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antoine-roquentin · 5 years

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I think one of the major problems with the modern left is a focus on cultural analysis instead of economics. When I say culture I EXPLICITLY DON'T MEAN racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and Indigenous rights/decolonization.

Stupidpol and their ilk are reactionaries and should be treated as such. What I'm talking about is the focus on things like analyzing TV shows or picking over the latest issues of the NYT op-ed column, the sort a caricatures you see on Chapo.

Zizek is emblematic of this syndrome. He's a theorist of ideology, a film critic, a Lacanian psychoanalyst and complete reactionary on gender and immigration issues, and he's widely considered to be one of preeminent Marxist scholars alive. And, and this is important, Zizek does fuck all actual economic material analysis. Mark Fisher, who was an excellent Marxist theorist, covers almost exactly the same ground from a different perspective, and you can repeat this across academia.

Inside academia the problem has gotten so bad that the best economic analysis is being carried out by the fucking post-humanists. Take, for example, Anna Tsing's excellent Supply Chains and the Human Condition. Tsing is a brilliant theorist but she spends most of her time writing about multi-species interactions between humans and mushrooms. Carbon Democracy, one of the best theories of the carbon economy ever written, is by a left-Foucaldian.

There are some exceptions to this, Andreas Malm's Carbon Capital is wonderful, Riot Strike Riot is great and I have to mention the group I call The Other Chicago School, Endnotes, whose infrequent analysis is a breath of fresh air. But Endnotes isn't particularly well read even inside the academy, which takes back outside the ivory tower in the dismal mess that is what passes for popular left "economics."

I want to go back to Occupy for a second because what happened there is indicative of the problem. Occupy, at least technically, actually had a theory of economics that went beyond "neoliberalism bad, welfare state good." And it's really not as bad as its critics have since accused it of being. Graeber's "the 1% meme" was supposed to be part of an MMT analysis of the ability of banks to create money out of nothing, see Richard A. Werner. The theory then goes with the ability to create money out of nothing the question becomes who should actually have that power. The 1% are the people who control that power and use that it to gain wealth and their wealth to gain power.

This is essentially what happened after 2008 and it relates to an entire analysis of the politics of debt and war that's captured really well in the last chapter of Debt, The First 5000 Years, drawing from Hudson's excellent Super Imperialism. Again, not bad, and not the disaster it became in Liberal hands. But note two things:

1, His work is intentionally detached from the production process- Graeber uses a value theory of labor about the social reproduction of human beings. That theory is really interesting and I'll leave a link to his It is Value that Brings Universes into Being here. But Graeber is an anthropologist, not an economist, and his recent work is mostly composed of a set of theories of bureaucracy.

And, don't get me wrong, I really like Utopia of Rules and Bullshit Jobs, and it's possible to build an economic theory out of them, but almost no one actually does. And this gets us back to my second point about Occupy and economics.

2, Not a single other person I have ever met, including people who were in Occupy, have ever actually heard the theory behind the 1%. Part of this has to do with Graeber’s rather admirable desire to not become an intellectual vanguardist. But, I cannot overemphasize how much of this is a result of the left's retreat into an analysis of consumerism instead of capitalism and its further insistence that the entire fucking global economy can be explained by chapters 1-3 of Capital and this just isn't a "read more theory" rant, it's not like reading the rest of Capital is going to help you here. But even that's better than what's actually happened, which is people reading Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism and the Communist Manifesto and trying to derive economic theory from that, or getting lost in a Gramscian or psychoanalytic miasma trying to explain why revolution didn't happen. But we can't keep fucking doing this.

If we do we're just going to keep getting stuck in endless fucking inane arguments, one of which is about which countries are Imperialist or not based on trying to read the minds of world leaders, and the other of which is a bunch of racists trying to argue that they're actually "class-first" Marxists and that if we don't say slurs and be mean to disabled people we're going to lose the "real working class," which is somehow composed only of construction workers banging steel bars.

So let's stop letting them do that. One of the reasons Supply Chains and the Human Condition is so great is that it describes how the performance of gender and racial roles creates the self super-exploitation at the heart of global capitalism. Race and gender cannot be ignored in favor of some kind of "class-first" faux-leftist bullshit. THEY ARE LITERALLY THE DRIVER OF CAPITAL ACCUMULATION.

Most of the global supply chain has been transformed into entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs (see the countless accounts of Chinese garment factory workers who dream of getting into the fashion industry and who attempt to supplement their meager income by setting up stalls in local marketplaces to sell watches and clothes).

The fact that global supply chains have reverted to the kind of small family firms that Marx and Engels thought would disappear is a MASSIVE problem for any kind of global workers movement, because it means that the normal wage relation that is supposed to form the basis of the proletariat isn't actually the governing social experience of a large swath of what should be the proletariat, either because they're the owners of small firms contracted by larger firms like Nike who would, in an older period of capitalism, have just been workers or because the people who work for those firms are incapable of actually demanding wage increases from the capitalists because they're separated by a layer from the firms who control real capital, and thus are essentially unable to make the kind of wage demands that would normally constitute class consciousness because the contractors they work for really don't have any money. These contractors are in no way independent.

Multinational corporations set everything from their buying prices to their labor conditions to what their workers say to lie to labor inspectors. The effect of replacing much of the proletariat with micro-entrepreneurs is devastating.

The class-for-itself that's supposed to serve as the basis of social revolution has decomposed entirely. Endnotes has a great analysis of how this happened covering more time, but the unified working class is dead. In its place have come a series of incoherent struggles: The Arab Spring, the Movement of the Squares, the current wave of revolutions and riots stretching from Sudan to Peru to Puerto Rico- all of them share an economic basis translated into demands on the state. We see housing struggles, anti-police riots, occupations, climate strikes, and a thousand other forms of struggle that don't seem to cohere into a traditional social revolution and WE HAVE NO ANSWER.

I don't have one either, but we're not going to get out of this mess by trying to read the tea leaves of the CCP or analyzing how Endgame is the ruling class inculcating us into accepting Malthusian Ecofascism.

I want to emphasize YOU DON'T NEED TO SHARE MY ECONOMIC ANALYSIS to develop one, I'm obviously wrong on a lot of things and so is everyone else. The point is that we need to start somewhere.

There are other benefits to reading economics stuff even if it can be boring sometimes, like being able to dunk on nerd shitlibs and reactionaries who do the "take Econ-101" meme by being able to prove that their entire discipline is bunk. Steve Keen's Debunking Economics is absolutely hilarious for this, he literally proves that perfect competition relies on the same math that you use to "prove" that the earth is flat.

Or learning that the notion that markets distribute goods optimally is based on the assumption that what is basically a form of fucking state socialism exists, and that the supply demand curve is fucking bullshit. Here's a page from Debunking Economics looking at the socialism claim, it fucking rules, and it's the result of the fact that neo-classical economics and central planning were developed together. Kantorovich and Koopmans shared a Nobel Prize.

But wait, there's more! We can PROVE that THE MARKET PLACE OF IDEAS DOESN'T EXIST. Do you have any idea how hard you can own libs with facts and logic if you can demonstrate that THE MARKET PLACE OF IDEAS DOESN'T EXIST?

But seriously, if you go outside of the Marxist tradition there are all sorts of fun and useful things you can find in post-Keyensian circles and so on and so forth. I'm a huge fan of Karen Ho's Liquidated, an Ethnography of Wall Street/Liquidated_%20An%20Ethnography%20of%20Wall%20Street%20-%20Karen%20Ho.pdf) which looks at how the people at banks and investment firms actually behave and, oh boy, is it bad news (they're literally incapable of making long-term decisions which is wonderful in the face of climate change).

Oh, and also, all of the bankers are essentially indoctrinated into thinking they're the smartest people in the world, so that's fun.

This may sound like I'm shitting on Marxism, and I sort of am, but there's Marxist stuff coming out that I absolutely love! @chuangcn is a good example of what I think the benchmark for leftist economics and historical analysis should be.

Chuang responded to the call put out by Endnotes to cut "The Red Thread of History," or essentially to stop fucking arguing about 1917, 1936, 1968 and so forth and look at material conditions instead of trying to find our favorite faction and accuse literally everyone else of betraying the revolution, and then imagining what we would have done in their shoes. The present is different from the past and we need to organize for this economic and social reality, not 1917's.

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Chuang produced an incredibly statically and sociologically detailed account of the Chinese socialist period in issue 1 and the transition to capitalism in the soon to be put online issue 2 that focuses on shifts in production and investment and shifts in China's class-structure and how urban workers, peasants, factory mangers, technicians, and cadre members reacted to those movements and shaped each others decisions and mobilizations. They largely avoid discussions of factional battles of the upper level of the CCP, which dominate liberal and communist accounts of the period and produce, in supposed communists from David Harvey to Ajit Singh, a Great Man theory of history.

Instead, they trace how strikes and peasant protests shaped the CCP's decision making and how the choices of people like Mao and Deng Xiaoping were limited by material conditions, in this case by their production bottleneck.

What's great about Chuang is that their work is so rich in sociological detail that you don't need to agree with them at all about what communism is and so on for their account to be useful, and they force us to think about the world from the perspective of competing classes bound by economic reality, instead of the black-and-white "good state/bad state," "good ruler/bad ruler," discourse that dominates our understanding of both imperialism and the global economy.

I'm just going to end this with a TL;DR: Cut the read thread of history and stop fucking arguing about 1917, use economic theory to dunk on Stupidpol and shitlibs. When you talk about "material conditions" talk about the production process, supply chains, capital movements and so on, not which states are good and bad (the bourgeoisie is a global class friends), recognize that strategies need to be built around current economic and social conditions, WHICH ARE INSEPARABLE FROM RACE AND GENDER, climate change is more complicated than the 100 companies meme (I only touched on this but please read Fossil Capital and Carbon Democracy), and in general try to learn more about different schools of economics and social theory, I swear reading something that wasn't written in 1848 isn't going to kill you.

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lilac-city-skylines · 4 years

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Can we have some Pregnant!DeetxRian headcanons (The reveal, the Birth and the First few days as New parents)

Of course! I broke this up into the sections that you specified, I hope that you don’t mind!

More Pregnant Deet x Rian Headcanons for Your Reading Pleasure!

The Reveal

It wasn’t exactly planned

But it wasn’t unplanned either

Deet just thought it’d be super nice to have a baby

They did the thing and thus Jen was created

It wasn’t obvious at first

Deet was getting super irritable for no reason

She’d check herself and apologize before quickly going off to cool down

Her wings got droopy and she wasn’t able to sleep through the night

At first, Rian thought she had some kind of illness

Maybe Grottan just weren’t used to topside illnesses?

When he figured that out, he sprinted to Maudra Argot

She sat him down for a bit of tea and moss and let him yell

He literally yelled

Going on and on about how worried he was about Deet and how he needed her help

Argot could tell what was going on with Deet within seconds of his description

But she let him rant all he wanted until he finally calmed down

“I think I know the cure for what ails her if you really want the answer.”

Rian begs her to tell him.

“I’d suggest you find a Spriton and ask them to make you a crib. A nice one too.”

He didn’t speak for about three minutes, just staring at Argot

While this took place, Deet went to seek the counsel of her fathers

They sat calmly and listened to her

She said how irritable she was, even when she didn’t want to be

She showed them her wings and told them how she couldn’t ever seem to sleep

They let her finish before asking her if it was harder to fly

It was

If she had strange cravings

She did

It took her a second to work it out for herself, but she thanked them quickly and ran out of their home and straight to find Rian

At around this time, he was also running around to find her

They slammed into each other in the middle of the village center

“DEET DID YOU KNOW YOU’RE-” “RIAN DID YOU KNOW THAT I WAS”

A lot of yelling and sputtering and falling over words

When they finally sorted it out, they hugged for a long time

Rian did go out for a drink with Gurjin later that week, celebrating the new father and all that

The Birth

Rian made it very clear that Deet didn’t have to follow Stonewood tradition if she didn’t want to

Stonewood tradition usually asks that the mother avoid any work or stress and just go collecting herbs that will make pain-soothing remedies for labor

Deet understood how dangerous her position was

Grottan were easily killed in labor and it was almost always the pain and the blood loss that took them out

She didn’t want to do any strenuous work

Stonewood babies were larger than Grottan babies, so her risk of death was fairly high

Brea came over often, they read books on medicine and names to calm Deet’s nerves

Naia helped Deet collect herbs when her belly became too big for her to bend over without a struggle

Rian had to balance being a soldier with now being a father

He wanted more than anything for his father to be alive, to ask his advice

Shoni was more than willing to give him gentle advice on how a father should behave

He even asked the Stonewood midwives to collaborate with Maudra Argot, who insisted on being there

She’d delivered every successful Grottan baby and she wasn’t going to stop

Deet and Rian had a rather long discussion on the topic, and Rian felt it was appropriate that he at least follow the Stonewood tradition of sharpening a sword outside the home during the labor

It was something his father did and something his grandfather did

Deet was fine with it

After all, Maudra Argot and all those midwives would be there to keep her company

She was secretly grateful he wouldn’t be in the room, just on the off chance that she miscarried or died herself

She went into labor unexpectedly

Rian was in charge of getting her safely to the bed before alerting Maudra Argot and the midwives

There were two midwives carrying Maudra Argot who was already yelling orders around

Rian felt a lot of indecision about whether or not he should stay on the stops of his home

Eventually, once Gurjin and Kylan came to sit with him, he relented and sat down

It was when Deet started screaming that it became really difficult

Gurjin had to hold him in his place on the steps “Rian, you promised her you wouldn’t go in there. You promised.”

