in June that he could shoot this movie- Daveed: 22. Rafael:... and then a month later we were in Oakland shooting the movie. Daveed: In the hometown. Everybody who's an extra in that movie is a friend of ours that we grew up with. Rafael: Yeah. And it's still not a real movie to us. It's still a thing we can't believe they made. Daveed: In Hollywood, in a world that we always assumed we didn't belong in, that we never really figured out how we would fit into anyway. To have doors start opening in a way where they're sort of asking questions about what you want to do is crazy actually. It's just fun in meetings post Blindspotting now that we're associated together in this way and also people have been able to see that Rafael is a great actor as well as a great writer. It's like, "Well what's he doing? Do you think he'd be interested in this? Can you talk to him for us?" It's pretty... I love that. I love that so much. Rafael: And I still know the 10 things that he can do that nobody's seen yet. And that's still fun for me. Daveed: The closest I have ever gotten to fighting with Rafa I think is when somebody else I'm close to is fighting with Rafa, right? Rafael: I think that's sort of our good cop, bad cop type of... where someone will be venting to him and he's like, "I don't know what to tell you, I've already picked my team." We have this expression that we always say, we did this before every show and we kind of do it anytime we're at a crossroads. We're like energy up, expectations down. Daveed: Energy up, expectations down. Rafael: It's just like this whole ship runs on enthusiasm.

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal are partners. Go watch their film Blindspotting and check out the album they put out together last year, called Seven Nights in Chicago. You can follow them on Twitter or Instagram @DaveedDiggs and @RafaelCasal. Rafael probably still has the passwords to Daveed's accounts.

#daveed diggs #rafael casal #go to the source and listen to the whole thing it's lovely #their adoration and respect for each other as artists gives me LIFE #i could listen to them gushing about each other for days on end

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catholicartistsnyc · 4 years

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Meet Sister Desiré Anne-Marie Findlay

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Sister Desiré Anne-Marie Findlay is a Felician sister, dancer, writer and artist. She dances live on her Instagram (@sister_d) and blogs at Religious Life for Beginners. You can also catch her performances and videos about life as a religious sister on her YouTube channel.

In September 2020, Catholic Artist Connection’s Laura Pittenger spoke with Sister Desiré about dance, creativity in religious life, and how the Church can better serve its artists, particularly those of color. An edited and condensed version of that conversation is included below:

LAURA PITTENGER (LP): I have to tell you, I mentioned to a friend that I was going to interview a Felician sister about her art and my friend said, “Is this the sister who dances on instagram? I LOVE HER.” You have a lot of fans!

SISTER DESIRÉ FINDLAY (SDF): I joke with my friends that I’m like a “small big deal.” (Editor’s note: As of this writing, she has over 3,500 followers on Instagram. We think she’s a regular big deal.)

LP: Where are you currently living and where are you from originally?

SDF: I live in Pittsburgh, PA, but I was born in Biloxi, Mississippi and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I also lived in California and Connecticut for awhile. Right now I live with one other sister in my community, which varies wherever I go. I’ve lived with 20 to 6 sisters at a time. My favorite was when there were three of us. It was a cool balance, we all traveled a lot, two of us we’d hang out and welcome the third back home, and another would leave and return and we’d welcome her home. it was like a seamless kind of movement.

LP: How did you become a dancer?

SDF: It started when I was very young. My mom put me in ballet at three years old. We lived in Germany because my dad was in the Air Force, and I remember being in ballet class, running around in a circle on my tiptoes, and I started crying. Maybe because everything was in German! So when we moved back to the U.S., she put me in gymnastics. I went back into ballet for seven years, and in high school I joined the dance team. I learned other dance styles, jazz and hip-hop, those are my fun energy-based dances, but ballet has stayed my favorite. But what I do now is contemporary, not classical.

LP: Who are some dancers that you admire and who inspired you as a child?

SDF: Actually it was more like gymnasts. There were two I remember: Dominique Moceanu and Dominique Dawes. I don’t even think I considered this as a child, but now that I look back on it, it makes sense because they both have darker skin, or darker hair, or are from a different culture. They both reflected me and my sister, we looked up to them. They were just so good, and we could see ourselves in them. Watching them, it was like I could see myself in performing arts too.

