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traincat · 4 years

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if you dont mind i would love to hear your thoughts on how and why peter seems to be more fulfilled by lower paying jobs (i.e photography, teaching) rather than by high paying jobs in STEM

(Sorry for the wait, anon! I did get this first ask, as you can see, it’s just that sometimes I tend to hoard asks that I want to give long in-depth answers to and then they get buried.)

So I think to best answer this the first thing we have to do is look at Peter’s 616 employment history -- what jobs he’s had when and for approximately how long. So here we have a more or less definitive list -- I may have skipped over a few minor jobs that aren’t important in the long run of the character history, but for the most part this is accurate. For the sake of brevity I am not going to count things he’s done as Spider-Man that have earned him money, like a brief bodyguard stint or his occasional time with the Avengers, because this is really more about his identity as Peter Parker and how his civilian employment plays into his life as Spider-Man than about his life as Spider-Man.

Works for the Daily Bugle on and off, through a variety of positions from part time to salaried, from the age of 15 onwards. Primarily a photographer. How good of a photographer Peter actually is varies from writer to writer, but he remains unmatched in his ability to get certain shots ranging from ones of Spider-Man (duh) to particularly high risk environments (different duh). He also briefly worked for rival newspaper the Daily Globe, the Bugle’s main competitor. His position as a full time newspaper photographer is his most well known (and most consistent) job.

A TA in grad school at Empire State University. At this point in time he labeled himself as having “the wrong temperament” for teaching -- and I would personally say I think his stints teaching college are much less engaging than high school.

Published author. His book, Webs, a collection of his Spider-Man photography, was a major bestseller that sent him on a book tour around the country. I hesitated sticking this on here because it’s very tied into his work with the Bugle -- and he was still working for the Bugle when the book was published -- but I figured it was worth including for the novelty of the fact that Peter’s technically a best selling author/artist.

Peter worked as a scientist at Galannan Alternative Research for Immunization Development (GARID) in Portland after his clone Ben Reilly took over the identity of Spider-Man. Although often overlooked in discussions of Peter’s job history, I think his stint at GARID is important in part because it illustrates how much of Peter’s time being Spider-Man took up and how a job with flexible hours was necessary for that balancing act. When he was working at GARID, Peter wasn’t Spider-Man, so it wasn’t difficult for him to keep a position at a laboratory.

I mean granted the GARID job didn’t last long and there was sort of a whole big mutated monster case going on with it but you know. Anyway he pretty quickly moved back to New York and started working for the Bugle again.

Peter’s next major job at a lab comes in another period where he’s supposed to have quit being Spider-Man. (Which he did, very temporarily, and then he very much didn’t. Anyway, you’re seeing the pattern here.) He briefly worked at Tricorp, a private brain trust. This is a really short-lived position, even as Peter’s science gigs go, because -- Spider-Man.

At this point things get dicey employment-wise as Peter heads into a weird period of canon where Mary Jane was presumed dead. She wasn’t! But everyone thought she was. It was weird. When MJ came back (and promptly left for LA, not that I blame her), Peter exited this period of limbo by becoming a science teacher at his old school, Midtown High. This is the main career, beside news photography, that I think he really shines in.

Civil War/One More Day/Brand New Day hit and completely tank the direction of Spider-Man history. Peter’s marriage is erased by the devil and also he’s not a high school teacher anymore, for some reason, even though nobody remembers he’s Spider-Man anymore which is the reason he initially lost the Midtown High job. Make it make sense. Anyway, in Marvel’s desperate scramble to take Spider-Man back to the unmarried basics, as if they even got new readers that way, Peter returned to photography. When Dexter Bennett bought the Bugle out from under JJJ while JJJ was sick, Peter began working for the newly minted “DB” as a tabloid photographer. It wasn’t great.

He also briefly at some point in here worked at a comic book store for like five minutes. Mostly he complained about people who read comic books and made jokes about how he doesn’t get along with the X-Men.

Under Slott’s run, Peter began working at Horizon Labs. Slott had a pretty major problem with Peter’s genius not being “recognized enough” and constantly had him inventing new things, showing off, etc.

Horizon Lab became Parker Industries under Otto Octavius when he bodyjacked Peter during Superior Spider-Man and made himself CEO. When Peter got his body back, he was still CEO. It was bad but Peter did tank the company on purpose so that Otto and also nazis couldn’t get their hands on it, which was sort of fun.

Peter went back to work for the Bugle, but as their science editor, because Slott was still in charge and there was some weird commentary about photography not being an adult job. Which I think is pretty weird in a medium that’s very dependent on visual art. But okay.

Then Peter got fired because he was busted for plagiarism of Otto Octavius’ work... that Otto did himself... while he was in Peter’s body... and Peter couldn’t reveal this because then he’d have to explain... and maybe I hate comics.

In MC2 he becomes a forensic scientist! I really like this for him actually. I think it combines his interests and experiences in a very thoughtful way. But I do want to note it’s after a Spider-Man career ending injury, so again there’s not a real conflict there between his work as Spider-Man and a career.

Peter I think is an especially interesting case in how his character ties into his employment history because one of the first things he does in his story is figure out how to make money, and he does this because the Parkers don’t have any. If Ben and May were comfortable -- even comfortable enough that their teenaged nephew was unaware of financial pressures -- Spider-Man’s story would be completely different. But Peter immediately feels he pressure to use his new powers to earn money, at first with brute strength. And what he says he’s going to do with his earnings is that he’s going to take care of Ben and May:

(Amazing Fantasy #15) So the concept of Peter as someone who is very aware of financial pressure and who is pretty explicitly linking money to support is present from the absolute beginning. But at the same time, there’s a kind of selfishness presented in him here -- he’s only going to take care of Ben and May. They’re the only ones he cares about here, because as he’s stated they’re the only ones who have ever “been kind” to him. Peter at the beginning of his story is very rooted in his anger and his bitterness, and it takes him losing Uncle Ben -- because it wasn’t Peter’s “job” to stop the burglar -- to get him to the point where he starts to be able to see beyond that.

Ben’s death also heightens the Parker’s financial pressures -- Ben is the primary earner in the household. (Aunt May in the original context of the early 1960s was most likely a homemaker, and as an older woman especially she wouldn’t be expected to have a job. But even moving the timescale up to a point where she would be expected as a woman to hold down a job, it’s important to note that early in Spider-Man canon Aunt May is depicted as being in very poor physical health.) While it’s not clear in the initial Spider-Man stories what Ben did, it’s clear that with his death whatever income the Parkers had coming in abruptly stops:

(ASM #1) This sets in concrete one of the central conflicts Peter and May have -- both of them lie to protect the other. Peter feigns being an ordinary boy in order to protect May from the stress of his secret life as Spider-Man, worried that she wouldn’t be strong enough to handle the danger he regularly puts himself in. But this is a learned behavior, and here we see that he most likely learned it from May: she doesn’t want him to worry about the very deep financial troubles they’re obviously in, so she pawns her jewelry, and she stresses to him the importance of his education. Again I have to note that there are some pretty significant social differences between the 1960s and today in regards to this story -- Betty Brant, for example, notes that she had to drop out of school and become a secretary because of her own family’s financial problems, something she’s ashamed of. So early Spider-Man is very rooted in money, class, education, and how those things intersect. I think it should be noted that the only early Spider-Man characters who are financially well-off are Liz, Gwen, and Harry. (We don’t know anything about Flash’s financial situation in early Spider-Man comics but retroactively we know his family situation is not well-off.) In high school, Liz’s father is a bigshot who owns a dining club, but later on the Allans experience financial hardship with Liz quite literally being on the streets when Peter reunites with her when he’s in college. Harry’s father is a rich businessman, but from the beginning he’s depicted as emotionally negligent, caring more about money than spending time with his son:

(ASM #40) “After all... I had a business to care of! Money was the most important thing of all! I had to get rich! I needed wealth... for that was the key to power!” So right away you have this link between wealth, corruption, and negligence. Norman’s pursuit of wealth is his given reason for his neglect of Harry. Later on we’d learn that Norman’s father was also abusive and that that abuse formed Norman’s ideas about power and wealth. (Spider-Man! It’s about cycles of abuse!) There’s a very contrast between Norman’s attitudes here and the Parkers loving (but poor) household. Gwen is the only exception here -- she and her father are depicted as comfortable, most likely edging into wealthy, although on nowhere the level the Osborns have been elevated to. But compared to Peter, Flash, and Mary Jane especially -- all from poor households, with MJ and Flash’s fathers both being abusive -- Gwen’s home situation is the picture of stability, both in terms of economic status and in terms of her loving and very present father.

My goal in outlining all of this isn’t to say that Spider-Man’s message is definitively “money is bad” because I don’t think it is. I think as a series Spider-Man is very aware of the comfort that money can provide. But I think there is a frequent message about excess in Spider-Man -- excess power, excess wealth. As Norman says above, in his eyes, money is the key to power. With great power, comes great responsibility. In Norman hoarding and abusing his wealth, he abuses his power. If he provides for Harry, it is solely through money -- there is no love or devotion in Norman’s money-focused world. And I think that’s important when you look at where Peter starts in his story, before Uncle Ben’s death. He’s going to use his powers to make a lot of money and he’s going to provide for Ben and May but he’s not going to care about the world outside of that. I think one of the interesting things about Peter -- and this is where Slott’s run especially fails the character -- is that he’s not interesting in getting rich. He’d like to be comfortable, for sure -- he’d like to have enough money to not have worry about it, to not have the need to hustle impede what he can do as Spider-Man, to be able to take care of his family. (And there’s some machismo stuff linked in here for him too -- in the early days of their marriage the fact that Mary Jane earns much more than him is something he struggles with.) But he doesn’t care about being rich. He doesn’t care about the money; he cares about the support that the money would bring.

That feels like a simple statement but I think it’s actually a really big distinction, especially when you’re analyzing a character. And I think it’s because Peter understands that value that it makes him so empathetic to others who have financial struggles. One of my favorite short self-contained Spider-Man stories is called Windfall, from Marvel Fanfare #42, where a mixup with a check embroils Peter in the personal affairs of a bank teller, a young single mother who is fired from her job ultimately because she refused the advances of her boss. Peter gets her her job back -- through blackmailing the boss for his other sexual affairs, which some people might think is immoral of him, but I think really speaks to Peter’s understanding of how the greater world works, and what he’s prepared to do to get bigger justice. But more importantly he uses his own money to pay the young woman’s rent, and he does it in a way where she never even knows it’s him. Because he understands her situation, the way someone who had grown up comfortable never could. And that understanding I think puts him a place where it’s more important for him to both keep that understanding and maintain that ability to act relatively freely, in the way that bigger, more prestigious positions in scientific fields might restrict him. There’s a reason he keeps getting fired from these scientific positions and it’s not that he can’t get them, because we can see from his employment history very clearly that he can. It’s because the freedom to act as Spider-Man and what he can do as Spider-Man is ultimately more important to him.

And while high school teacher is my number one favorite profession Peter has ever had, I think that his position as a newspaper photographer is also very important to the character’s history, in part because the Bugle is such a big part of his life and the connections he’s made but also because the Daily Bugle itself is important. I think it’s interesting to note that two of the biggest superheroes of all time from both of the big companies -- Spider-Man from Marvel and Superman from DC -- have had long running journalism jobs, Peter as a photographer and Clark as a reporter. I don’t think I really have to go into a whole thing about how good journalists are so important and why it matters that we have these incredibly famous mythic figures that are positioned in the roll of journalists specifically. But I do think it is important to Peter that he’s put in that position as someone who cares about uncovering the truth. So ultimately I think what I mean when I say Peter is more fulfilled by his jobs as a photojournalist and as a high school teacher than by his comparatively more high paying stints working as a scientist in a lab is that Peter gets the most fulfillment out of careers where he can actively see, day by day, that what he’s doing is helping people, and that it’s a very direct line from him to the people he’s helping. His efforts can’t be twisted, they can’t be used for other purposes the way they can within a larger organization. He has a line of control in what he can do to help other people. It’s like how Spider-Man functions best as a street level hero: what he does best is saving and helping individual people, on a case by case basis. And you can turn around and demonstrate that in his civilian life best in jobs where he gets to directly interact with people. And ultimately to Peter making that difference is more important than a better salary.

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9)

#peter parker #marvel comics #traincat talks comics #long post/

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extasiswings · 3 years

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"sigurista" for Eddie

Edit: On ao3 here.

sigurista: Someone who makes sure that everything goes as planned; the kind of person who will not act unless he totally feels sure that the desired result would be obtained. [Okay, this is probably cheating because it only very technically fits if you squint, but this is all the result of your enabling so. If anyone wanted more White House AU Buddie, this is a follow up to this prompt fill.]

It’s a quiet day.

Now, Buck’s not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but he can count on one hand the number of times his schedule has been so light throughout the first year of his presidency, so he can’t help checking it again and then a third time just to make sure. But it doesn’t change the longer he looks at it.

Okay. So, it’s a quiet, light day. That’s a good thing—it’s not like he can’t use the rest.

He’s just not sure why he can’t quite work the tension out of his shoulders, why he feels poised on the edge of a tightrope made of razor wire about to either fall or get sliced.

By noon, all of his scheduled meetings are finished and he’s even managed to catch up on some of the reports he’d been meaning to dig deeper into. He’s antsy and full of untethered energy and, finally, he closes the file he’s looking through and crosses the room to knock on the door connecting the Oval with the Chief of Staff’s office.

(After the last time he walked in without thinking and got an eyeful of his sister and Chim that made him want to bleach his brain, he always knocks.)

“Hey, Chim—I’m going to head back to the residence for the rest of the day—”

The main office door opens.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Mr. President,” Athena says, and it’s been enough time that Buck knows when the head of the secret service shows up personally and without warning it means nothing good. Right behind her, the aide to his National Security Advisor comes skidding to a halt, out of breath.

“You’re needed in the situation room, sir.”

Buck looks back at Athena.

“Michael—?”

(It may well be a conflict of interest that the Vice President’s ex-wife is responsible for making sure Buck stays alive, but then, Buck’s pretty sure there’s no less of one than the fact that his sister is dating his Chief of Staff so...)

“He’s being moved to a secure location,” she replies. “But yes, Bobby’s waiting in the sit room. I can fill you in on the way.”

Buck swears internally and runs a hand through his hair.

“Okay. What do we have?”

“Bomb threat and possible shooter at the Pentagon,” Athena says, and Buck’s heart stops, ice freezing his insides. Because that’s—

“You know, some of us have actual work to do,” Eddie said the night before, the look in his eyes exasperated but fond in the dim light from the lamp on his desk.

“You mean entertaining the leader of the free world isn’t in your job description, Lieutenant Diaz?” Buck had teased right back, reveling in the quirk of Eddie’s lips.

“Yeah, well, you’re going to have to find someone else to entertain you tomorrow—I’ll be in meetings with the joint chiefs at the Pentagon all day. Should be thrilling stuff.”

“Maybe I’ll invent a national security emergency—get you out of it.”

Eddie laughed. “Please don’t, they’ll just reschedule. And then there will be paperwork.”

—that’s where Eddie is.

“How the fuck does that happen?” Buck croaks out, feeling like he’s swallowed glass.

“We’re working out the exact details,” Athena replies. “But it’s fairly clear it was an inside job. Whoever it is killed one of the marines on duty and called in the bomb himself, we’re looking at the security feeds and card access records to narrow down a name.”

She finishes just as they step through the door of the situation room and Bobby looks up.

“Dennis Pierce,” he fills in. “He’s been there eight years, looks like he was identified as part of the investigation to see which employees might have ties to white supremacist groups. He hasn’t been fired yet because the investigation isn’t finished, but I guess he saw the writing on the wall.”

“And thought he would tender his resignation by, what? Blowing up the joint chiefs?” Buck can hear the edge in his voice, which means Bobby definitely can as well.

(They met on the campaign trail, when Buck started getting intelligence briefings that made him feel like he was drowning, in over his head. But Bobby never treated him like an idiot who didn’t know the first thing about national security, was always patient, willing to sit with him and explain. And by now, Buck’s pretty sure he would be lost without him. Without him and—)

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Bobby replies, his own voice carefully even. Steady. “We have a bomb squad on site and every armed guard in the building looking for this guy, not to mention that most of the people he’s likely to run into are combat-trained military.”

The phone on the desk rings and Bobby picks it up as the door opens and the heads of the FBI and CIA file in.

“Copy that,” Bobby says and hangs up, tapping a few keys on his keyboard to bring up blueprints on the main screen and highlighting a room on the fifth floor.

“Someone pressed one of the hidden panic buttons in conference room J,” he explains. “Bomb squad is on its way and we should be getting camera feeds—now.”

The feed flickers into the screen and steals Buck’s breath all over again, because there, on the screen, with his hands raised and facing down an older, grizzled white man with a gun in one hand and a trigger to the bomb vest strapped to his chest in the other—is Eddie.

“There’s no audio,” Buck points out as Eddie’s lips move too quickly for him to read anything clearly.

“There aren’t any speakers or mics in the room.”

Maybe not, but—over Pierce’s shoulder, Buck notices a phone on the wall.

“I want to talk to him,” he says. “Call the room.”

Bobby’s look is sharp when he turns to look at him.

“Sir, I really wouldn’t advise—”

“Call,” Buck repeats, his tone booking no argument.

Bobby’s lips press thin, but he picks up the phone, speaking quietly into the receiver while Buck doesn’t look away from the camera feed, his stomach twisting itself into knots as Pierce shakes his head violently in response to whatever Eddie is saying. Time seems to slow the longer he watches, even as Bobby passes him the phone.

“Extension 3596,” Bobby says quietly. And Buck dials.

He can’t see the phone ring on the feed, but he sees the effect—Pierce twitches, his head whipping around in surprise, and Eddie takes advantage of the distraction to move—

The feed cuts out.

The phone keeps ringing.

“What happened?” Buck demands. “What—we have to get it back, we have to—”

The line picks up.

“This is General O’Halloran, who am I speaking with?”

Buck swallows hard.

“General, this is the President. What’s your status?”

“Lieutenant Diaz neutralized the threat, sir. Passed him off to the bomb squad waiting outside. We’re all safe and sound.”

There’s something rising up in his throat, and Buck isn’t sure if it’s just a wave of overwhelming emotion or if it’s actually bile.

“Glad to hear it, General,” he chokes out.

He passes the phone back to Bobby and shoves back his chair then, not caring whether they need him for anything, just needing—needing—

Buck rips at the knot of his tie as he steps into the hallway, and only barely makes it through the door of the bathroom at the end of it before he throws up in the sink.

The door opens again a moment later, as he’s gripping the edge of the sink trying to get his adrenaline under control.

“It’s okay, Buck,” Athena says quietly. “Everyone’s fine. Especially him.”

Buck could almost laugh at that if he was in any sort of mood. Because he hasn’t even told Eddie—not technically—hasn’t ever done anything to truly cross a line, but apparently everyone knows anyway.

“I could have lost him...and I would have had to watch,” he says.

“But you didn’t.”

Buck rinses his mouth out and spits.

“Is Bobby pissed at me for walking out?”

Athena shrugs. “I doubt it. I can take you back to the residence now if you want—tell Bobby to finish up and debrief you later.”

Buck swallows again. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

He pauses as half an idea comes into his head, then adds—

“Hey, Athena? Do you think—”

Which is how he finds himself waiting in a car outside a condo in Virginia with an extra protective detail at nine that night as his regular agents knock on the door. A woman with dark hair opens the door, and Buck can see the way her eyebrows shoot up as she exchanges quick words with the agents before they step inside to conduct their sweep. A minute passes, then the agent at his side taps her earpiece.

“Clear. Got it,” she says, and that’s all Buck needs to get out of the car.

The same dark-haired woman is standing in the entryway, arms crossed, when he walks through the door. He stops in his tracks, suddenly nervous as her calculating gaze trails over him.

“Adriana?” He guesses, and she hums.

“A little warning would have been nice,” she says, but Buck thinks he catches a hint of a smile as she turns on her heel to go down the hallway off the kitchen to what he assumes is a bedroom. “Good night, Mr. President.”

Buck opens his mouth to say something, when Eddie himself appears at the top of the stairs, hair wet and clothes sticking to his skin like he’s just jumped out of the shower.

“Adriana, what the hell—” Eddie cuts off the moment his eyes land on Buck and she just laughs before she disappears down the hall.

“Hi,” Buck says quietly.

“Hey,” Eddie replies. There’s a bruise blossoming over his cheek and Buck’s fingers itch to touch it, or really, to touch Eddie everywhere he can to remind him that he’s here, he’s alive, Buck didn’t lose—

Eddie clears his throat and makes his way the rest of the way down the stairs.

“You’re...in my house.”

Buck shifts his weight. “You almost died today.”

Eddie blows out a breath and rakes a hand through his wet hair.

“Guess you didn’t have to fake that national security emergency after all.”

“Guess not.”

Eddie’s gaze turns considering, his brow furrowing as an odd look crosses his face.

“So...I almost die...and that warrants you showing up in the middle of the night? Why?”

Buck wets his lips, feeling like he can barely hold Eddie’s eyes. His pulse is racing, blood rushing in his ears, and his voice is a mere rasp when he says—

“You know why.”

You have to know.

Eddie glances down at the floor, then over to the windows where the curtains are closed. Then he nods once.

“Maybe. But...I think I need you to say it.”

Buck nearly throws his hands up. “Fuck, Eddie, because I love—”

He doesn’t finish the sentence because Eddie closes the distance and kisses the rest away, backing Buck against the closed front door. Buck nearly chokes on relief as his hand scramble to twist into Eddie’s damp t-shirt and pull him even closer.

“I thought—” he gasps out when Eddie breaks the kiss in favor of pressing a trail of them down his neck— “I thought you were going to die and I wasn’t going to get to tell you.”

Eddie pauses his exploration, hands spasming on Buck’s hips.

“Yeah,” Eddie breathes against his skin. “Yeah, me too.”

Buck threads his fingers through Eddie’s hair and tugs him back up to kiss him again.

“Athena says she’ll kill me if I’m not back by midnight,” he admits.

Eddie’s lips quirk as he curls a finger through one of Buck’s belt loops and tugs him towards the stairs.

“Then we’re swimming in time.”

