#laurs' academic writing

[oh-snapperss]

hi guys here's my fanfiction i wrote for my mythology final godbless

Pairing: Ren/Etho (ish??)

Words: 1,178

Warnings: Discussions of mortality/mentioned character death

Summary:

The sky thundered despite the clear as day sky, and Ren had shared a look with the ground before opening his mouth, undoubtedly to beg Etho to take his rash statement back. He had not taken it back, it was a miracle, a gift! Finally, at last, the gods were worth something to Etho. Ren had fallen in battle less than a year later. He’d held Etho’s hand that night, and cried. That was the first time Etho felt the prickle of regret spark in his chest. or, a series of three letters spanning hundreds of years as an exploration of what mortality means, written by immortal etho to his long-lost mortal lover.

#rentho #hermitshipping #rendog #ethoslab #etho #my fics #laurs' academic writing #<-I GUESS?? #IDK. HELP LMAOO #i wrote this in an hour flat on saturday and my prof loved it so i'm winning #nobody look at me

[inklore]

laur <3 i just wanted to say i love your blog so much! i was wondering: do you have any eddie headcanons that you think about a lot or have wanted to share with us? i always love reading other people’s headcanons. i hope you have a great weekend :)

you’re too sweet, lovey!!! i have a dozen different thoughts and headcanons when it comes to this boy so these are literally all over the place lmao.

tw: eighteen+ content, references to sex, criminal activity, drugs, parental issues.

he writes on the back of his hands when he needs to remember something: an idea for a campaign, a deal he needs to make later, anything but homework assignments

doesn’t carry a backpack, either finishes his work at school or doesn’t do it at all, never takes work home with him

is incredibly smart, can do math all in his head (he’s a drug dealer ok he’s hella good at it), just doesn’t have that academic incline to be smart in school/struggles in that aspect because he doesn’t care about what he’s being taught

has several fantasy novels scattered around his room, in drawers, in stacks on the floor, with writing in the margins: ‘campaign? henderson would love this!’

his dad is in jail for criminal activity (some of which he taught eddie), his mother left him when he was still little and he hasn’t heard from her since—but who doesn’t care, fuck it, having shitty parents builds character right???

his uncle is the only father figure he really counts in his life (but he still has a touch of the mommy and daddy issues, doesn’t want to turn out like either of them)

would definitely become a mechanic after graduating, or some easy job he’d excel in. but would still try to make it big with his band, would never give up that dream

joseph said that when eddie finds out someone loves him he doesn’t know how to take it/kind of thinks he doesn’t deserve it etc, which makes sense with his family issues, but also means (in my head) that when he finds someone who he shares those equally intense ‘love’ feelings for he’s literally the biggest simp

i’m talking constant mixtapes, letting you touch his guitar (no one touches her!!), play with his hair, lends you his favorite book only because he wants to see your face light up from enjoying it (but is hella nervous you might dislike it), lends you his band shirts because he loves watching you walk around in them (and only them), let’s you play your pop music in the van (will fake grumble about it but loves to watch you dance and sing along, and oh wow are his fingers drumming to the beat?? is he singing along?? no no of course not…)

he’d even let you design one of his tattoos. like he’s literally so smitten he never stops smiling or trying to please and make you happy, hes literally a ‘once i’ve fallen in love that it’s you’re the one forever’ type

i think it’s hard for him to express his feelings so he does it with humor/chaotic behavior/cynical outlooks, since he wasn’t raised by overly passionate and loving parents (literally hesitates a little during hugs because he’s not used to them but loves them, secretly of course)

he’s tried the hard stuff (drugs) once and that was enough for him, isn’t really into anything other than weed and cigarettes, still holds onto it though just in case he can make a sale from it

will put on eyeliner for gigs and gigs only!!

and as cute as he looks with his hair up he would never be caught dead with it up in a pony, unless you batted those cute eyes of course, then maybe, just maybe. only around the house! but he doesn’t like it!!

he’s not the best cook but he’s learned this trick to make microwaveable dinners taste better than they should; says he was high one night and the magic just happened, that it’s his secret recipe he uses (literally just seasoning, or a couple handfuls of shredded cheese)

doesn’t like hard liquor, strictly beer!

only goes to parties to sell to people, other than that he would rather take an arrow to the foot than go to them

when there’s a song he wants to learn he will hold himself up in his room for days, you or wayne literally have to drag him out or force feed him because he has a one track mind, neeeds to get it done, neeeds to learn it (our boy has intense hyper-fixations)

fiddles with his rings when he’s thinking or nervous + sticks his tongue when he’s in deep concentration + messes with strands of his hair when he’s trying to flirt

isn’t super clingy in the sense that he needs to be always touching you, but constantly catches your eye/is caught staring at you, or checking in with you, or playing with your fingers (loves when you play with his rings!!!), or tickling you, or tackling you down on his bed

can’t just give you one kiss, has to press a dozen to your cheek and neck always

isn’t a tit or ass man, loves it all, all of you, every part

loves to please, i’m talking will spend hours…doing things….in the name of pleasure for you

his fav position is any he can see your face, your expressions, can lock eyes with you, see that you’re enjoying it; missionary, or you on top

loves assurance, needs it, craves it in any and all aspects of the word, as much as he hates to admit it

has the biggest heart, hates to show it more often than not but once you’re his: friend, partner, what have you, he’s got you for life, cares about you immensely

doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body

but does have a jealous one and sometimes anger slips into there because he hates the things he gets jealous over

princess, beautiful, sweetheart, and babe (very rarely used), honey when he’s being a little shit, are the only pet names he uses or will ever use!!!

bi bi bi biiiiiiii

has big switch energy, but is the softest!dom you’ll ever meet, and i use the word dom very loosely here

never knows where to put his hands during any sexual act, always wants to touch everywhere and anywhere you’ll let him

talks a lot during, like he’s definitely a fan of lazy high sex that’s filled with a few giggles and weird things being spoken but it never takes the two of you out of it

loves kissing!!!!!

a few kinks i think he’d have: hair pulling, biting, dry humping, marking (with his mouth or a tattoo gun), light choking, voyeurism, a touch of corruption

would literally cream in his pants to see you wearing one of his rings as a necklace

if you bought him something he’d literally treasure it like it was an irreplaceable artifact

he’s literally so patient and encouraging when it comes to teaching anyone anything

loves cheesy ass jokes even if he’ll give you a deadpan look while you’re delivering it

is and will forever be a kid at heart

literally would be the adult playing hide n seek with the trailer park kids

loves proving people wrong (respectfully)

not a morning person, has been late to class so many times because of it. will wrap himself around you in the morning to stop you from getting up

smokes after sex, that good ol after sex cigarette

before he moved in with wayne, wayne was a truck driver which is why all the mugs and hats decorate the living room wall. and a way they bonded when eddie first came to live with him was: he would pick a new mug each day to ask wayne about and he would share his traveling adventures with him

like i said his dad taught him some criminal activity: hotwiring, picking locks, siphoning gas, how to pickpocket, insurance fraud

would tell the best scary stories on the camping trip

can barely grow chest hair

#eddie munson #eddie munson headcanons #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson smut #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fic #eddie munson blurb

[shadowqnights]

Do you have any like thoughts on or headcannons for MCD Travis?

its funny cause i haven't really gotten around to him in any rewrite stuff yet except for like. AUs where he's a part of the guardboys(tm). so this may be brief but here's my rewrite thoughts so Far on travis.

i feel like most people like sticking with the canon of travis being socially awkward because of his isolation. like yeah. i'm a big fan. social cues are lost on him and his more confident/flirting behaviours are from copying books (even the most extreme or fantastical ones). unspoken social rules are the devil to him. this boy was born to yap his head off.

[clashes most with katelyn and garroth at first because of this BUT finds common ground with them later thanks to his studies.]

speaking of his studies hoo boy hello my freak scientist. let him learn! loves getting his hands dirty and doing experiments. no qualms about going to hold bugs and rolling around in the dirt to try and Figure Shit Out. he's a cartographer, in his spare time he's trying to fully map out gal'ruk. he loooves to read, just you wait until he gets his hands on actual up-to-date books and becomes kenmur and emmalyn's bestie. that's kind of where his common ground with katelyn and garroth comes from because they're all fascinated with history to a degree and Can like . sustain a convo with Just pure infodumping. but garroth's a bit of an academic snob sometimes vs travis is a bit of a freak scientist so.. clash...

in a similar vein god travis journals like a teenage girl trying to get her life back together. he notes down everything. he's interested in biology and geology in particular. he will draw and write about everything he sees, and later begins noting down a Lot of human behaviour to understand it better. even to an invasive degree, since he's incredibly perceptive. what he lacks in social cue knowledge he makes up for in pure Vibe Checks and straightforwardness. he will just say exactly what he's feeling.

emotionally he gets along best with laurance and aph, then later katelyn. also kenmur. he and garroth still have some shit to work through. he and laur start off trying to kill each other a little bit and then become besties. i still have to work on his demon mode but it will happen . hoenstly even though he would tire aaron out, they would probably have a mad good chat about divine grudges and demons. younger dante and travis would probably relate a lot to each other.

he's a little bit odd in the way of like . you know the trope where a character is like. isolated alone in the wilderness and is just. having conversations with animals. that's travis. he's just chatting casually with the island critters a lot , if only to have Some company. but he does genuinely also have a really good bond with the wildlife on gal'ruk. i imagine him with a snake companion.

carries knives and a polearm of some sort as his weapons. despite being like a good fighter and like a core of his life on gal'ruk is literally 'guarding' by technicality, he's not really that big on fighting. he's capable , but similar to aaron he would NEVER think of himself as a guard figure. they're more like . freelancing out of necessity.

i think those are like the Main things ive thought about but again like barely scratching the surface cause i haven't really got to him in rewrite yet. but i will one day. sorry i have a funny way of typing casually in a janky way that my brain would say it irl happy to explain anything further if it doesn't make sense. tee hee

#minecraft diaries #mcd #aphmau #bee's buzzing #travis mcd

[snarkyelf]

It's that time again for me to put things down in writing to see where my character is and has evolved from. (Template by @alannah-corvaine )

×—ʙᴀꜱɪᴄꜱ—×

ɴᴀᴍᴇ: Laure Sombremont

ɴɪᴄᴋɴᴀᴍᴇ(ꜱ): Professor of Death, Prof. (by his students), giraffe

ᴛɪᴛʟᴇ(ꜱ): Professor

ɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀ / ʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇʏ ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪꜰʏ: Male, He/Him

ʀᴀᴄᴇ: Elezen

ᴀɢᴇ: 32

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ: Winter

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ: Garlemald

ɢᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ ꜱɪɢɴ: Indifferent

ɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ: Garlemald by birth, Ishgardian on paperwork

×—ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ—×

ʜᴇɪɢʜᴛ: 6'9" (no I didn't plan on that number, it just happened to be that when converting to feet from the FFXIV scale)

ᴡᴇɪɢʜᴛ: Average

ʙᴏᴅʏ ᴛʏᴘᴇ: If he weren't so tall, he would look very bulky. Muscular, on the hunky side, but often is covered from head to toe so he looks lean.

