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kookieswan · 2 years

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Red Light - Best of Luck

Nightmare!Hoseok x Psychologist!Reader

Word Count: 1.2k

Genre: Horror AU, Monster AU, Psychological horror, the usual tags.

Warnings: This is actually a pretty tame chapter. References to bodily fluid. It should be noted that this story will contain themes of horror/psychological horror and also explore obsessive behaviors and codependency. Many characters are morally gray. Please be warned!

Summary: Being a psychologist for Nightmares of all things, you should have known your peace of mind would only last so long…

Notes: Not quite as much action, but still important for a look at MCs character… and a look at our newest Nightmare. This takes place a while after Call Out My Name! ♥️

This is the 12th part of the Red Light series. Find the Masterlist here ♥️

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“I trust you’ve read all the files I’ve left for you?” It’s been a quiet day so far, almost peaceful compared to most down here. Leave it to one of your colleagues to completely ruin the serenity in a second flat. Asshole didn’t even knock, just slammed the door open like it was his win office. Glancing up, your raise a brow and try to will a smile onto your face.

“Hello to your too Doctor Williams. Yes, there were quite a few more than usual. You’d like me to talk to him today?“ He stands before you, clothing crisp and face just as smug as it always seems to be. The man purses his lips as he glances around your office shamelessly before nodding, seeming all too interested in your decor.

“Correct. He was transferred to a different facility for a number of reasons, but we trust he’ll be cooperative this time around.” Since your meeting with Namjoon, you had all but breathed in the newest Nightmares file. Or you suppose, not new really since he’s been here the longest of them all. Still, any additional information would be appreciated before you get released to the beast. You had considered asking Hoseok, but your appointment with him took another route…

“He wasn’t before…?” Williams wanders over to one of your shelves, fingering at some of the books and other trinkets you have. He pulls a large hardcover out and reads the back before glancing up at you, and for some reason, his expression angers you to no end.

“You’ve read his file, you tell me.” A twitch of your lips, but you control it as you push back from your desk slowly. Priding yourself as being knowledgeable about all your patients in one way or another, you don’t mind showing off a little, even if it stems from a snarky remark.

“It stated that he was mostly compliant in the past but for the last few weeks leading up to his transfer, he started to act out, even more than 061309.” Williams slowly nods his heads before putting your book onto the shelf, very noticeably in the wrong spot by the edge. It falls over not a moment later, but he doesn’t seem to mind much at all.

“Yes, he was making escape attempts every day, killing guards left and right, causing all sorts of chaos. We couldn’t have that, and so we transferred him to a deeper floor where things are run differently. He needed to be taught obedience, let’s say.” Clearly this Nightmare had been triggered by something, although none of the doctors seem to be particularly worried about it. Someone with a calm disposition doesn’t just suddenly start acting up for no reason…

Williams finally motions for you to follow him, switching out the light in your office before you’ve even fully stood up. You follow behind him after gathering the notes quickly, trying your best to keep up as he starts his trek. He doesn’t even stop to let you close your door properly.

“We’d like for you to treat him as you do all the other Nightmares, although I still believe some of your methods are a bit odd.” He leads you down the hall slowly, side eyeing as he insults your performance for the billionth time this week. You don’t let it affect you in the slightest though, head held high as you pass a number of different doctors who glance your way.

“Odd as they may seem, I’m more than confident in my ability to talk with my patients. I’ve done well with my current three, one more isn’t going to change a thing.” It isn’t because you won’t let it. You’re not exactly sure how you’ll get on with this new Nightmare, but no one can be more of a challenge than Yoongi’s already been. Williams coughs a cough that sounds suspiciously like a snort, stopping in front of the elevator to call it.

“Your resilience is appreciated, doctor. I’ve read over all your notes about 061309’s little fit, I’m almost impressed with the detail.” With a ‘ding’, you step into the confined space, already feeling the need to claw yourself out. A rueful smile goes on your face at the words however, because even with omitted information, you’re still doing your job better than anyone else down here could. And an ‘almost impressed’ from Williams likely means he’s stupefied .

“I made sure to ask every question you and the other doctors mentioned, plus a few more I considered necessary. I was only doing my job, but your nearly impressed nature is noted.” Staring right at him, a twisted sort of satisfaction bubbles in your gut as he noticeably frowns, mumbling to himself while adjusting his glasses. Turning you head forward, you sit in silence with a grin until you make it to floor B13.

“As I’m sure you’ve guessed, we’ll be going to the room 061309 resides in. The empty cell there is where our returning resident will be staying from now on.” You had guessed, it had been empty when you arrived, and had remained empty since then. Not a single peep had been spoken about the missing Nightmare, but you were informed from the start he would be your responsibility as well as the others.

“I’m curious how he’ll react to returning…” Williams doesn’t say a thing more, guiding you toward Yoongi’s room quietly, the click of your heels echoing off the pristine walls. Funny to think that had been soaked in a number of bodily fluids only days ago. It’s also a little funny that Williams doesn’t think you’ve memorized the floors layout yet, guiding you like a lost puppy.

Turning the final corner and spotting the sealed door, you’re not surprised to see Jungkook standing there, although his eyes widen at your arrival. He gives you a small smile, and you return it in earnest as you step forward, still glad for his intervention the other day. A number of questions explode across your brain, but now certainly isn’t the time to question the poor man. Williams clears his throat grossly, drawing your attention away from the muscular guard.

“Well, we’ve arrived. 061309 is still in isolation, so it’ll be just the two of you like the meeting you usually conduct. For this initial meeting, all we ask is that you take the time to get to know him, similar to how your other first meetings went.” Simple enough, and even if it’s not, you’ll still try your best. Adjusting the file and notes you hold on your arms, you simply nod your head as Williams gestures for Jungkook and the other guard to open the doors.

It’s a passing thought, but they almost look nervous, Jungkook’s brow furrowing slightly. For you or for themselves, you can’t tell, but they take their time opening the door. When it finally unlocks, the pull it open slowly just as Williams turns around to walk off with pep in his step, cryptic words floating back toward you.

“Good luck with 061304. Believe me, you’re going to need it doctor.”

#red light ♥️#hoseok x y/n #hoseok x reader #hoseok x you #hoseok fluff #hoseok angst #bts x y/n #bts x you #bts x reader #bts fluff #bts angst #bts horror au #bts monster au

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persephoneflouwers · 1 year

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Angels fly, BUT ALL THE LINES ARE PSYCHOLOGICAL/PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES

If every star is an eye in the sky, You'll see angels fly

This curious post was born because the first time I listened to this song I remembered the anecdote a certain Plato tells in his books: Tales the philosopher used to fall on the ground because he spent so much time looking at the sky and studying it instead of watching where he was going. This was the beginning of the proverbial “having the head in the clouds” and worked to stereotype philosophers as the distracted clumsy always in their own world kinda people. It was only later at night that this super-weird post was written. I had fun ngl!

Nothing really matters, nothing really hurts

Moderate existential Nihilism, according to which life is without intrinsic value, meaning, or purpose. Kinda surprising coming from Louis (!!!) but that should say a lot about the album from the title straight to the last note of the last song. Ah! Louis, Louis.

We can't talk about it, It'll only make it worse. There's a time for saying who did what, Where it went wrong

Critique of practical reason: now you can believe it or not but the closure to this book is literally “two things fill my mind with ever increasing wonder and awe: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me.” And only that is a reason to gasp! The mention of sky and stars AND what’s right and wrong in the same sentence? Wild! Anyway it’s a lot, but it’s quite fun to find these references. I guess Kant would be at least intrigued by the line “there’s time for saying where it we t wrong”… both the concept of time (read below) and the inevitability of making mistakes in humans agenda make this verse a splendid gem in my eyes.

