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lesserfandomappreciation · 2 years

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Tiny Question regarding RSaT7D

After a lot of hemming and hawing, that first chapter of a Red Shoes fic I’ve been wanting to write for a while is up on Ao3! It’s an oc, there’s drama, some violence, but a lot of arcs I’ve really been wanting to explore.

Having said that, while I have the arcs in mind for both the oc (Yvonne) and fellow characters I cannot for the life of my pick a love interest. Fellow over-thinkers know the struggle of having a LOT of arcs with a LOT of different characters that could be fun but having a hard time of just picking ONE.

Specifically I’m stuck between Hans, Arthur, Jack and Merlin/Red Shoes (power trio, why not). They each have an arc and dynamic that’s already fleshed out in my head, it’s just a matter of picking ONE.

So here’s the question: who should the love interest be? The first chapter is going to be linked below. Feel free to either message or comment who you think the LI should be because at this point this has delayed all writing by 2 months.

Heroes and Hunters

Heroes and Hunters Chapter 1: Heroes are the worst

Yvonne touched the grass and the wet mud curling between her warm fingers. The rain had long stopped but its mark remained mixed with the dirt. Deer and mice and likely a rabbit mingled over each other, muddled beneath the blades of grass that hadn’t escaped being crushed. Were she hunting for a meal no doubt the rabbit, maybe the deer would have been of interest.

The deep, fresh wyrm tracks demanded far more attention.

Her head followed the tracks over the hill. The tracks led deeper into the muddy fields and disappeared between the tall grasses. Yesterday’s rains would soon be drying under the sun - far too dry for it to travel further. Wherever the wyrm was headed would be dark and dank. If the bounty were to be done today, then she needed to hurry. Hunting in the field would forever be better than hunting in a cave.

Yvonne shifted the longbow in her one hand. Her other hand nocked the arrow into place and held the string back as she stood.

She began following the tracks.

Any hunter worth their salt would be able to track such prints; in that, Yvonne did not consider herself to be particularly unique amongst hunters. What was but another traveling stranger living off bounties and the game of the land to a stranger? Plenty sought bounties, plenty scrapped what funds they could acquire into a small life, enough to send back to those more in need of it and still be able to eat herself. Every hunter did it. She was no different for having siblings. They had more mouths than her; it only made sense to send them the means to provide for themselves.

Her scars though plenty were near indistinguishable from another hunter’s. Hunters having three fingers and a cut on the lip was hardly news. Her longbow was no better than another. An egotistical part liked to think that she was damn good at what she did, but plenty of other hunters thought that too - to any village, the hunters blurred together anyway.

That was what mattered; the demand. Everyone wanted something dead, be it a deer for harvest, a rabbit for stew, a monster for safety (or ego). Thus it was not hard to find work. There was always needed a hunter - which one didn’t matter, so long as they could do the job and do it well. it just boiled to whoever got to the bounty first, and quickly.

Why else put up a bounty for a wyrm?

She stopped and ducked into the grass. Between the blades of tall grass an lump of rotten wood leaned into the soft earth. A large, broken barn stood before her, the rotted wood creaking deeper under the weight of last night’s rain. Whatever manner of house had once claimed ownership on the building had long been ruined by the elements, and the houses by the horizon were too far to claim such a broken thing. Abandoned, then. Quiet too.

Where there were once barns, there were once animals. And animals always needed water even if there was no river to claim. Sharp brown eyes darted, perking up when she spotted the mossy stone well.

Dark. Damp. Forever filled with water. Far from any threats. A wyrm couldn’t be happier.

The longbow winced at her grip. Another rainstorm would let it travel closer to the buildings - before night fall then, when the sun's rays would no longer dry it's scales. Staying crouched, muddy boots slid slowly forward -silent to not disturb the earth more than necessary.

Mud squelched behind her ears.

Yvonne whirled and shot. More mud squelched wildly as her arrow pierced a piece of the world that yelped. The sky and grass moved like fabric, forced by the arrow to move, and beneath the folds of the moving world an annoying familiar white pant leg stuck out.

No.

No, no, no.

What was he doing here?!

She rushed to him, forcing a hand over where a mouth would hopefully be beneath the fabric. The pair hit the ground hard, her hand staying put as the other rushed to silence their fall. Her legs straddled him and where it other circumstances perhaps she would be embarrassed but this? This idiot thought invisibility would spare him from a wyrm - who knew what other foolishness he’d get up to unless held?

“Be quiet.” Yvonne hissed between her teeth.

The jumble of limbs and invisibility squawked angrily under her hand. She pressed down harder. “You need to leave before it hears you. Go find your friends and l-”

A deep growl made her head snap to the sound. Slimy scales clawed out of the damp darkness, curling into the stone rim as they pulled up. Light glistened off the twisting mass of scales and teeth that hissed at the sun’s dry rays, darkest purple poison clinging to each jutting fang and slobbering tongue. The wyrm’s webbed ears turned at the world, waiting, listening for whatever prey would be gored on its horns.

It had woken up. Midday it had awakened and actually bothered to leave its safety only to ensure there was no danger. It would stay a moment, nothing else until it's fear was satisfied and the well called to it once more, protecting it until the night gave perfect cover again. Yvonne looked down at the strange mass under her.

Now. There would be no better moment, no cleaner a shot. Stupid as that group could be, surely they had at least enough self-ppreservation to stay out of trouble when left alone.

Yvonne carefully crawled off of him. The longbow held firm in her grip, the arrow pulling back with practiced ease. A sideways shot was far from perfect, but it would have to do. She would not die because she held a 6 ft bit sign straight up for the wyrm to spit at.

A breath in. Another out and-

“Charge! Get the beast!” A tragically familiar man bolted out and over the grass of grass, swinging a sword. The wyrm reared its head and screeched at the arrow caught in its ear.

This one? Now? She glared at the squelching mud. Of course. Of course they would send him as a scout - if he returned, the so-called leader would make some 'strategy' to fight the thing, and if he didn't, the aforementioned 'leader' would come charging in anyway. How they hadn't managed to die yet was beyond her, but it was rather rude of them at this point.

More men poured out of the fields, carrying lightning and crossbows and a wok. These fools never learned a damn thing. Yvonne growled, jumping to her feet. A grip brought her flat into the mud.

“Stay down. I hear mud is quite good for the pores.” Jack smiled smugly above her. His hand flicked away mud stuck to his shoulder, his pretty face contorted in disgust at the slimy substance. Yvonne felt three fingers curled in rage.

Mud hit him square in the face.

Grass gave way under her running feet, mud clinging to every step. Yvonne rose above the wheat, longbow well in hand and scowled.

The rampant wyrm edged closer to the horizon’s town, chased by heroic fools. They formed a thick ring of delusion around it, leaving little view of so much as a scale. Yes, nothing like protecting people by chasing a knock-off dragon straight into town with a fountain to easily poison - delightful planning all round.

If ever a bounty landed upon them, Yvonne could only hope that she was the closest nearby to collect.

“Keep it up! Don’t let it focus on one of us, divide up its’ attention-” one of the bucketheads yelped, stumbling into the ground. “Hey watch it!”

Yvonne kept running. Ahead Arthur, ever the brute with the sword, was having a day whacking the beast with the blunt blade, unphased by the lightning spewing out of the mage’s hands. Hard scales did not give way under the weight of the sword and the sparks of lightning danced off its spine. Neither seemed to care, and kept at it.

Another arrow was pulled and she took her aim.

A howl of pain erupted out of the blinded beast. Its claws scrapped at the hurt eye, its head thrashing into the air and against the ground but the arrow stayed deep within its eye.

It was supposed to go deeper. If it could be forced to go deeper, the hunt would be done, the day won and the group ignored for as long as possible.

A strong hand yanked her back. Bright eyes brightened in disgusting charm with that smile.

“Apologies fair lady, but you have done enough. This is far above the capabilities of a so-called huntswoman. Leave the rest to us heroes! We'll take things from here.” The brute lifted his sword over his shoulder and grinned. He winked.

Yvonne kicked him back as hard as she could in the stomach.

The wyrm’s poison ripped between them, licking Yvonne’s boots. She rolled onto her feet and sprinted forward past the mage, past the fool with a wok and leaped forward.

This roar echoed into her ears. It thrashed its neck, desperate to throw off the hunter holding on. It turned to escape back into its well but was met with a worse wall Bolts and lightning and a sword blocked its path. Once more it reared, and turned, back to the horizon to run. The soft earth was crushed beneath its feet. mud divided into a wide valley under its belly as the shapes in the distance quickly started to become buildings.

Right then. No time like the present.

Yvonne crawled forward, grasping onto every fin and horn she could to fight against the creature's slime. The beast’s neck between her thighs, she reached forward for the arrow.

It slammed its neck against the ground. Yvonne gritted her teeth, clenching back a yowl at the rocks and earth and sticks ripping at her back. All she could do was hold on. The cloak clung to each edge of dirt, tearing and separating into strung-together shreds until finally, finally the beast's neck rose once more. Her shoulder shook as she dared to look up. The buildings were becoming more and more detailed by the minute.

It had to be now.

Both shaking hands grabbed the arrow and pushed as hard as they could.

The screech ripped through the air. The wyrm shook and slammed but the arrow went deeper and deeper, refusing to leave. White claws scratched into stone, desperate to stop the flow of blood, desperate to flee its death.

It screeched once more at the dry sky and slammed against the bloodied stones.

She did not move her hands until the neck between her thighs stopped moving and the blood had pooled beneath.

Cobbled stone met bloodied, burnt boots, Yvonne sliding off its neck and splattering more blood onto her pants. Ruddy blood clung to brown hair, thick strands long since fallen out of her braid and spattering across a hardened, tired face. A deep breath ripped through her shoulders and she looked up.

People had come out of their homes, edging to the brink of town where the monster lay, to see what the commotion was. Few dared near the beast, dead as it were. The ones that did stayed far out of the reach of the wet blood. She couldn’t fault them - wyrm poison was no joke. It was a boon for it to have died before finding the local well or fountain. A blood-soaked hand pushed back a few strands of hair. She pulled out a very crumpled, and very messy, bounty.

"Brohias? Is there a Brohias here?"

The gaudiest suit she’d ever seen was wearing a short man with a beard - a mayor or leader or chief of some sorts, if she had to guess. He stepped out of the crowd and approached, holding a coin purse at his side, cautious to being given away. He peered up at her, before peering around her. “I am he. What do you seek?”

The bloody paper dripped blood inches away from his boots. "Your bounty, as requested."

"Yes, that was me. And," the man peered past her elbow at the mess of scales. "Are you certain that it is dead?"

Yvonne glanced back. She sighed and reached. A bloodied hand gripped the arrow and pulled. A final spurt of blood spilled onto the ground. No noise came out of the very dead wyrm.

The man grinned. Eagerly he stepped up to the wyrm’s head, whirling to face the crowd.

“Here ye, one and all! I, Bartholomew Brohias, am pleased to announce the bounty for this monster has been filled! No longer shall we quake in fear of the creature that haunts our rains and takes our children! As your mayor, it is my greatest joy to announce that my campaign promise to you has at last come to fruition!”

A cheer came from the crowd, adults and children alike shouting in joy. Rain and nights would no longer cast the town into shades of fear. Yvonne removed what tatters remained of her cloak and inspected the damage against the muted words of the crowds. Perhaps the mayor could be leveraged into including a free cloak in the payment.

After he was done giving himself laurels.

“Good hunter, please, take this on behalf of our town. Our town is grateful to your hard labor and find it necessary to reward you.” Coins clinked together and she very much perked up at the sound. He likely didn't find it necessary, but a mayor too stubborn to pay the hunter was never a popular man amongst the people. She couldn't care less.

Money matter.

Money - enough for new arrows, a new ax, food, mayhaps a new cloak - was held out to her in overly ornate gloves. Finally. What a blessing it would be to actually sleep in an inn for once. For once, those idiots and their troublesome habits were worth the suffering-

“Hold it right there!”

She wasn’t going to make it look like an accident. No one would question what had killed these fools.

“Why, goodness, you’re - welcome, welcome to town! We didn’t expect any celebrities to be coming through here.” The mayor held the coin purse back, missing the glare at his head coming from above. He stepped forward and bowed deeply. Brown-noser. “What brings the Fearless 7 to our humble town?”

The mage - Marlin or whatever his name was- glared up at the hunter before leveling his gaze at the mayor. “We are here for the wyrm.”

“Oh. Well… We’re grateful for your offer of help, and flattered such renowned heroes would come to help us, but… um…” The mayor gestured helplessly at Yvonne. “As you can see, the situation has been...”

Blood clung to every scar, every loss hair. It did not hide the glare well.

The mayor cleared his throat.

"Managed, as it were."

He scoffed. The magical lightning rod scoffed.

“Managed? You call this mess ‘managed’? Look at this. Look at her. Look at your town. She chases a beast into your town and you call this ‘managed’?”

A murmur broke out. Yvonne scowled, staring down at the brat. Not this shit again. Not today. “As I recall, you lot are the ones who screamed and scared it out of its well.”

“We were doing our jobs! Jobs that we are experienced at, miss. You don’t see us making a mess out of a simple hunt.” The sword, unsullied of much blood or effort, slid back into Arthur's holster. “This hunt was over your head. No one should have been hunting such a thing alone. You could have gotten hurt.”

“And what, leave it you? You gave me no choice. It was either let you chase a beast to town or kill it before it poisoned the water supply, there was no other choice but to risk getting hurt. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had to finish it off like this.”

“Are you saying we couldn't have handled it? Us?"

There is was. The crowd fell deadly silent. The leader of the F7 glaring, all of them standing tall and pristine, looking up at a bloodied, tattered stranger standing between them and the beast. Their beast. Their monster to slay.

"You brutally massacred a deadly, poisonous wyrm in front of others, knowing full well that the heroes were here to handle it, all over some coin?” The mage looked her head to toe, unimpressed. “We hunted the beast so as to spare these good townspeople pain and misery at its claws, yet you have the arrogance to not only make a mess of things and getting in our way, but also to ask them to pay you for it? How dare you demand such a thing from them?”

The tattered cloak crumbled in her fist. The murmurs were quickly turning into familiar angry whispers. She glanced at the mayor. His coin purse was secure in both his clutching hands as his eyes cast her a fiercely distrusting glare as the Fearless 7 stood between him and a bloodied hunter.

Right.

There would be no winning today.

With a deep breath Yvonne glared down at the mage -the worthless sack of bones and skin and lies - and shoved past him, staring down at the road. A gross smirk turning to a cheering crowd, a fickle silly crowd, cheering to the heroes saving them from the beast and the hunter that felled it was a sight she had no interest in seeing once more.

The rest of the group was of no interest either. She wiped her bloody hand on the invisible cloak of the brat, shoved past the brute and the fool with a wok and continued on her way.

It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth the fight, the lies, the bullshit these idiots would spew. At best, the people would be confused and neither would get their pay. At worst, this and every town nearby would hear of the hunter slighting the precious F7 yet again, daring to claim to do a better job, daring to insult them by telling the truth, how she had kicked one out of danger or silenced one before his squawking got them killed all killed.

The road was long and full of villages. There were rivers to wash off in and stars to sleep under, food to eat and pelts to turn to clothes. There would be other bounties. There would be plenty of prey. And if she was lucky, and there was a crumble of fairness in this vast world, there would be justice.

Maybe a dragon would do them in. Or a witch. It would be grand if it was a witch who did it, someone who was creative with their magical punishments, make them really suffer without killing them.

All she could do was hope.

#not an imagine #rsat7d #arthur #hans #jack #oc #red shoes #red shoes and the 7 dwarves

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ugetsuwasmid · 2 years

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Kurosawa - Rashomon

Rashomon, released in 1950 and adapted from the short stories “Rashomon” and “In a Grove” by Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa, is one of the first Japanese films to receive global critical acclaim. The story follows a woodcutter, a priest, and a bandit as they shelter from rain inside a Rashomon gate. While sheltering, the priest and the woodcutter try to come to terms with testimony that they had heard earlier that day regarding the rape of a young woman and the murder of her samurai husband. Over the course of the film, four contrasting retellings of the incident are portrayed from four different perspectives: that of the bandit, the woman, the samurai (through a spirit medium), and finally the woodcutter. After the conclusion of the final retelling, the bandit confronts the woodcutter about the woodcutter’s own fault in the incident and the priest questions his faith in humanity; however, the trio encounters an abandoned infant that, after the priest and woodcutter reconcile, is taken in by the woodcutter.

From the beginning, it is made clear that this film is about the human soul. The reason for the woodcutter and priest to even be discussing the events with the bandit is that the priest, after hearing three different and damning renditions of the same story is struggling to keep faith in the good of humanity. This struggle is exacerbated by the presence of the bandit, who keeps preaching that it is in humanity’s nature to be selfish and cruel and that stories as horrifying as those the priest and woodcutter heard are commonplace, at one point mentioning that even the demon residing within the gate that they are staying in fled in fear of human evil. Furthermore, the constant insistence by the woodcutter that all three stories presented for testimony were lies and the woodcutter’s own subsequent retelling muddy the water even more. When ultimately it is revealed that the woodcutter is in some way guilty of theft the priest is so horrified as to give up completely and accuse the woodcutter of malintent when the woodcutter reaches out for the infant. Despite this, the overall conclusion of the film has an uplifting tone, as the priest’s faith in humanity is restored by the woodcutter selflessly offering to take the infant in and raise it, proving that there is good in the human soul after all.

Regarding the stories told, one thing that I found interesting was that in each case the individual telling the story tried to portray themselves in as positive a light as they could. Ironically, the bandit Tajomaru’s story, which is supposed to be the more “honorable” recounting of his fight with the samurai, is the one of the three main stories that presents him as the most unhinged. Furthermore, it is only Tajomaru’s initial telling and the later retelling by the woodcutter that implicates Tajomaru in the actual murder of the samurai, while the woman’s and samurai’s stories both have the samurai dying to the woman’s knife. Also of note, it is clear in the woodcutter’s version of the story that the combat between Tajomaru and the Samurai was anything but honorable or even well-performed. In the woodcutter’s version both are clearly hesitant and afraid of the fight. The contrast between stories and the evidence that no one is being truthful further highlights the priest’s struggle to grasp the good in the human soul.

Overall this was a very enjoyable film with some intense action sequences, prolonged scenes of introspective and soft dialogue, as well as dynamic changes in setting. This film makes you think but also keeps a strong central message about human nature and the nature of subjective points of view.

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monstersandmaw · 5 years

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Poodle the Gnoll... (sfw)

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

So, @thecriticalcanuck has been patiently trying to get a commission off me for months for this story, and I finally had the chance to do it, so here it is.

We’ve met ‘Poodle’ before, in a snippet where he sat chatting with his friend beside a river which I can’t seem to find any more :( , and in a series of asks/idea-bouncing sessions which you can read by following the 'fluffy gnoll’ tag linked.

This story features a male gnoll, nicknamed ‘Poodle’, who ranks absolutely at the bottom of his clan because of his ridiculously fluffy coat. Humans coo over him, gnolls laugh at him and abuse him, and he has only one friend in the whole world, a mid-ranking female gnoll.

I used my previous headcanons about gnolls and their society for this one (based off hyena society), in case anyone’s curious about the social dynamics and roles etc.

Length: 3337 words Content: bullying and abuse, both verbal and physical, young orphaned child, angst, and, well, fluff.

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“Oi, Poodle!”

The shout rang out but he barely had time to flinch before a pail of freezing river muck was upended over his head. The fur, which had been standing wildly on end in the stiff wind blasting across the hunting plains, became plastered to his head in seconds, and the yipping, wheezing laughter of the other gnolls carried a long way across the whispering grasses. The commotion drew a small crowd, and his heart sank. Here we go again.

He cursed as the foul slime dripped down his face and into his bright, golden eyes.

“That’s hilarious! Look at him!” one of them snickered, shoving the distracted, muddy gnoll over so that he landed hard on his hip, causing more laughter.

“Hey, you could use all that shit to style that fluff of yours, Poodle,” another sneered. “Give yourself a nice quiff or something!”

“Yeah, slick it back off your face. Show all the girls those pretty eyes…”

“Or don’t! Who’d want to look at you?”

The group of four females and one male paced and circled around him as though he were a wounded satyr as he rubbed the mud from his face. He bit back the habitual hurt that blossomed in his chest at their words.

He was used to it.

He’d always had a coat that was three times thicker and fluffier than any other gnoll, and, being a male, he ranked lower than any female in the clan, and because of his looks, he fell below all of the other males. It didn’t matter that he was damned handy with a war axe. Outside of a raiding party, he was bottom of the pile, and even during a fight he ranked pretty low.

