#I have exploited this ability many times to avoid human interaction

[baradorable]

Name: Rift (Raymond Cruz) Age: Thirties Gender: Male Species: Human (Mutant) Occupation: Freelancer/Mercenary Allegiance: Krakoa (Former), Orchis (Former)

Art done by GeckoBara

This is my X-Men OC. Rift, AKA Raymond Cruz, is a mutant with the power to create portals. His abilities have made him a top asset for many groups. 

Personality

Rift is the "love 'em and leave 'em" type. Since he can always just use portals to leave any situation he wants, he's quick to ditch relationships and situations when things hit a rough patch. He does that with most situations, really. He's a mercenary, though he won't do anything he deems too evil, like kidnapping or murder. He's still willing to commit other crimes if they pay well. And given how useful his powers are, he makes sure to charge a lot for his services.

He's smart, charismatic, and able to analyze situations well. He's strategic. Which makes him dangerous. He has a competitive side, which can sometimes slip out on the field. If you're able to get him in the right mindset, you can get him to forget his carefully-crafted plans and possibly mess up.

Because he invested a lot of time in developing his powers, he's come up with a lot of strategies to fully exploit them. He knows his limits and potential well. He takes pride in his abilities and the need people have for them. So he gets jealous interacting with someone more powerful than him. His worst trait is that he'll try to one-up these people. In extreme cases, he might even try to sabotage them to bring them down. He's backstabbed some of his fellow mercs to ensure he comes out on top.

Part of this is a desire to be liked. He grew up in a very anti-mutant world, so he's used to being disliked for who he is. He secretly craves validation. Since he abandons people quickly, he struggles to form strong bonds. On the rare occasions he finds a serious relationship with someone, his jealousy and competitive often lead him to sabotaging anyone he sees as a threat to the relationship.

When he’s off-duty and walking around in his normal life, he takes on the persona of a shallow himbo.  He speaks in a flighty tone, seemingly misses big social cues, and freely speaks his mind in a way that can inadvertently hurt someone's feelings. He's cultivated the image of a in idiot for his own gain. It's a persona that allows him to have fun and avoid showing his true self; someone who strives to be perfect and beloved. After all, it hurts when people reject the real you. But if they reject the mask you put on - the act that doesn't represent the real you - then there's no harm done.

TL;DR: He's smart and hot. He's flaky and possessive. But he's hot, so it's okay. He's a good guy. He's just not a nice guy.

Backstory

Rift is American. His mother immigrated from Ireland in the mid or late '80's. His dad was born in America, but I haven't decided where his family is from. I'm thinking Portuguese, just for some self-indulgence. But also because Marvel doesn't have any Portuguese heroes at the moment.

His powers activated when he was 14, and he would spend the next several years working on developing his powers. He'd frequently ditch school or home, due to anti-mutant sentiment held by the people around him. He ended up developing some prejudices towards humans.

He ended up making a business out of transporting people around. Think Uber, but faster and with more range. Once word of his powers got around, various organizations began to seek him out. Rift would eventually parlay into full freelance mercenary and spy work.

Here's my idea of how he fits into the Marvel universe. You can ignore this if you don’t follow X-Men continuity.

He was one of the mutants depowered by M-Day, but came to Krakoa and got resurrected to get this powers back. His natural prejudice towards humans made him predisposed to liking the nation, and he was willing to lend his services to X-Force in order to help mutants.

However, the Five were very hesitant to remove his secondary, eye-based mutation; one he always kept hidden out of resentment and disgust. Many other mutants insisted the should keep his extra eyes and take pride in being different. Empty platitudes that he found patronizing. So he left and continued his work as a freelancer.

He ended up coming across Orchis, who would hire him on to spy on Krakoans and allow them to move around the world without notice. Orchis is an organization made up of people from several groups (S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M., HYDRA, etc.) to deal with the threat of humans becoming extinct and supplanted by mutants. 

While he knew they were anti-mutant, He was unaware just how anti-mutant they actually are. They paid well, so he could stand to put up with them if he got something out of it. And it put him in conflict with other mutants, so he'd always have the opportunity to test his powers. 

Of course, come Fall of X, they inevitably betrayed him and every other mutant. He was on a mission to Arakko during the third Hellfire Gala, thus avoiding most of the chaos. Once he heard about how Orchis attacked Krakoa, he fled to deep space and stayed there for a few months.

After Fall of X, he returned to Earth. He hated humans even more after they supported Orchis’ anti-mutant tactics. But he also hated the X-Men, since they and the leaders of Krakoa let the only sanctuary for mutants fall.

Job

He's a "freelancer" (read: mercenary) who works with various groups. His official codename is Rift, but for various business-related reasons, he's also known by several aliases: Bluebird, Luscinia, Luzon, Cardinal, Ripple, and Thrush.

He'll use a different name to obscure his identity, or know what kind of group is hiring him. For example, one criminal organization calls him Cardinal. Anyone who calls him by that name is likely associated with that organization. The NYPD know him as Luscinia.

He has different ways for people to contact him, and the type of name they use for him tells him what kind of work they have in mind, or who's hiring him. The goal is to keep everything separate, & being able to filter what kind of job he chooses to accept. (It's actually a lot more complex than having different phone numbers, but I'm giving you the simplified take.)

He doesn't kill, and he avoids directly harming innocent people. Spying, stealing information and theft are okay though.

Portal Power

Rift’s main power is to create portals, which he uses to spy on others, transport people, smuggle things, or create diversions. He rarely fights people directly; instead, he uses his powers to mess with the field. When creating a portal, one will open up close to him, and will connect to a portal that will appear at his desired location. His range is about 15,000 km. He can't access other dimensions through his power, but he can teleport around a dimension he's currently in.

His powers require him to see a location in front of him, or to have been there before. Otherwise, his powers "guess" the location, and open a portal to a completely random location on the planet, usually within two thousand miles of his current location. His power is also location-based, not person-based; he can't specifically try to find a person unless he knows their exact location. So no thinking of Spider-Man and trying to catch him at home.

These portals, once opened, can exist independently of Rift. He usually wills them to close instantly after he uses them, and can choose for how long they remain open Otherwise, they close after about two minutes, regardless if they're used. The portals can be any size, as long as they fall under 24 feet in diameter; they can't grow beyond that to accommodate travel for larger opens or things. There are no limits as to how many people can go through.

The number of portals active depend on their size. So he can create a lot of small, hand-sized portals at once, but only two 12 foot portals. Distance has no affect on his ability to make portals, though firing off too many portals in rapid succession will tire him out.

A cool side-effect of his portals is they won't bring anyone to a place that's impossible to visit. You can't be brought to the inside of a solid object, or in an area too small for one to logically fit. The powers can drop you into the ocean, but they won't place you inside a whale or trap you halfway through a statue. Because of this limitation, Rift can't open up a portal inside your guts, or force you through a portal into a chest at the bottom of the sea.

Other Notable Techniques

Moo-neuver: He opens a portal and lets stampeding cattle run over his opponents.

Torrent: Opens a portal to somewhere in the ocean, shooting forth a torrent of water at a target.

Smokescreen: By opening a portal above a factory chimney, he blasts his opponent with smoke.

Perfect Aim: If he has a firearm, he can open up one portal at the top of his gun, and and another in front of the target. By sending the projectile through the portal, he’s almost guaranteed to hit his target and avoid anything getting in the crossfire.

Black Hole: A theory, one he hasn’t tested out. What happens if you open a portal inside another portal? Or if two portals open into each other? Can two locations exist in the same place, at the same time? This results in neutron degeneracy pressure, where the rifts collapse in on each other to create a black hole. 

Scatter Slap: A secret technique he hasn’t discovered yet. He can touch something and open up countless tiny portals on a molecular level, getting in-between a person’s molecules/atoms/whatever the hell. This would let him instantly scatter someone or something across the world with his powers. Instant vaporization.

Secondary Mutation

He has another mutation: red eyes that grow on his arms. They're basically like tattoos, but become actual eyes when exposed to enough direct sunlight. The more sunlight his body gets, the more eyes appear. His skin will also turn red, and the eyes on his face will turn red, and gain black sclera. They can blink and look around independently, but he currently has no control over them, nor can he see through them.  Without sunlight, he begins to revert to his usual state. 

He's ashamed of this mutation, so he always covers up. 

He doesn't know it, but should he let his second mutation run its course, he'll be able to see from all of these eyes at once. If someone makes eye contact with them, the eyes can temporarily "steal" their sight, giving Rift the ability to see through that person's eyes. Meanwhile, that person now sees from one of the eyes on Rift's body. It's a very disorienting power.

His primary power is about escaping and providing his own personal freedom. His secondary power is about trapping others and taking things away from them. I feel like it's a good metaphor for his personality: he's flexible and living his best life, but has a sinister, controlling side that even he isn't fully aware of.

Trivia

Time for some fun

He’s bisexual. He leans more towards women, romantically. He leans towards men, sexually.

Claims to be a top, since one-upping and dominating others is his thing. But he’s actually verse top.

Has used his powers during sex.

He’s definitely a dom in bed. Very kinky, very in control. But sometimes, with the right partner, he’s can turn into the biggest sub you can imagine.

He used to have casual sex with a human friend who admired his eye-based mutation. That something Rift hated about himself was beautiful to him. This friend took Mothervine to try and force a mutation in himself, but would end up dying from the result. As he was dying, Rift broke him out of the hospital so they could spend their final moments at their favorite beach.  

Expert frotter.

He’s a quarter fairy. He has the potential to learn magic, but doesn’t know it. I like to imagine this magic would let him access Otherworld, or other dimensions.

#barannoying

[arcpeacegonow]

This is my announcement. Take it as you wish. Any hate will be reflected back onto the sender

#yes I’m bi #I’m also ace #People like me exist #Bi-ace people are chamelons #We have been proven to blend in with our surroundings if we’re still and quiet long enough #I have exploited this ability many times to avoid human interaction #Bi visibility #Ace visibility #Bi-Ace visibility

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 2 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Kwami

Kwamis are a fun concept and one of the main draws of the series. They make sense story-wise because, firstly, our characters need some support system. And since a lot of conflicts are centred around secret identities, characters should be able to discuss their double life with someone. As magical beings they could also be used to expand the lore, introduce new concepts and drive forward both the plot and character development. It doesn't always happen but Kwamis are a good idea. Some people who write AU's think that Kwamis are redundant, but I have to disagree.

Origins and nature

Where do Kwamis come from? What are they? It's never explained. Oh wait, it was explained in a comic people can accidentally find. You decide to explain the origins and nature of magical beings who are one of the key elements in your magic system and worldbuilding IN A SIDE COMIC, which has zero effect on your main story. Sounds legit.

Here it is.

So, Kwamis are abstract creatures. They can become tangible and interact with the world because of the miraculous jewels. Essentially, each Miraculous acts as an anchor to the material world for Kwami. They existed since the beginning of time and were invisible observers of the universe. Until they settled on Earth and observed how humanity came to be. This is where things get interesting.

Kwamis are the embodiment of abstract concepts. But, some abstract concepts were created by people (like everything mentioned in the comic: beauty, math, love, etc).

Kwamis wanted to help humans. And then, a human, who couldn't see, hear or touch a Kwami creates miraculous jewels. And now these beings can interact with the world, use their powers and grant them to humans. Yet, they are completely under control of their holder. I'll discuss it later, but why did Kwamis accept this deal? They are practically enslaved. At the same time they care about people and generally love humanity.

According to the wiki Kwamis grant powers because of "the privilege of having the ability to be perceived by mortals". What? Did I read that right? Kwamis agreed to be enslaved and used as a power source, because they wanted to interact with material world. That's it, guys, end of the story.

We also know these things about nature and abilities of Kwamis from the show:

1) need food, but only to provide the power for the holder;

2) can't phase through precious metals (Chloe's bracelet in "Rogercop"), their own miraculous and humans;

3) they can control if they phase through things or not – meaning that if they want to, they can (this way Tikki can stay in Marinette’s purse without much trouble and Plagg sleeps on Adrien’s pillow);

4) they can perform magic without a holder but they don’t control it very well, there are certain types of things that they can’t do without a holder;

5) they are immortal but can get sick for some reason, a non-magical reason mind you;

6) technology can't detect them in any way, you can't film, photograph or record their voices (writers establish this many times, but promptly forget all about their own rules in "Optigami", where Marinette talks with Kwamis over the phone without any problems).

If I missed something important, then let me know.

Look, the questions related to origins and motivations of Kwamis might not be very prominent in your story right now, but you must answer them in case you might need to involve these facts in the plot down the line. It's important to avoid contradictions in the serialised story with liquid plot, that can't be set in stone. It's a made up world for the sake of everything sacred! You can make up explanations and rules, of course as long as they don't contradict common sense.

Plausible ideas for origins and nature of Kwamis:

1) Kwamis are immortal spirits, whom humans accidentally summoned and bound with spells to Miraculous stones. They remember their existence before this. This version doesn't really explain their desire to serve people and love for humanity, however. It would be more logical for Kwamis to resent people for enslaving them. It doesn't explain how humans could create those spells and Miraculous stones either.

2) Kwamis are physical manifestations of abstract concepts who existed simply as fragments of matter for a very long time without sentience, until they were accidentally summoned through the Miraculous stones and bound by humans to serve them. Kwamis do not remember their existence before Miraculous. In this version Kwamis serve humans and love them because they have never known a different kind of existence. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any explanation on the creation of Miraculous and spells.

3) Kwamis are gods, who created the universe with all its elements and concepts including humanity (similar to Valar and Maiar in Tolkien's Legendarium). They wanted to help their creations but discovered that their power was too wild and unpredictable for that. So, Kwamis decided to give up their free will and magical independence to help humanity. Together they created Miraculous stones for humans to use and sealed themselves inside. Kwamis as gods were abstract concepts, who didn't have a body. The act of sealing their power in the Miraculous gave them an opportunity to interact with outside world (an anchor) and each Kwami chose an small animal form (because humans easily formed bonds with animals, had animal companions (pets), small animals look non-threatening and familiar). Kwamis intentionally choose certain animal forms to suit the human symbolism. Humans later used magic that Kwamis discovered for them to place spells upon small gods (spells related to identity protection and so on). This version answers most questions, but if Kwamis are gods then powers they grant to people seem to be rather small.

Feel free to add more. I would be interested to hear your ideas.

Identity Protection

In "Origins" we learn that Wayzz can sense the aura of Butterfly Miraculous, a negative aura of activated Butterfly Miraculous, to be more precise. And yet, Tikki and Plagg are genuinely surprised to discover the identities of their holders in "Dark Owl". There are several things wrong with that.

Can Kwamis sense each other's presence? They shouldn't be able to do this to protect the identities of their holders. On the other hand, they are ancient spirits. So, their inability to sense each other seems weird. Unless it's the same situation as with the spell that does not allow them to speak the name of their holder aloud.

But if they can sense each other like Wayzz did, then it means that Plagg and Nooroo were living in the same house for over a year and nothing happened. I mean, Plagg could have just come upstairs, take off the brooch from Gabriel, while he is asleep and return it back to Fu.

This question lies right here, on the surface. And that's only one massive and very obvious plothole. How to fix it? Establish that Kwami can't sense each other for identity protection. In "Origins" Fu meditates on his balcony and Wayzz sees a charged Akuma flying by. That's how they discover that Butterfly is in Paris and the Miraculous is in the wrong hands. Perhaps, Gabriel akumatizes someone for the first time to survey the surroundings and general public is not aware of this. This works better in the narrative, giving Fu time to select holders for Ladybug and Black Cat. It also establishes whether Hawkmoth can remove the Akuma from someone without Ladybug and discharge it. Maybe it depends on the circumstances (sometimes he can, but if this person was akumatized many times or their emotions are too strong and their mind doesn't want to let Akuma go then Hawkmoth can't pull the butterfly out with his magic). This scenario allows for Volpina to happen on "Heroes' Day". Silly recurring Akumas like Gigantitan and Mr. Pigeon could still happen. In this case Gabriel didn't want to akumatize the guy more than 70 times on purpose. It just keeps happening against his better judgement because evil butterflies are automatically attracted to Mr. Ramier. This way repeated attacks of Mr. Pigeon annoy Hawkmoth just as much as they do the heroic duo of Paris (I did not sign up for this Nathalie!).

Let's come back to the spell mentioned earlier for a moment. Kwamis can't say the name of their current holder out loud, but apparently, they can exploit a loophole in the spell by confirming the identity of their holder in another way. The spell doesn't work with other holders. Kwami can say the names of other holders if they know their identity. That being said, can the holder order the Kwami to tell them the identities of other heroes if they know them?

Kwamis know how each Miraculous looks with or without camouflage. Can the holder order the Kwami to tell them how each Miraculous looks in disguise (I liked that Grimoire doesn't have pictures of camouflage for identity protection)? Guardians can recognise Miraculous in any mode (Su Han). Did Fu teach Marinette this? Does she know how each Miraculous looks like unactivated?

Oh! Since we are discussing camouflage, let's take a moment to appreciate the Mother Of All Plotholes. Plagg didn't recognise Peacock because of the plot.

Relationship with Holder

I absolutely loved the idea that Kwamis must obey their holder introduced in "Sandboy". This concept opens tons of plot opportunities. It's such a great idea that makes sense, has potential, can create conflict. Why, oh, why didn't writers develop it more?

Like, it was so good. It can be a great push for character development. This concept resolves so many existing inconsistencies within the plot. It's mind-blowing.

Why can't Nooroo simply leave Gabriel, so that he wouldn't be able to transform? Because Gabriel bound him with Miraculous to always stay near.