#chapel writes #buddie #buddie fic #prompt fill #shameless enablers the lot of you #letmetellyouaboutmyfeels

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elenajohansenreads · 3 years

Text

Books I Read in 2021

#84 - The Glittering Court, by Richelle Mead

Mount TBR: 70/100

Rating: 1/5 stars

What did I like about this? It was digestible. Having just come off a heavy, plodding, disappointing fantasy read, the easy YA tell-don't-show narrative style went down smooth like a slushie on a hot day.

And that's the best thing I can say about the whole book--it read fast and easy.

What didn't I like?

1. The fact that this touts itself as fantasy when it's not in the least bit fantastical. I don't require my fantasy to have magic or creatures or zombies or anything, but if you're going to call something "fantasy" it should at least be about fictional cultures that the author has invented. This is just England colonizing the Americas with the names changed. The only thing that could be said to be "fantasy" is that the population they're displacing in the process isn't an indigenous one, it was established by previous outcasts from their own country--though that wasn't clear to me until the first time we met them and they were white, blond, and used woad as decoration. So they're not supposed to be Native American analogues, they're supposed to be displaced Picts?

2. Either way, it's still racist and pro-colonization, because even if the Icori aren't meant to represent an indigenous people, they're still clearly Other, and constantly labeled as "savages" in order to justify taking their land, which all of our protagonists are participating in, in some form. Does it matter what color this fictional group of people is, if the narrative is parroting real history and real racism?

3. The second half of the plot feels, at best, tenuously related to the first half. The change in fortune for our protagonists that happens at the midpoint struck me as so flimsy and unbelievable that it was hard to take the rest of the book seriously, and that made it more obvious to me who the real villain was, despite whatever weak red herrings were planted along the way. Seriously--the first half of the story is The Bridgertons but the second turns into Little House on the Prairie. It's too big a genre shift to make the transition seem natural.

4. There were times when I was approaching a reasonable level of sympathy for our heroine, despite her many flaws, but every time the story had a chance to explore those flaws and perhaps let the character do some work on them...well, she just kept being headstrong and selfish and whiny, right up until the LHotP section where after a single pep talk from the hero, she's completely changed, resolved to her new station in life with a determination that seemed half-delusional and certainly out of character. She didn't work for it, so it didn't seem real.

5. I did not know, having picked up this book in isolation, that the rest of the "series" is actually the same time period from the perspective of one of the other girls, specifically the two best friends of the heroine. Now that I do know that, the giant blank spaces in this story where Mira and Tamsin constantly fall out of it without explanation--or with the pointedly obvious lampshade "it's not my business so I'm not going to ask"--make sense structurally. However, that doesn't mean I don't think it's a terrible flaw, because these holes are constant and irritating. For a while in the middle of the book, it felt like every time I turned two pages, the heroine was asking out loud, "Where's Mira?" And pretty quickly I knew that question wouldn't be answered in this book, so why keep asking?

6. I never found Cedric compelling enough a hero to justify the constant sacrifices that Adelaide made for him. I don't think he's a terrible character, and I enjoyed some of their banter and their occasional fights, but I'm also not about to add him to my book-boyfriend list, so it was hard to imagine myself, or anyone for that matter, doing as much for him as Adelaide did.

7. Religion. Woooo boy. I guess this part is the "fantasy" I was lamenting the lack of earlier, because if the accepted and heretic forms of this fictional religion are supposed to correspond to real-world counterparts, I didn't pick up on it with enough certainty to tell. But my problem is that it's suddenly a Very Big Deal that one character is a heretic, when religion had played such a small part in the story leading up to that revelation that I was mostly operating on the assumption that the main religion was socially performative, and that no one in the story was especially devout. Adelaide certainly doesn't seem to be. But since this heresy becomes central to the conflict later on, I wish it had been better established in the beginning, because (again) the second half of the book seems wildly different than the first, and this was another aspect that made it hard to take seriously.

8. Heteronormative AF. There's one token queer person who has a minor role, showing up just long enough for Adelaide to realize other women/cultures don't abide by her society's rigid norms and to feel briefly uncomfortable about it. But there's no follow-up, no depth, no opportunity for Adelaide to grow beyond what she's been taught. To some extent, I'm okay with that--not every story has room for fighting LGBT+ battles, and even more simply put, stories are allowed to be about other things. But parading just that one wlw character out for a moment, and making her a foreigner to reinforce her otherness, strikes me as a really poor choice if the story didn't actually want to fight that battle. Why bring it up at all? Especially as this is supposed to be fantasy, why couldn't the Glittering Court be an institution that provides marriage candidates to both men and women? If the candidate pool was both male and female, and so was the clientele, then many forms of queerness would be covered by it without having to dig into specifics about each character. (It doesn't directly address ace/aro people, but presumably they'd be less interested in a marriage mart anyway, on either side, and self-select out of it.) I mean, I know why, because that would mean that in the New World there would have to be women in positions of power who needed husbands (or wives, yes, but this wrinkle is about men.) And there's no shortage of men in the colonies, so that doesn't track logically the same way the actual setup does. But again, if this is supposed to be fantasy....

#booklr #book review #the glittering court #richelle mead #book photography #my photos #my reading challenges #mount tbr 2021

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theotherackerman · 3 years

Text

My Mind Turns Your Life Into Folklore

NOTES:

Friday, January 8- Saturday, January 9th

chapter fifteen: because these things will change

“I’m glad to hear the dogs are working out,” Levi’s psychologist said as they wrote down notes into the notepad in front of him. Sawney and Bean sat by Levi’s feet, fast asleep. “And your children moving back in seems to be beneficial to all of you.”

“They’re not really my kids,” Levi muttered.

His psychologist laughed. “Whatever label makes you happy, Mr. Ackerman. Your relationship with your partner seems to be going well as well. How many panic attacks have you had since I saw you last?”

“A few. A car backfired...at least that’s what Hange told me. Then New Year’s Eve was a nightmare.”

“Understandable, many of our Veterans have issues with that night. There’s about two minutes left. Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?”

“Do you ever think it’s weird that you’re my psychologist? Shouldn’t there be a conflict of interest here? I mean your brother is….whatever he is to Mikasa.”

Zeke laughed before he composed himself again. “Do you think there’s a conflict of interest here? I can assure you that nothing you say to me leaves this room. Eren doesn’t have the slightest idea that I took over your care once Dr. Ksaver retired.”

Levi shifted in his chair, uncomfortably. “No, I guess not. I haven’t told Mikasa either,” he frowned.

“It is none of my business whether or not you tell your child what is going on.”

“She’s not my….”

Zeke sighed, “your child. I do have to say I find it very strange how the girl you raised from the age of nine is not your child.”

“Are you allowed to say that?”

“Probably not,” Zeke relied with a shrug.

“Why do I pay you so much money?”

“Because I am probably the one you relate most to in this whole damn building. It seems our time is up, Mr. Ackerman. Have a safe journey home.”

Levi waved his hand as he stood up and exited the Zeke’s office.

------------

Levi returned home to the sound of the twenty somethings Sawney and Bean ran straight to Eren and Armin who were in the living room on the couch.

The girls were in the sun room.

“I. DON’T. LIKE. THIS. FUCKING. PICK!” Ymir sang out, loud enough that it echoed through the house.

“Why do you always buy that brand when you know you hate it?” Historia asked.

“Because I’m hoping one day they won’t disappoint me. Also I don’t play guitar that much. It’s all about the bass!”

Levi rolled his eyes after he took his shoes off.

Maybe Zeke was right.

These were his damn children.

-----------

As the day went on, a strange feeling began to overwhelm everyone in the house.

It was Friday.

Tomorrow was Saturday.

Hange would be picking up Armin to head back to college.

Zeke would come get Eren.

There was no doubt that Armin and Annie would be okay. They were used to being apart.

But when it came to Eren and Mikasa, nothing was certain.

They had never been this far away from one another when on good terms.

How would rebuilding their relationship fair when there was a distance between them?

Granted, an hour was not that long.

Mikasa did not like to drive long distances.

Eren could no longer drive.

It wasn’t as if they could just walk three blocks and see one another.

Everyone was feeling it, thinking it but no one dared say anything.

When night came, no one said anything when Annie and Armin disappeared into Annie’s room.

Mikasa, however, seemed to stay in the sun room.

Eren found her there once everyone else had gone to sleep.

It was late.

“I thought my sleep schedule sucked,” he teased as he sat down next to her on the piano bench.

“Just finishing up this song. Sorry.”

“I’ve heard that one before. You know it’ll still be there tomorrow.”

“But you won’t be,” she muttered.

“Not sick of me yet?” He teased as he bumped his shoulder into her shoulder.

“Pretty much the opposite. “

“I know. We’ve always had bad timing, right? But I’ll come visit and an hour is not that…”

“It’s not that. It’s just...I don’t know. Everything is weird. The last couple of days, things felt normal but once you and Armin leave it, it won’t feel like that anymore.”

“You mean how it used to be in high school?”

“Yeah,” she answered quietly.

“Growing up sucks.”

“It's not just that. Losing the chance to record….what if that ends the band? Then everything I worked for for the past year means nothing. All the shitty dead end jobs. The hours I devoted to songwriting, it means nothing if no one gets to hear it.”

"When was the band set to record?”

“Monday.”

“You’ll figure it out. You and Historia, you two know how to write songs that mean something. Trust in that. Keep streaming. Besides, you’ve got four kids as fans. You should have seen them in the old living room,” Eren laughed.

“That was at your house?”

Eren nodded, “yeah, Reiner was over with his cousin and her friends. They really enjoyed watching all of you. They kept saying bring the pretty ladies back! We want to jam some more!”

Mikasa couldn’t help but smile, “have they heard you?”

“Oh yeah. All the time.”

“Do they like it?”

“Yeah, they crash practice pretty often but they don’t love us nearly as much as they love you.”

“Maybe we could meet them one day?” Mikasa asked before standing up.

“Come visit and you can,” Eren shrugged before standing up.

“I hate driving,” Mikasa muttered as she made her way towards the stairs.

“Sorry, they haven’t invented teleportation yet,” he smirked.

“You can’t drive!”

“You’re right. So you’ll just have to come to me.” He caught up to her as they walked into Mikasa’s bedroom together.

“Maybe I’ll bribe Sasha….”

“Oh yeah, Niccolo is there. She can see her boyfriend, you can see yours,” he smirked again.

“You’re not my boyfriend yet,” Mikasa muttered as she pulled out clothes to change into out of her dresser.

“Yet?”

She realized her fatal mistake.

This had been a trap!

AND she had fallen for it.

No. She wasn’t going to answer.

So Mikasa grabbed her clothes and went to the bathroom to change.

When she came back, Eren was asleep on her bed.

She hadn’t even been gone that long. She picked up one of the pillows and whacked him in the head with it.

“Ow! Why are your pillows so hard?” Eren asked.

“They’re not. Get on your side.” Mikasa climbed into bed once Eren rolled over to the other side of the bed.

“Goodnight, Mikasa.”

“Goodnight, Eren.”

------------

Saturday was filled with goodbyes.

Armin had been the first to leave early in the morning with Hange to head back to campus. Eren, Sasha, Mikasa, Ymir, and Historia had all hugged Armin goodbye. They left Annie and Armin alone in the living room while Levi was outside talking with Hange.

The hug between Annie and Armin lasted for a long time.

“I’ll call you everyday,” Armin said as he kissed Annie on the cheek.

“You can just text me,” she shrugged, still not letting go.

“I’ll call you,” he reassured her before giving her a squeeze. “If you need anything…”

“I know,” Annie muttered as she tried to hide the fact she was crying.

“Okay,” he said softly before pulling back. Armin pressed a kiss to her lips before gathering his things and walking out the front door.

Annie and Levi stood there, watching as both of their partners headed back to campus.

“It doesn’t get easier. Watching them leave,” Levi finally said.

Zeke showed up about an hour later. He stood smoking in the driveway.

Historia, Ymir, Annie, and Sasha all gave Eren a hug, welcoming him back to the group but at the same time, bidding him goodbye.

They left Mikasa and Levi alone with Eren.

“Don’t die,” Levi said before taking the dogs and disappearing upstairs.

“Right, of course not, sir. Captain.”

Mikasa laughed to herself.

“So…” Eren said as he awkwardly pulled on his shoes in front of the door.

“Tell Zeke to drive safe,” Mikasa muttered before looking down.

“I will.”

“Okay.”

“Levi’s going to kill me for this,” he took two steps towards Mikasa with shoes on before he pulled her into a hug.

She hugged him back tightly.

“I’m going to have to get social media back. I’ll watch every livestream, okay? Call me whenever you want. And I’ll...I’ll text you.”

Zeke honked the horn. "I should go," Eren said.

“Yeah, don’t keep Zeke waiting.”

“Bye, Mikasa.”

She took a step towards him and kissed him on the cheek.

Eren immediately went bright red.

“I’ll see you later, Eren,” she replied.

Eren walked out the front door, closing it behind him.

Mikasa locked the door.

Once Eren left, Mikasa felt a wave of overwhelming sadness take her as she climbed the stairs to her room.

She climbed back into bed.

A knock came on her door.

“Come in,” she called.

It was Annie who opened the door and stepped in.

“I know it’s only…..I just…..I want him here,” Annie sobbed.

Mikasa nodded as she got out of bed and hugged Annie tightly.

“I don’t want to go back to sleep because I’m just going to wake up alone but I’m so tired,” the blonde girl said as she hugged Mikasa tightly. “And my bed smells like him. I just….I don’t want to do this alone. I’m so tired, Mikasa. But I keep having morning sickness too. I just...I don’t know what to do.”

“You’re not alone,” Mikasa reassured Annie as she still held onto the other girl.

Annie released her. “Thank you,” she muttered.

“And you can sleep wherever. In here with me, downstairs on the couch.” Mikasa took a small step back.

Annie simply nodded.

“You want me to make you some peppermint tea? You said that helped the other day, right? We have so much of it.”

Annie nodded again.

“Okay, wait here.”

Annie slept in Mikasa’s bed with Mikasa after Annie drank the tea Mikasa had made for her.

----------------

Band practice turned into an absolute disaster in a mere matter of minutes.

Historia got her foot caught in a cable which caused her to crash into Ymir.

That caused Ymir to break one of the strings of her bass and crash into Sasha’s cymbal.

Sasha had thrown her drumsticks as she had tried to catch the cymbal before it crashed into the rest of the drum set. She was unsuccessful and fell backwards.

A drumstick hit Mikasa in the back of the head which caused Mikasa to turn around too fast and fall off the piano bench.

Another drumstick hit Annie right in the face.

Levi came rushing into the sun room to see what had caused all the noise.

Only Annie was standing up but she had her hands held up to her face.

Sawney and Bean came running in.

Bean found Mikasa while Sawney found Ymir. They licked both of the girls’ faces.

“Do I want to know?” Levi asked as he stared at all of them.

“I tripped over a cable and then I don’t even know what happened,” Historia said as she stood up.

She offered her hand to Ymir and pulled the other girl to her feet.

Ymir did the same to Sasha and pulled Sasha to her feet.

Levi helped Mikasa to her feet.

“Anyone hurt?” Levi asked.

“Besides my pride? I’m good,” Ymir said before looking at her bass. “I’ll need a new string for my bass though.”

“I got hit in the face,” Annie said as she removed her hands. There was a diagonal red mark that ran from her forehead to her cheek.

“At least you didn’t fall. That could have been really bad,” Sasha said as she inspected her drums for damage.

“Tripping over a cable did this?” Levi asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Mikasa answered with a shrug.

“It’s better than last time in the house. Remember that black eye I got?” Historia asked.

“Wait, this has happened before?” Levi asked as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“A couple of times. We forget to keep track of the cables. I fell into Mikasa’s keyboard and got a black eye,” Historia explained.

“Okay, so now you’re all going wireless. I’ll take you to the music store.”

“How can we afford that? Mikasa doesn’t have her money yet,” Ymir asked.

“I never said you were paying for it,” Levi scoffed as he left the sun room.

“Did Levi just say he loves us?” Sasha asked as she stood up her cymbal.

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Ymir said with a shrug.

"Brats! Let's go!" Levi called out.

They assembled in the living room.

"My car sits four. So who is going? Besides Mikasa," Levi asked.

"Annie's coming," Mikasa said as she linked arms with Annie.

"I guess," Annie replied with a shrug.

"I will go, Captain, my captain," Ymir teased.

"Of course, you are. Sasha, Historia. I trust you here so this was probably the better choice."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ymir asked.

"How many things have you destroyed in this house?" Levi asked as he walked over to the door.

".....one coffee table. Once. Years ago."

Levi snorted, "yeah. I'm sure the window didn't count."

"That was not completely my fault."

Levi just sighed as he walked out the door followed by four girls.

“Shotgun!” Ymir called.

They got into Levi’s car.

The engine started.

Heavy metal music began to blast.

Levi quickly turned the music down.

All three girls stared at Levi as he started to drive.

“Wait, is this on your phone?” Ymir asked.

“No, it’s a CD.”

“Is it your CD?”

“Yes,” Levi sighed.

“Hmm...didn’t take you for a metal guy.”

“It's a mix.”

“Oh! Let’s see what else is on here!” Ymir hit the button on the radio, skipping to the next song.

Rap music filled the car.

Annie and Mikasa started laughing in the backseat.

“Alright, wasn’t expecting that. Let’s see what’s next,” Ymir said before skipping to the next song.

Country music filled the car.

“Okay, this is weirder than the rap,” Ymir hit the skip button again.

Soft jazz played.

“This right here is what I thought you’d listen to.”

“Why?” Levi asked.

“Because you’re old and boring,” Ymir said with a shrug. She hit the skip again and a famous love song began to play.

Annie and Mikasa laughed much harder at this. Ymir joined in moments later.

“Okay! Silence! I drive in silence now!” Levi yelled as he turned the music completely off.

“Hey Dad, can we stop for food on the way back?” Ymir asked, pushing her luck.

“I’m not your dad.”

“You don’t know that. You could be my dad.”

Levi simply sighed, “don’t make me pull this car over and let you walk back home.”

“You know who would say that?” Mikasa asked.

“A dad!” Ymir laughed.

They made it the rest of the way to the music store. He never would admit that he did truly miss having them around even for all their antics.

Once they arrived at the music store, Mikasa, Annie, and Ymir went in different directions.

Each distracted by the different sections of instruments.

This was worse than when they had been younger and he had taken them to the mall.

Levi ended up finding the devices to make the guitars wireless. He found something more interesting in that area.

“How hard is it to use that equipment?” Levi asked the sales associate.

“Well, it’s very pricey, sir,” the teenager said.

“I didn’t ask for a price. I asked how hard it was to use.”

“Well, I just didn’t think a man such as yourself…”

“Such as...what?”

“Colt!! Don’t talk to Captain Ackerman like that! I’m so sorry, Captain. My son is better at shoving his foot into his mouth. Go dust something,” the woman said pushing her son in the opposite direction. “What was it you wanted to know about?”

“That equipment, how hard is to use?” Levi asked for the third time.

“Oh! Well, it depends on the programs you use it with.”

“Hmm.”

“There are classes and tutorials out there to teach you. If you have a rough idea, I don’t think it could be that hard. That son of mine figured it out.”

“I’ll take it,” Levi said before he began to walk off.

“All of it?!” The woman asked.

“All of it. Have your son load into my car,” Levi walked off to find the girls.

Ymir was looking at guitar picks.

Levi snatched the box out of her.

“No. Buy the nicer ones,” he said handing her a better box.

“I...uhh...okay?”

“Those strings are shit too. Buy better. Where’d Annie and Mikasa disappear to?”

“That way-ish.”

“Go get them. Don’t let them buy cheap shit. Get better drumsticks for Sasha. I have to move my car,” he said.

Mikasa, Annie, and Ymir were very confused by the fact several boxes were being loaded into the trunk after they checked out.

“We’ll have to deliver the rest,” Colt said.

“When?” Levi asked.

“Tomorrow morning?” Colt asked nervously.

“Fine,” Levi agreed before getting into his car.

The ride home was silent.

Mikasa, Annie, and Ymir were all racking their brains for what Levi could have possibly bought.

Sasha and Historia were watching tv with the puppies when they returned.

“You’re going to have to clean the basement tomorrow,” Levi announced.

“Okay but why?” Mikasa asked.

“Recording equipment has to go somewhere,” he said as he took off his shoes.

“Wait…” Historia started.

“Huh?” Sasha asked.

“Is that what they were loading into the car?” Ymir asked.

“That costs several thousand dollars,” Annie said.

“Levi, you...you didn’t. You couldn’t have,” Mikasa answered.

“Don’t fuck it up,” he said before leaving the living room.

“He believes in us,” Mikasa whispered.

“Thanks, Dad!” Ymir yelled.

This time, Levi didn’t protest.

PING!

Mikasa’s phone went off.

NOTIFICATION:

@jaeger_eren has followed you on Instagram.

---------------------------------

“You want to explain to me why your face was so red this morning?” Zeke asked as he sat down at the kitchen table with a plate of spaghetti.

“Uh..no reason,” Eren said as he sat down across from Zeke.

“You are lying. So what happened?”

Eren sighed, “Mikasa kissed me on the cheek.”

Zeke began laughing. “You almost had sex with her against the wall and you turn red when she kisses you on the cheek?”

“This is why I don’t tell you anything,” Eren muttered as he twirled his pasta.

“Fine, I will stop. But did it truly affect you that much?”

Eren nodded. “It’s different. She’s different. What you walked in on was a ‘caught up in the moment’ moment but now she knows everything and….it’s different.”

Zeke nodded. “I am proud of you, Eren. Now do not fuck it up this time.”

“I won’t. I won’t. I actually had an idea. Annie said I should try to romance Mikasa again. Grand gestures, all that. I had an idea. I got everyone at Levi’s house in on it. But I’ll still need some help.”

“You know whatever you need, I will do it.”

“Alright, so here’s what I’m thinking,” Eren launched into his plan.

#mmtylif #my writing

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gofancyninjaworld · 4 years

Text

OPM Revised Manga chapters 99 - 100 Review: Not today, Satan

Hoo hoo hoo. When Murata said he had a bit of work to do for the volume, we had no idea just how extensive it was! There isn’t a single chapter appearing in volume 22 that hasn’t been edited or reworked. And the mighty struggle between Child Emperor and Phoenixman has changed unrecognisably! Shall we go?