“Get up,” a harsh female voice snapped, and as she joined the hooting and guffawing gnolls, she cuffed him around the ear so hard he saw stars. “For fuck’s sake, look at you. Go and bathe. We have to go into town and I won’t have you stinking like the back end of a minotaur.”

He sighed. “Yes mother.”

“‘Yes mother’,” the others all parroted, still snickering.

The high-ranking female only shook her head in disgust at the sight of her son and stalked away as he pushed himself up onto his hind legs and shuffled off towards the winding, fast-flowing brook to wash himself off. And of course, the torment didn’t end with that single bucket of sludge.

Herah and her best friend, Zila, were apparently not satisfied with simply messing up his coat, and followed him down to the freezing water. He was struggling to rinse the disgusting slime out of his thick fur as they trotted the last few yards over to him and pounced on him while he had his head under.

“Wash it out well and good, Poodle,” Herah snarled in his ear as she yanked him back up, sputtering and coughing.

“No one’s going to groom you, Poodle. But we’re gracious females. We’ll offer our help…” Zila added, placing her paw-like hand on the top of his head and dunking him again.

Water rushed into his open mouth and he began to cough and struggle, but Herah was huge. As the daughter of the clan’s lead female, she was built for brute strength, and there was no arguing with her. She and Zila were his chief tormentors.

Beneath all the fur, he was a lithe, muscular gnoll, and might even have been an attractive prospect for one of the females, but because of his stupid pelt, he’d never attracted anything but derision and ridicule from the females, save for one.

Herah and Zila soon grew bored with ‘washing their little puppy’ and had left him, bedraggled and gasping on the riverbank. By the time his thick, wet fur dried off, he’d be even fluffier than he had been before all this started, and from the howls and shrieks of laughter and the looks on the bullies’ faces as he approached to the camp, that had been their plan all along.

Kira trotted over to him just as he returned, somewhat shakily, to the encampment and gave him an affectionate noogie on the top of his head. She was taller than him, but not by much. “What’s up?” she said. “What happened?”

He shrugged. “The usual.”

“You get ‘Poodled’ again?” she asked, ears flicking softly.

He nodded.

“Come on, a group of us is going into town. Your mum has some things she wants to trade, and I want to talk to the blacksmith to see if I can get a new axe. You want to come with me?”

“Mother says I have to come anyway. Normally she shuts me away in her tent when she has to go, so I don’t know why I’m coming along this time. Maybe she thinks a bit of light relief among the clan while the humans coo over me will be good for morale…”

Kira punched him on the arm. “Don’t let them get to you.”

“Easy for you to say,” he snarled, lifting his lip slightly in a gesture that would never have been tolerated amongst the other females. His best - and only - friend merely laughed and slung an arm around him, nuzzling her wet, blunt nose into his ear and eliciting a high, silly laugh from him in response.

As he’d predicted, the harsh prairie winds whipped his soft fur up into a mass of dandelion fluff by the time the small contingent arrived at the nearest town. Ordinarily, the arrival of eight or so gnolls at a human settlement would have sparked panic, but this clan was known here, and had agreed not to raid the inhabitants, in exchange for the right to trade and some degree of protection for them from other neighbouring clans.

The two friends followed the rest of the group into the backwater town, and while his mother and a few of the other high ranking females took themselves off to barter for better weapons from the blacksmith, the pair waited by the fountain at the centre of the town. Hierarchy was everything, and, whether at war or trade, the elite got the first pick of everything.

Lingering in the shadows, two females were watching him and occasionally yipping and laughing. He kept one large, rounded ear locked onto them, listening as they gossipped amongst themselves.

“They’re doing it again,” he muttered softly to Zila out of the side of his mouth.

“What?”

“Herah and Zila… they’re making bets on how long it’ll take for a human to coo at me.”

“Oh fuck them,” she growled, but no sooner had she said it than a pair of human women began pointing at him and covering their mouths in a poorly veiled attempt at hiding their giggles.

He flicked a piece of gravel into the well and turned away.

As he turned, he caught sight of a human girl in a ragged, faded dress, with bare feet and dirty hair. Something lurched in his chest at the sight of someone so vulnerable wandering around on her own. The other gnolls spotted her a second later.

They dropped to all fours and began to whoop and yip as they advanced. He didn’t think they’d actually hurt her, but the look on her face told him that she didn’t know that. He’d been in that girl’s position before. He knew what it felt like to have two full-grown females advancing on him, licking their teeth and laughing softly.

Instinctively he made a step towards them but Kira grabbed his arm. “Leave it,” she warned. “It’s not worth it, and they’ll tear you to pieces. You’re not protected by the treaty; she is.”

“I don’t care,” he said, yanking his arm free. “It’s wrong. They can pick on me all they like, but she’s…” he choked a little. “She’s just a kid, Kira.”

Kira’s face softened, and he made a split second decision.

Dropping to all fours too, he trotted over to them and circled round in front of the advancing females and behind the girl. He sat down beside her like a huge guard dog, ignoring the way it instantly demeaned himself further in their eyes, and stared straight at the females.

Taken by surprise by his gesture of absolute defiance, they drew up short. “What’s this, Poodle?” Herah asked in a soft, dangerous drawl. He fought off a shudder of fear.

The little girl heard the nickname, however, and giggled, all fear forgotten. “Poodle!” she exclaimed and grabbed hold of his arm, hugging him and pressing her mud-smeared cheek against the soft fur and snuggling him. “Poodle,” she repeated, almost like a prayer.

The gesture sent something soft and protective shivering through him in a way he’d never experienced before. Male gnolls were fairly well known for being the broody, protective ones, while the females were aggressive, warmongering protectors, but he’d never felt anything like that; no desire to mate, no desire to raise a brood of pups, and yet, confronted with this small, helpless human who found his fur a source of comfort instead of ridicule, he felt that feeling surge in him. He blinked, fighting the unexpected prickle of tears. It was a brotherly, even paternal, kind of protection that he’d never experienced, and it lent him strength.

He stared the females down hard. On this, he would not back down. “Pick on someone your own size,” he growled. “There’s no sport to be had here.”

“Well, well.” Herah lowered herself down slowly onto her haunches and tilted her head, smiling humorlessly, and her friend, Zila, took a step closer to him, lips curled, canines showing.

“Careful, Poodle,” she crooned in a low voice. “You’re courting more than just ordinary trouble if you keep this up.”

The little girl let go of him and, putting herself between the two gnolls, she crossed her arms across her chest, pouting and staring up at the female. “Leave Poodle alone,” she squeaked. “He’s a nice friend.”

Herah burst out laughing so hard she toppled over sideways, one hind leg kicking. “Oh my fuck,” she swore. “That’s precious. That’s so fucking precious. You just got told off by a fucking human pup, Zila!”

Zila took exception to that and launched herself at her friend, and the two began to scrap in a cloud of snarls and dust.

Taking the opportunity, he stood up and took a step away. Halting suddenly, he glanced down at the little girl and saw her wide eyes staring up at him. A heartbeat later he found himself saying, “Come on. Let’s leave them to it.”

Before he could turn and walk away, she slid her hand into his leathery palm and squeezed her fingers around his index finger. Tears swam in his eyes but he swallowed them down and led her quietly away from the fighting females.

Kira stood by the fountain still, her ears pricked forwards and a dumbstruck look on her face, but she was no longer alone; she’d been joined by a male human.

“Getting yourself into trouble again, I see, Elsie…” he chuckled at the child. “Ah, it’s a shame she’s got no one to look out for her.”

“What?” the gnoll asked, his grip tightening on her hand slightly.

The man nodded. “Yeah,” he said heavily. “She’s nearly four years old, but her folks died a little while back and she just sort of… drifts from home to home. No one has the time or the funds to support her really.”

Kira turned her head as the group of females left the blacksmith’s, and she said, “They’ve finished. Come on, let’s go. Leave her…”

He shook his head. “You want to come with us?” he asked, and Elsie nodded.

“I love Garrett!” she giggled. “He gives me cookies sometimes.”

The fighting gnolls gave a snarl and the child cowered slightly, scuttling around to his other side.

“You can’t keep her,” Kira hissed.

“I know,” he retorted. “But while they’re there, I can’t just…”

His friend sighed. “You’re too gentle, sweetheart,” she said.

The blacksmith’s was empty in the wake of the small trading party, but the half-orc was still standing there and watching their approach from his doorway. “Well, well, Elsie,” he said when he saw the three of them. “You’ve charmed yourself a new friend, have you?”

“Poodle is my friend,” she said proudly, and, embarrassed, his rounded ears swivelled back to lie flat against his fluffy head.

“Poodle, eh?” the blacksmith chuckled, looking the gnoll up and down. “Well, I’ve met stranger folk than you. What can I do for you?”

While Kira headed off with Garrett to look at the remaining selection of war-axes, Elsie reached her hands up and demanded, “Pick me up, Poodle!”

He swallowed thickly. How could something so defenceless and so… so useless be so… endearing. Was this what it felt like to be a ‘proper’ male in the clan? To have his protective and nurturing instincts toyed with by the innocence of little ones? Acting on those instincts, he stooped and picked her up, settling her down on his hip and letting her sink her fingers into the thick fur of his mane. He was wearing his usual leather jerkin, but her explorative hands reached for his curved, sensitive ears, and she laughed wildly when he flicked one out of her tickling fingertips. He found a little smile on his own muzzle, and her hands then found that, and began to play with the soft, fuzzy velvet of his dark nose and lips, poking and pulling at him.

“Stop that, you pesky little scrap,” he chuckled as she yanked his ear again.

Kira returned a while later to find him sitting with her in his lap on the floor at the foot of an anvil, whittling a little dog out of a spare piece of kindling with his belt knife. It wasn’t a whittling knife, so it wasn’t the cleanest of sculptures, but her friend had always had an artistic flare.

She paused and watched him until he eventually looked up at her. Kira took half a step back at the look on his face. She’d never seen him look like that. Gone was the haunted look, the hunted, jumpy glances, the humiliation and torment. He looked soft and sweet, and truly happy. She swallowed the lump in her throat and sighed. Her own female urge to protect her friend suddenly intensified.

As if responding to that, he tilted his head and whined a wordless question at her.

She smiled and shook her head. “What are you making?” she asked, coming over and adding, “Mind if I sit too?”

Garrett looked out of the doorway into his workshop but didn’t interfere. The half-orc left them to it, pleased that Elsie was finally getting some attention.

“I’m making her a little poodle,” he said.

Kira leaned her cheek against his shoulder and murmured, “You could leave, you know?”

He stiffened at that, the knife falling quiet in his hands. He drew a deep breath and then let it go gently. Elsie was looking at the half-formed sculpture that lay across his palm and started to fiddle with it, her fingertips tracing the outline of the figurine. Then she yawned openly. “I could,” he said. “But… you mean, with her? Fuck, Kira, I’m a nobody. What would I do with a child? I don’t know how to raise a gnoll, let alone a human.”

Kira shrugged. “I think you’d do alright. You’ve got the empathy, you know. I think you’re the first person who’s really understood her. Or maybe she’s the first person who’s really understood you…”

He looked up at her and blinked. “Come on,” he murmured. “You get me…”

She nuzzled his ear the way he liked. “Mostly, but… I’ve never been alone the way you have. I’m a female. I have rank -”

“Despite hanging around with me,” he joked.

Kira didn’t laugh. “Yeah. And that sucks. Your parents have practically disowned you, you’re the clan’s whipping boy, and you’re miserable. Think about it… alright?”

Elsie sighed and he felt her weight sink against his chest. She yawned again and leaned further into the warmth of his body. He murmured her name, but she was closing her eyes already. “No, no, no,” he said. “Don’t…”

He looked up and found that Garrett had returned, clearly wanting the use of his forge back.

“Where does she live?” he asked, keeping his rough voice low and quiet.

“She sleeps at the temple,” he said. “The priestess takes care of her mostly. When she’s got time…”

“I’ll take her back then.”

Kira took the half-finished figurine from him and slipped his belt knife back into the sheath for him, and he stood carefully. The action slightly dislodged Elsie, but she shuffled and clung to him. He looked up at Kira and said, “I… I can’t…”

“C’mon,” she said, nodding a grateful farewell at Garrett, who returned the gesture and watched the strange trio leave his workshop and head towards the temple at the far end of the town. Kira looked at the way he held her and said, “Buddy, you’re a natural at this. They missed a trick back at the clan with you…”

He smiled. “I’ve never… I mean…” he swallowed.

“Playing house, Poodle?” a shout rang out across the street, and he froze, tail stiffening. “Happy families?”

Herah and Zila were stalking down the road, and they’d gathered a few of the others too.

Kira braced herself beside her best friend, and Elsie stirred in his arms, waking as the tension rolled through the group. “Poodle?” she murmured.

“Shh, it’s alright,” he said gently. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

With the innocent faith of a small child, she believed him and turned her face from the others, burying it in the thick mane around his neck.

“No gnoll wants to mate with you,” Zila jeered, “Not even Kira here, so you’ll, what, steal a human child?”

“It’s not even stealing,” Herah cackled. “They told me that one wants that one. He’s literally just picking up the trash.”

Something snapped in him then and, unthinkingly, he handed Elsie to Kira. His lips curled back and his hackles rose. “Say that again and I will kill you,” he said. “I mean it.”

His hand found the haft of his axe and he shifted the weight of it, ready.

Herah actually faltered. They’d seen the way males could get when defending the pups, but admittedly, that was over gnoll pups; clan pups. This was new for them.

Kira murmured something softly to him and he twitched his ear. “What?”

“Leave it. It’s not worth it. If you get hurt, you won’t be able to see the priestess and ask if you can take care of her.”

The steady gaze and sound advice of his life-long best friend filtered slowly through the pounding rage in his skull and he finally nodded curtly, returning the axe to its holster. Elsie was nervous, her eyes wide, but he took her gently back from Kira and turned to Herah.

“I’m leaving.”

He turned his back on his clan, the folks who had made his life a misery, and, with one final look at Kira, one final smile, he added, “Thank you.”

“I love you,” she said. “Take care of yourself, and her, alright? Don’t vanish forever…”

“I promise.”

With his back to the red disk of the setting sun, he made his way to the temple. The priestess was more than happy for him to take the child, deciding that she’d rather keep the temple offerings to feed her own habits than feed the girl, and he continued on his way out of the other side of the village into the quiet evening.

“Poodle?” she asked sleepily. “Where are we going?”

“You know that’s not my name, little one?” he chuckled fondly as she yawned, settling herself more comfortably into his arms.

“What’s your name?”

As the sun sank below the hills, he paused. Turning into the very last rays of red light, he looked back. “Aten. My name is Aten.”

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If you like gnolls, you can read Brenn’s story here: Male gnoll/hyena boy (Brenn) x female reader Part One (nsfw) Part Two (sfw ish) Part Three (sfw) Part Four (nsfw) Part Five (nsfw) Part Six/Epilogue (sfw)

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For all early releases, character art and bios, upcoming story info, and much, much more, join me over on Patreon!

You��ll have access to stories before anyone else, and you’ll get instant access Patreon-only content as well, including polls and an exclusive monthly story for those on the Pixies and Goblins tier or higher!

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#exophilia #gnoll #sfw story #male gnoll #female gnoll #angst #fluff #exophilia commission

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charmingturkeysandwich · 5 years

Text

Lost by Choice

Welp, this is the Naked and Afraid AU that absolutely no one in the world asked for. I’m trying to get back into writing, and last weekend I watched a lot of Naked & Afraid (I usually watch Investigation Discovery, but was exhausted with murder), and I just couldn’t stop seeing an AU opportunity. I don’t know. Maybe someone out there will appreciate?

Part 1 of 2 Rating: Teen (swearing) Word Count: 2200ish

AO3

In retrospect, a televised challenge with a little less dehydration and mosquito bites would have been a smarter choice. Maybe one that didn't involve literal hunting for food and water. But Killian Jones was always one for a challenge. He was a survivor. He had already lived through a thousand different hells (hyperbole); he could live through this one, too. Except he hadn't slept in 3 days, hadn't had clean water (aside from opening his mouth in the rain) in the same amount of time. Oh, and he was slightly in love with his very naked partner who very much despised him.

Yeah, Killian being a survivor and all, he should have chosen to audition for that show. Not Naked and fucking Afraid.

But noooo he'd been determined to prove himself. And to whom? He didn't have anyone around anymore to impress. Liam was dead. Milah was dead. Bae made it perfectly clear Killian should consider him dead. He'd lost everyone and everything and apparently the long-lost emo kid inside him decided he needed to take that metaphor and make it literal and audition for a show where he was cold and he was ashamed, lying broken on the floor.

Wait, no, that wasn't it.

(The delirium had set in.)

Surviving in the worst of conditions had drawn him to this particular (idiotic) challenge, but there was something, too, in the partnership aspect. Being paired with only one other person, just as stranded as you, to finish out the task... maybe it was his complete loneliness or, again, the part of him who couldn't resist a challenge, but it intrigued him. How do you put all of your individual experiences together to form a bond, a team, that would keep them alive for 21 days without another soul?

Then he was paired with Emma fucking Swan.

Let it be known: Killian wasn't a creeper. He didn't pick this show so he could stare at some tits for 21 days. The naked part was entirely about being stripped of all comfort and all help. Nothing sexual about it, you wankers. But he'd have to have been blind to not see how goddamn gorgeous this woman was. Toned, lean, yet soft. An innocence about her, but a regal kind of confidence all the same. She was like a Disney Princess and a intergalactic thief all in one. So perhaps his cock twitched just a bit upon meeting her, but he's a fucking gentleman and he could keep it in his damn pants.

(If he'd had pants.)

This was his tactical partner, and nothing more.

They didn't exactly hit it off, but their skills were nothing to scoff at. Killian's past in the Royal Navy, his service abroad, and his extensive knowledge of tropical vegetation made for a great foundation for survival. As for Emma, she was the scrappy one. She was an improviser, a problem-solver, and a bold woman who'd lived without a home for many years. A fact that, quite simply, made Killian sad. He might not have his home anymore, but at least he'd had one. Once upon a time.

But Emma wasn't a fan of his feelings, it seemed.

"Wipe the pity off your face, Jones. I'm fine. I survived. And I'm going to survive now, with or without you." For the first time, Emma awkwardly crossed her arms over her breasts, as if to maintain modesty, and full-on scowled at him. They hadn't been what you'd call friendly yet, but they didn't exactly know each other yet, either. Of course they'd have to ease into it.But it seemed Emma wanted to just ease right back out and jump into hostile territory.

She was skilled as hell. Quite the badass, in fact. When Killian identified the best place for a shelter, she immediately laid out the plan to build it. And then just... did it. He looked at the map and figured out the best place to get freshwater, and as soon as he set out to gather it, she lit the fire. That first day they were productive as hell and those 21 days were looking like a cake walk.

And then there was the nearby hurricane. That first night, about an hour after sunset, the rain began.

And it never. Fucking. Stopped.

It was freezing, way too cold to sleep. And when he suggested to Emma that maybe they huddle for warmth, she shot razor blades out her (beautiful) eyes at him. "I'm not looking to bed you, Swan, we're just trying to survive here. Princess might need to accept that despite her beauty not every man is looking to fuck her," he'd snapped around 3am, the wind whipping so strongly he was sure their roof was going to fail at any moment.

"Princess? I've been working my ass off here and definitely pulling my weight. Don't act like I'm some spoiled bitch who just came here looking for a strong man to protect me. Nobody saves me but me, OK? And if I don't want you to touch me, you fucking won't."

There was probably a story there, probably something about as tragic as her having lived without a home, but he wasn't going to touch it. There was no benefit to aggravating her further. They had the skills for this. They made a good team, even if she didn't quite see it yet. And he could shove down all attraction for the sake of survival. He would be fine.

(What he wouldn't give for a rice allowance and a reward challenge. Damn him for not sending that tape to CBS instead of Discovery)

The next two days were more of the same. Emma's fire had long been extinguished by the rain and they'd yet to locate anywhere dry enough to attempt to build a new one. The wind was constant and kept changing directions, so even the portions of the jungle with the most canopy were still drenched. The freshwater Killian had found was muddy as hell and couldn't be drunk before boiling it - and with no fire, they had no means to boil.And food - well, they were running on probably 120 calories between them across the 3 days.