In "Sandboy" Tikki asks Marinette's permission before going to the meeting. Plagg lies to Adrien instead. This implies that usually Plagg's holders weren't kind to him or feared his power (Su Han's remark in "Furious Fu"). Perhaps, his holders were taught to keep the Kwami of destruction under constant control. So, Plagg in turn has learned not to ask, because if he doesn't ask permission then his holder can't deny him freedom with magic.

Can Kwami lie to their holder? Maybe they can't lie to their holder about their nature, origins and powers and other Miraculous (but Kwamis can't reveal the location of Miracle Box, Guardian's identity and can't confirm identities of other holders known to them in any way). Kwami would be forced to speak even if they don't want to. That's why Nooroo told Gabriel everything about the abilities of the Butterfly Miraculous and the wish secret of Ladybug and Black Cat.

But Kwamis can lie to their holder according to Plagg in "Sandboy". If Kwamis can lie about everything (including powers) then Nooroo didn't have any reason to be honest with Gabriel way back in "Origins".

Speaking of Gabriel and Nooroo. Can Kwamis harm their holder? Maybe doing so would harm the Kwami as well. Can they do it only when the holder is not wearing the Miraculous? Can Kwami take their Miraculous from their holder? Will they disappear if they try to do so? It seems like Kwami disappears only when the holder takes off the Miraculous with the intention of renouncing power, the words "I renounce you" are not necessary.

Other Kwamis can take the Miraculous from people if it's not their own (Wayzz in "Feast"). But what if it wasn't possible. Imagine what could happen if it's not possible to take the Miraculous by force from the transformed or untransformed hero. Just like Lady WiFi couldn't remove Ladybug's mask. A person has to willingly give up the Miraculous. Only in this case, it's possible to take it. For example, somewhere around the middle of season 3 Hawkmoth could have trapped Ladybug and Chat Noir and cut off any escape routes. His Akuma tries to take both Miraculous, but they don't budge. Then afterwards, every Akuma tries to manipulate the heroes using hostages, illusions or mind control. It's hard to say whether this version will be better than canon, but it's a fascinating theory.

You can use the idea of obedience to create more situations contrasting the relationship of Plagg and Adrien, Gabriel and Nooroo. I liked how canon created a storyline about Plagg learning to control his powers without a holder and Adrien helping him. However, why would you stop here? Give us some flashbacks about Plagg's previous holders, tell us what kind of people they were. Expand the lore and add some character development for Plagg and Adrien. The same thing goes for Marinette. What kind of battles did they have in the past? What kind of people past holders were? Did Ladybug and Black Cat heroes always get along well? Were they allies or enemies? Were they always lovers?

Give us more information about Butterfly and Peacock holders. Perhaps Nooroo has dreams about his past holders who were good people. Show us what kind of things a Butterfly holder with good intentions can do. Tell us more about Duusu and her past holders, sprinkle in a few bits of info about Emilie and Duusu's relationship, just a few vague hints to preserve the mystery. You have a lot of screentime each season and instead of doing filler episodes dedicated to love drama, you can use them for developing minor characters, relationships between them and lore.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #miraculous analysis #miraculous meta #ml meta #ml analysis #miraculous transformations #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #kwami #miraculous kwamis #miraculous holders

[walaw717]

Single trees are extraordinary; trees in number more remarkable still. To walk in a wood is to find fault with Socrates’s declaration that ‘Trees and open country cannot teach me anything, whereas men in town do.’ Time is kept and curated and in different ways by trees, and so it is experienced in different ways when one is among them. This discretion of trees, and their patience, are both affecting. It is beyond our capacity to comprehend that the American hardwood forest waited seventy million years for people to come and live in it, though the effort of comprehension is itself worthwhile. It is valuable and disturbing to know that grand oak trees can take three hundred years to grow, three hundred years to live, and three hundred years to die. Such knowledge, thoughtfully considered, changes the grain of the mind. - Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot Recently we drove to Couer d’Alene. North of town, I saw a strikingly handsome building set in a grove of old-growth trees. It was not a natural landscape, but when the building was constructed, the developer had left some ancient Douglas fir and ponderosa pine and created the impression of a long solidity in the landscape for his construction. It is rare for a builder to go to such trouble because it is simpler and more economical to clear a lot and build than to build around trees and other natural landscape elements. As we sat at the traffic light and I studied the property with its balance of trees, the stone and woodwork of the building, I wondered how the trees had experienced this construction and the loss of so many other trees in that particular stand. Two years ago, I witnessed a tree apparently doing something that I suspect I was not meant to see. Marilyn had just placed a planter full of new young plants on a deck rail, which was under the canopy of a very ancient willow. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement and turned just in time to see the willow purposely lift a frond and stroke the young plants. The action was like an arm lifting and then stroking the plants, and the movement occurred twice, lifting and returning, lifting and returning like a parent might stroke the head of a much-loved child. I have had the privilege of many odd and spiritual experiences – especially after I moved to New Mexico. Still, this particular moment in the pacific northwest haunts me as maybe the most significant spiritual moment of my life. I feel as though I saw a moment we are not privileged to see, and if we do see, it is under the influence of a mind-altering chemical like LSD, a moment when our ego is de-potentiated and no longer in control of our perceptions. I have had such experiences using LSD, but that was 50 years ago, and I doubt that I was having a flashback at this late date. Humanity suffers incredible hubris. We speak of looking to space to find intelligent life when we are actually looking for life like us. I suspect if we ever do find life like us, it will be terrifying – it will be a life driven by insularism and an attitude that cannot see us as an equal and will more than likely only see us in terms of our utility or see us in terms of something in the way, much like we see trees, wolves and everything else on this planet. We now scientifically know that trees and plants in forests have a massive communication network of mutually sustainable interactions. “In the 1960s, CIA interrogation expert Cleve Backster experimented with polygraph machines when he stumbled onto something novel. He noticed what appeared to be a change in electrical resistance with one of the plants, to which he connected the polygraph equipment whenever he removed a leaf or even “threatened” to harm the plant by intent alone. He likened this sudden electrical pulse to a “scream” emitted by the plant in response to endangerment. While Backster’s theory was considered a crackpot idea, many would follow similar, unusual observations about the behavior of plants, which seemingly represented a sort of “communication” they might be capable of.

For instance, a 1989 AP article discussed what one physicist, named Ed Wagner, believed were evidence he found of plant communication via what he called “W-waves”: Physicist Ed Wagner says he has found evidence that trees talk to each other in a language he calls W-waves. “If you chop into a tree, you can see that adjacent trees put out an electrical pulse,” said Wagner. “This indicates that they communicated directly.” Explaining the phenomenon, Wagner pointed to a blip on a strip chart recording of the electrical pulse. “It put out a tremendous cry of alarm,” he said. “The adjacent trees put out smaller ones…. People have known there was communication between trees for several years, but they’ve explained it by the chemicals trees produce,” Wagner said. “But I think the real communication is much quicker and more dramatic than that,” he said. “These trees know within a few seconds what is happening. This is an automatic response.” Wagner has measured the speed of W-waves at about 3 feet per second through the air. “They travel much too slowly for electrical waves,” he said. “They seem to be an altogether different entity. That’s what makes them so intriguing. They don’t seem to be electromagnetic waves at all.” Another physicist, William Corliss, also took an interest in Wagner’s discovery, noting that, “The voltage measured by electrodes implanted in trees goes up and down as one goes higher and higher up the trees… incidentally, electricity does seem to affect plant growth.” In more recent years, the idea of plants capable of forms of “communication” has been considered a bit more thoughtfully and is not outright shunned by the scientific community. One leading modern researcher and advocate for the varieties of ways plants communicate is Suzanne Simard, whose work with plants has helped set new precedents for how interactions between various species of flora occur. Simard’s research began to coalesce around what became a doctoral thesis two decades ago, in which she argued that a variety of communication methods were used by trees to achieve everything from expressing their needs to sharing nutrients “via a network of latticed fungi buried in the soil.” She further studied the varieties of ways that fungal filigrees were exploited by trees in ways that allowed them to send signals to other plants nearby about changes in the environment and even “helping” endangered plants by transferring and sharing nutrients with them. Speaking with “Yale Environment 360” last year, she talked about how, as she puts it, a forest “is a cooperative system,” saying: “To me, using the language of ‘communication’ made more sense because we were looking at not just resource transfers, but things like defense signaling and kin recognition signaling. We as human beings can relate to this better. If we can relate to it, then we’re going to care about it more. If we care about it more, then we’re going to do a better job of stewarding our landscapes.” Despite having communicative abilities, plants generally aren’t deemed to have any sort of intelligence. However, there are still some members of the scientific community that argue this is not necessarily the case. Author and researcher Michael Pollan, who studies the field of plant neurobiology, argues that plants are more perceptive than many would think: “They have analogous structures… They have ways of taking all the sensory data they gather in their everyday lives … integrate it, and then behave appropriately in response. And they do this without brains, which, in a way, is what’s incredible about it because we automatically assume you need a brain to process information.” Understanding how various life forms on earth communicate and cooperate with each other gives us a much broader sense of what “life on Earth” is truly about. It also challenges us to consider whether more complex interaction systems exist between organisms, including those that aren’t deemed intelligent or even responsive, by humans. In the case of plants, it seems unusual that these organisms, while deemed

to be very much alive, have long been relegated to being unresponsive and “vegetative,” in the most literal sense. Maybe it’s indeed time we start paying closer attention to our floral kindred and the subtleties of their interactions with each other and their environment.” Trees That Talk: The Bizarre World of Plant Communication Micah HanksJuly 2, 2017 As I come closer to the ending of my own span of years on this earth, I have become more acutely aware of the commonality I have with all life. Fear and suffering appear to be the same across all species, and I am beginning to wonder if love is also – not romantic love, but the deep logos love spiritual people have written about for millennia. I understand there are reasons we avoid seeing these connections and being aware of the “intelligence,” love, and fear of life around us. The Danish/Inuit Arctic explorer Kund Rassmussen once wrote, “The greatest peril of life lies in the fact that human food consists entirely of souls. All the creatures that we to kill and eat, all those that we have to strike down and destroy to make clothes for ourselves, have souls, souls that do not perish with the body and which must therefore be pacified lest they revenge themselves on us for taking away their bodies.” That is seen as a very primitive view, yet I wonder in our confusion of scientific methods for technological growth and exploitation if we are the primitives and the barbarians. I suspect our blindness to the intelligence of life here on earth, intelligence other than ourselves, is summed up in that statement. Maybe all intelligence really is is the knowledge that everything is connected and what we call intelligence is a form of narcissistic blindness. Perhaps the natural intelligence is in the willow, lifting a frond to stroke young plants that came under his/her/its protection and scope. Maybe the only innate intelligence is displayed in how we honor, respect, and care for everything. In addition to slowing me down in my interaction with the world, I find that this view brings me a sense of greater peace and a change in focus about what is and is not essential and how to express that “essentialness.” I also have greater clarity about what the ancients meant when they wrote of a fear of God. It is not a fear full of the pain of punishment – it is an awe that is hard to express and is likely to bring tears and an awareness of the pity of things and our oneness with everything.

[nesta-stan]

Why the "Trauma and mental illness isn't an excuse" argument about Nesta doesn't make any sense

I don't hate the state but when some one usually says it the thing being excuse are the

ACTUAL SYMPTOMS OF TRAUMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS

Like you do realize that trauma and mental illness isn't a personality trait or this thing that makes you "sad."

I saw a video once that mentioned that comments like this are actually kinda of ableist. Which I think is true.

It reminds me of when I was labeled a "disturbance" when I would breathe and cough very loudly. I have asthma. I was told to try to "control it".

So what I hear when someone says this is "I acknowledge that you have a disease. I just want you to try really hard to pretend you don't by never outwardly displaying your symptoms because it makes me uncomfortable."

Like do people who say this even KNOW what the D in PTSD stands for

" mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function. A mental illness can make you miserable and can cause problems in your daily life, such as at school or work or in relationships." -Mayo clinic

When someone has a mental illness it can hurt the people they love but their sick. They have a disease. It really isn't their fault. Which is why psychiatrist are considered actual medical doctors who can prescribe medicine.

I did a post with a link how Nsata's "laziness" was linked with depression but here are some more quotes.

Nesta's anger issues as it relates to child abuse

"Physically harmed children (relative to nonphysically harmed children) were significantly less attentive to social cues, more inclined to attribute hostile intent, and less able to manage personal problems. They explain possible cognitive deficits in abused and neglected children by suggesting that physical abuse affects the development of social-information-processing patterns, which in turn lead to chronic aggressive behavior. The experience of severe physical harm is associated with the "acquisition of a set of biased and deficient patterns of processing social provocation information" - the national academies press

Nesta's anger issues as it relates to ptsd

"Anger is also a common response to events that seem unfair or in which you have been made a victim. Research shows that anger can be especially common if you have been betrayed by others. This may be most often seen in cases of trauma that involve exploitation or violence.

The trauma and shock of early childhood abuse often affects how well the survivor learns to control his or her emotions. Problems in this area lead to frequent outbursts of extreme emotions, including anger and rage.

How Can Anger After a Trauma Become a Problem?

In people with PTSD, their response to extreme threat can become "stuck." This may lead to responding to all stress in survival mode. If you have PTSD, you may be more likely to react to any stress with "full activation." You may react as if your life or self were threatened.

This automatic response of irritability and anger in those with PTSD can create serious problems in the workplace and in family life. It can also affect your feelings about yourself and your role in society.

Researchers have broken down posttraumatic anger into three key aspects, discussed below. These three factors can lead someone with PTSD to react with anger, even in situations that do not involve extreme threat:

Arousal

Anger is marked by certain reactions in the body. The systems most closely linked to emotion and survival — heart, circulation, glands, brain — are called into action. Anger is also marked by the muscles becoming tense. If you have PTSD, this higher level of tension and arousal can become your normal state. That means the emotional and physical feelings of anger are more intense.

If you have PTSD, you may often feel on edge, keyed up, or irritable. You may be easily provoked. This high level of arousal may cause you to actually seek out situations that require you to stay alert and ward off danger. On the other hand, you may also be tempted to use alcohol or drugs to reduce the level of tension you're feeling.

Behavior

Often the best response to extreme threat is to act aggressively to protect yourself. Many trauma survivors, especially those who went through trauma at a young age, never learn any other way of handling threat. They tend to become stuck in their ways of reacting when they feel threatened. They may be impulsive, acting before they think.

Aggressive behaviors also include complaining, "backstabbing," being late or doing a poor job on purpose, self-blame, or even self-injury. Many people with PTSD only use aggressive responses to threat. They are not able to use other responses that could be more positive.

Thoughts and beliefs

Everyone has thoughts or beliefs that help them understand and make sense of their surroundings. After trauma, a person with PTSD may think or believe that threat is all around, even when this is not true. He or she may not be fully aware of these thoughts and beliefs.

If you have PTSD, you may not be aware of how your thoughts and beliefs have been affected by trauma. For instance, since the trauma you may feel a greater need to control your surroundings. This may lead you to act inflexibly toward others. Your actions then provoke others into becoming hostile towards you. Their hostile behavior then feeds into and reinforces your beliefs about others." - U.S department of veteran affairs

Nesta's Hypersexuality as it relates to assault

"The survivor of trauma is left with unmetabolized rage which is directed both internally and externally. Simultaneously, the traumatized individual is actively attempting to escape the emotions and the loneliness of their constricted, damaged state. Their sexuality awakens early, without direction, and is often intensely driving them to seek out partners. It is this highly ambivalent state which characterizes sexual compulsivity. Their vandalized love maps (which were previously discussed) are trauma-bonded and therefore predispose them to seek out destructive partners. transactions and sexual interactions. Compulsive behavior is a means to numb-out when beginning to think and feel. This behavior also produces a high which allows the person to know she is still alive and human when feelings of depersonalization, numbness, emptiness and physical and emotional analgesia pervade. Compulsive sexual behavior becomes a solution - a means of feeling something in the dissociative fog, an experience of perceived control when feeling powerless, an illusory sense of safety connection and temporary escape from the aloneness." -U.S department of justice

Nesta's drinking

"Substance abuse and addiction is commonly connected to co-occurring disorders like PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Among people seeking treatment for PTSD are 14 times more likely to also be diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder (SUD). Attempting to self-medicate can be a cause to why many people with PTSD also abuse substance. The thought is that by abusing substances, a person with PTSD, will null or avoid PTSD symptoms. Those with PTSD with a SUD are more likely so abuse alcohol over drugs, such as cocaine. Research has found that service members and veterans that have heavy drinking tendencies are more likely to have PTSD, depression. War veterans with a PTSD diagnosis, who also drink alcohol, tend to be diagnosed with binge drinking...One of the highest risk groups for both PTSD and addiction is the veteran population. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, veterans who seek out treatment for a SUD are often diagnosed with PTSD. This is most likely due to the emotional stress, physical demand, and mental strain of combat.10 Service members that were deployed overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan are at a higher risk of developing PTSD. In addition, PTSD has also been linked to veterans that have been sexually assaulted or harassed during their military service or experience.  Military service trauma can happen to any service member, of any gender, during their military service. Sexual trauma includes sexual assault, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment.About 1 in 5 female veterans have been diagnosed with military sexual trauma by Veteran Affairs (VA)." -American addiction centers

#a court of frost and starlight #a court of mist and fury #a court of thorns and roses #a court of wings and ruin #acofas #acomaf #acotar #acowar #nesta archeron #archeron sisters #sjmaas #sarah j maas #sjm fandom #sjm #acosf #a court of silver flames #nesta acotar #nesta #pro nesta #nesta deserves better

[misslionfigther]

Magicat Headcanon

The Magicats, in Shera are a topic which we can have as many theories as we want. I have seen stories about Magicat Princess Catra and their society. I myself like it better when she is not a princess but can still learn about her people. But normally in those stories the Magicats were from Etheria.