I wanna hear all that, but right now All I need you to know is You'll be okay, we can talk tomorrow + One single word, it could wait till the morning

Apology of emotional procrastination: this is what I just made up because I own procrastination as a lifestyle. In a way, he’s trying to prioritise the moments and even though talking is actually a good way to learn and grow, it is also something he can postpone.

I'm on my way with some time to borrow + I'll knock on your door, it'll save me from calling

Authenticity of time: I could genuinely write en entire essay on the concept of Time in Louis’ songwriting and in Philosophy. They all wondered what time is, how we perceive it, what we can do with it. I could give you just a few names (Aristoteles, Eistein, Hegel, Nietzsche), but my favourite one will be Bergson. He talked about the interior time, non-dividable and non-ripeatable, stocked in our conscience, in which the various moments interpenetrate each other without interruption.

Look at the horizon, Just to make you feel small?

Subversion of metaphysical solipsism: big words, strong words even. But he’s basically saying the world is bigger than me (lol) and you’re not in this alone. You don’t exist on your own. It’s cool, but also sort of an impasse bc yeah world has bigger problems, but that doesn’t mean you can’t struggle for your own shit yk?

Put the pain in my heart till now, You don't need anymore

A simple Epicurean philosophy 🎶: aponia!! and ataraxia!! We going deep lol You don’t need the pain duh put it away now. He’s so cute tho to store the pain in his heart and make it easier for the other person, but it’s an interesting take as obvious as it sounds. You can’t the pain along with you if you want to heal. Easier to say than to be done.

#I don’t really have a tag for this #just know that i always push lyrics to another level #i stretch so much I rip lol #fitf lyrics #angels fly #angels fly analysis next i fear #angels fly is my baby now #also the way it resonates with Hey angel….#they deserve a whole new analysis lol

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lewisiana · 5 months

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Owen Barfield on Lewis -

I acted throughout his later life as his solicitor. And a very strange experience it was.

There are clients who are excessively absorbed in their own affairs and always ready to talk eagerly about them even if you are only meeting them for dinner. The difficulty in his case was to get him to talk about his own affairs at all, even in the office, let alone anywhere else, for more than three minutes at a time. His great idea was to wash all that out and get on to something really interesting. It sometimes made things rather difficult; after all, one has to have instructions of some sort.

He gave two-thirds of his income away altogether and would have bound himself to give the whole of it away if I had let him. Because of the intricacies of the English income-tax system, he had to do the giving through somebody else as his trustee, and I was that trustee.

There were substantial donations to charitable institutions, but what he really liked was to find someone through a personal connection or hearsay whose wants might be alleviated. He was always grateful to me for suggesting any lame dog whom my profession had brought to my notice.

But that was not all. He frequently got involved in long and arduous correspondence with the lame dogs and, remember, he did not like writing letters. He hated interruptions to what he felt was his real work of reading and writing books.

I am amazed by the number of letters this man, who did not like writing letters and did not like interruptions, actually wrote, the number of individuals with whom he maintained for years a long and quite intimate correspondence, individuals whom quite often he had never met; and you must remember that the lame dogs were only one group among the legion of his correspondents.

There were other people who were not in financial need but who had been helped by his books, very often helped in great psychological difficulties. One such eventually became his wife.

They wrote to him from all over the world with their personal religious and moral problems. And I doubt if any of them, unless they were lunatics beyond the fringe, went without a reply.

Often, moreover, it was not just one or two letters, but a long and regular exchange. An invalid lady in Washington, whom he had never met, recently sent me for safekeeping a box of the letters she had received from Lewis, all in his handwriting, during his last years. There must be well over a hundred of them. When she was expecting to have an operation, he wrote her as often as once a week. And she is only one.

-Owen Barfield

#owen barfield #c.s. lewis #speaking of lewis

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stephenjaymorrisblog · 10 months

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Mental Block Head

Stephen Jay Morris

7/1/2023

©Scientific Morality

It had to happen. Like many writers, I have come to that place known as a “mental block,” meaning, “I can’t think of anything new to write about.” Today, I looked over my old articles and realized, I repeatedly make the same points. Currently, I am rewriting an old manuscript I penned in 2011. It’s about my life over the span of three years in the late 70’s.

Today, I asked myself, “Who gives a damn about my life?” Well, nobody really. Perhaps, I was inspired by the late Henry Miller and his stories, which were anecdotal accounts of his life. There’s Charles Bukowski, who was an alcoholic poet and self-professed bum who frequently got into fist fights in bars. I really loved Jerry Rubin, the America Yippie revolutionary. And, of course, the great Lenny Bruce, social comic. Finally, there was Michael Bakunin, the Anarchist theoretician. The alternative to Karl Marx.

In my youth, I was attracted to writing, however, I couldn’t spell and my grammar sucked. So, I didn’t write anything. My dyslexia plus my low self-esteem further impeded me. Over the years I dealt with it prosaically. I got so many different messages, that my head exploded.

My wife, Pamela, could give you a extensive list of my good points. But, I need tangible results. When I got into activism, in the late 60’s, I came to learn how Western Civilization is constructed. “What about Eastern Civilization?” I would wonder to myself. Confucius, 495 B.C., predates Jesus Christ by 400 hundred years! Then, I learned how people acquired their beliefs. It all comes down to psychology, the science of the human mind. Politics is just a symptom of that. Well, I’m not going to explain that anymore! People will think I suffer from Tourette syndrome! Tourette syndrome! Tourette syndrome! Tourette syndrome!

Like many from my generation, I wanted to expose the fallacies of our cultural, Caucasian superiority complex, which says that White people are superior in all facets of human accomplishments. Science, art, architecture, technology, and war is because we invented it. If you explore history, however, you will find that that’s not true. Proclaiming this fact, however, you run the risk of being labeled an anti-White bigot. Why is it so important to be proud of your tribe? Well, I will give my standard answer: because if you do not accomplish anything, you can substitute love of country or being a fan of a football team. Oh, and let’s not forget race. If you are victimized by members of a certain race and then are angry at that race, and then express that anger, you are accused of being a racist.

This is the type of shit I have been writing about for decades! I have been critical of the political Right bowel movement since 1969. I think they are dangerous, and they think I’m dangerous. Sure I am. I am dangerous to weeds and household flies. I think I’ve got to change my subject.

I have evidence that stupidity is not a permanent tattoo on your brain. Nobody reads books anymore or even reads text on a computer scene. So, what am I saying?

I’m going wait until this mental block leaves me. I don’t know how long it will take. For now, I am going into the living room and staring at the ceiling. See you later.

#stephenjaymorris #poets on tumblr #poets of tumblr #american politics #anarchism #anarchopunk #writers #anarchoindividualist #anarchofeminism #anarchocapitalism #anarcho primitivism #anarcho punk #anarchocommunism #anarcho socialism #anarcho syndicalism #anarcho nihilism

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the-guinea-pig-sibling · 2 years

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What was the progression of thoughts just now?

1. The girl at the group home is testing my authority and may be gossiping about me and this makes me uncomfortable. Why?

2. It feels as though we are on the same level mental health wise and so her words hold just as much power as other staff and may get me fired. But she is a client and staff may regard my opinion in the matter as well.

3. I feel that we are on the same level because my mental health can be nightmarish and its only through privilege that we are not the same. Her father smoked meth with her, my father taught me math and encouraged me constantly to go to grad school. I can complete classes and study, whereas she dropped out of high school and got a ged later.