ʜᴀɪʀ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ: Warm brown with hints of amber highlights

ᴇʏᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ: Green flecked with gold

ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇxɪᴏɴ: Warm-tan, yellow to mid-tone, doesn't burn easily

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴍᴀʀᴋꜱ: None (his blood family is a providence of Garlemald, not from the bloodline so he has no third eye)

ꜱᴄᴀʀꜱ: Nothing major. He's a skilled fighter and always takes care to wear proper armor so battle damage is at a minimal.

ᴛᴀᴛᴛᴏᴏꜱ: None

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ 🇺​​🇳​​🇮​​🇶​​🇺​​🇪 ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ: Bite marks from his two Viera mates... in the future (RP of this still happening at the time of this recording writing)

ᴄʟᴇᴀɴʟɪɴᴇꜱꜱ / ɢʀᴏᴏᴍɪɴɢ: Spartan clean, but likes to relax after long days or missions in a long bath. He's not overly fussy, but he keeps his beard well maintained, his face is clean, and his clothing is always pressed (only because there are housekeepers on property that do the laundry, but his military side would force him to make sure he looks sharp).

ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴅᴀʏ ᴄʟᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: Academic; collared shirts, vests, jackets, slacks, loafers. He adorns many traditional clothing of a man of Ishgardian upper working class, but isn't flashy with it. Although he doesn't have to panic to purchase a new suit when going to a soiree or dinner party; he has a handful that can tide him over through the seasons' different events.

ᴀᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱᴏʀɪᴇꜱ: Wears glasses, prefers gold rims but switches it out not and again, and he always wears a gold ring on each hand. Sometimes he will wear multiple rings and chain bracelets or a watch. Laure has a key on a string around his neck.

×—ʜᴇᴀʟᴛʜ—×

ᴀʟʟᴇʀɢɪᴇꜱ: None that he knows of, but slight aversion to carrots might be an allergy

ɪʟʟɴᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ: None

ᴅɪꜱᴀʙɪʟɪᴛɪᴇꜱ: None

ᴇɴᴇʀɢʏ ʟᴇᴠᴇʟꜱ: His energy is even leveled, but is better with stamina than short bursts. He can fight for a long period of time utilizing even control of his weapon and magic, and can exhaust himself into the night studying tomes and grading papers yet still able to wake with the sun.

ᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Laure doesn't indulge often, and he is fine with coffee, tea, and a sandwich. Understands the benefits of a healthy diet, so will nibble raw fruits and veggies if they're on hand, but doesn't cook often. Has a soft spot for an evening treat while reading of cookies and milk.

ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Pops up like a daisy in the morning regardless of how late he has stayed up. While his nights often consist of a ritualistic calm down for the night (hot bath, reading, warm milk) he can just as often end up falling asleep at his desk late into the night when he gets engaged in his work.

ꜰɪᴛɴᴇꜱꜱ: Very healthy. For being as nerdy as he looks, Laure is, in fact, a jock. Laure partakes in the family's training grounds often with the sell swords on property. Enjoys a morning jog.

×—ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ—×

ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴠᴇʀᴛ / ᴇxᴛʀᴏᴠᴇʀᴛ: Introvert, but he has been branching out more as of late. Probably has something to do with two beautiful buns at his side.

ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴀᴍᴇɴᴛ: Socially he is between calm and anxious but he has been working on overcoming his anxiety. When he's in his element (teaching, an excavation site, training) he is instead a calm-confident. He has surprised himself as of late of a strong confident self that is blooming as he spends more playtime with his fiancés. He is still quick to blush, however. His students have begun to notice the nerdy professor is actually kinda hot with this growing self-confidence which has upped the attendance of his classes. Laure is oblivious as to why, but he's thrilled to have more minds to mold!

ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: Laure is quiet and doesn't approach people without reason. He's dreadful with small talk. While teaching, he is a decent lecturer, keeping the class engaged if only from his own enthusiasm, but when it's chitchat time he doesn't really follow the flow of things. He hasn't exactly caught on to the student's teasing as flirting yet, and get blushy and flustered when they do it in front of everyone.

ɢᴏᴀʟꜱ / ᴅᴇꜱɪʀᴇꜱ: Laure is merely enjoying life and spending time with those he loves, and doing the things he enjoys. He has no hard pressed goals other than watching his family prosper. This can sometimes leave him in a slump and forces his work into the foreground of his mind until he overdoes it.

ᴠɪʀᴛᴜᴇꜱ: Loving; Laure has a big heart and takes care of his family very well. He's the go-to guy when someone needs a ride in the family car or need an errand run. He is gentle in his approach to people, never wanting to harm anyone. And he is kind to strangers. Laure tends to not judge others on first sight, or even what they have done.

ꜰʟᴀᴡꜱ: Laure is riddled with anxiety in a crowded room, and will either freeze up or blather about his work to compensate (which isn't always wise to babble about because his work is about the study of death). Laure also compensates trauma with happiness; when he is triggered, or another person speaks of their own trauma, he moves on to happier thoughts and subjects, so much so this has been accumulating into a sexual deviance. When overcome with emotion, he releases it with desires which, while fun, isn't exactly that best coping mechanism.

ꜱᴛʀᴇɴɢᴛʜꜱ:

ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ:

ꜰᴇᴀʀꜱ:

ᴏʙꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ:

Qᴜɪʀᴋꜱ / ᴛɪᴄꜱ:

ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛꜱ: He used to be ashamed of a certain body part of his. Kids in school used to make fun of him for it, and his first couple of experiences with men, Laure ended up hurting them. So he thought he was gross and deformed for a very long time. While he is still careful of his appendage use around his lovers, he knows better now on how to use it and how to make sure his partners are ready for him.

ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛꜱ: Staying with his former fiancé for as long as he did. He knew he was cheating when Laure was off with his high education classes or with a mission for the Empire, but he stayed with him anyway. It wasn't until tragedies collided that he had enough.

×—ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ɪ—×

ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ: Laure's mother sacrificed a lot for he and his brother, to make sure they had enough to eat, and later, an education and a future. Being beaten down from a noble stature, forced to become a street walker to survive, and later exchanging the pleasures in the bedroom to a duke to put her sons into military school. She lives with the rest of the Sombremont family as a secret refugee in Ishgard.

ꜰᴀᴛʜᴇʀ: Unknown, but an likely an Eorzean elezen

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛᴀʟ ꜰɪɢᴜʀᴇ(ꜱ):

ꜱɪʙʟɪɴɢ(ꜱ): Younger brother, deceased. It was his brother's first time leading a squadron, while Laure was leading another. His brother's squad ended up in crossfire and died due to friendly fire from Laure's squad. Logically, Laure knows that it was no one's direct fault, although officially it was blamed on his brother's poor management of the situation. Because the autopsy could not identify the shooter, only that it was from a Garlean bullet, Laure still has nightmares that he was the one that shot him.

ɢʀᴀɴᴅᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛꜱ: Laure's grandmother is a lovely, delicate woman that will whoop your ass in chess, reads poety, and teaches the children to play piano. She is a well respected matron of the family, and she tries to spend as much time with each family member as she can. She and Laure bond when she asks for him to take her on an afternoon drive in the family car when the weather is nice(Laure is one of the few that can drive).

ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ: Biologically, Laure has a five year old son. He is the spitting image of Laure! Legally, he is his nephew, as Laure donated since his brother could not procreate. Sadly, Laure's brother died shortly after his son was born. Laure maintains himself as his uncle, but the boy is not lied to of how he came into being. Despite not being blood related, when the Sombremont family was pulled from Garlean territory to safety, Laure's sister-in-law came with them and is treated as family.

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ: The majority of Laure's living family (to his knowledge) are all living under the same roof at the Sombremont Estate in Ishgard. This includes three aunts, one uncle, and several cousins of various ages. He is closest to his uncle, who is the proprietor of the house until his son comes of age, and his uncle's daughter.

×—ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ɪɪ—×

ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ / ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟ ᴏʀɪᴇɴᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Homosexual

ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘ ꜱᴛᴀᴛᴜꜱ: Engaged to two beautiful viera that make him very, very happy.

ꜱᴘᴏᴜꜱᴇ: SOON!

ᴘᴀʀᴛɴᴇʀ/ ꜱɪɢɴɪꜰɪᴄᴀɴᴛ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ(ꜱ):

ʟᴏᴠᴇʀ(ꜱ): While he and his lovers have an open relationship, Laure isn't as eager to take other lovers. Not that he doesn't enjoy playtime, but he isn't as physically adventurous as his fiancés. He loves it when they are with another man or woman, and likes to hear their stories of conquest. Their only stipulation thus far has been that if one of them wishes to get into a relationship with one of their bed partners, that they discuss it with the trio so they can welcome their partner's new partner!

ᴄʟᴏꜱᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ: Codex and Cheren

ᴀᴄQᴜᴀɪɴᴛᴀɴᴄᴇꜱ: Laure has a difficult time branching out. He keeps to his home with his family and lovers, and he might know people in time spent at venues, but not too often does he go beyond his comfort zone when meeting people.

ᴄᴏᴡᴏʀᴋᴇʀꜱ/ᴄᴏᴍʀᴀᴅᴇꜱ: Laure gets on fine with his co-workers at the University of Ishgard. Although his own subject of study is taboo, he used to get a lot of flack and upturned noses at the forensics sciences he taught. Lately, however, he has been gaining a new flock of students that is making the others snotty at him. He gets along best with the other science-related teachers.

ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ: A professor in the literature department dislikes Laure, and it took Laure a long time to realize why. They got along fondly at first, doting over poetry together in the library and in the faculty lounge. It wasn't until she realized that Laure wasn't going to be more than just friends that she began to give him the cold shoulder. Now that he's gone from shy nerd to attractive nerd with a constant gaggle of doe-eyed students following him does she now scorn him.

ᴇɴᴇᴍɪᴇꜱ: The lunch lady...

×—ʟɪꜰᴇꜱᴛʏʟᴇ—×

ᴏᴄᴄᴜᴘᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Professor of Thanatology and Forensic Sciences at the University of Ishgard

ꜱᴏᴄɪᴀʟ ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱ: Upper working class, thanks to his own profession and the manipulation of his uncle's, the Sombremont family is seen as well off within the upper crust community, but clearly not nobility.

ᴇᴅᴜᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Laure's mother spent a lot of time making sure he and his brother had the basics of education and taught them herself. Then, at 10, they were put off to military school where they spent the rest of their educated life. Laure did pursue forensic and related sciences through the Garlean military educational programs.

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ʀᴇꜱɪᴅᴇɴᴄᴇ: Sombremont Estate's guest house. He is the only family member not in the house proper because his work takes him out of sync with the rest of the household. However, he and his fiancés are planning on getting a place together soon.

ʜᴏʙʙɪᴇꜱ: Laure enjoys tinkering with the family car, and his own motorcycle. He likes to play music with his family (preferring brass instruments, although he is learning the guitar and piano). Laure also enjoys putting together model airships. Although it is job related, Laure really enjoys when the local authorities call on his expertise with magick related deaths to help solve homicide cases.

ᴠɪᴄᴇꜱ: Sex is a good thing, normally, but Laure uses it as an emotional shield. He is horny almost all the time these days, turning his anxiety into hormones. It's... frustrating at times. He's also into the idea of prostituting his fiancés, which while fun on the surface with everyone in on the game with joyous consent, it digs deeper into a place of his youth; of watching his mother paraded around by her pimp. Of a power that he doesn't usually hold.

ᴄʀɪᴍɪɴᴀʟ ʀᴇᴄᴏʀᴅ: None

ꜱᴘᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Most of his money goes into his exhibition dig sites. If it is not university funded, he will often sponsor his own digs to study human remains and the effects magick and society had on their culture (and ultimate demise). He hopes his studies help prevent similar things to happen in the future. Otherwise, he spends what is left on books, tomes, airship model kits, and drinks at venues his fiancés work at work want to visit.

ꜱᴏᴄɪᴀʟ ᴏʀ ʟᴏɴᴇʀ: Leaning loner, but definitely not lonely. He enjoys his quiet time to work on his mind or body, but he isn't adverse to conversation or the company of others. Only his circle of those he will reach out to speak with is very small.

ꜰᴀɪᴛʜ / ʀᴇʟɪɢɪᴏɴ: None

×—ʟɪᴋᴇꜱ & ᴅɪꜱʟɪᴋᴇꜱ—×

ꜰᴏᴏᴅꜱ: Laure isn't big into food in general. Healthy and simple is his philosophy. He doesn't really enjoy sweets but likes his evening milk and cookies. He prefer raw vegetables and fruit over cooked or steamed or having them in a dish (like apple pie). Laure dislikes brussels sprouts and (he has yet to admit to his viera lovers) he dislikes carrots.

ᴄᴏʟᴏʀꜱ: Laure says his favorite color is green. It's the kind of green of a tree in late spring/early summer, where the sun is past midday but not yet into evening, so the light is yellow on the leaves, yet there are grey storm clouds overhead that dampen the brightness of the leaves. That's his favorite color.

ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇꜱ: Laure isn't adverse to many places. He is calm and adaptable when he can blend in. He has dipped his toe into more social events like bars and clubs, but it's not his favorite unless he's with someone he knows. He hates crowds where he is expected to network or socialize.

ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅꜱ: Laure LOVES the sound of the Sombremont house. It's always busy and loud with children and family members and workers. Music is almost always playing in the parlor (either on an orchestration radio or an instrument). He likes the sound of a good engine on a bike or car. But Laure also likes the quiet murmurs of a library, or the light chatter at a cafe near the university. Laure dislikes silence. Even when alone, he tries to have music playing. Silence usually meant hiding from a raid or his mother's pimp or the quiet anticipation before a battle.

ꜱᴍᴇʟʟꜱ: Oil. Yes, Laure likes the smell of oil as in slide/value oil for brass instruments, oil from a vehicle, cooking oil fresh on a pan, or lubricant oil for the use of lovemaking. It might not be the most lovely of scents, but to Laure it's a scent of life and creativity.

ᴛᴇxᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ: He likes the feel of warm skin against the pads of his fingertips.

ᴡᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ: When Laure was young he loved the few months that Garlemald had without snow. That's why he loves green, it means warmth and life! But he does have a quiet fondness for fresh snow days that aren't bitterly cold. Being a city dweller in his youth, fresh snow was rarely seen, as it was often brown and grey in the streets.

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ:

×—ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ—×

ᴊᴏʙ / ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱ: Red mage

ᴀʀᴍᴏʀ ᴛʏᴘᴇ: Caster

ᴡᴇᴀᴘᴏɴ(ꜱ): Rapier

ꜰɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: While Laure is good with a gun, he doesn't touch them anymore. However, his training has made his mage work and aiming a precise practice. With the combination of close contact and far-reaching magic, Laure is able to utilize his many skills and compensate where he lacks. This helps his ability to fight for longer periods of time and use his high stamina trait.

ᴍᴇʟᴇᴇ ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: Rapiers are not slicing weapon, but ones meant for precise strikes. Laure is very good at this, being a jock in a nerd clothing, he is strong yet smart.

ʀᴀɴɢᴇᴅ ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: Is all magic based. His magick skills are late bloomed, so he knows he cannot rely fully on those skills.

ᴏꜰꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: He is best as elemental magicks and has to build up his attacks before giving a devastating blow, unlike other mages where the first shot can be lethal.

ᴅᴇꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: His healing isn't great, but he has the basic abilities to keep one from death unless the wound is too severe.

ꜱɪɢɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ: He loves corps-a-corps, in and outside battle. And he keeps his rapier in an eather pocket rather than at his person; it makes him feel cool when he busts that bad boy out of nowhere!

×—ᴍɪꜱᴄᴇʟʟᴀɴᴇᴏᴜꜱ—×

ᴘᴇᴛꜱ / ᴀɴɪᴍᴀʟ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀɴɪᴏɴꜱ: Laure has no pets, nor does he want one. Although he does like his fiancé's companions very much.

ᴘʀɪᴢᴇᴅ / ᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴏᴜꜱ ᴘᴏꜱꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ: Laure tries not to get too attached to material things as he knows it is fleeting. As a man that studies death and dead civilizations, he knows just how little they will mean in the end. He wears a key around his neck that means something to him, but it might get lost some day. He has first edition books, but knows that they will one day rot and fall apart. The rings on his fingers will denigrate over time. What he cherishes most is time, because it will never be returned to you, so he uses what time he has with those he loves.

ʟᴀɴɢᴜᴀɢᴇꜱ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ: Although not a linguist, Laure is well versed in many languages, either written or spoke or both. This was first taught to him by his mother, then pushes to keep learning when in military school for negotiation tactics (know thy enemy!), and then when learning old and dying languages.

ꜱᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ᴛᴀʟᴇɴᴛꜱ: He excels at the euphonium, and is very good with trombone. Laure is also... uh... pretty damn good in bed. Like most things he does, he's very passionate in that area.

ᴘʀᴇꜰᴇʀʀᴇᴅ ᴍᴇᴛʜᴏᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʀᴀᴠᴇʟ: He enjoys his bike, but he's not offended when others prefer non-mechanical means of transportation. He, himself, isn't fond of long distance travel with aetherits.

ɴᴏᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴍᴘʟɪꜱʜᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ: There are several papers published by Laure, and while he's is proud of his magicked findings from his excavation sites and forensic work, and even uncovering a long forgotten civilization, he's also glad that it's such an obscure area of study that people don't hunt him down to do presentations or rub shoulders with the fancy, old money 'scientists' that really just want to network.

ᴀɴ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜱʜᴀᴘᴇᴅ ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴀʀᴇ: When Laure's brother died, Laure was forced off duty because he broke down in front of his squadron. The army tried to keep him on active duty but there was no recovering so he was sent off in disgrace. This brought him home early to his (at the time) fiancé's surprise, who Laure caught in bed with another man. This all accumulated into a turning point; his years of loyalty to the Empire was not returned in his time of need. His love was spat back into his face for a man he devoted his heart to. It was just before this that his Uncle Frederique reached out, finally finding lost family members that were scattered 25 years prior by a bad man's debt, to help him seek out other and get them out of the Garlean Empire and into the safety of a false name and rank in Ishgard. Laure took up that call, and spent years finding and trafficking his family and friends out of a drying Empire's clutches.

#laure sombremont #ffxivrp #ffxiv #ffxiv elezen #i didn't finish it but it's a lot so... enjoy!

[hauntedsharkstrawberry]

Schurhammer’s academic quest to discover Jesuit documents was followed by that of another German Jesuit, Josef Franz Schütte. Schütte’s exploration of the missionary sources started in Rome where he was assigned to the Jesuit archives, thereby gaining easy access to missionary sources. His research extended to manuscript material on the Japanese missions in the Jesuit archives and in the Vatican library in Rome, including Japanese Christian writings and drawings. His major work, based on the Jesuit-archival documents, is Valignanos Missionsgrundsätze für Japan. In the 1950s, he began to do research in Portugal and Spain. In Madrid, he discovered Luis Frois’s original text on Japanese culture, and published it in German in 1955. In the early 1960s, he also created a bibliography of Japanese sources located in the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid. In the same years, he made a significant contribution to Japanese missionary studies when he found the text of Igreja do Japão, which was written by João Rodriguez-Tçuzu in the seventeenth century. He also found new material in East Asia. Finally in 1968, his decades of research culminated in Introductio ad Historiam Societatis Jesu in Japonia, 1549–1650, an analytical description of the Jesuit missions in Japan.11

A Broader Spectrum of Western Historians Contemporaries of these German clergymen were able to use recentlydiscovered sources for their studies. The major historians in the second and third quarters of the twentieth century include Johannes Laures, SJ (1891–1959), Charles Ralph Boxer (1904–2000) and George Elison (1937–), who represent the fourth historiographical group. These three historians finally attempted a synthesis based on both European and oriental scholarships. Although Johannes Laures was among the last generation of historians to take an heroic approach to the Jesuit mission, he did make a vital contribution to Japan-based archival research of Jesuit documents. His manual of Jesuit books and documents on Japan helped scholars to comprehend SJ(eds.), Epistolæ S. Francisci Xavierii aliaque eius scripta (2 Tomus, Romæ: Monumenta Historica Soc. Jesu, 1944–45). See appendix 2 for Schurhammer’s numerous publications. 11 Josef Franz Schütte, SJ, Introductio ad Historiam Societatis Jesu in Japonia, 1549– 1650, ac Prooemium ad Catalogos Japoniae Edendos ad Edenda Societatis Jesu Monumenta Historica Japoniae Proylaeum (Romae: Institutum Historicum Soc. Jesu, 1968). For other works by Schütte, see appendix 2.