For me, I like to think that the Magicats arrived on Etheria around the same time as the First Ones or a little bit later, when they were there already for a long time making the planet a weapon. The First Ones, of course, didn't like it since they wanted to be the only one to exploit the planet and its magic.

Since they have just found out about the planet. The first to arrived were just a few explorers, scientists, experts and a few soldiers for protection. They they didn't arrive everyone at the same time, it took several travels and it took a lot of time to arrived too. They weren't as advanced as the First Ones, who had an empire, it took a lot of resources and budget to make a huge spaceship. But what they lack in science they made up for in Magic. Everyone can do magic but the talent can vary and it take a lot of effort.

It's like science, it is cool to imagine having the ability to make cool robotics, yes, but to do it you have to work you ass on. It is cool to know martial arts and be strong enough to beat MMA fighters or destroy planks of wood with your hands, yes, but to do it one have to train a lot and not everyone is as motivated to do it. Magic is like that for the Magicats. That's why the Magic Users end up as soldiers, rangers, law enforcers, or players of magic sports. There are a lot of regulation, like when someone is a Black belt in Karate

To avoid more Magicat to arrived, the First Ones destroyed the ship and the Magicats got stuck on the planet, by the time the home planet was ready to help them they were already in Despondos. They ended up settling in a secluded area where they were interacting with the locals, as well as studying the flora, fauna, magic and their society. Since they destroyed the ship, a lot of their technology was lost, needing the help of the locals to survive. So both communities helped each other, they also didn't want to deal with the First Ones, so they mixed their Magic to help hide the island where they lived. BUT they not only lived in an island they had a special territory which later would become Halfmoon. Through Magic the Magicats could teletransport from there to the Island.

C'yra I, which in the present would be remembered as the first Queen, was at first one of the soldiers, who ended up as their leader and interacted with Mara. She represented the Magicats in the rebellion against the First Ones. That's why after Mara sacrificed herself and the war ended, the Magicats chose her as their leader. With time they mixed themselves with the locals from the Island, so the Magicat of Etheria are a little bit different from the ones in Space, a little bit smaller in size. Their Magic ended up different from the space Magicats and the Sorcerers and Princesses of Etheria too. They mixed their culture making a new one.

How do I think Catra ended in the Horde?

By the time Catra was a baby. The Magicats are still a secluded society. But it also means that when they are outside of their home they catch to much attention since people are not use to them. They feel uncomfortable so they always go back. Not a lot of people know about them and so they are like a legend.

Her parents lived in a village near Halfmoon. When it was destroyed, since they lived next to it and could fall too, the Magicats used a spell similar to the one used on the island to hide themselves. But one can't be cautious enough, despite being underground, most of them fled to the Island. Her parents, desperate, tried to hide Catra in a box. Since it was a little village that was in the way, the soldiers were not going to stay, so they thought that someone like the rebellion could find her later but for the time being she would be safe. But she was found by a Horde soldier and brought to Shadow Weaver with box and everything. So is true the story that she was found there but not where and why. I can see Adora seeing Catra for the first time and wanted to make her her friend. Shadow Weaver allowed it to happen because she didn't think to much of Catra. She was supposed to be a pet that she could take away from Adora if she misbehaved.

I think, not matter how a adult Magicats may behave like a cat, they are only little quirks, like the use of the tail and the ears to emot and some other little features. Apart from that the are like human. But as a kid they are more cat than human and more driven by instinct and they take more time to develop cognitively speaking. Is like they had a fog in their mind until they reach an age were the fog disappear and can think like any other kid, is not like they can't learn but they are to much a cat to show it. They don't talk until then too.

Of course, Shadow Weaver, from the beginning only saw an animal instead of a person and she doesn't expect much from her either. In terms of abilities and her importance to Adora but when she realizes is when she start to punished her.

Following the headcanon that she doesn't speak until much later, I like to think that she was starting to express herself better around the time of the promise. She was catching up with the rest. So one of her first words could actually be

You promise

#Catra #catradora #magicats #english is not my first language

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Light Novel Review - Otherside Picnic Vol. 1

I have been sitting on J-Novel Club’s Otherside Picnic for far too long. This work is the only one from their recent slew of science fiction and fantasy Yuri light novels that I had not yet reviewed. Sadly, I was, as always, so caught up in all the other amazing Yuri coming out that it fell by the wayside for longer than I would like to admit, things were so much easier back when we only got one or two Yuri localization a year (have I made that joke before?)! However, the English release of the second volume is about a month away, so the time felt right to open the door and enter the Otherside. I was very excited about this work, as I enjoyed Side-By-Side Dreamers, another light novel by the same author, Iori Miyazawa, and praised its world-building and creativity. Unfortunately, Side-By-Side Dreamers was far too short and poorly paced. I hoped that Otherside Picnic, which has the advantage of spanning multiple volumes, would correct this issue. I am thrilled to report that the Yuri goddess has answered my prayers.

Otherside Picnic begins as its main character, Sorawo Kamikoshi, is about to drown. After venturing into a mysterious world, the Otherside, she saw a horrific creature, a Kunekune, which infected her mind and paralyzed her. However, she is saved by the appearance of Toriko Nishina, a beautiful and experienced adventurer. Together, the two young women defeat the Kunekune and thus become partners exploring the Otherside to find rare treasures. They sell these items to a woman researching the Otherside, Kozakura, for large sums of money.

The premise is excellent for short monster of the week style stories, or “files.” While each of these files is an exciting adventure on its own, Miyazawa masterfully builds on previous chapters, gradually raising the stakes and the abilities of Sorawo and Toriko. For example, while the two struggle to kill a single Kunekune in the first file, by the end of the volume, Sorawo can use her knowledge and skill to guide Kozakura to help her quickly dispatch four of the monsters. The scenarios faced beginning to escalate as well. They will go from fighting a single monster up to being separated and trapped in an illusion or else stranded with a group of soldiers defending their camp from attack. The pacing and organization of the story is terrific and easy to navigate.

The most engaging part of the light novel is the titular Otherside, a mysterious world full of danger, from horrific monsters to the deadly “glitches,” anomalies that destroy or alter those who step into them. The encounters the girls experience within are chilling and disturbing without having to resort to gross-out tactics. The monsters and many events are taken out of various online stories and creepypastas from the real world. Miyazawa takes these and mixes in some scientific and philosophical theories about fear and human recognition to craft one of the more intricate and fascinating world. However, the real strength of the setting is how the characters interact with it.

Sorawo is rather callous and cold, reacting harshly to others around her. Before meeting Toriko, she had no friends. However, her vast knowledge of ghost stories and the paranormal, as well as her intelligence and ingenuity, help guide her through the Otherside. She has a strange affinity with the other world, being drawn to it as much as she is fearful of it. Yet, its pull on her is nothing compared with that of Toriko’s. Sorawo immediately starts noticing her beauty, regularly commenting on it. As she and Toriko work together more, their partnership increases to a level of codependency. Sorawo does not lust after her sexually, but her reliance on Toriko and the need to be by her side becomes the driving force for her actions.

Toriko is almost the opposite of Sorawo personality-wise. She is kind and cares deeply for her friends, although she has very few companions. Her ultimate motivation in searching the Otherside is to find her old partner, with whom it is implied she was romantically involved, a fact that makes Sorawo jealous. She is more physically capable and confident than Sorawo and is proficient with firearms. While Toriko is not as attached to Sorawo as Sorawo is to her, she relies on the other girl to keep them alive in the Otherside and willingly puts herself in harm’s way to protect her.

Despite being almost total opposites, save for a shared avoidance of other people, Sorawo and Toriko are the perfect pair. Their abilities and knowledge complement the other’s weaknesses and mesh well together. Each one is willing to make sacrifices for the other, and they become something much more profound than friends, although, at this point, their relationship cannot be described as romantic. Despite the supernatural nature of their exploits, there are understandable and human conflicts between the two women. For example, Sorawo is jealous of Toriko’s old partner and she worries that she will disappoint Toriko. On her part, Torik has a tendency to put her wishes and quest to find her friend ahead of Sorawo’s needs. While not all of these issues are resolved in the volume, it completes a great arc for both characters and leaves stronger than they were in the beginning, as individuals and companions.

On a final side note, I want to praise shirakaba’s illustrations, though I do not usually rate or comment on the artwork in light novels. While there are only a few pieces, each of them is detailed with fantastic linework and heavy contrast to create stunning images. My personal favorite is an excellent “girl sits at expensive work station” image of Kozakura. I only wish there was an opportunity for shirakaba to provide more drawings, especially of the monsters. Shirakaba has some beautiful and creepy science-fiction creature artwork online, and it’s a shame that none was present in the volume.

Otherside Picnic Volume 1 is a brilliant work of science fiction. Miyazawa describes a horrifying yet enchanting world full of challenges for the protagonists to overcome. Each time they do so, the Sorawo and Toriko become stronger and more capable. The solid story structure and pacing helps keep the adventure moving at a reasonable pace and solidifies the physical and emotional growth the characters undergo. It nicely wraps up central conflicts and begins to peel back the curtain on the world and personas while still leaving lots of room for further exploration in future entries. I am eager to read more from this series and highly encourage you to check this one out.

Ratings: Story – 10 Characters – 7 Art – N/A LGBTQ – 2 Lewd – 0 Final – 8

Review copy provided by J-Novel Club

#yuri #reviews #lgbt #lgbtq #lbgtq+ #queer #gay #horror #sff #science ficiton #sci-fi #girls love #wlw #anime #light novel #manga #gl

[queendom25]

Black Liberation in the Black Church

Brace yourselves Southern Oregon because the Why We Can’t Wait challenge is but an appetizer to the cause! Yours truly is working with Black Alliance & Social Empowerment (B.A.S.E) on the project of reading the book Why We Can’t Wait written by Dr. King and comparing the civil rights movement to what we see today. Change starts with action and I encourage everyone to read the book as a stepping stone in their research of other America. With that being said let's talk about the role of the Black church from enslavement to liberation movements because have you seen what’s happened in the Georgia Senate race? We can’t just overlook the historical significance of a pastor from the spiritual home of Dr. King competing with a Senator that confidently poses in pictures with known white supremacists. 

It’s no accident that the key players from Reconstruction to Black Power have been men of faith. In 1865, Reverend J.W. Wood of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church introduced a series of reforms considered “radical” including the right to vote for Black people, “Without exaggeration, it can be stated that almost every Black minister was something of a politician, and that every aspiring Black politician had to be something of a minister.”(Marable, 2015) The foundation of modern Black politics rests with the Black church and in 1910 there was a decrease in clergy. It was W.E.B Dubois that stated the Black church was an expression of the “Negro’s soul” and organizational ability but he along with other key figures had choice criticisms of the church.(Marable, 2015) Historians and sociologists alike that specialize in 20th century Black liberationist ideologies, have traced the ambivalences that set Black Christianity apart from the mainstream and debate on whether it’s been an obstacle or a blessing in the struggle for liberation. V.F. Calverton for example, declared in 1927 that the  Judeo-Christian ethics of submissive behavior and tolerance towards Earthly oppressors only sustained white racism and exploitation of labor power from the Black proletariat. An unsettling number of ministers were silent as Dubois, Paul Robeson, and other socialists and progressives were arrested with tarnished reputations but the buy out of other Black ministers was the most despicable! If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to follow the money which always pays corporate interests instead of the laborer. Henry Ford was among many capitalists of his time to pay off Black ministers for their influence to convince the Black working-class to accept low pay and reject unionism. Tokenism is no stranger to the pulpit so the real question is when will the general population focus on the politics of the person instead of their color?

In the early stages of my personal involvement with the cause, I came across a unique Christian bigot with the sexist, transphobic, and  homophobic attitude to match. Interacting with him on social media made me realize my own intersectionality and how this bigot’s melanated skin is more detrimental than a Black Trump supporter. He boasted that he rejects Western Christian doctrine because the Ethiopian bible was the true path as he “corrects me on my learned self-hatred.” The doctrine that he’s referring to dates back to when the “Ethiops” joined the Crusaders in the war against Islam and just like a toxic breakup, the Europeans ghosted the Africans after the fact as the slave traders made their big debut. As a Black woman in America I realize that my heroes will contrast dramatically from that of male counterparts both Black and white. While W.E.B Dubois could labeled as the feminist of his time, he still talked about the emancipation of women in his essays as he invited Margaret Sanger to contribute to the pages of his periodicals. Margaret Sanger was the peak of white feminism that’s responsible for the Negro Project. This “ally” used Black stereotypes in order to reduce fertility in African American women. Religious Black separatists often referred to her work in later years to sway my melanated sisters from participating and who could blame them? But as Dubois noted, “The mass of ignorant Negroes still breed carelessly and disastrously, so that the increase among Negroes, even more than the increase among whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear their children properly.” (Washington, 2006) Thanks to Dubois’ advice Sanger recruited ministers like Dr. King to promote such a project.

The liberation of Black people has never been so cut and dry but the deliberate lack of knowledge within American textbooks ought to be incriminating. Replacing representation with tokenism should’ve been clear to us from Kamala Harris to Kelly Loeffler and from ministers on capitalist payroll to Ben Carson. We are still met with indifference as women of color and members of the LGBT+ community on the topic of basic human rights including adequate access to medical care. We may have avoided the full cancelation of “democracy” by voting out Donald Trump but the Black caucus has not forgotten the “jungle” that Joe Biden thinks we belong in.

Sources:

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America Manning Marable 2015.

Medical Apartheid Harriet A. Washington 2006.

Black Liberation George M. Fredrickson 1995.

#mlk #medfordoregon #no justice no peace #black lives matter #southernoregon #w.e.b. du bois #human rights #kelly loeffler #kamala harris

[theexleynatureblog]

Veganism for Conservation

Wikipedia defines veganism as “ the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan.”

This is different than vegetarianism, which is a non-meat diet. Vegetarians still use animal products like eggs and dairy, while veganism does not. Some people that practice veganism extend the philosophy to their clothing, not wearing leather, and sometimes even wool. 

A lot of us have probably interacted with vegans on the internet in posts such as this:

Personally, my interactions with people who practice veganism have been limited to glimpsing internet brawls like this. Because of this, vegans get a bad name. I’m sure Christians can relate: that one wild-eyed priest going on about how homophobia is a sin. He may speak for all Christians, but he cannot represent them.

My point of this is, going into this post, please approach veganism or vegetarianism with an open mind. This post is not hating on vegans, and it is not trying to convert anyone to veganism. By pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of vegan and non-vegan philosophies, I hope to increase understanding.

Where Veganism Succeeds

When it comes to images like this, vegans and vegetarians are sometimes the first to call out animal cruelty. This is not without substance. This PDF article from the University of Kentucky covers some of the issues very well. The main issue is Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) or “factory farms”.  The ultimate goals of the factories are ‘cheap food’. Animals are kept in confined spaces, and given antibiotics and growth hormones to counteract the spread of diseases and parasites (in some cases it doesn’t work). Ironically, some of these drugs are outlaws in the UK, due to the adverse human health effects. Factory farms are a monopolized industry free of heavy regulations of other large-scale operations. Though the FDA and USDA oversee inspections and health regulations, it only helps so much. The Animal Welfare Act of 1966 does not extend to farm animals.

A common response is “Shut down farms!” But it’s not as simple as that.  The next article covers the Pro’s and con’s of farming. Farms are run different in different places of the world, and always full of contradictions. Livestock can improve the health of prairie grasslands, but also overgraze them. Animal manure can improve soil health and pollute rivers. While places like America need less meat, poor families in Cambodia may need more protein in their diet. I whole-heartedly support shutting down CAFO’s, but farming in general. Small-scale family farms are a great example of farming with ecosystem and animal health in mind.

One problem with holding animals indoors - even if you feed them well, make them comfortable, keep them from getting sick - is lack of mental stimulation. No species on Earth processes the world the same way. Cows don’t think they same way humans do, but they are living animals designed to do certain things.  A video I watched last year for my animal behavior class (If I could find the video, I’d add it) followed a group of hens brought from a factory farm to a new free-range home. A series of experiment were set up to observe their behavior. When presented with building materials, the hens proceeded to build a nest - even though a nest was already made for them by the caregivers. Animals have inherent behaviors that they will carry out if giving the opportunity. This may not have any impact on the health/quality of the meat or products, but it can give the animals mental exercise and therefor reduce stress.

Recent years have brought in increased in what is dubbed the “locavores.” Locavores is basically a person who eats locally, or within a 100mile radius. They may buy more produce from farmers markets, or get their meat from hunting and fishing locally. (Minnesota has a bag limit of 5 whitetail deer. A successful hunter could stock up food for their family for an entire year without ever buying meat from a grocery store!). Food handling, processing, and transportation takes up a lot of our yearly energy costs, not to mention food shipped from another country is going to be more expensive, and sometimes, less fresh.

The Locavores Movement wasn’t exactly pushed by vegans, but I’m going to include it here because it’s a win for everyone. After WWII, agriculture was becoming more commercialized. Big, industrial farms with lots of land and machinery was out-competing small family farms. Later on, the 60′s and 70′s sparked a ‘back to the land’ movement (a big time for environmental policies). It encouraged relationships between communities and local farmers. Though many small family farms are still financially struggling, the Locavores movement is increasing, as people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from and their dietary health.

Where Veganism Fall’s Short

Animal anthropomorphization - defined as ‘ the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities’. Giving animals human-like appearances such as walking on two legs, fingers, eyebrows, and having them think and act like humans. This is present in any Disney cartoon regarding animals. Bambi is the most famous, and even created what is known as “Bambi Syndrome”, a belief based on the movie that paints nature as a garden of Eden with no natural predators - which is grossly inaccurate.