A bit of a difference, yes

Story: forget what you thought you knew

The first change comes nearly right away. Rather than leaving Waganma behind, Child Emperor keeps him in Brave Giant’s backpack, freeing both hands to fight. The fight between Phoenixman and Brave Giant is interesting, but it’s much lighter going than before for a very specific reason: the monster sees a connection between himself and Child Emperor and is hoping to keep the costume the hero is wearing intact so he can recruit a fellow costumed monster.

And now it gets freaky. Phoenixman can summon another costume-wearer to a timeless spiritual space in which they can talk. Don’t ask me how! Phoenixman latches onto Child Emperor’s desire to find someplace where he’s trusted and his efforts are appreciated right away, coming terrifyingly close to converting him into a monster -- until he harshes the vibe with a terrible name for the monster he’d like Child Emperor to become. It made my skin crawl, how close he came.

what a terrifying monster! Had he stopped speaking with the above words, he’d have created a monster indeed!

They resume fighting, and eventually Child Emperor smashes him through the floor as in the previous versions, which doesn’t have the effect of killing him so he can reincarnate. Instead, it ‘just’ launches them both through several floors, through the lake of death, and down lower still. The water sweeps Saitama along as well, and all of them fetch up in a charnel house, where all the dead Subterraneans have ended up.

Phoenixman makes a second attempt to persuade Child Emperor. This time he gets closer, sowing seeds of doubt about the goodness of the Hero Association higher-ups into Child Emperor’s head quite directly -- there’s no need for them to talk. Whatever it is he reveals to the boy, it is quite grisly. Thankfully, the spell is broken by Saitama who just bashes into their spiritual realm to declare his disapproval of what the monster is doing, which breaks the spell.

no traumatising children on my watch! Trouble is, Child Emperor isn’t going to forget whatever it is that he’s been told -- this is going to be trouble later.

Just as they snap back to the real world, another wonderful intervention occurs. Zombieman calls, ostensibly to tell Child Emperor about his speculation about the possibility of the Monster Association using the Metal Knight to build robots of their own proving right, but really to thank and encourage him. Giving him the very thing he’d been so desperate to hear from the start.

Since he’d been unable to persuade Child Emperor to turn into a monster spontaneously, Phoenixman tried the other way: by dropping a monster cell into the machine so that all the boy had to do would be to take a bite. It’s a good thing that monster cells cannot work unless they’re consumed of one’s own free will. Despite the pressure being applied to him by the monster cell trying to crawl into his mouth, the zombies trying to tear Brave Giant apart, and Brave Giant’s own time limit, Child Emperor holds firm and finds at heart what’s really important: that heroism is an inner quality, not an external one.

And then the true nature of Phoenixman comes out:

don’t be fooled: you can only trust a monster to be a monster

In keeping with his inner self-reliance, Child Emperor destroys Brave Giant himself, immolating the zombies along with it. Phoenixman tries to take advantage of the situation to kill Child Emperor, being fouled by Saitama long enough for the kid to slip a ticklebug into his costume.

I totally wasn’t expecting this to happen as a result!

the most pathetic monster ever -- please nobody kill him in case he can resurrect stronger

I was irrationally pleased to see Underdogman 24 come find his master, still functional enough to get them out of there (with a subtle push from Saitama). On we go!

Okay, Saitama will be back soon to find where the rude monster that tried to grab them en route came from. He still needs to find those noisy neighbours!

Meta: Not today, Satan

I get two big things out of this story.

First, at the beginning of the year, I mused that OPM wasn’t at heart a battle manga. Rather, it was a manga that had battles (link). Core is the relationship between the small jihad (the struggle against external enemies) and the big jihad (the struggle with oneself to be a better person and lead a good life). I’d used Saitama as the examplar of this struggle.

I was a bit (a lot) confused by the changes at first, but I think that fundamentally, the changes are so as to come back to that important inner struggle that so much of OPM is about.

I thought that Child Emperor's struggle is appropriate to a ten-year old. He's old enough not to have blind faith in adults, but young enough to really need good, reliable ones around and to know that his efforts are truly appreciated. It’s been an issue for several chapters now: right from the first time we saw Child Emperor, being told he was still a child was a great way to piss him off.

Phoenixman sensing that, worked so beautifully and sweetly on his insecurities that he seemed almost a friend. Surely no one could resist...

Thankfully, Child Emperor does have good adults in his life, ones who show up when most needed. Saitama shows up in the spiritual world when Child Emperor feels most cornered by Phoenixman’s spiel and lets him know that he sees what’s happening and it’s not okay for Phoenixman to be pressuring a child so -- giving him strength to resist without taking the struggle away from him. Zombieman called to thank him, and let him know that his efforts were seen and appreciated. Reminding him too, that there were adults he looked up to. It’s so awesome to see that even though he’s blindingly smart, Child Emperor still has some things he aspires to be.

ah, how much your divinely-timed words meant, Zombieman!

Previously, Phoenixman had been mocking Child Emperor for being a kid, for being misled by the adults, and had been fascinated by the possibility that he too could get stuck in his costume, but those were secondary themes against a backdrop of the terror of an ever-growing monster that just would not die. Fortunately, this rewrite, Child Emperor could only push Phoenixman to the point of death that first time, so he never got access to those bigger, scarier forms and thus the fight to keep one’s soul human could take primacy.

Too, I think that Saitama’s presence, lending the boy hero a subtle hand when he most needs it, was very important in grounding the story. Rather than being an all-but-perfect person who already had all the answers and has all the toys needed to enact them, Child Emperor may still need a hand, without it being a discredit in any way to his intelligence, determination, courage, or inventiveness. The threat posed to him by Phoenixman is just that potent.

whoops, can’t let you do that -- you won’t be eviscerating children on my watch

Second, the story has gone almost Buddhist about the sin of attachment. So many monsters are about the thing they're obsessed with. Even if it's a good thing (like justice -- eh, Amai Mask?), that attachment is what warps them. Phoenixman refusing to take off his Birdbrain costume because he was so invested in the character he couldn't accept it was over, literally refusing to take it off even if it killed him.

It's putting into context the thing I intuited about monsters (link) -- that they get rid of conflict and regret. It feels good to be a monster. Being human means feeling the pain, the regret, the conflict, accepting loss, and moving on. Monsters don’t have to do that. They get to get all that they want, at the expense of their humanity.

unhealthy attachment -- literally

Other Business

1. The Monster Association really does have scientists. Whether with Machine God G5′s help or not, they’ve wasted no time in finding out how to make Metal Knight-based robots. Thankfully, they’ve also copied the machine’s weak spots and don’t seem to have the super-resistant materials the original would be made of. Still... that’s worrying. Are the minds and hands that worked on this really dead? What else have they learned?

2. It was so wholesome to see Saitama provide support and encouragement to Child Emperor, stepping in whenever the boy was about to be overcome but otherwise letting him use his wits and courage to deal with the situation. How I wish he’d do so for his disciple! It’d mean so much! Even if it’s just to give an encouraging smile.

3. It took me a couple of rereads to see it, but the ninja duo have been strapped to the side of Underdogman 24. Saitama means to collect this bounty! More bbq meat for him.

4. Gosh, it’s going to be positively crowded at the surface! We’ll have two evil ex-zombie monster ninjas, the support heroes, Waganma, Child Emperor, Saitama, the mercenaries and the disciples all having a fresh air party. Doubtless various people will be departing for various locations soon enough, but this should be a fun mix.

5. Saitama is so absurdly over-powerful that even when he does his thing right in front of people, they can’t understand what happened. No wonder he gets no credit.

6. I really, really, really appreciate getting to see more of Waganma’s thoughts. Yes, they’re selfish, but his desire to keep quiet in order to not be plunged back into the hell he’s grateful to be leaving are very understandable! Previously, he’d seemed sociopathic.

7. So Child Emperor thinks that most of his fellow Class S heroes are either evil, evil-looking, evil-acting, or just plain weird? Not nice at all.

he still has some way to go in learning how to not judge by appearance

8. But Zombieman is just wholesome. Especially his promise to treat Child Emperor to milkshake afterwards. Let it happen!

#OPM #manga #meta #review #long #Child Emperor #Phoenixman #Saitama #wow what a chapter #both adventure and spiritualism in one #Zombieman #the distrust planted in Child Emperor isn't going to leave anytime soon #to the loss of everyone #just what things are the HA higher ups up to?#it may not be anywhere near as bad as the monster makes them out to be #but it doesn't have to be for a child to lose faith in them #the story talks about the need for a balance between self-sufficiency and interdependency #alone we cannot easily cope #but if we lean too hard then other things become a crutch

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purplecatghostposts · 4 years

Note

guess what, it's another free ramble pass! same stuff applies, just talk about whatever you want for as much as you want, and doesn't have to be limited to one topic!

You’re a life saver let’s GO

Okay so today I’m gonna go off the deep end and talk about some OCs and a personal project that I think about a lot so let’s talk about Haakon and Nesta, a couple of deities.

These two come from a world known as Cordtritos (Which if you’re curious, comes from the Latin words ‘Contritos Corde’ meaning ‘Broken Hearted’ or ‘Heart Broken’). Deities are often in charge of one central thing and a couple of smaller things that go with it. That being said, Haakon is the God of Destruction, along with Darkness, Power, and later is considered the God of Demons. Nesta on the other hand, is the Deity of Creation, along with Light, Knowledge, and later Angels as well.

You would think with titles like Creation and Destruction that they would’ve created Cordtritos but that’s not the case. They did not create the world, but rather, the world created them. Both of them were born into the world with little idea of the power they held and only had each other. Despite not having actual parents, Haakon and Nesta became siblings in every sense of the word and from that point on, always had each other’s backs.

I’m not going to go too deep into the background surrounding how those two realized they weren’t like other mortal beings and eventually came to be deities because that’s a whole other can of worms but eventually, the pair of them realized they had a lot more power than anything else that walked the planet. They learned their abilities over the century that followed but it wasn’t truly put to the test until war came. Or more accurately, wars.

As the moral beings of the world began to create cities and kingdoms, they began to fight as well. As unfortunate and terrible as war and conflict is, it does tend to break out between countries are at odds for resources and land. The biggest problem however was that they never stopped. Even after one country won a war, they would just end up getting into another- and this happened globally. Those who didn’t want to fight were dragged into alliances that would eventually break apart and peace was scarce to come by. Haakon and Nesta couldn’t find a reason for it and it was severely damaging the world. So, eventually the pair summoned their strength and took matters into their own hands.

Even with their powers, singlehandedly trying to stop the fighting or tip the scales of war on one side so that it could end seemed impossible so they created their own armies.

Nesta, who came to be known as The Diplomat in these times and primarily focused on creating peace between different countries, created the Angels.

Haakon, who came to be known as The Warrior in these times and primarily focused on stopping the wars through tipping the scale, created the Demons.

Neither were initially good or bad but rather, were initially built for different roles to play. However when times got tough, Angels stepped in to join the fight or if needed, Demons would help with the negotiations.

It took a long time but eventually, the wars began to stop and all their effort had finally worked (Not going to go too in detail on how they managed to find the source of the sudden aggression because this is long enough as it is but once it was balanced out, things came to calm down). Haakon and Nesta finally established peace... But not without consequence.

Because somebody always has to loose in a war. Sometimes one side takes the short end of the stick in negotiations. There’s no way to please everybody, and as much as they tried to, there was a sizable amount of people who were not happy with the deities. And for the first time in their lives, Nesta and Haakon were demonized.

Nesta was criticized for being cold, calculating, and uncaring. Only wanting the results and now caring how they got them. It hit them pretty hard because they were never as great with emotions as Haakon and always hated that they weren’t. They tried- they really did! They had plenty of sympathy for people and understood their emotions but comforting people... Wasn’t their specialty. They understood creation and its process and how things worked- they could quite literally create a whole person without too much trouble- but relating and socializing and being vulnerable especially with other people that weren’t their brother? That was something they struggled with. And hearing these accusations going around only struck their deepest, darkest insecurities and hurt.

Haakon on the other hand, was rumored to be far more violent than he let on. A warlord who only wanted power and domination- who killed with a smile on his face- who bathed in the blood of mortals for fun. And he wasn’t bothered at first. Laughed it off because yeah, he had destructive magic and was a monster in battle but he knew himself. He loved socializing with mortals! They lived interesting lives and invented so many cool things! How couldn’t he love them? These rumors didn’t get to Haakon emotionally, but they began to affect his social life. Mortals began to avoid him, were uncomfortable with him, feared him- and that began to take a toll on him. Because he wasn’t violent- honest! But everyone else seemed to think so and that was what began to screw with his self esteem.

But even still, they tried to help the mortal world anyways. Their Angels and Demons were sent out to help in any way that they could in an effort to dispel the rumors and show the people that they were only trying to help, even if they did cause problems for some. Good intentions had to mean something, right?

But you can’t kill an idea.

And it all started to go wrong when they were praised as higher beings to be worshipped and started to get followers. Some of it went well- Haakon and Nesta rewarded their most loyal followers with magical abilities of their own that would be passed down for generations. Those bonds are the bonds that they remembered fondly, but unfortunately being powerful deities means you attract unwanted attention as well. Especially if you happen to be a God of Destruction.

Some who began to worship Haakon thought destruction meant destroying everything. That by committing acts of terror, they were honoring their god rather than disgracing him further. And some joined purely with the intent to destroy in his name simply because they wanted to. Because hurting people was fun for them.

Haakon tried his best to get rid of them or at the very least, try and tell them that they weren’t getting it. Destruction wasn’t about ruining lives- it was meant to be a good thing. Destroying the things that are holding you back from being happy; destroying the socialital norms that are doing more harm than good or simply aren’t needed because the only thing one needs are morals, not norms; destruction in order to create freedom- that was true destruction.

Sometimes Haakon was able to get through to people. Often times, they rejected his message and continued to create hurt for their own amusement.

It was bad but Haakon was trying to handle it. He still believed that he could get through to these people- they were just misguided! Until they did something that would make him snap.

They targeted his sibling.

Even after hundreds of years, Haakon still doesn’t know how they managed to do it. But they lured Nesta into a trap and casted a spell of their own that corrupted Nesta almost to the point where they were too far gone. And as a result, Nesta caused mass destruction in the name of order and creation.

It didn’t just effect Nesta either. The corruption spread to every single Angel as they all ruled under their command and they began to lay siege all over the world. Nesta was so heavily affected that when Haakon tried to reason with them, they attacked him brutally and didn’t hold back. Haakon was forced to fight their own sibling to the point where he had to incapacitate them and lock them away until he could find a cure for the corruption.

Haakon traced it all back to the same group he had been trying so hard to save and he finally snapped. Because he could forgive the tarnish to his own name but not to his sibling’s, and Haakon could never forgive the fact that they forced him to fight them.

Haakon wiped them off the map without blinking twice. He managed to remove the corruption from their siblings mind and from all of their proxies. And when Nesta finally woke up and smelled the ashes, they were deeply heartbroken at the wrath they had inflicted upon the world. Kingdoms turned to ash, thousands dead and thousands more injured or in grief- it was all too much to handle. The guilt made them create a rule for themselves and all future deities that they were to keep out of mortal affairs and keep interaction to a minimum. For the safety of all.

But Haakon hated seeing their sibling in pieces so he decided to change the story and tamper with the mortal world majorly for the last time.

Memories were erased or manipulated to all except the deities. Angels forgot that they destroyed, Demons forgot what side they were on, and the mortals were lead to believe that it was Haakon who went on a rampage, not Nesta.

Haakon covered it up left and right, taking the blame despite their sibling’s protests. And thus, the mortal wrath was placed on Haakon and his Demons, not Nesta.

A massive cover up that Haakon works so hard to keep under wraps. Problem is that there’s a few inaccuracies if you know where to look.

For example, when at full power, Haakon’s eyes turn pure, glowing white. But in some paintings created just after this tragedy that happened centuries ago, the deity in them has pure black eyes, which is the same way Nesta’s eyes look at full power.

But the paintings are just inaccurate or misremembered... Right?

—

Yeah this is literally me just dumping about my made up history for one of my worlds OOPS hopefully this was entertaining in one aspect or another.

I just care them a lot. Two sibling deities trying to make it in the world and who care about each other... I think about them a lot.

#SB Speaks #SB Rambles #This world is VERY vast and uhhh yeah #I’m not joking when I say I have several series that take place in this world #Not books. SERIES.#As in different focuses and premises #I got my initial series Dissolved that started it #Then there’s the books about Angel and Demon culture centuries after The Incident #Then there’s a spin off where I focus on a character called Malachi and there’s even more Demon culture stuff #Then there’s Infernal Contract and Order of the Fawn #AND THE NEWEST EDITION: The Disciples where a coverup from centuries ago might be uncovered again...#yeah #it’s a lot #This is one of my biggest worlds #This one and my Silver Lining universe have the most thought #Though this one takes the cake because hot damn I went deep into history #Anyways #Thank you for the ramble pass!!#SB’s OCs #hehe funny lil tag because it sounds like it rhymes even though it kinda doesn’t #war m #death m #does this count as religion mention? I’m not sure it’s kinda made up #long post #god it’s so long and I had to SHORTEN IT hfhfhg

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witchyaqua · 4 years

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planets in the 5th house

DOMAIN OF THE 5TH HOUSE

Creative self-expression (painting, drawing, sculpting, sewing, writing, acting, music, dance, woodworking, etc.), and the art you make

Creative, pleasure-seeking sex drive

Your children, and the qualities they inherit from you

Falling in love, and having a young romance

Fun (games, gambles, parties, hobbies, recreational activities, entertainment)

Weekends, vacations, holidays, and relaxing time off

SUN IN THE 5H:The act of creating – be it art, invention, stories, crafts, or even children – is what you live to do. Your own chosen discipline will depend on what it is you enjoy doing the most. For some, their chosen avenue is fine art, and they love to design, draw, paint, sculpt, and write. Others like performance art, preferring to be active in their artistry when they sing, dance, play music, or act. There are those who are crafty and like to sew, decorate, and make and build things. For some it is their children, their literary creations, which constantly boost their ego by being cute and special. And then there are the people who go for games and sports above all else, who like to play around and engage in their competitive spirits. You can be any combination of these, from artist to performer to parent or sports fan. The point is, whatever it is you like to do, you do it because you have a fundamental desire to create and have fun.The other side of the fun-and-pleasure coin, apart from creativity, is romance. There are realms of life that you need to experience with a Leo or Aries-type of partner and the wonders of love and sex are definitely some of them. You adore the pampering, the flirting, the cutesy-cuddly-lovey-dovey side of things. That feeling of being special that your crave so deeply can be found when you are with somebody that makes you feel that way. But you also need somebody who can keep up with you energetically, add some fun into your life, and share your colourful hobbies together. Because you experience a great deal of love through your ego, it is all too easy for you to soak up a lot of praise and attention like it is all for you and then not give any back again. It is important that your ego remains ripe and healthy, or else your vitality and creative energy fails and you become bitter. But if you want children, and pets, and love, and to have healthy relationships you need to learn to shine brightly upon others and make them feel special too.

MOON IN THE 5H:Your creativity comes and goes like the changing faces of the moon, ebbing in and out like the tides she sways back and forth. You are highly changeable in this way. Yet you are also constant in that you always come back to it, carried by a need that is natural to you. Your mother likely had a hand in fostering your creative expression. And when you create you are finding your inner child, connecting to the spirit inside of you that needs to do and make and feel.Children are another sort of creation, and one that you are strongly in line with having. When you have children of your own you will give them this emotional and creative part of yourself. Nurturing and compassionate, you resemble the playful mother or father figure ever present in children’s media. However, there is a cold underside to this warm and happy Moon. You tend to be moody and dramatically emotional, using your moods to manipulate your children into doing what you want rather than directly telling them. You can be needy and clingy, never wanting them to grow up and leave the home, always wanting them to remain by your side. It is a testament not only to how much your children need you, but how much you need them as well. The Moon is highly changeable, fluctuating and rhythmic, but it doesn’t like change. Emotions seek out the security and safety of constancy and trust. You love your children very much, and so tenaciously hold onto family times with them for as long as you can. But you need to understand that your relationships with your children will go through phases, just like your creative energies go through phases, and that is okay. You are a kind and intuitive parent and are loved whole-heartedly by your children!

MERCURY IN THE 5H:Your loving, romantic, and sexual sides of life are perhaps your most engaging, occupying a large amount of your time with interesting lovers around you. Second are the creative aspects of your life, the projects, artistic works, and hobbies with which you fill your free time. Later in life when you have children, that may just become your newest and most interesting ongoing project to date. The things that give you joy are the things that hold your attention the longest. You find creating new things, pouring out your heart and soul into new ventures, entirely fascinating. Boring things that you do not like to do, do not hold your attention long enough for you to get anything done. It seems more often than not that you have a child’s attention-span, which is true!You will fall in love with those who reflect the qualities of your 5th House. You are likely to get along with Gemini and Virgo types for that reason. The Gemini side of things involves much learning, talking, and communication between you and other people. This is where you delight one another in wonderful conversations discussion the nature of the world. You can’t fall in love with someone you don’t have interesting conversations with. It just won’t happen! The Virgo side of this placement is slightly different. This involves conversation of a more analytical nature, of dissecting the world around you and figuring things out. You run of the risk of being too critical here, especially of your loved ones, as your mind seeks to perfect that which lies in your 5th House. Together these signs give you much changeability, suiting both your fickleness in love and your desire to learn more. Romantically and sexually you are inclined towards many affairs with many different kinds of people. Constant change and a steady stream of new people keeps you mentally stimulated. When it comes to love, sex, and fun, you need to be intellectually interested in the person or the thing you are doing. Boredom spells disaster in that respect!

VENUS IN THE 5H:You are in love with love! You usually gravitate towards Taurus or Libra personalities who are the very essence of Venus: beautiful, harmonious, relationship-oriented, sensual, and with a shared love of the arts. But you may also be drawn to other Leo-types who mirror your child-like creative drive and dramatic emotional ways. Love, sex, fun, and pleasure are top priorities with this placement, and you want a lover who fulfills all of those needs at once. Constant streams of praise and attention should also feature. You need to feel as though they passionately adore you in every waking moment and as though they dream only of you at night. Overall it can be seen that you have had many relationships that contain both love and sex. Your drive for sex and romance is as great as your drive for creative expression!This is a highly creative place for the already artistic Venus to be. Armed with a desire to make beautiful things, you create a personal style that has flair, drama, and beauty inherent in it. You may lean towards more sensual beauty and indulge in cooking and gardening. Or you may take a route through the fine arts and enjoy drawing, painting, writing, sculpting, acting, music, interior decorating, fashion, and more aesthetic pleasures. You love not only making art, but being around it as well – trips to galleries and museums, craft classes, theatres, going out to shows. You appreciate what art does for humanity and how important it is culturally. Furthermore, you have the talent necessary to be successful in the art and entertainment industries. Being artistic is one way you can make your life feel more balanced, more harmonized with your natural spirit. Having a creative outlet is very important for your emotional and spiritual wellness. It is one of your greatest sources of pleasure and something you indulge in often. In order for you to feel fulfilled with your life you must find an avenue to express your desire to create. This will trickle down into other areas of your life eventually as well, spurring a desire to create children of your own eventually.