Their dynamic was, frankly, exhausting. They'd be cooperating just fine, talking strategy or accident prevention (it was business, all business), and then he'd offer to do just one too many things and she'd shut down. The fact that her walls seemed to attract him more was... problematic. And annoying. He needed one blasted healthy relationship in his miserable life. This woman, though stunning in every way, clearly had baggage so massive she needed a 757 all to herself and yet all he could think was how he wanted to be her pilot. ("I'd fly the fucking plane myself, Jones," she would probably say. If she were in his head. Was she? Is she? Was he talking out loud by accident?)

He was tired and though the rain had stopped for a while, the mosquitoes had sure as hell started and he was the most uncomfortable he'd ever been in his entire life - and he'd stood at a funeral between his (dead) lover and her husband/murderer, half covered in poison ivy from the previous week's (ultimately "successful") search for her.

(No, he shouldn't have chosen Survivor instead. He should have chosen staying the fuck home and watching these complete wankers on the goddamn telly.)

(The British was strong when he was pissed.)

(God, a pint would be nice right about now.)

The lack of sleep, the bug bites, the constant war with his partner, it got to him. It broke him. He snapped. Those were the easy ways of describing the tirade that began that afternoon after her shutting him out once again.

"Why the hell are you even here, Swan? Have you not seen this fucking show before? One man. And one woman. Together. This wasn't a survive on your own thing. Ever! You knew from the start you were going to have to interact with another human. Of which you seem utterly incapable! This place is hell but it would be 100% better for me if you weren't fucking here!"

Emma sat, seemingly gobsmacked, still curled with her knees at her chest, sitting upright against their shelter. But it didn't take long before the fire almost literally shot from her eyes.

"Absolutely agreed! This place would be much better if I weren't stuck with you. I was hoping that I'd be given a partner who didn't know what he was doing and tapped out in a few days so I could just do this thing alone. But. There's nothing to say I still can't." At that, she stood, grabbing her satchel and awkwardly playing with the mic pack around her neck. "If you could just hand me the map, I'll get out of your hair and I'll see you again for extraction in a few weeks, kay?"

Mmmkay, maybe he was rethinking that whole "falling in love with her" thing. Because right now he mostly wanted to set her on fire.

"Seriously, Swan? You're running away?"

"I've been reliably told it's what I do best."

With one last glare, Emma turned away from him, snagging the map and studying it just a moment before trudging off East.

---

Of all the stupid ass ideas she's had in her life, this one had to be the dumbest. She doesn't like relying on anyone else. Or being forced to be around someone else. So why in the name of hell would she sign up for a TV show where she was stuck with one person 24/7 for three fucking weeks?

And, oh, god, the people at home who would watch this. Of course it would be edited to make her look even crazier than she objectively was being. And Killian would look like the hero, AKA the exact opposite of what she wanted. She'd come here to prove that she could survive when you took everything away. Everything.

No weapons... no friends... no hope. Take all that away and what's left?

Me.

Oh, god. Was she hallucinating Buffy scenes? And not even positive ones. Sure, Buffy kicked some ass after that, but then she lost... everything.

Emma's whole life had been lost. Why did she think she needed any more?Because Lost Girls end up in the jungle of Neverland. Apparently.

And pushing away a dude who has done nothing but try to do like the show is meant for an survive as a team? Downright idiotic. But she's backed herself into a bit of a corner now, storming off like that. And there's a reason they say Pride is the deadliest sin. It makes you do the dumbest shit, and - worst of all - to stick to it like burrs on a sheepdog. So she found a little hill away from the storm runoff and she built a shabby little shelter (too exhausted for the expert work of the first shelter, which, by the way, had mostly withstood the storm to this point, thank you very much). She failed to start a fire, which wasn't surprising, and the rain started up again before sunset, so she curled up on her "bed" of fronds and dreamed of chewing down a heart of palm or a snake or really anything at this point because fantasizing about grilled cheese and onion rings might actually be the one that would inspire her to tap out and run.

For a few hours she faded in and out of sleep, disturbed by noise and pain and the shame of having treated Killian the way that she did. And had been this whole time. It wasn't his fault he was so damn attractive. It wasn't his fault that he was making her feel things she promised herself she would never again let herself feel. If only it was his toned abs and quite frankly impressive cock that had scrambled her brain the first day they met. No, the nudity wasn't really even a factor, since, you know, she kind of knew it was part of the deal. But she'd been expected an asshole. Or an idiot. Or someone that was just so platonic that they might as well have been a woman. Or a lamp.

But he was kind and funny and caring and she just knew he had a backstory that could rival hers because faces like that - and bodies like that - absolutely did not build good character when adversity never struck. Nope, that man has suffered.

With all that suffering between them, how they hell did they end up - voluntarily - stranded in a jungle?

(We accept the love we think we deserve.)

Ugh. Now she was haunted by Pinterest memes.

Protein. She needed some protein, like, now.

When the sun came up, her sole focus was on nutrition. She needed something to eat. Her emotions were running too high and emotional calories were definitely more draining than physical calories. Or something. How had all of her survival research and training just fall out of her head by Day 2?

Because your brain needs sleep and nutrients to properly process and recall information.

(See, some of it hadn't left.)

Apparently her sense of balance had left, though, because without warning her ankle rolled to the side and Emma slid off the tree she'd been climbing and her body hit every limb on its way back to Earth.

Well, shit, was the last thing she thought before she smacked into the rock below her, the warmth cascading down her torso the last feeling she had before her eyes slid shut.

#cs ff #cs au #cs ff au #cs fan fic #naked and afraid #reality tv au #keisha writes #i'm honestly not sure how good this is #but i'm posting anyway

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eorzeasntm · 5 years

Photo

ENTM Tumblr Cycle 11

Round Six: Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and Legends from Around the World

Whew, that title is a mouthful, but we wanted to ensure that everyone had a chance to pick a story that had meaning to them. We had a tale from Japan, legends from England and Nicaragua, and a whole passel of Grimm’s tales to bring us full circle. The judges and the community all agreed that this week’s best fairy tale cosplay was:

Ni’ko Shae for Puss in Boots

The decision to go with a vertical shot showed off those long kitty legs to perfection, and the choice of an action shot in a dungeon (since this round was free style) let the story fully come to life. Congratulations!

Our guest judge this week was Momoko, the co-host of ENTM Instagram Cycle 2. Thanks Momoko! We did a full on judge swap so you can also check out my critiques for IG Cycle 2, Round Two on our Discord channel!

For the Tumblr models, your critiques for this week are below if you keep on reading.

Judge Momoko

Kota: I love your glam for this!! It really feels like a Hollywood take on what Little Red Riding hood would wear. It’s also very very easy to tell which fairy tale you’re showcasing, so big props to you!! The apples in the opposite corner to you help to add a couple more pops of red to the overall pic and help balance it.

Yomu: I hadn’t heard of this legend before, so first off, I wanna say thank you for teaching me something!! I thought your use of the Nanamo minion was so incredibly cute and creative!! I think the lighting was just a hair harsh on her, though, and we sort of lost all of the cute pink colors on her, but I also thought how you framed the upper half of the pic with bamboo was both a clever way to stay true to the legend and keep it from having too much empty space!!(It might take me a bit to send them all out today, ‘cause I’m at work, but I promise they’ll be sent today

Haila: This was such a fun entry!! I’d never heard of La Mocuana and had to read about it, but I loooooove monster girls and creepy folklore in general, so I’m so happy you went with it!! After reading about it, I think you fit the story to a T!! I love the expression and how it’s half-hidden, and the colors/filter really tell that you’re by yourself in a dark cave. I will say that your hair blended in a little too well with the background, but other than that, yours was so creative and fun!!

Peaceful: How creative!! I never would of thought of doing King Arthur, but you really nailed it!! It’s extremely easy to tell which legend you’re replicating. Your picture’s colors are a little dull and faded, which halfway lends to it, but it also makes it a little muddy. However, I think you adding that soft back lighting over your shoulders easily draws the viewer’s attention back to you, which was really clever!!

Adam: I think your choice in legend was really interesting!! There’s all sorts of aquatic-based stories, and I feel like Sinbad would be a little more difficult to convey, so props to you for choosing something challenging!! I wish I could’ve seen a more dynamic pose/more of the boat you’re standing on, but the soft muted colors in the background are such a nice combination with the yellow pop of your glam!!

Bria: Beauty and the Beast is my favorite story!! I really liked your glams and how the colors complimented each other. However, it is a little difficult to tell exactly which fairy tale you’re emulating without the title, and it’s hard to see who the specific model in the picture is. But I also thought that your garden courtyard background was a cute way to imply that you’re at a fairy tale castle!!

Luma: Your choice for your story was way too cute!! I never would’ve thought of doing Jack and the Beanstalk, but I’m so glad that you did!! I think that your choice of environment was super cute, creative, and resourceful!! My biggest thing was that I couldn’t see your face, and your glam colors blended a little too well with your background, but I also liked how unbalanced your picture was; it really helped showcase how giant that beanstalk was!!

Ni’ko- Yours was my most favorite picture!! Your glam was so cute (going for that monotone look to match your hair and tail was a really clever way to make yourself look like a cute tabby), and the boots!! THE BOOTS!! The way that you zoomed out the camera to help elongate your legs was such a clever way to bring focus to the main part of your legend in an almost cartoony way, which I’m a big fan of. I think that your weapon choice and overall color palette is extremely well-done, too!!

Judge Ona

Haila: I learned about this folktale when I took Spanish in High School. Our teacher was pretty twisted, but that’s why everyone loved Senora. I was super excited when Kat told the judges that you did this tale, and genuinely LOVE how you captured it! She hides her face and wanders the forests driven mad by betrayal. If you aren’t the vision of mad, I don’t know what is!

I love the color palette here. Sticking with blues, and only a hint of pinks, you create an eerie vibe. With the filter appearing almost translucent over you, it creates an illusion that you are actually the translucent one. The glamour choice is phenomenal. In the story it says she is dressed in silks, and this is extraordinarily flowy.

My only real critique is that I cannot see your entire body, and although the filter gives a spooky feel, I wish you could have found a cave entrance or a body of water or something to add to the background. Regardless of this, this shot totally encapsulates La Mocuana, and I am so glad you picked something from Nicaraguan culture.

Ni’ko: If you keep changing Ni’ko’s color I will never know who I am looking at.

However, Ni’ko, I love the choice here! I love how you did a non-human fairytale, where your race could be used to your advantage. I love how you are being showy with your pose, as Puss and Boots most definitely was. Sword up, foot pointed forward toward the front of the image and back hand outstretched as if you’re saying “is that all?”. I also LOVE that your glam looks like the humanoid version of the character we all know; it was an excellent choice to do a big jumpsuit instead of flashy armor.

The lighting is well placed, bringing the viewers eye to your face and the rapier, and the decision to battle such a big enemy was an excellent choice so as its size does not compete with you, because much of it lies just off screen from you.

My only real critique here, is that I wish you maybe had a smirk on your face instead of the blank expression here. A smirk would have conveyed that you are about to kick this monster’s behind, and you are a feline, not a knight. I still love this image and genuinely believe it is one of your strongest yet.

Peaceful: I love your choice of story. Sword in the stone, King Arthur before he was king! It’s a well-known tale, and it’s a strong story to try and cosplay. Unfortunately, you took a big chance and it didn’t quite pan out how maybe you envisioned. However, this image has many strong characteristics, and I would like to go over those for you.

First, your use of this emote or action, shows movement in your character. Bracing yourself to pull the impossible sword from solid stone. You have determination on your face and are focused on the sword. The choice of location lends to the story and is the perfect choice. I would try to avoid the large amount of deadspace in the upper right corner. I know you wanted to get Merlin in the shot, but I think you could have done without him, and closed further in on yourself.

Try next time to place a light on your face instead of the rock in the front, make sure to avoid dead space in the image, change the angle of the image so that its not an upskirt shot which often makes the physics of the clothes act funny, and be mindful of the background (that weird little purple light is very out of place. I think you have some very strong elements, and some weaker ones that you can work on for next week! Remember, you can ask Kat for advice and feedback before submitting.

Yomu: Yomu finds a tiny human in a tree and immediately believes that he may have had too much to drink.

The facial expression had me in tears. You are genuinely freaked out by what you have just found. Your emote here shows excellent action and I can feel the same startling feeling that this woodcutter is feeling! I am pretty sure anyone would feel immediate concern and confusion if they were in this situation.

I love the glamour here, as the story is Japanese in origin, the use of a Japanese style robe helps to place the story’s origin. I am a little concerned about the physics of the robe, however, as it falls slightly unnaturally. The spotlight on your minion is perfect, as the story talks of a shining girl 3 inches tall. Also, excellent choice of filter with particle. I do wish, however, there was a bit more blur to the minion, as this close of a shot lends to distortion and pixelization.

Overall this is a strong image and you do a wonderful job telling the story of the woodcutter. I would loved to have seen more of this story. Try to take into account depth of field, and physics next week. Thank you for also thinking outside of the box and giving us a story from Japan!

Judge Wulf

Bria, you and your costar’s outfits are very well color coordinated! Your location choice is also very appropriate, I feel, since that area of Idylshire gives off a very regal and proper feel. I am a bit concerned that you hair blocks your face! You’re the star of this photo, so make sure you’re the one we see the most of! Always remember: when working with a costar, make sure that they are there to support you and make you look good! That being said, I adore the chemistry between the two of you. Can’t wait to see next week’s shot!

Luma, I admire the lighting in this shot. I am a major fan of bright colors, and you’ve really made the greens, browns, and yellows all come together in this forest scene to make it look both awesome and welcoming all at once. Going with a vertical shot was also a very good choice, I believe, because it makes the “beanstalk” look much more large and imposing, and by contrast you come across much smaller! My main note is this: Since you’re kneeling down and facing away from the camera, you do kind of look a little cloaked in darkness upon first glance. This is a simple fix, though! Just make sure to light up your character a bit more! Once again, I’m really impressed by your concept this week!

Ni’ko, the story of Puss in Boots is one of those that I read over and over again as a kid, and I think you’ve captured a very nice look using the equipment and colors in game! The monster looming over you is also an amazing touch, as it makes you look small, and even more true to the tale! I’m very impressed with your shot this week, but if I had to nitpick, I’d say that it’s only a little off that you aren’t looking at the boss’s face, instead looking through them. Like I said, that’s only a small note though! Very good job this week!

Peaceful, I instantly knew this was the story of King Arthur! Using iconic imagery to give out key details of what you’re cosplaying in a very important part of any cosplay picture, and I’m glad you’re doing that here! The picture is...very dark though. It may be just my computer monitor, but I find it pretty difficult to see your face or other details about the picture. Could this be an issue with the filter? I’ll tell you where all the darkness does work, though: in the forest behind you. The darkness gives the forest a very spooky vibe, and I’m honestly a little unnerved! For the next week, make sure your character is well lit and visible. Good luck!

Judge Terrini

Adam: I feel underwhelmed by this shot. You're glamour does nicely call to an Arabic pirate, and there's the boat and water and distant shore but it doesn't really draw on the charm of the Legend of Sinbad. He was one of the early Swashbuckling archetypes and you seem very mellow in this pose. A more dynamic pose and angle would have been nice to see here, something swinging your sword or at least looking away from the camera would have been better to capture the sense of something more. This is a myth, a legend, so you want to capture people's imaginations like the story you're drawing from. Also watch your background composition when you go for something scenic like this. The weather condition colors everything to be rather samey and the sea and sky are both similarly rippled and plain so they come across as uninteresting to the eye. Play with angles and don't be afraid to drop things from your concept for the sake of better composition. Play with it.

Bria: This shot is very playful, and I do like the use of colors (love them blues and purples) as well as the fountain backdrop, but as a depiction of Beauty and the Beast it comes across as a reskin mashup of the Disney movie. It might have been nice if you had your guy wearing an ifrit mask or lion mask or something to up the beast factor, or perhaps went for a different scene from the story. When a competition is fierce, you've gotta push creativity to the limit and really be memorable.

Haila: I'm not familiar with the fairy tale you're spinning here, but still, I'm entranced. The effects and colors you've chosen with this pose tug at my heart, like you're despairing inside a storm of magic, struggling and pushing onwards. This must certainly have been a moving fable, and your depiction here makes me want to know more.

Kota: I love the colors captured in this shot, and your glamour is so cute! It's really spot on! Taking the picture by the Apple Trees in North Shroud was great to bring that touch of red into your background as well. The angle of the ground is a bit off-putting and it might be nice to have something more to the image on the ground to enhance the theme with more of a "path". There are some fences in that area too that you might have made use of to that effect. Overall, still a lovely shot.

Judge Nadede

Kota Tumet: This is a pretty good image from you this week. I knew right off the bat that you were Red Riding Hood without looking at the caption, so glamour and your setting did it’s job. I like the lighting that you have and very nice use of depth of field that you have going on there. Your composition I felt was nicely put together as well. I do find myself kinda wishing you were able to incorporate the wolf somewhere within your image as it seems like the only thing missing to make this feel truly complete. So far though, to me, this is your strongest image so far. Keep up the good work.

Yomu Kazul: I have to admit, yours was one of two stories I actually had to look up and read. After reading “Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” I felt that you did a good job portraying the scene of the little girl popping out from the bamboo. The composition is nicely done and having the “little girl” looking at you helped at least guide my eye up to you and then back to her with you looking right at her. I thought it was a nice touch using Nanamo minion for the little girl instead of a lala as, if I remember reading right, the little girl was just a few inches or so tall when she pops out of the bamboo. So I applaud attention to detail there. My qualm however is when zooming out to get an overall view of the image, your foreground is a bit on the bright side and going back to where your face is in the image, it’s a bit on the dark side. I would suggest try to make the light to where it is a bit brighter towards you and not so bright closer to the audience. Overall, nice work.

Luma Lee: Luma, while I like the composition of your shot this week, the bottom part where you are at was hard for me to make out. I wouldn’t have thought Jack and the Beanstalk at all just from looking at your image because it was a bit muddled. After reading the description that you had chosen “Jack and the Beanstalk,” it made a bit more sense as to why there is an emphasis on the tree. What I’m having a problem with is that your lighting could use work, especially around your character. With you in the shadows and your outfit is the same color as your background, you blend in a bit too much. I also think a different filter would have worked in your favor as well. So far this is your best shot compositionally for me, just work on the lighting a bit more. Good job.

Adam Evershot: While this is a nice shot for you Adam, I felt like you could have done more with the story of Sinbad. I find myself wishing that perhaps you could’ve brought in extras to help you with a “crew” of some sort or brought some part of the story to life. I do find the atmospheric lighting of your image nice, I do wish that you could have done a bit more with the lighting on your character to bring you out just a bit more. Just remember when doing a cosplay type shot to find a way to bring out the story of that character more. Overall good work.

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #entm #eorzea's neo talent management

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blodreina-noumou · 5 years

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You laid out the BC salt post really well w/sound points about why the pairing is "unearned" outside of some past events they've shared. I'm not anti BC & at times I do think it's endgame, but I like Becho just fine too and BC have never been the reason I watch. An episode dedicated to wake up/actual Marper grief, Jordan welcome & talking/arguing BEFORE they went to the surface may not make sense from a plot POV but it was necessary from a character one. pt 1/2

cont 2/2 - Because we don’t have much insight on what the headspaces of all these characters are outside of a few examples. And that makes it really hard to know what the writer’s intent is, IMHO. Are we deliberately supposed to feel off-kilter because that’s what the characters are going through? Or are we actually supposed to read between the lines here and see lots of subtext that may or may not be there, based on a scene 3 seasons ago? Not sure & new writers muddy the waters even further.

I definitely agree. 😞 I’ve always figured they were endgame, which is why the writers throw so many big moments in for them at the end of each season. Especially in the seasons that might’ve been their last - four and five. It always ends on them, and there’s a good reason for that. Their dynamic is very important, even outside of them being the leads. That’s part of why I’m so frustrated with how uncertain the writers seem about what exactly that dynamic is. Maybe it’ll all make sense at the end, and they’ll find a good way to tie it all together. If that’s not where they’re going, the B/C bait is just cheap and frankly a bit cruel to the people who are so heart-set on that dynamic becoming romantically canon. I honestly have no idea which I would prefer at this point. On some level, the only ending that makes sense is B and C becoming canon. And yet, I think that’s the exact reason why the writers may never do it. Subverting expectations is big in media right now, for better (Killing Eve) or for worse (Game of Thrones).

This has always been a plot-driven show. It’s clear the writers are more interested in exploring certain sci-fi tropes (A.I., cryosleep allowing for super long-distance travel, now Body Snatchers, etc) than they are in creating genuinely meaningful character moments. That’s why so much shipping on this show is based on subtext and behind-the-scenes knowledge, and what viewers expect from the show based on the conclusions they draw from those things.