Anthropomorphization is not inherently bad, I enjoy watching Disney cartoons and sometimes its fun to imagine animals acting like people. However, there are people who seem to believe than animals really do process the world exactly like people do, and their interactions with the environment and other animals are similar to human - situations. Ex: a bunny rabbit and a deer chase each other around - they must be best friends! People forget that for wild animals, even suburban wild, is a constant struggle for survival. Humans partook in this once to, but now we have grocery stores and houses. We take for granted our ability to get food every day, and go home to a warm night’s rest. Animals don’t have that. Wild animals are focused 24/7 on survival - where to get food, are there any dangers around, ect. Once an animal has gained enough resources to survive day to day, then they can focus on reproduction. After that, in some cases, the focus is on rearing young. And then the cycle is repeated.

 The biggest argument comes down to the idea of death. Vegans argue that the act of killing animals is immortal because animals fear death just as humans do. This is true: the fear of death is present in all species. It is an important driver for evolution. Organisms are constantly coming up with new ways to avoid death caused by changes in the environment.

But death is still a really important thing.

Death is something that has to happen, because that is how nutrient cycling works. One organism collects material from the environment until it stops, and those nutrients are redistributed to other organisms. The longer an organism lives, the longer it holds onto those nutrients instead of redistributing them. 

The argument that ‘all animals want to live’ is obvious and does not address the fact that death is a natural and important part of our world - just as important as life. Why do humans make such a big fuss about it? Because we have the time and the resources to do so.

Giraffes don’t have time to sit around and contemplate life and death - they’re busy living. They’re busy foraging and migrating and kicking lions in the head. We have to remember the human experience of the world is unique to us - we are the only species that exploited resources so efficiently, we had the time and energy to build Society. Every word and concept in our mind is a imaginary construct, or translated from what we’ve seen in nature. This includes death - a natural process we witness and created an abstract essence around that both increases and diminishes our fears of the inevitable. (Sorry to readers experiencing existential crisis’ - hang in there, take your time. This really is mind-bending stuff when you think about it). Death didn’t have a name until humans created one. We created stories of Grim Reapers and Angels and Demons. We see shadows out of the corner of our eyes and call them ghosts.

But, do we have a right to cause the death of other organisms? Well, in nature, what is a ‘right’? Does the gazelle or the leopard have a greater right to live? My arguments may see really heartless and objective, but I am a biology student, so I have to look at this from an ecological perspective. Why do we look at the animal world through a tight lens of human understanding when we now have to tools to see more? How can we assign human concepts to a world that exists beyond our understanding?

One of emotions we have created do to the development of society is ‘guilt’. Its possible this emotion exists in other animals too, such as a mother who couldn’t protect their young. Guilt has evolutionary advantages of strengthening social bonds, and inciting a change of behavior. But humans are unique in that we extend this guilt beyond our immediate families to multiple other species. Pet owners may experience this when they accidentally step on their pet’s paw. 

This philosophy of including other species in our perception of the world is amazing, and very important. Aldo Leopold, a professor of ecology at the University of Wisconsin, wrote in A Sand County Almanac that extending human ethics to the land and its animals was essential for conservation. We need more people involved in biology and environmentalism, but we need them to have a proper understanding of life and death processes of other animals.

Wild animals deal with death much more often than humans do, and not in the same way. An article from Stat News claims half of Americans now die at home in hospice care. I can’t hypothesize numbers, but its same to say that a lot of people, especially in rich countries, get a ‘gentle’ death - in bed, surrounded by family members, eased with pain medications. Animals don’t get that. The quickest, non - human way for animals to die is by being kill by something else. Lions tend to bite the jugular of prey to asphyxiate it. The animal is dead by the time the lions start eating it, but it did not die quickly and peacefully. It’s last moments were being chased by lions, having lions dig their claws and teeth into its body to knock it down. It will take at least a full minute or two to suffocate the animal before it dies. Imagine the last thing you see is a lion biting into your neck - that’s terrifying!

Some deaths are quicker - think of birds picking up ants or insects, quickly crushing them in their beats or swallowing them whole. The thing is, as mammals, we can’t really relate to insects on an emotional level, so that example doesn’t get us far...

Non-predatory causes of death are disease, parasites, starvation, injuries, and old age. Older animals are at risk for all of these combined. A wolf with a broken leg may be fed by the pack for a while, but eventually have to be left behind and starve to death. There are no gentle deaths in the animal kingdom.

Ironically, the fastest and least painful death animal can experience from humans are euthanasia, and a gunshot (as long as the shot is lethal). Euthanasia is common for pets and livestock by first putting them to sleep, and then injecting them with a lethal drug they cannot feel. Its the closest thing to a human dying in a hospital bed. 

Gunshots have the potential to be the least painful and the most painful - depending on the skill of the hunter. A ethical shot to the heart or brain means that the animal will be dead before it even feels the bullet enter its body. That sounds a lot nicer than being chased or ripped apart by wolves, or stumbling around, infected by CWD.

Shortcomings of Non-Vegan Philosophies

Hunters and anglers don’t have all fail-proof ideas either. When it comes to conservation, America tends to prioritize animals useful for human consumption - as in, harvesting or observing. “Game” animals, like deer, elk, grouse, and waterfowl, have most of the public’s attention and protection. “Non” game animals like reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, are overlooked and at greatest risk for extinction due to lack of funding. 

Americans in general, eat too much meat. A quick Google search pulled up multiple articles that said the same thing. These articles are not pushing vegan/vegetarian philosophies, they are approaching the problem from a healthy diet standard. This article from Popular Science covers the American heritage around meat and animals that dates back to colonial times. In medieval Europe, many of the large game animals like stag and bison were gone due to overhunting, and the remaining wild lands were reversed for nobility sport hunting. Important predators like wolves and bear were also removed due to fears and superstition, so, the ecosystems of Europe were...a mess. When settlers came to America, they discovered a land of bounty, and developed a ‘take whatever you want’ philosophy that led to the extinction of the passenger pigeon, and near extinction of the bison and turkey. We eventually realized our mistake and worked up some protection, but still have a ways to go. 

Is Veganism helping conservation?

Yes and no. It has it strong and weak points. The strongest, like I said, being pointing out the flaws of factory farms. However, the belief that replacing animal products with plant/synthetic materials will help the planet is troublesome.

The picture is one that comes up when Googling ‘soil degradation’. The land is so dry, it is cracked. The vegetation looks dead and dying, and the soil color itself is a light sandy brown - lacking the deeper shades that indicate the presence of organic material, essential for soil organisms and plant growth. Soil degradation is a problem all around the world, appearing in various forms. It’s leading cause is poor management of agricultural fields. A vegan lifestyle means greater dependence on these farms, but there is never any mention of this problem.

Vegan or not, as an American, I believe it is in our best interest to eat less meat - not totally get rid of it, but have more balanced diets. Soil degradation is a problem for everyone. Luckily, soil scientists are at work discovering new ways to put nutrients back into the soil and lock them in, increasing the health of the soil ecosystem. The plants and animals that depend on it (including us) will be healthier, and some of these techniques can even take greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere. The Soil Conference at Gustavo's Adolphus College brought in some of these speakers. Video are available on YouTube, and posted to my blog.

A trademark of veganism is refusing authentic leather. It is replaced by synthetic and plant based materials called ‘pleather’, ‘faux leather’ and ‘vegan leather’. 

Some sites say these terms are interchangeable, but some say they’re each a little different. Leafy Souls defines ‘pleather’ as leather made from plastic. This is a big problem, because plastic materials, when washed, release micro plastics into waterways. The major problem is these plastics aren’t as easily identifiable are water bottles washed ashore on the beach. Not a lot is yet known about these pollutants, but we have found them everywhere - including inside our bodies.

Luckily, not all vegan leather products are made of plastics. Alternatives have been made from plants, leaves, cork, and even stone!

The big argument against leather and fur products is - it is cruel to kill animals just for there skins. And I actually agree with this. I was never one to buy into the fashion industry, and personally, I think it’s a little outdated, and pointless. 

The process of factory made leather from cowhide is a bit disturbing. The manufacturing of leather is contributing so some major environmental issues like the release of greenhouse gasses and water pollution. Some questionable chemicals are also used to treat the leather. 

The good news is livestock are not being killed solely for their skin. The cattle sent to slaughter are the same cattle that we get most commercial leather from. Of course, this doesn’t really comfort anyone heartbroken over the commercialized treatment of animals.

Leather manufacturing is also being linked to child labor and poor warehouse conditions. It’s a common American business practice to send labor production oversees to places labor is cheaper - cheaper because workers are paid less for longer hours in poor conditions. The leather industry is not alone in doing this. How we change this? Boy-coting certain products is one way, but some of these companies have monopolies on products. A book by a Michigan State University professor discusses the growing monopolization of food products.

How do we solve problems like this? I don’t know, but something this complex needs a just - as complex solution that may take years to undo. 

Fur

Minnesota got its early start as a center for fur-trading between Canadian pioneers and native tribes. Unfortunely, the luxury that was fur turned the market extremely competitive. Since nature is not built for capitalism and competitive markets and commercialism, the fur bearer populations of the state took a dive. (Luckily, all have now recovered).

Fur markets were as bad as market hunting in terms of conservation, but unlike the latter, fur trapping is as persistent as ever today. Thanks to protections and regulations, trapping is able to persist at nearly the same capacity as it was in the 1800′s without threatening a population. (Also, there are significantly less people partaking in trapping).

Personally, I do not care for killing animals solely for the fur or leather. I would prefer to trap animals that also provide food - like rabbits. My believes are that if you kill an animal, you use as much as you can from it - meat, skin, and maybe even some of the bones. Its a way to pay respect by making sure the animal didn’t die for no reason.

Like leather, fur has synthetic replacements. However, I could not find as much environmental information. The main material for faux fur is acrylics, which are basically plastics that do not degrade when released into the environment. It is another source of micro plastics. 

Manufactured fur, like real leather, is treated with chemicals like formaldehyde to keep from degrading. Naturally, after discovering this, I Googled health affects of wearing real fur. Problem 1: I couldn’t find a trustworthy website. The websites that came up were strongly anti-fur. I wanted to find information from a neutral website, like a college university article. Problem 2: I could not find anything. I expected to find articles about odd rashes or allergic reactions, but there was non. Instead, I re-discovered an article I used in a previous post about vaccines. Vaccines actually use doses of formaldehyde in them. It’s a scary substance, because we automatically think about it in the process of embalming bodies, but the truth is, it has many practical uses that are safe to human health. Any substance can be harmful or helpful, it all depends on the dosage and chemical makeup. I was reminded that formaldehyde isn’t as scary as everyone makes it out to be. It is actually naturally produced in our bodies, and it probably doesn’t have any adverse effects to being added on our clothes.

Another problem arises when questioning the affects of formaldehyde in the environment. When we wash our clothes, dirt and chemicals end up in our water systems, including micro plastics and formaldehyde. The usual dosages of the chemical is to small to cause us individuals adverse health affects, but the story can change when dumped in large qualities. Our tendency to dump large amounts of waste into confined areas is not natural - animals tend to discharge (biodegradable) waste evenly across a habitat, or at least in quantities than can be broken down. The way humans discard waste in large quantities means that basically anything - including caffeine from our coffee consumption - can have adverse environmental effects. So, the problem of releasing formaldehyde is not on the chemical itself, but more on our system of waste treatment and pollution in general.

Conclusion

I am overwhelmingly tired of the vegan vs non-vegan argument. The more I see people pointing their fingers at each other, the less I want to partake in either one of their ideologies. Great minds think alike but fools seldom differ.

I believe it all comes down to balance. No matter how we exploit resources, there is going to be a downside. Vegan or non-vegan, there is an up and down to every choice. We have to work together and find a middle ground.

If we completely stopped using animals today, there would be changes. CO2 emissions would drop a little, but they may change sources. The same amount of people would need the same amount of food, and 1/3 of that food would come from a different source. There may be more habitat loss from increases agriculture farms, and come communities may became protein-deficient.

If the opposite were to happen, and we increases animal products, there would also be adverse effects. To feed those animals would also require more agricultural land. Factory emissions could rise, along with health effects of too much red meat, like increased cholesterol. 

The fact of the matter is, we all kill animals, directly and indirectly, simply by taking up space. The things that make you you - the proteins and carbons and lipids and nutrients - came from another organism. The fact that you have them now means something else is denied them. The cars we drive, the fields we plow, the pollutants we throw out, those are all killing animals as I type this. It sucks. I absolutely hate it. It has happened for the past millions of years, but right now, we are doing it at a faster rate than anything before us.

I cannot fully support veganism in regards to animal ethics, due to the tendency of anthropomorphization and biological misinformation. But I due support the legitimate environmental concerns, and I think a lot more people need to understand them as well.

#biology #animals #science #ethics #philosophy #veganfriendly

[sendin52]

by Denny Hunt for GetWisdom.com

Introduction:

Karl Mollison is a research scientist and psychic medium and has discovered the means through which a tiny percentage of people throughout history have successfully made direct contact with God, Creator of All That Is. With this ability, he has done what any reasonable person in such an unusual and surprising situation would do: ask endless questions! Why is God invisible to us? Why is there rampant evil in the world? Are there dark unseen forces working against us? Why has God not intervened to stop it? Why do good people suffer?

His quest to find the secrets of the Universe led him to real answers for human suffering in the form of a Lightworker Healing Protocol. This protocol is basically a high level prayer to God, for healing; not just any healing, but deep healing from dark spirit infestation, karmic healing from past traumas, and well as emotional and physical healing. The direct contact with God in this case was, and continues to be, in service to healing and not just satisfying curiosity. This fact alone gives some credentials that should be considered seriously before judgment is passed.

Now, it seems, we are about to experience an event being called “disclosure” where allegedly the world’s governments will finally admit to contact with extraterrestrials or the ET’s themselves will make their presence known to humankind.  There are many scenarios and claims about this thing called disclosure.  Karl has asked many questions about this in his channelings with Source Creator.

This is one of them:

QUESTION:

Pres. Ronald Reagan, in a speech to the United Nations to encourage greater cooperation among nations, proposed the idea that if the world were faced with an extraterrestrial invader, we would come together to protect the common interests of humanity. This has been remarked on a number of times as perhaps a telling slip because he has been rumored to have been told there was a large fleet of vessels built by the U.S. military and capable of space travel, so he was aware of the long-standing collaboration of the U.S. government with extraterrestrials. Photos of his typed speech text show this comment was crossed out, which has been attributed to someone in his inner circle editing the speech beforehand, but he rewrote the remark by hand just prior to giving the speech and then delivered it in public. Was this done at the behest of the Extraterrestrial Alliance to test the waters about making disclosure of an extraterrestrial agenda, or was it perhaps divine inspiration to encourage planting a seed about the extraterrestrial presence being a reality?

ANSWER:

“Writers have disclosed that Reagan was told about the Secret Space Program, that creation of many spacecraft developed with the cooperation of the presumed benevolent extraterrestrials was a reality, and that the purpose was for protection of the planet from hostile alien invaders that could become a serious problem. So Reagan was primed with the party line, so to speak, that this Secret Space Program, which you know to be truly the Mercenary Army Program, was not only a helpful adjunct but critical to the future of the world, so he took this to heart and felt quite strongly that it would benefit the world to truly be aware of this. That was the reason for its inclusion in the text of the speech to begin with, as it was a divine suggestion to have this stated openly in order to make people aware, finally, of the reality of the extraterrestrial presence in the world.

So the fact he mentioned this, was not a desire of the Extraterrestrial Alliance at that point in time to make people aware that a Secret Space Program existed, and was far advanced, because they knew it would raise too many uncomfortable questions. This was a divine inspiration for him to include this comment because it was capitalizing on his humanitarian desire for world peace, and the fact that it was edited out was truly an attempt to avoid disclosing, even through inference, top secret information. The impulse for him to override this normal crosscheck to avoid a mistake was divine and the purpose, as you saw intuitively, was to instill the idea of an extraterrestrial presence in people’s thinking. Everyone who heard his speech and everyone who hears a replay of his speech today, is given a divine impulse to pay attention to its true meaning—that there is an extraterrestrial presence, the extraterrestrials are real, they are here, and it is a threat to the world that warrants the world coming together with a common purpose and goal of seeing these interlopers be removed.”

I like to use deductive logic or the law enforcement approach when they are investigating a crime; it is a method of inquiry where I consider motive, means and opportunity. It doesn’t always give me the right answer, but I can sometimes save myself some false moves along the way and also end up with the most plausible answer.

Let’s look at some of the more popular disclosure narratives and see what we come up with.

1) This version of disclosure deals with the possibility that the world’s governments, one or more of them, will finally admit that there are ET’s and they know about them and have interacted with them and obtained technologies. Disclosure will result in the dissemination of free energy technologies with the result being that the state will no longer be able to control the population in terms of labor slavery, taxation, monetary controls, and victimless crimes, etc.  It is kind of utopian speculation about what humans would do if they had free energy and transportation devices that unshackled them from the fascist oligarchs that run the world. A new type of technological freedom will spread all over the world. Manipulative governments and multi-national corporations would subside into the past and become irrelevant. Sober anarchism with the credo - do no harm would rise to the top like cream. In some versions, some form of dimensional ascension would follow.

2) In this disclosure narrative the claim is that ET’s are all benevolent and if they weren’t, they would’ve already eliminated humans so they could occupy earth unhindered.  Perhaps they are just respecting our free will while we work out the kinks. Enjoying the hapless humans as if it were a spectator sport. Rooting for them from the sidelines. Except if we get too far off, like using nukes, they would step in for more direct guidance. They are going to show up because the cabal has gone too far with their enslavement plans or population reduction plans and their disrespect for nature.  When they present themselves, they will let us come to our senses and accept their guidance and assistance. In some versions, some form of dimensional ascension would follow.