MARS IN THE 5H:You tend to fall in love quickly at first sight, rush impulsively into sexual affairs, get bored quickly, and then leave just as fast. You are ambitious in your pursuit of love and willful in getting the person you want. There is conflict with your loves ones over your ego, your impatience in making love, your attempts to dominate the relationship, and how competitive you can be with others both inside and outside of the relationship. Yet you possess such a strong personal magnetism and virile energy that lovers can’t help but be spellbound by you. The aggression you display in love can be a problem, but in the bedroom it is exciting! Your strength, confidence, sexual potency, and need for independence mean that you dislike the clingy or the needy, and that you are better suited for a relationship that doesn’t require you to be around 24/7. For the right lover who can handle you, you are a dream come true.You need to be a winner in the games and sports that you love to play. You need to create the best, biggest, most awe-inspiring works of art imaginable, because you can’t settle for second place. Mars is put into all of your creative work, too, as seen on the stamp of individuality you have in your style. You are one for creative achievements; armed with enough drive and determination to be successful in any creative field (particularly the art and entertainment industries). Mars shows where lies part of your ambition, and placed in the 5th House you have strong powers of creation. As your strong sex drive leads to the creation of children, your drive to be creative leads to you dominating the creative arts. Whatever your chosen artistic outlet is – fine arts, performance arts, writing, crafts, trades, etc. – you put a heavy amount of your energy into what you are making. You possess a natural flair for amping up the energy and making people excited. Your natural dramatic flair and enthusiasm is contagious!

JUPITER IN THE 5H:You are a naturally romantic person, seeking pleasure of every kind in your love and sex lives. Luck finds you often in love; many people look at your lovers and regard what a catch they are. You can be sometimes indiscreet about your love life (letting others know more than their share), but that’s what happens with this placement! You seem destined to fall in love with those with Sagittarius-like or Piscean qualities, as those two signs most resemble Jupiter’s exaggerated and expansive energy. In lovers you are looking for someone who can make you laugh, someone with a captivating entertaining personality. You are attracted to generosity, indulgence, big-hearted displays of affection, and a joint pleasure-seeker. Perhaps you want someone to share in an adventure – traveling the world, taking trips, exploring things together. Or perhaps you want to venture mentally, expanding your mind, teaching and learning things from one another. Sagittarius will wonder you with how funny they can be, how adventurous, and in how open-minded they are. And Pisces will enchant you through their dreamy looks, captivating beauty, and how kind their soul is. Through your choice lovers you will become wiser. You may even find new spiritual or philosophical insights into your own life.You enjoy exciting recreational activities like sporting events, parties, theater, and gambling. You life is filled with hobbies and activities that are fun, exciting, and entertaining. Adventurous sports and games of chance are some of your favourites. But watch out for some extravagant gambling highs and lows! Your creative side runs along much the same course. You expand and elaborate on other people’s ideas until you have created something that is entirely your own. Two of your best outlets for Jupiter’s expression are in performance arts (acting, music, anything on stage or on screen) and physical activities like sports. There is a lot of dramatic flair in whatever you do creatively. Jupiter needs to expand on everything and make it bigger, louder, more impressive, and more fantastic than everyone else. Your performances have more energy and excitement than anyone else’s. You are a natural born entertainer, and you know what you have to do in order to get and keep people’s attention on you.

SATURN IN THE 5H;Your ability to let loose and just have fun is severely limited. You do not know how to enjoy games or the casual pastime. Having fun is serious business! Somehow you have amassed a massive insecurity when it comes to expressing yourself and your individuality; you are afraid that what you have made is not good enough, and this fear reflects even deeper feelings about yourself. You experienced one or both parents (likely the father) as an expert, talent, or authority when it came to creativity, sports, or games. He trained you, guided you, taught you skills and lessons and pushed you to get better all the time. At times you hated it because it wasn’t fun anymore; he was invading your hobby, what you did for fun, and turning it into a chore to practice over and over again. Achievement became the central goal of your project, not the pleasure or the fun. These experiences stuck with you and coloured your adult attitudes towards your pastimes. Fun is now a matter of dedication, discipline, expertise, and success.You take your creative projects, your hobbies, games, sports, and so on very seriously. You are committed to them as one would be divinely committed to any career or meaningful goal. You only know how to undertake long-term goals like writing a book, athletic training, or running a creative-based business; you find it much harder to just casually write a short story, draw the odd drawing, write the odd song, play the odd game, work out sometimes. You need to dedicate yourself to the cause or not participate at all. Everything is very black-and-white in your 5th House. And everything is quite grey, too. You suffer from low self-esteem, low self-worth, insecurity, even shyness. You work alone in private spaces and hide your project for years, telling yourself you aren’t ready yet, it isn’t good enough. You are never ready to open up and show everybody what you have been seriously dedicated to for the past several years, even though you hope to make a career of it. It is a fact that our creative expressions are reflections of our most personal inner selves, and having our art or our abilities harshly criticized is tantamount to having our heart broken. It is your karma to overcome these fears, stop worrying, and become more flexible. If not for you, then for your future children.

URANUS IN THE 5H:You tend to fall in and out of love quickly. Passion strikes you quickly and then leaves just as fast, causing you to be somewhat “undecided” about whether or not you are in love with someone. At any given time you likely have several ongoing crushes and are entirely uncertain about which to pursue and when. Even when you are in a relationship your eyes wander and wonder about what could happen with other people. This does not necessarily indicate that you are one for affairs, but it does mean that you feel happiest when you have the freedom to roam around within your love and sex life. This stems from Uranus’ innate restlessness, the ongoing desire for novelty and experimentation within the realm of love and happiness. You prefer to charm and date older people for they have more experience, more knowledge to pass onto you. What you seek are Gemini or Aquarius types who can give you an unconventional sex life – two things that can keep you interested for a longer period of time.When it eventually comes to your creations, they embody the same Uranus-energy as that which is present inside of you when you create them. Weird love and crazy sex breeds unique and different children, and an alternative taste spawns innovative and inventive arts and crafts. Your entire creative style, from what you make to the way you dress, is so alternative and modern in style that it defies all familiar structures entirely. You push your boundaries and invent new things, billowing strange and crazy ideas out of the back of your imagination. Creative insight comes to you in sudden spontaneous bursts that inspire you to drop everything and move quickly to get the idea out there. Whatever your hobby or creative endeavor may be, be it drawing, writing, designing, building, crafting, or anything in between, one can say with certainty that you are extraordinary and gifted at being original. There is an ongoing journey of self discovery to realizing your full potential here. You push boundaries and develop quickly, all while demanding your freedom to express yourself.

NEPTUNE IN THE 5H:You excel in any kind of creative art but particularly in music, dance, and drama. You love movies, television, the theatre, and performance art of all kinds; the entertainment industry fascinates you, and you would do well in it if you decided to take to the stage. Neptune here allows you to express your feelings with enormous magnitude, which denotes a performer and a comedian in the best of ways. But even if you chose a shyer route (like writing, drawing, or painting, something quiet that you can do alone) your work would still have the same big, extravagant colours as an extroverted piece. What exactly your side-hobbies are is not important. What is important is that you have an outlet for your imagination and your desire to create. You without a creative outlet are like a plant without sunlight: sad, limp, and malnourished of the soul.Of course, where Neptune lies in your chart is a place of illusions, and those places where she seems to bring joy and talent can also be a place of suffering. Her house placement shows where you seek to find heaven on earth – where you set up high, unrealistic expectations that could never come true. Neptune, by nature, is not of the earth, and when you encounter the reality of this house you are always disappointed with what you actually got. Then she starts up with her tricks again. One moment she blesses you with an unparalleled flair for the arts, the next she makes you feel like a failure that will never be as good as someone else. Happiness finds you one day and depression the next. It feels often like you just don’t get to be happy. You always have to sacrifice your happiness, your pleasure, your creative talent, give it away, and become a martyr. She gives you gifts but then asks you to sacrifice them, to give them away, because she is supposed to blend, lose her barriers, and then unite you with the rest of humanity.

PLUTO IN THE 5H: With Pluto here, your love life is nothing short of intense. Your romances all tend to be highly sexual, highly passionate, and very transformative for the both of you. But with all these incredible emotions blazing between you, your loving and sexual relationships can dip into some darker extremes. Perhaps this comes from a difficult childhood spent watching your parent’s love swing one way or another. Or perhaps it is because you are most attracted to Capricorn and Scorpio types of personalities, those who have indomitable strength of will but who also possess tendencies towards depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. They can become tumultuous affairs with power struggles, control issues, shades of abuse, and emotional manipulation. Looking back on your past lovers, you harbour much resentment and guilt on the way things went. To the other extremes you make great sacrifices and are incredibly loyal. You provide your lovers with strength, courage, and the fruits of your ambition. The sex is deep and amazing. You heal them, and are healed in return.

-all the information I found is from canaryquillastrology.com

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neshabeingchildish · 4 years

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Keep Char Distracted.

Share-a-Lair 4

Decided to split NYE into two chapters, trying not to make the chapter too long. Besides, we haven’t seen much of Henry and Jasper and I really wanted to dig more into Henry and Max’s conflict as housemates.

@adorkable-blackgirl @chenoahchantel @henryhearts @kiddangers

Keep Char Distracted.

Jasper and Henry were chatting about NYE plans whenever Max was TRYING to distract his mind from this past week’s thoughts of Charlotte and work on his latest invention. Sure - he selected to do so in the living room, and that was no place for science experiments… well… technically ANY place was a place for science experiments. But, he was still annoyed to hear their voices, despite the fact that he had not heard a single word that either of them were saying. Until one of them said, "What'll we do about Charlotte?" He hated that just the mere mention of her name demanded his attention, but there he was, unintentionally eavesdropping.

"She probably won't want to, anyway," Henry said. "Not really her thang."

"Yeah, but… she'll still wanna be included. What if she says YES, and we have to spend your first solo NYE hearing her talk about how bad every idea is! Henry… it's a party BOAT! Drunk young people on a boat, in the middle of the water, specifically to avoid the police..."

"When you're right, you're right. Maybe we can get her a distraction?" Henry suggested. "Like, get somebody else to hang out with her for New Year's Eve and let her be their party pooper!" And because they were sure he wasn't listening at all, then he heard both of them cheer, "MAX!"

He looked up as they headed over and he sighed. "Max, buddy, we need a HUGE favor and I will repay you in - doing whatever you say about the lair for the entire month of January!" Henry offered. Fool. Max would've did this for free. But there was no need to make himself appear too available.

"Whatever it is, I'm not remotely interested," Max lied. No other word for it. He just straight up lied about it right to those boys’ faces.

"Hear us out, first," Jasper said.

"Sounded like you two wanna be alone for New Year's Eve, so you want me to cart Charlotte around so you won't have to man up and admit that you don't want her around," Max said.

“I know it might sound bad, but it’s just that this is going to be a potentially excellent night, and as much as we both love Charlotte, she’s not really one to overlook potential danger, not even at the expense of potential excellence!”

"And I'm not some scapegoat. Just tell her you want a nice evening with your boyfriend and be done with it."

“My what?” Henry asked. Max walked away, with his experiment in hand, hiding a smirk. Henry gave chase, “Listen! Dude… I KNOW Char’s not fun and she’s kind of a super nerd and is pretty uptight.”

“You’re really selling her here, Hen,” Max said, deadpan.

“Two months!” Henry said. “January AND February.”

“You agree to make sure she’s not the one doing the chores in the community space and I’ll consider it,” Max said. Henry winced. Max shrugged and kept walking.

Jasper looked desperately at Henry, clasping his hands together, as though in prayer. “Fine! But, just so you know, she loves stuff like that. Cleaning up and being helpful and stuff. You’re taking away her potential joy by forcing my hand.”

“I’m sure,” Max said, rolling his eyes. “And just so you know… Charlotte’s not a nerd. You’re way more of a nerd than she is.” Max gave him a playful double slap on the cheek and Henry gasped at the suggestion.

“How do you figure?”

“I mean… Look at her and look at you,” Max said. Jasper looked like he was actually considering this. Max was the smartest man he had ever met, with the exception of Schwoz and to be honest, Jasper wasn’t actually smart enough to fully determine which of the two of them WAS the smarter man. Henry laughed uncomfortably and looked at Jasper, awaiting some type of backup in this conversation. Max expounded. “Okay, I get that she’s a straight A student, makes academic lists, spends her time working instead of having fun, BUT - she’s super hot, her hair is goals, has an amazing fashion sense, can skillfully do cool shit like beat everybody’s ass in video games and play musical instruments - SHE was in a band, Henry. Were YOU ever in a band?”

“What did you… have to like… write a report on her?” Henry asked, uncomfortably, laughing.

Jasper answered, “He WASN’T in a band! But I was!”

“JASPER is less of a nerd than you,” Max added, to twist the knife. He really didn’t like it whenever Henry said negative stuff about Charlotte. He actually agreed that Charlotte was a nerd… But, he also knew that he could make this argument in her favor, and just because she was a nerd didn’t mean that Henry had to keep repeating it out loud.

Henry gasped and Jasper nodded, very pleased, until Henry said, “Jasper had social media accounts for BUCKET collections AND a Bucketeer podcast!”

“Jasper ALSO had a podcast? Man, Henry, what do YOU bring to the cool kids’ table when you aren’t in uniform?”

“Wha… Well… I bring not being an uptight, straight A student who wears belly shirts or collects buckets…”

“HEY!” Jasper said and folded his arms.

“What’s wrong with belly shirts?” Max asked.

“Yeah, what is?” Jasper insisted, now, clearly in Max’s corner. Truthfully, Max could wear a belly shirt. Lord knows he had the abs for them… But he never would, because once again, he agreed with Henry that they were pretty lame, but once again, he wasn’t gonna give Henry the satisfaction. This was a battle, of sorts. Over Charlotte’s honor and good name. Max didn’t care what the facts were, as long as he won it.

Henry shook his head. “I’m just… Jasper. Come on. You think I’M the nerdiest in our trio? It’s obviously Charlotte, and if it’s not… I mean… It CAN’T be ME. I’m Kid Danger, for crying out loud.”

Jasper rolled his eyes, looked at Max and Max knew this was about to be sweet satisfaction. “I once had a birthday party that every kid in Swellview showed up to because Captain Man stopped in. Henry had a party a few years later that Piper couldn’t convince her cool friends to show up at, because they knew that it was Henry’s, even with her public figure status and vouching for him.” Max laughed. Henry stammered. Jasper wasn’t done. “Henry had the same pick up line for years - never worked. Two of his girlfriends left him to go to a reality show, meanwhile, I had an obsessive girl who had to be pushed out of a window to stay away from me.”

“I understand that,” Max said. “Mine used to sleep outside of my house. Well, it’s clear to me who’s the nerdiest nerd of your circle.” Jasper looked worried for a moment, so Max reassured him, “It’s Henry, Dude.” Jasper fist pumped.

Henry and he began to argue about their accomplishments versus failures, “Captain Man only showed up because I got him to! Use your brain, Man.”

“I had my own hero day because I can be brave WITHOUT a sidekick suit. You’re unofficially the Playground Pooper!”

“You were the one that was ACTUALLY considered bizarre enough to BE the Playground Pooper!” Max smirked and continued on his way out of the room.

“Hey! You never said that you agreed to distract her!” Henry said.

Max turned around and smiled at him, “Oh, right. Yeah, you had me at “get somebody else to hang out with her for New Year's Eve and let her be their party pooper.” It slowly dawned on Henry that Max had heard their entire conversation and played him for a fool. Why would someone do this? Like he could read his mind, Max said, “Charlotte deserves better friends.”

Jasper gasped. “I would fight a shark for Char! I just… don’t want her out there with us for New Year’s Eve.” Max rolled his eyes. “Is… Is Henry still the nerdiest, or was that ALL a game?”

“He definitely is. I mean, you strike me as a bisexual individual. Look at their curve records. Compare the quality of people that have turned him down or been interested in him verses hers.”

“What does THAT have to do with…”

“Hot people dig hot people,” Max said.

“Way more hot people have liked and been turned down by Charlotte!” Jasper said with realization.

“Joss Moss said that I was cute. That cancels out like… HALF of Charlotte’s list! Joss Moss is a wealthy socialite and the daughter of an infamous mob boss.” Henry fussed, flustered.

“I say that Charlotte’s cute,” Max said and folded his arms. “I’m a global superhero.”

“That wins,” Jasper whispered, very impressed with how hot Max was, especially right now, for some reason. Finally, Henry conceded and Max left the room. He really had to prep if he was gonna be hanging out with Charlotte tonight!

Charlotte came into the lair through the front entrance. Max had been a little less unbearable this week, so she decided to test it out and if she ran into a problem, she’d simply never come back to this house, ever again. She laughed. J/K, she thought. Her boys were here. Whenever she got inside, it was pretty quiet. She expected Henry and Jasper to be in the common area, but maybe they were in the tower. Ugh. Now, she’d have to walk to the tower…

“Hey!” Max cheered, suddenly and when she heard his voice, she turned to say it back, but she lost her ability to speak or move. He smiled brightly, with this look of accomplishment and while she realized that she probably had something to do with that; her body had nothing. “SO, long story short, you’re stuck with me tonight and Henry and Jasper are at the Man Cave getting ready to go to some kind of NYE thing.”

She scoffed, “WHAT? They let me drive all the way here and just stuck me with you???” It came out more harsh than she expected, and sounded like she was attacking him, when she meant for it to be directed at the boys. His smile was less confident, now and his eyebrows looked a little… bothered. “I mean… I’m sure that you have much better things to do than have to pretend to entertain me tonight.”

He perked up again and shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t have to pretend. You’ll be entertained. There’s a party in Metroburg or one in Hiddenville, Lady’s Choice.”

“Ummm… What are the pros and cons of each?” she asked. He hoped she’d loosen up before they hit any party.

“Pros are they’re parties. Cons are they’re not gonna abandon you to a guy that you barely know and hardly like?” He said, huffing a laugh.

“Hurtful,” she said.

“Well, we’re even, then.”

“Metroburg is full of open superpowers and probably has the greatest technology in daily life… But, I probably need to visit there on a day trip, not the night of a party, whenever people are going to be drinking. Drinking and DRIVING is bad enough. Drinking and suping?”

“OH MY GOD!” Max cried out to the sky, exasperated. “Let’s just go to Hiddenville! That’s where my friends will be, anyway.”

“Well… Why were you considering Metroburg, then?”

“Because that’s where the supes are and where I was born.”

“Well, do you want to go ahead and go there instead?” He was starting to see why her friends might want to ditch her on a party night. She was very preoccupied with making the right decision, when sometimes, all it took was just making ANY decision.

“Let’s go to Hiddenville,” he said, putting his foot down. She held up a finger and pulled out her party gumball dispenser. Was she supposed to have it? No. Did she deserve it, therefore take it? Well, she’d just pulled it out, so what does that tell you? She blew a bubble and transformed into a Black party dress, high heeled boots and a sparkly headband with the new year at the top of it. Even her flawless makeup had been designed into the gumball and she looked like… she was meant to be on his arm tonight. He was far more casual - in all black with a shirt, an overshirt, his jacket and a tight pair of pants with heavy boots. But… they matched… WELL! She held her hands out, a little bit self conscious and said, “This is fine for your party, right? I can’t tell if I’m overdressed or you just don’t give a shit, either way because any and everything looks good on you…” Her eyes widened at this unconscious admission.

“We look awesome,” he said, and pointed two fingers at the door to open it and used his other hand to make sure he was powering things down in the house.

#Share a Lair #henry danger #the thundermans #crossover #crossover fanfic #Nesha Crossover #Thundanger #Thunderbolt

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ghostmartyr · 5 years

Note

after all sh*t that happened in the manga do you still believe ymir is alive? because it's kinda hard to believe it anymore

According to the past two years of my life interacting with people, it was hard to believe in the first place.

Meanwhile, here we stand.

In a post-Porco world.

Yeah, I think Ymir is alive.

Worse than that, the past month has led me to decide that Ymir is NPC Farmer Guy. We aren’t just in casual, ‘hey this seems odd,’ theory territory anymore. We’re popping wheelies on tin hats.

Even worse than that, Ymir being NPC Farmer Guy is directly tied into how Historia is actually hiding Eren’s leg stitched to her stomach, and in the coming chapters Ymir is going to discover Hange and Levi and bring them back to the house only to discover thunder and lightning very very frightening bursting out of Historia Alien-style, and that’s how Eren accesses his extra life.

You might ask why. Not as a question, simply as a statement in response to that collection of words. You feel the word in your soul, and it goes far beyond what any explanation could offer.

Allow me to provide an explanation.

Our story begins with Ymir being pronounced dead after consenting to provide her life to Marley, the government entity responsible for stoning her and turning her into a titan for decades.

She volunteered for this? We hear the person who ostensibly ate her asking.

Absotively, comes the answer from the person whose life she saves twice over with this decision. In payment I have delivered a letter. All is well, and my guilt complex shall not touch upon the eaves of trauma I ought to have delivered upon mine own shoulders.

In the midst of ocean, reading that letter, the object of its love holds the parchment aloft, and proclaims softly, with feeling, is this to be the end of this fuckery? Where is the rest?

The omniscient plot, moving on from such petty concerns, pronounces her pregnant in sheer defiance of her entire arc revolving around breaking damaging cycles, and declares that enough of that.

Anguished and enraged, the inheritor of the Jaws our dear volunteer crossed paths with

dies without the fact that he ate the friend of the people he’s attacking ever being a blip on anyone’s radar even a little.

I’ll stop now, because as much fun as this is, I can’t keep up that style very long, and every once in a while someone who hasn’t heard me rant about this comes along, and I do try to be like. helpful.