[vandeoredecastro]

Post Edsa 1 Article

After president marcos implemented the martial law. The Filipino's way of expressing free writing was very uncontrollable to the point that it made writing different literaries a part of the lives of the Filipinos. Writting under the martial law regime was based on militancy and belligerence. Creative Writing has become a part of the academic institution in where the Writer's Organization makes different symposium and meetings for its memeber for them to get rational ideas about their next crafts. In this period literature has become serious. Non governmental institution helped hand in hand to make a valid recognition for different writers in this period. English and Filipino continues to become a media for literature. Another, literature has become a vehicle for personal thoughts and feelings for most of the Filipinos. Basically as the last period in which martial law was implemented it made a huge impact on our literautre as Filipinos. It made our literary skills much more improved to the point that making philosophical assumption about different opinions and feelings such a sensitive hobby for all of us.

[tabellae-rex-in-sui]

I read an article in the WSJ which said that some people were trying to rehabilitate Sade’s reputation (for context, this was mentioned in the same breath as Robespierre, Henry VIII, and some others being less vilified, and then mocked this supposed trend towards seeing hated historical figures more positively) - is this . . . True? Working? & to what extent?? Maybe I just live in a conservative town but no one seems to like him or is even willing to talk about him

I'm assuming you mean this article, which I'll link in case anyone wants to read it... Although it's less of an article and more of a stand-up comedy routine?

But about Sade, yes, definitely. In the 20th century, there were even people who considered him a progressive visionary; especially those in the surrealist movement, who considered Sade a pioneer of the style. A lot of famous surrealists loved him: Salvador Dalí used him as the inspiration for 25 works, there are quite a bit 'imaginary portraits' of Sade including one by Man Ray, Guillaume Appolinaire famously called Sade "the freest spirit that has ever existed" and wrote a book praising him, the final scene of Dalí and Luis Buñel's film L'Age D'or is a very obvious allusion to 120 Days of Sodom, and... who could forget Marquis (1989) [warning, that one's... disturbing. It's the one with the dick puppet. It used to be on YouTube in it's entirety with Eng subtitles, but it seems to have been removed. It's there with Spanish subtitles tho, so if you can understand French and/or read Spanish and want to be scarred for life, there you go]. Anyway, the surrealists are the ones who dubbed him the "Divine Marquis".

There are also other intellectuals who called for a rehabilitation of Sade's image. George Bataille's "The Use Value of D.A.F. de Sade", Angela Carter's "The Sadeian Woman" (which is a feminist reading of Sade), Simone Beauvoir's "Must We Burn Sade?" There are a lot others, but I'll stop there for brevity, cuz I can tell this is going to be a long answer.

Something else that helped the public image of Sade in the 20th century were his descendants, namely, one descendant, Comte Xavier de Sade, Donatien's great-great-grandson (who I posted about here). Xavier had discovered thousands of Donatien's letters and documents in a walled up family library. In 1947, he and poet Gilbert Lély begun the process of sorting through them. They were eventually published. Though Xavier himself is Catholic, found himself unable to read Donatien's books, and stayed out of the moral debates about him, his discovery led to more intimate biographies, keeping fascination in Donatien alive into this century (not to mention people now knew domestic details, which is always humanizing). While we're talking about descendants, and this is just a fun fact, Marie-Laure Noailles who was close personal friends of the surrealists including Ray, Buñel, and Dalí (and funded L'Age D'or), was a direct descendant of Sade. His great-great-great-granddaughter. She was interviewed by Francine du Plessix-Gray, she's quite the character.

Today, the wild praise for Sade has somewhat died down. I don't see much of it anymore, at least in academic spaces. I do think there are still echos of it though. Some modern bios I find a bit too sympathetic towards him (Du Plessix-Gray's bio and Lever's bio have their moments). His fictional portrayals are also generally kind, making him more of a Joker type character, but not the antagonist (Assassin's Creed is an obvious example, Quills (2000) too). Basically, any work where his inflammatory writing is mentioned, but not his actual crimes like, y'know, rape. He's often used as a martyr for anti-censorship/freedom of speech. Which is odd, cuz, you can morally defend his writing, whatever, it's fiction... but he's also a very real rapist. So, not sure how great a symbol he is on that front. Maybe use someone who isn't the human embodiment of the "slippery slope" argument conservatives love using. And then there's Assassin's Creed... I mean, you don't even have to play the game to see what they were doing. Just look at Sade's character design. The choice to make him younger and thinner says a lot about what audience reaction they were going for. And in gameplay, he's an ally. I think his role in Assassin's Creed is just a great indicator of public perception of him. Especially when compared to Robespierre's portrayal in game... Also a great indicator of public perception. So yeah, the pro-Sade sentiments of the 20th century have not entirely worn off.

I'll leave you with this 2015 review on a Musée d’Orsay exhibition on Sade where the reviewer calls Sade a "badass" in the first paragraph. I think it does a good job of showing how a lot of people view Sade as this anti-establishment, sly, smart, raunchy, rebel.

#if only people knew how traditional his political; familial; and economic beliefs really were #and that his philosophy was really not meant to apply to anyone but himself #and his actual crimes. not jist hos literary ones #i could give a shit what someone writes #but he acted on quite a bit #i dont think people know that #and yeah i know Quills (2000) mentions Sade's case history #but its said in passing by the hypocritical antagonist and Coulmier immediately states that Sade has changed #which was not true. and would have been obvious if they hadn't aged up Madeleine and aged down Sade dhdbdjdj #but i guess the teen/70yr old dynamic would have made our protagonist less sympathetic #i know ive said before im not bothered by Quills' historical inaccuracy since it doesn't aim to be accurate. and I'm not #but the whole 'Sade as a martyr of free speech' thing does bother me.. for all the reasons i just said #...theres so many other people to give that lable to; man #you could easily portray sade as a complicated character; protagonist (as in main character; not hero); human character #but the free-speech-martyr / Joker-archetype thing is tired #i know i went off on this response; but theres just a long history on the moral debates surrounding Sade #and a good chunk of time when defending Sade (person and philosophy) was the mainstream in liberal spaces #and ACU Sade is a great example of the lasting effects #tw: rape mention #ask #anon ask

[the-princess-atta]

“I’m an essay-writing talent.” 

NAME: Dr. Laur Eaves  FACE CLAIM: Kristen Stewart PRONOUNS: She/her  BIRTHDAY: September 12, 1994 (Libra rising; scorpio moon)  SEXUALITY: Aromantic Pansexual  CURRENT STATUS: Taken 

Character Information

SPOTLIGHT: LAUR EAVES JOINS PRIDE UNIVERSITY’S LITERARY STUDIES DEPARTMENT 

Meet the youngest addition to Pride University: Dr. Laur Eaves, a former adjunct professor who has officially been added as a tenure-track professor for Fall 2021. Eaves holds a peculiar place in contemporary Western culture, as one of the few openly magick professors in a non-magic academic discipline. Many might recognize her name, her crisp, jargon-free style, and even key theories without realizing that she came from magic roots: specifically, the Enchantra Hollow located outside Swynlake. But it’s precisely these roots from which her best known theory of radical animality sprang. The seeds were planted as she studied Hollow lore and literature as a scribe-talent. “Hollows are already radically queer places compared to contemporary human spaces,” said Eaves. “But those ideas have not been static. As I dived deeper into my own cultural history, I realized I had to widen my scope to include exchanges between magic and non-magick communities. That’s what led me to pursue my degrees at Pride U.” 

Eaves quickly completed her undergrad degree in one year, aided by her natural affinity for scholarship; her PhD followed after, her thesis of which focused on radical animality in pop culture, like Adventure Time and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. Radical animality seeks to complicate boundaries between subject categories like human, humanoid, animal-- and even magick and mundus. “Radical Animality” draws heavily from queer theorists like Butler and Halberstam. 

“The ways we understand ‘magick’ and its expression is dependent entirely on an assumption that mundus is the fixed default category,” explains Eaves. “And that’s rooted in the same tired narratives that critical theorists have been attempting to deconstruct since the 1970s-- heteronormativity, colonialism, humanist essentialism. All my work does is center magicks and animal identities in the conversation.” Before her academic pursuits, Eaves had not interacted much with Swynlake’s town spaces despite the proximity. Her parents are both garden-talents; she describes them as “human-shy” and her own pre-Pride U past as “boring” and “nothing worth reading about...I was too busy reading myself.”  However, Eaves is eager to further entrench herself in Pride University as a new magick voice. 

“I think there’s a place for my perspective outside the classroom as well,” says Eaves. “I’ve been working the past year as an adjunct with other part-time faculty and grad students to establish a Union. We’ll hopefully win the election, and Pride U can not only attract new talent, but support them with the necessary resources.”

Pride University’s administration declined to comment on efforts to form a union. 

✓ Cerebral, decisive, confident 

✖ Pretentious, isolated, insert the Ben Wyatt “Actually it’s going to bother me if I don’t...” gif 

Character Suggestions

None

Current Relationships

Mocha Chino (best friends; sometimes they hook up)  Belle Acheron (she took one of Laur’s classes)  Suta Shere (professor friend)  Atta Orkney (fairy pals)  Sindri Dyrrson (fairy pals)  Ting-Ting Qin (friends through Mocha)  Phil Knightley (enemy) 

Possible Relationships

None 

Magical Abilities

Fairy

Scribe-talent; responsible for keeping the lore and history of Pixie Hollow safe. Speed reading. Eidetic memory. Can inexplicably pull all-nighters without any adverse risk to her health. 