The labor lasted all morning, all afternoon, and well into the night

Passing friends would nod and congratulate Rian, who was miserably sharpening a sword

Kylan brought food for him to eat and the three sat

They talked about all the different aspects of fatherhood that seemed so strange to them

Suppose it was a girl? Or a boy?

Eventually, Kylan resorted to telling stories about his favorite hero, Jarra-Jen, to calm everyone down

When Argot finally let Rian into the house he was more scared than he’d ever been in his whole life

But there was Deet, covered in blood and sweat, but more beautiful than she’d ever been before

In her arms was, in his opinion, a very tiny baby

In Deet’s eyes, this was a fairly large child

Paler than the average Stonewood and dark hair just barely sprouting out of his tiny head

The baby’s eyes were screwed shut and he was sleeping peacefully

Argot made a point to hit at Rian’s legs with her new walking stick and complain about Stonewood genetics and how he needed to be a good father in return for all the trouble Deet went through

Deet was the one to tell him that the child was a boy, carefully showing Rian how to hold a newborn

He cried harder than he had in years, holding his baby boy close to his heart

Kylan and Gurjin meandered in when they heard the crying stop

Both of them were immediately taken with the child and congratulated Deet on the safe delivery

Naia and Brea were quick to follow, each with traditional gifts to give a new child

Brea had brought silk to wrap the child in for formal occasions and Naia brought little beads for his hair

The First Few Days as Parents

Of course, there was a NewLife celebration

Rian and Deet told Shoni and Deet’s fathers the child’s name first

A huge bonfire was made in the center of the town

Since the Stonewood lacked a Maudra, Seladon was asked to fill in

She was hesitant at first, she was All-Maudra, not a midwife!

But when they explained the traditional Stonewood blessings and how important it was to Deet and Rian, she relented

The day after the birth, Deet and Rian took Jen to Seladon for blessings

Seladon was immediately in love with the baby and, once she held him, demanded that Jen call her “Auntie” from that day on

She kissed Jen’s forehead and gave him both Stonewood and Vapra blessings

She also gave Rian and Deet the Vapra blessings as it was “only proper”

The bonfire that night was insane

Jen was the first baby born during the revolution

And to the leader no less!

Gelfling were practically falling over themselves to see the new baby

Kylan was particularly lucky, in the Jen loved listening to his firca

Deet sat between Rian and Kylan, resting her head on Rian’s shoulder for most of the party and letting Jen giggle and reach for the firca

Jen was actually an insanely easy baby

He loved to sleep and eat, growing fairly quickly

Rian lovingly called him “my little soldier” but Deet had the feeling that this child wasn’t going to be involved in too much fighting

She could tell in the way all gelfling mothers can tell things about their children

It was in the way he giggled and never pulled on hair

How he only cried when he really needed something

How he never threw or hurt his toys, always cradling them and playing gently

His favorite toys were from Brea and Kylan

Brea gave him a tiny journal for when he learned to write, partly filled in with colorful paintings and drawings that she’d made just for him

Kylan had made him a firca out of the smoothest wood he could find

They both admitted later that maybe those weren’t the best toys for a baby but he loved them all the same

He would cuddle the firca while staring at the pages of the colored journal for hours

Deet loved telling him stories until he fell asleep, which was very common

Rian would sometimes take Jen to work with him, proudly showing off his son to anyone who would look

He would point out his Stonewood and Grottan traits with pride

Specifically, his hair and skin and eyes

“See that? Just a little paler than me? That’s his mother. Those eyes too. Look at how big and dark they are. All his mother, just perfect. That hair is mine though.”

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Monday, November 16, 2020

After thousands of Trump supporters rally in D.C., violence erupts when night falls (AP) Several thousand supporters of President Donald Trump in Washington protested election results and then hailed Trump’s passing motorcade before nighttime clashes with counterdemonstrators sparked fistfights, at least one stabbing and at least 20 arrests. Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College and popular vote victory as legitimate. Cries of “Stop the Steal” and “Count Every Vote” continued in spite of a lack of evidence of voter fraud or other problems that could reverse the result. After night fell, the relatively peaceful demonstrations in Washington turned from tense to violent. Videos posted on social media showed fistfights, projectiles and clubs as Trump supporters clashed with those demanding they take their MAGA hats and banners and leave. The tensions extended to Sunday morning. A variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, were filed against those arrested, officials said. Two police officers were injured and several firearms were recovered by police.

Coronavirus Deaths Are Climbing Once Again (NYT) For weeks, as coronavirus cases spiked across the United States, deaths rose far more slowly, staying significantly lower than in the early, deadliest weeks of the nation’s outbreak in the spring. New treatments, many hoped, might slow a new wave of funerals. But now, signs are shifting: More than 1,000 Americans are dying of the coronavirus every day on average, a 50 percent increase in the last month. Twice this past week, there have been more than 1,400 deaths reported in a single day. “It’s getting bad and it’s potentially going to get a lot worse,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

US, Israel worked together to track and kill al-Qaida No. 2 (AP) The United States and Israel worked together to track and kill a senior al-Qaida operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran. Four current and former U.S. officials said Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaida’s No. 2, was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August. The U.S. provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find al-Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing, according to two of the officials. The two other officials confirmed al-Masri’s killing but could not provide specific details. Al-Masri was gunned down in a Tehran alley on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Al-Masri was widely believed to have participated in the planning of those attacks and was wanted on terrorism charges by the FBI.

Hurricane Iota heads for battered Honduras, Nicaragua (AP) Iota became the thirteenth hurricane of the Atlantic season early Sunday, threatening to bring another dangerous system to Nicaragua and Honduras—countries recently clobbered by a Category 4 Hurricane Eta. Iota was already a record-breaking system, being the 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday morning that Iota had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph), making it a Category 1 hurricane. But, forecasters said Iota would rapidly strengthen and was expected to be a major hurricane by the time it reaches Central America. The system was forecast to bring up to 30 inches (750 millimeters) of rain from northeast Nicaragua into northern Honduras. Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador could also experience heavy rain and possible flooding, the hurricane center said.

Peru’s interim president resigns as chaos embroils nation (AP) Peru’s interim president resigned Sunday as the nation plunged into its worst constitutional crisis in two decades following massive protests unleashed when Congress ousted the nation’s popular leader. In a short televised address, Manuel Merino said Congress acted within the law when he was sworn into office as chief of state Tuesday, despite protesters’ allegations that legislators had staged a parliamentary coup. The politician agreed to step down after night of unrest in which two young protesters were killed and half his Cabinet resigned. Peruvians cheered the decision, waving their nation’s red and white flag on the streets of Lima and chanting “We did it!” But there is still no clear playbook for what comes next. Peru has much at stake: The country is in the throes of one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks and political analysts say the constitutional crisis has cast the country’s democracy into jeopardy. “I think this is the most serious democratic and human rights crisis we have seen since Fujimori,” said analyst Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, referring to the turbulent rule of strongman Alberto Fujimori from 1990 to 2000.

Lessons From Europe, Where Cases Are Rising But Schools Are Open (NPR) Mahua Barve lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband, a son in first grade and twin daughters in kindergarten. All three children are currently attending school full time and in person. That’s despite a coronavirus surge that has led Germany to shut down restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms, tattoo parlors and brothels (which are legal in the country) for November. Schools were allowed to remain open. Despite the resurgence of the virus, Barve says, her children’s school’s careful safety strategies give her confidence. “When I see all the parents who are coming to pick up and drop off, they’re wearing masks. The teachers are always wearing masks. They’re doing their best to minimize risk. And as soon as something is detected, they are quarantining.” Across Europe, schools and child care centers are staying open even as much of the continent reports rising coronavirus cases, and even as many businesses and gathering places are shut or restricted. Countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy appear to be following the emerging evidence that schools have not been major centers of transmission of the virus, especially for young children. The U.S. has taken a different approach. As new cases climb above 100,000 per day, there are very few places in the U.S. where classrooms have remained full.

German government ad hails couch potatoes as virus heroes (AP) The German government has released a tongue-in-cheek ad hailing an unlikely hero in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic: the humble couch potato. The 90-second video posted online Saturday begins with an elderly man recalling his ‘service’ to the nation back when he was just a young student “in the winter of 2020, when the whole country’s eyes were on us.” “I had just turned 22 and was studying engineering,” he continues, “when the second wave hit.” With violins stirring at viewers’ heart strings, the setting switches to a scene of the narrator as a young man. “Suddenly the fate of this country lay in our hands,” he says. “So we mustered all our courage and did what was expected of us, the only right thing. We did nothing.” “Days and nights we stayed on our backsides at home and fought against the spread of the coronavirus,” the narrator continues. “Our couch was the front line and our patience was our weapon.” The ad ends with a government message that “you too can become a hero by staying at home.”

Austria orders three-week lockdown to rein in surging coronavirus cases (Reuters) Austria on Saturday ordered a three-week lockdown in a last-ditch effort to bring surging coronavirus cases under control and relieve the stress on the health service in time for retailers to reopen in the run-up to Christmas. The country had so far used a lighter touch in dealing with the second wave of cases than it did with the first outbreak. A nighttime curfew is in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. this month but shops are open; cafes, bars and restaurants are limited to take-away service; theatres and museums are closed. The current nighttime curfew will become an all-day requirement to stay at home, with only some exceptions such as for shopping or exercise. Working from home should happen wherever possible. Non-essential shops will close, as will service providers such as hairdressers. Secondary schools have already switched to distance learning; primary schools and kindergartens will now follow suit but still provide childcare for those who need it.

900 reported arrested in Belarus protests (AP) A human rights group in Belarus said more than 900 people were arrested Sunday in protests around the country calling for authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to step down. The demonstrations continued the wave of near-daily protests that have gripped Belarus since early August. In the capital Minsk, police wielded clubs and used tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of demonstrators. The Viasna human rights organization reported detentions at demonstrations in other cities, including Vitebsk and Gomel. It said the nationwide arrest total was at least 928 and that some of those detained were beaten by police.

‘You Cannot Say No’: The Reign of Terror That Sustains Belarus’s Leader (NYT) Appalled by savage police violence at the start of Belarus’s would-be revolution, the host of a popular morning show on state television quit his job in protest and declared that his country’s veteran leader, no matter how brutal, would never “force Belarusians back into the box they existed in for these 26 years.” Arrested soon afterward and held in a grimy prison, the broadcaster, Denis Dudinsky, reappeared a few days later—this time with a video message calling on opponents of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko to stop protesting. Asked what made him change his mind, Mr. Dudinsky declined to go into details, just remarking obliquely that “these people know how to formulate their requests in such a way that you cannot say no.” After nearly three months of protests that began with widespread anger over a rigged election, Mr. Lukashenko seems to be surviving the challenge to his power. He has managed this not just through harsh police tactics, hollow promises of reform or the passage of time. Rather, he has relied on a more insidious and often invisible machinery of persuasion, coercion and repression: a domestic security agency little changed from the Soviet era that, indeed, still uses its old Soviet name, the KGB. It controls a network of spies and monitors—known as “curators”—who oversee every establishment in the country, from schools and businesses to the presidential administration. Its agents collect compromising materials on just about anyone suspected of disloyalty and eavesdrop on the conversations of senior government officials to make sure they toe the party line.

ASEAN, China, other partners set world’s biggest trade pact (AP) China and 14 other countries agreed Sunday to set up the world’s largest trading bloc, encompassing nearly a third of all economic activity, in a deal many in Asia are hoping will help hasten a recovery from the shocks of the pandemic. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was signed virtually on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The accord will take already low tariffs on trade between member countries still lower, over time. Apart from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, but not the United States. It is not expected to go as far as the European Union in integrating member economies but does build on existing free trade arrangements.

Palestinians torn as Israel seeks Gulf tourists in Jerusalem (AP) When the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations with Israel, the Palestinians decried the move as a “betrayal” of both Jerusalem, where they hope to establish the capital of their future state, and the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the city’s holiest Muslim site. But with Israel now courting wealthy Gulf tourists and establishing new air links to the major travel hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Palestinians in east Jerusalem could soon see a tourism boon after months in which the coronavirus transformed the Holy City into a ghost town. “There will be some benefits for the Palestinian sector of tourism, and this is what I’m hoping for,” said Sami Abu-Dayyeh, a Palestinian businessman in east Jerusalem who owns four hotels and a tourism agency. “Forget about politics, we have to survive.” The prospect of expanded religious tourism could end up benefiting Israelis and Palestinians alike, as wealthy Gulf tourists and Muslim pilgrims from further afield take advantage of new air links and improved relations to visit Al-Aqsa and other holy sites.