The basic point is that Ymir’s death is strange. You have a character whose primary motivation is to fuck fate and fuck a pretty girl (and fuck suicide too), and she consents to die. She consents to die in a way that gives her enemies power. She consents to die to save the lives of two boys who will continue to receive nothing but abuse from being alive in the system they’re trapped in.

Ymir does not save Reiner and Bertolt. She rescues them from titans, but helping them go back to Marley is not a rescue in any sense of the word.

People are killed in unsatisfactory ways all the time in this series.

That is very different from agreeing to it.

Ymir receives nothing for her trouble. Reiner delivers a letter for her that only needs to be delivered because she’s in Marley’s clutches, and he nearly dies before he manages that. Bertolt does die in that same battle.

There is no functional purpose to Ymir’s death. Past delivering her letter, Reiner thinks about her sacrifice once. When Galliard brings it up. Guilt over other things drives him, but not over her. He and Bertolt are depicted as grateful, and obligated to honor her wishes, but they are not conflicted over whatever became of her.

Her death’s greatest influence on the plot is that Galliard has the Jaw Titan.

Which basically means nothing. He’s dead. Family memories, and the memories of the most recent holder, pass on best for most Shifters. Falco has neither link to Ymir. She’s just another dead random, without even the chance for the angst of her friends doing battle with the person who ate her.

The function of Ymir going with Reiner and Bertolt is that Marley has an extra Titan to play with, and Ymir is removed from the plot.

War Hammer explicitly establishes that the writing was down for inventing a new Titan for Marley to play with. What, then, is the effect of Ymir exiting the plot?

Her letter provides motivation for Reiner in RTS, but past that, anyone could have eaten Porco’s brother and been later fed to him. As an individual character, Ymir being the participant provides nothing, except the question of why someone who is so aggressively against suicide would agree to die for a cause she has no reason to ally herself to.

No one mentions her. She comes up in Eren’s flashbacks of her conversation with Bertolt, but no one outside of Porco (once) (in the scene implying her death) talks about Ymir.

Much in the way that a grand total of zero of Historia’s friends think about her pregnancy, but we’re not going there because this post is exhaustive enough as it is.

As a character, she might as well not exist. In fact, if she didn’t exist, Historia’s arc would be much simpler. Historia wouldn’t be pushed to find her own motivations and cause, and going along with everyone wanting her to bear children for the sake of her kingdom’s future could slide along the excuse of Krista being too close to her heart to let go of.

In theory though, she exists. So where are her contributions?

Historia.

She exists in the heart of Historia’s arc.

The arc which, by all implications presented, is in shambles.

Her eyes are dead, and she’s stated to be pregnant. She stares at the stated father with no interest, edging on despair, while the myth that theirs is a love story is passed to the higher brass.

Historia protects kids. Giving up her autonomy so that a child can bear the burden of her generation’s failures is such a strong violation of her character development that any justification for it would have to be a few chapters long to even approach counting as honest development.

Both Ymir and Historia’s arcs, as they stand, appear to be precise counters of everything they want. Which can be effective, but the story is asking the audience to accept a narrative where these characters abruptly turn their backs on their beliefs, and how sad it is, oh well, nothing to be done. Isn’t it tragic.

I think that’s about the stupidest waste of time I’ve ever been asked to consider a legitimate use of story.

I am not, in any way, kidding when I say that I think Historia’s arc, if this is where she’s intended to land, works better without ever having Ymir involved. Keep Historia in her overwhelmed depression with her need to please people, and this outcome still sucks, but it doesn’t betray anything fundamental about the character.

I also believe, if Ymir is dead and done contributing, her character is an empty cutout existing for nothing except the progression of the plot, serving the need of certain characters to survive rather than a character’s internal desires.

“You’re going to kill yourself, the ultimate act of submission. Is that how much you want to please the people who treated you like a nuisance?! Why are you trying to hurt yourself?! If your will is that strong… then shouldn’t you be able to change your fate?!”

A character who says this consenting to die, granting her tormentors a powerful weapon against the people she loves, is an egregious violation of character.

There isn’t enough time (any) showcasing that change for it to be tragic. There is no reason for it except that she’s written to make that choice.

Isayama does not write his characters that way. Whatever horrible things happen to them, there is always something you can point to that provides a clear explanation. When there isn’t, we have Eren, where we all look at him and think, “good golly gee this is fucked up, can’t wait to hear why.”

We trust, when things don’t make sense, for there to be a why.

In-universe, the only reactions we have to Ymir’s death are, “uh. are we. sure that’s all? no one finds this strange?”

Historia looks at her letter and asks if that’s it.

Galliard looks at his new memories and asks about her volunteering.

Reiner says yep and goes about the rest of his miserable life.

Nothing to see here.

Sure, the only two people who mention it are left with proverbial question marks about their heads, but there is absolutely no reason to think that anything other than what we said happened happened.

None whatsoever.

So that’s step one.

Accepting that Ymir’s death is fucking weird.

Step two is presenting a plausible escape.

Also known as presenting the jackass known as Zeke, known expert in magically getting away with conning people into doing what he wants by figuring out what they want.

Zeke knows, by RTS, that the Reiss line is royalty. Reiner and Bertolt deliver to him a girl who writes a love letter to the last living member of that line.

(That girl is mysteriously missing from Reiner and Bertolt’s reunion with Zeke. Bertolt’s dead, and he’s everywhere in flashbacks, because it makes sense for him to be there. Ymir, in a scene she definitely existed in, based on canon, is nowhere to be spotted, even in a passing mention.)

Ymir and Zeke are in the same place at the same time. There’s room for conversation. There’s room to find out what they’re after.

Ymir wants freedom. She can’t ever really have it, tied down to the Jaw Titan, but she wants a life beholden to no one. Plus Historia.

Short of keeping her sedated for the whole trip, turning her death back into a murder, Ymir’s going to have opportunities to escape. She put in some nice face time for Reiner and Bertolt’s sake, so they get to live, but now she can skedaddle.

But okay, what if she doesn’t have to?

Zeke presents it very easily. When Reiner and Bertolt watch her sign her life away, it’s with solemnity, but a confidence that isn’t their job to save her from.

What if there’s a way to free herself from the Jaw Titan’s limitations?

It’s that drug of hope that dreamers like Ymir can’t quite let go of.

It’s that drug of another pawn on his side that Zeke knows better than to abandon.

The Queen of Paradis has no reason to bargain with him. As a matter of fact, even in the future, their links are downplayed. Eren does not tell his older brother that the other living member of the Eldian royal line is a personal friend. He says “something” happened to unlock his memories.

Ymir gives Zeke a bargaining chip.

Zeke gives Ymir a shot at a life free from all of this.

Spinal fluid transfers aren’t convenient (biting a person’s head off is just plain easier), but Porco can be under his control. Failing that, he has his Volunteers with a vested interest in keeping their hostage alive. They’re willing to try to keep her alive. Is Ymir?

Then Ymir’s memories transfer to Galliard in the process, and that’s just perfect, because that doesn’t just give them a hostage; they have a compliant hostage.

“Hang out with this girl on a farm for a year, then we could not care less about what you do.”

My original version of this theory brought up photos, and that’s still an awesome thing to use, but you know what’s better? Dangling Ymir right in front of Historia, showing her exactly what’s what, and putting an amnesiac Ymir in a position she’s fine agreeing to for now; make sure the girl’s pregnancy (or ‘pregnancy’–the Yeagerists being in on this could go either way) goes smoothly, and don’t let her out of your sight.

Historia won’t want to leave Ymir. Ymir won’t remember why. She won’t really be the same person.

(The old Ymir would have know this. One more reason to leave her backstory in a letter. Historia’s a kind idiot. She’ll try to bring her back, even if it doesn’t make sense.)

Then at the same time you’ve got Eren being in way over his head, and he’s aware enough of Historia’s situation that he figures there’s a way for them to leverage this a little. He’s going to be doing some really stupid stuff, and he could really, really use a save point, and Historia needs to look like she has some extra flesh under her shirt anyway, so it’s not like this really changes her life quality for the near future…

(None of Eren’s friends are happy with Eren, but Historia was probably unhappiest first.)

Cutting off that style now.

I really don’t know why Eren’s amputated leg getting stitched to Historia’s stomach would make any kind of sense to anyone thinking any kind of clearly, but no one’s thinking very clearly in canon, so I don’t have to know yet the logic of how the individuals get to certain spots.

In other words we’re leaving Watsonian for Doylist again.

The concepts of this are really very basic. Eren’s as dead as Zeke was when that titan found him. There’s precedent for using another living being as an incubator. Titans are Eldians. Historia’s Eldian. Founding Titan + royal blood can probably stretch that deus ex machina a bit further.

That would give a reason for Historia to keep up the pregnancy look; she really does have something vital under there (her actually having a kid adds. it really adds absolutely nothing to the story. it doesn’t.).

Then we have NPC Farmer Guy. All we know about him is that he feels like he owes Historia. Getting him to provide a lovely backstory, then shipping him off far away, is pretty dang simple. He owes her.

Ymir’s just here because a bunch of people told her they would kill her if she didn’t play house with a hot pregnant girl for a year. The hair dye is weird, but so are the death threats and how much this royal babe seems to hate her.

It is at this stage of the post where I look at all of this and think this has got to be the most ridiculous crack I have ever deigned to put in a post, so I think I’m just going to present this in the way I thought of it, without trying to reverse engineer it into sense.

Right now, Eren’s dead, unless he’s not, and about to revive. That doesn’t really change the Ymir of this all, so it’s incredibly not relevant, but damn it guys, I can make all these threads dance together.

If his body’s fucked, traveling along Paths to get him out of the disastrous battlefield he’s landed himself in is a valid option.

The only other place any plot could conceivably be happening is with Hange and Levi. Who are out in the wilderness.

So okay, here’s the idea, right?

Eren vanishes from Shiganshina.

Chaos.

Hange and Levi are rescued by the shadow of NPC Farmer Guy, and brought back to the house. Historia helps, Levi bleeding all over the place, when suddenly, lightning stomach shocks.

Alien scene commences.

The audience asks why in the fuck we’re being subjected to this.

The answer is laughter.

But at the end of it all, suddenly, you’ve got room for plot that isn’t just Shiganshina being full of titans. again.

You have Eren in the same room with a benign presence with royal blood. You have the Commander of the Survey Corps staring down at both of them. You have very clear evidence that lies have been sprouting freely from everyone, and you’re in an isolated house in the middle of nowhere. There’s no reason to keep the secrets going. Anyone who argues there is will probably find themselves with another bullet through their head.

Then in the corner, you have Ymir, who is evidence that people can survive passing on their Titan. With Hange, leading research specialist of Paradis, sitting right there.

All of Paradis’ legitimate authority in one room, secrets unveiled, and time demanding that they all hurry the fuck up and do something about this.

Solution?

Founding Titan.

Second solution?

Founding Titan magic to wake up Annie so she and Historia can trade places so Eren can make the Founding Titan go zoom zoom.

Complications?

Eren still doesn’t tell anyone why the fuck all of this is necessary.

We’re getting off task.

Anyway, that’s the whole mad theory, but the reason why Ymir has been assigned NPC Farmer Guy’s position is very simple.

The assumption here is that she’s alive, and a hostage.

She’s a very boring hostage if she’s nowhere she can interact with the situation.

NPC Farmer Guy’s face is hidden the one time we see him in the present.

Either it’s just a dramatic cue that means nothing, or there is something about that face that has deeper implications. For the purposes of me going absolutely berserk with nothing to feed my brain on, my current theory is that his face is hidden because it isn’t NPC Farmer Guy at all.

There’s either a Reveal there or not, and if there is one, and Ymir’s alive, why the fuck not?

We keep hearing the story’s ending. This is the time to consolidate plot details, not spread them out further. All of this combined gets a rogue team of operatives with legitimate power, a serious scientific discovery with massive implications for their future, deep emotional strife between every member, and a time crunch they’ve got to fight while all their friends are trying not to die.

You can tell me I’m on crack, but you can’t tell me crazier things haven’t happened in canon, and you can’t tell me this wouldn’t be a fucking blast.

Is any part of you glad you asked, anon?

This will be pried from my cold dead fingers.

Thank you all for your time.

(Remember when this theory was less drugs?)

#Shingeki no Kyojin #Historia Reiss #Ymir #attack on asks #you don't need to be dead to haunt someone #tl;dr

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jugandbettsdetectiveagency · 7 years

Text

Tacos and Tequila - Ch.10, fin

Everything got on top of me and I haven't had time recently to go through and reply to your comments like I usually would, but I just wanted to say thank you so, so much for all your support and love for this fic, it completely stuns me and I'm so happy you liked it. You're all incredible <3

Ch.1 / Ch.2 / Ch.3 / Ch.4 / Ch.5 / Ch.6 / Ch.7 / Ch.8 / Ch.9 / Read on AO3

After

All of Betty’s instincts had screamed out at her to lie to Archie, to tell him that their weekend had been inconsequential, that they’d just found mundane ways to pass the time while they waited for the all clear. The subtle pressure of Jughead’s reassuring hand against her lower back melts the tension in her frame, however.

“Well, since you weren’t here,” Betty starts, wincing as she says the words but a part of her hopes the reminder of his absence will work in her favour. Archie’s grimace deepens. “Jughead and I got to know each other a lot, and…” Betty takes a step closer to Jughead’s side to indicate the meaning of her unfinished sentence. In reality, she hadn’t quite known how to finish anyway. Everything was still so very new, still blossoming into whatever they would let it become. Getting closer to Jughead physically was a pretty good description of what had happened metaphorically, without the use of floundering words.

Shock had painted Archie’s features as he couldn’t decide who to rest his gaze on first.

“You… and Jughead?” he asks eventually, creases in his brow still not flattening out. Betty nods apprehensively. This ‘doing things for her’ is going to take some major getting used to. “But you barely know each other?” Jughead’s subtle snort alerts Betty to the fact that he clearly thinks Archie’s being a little hypocritical. She jabs an elbow softly into his ribs.

“A weekend stuck together in an apartment changes that kind of thing, Arch,” Betty explains with a shrug, leaning into Jughead’s embrace, his hand having moved up from her back to her shoulder, squeezing once.

Archie still looks disgruntled, especially by Betty’s unbending argument, and it’s starting to make her bristle, any anger she’d had towards her best friend resurfacing as an edge of betrayal permeates his expression. He doesn’t get to do this, he doesn’t get to dictate–

“I guess,” Archie says with a sigh, shoulders deflating. Betty lets out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Even Jughead’s grip loosens slightly at his words. “Yeah, that’s pretty cool,” he tries again, and they all note the tightness of his accompanying smile, but neither comment, leaving any attempts to remove it to time.

“Good,” Betty says, taking a step towards him. “And even though you’ve got a lot of making up to do,” she teases, enjoying the way Archie’s cheeks flush to match his hair as a sheepish grin slips onto his face, “I still missed you,” she finishes, wrapping him up in a hug. Even if she wasn’t Betty Cooper, the results of Archie’s mistake were too good for her to stay mad at him.

“Me too, Betty,” Archie says into her hair, holding her tightly. “Hey,” he starts, pulling back. “It’s clearing up out there; you can get down the sidewalks now. You wanna do something before you have to go? You and me, like old times,” he asks, eyes shining with hope. Betty glances over her shoulder, noticing for the first time that Jughead isn’t paying attention to them, slowly deconstructing their fort, eyes averted.

“Why don’t the three of us do something?” she suggests brightly, instead. She’s hoping that Jughead doesn’t suddenly feel like he’s no longer wanted, now the original has come home. They hadn’t had a chance to discuss what happens next before Archie had walked through the door. Betty thought that Jughead seemed to be on her wavelength, that he wanted what she did – she wasn’t ready to let go of the wonder that was Jughead Jones, not even with three hours between them.

“Y-yeah,” Archie stammers, quickly catching himself. “What do you say, Jug?” Jughead stops, suddenly turning at the mention of his name as if he hasn’t been listening the whole time.

“What? Oh, no. You guys should catch up, I wouldn’t want to intrude,” he says, pressing his lips together. Betty hurries to correct him.

“It wouldn’t be an intrusion…”

“That’s cool, man. We’ll catch up later, yeah?” Archie says at the same time, voice a tad louder than hers. Betty goes to protest but Jughead is already shooting her a small smile and disappearing into his room, shutting the door softly behind him. She just hopes it’s not been shut on her.

***

Betty’s packing up her belongings a few hours later, a heavy feeling settled firmly in her stomach. She’d been out with Archie for most of the afternoon, but when they’d arrived home Jughead’s door had still been shut. Archie had told her about these tacos that she just had to try before she left, but she simply told him she wasn’t hungry. A tickling discomfort crawls down her spine at the thought that this is it, that maybe she’d read more into this weekend than he had.

No, she tells herself, he’d stood by her when she’d told Archie. There must be something, there must…

She hears hushed voices from the living room and her heart jumps into her throat. She chucks the last of her stuff into her suitcases and heaves it out of Archie’s room. Archie and Jughead are standing in the kitchenette, heads close together as they speak in low tones. Betty tries to keep her approach quiet but Archie spots her and straightens quickly, heading her way.

“Everything alright?” she asks, knowing already that the reply will be vague.

“Yep, fine,” Archie chimes, grabbing for her case. “I’ll…” he starts, glancing between the two of them. “I’ll take this down to your car,” he finishes, ducking out of the room.

A silence fills the air, and Betty can’t help but feel that it’s too tense, to foreign after the emotions shared this weekend.

“Have a safe trip home,” Jughead says eventually and Betty can’t help but laugh.

“Seriously?” she replies, voice rising a little. Jughead blanches. “Anything else?” she asks, quieter this time, chewing the corner of her lower lip. He looks conflicted, battling with something internally for a moment before he sighs, eyes closing for a second before meeting hers, their colour dark.

“I’m gonna miss you,” he tells her in almost a whisper. Betty’s chest tightens at the admission, moving towards him to wrap her arms around his neck, his settling comfortably above her hips.

“I’ll miss you,” she tells him firmly, leaving a delicate kiss against his lips that burns even after she’s pulled away. His eyes are searching hers, looking for confirmation of his feelings. “But, you know, they have these great inventions called ‘phones’ now, and this even better one called ‘the internet’…” she tells him with a cheeky grin, giggling as he rolls his eyes at her, poking at her sides. Her laugh is cut off with yet another kiss, this one harder, more sure.

“So I’ll hear from you?” he asks, making sure. Betty smiles, butterflies erupting in her stomach.

“You can bet on it.” Jughead grins, holding her tighter against him, fingers tugging the end of her ponytail.

“Here,” he says as they walk towards the door, handing her some folded paper. Betty takes it with an inquisitive look, raising her eyebrow in question. “Don’t… don’t look until you’re home, okay?” he asks, an interesting shyness in his tone. Betty nods, blinking back the water in her eyes as he kisses her for the last time in who knows how many days.

She hopes it’s not that many. So does he.

***

Betty greets her roommate briefly before flopping down on her bed with an exhausted sigh, the drive having taken a lot out of her. She’s not ready for sleep yet, fingers itching to open the paper Jughead had given her a few hours earlier.

Her breath catches in her throat as she looks at the picture waiting for her. He’d told her he used to draw comics; he never said he still did. The black and white drawing features a girl with a ponytail and a boy with a crown beanie, sitting beneath tented sheets, the glow of a TV screen surrounding them.

“I wasn’t planning on kissing you.” his speech bubble says.

“I’m glad you did.” hers replies.

A grin splits Betty’s face as she goes over to her desk, pinning the drawing up amongst memos and reminders, right in the centre. She pulls her phone out, searching for the most recent contact and immediately hitting dial.

“Betts?” his voice rings out over the line, and she feels a warmth in her chest, taking away the icy chill of her drive.

“Thank you,” is all she says.

***

The weeks of classes in the run up to Winter break had taken their toll on everyone, including Betty. She was tired, run down, and mainlining way too much caffeine. She couldn’t wait for the end, and even though it was in sight it just felt like it was getting further and further with each passing second.

Today, however, all those feelings were on hold. Betty bounces on her heels as each tick of the clock rings out loudly in her ears. Finally, there is a knock. She skips to the door, taking a breath before opening it wide.

All the phone calls and texts and skype sessions hadn’t nearly been enough, she realises, as she takes in the sight of Jughead, leaning casually against the doorframe, hair damp from the snow and falling into his eyes, crooked grin on his lips.

“I’m looking for Betty Cooper,” he says, repeating her words from their first introduction. Betty’s expression mirrors his as she pulls him towards her, breathing him in.

“You’ve come to the right place.”

#buhead #bughead fanfiction #bughead au #betty cooper #jughead jones #betty x jughead #riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #bughead fan fiction #jetty #writing

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ruveluarna-blog · 7 years

Text

Development, Process, Collaboration

(This is our entire Facebook chat group, which shows our process of thought and elimination).