Even Clexa, which I am a pathetic hoe for, really suffered from a lack of significant onscreen development, as the plot was so focused on Skaikru’s struggle to fit in and Lexa’s war with Azgeda. 90% of that relationship is lingering glances and unspoken confessions. All of the development of Bellamy’s primary romantic relationships has been off-screen - Gina and Echo both start during a time jump. I like Echo, and I think Tasya and Bob are doing an excellent job of selling them, but their introduction is absolutely jarring. Even big favorites like Marper and Memori had much more development off-screen than they did on-screen.

Which, on some level, makes sense, because this isn’t a romance show, or even a show about interpersonal relationships. It’s a sci-fi drama, a mystery show, even a horror show at times, and usually, The Real Enemy isn’t clear until the second half of the season. The writers throw out little romantic bones for those who are only invested for that, but I don’t think they’re all that interested in meaningfully developing the relationships between the characters outside of that.

We’re just supposed to trust that they’ll always have each others’ backs, always choose each other in the end, always be friends, because they’re the heroes of the story and that’s just how it’s supposed to go.

Frankly, I don’t think they ever intended to have to have those tough conversations onscreen - the fact that they’ve actually done so this season, on any level, has surprised me. Up until now, the struggle to survive has always superseded the need to deal with their trauma and the terrible things they’ve done to each other in the name of survival. So now, the writers are trying to find a meaningful way to smooth over all of the intense shit they’ve done, mostly for the sake of the drama (you can chop s5 off right after they break Wonkru out of the bunker and pick it back up at the battle in the gorge and it makes just as much sense), and it’s just ringing so hollow for me. From every rational perspective, there is no reason these guys should be so close still, especially now that there’s so many other people to talk to, and especially given that both B and C have their own families. And the writers did it to themselves with that time jump, so…

I won’t be upset if B/C becomes canon. I’ll actually be surprised if it doesn’t. What bothers me most about that ship is the fandom’s laser-focus obsession with gobbling up any tiny crumb they can find that proves that B and C love each other. It’s so distracting from what can really be a very good and fun sci-fi show, albeit one that leaves a lot to be desired. And as it stands right now, B/C makes zero sense. Since we know we’ve got an s7, they’ve still got time to bring it back to a place where it works. But will they do that, when there are so many shiny and great sci-fi tropes to explore? Given that this season is already hinting at time travel (“temporal anomaly”), I doubt it. They’ve just got other priorities, and until they fix that, B/C will never make sense to me.

#antibellarke #stephspeaks #wrong show bro wrong show #fandom bs #negative tw #asks #anons

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grigori77 · 5 years

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2018 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. BLACK PANTHER – remember back in 1998, when Marvel had their first real cinematic success with Blade? It was a big deal on two fronts, not just because they’d finally made a (sort of) superhero movie to be proud of, but also because it was, technically, the first ever truly successful superhero movie starring a black protagonist (the less said about the atrocious Steel movie the better, I say). I find it telling that it took them almost twenty years to repeat the exercise – there have been plenty of great black superheroes on-screen since Wesley Snipes rocked the fangs and black leather, especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they’ve always been in supporting roles to the main (so far universally WHITE) stars (the now-cancelled Luke Cage was a notable exception, but that’s on-demand TV on Netflix). All of this makes the latest feature to glide smoothly out of the MCU mould so significant – the standalone star vehicle for Civil War’s OTHER major new success story (after 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming), Prince T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) of Wakanda, finally redresses the balance … and then some. Picking up pretty much RIGHT where the third Captain America film left off, we see T’Challa return to the secretive, highly-advanced African kingdom of Wakanda to officially take up his new role as king and fully accept the mantle of protector of his people that his role as the Black Panther entails. Needless to say, just as he’s finally brought peace and unity to his homeland, an old threat reappears in the form of thuggish arms dealer and fugitive-from-Wakandan-justice Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis, gleefully returning to his blissful scenery-chewing Avengers: Age of Ultron role), leading T’Challa to travel to Busan, South Korea to bring him back for judgement, but this is merely a precursor to the arrival of the TRUE threat, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan), a mysterious former Special Forces assassin with a deeply personal agenda that threatens Wakanda’s future. This marks the first major blockbuster feature for writer/director Ryan Coogler (co-penning the script with The People V. O.J. Simpson writer Joe Robert Cole), who won massive acclaim for his feature debut Fruitvale Station, but also has good form after sneaky little sleeper hit Rocky-saga spinoff Creed, so this progression ultimately just proves to be another one of those characteristic smart moves Marvel keeps making these days. Coogler’s command of the big budget, heavy-expectation material is certainly impressive, displaying impressive talent for spectacular action sequences (the Busan car chase is MAGNIFICENT, while the punishing fight sequences are as impressively staged and executed as anything we saw in the Captain America movies), wrangling the demanding visual effects work and getting the very best out of a top-notch ensemble cast of some of the finest black acting talent around. Boseman brings more of that peerless class and charisma he showed in Civil War, but adds a humanising dose of self-doubt and vulnerability to the mix, making it even easier for us to invest in him, while Coogler’s regular collaborator, Jordan, is absolutely spell-binding, his ferociously focused, far-beyond-driven Killmonger proving to be one of the MCU’s most impressive villains to date, as well as its most sympathetic; Oscar darling Lupita Nyong’o is far more than a simple love interest as tough and resourceful Wakandan intelligence agent Nakia, The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira is a veritable force of nature as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s elite all-female Special Forces, Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya muddies the waters as T’Challa’s straight-talking best friend W’Kabi, and powerhouse veteran actors Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker and John Kani provide integrity and gravitas as, respectively, T’Challa’s mother Ramonda, Wakandan religious leader Zuri and T’Challa’s late father T’Chaka. Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis have joked that they’re essentially the “Tolkien white guys” of the cast, but their presence is far from cosmetic – Freeman’s return as Civil War’s bureaucratic CIA agent Everett Ross is integral to the plot and also helps provide the audience with an accessible outsider’s POV into the unique and stunning land of Wakanda, while Serkis is clearly having the time of his life … and then there are the film’s TRUE scene-stealers – Letitia Wright is a brilliant bright ray of sunlight as T’Challa’s little sister Shuri, the curator of Wakanda’s massively advanced technology and OFFICIALLY the most intelligent person in the MCU, whose towering intellect is tempered by her cheeky sense of humour and sheer adorability, while Winston Duke is a towering presence throughout the film as M’Baku, the mighty chief of the reclusive Jabari mountain tribe, despite his relatively brief screen time, his larger-than-life performance making every appearance a joy. This has been lauded as a true landmark film for its positive depiction of African culture and presentation of a whole raft of strong black role models, and it certainly feels like a major step forward both culturally and creatively – it’s so rewarding to see a positively-charged black intellectual property enjoying the almost ridiculous amount of success this film has so far enjoyed, both critically and financially, and it’s something I hope we see far more of in the future. Like its predecessors, this is a fantastic superhero movie, but under the surface there are some very serious, challenging questions being asked and inherently powerful themes being addressed, making for a deeper, more intellectual film than we usually receive even from a big studio that’s grown so sophisticated as Marvel. That said, this IS another major hit for the MCU, and a further example of how consistently reliable they’ve become at delivering great cinema. Very nearly the best of the Phase 3 standalone films (that honour still belongs to Captain America: Civil War), and it was certainly a spectacular kickoff for the year’s blockbusters.

9. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY – I’ve been waiting for this movie for YEARS. Even before I knew this was actually going to happen I’d been hoping it would someday – Queen were my introduction to rock music, way back when I was wee, so they’ve been one of my very favourite bands FOREVER, and Freddie Mercury is one of my idols, the definition of sheer awesomeness and pure talent in music and an inspiration in life. Needless to say I was RIDICULOUSLY excited once this finally lurched into view, and I’m so unbelievably happy it turned out to be a proper corker of a film, I could even tentatively consider it to be my new favourite musical biopic. Sure, it plays fast-and-loose with the historical facts, but remains true to the SPIRIT of the story, and you know what they say about biographical movies and their ilk: “if it’s a choice between the truth and the legend, print the legend.” That’s a pretty good word to describe the man at the centre of this story – Queen frontman Freddie Mercury truly was a legend in his own lifetime, and watching the tale of his rise to fame alongside fellow musical geniuses Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon is a fascinating, intoxicating and deeply affecting experience, truthful or not, making the film an emotional rollercoaster from the humble beginnings with the formation of the band, through the trials and tribulations of life on the road and in the studio, the controversies of Mercury’s personal life and the volatile personal dynamics between the group themselves, to the astonishing, show-stopping climax of their near-mythic twenty-minute performance slot at 1985’s Live Aid charity concert at Wembley Stadium. Needless to say it takes a truly astounding performance to capture the man that I consider to be the greatest singer, showman and stage-performer of all time, but Mr Robot star Rami Malek was equal to the task, not so much embodying the role as genuinely channelling Mercury’s spirit, perfectly recreating his every movement, quirk and mannerism to perfection, right down to his famously precise, deliberate diction, and he even LOOKS a hell of a lot like Mercury. Sure, he’s come under fire for merely lip-syncing when it comes to the music, but seriously, there’s no other way he could have done it – Freddie had the greatest singing voice of all time, there’s NO WAY anyone could possibly recreate it, so better he didn’t even try. (Honestly, if he doesn’t get an Oscar for this there’s no justice in the world.) Malek’s not the only master-mimic in the cast, either – the rest of the band are perfectly portrayed, too, by Gwilym Lee as May, X-Men: Apocalypse’s Ben Hardy as Taylor and Joe Mazzello (yup, that kid from Jurassic Park, now all grown up) as Deacon, while there are equally strong supporting turns from Sing Street’s Lucy Boynton as Mercury’s lover and lifelong friend Mary Austin, Aiden Gillen as the band’s first manager John Reid, Tom Hollander as their lawyer and eventual manager Jim “Miami” Beach, Allen Leech as the Freddie’s scheming, toxic personal manager Paul Prenter, and New Street Law star Ace Bhatti as his stoic but proud father, Bomi Bulsara. This is an enthralling film from start to finish, and while those new to Queen will find plenty fo enjoy and entertain, this is an absolute JOY for fans and geeks who actually know their stuff, factual niggles notwithstanding; it’s also frequently laugh-out-loud HILARIOUS, the sparky, quick-fire script from The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour writer Anthony McCarten brimming with slick one-liners, splendid put-downs and precision-crafted character observation which perfectly captures the real life banter the band were famous for. The film had a troubled production (original director Bryan Singer was replaced late in the shoot by Dexter Fletcher after clashes of personality and other difficulties) and has come in for plenty of stick, receiving mixed reviews from some quarters, but for me this is pretty close to a perfect film, chock-full of heart, emotional heft, laughter, fun and what was, for me, the best soundtrack of 2018, positively overflowing with some of the band’s very best material, making this one of the very best times I had at the cinema all year. They were, indeed, the champions …

8. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT – while Bond may remain king of the spy movie, and Jason Bourne still casts a long shadow from the darker post 9-11 age of harder, grittier espionage shenanigans, I’ve always been a BIG fan of the Mission: Impossible movies. This love became strong indeed when JJ Abrams established a kind of unifying blueprint with the third film, and the series has gone from strength to strength since, reaching new, thrilling heights when Jack Reacher writer-director Christopher McQuarrie crafted the pretty much PERFECT Rogue Nation. He’s the first filmmaker to return for a second gig in the big chair, but he’s a good fit – he and star Tom Cruise have already proven they work EXTREMELY well together, and McQuarrie really is one of the very best screenwriters working in Hollywood today (well respected across the board since his early days co-writing The Usual Suspects), an undeniable MASTER at both crafting consistently surprising, thoroughly involving and razor-sharp thriller plots and engineering truly JAW-DROPPING action sequences (adrenaline-fuelled chases, bruising fight scenes, intense shootouts and a breathless dash across the rooftops of London all culminate in this film’s standout sequence, a death-defying helicopter dogfight that took the prize as the year’s BEST action beat), as well as penning some wonderful, wry dialogue. Anything beyond the very simplest synopsis would drop some criminal spoilers – I’ll simply say that Ethan Hunt is faced with his deadliest mission to date after a botched op leaves three plutonium cores in the hands of some very bad people, leading CIA honcho Erica Sloane (a typically sophisticated turn from Angela Bassett) to attach her pet assassin, August Walker (current big-screen Superman Henry Cavill), to the team to make sure it all runs smoothly – a prospect made trickier by the resurfacing of Rogue Nation’s cracking villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Tom Cruise is, of course an old hand at this sort of thing by now, but even so I don’t think he’s EVER been more impressive at the physical stuff, and he delivers equally well in the more dramatic moments, taking superspy Ethan Hunt to darker, more desperate extremes than ever before. Cavill similarly impresses in what’s easily his meatiest role to date, initially coming across as a rough, brutal thug but revealing deeper layers of complexity and sophistication as the film progresses, while Rebecca Ferguson makes a welcome return from RN as slippery, sexy and very complex former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, and it’s great to see Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg back as series keystones Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn, who both get stuck into the action far more than in previous outings (Benji FINALLY gets to wear a mask!); Jeremy Renner’s absence this time could disappoint, but the balance is maintained because the effortlessly suave Alec Baldwin’s new IMF Secretary Alan Hunley gets a far more substantial role this time round, while Sean Harris tears things up with brutal relish as he expands on one of the series’ strongest villains – Lane is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, a monstrous zealot with a deeply twisted but strangely relatable agenda, and method man Harris mesmerises in every scene. McQuarrie has cut another gem here, definitely his best film to date and likewise the best in the franchise so far, and strong arguments could be made for him staying on for a third stint – this is the best shape Mission: Impossible has been in for some time, an essentially PERFECT textbook example of an action-packed spy thriller that constantly surprises and never disappoints, from the atmospheric opening to the unbearably tense climax, and if ever there was a film to threaten the supremacy of Bond, it’s this one.

7. THE SHAPE OF WATER – one of the most important things you have to remember about my own personal mythology (by which I mean the mishmash of 40 years of influences, genre-love and pure and simple COOL SHIT that’s informed and moulded the geek I am today) is that when it comes to my fictional heroes, I have a tendency to fall in love with the monsters. It’s a philosophy shared by one of my very favourite directors, Guillermo Del Toro, whose own love affair with the weird, the freakish and the outcast has informed so much of his spectacular work, particularly the Hellboy movies – the monster as a tragic hero, and also the women who love them despite their appearance or origins. Del Toro’s latest feature returns to this fascinating and compelling trope in magnificent style, and the end result is his best work since what remains his VERY BEST film, 2007’s exquisite grown-up fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth. Comparisons with that masterpiece are not only welcome but also fitting – TSOW is definitely cut from the same cloth, a frequently dream-like cinematic allegory that takes place in something resembling the real world, but is never quite part of it. It’s a beautiful, lyrical, sensual and deeply seductive film, but there’s brooding darkness and bitter tragedy that counters the sweet, Del Toro’s rich and exotic script – co-authored with Hope Springs writer Vanessa Taylor – mining precious ore from the fairytale ideas but also deeply invested with his own overwhelming love for the Golden Age of cinema itself. This makes for what must be his most deeply personal film to date, so it’s fitting that it finally won him his first, LONG OVERDUE Best Director Oscar. Happy Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins thoroughly deserves her Oscar nomination for her turn as Elisa Esposito, a mute cleaning woman working in a top secret aerospace laboratory in Baltimore at the height of the Cold War, a sweet-natured dreamer who likes movies, music and her closeted artist neighbour Giles (the incomparable Richard Jenkins, delivering a performance of real sweetness and integrity). One night she discovers a new project in the facility, a strange, almost mythic amphibious humanoid (Del Toro regular Doug Jones) who has been captured for study and eventual vivisection to help create a means for men to survive in space. In spite of his monstrous appearance and seemingly feral nature, Elisa feels a kinship to the creature, and as she begins to earn his trust she develops stronger feeling for him – feelings which are reciprocated. So she hatches a plan to break him out and return him to the sea, enlisting the help of Giles, her only other real friend, fellow cleaner Zelda (The Help and Hidden Figures’ Octavia Spencer, as lovably prickly and sassy as ever), and sympathetic scientist (and secret Soviet agent) Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (a typically excellent and deeply complex performance from Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Stuhlbarg) to effect a desperate escape. The biggest obstacle in their path, however, is Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), the man in charge of security on the project – the rest of the cast are uniformly excellent, but the true, unstoppable scene-stealer here is Shannon, giving us 2018’s BEST screen villain in a man so amorally repellent, brutally focused and downright TERRIFYING it’s absolutely impossible to take your eyes off him – who has a personal hatred for the creature and would love nothing more than to kill it himself. He’s the TRUE monster of the film, Jones’ creature proving to be a noble being who, despite his (admittedly rather bloody) animal instincts, has a kind and gentle soul that mirrors Elisa’s own, which makes the seemingly bizarre love story that unfolds so easy to accept and fulfilling to witness. This is a film of aching beauty and immense emotional power, the bittersweet and ultimately tragic romance sweeping you up in its warm embrace, resulting in the year’s most powerful and compelling fantasy, very nearly the finest work of a writer/director at the height of his considerable powers, and EASILY justifying its much-deserved Best Picture Oscar. Love the monster? Yes indeed …

6. DEADPOOL 2 – just as his first standalone finally banished the memory of his shameful treatment in the first X-Men Origins film, Marvel’s Merc With a Mouth had a new frustration to contend with – Wolverine riding his coattails into the R-rated superhero scene and outdoing his newfound success with the critically acclaimed and, frankly, f£$%ing AWESOME Logan. It’s a fresh balance for him to redress, and bless him, he’s done it within the first five minutes of his own very first sequel … then again, Deadpool’s always at his best when dealing with adversity. There’s plenty of that here – 2016’s original was a spectacular film, a true game-changer for both Marvel and the genre itself, unleashing a genuinely bankable non-PC superhero on the unsuspecting masses (and, of course, all us proper loyal fans) and earning one of their biggest hits in the process. A sequel was inevitable, but the first film was a VERY tough act to follow – thankfully everyone involved proved equal to the task, not least the star, Ryan Reynolds, who was BORN to play former special forces operative-turned invulnerable but hideously scarred mutant antihero Wade Wilson, returning with even greater enthusiasm for the material and sheer determination to do things JUST RIGHT. Working with returning co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, he’s suitably upped the ante while staying true to the source and doing right by the fans – the script’s another blinder, a side-splitting rib-tickler liberally peppered with copious swearing, rampant sexual and toilet humour, genuinely inspired bizarreness (a grown man with baby balls!) and an unapologetically irreverent tone nonetheless complimented by a f£$%load of heart. Original director Tim Miller jumped ship early in development, but the perfect replacement was found in the form of David Leitch, co-director of the first John Wick movie, who preceded this with a truly magnificent solo debut on summer 2017’s standout actioner Atomic Blonde. Leitch is a perfect fit, a former stuntman with innate flair for top-notch action who also has plenty of stylistic flair and strong talents for engaging storytelling and handling a cast of strong personalities. Reynolds is certainly one of those, again letting rip with gleeful comic abandon as Deadpool fights to overcome personal tragedy by trying to become a bona fide X-Man, at which he of course fails SPECTACULARLY, winding up in a special prison for super-powered individuals and becoming the unlikely and definitely unwilling protector of teenage mutant Russell Collins, aka Firefist (Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Julian Dennison), who’s been targeted for assassination by time-travelling future warrior Cable (Josh Brolin) because he’s destined to become a monstrous supervillain when he grows up. Deciding to listen to his “better” angel, Wade puts together his own superhero team in order to defeat Cable and start his own future franchise … yup, this is as much a platform to set up X-Force, the Marvel X-Verse’s next big money-maker, as it is a Deadpool sequel, but the film plays along to full comic effect, and the results are funny, explosive, blood-soaked and a magnificently anarchic joy. Brolin is every inch the Cable we deserve, a world-weary, battered and utterly single-minded force of nature, entirely lacking a sense of humour but still managing to drive some of the film’s most side-splitting moments, while Atlanta star Zazie Beets, originally something of an outsider choice, proves similarly perfect for the role of fan favourite Domino, a wise-cracking mutant arse-kicker whose ability to manipulate luck in order to get the better of any situation makes her a kind of super-ninja; Dennison, meanwhile, is just as impressive as he was in HFTWP, turning in a performance of such irreverent charm he frequently steals the film, and the return of Stefan Kapicic and Briana Hildebrand as stoic metal-man Colossus and the world’s moodiest teen superhero, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, mean that the original X-Men get another loving (if also slightly middle-fingery) nod too. But once again, this really is Reynolds’ movie, and he’s clearly having just as much fun as before, helping to make this the same kind of gut-busting riot the first was with his trademark twinkle, self-deprecating charm and shit-eating grin. He’s the heart and soul of another great big fist up the backside of superhero cinema, blasting tropes with scattergun abandon but hitting every target lined up against him, and like everything else he helps make this some of the most fun I had at the pictures all year. I honestly couldn’t think of ANYTHING that could make me piss myself laughing more than this … the future of the franchise may be up in the air until the first X-Force movie gets its time in the spotlight, but Reynolds, Leitch, Reese and Wernick are all game to return, so there’s plenty of life in the un-killable old lady yet ...

5. BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE – my Number One thriller of 2018 is a cult classic in the making and the best work yet from Drew Goddard, co-writer/director (with Joss Whedon) of Cabin in the Woods (one of the best horror movies ever made, in my opinion) and screenwriter of Cloverfield and The Martian. It’s an intoxicating, engrossing and somewhat unsettling experience (but in a very good way indeed), a gripping, slippery and absolutely FIENDISH suspense thriller to rival the heady best of Hitchcock or Kubrick, and, as his first completely original, personal creation, Goddard’s best opportunity to show us JUST what he’s truly capable of. Wrapped up in multi-layered mystery and deftly paying with timelines and perspective, it artfully unveils the stories of four disparate strangers who book a night’s stay at the El Royale, a “bi-state” hotel (located on the California/Nevada border) that was once grand but, by the film’s setting of 1969, has fallen on hard times. Each has a secret, some of which are genuinely deadly, and before the night’s through they’ll all come to light as a fateful chain of events brings them all crashing together. Giving away any more is to invite criminal spoilers – suffice to say that it’s an unforgettable film, fully-laden with ingenious twists and consistently wrong-footing the viewer right up to the stirring, thought-provoking ending. The small but potent ensemble cast are, to a man, absolutely perfect – Jeff Bridges delivers one of the best performances of his already illustrious career as seemingly harmless Catholic priest Father Daniel Flynn, Widows’ Cynthia Erivo makes a truly stunning impression as down-on-her-luck soul singer Darlene Sweet, John Hamm is garrulously sleazy as shifty travelling salesman Seymour Sullivan, Dakota Johnson is surly but also VERY sexy (certainly MUCH MORE than she EVER was in the 50 Shades movies) as “dirty hippy” Emily, Lewis Pullman (set to explode as the co-star of the incoming Top Gun sequel) is fantastically twitchy as the hotel’s troubled concierge Miles, and Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising) delivers a creepy, haunting turn as Emily’s fundamentally broken runaway sister Rose. The film is thoroughly and entirely stolen, however, by the arrival in the second half of Goddard’s Cabin leading man Chris Hemsworth as earthy, charismatic and darkly, dangerously seductive Charles Manson-esque cult leader Billy Lee, Thor himself thoroughly mesmerising as he swaggers into the heart of the story (particularly in a masterful moment where he cavorts, snake-hipped, to the strains of Deep Purple’s Rush in the lead-up to a brutal execution). This is thriller-cinema at its most inspired and insidious, a flawless genre gem that’s sure to be held in high regard by connoisseurs for years to come, and an ELECTRIFYING statement of intent by one of the best creative minds working in Hollywood today. One of 2018’s biggest and best surprises, it’s a bona fide MUST-SEE …

4. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – is it possible there might be TOO MUCH coming out all at once in the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now? What with THREE movies a year now becoming the norm, not to mention the ongoing saga of Agents of SHIELD and various other affiliated TV shows (it seems that Netflix are culling their Marvel shows but there’s still the likes of Runaways and the incoming Cloak & Dagger on other services, along with fresh, in-development stuff), could we be reaching saturation? My head says … mmmmm … maybe … but my heart says HELL NO! Not when those guys at Marvel have gotten so good at this job they could PROBABLY do it with their eyes closed. That said, there were times in the run-up to this particular release that I couldn’t help wondering if, just maybe, they might have bitten off more than they could chew … thankfully, fraternal directing double act Antony and Joe Russo, putting in their THIRD MCU-helming gig after their enormous success on the second and third Captain America films, have pulled off one hell of a cinematic hat trick, presenting us with a third Avengers film that’s MORE than the equal of Joss Whedon’s offerings. It’s also a painfully tricky film to properly review – the potential for spoilers is SO heavy I can’t say much of ANYTHING about the plot without giving away some MAJOR twists and turns (even if there’s surely hardly ANYONE who hasn’t already seen the film by now) – but I’ll try my best. This is the film every die-hard fan has been waiting for, because the MCU’s Biggest Bad EVER, Thanos the Mad Titan (Josh Brolin), has finally come looking for those pesky Infinity Stones so he can Balance The Universe by killing half of its population and enslaving the rest, and the only ones standing in his way are the Avengers (both old and new) and the Guardians of the Galaxy, finally brought together after a decade and 18 movies. Needless to say this is another precision-engineered product refined to near perfection, delivering on all the expected fronts – breathtaking visuals and environments, thrilling action, the now pre-requisite snarky, sassy sense of humour and TONS OF FEELS – but given the truly galactic scale of the adventure on offer this time the stakes have been raised to truly EPIC heights, so the rewards are as great as the potential pitfalls. It’s not perfect – given the sheer size of the cast and the fact that there are THREE main storylines going on at once, it was INEVITABLE that some of our favourite characters would be handed frustratingly short shrift (or, in two notable cases, simply written out of the film altogether), while there are times when the mechanics of fate do seem to be getting stretched a little TOO far for credibility – but the niggles are largely overshadowed by the rich rewards of yet another MCU film done very well indeed. The cast (even those who drew the short straw on screen time) are all, as we’ve come to expect, excellent, the veterans – particularly Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man/Tony Stark), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/the Hulk), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Stephen Strange), Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Racoon), and, of course, Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) – all falling back into their well-established roles and universally winning our hearts all over again, while two characters in particular, who have always been reduced to supporting duties until now, finally get to REALLY shine – Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen, as the Vision and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, finally get to explore that comic-canon romance that was so prevalently teased in Civil War, with events lending their mutual character arcs particularly tragic resonance as the story progresses … and then there’s the new characters, interestingly this time ALL bad guys. The Children of Thanos (Gamora and Nebula’s adopted siblings, basically) are showcased throughout the action, although only two really make an impression here – Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is magnificently creepy as Ebony Maw, while Carrie Coon (and stuntwoman Monique Ganderton) is darkly sensual as Proxima Midnight … but of course the REAL new star here is Brolin, thoroughly inhabiting his motion capture role so Thanos GENUINELY lives up to his title as the greatest villain of the MCU, an unstoppable megalomaniac who’s nonetheless doing these monstrous things for what he perceives to be genuinely right and moral reasons, although he’s not above taking some deeply perverse pleasure from his most despicable actions. Finishing up with a painfully powerful climax that’s as shocking as it is audacious, this sets things up for an even more epic conclusion in 2019’s closer, and has already left even the most jaded viewers shell-shocked and baying for more, while the post-credits sting in particular had me drooling in anticipation for the long-awaited arrival of my own favourite Avenger, but in the meantime this is an immensely rewarding, massively entertaining and thoroughly exhausting cinematic adventure. Summer can’t come fast enough …

3. UPGRADE – in a summer packed with sequels (many of them pretty damn awesome even so), it was a great pleasure my VERY FAVOURITE movie was something wholly original, an unaffiliated standalone that had nothing to follow or measure up to. But Blumhouse’s best film of 2018 still had a lot riding on it – they’re a studio best known for creating bare-bones but effectively primal horror (even The Purge series is really more survival horror than dystopian thriller), so they’re not really known for branching out into science-fiction. Going with one of their most trusted creative talents, then, was the kind of savvy move we’d expect from Jason Blum and co – Leigh Whannell is best known as the writer of the first three Saw movies (a fully-developed trilogy which I, along with several others, consider to be the series’ TRUE canon), the film phenomenon that truly kicked off the whole “torture porn” sub-genre, but he’s become one of Blumhouse’s most well-regarded writers thanks to his creation of Insidious, still one of their biggest earners. Once again he wrote (and co-starred in) the first three films, even making his directorial debut on the third – admittedly that film wasn’t particularly spectacular, but there was nonetheless something about it, a real X-factor that definitely showed Whannell could do more than just write (and, act, of course). Second time out he’s definitely made good on that potential promise – this is a proper f£$%ing masterpiece, not just the best thing I saw all summer but one of THE TOP movies of my cinematic year. It’s also an interesting throwback to a once popular sci-fi trope that’s been overdue for a makeover – body horror, originally made popular by the cult-friendly likes of David Cronenberg and Paul Verhoeven, and the biggest influence on this film must to be the original Robocop. Prometheus’ Logan Marshall-Green is an actor I’ve long considered to be criminally overlooked and underused, so I’m thrilled he finally found a role worthy of his underappreciated talents - Grey Trace, an unapologetically analogue blue-collar Joe living in an increasingly digital near future, a mechanic making his living restoring vintage muscle cars who doesn’t trust automated technology to run ANYTHING, so his life takes a particularly ironic turn when a tragic chain of events leads to his wife’s brutal murder while he’s left paralysed from the neck down. Faced with a future dependent on computerised care-robots, he jumps at the chance offered by technological pioneer Eron Keen (Need For Speed’s Harrison Gilbertson), creator of a revolutionary biochip called STEM that, once implanted into his central nervous system, can help him regain COMPLETE control of his body, but in true body horror style things quickly take a dark and decidedly twisted turn. STEM has a mind of its own (and a voice that only Trace can hear), and an agenda, convincing him to use newfound superhuman abilities to hunt down his wife’s killers and exact terrible, brutal vengeance upon them. There are really strong performances from the supporting cast – Gilbertson is great as a twitchy, socially awkward genius only capable of finding real connection with his technology, Get Out’s Bettie Gabriel is subtly brilliant as Detective Cortez, the cop doggedly pursuing Trace’s case and, eventually, him too, and there’s a cracking villainous turn from relative unknown Benedict Hardie as sadistic but charismatic cybernetically-enhanced contract killer Fisk – but this is very much Marhall-Green’s film; he’s an absolute revelation here, his effortlessly sympathetic hangdog demeanour dominating a fantastically nuanced and impressively physical performance that displays truly exceptional dramatic AND comedic talent. Indeed, while it’s a VERY dark film, there’s a big streak of jet black humour shot right through it, Whannell amusing us in particularly uncomfortable ways whenever STEM takes control and wreaks appropriately inhuman havoc (it helps no end that voice-actor Simon Malden has basically turned STEM into a kind of sociopathic version of Big Hero 6’s Baymax, which is as hilariously twisted as it sounds), and he delivers in spades on the action front too, crafting the year’s most wince-inducing, downright SAVAGE fight sequences and a very exciting car chase. Altogether this is a simply astonishing achievement – at times weirdly beautiful in a scuzzy, decrepit kind of way, it’s visually arresting and fiendishly intelligent, but also, much as we’d expect from the creator of Saw and Hollywood’s PREMIER horror studio, dark, edgy and, at times, weirdly disturbing – in other words, it’s CLASSIC body horror. Whannell is a talent I’ve been watching for a while now, and it’s SO GOOD to finally see him deliver on all that wonderful promise. Needless to say it was another runaway hit for Blumhouse, so there are already plans for a sequel, but for now I’m just happy to revel in the wonderful originality of what was the very peak of my cinematic summer …

2. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE – oh man, if ever there was a contender that could have ousted this year’s Number One, it’s this, it was SUCH a close-run thing. Sure, with THREE major incarnations of Marvel’s most iconic superhero already hitting the big screen since the Millennium, we could AGAIN ask if we really need another Spider-Man “reboot”, but I must say his first ever blockbuster animated appearance leaves virtually all other versions in the dust – only Sam Raimi’s masterpiece second Spider-feature remains unbeaten, but I’ve certainly never seen another film that just totally GETS Stan Lee’s original web-slinger better than this one. It’s directed by the motley but perfectly synced trio of Bob Perischetti (a veteran digital artist making his directorial debut here), Peter Ramsay (Rise of the Guardians) and Rodney Rothman (writer on 22 Jump Street), but the influence of producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (creators of The Lego Movie) is writ large across the entire film (then again, Lord did co-write the script with Rothman) – it’s a magnificent, majestic feast for the eyes, ears and soul, visually arresting and overflowing with effervescent, geeky charm and a deep, fundamental LOVE for the source material in all its varied guises. Taking its lead from the recent Marvel comics crossover event from which the film gets its name, it revolves around an unprecedented collision of various incarnations of Spider-Man from across the varying alternate versions of Earth across the Marvel Multiverse, brought together though the dastardly machinations of criminal mastermind Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (a typically excellent vocal turn from Liev Schreiber) and his secret supercollider. There are two, equally brilliant, “old school” takes on the original web-slinger Peter Parker on offer here – Chris Pine impresses in his early scenes as the “perfect” version, youthful, dashing and thoroughly brilliant but never ruining it by being smug or full of himself, but the story is dominated by New Girl’s Jake Johnson as a more world-weary and self-deprecating blue-collar version, who can still do the job just as well but has never really been as comfortable a fit, and he’s all the more endearing because he’s SUCH a lovable slacker underdog. The main “hero” of the film, however, is Dope’s Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, a teenager who’s literally JUST acquired his powers but must learn FAST if he’s to become this universe’s new Spider-Man, and he’s a perfect lead for the film, unsure of himself and struggling to bring his newfound abilities to bear, but determined to find his footing all the same. There are other brilliant takes on the core character here – Nicolas Cage’s wonderfully overblown monochrome Spider-Man Noir is an absolute hoot, as is anthropomorphised fan-favourite Spider-Ham (voiced by popular stand-up comic John Mulaney) – and a variety of interesting, skewed twists on classic Spider-Man villains (particularly Liv, a gender-bent take on Doctor Octopus played by Bad Moms’ Kathryn Hahn), but my favourite character in this is, tellingly, also my very favourite Marvel web-slinger PERIOD – Earth-65’s Spider-Woman, aka Gwen Stacy (more commonly known as Spider Gwen), an alternative version where SHE got bit by the radioactive arachnid instead of Peter, very faithfully brought to life by a perfectly cast Hailee Steinfeld. It may sound overblown but this is about as close to perfect as a superhero movie can get – the script is an ASTONISHING piece of work, tight as a drum with everything lined up with clockwork precision, and instead of getting bogged down in exposition it turns the whole origin story trope into a brilliant running joke that keeps getting funnier each time a new character gets introduced; it’s also INSANELY inventive and a completely unique visual experience, specifically designed to look like old school comic book art brought to vivid but intriguingly stylised life, right down to the ingenious use of word-bubbles and textured printing dots that add to the pop art feel. This is a truly SPECTACULAR film, a gloriously appointed thrill-ride with all the adventure, excitement, humour and bountiful, powerful, heartbreaking emotional heft you could ever want from a superhero movie – this is (sorry MCU) the VERY BEST film Marvel made in 2018, and maybe one of their very best EVER. There’s already sequel talk in the air (no surprise there, of course), and I can’t wait to see where it goes. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me a Spider Gwen spinoff. I’ll be good, I swear …

1. A QUIET PLACE – the most unique and original film of 2018 was a true masterpiece of horror cinema and, for me, one of the best scary movies I’ve seen in A VERY LONG TIME INDEED. It’s a deceptively simply high-concept thriller built around a dynamite idea, one that writer/director/star John Krasinski (co-writing with up-and-coming creative duo Bryan Woods and Scott Beck) has mined for maximum effect … Krasinski (still probably best known for the US version of The Office but now also gaining fresh traction for killer Amazon Original series Jack Ryan) and his real life wife Emily Blunt are Lee and Evelyn Abbott, a mother and father who must protect their children and find a way to survive on an isolated farm in a world which has been decimated by an inexplicable invasion/infestation/whatever of mysterious and thoroughly lethal creatures that, while blind, use their incredibly sensitive hearing to hunt and kill ANYTHING that makes a sound. As a result, the Abbotts have had to develop an intricately ordered lifestyle in order to gather, scavenge and rebuild while remaining completely silent, a discipline soon to be threatened by Evelyn’s very advanced pregnancy … there’s a truly fiendish level of genius to the way this film has been planned out and executed, the exquisitely thought-out mechanics of the Abbotts’ daily routines, survival methods and emergency procedures proving to be works of pure, unfettered genius – from communication through sign language and slow-dancing to music on shared headphones to walking on pathways created with heaped sand and painted spots to mark floorboards that don’t squeak, playing board games with soft fruit instead of plastic pieces and signalling danger with coloured light-bulbs – while the near total absence of spoken dialogue makes the use of sound and music essential and, here, almost revolutionary, with supervising sound editors Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn becoming as important as the director himself, while composer Marco Beltrami delivers some of his finest work to date with a score of insidious subtlety and brazen power in equal measure. The small but potent cast are all excellent – Blunt has rarely been better in a performance of impressive honesty and a lack of vanity comparable to her work on The Girl On the Train, affecting and compelling as a fierce lioness of a mother, while Krasinski radiates both strength and vulnerability as he fights tooth and nail to keep his family alive, regardless of his own survival, and their real-life chemistry is a genuine boon to their performances, bringing a winning warmth to their relationship; elsewhere, deaf actress Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) effortlessly captures our hearts as troubled, rebellious daughter Regan, delivering a performance of raw, heartbreaking honesty, while Suberbicon’s Noah Jupe impresses as awkward son Marcus, cripplingly unsure of himself and awfully scared of having to grow up in this terrifying new world. There’s great power and heart in the family dynamic, which makes us even more invested in their survival as the screws tighten in what is a SERIOUSLY scary film, an exquisitely crafted exercise in sustained tension that deserves to be remembered alongside the true greats of horror cinema. Krasinski displays a rare level of skill as a director, his grasp of atmosphere, pace and performance hinting at great things to come in the future, definitely making him one to watch – this is an astonishing film, a true gem I’m going to cherish for a long time to come.