Ethiopia’s Tigray leader confirms firing missiles at Eritrea (AP) The leader of Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray region has confirmed firing missiles at neighboring Eritrea’s capital and is threatening more, marking a huge escalation as the deadly fighting in northern Ethiopia between Tigray forces and the federal government spills across an international border. The brewing civil war in Ethiopia between a regional government that once dominated the country’s ruling coalition, and a Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister whose sweeping reforms marginalized the Tigray region’s power, could fracture a key U.S. security ally and destabilize the strategic Horn of Africa, with the potential to send scores of thousands of refugees into Sudan. At least three rockets appeared to be aimed at the airport in Asmara, hours after the Tigray regional government warned it might attack. It accuses Eritrea of attacking at the invitation of Ethiopia’s government after the conflict in the Tigray region erupted on Nov. 4 with an attack by regional forces on a federal military base there.

UN food agency warns 2021 will be worse than 2020 (AP) The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars “we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.” David Beasley said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was looking at the work the agency does every day in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, often putting staffers’ lives at risk to feed millions of hungry people—but also to send “a message to the world that it’s getting worse out there ... (and) that our hardest work is yet to come.” Beasley likened the upcoming crisis to the Titanic saying “right now, we really need to focus on icebergs, and icebergs are famine, starvation, destabilization and migration.” Beasley said WFP needs $15 billion next year—$5 billion just to avert famine and $10 billion to carry out the agency’s global programs including for malnourished children and school lunches which are often the only meal youngsters get.

#headlines #news

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justkeeptrekkin · 5 years

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Celestial Bodies: the OCs!

Hi everyone! So, my 1920s ineffable husbands fic, Celestial Bodies, was received with the most ridiculously unexpected praise- I was fully prepared for people to hate this fic because it had so many original characters. But you all seemed to love them just as much as I do, and that really means a lot.

I had a think about this, and figured, hey, some people might be interested in hearing a big of back-story. If you want to find out more about their appearances, you can find it in this post here.

Julian Knackerton (Jules)

Jules has always stood out amongst the rest. As a child, people immediately identified him as ‘the strange quiet one’, the child who stood at the periphery and measured the situation before joining. So introspective and, to his teachers, almost frighteningly advanced in his studies. Jules has never considered himself that strange, really, just different. The two needn’t mean the same thing.

His was born in Kensington. His mother, nee Edi Abramovich and daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrant Lev Amramovich, married local businessman Fenston Knackerton. They had just one child, Julian, who showed signs of being incredibly empathetic and kind, if not very quiet. They had no concerns for him at all, despite what his school peers (and their parents) said about him.

Julian went to a local grammar school and subsequently to Cambridge, where he met Dodders and Bingy. They fast became friends, as not a single one of them performed any pretence- unlike some of the boys at the University. Jules never had so many friends as he did at Cambridge, and it’s for that reason that he loved the experience quite so much. He is unfailingly loyal to each of them. His parents often asked whether he had met any nice girls in Cambridge, their letters regular and comforting. He always responded: not yet, mother. I’m not at all interested in marriage and daresay I never shall be. I hope that doesn’t disappoint.

Perhaps it did disappoint, at first, and likely neither one of them understood. But they didn’t mention it any further, and when they saw just how comfortable he was without any prospect of a wife, they didn’t feel like they had to press the matter.

Jules has never had a job, living off the rewards of his father’s successful mattress business. Or at least, that’s the impression that the others have had.

His employers, the British Secret Service, know otherwise.

Xenophon Smith (Xeno)

Xeno will never work for the British Secret Service, and we can thank God for that. But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a wonderful way of looking at the world that we could all learn from.

Xenophon Smith is one of four children, a middle child; the oldest, Alcibiades; second, Agrippina; then, Xenophon; then the youngest, Hektor. Each of the Smith children shone in one particular way or other. Alcibiades became a minor politician, being fairly skilled in rhetoric and encouraging the crowd. He is quite fierce, to this day. Agrippina is a spectacular sportswoman, and became one of the few women to play at the Olympic games, in swimming. Hektor is a chef, and cooks at the Ritz. (How he came upon this job is unknown to anyone in the Smith family. Xeno had told Crowley that his little brother was looking for a job, so perhaps it something to do with that? Xeno will never really know.)

Xeno’s skill, meanwhile, lies in his optimism. It is not a skill to be downplayed, although people have done so throughout his entire life. He is one of the only people amongst his friends to have not gone to university, instead, enlisted in the War.

He is a survivor of The Somme.

Stronger than anyone in his family, including his athlete sister and rhetorician brother, Xeno emerges from the tragedies of World War I and re-enters the social scene in London, living with his parents. He finds good in all things and all people, finding joy in many things that might help him forget the rest. Very few people can mentally survive such monstrosities as he’s seen, but Xeno does.

He meets Jules one day in the post-office queue, when Jules helps him find the right sized envelope to post a letter to his sister. How they ended up being so close, it’s hard to say, though it may have something to do with the fact that after their post-office meeting, they went to The Ritz and got extraordinarily drunk.

Shortly before Crossley Hall in 1923, Xeno thinks he’s actually quite ready to live on his own. After the heart-break at Crossley Hall, and no longer living with his family, he thinks he might, in fact, need a little help to get back up on his feet. And thus he meets Evans.

Evans is the first person to speak to him neither with patience nor impatience; only with interest, and perhaps something close to admiration. Xeno, at last, feels special.

Tilly Topping (Tilly)

Tilly is from a large family based in Birmingham. During the industrial revolution, her father, Samuel Topping, worked in a cutlery manufacturer, it being a city well-known during the Industrial Revolution for its metalwork. The owner of the factory, Gerald Smythe, had been a cruel employer and overworked his men and women. Samuel had led a rebellion against Smythe Metalworks, and ended up, inadvertently, being elected its new leader. Samuel Topping thus came into a sudden influx of wealth, formally bought the factory off of Gerald Smythe, and renamed it: Topping’s.

Samuel and his wife had already two young children, and moved from their smog filled little home to a countryside mansion. They had two more children before they had Matilda, aka Tilly. She is the youngest of the family and by far the feistiest. Her father, ironically, has never been keen on her attitude, fearing it would bring a bad name up on their family; her mother keenly encouraged it. Tilly still likes to spend time with her parents, but moved to London once she finished at school to see a little more of the world. Samuel Topping hoped that this would earn her a good husband from a wealthy, London-based family.

Tilly was dazzled by London and its nightlife. During her younger years, she found that boys were quite entertaining, but only to laugh at. This hasn’t changed in her adult years. It wasn’t until her first burlesque show in Hackney that she realised that she was extraordinarily interested in women, and not just in the mischievous girlish way she’d always told herself had been the case.

She has a brief but tumultuous relationship with a dancer from a club in Hackney, waking up one day to find that she’s been both robbed and left for a man, of all things. She mends her broken heart by finding some silly men with little pretence and nothing to hide- running into Dodders, Bingy, Xeno and Jules at Henley rowing regatta. They take her under their wing like they’ve known her all their lives, and they are immediately dedicated.

Although she has never been afraid of entering social spheres alone, with no recognisable name title, no one to link arms with her, she is far happier having her boys around. She especially loves how no-nonsense Jules is. And it is through Dodders that she meets a certain girl, pretty and perpetually pink cheeked. Constantly smiling and gentle in way that Tilly has never encountered.

Tilly has a pet guinea-pig called Sausage. This surprises any guests who come to her flat. Lottie Swaddle-Swidworth loves both of them.

Lottie Swaddle-Swidworth (Lottie)

Lottie went to Hanford Girls’ School in Dorset. Lottie specifically chose this girls’ school in the countryside because it has a lot of horses. There is very little that brings her as much joy as riding a horse, answering to no one and feeling no pressures of the world other than whether Sugar-plum the horse needs to stop for a drink.

The Swaddle-Swidworth family go back generations. They hail from Wiltshire and own half of the county. Lottie has a sister called Phillida, who is substantially more intellectually endowed than Lottie but not necessarily any better for it. The Swaddle-Swidworth parents were sad not to have borne a son, but were happy, at least, with two content daughters, should they marry well might inherit the estate. Phillida is three years older than Lottie and does just this; she finds a silly but impressionable man from Lancashire and they both inherit the family home. Phillida reigns there for many decades.

Lottie quickly realises that she, in her family’s eyes, is now superfluous. She is loved, but nothing she will do will make any of them proud. In a way, she is relieved; she has never had her sights set on greatness. But it naturally, of course, makes her feel dull and unappreciated (when she is in fact shining-bright and wonderful).

Seeing little else that she can do, she moves to London to live with a school friend. She misses the countryside enormously, and dreams of cuddling chickens and mucking out the stables. At night she dreams of fields, but during the day, she dines at the finest restaurants, shops at Harrods, and drinks at the best watering holes. It is at one of these watering holes that she meets Humphrey Doddering-Heights, and the both of them get on enormously well.

It makes perfect sense to get engaged the following day. It pleases both of their families enormously.

Lottie likes all of his friends, and they all like her. It all seems like it’s going perfectly, could she want anything more? It’s only when she meets the most astoundingly beautiful, powerful, witty woman on the planet that Lottie reassesses everything she knows about herself. (Perhaps those midnight games she played with the girls when she was at school, kissing each other for a dare, were a bit more meaningful than she’d realised at the time.) Tilly is larger than life, but kind and intelligent. She is unabashedly herself and she sparkles.

Tilly makes her feel like she can sparkle too.

Humphrey Doddering-Heights (Dodders)

Dodders comes from an old Devonshire based family. In England, you do still get these types of families, even after the economic drain of the war; they have generations of history, having owned estates in the countryside, having owned their land and seemingly going back forever and ever. If you walk down the corridors of Crossley Hall, you’ll see the esteemed Doddering family, once a strong line of soldiers, wise and sometimes cruel. You’ll see them marry into the Heights family for peace-keeping reasons, and over the years, each Doddering-Heights master portrait becomes a little less intimidating, a little less foreboding, and there’s possibly a little more creative licence used in making their jaws appear squarer than they probably were.

Dodders is the gentlest of them all, the softest product of the Doddering-Heights lineage. But by no means the least brave or good of heart. He has a younger brother, Eustace, whom he has done all he can to help out of the Doddering-Heights home; an oppressive place that was filled with dread and anxiety during their childhood. He’s learned to cling onto his golden-retriever smile and bouncing attitude, if not just to make his little brother smile. Life was often spent tip-toeing quietly downstairs so as not to disturb their parents, playing loudly in Humphrey’s room with toy soldiers. They weren’t allowed to play outside, or on the beach.

Sometimes, the butler Thomas would sneak them away to the dinghy for an afternoon, conspiring with their tutor (who would tell their parents they’d be going for an educational trip to the Roman ruins in Bath). Thomas would be the one to come running if they had nightmares; and Dodders would be the one to wipe his little brother’s nose when he cried.

Shortly after graduating (with an underwhelming qualification from Cambridge, having just scraped by in his exams) he left the Doddering-Heights estate and moved to London, where he lived off a monthly allowance from his parents- who assumed he was training to be a lawyer, soon to return to Devon. He ended up being fired quite swiftly from his job, and did not tell his parents. His little brother, hating Cambridge just as much as he had, ran away to live with him in London.

His parents think they’re supporting his training in London up until 20th February 1924, when he tells him he’ll be moving in with Bingy (who does end up having a job, and can hold one, too.) He adds to this that he is no longer engaged to Lottie. Their parents do not take this well.

Eustace marries a lovely girl from a Lincolnshire family, more old money that doesn’t look like it’ll dry out soon in the wake of the war. He is very happy walking dogs and doing little else. This, at least, pleases the parents.

Dodders is a naturally joyful man who’s used this demeanour to brighten everyone’s lives.

Particularly a certain-

Alistair Bingham (Bingy/Bing)

Bingy does not come from old money, but he does come from a background of relative privilege. His father is a doctor from a small town North of London, and his mother is an History teacher. Bingy inherited their wits, and gained something more that neither of his parents had; a sense of humour.

When he joined Eton, he prepared himself to hate it, knowing that his peers would all be children of politicians and Lords and Dukes, people who were far higher up the food chain than himself. At the tender age of 11 he ended up being put in a dorm with two rather brutish boys, twins of the Earl of Kent, and another boy. This boy was quite short and round; little did either of them know he’d shoot up to six foot five by the time he was seventeen. This boy was Humphrey Doddering-Heights, and he was the first person Bingy met at Eton.

When the others teased him for his relatively low social standing, Humphrey didn’t seem to care. More than that, he seemed to like Bingy, despite his serious demeanour. Perhaps because, through it all, Dodders knew how to identify someone who was actually dull, actually cold. Bingy warmed around Dodders immediately.

They became a duo very quickly, the other boys singling them out at first, hiding their books or leaving dog turd on their desks. After a while, people grew bored of teasing them. Bingy never retaliated, only coolly dealt with said dog turd without comment or a turned nose. There was something disappointing in that, for the bullies who lived with them.

Bingy has known that he loves Dodders since pretty much the beginning.

He graduates with a 2:1 at Cambridge in History, going through it all with Dodders. They find something in each other that they’ve never known from anyone else.

It seems perfectly natural to spend the rest of his life with Dodders.