3) There are bad ET’s, good ET’s and some ambivalent/observer ET’s and they are all part of what some claim is this large collection of ET races that occupy this part of the galaxy and they are going to make themselves known to humans on earth due to a variety of factors depending on the version within this category of disclosure.  Then the onus is on humans collectively to decide how to navigate within this mass of competing agendas where some ET’s want us dead, some want to exploit us, some want to trade with us and some want to help us. Most of these narratives are quite complex because obviously there are factions of humans who will align with different factions of ET’s and then there might be a political free-for-all where the spiritual aspect is also in play and potentially influencing outcomes. Many proponents of narratives within this category are channelers and/or contactees who portray themselves as academic or providers of lofty and higher-level spiritual concepts. They often fancy themselves as teachers or those in possession of esoteric knowledge. In fact, entire religions and cults are often found within this category of disclosure explanations.

4) There are basically some good ET’s and then there are some bad ET’s and they are both going to appear in some fashion and for some good reason so that we can select which ones to partner with for spiritual/economic alignment and protection. This is a compelling narrative because it is very similar to our alleged history of good vs. evil and prosaic myths of spiritual conquests of light over dark; the good guy/bad guy stories that we never get tired of reading, seeing or hearing. In some ways this is a subset of #3, but I list it separately because of its obvious appeal and the likelihood that this narrative will gain prominence as things unfold. It also works nicely with the savior stories that we find in legends, myths and religions.

Most of these scenarios will put humans in an observer role.  We might have a role in what happens, but it will be along the lines of voting, where whoever gets to count the vote ends up deciding what actually happens. We are constantly checking our beloved smart phones to see what is supposedly happening and what is likely to happen next. One of these versions has to be true, right?

The last one we’ll consider is what we have learned at GetWisdom.com, i.e., the channeling work of Karl Mollison, where he is channeling departed people who have returned to the Light and/or Creator.  In this narrative we are told that there are no benevolent ET’s in contact with humans on the earth plane. They are all evil and have, as their next goal, the elimination of humans once and for all.  There is no particular reason to get rid of us, other than the fact we are unruly and considered high maintenance given the return on investment.  

These evil ET’s upon finding us here on earth again—yes, we were here once before and what we call the Divine Human Free Will Experiment failed the first time around—they set about to genetically modify us such that we would have a poor connection to our higher selves and no connection to our deep subconscious. This made us the perfect hosts for disincarnate evil spirits which infect us humans, AND for the ET cohort that currently runs the earth to control us in the manner they see fit. This cohort is comprised of the Anunnaki, the Arcturians (creators of the soul-less alien grey biological robots) and the Reptilians.  They have a tenuous and strained alliance to control the earth along with all the humans, which they use as a food source, entertainment, and as an energetic host for the evil parasitic entities that infest them and almost all humans on earth at this time. They are atheistic beings with ancient civilizations, incredible technologies and psychic abilities that dwarf most of what us humans can even imagine. Even their soul-less robots can make us fall in love at will and convince us of outlandish things with mind control capabilities and technologies that are quite beyond anything we could currently comprehend. The robotic alien Greys have a peculiar interest in us because they think they can crack the DNA code which will enable them to reincarnate.  This situation has perhaps bought us some additional time. One of these alien races has been engaged with us almost from the beginning of our Creation.  We were created on earth by Creator and the Divine Realm based on the DNA of four races of higher dimensional ET’s, including the Pleiadians and the Sirians. These higher dimensional ET’s have a hands-off policy and are letting this Divine Human Free Will Experiment play out in accordance with the Divine Realm’s rules for this earthly adventure.

So I would claim that this GetWisdom.com version of things is not really a disclosure narrative, because it does not rely on the government or the ET’s doing anything as we see in the other descriptions, 1 through 4 above. In the examples above, either the government(s) are going to admit or reveal something to the general public or the ET’s or some faction thereof are going to present themselves or let themselves be “discovered.”  What is claimed here is not a situation where we are going to wait to see what happens. In other words, we already know what is happening and why.

You could say, we are pre-empting disclosure.  We are giving you the low-down before it really happens. The problem with our version is that it appears to be uniformly bad news.  There is no silver lining in this advance warning. We’ll get to that later. For now, let’s look at these other disclosure narratives and see what they have to offer and whether they can pass the smell test.

1. There seems to be one consistent thing throughout human history; there is always the state or a controlling religion or an upper class oligarchy running the show. What would be the motivation for any of those to reveal something like free energy technologies? How would they be ‘forced’ or compelled to do something like that? How would they benefit?  Some in this camp have claimed that there will be some sort of event where there is a solar flash which results in a higher state of consciousness for humans; an ascension story that goes along with the disclosure.  Perhaps that is how these oligarchs come to their senses and decide that everyone should get access to free energy technologies. Does that pass the smell test?  Where do the ET’s fit in? Do they stand idly by as us humans get intergalactic toys, limitless abundance and somehow a more mature and egalitarian mindset in the bargain? I think there are some compelling aspects to this disclosure narrative, but you kind of have to ignore some other truths when looking at the current state of affairs and the seeming trajectory of human history.

2. If the ET’s are all benevolent what were they doing when the Soviet government was killing more than 60 million of their own people? Or what were they doing when the US dropped nuclear bombs on Japan? Or when Mao Tse-Tung was exterminating his population of Chinese citizens?  Or when the gas chambers in Nazi Germany were running at full tilt in 1944?  Is this just part of the free will experiment as defined by these same ‘benevolent’ ET’s? For me, this is the weakest disclosure narrative of them all. I am surprised that there are still so many people who believe that all of the ET’s out there are benevolent. Some say that this is like a hostage situation where these benevolent ET’s are not going to make their move because the evil human government would do even more damage to humans and the environment.  That doesn’t make sense to me. Does it make sense to you?

3. This might be the most intelligent and thus compelling of all the disclosure narratives competing for our attention and ultimately, belief. It seems to fit the ‘as above, so below’ credo from ancient and wise esoteric principles except for what seems to be only a few minor problems. Some of the more popular proponents of this disclosure scenario will explain that humans have been relatively unmolested by negative ET’s and that these ‘enemy ET’s’ will only present themselves in response to humans expanding into space and asserting ownership claims beyond the earth.  They couch the problems that will confront humans as simply ones of lacking knowledge as opposed to moral or spiritual issues.  The existing problems remain obscure in terms of their causes and the possible cures.  There is the enigma of “out there” representing a place where the answers reside because there is already an established ET community waiting for our mutual discovery.  So some of the big questions related to this ET and disclosure issue remain unanswered. Who can we really count on to have the power to see that truth and justice prevail? There is a danger not well defined and a promise equally obscure and we are left clinging to a source that is, at least, recognizing that there might be a problem.

4. This is the one that might emerge as the leader due to the conditioning that humans have already received over many thousands of years. We call it the savior programming. The probable timeline might look something like this: humans muddle through the next several years with earth’s governments falling into abject idiocy in their attempts to create the ideal Orwellian society to serve the ruling elite, with each turn exposing their hand and their intentions for the global population.  This continues until a crisis like a hot world war breaks out or a ‘citizen’ revolution or a pandemic similar to the current COVID-19 one takes a more significant chunk of the human population out of commission either through death and/or economic destruction and then that would be the turning point for disclosure. Then, the ET’s arrive with a developing offer to assist in a planet-wide recovery, either with or without the cooperation of various so-called governmental institutions (such as the US, Russian and/or Chinese intelligence/military’s) cooperation. That might be what everyone will call disclosure.  Some alien race appears to save us from this mess. Maybe these benevolent ET’s are working with a human faction of white hat operatives to assist?  From that, any number of explanations and demonstrations may follow for the sake of convincing the skeptical. The demonstrations of prowess in technology and healing might make a convincing case that some sort of alliance would be the smart move and the need for this alliance would likely involve an evil ET cohort that may be portrayed as the backing for the old elite and Satanic power brokers and their controlling influence on all of the institutions that have failed human kind. There are other plausible scenarios that could be used that would be equally as convincing. Take your pick.  

All of them in one form or another have been nurtured in our media, in Hollywood movies and in the great science fiction novels and our legends and myths going back to before Biblical times. The fact is that the ET’s have been operating on our planet all through history, without helping us in any way, but rather causing untold harm. Who else is carrying out the countless abductions of humans through deception or without their consent? If it is the dark ET’s who already have the Earth in its grip, would they allow benevolent ET’s to displace them when they have humanity as hostages? Do we want an alien war in our midst?

The unfortunate fact, and this is being demonstrated as I write, is that a majority of the earth’s population can be made to believe and do some things that are demonstrably self-destructive and damaging to their long-term survival.  We have been dumbed down to the point of being easy targets for any number of disclosure scenarios.  This is a green light for any of the above described disclosure schemes. Almost any of them could be made to work.

Disclosure, in practically every one of its forms, is a psy-op.  There is really no clearer explanation.

Right now, the price of disclosure is the final, successful and terminal blow to humanity and the Divine Human Free Will Experiment. The second great failure, if you will. The Divine Realm tells us that the purpose of disclosure is to lull us into a false sense of security, to trust ET’s who have been corrupting and subjugating us for centuries from behind the scenes, and allow them to operate out in the open. This is a modern Trojan horse deception, and if we accept their offer, we will be choosing sides with the interlopers. Because the Divine Realm must allow free will, this will mean the undoing of humanity.

This outcome can be changed, but it will take many more people involved in REAL healing and not lip service to benign and empty platitudes, or political schemes of any kind or appeals to our imaginary space brothers or any of the other scenarios predicated on our savior programming installed eons ago.

One of the most telling questions you can ask yourself right now is “Why am I here?” Do any of these disclosure narratives attempt to give you that answer? Is that question even related to the idea of disclosure? If there are ET’s, irrespective of whether they have positive or negative orientation, does that have anything to do with why you are here?

What we have been told by the Divine Realm is that you are here and I am here and everyone else is here to solve the problem of evil and that we are using an extreme version of a free will environment to do that. We are here to heal our perpetrators; the ones who have subjugated us for thousands of years. That sounds even more outlandish than all the disclosure narratives combined, but I am convinced this is true.  It is really the only truth claim that can be used to make any sense out of what we are seeing.

The key to doing this and the chance we have to do such a thing in the face of such overwhelming odds, is our ability to form a partnership with our Creator and with all of the beings in the Light (or Heaven by some accounts) or what we call the Divine Realm. That is our origin and birthright and that is the secret weapon, if you will, that has enabled humans throughout history to survive such horrendous tragedies in history.  

But now we have to do more than survive. We have to heal our perpetrators to the point where they will take their evil away from earth. This will give us a respite and a chance to heal ourselves. This will create a future, for the first time in human history, where we can thrive and grow and reach our full potential as Light Beings incarnated as Divine Humans.  This reality is not currently conceivable to us.  We can only dimly see what this might be like.  Words will fail to do this reality any justice whatsoever, but that is our potential destiny.  

Remember at the beginning of this article where I wrote, “secrets of the Universe led him to real answers for human suffering in the form of a Lightworker Healing Protocol. This protocol is basically a high level prayer to God, for healing”?  This is what we can use to heal these sociopathic ET’s and their complement of dark discarnate spirits that also infest us.  We are love-based beings. Most of us know this intuitively. In our natural state we do not fight and create wars and willingly kill each other. This is an external disease that can be eradicated once and for all. Even the most extreme cases and most depraved beings can be healed enough to save humanity from the consequences of disclosure and its inevitable fall-out.

[zani-is-a-stan]

suzani watches the Sherlock unaired pilot

Opening

-       This version of John looks way more old and way more dad

-       That close shot on the gun tell the viewer that John is suicidal

-       The dark silhouette of the cupid statue kind of stands out. Given how the cinematography and shot framing is a lot sloppier in this version, I don’t think this is intentional. But if it was intentional, this would be a signal to the viewer that this is a love story.

-       Mmm, pass on both Anderson’s beard and this way of introducing the concept of a Sherlock

-       This title & credits sequence is so dated

-       Anderson with no inflection is boring

-       Dinner with wine is not a great place for John to be saying he’s broke

We meet Sherlock & Molly

-       We start to see the beginnings of the geometric and precise framing that are the signature of the show in that one shot of Molly behind the glass

-       Its nice to see that Molly’s character required almost no adjustment between the two versions. Given that she was the first character original to the show instead of the books, it’s nice to see that she stuck the landing so perfectly

-       It’s starting to be really obvious how loose the editing is. There’s a lot of dead air at the beginning and end of every shot before each cut. Much better in the final version.

The lab

-       This version of Sherlock seems a lot more accurate to the book Sherlock from Study in Scarlet than the series ultimately ended up being. He’s softer, more interested in interacting with other people than the antisocial, high functioning ASD (where’s the fic that explores that?) twanging brain haver he is in the first episode of season 1

-       I want to read a take on Sherlock that discusses him as having ASD and interprets the violin playing and the mystery solving as his stimming techniques

-       The camera shots in this scene are really starting to stand out as very different from the show. It’s not just the editing which is kind of thoughtless – these shots are poorly composed and poorly planned. I don’t think it would stand out so much if the final version of the show didn’t make so many deliberate and stylized decisions regarding with the shots and editing.

The apartment

-       The extrapolation of john’s family based on the phone became much cleaner in the aired version

-       Comic sans! I mean, mrs Hudson is better than that.

-       Mrs Hudson definitely checked out john’s butt …

-       “can I just ask … what is your street?” this was very good, if repetitive

-       Sherlock needs an assistant? This sherlock has a need for human connection that the other one doesn’t – and he has a lava lamp.

-       Ugh the apartment at 221B baker st looks so much more vintage in this setup. Not a fan.

-       This sherlock definitely cares more about what other people think than the final version.

-       Mrs Hudson is a much softer, premade character in this version. I like the final version better. She seems stronger that way.

The cab ride

-       So boring. Such greenscreen. Wow.

-       not just the greenscreen. the difference in the shooting and finishing of this sequence in the pilot and the aired episode is so incredibly improved that you can hardly believe there were part of the same thing.

-       TOO MUCH SYNTH

-       Sherlock has a far too human response to john’s compliments and more doubt in how accurate his deductions are

The crime scene

-       Im glad they changed sally’s outfit, and smoothed out sherlock’s taunting of her and Anderson’s affair. Ugh I wish they’d kept sally around. This show needed more normie/casual sherlock opponents. Lack of closeups in this scene do it no favors

-       They cut the Rache/Rachel clue. And btw, I do love how this was inverted from the book presentation in the show.

-       “no, there are two women and three men lying dead, keep talking and there will be more” – this sherlock prioritizes people over mystery solving, and that’s a little more humanizing as well.

-       When he’s deconstructing the scene around the woman in pink, there’s a switch in sherlock’s voice when he’s off camera. I’m wondering if maybe that’s a stat actor reading the script for some reason, or if they recorded the dialogue and the camera angles at the same time and forgot to switch when they were editing that shot? Makes sense given how messy the editing is throughout the pilot.

-       “do you know you do that out loud?” “sorry, I’ll shut up” “No, don’t worry, it’s fine” (pleased smile) --- this exchange is so accurate to book Sherlock and Holmes

-       This is not the same sally as the first episode. I had to check because I have a little bit of face blindness and there weren’t any closeups, but it’s definitely not her. Interesting how the actress who ultimately played her changed the inflection but brought very little new to the blocking.

a bit inbetween and the pink case

-       No Mycroft, hmm. Don’t care for it. It added a lot with a really nice red herring feel.

-       John returns to his place for absolutely no reason narratively.

-       I don’t care for the red herring moment where john looks at the pink case and wonders if sally was right and talks out loud about it.

-       The end exchange of this scene is awesome and should have stayed. “Donovan said you get off on this.” “And I said danger and here you are.” “DAMNIT!” It’s very funny, and it’s a fun spar between the two rather than the ultimate resigned tolerance that series John seems to settle into by season 2.

do you have a girlfriend? a boyfriend?

-       Sherlock not eating is a brilliant touch, I think that should have been there.

-       This version of the girlfriend boyfriend conversation is far more successful than the aired version, although I prefer the setting in the aired version. It’s flirtier, and the “Everything else is transport” line carries implications I prefer to the one we saw on on the official version.

-       Sherlock knowing the cab thing ahead of time really lowers the stakes.

-       Angelo and the headless nun thing is fucking beautiful. (although angelo is a bit of an upstager) But, the change in the plot to the John running and leaving the cane behind in the final version is much more relevant to the story.

-       Ok, so the cabbie drugging Sherlock did show us that John is smart in his own right (we never got enough of that), but it showed us Sherlock fucking up in a way that is inconsistent with the show version of that character. For us to buy that Sherlock is other level super genius instead of just very smart, he can’t make this kind of mistake. If he can’t make a mistake, then John can’t prove his own intelligence. I do think it was a good idea to put the police back in his apartment now, as it gives us more interesting and fun things about those characters, and the ultimate build to the cab ride and the incorporation of modern technology really contributed to the modernizing of the adaption.

which pill

-       WHOA that cabbie did just very much threaten to molest or rape Sherlock. Although if there were no women or gay men on the script team, I can totally see the writers not realizing that this line had that connotation.

-       And this version requires a lot more explaining of plotholes with dialogue in a way that is avoided in the final verion. This is unquestionably good, because there’s nothing more graceless in filmed stories than having plot explained with words, especially by a villain.

-       Taking the pills out of the bottle looks silly.

-       Final version cabbie is better. More self-satified and mean.

-       “Either way, you’re wasted as a cabbie” is a way better line in the final.