#black panther #bohemian rhapsody #mission impossible fallout #The Shape of Water #deadpool 2 #bad times at the el royale #Avengers infinity war #upgrade movie #spiderman into the spiderverse #a quiet place #2018 in movies

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bodyalive · 5 years

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vivipiuomeno: Laurence Demaison ph. - Self portrait body water

From "Bookslut" Interview With Jeff Warren What's the origin of The Head Trip? From internal evidence, it seems to have been in the works for some time... The genesis of The Head Trip was an accident I had at 21, when I fell out of a tree and busted my neck on a street in Montreal. The hardest part of the recovery was psychological; when I returned to my studies I found I couldn’t write essays the way I once could. My style of processing had changed. My thinking went from being very linear and progressive to more lateral and associative. I don’t know how much of this interpretation is a flabby split-brain gloss on a problem I had long ago, but I can say that at the time I knew nothing about neurobiology, I only knew I couldn’t direct my attention the way I once could; the mental objects I did retrieve were often two preoccupations over from my main concern. It was like fishing for trout and hooking clams. My roommate tells me I used to bawl at my desk and moan about leaving “my brains on the road.” Eventually I developed a technique of color-coding my notes by tangent, so that when I veered off into 10 different tangents a day at the end of the week I could still string all the, say, purple tangents together into something like a coherent theme. After this transformation I became more attuned to inner experience. This was augmented by several years of tedious seasonal tree-planting work, where there was literally nothing to do for weeks on end but plant saplings, swat black flies and endure the shifting rhythms of my own shallow stream of consciousness. I became obsessed with how writers described the texture of everyday awareness, whether it was Edgar Allen Poe describing his sleep onset visions, David Foster Wallace on the fugue state of athletic absorption, or Annie Dillard talking about the unselfconscious moment. I began to collect these descriptions, with the vague idea that one day I would put together a taxonomy of elemental states of mind. A separate interest in the biological function of sleep led me into the fantastically variegated world of sleep and dreaming consciousness. In 2004 I started writing The Head Trip. ** Is it fair to say that a chief point of the book is to displace the mind/body (or, psychology/chemistry) distinction? On the one hand, almost all the science you describe is pretty nascent; on the other hand, it also seems as if they tend to point quite clearly to a reciprocal relationship between thoughts and chemicals. The chief point of the book is to re-empower the mind. The mind -- in the form of expectations, beliefs and, most optimistically, intention -- is a more-than-epiphenomenal driver of actual physical change in the body and brain. You can learn to create your own special effects. You have agency. As I write in the book, “this is both supremely hopeful and utterly depressing, since it means in nurturing, enlightened environments we may be able to cultivate whole new standards of mental health, but in violent, regressive environments we risk spawning awful new permutations of mental affliction. Technology -- that great onrushing field within which our minds are shaped -- compounds all of this, for better and for worse.” As far as the actual relationship between mind and body, that, thankfully, is still a mystery, despite the exaggerated claims of the neuro-reductos, whom I love, and the exaggerated claims of the quantum mysticos, whom I love. I guess the two other chief points of the book are: 1. to wake people up to the deliriously varied terrain of their nighttime lives, and 2. to help people look beyond black and white waking rationality, which turns out to be just one capacity on a very bright and colorful palette. Different states of consciousness seem to privilege different styles of knowledge. ** It turns out sleep is more interesting than we usually expect -- and that it even has a history! What are some key misconceptions about sleep? I would like to spiel about dreaming for a moment if you don’t mind. The writer Rodger Kamenetz tipped me off to a great Borges quote. Borges once wrote: “Lately I've been rereading psychology books, and I have felt singularly defrauded. All of them discuss the mechanisms of dreams or the subjects of dreams, but they do not mention, as I had hoped, that which is so astonishing, so strange -- the fact of dreaming.” The fact of dreaming. When you wake up in a dream and actually take a look around -- it’s bananas. It’s the absolute craziest goddamn thing in all of human life. Every night we beam down into an elaborate virtual world where we can pound the walls with our oven-mitt fists and sniff giant daisies and have elliptical conversations with archetypal bus drivers. From inside a dream there is nothing vague or washed out about the experience -- dreams are totally real, as real as getting off the plane in Lagos and ordering a beer from some guy at the side of the road. You are at this place -- you’re IN it! At the time it’s every bit as solid and real as waking. Except… and this is what’s so cool… except when you’re self-consciously aware inside the dream you can then squeeze up real close to the walls with your little magnifying glass and look for suture marks. You can conduct experiments. You come to realize that there is a set of laws operating in the dream world that is every bit as real as the laws of physics in the waking world. What are these laws? And why aren’t there as many scientists down here with their slide rules and theories as there are out there? We spend our lives in two worlds and yet we only pay attention to one of them -- the other is seen as an embarrassing curiosity, a forum for banality-rehearsal and botched sex. People protest: “but it’s not real, stop living in fantasy.” All experience is real. On the personal side, dreams reveal all kinds of junk about the self. On the scientific side, our dreams represent an unparalleled opportunity to examine the dynamics of consciousness. I mean think about it: without sensory input to dilute everything, you get consciousness in a pure culture. And it so happens that this pure culture -- The Dream -- runs like an underground creek beneath the waking world, muddying the ground in all kinds of interesting ways. And that’s just the conventional science. Who knows what else we may discover digging around in the dream world. For those interested in the wooly world of mind-matter speculation, the epistemological rabbit hole goes very deep indeed. This is going to sound hyperbolic but I really believe we’re at are at the dawn of a new age of scientific exploration. The external world is mapped; now the explorers are turning inward. The galleons have left port. They’re approaching a huge mysterious continent. They won’t be the first to arrive. There are paths already cut in the forest, where shamans and monks and others have set up outposts and launched their own expeditions into the interior. It’s a thrilling story, a lurid epic in the making, and yet almost no one has any idea it’s happening. As far as our misconceptions about sleep, I would say the biggest one is this idea that we lose consciousness when the lights go out. This couldn’t be further from the truth. At night consciousness just turns inside out. Instead of moving through a world constructed from sensory input, we move through a world constructed from memory and imagination. We do lose certain self-reflective properties, and -- critically -- our short-term memories are compromised so we don’t remember many of our experiences. But when you wake people up in the night most of them report some kind of mental activity -- either the strange snap-shot narratives of sleep onset, the fully immersive dreams of REM, or the low-level “mentation” of deep sleep. Even in the emptiest bliss-saturated realms of slow wave sleep the experiencing self remains. Consciousness is 24-hours. *** One of your key images is the "wheel of consciousness" (at least, that's what it's called in the illustrations and the title; early on you write that "the brain is a wheel, and consciousness is a pliant membrane pressed into the rim.")

[Thanks “Alive On All Channels” Archive]

#Alive On All Channels #bodymind #brain #consciousness

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architecdura-blog · 5 years

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The Value of "Shanty" Towns in Urban Planning.

The world known Gehl architects studio tells the story of how they came in to help redesign Villa 31, the most emblematic informal settlement in Buenos Aires, and how they ended up valuing what their residents had already built.

Urban planners and designers often face an uncomfortable paradox: people often prefer neighborhoods that have developed organically, thanks to the contributions of many, over those planned by a small group of experts. Urban planners love using terms like 'organic', 'spontaneous' and 'authentic'; however, they tend to plan and design areas that restrict those same characteristics. We were confronted in a very explicit way with this paradox when Gehl, the company where we work as urban designers, received an invitation from the government of Buenos Aires to provide design advice in an ambitious project, led by the Secretariat of Social and Urban Integration of the city, for the redevelopment of the most emblematic informal settlement in the Argentine capital. The plan seeks to turn Villa 31 -villa, in Argentinean slang, means neighborhood- into a neighborhood, a neighborhood proper.

Villa 31 is one of the most interesting and vibrant neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It has the granularity and scale of the medieval settlements that tourists flock to in places like Siena, Italy. It has that life on the street, with children running and playing, which cities like New York or Melbourne aspire to achieve through Play Streets initiatives -in which the streets are closed to traffic for defined periods to open them to the community and promote physical activity. With the streets full of cyclists and pedestrians, the town has a modal division more similar to that of Copenhagen and other cities at the forefront in transport than to other neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.

WE MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO IDEALIZE THESE CHARACTERISTICS

Strategically located next to the most wealthy neighborhood of the capital, Villa 31 is a painful reminder of the deep socio-economic disparity in Argentina. While most of the city is revered as a sophisticated metropolis, 37 percent of the eight thousand households in this informal settlement lack kitchens and a quarter of them do not have toilets.

Some residents carry a pair of extra shoes to wear after walking the muddy streets. Some corridors are so narrow that they do not allow the passage of emergency vehicles, which means that hundreds of families are out of reach of them. The bulk of the houses does not have drinking water or are connected to the sewerage network. Electricity is available through dangerous informal connections, which have resulted in electrocutions and fatal explosions.

Most homes are overcrowded and lack adequate indoor air quality. Although the village is located in the vicinity of a transportation center, none of the transit lines runs through the community and pedestrian access is further limited due to the gangs that control certain access routes.

After 80 years of neglect, the municipal government has decided to face the challenge and expand the scope of services and infrastructure in Villa 31. The goal is to raise standards of quality of life to the same levels as in the rest of the city . At the head of such an extraordinary and complex task is a motivated team of young architects, engineers, sociologists and experts in public policy. Gehl joined them to help them carry out the social mission of the project through to plan...

As part of our work, we are dedicated to studying public life in seven neighborhoods representative of the diversity of Buenos Aires and to learning from the public outreach team that has been working with residents for almost two years. Our findings reveal that, in the key indicators of urban vitality and sustainable mobility, the village exceeds the richest areas of the city.

In the streets and spaces of Villa 31 there are more people walking, cycling, socializing, playing and watching people go by than in the rest of the six neighborhoods we studied.

In addition, we realized that, in comparison with the informal neighborhoods built by the inhabitants themselves after government intervention, most of the social housing projects subsidized by the State during the last century have given worse results (in terms of security and health).

There is no doubt about the urgent need to extend access to public services in this area. For decades, residents of Villa 31 have demanded basic infrastructure and government presence; nevertheless, the more time we spend in the community, the better we have been able to appreciate the urban infrastructure that the people of the neighborhood have already developed.

These families face serious deprivation in many aspects and, nevertheless, in the midst of scarcity, the neighborhood has characteristics -among them, passable streets and a dynamic public life- that some of the most privileged cities aspire to.

Together with a dedicated team -Diego, Lucho, Licho, Nacho and Juani- Gehl has devised strategies to connect the neighborhood, which has been isolated for a long time, with its formal environment.

The objective of making the community physically more accessible is complemented by the complex process of formal integration of the town into the social and economic fabric of the city. We have helped design streets and spaces to interconnect the micro-communities that make up the village and thus reinforce the notion that public space really constitutes the common base and essence of the district.

As our designs have evolved, we have become more aware of the risks involved in redevelopment. In the village, adhering to modern building codes means widening the streets, restricting the entrepreneurial zeal of the residents and, possibly, increasing construction costs. To comply with the rules, the community would be forced to give up some of its most powerful attributes.

Below, we present the five most important design lessons we have learned from Villa 31, illustrated by local artist Fernando Neyra.

PROXIMITY IS IMPORTANT

Built by the residents themselves on publicly owned land near the main transit center of the city, Villa 31 has provided migrants and low-income families with something that neither the market nor most government programs have been able to do. : the opportunity to live in the proximity of the sources of employment, services and other amenities that the city offers.

In Argentina, as in the United States and Europe, there is an unmet demand for affordable housing near work centers. Unfortunately, the supply of affordable housing, including social assistance, is often limited to suburban residential areas, which lack access to affordable housing. public office and appropriate jobs. This restricts opportunities for residents and, by forcing them to move daily to the workplace, condemns them to waste valuable time unnecessarily.

A DISTRICT CAN BE as DENSE as the HUMAN SCALE

In a city marked by skyscrapers and the rapid movement of traffic in eight-lane avenues, the narrow streets and compact form of the villa provide a break from the noise and hustle and bustle of urban life. Although Villa 31 is one of the densest neighborhoods in the city, most buildings are less than five stories high.

The width of the street oscillates between three and 16 meters, generating a network of shared alleyways characterized by a pleasant micro-climate. With dynamic lower floors and open balconies, the narrow buildings that make up the dense blocks, ensure that there are always a pair of eyes watching the street.

Instead of adjusting to a perfect grid, these alleyways curve around the structures, creating a network of undulating passages that discover different views of the district and its surroundings. These irregular passages vary in width, which allows small squares and meeting spaces to arise. The alleys become shortcuts between parallel roads, allowing pedestrians to take shorter, more direct routes than vehicles.

THE STREETS CAN BE cheerful AND SAFE PUBLIC SPACES

Narrow lanes, along with constant activity, force drivers to move slowly through the fabric of the village. The slow pace of traffic generates a safer and quieter social environment than other areas of the city that have been specifically designed for the flow of automobiles.

The streets of the village then become a point of convergence - a space for casual exchanges and frequent encounters. Even from an early age, children gather to play outside the home without supervision, but always at the mere steps of adults.

As you walk through the streets of the village, you can see the families sitting in front of the houses, meeting to talk with neighbors or watch over children. It is possible to see the residents of the third age engage, from the balcony or the window of the living room, conversation with passers-by. In the villa, a small unit on the ground floor allows an older person to live independently and participate in the life of the community.

FLEXIBLE ARCHITECTURE GENERATES ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

In the village, the house is much more than a home - it is a platform for economic progress. An immigrant family can begin, for example, with a two-room structure on one floor. A door or window facing the street is all that is needed to establish a small store. Business initiatives can be tested without the risks and costs of renting a commercial space. If the business fails, it is possible to transform it and try again with a new and better idea. If the business is successful, it can expand and occupy the first floor, while business income can be used to finance the construction of a second floor for housing. Also, a third floor with independent access can be converted into an apartment to rent to a cousin or a couple of tenants.

The house constantly adapts and adjusts; It can be subdivided when the family grows or is rented when a family member moves. Many of the residents of the village live on the fringes of the formal banking system, so a larger house represents a way to save the same as a source of income.

Over time, a successful company can become a valuable asset to the neighborhood, which allows neighbors to meet their needs around the corner. Currently, one out of every five buildings in the town houses a business. In one of these streets there are a vegetable market, a cybercafé, a hairdresser, a laundry, a sandwich shop and even a dental office. Each of these businesses stands as a testimony to the business impulse of the residents.

THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF EACH HOUSING CONFIGURES THE SPACE

Traditional public housing projects place the inhabitants in standard regulated modules; they are structures with predictable and uniform shapes, repeated in neat rows. Personalized modifications to the exterior of the dwellings are discouraged or prohibited, since they affect the architectural purity of the vision of the project. Free of strict and monolithic aesthetic ideas, the houses of the village reflect the personality and taste of its inhabitants.

With an attentive look, a walk through the village reveals, through the colors and materials chosen, the pride that people feel for their homes. In a quiet little street, a facade carries a hand-painted tile, indicating the number of the house and the family's last name; the painted house reminds those who pass there to the proud family that inhabits it.

A NEW PARADIGM

For two decades, the residents of the village have demanded changes. Today, many appreciate the improvements the government makes in the neighborhood. But it is essential to emphasize that we should not idealize these conditions, arising from scarcity and need. However, we also need to recognize the values and strengths of the community, in order to preserve them in the neighborhood after redevelopment, and apply the lessons learned there to other urban design projects.

The new investments should be directed to the real needs of the community, respecting the social structures that have allowed it to remain energetic in the face of adversity. We are convinced that the urban form of the village -proximity to the places of employment, flexible and adaptable architecture, compact and passable streets and dynamic lower floors- has not only influenced the strong social bond that unites the residents, but also the extraordinarily resilient structures in which they live.

By studying and learning from self-built communities such as Villa 31, the architects involved in the creation of social housing in Latin America and other places, provide a great contribution to citizenship. Local leaders must accept and adopt the paradox that places like the town symbolize. These urban spaces require public support without excessively regulating the organic life that has already flourished in their absence.

We extend our special thanks to the entire team of Barrio 31 and especially to Diego, Lucho, Licho, Nacho and Juani. We also thank David Sim, who influenced our approach to this project and the ideas in this article.

#Urban planners and designers #organic #Integration #neighborhoods #quality of life #streets and spaces #redevelopment

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your-dietician · 3 years

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2021 WIAA state boys golf tournament: Rob Hernandez's Division 1 sectional preview, predictions | WIAA Boys

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/golf/2021-wiaa-state-boys-golf-tournament-rob-hernandezs-division-1-sectional-preview-predictions-wiaa-boys/

2021 WIAA state boys golf tournament: Rob Hernandez's Division 1 sectional preview, predictions | WIAA Boys

Wisconsin.Golf’s Rob Hernandez sizes up the WIAA Division 1 boys sectional golf tournaments being contested across the state this week. The top two teams in each sectional advance to next week’s state tournament, along with the top three golfers not on those teams. The Division 1 state championships are scheduled for June 14-15 at Wild Rock Golf Club.

WAUSAU EAST SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Antigo 355 3 1985 D.C. Everest (Schofield) 337 4 1991 Eau Claire Memorial 290 49 2019 Hudson 299 3 2019 New Richmond 311 22 2001 River Falls 305 16 2018 Stevens Point 338 27 2016 Wausau West 352 4 2007 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Jaxon Bulgrin, Marshfield 85 Carter Cygan, Wausau East 79 Jamin Dufree, Superior 79 Brett Elkin, Chippewa Falls 71 Koldyn Gechas, Rhinelander 81 Andrew Henrichs, Rhinelander 89 Matt Nault, Superior 77 Andrew Rude, Superior 77

When, where: 9 a.m. Tuesday at Greenwood Hills CC-Wausau, par 72.

That was then (in 2019): Hudson senior Charley Chase and sophomore Bennett Swavely shot matching 76s at New Richmond Golf Course as the Raiders shot 316 and edged Big Rivers Conference rival Eau Claire Memorial (320) to win the 2019 WIAA Division 1 New Richmond sectional. New Richmond sophomore Owen Covey shot 71 to slip past eventual state champion Russell Dettmering of Merrill by one shot for medalist honors. Stevens Point senior Evan Thomas joined Covey and Dettmering in qualifying for the state tournament at University Ridge GC in Madison. Covey and Swavely were the top performers among golfers currently competing in the 2021 high school season.

This is now (in 2021): There is nothing like a 290 to get people’s attention and that’s exactly what Eau Claire Memorial did last week in winning the WIAA Division 1 Superior regional at Nemadji GC in Superior. Freshman Will Schlitz shot 4-under-par 68, one of just three sub-70 rounds in the state, to edge Hudson senior Bennett Swavely, a University of Minnesota recruit, by one shot for medalist honors as the Old Abes outscored Hudson 290-299 for the team title. History would suggest that it will be a much different story on the scoreboard at Greenwood Hills, which last played host to a sectional in 2011 when Hudson (323) knocked off Superior (336) and Eau Claire North (339) for the team title. Memorial, the Big Rivers Conference champion, has a freshman (Schlitz) and two sophomores (Ben Christensen and Parker Etzel), for whom this sectional will be their first. Could that open the door for Hudson, which has three seniors in its starting five with one of them a tournament veteran in Swavely. Much like Memorial and Hudson dueled in the Big Rivers, Stevens Point and Wausau West went back-and-forth in finishing 1-2 in the Wisconsin Valley Conference only to finish second and third, respectively, behind D.C. Everest (Schofield) at the Everest regional at Wausau CC. On paper, none of the three WVC favorites have the scoring punch of Eau Claire Memorial and Hudson, but that may not be as important if the sectional plays out the way Leg 5 of the WVC tournament series did May 14, when Stevens Point (346) outlasted Wausau West (348) and D.C. Everest (352) for team honors in a high-scoring affair on the challenging Greenwood Hills layout.

Projected state team qualifiers: Hudson, Eau Claire Memorial.

Projected state individual qualifiers: Logan Pechinski, Stevens Point; Carter Cygan, Wausau East; Owen Covey, New Richmond.

NOTRE DAME (GREEN BAY) SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Appleton North 345 3 2001 Appleton West 352 4 2003 Ashwaubenon 330 3 2008 Bay Port 342 7 2019 De Pere 316 6 2015 Green Bay Preble 340 15 2010 Notre Dame (Green Bay) 317 15 2018 West De Pere 325 3 2004 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Aiden Cudney, Kimberly 82 Sam Knapp, Kaukauna 87 Kaden Marcell, Shawano 81 Jake Prestigiacomo, Appleton East 87 Quinn Process, Pulaski 81 Connor Schaefer, Hortonville 89 Lucas te Plate, Shawano 86 Aaron Tonn, Pulaski 86

When, where: 9 a.m. Wednesday at Thornberry Creek at Oneida GC, par 72.

That was then (in 2019): Kaukauna’s dynamic senior duo of Tyler Cleaves (74) and Brock Hlinak (75) paved the way, but fellow seniors Zachary Klingseisen (76) and Reis Schweiner (77) weren’t too shabby, either, as the Galloping Ghosts fired a 302 and rolled to the Notre Dame (Green Bay) sectional at Thornberry Creek at Oneida GC. Bay Port (319) edged host Notre Dame (Green Bay) by one shot for the second state berth behind junior Preston Cedergren, who shared medalist honors with Appleton East senior Ben Gilkay and Cleaves. Gilkay, Green Bay Preble senior Cole Hanke (75) and Green Bay Southwest senior Trent Thomas (75) earned the individual state tournament berths. Appleton West sophomore Austin Georger, who lost to birdies from Hanke and Thomas on the second playoff hole for the last two berths, shot 75 and was the top finisher among current high school golfers.

This is now (in 2021): It must be the WIAA postseason because sectional host Notre Dame (Green Bay) turned in one of its finest performances of the season last week in winning the Ashwaubenon regional at Brown County GC in Oneida. Junior Ryan Darling had a lot to do with that, firing a 1-under 71 to earn medalist honors by seven strokes and help the Tritons (317) roll past Fox River Classic Conference rival Ashwaubenon (330) for the title. Lost, perhaps, in Darling’s work up front was the fact Notre Dame had all five golfers shoot 85 or better on a tough layout. Two years ago Notre Dame packed its four scoring golfers between 78 and 84 only to fall one shot shy of Bay Port in its bid for a 16th state tournament berth. This year, De Pere figures to be the team the Tritons and everyone else will be chasing. The FRCC overall champion Redbirds looked strong at its own regional at Ledgeview GC in De Pere with seniors Ben Busick (78) and Grady Coppo (79), junior Sam Mehlberg (79) and sophomore Jack Weisenberger (80) setting a tone that will be tough to beat if they can replicate that balance at Thornberry Creek. Lurking out there, too, is Fox Valley Association champion Appleton North, which won the FVA Championship with a 327 but finished third (345) at the De Pere regional.

Projected state team qualifiers: Notre Dame (Green Bay), De Pere.