#celestial bodies #my OCs #my writing #i can't believe how much people loved them <3

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sparklyjojos · 4 years

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CARNIVAL recaps [5/13]

Today’s recap: Nemu in pursuit of brains, the Doctor (no, no that one), and the youngest detective possible.

NINE

21 Sept 1996 — 27 Sept 1996

MACHU PICCHU

After the Empire State Building is blown up, big newspapers of the world publish a long letter from RISE to the world. RISE claims they already control the governments. They encourage people to lose their common sense and morals, as only those following their instincts will survive in this “kill or get killed” world. People shouldn’t avert their eyes from how cruel and repulsive they inherently are, but instead contribute to the Crime Olympics—which isn’t just violence for violence’s sake, but a revolution to eradicate “the Beasts”. Every crime in the Olympics should have a proper motive. Criminals who are caught or give themselves up to the police shall be compensated for their trouble. Only those who “believe in their own sense of judgement” will be saved. The only criminals here are those who deny their own crimes. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Even since the JDC explosion, the world’s crime rate and death toll has soared high in what was dubbed the Crime Olympics Phenomenon. UN’s official numbers say that four million people die every single day.

On September 21st, exactly 401 people are found dead in the famous Machu Picchu. It looks like people in the vicinity suddenly stopped what they were doing, stripped naked where they stood, gathered in Machu Picchu, and dropped dead from unexplained heart failure. The seventh skull of the Billion Killer is found at the scene.

On September 24th, Tsukumo Nemu investigates the scene assisted by a translator Pacha Palermo [remember her for much, much later]. Pacha’s father who had been working closely with the president became one of the Billion Killer’s victims.

Nemu remembers the case of the poisoned waiter that she, Jounosuke and Hikimiya got tangled into in Paris. It turned out later that the man hadn’t actually died from poison, but from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Further investigation revealed the presence of several no-brand “corned beef” cans containing human brain tissue in the man’s apartment. The waiter had visited Peru about two weeks before death, so it was concluded that he could have gotten those cans there. Nemu was asked by Dokuson to investigate the matter, and coincidentally arrived in Peru on the same day that the Billion Killer just happened to attack Machu Picchu.

(Speaking of Dokuson, he sure changed things in JDC. First, he introduced a merit system of payment instead of a steady monthly paycheck and announced that whoever didn’t do their job would be kicked out. Second, the detectives now had more freedom in choosing cases and could count on JDC to cover all costs involved. Third, the entrance exam was replaced by a normal interview process, resulting in a flood of new detectives. Fourth, instead of using their old Blue ID Cards, everyone would be given a shiny new IDID (International Detective ID) issued by DOLL to allow swift entry and proceedings in foreign countries.)

Pacha Palermo says that her father’s secretary Luca, who vanished “after those four hundred people were killed in Machu Picchu”, had kept in contact with suspicious Russian men. Nemu’s fuzzy reasoning tells her that something’s off here. She calls Jounosuke (who’s currently bored out of his mind recuperating in his house in Japan), and by consulting his language proficiency learns that Pacha has been mistranslating things on purpose to hide a lot of things from Nemu.

Pacha admits that Luca manipulated her father into getting some highly suspicious corned beef cans and used this fact to blackmail Pacha. Nemu notices that Pacha always says that there were “four hundred” victims in Macchu Picchu instead of four hundred and one. While it’s a nitpick, it’s a bit weird for Pacha to leave out a person, considering her father was one of the victims—almost as if she doesn’t count him as a Billion Killer victim. Nemu theorizes that it was Pacha who killed her father, or perhaps just directed him to go to Machu Picchu while knowing that mass murder would happen, but there’s no clear proof.

Either way, Nemu learns what she came to Peru for: the cans had been sourced from Moscow. She decides to fly to Russia to investigate further.

On the plane she reads the recently released Cosmic by Seiryoin Ryusui, which feels a little strange considering she took part in the case described in it. (The “all characters are fictional” disclaimer at the end is just weird in that context.) JDC is concerned by the book mentioning the Geneijo case, which is considered an L-crime and therefore the public shouldn’t be able to know anything about it. What’s more, this Seiryoin guy already announced that his second novel Joker that would come out in January would describe the Geneijo case in detail. Nobody knows who Seiryoin is—the common theory about him being Minase Nagisa (Dakushoin Ryusui’s twin sister) based on writing style similarity is apparently wrong.

Before Nemu can resume her investigation, she gets surprising news from Dokuson: Yaiba Somahito, the First Group’s leader, has kidnapped a boy from the hospital, run away from Japan with him, and is now moving towards Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Express. Dokuson orders Nemu to meet Yaiba halfway through Russia and put a stop to his madness.

TEN

28 Sept 1996 — 04 Oct 1996

EIFFEL TOWER

The Sanctuary docks at an invisible tower by the name of Tow Dreamer, a grand construction made of orichalcum just like the Billion Killer skulls. From there one can access the main headquarters of RISE, the Moonbow Palace.

White Rook, a.k.a. the Doctor, walks through the dark Moonbow Palace. As always he’s dressed in white and wears a mask—every other executive has a uniform in a different color and never shows their face, so they don’t know the others’ identities. White meets up with Black Rook—the Master—and together they ride the elevator to the top of Tow Dreamer to return to the Sanctuary.

White says that Alive is spreading nicely and it’ll be a while until someone finds an effective vaccine. RISE already has one, of course. They shouldn’t need it as long as they don’t come in contact with Godust, the substance containing the virus.

White and Black enter a place in the Sanctuary called the Cosmic Room to talk with “Mein Fuhrer”. [Seriously, you’re not very slick with the naming.]

The Cosmic Room is dark with many tiny lights spread throughout, so being in it feels like floating in starry space. On a magnetically levitating chair sits the leader Rudolf Strauss, dressed in silver, their face hidden under a realistic mask of a cow [or a bull or an ox, the Japanese word used can mean all these], which brings to mind the Minotaur of Greek mythos. RS speaks through a voice changer, so it’s impossible to guess their gender or age.

The three speak vaguely about “the genius pregnant woman”, wondering if she can become a threat to RISE. RS thinks they won’t have a problem. They already know the future will bring their victory, and now just have to patiently move the game pieces along. RS states that thanks to the Billion Killer, the Beasts shall be eradicated and the era of Gods will begin.

On September 28th, three Dots are sent to Paris to oversee the new Billion Killer case. They mention a case in Moscow in which a murderer thought to be the serial killer Amur Tiger replaced all mannequins in the GUM department store with headless bodies. One of the Dots gets heated and makes a bold comment about how the murderer may have aimed to find and kill a person who had a cow head [clearly taking a jab at RS here], and gets his head promptly blown up.

At exactly 1 PM, the top part of the Eiffel Tower is first cut off like with a knife, then sent flying by several explosions. Yet another skull of the Billion Killer is found at the scene.

Black Rook watches the show from Dragon’s Center, the control room where servants called Machines work with the Sanctuary’s computer and navigation system. Everything is going as planned. The Sanctuary moves towards the Billion Killer’s next target in Russia.

Black looks at another screen, which shows a secret live feed of Ryuuguu Jounosuke.

ELEVEN

19 Oct 1996 — 25 Oct 1996

NIAGARA FALLS

It’s been ten weeks into the Crime Olympics and the death toll has reached 280 million. We’re up to ten Billion Killer attacks with the latest ones in France, Russia, and Great Britain. Ten detective organizations have been blown up; at this point every remaining detective group just evacuates the entire staff near 1 PM on Saturdays, which lets them avoid casualties.

After the case in Russia, the Sanctuary headed to Japan to investigate the “genius pregnant woman”—Hanto Maimu, the former secretary of Ajiro Souji. It seems that the current leader of JDC Yuiga Dokuson is also interested in that certain ability of hers, as he came all the way to the hospital to visit her.

White Rook has been spying on Maimu by pretending to be her new doctor, “Shindou Masato” (this name of course being fake), so he was there when Dokuson visited. He seems impressed by the power of Dokuson’s presence and his ability to manipulate others with words (a bit reminiscent of Black Rook’s way with words), and thinks that if Dokuson joined RISE, he would have surely become the right hand of the leader, as they would certainly match in terms of charisma, blah blah blah, waxing poetics about Dokuson for two pages. [Well, now I know why I saw ship art of these two.]

From what White knows, Maimu has awakened a strange ability on August 10th, the day of the Billion Killer’s first case, that also happened to be her 28th birthday. Maimu was sad about the attack on JDC, but not at all surprised, since she had had a feeling that it happened, as if she subconsciously knew about the explosion as soon as it took place. Her strange feelings kept coming before every subsequent Billion Killer case, each time coming true. Since she always got these vague feelings at exactly 1 PM on Saturday in Japan time, in practice it meant she was predicting the future—1 PM didn’t happen for the majority of the world yet.

It’s estimated that Maimu will give birth around October 25th, in just a week. It’s strange that Maimu’s husband, a bank employee called Tanna Sazen and referred to simply as Danna (lit. “husband”), hasn’t shown up even once since last week, as if he vanished.

Before he was White Rook, the Doctor had been called Endou Naoto. Thinking about names, he remembers what Maimu wants to name her child: Hanto Kuraimu—Crime Hunt. [That’s the most metal name I’ve ever seen, but also means she wants to name her child Crime. Why. Also, there’s an entire part about how this pun doesn’t really work because in Japanese you put the family name first, though in modern times some families westernize their names and put family name last, see Christmas Mizuno as an example.]

White finds it strange that Maimu and Danna apparently thought of only one name, despite her being pregnant with two children. Are they going to call the second kid some variation of the first’s name? Are they going to split it in two somehow? Who knows.

Anyway, White contacts another RISE’s executive Yellow Bishop and learns that Danna’s whereabouts are still unknown, though he seems to be escaping towards Canada. Apparently Danna’s important to understanding just what Maimu’s newly awakened ability really is. Yellow has already mobilized his Dogs to chase him.

Dogs (not to be confused with Dots) are RISE’s spies who spend their entire lives undercover pretending to be normal members of society. (There are also Mice, human test subjects, and Machines, who work under Black to keep the Sanctuary moving, but we’re not going to talk about them now.) Danna is one of the Dogs. It’s not clear how, but he somehow learned about the Billion Killer’s plans and recently run away from his post.

White suspects there might be a secret connection between Yellow and Danna, but it’s hard to guess when he doesn’t even know what Yellow Bishop’s true identity is. Yellow always wears a mask and is quite talented in voice mimicry, so talking with him doesn’t help much.

Tanna Sazen / Danna married Maimu four years ago, technically on orders to try and pull information on JDC from her, but in a lucky turn of events he genuinely fell in love with her. Time passed. Maimu awoke her new ability of prediction. Danna suspected this ability was his fault, somehow originating from his knowledge of RISE’s secret plans, and so he fled.

Right now Danna is in Banff, Alberta, where he once cooperated with a fellow Dog, an Indigenous man living near the lake Minnewanka. Danna hopes his friend can help him hide from RISE. Unfortunately, this turns out not to be the case, and Danna has to flee from his should-be-friends trying to capture him and give him over to RISE. In the end Danna is forced to jump from a cliff into Bow Lake, a dangerous fall no ordinary person should survive.

The pursuers are only able to find Danna’s artificial eye and broken glasses in the lake, but when they report that they haven’t found the body to Yellow, he seems satisfied and orders them to stop the search.

Maimu makes a mistake in predicting the eleventh Billion Killer case. Her feelings tell her that people will vanish at the Victoria Lake in Canada, but something even stranger happens. A giant submarine suddenly surfaces on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, completely empty save for yet another Billion Killer skull. It seems to be the same Robo-Ship that vanished inside the Bermuda Triangle six weeks prior, but without its crew.

Maimu is taking a walk around the hospital when she’s beckoned over by a man wearing a black suit and made to answer a phone. The one calling appears to be the long-missing Ajiro Souji, who assures her that he’s safe and sound, but can’t go around showing his face just yet. Ajiro hints as to where Maimu can find information about her new ability, and ends the call by asking her to wait patiently and believe in his return.

The hint turns out to be… a paragraph in Cosmic, in which the narration makes a stray remark about how one day Maimu’s child would be a “fetus detective” and later an “infant detective”. [So all those times when Seiryoin does what seems like horrendous writing, all those “they couldn’t yet know that X would happen years later”? INTENTIONAL. God, I love metafiction.]

In other words, the one with a strange predictive ability isn’t Maimu; it’s her yet unborn child. That’s why the latest prediction was off—it’s so close to term that little Kuraimu is their own independent person by now and their connection with Maimu has weakened.

Maimu is lost as to how this ability works exactly, but from what Ajiro said, the child had somehow, in some way, inherited the knowledge about RISE’s plans in the form of genetic information from their father Danna, and was instinctively able to tap into it.

Maimu gives birth on October 31st, but contrary to what White said earlier, only one child is born—a baby girl detective already on a “crime hunt”—as if the other has simply vanished.