-       Taking him out of the apartment and away from the police phone call was A+ the right choice.

-       Everyone know the best cops scream “Who is firing, who is firing?” when someone fires a shot.

i’ve got a blanket

-       Sherlock saying “Yeah, maybe he beat me, but he’s dead” is a far shot from the man who shook a dying man and demanded to know if he was right or not. Again, this Sherlock is far more human and far less computer.

-       That bit with mrs Hudson at the end was unnecessarily mean, I’m glad they cut it

-       “I’m his Doctor.” – this lines should have stayed forever.

Overall thoughts

Ok, so overall changes between the pilot and the aired first episode. Plot was a lot more polished. They scrubbed every trace of human need from Sherlock, which I think was a good choice, at least for the beginning of the show. His literal only love is his own abilities as the show airs, which leaves him with a very interesting and exploitable weakness – his arrogance, where as pilot Sherlock doesn’t seem to care all that much when he makes a mistake. We did lose a couple of scenes that had a lot of good chemistry in them, but I think the plot was much improved overall for the changes. The change of Sherlock from being casually mean to people like Anderson to swatting away an irritating fly is very successful. The focus of Sherlock’s relationship with Lestrade seems of a higher priority than Watsons a little bit, so I’m glad that changed. The lead up to John shooting the cabbie was much better in the final

Honestly the pilot doesn’t look like a pilot as much as it looks like a proof of concept piece. The budget was obviously smaller: that’s why they reused the same restaurant set, it’s why the final confrontation took place in the apartment rather than a second location, that’s why the effects are missing or budgety, that’s why the editing was low-end. This as a pilot was sold on the impact of the actors and the bones of the script, not on any of the look that would ultimately make the show what it was. The color work between the first and second version of this alone was amazing.   I also think that the hair change in Sherlock was an excellent choice. It offsets BC’s face/head structure in a way that plays into the strangeness of the character in a much better way. Similarly, the coat and scarf that he wears in the series do exist in the pilot, but aren’t really a signature of Sherlock’s on-screen shape design in the same way.

I think the only thing I would’ve kept is the inflection, delivery & read on the girlfriend boyfriend scene, and the return of the “I said danger and here you are” exchange.

There’s a lot of talk about Sherlock’s sexuality and what was cannon in the books. TV Sherlock they seem to be confused about (Belgravia as an episode left me really confused about what statement the writers were trying to make there, which implies that they’re either not completely sure either, or they’re too straight to understand what they’re doing). In the books, Holmes chooses not to have romantic relationship because it stops his brain from working clearly – it’s a deliberate choice based on the Victorian concept of sex (and women, because they are clearly only sex objects) diminishing the capacity for clear thought and mental performance. This is not the same as him being asexual or aromantic as we not aro/ace people understand the concept in 2019.

Based on the scene as it airs, the girlfriend/boyfriend scene would leave me with the opinion that Sherlock is not just asexual but also aromantic. Possibly one of these by choice rather than nature. Based as how the scene plays out in the unaired pilot, I would think that Sherlock is celibate and also attracted to John, more likely gay than bisexual. (There was quite a bit of smoldering going on in the Sherlock to John direction.)

#sherlock #sherlock pilot #suzani watches #suzani watches the unaired sherlock pilot

[makistar2018]

Taylor Swift’s Feud With Scooter Braun Spotlights Musicians’ Struggles to Own Their Work

Prince, Janet Jackson and Jay-Z all fought to control their master recordings. In a blog post about the sale of her former record label, Swift put her personal spin on the issue.

By Ben Sisario and Joe Coscarelli July 1, 2019

It is one of the oldest and hardest lessons of the music industry: No matter how successful artists may be, chances are someone else owns their work.

Prince, protesting how his label, Warner Bros., had control over his master recordings, quipped in 1996: “If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.” That same year, when Janet Jackson negotiated a landmark contract with Virgin Records, ownership of her original recordings was a major deal point.

Now we can add Taylor Swift to the chorus of artists who have bemoaned that their creative work is someone else’s property, as she once again used her social-media megaphone to stir debate about the inner workings of the music industry.

In a Tumblr post on Sunday, Swift responded bitterly to the news that her former label, Big Machine, had been sold for more than $300 million to a company run by Scooter Braun, the manager of pop stars including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

Swift had strong personal objections to the deal, which included the rights to her first six albums, blaming Braun for orchestrating “incessant, manipulative bullying” against her by Kanye West, an on-and-off client.

But the episode also highlighted the fraught and little-understood industry politics of master recordings — the original copies of an artist’s work — and the copyrights associated with them.

The owner of a master controls all rights to exploit it, including selling albums or licensing songs for movies or video games. The artist still earns royalties from those recordings once associated costs are fulfilled, but controlling the master could bring greater income, as well as a level of protection over how the work is used in the future. (These rights are separate from copyrights for songwriting.) 

The deep significance that musicians attach to their masters was highlighted last month, when a group of artists sued the Universal Music Group over a fire in 2008 that destroyed many original recordings, after an exposé was published in The New York Times Magazine.

Historically, record companies have retained rights to masters in exchange for the financial risks they take in backing an artist over the course of their contract.

“Fundamentally, the business model that most record companies operate under is not unlike the venture capital business,” said Larry Miller, the director of the music business program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

“They make investments in unproven talent,” he added. “The trade is that, traditionally, the masters stay with the record company.”

Swift, despite appearing to have an almost unrivaled level of self-determination as a star — like single-handedly getting Apple to change a royalties policy in 2015 — signed such a deal with Big Machine in 2005, at the beginning of her career. Her post on Sunday was partly an admonishment to young artists to avoid those kinds of contracts.

“This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept,” Swift wrote, in a jab at Big Machine’s founder, Scott Borchetta.

Hours later, Borchetta posted a rejoinder, including a snippet of a deal proposal, that suggested that Swift could have earned her recording rights back had she renewed with Big Machine last year. Instead, she signed with Universal. (Her next album, “Lover,” is due in August.)

Borchetta also called into question Swift’s claim that she only learned of the deal once the news broke — he said he texted her the night before — and noted that her father, Scott Swift, was a minority shareholder in Big Machine.

The barbs between Swift and Borchetta, a rare example of such contractual dirty laundry being aired outside of litigation, captivated the industry and raised questions about the age-old power dynamic between artist and label.

“This kind of deal is neither unusual or controversial,” the media mogul David Geffen said. “She didn’t want to put up $300 million. Someone else did. They offered her a deal that she rejected to get ownership of her masters. Only time will tell who made the wise decision.”

Geffen, whom Braun has frequently described as a mentor, added: “I’m betting that Scooter will build an important company with the addition of this asset.”

Steve Stoute, a music and advertising executive whose new company, UnitedMasters, allows artists to keep their rights, saw the Swift episode as a painful illustration of what he called “the fundamental problem with the record industry.”

“The record business historically runs the same business model as sharecropping,” Stoute said. “You build it; we make you think that you own it; you act like you own it; but at the end of the day, we own it.”

The battle between Swift and Braun also divided celebrities on social media, as accusations of exploitation intermingled with personal loyalties.

Some of Braun’s clients, like Bieber and Demi Lovato, defended his personal character. “I have dealt with bad people in this industry and Scooter is not one of them,” Lovato wrote on Instagram.

But other female artists took Swift’s lead as an opportunity to discuss their own experiences in a business that has long faced criticism for its treatment of many creators, especially young women and people of color.

“I signed contracts when I was 15 & I’m still paying the consequences for it,” the singer Sky Ferreira, now 26, wrote on Instagram after pointing people to Swift’s blog post. “Insisting on your rights, value & ownership doesn’t make you difficult.” She added: “Just because this system has been the same for decades doesn’t mean it’s okay or you need to bow down to it.”

In a statement expressing support for Swift, the pop singer Halsey wrote: “it turns my guts that no matter how much power or success a woman has in this life, you are still susceptible to someone coming along and making you feel powerless out of spite.” Alessia Cara chimed in: “stop stealing from women who work hard!!!”

And the rapper Iggy Azalea, while interacting with fans on Twitter, added: “this is why I’m so happy to own my master for this new album, they really do ppl crazy dirty on ownership of their intellectual property in the biz.” After years of limbo on major labels, Azalea recently announced a deal with the distributor Empire that gave her ownership of her recordings.

Tension over the ownership of recordings is nearly as old as the industry, but it has gained momentum as superstar artists have exerted greater control — typically after years of work. Prince rebelled against Warner Bros. in the mid-1990s, after nearly two decades of hits. And when Jay-Z became president and chief executive of the Def Jam label in 2004, he insisted on earning back control of his masters on that label.

The industry’s shift to streaming has begun to change the dynamic between artists and labels, which once held exceptional leverage through their ability to market albums and promote songs to radio stations. Given this change, some younger artists have leaned toward autonomy.

The singer and rapper XXXTentacion, for example, who was killed in a shooting last year, rejected traditional long-term label deals in favor of one-off contracts for each of his releases that offered lower payment upfront, but gave him full ownership and a higher royalty rate.

Swift’s talent for fueling debate continued on Tumblr — the platform where she frequently communes with her most faithful fans — well after she published her account of the deal. “taylor will not be silenced,” wrote one fan who earned acknowledgment from Swift.

Elsewhere, some questioned whether Swift, with her enormous wealth and reputation for careful self-mythologizing, was the best messenger for this ongoing battle, especially after Borchetta pushed back, sharing deal points and private text messages between the two parties.

But the power of Swift’s fame made her message about the importance of ownership a vital lesson, Stoute said.

“If you’re an artist today, you must go into the record deal owning your master,” he said. “If not, then you are basically building an asset that you will not own.”

The New York Times

#taylor swift #2019.07.01 #scooter braun is a piece of shit

[pocket-monsters-precure]

Chapter 18: Danger! A Test of Precure’s Worth!

Wish was frozen in shock. The being standing before them was the source of many a cautionary tale, a living urban legend, and it had violated the safety of her mind to communicate.

 Mewtwo’s eyes were fixed on Wish...its precedessor’s power emanated from her. A power once thought only shared by two beings, itself one of them. Its eyes snapped wider. Wish threw her head back, as it burrowed deeper into her memory.

 “Wish!?” Starlight rushed to her side. She whipped her head toward Mewtwo. “What are you doing!?”

 After a pause, it tensed its shoulders a bit, leering at the group. So Mew chose you to receive the power of a Precure. How queer. Your memories show you to be timid…passive. Certainly such qualities would make you unfit to receive the blessing of a legendary pokemon?

 Wish placed a hand to her temple, mouth agape, unable to answer.

 “Where do you get off!?” Starlight hissed.

 “Yeah, who are you to talk!?” Incensed, Rotomi zipped up to Mewtwo, glaring into its unfazed eyes. “If what Fae said before is true, you’re a manufactured pokemon with a legendary’s power—you’re not a true legendary! Who do you think you are that you can decide who can or can’t be a Precure!?”

 Mewtwo stared back at Rotomi, before encapsulating her in a ball of its psychic power, knocking her away with a mere tip of its head and a shooing gesture.

 I don’t care about such a trivial title, it replied, as Rotomi bounced around the cave before the psychic bubble popped and left her dizzy on the ground, but I have seen the cruel, selfish culture of humanity many times since my creation. Why would pokemon choose such shallow creatures, whose cons outweigh their pros, to defend us?

 “…you acknowledge that humans have their good points, though,” Wish reasoned. Mewtwo stared coldly back.

 Not nearly enough.

 “So what do you want?” Starlight stepped in front of Wish, glaring.

 Satisfy my curiosity. Mewtwo raised its paws. Face me, Precure. Show me what the legendary pokemon see in you.

 Rotomi dizzily floated back to the girls, shaking herself back to her senses. “Looks like we don’t have much choice…but there’s only two of you. I don’t think I can teleport back and still have enough energy to bring Sunrise and Willow back.”

 Wish and Starlight shared a glance, before Starlight looked back to Rotomi and replied, “See if you can head back. Once you’re there, try to get some rest and recharge as much as you can before bringing them back.”

 “We’ll do our best to satisfy Mewtwo,” Wish responded. But it was clear her stomach had sunk to new depths. Rotomi looked between the two girls, then nodded, beginning to spin and vanishing with a flash. Wish and Starlight stood up straight, sidestepping to put some distance between the two of them.

 “Mewtwo,” Starlight began, “Our powers were given to us to fight nega-evolutions…but if you want to fight, so be it!”

 Mewtwo flew forward, clashing with a Full Moon Aegis thrown up by Wish. It quickly overpowered her and smashed her against the wall, debris flying out, before flying back and unleashing a shadow ball.

 “Don’t pick on her!” Starlight shouted, charging her arms and legs with stellar energy as she leapt up, sending a diving kick at Mewtwo. It took the impact of the kick with a shield it summoned, arms raised. Dissipating the shield, Mewtwo caught Starlight’s incoming charged punches and kicks in its paws, skidding back in the dirt a bit.

 “Comet BURST!” Starlight slammed her fists together and combined the energy, launching the ball back at it. Mewtwo caught the ball, only for the ball to detonate around it.

 Your control of such power is rather intuitive, it seems.

 “Shut up! You talk smack about my teammate and then have the nerve to sit here and analyze while in a fight!?” Starlight angrily conjured up a Comet Fastball, hurling it as Mewtwo swatted it down, letting it explode on the ground.

 See, analysis is part of any sort of interaction, Mewtwo replied, drifting to and fro to avoid her incoming strikes, I was giving credit where it is due. Mewtwo backed up, finding itself surrounded by spheres of light courtesy of Wish’s Whimsy Pop attack; the lights promptly detonated around it before it could throw up a barrier.

 “Nice job, Wish!”Starlight cheered. Wish kept her hands up in a casting position, staring anxiously at the cloud of smoke left behind. Mewtwo burst out of it, leering at them as it fired a barrage of psychic attacks at the pair, too quickly for Wish to throw up a barrier. It thrust out its paws again, making a swiping motion and using telekinesis to throw the Precure against separate walls and hold them there.

 Impressive power from such young children…but you are only human, in the end.

 It felt like the air itself was pushing down on them. Wish felt like she couldn’t breathe. Starlight clenched her fists and grit her teeth.

 “Wh-what…does this…prove..!?” Starlight snarled. Mewtwo seemed to pause.

 Prove?

 Then...

BOOSH!

 WHAM!

 A combined strike. A Moonblast, followed by a Night Slash, struck Mewtwo and broke his concentration, dropping the two Precure. Clefable and Absol had arrived on the scene, glaring at Mewtwo.

 “C-Clefable….you made it…!” Wish caught her breath, sighing in relief as she was hugged by her pokemon partner.

 “Atta girl.” Starlight rubbed Absol’s head, then stood up. “Mewtwo…you’re wasting our time with this fight.”

 “Sh-she’s right….” Wish stood up as well, Clefable standing in front of her defensively. “Someone nega-evolved an Onix here, and they may still be here.”

 The cursed one who attacked me…I was forced to defend myself. I will give you that much gratitude; you treated the malady; I had no ability to do so.

 “So that’s why you waited to teleport us…”

 I wanted to see the process by which Precure treat the afflicted. But enough of that; my curiosity is not yet sated.

 “Of course it’s not.” Starlight snarled. Mewtwo glanced toward her.

 And how do you mean that?

 “I’ve heard the stories countless times,” Starlight replied, “You were created to fight. To be the most powerful. Fighting’s all you care about, isn’t it? If that’s the case, you’ll never be satisfied.”

 Mewtwo paused. Then tilted its head. You mean to try and tell *me* how I feel? An aggressive young human gifted with powers beyond what she deserves…and another, passive one somehow deemed to carry my predecessor’s power! It snapped its head back toward Wish, who flinched. I had assumed the humans chosen to be Precure were different from the filth I had witnessed before…but it appears the choice was simply based on random opportunity!

 Mewtwo’s power flared around him. You have failed to prove your worth still, Precure!

 ==

 “Mewtwo itself challenged Wish and Starlight!?” Kailani gasped, as Rotomi lay tiredly in her hands.

 “Y-yeah…I need to charge up fast so I can warp you guys back to help them…!”

 “The legendary genetic pokemon…”Dr. Pierce breathed, a hand over her mouth in shock. “To think it would challenge the Precure to a fight…!”

 “We need to get you your strength back, quickly…!” Asuka looked to Kailani’s Rotom Dex, charging nearby. “Rotom! Please lend us your home!”

 “On it, bzzt!” Rotom flew out. Asuka gingerly took Rotomi from Kailani and set her down atop the screen, letting her enter the device to begin recharging her strength.

 “I hope it doesn’t take too long….” Kailani frowned.

 “The Cure Dex has a touchscreen that allows you to generate virtual food she can eat,” Dr. Pierce replied, “But Fae has it, and….she’s with that…thing…”

 “We only know about Mewtwo from stories…” Asuka looked to Dr. Pierce, “What else can you tell us…?”

 “Well, a few experimental logs were retrieved from its birthplace after Mewtwo destroyed it…I had the logs sent to me from the institute I used to work with a few years ago…” Dr. Pierce went to her computer, searching for the logs. “Offhand, I know Mewtwo’s highly aggressive and designed for battle; its raw psychic strength is impossible for anyone to control. Though Mewtwo reacted aggressively to its original creators when it…well…blew up the lab, it simply…ran away afterward. No vicious attacks on humans, or attempts to do so. It simply…wanted to be left alone. There have been occasions where powerful psychic readings were detected in different locations, but whenever researchers tried to pinpoint the source, the readings would move; it was likely Mewtwo detecting humans getting too close and leaving.”

 “So it’s been nomadic all this time…” Kailani frowned, looking to the Rotom Dex. “So why challenge Wish and Starlight?”