Hey gals! Alrighty, we need to get this project underway! Let's all post our ideas on here and we can throughout the week decide on an idea we really like? MarleenaYeah that sounds like a good idea i will get back to u guys with an idea tomorrowMAR 31ST, 11:20AMMarleenaOkay, so there's a work in week 4's powerpoints (topic: responsibility) called "Rythm 0" by Marina Abramovic. Basically, Abramovic lay out a bunch of props and allowed museum goers to manipulate her body, with or without the props, for six hours. Yoko Ono did a reinterpretation of the idea, but allowed the audience to take turns snipping pieces of cloth from her clothes.MarleenaI think it'd be really interesting to take these ideas and spin them in a more positive and constructive way. (The Rythm 0 artwork ended pretty "violently" - someone used the provided loaded gun to position it against her forehead, and then there was a fight in the audience to make them stop etc)ImmiYes will have a look into this later today !MAR 31ST, 1:19PMYes I really liked that one, I checked it out on YouTube!I'm down for thisMaybe we can even do an installation type thing and record itSo many ideas! Where do you live Marlena?*marleenaI'm thinking we should all get together sometime before class next week if we can, if not we can prepare it all over here MarleenaI live near liverpool, western suburbs Im still trying to brainstorm ideas on how we could reinterpret the work tho Hmm okay that's like a 55 minute drive MarleenaLOL we can try meet up at uniI reckon if we all agree on this artwork, let's each brainstorm ideas on any sort of way in which we could reinterpret it, then just post ideas here. Maybe on Sunday we can try and decide on what we like best?Yeah I think so hahahMarleenaokay lets do that, sunday we'll make a decision on what idea to pursue Im not too familar with "time-based work" sooo gotta do some researchMAR 31ST, 6:09PMImmiAPR 1ST, 9:37PMHaha all good!APR 1ST, 11:19PMHere are some very rudimentary ideas so far!Oh I just had an idea, we could go up to randoms on campus and out in the city and get them to write one word and hold it in front of them and we can film them holding it up. We can get them to write down whatever; what they think life is, beauty is, what is real, what dreams are, what they are labelled, whatever you want!Just an idea APR 2ND, 9:31AMMarleenahey just finished reading your ideas! looking good so far i think right now though the ideas as they are dont really link to responsibility clearly or are resolved enoughim looking at some of the stuff u written and trying to think of ways to push them furtheri think the idea of taking something that is meant to shed light on the negative parts of being human, and flipping it to show positivity is something really interesting relating to responsibilityi think that idea of asking people a personal question, like what life is etc, that u suggested touches on that and has potential reminds me of that artist who let people write on a wall what they want to do before they diesorry if the stuff im saying sounds kinda disjointed or weird, cos i just woke up and im just writing what i think as it goes in my head hahaMarleenaan idea i had about transforming marina's work, is maybe laying out a table of items like she did but including "caring" items instead, like bandaids and spa stuff and chocolates. we can put out a chair and a camera, and people are allowed to use the stuff as long as they sit in the chairMarleenahey about that idea with recording people's smiles, itd be kinda cool to expand it and do it about human's relationship with others, not just smiling but hugging talking and high fiving etc. itd be interesting how it relates to physicality, and itd probs contrast really well with the marina workImmiHey guys! Soz for being a little MIA I was going to have a good look this morning and see if I can workshop some of the ideas we've got too so I'll let ya know :)) awesome job so far teamMarleenano worries ive been supa swamped with stuff too hahaAPR 2ND, 11:22AMImmiok so i was having a look at some of the work in the lecture slides from the documentation and editing week and this work i thought was pretty interesting-- we could have a wall where we get people to collaborate by writing ideas or or drawings on like sticky notes or scrap paper and then organise them on a wall and then the time based aspect could be a sped up video of people writing and adding to the wall? http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/html/c/crisis-of-capitalism/crisis-of-capitalism-ayreen-anastas-rene-gabri.htmlCrisis of Capitalism | Ayreen Anastas, René GabriCrisis of Capitalism | Ayreen Anastas, René Gabrimonumenttotransformation.orgImmicould be like a question related to stuff going on in the world and how they would fix it? or invent something? and get people to draw sketches or write ideas?i don't know just thinking :))APR 2ND, 6:19PMMarleenai think thats an interesting take on documentation... like, it relates to the idea of a kinda "communal" documentation?its pretty interesting to create a public forum for documentation, kinda like designated grafitti walls or online forumsImmiYeah nice!APR 2ND, 7:58PMMarleenahi everyone, dunno bout u guys but im still kinda conflicted about this assignment hahai think all the major ideas we came up with so far have been pretty interesting and im having trouble deciding which one i like the mostwhat are your opinions on this assignment?? is there anything u guys r super keen on so far?or anything u rly wanna do?for me, i definitely wanna do something that's hyper creative and outside the box - for this assignment im a little afraid of doing something thats been done or reminds me of a facebook or youtube vid i watchedi think no matter what idea we pick i definitely want to push it to its limits Yeah Marlena in response to your first response I agree, they were all heaps rudimentary ideas that I quickly wrote down before bed and definitely need expansion - they were just an idea to kick us off I like the smile/high 5/hug ideas. I definitely want to do something "fresh" as well so I'm with you on that! No body likes the same old same. I'm still conflicted about the assignment too haha. The only thing is we have to think about the readability of it all - we don't really want to spend money buying items, etc, and we have to think about how we can record it and where we will do it MarleenaThanks for brainstorming so much im definitely also keen on saving money too - doing something performance-y like suggested or just paper and pen like immi's idea seem like practical ideas to keep costs lowYep I like!MarleenaThe idea i suggested about the "caring" items would probs be no good for thatHaha maybe not Good thought butOkay let's keep brainstorming then and maybe decide by Tuesday night?MarleenaHaha yeah lets see how it goesWorse comes to worse we can talk it through with the tutor on wednesdayYeah, I'm sure we will figure it out but!MarleenaI will try make a list of ideas like u did No probs. We could even make a Pinterest board or whatever MarleenaOohh high tech hahaAPR 3RD, 1:09PMOkay so let's decide tonight on something solid so we can each conduct rudimentary experiments tomorrow on our own and document on TumblrMarleenaOk understood Immiyep nice.. i think maybe doing a time lapse or something could be interestingand maybe doing a trial of that? could get audience involved through drawing? I'm happy to do that at college?MarleenaIm looking at that email again and i think that tutor is only talking about her class, not ours, so i doubt when we rick up to class our tutor is going to expect us to have anything prepared (she will probs even send us an email herself)Immiok coolMarleenaBut doing a little experiment for tumblr ourselves actually sounds like a good idea to get us started, practice-led research and suchImmianother random idea hahah could be to record sound? and say have a story where each person hears the previous story and then adds to it?MarleenaThat sounds like a fun experiment to try im down for that Immiawesome! just not sure which artist it would relate to?i guess we could just say we used "so and so" as a starting point and then developed our own idea?MarleenaUr documentation one defsImmiok cooland then could focus on sound/ voice documentationMarleenaThe idea is to deform and experiment anywaysImminice!MarleenaHow bout for our first experiment, immi u can make a voice recording of the beginning of a story, u can send it to me and i will send my bit to ruve So its kinda like chinese whispers hahaImminice!! so just do it ourselves? or with other people?MarleenaAfter ruve we can keep sending it along and in the end we can compile itImmiyep sounds goodMarleenaImmiwill havd to do it later this arvo though once I've finished work hahaMarleenaAll good Immiawesome! nice work teamMarleenaWhat's the concept of this voice thingy? Soz I'll be at work for the next few hours so I won't respond ehahahMarleenaSo basically one person makes a voice recording of the beginning of a story and passes it along, and the next person continues the story with their own recording and passes that along kinda like chinese whispersOkay, how do we get ransoms to do that though? Also I'm keen to try some experiments with people where I live tonight/tomorrowImmiI recon just ask people if they want to be apart of it hahaJust a trialMarleenaWe were just going to start with our group and maybe we can ask our friends to volunteer? HahaImmiAnd we can build on itYeah coolImmiMarleenaWhat kinda live experiments were u thinking of ruve??Another idea - photograph people's shoes, and get them to describe them self in one word. Show the pic to someone else and get them to describe whose shoes they see in one wordOr something like thatI don't knowMarleenaThats kinda interesting its kinda like that saying "if u were in their shoes" APR 3RD, 7:31PMHahah APR 4TH, 10:43AMMarleenaHey guys this is just a compilation of the total ideas we made up so far! Feel free to add it to ur tumbr as documentation I brainstormed some more ideas and such and added them to the list, too responsibility – marina abramovik, rhythm 0 Sit in a busy location with a sign explaining what to do – one of us filming place cameras on campus that people can draw on create an instagram page like ‘humans of UNSW’ where people take selfies and talk about themselves get randoms in the city to write one word and hold it in front of them and we can film them holding it up – the prompt can be: what life is, beauty is, what is real, etc recording people interacting affectionately with their friends/other people – smiles, hugging, high fiving ask a question and get people to write their answers and stick them on us ask them to write one sentence if that was all they had left to say documentation – ayreen anastas & rene gabri, crisis of capitalism have a wall where people collaborate by writing ideas or drawings on sticky notes or scrap paper and then organise them on a wall – time-based aspect would be a sped up video of people writing and adding to the wall – could be a question related to stuff going on in the world and how to fix it, maybe just sketching or writing ideas recording sound – have a story where each person hears a previous story and then adds to it (currently experimenting with this idea since it’s low effort and cost effective) wouldn’t it be sick if we could make a kinda song and beat out of every person’s clip of audio? Haha would definitely be interesting photograph people’s shoes and get them to describe themselves in one word – show the pic to someone else and get them to describe whose shoes they see in one word some of the ideas we have here would definitely relate to both responsibility and documentation artworks – I think both topics just both naturally overlap really well PS: in the above ideas I left out ideas which would be too expensive or unrealistic to carry outMarleenaoh god i just realised the formatting is really wack hahaanyways I JUST HAD AN EXPLOSION OF INSPIRATIONim excited to hear what u guys think of it!! i will type it up. i kinda tried to continue upon what u both already thought of (just uhh typing it up)ImmiAwesome Marleena!! Killing it with the ideas I recon they are all good starting points- we can discuss in class tomorrow and I think next step will be about pushing the ideas so they are more interesting and unexpected and perhaps considering time based and getting creative with how we approach it, so we aren't just creating a 5min film or audioMarleenayeah i definitely agree with interesting and unexpected ImmiImmiWe'll have lots to discuss in class :))Marleenaso uhh here's that exposion of inspiration i was talking about. reading it again, some of the logistics dont make any sense like how the projection is going to work but i will share it here anyway in the spirit of experimentation MarleenaGet a large sheet of blue cellophane and draw a picture of a crying person. Draw exactly the same picture but instead on a sheet of paper of the same size. (In faint pencil instead) Have people draw/write on the sheet of paper what they would do to cheer the crying person up. Record the entire process of people drawing/writing on the paper. Turn the video into a time lapse. Hang the sheet of cellophane in front of a projector. Play the video on the projector, align the pictures of the crying person. Result: get a cool time lapse video of people drawing, be left with awesome looking artworkImmiMarleenaHahahaHey guys, you're both awesome! I have to go to work again now but I'll check this all out later and post something to Tumblr!ImmiNice yeah I've got classes pretty much till 5 now so will check back in laterMarleenaAg ttyl APR 4TH, 9:52PMAlright, so I'm going to update my tumblr with our ideas, I really like what we've got so far!And I'm going to pinterest ideas too. Then tomorrow in class maybe we can discuss with Anna our inability to choose an idea because we like them all hahahAPR 6TH, 1:51PMImmihttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1U8dukQ49_29jkB9ViKhWvooZRMLgVwbAOS3aFafhOuU/edit?usp=sharing hey guys I've made a group doc here which i recon will be easy to post info on and share ideas APR 6TH, 7:17PMMarleenathanks immi! checking it out now ImmiNot much info now haha just added a tiny bit before will some more tomorrow Add what you want and we can start formulating and idea to pursue Cool! Love what you've written so far - I've never used google docs though so I may take a little to get used to it APR 7TH, 12:28PMMarleenahi immi! would u be able to give me edit access for the doc? i sent a request, ty ImmiYeah I'll do it when I'm back at uni APR 8TH, 4:39PMImmihttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1U8dukQ49_29jkB9ViKhWvooZRMLgVwbAOS3aFafhOuU/edit?usp=sharing sox guys had it wrong setting should work now!APR 8TH, 6:40PMCool I'll try to figure it out ImmiAPR 9TH, 9:36PMYeah I'm liking these ideas guys maybe we should do some experiments around these concepts?MarleenaIMMI i just read your comments and i think you're right about just picking something and pushing through with itdoing some experiments around this would be an excellent ideaim thinking of just trying out some basic things on my family haha like instructing them on things, and seeing their reaction when ive told them what theyve done is the artwork lolYeah I like the instructions and the audience creating the artwork through their perspectiveBut I love film too so I'm keen for eitherBut yeah if we pick one then we can each do experiments around that and see what worksMarleenamaybe in one of ur experiments u can try think of a way to incorporate more film elements??im not too sure how to do that cos i dont think im creatively inclined that way but it could be rly cool like... maybe you can play a film with realy different sound from whats actually being played, and have the audience watch it once blindfolded but then reveal the actual footage afterYEAAAAHThat's cool!MarleenahahaAPR 13TH, 6:27PMMarleenahi guys! im just checking in to see how you are all feeling about the assignment i did some stuff and put it in the google doc, and i kinda have a vision for what i think would be goodAPR 14TH, 11:24PMHeya girl, I literally haven't thought any about it this week as I've been so busy, it's due first or second week back? Also I'm keen to try whatever MarleenaHaha no worries due wk 8 first week backLel we should probs get on it then Let's decide on it and run with itMarleenaI was continuing our asmr video idea and writing a script for the instructions and voice - some is in the google doc If u wanna continue that idea, could u look into ways we could get a voice to say the instructions? How to record it, and maybe possibility of having music to it too?I dont think this idea will be too hard to accomplish with the little time we have leftAlso help and ideas on the script would be amazing Sorry if it seems im just pushing watevs i wanna do lol its just an idea if u guys wanna get the thing over and done with lolNo totally cool, we've only got about 12 days so all good I'm keen to look into music and voice recording, I could get my brother to say it? He has a nice audio voice. I can do some recording for experiments and send them through and post on Tumblr?I'll send you through an example here too0:09This was for another assessmentJust a thought hahaMarleenaThats a gr8 idea! Itd be awesome if ur brother could do it thatd be way better than a text to speech robot lmaoId love to see some experiments and stuff 2 on the tunblrIll try get the script done asap too hopefully by early next weekIm a total noob at voice recording and stuff like that so uhh might need to rely on u guys for that lolHaha cool, I'm down! I'm with my family this weekend so I'll record my brother doing some experiments and I'll post to tumblr Any ideas on what you want him to say?I'm going to check the google doc nowMarleenaYeah its all there its kinda unpolished but just what u want with it Have fun with ur family!!!Yeah cool, I like what you've written so far, I think it could be really cool! I'll get my brother to read out the script so far, and I'll play around with some rad sound effects to go with it! Are we still getting the audience to close their eyes?Also I reckon we could even do just the one piece, but have parts slowed down, made faster, toned up or down, with different 'music' or sounds to it to create different emotions?Maybe instead of having three different ones, show how we can create the atmosphere just through exploration with tone, etc?MarleenaThe stuff I've written i intended to just be one piece, its just i wrote different versions and wanted to include in thr doc as documentation the second script is the latest draft. Sorry should have clarified. I rly like the idea of using music and tone to create emotion and atmosphere! Pushes the limits of what audio can be MarleenaI think getting the audience to close their eyes would be good for immersion Oooh i just reread the docYeah rad, all good! Alrighty, so do we want the instructions to go for like 2.5 mins or so with their eyes closed, and then they have 2.5 mins to create the artwork? or do we actually want them to just sit an listen the whole time?hahahaMarleenaYeah those three paragraphs at the end r supposed to be part of the same script Making them sit there for 2.5 mins thinking of the artwork sounds sadistic but totally marina-esque xDI say we do ithahaahah okay!MarleenaItd probs be 3 parts audio 2 parts thinking instead thoHahahaso say we provide them with the artistic tools needed, they sit there eyes closed, then produce the work in the dark still with music/sounds still playing?MarleenaThis is the kinda thing which makes normal think arti d ts are crazy lmaoahahhahahlove it but!so trueMarleenaI reckon including the actual creating if the artwork by the audience would be interesting! We wouldnt even have to have them blindfolded for that bit. Would be rly interesting to see wat they imagined Hand out pieces of paper and set up pencils etcmaybe in keeping with marina's style, we could give them a bunch of mediums to choose from, i.e. giving the audience even more controlyeah definitely not blindfolded, but maybe keep the lights lowish?are we going to blindfold them?that could be funMarleenaI was thinking of blindfolds during the audio instructions but probably not for the creating part yeah agreedMarleenaYay! This is exciting This is gonna be fun hahaYeah I'm keen!what sort of mood are we thinking? because the sound effects will create the mood and toneor are we trying to evoke more than one emotion?MarleenaIm thinking a calming and compelling moodIf we're going to evoke an emotion itd be inspiration?Or enlightenmentalrightyso maybe some intense parts to make them really think, but sort of calming as well?MarleenaYeah! radI'll get to work MarleenaA+Since we're including a creating part, maybe the length of the script we have is enough?Do u reckon u'd be able test that in ur experiment?I just realized the time lmao. Goodnight all! Im off to bedYeah no props haha night!APR 15TH, 9:46AMImmiNice guys!! I will have a read of the script and stuff today Awesome I was checking out some awesome social vids on YouTube last night and they were really inspiring! I'll some the links through and you guys can check em, maybe we can use some of the ideas for experiments or whatever. Also for the actual product, maybe we can include some more personally encouraging words, like starting with, 'you... are amazing... beautiful ..." etc and continue with the script?Just an idea ImmiCool I'll have a read of the script and let you guys know what I think :)) so far seems v v good hahaRadddd I'll have to post the links later on as I'm out and don't have them hahahttp://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hzgzim5m7oU&vq=mediumThe Power of WordsHarness the power of words to grow your business today: http://tinyurl.com/phokf69 For personal transformation order Andrea Gardner's book 'Change Your Words...youtube.comCheck this out!ImmiI think itd be more interesting to have the audience create the artwork at the same time as the recording so maybe we could do a trial using this script.. I can do it with my brother and have hie draw at the same time and if one of you wants to do the script and have someone draw after? And then we can discuss the implications and results of each?Marleenaok sure i will test out having someone draw the thingo afterwards ImmiAwesome :))APR 15TH, 6:29PMyeah great idea, that can be one of our experiments I'm getting my brother to record it tonight so once it'd done I'll send it through and start playing with sound effects )ImmiQuestion, do either of you play an instrument?also I've added the youtube vids to google doc if you wanna check them out Marleenaunfortunately i dont haha all good, was just wondering for the soundtrack alright, here is my first edit!Play-5:01Unmutelet me know what you do/don't likeI added a few words to your script Marleenahope that's okay!APR 16TH, 10:13AMImmiokki so just did this with my brother and feedback is: that if we are drawing at the same time as the audio then it should be a littler more instructional.. not telling you what to do explicitly but perhaps having some words like "draw" or "translate this thought to the page" so that the audience knows to communicate the image they have in their head on the page. However, also good to draw after so having say 1-2 minutes of straight talking about imagining different things and then 1-2 mins after to drawMarleenai listened to the audio and i think the words u added helped out the script a lot ruve enhanced it moreso i just tested out the audio and i definitely agree, the way it is designed now is best suited to having the drawing/creating component after the audioi think if we want to create a more "immersive" and ASMR-like experience, keep the drawing and audio separateMarleenai really enjoyed the music of the audio, i think it fits the tone of the piece well my only thoughts are to add longer pauses between certain lines (like the one which says "i'll give u a minute" - this will help with immersion and give the audience space to think) and also refining the script more (tho i think it's pretty alright now)Marleenaother than that, only the final details are left. for the drawing/creating component, we can hand out A4 pieces of paper and any other materials to let people use (im sure the class will have stuff they can use to draw lmao) and for the audio part, i was thinking of just tearing up old rags and such for blindfolds we could probably also get bedsheets to block out the window light as well, if u guys wanted ImmiI agree with the audience closing their eyes but it might be enough for them to just close their eyes? As then they have to conscious of not seeing and focusing on imaging? Also it could be good to leave the drawing up to the audience where they either draw during or after?Like if they have an idea they can jot it down but then have time after to drawAPR 16TH, 12:36PMMarleenai agree blindfolds might not be necessary, i just thought it might be good for immersion if its completely dark for them (and if their eyes open up a little bit, they still cant see) - i think for the sake of being immersed in the audio, it would better to have drawing afterwards so they can concentrate on thinking of what they will drawMarleenaim a bit worried if we leave it up to the audience they will chit chat during the audio lolAPR 16TH, 6:26PMImmiTrue pointAPR 16TH, 10:55PMRad! Glad you guys like it yeah I definitely think I need to make some pauses longer, my brother said it pretty quickly. So you think the songs good to keep then? Yeah I reckon just to really immerse the audience we should blindfold them, and get them to draw once the voice says "open". The music will still be playing and I reckon keep it dark to keep the mood. Do you want to add anything else to the script? Also I reckon we should provide the art materials so we can point to that being the "responsibility" of us as the artist's APR 17TH, 9:45AMImmiYeah and I think discuss, in linking to marinas work, responsibility in terms of the 'creator' and whether the artist has to be the creator or whether the audience can be the creator etcYeah APR 17TH, 11:24AMMarleenaok, i will look over the script thing again soon - u guys can go over it again and add what u want as well umm im not really too sure what to add and i guess adding too much might be bad for time limit reasonsglad things are coming along!! feeling less stressed already lolOkay no props, I'll work on it later today all good! don't stressAPR 18TH, 9:52AMMarleenai just checked over the script again added a few things here and there! looking good guysTUE 8:34PMOkay cool, let's have it finalised by tomorrow night then? And I'll get my brother to say it again Marleenasure thing! im fine with it if everyones ok with this deadline ImmiYep cool! I'll have a look in the morn sorry I've been trying to get a science report done ahh haha tomorrow night is good though WED 9:16AMImmiokki cool i re-listened to the audio and left a couple of comments on the google doc in regards to specific parts. If you guys want to have a look and then we can workshop the ideas into the final piece? :)) keen to do it in class and see what results we get hahaMarleenahullo ur up early!! hahai just checked ur comments and took ur advice into account and removed+added things i think its pretty much done!! i think its pretty interesting how u felt super relaxed and didnt feel like making art afterwards listening to it am also keen to see what everyone else things - for me, its more like it inspires me rather than gives me great ideas etcWED 1:38PMImmiNice ! Yeah I think everyone will respond to it differently which is cool THU 1:11AMRad! I'll send the script again to my bro and then put together the piece, did you want me to keep the same musical soundtrack? Anything else you want me to add to it? We could even get the audience to just simply write one word about it or whatever as well THU 8:25AMMarleenaI think the same music is gr8, the only thing i rly wanna add is dramatic pauses xDFRI 12:04AMYeah great, I'll do it!FRI 9:37AMMarleenaso about the drawing bit, did any of youse have a4 paper and other drawing supplies at home that you could bring in for next wednesday?ImmiI've got A4 cartridge paperI've got pencils and heaps of mediums they can useAlso, what are we as the artist's going to do during this process?Are we going to do it too, or sit there as an object, watch and take notes, what?FRI 12:53PMImmimaybe we could also do it?then there isn't an 'us' and 'them' its just everyone responding to the audio?Marleenai think we might need to explain things a bit (like telling everyone to remain seated in the beginning and relax, and afterwards explaining we're going to give them to tools to draw what they want afterwards) because the audio isn't extremely explicit about thisso we might not be able to participate because we need to keep things running hahaImmitrueMarleenajust trying to think of the logistics because our class is pretty chatty/distracted sometimesImmior we could explain at the start everything and then the audio goes and once its finished we just have time to draw?haha true marleenaMarleenahahahayeah thats a good ideagive a little explanation at the beginning, prepare the art stuff, and then we can all participate togetherImminice :)) and then if we have to just stop and explain thats fine toowe won't really know how its going to pan out until we've done it any way! so will just have to see eee!Marleenayeah no worries at allid appreciate if u guys could bring in the art stuff you have, i will too, i dont thing we'll need much paper just one sheet for everyone (like 20-30pcs), will only need pencils and other basic stuff as well, not to mention everyone in class probs has their own stuff tooImmiyeah for sure! i don't have a whole heap of stuff just cos I'm at not living at home but I've got some acrylic paint that i could bring ? and ill bring what ever i can find :))FRI 6:12PMMarleenanice! thanks FRI 9:04PMYeah man I have heaps I'll bring it all! What if I get my brother to say all of that, so we don't have to even talk at all? That could be kind of cool - like we remove ourselves so that we become part of the artwork, instead of having to explain ourselves? And then we can participate too?MarleenaYou know, that could work! We'd have to figure out the timing etc but itd be awesome!! Okay, I'll tweak the script a bit and get it done!FRI 10:51PMMarleenathanks i will also tweak a little to help, if its not too lateYeah go ahead! I'll get him to do it tomorrowSAT 1:22AMImmiNice!!I'm happy to record stuff too if you need but otherwise it's looking v goodSAT 2:52AMSure, if you like just for continuity though do you think we should have just one voice? We could both record people tomorrow and compare the sound before I edit it if you like? SAT 8:14AMImmiHmm true, maybe it would work better with just one person? I guess depends if we want the instructions and audio to be connected or separate, what do you guys think?Marleenai think connected would be less jarring ImmiYeah true, ok in that case ruve are you ok in recording both parts?Marleenait should be ok, i just checked the script again and added in more instruction-type phrases and there's not much extra ImmiOk cool :))Marleenaso i read the script a dozen times lol, i was thinking instead of adding in the script "please use the materials at hand to create your artwork", we could have a slide on the projector instead say it? so that it kinda doesnt break the narrator's character as "our conscience"so that when everyone opens their eyes, they see the instructions on the projector to begin creating their artwork etcImmiYeah that could be good! We would just have to make sure that everyone stays on task I guess cos it could be easy for people to just stop thinking once the audio is over?Or we just have in the introduction that after the audio we will be drawingAnd then have the slide up? So that the audience is already thinking about creating a work from the audio and then once the audio is over they can go straight into it?Marleenai tried adding that bit to the audio but i think it breaks the atmosphere and also "ruins the surprise"cos i was thinking of our intentions and it might be better to have an authentic "first impression" by the audience?ImmiYeah trueMarleenaits kinda like, the intrigue plus if they knew theyd have to draw stuff, it might spoil the effect of the audioImmiYeah nice and then I guess linking to responsibility too and that they don't know before hand they are drawingMarleenayeah!ImmiYep I agree, will take away from the meditative aspectOk cool maybe we have the slideMarleenaalso about staying on task, the music will still be going during the drawing, and they're not drawing for too long, so it shouldnt get too crazyuhh hopefully LOLImmiHahaMarleenacos audio is what, 2 or 3 minsImmiYeah about thatI think 2 mins plus Intro?Marleenayeah i reckon it will be ok ImmiMaybe we can record the audio at the end of ruves brother saying the bit about drawing and then we can cut it out later if it interferes too muchBut at least we then have the option Marleenagood idea, doesnt hurt to try it outnice!! glad everything's coming along!! SAT 10:49AMYep cool, I'll get him to say it all then I'll do two recordings (we can use one for an experiment for Tumblr). If we have a slide, do you think the light of it will be too distracting? Or maybe we could have a really dark slide, almost like an artwork in itself, and have the words almost hidden there so they have to concentrate on reading it? Also, if we place paper in front of them they'll know they have to draw, so for an element of surprise we could perhaps place maybe a box with things in it secretly when they are listening (but then we can't listen) or we could just put the materials out front and let them choose? But that could take too longThoughts?MarleenaWhile their eyes r closed and theyre listening to the recording, we can just put on the slide and set up the art things we can make the slide have a black background with white textI think the light will be ok like that - also btw i dont think i will end up making blindfolds because it doesn't seem too necessaryI think it will be fine just asking them to close their eyes - simplicity is bestIts a shame if we do it this way we wont be able to participate, but it sounds like it will run most smoothly if we handle the behind the scenesIm not too sure wat u mean about placing a box with things in it, putting all the stuff out front sounds good and simple and i dont actually think it will take too longIm worried having the text be too unreadable will take focus away from the limited time they have to draw Yeah no not so unreadable they can't read it, just dark enough so the light isn't too much, but yeah a black background what I mean by a box is just having all the same materials placed inside maybe a box, one for each table, so they don't have to get up which should take less time?I know, what if we do the audio after we finish making it before class, and include it in our final product and compare ours as the artist's with the audience?That way we still get to do it and it could be more of a comparison?MarleenaThat would be pretty interesting do u mean doing it alone or meeting up?I think its a little l8 to meet up but i can try it out defsImmiYeah we could do it separately or before class if there's time?No we wouldn't have to meet up, I mean each of us do it respectively at home ImmiOk yeahMarleenaYeah defs!ImmiAnd we could also compare doing it by yourself vs with other peopleJust so it adds another element to it?Yeah!ExperimentsLolMarleenaI think the box idea for each table is gr8, you dont even have to get a box u can just evenly spread it out on each tableSo we could bring ours in and maybe even display them nicely whilst everyone has eyes closed? But maybe have them flipped so they can't see them until we reveal them at the end after they've drawn something?Yep okay cool MarleenaHahaha i like thatAlso, we don't want them to talk or look at each other's work right?What can we do to stop them doing this?MarleenaSlap their wrists with a rulerAlso don't forget the lights can't turn off, so are we blocking out the windows?Hahahah Hahahah#marinaMarleenaHahaAlso is there anything else that needs to be added to the script before I record?MarleenaWe could block them out, only thing wed need is sheets white is ok but still lets light in, black would be betterIts not entirely necessary but might be coolAlso ye done with the script, the blue writing is the instruction bits I think having the calming music playing moderately loud will make them not talk as much - should keep them in the moment for 2-3 minsSo maybe in the audio u could raise the volume of the music just a little during the creating phase? We could include on the slide that they shouldnt talk etc but i think that's the extent of our power Yeah great idea I can do that Okay I'm not sure I have any black sheets but let's see what we can findAnd good idea having the instructions in blue!I'm keenMarleenaBlue font! Good idea No stress, the sheets arent entirely necessaryRadMarleenaOH i thought u meant have the instructions in blue font xDLike on the slideHahah that's okay, what colour do you want them?MarleenaAhh it doesnt really matter as long as the background is black - i was thinking dark grey, white or calm blueYep coolSAT 9:42PMOkay so they are going to have about 40 seconds to get down their ideas lolBut that could be coolSAT 10:46PMOkay! I've done the edit, I'll send it through once it's uploaded and you can see what you think Also we should definitely give it a title Should we make note of the fact they don't have long and say that it was for a specific purpose?MarleenaSounds good! Good for reflectionAlso once I send it through, do you reckon we should get 3 people each to do it, and then we can compile these pieces together, maybe make a collage to post on Tumblr, and can display them on Wednesday as well?Just to add even more depth?https://www.youtube.com/uploadYouTubeShare your videos with friends, family, and the world.accounts.google.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNIUppJHQTYRUMINATION (audio artwork)This audio piece was a collaboration with two other art students. We have created an audio set of 'guidelines' in the contemplative stage, or the conceptual ...youtube.comsoz ignore the first one!I've called it Rumination for my youtube account, but if you don't like that we can change it! let me know what you guys think of it and if you want something changedAlso we can't forget to write our 300 words SUN 1:52AMImmi awesome! And thankyouu Haha would have likely forgotten about thatSUN 9:23AMMarleenaomg not gonna lie i completely forgot that as wellalso i think testing the audio out on ppl and displaying them is a nifty idea not entirely necessary tho so dont have to stress about itMarleenaso just listened to the audio... having a mixture of putting the instructions on the screen and having ur brother read them out worked surprisingly well! that was a good touch. i think we can actually afford to cut out some of the audio to make more time for the creating process at the endMarleenahmm ohh actually, i think a minute is alright, i just went over the audio againi went to the google doc and i underlined the chunk we could cut out if we wanted to extend the creating time, lemme know what u guys think im pretty happy with what we have so far btw, i think we did a gr8 jobSUN 9:58PMCool! I think I actually don't mind the monologue taking up most of the time, because for me personally, I see the work as something that stimulates the conceptual stage rather than focus on the production of a piece, so I reckon a minute is okay. But I can edit it again if you both like if we had a little extra time at the end we could possibly gather the pieces and display them out the front, but that may take too long anyway. Also, shall we all just write 100 words each about the project? Say we allocate a dot point each? Or would you prefer to do it a different way?Marleena100 words each sounds good Immiyeah i agree i think the drawing doesn't need to be too long as it is mostly about creating an image mentallyMarleenaYeah, im ok with not cutting much out tooImmiand yep 100 words sounds goodAlrighty, leave it as is then? Okay great, let's look at the rubric then decide what we shall each write?Also, do you mind if I post the vid to Facebook? I wanted people to do it and send me pics of their work, just to see what they created MarleenaLol no worries at all go ahead!Rad!I'm just looking up the assessment now Immiyes for sure!MarleenaYeah same Ahh sweetImmiim going to bed now cos I've got my stats exam tomorrow :// so will be able to do my 100 words tomorrow afternoon/ evening after the exmaMarleenaNo worries, good luck with ur exam Immiahhh thanks! hahaAll good! Good luck!!I think I need to make the music a bit louder during the drawing process?Just listened to itMON 8:35AMMarleenathat sounds like a good idea considering we're going to be playing it in a large room, which might make the music sound even softerso i checked what the 300 word statement has to be about, and it basically needs to include: the original artwork chosen, the relevant weekly topic, and the process of productionso yeah! we can just pick a subject each, and write 100 words on that if u guys dont mind, i will get started on "the original artwork"Yep cool! Immi want me to do the process of production so I can talk about the editing process?ImmiAwesome so I'll do weekly topic and how it links to responsibility?Marleenayup. woohoo! ImmiMarleenaso i just put mine in the end of our google doc for convenience MON 12:14PMImmiMON 7:25PMAwesome! Let's all put them there and then collate it so we can put it on our tumblrs MON 10:24PMHey girls! I've done my piece too, so I'm just editing them all together now, I hope that's okay how'd you go today Immi?ImmiGood exams all done and I've put up my 100 words to the docWill do the audio tomorrow and drawing etc tooI'm happy to edit them if you want ruve! You've done heaps of work already :))Awesome! Yeah I know, I'm stitching the three together It's okay I'm almost done! I'll post it and then you can change it if you like ImmiOkki cool :)) awesomeOh yes I'll do the audio tonight too! Though it's hard with us because we already know what to expectOk it's up so you can check and change if you like Chat Conversation EndSeen by everyone Type a message, @name...