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

#sparkly reads carnival #maijo and jdc stuff

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digitaldreams0801 · 4 years

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Alitia Character Info Dump

I feel like doing another one of these, so here’s more Alitia character stuff since I love talking about this cast of characters in particular:

- Tanith hates sitting still. She can’t do it since she feels unproductive when not doing anything. She gets really jittery when forced to stay in one place for a long time. To remedy this, Jin decided to buy her fidget toys, and he keeps them all over his office. Zylphia has a few in her office that managed to travel between Angelwood and Alitia. Tanith keeps them in specific places around her room and plays with them often. Her favorite is a spinning disk that she keeps perpetually moving with her air magic.

- Luce’s secondary weapon of choice is the bow. Lewith taught her how to fire a bow over break between her first and second semesters at Alitia, and Luce is getting better quickly. She has the natural talent for using weapons that Altina does without the manifestation and can pick up nearly any weapon and learn how to use it after a few weeks of proper training. She can also use daggers and gauntlets, though spears and axes are taking some extra time for her to master.

- Fromir is terrified of Minerva because of his rocky relationship with his father. His father was the previous head of Sierra, and he passed down the position of headmaster to his son. Fromir’s father was incredibly intense on him, constantly pressuring him to be perfect, and it took a physical and mental toll on Fromir over time. Minerva’s occasional anger issues remind Fromir of him, and he hates it when she grows snappy as a result.

- Minerva’s anger problems are the result of her wings being torn out. When her magical core was disturbed by the forceful removal of her wings, she became somewhat unstable, and her magic is somewhat volatile because of it. Minerva’s hair catching fire is the primary outward symptom of her wing loss, though she is far more snippy than she ever was before due to the forceful removal of her wings screwing with her magical flow.

- Minerva and Leviathan have a sister named Brynn. Minerva is the oldest (older than Brynn by two years and Leviathan by four) with Brynn falling in the center of her and Leviathan. Brynn is a passive aggressive and manipulative person, wrapping everything behind a seemingly perfect smile. Brynn and Minerva have never gotten along due to Brynn’s petty nature clashing with Minerva’s stubborn attitude. Leviathan tends to avoid Brynn, not having enough time for her toxicity.

- Leviathan used to attend Sierra. He entered the freshman year just after Minerva graduated, though he had to clash with Brynn a few times due to their being in school at the same time. Minerva entered a year early at Sacred Heart (she was sixteen) while Brynn entered early two years later at Alitia. Leviathan was the only one to enroll on the regular timeframe, and he saw Brynn often because of it.

- Brynn is a magical elitist, for lack of a better term. She strongly believes that wings belong on women while they shouldn’t be with men, a traditional belief on their planet of Pyre. Minerva was cut off from the family after the removal of her wings after years of rocky arguments with their parents. Leviathan asserted his position after being accepted into Sacred Heart and left of his own free will after creating his own wings with his shapeshifting magic and leaving.

- Dawn hates feeling better than everyone else. After years of being treated as superior to most people, she grew to resent those who placed her on a pedestal, believing that she should be treated as all others are. She also hates blatant manipulation after years of people wanting to get close to her for the political power she possesses.

- Octavia gained her radical beliefs regarding leath equality from a revolutionary leader named Briyana Frazier. After sneaking out of the palace, Octavia met Briyana by chance, and Briyana told her about the horrors leaths endure each day. Octavia immediately decided that she wanted to help and began planning for revolution when she was given the throne while still maintaining a facade of perfection that her grandfather would approve of.

- Many things about Magia society closely resemble Earth because of where Starlight and Moonlight came from. They were born on Earth before creating Magia as a place for all magical or misfit people. The calendar year is the same because of this, and the sun remains called the sun. The same applies to the moon.

- The birthdays of the Second Camaraderie members are as follows: Luce (June 19), Iris (December 13), Sophia (June 21), Sylvia (May 7), S.M. (October 21), Helena and Carys (November 11), and Tanith (December 16). All of these birthdates are known to be accurate save for Tanith. Instead, her birthday is the day she was adopted by Zylphia and Jin since the true date is unknown. In honesty, the day is in September, though nobody is aware of such.

- The Sealed Ones in the Starlight Camaraderie are all connected to given zodiac signs, a tradition for Sealed Ones. Dawn is Tauros, Cryon is Capricorn, Jin is Leo, Minerva is Scorpio, Fromir is Aquarius, Altina is Gemini, Zylphia is Virgo, and Caius is Sagittarius. This leaves Cancer, Pisces, Libra, and Aries unoccupied. They are the first generation to not have a Keeper of Moonlight due to Ragnor’s treachery in starting the War of Starlight causing him to be deemed as impure and unfit by the gods.

- Nebula has an uncle figure by the name of Omen. He and Karver have been friends for years since the two of them both attended Sierra the same year as the Starlight Camaraderie. While Omen isn’t related to Karver or Nebula, he is fiercely loyal to them both. They never associated with any members of the group since Fromir was a few years younger than them, instead keeping to themselves.

- While he was attending Sierra, Leviathan was nothing short of a terror. He constantly played pranks on Fromir’s father using his magic, gaining him something of a reputation as a troublemaker. However, there was never enough evidence to prove that Leviathan was behind it, so he never got in trouble for it. He graduated at the top of his class, though Fromir’s father was not happy about it in the slightest.

- Leviathan would later learn about Fromir’s father treating Fromir poorly after the two of them got together. Leviathan expresses often that he does not regret his pranks in the slightest, claiming that Fromir’s father fully deserved everything Leviathan gave him. Fromir laughs such off to hide his silent agreement.

- Leviathan grows somewhat close with Nebula after he and Fromir begin dating. Both of them love to prank Fromir, so they became fast friends when they realized the prank potential of shapeshifting and illusions. Fromir has not had a moment of peace since they began to tag team with their already impressive prank skills.

- Originally, Minerva had scholarships to both Alitia and Sacred Heart. She had already earned her Isolis as a dark mage by that point, but she still considered Alitia until she learned Brynn had plans of going there. As soon as she learned that, she jumped aboard the Sacred Heart train. This was for the best given that Brynn would grow up to harass her endlessly when they crossed paths at the Millennium Six.

- Dawn is very good at persuading others. She likes to pull out huge puppy eyes when she wants to get others to agree with her, and nobody is immune to it. The first time she tried those ideas on Cryon, he immediately caved despite his stubborn nature because he couldn’t stand to see her looking so sad, even if it was an act.

- In order to properly communicate with each other through language barriers, all mages and leaths are given a long-lasting translation spell at birth that allows them to understand each other in a common language. This prevents misunderstandings by giving everyone a common ground to start a relationship from.

- Fromir was unanimously decided as the precious child of the Starlight Camaraderie. He’s two years younger than the rest of the group, but they all would do anything for him. Even Minerva, who still intimidates him some, would light someone on fire if she thought it would keep him safe and happy.

- Cryon grew up on Amity with his single mother. She was a leath who escaped the grasp of Iago shortly after his birth, and she did everything for him. Cryon loved his mother dearly leading up to her death. She died a year before he set out to attend Ridgeview, and he vowed to press on for her sake. This was when he took up mercenary work, getting him noticed by a teacher of Ridgeview who offered him a scholarship.

- Michaela also attended classes the same year as Minerva, Cryon, and the rest of the Starlight Camaraderie. She tended to run with a different crowd and didn’t openly associate with them often, preferring to keep to herself due to her introverted nature.

I think that’s all I have in me for now. That was a lot of facts, after all. Anyways, stan Alitia, thank you very much.

#alitia #ocs #original characters

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jmespottuh · 4 years

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❛ if there’s one thing the gods love, it’s tragedy. with wings that burn and boys who fall. ❜

* ╰ brandon arreaga ; 17 ; he/him —— wow, james potter sure has changed. i guess he is feeling isolated from the other gryffindor members. guess you can’t really blame them. i still remember them being so charming & incisive now they just seem dependent & inexorable. guess being a pureblood isn’t helping matters much either. i’m hopeful though. they’ll be just fine.

links: pinterest, stats character parallels: bellamy blake ( the 100 ), shane madej ( buzzfeed unsolved ), jake peralta ( brooklyn nine-nine ), stefan salvatore ( the vampire diaries ), scott mccall ( teen wolf ), steve harrington ( stranger things )

james henry potter ( named for two his two grandfathers, maternal and paternal respectively ) was born on april 4th, 1960 to two of the most loving parents a child could have.

fleamont and euphemia had been trying for a child for years. they’d been together for basically all of time, having been that typical good-looking, well liked couple in hogwarts that everyone always just assumes will get married ( spoiler alert: they did ), however had had to postpone kids due to fleamont’s brief stint as a professional quidditch player for eight years following their graduation. after that, they would try every month for a child, and after many years of disappointment, eventually gave up. it was during this time that fleamont developed the sleekeazy hair potion which only added to their immense wealth.

finally at age forty-one, they were surprised with the arrival of james. obviously, they saw him as their miracle child, and as such he was pampered and completely spoiled from the moment he was born.

i cannot stress enough how much this spoiled upbringing shaped james into the person he is today. if you’re wondering why he was ever an arrogant prick, it’s because he was always used to getting absolutely everything he ever wanted. he grew up with money, he grew up with fame and with every bit of attention he could garner, and so it was really no wonder he was a bit of an asshole by the time he started at hogwarts.

obviously, james had a pretty cushy childhood, and as such, shit didn’t start getting real until he started at hogwarts.

it took all of three seconds for the hat to sort him into gryffindor, and i guess you could say he pretty much considered himself to be the gem of the house. he was the absolute epitome of a gryffindor, basically considered him the poster boy and all but expected everyone to love him.

really did not help his ego to know that everyone did.

in typical sterotype-gryffindor fashion, james hated slytherin. he had always been taught growing up that purists were basically the root of all evil, and his father had had no qualms in lumping all these people in with the house of the snakes. james and his friends took a particular disliking to severus snape almost immediately for the poncy way in which he seemed to believe he was superior to all for his intelligence and his house status, and this dislike only grew when lily evans was tossed into the mix, too.

for basically the first four or five years of hogwarts, james really was that stereotypical arrogant asshole that he’s often made out to be. he always got everything he asked for, he was incredibly popular and incredibly intelligent, he had the most amazing friends and his eyes on the most amazing girl. he was set!! shit was good!!

shit was not good, though. definitely was not.

despite having known of remus’ furry little problem since second year, things didn’t really start to settle in james how awful it was until third or fourth year. he hated seeing his friend in pain, he hated that he couldn’t help, and so he rallied the boys to put into action their worst plan yet!!!!

becoming animagi!!!!!!

it took fucking forever, obviously, but by the end of fourth year they did it!! we stan icons

except then in fifth year shit hit the fan again in just, like… so many ways

first, it was the whole severus ‘mudblood’ situation. honestly, james was absolutely furious. he’d always hated snape but this just made everything 1000 times worse. even if it had happened to anyone else, he would have been fuming. but for it to have happened to lily like… yikes.

this was also a horrible time for james though because lily rejected him for the thousandth time. like, look, what a yikes thing to think when she was just called a mudblood, but frankly he was sick of being rejected and he was sick of being the asshole who kept pressuring her so that was the breaking point — he gave up on her.

and tbh, he changed a lot from here on out. grew up!! became a better person bc he saw how horrible snap was and decided he was sick of horrible people!! saw, recognised and acknowledged that just bc he was hot and intelligent and rich he wasn’t always going to get everything he wanted ( see: miss evans ) and just generally learned that oh shit the world doesn’t revolve around him!!!

oh and then there was that whole thing with sirius and snape and remus the werewolf and ohhhh boyyyy…. that infuriated him.

he loves his bros so much and y’all know he would die for them, but to see his friend abuse remus’ pain and suffering for his own gain was heart wrenching. it just pushed him further to pull him in line, to realise that not everything was about games, or petty rivalry, or ‘ getting the girl ’ — life was heartache and mistakes and it was never going to go the way he wanted it to.

now look, this isn’t all to say that james is now a super strict, super intense, brooding weirdo. he’s still a bit of a child, and he’s still a bit of an arrogant prick, but ultimately what wins out is his morals — every time. he wants to lead the world to a better place, without war and without hate, he wants everyone to have the same opportunities he had as a kid and he wants nothing more than for blood purity to be eradicated.

get that shit outta my house!!! gross!!!!!!

now in his final year, james is always flipping between taking his role as head boy deadly serious and turning it into one big game of mischief. he’s still a marauder at heart, after all, and has definitely abused his power sometimes for the benefit of fun and games, but when it comes down to it, he can be very strict and lowkey paternal. the leader really just…. popped right outta him, it came to play and it came hard, and really you’d think he’s minister for magic with how serious he treats it sometimes.

i hate him.

the disappearance of one of his best friends, one peter pettigrew, landed james to flop pretty fucking hard on the side of seriousness. once you spend months without knowing where your best friend is, thinking he’s dead, you’re bound to start to lose a bit of that which once made you smile. it was this piled on top of what james had already been feeling which led the head boy to start finding ways he could join the revolution within the walls of hogwarts --- it’s been bloody hard but james is determined to make a difference, to make sure no one else he loves suffers in a war that they never asked to fight in the first place.

anyway here’s some fun facts that didn’t fit up top

james is a lot less intense with his hatred for slytherin’s. he has come to recognise that not everyone from that lifestyle is going to be the same, not everyone who grew up a certain way or was sorted into a certain house is going to think with a deadly mind, and while he’s still a bit wary, he’s a lot more relaxed about it, especially as head boy ( gotta at least pretend shit’s fair !!! )

he’s very dependent as in like… boi cannot go a week without his friends. he is used to having people to bounce off, that’s always the type of leader he has been, and as much as he would probably be amazing at anything on his own, he’s never really tried. too scared!! i hate him!!!!!

super unforgiving. like, if you have gotten on his bad side…. i’m sorry. it is going to be very difficult to return from there. his moral compass is pretty black and white, you’re either good or your bad, and if you’ve done something he considers bad well sucks to be you, i guess. sorry not sorry.

takes his quidditch very seriously tbh. so many people have told him he needs to be a pro like his dad, but he’s like haha fuck you i know what i wanna do ( hint hint: he wants to rule that goddamn auror office, make that shit far more efficient then he thinks it is now ). but srsly, he’s so intense abt the game and it really like… idk gets him in the zone, keeps him level-headed in amongst all this chaos.

he’s smart. i guess. straight a’s and shit idk. just very naturally intelligent, finds everything he does easy, like.. really is that asshole who is just good at everything he does.