Projected state individual qualifiers: Austin Georger, Appleton West; Max Reis, West De Pere; Aiden Cudney, Kimberly.

MADISON MEMORIAL SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Holmen 331 6 2019 Madison Memorial 321 17 2017 Middleton 310 21 2019 Onalaska 327 21 2013 Reedsburg 358 7 2008 Tomah 333 4 1983 Verona 323 1 2018 Waunakee 309 1 2017 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Dominick Fetterer, Wisconsin Rapids 88 Charlie Gibbs, Baraboo 84 Finn Jackson, Madison West 88 Dane Kubisiak, Wisconsin Rapids 88 Sonny Lombardo, Mount Horeb 88 Kaleb Lycke, La Crosse Central/Logan 83 Jack Morgan, Madison West 85 Brandt Wilson, Sauk Prairie 89

When, where: 9 a.m. Monday at Blackhawk CC-Madison, par 72.

That was then (in 2019): Historically a mix of Madison- and La Crosse-area teams, this sectional welcomed Wisconsin Rapids to the mix for the first time and went to the Ridges GC in Wisconsin Rapids to determine state qualifiers. The results, however, looked a lot like those when the sectional is played in Madison or La Crosse. Four Middleton golfers broke 80, led by junior Kip Sullivan (75), as the Cardinals shot 306 and topped Holmen by five shots for the team title. Mount Horeb’s Kasen Fager (72) earned medalist honors by two strokes over Verona senior Austin Gaby. They joined Sparta junior Austin Erickson (76) in advancing to the state tournament as individuals. Middleton sophomore Jacob Beckman (79) tied for 10th and was the top finisher among golfers still competing at the high school level in 2021.

This is now (in 2021): Middleton, which finished second to Milwaukee Marquette at the 2019 WIAA Division 1 state championship, was reminded last week that it’s as tough to get to the state tournament out of this sectional as it is to contend once there. The Cardinals shot 310 at their own regional last week at Pleasant View GC, but finished second to Waunakee (309), which boasted the medalist in junior Max Brud (73) and had all five golfers break 85. Middleton’s four scoring golfers ranged from 75 to 80 with a lineup that had just one senior (University of Wisconsin recruit Jacob Beckman) in it. While they would appear to be the teams to beat, Onalaska’s winning 327 at its own regional came on a demanding La Crosse CC and will no doubt send the Hilltoppers into the sectional with confidence. However, qualifiers from both regionals will find a much different challenge at Blackhawk CC, a tight layout with fast greens that is playing host to a boys sectional for the first time in recent memory. When the course held a Division 1 regional in 2017, Middleton won with a 311, but none of the other schools in the eight-team field broke 325 and only one golfer bettered 76. To further muddy the waters, three schools ranked in the top 10 — No. 4 Middleton, No. 8 Waunakee and No. 9 Madison Memorial — are in the field as are the top two teams also receiving votes (Verona and Holmen).

Projected state team qualifiers: Middleton, Madison Memorial.

Projected state individual qualifiers: Will Meganck, Waunakee; Hunter Neumann, Tomah; Sam Evenson, Holmen.

PLYMOUTH SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Arrowhead (Hartland) 302 30 2019 Fond du Lac 345 39 2019 Hartford 340 12 2003 Manitowoc 341 21 2007 Neenah 344 10 2014 Plymouth 346 15 2017 Sheboygan North 307 27 2018 Slinger 321 5 2014 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Owen Beumler, Sheboygan South 89 Isaac Geffers, Oshkosh North 88 Joseph Held, West Bend West 88 Tristan Helgeson, West Bend West 89 Nic Kolar, Sheboygan South 89 Boden Memmel, West Bend East 90 Dakota Rezachek, Two Rivers/Mishicot 89 Evan Spaeth, West Bend West 86

When, where: 9 a.m. Wednesday at Quit-Qui-Oc GC-Elkhart Lake, par 71.

That was then (in 2019): Two-time defending WIAA Division 1 state champion Piercen Hunt shot 70 at Washington County GC in Hartford as Arrowhead (Hartland) shot 308 and edged Fond du Lac by four shots for the team title at the WIAA Division 1 Hartford regional. Beaver Dam senior Zak Kulka, a UW-Green Bay recruit, finished second with a 72 and joined Plymouth senior Charlie Aschenbach (74) and De Pere senior Cole Griffin (76) in qualifying for the state tournament individually. Slinger sophomore Addison Raimer and West De Pere freshman Max Reis shot matching 80s and were the top finishers among those golfers who are still competing during the 2021 season.

This is now (in 2021): Sheboygan North moves into this sectional from what this year is the Mequon Homestead sectional and promises to give perennial power and top-ranked Arrowhead (Hartland) a run for the team title. The Golden Raiders are coming off of a Neenah regional championship where sophomore Mason Schmidtke’s state-best 66 fueled their 307 winning score. Overshadowed by Schmidtke’s remarkable round was the fact that all five North golfers, three of them seniors, shot 86 or better. That experience will be critical against Arrowhead and Slinger, whose senior standouts are at the top of their lineups and promise to make the road to Wild Rock GC in Wisconsin Dells difficult for North. Arrowhead seniors Nick Amtmann and Andrew Fickel shared regional medalist honors with 73s at Washington County GC last week as the Warhawks, who also got a 74 from sophomore Bode King, shot 302 to top Slinger by 19 strokes. Raimer, however, is playing some of the best golf of his high school career and has formed a solid nucleus with junior Will Summers and senior Tyson Miller.

Projected state team qualifiers: Arrowhead (Hartland), Sheboygan North.

Projected state individual qualifiers: Addison Raimer, Slinger; Will Summers, Slinger; Wyatt Pfeiffer, Fond du Lac.

JANESVILLE PARKER SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Beloit Memorial 340 28 2013 Fort Atkinson 356 11 2015 Milton 326 1 1987 Monona Grove 346 3 2017 Mukwonago 332 8 2019 Oregon 353 1 2000 Stoughton 358 9 2013 Sun Prairie 351 8 2010 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Nolan Ahler, Elkhorn 85 Will Arkin, Madison La Follette 92 Josh Brogren, Elkhorn 85 Ryan Ertel, McFarland 90 Kai Klass, McFarland 91 Wyatt Marshall, Janesville Craig 73 Ethan Prusakeiwicz, DeForest 88 Bryce Sullivan, Janesville Craig 87

When, where: 8 a.m. Tuesday at Janesville Riverside GC, par 72.

That was then (in 2019): Bucknell recruit Blake Wisdom of Lake Geneva Badger shot 71 while teammates Luke Abram (75), Ben Rademaker (77) and TJ Walton (78) also broke 80 as the Badgers (301) pulled out a two-stroke victory at the Mukwonago sectional at Edgewood GC in Big Bend. Mukwonago won a team playoff over Sun Prairie for the second state berth after the two teams tied for second place at 303, leaving the Cardinals’ Mickey Keating (73) to take one of the three state individual berths with Janesville Parker junior Kadin Kleman (73) and Milton senior AJ Gray (75), who won a playoff over Sun Prairie senior Ethan Carrick and Janesville Parker’s Zack Milner for the final spot at University Ridge. Badger’s Abram, who tied for fifth, was the top golfer among those still competing at the high school level in 2021.

This is now (in 2021): As is often the case with a sectional that encompasses areas south of Madison and west of Milwaukee, this sectional couldn’t be more wide open. Milton (326) and Monona Grove (346) come to Janesville Riverside as regional champions, but Mukwonago (332) and Beloit Memorial (340) finished within 14 strokes of Milton at the Mukwonago regional at Edgewood GC in Big Bend and Sun Prairie (351), Oregon (353) and Stoughton (358) finished within 12 shots of MG at the Portage regional at Portage CC. Likewise, only four golfers broke 80 at Mukwonago, led by individual sectional qualifier Wyatt Marshall of Janesville Craig (73), and no one shot lower than 81 at Portage. Beloit Memorial and Monona Grove shot matching 349s to finish T-2 at the Ashenfelder Invitational at Janesville Riverside last month, but history suggests the course is much more forgiving than that so it will likely take a score lower than 320 to advance to the state tournament.

Projected state team qualifiers: Milton, Mukwonago.

Projected state individual qualifiers: Griffin Oberneder, Beloit Memorial; Jacob Frederickson, Monona Grove; Wyatt Marshall, Janesville Craig.

HOMESTEAD (MEQUON) SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Cedarburg 308 4 2016 Germantown 314 2 2010 Hamilton (Sussex) 320 0 NA Hometead (Mequon) 304 31 2019 Kettle Moraine 295 8 2019 Oconomowoc 332 26 2006 Pewaukee 330 5 2012 Waukesha West 329 1 2004 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Jake Anderson, Whitefish Bay 82 Collin Barry, Whitefish Bay 81 Ben Hilbelink, Menomonee Falls 72 Peter Hoeppner, Waukesha North 82 Jackson Piacsek, Waukesha North 76 Mason Roanhouse, Waterford 79 Cullen Starker, Whitefish Bay 79 Owen Van Galen, Waukesha South 83

When, where: 9 a.m. Tuesday at North Shore CC-Mequon.

That was then (in 2019): Sophomore Ty Mueller (78) and junior Josh Teplin (80) turned in top-10 finishes as Mequon Homestead shot 322 and survived arguably the toughest sectional venue in the state on the Irish Course at Whistling Straits in Haven with the Sheboygan North sectional championship. Kettle Moraine (330) edged Sheboygan North (333) and Germantown (336) for the second state berth. Sheboygan North seniors Austin Thyes (73) and Max Schmidtke (76) and Waterford junior Josh Koszarek (75) qualified for the state tournament individually. Medalist Ben Pausha of Kettle Moraine (72) was the top finisher among golfers still competing at the high school level in 2021.

This is now (in 2021): Top-ranked Kettle Moraine, which shot 295 in winning the Waukesha South regional, and No. 3 Mequon Homestead headline a field that includes a few teams — Cedarburg, Germantown and Hamilton (Sussex) — capable of keeping the favorites from punching their ticket to the state tournament in Wisconsin Dells. It will take a yeoman’s effort, however. Kettle Moraine’s victory at Morningstar Golfers Club in Waukesha included a 72 from senior Jackson Vinopal, a 73 from freshman Spencer Stuke, a 74 from sophomore Alex Koenig and a 76 from senior Jackson Cain. Pausha, the sectional champion two years ago the last time a WIAA tournament series was held, had his 78 thrown out. Homestead seemed comfortable with the shootout that was its regional at Mee Kwon GC. Mueller’s 71 earned him a share of medalist honors with Germantown’s Collin Thomey and led the way for the Highlanders (304), who got a 75 from sophomore Hunter Thibert and a 77 from senior Christian Sobczak at the back end of the lineup on a day when No. 2 golfer Joe Fricker shot 82 despite a 37 on the back nine. Cedarburg (Nathan Theama), Germantown (Thomey) and Sussex Hamilton (Michael Addie) all have strong No. 1 golfers who won’t be intimidated by a tough sectional venue in North Shore CC, which is the fourth Mequon-area course Homestead has enlisted to host a postseason competition in the last three years.

Projected state team qualifiers: Homestead (Mequon), Kettle Moraine .

Projected state individual qualifiers: Collin Thomey, Germantown; Michael Addie, Hamilton (Sussex); Nathan Theama, Cedarburg .

RACINE CASE SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Franklin 346 5 2019 Kenosha Indian Trail 344 0 NA Marquette (Milwaukee) 304 11 2019 Muskego 334 4 2017 Oak Creek 329 1 2000 Racine Case 343 13 2015 South Milwaukee 432 36 1989 INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Tyson Baldwin, Kenosha Tremper 87 Egan Bedwell, Milwaukee King 109 Michael Cerny, Racine Horlick 83 Tyler Dahl, Kenosha Tremper 76 Peter Iwanowski, St. Francis/Cudahy 82 Josh Koch, Milwaukee King 96 Alex Krowski, St. Francis/Cudahy 105 Kamden Logan, Kenosha Tremper 91

When, where: 9 a.m. Tuesday at Ives Grove GL-Sturtevant, par 72.

That was then (in 2019): Junior Jack Lutze (70) and seniors Jack Blair (72) and Drew Sagrillo (72) swept the top three spots and freshman Hayden LeMonds (76) finished T-7 as Milwaukee Marquette shot 290 and cruised to a 17-stroke victory over Franklin to win its own sectional at Brown Deer Park GC in Milwaukee. No other school finished within 36 strokes of the top two teams. University of Wisconsin-bound junior Cameron Huss of Kenosha Tremper (76) earned his first WIAA state tournament berth as an individual qualifier along with St. Francis/Cudahy sophomore Peter Iwanowski (78) and Greenfield senior Sam Mendoza (79). Franklin sophomore John Mirsberger (73) finished T-4, the best showing by a golfer still competing in the high school ranks in 2021.

This is now (in 2021): The names may change, but the results remain the same for Milwaukee Marquette, which has won the last two WIAA Division 1 state championships and three of the last four. Senior Riley Simonz (75), junior Sebastian Kasun (76) and sophomore Marco Bamrah (76) swept the top three places and junior Hayden LeMonds shot 77 in his season debut after a long road to recovery from Bankart Repair shoulder surgery last summer as the Hilltoppers shot 304 to win their own regional a Brown Deer Park, a rather stress-free competition with only three schools fielding full teams. That junior Will Hemauer’s 78 was thrown out speaks to the depth coach Brad Niswonger’s team has again in 2021. There figures to be a wide gap between Marquette and the second-place team at Ives Grove. None of the other six teams in the sectional shot lower than 329 (Oak Creek), paving the way for a spirited battle for the second state berth.

Projected state team qualifiers: Marquette (Milwaukee), Racine Case.

Projected state individual qualifiers: Dylan Moore, Kenosha Indian Trail; Tyler Dahl, Kenosha Tremper; John Mirsberger, Franklin.

WESTOSHA CENTRAL SECTIONAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE STATE BERTHS LAST Badger (Lake Geneva) 327 32 2019 Brookfield Central 328 14 2018 Brookfield East 327 4 2008 New Berlin West 345 5 2006 Union Grove 330 0 NA Wauwatosa East/West 317 38 2019 West Allis Hale 370 14 2002 Whitnall (Hales Corners) 365 0 NA INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS REGIONAL SCORE Nolan Bruni, Westosha Central 84 Johnny Hooper, Greenfield 95 Brandon LaBeau, Greendale 81 Sam Olson, Wisconsin Lutheran 93 Nathan Riel, Wisconsin Lutheran 98 Cy Turner, Wilmot 90 Dane Turner, Wilmot 88 Tom Zacher, Greenfield 94

When, where: 9 a.m. Wednesday at Brighton Dale Links GC-Kansasville, par 72.

That was then (in 2019): Junior Dan Sobeleski (76) and Wauwatosa East/West shot 305 at Wanaki GC in Menomonee Falls and won a shootout with junior Marty Swab (72) and Menomonee Falls (308) to win the Brookfield Central sectional. Swab shared medalist honors with UW-Eau Claire-bound senior Connor Brown of Union Grove, who qualified individually Brookfield Central seniors Jack Anderson (75) and Dean Yun (76). Yun won a playoff over Brookfield East’s Zach Walsh for the final state individual berth. Sophomore Sam Yun (78), who finished T-12, was the top finisher among those golfers still competing during the 2021 high school season.

This is now (in 2021): Badger (Lake Geneva) moves over from the Janesville Parker regional to take aim at Wauwatosa East/West, which placed all five golfers in the top 11 at last week’s Brookfield Central regional at Wanaki GC in Menomonee Falls and shot a 317 to top runner-up Brookfield East by 10 shots for the team title. Junior Ben Soboleski (75) and senior Colin Muellen (79) were the only golfers to break 80 at Wanaki, the kind of scores that will go a long way at Brighton Dale Links in a sectional that is otherwise extremely balanced. Badger won the Union Grove regional at Ives Grove GL in Sturtevant with a 327 behind junior TJ Walton, who played well in the postseason in 2019, and seniors Colton Craig (81) and Chris Bakken (83). Scores are seldom low at Brighton Dale so this sectional will not only test the depth of teams hoping to advance to Wisconsin Dells, but also their patience.

Projected state team qualifiers: Wauwatosa East/West, Badger (Lake Geneva) .

Projected state individual qualifiers: Simon Graham, Union Grove; Sam Sonsalla, Brookfield Central; Charlie Bennett, Brookfield East.

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sunwukong-stoaway-blog · 6 years

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Oh shit, 3AM, time for a hot take on the FNDM from the perspective of someone who’s drifted in and out of it for years now. And yeah, spoilers, it involves Sun, the Bees, and experience therein.

We do need a few things set for the record before I dive further in. First, there is indeed a difference between normal Bee fans and flat out Wasps. Y’know, the psychopathic harassing jerks. There is also a segment of the Blacksun fndm that is more than happy to be as harassment heavy and take things too damn far. The problem in judging which is bigger is that you’ll only ever see the size of whatever groups you happen to be in contact with, which means if you’re a normal fan of one side, you’re likely to only see the hate-filled opposite side. And if you’re removed, then it’s a roll of the dice whether you see Wasps or... whatever the BlackSun equivalent is. And whichever side is bigger, they both still exist, which is the main problem. Now let’s take a stroll down memory lane and acknowledge a few things.

First and foremost. The Bees as a ship only exists as it does because people were throwing the first characters on screen at each other and held to them. This was true of Ruby and Weiss after the Red and White trailers, then true of Blake and Yang after the Black and Yellow trailers. We didn’t know anything about any of these characters, (in fact it completely flipped Ruby and Weiss’ personality traits, making Ruby a cool and aloof sniper chick and Weiss a soft melting princess) but the ships were already cemented and beloved by the community.

This kept going into the first season proper. Sure, we had alternate blends of ships, like Ladybug, Freezerburn, and Monochrome. Even Enabler, Ruby/Yang if anyone remembers that incestuous ship, before it was burnt to the ground by canon. But Whiterose/The Bees were the biggest game in town. Seemed to be backed by the canon too, to an extent. All the characters introduced were paired off and sent on their way, including JNPR, but this didn’t stop FNDM from laughing and enjoying themselves. (One particularly popular joke during the Jaune Arc was snickering that Yang and Blake were doing the do offscreen instead of running for help, for instance.) It didn’t matter Yang and Blake didn’t have a single conversation that didn’t end in Blake snubbing Yang and Yang writing Blake off as a “lost cause,” they were the pairing and nobody else was around, so, that was canon. And then episode 15 rolled around.

Everything broke down with episode 15, though not all at once. It introduced Sun and Penny, and FNDM wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them. Some, like myself, found the new characters and their dynamics fun and interesting. Some, on the other hand, declared immediately that Sun was a rapist/stalker/murderer/assassin of the White Fang, sometimes all at once. Some people had been a little bored of Jaune by this point but Sun was the first morally good character the FNDM declared a monster, and to this day, has received the roughest ‘welcome.’ And, among the accusations, the declaration that Sun was nothing but a genderbend of Yang for a hetero ship. And so the tensions began to mount.

Bear in mind, up until this point the Bees had grown to be the de facto biggest ship in the FNDM. Nothing against Ruby, Weiss, or Whiterose, but Blake and Yang were the most mature/adult of the team, and consequently, got the most attention, desire, fanart, et cetra. Now here comes the first character to make contact with Blake in a definitively different fashion and connect with her. Without question, they saw Sun as a threat and an excuse to attack the show for not giving them the Bees. Hell, it’s no surprise they even shipped him with Penny (Optimal Primates) for a time, just because they debuted the same episode, to try and get him ‘away’ from Blake in the fandom’s eyes. The response to Sun by these proto-Wasps, otherwise known as ‘the entirety of the Bees at the time’ was swift, overwhelming, and nothing short of cruel. Especially when they started harassing Sun RPers, those who defended him, liked him, and so on. People who drew those first few pieces of Blacksun art were flat out attacked and screamed at to shut down their channels. (Similar attacks started appearing at this time too at artists for other pairings, noticeably Ladybug.) And for a time, that oppressive and painful atmosphere was reality.

Then, I put up a post pointing out how little canon the Bees actually had, and compared it to Blacksun. In V1? This was an overwhelming difference. I outright called the Bees a “Ghost ship,” a ship that had absolutely no basis in canon yet sailed anyway... And attacked others. Needless to say, this was not taken well by the proto-wasps.

It didn’t matter that I actively shipped Whiterose, passively Ladybug, and eventually Nuts & Dolts. It didn’t matter if what I said was true, that the emperor had no clothes (or canon.) All that mattered to these people was slamming me down and declaring me to the world a homophobic monster for not shipping their ship. To do everything in their power to break my spirit, break my connections with people, and break any place I had in this fledgling FNDM of comfort. All for their blatantly bullshit moral highground arguments.