4. I wonder about the nature of privilege, how we may be extremely similar but there are positions of authority separating us. Where is the morality in that? Just because I am able to behave correctly and in accordance with society can I get more money and stay out of a group home despite having the mental health level that could require it, if I couldnt pay for several psychoanalytic sessions per week? It just feels immoral to actively benefit from privilege and be in a position of authority over her as a staff member, instead of her equal which feels right to me.

5. I look to the role models of annie rogers and elyn saks who are both professors of the fields of psychology or law, and have schizophrenia, how they had to compartmentalize parts of themselves to complete their degrees because society itself would not allow complete integration in the workplace or school, because there would be questions of capability. It is through my childhood of rigorous education and reading books and connecting with teachers that I can even sit here getting a master’s. What is morality in terms of having illness in society, if you can mask enough, if you can hide symptoms well enough, you are considered part of it? And those who cannot function in a capitalistic society with work pressure and so many things because of their symptoms go on governmental assistance or become homeless. Through certain educational backgrounds and childhoods, people can succeed, and others with more traumatic backgrounds less focused on similar things need to find other pathways, or mask to compete in this dominantly white system.

#schizophrenia #mental illness #social work #mental health #psychology #personal

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sailormoonsub · 6 years

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one thing I will always appreciate about Princess Tutu is that every episode begins by immediately presenting some moral dilemma thought experiment like “is it possible to preserve peace through violent means?” and the soft ballet music of the opening credits plays while you mentally process it

#THIS REMINDS ME OF A SHORT STORY THAT I CANT THINK OF THE NAME OF RIGHT NOW #but it's about a kid who lives in a peaceful but totalitarian society #and to preserve the peace #he ends up killing the guys who want to challenge the rules #there's some gimmick like he's the only one who has ever felt empathy or something #i read it in my moral psychology book i need to find it later #sms watches pt #pt 08

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blackswaneuroparedux · 2 years

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Fridtjof Nansen: The genius polar explorer and statesman

The first great thing is to find yourself and for that you need solitude and contemplation - at least sometimes. I can tell you deliverance will not come from the rushing noisy centres of civilisation. It will come from the lonely places.

- Fridtjof Nansen

Most people become famous for one thing. They’re the best at a sport, or they explore somewhere no one else has, or they discover something for science. Occasionally some people go on to have early success in one field before switching to another and finding success there too.

Fridtjof Nansen, however, didn’t seem to believe in limitations. Neither did he believe that anything was too difficult or that you should quit while you’re ahead. In fact, his life is littered with instances of not quitting but also deliberately doing things in ways that made it almost fatal to quit at all.

Norwegian explorer, oceanographer, statesman, and humanitarian who led a number of expeditions to the Arctic (1888, 1893, 1895–96) and oceanographic expeditions in the North Atlantic (1900, 1910–14). For his relief work after World War I he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace (1922).

Being half-Norwegian, Fridtjof Nansen was always a hero of mine since I was told of his exploits sitting around the fire listening to my Norwegian grandfather speak of Nansen in hushed tones.

For many Norwegians he remains a figure of admiration and respect. His accomplishments across many fields of human endeavour are still taught in Norwegian schools. I owe my love of the winter outdoors partly to Nansen’s life story. Whenever I hike across the fjords, or ski, or take part in a biathlon I think of Nansen looking down from heaven and grunting through his bushy moustache in approval.

Fridtjof Nansen (10 October, 1861- 13 May 1930) was born at Store Frøen, near Oslo. His father, a prosperous lawyer, was a religious man with a clear conception of personal duty and moral principle; his mother was a strong minded, athletic woman who introduced her children to outdoor life and encouraged them to develop physical skills.

And Nansen’s athletic prowess was to prove of the utmost importance to his career. He became expert in skating, tumbling, and swimming, but it was his expertise in skiing that was to play such a large role in his life. Not massively built, Nansen was tall, supple, strong, hard. He possessed the physical endurance to ski fifty miles in a day and the psychological self-reliance to embark on long trips, with a minimum of gear and only his dog for company.

As a boy Nansen strapped improvised skis to his feet at the age of two and soon became proficient. At the age of 10 he defied his parents to attempt the ski jump at Huseby – a forerunner of the Holmenkollbakken – and almost met an untimely end when his skis stuck on landing and threw the young boy forwards. His school friends were concerned until he showed signs of life and then broke into cheers and laughter at his crazy feat!

At school, Nansen was fairly average, much preferring sports to studying. He’d frequently take off into the forest and live like a survivalist for weeks on end. He became a highly accomplished skier and skater. At the age of 18 he broke the world record for one-mile skating and a year later won the first of his 12 national cross-country skiing championships.

In 1880, Nansen secured a place at The Royal Frederick University in Oslo and chose to read Zoology – a subject he hoped would lead to an active, outdoor life.

Fridtjof Nansen and his wife, Eva. Eva Helene Nansen was a celebrated Norwegian mezzo-soprano singer. She was also a pioneer of women's skiing.

His life course was perhaps set in 1882 when a professor suggested he take a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology at first hand. He shipped on the sealer Viking to the east coast of Greenland. On this trip of four and a half months, the scientist in him made observations on seals and bears which, years later, he updated and turned into a book; but at the same time the adventurer became entranced by this world of sea and ice.

The trip then was a success, allowing Nansen to develop and demonstrate various theories about the Gulf stream, the formation of Arctic Ice etc. He also first got the idea that Greenland could be traversed – something no one had done at this point. He never returned to his studies. In the next fifteen years he united his athletic ability, his scientific interests, his yearning for adventure, and even his talent for drawing in a series of brilliant achievements that brought him international fame.

Obtaining the post of zoological curator at the Bergen Museum later that year, Nansen spent the next six years in intensive scientific study, punctuating his work with visits to some of the great laboratories on the Continent and once by an extraordinary trek across Norway from Bergen to Oslo and back on skis. In 1888 he successfully defended his dissertation on the central nervous system of certain lower vertebrates for the doctorate at the University of Oslo.

All throughout his time in Bergen, Nansen had the idea of crossing the Greenland icecap. The furthest anyone had managed was around 100 miles East of Disko Bay before turning back. But Nansen had though a lot about this, and he had an idea! The problem, he figured, was that the West of Greenland was inhabited but the East was a harsh and barren wasteland. Therefore, any trek East from civilisation would ultimately have to be a double-trek across and back because no ships could get close enough to the East coast. So, any such journey was doomed to fail. Instead, Nansen planned to travel West from the harsh East towards civilisation.

Nansen developed his plan to cross Greenland after reading the accounts of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld and Robert Peary, who had travelled eastwards from Disko Bay in 1883 and 86 respectively. Both had travelled by dog-sled. The interior of Greenland was still a blank spot on the maps, so expeditions did not even fully know what conditions they had to prepare for. Nansen was convinced by Peary’s report that Greenland was entirely covered by ice and snow. However, he did not have an experience with hauling animals, since dog-sleds were entirely unknown in Scandinavia. The Lapps used Reindeer, and Nansen briefly considered using those, but they would not find any food in Greenland, so he abandoned the idea, and instead chose to cater to his greatest strength: skiing.

Skiing was a popular method of transportation in 19th century Norway and had already become a national sport with competitions held in major cities. Peary had pioneered using skis on polar expeditions, but Nansen’s super-human skiing ability was what set him apart. He had already in 1884 undertaken a ski tour from Bergen to Kristiania, covering over 300 km in only 6 days, to take part in a ski race two days after his arrival. Even with modern equipment that would be an outstanding feat, but with 19th-century skis, it becomes downright insane. As we all know, skiing is still the primary means of transport for Polar explorers today.