#incantareintro #| ❛ the shackles of a martyr. ❜ ( character study. )#enjoy this rambly mess of a recycled intro that most of yall have read before fsjaklg

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freelancewriterbarbie · 7 years

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Why Teens Shouldn’t Run Revolutions

Hi guys. I’m going to piss off a lot of YA writers (and possibly readers) today, so hang onto your hats.

Mainly, if you’re in love with the idea of a high schooler with no strategic or combat experience heading up a revolution or war because they’re “so dedicated and determined,” don’t read this. Please, don’t. You’re not going to see anything you like. Go ahead and keep enjoying your guilty pleasure – that’s fine. I’m not going to own up to some of the guilty pleasures I love in fiction but don’t buy for a second in real life. That’s chill. Go for it, man.

But there are just things that I – and readers like me – are tired of seeing. If you’re sick of that trope, then keep reading. If you’re open to the idea of ditching that trope in your writing, then I really recommend reading.

This assessment/collection of tips on why teens shouldn’t run revolutions - and if you’re going to make them, how they CAN do it well - will include comparisons to history, other fiction (Unplugged), and Black Butler. Plus swearing and a range of incorrect capitalizations, because it’s fun.

On we go:

A short message to the book, Unplugged:

You know why you have to be 18-years-old before they let you join the military in the U.S.? Because high schoolers shouldn’t be allowed to even clean a machine that’s being involved in war – let alone run the goddamn campaign. You’ve already proven beyond a shadow of doubt you can’t handle the social battles of the school halls; how the hell are you going to handle the complexities of a war?

…Unplugged has me in a bit of a dither.

Why Teens and Children Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Run Wars or Rebellions:

Your crush rejects you and your day (or days) is ruined. Someone says something mean to you and it not only requires four paragraphs (20 minutes to 2 hours) of reflecting, self-pitying, and self-doubt, but can possibly affect you chapters (days to weeks or even months) later.

What does this mean? You haven’t learned how to compartmentalize yet. War requires compartmentalization! Dividing yourself from your seat of power; dividing your personal life from your professional life. Learning to put real and legitimate trials of the heart on the back burner because they’re not a priority.

To the teen protagonist of Unplugged and plenty of teen protags like her: you got manipulated into offering up your body because your sister asked you nicely – the sister you haven’t seen in over a decade and who just said to your face she was going to off you! Who cares if you love her or if there are emotional tugs. You’re not grounded enough in your own standards and what you are and aren’t willing to put up with to start a war! You’re easily swayed!

Why Other Fiction Needs to Dodge This Problem:

Don’t let this chick sit at a negotiation table; she’ll hand over the cause because someone appealed to her personal sense of morality. If you start a war, you better be so damn convinced of it that no counter argument could possibly sway you. If you think there exists a counter argument that could – then Don’t. Start. The. Damn. War.

Or at the very least – don’t be in charge of the damn war! Put someone far more convinced than you at the head of the army or cause! Someone more emotionally well balanced and founded who can handle the war as a general and not as a person. This isn’t high school where we’re supposed to find our emotional foundation – you need to have it before you get started.

History and Real Teen or Child Rulers/Leaders/Conquerors:

But okay. Okay. Look back at history – there have been plenty of young rulers, leaders, and conquerors. Age doesn’t matter in and of its self. But you know what the difference is?

Those teens were RAISED for the job. From age five or even younger, they were groomed to be exactly what they became – by people who already held the position they’re achieving. Tribal warrior teen? Was taught how to kill and defend their village since they could walk. Conquering prince at the age of 10? He had a father, and a team of advisers, and countless other GENERALS, and KINGS, and GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS who TRAINED him since a young age. Not the most cliché suburban family ever! People who devoted their whole career to understanding the art of GOVERNMENT, and WAR, and RULING. Not people who attend Tupperware parties, talk about politics they’ve only heard about on TV – and as mere dinner conversation – and whose most defining characteristic is telling you to eat all your veggies because children in Africa would love to have that food (back at you, Unplugged).

Those child or teen leaders didn’t learn social studies and history and math so maybe they could become a janitor, or an artist, or a doctor, or ‘who knows, they have time to decide.’ They learned social studies so they could understand how SOCIETY and HUMANS worked, so they could RULE them or CONQUER them. They learned history so they could take point from PREVIOUS RULERS AND CONQUERORS on how to do the job. They learned math so they could better form GOVERNMENT POLICY and STRATEGIZE in war. They accomplish the task of ruling and warring well because that’s what they’ve specialized in for YEARS.

The point comes down to this: Why Time Counts:

Here’s how it goes averagely: High schoolers do their high school thing, they hit 18, they join the military, they spend the next decade or so learning all that war shit and SLOWLY rising through the ranks as they PROVE themselves. As they gain EXPERIENCE. Most of it is spent doing push-ups, cleaning shit, and following express orders to the very T, because being a free-thinking individual doesn’t work when there are lives and countries at stake and you don’t have the EXPERIENCE yet to make a solid call on that kind of shit.

THEN after YEARS and even DECADES of experience, through which you’ve watched the LEAD of others, you MAYBE get to be high ranking enough to make judgment calls. Or calls at all. After years of specialized practice, teaching, and training, you get to lead wars.

That’s the facts, jack.

So let’s say, for the sake of simplicity, it takes you ten years of this rigorous shit to earn that status.

Teen warriors in the past? Why do they get to do it as teens? Because they are 14 and they ‘joined’ when they were fucking four. Not 18. So they don’t have to be 28 before that shit happens because they GOT THEIR 10 YEARS IN EARLY. NOW they’re ready to lead.

Modern day high schooler protagonist? You’re 16, or EVEN 18, and you haven’t had any of those 10 years. Even if you just had one year of experience, IT’S NOT 10. You are a four-year-old in the eyes of that 14-year-old historical conquer as far as experience goes. That 14-year-old is 28 in your eyes as far as experience goes.

Why Maturity Matters, and How You Can Have a Child Body But an Adult Mind:

By the time you’re 28, you’re probably passed the teen romance and ‘finding yourself’ state. NOW you’re qualified.

That 14-year-old historical leader? Didn’t even start that. Cut that whole portion out of their life. They went from four to 18 with no middle ground at all, and hit the tarmac running. That is the trade-off of being a child leader.

Want your teen romance and soul searching time? That’s good. Do that. But don’t expect to run a war at the same time because those two things need to be COMPLETELY REMOVED FROM ONE ANOTHER.

Is it sad that kid didn’t get a childhood? Sure. But that’s the trade-off of running a war at 14. You can fit an adult brain in a child’s body, but that means you have to get rid of the child’s brain. If you want to be a child’s age and still be a leader, then you need to get rid of the CHILD MENTALITY. Adults run wars. Children don’t run wars. So that 14-year-old becomes an insta-adult.

Does this fuck someone up? It can. It really can. So if you think it’s going to fuck you up, wait until you’re older. If you think it’s going to fuck up someone you know? Don’t let them start a war, and/or hand the war off to someone else and let the kid continue in their childhood.

Experience, Experience, Experience:

Dear teen protag, you’re not even out of high school, and as early as last week your biggest worry was, “Does my crush know I exist?” AND NOW YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU’RE READY TO BE THE BEST GENERAL THERE EVER WAS? AND SPEARHEAD A REVOLUTION?

Determination is all fine and dandy, sweetheart, that’s great. BUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE THIS THEIR WHOLE LIFE ARE GOING TO TRUMP THE EVER LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU. Maybe they’re not as determined as you. Maybe they’re not even as dedicated as you. But put someone who plays Monopoly every day, all day, and has for years, up against someone who’s NEVER played but REALLY wants to win.

Who is going to manage their money better? Who is going to know which properties are really valuable? Who’s going to talk you out of your properties, and then have no problem being cut-throat in trading in return because THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN? Who knows how to drag out the game until you’re so bored and confused that you mess up or quit? The player who plays every day is used to the rules and used to PLAYING the other PLAYERS. If they didn’t, THEY WOULDN’T PLAY MONOPOLY SO MUCH.

You. Need. Experience. You can’t even become a doctor without years of training and specialized practice. You can’t even become a JANITOR without experience. You might be able to bullshit your way through an interview to become a janitor, and be a damn fine one once you have, but this is fucking war. Against enemies who are better prepared, have been better prepared for LONGER, and have experience on you. The stakes are higher and people are specifically hunting for your failures. You are going to lose and people are going to die for it. Congrats.

You Need to Be Emotionally Well-Balanced, and Bounce Back:

Hi, Unplugged and similar protagonists, me again.

You’re too susceptible to shock. Your heart rises to your throat every time something bad happens or you’re caught off guard. Bull. You need to have a ‘I didn’t predict that, but I’m not surprised’ mentality for everything.

It’s okay to not see things coming. It’s okay if it catches you off guard sometimes. But you need to never be SURPRISED. Surprised means you NEVER CONSIDERED EVEN THE POSSIBILITY. Even if you didn’t know what that possibility was, know that there is an unknown factor you didn’t account for – and leave some room for overflow just in case!

You know who’s capable of that? People with an adult-level of maturity in their brains. Tell a kid that the bills won’t be made that month. Kid will flip the fuck out. Crying, worrying, trouble sleeping, sickness even. Can’t handle it. Just can’t handle that responsibility or that stress or that fear.

Why does your mom not act like this if the paycheck is short for the bills? Because she may not have expected it – she may panic a little – but she isn’t shocked by the idea that money can be short, that work can be short, that bills can sometimes be missed. It’s not a mind blowing concept.

She’s. Learned. How. To. Manage. Stress. She’s learned to anticipate problems, and create a savings, or negotiate with the landlord, or get another job. She has the forethought to be able to look and find the solution rather than drowning in the now. Drowning in the now causes you to make decisions for NOW, not the FUTURE.

That’s why MOMS are in charge of the bills. That’s why CHILDREN are not. Your teen protagonist’s mom is probably better equipped to run the revolution than them. Which brings me to the next point:

Striking the Teen or Child Leader Balance: TEACHERS and SUPPORT:

Give Them Qualified Teaches – and Don’t Bully-ify Them

You want a child or teen revolutionary leader? Cool. Give them experience from the start.

Want a teen with no experience before the moment the war started? DON’T PUT THEM IN CHARGE OF IT.

If you’re going to put them in charge of it, SURROUND THEM BY PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY’RE DOING.

Then make the teachers have an invested interest in TEACHING THEM, not just proving them wrong. Sure, maybe they’ll be resentful as shit that some cosmic reason has put the kid in charge and not them, but after that, they’ll start MOLDING the child to be as good as THEY would’ve been. Why? Because if they weren’t capable of putting their own emotions aside and both evaluating and pursing what was best for the CAUSE or the WAR, they wouldn’t be in their position of power!

Don’t Make Them Better Than Their Teachers

Having all the qualified people ooh and awe about how much smarter the kid is than them doesn’t give them legitimacy. Having the kid trump them at everything beyond the odds doesn’t add legitimacy. It makes those ‘qualified people’ look stupid.

They wouldn’t be qualified if a kid could trump them in the first, second, or third try. One of those teachers was once the prodigy if they’re in charge of teaching you, the causes’s next leader and final great hope. Now they’re 40 and still a prodigy. They have 25 years and that prodigy-ness on you. They’re better than you. The teacher has to be better than the student to explain why the student is improving at all. Don’t have the kid blow them out of the water at every turn.

If the kid knocks a ball out of the park against the predictions of the other generals, make it RARE, and EXCEPTIONAL, and something others acknowledge as JUST THAT. Make it “you’ll make a great general SOME DAY with that attitude.” “You made a good call THIS TIME, kid.” “You’re going to be better than me WHEN YOU’RE MY AGE.” Don’t make their moment of rare triumph an immediate shift of power from those older, more experienced, and more qualified.

Nobody is Suddenly Expert Level at Something

You like high school YA stories? Great! Let’s put it in that context.

Instead of one teacher vs. 30 students, you have 30 teachers vs. your own main character student. Their lives hinge on making sure that kid gets as smart as them.