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russellthornton · 5 years

Text

How to Ask a Guy Out Over Text: 15 Moves to Get the Answer You Want

Wondering how to ask a guy out over text? You found the right article. Learn how to ask him out and get the answer you want.

Texting. What a wonderful invention. It lets us ask a quick question without an hour long phone call, lets us get to know someone without the jitters, and lets you ask someone out with a bit less fear. Asking your mom for advice when it comes to knowing how to ask a guy out over text might not be the best idea. Seeing as texting was only invented in about 13 years ago. But good news, it’s not that hard.

Before asking him out, break the ice

You do not want to start a texting conversation with “will you go out with me?” That will catch him off guard. Instead break the ice. Chat about your day, a new song you discovered, or anything that can be carried over into the potential date.

You can even bring up a movie you’ve been dying to see or a restaurant you love as a smooth transition into the ask out. [Read: How to text a guy you like and leave him wanting more]

Keep things light

Before asking him out, you want to make sure there is some sort of chemistry there. It can be hard to determine that via text, but it is possible. Instead of texting like you are sending a business email, make jokes, be sarcastic, even flirt.

His response to these types of message will help clue you into his interest level. If he responds back with one word answers and shuts down your attempts to flirt, you may want to abort mission. [Read: How guys text when they like you – 15 things they do differently]

How to ask a guy out over text

Onto the actual ask out. Don’t worry too much. It shouldn’t take you hours to come up with the perfect thing to say. If you are that nervous to ask him out, you may not be ready for the date.

So take these tips, type up a text, reread it for any weird spelling or grammatical errors, and hit send. Waiting for a response is the hardest part.

#1 Make it clear it is a date. Before going in make sure you are being clear. You don’t want to offer him two tickets to a show, you want to invite him to go with you. Reread what you wrote to make sure it makes sense without the context of you dwelling over what to say all day. [Read: How to let a guy know you’re interested without being overeager]

#2 Avoid words like hang out or meet up. Vague words like hang out indicate that you are just in fact hanging out. In that case, you have nothing to be nervous about at all. But you want to ask this guy out.

In person chemistry, eye contact, and more make it clear you are asking him out on a romantic date. But as you opted to go virtual, you have to make sure you actually use the words date or go out.

#3 Don’t second guess yourself. This has happened to me countless times. I wrote out the perfect ask out text, reread it, and then deleted all of it because I lost my nerve.

But there is no need for that. You like this guy, so go for it. If you don’t ask him out, you’ll never know what could have happened. [Read: How to build your confidence and alter your life]

#4 Have confidence. Whether you want to put on your best outfit and swipe on your favorite lipstick to amp up your confidence, do it. Look in the mirror and know what a catch you are.

This will make the waiting part easier and hitting send will feel more like you are inviting the guy you like to get to know you better, not sending off the last text of your life as you know it.

#5 Be direct. When you’re trying to figure out how to ask a guy out over text, whether you are fretting over the exact words to use or not, just bite the bullet and hit send. Be straightforward.

No offense to guys, but they tend not to be great at reading between the lines or picking up on subtle clues, so just go for it.

#6 Avoid giving him an out. For some reason girls have been conditioned to always be uber polite, almost to an annoying point. Do not say something like, “it is totally okay if you say no.” This just makes you seem unsure.

Not to mention it seems like you aren’t eager to actually go out and that you would be perfectly happy if he said no. Part of asking someone out is showing interest, not making it seem like you sort of don’t want to because you’re scared he’ll say no. [Read: The walkthrough all girls need to know about asking a guy out]

#7 Include something you know he likes. Maybe you bonded over a love for live music or he has a high score in bowling. If you invite him to do something you know he feels comfortable with, your chances of him saying yes will be sky high.

Along with that, avoid something he may have zero interest in. Yes, being spontaneous and doing something unique is all fine and good, but bringing him for a couples massage on your first date might be sort of awkward.

#8 Get him to ask you out. This is a little tougher, but if you really want him to be the one to do the asking out, you’ll have to master both being subtle and obvious at the same time.

You’ll have to make it clear you are interested without actually saying so. If he brings up a band he loves, say something like, “They are the best, I would love to go to one of their concerts.” Or even say you would be an awesome person to check out an art gallery with.

This can lead him into asking you out which reduces your risk of being rejected. But it can also be a little more time consuming. I say just go for it, but now you have an alternative option. [Read: How to get a guy to ask you out – A foolproof, sneaky guide]

#9 Keep it short. You can chat all day and share your entire lives over text, but keep the initial ask out text short. You don’t want to send over a novel. Not only may he avoid reading it if he’s busy, making you wait longer for a response, but no one likes reading super long texts.

Along with that, don’t break it up into three or four texts. Just keep it to one or two sentences; short, sweet, and to the point.

#10 Offer a plan. Saying something like, “do you want to go out with me this weekend” is perfectly fine, but offering a set plan leaves less to the imagination. It gives you and him more time to get used to the plan.

And if you don’t offer a plan now, you could both keep putting it off and then all this worry was for nothing.

#11 Wait for his answer. When it comes to knowing how to ask a guy out over text, this is the hard part. Those three little text bubbles are like torture. But keep your cool. Not matter what his response is, your life will go on one way or the other.

If he isn’t a fast texter, put your phone down and keep yourself busy. Read a book, get some work done, or make some food. This will make waiting a lot easier. [Read: How guys text when they like you – 15 things they do differently]

#12 Have a back up plan. So he didn’t say no, but he didn’t quite say yes. Maybe he is busy that day. Have a second option. If you tell him, “well, let me know when you’re free,” this could go on forever.

Instead offer another day and another time. If he makes another excuse perhaps he is busy, but he might be looking for an excuse to say no. Having a back up plan lets you give him a second chance to give a firm yes. It also shuts down your fear that the date will never happen due to conflicting schedules.

#13 Don’t double text. Whatever you do, do NOT double text. There is no excuse in the world for this. Whether he is taking forever to respond, sort of answered and then went silent, double texting is a sure fire way to look desperate.

As a feminist, I like to think looking desperate really isn’t a thing. Just be you, but double texting is just so obvious and cringy. [Read: The 6 biggest rules of double texting every texter needs to know]

#14 Remind yourself you rock regardless of the outcome. You are an amazing catch. This guy would be lucky to spend an evening with you. You are funny and smart and awesome.

So whether he says yes or no, you will continue to be a kickass woman. [Read: 16 ways to develop and build your self-confidence]

#15 Work out the details. Nail down the plans now. Don’t wait until the day of. Don’t say okay we’ll work out the details later or talk on Friday. Decide if you are meeting there or who is picking who up. This way there is less to worry about come date night.

[Read: A surefire guide for the shy trying to ask out a guy]

And now you can go forth with your mission because you know how to ask a guy out over text like a cool cat. Congratulations! Next step is doing it in person, but we’ll take our time with that.

The post How to Ask a Guy Out Over Text: 15 Moves to Get the Answer You Want is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.

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baadfabrykittyadv120 · 6 years

Photo

READING MATERIAL // HEY WHIPPLE, SQUEEZE THIS

*reading and taking notes from ‘Hey Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads’

Chapter 3: A Clean Sheet of Paper Coming up with an idea—the broad strokes

“Print is to [all of] advertising what figure drawing is to fine art; it provides a creative foundation.”

“SAYING THE RIGHT THING THE RIGHT WAY. Remember, you have two problems to solve: the client’s and yours.”

“Dullness won’t sell your product, but neither will irrelevant brilliance.”

*“dullness is represented on the far left side of the left circle, and irrelevant brilliance, on the far right side of the right.”

“Hit the overlap”

“you often lose the selling idea in the act of trying to express it creatively”.”Your job as a thinker and problem solver is to keep both in mind, to spin the strategy without losing hold of it.” “the two most common rejections of your ideas will be “I don’t get it” and “I’ve seen that before.” In other words, either it’s too weird or too obvious.”

“Find the central human truth about your product.” “write down the truest thing you can say about the brand or the product.”

“We try to find that long-neglected truth in a product and give it a hug.”

“find” this truth, not invent it. The best ideas are old truths brought to light in fresh, new ways.

*”instead focused on one of the central human truths about this category—the use of flowers as a ticket out of the Casa di Canine.” (i.e men get out of the ‘dog house’ by showering their lover with gifts)

“Tell the truth and run.”

“We’re Avis. We’re only number two. So we try harder.” Totally believable. More important, I like a company that would say this about themselves. America loves an underdog.” - - -

Perhaps the biggest underdog of all time was Volkswagen. VW was the king of self-deprecation. The honest voice Doyle Dane Bernbach created for this odd-looking little car turned its weaknesses into strengths.”

“Identify and leverage the central conflicts within your client’s company or category.”

“the best work usually come from a place of conflict.” “When a strategy can be built on top of one of these tensions” “There’s a natural energy at these points of cultural stress, a conflict of ideas or themes that can be a fertile place for ideas of force and substance.” “stir a little bit of talk.”

“thematic tension might be simply “deprivation”; having something taken away from you is a platform leveraged for years by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in their iconic “Got Milk?” campaign.”

Look for polarities. Where you find them you will also likely find tension. And where you find tension, you will find creative sparks.

“A FEW WORDS ON AUTHENTICITY.”

“mid-1950s, however, this omnipresent voice of authority started to lose its credibility.” - - - “We’ve become a nation of eye-rollers and skeptics. We scarcely believe anything we hear in the media anymore, and marketers can’t make things true simply by saying they’re true.”

“what people look for today, and what they believe in and are persuaded by, is authenticity.”

*”How can you argue with this Avis ad?” Authenticity is something “you are”

“Admitting that your commercial is a paid message with an agenda is one way to disarm distrust.”

“This generation knows you’re trying to sell them something and you know they know, so let’s just drop the pretense and make the whole exercise as much fun as possible.”

Underpromising and overdelivering is perhaps another way to disarm distrust. Even self-deprecation can help establish authenticity; VW’s “It’s ugly but it gets you there” is perhaps the most memorable example.

“To effectively ‘hype’ something today, you must find a way to cut through ‘the hype.’ . . . This necessitates telling the truth.”

“the brands that are unwilling to have a real and truthful conversation with consumers will become completely irrelevant and therefore invisible.”

“Don’t rationalize away what you [like about their product]. Find the truth they are exploiting that you are not.”

“Try the competitor’s product”

“Find a weakness in the leader’s strength and attack at that point.”

“Avis Rent A Car was only number two.”“come to them instead of Hertz because “The line at our counter is shorter.”“

“Pose the problem as a question”

“not to simply restate the problem in the terms in which it was brought to you; you’re not likely to discover any new angles. Pose the question again and again, from entirely different perspectives.”

“Ask a better question.”

“Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions.” “we sometimes find simple answers that have been overlooked.”

“Ask yourself what would make you want to buy the product.”

“Dramatize the benefit”

“don’t mean the features of the product, but the benefit those features provide the user, or what some call “the benefit of the benefit.”

“Avoid style; focus on substance”

“Remember, styles change; typefaces and design and art direction, they all change. Fads come and go. But people are always people.”

“They want to look better, to make more money; they want to feel better, to be healthy. They want security, attention, and achievement. These things about people aren’t likely to change. So focus your efforts on speaking to these basic needs, rather than tinkering with the current visual affectations. Focus first on the substance of what you want to say. Then worry about how to say it.”