Nansen had only 6 months to prepare for his Greenland expedition, so he had to make the best of the skills he already had. He knew that he could not cross Greenland alone, so he had to recruit a small team to help him out, and he had to do it fast. Since skiing was his strength, his team could not slow him down and he focused his team composition efforts on getting accomplished skiers on board. This was probably the weakest area of Nansen’s planning for Greenland, and could well have sunk his whole expedition.

At first, though, it seemed like he was off to a great start. On the same day the newspaper published his plans, he received an application to join the expedition from Henrik Angell. Angell was a ski pioneer himself and an army officer. In spring of 1884, he had made the first documented ski crossing of the Hardangervidda, a Norwegian plateau that is famous for its primordial landscapes offering hostile conditions similar to the ones encountered in the Arctic. Many Polar expeditions trained here, and many companies today still offer training courses on the plateau. Nansen, however, did not want educated Norwegians like Angell to join his expedition. Despite being the best example of the contrary himself, he was under the impression that simple countryfolk would be better suited to the extreme conditions posed by the Arctic. What he did not realise was that it was the educated Norwegians whose imagination was sparked by the idea of crossing Greenland. A simple farmer did not share Nansen’s desire to achieve the extraordinary.

Perhaps one of the gravest mistakes in terms of composing his team was to literally buy two Lapps via telegram from Northern Norway to join his expedition, without ever having met any of them. One did not even speak Norwegian. Unsurprisingly, the Lapps felt out of place during the expedition, with the older one even refusing to do his assigned tasks at times.

But it wasn’t only the Lapps who contributed to friction within the team. Nansen did not trust the others enough to take on some tasks. He was the only one allowed to handle the stove to heat snow because he was afraid the others would try to drink the high-percentage alcohol used as fuel.

Today, team psychology is its own area of research and getting the right composition of personalities is emphasised. Dr Nathan Smith has an excellent introductory online course on the topic, that I recommend to everyone planning to work in extreme environments. Nansen soon learnt many of these lessons for himself though, and for his second expedition, he took much greater care to compose a functioning team.

Nansen was right, however, to realise that taking more people would not grant any advantage on the kind of expedition he had planned. A team can only move as fast as its weakest member. Travelling in small groups has become the norm in Polar exploration, with many historic firsts having been achieved by only two people working together.

A new style of expedition requires a new kind of equipment. Nansen knew that, and he was busy finding the best providers for items he required. As with the team, everything started with skiing. While Nansen could carry all his supplies for his tour from Bergen to Oslo on his back, crossing Greenland would require him to man-haul a sledge. The sledges of the time had very narrow runners, which sank deeply into soft snow, making them impossible to pull via skis which are designed to glide, not grip.

The Lapps used a boat-like form, the pulk, but that was designed for soft snow and hard ice would destroy a sledge very fast. Nansen finally found inspiration in the sledges used by Norwegian farmers, which had broad ski-like runners. He designed a new type of expedition sledge by himself and ordered a local carpenter to build a prototype. His design was tailored to minimise weight by using leather thongs instead of iron joints. Of course with modern plastic today, the pulk form has proven to be the most efficient shape for the snow conditions in the Arctic.

Nansen also was advised to use furs on the bottom of his skis, to increase the grip in the snow while dragging the sledge. Originally made from animal skin, these skins are today made of nylon, and can be found on the skis of every polar explorer dragging a pulk. 50 years before steel edges for skis were officially invented in Austria, a letter from a fellow mountain skiing pioneer tells him of skiers attaching iron strips to the edges of their skis, in order to preserve the edges and increase the grip in the snow, but for unknown reasons, Nansen chose not to modify his skies that way.

The sledge and skis were only one aspect of Nansen’s gear where he demonstrated innovative spirit. But explaining them all in detail would be an article in itself. But just to give you a quick idea: he invented a new type of sleeping bag made out of reindeer fur. He was the first to introduce the layer principle in outdoor clothing, separating wind protection from warmth. He had a tent specially assembled so the individual pieces could be used as sails for the sledges. He designed a new type of spirit stove, with improvements to the cooking vessel’s capability to retain heat. He also was the first explorer to plan the expedition’s food based on nutritional science, although it turned out later that the pemican he ordered did not contain fat as promised. This lead to a nutritional deficit over the whole expedition, so bad that Otto Sverdrup considering drinking the expedition’s shoe polish, old linseed oil.

In all his endeavours, Nansen always challenged the status quo and sought to improve every piece of equipment, ranging from a simple piece of clothing to the ship he had purpose-built for his second expedition, the Fram. He took nothing for granted and believed in experimenting and innovation. He was the original gear-head and his perfectionist approach and attention to detail are shared by many successful explorers throughout history.

Nansen was a scientist and all his adventures could not take that away from him. He always displayed a great attention to everything going on around him and took every opportunity to study. He first encountered the Inuit native to Greenland on the east coast of the island. His party spent several days in the company of an Inuit tribe and while several of the men, most notably the Lapps, were trying to stay separate from the supposed barbarians, Nansen realised their superior abilities to travel in the Arctic and tried to learn as much as possible from them. After arriving on the west coast, Nansen spent eight months among the natives, learning much about their clothing, how to train dogs for dog-sledding, and how to kayak. These lessons would later be invaluable to him on his North Pole attempt during the first Fram expedition. Roald Amundsen emulated Nansen by spending time with the Inuit as well and learned many skills he used during his successful South Pole expedition 1911.

Nansen originally estimated the costs of his expedition to be 5,000 Kroner, the equivalent of 12,000-20,000 USD today. He applied for government funds but was summarily rejected. The overwhelming public opinion was that his plan was utter madness. Nansen was prepared to cover the costs himself, but would rather not have to. So he was searching for private investors and found one in Augustin Gamél, a Copenhagen businessman, who was happy to fund the expedition. In the end, Nansen’s Greenland expedition cost almost four times his estimate, and Gamél paid about half of it. Searching for companies to sponsor their expeditions is a common theme for modern explorers. Gamél did not profit from association with Nansen directly, as modern brands do, but his motives were also different. Back when there were still white spots on the maps, there were other ways to honour expedition sponsors. Nansen, for example, did name a mountain in Greenland after his sponsor: Gamel Nunatak.

Nansen understood that publicity is everything as an explorer. He was keen to publish accounts of his ski tours in various newspapers before starting his planning for Greenland. Even in the chaotic six months leading up to his crossing, he found time to write an article about his plans for a children’s magazine. But all this was nothing to what came after his successful Greenland crossing. Nansen had reached the west coast just in time to send a message out on the last ship but was then cut off from the rest of the world for the duration of the winter. While he was learning from the Greenlanders, unknown to him, a Nansen fever broke out from New Zealand to America, but particularly in Norway. Products advertising with his name popped up all over the place. While this contributed to his popularity, he did not earn any money from this ongoing craze at first. However, after he was back, a public collection quickly covered his outstanding expedition debt of about 10,000 Kroner.

What stands out for me isn’t just the fact that Nansen prefigured the modern explorer with all the commercial sponsorship trappings but his unflinching determination to succeed or die.

His expedition fitted in with Nansen’s general ‘no retreat’ philosophy as there would literally be no chance of turning back. Suffice to say that after a gruelling and calamitous time, the team made it all the way across Greenland. Before leaving Norway, Nansen had defended his doctoral thesis – the traditional last step before being granted or denied. On his arrival in Godthaab he found out he had been successful, a fact which was the furthest thing from his mind at that point in time!

In 1926, explaining his philosophy to the students at St. Andrews in his rectorial address, Nansen said that a line of retreat from a proposed action was a snare, that one should burn his boats behind him so that there is no choice but to go forward. The party of six survived temperatures of -45° C, climbed to 9,000 feet above sea level, mastered dangerous ice, exhaustion, and privation to emerge on the west coast early in October of 1888 after a trip of about two months, bringing with them important information about the interior.