How ridiculous would it be if a 2nd grader was thrown in a class and they just KNEW math without ever once doing a problem before? Better yet, they know it better than their nuclear physicist of a teacher after a month? No. Don’t do that.

If after a few months of lessons, the teacher says to do the problems with ONE FORMULA, and the kid messes around with a NEW FORMULA and gets the SAME ANSWER – then good for the kid! The kid will get accolades and acknowledgment that they did something right all by themselves against the odds. Great.

Then they use the formula for something else and get the wrong answer. That’s natural. There’s a reason the teacher uses one formula. That’s fine. They’re still learning. BUT THEY SHOULDN’T TRUMP THEIR TEACHER AFTER A FEW TRIES, and NOT EVERY SINGLE TIME GOING FORWARD.

They Can Be Ahead of the Game – But Can’t Win the Game Immediately

After six years of lessons from that nuclear physicist, maybe they’re as good as a college freshmen. Sure, because they’ve had specialized training from a super qualified professional(s). I’ll buy that. But first there has to be TRAINING, and TIME, and by the RIGHT PEOPLE.

You can make your kid character a prodigy – but what is the thing about prodigies? They find a mentor and excel like hell. There aren’t prodigies who just can DO math without someone ever showing them numbers. There aren’t prodigies who can play the piano well without ever even listening or watching someone else play. They do better than normal, but they don’t become great or successful without some direction from others.

Surround your character with talented people – lots of them – and give them years to learn. THEN, yes, you will springboard them ahead of the norm. An 18-year-old soldier fresh from high school, with normal training and teaching, is not going to be at 20 what someone who has had specialized focus from the top minds since 18 will be.

Point in Practice:

Black Butler

Look at Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler.

The kid is 10 when he starts his goal to become an Earl, with absolutely zero experience – even in tying his own shoes. Not just an Earl, but also an Earl the Queen trusts to handle shit she can’t trust anyone else with. Complicated shit. Shit involving bad guys that are way more experienced, resourceful, and talented than even the Queen’s top guys. Tall order, right?

How does Ciel achieve this position realistically in two years?

He has a 5,000 year old demon with crazy vast knowledge who decided to make him its fucking pet project. It also has magic on its side to make sure its TEACHING abilities are SUPER ON POINT (note that it’s about its TEACHING abilities, not its ‘bibbity, bobbity, boo, I’ve expanded your brain capacity and infused you with all the knowledge you need’ magic. It’s going to TEACH HIM, so it’s made ITSELF the BEST TEACHER in existence). Cool. You’re ALLOWED to USE WORLD BUILDING to your advantage, but use it REALISTICALLY.

Ciel now has an ADVANTAGE over other people in his position. World building has made sure he has 50 super EXPERIENCED and TALENTED and SMART teachers smashed into ONE creature whose purpose in life for the next few years is making sure HE’S PREPARED AND QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB.

BUT GUESS WHAT? It still takes TIME. And DEDICATION. And EFFORT. Not dedication in achieving the goal he wants to complete when he’s done – BUT DEDICATION TO GETTING READY TO EVEN HAVE A SHOT AT IT.

Ciel’s school days become 24/7. In isolation. For two whole years (technically one and a half, but the training doesn’t stop there. It continues more lightly for a total of three years). Super smart demon dude has his UNDIVIDED ATTENTION for YEARS. And he’s mercilessly rigorous on him. Corporal punishment if he doesn’t pick something up well or if he messes up. Gives him MOTIVATION to IMPROVE not only because he has NO OTHER CHOICE because of ISOLATION. Not only because he WANTS to be QUALIFIED to achieve his goal. But also because the demon makes it PAINFUL and DANGEROUS not to improve.

Part two? FOCUSED TRAINING! Demon dude didn’t teach him how to tie his shoes, or make his own breakfast, or even how to bath himself. That was all fluff and nonsense cut out to make room for the skills and knowledge he needed to be QUALIFIED FOR HIS TARGET POSITION OF POWER. Demon dude handled all that fluff HIMSELF, so Ciel’s brain was vacant enough to be filled with JUST THE SHIT HE NEEDED.

Ciel had no romances. He had no friends. He had no time to sunbath or read for fun or take a day off. The VERY DAY after he made his deal – WHILE HE WAS STILL INJURED, STARVED, AND MALNOURISHED – his INTENSE training began.

Part three: The kid gave up his childhood or even the thought of HAVING or WANTING a childhood so he could do this. He dumped the child mentality entirely. He dumped that perspective on maturity completely. He aimed immediately for adulthood and started acting like an adult. He became an adult MENTALLY, because you can have a child body and an adult mind if YOU WANT IT and if you FORCE IT TO HAPPEN. He accepted teaching on how to be an adult from a creature that was 5,000 years old – and learned to be a ruthless one at that. His determination was on something that would ACTUALLY IMPROVE HIM and make him QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB. ONLY AN ADULT COULD DO THE JOB so he MADE himself AN ADULT.

Why did Ciel make this happen REALISTICALLY in TWO YEARS even though he was TEN YEARS OLD?

Because his training was INTENSE ON ONLY WHAT HE NEEDED. His training was CONSTANT AND ALL-ENCOMPASSING OF HIS LIFE. And he had someone MORE THAN QUALIFIED THAT WAS TEACHING HIM WITH AN EXTREME DEDICATION TO MAKING SURE HE COULD DO THE JOB. Not to mention that he made himself an adult and put an end to any scrap of that child level of himself.

The demon is STILL smarter than him. The demon STILL ties his shoes, helps him make judgment calls, and does all his fighting for him, because:

There’s a reason Sebastian was so qualified to teach Ciel. There’s no way Ciel is going to reach the demon’s level without all of Sebastian’s knowledge and EXPERIENCE earned through TIME.

Sebastian didn’t train him to BE AN ALL POWERFUL, SUPER TALENTED, UNSTOPPABLE DEMON. He trained him to be AN EARL capable of doing WHAT THE QUEEN WANTED and only what THAT JOB needed. If he trained Ciel to become a demon of his caliber, it WOULD NOT have happened in two years (or at all, since world building dictated just that, but also) because it didn’t happen for SEBASTIAN in that time.

If you want your character to be exceptional, then you need exceptional reasons for it. Not that they’re a special snowflake – but that real world EXCEPTIONAL things happened to EQUIP them for that! The EFFORT it took to be exceptional has to MATCH the level of EXCEPTIONAL the CHARACTER IS.

Let’s say it louder for the people in the back:

The EFFORT it took TO BE EXCEPTIONAL has to MATCH THE LEVEL of EXCEPTIONAL the CHARACTER IS.

Again!

THE EFFORT IT TOOK TO BE EXCEPTIONAL HAS TO MATCH THE LEVEL OF EXCEPTIONAL THE CHARACTER IS.

Prodigy means “better off than others.” Not “already accomplished the goal.” You might have a head start, but you still have to run the damn race.

The race to being qualified enough to head a damn revolution!

In Closing:

There’s a reason revolutions today aren’t led by 16-year-olds. There’s a reason why real child soldiers don’t act anything like children. If you want to have a YA novel with a teen or child heading a revolution, then be aware that TEENS AND CHILDREN DON’T DO THAT. If they do that, they’re not teens or children anymore. They’re adults in young bodies. That transition requires a great deal of effort and changes both their personality and their approach to life.

Furthermore, even after their hurdle, not getting slaughtered in a war means being good at warring. You don’t get good at warring easily, quickly, or without guidance. “Determination” is not an explanation for why someone is capable of something. That explains WHY they took the STEPS to BECOMING capable. The STEPS need to make sense. Make your character take STEPS.

This has been a rant. Hope you enjoyed it, found it useful, found it funny, or, if you didn’t heed my first warning – will keep all your death threats grammatically correct.

Laters!

#YA #teen characters #child characters #revolution #character development #YA rebellions #writing advice #black butler #war #combat #teens in war #characters fighting rebellions #characters fighting wars #favorite #why teens shouldn't head revolutions #leaders #teen leaders

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marjaystuff · 6 years

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Charles Rosenberg Interview by Elise Cooper

The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington by Charles Rosenberg is a great Fourth of July novel. Anyone who feels a sense of patriotism will want to read this gripping story about America’s General George Washington. The suspense ratchets up as readers wonder what will happen to one of America’s greatest heroes.

This thought-provoking alternative history book takes place in the midst of the American Revolution. An English plot to kidnap General George Washington, brings him overseas to England, and puts him on trial as a traitor. But some like British Prime Minister Frederick North want to use him as a bargaining chip to put an end to a very costly war. British special agent Colonel Jeremiah Black, an officer of the King’s Guard, is assigned the task of landing on a deserted beach in late November 1780. Aided by “Loyalist” Americans he is able to sprint Washington aboard the HMS Peregrine. Upon their arrival, Washington is imprisoned in the Tower of London to await trial on charges of high treason.

Although Washington is more of a secondary character, throughout the novel his presence looms significantly. Key characters include the American ambassador, Ethan Abbott, sent to negotiate Washington’s release, the British Prime Minister Lord North, and the defense attorney chosen to defend Washington, Abraham Hobhouse, an American-born barrister with an English wife. An added highlight has all the characters’ debating key issues of the time. Rosenberg does this with a great writing style where readers do not feel as if they are being hit over the head with a history lesson.

This alternative history is informative and interesting, within a gripping novel. Part adventure story, part spy novel, and part courtroom drama it has many twists. This what-if plot has an intriguing storyline.

Elise Cooper: Why write this alternative history?

Charles Rosenberg: Fifteen years ago, I read about a British attempt to kidnap George Washington, in 1776. I thought at the time that would make for an interesting novel. Several years later, I read about the Carlisle Commission that wanted to negotiate a peace settlement. I knew I had a premise where the British would kidnap Washington to use as a bargaining chip. I also read the diary of an American, Henry Laurens, a President of the Continental Congress, who was captured by the British and imprisoned in the Tower of London. To some extent, I drew from what he wrote.

EC: Washington was more of a secondary character?

CR: He is definitely not the protagonist of the novel, but is more of a topic in it. I realized that the first third of the book, where the planning and capture of the General happens, would have him not commenting at all. For the second part, where he is on the ship, he is a prisoner, who is basically helpless. This means that he would not have a lot to say.

EC: Was it also because you would have to be very careful to cross the t’s and dot the i’s?

CR: Yes. Various people would have objected and commented that Washington would not have thought that or done this. I tried to present him as his contemporaries described him. There were not a lot of personal writings since Martha Washington burned his letters after he died. This made it hard to get a lot of material. However, I did read his speeches and hope that I came close to the way he would have said things when I did quote him.

EC: You have Washington drawing a red line in the sand, no agreement unless full independence?

CR: This was his position. This is why I put in the book quotes, “If it will secure the independence of my country, they may put my head where they please,” including on pikes, and “You may not apologize, say, suggest, or hint that I am sorry for my actions, or that I desire any compromise. It is either full independence or fight them in the swamps and forests for however long as it might take.” I found in my research that Washington rejected all the overtures the British made. The 1778 Carlisle Commission that tried to negotiate reunification was sent away.

EC: Do you consider Washington a hero?

CR: I have a lot of respect for him. After finishing the research it became very clear he was the Father of our country. He led the military to victory and as our first president was in charge of how the government would be formulated. Many thought he would be like Napoleon. I put in the historical notes how the British King George III said if Washington returns to his farm, “he will be the greatest man in the world.” Think about it, Washington gave up power twice, as leader of the military and as leader of this country. He had tremendous accomplishments.

EC: You also include Benedict Arnold?

CR: His name still conjures up bad connotations. I ran with the feeling that he is a traitor who had very little loyalty to anyone. He did take a reduction in rank when he moved to the British side, which is mentioned during the scenes of the cross-examination. I found a document called “The General Orders of The Army” and one particular one said the name of Benedict Arnold should be struck from the United States Army, basically writing him out of history. I also wanted to show Washington’s disdain for him, which is why I put in the book, his “face was red and his lips were compressed in a hard line. It was perhaps a good thing that the General was being guarded by soldiers. The look on his face suggested he might otherwise leap out of his dock and throttle the witness with his bare hands.”

EC: Washington seemed to straddle the fine line about the King. Consider these quotes, “My effort was and is to defeat the British Army. I have never thought the King was truly our personal enemy,” and “He is perhaps your sovereign, but he is no longer mine. He has forfeited the right.”

CR: This is in itself an interesting topic. If the colonists were going to achieve independence they have to undue the sovereignty to which they pledged. They attacked the King in the Declaration of Independence. This really upset George III because he considered himself a Constitutional Monarch who had to support the laws passed by Parliament. The core of the colonists’ dispute was their feeling that they had no say in the English government’s policies. But that was also true of many Englishmen who did not have the right to vote unless they were landowners. Parliament kept responding that they always take everyone’s interest at heart when deciding laws, but the colonists did not have any representation regarding what was done to them. Eventually, North was willing to acquiesce to independence, but not in writing. This was unacceptable to Washington and others because what Parliament gave could be taken away and then the colonists would have no recourse.

EC: You also examine how the “rules of war” impact the issue: Are the US colonies in rebellion and therefore subject to charges of treason, or are they a separate country; thus, Washington should be treated as a prisoner of war?