LP: In the interview you did with America Magazine last year [above] you mentioned that dance for you is like a prayer. Could you share a little more about that?

SDF: I never experienced dance as prayer until I was invited to do a prayerful dance for an event. I didn’t know that was possible or that dance could be anything other than performance. The event was a dance to celebrate sisters who had spent 60 to 75 years in the convent. When I noticed that I was inviting all of us in the community to speak with God through my dance, I was like - dance can do this? I can speak to God with my entire body. I didn’t know why I hadn’t been doing that.

I don’t do a lot of formal dance as prayer. I do lead group sometimes or on social media, and people can join in if they want. It’s spontaneous. I don’t choreograph unless i’m leading, but I like to just find whatever song is standing out to me at the time, and let it move me. Sometimes you hear songs that you have to move to, very prayerful songs, some by Audrey Assad, for example, that let us reflect on God and our lives. Sometimes a song will come to me and be in my head for awhile and I just need to dance it out, or I’m in a mood, and look through my songs on my iPad and see what songs I have.

For example, in Advent, The Piano Guys have this cover of O Come O Come Emmanuel that’s instrumental. (I love that song, even though we hear it all season, I don’t get tired of it.) For some reason their instrumental version was stuck in my head, their version. I could not stop thinking about it, and I thought I’d dance it out. Even though there were no lyrics to it, I really felt that song. The line about captives being set free - I could express that through my limbs, that freedom, to be captive and set free by this amazing God who came to be human.

LP: What kind of support within the Felician community have you received for your dance, and how do you think religious communities can benefit from having artists in them?

SDF: My community has been very supportive of me in many things already anyway, but I would say when it comes to dance, on a personal basis my sisters will ask me about it, or send emails or call, or just when I see them at gatherings - “How are you doing? I’ve been reading about you! Keep up good work.” Or they ask if I’ve been using my dance, if they haven’t seen it lately. The community invites me to dance for events, like the Transitus of St. Clare of Assisi - when she passed away and went to her Spouse in Heaven, we have a ceremony to commemorate that. They asked me to pray that out in dance. So they’re not just encouraging me to dance, but asking me to do it for gatherings.

I’m not the only artist. We have so many creative sisters. The sisters have the space to really pursue their creative skills or put them to use somehow. One sister does all our communications and designs our prayer spaces and booklets. She probably would have been like an interior designer or graphic designer, but here she is enhancing our gatherings with her talents. Sometimes you need something to look appealing to make people want to care. Creativity adds to life, I think, color, personality.

LP: There are so many religious orders out there. What drew you to the Felician sisters?

SDF: I was in college when I met them, it was on a 100-mile pilgrimage. I didn’t know it was going to be 100 miles, or that it was to pray for vocations. I’m not a detail person - God just knows how to work with me! God’s just like, “Come do this.” I signed up for the pilgrimage for the cultural aspect, to walk through pueblos. I love my New Mexican heritage. I had no thought about it being a Catholic pilgrimage. I met these two Felician sisters on the pilgrimage, and I had never heard of the order in my life. They were so different, one gentle introvert and one loud, happy extrovert. I love that they are just themselves. They don’t have to be anybody else, to be like or look like or act like each other. They can just be. So I thought, maybe I could be myself. I had thought of religious life before, to be able to pray and serve, that’s cool, but it was never something I thought I saw in my future, until I met them.

LP: What is the formation process like for the Felician sisters?

SDF: Entering the Felicians is a nine-year process, minimum. Other orders can take six years minimum. It deepens in intensity as you go, but the first year I was still going to school and living on my own, so I’d visit with them and had a director. Then I moved in my second year and learned about the community and the saints. I became a novice and learned more about spiritual aspect of the community and my spiritual life. And then after that, four years later, I made my first vows. That’s when I moved out and was a sister, living the vows, but it still wasn’t forever, I could still change my mind. That stage is six years by itself. This August 15, 2020, was my one-year anniversary of making final vows. So it’s been 10 years.