After his triumphant return from crossing Greenland, you might expect an explorer to relax for a while. Nansen did. He took almost a whole year – getting married in the meantime – before announcing he intended to seek the North Pole.

Before that though geographic societies all over the world lined up to request presentations from Nansen. His employer, the University of Bergen, gave him an annual allowance of 3,000 Kroner and time off to write a book about his endeavour. In the years between Greenland and the Fram expedition, he earned his money with lectures in Norway, Germany and Britain, and by selling his book Paa ski over Grønland. En skildring af Den norske Grønlands-ekspedition, which was translated into many languages. Public speaking and authoring have remained a reliable source of income for explorers today. He also got attention from several companies he mentioned in his talks, whose brands he had used in the crossing.

Over the next four years, Nansen served as curator of the Zootomical Institute at the University of Oslo, published several articles, two books, The First Crossing of Greenland (1890) and Eskimo Life (1891), and planned a scientific and exploratory foray into the Arctic.

Photograph taken on 14 March 1895 as Nansen prepares to leave his ship Fram and begin his sledge journey to the North Pole.

For Nansen going to the North Pole became his nexy big challenge and it had been brewing for a while. He was convinced that polar currents would allow an explorer to drift very close, if not all the way, to the pole. His plan, therefore, was literally to sail into ice until the shop became immobile and let it be led by the currents.

Basing his plan on the revolutionary theory that a current carried the polar ice from east to west, Nansen put his ship, the Fram [Forward], an immensely strong and cunningly designed ship, into the ice pack off Siberia on September 22, 1893, from which it emerged thirty-five months later on August 13, 1896, into open water near Spitzbergen. Nansen was not aboard.

Realising that the ship would not pass over the North Pole, Nansen and one companion, with thirty days’ rations for twenty-eight dogs, three sledges, two kayaks, and a hundred days’ rations for themselves, had set out in March of 1895 on a 400-mile dash to the Pole. In twenty-three days they traveled 140 miles over oceans of tumbled ice, getting closer to the Pole than anyone had previously been. Turning back, they made their way southwest to Franz Josef Land, wintered there in 1895-1896, started south again in May, reached Vardo, Norway, the same day the Fram reached open water and were reunited with the crew on August 21 at Tromsø.

The voyage was a high adventure but it was also a scientific expedition, the Fram serving as an oceanographic-meteorological-biological laboratory. Nansen never saw his mission as a failure. Crucially, to Nansen “polar exploration without science was egotism, vanity and the cheapest form of nationalist flag-waving”. A third of Oslo turned up to cheer him when he returned.

Holding a research professorship at the University of Oslo after 1897, Nansen published six volumes of scientific observations made between 1893 and 1896. Continuing thereafter to break new ground in oceanic research, he was appointed professor of oceanography in 1908.

Nansen interrupted his research in 1905 to urge the independence of Norway from Sweden and, after the dissolution of the Union, served as his country’s minister to Great Britain until May of 1908.

His main goal was to secure Norway’s position as an independent and nation in the eyes of the world. In November 1907, the ‘Treaty between the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, and Russia respecting the independence and territorial integrity of Norway’ was signed and Nansen’s mission was complete. Shortly after, while he was still in London as a guest of Kind Edward VII, his wife passed away.

Nansen then spent a period of time travelling and pursuing Oceanography – a subject that had overtaken Zoology in his interests. He wrote many scholarly papers and his work was crucial in defining a phenomenon called the Ekman Spiral.

In the next few years he led several oceanographic expeditions into polar regions, but once the world was plunged into war in 1914 and exploration was halted, he became increasingly interested in international political affairs.

For almost a year in 1917-1918, as the head of a Norwegian delegation in Washington, D. C., Nansen negotiated an agreement for a relaxation of the Allied blockade to permit shipments of essential food. In 1919, he became president of the Norwegian Union for the League of Nations and at the Peace Conference in Paris was an influential lobbyist for the adoption of the League Covenant and for recognition of the rights of small nations. From 1920 until his death he was a delegate to the League from Norway.

In the spring of 1920, the League of Nations asked Nansen to undertake the task of repatriating the prisoners of war, many of them held in Russia. Moving with his customary boldness and ingenuity, and despite restricted funds, Nansen repatriated 450,000 prisoners in the next year and a half.

In June, 1921, the Council of the League, spurred by the International Red Cross and other organizations, instituted its High Commission for Refugees and asked Nansen to administer it. For the stateless refugees under his care Nansen invented the «Nansen Passport», a document of identification which was eventually recognized by fifty-two governments. In the nine-year life of this Office, Nansen ministered to hundreds of thousands of refugees – Russian, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, Assyro-Chaldean – utilizing the methods that were to become classic: custodial care, repatriation, rehabilitation, resettlement, emigration, integration.

The Red Cross in 1921 asked Nansen to take on yet a third humanitarian task, that of directing relief for millions of Russians dying in the famine of 1921-1922. Help for Russia, then suspect in the eyes of most of the Western nations, was hard to muster, but Nansen pursued his task with awesome energy. In the end he gathered and distributed enough supplies to save a staggering number of people, the figures quoted ranging from 7,000,000 to 22,000,000.

In 1922 at the request of the Greek government and with the approval of the League of Nations, Nansen tried to solve the problem of the Greek refugees who poured into their native land from their homes in Asia Minor after the Greek army had been defeated by the Turks. Nansen arranged an exchange of about 1,250,000 Greeks living on Turkish soil for about 500,000 Turks living in Greece, with appropriate indemnification and provisions for giving them the opportunity for a new start in life.

Nansen’s fifth great humanitarian effort, at the invitation of the League in 1925, was to save the remnants of the Armenian people from extinction. He drew up a political, industrial, and financial plan for creating a national home for the Armenians in Erivan that foreshadowed what the United Nations Technical Assistance Board and the International Bank of Development and Reconstruction have done in the post-World War II period. The League failed to implement the plan, but the Nansen International Office for Refugees later settled some 10,000 in Erivan and 40,000 in Syria and Lebanon.

He died of a heart attack on 13 May 1938 after a bout of pneumonia that came to light while he was skiing with old friends. He had a state funeral on 17 May, Norway’s Constitution Day. His ashes were scattered at his home – now home to the Fridtjof Nansen Institute.

A great number of advances in all manner of fields are built directly off the back of Nansen’s work. He pioneered techniques for Arctic Exploration and developed the skills needed to survive in such harsh and impenetrable conditions.

Nansen’s name lives on in so many places. There’s the Nansen Refugee Award, given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There’s a Nansen Basin in the Arctic, as well as various mountains and islands in the Earth’s coldest regions.

Beyond our planet, there’s a Nansen Crater on the moon, one on Mars and there’s even an asteroid called 853 Nansenia in our solar system!

Finally, cruise and sea-adventure company Hurtigruten has an exploration ship called MS Fridtjof Nansen while the Norwegian navy has a whole ‘Nansen Class’ of vessels named after famous explorers of Norwegian origin.

After his death, his ethos was summed up by his ex-colleague Lord Robert Cecil. “Every good cause had his support. He was a fearless peacemaker, a friend of justice, an advocate always for the weak and suffering.”

Fridtjof Nansen was a trailblazer in many ways, and I think he can rightfully be called the father of modern Polar exploration. But he was so much more. A truly tenacious individual of whom Norwegians remain justly proud, Nansen once summarised his lust for life by explaining, “I demolish the bridges behind me... Then there is no choice but to move forward.”