 “It wanted them to…’show their worth,’ it said,” Rotomi replied tiredly.

 “You mean like a fight!?” Kailani balked at the thought.

 “That’s not good at all,” Asuka began to fret, “Such an aggressive creature against Fae and Naomi…!”

 “There’s gotta be a way to heal up Rotomi faster…!” Kailani looked around, then spotted Raichu snacking in the corner.  “Raichu!” She ran over, putting a hand on his head. “I got an idea!”

 “Chu?” Raichu stared up at her, cheeks stuffed with food. Kailani pointed to the Rotom Dex.

 “Okay, use your electricity. Carefully charge up the Rotom Dex!”

 “You could really badly damage it if you do that, though!” Asuka replied.

 “It’s more important that we hurry and get to our friends, right!?”

 Asuka went silent at that question, then nodded. “…alright. Let’s give it a shot!”

 Kailani guided Raichu over to the table where the Dex was sitting. Raichu’s cheeks sparked up, as he levitated the Rotom Dex into his paws, beginning to trickle electricity in.

 ==

 “Type: Dark!” Starlight joined forces with her Absol. “Precure Wicked Whirl!”

 A swirling cyclone of dark wind broke through Mewtwo’s barrier, the powerful psychic grunting in pain as its weakness was exploited. But its powers flared up again, now enraged as it swatted away an incoming Wish and Clefable, who were in the middle of executing a team dive kick.

 Foolish! Mewtwo hurled a barrage of psychic energy all around it, striking at the walls, floors, anywhere that made impact. Reckless! It caught an angered Clefable in its paws and threw her behind it. Pernicious humans, and the pokemon who willingly fight beside you! Soldiers in a war in which you do not belong, nor are you needed!

 “You just had to get it angry by running your mouth, didn’t you!?” Wish snapped at Starlight.

 “Anything could have set it off!” Starlight replied defensively. “And I’m still right! It’s wasting our time!”

 Mewtwo showed no signs of stopping; minimal indication of fatigue, still incensed, and still raring to fight. Its paws clenched and unclenched as it spread its feet, tail whipping back and forth. They could barely see its bared teeth, and a low growl was starting to trickle out of its throat.

 Then, a new voice spoke; a drawl with a slight hint of annoyance.

 “Eh? You aren’t the Precure I’m used to seein’.”

 The voice belonged to a tall, lanky man sauntering out of the shadows; he had an unmistakable pompadour, and tinges of a greaser aesthetic. Playing with a toothpick in his mouth, he sized up the group.

 “Who in the…?” Starlight trailed off, then glanced to Mewtwo to check its reaction. It had tensed even further, shoulders hunched and head down, tail still whipping about and occasionally striking the ground, kicking up dirt.

 You. You’re one of them.

 With a flick of the wrist, a comb emerged from the man’s jacket, and he tended to his pompadour. “Name’s Malevo. And this is my turf, by order of Lord Tumult. I was gatherin’ nega-energy in this here mountain, and I saw someone smashed my precious Nega-Onix into the rock face…then when I came back to wake it up, someone had drained its nega-energy! Last I heard, my three normal Precure birdbrains weren’t anywhere nearby—thanks, social media—which means you chicks must be the culprits!”

 You’re one of the humans who has been cursing pokemon! Mewtwo hurled a Shadow Ball in its fury, only for Malevo to make a swiping motion with his comb, dissipating it.

 “Nice try, pal,” Malevo responded, while Mewtwo stared back in shock, “I’m not some normal human from this world, so don’t lump me in with them! Now, to figure out what to do with you Precure brats…” Malevo’s lips spread into a sick smile. “Got it!”

 Mewtwo was still enraged. As it prepared to strike again, Malevo raised a hand to reveal a nega-ring under his sleeve.

 “That’s the same thing Ataxia has!” Starlight cried.

 “You know her? Small world. Then you know what this does!”

 Wish immediately put two and two together. “No!” she squealed, running toward Mewtwo in vain. Malevo snapped his fingers, pointing at Mewtwo as a dark circle formed beneath it, trapping it in place as it immediately began to thrash around inside.

 “Nega-evolution!” Malevo struck a pose, putting a hand and spread fingers to his forehead. “Show your stuff!”

 Mewtwo clutched at its chest, doubling over as shadows overtook it; its eyes shot toward Wish, staring back at her; she knew the look of fear. It opened its mouth, and an enraged, inhuman trumpeting roar came forth as it was fully obscured by shadows. The shape grew and grew, until a massive, clawed paw slammed down before the Precure.

 What was once Mewtwo was now on all fours; bony, spiked, jagged in appearance, a sickly off-white, fangs emerging from its mouth. It was easily the size of a semi truck now, and was emanating nega-energy. It was its core self; a wild animal, confused, afraid, and ready to fight.

 “Oh, baby!” Malevo cheered. “Look at you! Your nega-energy will feed Dys for weeks! Now, show—“

 Nega-Mewtwo swung a paw, smashing into Malevo, sending him skyward and through the ceiling, as he howled in terror and pain.

 “Can’t say I feel bad for him,” Starlight remarked as she watched.

 “Feel bad for us!” Wish replied. Nega-Mewtwo turned its attention toward them, snarling. Wish stared back, shaking. The true Mewtwo was sealed within that beast…all its negative feelings and energy had been turned into this wicked creature.  Wish’s heart ached, despite her fear of both the original and its monster form.

#pocket monsters precure #pokemon precure #pokemon pretty cure #pocket monsters pretty cure #precure #pretty cure #fancure #fanseries #pokemon #game freak #video games #fanfiction #fanfic #story

[lastsonlost]

What does Christopher Priest see when he looks at Vampirella?

Loneliness.

And in his new Vampirella ongoing launching July 17, the veteran writer will give Vampi the human connection she craves... before ripping it all away.

Illustrated by Ergun Gunduz, Dynamite's new Vampirella relaunch begins with the alien vampire as the last survivor of a plane crash which took away any friend or acquaintance she had. Now she's here on Earth and all alone. And this isn't a fictional world known to have vampires, witches, warlocks, or werewolves - this is the real world, and you know how real people would take to someone like Vampirella?

... but do you, really?

As Priest tells Newsarama in an email interview, Vampirella's supernatural abilities are "a metaphor for a univeral human condition, for being either rejected or idealized (or, in the case of our series, both) because you are different. Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town or a new school or taken a new job should be able to identify with Vampi’s challenges."

Priest, an ordained Baptist minister (as a reminder to readers, prefers to be addressed as 'Priest'), shared his thoughts with Newsarama on how the prospect of writing Vampirella was first received by him, how it fits within his religious life, and how he's using it to examine humanity.

Newsarama: Priest, what makes Vampirella interesting to you?

Christopher Priest: The fangs. Definitely the fangs.

When DC Comics approached me about writing Deathstroke, I’d really never thought much about the character. It wasn’t a book I’d normally read because I probably wasn’t the audience the book was targeted toward. But it presented an interesting challenge: what new things could I find to say with this character and what unexplored areas of the character were there to develop?

When Dynamite Publisher Nick Barrucci said “Vampirella,” I had nearly the identical reaction. I was, of course, familiar with the character but wasn’t a Vampirella fan, wasn’t the audience for that book, which made me an odd choice. You’ll have to ask Nick why he made it.

My immediate reaction was exactly the same: what new thing could I bring to this property? Where is the untapped potential? That, for me, is the interesting part; craft a Vampirella narrative that broadens the audience for the property while (hopefully) not putting off the hardcore Vampi fans.

Nrama: So what was the answer to that? What is the story?

Priest: I read this Bruce Springsteen Rolling Stone interview a couple decades back (yah... decades...) around "Born In The USA," where Springsteen said something remarkable that’s stuck with me all this time, about how each of us needs community. He said something like, “Without community (by which I presume he meant human attachment and interaction) we’d likely go crazy and kill ourselves.”

Over many interpretations Vampirella has developed many versions of a supporting cast, but she is fundamentally alone, one of few of her race living on Earth. Considering the Boss’s statement, I wasn’t eager to create yet another supporting cast and then echo adventures she’s had before. For better or worse, I wanted my at-bat with the character to be unique and in some ways challenging.

So the thought occurred to give Vampirella that community, that human connection... and then have it all ripped away. Our story arc revolves around a plane crash which effectively terminates many connections Vampi has built while forging new ones.

Nrama: You're setting this in the real world. A real fish out of water scenario, but one you're playing at for deeper cultural issues. What's a woman like Vampirella likely to face here on Earth?

Priest: With all due respect for the legion of much better writers who’ve handled the character, as I mentioned, I probably was not the audience for this book. Vampirella was created with a satirical flair and Vampi herself was in on the joke; not quite breaking the fourth wall but offering up a knowing come-hither smile. She’s existed in a reality that routinely and, for me, far too benignly, accepts the supernatural as fact.

Here in the real world, vampires are merely a thing of myth and the reality of hyperfactual supernatural events are subject to the interpretation of the particular tribe one belongs to. It bothers me that, in 2019, DC and Marvel universes are still mostly portrayed in an idealized hyper-reality where the average man on the street simply accepts superheroes as fact and, in fact, refers to them literally as “heroes” or “villains,” which is absurd. There’s no news anchor in the world who would start a broadcast piece with, “Arch-villain Saddam Hussein...” even though that description would be apt.

The world our Vampirella series takes place in doesn’t believe in vampires. Or witches or warlocks or werewolves. This world seeks rational scientific explanation for paranormal phenomena which it greets with enormous skepticism.

Which isn’t to suggest no one will believe Vampirella exists but that that acceptance is not as matter of fact as it seems to be in most of this genre.

In terms of what she’s facing, her number one enemy is loneliness. I am, hopefully, writing a woman first, a story about a woman who loves and wants to be loved but whose circumstances are complicated by the fact she has fangs and drinks blood. The supernatural attributes are a metaphor for a universal human condition, for being either rejected or idealized (or, in the case of our series, both) because you are different. Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town or a new school or taken a new job should be able to identify with Vampi’s challenges.

Anyone who wears their hair a different way, listens to a different kind of music, embraces a different religion, anyone who steps outside of or gets shoved outside of the so-called “mainstream” can identify with our take on Vampirella. I hope it is precisely this universality of theme that helps broaden her audience; the Vampi tent is large enough for everyone.

Nrama: Someone walking around in that Trina Robbins-designed costume is bound to get some headturns. If I know you as much as I think I do, you're going to tackle that head on, right? How are you getting into the subject of the costume?

Priest: Well, yes, we will have a go at it. The basic argument is simple: where do you draw the line between women’s liberation and women’s exploitation, and who gets to draw it? Who gets to define femininity and why should an extraterrestrial have to submit to that definition?

It’s like the world woke up in the last few years and realized we actually have two genders and both of them matter.

So we now have heightened scrutiny of themes and behaviors and that poor bastard Joe Biden gets caught up in the switches. I’ll confess, I’m terrified of women because I’m a Joe Biden. I was taught to pay a lady a compliment and open doors and I want to be friendly and accessible but I’m absolutely terrified of having my good intentions taken in a bizarrely paranoid light.

It is comical to me that I am far too often seen as creepy by women - especially black women - because they have been conditioned by their personal experience and their media consumption to misinterpret a simple "Hello." These days I cannot pay a woman a complement without a legal preamble and assurances that, no, I am not hitting on you and even then I get the skunk eye of suspicion.

Which is a little insulting because this “guilty until proven innocent” defensive posture presumes I am other people or that the bar is set so low for me that I’ll jump into bed with just anybody I happen to meet. It’s like we’ve just gone too far now to the point where women are not just being protected but being alienated to some extent because I have no earthly clue how to deal with them and I’m frankly scared to shake their hand.

So, is Vampirella’s wardrobe choice sexist? I don’t know. Vampirella obviously doesn’t think so. As I see her, she comes from a culture much like Star Trek’s Betazed, where people wear little or nothing at all. If anything, Vampi wonders why we humans choose to smother ourselves in so much fabric and why we’re all so bound by self-loathing.

There are hundreds of women who enjoy cosplaying as Vampirella, and maybe hundreds of thousands offended by the character. How do we reconcile all of that for the 21st century?

The one thing I won’t do is cover her up. I accepted the gig: write Vampirella. If you change the outfit, she’s no longer Vampirella. Frankly, her costume is the only thing about her (well, okay, that and her pansexuality) that makes her at all shocking or controversial.

My goal, and the readers will have to let us know if we’re passing or failing, is to make this a book as much about femininity as about bloodsucking. The storyline is driven by women, mostly populated by women, of all shapes and sizes and ethnicities, and most of them dress as sexy as they dare. The singer/rapper Lizzo is a terrific example of this. Is her blatant sexuality liberating or is she being exploited? How about Beyoncé? Do we put Vampi in a raincoat but cheer Bey on?

See what I mean? I’m screwed either way.

Nrama: So Priest - Vampirella's here on Earth. What would you do if you found yourself, I don't know, sharing a cab with Vampi?

Priest: I’d ask the driver to pull over and let me out. I’m a Christian, so I have these issues with all of that “fornicating in your mind” stuff. I don’t live a perfect life but I try to avoid cluttering up my conscience. Among the things the printed page cannot convey is the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman.

All women are beautiful, from 8 to 80, regardless of weight, height, or nationality. I wouldn’t share a cab with a woman as under-dressed as Vampi, which sounds hypocritical because I’m writing her. But I write Deathstroke, too, and wouldn’t share a cab with him, either.

Nrama: On the flip side of this, Vampirella's stranded on Earth. What's going through her mind in all of this?

Priest: How stupid and primitive we are. It’s not arrogance. I believe any visitor from another world would surf the net for a few hours and come away shaking their heads. I watched an episode of Little Miss Atlanta yesterday. Jesus. We’re just idiots. The moms fighting and bickering and cursing - cursing - in front of these little girls, berating the little girls. This sickening child abuse... That's entertainment?

I have Christian friends who will criticize me for writing Vampi but they watch that crap.

Nrama: This comes over a decade after your previous stint with Vampirella - Harris Publishing's Vampirella Revelations with artist Eric Battle. That run had some issues, but you're back here again. What makes is something you want to return to?

Priest: *scratches head* Really? I did a run...? I remember doing a silent issue... and vaguely remember doing something with Eric, a good bud. But that was way back. I really hadn’t considered this a “return.” I just pivoted and stared into Barrucci’s hypnotic vampire eyes and ran dozens of scenarios through my feeble brain, coming to one conclusion: this would be an interesting experiment, a writer’s challenge. Writers love challenges.

Nrama: Big picture, what are your goals with this ongoing?

Priest: To not have the women of America torch my house. This run will be as different a take on Vampi as any that have come before.

Which is not to say “better;” “better” is subjective. I’m sure a great many Vampi fans will hate what we’re up to. Maybe they’ll come along, maybe I’ll get fired. If I wasn’t nervous about it, it wouldn’t be worth doing.

Editor's Note: The above interview was conducted via email eariler this week, and we received all of Mr. Priest's responses along with all our original questions. Newsarama asked Priest if he would respond to follow-up questions Friday by email. He agreed and those questions and answers follow.

Nrama: Priest, our original questions to you were about the Vampirella comic book and our role is to talk about that and not audit your personal life, but your responses appear to be hyper aware of a social climate you seem to lament in terms of relationships between genders and conduct towards one another.

Priest: I lament the social climate in general, on all levels. I lament our lack of civility and lack of empathy, lack of patience and understanding. I hate the way we assassinate one another with our thumbs, all this hostility in social and other media. It's not just gender issues.

Nrama: Yet empathizing with Joe Biden without citing the actual specific behavior he’s under scrutiny for, stating things like "the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman" and by offering you’re “often seen as creepy by women,” it seems like intentionally inviting the sort of reaction/assumptions you state you’re “afraid” of and inviting the same scrutiny Biden is under.

Was this was your intent and are you prepared for pushback to your words and questions to be asked?

Priest: Wow, there's a lot to unpack, there. But let's start by saying I seriously doubt anyone reading this is NOT aware of the Biden issue to which I am referring. 

I come neither to defend Biden nor to bury him, so I think you're probably taking my "poor" Joe reference a bit too seriously. I wasn't trying to litigate Biden, only to make a point about how hyper-sensitive and overly politicized our nation is and how this will impact Vampirella in her series.

Assembling disparate quotes to paint me as some kind of deviant makes that point for me. I stand by my statements. "...the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman..."

 is something difficult if not impossible to convey in literature (which was my point), but your question was about me sitting in a taxi with a near-naked woman and I answered that honestly. 

And my point was relevant to understanding the challenges and conflicts Vampirella will face in this series.

This is the environment Vampirella finds herself in, people misinterpreting her actions, words, and motives. This is why I mentioned it, to place the work we are doing with Vampirella into context.

Were a person like Vampi walking around in our world (or riding in a taxi with me), she would be misinterpreted, and every word she says would be drilled into looking for the worst possible interpretation of it. I can't help but wonder why anyone anywhere speaks publicly because no words spoken by anyone can withstand this level of ridiculous scrutiny.

Nrama: In another response you state “It’s like the world woke up in the last few years and realized we actually have two genders and both of them matter”. While not assuming your intent one way or another, it seems it to overlook genders outside the male/female paradigm. Can you speak to that?

Priest: Gender: noun

1. either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female. "a condition that affects people of both genders"

I wrote an ecumenical commentary in support of gender and and LGBTQ issues, Chris. I invite everyone to read it.

It was a simple interview. I was promoting a comic book and, as a really busy writer, I was typing really fast and speaking honestly while engaging with you. What I won’t do, not even for my own safety, is censor myself or try and anticipate every horrible way someone might choose to misinterpret something I've written or said.