CR: These were actual arguments at the time. Washington would argue he was a prisoner of war, and that under the laws of war, he must be released at the end of hostilities or exchanged for another prisoner. The debate: were the colonists a legitimate authority or rebels, as the King proclaimed in 1775, in a state of rebellion? Although, there were actually exchanges of prisoners. In 1781 Henry Laurens was swapped for the British General Lord Cornwallis who was famous for losing the Battle of Yorktown. I think given the chance George III would have wanted Washington executed.

EC: How would you describe Ethan Abbott?

CR: A retired soldier who was a real Patriot. He answers the call of his country.

EC: What do you want the readers to get out of the story?

CR: An entertaining story. But also, to learn about the Revolution as an event that centered on real politics. I hope they get into the details on how America’s Independence became such a great triumph.

EC: Your next books?

CR: I am thinking of possibly writing a novella on what happened to Ethan Abbott or Mary Smith, the Loyalist who helped in the capture of Washington. My next novel, possibly out in 2019, has a working title, The Day Lincoln Lost the Election, about the election of 1860.

THANK YOU!!

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soundofawesomeblog · 7 years

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This Fall, we are counting down the 100 best tracks of the 2000s with a new article every Monday. To learn more about the project and why the 2000s were amazing for music, click here.

This week, we keep the countdown going, with positions 80 to 71. You will also find the 30 tracks we’ve revealed so far from the list in a neat Spotify playlist at the bottom of the post.

Navigation

Intro 100-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1

80. System Of A Down - Toxicity

Safe from a few exceptions like Metallica, metal music in the 90’s had a hard time commercially and its push toward the mainstream by the turn of the century lead to some of the downright worst music to ever make it to MTV. But through shopping malls full of Yankees caps, disgusting hairstyles and obnoxious teenagers, System Of A Down managed to rise as one of the best metal bands of the last twenty years. Toxicity bangs a whole lot, especially towards its final minute. This being said, the band pays close attention to detail, creating sticky, scary landscapes in the song’s verses before going all in for a theatrical take on hardcore punk in its chorus.

79. Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

If you squeezed a hundred sassy cheerleaders together into a tape recorder, you’d probably end up with a pale approximation of Hollaback Girl. With this single, not only did Gwen Stefani proved she could be more than just the leader of No Doubt, she showed that she was ready to become a pop hit powerhouse. An impudent response to Courtney Love back talking her, Gwen clearly won the fight, laughing her bananas all the way to the top of the charts (and to the bank)

78. Burial - Archangel

Long before dubstep became synonymous with hard-hitting bass drops and in your face wub-wubs, the term was used to describe sparsely produced beats that were generous on the low-end. Even while remaining elusive, Burial became the poster child of the genre in 2007 with his second album Untrue. With the help of an extremely manipulated Ray J sample, lead single Archangel is an extremely inviting door to enter the world of UK’s somber dubstep scene.

77. At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor

Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodríguez released a handful of complex, grandiose and/or chaotic music in the past, but no track from their joint catalog is as essential as One Armed Scissor. Between its melodic verses and gut-wrenching choruses lies post-hardcore’s definitive rallying cry. In the end, the single would prove too much for the band, who would break up soon after its release.

76. Justice - D.A.N.C.E.

Leave it to French DJs to make highly danceable music. 10 years after Daft Punk’s Homework, Justice’s breakthrough was channelling Michael Jackson more than robots. In D.A.N.C.E., a youth choir drops about 100 references to Jackson’s classics - from P.Y.T. to ABC - on a guitar riff so groovy it will make anyone from 7 to 77 years old, sober or piss drunk, dance its booty off. Add to this the perfect amount of strings and you’ve got what could have been found on Off the Wall’s cutting floor, had it been released three decades later.

75. LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge

Losing My Edge is as self-referential as LCD Soundsystem can get, and boy can James Murphy get self-referential easily. Here we find the tale of a once-cool DJ who has a hard time getting used to the fact the new kids are kicking in and kicking him out of the cool territory. On his project’s début single, James Murphy keeps bragging about how he “was there”, hoping someone would care. This being said, he definitely had the last laugh on those indie kids who threw away their guitars for computers and their computers for guitars, as he would end up enduring a highly successful career.

74. Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights

Rock duos were already quite popular when Death From Above 1979 burst to the scene. But while most of these bands relied heavily on guitar sounds, DFA1979 went with a bassist and drummer combination. On Romantic Rights, the opening riff alone justifies this decision, as not even a chainsaw could come close to the thrilling effect that buzzing intro will do to your bones. By the time Sebastien Grainger starts singing, the two-elephant-headed monster of dance-punk was already on everyone’s radar.

73. Modest Mouse - Float On

For Modest Mouse, there will always be a “before” and “after” Float On, the single that turned them from cult underground heroes to commercially viable, alternative radio-bait. Perhaps, the fact that Isaac Brock decided to sing about making it through instead of sinking down helped the track to make it on the charts. But more than that, the band managed to make an ingenious pop single while still retaining its credibility (and loyal fanbase) along the way. There have been worst ways of selling out.

72. Annie - Heartbeat

There is definitively something special about Scandinavia when it comes to pop music. Sandwiched in history between Sweden’s ABBA’s Dancing Queens and Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, Norvegian jewel Annie provides an effortless pop gem with Heartbeat thanks to its rock-solid melody, airy vocals and an incessant drum track that mimics the pulse of a heart in love. Something also has to be said about the way the song evaporates just as mysteriously as it started.

71. M.I.A. - Galang

M.I.A. is one great rapper so it’s easy to forget how punk she has been at her core from the get-go. Pushed from visual arts to music by Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, Mathangi Arulpragasam based her breakthrough single Galang around Roland beat sequencers and sound advice about how to survive in London. The result was an unlikely hit: a surprising mix of electroclash, dancehall and worldbeat that sounded like a revolution of its own.

Navigation

Intro 100-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1

#Sound of Awesome #List #Top Tracks Of The 2000s #Decade #Justice #At The Drive-In #LCD Soundsystem #Death From Above 1979 #Modest Mouse #M.I.A.#Gwen Stefani #Annie #System Of A Down #Burial #Estelle

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newstfionline · 7 years

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Feeling out of shape and fat? Here’s how to fix that: Start walking.

By Jenny Rough, Washington Post, June 3, 2017

Diana Nyad--the endurance athlete who, at age 64, swam from Cuba to Florida--has another big dream. It doesn’t involve water, poisonous jellyfish or an exhausting 111-mile journey that took her 53 hours. Instead, it involves millions of feet, which Nyad wants to see stride across every state in America.

“Sitting has become the new smoking,” she often says, quoting James A. Levine, a Mayo Clinic physician, whose now-popular phrase speaks to the way our culture’s sedentary lifestyle is ruining our health. More than 70 percent of adults are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For both men and women, heart disease is the leading cause of death. Half of U.S. adults have diabetes or pre-diabetes, a 2015 JAMA study reported.

“We are sick of being fat, America,” Nyad announced to TMZ Sports in 2014, a year after her swim, when asked what she was up to next. “We are sick of kids having diabetes. We’re going to be walkers. Just like the Chinese do tai chi every morning, we’re going to walk.”

In 2016, Nyad and her best friend, Bonnie Stoll, a former professional racquetball player and the leader of Nyad’s Cuba expedition, launched EverWalk, an initiative that aims to get Americans on their feet. Anybody can commit to walking at least three times a week by signing a pledge on EverWalk’s website (at everwalk.com), where Nyad and Stoll recently posted a training schedule and opened registration for their next big event: EverWalk New England, a seven-day, 150-mile trek from Boston to Portland, Maine. It will begin in Copley Square on Sunday, Sept. 10, and end at Cape Elizabeth (two miles from Portland) on Saturday, Sept. 16. Participants can register for a short walk (five or 10 miles), one day (20 miles), multiple days or the whole thing.

“It’s a stunning, idyllic New England showcase of a route, almost all of it along the ocean’s edge,” says Nyad, who recently gathered more than 600 EverWalkers to team up with the nonprofit River LA for a 6.5-mile morning walk to celebrate the development of a 51-mile no-car path along the Los Angeles River.

Unlike swimming, cycling or running, which require special equipment and can be hard on the body, walking is the perfect way to get fit and improve your well-being, Nyad, 67, says. It’s a low-impact activity that almost anyone can do: young, old, fat, thin, rich or poor.

More than 3,000 people have taken the EverWalk pledge so far. Eventually Nyad and Stoll envision tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even a million people joining them virtually for regular walks, no matter where people live. They are working on a website they hope will become “the word in all things walking,” where people can find walking partners, vacation walking routes, training tips and incentives.

EverWalk’s inaugural event in October was a seven-day, 133-mile trek from Los Angeles to San Diego. About 300 people participated as day-trippers, virtual walkers (who walked in their own home town) or epic walkers (who covered the whole distance). One of the epic walkers was Laura Petersen, 49, a statistician at UCLA.

Petersen has never been the athletic type, even as a child. “I wasn’t picked last for the teams, but I was picked second to last,” she recalls. As an adult, she wasn’t particularly active either. That is, until eight years ago when her family began taking walks after dinner as a way to get more exercise. Petersen and her son would walk for 30 minutes while her husband and daughter went farther and faster. The 30-minute walk turned to 45. Then Petersen also started walking during her lunch hour. When she came across an announcement about EverWalk’s first event, she felt ready to try 20 miles a day for a week straight.

EverWalk provided her with a training schedule, and Petersen recalls her first long-distance warm-up walk of 18 miles.

“The blisters kicked in at about Mile 16,” she says.

By the time the actual event took place, she had learned to better care for her feet. Other EverWalk participants weren’t as prepared, but Nyad and Stoll had an EMT delivering first aid as well as a second EMT who biked back and forth along the route to keep an eye on walkers and point the way for the directionally challenged. There was also a bus for those who needed a break.

Petersen used each rest stop--about every five miles--to rehydrate and refuel. At night, she slept in local hotels where her luggage had been delivered. (EverWalk, which charged a registration fee of $395, arranged discounts on hotels and provided lunch, snacks and transportation.)

Petersen made it the entire distance.

“I learned that just because you think of yourself as a type of person, like nonathletic, doesn’t mean you have to live your whole life that way,” she says.

That’s exactly what Nyad and Stoll are hoping for: a nation of people willing to push away from their chairs and take to the sidewalks and park trails.

“Most people will never swim from Cuba to Florida or run the New York City Marathon,” Nyad says. “You have to work so hard and be so focused. But people can imagine walking from Chicago to St. Louis or Portland to Seattle.”

The vision of an endurance event for the everyday American caught the attention of Chris Devona, 57, of Mount Prospect, Ill. Devona joined EverWalk’s first challenge despite his Stage 4 thyroid cancer. He walked with a brace because of knee replacement surgery, averaging about three miles every hour. Crossing the “achieve line” in San Diego was ultra-satisfying.

“To complete the whole route makes the average guy feel like he just won the Olympics,” Devona says.

It may seem strange that a function as basic as walking can trigger an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. After all, humans are built to walk long distances. But we just don’t do it anymore.

According to the documentary “The Walking Revolution,” Americans stopped walking in the 1950s and 1960s when families began moving to the suburbs and the automobile became the favored mode of transportation. Add the television set. Computers. Social media. Alexa. Now we have a nation of sitters. What was once a normal part of daily living has become an effort Americans need to schedule.

By 2020, Nyad and Stoll intend to travel by foot across America.

Initially, their plan was to walk coast-to-coast with a million people, sort of like Forrest Gump. But after driving cross-country in an RV, they realized the trek works for one or two people but wouldn’t work well for the masses. The long stretches of remote areas were “not conducive to lots of folks coming out to meet up with us,” Nyad says.

So in recent months, Nyad and Stoll’s vision has changed. They continue to hold on to their dream of walking across America in some way--maybe by visiting all 50 states.

For now, EverWalk is dedicated to supporting anyone who walks--whether strolling around the neighborhood after dinner, running errands on foot or taking out the dog. “I don’t care if you’re walking with Avon or on the John Muir trail,” Stoll says, referring to breast cancer walks sponsored by the cosmetics company and the California hiking route. “Just start with the pledge to walk three times a week. You don’t have to be an athlete. It’s free and it’s for everyone. If you’re in a chair, pledge to do the roll.”

For some, walking has less to do with the physical and mental challenges and more to do with the spiritual element. Linda Fitts, 66, has walked the Camino del Santiago, a pilgrimage route in Spain, three times. As a physician who worked in internal medicine and hospice care, she was prompted to walk, in part, to recover from career burnout.

“I reached a point where I needed rest and reflection,” she says.

Fitts, who lives in Southern California, also participated as an epic walker in the trek from Los Angeles to San Diego.

For her, moving along a walking path has a calming effect.

“I like to use the image of not only am I walking the road ahead of me, the road is walking through me. When I begin to feel that flow, it’s a very cleansing and moving process for me,” Fitts says.

The word “walk” means “way of life.” And for many, it really is.

“I never regret having gone for a walk,” Petersen says. “I can say to myself, ‘I don’t feel like it,’ and drag myself out, and I’ll never not feel a little bit better than when I left the house.”

#walking #Diana Nyad #EverWalk #sedentary lifestyle

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