In an Oslo museum I once came across a young woman considering a pair of Nansen’s frayed salopettes in a glass case, and saw that her face was drenched in tears. I remember (jealously) thinking – when was the last time anybody felt like that! The 1970s? The 1930s? These days, when an “explorer” gets dysentery in Papua New Guinea, we just roll our eyes. Their labours seem so self-aggrandising, so willed. Just as we no longer automatically assume that American novelists have important things to say, or European directors are going to describe for us human consciousness, we intrinsically doubt the sacrifice of the modern explorer. (Not to be too 21st-century about it: the map has been filled in.)

In a field stuffed with eccentric and mind-staggeringly arduous late Victorians, Nansen alone appears to have also been morally rich, and deep. There was a (melancholy) thrum throughout the programme of each contributor basically saying: isn’t this story incredible? Wasn’t this person simply amazing? How did Nansen come to be? And why? Could any conditions (politically propitious, unpropitious, or otherwise) obtain when we might think of a person again as this heroic? Perhaps the answer is as simple, and frustratingly random, as this: sometimes, a genius just turns up.

#nansen #fridtjof nansen #quote #essay #history #norwegian #polar #arctic #explorer #exploration #adventure #hero #diplomat #scientist #writer #humanitarian #nobel prize winner #norway #politics

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linguist-breakaribecca · 3 years