#bdrptask #raise ur hand if ud have a big fat crush on her #yeah exactly #also idk how to do self inserts so i just wrote what i want to have #lmfao

[addictedforbooksquad]

P I C K (S)  O F  T H E  M O N T H: O C T O B E R

Lie by Natalia Jaster

Villains series by V.E. Schwab

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Fall by Kristen Callihan

Scotland or Bust by Kira Archer

Dating the Enemy by Nicole Williams

Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Lie by Natalia Jaster

Genres: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Links: goodreads | amazon

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, there lived a liar... In the Kingdom of Autumn, Aspen is a girl of the trees. She’s a girl who knows her way around a falsehood. She’s the artful liar who steals from the Crown. Once upon a time, there lived a knight... In the shadows of a castle, Aire is a man of the wind. He’s a man who sees through Aspen’s treachery. He’s the relentless knight who pursues her. Once upon a time, there lived two enemies... In a fairytale woodland, a pair of mismatched souls are thrown together—only to find an unexpected bond. Both deceitful and passionate.

Why we love it:

beautiful, poetic prose

interesting, unusual take on Pinocchio

flawed, engaging characters who develop over the course of the book

their banter is entertaining as hell

heroine’s “skin condition” (so to speak) is not magically healed (at least not permanently) - she learns to love herself instead

Trigger warnings: ableism

Villains series by V.E.Schwab

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Science-Fiction

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Why we love it:

memorable cast of characters - likeable and morally grey villains, badass women

anti-hero story

a gripping, twisted tale of jealousy, ambition, murder, revenge and superpowers

interesting narrative style with timeline jumping back and forth fluidly with different perspectives

SO. MUCH. TENSION

Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, suicide, attempted rape, drug abuse, graphic violence

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left. Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane. Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy’s secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega. Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces. It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

Why we love it:

so many family feels!

highlights the importance of friends/family/people in your life that are not blood-related

MATES (we do love a WELL-done mates trope)

werewolves whose sexuality is fluid

angsty but worth it!

Trigger warnings: violence, death, emotional abuse

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Genres: Historical, Historical Fiction

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Why we love it:

beautifully haunting prose

set during WWII

two parallel stories that intertwine briefly towards the end

poetically written and full of rich details

there are so many heartwarming and heartbreaking moments

Trigger warnings: n/a

Fall by Kristen Callihan

Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

The first time I met Jax Blackwood things went a little sideways. In my defense, I didn’t know he was Jax Blackwood—who expects a legendary rock star to be shopping for groceries? More importantly, a blizzard was coming and he was about to grab the last carton of mint-chocolate chip. Still, I might have walked away, but then he smugly dared me to try and take the coveted ice cream. So I kissed him. And distracted that mint-chip right out of his hands. Okay, it was a dirty move, but desperate times and all that. Besides, I never expected he’d be my new neighbor. An annoying neighbor who takes great pleasure in reminding me that I owe him ice cream but would happily accept more kisses as payment. An irresistible neighbor who keeps me up while playing guitar naked–spectacularly naked–in his living room. Clearly, avoidance is key. Except nothing about Jax is easy to ignore—not the way he makes me laugh, or that his particular brand of darkness matches mine, or how one look from him melts me faster than butter under a hot sun. Neither of us believes in love or forever. Yet we’re quickly becoming each other’s addiction. But we could be more. We could be everything. All we have to do is trust enough to fall.

Why we love it:

story written with SO MUCH feeling

deals with depression in a realistic way

wonderfully painful and satisfying slow-burn

actual relationship buildup, unlike the usual instalove that we see a lot in contemporaries

characters that feel very real and utterly relatable

“musician” aspect of the story is not just there, it’s a focus of some scenes

interesting and entertaining secondary characters

makes us long for the next installment!

Trigger warnings: mentions of suicide, depression

Scotland or Bust by Kira Archer

Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

After dumping her boyfriend, Nicole Franklin impulsively jumps on a plane and heads to Europe. Sure, money and a job would have been nice to line up first. Even a visa, for that matter. So now she has to play tour guide at an Outlander experience for the most obnoxious man on the planet. Until she stumbles into the wrong bed in the middle of the night and wakes up in Harrison’s arms. Now his family thinks they’re engaged, and the entire village is betting on how long before she’ll be running for the hills. Harrison Troy has a reputation in the town for burning through assistants. And the bubbly new one he’s just hired is likely no different. But his family quickly has them “engaged.” He should be upset, but she’s the perfect buffer for his interfering family. She says she doesn’t need another man in her life--even if he comes with a castle--and that’s fine with him. So why can’t he stop thinking about the woman who is charming everyone in the town, and maybe even him?

Why we love it:

fake dating trope

set in Scotland

crazy adorable family

so many outlander and Jamie/Claire references

Trigger warnings: n/a

Dating the Enemy by Nicole Williams

Genres: Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

Ms. Romance, Hannah Arden, writes one of the top read relationship advice columns in the nation. Mr. Reality, Brooks North, writes the top read relationship advice column. Ms. Romance believes in true love and soul mates. Mr. Reality believes love is a term humanity has assigned to the primal instinct to procreate. She believes in fate—he in chance. She knows there’s one right person for everyone—he knows there are multiple ones. The two writers couldn’t be more polarized on relationships. They’re professional rivals, and philosophical antagonists. For eight years, their battles have been fought with words and ink. That changes when they apply for the same position at the World Times and find themselves face-to-face for the first time. Brooks isn’t the sour-faced, antiquity of a man Hannah pictured. And Hannah isn’t exactly the middle-aged shrew with cat hair on her housedress that Brooks imagined either. In lieu of competing for the promotion traditional ways, the two writers are presented with playing the leading roles in a social experiment unlike any before. Can a person be tricked into falling in love? Can a relationship be crafted under the right string of circumstances? Hannah knows the answer. So does Brooks. Agreeing to the terms, the two set out on a three-month dating experiment, live-streamed for the world to watch. All Hannah has to do to win is not fall in love with the narcissistic brute. All Brooks has to do is get the starry-eyed dreamer to fall in love with him. Both are so confident in their philosophies, they expect the challenge to be easy. With the world watching, Brooks and Hannah will be forced to confront their beliefs and conclude, once and for all, who’s right. The answer is one neither of them saw coming.

Why we love it:

fake dating (we do have a weakness for this trope!)

interesting dynamic

likeable characters

The-Ugly-Truth-meets-The-Hating-Game premise

Trigger warnings: n/a

Save The Date by Morgan Matson

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Links: goodreads | bookdepository

Synopsis:

Charlie Grant's older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can't wait for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend, before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect. The only problem? The weekend is shaping up to be an absolute disaster. There's the unexpected dog with a penchant for howling, house alarm that won't stop going off, and a papergirl with a grudge. There are the relatives who aren't speaking, the (awful) girl her favorite brother brought home unannounced, and a missing tuxedo. Not to mention the neighbor who seems to be bent on sabotage and a storm that is bent on drenching everything. The justice of the peace is missing. The band will only play covers. The guests are all crazy. And the wedding planner's nephew is unexpectedly, distractedly cute. Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she'll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future.

Why we love it:

adorable, intriguing and complex dynamic between Grant siblings

Trigger warnings: n/a

#dailylit #litedit #nadaily #book recs #bibliophile #bookworm #villains series #foolish kingdoms #lie #all the light we cannot see #wolfsong #vip series #fall #our edits #pick of the month #dating the enemy #save the date #scotland or bust

[a-wandering-fool]

by Judith Curry

Reflections on Nic Lewis’ audit of the Resplandy et al. paper.

In response to Nic Lewis’ two blog posts critiquing the Resplandy et al. paper on ocean temperatures, co-author Ralph Keeling acknowledges the paper’s errors with these statements:

Scripps news release:   Note from co-author Ralph Keeling Nov. 9, 2018: I am working with my co-authors to address two problems that came to our attention since publication. These problems, related to incorrectly treating systematic errors in the O2 measurements and the use of a constant land O2:C exchange ratio of 1.1,  do not invalidate the study’s methodology or the new insights into ocean biogeochemistry on which it is based. We expect the combined effect of these two corrections to have a small impact on our calculations of overall heat uptake, but with larger margins of error.  We are redoing the calculations and preparing author corrections for submission to Nature.

From the Washington Post:

“Unfortunately, we made mistakes here,” said Ralph Keeling, a climate scientist at Scripps, who was a co-author of the study. “I think the main lesson is that you work as fast as you can to fix mistakes when you find them.”

“I accept responsibility for what happened because it’s my role to make sure that those kind of details got conveyed,” Keeling said.

“Maintaining the accuracy of the scientific record is of primary importance to us as publishers and we recognize our responsibility to correct errors in papers that we have published,” Nature said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Issues relating to this paper have been brought to Nature’s attention and we are looking into them carefully. We take all concerns related to papers we have published very seriously and will issue an update once further information is available.”

From the San Diego Tribune:

“When we were confronted with his insight it became immediately clear there was an issue there,” he said. “We’re grateful to have it be pointed out quickly so that we could correct it quickly.”

“Our error margins are too big now to really weigh in on the precise amount of warming that’s going on in the ocean,” Keeling said. “We really muffed the error margins.”

Ralph Keeling prepared a guest post at RealClimate, explaining the issues from their perspective.

We would like to thank Nicholas Lewis for first bringing an apparent anomaly in the trend calculation to our attention.

Ralph Keeling behaved with honesty and dignity by publicly admitting these errors and thanking Nic Lewis.

Such behavior shouldn’t be news, however; it is how all scientists should behave, always.

Imagine how the course of climate science and the public debate on climate change would be different if Michael Mann would have behaved in a similar way in response to McIntyre and McKitrick’s identification of problems with the hockey stick analysis.

Hostile environment

In the WaPo article, Gavin Schmidt made the following statement:

“The key is not whether mistakes are made, but how they are dealt with — and the response from Laure and Ralph here is exemplary. No panic, but a careful reexamination of their working — despite a somewhat hostile environment,” he wrote.

“No panic.” Why would anyone panic over something like this? After a big press release, the magnitude of such an error seems substantially magnified. Embarrassing, sure (a risk of issuing a press release), but cause for panic?  Keeling is right, best to fix as quickly as possible.