This went on for a good three weeks after that first post. Round the clock attacks, harassment, and vile displays of power. It really did break me, all things considered. That much negativity drove me into a deep depression, to the point I could barely leave my dorm room in university for food, let alone class. I’m still hesitant to use the term for fear of it’s overused impression, but this made the Bees ship into a full on trigger for me. Triggering every emotion of fear, depression, and anxiety that constant bombardment thrust upon me around the clock. To an extent, it still is such a trigger, and so I can admit without issue I’m biased.

Thankfully, it did all have a silver lining. I became a lightning rod of hate, but the heavy atmosphere was broken. Bees no longer were unchallenged rulers of the FNDM, and people legit began to call out the behavior of these proto-wasps as full on bullying, or at least stopped acting like the Bees were canon. There was room to move forward now. But... of course, it didn’t stop there.

V2 rolled around. On the one hand we got Yang and Blake having the first dance, as well as actually having a real conversation on screen and developing some kind of unique bond, flimsy as it may be to some. (Seriously, Blake’s having severe overwrought depression and anxiety over Adam and the White Fang, Yang makes it about her. Yeah, that can show solidarity for the cause, but it does little to assuage Blake’s issues. I do see it as a good scene, but it’s still not a great relationship.) On the other hand, we were confirmed halfway through the year, and thanks to Sun/Neptune being cut from that last part of the Paladin fight, Blake had to be the one to ask what Yang’s Semblance was. ...Yeah. Half a year of being partners. And she doesn’t canonically know yet what Yang’s Semblance is. Hell of a partnership, yeah?

And on the other side of the coin. Sun and Blake had their full on dance, came to it as a date, and it included Yang stepping aside to give Blake to Sun. This on top of meeting Sun’s team for the first time and solidifying his place as being right there with RWBY and JNPR. ...And to counterbalance, we got Neptune. Seriously. Wasps had Neptune pegged as Sun’s “actual girlfriend” from the second his name was dropped. Then the design came in, they declared Neptune FtM trans, and that Sun was dating him. I mean, clearly, right? Then Neptune actually showed up, he turned out to be the most aggressively straight-showing guy on the show yet, and the FNDM HATED him for it. Pitched him into the same bin as Sun right then and there, while shouting they’d be a better couple than the alternatives. (This also ended up, for the first time, generating enmity from Monochrome shippers for Sun. Before, Blacksun and MC shippers were effectively “ship and let ship” considering both had suffered under the Bees, but since that stranglehold had been broken after V1. Now Neptune came to town and fucked that peace up too.) Seriously. Just like the Bees, Seamonkeys only exists as a ship because the FNDM slammed the characters together without a clue what they were even like. Same as with Optimal Primates, remember?

Overall, V2 ended up being more or less like the aftermath of V1 the whole way through. Salty and bitter Wasps bickering and yelling about Sun even being in the same frame as Blake, trying to reaffirm their position, while everyone else just relaxed, some bitched about Jaune existing, and others enjoying the moment. ...Then V3 happened.

V3 was a powderkeg of moments for both Blacksun and the Bees. From the fingerguns/blushing/”dork” scene, to Blake tearfully holding Yang’s... one remaining hand, to the questions of where Blake was going after the ending. And consequently, the ship-to-ship combat had grown once again. Things like editing the fingerguns scene into a gif of Weiss proposing to Blake, or conspiracy theories that Sun was a mole for the WF hiding in plain sight, or just generally arguing back and forth over how important Blake holding Yang’s hand and Sun’s poppy love song were. The thing was, by V3, enough new fans of the series drawn in to all the Bee fanart that didn’t have the Wasp mentality existed to properly differentiate between the two groups. And consequently, some would-be Bee fans were surprised when their open appreciation for the pair was met with negativity and disdain by those who were used to liking the Bees being associated with far worse. The Wasps still existed, without question, but their presence muddied the waters and turned what was once a straight-forward fandom war into messy, vile person-to-person conflict, with bystanders dragged into the fighting. This, to my knowledge, is where the wasp-equivalent of Blacksun fans ended up coming to be, unable to differentiate between the Wasps that they hated and the Bee fans that they shouldn’t. In short, V3 was the most divisive and painful of the seasons for this warfare.

As we approach the modern day it should be noted that the longer the show runs, the less and less these ship-to-ship combats make an impact on the FNDM as a whole. This is a good thing, realistically, but it comes from an unfortunate division in the FNDM in general, with camps splitting off into effective echo chambers, and generally only interacting to spit hatred at each other.

V4 was easily the single lowest point for all of the Bees. With Blake and Yang canonically split apart, and Sun hanging around Blake full time as her only traveling partner, the Bees had effectively nothing to do but sigh and hope for a reunion soon. The Wasps, on the other hand, eagerly took to instead tearing into Sun’s character again, this time jumping on the questionable decision to shadow Blake and keep her safe, and characterizing it as flat out stalking... even without full knowledge of the situation. The Wasps just painted the scene as “Sun has spent months following Blake in a coat,” and a large part of the fandom picked it up in turn. Then, as a follow-up act, decided to screw with Sun a different way and ship him with, of all people, Kali, or Blake’s mom. Yeah, it was creepy and fetishism, and had no purpose other than to break Kali’s implicit acceptance of Sun as a partner for Blake into bizarre OOC lust. It’s telling that there was far and away more porn and pure shipping for Sun/Kali than Ghira/Kali for a while, despite the Bees laughing to themselves that “of course YANG would be accepted by Ghira, unlike Sun~.” Legit, Sun/Kali was just another attempt at slamming Sun together with the nearest character that wasn’t Blake. Just like Penny. Just like Neptune. But, V4 was the volume of personal growth and discovery for each of the main cast... And consequently, this journey down each of their four paths was panned by many “rwde” fans for not having the inter-team connections they wanted. Funny how the volume most about each member of RWBY and their personal stories gets panned as the one least about them. Whatever. All of this led to V5, however, and where we are now.

And where we are now is... Right back to how we were in V3. With giddy Bees squealing over Yang and Blake exchanging eye contact and words, while Wasps re-characterize Sun’s connection to Blake (including pushing her back to the team that she ran away from because it was time to reconnect and he knew that) as “pushing Blake to be with Yang.” It’s kind of absurd, right? Well... That’s what this FNDM war has been to me. Just absurd.

I’ve watched wasps shout down Micheal Jones because they don’t like Sun being close to Blake. I’ve seen wasps countless times call out RT as queerbaiting for not giving them the Bees right fucking then. I’ve heard directly from Wasps that it doesn’t matter to (the ones I talked to) whether any other LGBTQA+ people/ships/focuses appear or are naturally featured in the show, unless the Bees are made canon, they believe RT lied to them.

And that astounds me. RT did not lie to you. Either you were lied to by fans from that Trailer era, the original proto-wasps, or you lied to yourself. You were told the lie that the Bees were canon, had to be canon, needed to be canon or something was wrong. That Sun is a monster. That you are owed anything. Hard fucking stop.

So where does all this leave us? ...Hopefully, understanding that this fighting has been going on for far too long, and is over far too little. I want anyone in the FNDM who has ever been affected by the ship wars to read this, to share this with others with similar experiences, on either side of it. Because ultimately, I’m only on one side, and I’d love for Bees to give their take on all this. To get both sides to come to an agreement to ship-and-let-ship, to put to rest the anger and frustration and fear of the other side that fueled Wasps and, perhaps, myself for so long.

This shit’s gone on long enough.

#ooc #rwby #fndm #shipping #I truly hope this goes over well.

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sciencespies · 3 years

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Wombats are the only animals who poop cubes, and we now know how

https://sciencespies.com/nature/wombats-are-the-only-animals-who-poop-cubes-and-we-now-know-how/

Wombats are the only animals who poop cubes, and we now know how

Patricia Yang has seen a lot of poop. In her time studying the dynamics of bodily fluids, the award-winning scientist has witnessed her share of cows dumping watery pies, rodents dropping little pellets, and elephants passing big balls of dung.

None of that would ultimately prepare her for what she was about to see.

It was 2015, and Yang had just presented on a mathematical model for bowel movements. A scientist at the conference asked if her theory worked for wombats, too. Yang had never seen wombat droppings, and when she googled for pictures, she found herself looking at some of the oddest-shaped poo she’d ever seen.

The Australian mammal’s faeces are shaped like little dark cubes, the only known prismatic poops in the world. In fact, wombats are the only animals scientists have found that can produce cubes naturally, and we had no idea how they were doing it.

Yang was immediately hooked. The mystery was an old one, but no one had done any hard investigations to find out what was really going on.

A wombat on Maria Island, Australia. (Posnov/Getty Images)

She and her lab supervisor at Georgia Tech, biomechanical engineer David Hu, decided to change that. In 2018, they finally got their hands on the intestine of a bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus).

The gut, which was carefully dissected by a scientist in Tasmania and shipped to the United States, showed a clear progression from muddy matter to a hard six-sided structure with sharp corners, almost like a ‘gruesome Christmas ornament’.

It looked as though these cubes were forming even before the wombat pooped them out. Further CT scans on a live adult wombat confirmed this animal does not have a square-shaped anus; it’s just as round as those of other animals, so how do wombats excrete cubes?

As it turns out, it’s all in the intestine. Using two new wombat dissections and mathematical models, Yang and her colleagues have now figured out how wombats actually poo prisms.

The first thing you need to know is that the wombat intestine is unusually long, up to nine metres in length. Compared to humans, it takes these metre-long creatures up to five times longer to suck all the nutrition and water out of their food, sometimes nearly five days.

As a result, wombat poos are nearly twice as dry as human poos, and this could be what helps them survive droughts in the Australian bush. This lengthy process probably also helps their poo form more concrete shapes.

Just by looking at the wombat intestine, you can clearly see the gradual transition from a “yellow-green slurry of digesta”, as the authors so bluntly put it, to a dry cube with “beveled edges and flat faces”.

Wombat intestines filled with poo hanging from top to bottom. (David Hu and Scott Carver)

Using a balloon to blow up certain parts of the intestine, researchers noticed varying levels of thickness and stiffness in some of the tissue and muscle.

Practically, this meant parts of the intestine’s circumference were contracting differently, in part due to different muscle thickness. The tight parts contracted quickly, pushing the poo harder, while the softer parts contracted more slowly, moulding corners.

Creating a simple model of the intestine, the authors found corners formed in less than 10 contraction cycles.

“With contractions occurring every couple of seconds over a time of five days, the faeces actually experience on the order of 100,000 contractions,” the team writes.

Enough of these contractions could plausibly form a series of cubes in the latter end of the wombat’s intestine when poo is most dried out. Dissections show cubes are formed only within the last 17 percent of the intestine. (In 2018, the team thought it was the last 8 percent).

It’s almost like baking a cake, Hu explains. The batter starts out wet and sloppy, drying out over time as it’s heated up in the oven. As it butts up against the edge of the cake tin, it begins to form corners and flat surfaces. Most of the solidifying happens right at the end.

Wombats, incidentally, squeeze out nearly 100 of these six-sided brownies every day.

Exactly why they do this is a whole other mystery. Wombats don’t have great eyesight and so they use their droppings to communicate with one another. As such, they like to poop on rocks, logs or other elevated places to make their message more visible.

The cube shape might therefore assist poo-stacking. Rounder faeces, after all, tend to roll away.

Wombat faeces in the field, stacked on rocks. (David Hu and Scott Carver)

But that’s just one idea. Another is that the six-sided structure of wombat poo allows for a greater surface area to increase the dispersal of the animal’s scent, which can convey social messages or reproductive status.

Other scientists think we’re reading too much into it. The cube-shaped poo is probably just a result of it being dehydrated in the gut, they argue. In zoos and wildlife parks, for instance, where wombats are well hydrated, wombat poo is much less defined.

There’s clearly a lot we still need to know about wombat poo, but Randy Ewoldt, the mechanical engineer who first brought the mystery to Yang and Hu’s attention five years ago, told ScienceAlert he’s impressed with their progress

“The authors demonstrate heroic efforts and a collaboration covering opposite sides of the globe,” Ewoldt said in an email.

“One wonders: who else could squeeze such interdisciplinary work into this multi-faceted contribution?”

Who indeed.

The study was published in Soft Matter.

#Nature

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nephyartis · 4 years

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“The Right Frequency”

Our Archaic Age

I see lots of conflation and ignorance surrounding the topics of Power Words, Runes, Glyphs, Sigils, Wands, and Wyrdstones. I hope this text will help clarify some of it.

First, some terms. Rune. Glyph. Sigil. Runic Languages, which to say, languages associated with a script (often in addition to a non-runic script), are also often called Languages of Power. A rune in-and-of-itself is a sort of pictogram, representing related physical and meta-physical ideals. It’s a building block. Glyphs, on the other hand, are like compound words, or more nuanced building blocks. A glyph referencing the Tiger animal would be derivative of the basic rune for Beast, as an example. So for what runes are the basic words, and glyphs are the compound words, Sigils are the slang. A sigil will contain elements of runes or glyphs, but expressed in a personalized manner, often for the sake of identification. Different runic systems (languages) do exist, though, which presents some important distinctions.

Primordial, Supernal, The Elder Language, the Language of Creation. Call it what you will, they are all the same. There are vibrational patterns that comprise the nature of existence. They bear personality--mental traits. By mimicking these vibrations, and mental states, we may illicit changes in the world, all working through The Medium--the field of interaction between physical and meta-matter, that so many call the Weave. All languages of power are derivative of this original system. To glimpse it is a task of great difficulty, which is why divination is often used to expand one’s mental faculties, just to grasp the concepts wholly. On the conceptual, abstract, and divine, there is the Dethek Language Branch. On the mechanical, definitive, and arcane, there is the Iokharic Language Branch. Of special note, there have been systems that attempted to mix the two, such as the Seldruin, an arcane system composed with respect for the divine, but that is not the topic I hope to address.

The cultures and creatures that popularized these languages lend credence to the ideals they represent. The origin of species: warring elementals of crude matter, before the specialization of complex life--these creatures, such as Djinn with their reality warping wishes--they warred across the cosmos seeking places of higher potential, creating form from chaos. Crude, raw, powerful. Then in time complex life formed. The creator races were born. They grasped The Language, and further complexity, but they did not create worlds, like the elementals did. Great empires forming afterward, ever more derivative of the last. More complex, but in complexity, one sacrifices potential. Giants, Dragons, then Elves. Each came and created their own derivative systems, yet only two flourish to this day. The Giants and the Dragons. Of those two, it seems to me global culture has strayed, perhaps too far, into the arcane--the material--the Dragon--and in its cry for more--subconsciously aware of its own shortcomings--it has accepted falsehoods and niceties in place of reality and hard truth.

While scholars have debated whether Iokharic was influenced by Dethek, or if it were the other way around, I will posit that this is the wrong question. They share commonalities because they are inspired by--derivative of--the same root system. The universal language. As language has progressed, however, ever more nuanced, it has gained the ability to express more-and-more complex ideas, at the cost of its potency, much like the races that practice it. Each one branches out of those that came before, in a great tree of life. This is not to say that I believe movement along the branches is impossible, but that’s a topic for another time.

Compare both Iokharic and Dethek runes. Knowing their script will greatly assist. For that matter, compare the runic forms of any language. Those two are simply the most widespread. While there are differences, their similarities are key to understanding the pervasive narrative of our universe. Lake, Water, Ocean, Tide, Mutability, Longing, Gulf. A nuanced rune (also called a Glyph, or Hanzi) will appear visually similar to other like-minded runes, because their meanings are related. Shark will resemble Fish, which resembles Water. This holds true with all runes. They represent things, which in and of themselves, contain mental traits. These mental traits correspond to a certain vibrational frequency. Now compare the vibrations. The sound. The practice. Follow it up the linguistic tree, and watch it evolve. You will start hearing very familiar phonemes while on the same branch. It’s not until one reaches the Big Three, that language diverges greatly. Dethek, Draconic, and Elvish, respectively. Despite these apparent differences, though, their runes address and link the same ideals and frequencies.

Still, their differences are not unimportant. Dethek runes, like the cultures that popularized them, are grounded in the divine. They focus more on the intent, meaning, or associated mental traits, rather than physical measurements. The giants’ Ordning, dwarven paragons, human belief. There is a narrative beneath it all. Old churches of yore were cautious of science (read, arcane), and the pride of intellect. It was for good reason, even if it became misguided. One need not look far to see its dangers displayed in Dragons. Even the most noble among them face temptation in the face of ignorance or wealth. Primates in particular have evolved with a phrenology primed to notice serpentine figures, for the danger they pose is legendary. It is a story that our very blood cries out.

One can look at the spread of human language to see its influences, and trace its lineage along these branches. Often, mixing the two properties. Chessan, Raumtheran, Thorass, and Waelan, all take influence from dwarves (who took influence from Jotun), from the gods, or directly from Jotun. For some it’s harder to follow, such as the Untheric, Han, or Rauric languages (for that matter, any influenced by Netheril or Imaskar). The Netherese, first introduced to the Art by elves, then later for themselves with the great golden scales, became increasingly Iokharic. Likewise, their people, arcane. Independently, the same can be seen with Kara-Tur, and the Rauric (Imaskar, Thay) languages. Their cultures, while divine at first, made course along the arcane, increasingly adopting Iokharic methods.

Time for a closer look at Iokharic. The methodical. The measured. The arcane. These are focussed on what physical phenomena are represented, by the universe’s pervasive narrative. Iokharic is to Dethek, what Alchemy is to Herbalism, and what Intelligence is to Wisdom (Seldruin is the Charisma of the group, which muddies the picture a bit). Yet look at the great empires that rose in its wake, each pragmatic and worldly. The Dragons. The Elves. Netheril. Thay. Each has contributed greatly to the advancement of the sciences, and revolutionized the way we live. But left unchecked, history shows that innovation will be its own undoing. I do not intend to say arcane magic is wrong, or that it should not be practiced. Merely, that there is a balance in all things. Even the divine, and the arcane. Their balance--their synthesis--is godhood. It’s otherworldly. It is true divinity. It is that which lay closest to understanding the universal system. Magic Circles are often a good example of this, combining both practices.

At this point, let’s point out various ways these concepts can be utilized. Take Wyrdstones, for example. Primordial and awesome in power, they are still crude. While it cannot be said precisely, I would place their original creation prior to the divergence of language. One need only channel their intent to realize the potential held within Wyrdstones. Any symbols they hold are lost on the limited perspective of our minds. So following the route previously stated, this would suggest Wyrdstones to be very near the universal language, as one does not need to infer a narrative, nor discern a practice. Wyrdstones are more whole. Intrinsic. Dwarven runestones, on the other hand, tell stories, and those stories often possess a weaker, but more nuanced power. The corresponding flow of mental traits are their key importance. While on the other hand, Iokharic runes are measured and precise, constructed meticulously, and often with more material affect. They pay less heed to the overarching story, and more to its physical events. The reliable power achieved in this way is often very attractive to aspiring mages, which likely goes without saying. To which I point out again, and caution against, the Pride of Intellect.

The differences between these systems also aids in understanding how to use more complex magical items. Arcane wands, for example, require practical understanding. How to stand, what frequency to embody, and how. Whereas with divine wands, empathetic understanding is necessary. You must respect, emulate, and believe, the energies being channeled. Posture and tone become much less important. Of course, one could also just practice through intuition how to use magical devices, but such a skill only gets you so far.

Last but not least, bringing this to an end, I’m sure some will have thought by now, “What about the planar languages?” It becomes very difficult to say. We could speculate, for example, that Infernal aligns more arcane than divine. The ideas they espouse, and association with Tiamat, along with present day cultures (such as Thay) align enough to suggest it is true. However, there are two important dynamics to note. The gods are shaped by our cultivated belief. I have little doubt that their language could be as well, and that their language might evolve over time. Moreover, as previously described, godhood is a state of existence both arcane and divine, so at the very least it cannot be said that planar runes are wholly one or the other. They surely emphasize both practices, which is what makes them deific in the first place. It’s with these things in mind that it becomes very hard to pin-down planar languages. Combine that with the fact that they are obviously very far away from us, studying them becomes difficult. This is why I have focussed on a more grounded history of language. The planar systems are undoubtedly very close to the universal system, as far as origins go, but to what degree they still resemble it, may be impossible to say.

What I can say is that it’s time we stopped living in an age of ignorance.

#writtensamples #worldbuilding #sneak peak at something I've been working on

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