“Find a villain”

“overpriced product. “ pain or inconvenience the client’s product spares you.” “If the product’s a toothpaste, the villain can be tooth decay” “A villain can come from another product category altogether” ”an indirect competitor”

“Try some of these “strategy starters” and see if ideas start to form.”

“Do a straight on us vs. them approach.“

“Show life before and after the product.”

“Instead of trying to change how consumers think, change what they do.”

“Is there a compelling story about the heritage behind your brand?”

“Can your brand dispense some smart advice about the whole category?” “Is there a story in the founders of the brand? Or in their original vision?”

“Can you turn a perceived negative attribute of your product into a positive? Can you demonstrate on-camera or online your product’s superiority?”

“Can you move your product out of its current category and reposition it in another?”

“Can your brand be insanely honest about itself, admitting to some shortcomings while winning on the important thing?”

“First, say it straight. Then say it great”.

“simply write out what you want to say.” “This is an ad about . . . ” And then keep writing. Who knows?”

“You can tell when ads are trying too hard. Their intentions are too obvious.” “some that grab your attention with their executional brio, but their lack of relevance is such that after you’ve seen them they leave you kind of empty”

“Great advertising combines density of content with the elegance of form.

“Density of content and elegance of form.”

“Don’t let your concept get in the way of the product”

*don’t be a “visual vampire” - “the concept’s execution is so busy it sucks the life out of their commercial message“

*”usually happens when the product bores you. Which means you haven’t dug deep enough to find the thing about it that’s exciting or interesting. Or maybe you need to reinvent the brief.“

“the interesting part of an ad shouldn’t be a device that points to the sales message; it should be the sales message”

“The product, the product, the product. Stay with the product.” “don’t get seduced by unrelated ideas”

“Put the pill inside the baloney, not next to it.

“Dogs hate pills, right? So what do you do? You wrap the pill in a piece of baloney.“

“Customers hate sales pitches. So you wrap your pitch in an interesting bit, and they’re more likely to bite.”

“You gotta wrap that baby right into the middle of the baloney. The two have to be one. Your interesting device cannot just point to the sales message; it must be the sales message.“

“Emotional purchase drivers connect with customers more deeply than rational ones.” “Okay, this campaign is gonna be . . . thoughtful.” Or it’s gonna be angry, or stark, or . . . well, you decide. What’s right for your client? What’s right for the customer?”

“Finding that emotion is often all you need in order to get the ideas flowing.”

“Deciding which emotion to leverage is something you’ll do early in the process.”

“the answer is always a combination of what your product is and whom you are talking to”

“You can change your mind later, but sometimes making this decision can give you focus” - - -

“Stare at a picture that has the emotion of the ad you want to do.” “ for copywriting. You need to be in the mood.”

“emotion is, it may help to put up some pictures that put you in the mood” “have you ever tried to write an angry letter when you weren’t angry?” “the same can be said for copywriting. You need to be in the mood.”

“Let your subconscious mind do it.” “controlled daydream.” “hear what the ad wants to be“

“Try writing down words from the product’s category.”

“Embrace the suck.” “some kind of dopey device or visual or slogan. It could be a client’s geeky spokesperson, a long-running sale with a goofy name, or just some bad footage.“ “Tackle it directly. When you embrace the suck, good ideas often spill out of the very thing your instincts tell you to avoid.“

“The only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really crappy first drafts“ “You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page.“ - -”it’s a workbench” “Write. Keep writing. Don’t stop.”

“Allow your partner to come up with terrible ideas.”

“Even if the idea truly and most sincerely blows, just say,”

“That’s interesting,” scribble it down, and move on“

“see if you can take it and shape it and mold it.”

“Then throw it back to him or her with your idea tacked on.“

*”Just because an idea doesn’t work yet, doesn’t mean it might not work eventually.”

*”not to say aloud every stinking thing that comes into your head. It’s counterproductive.”

“Spend some time away from your partner, thinking on your own.” - “gives you both a chance to look at the problem from your own perspective before you bring your ideas“

“Come up with a lot of ideas.”

“in order to get to a great idea, which is usually about the 500th one to come along, you’ll need to resist the temptation to give in to the anxiety and sign off on the first passable idea that shows up”

“Learning to be okay with uncertainty is part of the process of having more insights”

“Quick sketches of your ideas are all you need during the creative process”.

“Just get the concept on paper and keep moving forward. You’ll cover more ground this way.“

“Tack the best ideas on the wall”.

“helps you determine whether there are campaigns forming” "where there are holes that need to be filled”

“Write. Don’t talk.”

“Don’t talk about the concepts you’re working on”

“an idea talked about is never as exciting as the idea itself.”

“The time will come to unveil.”

*The best ad people I know are the silentbut-deadly kind. You never hear them out in the hallways talking about their ideas. They’re working.”

“Write hot. Edit cold” --- “Once you get on a streak, ride it.”

“Nurture a newly hatched idea. Until it grows up, you don’t know what it’s going to be.”

“If it makes you laugh out loud, make it work.”

“Try something naughty. Or provocative”.

*“it often pays to try to be naughty on purpose.” - - -

“Naughty is good. It gets your client talked about”

“Remember, being provocative just because you can isn’t the point.”

“Be sure your provocativeness stems from your product.”

*“We can’t do that, can we?” - “That’s a sign it’s a strong idea.”

Ask yourself - “Will somebody talk about this idea if we do it?”

“If you’re about to spend advertising dollars on a campaign and you can’t imagine that anybody is going to write about it or talk about it, you might want to rethink it. It means you probably missed injecting a truth or social tension into it.”

“Try doing something counterintuitive with a medium.”

“put your poster in exactly the wrong place”

“What if”

“Things get really interesting when you take this kind of thinking into the digital realm” “BK asked Facebook members to delete 10 of their friends to get a free Whopper“ - - - “These stunts tend to create a lot more talk value than what’s traditionally been called advertising.“

“If you have to do an ad, does it have to be a flat page?”

“Try a pop-up, a gatefold, a scratch and sniff, a computer chip” - “there are less expensive tricks you can try. Sequential ads. Scratch-off concepts. Die cuts. Different paper stocks. Acetate film. There’s even magnetized paper now.”

“Try not to look like, or act like, or sound like, or be like an ad.”

“People don’t buy magazines to look at ads. They don’t buy TVs to look at the stinkin’ commercials.” “Can it be an interactive display in Times Square? In Red Square? Can you turn a building into a QR code? Can your TV campaign be a soap opera? Or an opera opera? Can you make it a video game?” *REMEMBER DO SOMETHING PROVOCATIVE

“a picture is worth a thousand words” “John Hegarty says, “I just don’t think people read ads.”” “visuals work fast.”

“As the larger brands become globally marketed, visual solutions will become even more important. They translate, not surprisingly, better than words.”

“If readers don’t get what you’re trying to say from the visual, they won’t get it.“

“The page is turned.” “Coax an interesting visual out of your product.” “Visualize it on its side. Upside down. Make its image rubber. Stretch your product visually” “always keeping in mind you’re trying to coax out of the product a dramatic image with a selling benefit.” “Take your product, change it visually, and by doing so dramatize a customer benefit.“

“Get the visual clichés out of your system right away.” “Every category has its own version of Tired Old Visuals.“

“Learn what iconography is overused in your category, and avoid it.”

“Show, don’t tell.” “Saying isn’t the same as being.” *”If a client says, “I want people to think our company is cool,” the answer isn’t an ad saying, “We’re cool.” The answer is to be cool. “

“When everybody else is zigging, you should zag” - “If your product is white sheets, write the headlines in mud. If your product is beautiful, show something ugly.”

“search as far outside the boundaries of convention”

“turn everything on its head. Logos usually go lower right, so put them top left. Product shots are usually small, make them big. Instead of headlines being more prominent than the body copy, do the opposite. It’s perverse, but I’m constantly surprised how many times it works.” - - -

“You are not right if in your ad you stand a man on his head just to get attention. You are right if [it’s done to] show how your product keeps things from falling out of his pockets.“

“Consider the opposite of your product.”

*”What doesn’t the product do? Who doesn’t need the product? When is the product a waste of money?”

“Avoid the formula of saying one thing and showing another.” (“But if you use this sort of setup, make sure the difference between word and picture is breathtaking”)

“Make sure you don’t get stuck always doing the ol’ exaggeration thing” “It’s just a little too easy” “will rarely lead you to a totally unexpected solution” “Just be aware”

“if you’re going to do an exaggeration scenario, make sure you base it on a truth”

“Whenever you can, go for an absolute” “Quietest, fastest, cleanest” “middle ground are boring.”

“Metaphors“

*“can be a quick and powerful way to communicate”

“The trick is doing it well” - - -

“Just picking up an image/symbol and plopping it down next to your client’s logo won’t work. But when you can take an established image, put some spin on it, and use it in some new and unexpected way that relates to your product advantage”

“Symbols lifted right off the rack usually won’t fit your communication needs and typically need some spin put on them.”

“they involve the reader.”

“use images already in the reader’s mind, twist them to the message’s purpose“

“If you leave too much out, you’ll mystify your audience. If you put too much in, you’ll bore them.”

“Don’t set out to be funny. Set out to be interesting.”

“Simplicity is all” “Simple is easier to remember” “Simple breaks through advertising clutter”

“If you can’t reduce your argument to a few crisp words and phrases, there’s something wrong with your argument.”

“Keep paring away until you have the essence of your ad“ - “Inside every fat ad there’s a thinner and better one trying to get out.”

“When you have distilled a good idea into its simplest form, you’re in the neighborhood of “great.””

“Learn to recognise big ideas when you have them”

“Big ideas transcend strategy”

*”Doe’s it really have to land precisely on the target to work?” - *sometimes big ideas wander off strategy, and that's ok.

“After you’ve covered the walls in ideas and you’ve identified concepts you really like, stop.” - “and I mean covered the walls”

References:

Sullivan, L. (2016). Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads, 5th Edition. 5th ed. Wiley; 5th edition (16 Feb. 2016).

#advertising

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canvaswolfdoll · 6 years

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CanvasWatches: The Marvel Cinematic Universe

That’s right, I am reviewing the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in a single, definitive essay! Why would I, a single, brave and foolhardy man dare tackle such a task?

Because I can’t actually be bothered to write about most of the films individually.

The usual reason I write these reviews is to shine a light on media that lacks a wide appeal and does something interesting with its storytelling. I want to write stories, and studying the works of others is a good way to do that.

Now, I like the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite a lot. There somethings I’d like to be done a little differently, and I do dislike how it’s becoming increasingly locked with continuity so you have to pretty much watch the whole thing as a 19-part film series, but it executes on its promises.

Point is, I watched Avengers: Infinity War after dedicating a significant amount of time catching up on the films.

I also realized that by ranking the films, you can get a good approximation on a person’s narrative preferences.

So I’ll give a quick blurb on the films before listing them.

So enough forwarding, let’s go through these films. Spoilers, obviously.

To be fair, there’s a rift part way through. I started my catch-up with The Winter Soldier, so it’s been years since I watched anything before that. I’ll mark the rift and preemptively admit that early films may deserve better than I give.

Iron Man

The film that started it all, much to everyone’s excitement. It’s probably the most conventional superhero film of the series, but it did it’s job very well.

The Incredible Hulk

The most forgettable film. Very little carried over from it, to the point that it might as well no longer be canon.

Iron Man 2

Starts putting the work into actually building the MCU, but the story itself is one of the weakest.

Thor

I actually really liked Thor. Seems to usually be considered one of the lesser films, but I liked the fish out of water narrative, Thor himself is very charismatic, and Loki remains one of the MCU’s better written villains.

It also begins to establish that Thor has the potential for strong comedy. Just takes them a while to finally realize the potential.

Really, my biggest gripe is the ‘Norse Magic is just highly advanced technology’ angle that poisoned magic for so long. I like fantasy, and I really like how Superhero universes throw genres into a blender to make a colorful Speculative Fiction smoothie. Let magic be magic!

Captain America: The First Avenger

The subtitle’s a bit egregious, but this is my favorite of the phase one films. Good period piece, good hero, and the Red Skull is a level of pulpy villain I want more of.

The Avengers

So I seem to be one of the few who think this film was just okay. A landmark of shared universe films, yes, but I found the story wanting. Just a bunch of set up to fight aliens in New York, but nothing I feel I could sink my teeth into. It’s fine.

Iron Man 3

Another unexciting film. Tony Stark keeps learning the same ‘be a better person’ lesson, and I’m tired of it.

The Mandarin Twist was killer, though. The sort of playing with lore the series needs to take advantage of. The films are… let’s call it a dusty slate. There’s a lot of toys to play with, and expectations for how to use them, but it’s a chance to take a deep breath and streamline things. Incidentally, racism is a great topic to iron out while we’re here.

Thor: The Dark World

Yeah, not even I can defend this one. I liked the set designs. But Christopher Eccleston is wasted.[1] The plot was muddy. Jane Foster[2] twisted the knife in the corpse of Asgard Magic.

I actually did want to give this movie a rewatch, but it wasn’t checked in to the library when I started the undertaking, and I recalled it being unimpressive in the theaters. Good opening fight scene, though.

The Rift (Oooh, scary)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Not one of my favorites. Winter Soldier seems to be very well regarded, but both times I watched it, I found myself bored. It takes itself way too seriously for a Comic Book Movie, and it's very heavy on action scenes built around gun firing and punching that I don't enjoy.

The plot is built on a relatively subdued premise, questioning political corruption and monitoring the citizenry. There's also no grandiose villain.

Winter of Soldier fails to feel larger than life, and besides affirming Steve Rogers’ dedication to Bucky, it doesn't feel like it left much of an impact on the universe. So it falls short on my personal list.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Ah, finally, the movies are cutting loose. About time.

Guardians of the Galaxy is fun. Can't we just have fun? Yes. And we should.

Actual color design, fresh and exciting cast, fantastical setting, and actually making the bland villain work by having Ronan be essentially a force of nature instead of a person.

Also a soundtrack so distinctive it’s a calling card as good as Captain America’s shield. And it stands on its own legs, while all the previous films pretty much used the mounting lore as scaffolding.

And it’s just fun. It makes me smile and want to watch it again soon after watching.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Sigh.

So, first viewing I couldn’t maintain focus. Second viewing, I could focus on Ultron’s scenes through the second act before it all goes blurry.

There’s too many characters. I’m not sure I can even give any reasonable summary of the plot. A bunch of dull, shakey cam fight scenes, the entire cast taken to their blandest characterization, and just… ugh.

Also, Ultron is supposed to be a Pym creation. He looks like a bug. This makes no sense.

The worst part is later films keep referring to the events of Age of Ultron like anyone could comprehend what happened.

I’m even putting it below The Dark World, because that one at least had some interesting visual and notable scenes.

Ant-Man

A superhero heist film.

Goofy characters and witty dialogue.

Fight scenes I enjoy.

I really like Ant-Man. It’s a good origin film, the heroes are all the right sort of dingy white to make them likeable and interesting.

And it finally helped me realize what I want from combat: visual clarity, inventive choreography, and originality.[3] Because of the gimmick of shrinking and growing, the camera needs to actually frame the scenes to show off scale. And playing with scale also makes the fights interesting, since you never fully know what will come into play and how.

Also, I just enjoy heist films. The more ridiculous the better.

Captain America: Civil War

Sorry, but I’m on team ‘This is Avengers 2.5’. But, in that light, still notably better than previous team up movies.

Yes, it’s mostly about Captain America and Iron Man, but just about everyone who appears gets their narratives progressed somewhat, the plot is clear once we get past discussing the Accords (which themselves are boring).

The only complaint I have is I feel they fired this particular plot a bit early. From my layman understanding of the original comics, one of the main thrusts of the Civil War was oversight, yes, but also maintaining secret identities, which, if they let the roster build up some (including more secret identities)[4] it would be much more easy to follow than ‘We can’t let what happened in Age of Ultron happen again!’ Because no one knows what happened in that movie.

Also, big points for not killing the Bad Guy. It should be a low bar, but I personally hate the tradition of villains dying for their crimes. It’s overdone, and limits the talent pool for later stories.

Doctor Strange

I liked this movie, but also don’t know if I have much to say. They’re finally letting Magic be Magic, which I am 100% down with. An element of Dark magic not being evil magic[5]

The bad guys were forgettable. The Good Guys fun. I’m waiting to see more, but there’s a lot of good will built up.

Should’ve cast more Asian actors, though.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

‘Well, you love the first one, does the second one exceed it?’

No. But that’s fine. There’s a few clumsy attempts to recapture lightning that don’t pan out, but it’s not particularly hindered by it. The absurdity and joyous joke-cracking continued, and the pathos that was introduced was earned.

It’s a good movie, a worthy successor to the first, but doesn’t quite beat the original on my personal list.

Spider-Man Homecoming

Title’s kind of on the nose, isn’t it Marvel?

Fun fact, I haven’t seen any of the Andrew Garfield films as my stance was ‘I’m voting with my wallet, and I want Spidey in the MCU.’ Now that that happened, the two The Amazing Spider-Man movies don’t matter anyways!

Tom Holland is perfect for the role, both in the suit and out as he manages to capture awkward youth at a level never before seen. The plot’s interesting (even though the big twist was spoiled for me),[6] the movie drips with charm, and it’s fun to see Marvel’s big money maker fight DC’s![7]

Homecoming does perpetuate the conflict with poor communication (Happy’s indifference is narratively justified, Iron Man’s not), but they also let the villain live at the end, so I guess it cancels out?

Good movie. I recommend it.

Thor: Ragnarok

I’m… okay with this film?

So the creative team finally figure out comedy is Thor’s strength and leaned into it, which I, of course, love. But the story also feels unfocused. Is it about Thor versus his family? Oh, wait, now he’s on an alien world in a coliseum. But there’s just one fight before he easily escapes. Hulk’s back, and Hulk himself is an actual character! But Hulk and Banner don’t have much effect on the plot once away from the Grand Master. And suddenly we’re back to the Asgard stuff.

Narratively, it works, but the stuff with Grand Master felt more like a diversion than actual meat. Still, they’ve shifted the tone of Thor films to that of Guardians of the Galaxy so I’m not upset.

Excited for whatever’s next, but Ragnarok didn’t pump me up like most people.

Still, hopefully the Earth-based movies catch on and lighten up.

Black Panther

I liked it, but also feel underqualified to discuss it. Saw it in theaters, so that was fun!

Lot of villain killing, though, which is a shame since Klaue was oddly affable. I want way more than we got of him!

There’s a lot of good storytelling through design and minor actions (I particularly love how Killmonger snapped his spear in half to make a shortspear). They did a good job of carefully modulating the mood with well placed jokes (especially with M’Baku, who took such joy in messing with unexpected guests).

It’s a good film for a hero that I don’t know much about, and I’m interested for more.

Avengers: Infinity War

Ah, finally, the big moment! Did they stick the landing?

Yes! Then they took another jump, so I’m waiting to see if they can finish the gymnastic routine.

At the very least, Infinity War has vastly exceeded the previous Avenger films. The universe is bigger now, and everyone’s involved and I could follow every plot point! So big applause for that.

I’ve got a couple nitpicks, of course. I wish they stuck with Thanos’s original motivation[8] just to continue to embrace the absurdities of comic storylines. The whole ‘we need to cut all populations in half’ doesn’t stand up to any thought (populations repleniish, you could’ve doubled resources, heck, turn it into a Long Earth situation, you stupid purple Homer Simpson).

But all the praise is (currently) right. It’s a good movie.

Admittedly, the scenes actually taking place on Earth weren’t as compelling as Thanos’s quest, Thor’s mission, or the Guardians meeting Tony Stark’s team, but that’s just a summary of the whole franchise. I enjoy it more when they go high concept and have fun.

They could’ve chosen the deaths better. It’s a mix of unfair (all but one of my Guardians had to go!?), and overly obvious with impermanence (Spider-Man can’t stay dead, Sony will riot).

Also, didn’t really feel much like a war.

The List

Final Standings from worst to best(based on my personal impressions)

The Incredible Hulk Avengers: Age of Ultron Thor: The Dark World Iron Man 2 Iron Man 3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier The Avengers Iron Man 1 Thor Captain America: Civil War Doctor Strange Black Panther Captain America: the First Avenger Thor: Ragnarok Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Spider-Man Homecoming Ant-Man Guardians of the Galaxy

Now, you may be asking ‘Where’s Infinity War?’

That’s a fair question. I’m holding off on ranking it because it’s obviously a Part One. Its story is currently incomplete, and there’s also the chance the next film will sour the first. It happens. But as it stands, it’d be Top 5, easy.

So, what can we divine about me from this ranking? I enjoy fun and high concepts. The more gritty and ‘real’ you try to make your story, or repeatedly spinning your wheels is a detriment. I’m also very much a character-first guy.

Maybe there’s something else you can interpret. Feel free to send me any feedback you’ve got. I enjoy thinking about my entertainment.

As for what’s coming up in the MCU? Well, the next film is a sequel to Ant-Man, my second favorite film, so that’s exciting. We’ve also got Captain Marvel, a character I know next to nothing about, which really excites me. It’ll be fun to get introduced to completely new lore, without my nerdy foreknowledge questioning choices.

Then there’s Infinity War part 2 (or whatever they’re going to call it). Now, personally, I want Thanos to be defeated by Squirrel Girl because I am a massive nerd. But I know that won’t happen. But Part One built up good faith the first two Avenger film squandered, so I’m anticipating it.

All in all, feels like the movies are moving into a good direction. I’m still trepidatious about the inter-film lore getting too entangled, but solving the Thanos situation is a good point to back off and just focus on telling good individual stories.

At least until they can bring in Dr. Doom. No one else would dare follow Thanos except DOOM!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to send me questions and comments, check out my various other works, and support my patreon. Help fund the extended Canvas Universe.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Not that he ever seems to like the jobs he takes. [2] Who also clearly wants a divorce from this franchise. She hasn’t been relevant… ever, really. [3] The final battle of Guardians of the Galaxy adds ‘clear goals’ to the list. Baddies want to touch the ground, good guys need to prevent that. Defined endstates. [4] My stance on this tropes has always been ‘Keep secret from the general public, but tell your dang Aunt, Peter.’ [5] I don’t talk about it much, but it’s one of my lesser irks. Why can’t Darkness be good, or at least a true neutral force. Night time’s nice. [6] Thanks Reddit. [7] Micheal Keaton’s great. [8] Let Thanos be in love with Death, you cowards!

#CanvasWatches #mcu #marvel #CanvasReviews

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