The Climategate emails revealed a lot of ‘panic’ over criticisms of hockey team research. The motives for the panic appeared to be some combination of fears over threats to careerism ambitions, potential damage to a political agenda, and basic tribal warfare  against climate skeptics that they regarded as threatening their authority.

“Hostile environment.” Exactly what is ‘hostile’ about an independent scientist auditing a published paper, politely contacting the authors for a response and then posting the critique on a blog?

Perhaps Gavin is referring to the minor media attention given to their mistake, after their big press release and substantial MSM attention?  GWPF is bemoaning the lack of attention to this error in the British media [link].

Or perhaps this is a figment of Gavin’s personal sensitivities, and the general strategy of the RC wing of the climate community to circle the wagons in the context of an adversarial relationship with anyone from outside the ‘tribe’ that criticizes their science. I know how this all works, given their ‘help’ during the hurricanes and global warming wars circa 2005/2006. All this made me feel rather paranoid about being criticized by the fossil fuel funded deniers and all that.

Gavin seems to be ‘managing’ the Resplandy situation to some extent (Ralph Keeling has not hitherto posted at RealClimate), and this management does not include any cooperation with Lewis, although Keeling was gracious enough to thank Nic.

Gavin’s views on hostilities is illustrated by Nic’s critique of the Marvel et al. paper,  responded to in a rather contentious blog post with two subsequent updates that admitted that Lewis was partially correct. Two errors in the Marvel et al. paper were subsequently corrected. Was Lewis thanked? No way, he is treated to classic Gavin snark:

But there has also been an ‘appraisal’ of the paper by Nic Lewis that has appeared in no fewer than three other climate blogs (you can guess which).

I should be clear that we are not claiming infallibility and with ever-closer readings of the paper we have found a few errors and typos ourselves which we will have corrected in the final printed version of the paper.

Lewis in subsequent comments has claimed without evidence that land use was not properly included in our historical runs [Update: This was indeed true for one of the forcing calculations]

When there are results that have implications for a broad swath of other papers, it’s only right that the results are examined closely. Lewis’ appraisal has indeed turned up two errors, and suggested further sensitivity experiments.

According to Nic, Gavin’s assertion that Nic’s claim regarding land use forcing in their historical runs was made without evidence was blatantly untrue; Nic had published a detailed statistical analysis indicating, correctly, that land use forcing had been omitted from their total historical run forcing values.

Subsequently, the LC18 paper provided a published critique of key aspects of the Marvel et al. paper.

This blog post by Gavin provides a sense of the ‘hostile environment’ faced by independent scientists who evaluate climate science papers.  Scientists should welcome discussion of their research and being pointed to any errors.  Disagreement should be the spice of academic life; this is what drives science forward.  However, when a political agenda and careerism enters into the equation, we have a different story.  For an overview of the really hostile environment faced by McIntyre and McKitrick re the hockey stick, see Andrew Montford’s book The Hockey Stick Illusion.

So please, lets stop whining about ‘hostile environment’ and get on with our research in an open, honest and collegial way, giving credit where due.

Peer review

From the SD Tribune article:

While papers are peer reviewed before they’re published, new findings must always be reproduced before gaining widespread acceptance throughout the scientific community, said Gerald Meehl, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

“This is how the process works,” he said. “Every paper that comes out is not bulletproof or infallible. If it doesn’t stand up under scrutiny, you review the findings.”

Of course this is how things are supposed to work. This whole episode is being held up as an example of the self-correcting nature of science.

When I first saw the Resplandy paper, it didn’t pass the sniff test from my perspective in terms of a new and inexact method coming up with estimates that exceeded the ranges from analyses of in situ observations of ocean temperatures. Apparently the coauthors and Nature peer reviewers had no such concerns.

The Resplandy paper lists 9 coauthors, presumably all of who read the entire paper and were prepared to defend it. Other than Keeling, I am not familiar with any of these coauthors, but it seems that none have any expertise in data analysis and statistics.

From my own experience, particularly when I have a mentoring role with the first author (e.g. my postdoc or other young scientist), as a co-author I am trying to help them get their paper published preferably in a high profile journal and get some publicity for their work, so that they can advance their career and be successful with their job applications. Young scientists seem to think (probably correctly) that having a senior, well-known coauthor on their paper helps the chances for publication and publicity. I have to say that in my mentoring role as a faculty member, I ended up feeling conflicted about several papers I was coauthor on, with a conflict between my role as a mentor versus my duty to be able to defend all aspects of the paper. At some point, I started declining to add my name as coauthor and donated my time to improving the paper. Career suicide, but at that point I already had one foot out the academia door.

Now for the external reviewers selected by Nature. Imagine if the Resplandy paper identified a smaller trend than identified from conventional observations – the reviewers would have been all over this. Roy Spencer writes:

If the conclusions of the paper support a more alarmist narrative on the seriousness of anthropogenic global warming, the less thorough will be the peer review. I am now totally convinced of that. If the paper is skeptical in tone, it endures levels of criticism that alarmist papers do not experience. I have had at least one paper rejected based upon a single reviewer who obviously didn’t read the paper…he criticized claims not even made in the paper.

Early in my career I spent a great deal of time reviewing papers and grant proposals, and actually put considerable effort into making constructive suggestions to help make the paper/proposal better. Why? Because I wanted to see the outcomes and learn from them, and for science to move forward. I had a cooperative and helpful attitude towards all. In the mid-90’s, my rose-colored glasses got busted, when I was working on a committee and did 90% of work on a major document, only to end up as second author and squeezed out of the major funding. I realized that I was in competition for credit, recognition and funding, and that my ideas and hard work could be effectively stolen. This changed a lot of my attitudes, and looking back this is when I first stopped liking my job as a professor so much.

Frank Jablonsky tweets:

Effective peer review is usually very time consuming & uncomfortable, so it isn’t often done outside of conflicts between keen adversaries.

The ‘keen adversaries’ is key; papers supporting consensus perspectives pretty much get a free ride through the peer review process. Anything challenging the consensus gets either a rigorous review or rejected (or not even sent out for review), often for ancillary reasons not directly related to the substance of the paper.

At this point in my career, I respond to relatively few requests to review journal articles; since I am only publishing ~1 paper per year at this point, I figure I don’t owe the ‘system’ more than a few reviews per year. If I do accept a request to review a paper, it is probably because I know of the author and like their work; I am interested to see what they have to say and happy to help improve the paper if I can.

I probably review more papers for journalists, who send an embargoed copy of a ‘hot’ new paper and ask for my comments. I respond to as many of these requests as I have time for; these requests seem to come in spurts (I haven’t had any in awhile, now that I am ‘retired’). I am typically sent these papers to review since the journalist is interested in an adversarial perspective. And these reviews are prepared after the horse has left the barn (i.e. the paper is already published).

Much has been written about the problems of peer review. There is an interesting new paper: In peer review we (don’t) trust: how peer review’s filtering poses a systemic risk to science.

This article describes how the filtering role played by peer review may actually be harmful rather than helpful to the quality of the scientific literature.

Well, I have to say that I don’t know what is actually accomplished by journal peer review at this point. Academic scientists don’t get any credit or kudos for reviewing, so many  do a quick and shoddy job. The end result in the climate field is gatekeeping and consensus enforcement, which is detrimental to the advancement of science.

Extended peer review

Owing to the relative free ride that consensus supporting and the more alarming climate science papers typically seem to get in the review process, particularly for high profile journals having press embargoes, etc., critical scrutiny is increasingly coming from technically educated individuals outside of the field of professional climate science, most without any academic affiliation.

Of course, the godfather of extended peer review in the climate field is Steve McIntyre. It’s hard to imagine what the field of paleoclimatological reconstructions for the past two millennia would be had not McIntyre & McKitrick happened onto the scene.

Regarding Nic Lewis, the extended peer reviewer du jour, he states it best himself in the WaPo article:

Lewis added that he tends “to read a large number of papers, and, having a mathematics as well as a physics background, I tend to look at them quite carefully, and see if they make sense. And where they don’t make sense — with this one, it’s fairly obvious it didn’t make sense — I look into them more deeply.”

Here is the issue. There are some academic climate scientists that have expertise in statistics comparable to Nic Lewis. However, I will wager that exactly none of them would have the time or inclination to dig into the Resplandy paper in the way that Nic Lewis did. While many scientists may have reacted like I did, thinking the paper failed the sniff test, nothing would have been done about it, and people that liked the result would cite the paper (heck, they ‘found’ Trenberth’s missing heat).

So Nic Lewis’ identification of the problem does not imply that the so-called ‘self-correcting process’ of institutional science is working. It is only working because of the highly-skilled and dedicated efforts of a handful of unpaid and unaffiliated scientists auditing those papers that come to their attention and they have time to investigate. Erroneous papers outside their fields of interest or which do not make the necessary data available are likely to escape detailed scrutiny. Moreover, in many cases it is impracticable to audit a paper’s results unless the computer code used to produce them has been made available, which is very often not the case. The single most important way of making institutional science more self correcting would be for all journals to insist on turnkey code, with all necessary data, being publicly archived by the time the paper is published online by the journal

A large number of articles have been written about this incident (very few in the MSM tho). Nic is referred to as a lukewarmer, a skeptic, a denier, a fringe scientist, etc. There is an apparent need to label Nic with an adversarial moniker, in spite of complimenting him for his work. The same for Steve McIntyre, and anyone else who criticizes a paper that feeds the consensus or alarmist narratives. McKitrick and I are in a slightly different category in terms of labeling owing to our academic positions.

Science as a tribal activity with adversarial tribes fighting for the dominant narrative so as to influence global climate and energy policy is not a healthy narrative for science. Speaking for myself and based on my impressions of Nic Lewis and Steve McIntyre over the past decade, there is no ‘activist’ motivation behind our critical evaluation of climate science in general or auditing of particular papers, beyond a general sense that good policy is based on accurate science and an appropriate assessment of uncertainty.

An interesting comment appeared at RealClimate:

Finally, this episode demonstrates as many others over the last 30 years the role of “gentleman” scientists. In the 18th century most scientists were of this type. As science got bigger, Universities became the preferred profession of those aspiring to be scientists. After WWII science became big business and scientists were often a blend of entrepreneur, public relations flak, and managers of large teams of postdocs and students, with little time left over for actual technical work. The most prolific publishers can not even have read all the papers on which they are authors much less checked any of the results.