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[CW: discussion of medical stuff, needles, and therapy]

~~~ ⓘⓣ ⓘⓢ ⓐⓝⓔⓒⓓⓞⓣⓔ ⓣⓘⓜⓔ ~~~

On the 17th, I had my second round of a procedure called a medial branch block. My spine doctor realized my vertebrae are like a bone version of crumbly bleu cheese, and some nerves have been stuck in the crumbles (causing excruciating pain), so as a test they’re injecting numbing stuff into the nerves to see if it helps. Insurance requires two of these tests to see if they help before authorizing ablation of the nerves to get rid of the bits stuck in the crumbles.

The first round was... bad. Far more painful than anticipated. A surgical nurse gave me a little foam stress-ball avocado, and it was crushed flat in my fist.

And so, I was nervous for Round 2. This time was going to involve IV anesthesia and I hate all needles with a fiery passion, so I was anxious about the procedure and doubly anxious about the IV.

That nurse, trying to distract me, asked what I would be doing if I weren’t there. The first thing I could think of was, “Uhh... probably at home watching D&D things?” Which, as soon as I said it, I felt a celestial wedgie and fought the urge to push my glasses up my nose 🤓

Her eyebrows went up. “Do you D&D?”, she asked.

I warily replied, “Yeah... I do D&D.”

The next 15 minutes was spent giving her advice on where to get books and equipment for her teenage sons (“My youngest wants a... a Master’s Screen? Do I need to Etsy that?”), how to help the younger one deal with always being the one DMing for his chaotic friends, some advanced gift ideas for the elder teen, and what skills she didn’t realize they’re sharpening by playing the game. Critical thinking, communication, empathy, math, statistics, architecture and urban planning, just heaps of stuff they’re practicing when they “do D&D”.

She took out a notepad and asked if there were any videos she could watch with him. I had a moral imperative to recommend Dimension 20’s Adventuring Academy, since Brennan Lee Mulligan and his rowdy gang of rascals are what reignited my love for a game I had been gatekept out of for many years.

My anxiety was fully short-circuited, and the procedure went fine! 🎉

A few days later was my weekly therapy appointment (via Zoom). One of the topics we touched on was how people react when you tell them you’ve lost someone — how awkward people generally are when responding to grief, and how much easier such social interactions would be with cards or signals you could flash to let people know how you felt about them broaching certain topics.

I mentioned how much it helped in things like D&D to have safety tools and consent signals in place, and my therapist asked me to explain what I was talking about.

I described how much better it felt to immerse yourself in a fantasy world among people who felt obligated to keep everyone at the table psychologically safe. How inhabiting a character requires a vulnerability that can so often be wrecked by selfish DMs or insensitive edgelords, so when you know those types of people aren’t present, you can let go of the edge of the pool and truly explore.

I was waiting for a “...but you know that’s not real life, right?”, but instead, she asked me to send her links to read up on the lines/veils/cards/check-ins/etc. because her teenage daughter plays D&D and didn’t know there could be a system in place to set boundaries and communicate discomfort.

What on earth was the point of this post... I guess to fully think aloud, Livejournal-style, and document that one of the less-terrible parts of 2020 has been greater digital accessibility to playing and watching TTRPGs. The stigma is crumbling with the growing popularity of Dimension 20, NADDPod, The Adventure Zone, Critical Role, et al., as they serve as vehicles to help us escape reality for a bit. More diverse GMs and players are claiming territory and setting examples to get more varieties of people engaged in the universe. As Discord and video calls became the norm, it opened a whole world for singular players to find groups and for groups to span continents.

It still blows my mind that TTRPGs have gone, within my lifetime, from “True Nerds Only! No Girls Allowed!” to what they are today. In my personal scrapbook of 2020, it would be 75% redacted and 25% D&D.

#personal #not linguistics #dungeons & dragons #dungeons and dragons #dnd #dimension 20 #d20 #adventure zone #the adventure zone #not another dnd podcast #naddpod #critical role #medical #medical cw #needles #needles cw #getting sentimental #ttrpgs

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thedanceronthestreets · 3 years

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PEDRO PASCAL GQ GERMANY - OCTOBER 2020

Original text by Esma Annemon Dil

Fotos by Doug Inglish

Styling by Simon Robins

Translated by @thedanceronthestreets

Intro: A broken tooth could almost have been the reason for our meeting with Pedro Pascal to be cancelled - and with that our conversation about roots, his new movie and times of change.

Interview: It is almost eery how empty the streets of Los Angeles are under the gleaming sun. While Europe is finding its "new normal", people in L. A. are cutting their own hair even without being neurotics. Many of them have not seen their friends in half a year. The pandemic is out of control. So are the reactions to the situation. Inviting someone to a "distance drink" in the backyard can lead to the same consternation as proposing a relationship partner exchange.

All the more of a surprise was Pedro Pascal's immediate confirmation. To the drink, not the partner exchange. He is one of the winners this year - and if Corona had not forced the movie industry to go on a holiday, he probably would not have had the time for this drink. After "Game of Thrones", the series in which his head was squished, followed 2015 the leading role in "Narcos" as a DEA agent on the hunt for Pablo Escobar, and now the leap onto the big Hollywood screen. As of 1. October the Chilean will appear in the blockbuster "Wonder Woman 1984". Furthermore, the second season of the "Star Wars" series "The Mandalorian" will start in October with him as the main character - unfortunately underneath the helmet. But we all seem to be under the same helmet in 2020. It is this man we want to meet, who worked as a waiter in New York a couple of years ago. Whose parents are political refugees that settled in Texas, and one day their son decided to walk into a drama club in high school.

And then the cancellation. While we were preparing the house and garden for Pedro's drink and fashion shoot, which isn't an easy task under L. A.'s restrictions, his management called in with terrible news: Pedro has - no, not Corona - had to receive emergency surgery due to a sore tooth and is now lying in bed with a swollen cheek, making talking or shooting impossible. The sun shines onto empty streets. And our empty garden.

A few days later, he stands in front of the door anyway, no huge bulge in his face, but stitches in his gum. No limousine service that dropped him off, he arrived in his own car and picked up his makeup artist on the way. He helps her to carry in all the equipment and states first and foremost: "I've got time today!" What a star! It does not seem like we are about to ask him how he managed to become a Hollywood sensation, but rather him asking us that question. Pedro Pascal! So, what kind of star is he then?

Pedro Pascal: Sorry for ruining your plans. The operation was a total emergency.

GQ: Really? We were wondering whether the swelling was the result of a secret trip to the plastic surgeon. Apparently, because of the quarantine in Hollywood, their schedules are packed.

Sorry to disappoint you. A few days before our appointment I raced to the hospital with a tooth fracture and the worst pain I've ever felt - a hospital where the severe Corona cases are treated. I was unable to contact any dentists! Right before I parked, a specialist called back. I'll spare you the details of the surgery, gruesome. The pain was excruciating despite the 10 anaesthetic shots. The doctor said I wasn't the only one going through this, a lot of people grind their teeth at night thanks to stress.

What are you most afraid of at the moment?

The way the government is handling the pandemic scares me more than the virus itself. The lack of intelligent crisis management is a moral disgrace. The leadership crisis makes orphans out of all of us - we're left to fend for ourselves.

How have you spent the last few months?

With frozen pizza in jogging trousers in Venice Beach. I live in a rear building that's in the garden belonging to a family. In reality there are enough good takeout restaurants around that area, but for some reason I like salami pizza from the supermarket.

That doesn't exactly sound like the movie star lifestyle. What does it feel like to be forced from top speed to zero?

Considering the things happening in this world, my own state really isn't the top priority. But I would have to lie, if I said I wasn't disappointed. The entire cast and crew of "Wonder Woman 1984" put so much heart and soul into the production. We had so much fun on set. I had hoped to carry this feeling of exuberance around the globe to the openings of this movie.

You are part of a political, socialist family that fled the Pinochet regime in Chile. What do you remember from back then?

My sister and I were born in Chile, but I was only nine months old when we claimed asylum in Denmark. From there, we moved to San Antonio in Texas, where my dad worked as a doctor in a hospital.

Texas isn't exactly considered to be socialist utopia. How well did you settle in?

San Antonio isn't a cowboy city but rather very diverse with large Asian, Afro-American and Latino communities. In my memory it's a romantic place, culturally inclusive. The cultural shock only hit when we moved to Orange County in California later. Suddenly, the environment was white, preppy and conservative.

How were you welcomed in California?

To this day I'm ashamed when I think about how I let my classmates call me Peter without correcting them. I'm Pedro. Even without growing up in Chile, the country and language are part of me. I was quite unhappy in that place. At least I was able to switch schools and visit one in Long Beach, where I felt more comfortable. With its theatre programme, I found my path.

Could you visit your family's homeland as a child?

Yes, after my parents ended up on a list of expats that were permitted to re-enter the country. First, there was a big family gathering, then me and my sister were parked at some relatives' place for a few months while my parents returned to Texas. They probably needed a break from us. They'd had us at a very young age, had a vibrant social life, and my mother was doing her doctorate in psychology.

Was your mother a typical young psychologist that tested her knowledge at home?

You mean whether I was her lab rat? Absolutely. I can remember weird sessions camouflaged as games, where someone would watch my reactions to different toys. Even though I couldn't have been older than 6, I knew what was happening. My favourite thing was to be asked about my dreams. That was always a great opportunity to make up fantastic stories.

Was that your first performance?

Definitely! My strong imagination alarmed my mother, because I'd rather live in my fantasy world than in real life. I didn't like school. I ended up in the "problematic kid" category. At some point the subjects got more interesting and my grades improved. So many children are unnecessarily diagnosed with learning disabilities without considering that school can be daunting. Why is it acceptable to be bored out of your mind in class, when there are more stimulating ways to convey knowledge?

With everything happening in the world this summer: Do you believe that social hierarchy structures are genuinely being reconsidered?

Hopefully. After the lockdown my first contact with people was at the Black Lives Matter protest. The atmosphere was peaceful and hopeful until the police got involved and provoked violence. At least during these times we can't avoid problems or distract ourselves from them as easily as we usually do. It seems that the pandemic provided us with a new sense of clarity: we don't want to go on like this.

The trailer of "Wonder Woman 1984" represents the optimism of the 80s. That almost makes one feel nostalgic nowadays.

That holds true. It's two hours of happiness. Patty Jenkins, the director, managed to make a movie full of positive messages. We shot in Washington, D. C., then in London and Spain - which now sounds like a different time.

Do you miss travelling?

I've only now realised what a privilege it is to just pack up your things and fly anywhere. With an American passport you can travel freely. And that's why the small radius we live in now is kind of absurd. Over the last few years I often retreated in between takes, because I was always on the road and overstimulated. Friends complained about how comfortable I had become. We all took social interactions for granted and realise now how reliant we are on human connection. Now, I wistfully think about all the party and dinner invitations I declined in the past.