LP: How do you think the Catholic church can do better, starting right now, in supporting artists - and in your case, artists of color? Or Catholics of color in general?

SDF: I think even just this conversation, reaching out to us. Because we can try and create our own spaces to voice what we want to voice and share art we want to share, but unless we’re invited to share, it’s not going to get into a larger space. A Felician sister is a member of the The Stained Glass Association of America, and she said lately they’ve been getting calls from churches with predominantly Black parishioners with churches with stained glass of only white people, and they’re saying, “This doesn’t reflect our church, and Jesus wasn’t white, and we want diversity, how do we do that? How do we go about changing these windows? How do we invite artists of color into this industry? How do we bring more diversity in, to reflect the church we have?” It’s just by invitation, that’s where it starts. The sisters invited me to do this dance. Invitation.

LP: What would you say to someone who feels drawn to both their art or performance but also might feel a call to religious life? Do you think art can also be a form of vocation?

SDF: Like I said, I’m not a detail person, so I wouldn’t have looked up or researched anything. I go as my life unfolds. I don’t plan things. I know there are people out there who think they need to research everything - I didn’t do any of that. Everyone has a different way of discerning. When it comes to vocation and living your full authentic self, including your creativity, whatever form that takes, your passion - it could be immigration policy - there are ways to incorporate that into your vocation, whether you’re married, a sister, or a layperson. Do a little research and say, “Is that community open to that?” In some communities, everybody has the same ministry. In mine, you get to choose your own. There are communities where you can be an immigration lawyer. If I wanted to be a heart surgeon, I can be!

You have to know what your non-negotiables are. The goodness of God - He already knew my non-negotiable was my creativity, and I didn’t realize that. God led me to a community at the right time and in a way that spoke to me. I just said i’m going with it. Nothing else seemed to fit.

We have a style of dress we like to wear as Felician sisters, but we have an option. You can be more traditional, or you can wear a dress and make sure you wear a crucifix. There are some guidelines, but you get to choose. You can be an individual.

Pay attention to what speaks to you. Pay attention to what brings resistance in a community. Knowing that I can be so creative is part of what makes my vocation so fruitful. I can design notebooks! I can share things on social media on my own time. I never knew that’s what i wanted. After I realized dance could be prayer, I want everything I do to have that kind of meaning. That was my non-negotiable. God said, “I gave you these gifts.” It reminds me of the story of Abraham and Isaac. When I was going to enter the Felician sisters, I thought that I’d probably have to give up dance, God said, “I gave it to you.” I was willing to give it up, but God gave it back to me a hundredfold. I’ve gotten to teach dance here and abroad. I never thought I’d do anything like that.

LP: Do you have any words of advice for other Catholic artists who may be struggling right now amid the COVID-19 pandemic and everything else in the world?

SDF: I was very much struggling when all this started. I was used to traveling and meeting lots of people all over the place. I felt very seen, very heard. Suddenly I was in my own little world, and I didn’t have to get up or go anywhere. Before, I was being invited to spaces, but now I have to create spaces for myself. I wasn’t posting dance videos until the pandemic happened. I wanted to connect, but couldn’t in the ordinary way. My suggestion would be to create the connection that you feel you’re missing, because a lot of us were connecting in ways we were used to: coffee, concerts...

Whether we are an observer or an artist, we’re used to connecting through creativity. Now we have to find ways to share that creativity and enjoy it in different spaces. So to be open to those, it means a lot of technology. It still matters and makes a difference for others. I’ve felt a change in myself, being able to connect with people through technology and through Zoom dance group. At first I didn’t want to do it, but people were asking to experience dance as prayer. The Zoom group is open for anyone, but now I’ve just been doing Instagram and Facebook live. I just tried it for the first time last month. I didn’t know people were craving this different type of prayer experience until people started sharing it. Even when I was unwilling, God created this space for myself and other people and I get to share this gift. Here we are praying together, with openness.

#sister desire #sistah d #dancer #dance #catholic #catholic artist #catholic artist connection #pittsburgh #felician #felician sisters #religious life #women religious

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