 If anything, that just makes my point for me about how free speech is being compromised. It's a tough environment to publish comic books in because every publisher is terrified by the spectrum of extreme possible reactions from an increasingly intolerant environment where everybody's playing "gotcha" and looking for the worst possible and most extremely negative interpretations of everything.

The whole point of free speech is my duty to defend others' rights to have it, not to shout them down or demonize them.

#Christopher Priest #vampirella #comics

[15-dollars-and-a-dream]

Rhystic Tutor: Politics

In the last episode of “Isaac rambles incoherently for paragraphs” I said I would talk about Aristocrats next. I’m still working procrastinating on that, but in the mean time I wanted to cover an interesting topic brought up by one of our readers @gaias-bones who said; 

"I had an EDH question about the politics of a 4-person pod.  Basically, it makes me really anxious trying to sort out who to attack and target in a 4-person game, and I typically end up turtle-ing and never interacting.  Do you know any good articles on the politics of EDH or something?  It’s driven me away from the format for a bit.  Well, that and I only have a precon deck and no money to really improve it or build a new one, but hopefully that’s temporary”

Threat assessment in multiplayer is a really interesting topic and something I see a lot of players struggle with. Who to attack, how to use removal, when to try to pull into the lead, these are all questions that are super hard to approach when you’re approaching any multiplayer format. 

Before I get too far into this I just want to outline a really basic principal. In a four player game any time you are trading cards if you don’t at least 3-for-1 your opponents you’re spending your cards and turn to provide card advantage for another player. If I Swords to Plowshares an opponents creature, I’m down a card, that player is down a card, and everyone else stays neutral. 

Also fair warning; I mostly play against blind metas. In environments where every player knows every card in every deck things become a lot more complicated.

Let’s talk Strategy! I have identified in my own personal play 3 primary strategies I engage in depending on the hand and the goal of the deck. The first is the by far the most political. Playing Sol Ring on turn 1 is often a mistake. The player who takes the most obvious initial lead is very likely to become the focus of the early game. Instead, maintaining the second most threatening board state lets you ride off of that focus cementing yourself in a powerful position for the mid game. Players in worse positions will be forced to spend their cards to stay alive, while you can very passively allow this exchange at no cost to your own resources. This is one of the many reasons I am extremely fond of Glissa, the Traitor. Being super gross to attack into lets you stay ignored for the early game. 

If the game continues to progress in that manor it is very likely one or more players will die soon. Either the player who took the early lead aggressively dumps their hand and destroys the slowest player, or the player who took the early lead aggressively does nothing and gets killed by the other players. If the early lead stays alive you can set up for longer but will also likely have to begin spending interaction and attempting to wrestle the for the lead by the end of the game. This is where playing mass removal really pays off, ensuring you’re trading fewer resources as often as possible.

If the player who took the early lead aggressively does nothing and gets killed by the other players. You are now the player in the lead and the focus of all remaining players, but it is also likely that you will have the most resources at this point. The two underdogs will not likely turn against each other while a bigger threat remains. If this happens you will have to start spending resources to cripple one player and kill the other. 

If however, you’ve been unable to maintain the second strongest position up till this point, the roles are reversed and you need to sacrifice the weakest player to cripple the new lead. This is where playing targeted removal really pays off. 

Ideally at this point, whether you’ve succeeded in coasting or exploited players leaving the game, you’ve waited long enough and built up a big enough pile of options that you can do what your deck is looking to do and  pull out a win.

I think this kind of strategy requires the most knowledge about what decks can kill you when, and likely rewards chunkier midrangey decks like lands, graveyard stuff, or hoof over archetypes like combo.

The second strategy is a lot more straight forward. Win. Depending on your hand and deck, sometimes you know you can win before anyone can stop you.  In the image below you can see this strategy summed up pretty succinctly. Two of my opponents have done nothing. One gambled for fast mana and while they can untap with 8 mana they have no threats in play 3 cards in hand, and Mana Vault wont be untapping after they use it once. 

I kept an extremly aggressive one land hand that i knew could dump 2 sol rings, a mana vault, and a Thassa on T1 and Coalition Relic into my commander Keranos on 2. If I played with the pacing of my normal shotgun coasting I would likely be able to use this fast mana later for a very explosive turn pulling ahead at a crucial moment and cementing my victory. Instead I went for the T1 Thassa and T2 Keranos because I felt my lead was significantly stronger than my mono red opponents T2 Etali, if they draw a red source. 

If you have a feel for your meta and know what you’re doing is strong enough that you likely win through removal then it is absolutely worth going for it. Combo decks often have to just go off before things are perfectly aligned or they get aggro’d out of the game. In these situations sometimes you want to aggressively trade 1 for 1 removal into anything early that even remotely matters. Staying in the lead if you know the game will be over before your hand is empty is way more important than conserving resources. 

In a similar vein, if you’re playing hardcore aggro, like Voltron or Boros, you can’t afford to bide your time. You’re on a tight clock to kill everyone before they can win. If you’re not dropping a hoof and killing everyone in a couple turns, you’re going to need to get working on that 120 damage (or 63 commander damage). I believe these strategies benefit extremely well from anything that can slow the game down. Mass land destruction on an advantageous board or Smokestack with a token producer keep the game in the early game for longer, which is when your deck is the strongest. Additionally, for aggro decks. Spreading damage is incorrect. A lot of newer players like to avoid making enemies early and attack in different directions. It is much better to remove one player than to make all 3 angry. 

The third strategy is to intentionally stay the underdog. This doesn’t really work with the commander’s you’d want it to, you can’t play anything remotely threatening. Commanders like Breya, Atraxa, and Meren are way too scary to ever ignore. But Hapatra, Grimgrin or Karametra, who on the surface do not immediately scream “I am going to use this to kill you” often can sneak under the radar. If you are trying to maintain second place and find yourself unable to then suddenly you’re forced to struggle back to where you were. But if from the start the bottom is where you want to be then nothing can go wrong, other than getting killed. 

I am going to use my Karametra deck here for specific examples, as that is a deck I built with this strategy in mind. Kareametra’s ability to get lands lets you develop your board really efficiently and consistently. You get to play a lot of defensive cards like Shalia and OG Sigarda that also happen to be beefy fliers that crack back really hard. This both contributes to taking down the lead, and discourages you as the target. Additionally, because of Karametras ramp, there are going to be very few lands in your deck. This makes all your draws live, and keeps you developing your board even after drawing lands becomes unlikely. Letting you just continually ramp. 

When the second goes to kill the lead and jump into that position, you get to resolve Tooth and Nail and still have a bunch of untapped lands. Which likely puts you in the lead instead. In that deck specifically I liked to T&N for either Avacyn and Elesh Norn or Craterhoof and Avenger of Zendikar. Obviously not every deck can cast Tooth and Nail, but that same role can be filled with an Ugin, or a Ruric Thar, or a Blowfly Infestation. 

Politics, you can never forget everyone at the table is your enemy. Making deals is fine but you should never agree to an alliance. In an alliance one player is in a much better position than the other. While its possible to try to use the lead to secure your place in second, if you’re also letting them start saving resources making it harder to overtake them in the end game. Inversely, if you are in the underdog position players will be compelled by nature of the game to make game play decisions that also benefit you. If the player in second tries to strong arm you, all you have to do is cripple them enough the lead takes the window to kill them instead of you, at which point you have your own window to act. 

That said, if you’re able to strong arm someone into spending their resources to cement your position due to your own board position, that is both extremely useful and super rude to another human. Personally I’d rather avoid this line of play due to my own ideals, but it is strategically correct regardless. 

Threat assessment is harder. How do you know which player is in the lead, or if you can win fast enough to go for it, or how a deck is going to try to kill you. This mostly comes from two places. The first is thinking about how you’re planning to win and what is getting in the way. If you WANT the eldrazi man to slam because you’re safe from it, then the eldrazi man is not the biggest threat. If you want to combo off and open mana girl has open mana, then open mana girl is the biggest threat. If you’re trying to sit back and combo off and voltron nonbinary friend is in your face the problem can be solved sometimes as easily as letting another player take the lead. 

In the end, the biggest boon to better battle brains is more experience. If you don’t know which deck is the scariest it’s likely because you don’t have the context to compare. The best thing you can do is lose. Over and over again, seeing how each time till eventually when you sit down at a table you know exactly what each person is planning to do to you and on what timetable. 

Regarding other resources to read into this more, I don’t really follow any commander content. I’d often prefer to just jam more games. However! I have seen a few episodes of The Command Zone that friends have linked me. These 2 specifically stood out to me as super interesting even outside the scope of edh/commander. Additionally, I do follow LRR’s North 100 podcast about Canadian Highlander. Most of the card evaluation changes drastically in Canlander, but I have found many useful little nuggets of know-how for both Commander and Cube in their many episodes!

The Command Zone #141: Machiavellian Machinations

The Command Zone #190:  Lessons from The Great War

North 100

Hopefully this episode of “Isaac rambles incoherently for paragraphs” provided some of the info you were looking for Gaias <3

Tune in next time for actually Aristocrats I promise!

Stay chill, stay hydrated, stay scheming -IZ

#mtg #magic the gathering #edh #commander #RhysticTutor #RT #IZ #politics

[thesecundus-blog]

Character Analysis/Bio

 Name: Mello (Mihael Keehl) Age: 20

Personality:

From a young age, Mello has been conditioned to win, which has served to shape the majority of his overall demeanor. Groomed to succeed L, the world’s top three detectives, Mello has known competition since he was young and carries it with him in everything he does. Life is a game and the world is his playground; he will willingly destroy everything in his way in his effort to be number one.  Paired with an inferiority complex that is brought to light when he states that no matter what he does, he always comes in second to his primary rival, this leads him to make overblown, extreme decisions in his quest to accomplish a goal.

Highly intelligent, he has the ability to deduce and predict his opposition’s thought-process and form his own plan of attack accordingly. While his brilliance was originally intended to be utilized for noble purposes, he instead chose to exploit it in order to rise to a high rank of a criminal enterprise. His intelligence shows in his ability to form successful plans and bring them to conclusion, as referenced by one of the mafia members with whom he associates when the man asks his comrades rhetorically whether Mello has ever been wrong in the short time he worked with them. Another area where he is knowledgeable is literature, as when telling the story of Beyond Birthday—the failed successor who went on to defy L—he quotes Holden Caulfield and refers to him as, “One of history’s most famous literary bullshitters.” Given that he was second in line to succeed a genius, it would be safe to assume that his intellect is extraordinary. His reference to Caulfield and the flippant comment that followed is a clue that at some point, he immersed himself in literature to the point of becoming a bit of a well-versed critic.  

Before the explosion that destroyed his hideout and wiped out his crew, Mello appears to practice self-preservation through delegation, a primary aspect of his personality denoting selfishness.  The duties he imparts on others range from kidnapping the Japanese chief of police’s daughter (who was also Kira’s sister), having underlings seal a deal with a death god—sacrificing half of their lifespan—in order to gain the ability to see his enemy’s names and subsequently write their names in the notebook to simple tasks ranging as low as holding a mobile phone to his ear. In order to win, he has to be alive. Making others do most of his dirty work is a way to ensure this, though he will also have people do small, unimportant things for him in order to assert himself on the food-chain. However, when backed into a corner, he has personally taken drastic actions that have injured and eventually killed him, showing that he's not at all incapable of being the one who will make a move directly.

If it suits his purposes, Mello will employ his high social skills in order to gain the favor of those around him. He will seek the group or individual with the most power and align himself with them in order to exploit their position(s) for his own needs. This will often lead him to operating outside of what would be considered legal restrictions. If criminals have more pull, he will align himself with criminals. However, it wouldn't be wrong to assume that if law-abiding groups have more influence, he will turn to them instead.  

Loyalty?  What’s that? He doesn't understand the meaning of the word. Through his actions involving the Los Angeles mafia, he shows no loyalty to the L title or the institution responsible for educating and housing him. Through setting explosives all through the building which he detonated with his remaining crew inside, he shows a disregard for those with whom he works. Having no loyalty, he is not trustworthy when forming pacts and alliances. If someone’s motivations align with his own, he will use that to further his own agenda and show no qualms when it comes to disposing of the other party. In the world of Death Note, possessing a person’s name in conjunction with their image gives the notebook holder the ability to kill an individual. There is one picture of Mello in existence and it is possessed by Near after Mello (for unknown reasons) left it behind at the orphanage where he resided. That Mello goes to retrieve this photo and offers information pertaining to the rules in the notebook as a fair exchange shows that he is well-versed in acceptable business tactics and will employ them even if he is not particularly fond of the individual with whom he is interacting. Disloyalty does not necessarily suggest a lack of honor.

That said, Mello is most likely not apt to become close to anyone in the traditional sense. Instead, he will interact with those he holds the most confidence in on a level that may resemble camaraderie though in the end, he is only interested in what the individuals contribute to whatever his given cause may be. Manipulation, however, would be an incorrect assessment as those with whom he associates possess the opportunity to mutually benefit from their interactions.

He possesses a commanding air about him, even going so far as to frighten a god of death with his demeanor. Where the death gods make it a point multiple times in canon to state that helping the human who possesses their notebook is not something that interests them, Mello succeeds in having one not only assist him, but work under him and take orders. It even appears that he hands orders down to the head of the mafia sect to which he belongs, though he does so in less in the way of barking commands, more along the lines of making infallible suggestions that he knows will be heeded. He is frequently shown sitting separate from his gang, as though he has established spaces for himself that others simply don't enter.

In the words of the death god, Sidoh: "For a human, he's scary."

His lack of subtlety shows in the most ridiculously obvious ways: he’s aesthetically flashy, he owns any room that he occupies with nothing more than his presence. He likes to <i>sprawl</i> when he sits, he has the ability to stand at 5’6” next to a hulking mob boss and make the other man look small in comparison. However, this isn’t just limited to the physical. His actions are chaotic: he has launched missiles, killed, kidnapped, blackmailed the President of the United States</i> (successfully), blown his own hideout with himself in it to avoid capture, and he has done it all with poise and style. While many of his moves may be driven by impulse, they are also the result of quick-thinking on his feet and the ability to carry out actions with little time between conception and execution.  

Despite his cool exterior, Mello operates on emotion more than it appears. It is shown that he is prone to outbursts as a child such as when he is informed by the school’s headmaster that L has been defeated and killed by Kira, he launches over the man’s desk and takes him by the collar, demanding confirmation that it is in fact true that his predecessor was killed. After this incident, he regains some form of composure and makes the impulsive decision to leave the school and set out on his own. Though given the option to work alongside Near under the L title, he refuses, stating that the two of them don’t get along. He then goes on to acknowledge his own shortcomings by claiming that unlike himself, Near is able to “calmly and unemotionally solve the puzzle.” He makes decisions based on frustration and impulse but will blanket them with a calm justification, though he is very aware that emotions drive his most reckless responses.

Victory, excitement, defeat: these things all show in his facial expressions at any given time.

All bets are off if someone is considered a fierce rival. Mello will hold a grudge forever and lose his composure in the face of said rivalry. Both as a child and an adult, Mello is shown to have little patience for Near’s presence, even going so far as to recklessly pull a gun on the other in the SPK headquarters where the majority of his team is armed. Doing so shows that despite his logic and thorough planning, when in the presence of a worthy opponent, Mello’s emotions will overcome common sense to the point where he will ignore his self-preservation instinct and risk his life in exchange for instant gratification. He is also not above cheating, as he has one of the mafia members execute most of Near's team via the notebook in order to set the other back in his race to capture Kira.

Morally, Mello cannot be defined as either “good” or “evil.” Whereas L sought to bring Kira to justice, Mello states during his hunt that he wants Kira’s head, and that he “will be number one.” It is merely a byproduct of his end-game success that thousands of lives would be saved and the world would ultimately benefit from the removal of Kira. However, this is not to suggest that he is evil in any sense. Though people may get caught in his line of fire, Mello does canonically show remorse for, not his actions, but the fallout from his actions. He expresses regret for the death of his former Wammy’s schoolmate who was eliminated in the process of kidnapping Kiyomi Takada, an underling of Kira.  He also states that he originally had no intention of inadvertently causing the death of Yagami  Soichiro, Kira’s father and the chief of the Japanese Task Force, during a raid on his hideout. He may be a firebomb, but he does occasionally feel guilt for his actions.

Based on how highly he speaks of L in the spinoff novel, Another Note, he appears to hold his predecessor in high esteem despite deviating from his methods to the point where he falls into the category of “criminal.” He laments the loss of a great man and states that his killer, Kira, is “Not worth the dirt beneath (L’s) shoes” and that meeting L was “The single most valuable memory” that he possessed.  He then goes on to gloat in reference to L’s achievements and shows an overall awe of the man he was set to succeed. Mello’s reverence for his predecessor directly contradicts his criminal lifestyle and goes to show that with him, there is no black or white. There are only grey areas, self-serving initiatives that hold no place on either side of the “good and evil” spectrum. What he views as good is anything falling in line with his own wants/ideals with evil being all that opposes him and stands in his way.

With a fierce determination, Mello is unmitigated chaos. He will do anything and everything to dominate any situation which he deems worthy of his attention, including sacrifice himself if it will prove that no one else could have accomplished the goal. His drive is the thing that fuels him, though it can also be his downfall. His capability is often eclipsed by his sense of inferiority—his need to constantly prove himself to anyone he deems competition—and this can lead to him going overboard with his execution to the point of endangering himself and everyone around him. He is a vain, dangerous, untrustworthy, disloyal, self-absorbed genius who has somehow convinced himself that any uncouth action he takes in the grand scheme of things is for the greater good. He wants the world, and he fully intends on taking it.

#death note #dn #death note rp #dnrp #mello #mihael keehl #ooc: info-m