Perhaps the scientific community needs to more wisely use the often free services of “gentlemen” scientists, those who are in retirement, and particularly professional statisticians. It continues to amaze me that most science outside medicine seems to avoid placing a professional statistician on the team and listening to him.

Franktoo writes in the CE comments:

IMO, the fact that auditing by Nic Lewis and Steve McIntyre has turned up so many problems (real problems as best this biased individual can tell) suggests that you and the whole climate science community should be deeply concerned about confirmation bias during peer review. However, that is another subject that can’t be publicly discussed without it reaching the conservative press and skeptical blogs.

Virtually all peer reviewers don’t have time to do even a cursory check of the work other than reading it for obvious problems and conflicts with already published papers. If peer reviewers were paid and expected to devote at least a couple of weeks to each review, the quality would be higher. The real problem here is that 90% of what is published is not worthy of the paper its printed on.

That’s why citizen scientists are exceptionally valuable.

The value of such analyses being conducted by independent scientists is substantial. Although the heyday of the technical climate blogs seems past, they remain the essential forum for such discussion and auditing. Efforts to institutionalize this kind of effort with a recognized red team were thwarted by politicization of the issue, and a failure to recognize what really drives the auditing of climate research and what makes it work. The Resplandy et al. paper seems to have revitalized the technical climate blogosphere somewhat; it is been ages since I visited RealClimate.

Fixing it – or not

Resplandy et al. are to be commended for jumping on this and addressing the problems as quickly as they can (apparently, the RealClimate post contains the essence of what they sent to Nature). It remains to be seen how Nature addresses this, particularly as Nic has identified at least one problem not dealt with by the authors in their Corrigendum (Part 3).

While on the topic of ‘fixing it’, I must mention Steve McIntyre’s latest post PAGES2K: North American Tree Ring Proxies. I have long declared CE to be a tree-ring free zone, basically because I have not really delved into this topic and SM has done such a good job. But here is what caught my attention. PAGES  is an international group of paleoclimatologists that is a partner of the World Climate Research Programme and funded by US National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academy of Science. The 2017 PAGES paper  lists about 80 coauthors. After auditing this paper (and the 2013 PAGES paper) and the proxies used, McIntyre concludes the following

PAGES 2013 and PAGES 2017 perpetuate the use of Graybill stripbark chronologies – despite the recommendation of the 2006 NAS Panel that these problematic series be “avoided” in future reconstructions.

There is no hockey stick without the Graybill stripbark chronologies. Without having the background or putting in the effort to personally evaluate any of this, I’m asking if can anyone explain how and why the PAGES team has justified using bristlecone strip bark chronologies, given the 2006 National Academies Panel recommendation that they not be used (not to mention MM criticisms)? If this problem is as bad as stated by SM, the whole field of tree ring paleoclimatology appears to be deluded (or worse).

Conclusions

By quickly admitting mistakes and giving credit where due, Ralph Keeling has done something unusual and laudatory in the field of climate science. If all climate scientists behaved this way, there would be no ‘hostile environment.’

I find it to be a sad state of affairs when a scientist admitting mistakes gets more kudos than the scientist actually finding the mistakes. But given the state of climate science, I guess finding mistakes seems to be a more common story than a publishing scientist actually admitting to mistakes.

Given the importance of auditing climate research  and independent climate scientists working outside of institutional frameworks, I wish there was some way to encourage more of this. In the absence of recognition and funding, I don’t have much to suggest. Other than providing a home for such analyses at Climate Etc.

My huge thanks to Nic Lewis for his efforts, the other guest posters at CE, and to all the denizens who enrich these analysis with their comments and discussion.

=============

long but interesting...

[oh-snapperss]

Medusa: The Much Needed Shift from Monster to Survivor in Percy Jackson (2023)

I am posting this on request of a couple folks! This is a part of a much bigger portfolio I submitted to my college mythology course, so if anything seems abrupt or short, that's why. Enjoy!

Reader discretion advised: the analysis below includes non-explicit discussion of sexual assault and rape.

From the beginning of the Percy Jackson series recently released on Disney+, it was clear that many changes were going to be made throughout the series both from the book series it derived from, and the myths Riordan first retold in his books. One of the most remarkable changes to the series can be found in episode three, and stood out with the dialogue below:

Percy: “So you’re not a monster, what are you then?”

Medusa: “A survivor.” (“We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium” 23:22)

The decision to portray Medusa in this light is in stark contrast to any other adaptation involving her. Moments before this, Percy tells Grover and Annabeth that he thinks they can trust her, and that his mother had always told him Medusa’s story with the point “She isn’t what people think,” (21:52). This sets the stage for the following conversation, and the idea that Medusa in the myths may have been misunderstood as just another monster of Greek mythology.

In fact, Medusa’s physical appearance in the series is also markedly different from the original myth. Instead of being “monstrous” with wings, tusks of swine, and hair made of hissing snakes (“Medusa in Mythology”), the actress wears a veil over her hairand eyes, a nice dress, and has perfectly done makeup, with red lipstick. Her appearance brings empowerment to Medusa while also humanizing her, and a sense of fear or apprehension to the watcher. The answer to why these changes were made can be found in the relatability Medusa’s story has for today’s victims of rape and a patriarchal society that is unfair to women who have been assaulted.

Myths of Medusa describe her story without much pity: Either Poseidon rapes her in Athena’s temple or they willingly have sex; Athena, enraged, punishes Medusa by turning her into a monster. Poseidon goes unpunished, as he is a god (“Medusa in Mythology.") However, in current day climates, it is impossible not to draw similarities in Medusa’s story to the way victims are treated often in society. The assaulter goes unpunished, while the victim must live with the emotional, physical, and mental harm of such an attack. In fact, from my personal experience and things I have seen in the tattoo parlor I have gotten tattoos from, some victims have chosen to get tattoos of Medusa as a sign of being a survivor of such an assault. Thus, this brings back the director’s choice to portray Medusa differently in Percy Jackson than before.

Another notable difference in Medusa’s behavior is that she does not immediately attack Percy, Annabeth, and Grover (who would be considered the heroes of the story), instead offering them lunch and her perspective on what happened to her originally. By allowing Medusa the chance to speak her perspective on what happened to her, the directors of the show push for a world where women and victims are able to speak. With the show being watched by many younger teens and children, in addition to adults, an important message is carried to watchers, and her story is handled in a way that any victim watching can hear the message that they are not alone.

The director’s decision to show Medusa in this other light comes to a conclusion with Percy refusing the chance to betray his friends for her (28:03) a few minutes later, and from there the story aligns closer to the myth it derived from. The fight between the heroes and Medusa is not long, ending after Annabeth puts her hat of invisibility on Medusa, and Percy beheads her. Visually, this fight is markedly different to the myth—Medusa’s beheading is done with a hat of invisibility on, so there is no blood or gore shown (31:41). This change can easily be explained by the shows rating of TV-PG, combined with the fact that most likely, Disney would not have wanted such a gore filled scene on their platform.

Overall, the changes to Medusa’s story are headed in a positive direction much needed in the current climate of society, despite not staying exactly true to the source material.

Works Cited

“Medusa in Greek Mythology.” Greek Legends and Myths, https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/medusa.html. Accessed 20 March 2024.

“We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium.” Percy Jackson and the Olympians, season 1, episode 3, Disney+, December 26, 2023. Disney, https://www.disneyplus.com/play/7a078c8a-2a03-4171-a647-a4f5ed12e738.

#laurie thoughts #percy jackson #medusa #tw sa mention #laurs' academic writing #<-new tag omg

[kieranconveyma]

11.Making sense of virtual reality: Notes

Defining virtual reality 

■Virtual reality in history?

■Theorising virtual reality

“Virtual reality (VR) is a computer technology that uses virtual reality headsets or multi-projected environments, sometimes in combination with physical environments or props, to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual or imaginary environment” 

https://www.gophygital.io/experience-virtual-reality

“The term [virtual reality] can be used to refer to computer-generated environments that involve some form of interactivity and immersion” (Chan 2014: 1).Interactivity = reciprocal engagement with the environment Immersion = feeling of being encompassed

Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality: Representations in Contemporary Media. New York, NY:Bloomsbury Academic.

When was virtual realityborn?

In the early 1980s Jaron Lanier coined the term “Virtual reality”Virtual Reality (1991) by Howard RheingoldThe Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (1994) by Michael Heim

Visual alternative realities

Non-visual alternative realities

Alternative reality devices

THEORISING VIRTUAL REALITY

Marshall McLuhan - The media as an extension of the human sensorium Different media appeal to the senses in different ways

media constantly rewire the human sensorium

A more complete sensory immersion

Extension = the whole human experience, mental and physical

Obsolescence = screens (e.g. in terms of cinema, video games, etc) maybe also reality itself?

Retrieval =  sense of adventure / idea of man’s triumph over nature

Reversal = complete loss of reality

Realism and the desire to go beyond the medium‘Photography was supposedly more immediatethan painting, film than photography, television than film, and now virtual reality fulfils the promise of immediacy and supposedly ends the progression.’(Bolter and Grusin, 1999: 60)

Diminishing the presence of the medium (from a physical,mental and emotional perspective)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzGEPK8n1EA

Virtual reality? Extreme realism or absence of realism?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idhF3g1Llbo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9hP7jbJTk0&feature=emb_title

From reality to hyperreality“The generation by models of a real without origins or reality: the hyperreal” (Baudrillard 1988: 166).In hyperreality, simulation can feel even more real that the real itself.

Baudrillard, J. (1988) Selected Writings. Stanford; Stanford University Press.

  Baudrillard: 4 phases of the image

Phase 1: Images as a reflection of reality 

Phase 2: Images as masking or perverting reality

Phase 3: Images as masking the absence of reality

Phase 4: The image “bears no relation to any reality whatever” (Baudrillard 1983: 11) Baudrillard, J. (1983) Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e). Phase 1: Images as a reflection of realityVirtual environment as mirroring something in the real world (e.g. a flight simulator)

 Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality: Representations in Contemporary Media. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. Phase 2: Images as masking or perverting reality

E.g. military entertainment games masking the atrocities of war

Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality:Representations in ContemporaryMedia. New York, NY: BloomsburyAcademic.   Phase 3: Images as masking the absence ofreality Phase 4: The image “bears no relation toany reality whatever” (Baudrillard 1983: 11)

 Reality disappears into worlds of pure simulation

More real than the real Interactivity and Immersion “The term [virtual reality] can be used to refer to computer-generated environments that involve some form of interactivity and immersion” (Chan 2014: 1).

Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality: Representations in Contemporary Media.New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.

Interaction (logical) vsImmersion (psycological)Interaction opposes immersivityand vividness (Ryan 2003).Too much logic can prevent psychological immersion.Ryan, Marie Laure, (2003). Narrative as Virtual Reality. The John Hopkins University Press.

The artistic value of virtual reality? “The aesthetic criteria of interactive drama will not be those of classical drama; the future of the genre will be as a game to be played and an action to be lived, not as a spectacle to be watched. [...] will this involvement be a source of aesthetic pleasure—will the game, in other words, be worth playing at all?” (Ryan 2003: 328).Ryan, Marie Laure, (2003). Narrative as Virtual Reality. The John Hopkins University Press.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsT59fp8LpY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=54O4VP3tCoY&feature=emb_title

“Whereas in conventional VR, the body is often reduced to little more than a probing hand and roving eye, immersion in Osmose depends on the body's most essential living act, that of breath—not only to navigate, but more importantly—to attain a particular state-of-being within the virtual world. In this state, usually achieved within ten minutes of immersion, most immersants experience a shift of awareness in which the urge for action is replaced by contemplative free-fall. “

Virtual reality andaffect theory

Relational Non-representational

Emotional, an intensity felt through the body

No subject-object relationship

“By focusing on the interactive process that takes placeas we inhale and exhale, Osmose seems to take usbeyond the idea that there are solid boundaries betweenthe subject (human body) and object (the physical worldaround us). Instead, Osmose draws attention to thewaysin which breathing is a continual process of interaction between us and the environment” (Chan 2014: 1).

Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality: Representations in Contemporary Media. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.

“A few wept upon emerging” (Davis 1999: 161)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsT59fp8LpY

#media discourses

[snarkyelf]

Laure Sombremont has yet another makeover. Shut up, it's been 2 years, he's a different man!

He's a big nerd. Dark academia all the way. He remains a Professor of Thanatology and Forensic Science at the University of Ishgard. He is Frederique's nephew, a refugee, the biological father to his legal nephew, former military officer, and big brain nerd with an unnerving obsession with death and decay. Like the rest of the family, he is musically gifted but he has stage fright.

Laure still lives at the Sombremont estate but chooses to live in the guest house with his cousin for space for his research.

He takes students with him into dungeons, escorted by adventurers, so they can study and excavate the ruins. He's like Indiana Jones!

Eventually I would like his class to be reaper, red mage, or bard. I'm still working on relearning the game mechanics and I'm behind two whole expansion packs.

What's different? Not smooth with lovers at all. Gay, not bi. Secret romantic but painfully shy when it comes to those things.

He's quietly strong; he CAN fight through dungeons but would rather research.

Laura is a beanpole, tall and skinny, bit gangly. Brown hair and a mustache. He got the 'stache when starting his dissertation but wasn't given much respect because he was so young and he thought it made him appear older. He just never shaved it off.

He's not a mainstream definition of handsome but he's an academic sort of handsome.

He has British wit. Or we shall see if I can write dry British humor in RP. Less giddy than before; more practical, bit depressed but with a warm heart to those he gets close to.

Laure absolutely loves children. He loves how the Sombremont household has so many children to adore.

Sometimes he is hired on as a consultant by investigators and local authorities for his forensics knowledge.

Character inspirations are from the following:

Harvey from Stardew Valley. Particularly a farmer/Harvey fic I read too many times. Sweet, shy, depressed, with his happiness found in love and community.

Professor Remus Lupin from Harry Potter. Sassy man with a warm heart and a love for chocolate (and short "bad" boys if you believe in wolfstar, which I do).

Professor Palladium from Winx. Don't judge me, he's a handsome elf man that can sometimes be a clutz and doesn't always gain his student's respect because of it. Still a smart, strong, and protective individual.

Aziraphale AND Crowley from Good Omens. Aziraphale's love of the mundane and never in style but thinking he is. Crowley for his unintentional awkward-coolness he provides. And that he never seems to know what to do with his long limbs.

This went on longer than I meant it to. I blame ADHD. Here's some screenshots!

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #laure sombremont

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About me

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[virtual-dylan]

Ryan - Theories of Immersion

Marie-Laure Ryan discusses what it takes for a medium to be considered ‘immersive.’ She frequently refers to the consumer/reader/viewer/listener as a traveler who is taken on a journey, suspending disbelief and convincing ourselves that we are present in a new world. This piece, specifically, focuses on text, or novels, as an immersive power. She discusses “text as world,” in which text as a medium offers the phenomenon of immersion, as opposed to just VR. Within text, we try to constantly build an incomplete visual image to become more vivid - these are all personally influenced by our current models, experience, and knowledge. When we are lost in a book, Ryan states, the reader is given an identity and purpose, becoming a metaphorical traveler (94). Here, she makes an important distinction between fiction and nonfiction immersion - in a nonfiction, the reader is taken on a “business trip,” but taken on a “vacation” in fiction (95). This leads me to question the power of fantasy and how that will play a role as New Media evolves into extremely powerful immersion-makers. Ryan, without citing her own opinion, brings into question the idea of effort in reading a novel, and how little or much effort is required to create the most valuable immersion experience. She cites that many of the most immersive things are the “most familiar,” since our brain’s processing powers are limited, we are given more ability to take in our virtual, imaginative environment. On the other hand, other academics will claim “no pain, no gain” and that we must push ourselves to also appreciate and immerse ourselves in high culture. I do agree that we should challenge ourselves, but I will always believe that objects of entertainment - true entertainment, not tongue-in-cheek viewing or watching critically and superiorly -  are meant to be consumed easily. I, personally, have always found young adult fiction to be the most possible immersive stories since they had the easiest language and plot to follow. If the story is good, I’m in “the simple pleasure of being lost in a book” (97), rather than struggling. 

Ryan continues to explain what true immersion means, or rather, requires. Recentering is central to her argument, where our consciousness relocates itself in a new world, making fiction into non-fiction; a suspension of disbelief. If in writing we are required to recenter ourselves into a new world, it is also required of us as spectators of visual images (109), where we place ourselves in front of whatever objects are depicted in an image. In the case of virtual reality, however, visual imagery takes on a whole new meaning that I don’t believe Ryan really covers here. Having an image all around you, one that you can interact with, and also utilizing other mediums at the same time, makes virtual reality the most effortless immersion possible. While any form of fictional text requires some sort of minimal effort, VR is the perhaps the only medium that, maybe not now, but one day, will require zero effort in order to feel immersed, because the aim is to literally replace every single one of the human’s senses. This idea hooks into the topic of my rationale, further reinforcing my claim that the purpose of media is immersion. This piece made me think further into that idea about the idea of effort on the part of the consumer, and the ethics that are in question. Our phones, for example, have become so addictive because they are so effortless to use and browse, and are full or easy entertainment. Addiction is going to be a serious danger with advanced VR HMDs. In other writings, Ryan discusses VR as a challenge, but not a replacement, to reality, where we experience pleasure without risk, mind enhancements, and extreme dangers of addiction and mental slavery. She also, interestingly, mentions that she believes VR is not a medium itself, but instead of a “technology for the synthesis of all media.” I think this is EXTREMELY interesting, as it basically makes it sound like VR is the end game, destroying, replacing, and creating all media in a way. 

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Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment (Carolyn Handler Miller)

See on Scoop.it - Education 2.0 & 3.0

Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment. This book has gone through several editions, the most recent the third edition from 2014. Miller is interested in works that are digitally delivered, interactive, non-linear, narrative, with distinct characters, participatory and navigable. Each of her chapters ends with some idea-generating exercises to help you brainstorm about the topics she’s just raised. Unlike many of the books I’ve been surveying recently, this one is not specifically focused on games or the game industry; instead, it’s looking from a storyteller’s perspective at how to deliver experiences for which the page of a book is not necessarily sufficient. That in itself gives it a rather different flavor: many games writing books are quick to identify the ways in which their game genres are constraining or limiting, or present “challenges”. By contrast, Digital Storytelling is about what interactivity can add to the writer’s toolkit. 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Her examples and references pull from a wide variety of academics and practitioners on games and new media: Janet Murray and Marie-Laure Ryan, Leigh Alexander and Clara Fernandez-Vara, but also other writers, thinkers, game and toy designers, CEOs of transmedia companies who are much less familiar to me. These encyclopedic descriptions of what’s been done in a particular area often hit examples that might not be covered in the Received Canon of any particular community — for instance, the games she references aren’t always at all the same ones that might be mentioned in a game industry writing manual. Miller digs deeply into commercial, educational, and informative applications of digital storytelling, as well, exposing some areas I hadn’t encountered. For instance, before this book, I was unaware that Chipotle’s Mexican Grill had commissioned an advergame called The Scarecrow which talks up their commitment to ethically sourced meats. The game, says Miller, “charmingly depicts [Chipotle’s] mission”. I am probably a bit more fast-food-skeptical, myself, but sure. Alongside video games, Miller covers apps, children’s interactive ebooks, stories told via YouTube videos, ARGs, robots and smart toys, electronic kiosks and virtual presence devices, interactive television and cinema (though the interactive TV space is moving fast enough at the moment that 2014 coverage is behind on significant developments), and what she calls “immersive environments” (which includes VR, but also mixed reality, AR, and theme park rides among others). In places, Miller also offers some craft guidance about how to get started on a new digital storytelling project. But here, I felt, the breadth of her coverage becomes a liability rather than a strength. The advice often is quite broad, in an attempt to apply to all of these wildly different types of technology, modes of production, and commercial circumstances, and so one winds up with advice like “don’t make your product too complicated… don’t make it too simple.” In other cases, she offers some specific examples, such as sample flowcharts of interaction, which are fine in themselves but don’t provide nearly enough information to become actually skilled in applying that technique. So overall: if what you want is an armchair traveler’s guidebook to parts of the interactive media space you might not already know well — especially if you want to look beyond video games — this will almost certainly teach you about some new projects you’ve never heard of before. But it’s not really trying to level up game writing skills, especially not for people who are already practitioners, so if that’s what you’re seeking, other resources are more likely to help.