In L. A., people spend more time indoors or in nature than in other metropolises. Could this city become your safe haven after New York City?

My true home is my friends. Ever since I was young I've lived the life of a nomad and haven't set roots anywhere. Until recently, my physical home was a place for arriving and leaving and hence I didn't want to overcomplicate living by owning lots of things. The opposite actually: Without having read Marie Kondo's book, I got rid of all the stuff that was unnecessary and lived a very minimalistic lifestyle.

Is there something you collect or could never say goodbye to?

Books! I still own the literature I read during my teen and university years. Recently I found a box of old theatre scripts and materials back from my uni days at NYU. I can't separate from art either, same as lamps or old pictures. Furniture and clothes are no problem though, they can be chucked.

Do you remember any roles that were defined by their costumes?

Yes, "Game of Thrones" comes to mind immediately. During that time I first understood what it means, as an actor, to be supported by a look. I owe that to costume designer Michele Clapton. She developed these very feminine robes and brocade cloaks for my role that looked very masculine when I wore them. I felt sexy in them. And very important were of course Lindy Hemming's power suits and Jan Sewell's blond hair for the tycoon villain Maxwell Lord in "Wonder Woman 1984". Relating to the style, I couldn't really see myself in the role since the shapes and colours of the 80s don't really fit my body. My type is the 70s.

Do you adopt such inspirations into your private closet?

At this point in time, I'll choose any comfortable outfit over a cool look. Sometimes I mourn the days when I defined myself with fashion. It's a bit mad when I think about how, in the 90s as a teenager, I would go to raves; a proper club kid with crazy outfits: overalls, chute trousers, soccer shirts and a top hat like in "The cat in the hat knows a lot about that!" by Dr Seuss. Later in NYC I was part of a group that placed immense value on wearing a certain style. The fact that I only walk around in joggers nowadays is actually unacceptable!

Normally, actors who work on comic screen adaptations become bodybuilders and eat ten boiled chicken breasts per day. You don't?

My body wouldn't be able to handle that. I find it difficult enough to maintain a minimum level of fitness. As of your mid 40s, you suddenly need a lot more discipline. Until the tooth incident happened, I worked out a couple of times a week with a trainer to keep the quarantine body in shape.

What would annoy you the most, if you were your own roommate?

I can be very bossy. I have to gather all my goodwill not to force my movie choice on to everyone else. When I want something, I'm not passive aggressive about it, I attack head on. Also, I can get caught up in tunnel vision: When i feel down, I can't imagine that I'm ever going to feel better again. I have difficulty with seeing the bigger picture when experiencing problems or emotions. Method acting really wouldn't be my thing. That's why I try to only work on projects that feel good and where people encourage and lift each other up.

While you were trying on the outfits you pointed out a lack of self-esteem. How does that coincide with your career?

Isn't it interesting how traits and circumstances go hand in hand? Self-esteem comes from the inside, but it's also influenced by what society believes. We use critical stares from the outside against ourselves. I lived in New York for 20 years, I studied there and worked as a waiter up until my mid 30s, because I couldn't live off acting. It was always so close. The disappointment of always just barely missing a perfect part or opportunity is exhausting. When is the right time to stop trying and what's plan b? That's not just a question actors ask themselves, but anybody who struggles to earn a livelihood - unrelated to how much potential they have or how close their dream may seem. We are beginning to see now how our narrow definition of success is destroying our communities. At the same time, it's becoming obvious that, until this day, your family background and skin colour determine your chances of living a dignified existence.

What are the positives of becoming a leading man later in life?

I have the feeling that I've got control over my life - without the pressure of having to accept projects or be a social media personality. That surely also has to do with the fact that I'm a man. Women are surely pressured to appear quirky at any age.

Life is always a management of risks - especially at this time. For what would you risk losing something?

Usually, if you don't play the game you're not going to win anything. That applies to friendship, love, work, creativity. Anything that really means something to me, is worth the risk.

Wonder woman 1984 will appear in cinemas 01.10. The 800 million dollar earning DC comic franchise is moving into the New York 80s with its sequel. It looks spectacular - only Pedro Pascal with blond hair in a three piece Wall Street suit looks better.

#pedro pascal #gq germany #Gq

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yellowocaballero · 3 years

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Your reverse robin au is such an odd take on Tim? I don't hate it though? I am... confused

YES I GET TO TALK ABOUT TIM. Warning that this is probably going to be long, because Reverse Robin!Tim is probably one of the most complicated characters I've ever written, psychologically. Because Tim is my favorite character in comics, just behind Bart Allen, and I've been in love with him since I was 9. Also I'm going to talk about how we write comic book fanfic I am SO sorry you've unleashed a kraken. I'll put a cut later because Tumblr's bugging and not letting me. Content warning for discussions of suicide, self-harm, PTSD, drug and alcohol mentions, addiction, and homicidal urges.

How do we write comic book fanfic? It's tremendously difficult. Especially for the Batfam: it's such a soap opera, if you take every single little thing as canon everybody ends up a sociopath. In comics, Bruce has PUNCHED Dick in canon. So we make up our fanon. But if we keep too closely to fanon, then you end up with fairly unrecognizable characters, which is no fun to read. And...a lot of Batfamily fanfic is just Bruce as a great dad with a hoard of adorable children. It's boring to me. So what do we do? Well, I like to keep a character recognizable while still kind of doing what I want and what I find most nuanced and realistic. You can't completely divorce from canon, but you really should just keep to the essentials of the character. This is subjective - I find it essential to Bruce that he's not really a great parent, but he's constantly trying and working on it. Not everyone feels that way - valid.

So what I consider essential to Tim is this: he's a socially awkward nerd. He always feels extraneous and neglected, because he's insecure, because he was a victim of childhood neglect. For most of his life, he really doesn't consider himself Bruce's kid. He's crazy intelligent and good with computers. He's a better detective than Bruce. He has a ton of friends who love him very much, but he shows a different face to them than to his family. He has lost basically everybody he has ever cared about at one point or another and just kinda gotten on with his life, which if you want to be realistic about it was probably hugely traumatizing and a huge sign that Tim kind of boxes himself away. That's Tim to me. Everything else is flexible. And although Tim in the Reverse Robin AU is a COMPLETE FUCKING MANIAC, he is still all of those things.

I've done it differently in other roleswap aus, but the idea behind the Reverse Robin is that everybody is half themselves, half who they were switched with. Damian is reserved and cold, but he is just as much 'oldest daughter syndrome' as Dick. Jason is intellectual and rough (which is canon!), but he is just as much of a mediator who feels like he has to single-handedly keep the family together as Tim (which is canon especially in very early Tim - check Knightfall, the stupid Gotham Earthquake thing, and his introduction). Dick is loving and hyper, but he's just as reserved and resentful and alien to America as Damian. So, Tim is all of the things I listed, so I can establish that he's basically Tim. But he is as batshit crazy as Red Hood!Jason. He's just as cruel, resentful, self-harming, desperate, alienated, attention-seeking, groomed by Talia and Ra's, and just bugfuck insane because of the Pit. He's also been low-key mentally ill his entire life due to his complete and total isolation and childhood neglect. His life ended through torture and suicide. In 'the prophetic spring', he is at Jason's lowest point in his life - and his own.

But, and this is important, Tim as Red Hood does not work. Jason became a drug lord because he came from that background. Tim's spoiled and rich. Jason had a motivation, a reason to live, a Bruce to hate and a Dick that always reached out. Tim doesn't have this. Tim is listless and purposeless - and I say several times that Tim is cosplaying this life. He's cosplaying wanting to kill his friends, being an addict, being a supervillain. Without Bruce, without that target of hate, Tim is lost. Without his dad, who loved him, Tim is lost.

It's important to understand that everything he does in 'the prophetic spring' in self-harm. He thinks of himself as a monster (because Tim was raised by Bruce and he's extremely rigidly moral, and he can't reconcile his morality with what he did while he was pit-mad), and as a result he wants everybody else in his life to think of himself as a monster. He wants to be hated as much as he hates himself, because at least that's real and validates his feelings. He thinks of himself as the lowest of the low, so he performs his image of a spoiled party boy - the kind of person he's never been, and who he always hated, because he thinks of himself as the person who ruined Tim Drake, not Tim Drake. The drugs and alcohol are self harm (and I'd say, in my essential interp, that Tim has an addictive personality). Having sex is self-harm for him specifically because he's sex-averse. Alienating everybody who ever loved him is self-harm. Practically begging Damian to put him in Arkham is self-harm. This is a 20 year old unstable kid who wants to self-harm until he dies or his family kills him, because he is suicidal. He's still clinging on because he doesn't want to do it himself, but if someone kills him no big deal, and if he overdoses he probably deserved it.

It IS confusing! As readers we are used to traumatized characters who seek catharsis, affection, and safety. We want the hurt and the comfort. But I really wanted to highlight how fucking ugly PTSD is. It can genuinely make you into a cruel and hurtful person. Tim is suicidal and he responds by becoming an addict, rejecting his family and friends so nobody can try to help him, and lashing out nonstop because he wants to punish the people who love him for loving a monster. And because he wants to punish the people he blames for his death - Bruce and Damian. The Joker. But Bruce is dead and the Joker’s dead Damian isn't giving him the attention he wants...so what does he do? He's lost. And so 'the prophetic spring' is the story of someone who is so fucking lost that he tries to destroy his own life because he can't bring himself to end it again.

Hope that cleared stuff up. I really love Tim. You probably didn't need that amount of detail but I am psychically compelled to share these things...partly because most people take Tim's incredible trauma and just make him a cute woobie..no guys make him mean. People are mean sometimes. Fiction exaggerates and magnifies - so many hurt people WANT to do the stuff Tim does, but their lives aren't a comic book soap opera so they don't. I wanted to highlight that real pain. Thanks for asking!!!

#tim drake #dcu #my writing #meta #dc #batfam #batman #robin #you know it's long when I put a read more hahaha #me as a child: comcis should address that tim's lost 4 parents and 2 best friends #me as a child: wow I am extremely traumatized by return of the joker #me as an adult: im so sick of how everybody makes tim a big eyed moe child #me as an adult: im going to make him a fucking asshole

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delvalentine · 3 years

Note

Hello! Can I have a romantic matchup for tears of themis please?

Appearance : 5'4 ace/heteromantic girl ambivert.Dark brown hair/eyes (I wear glasses but they are also sun glasses because bright lights give me a headache) a little chubby/muscled and pale skin+permanent smirk/smile/ neutral face. Plump lips. My style varies a lot (always comfy) but I never wear dresses heels/makeup. I love to imagine outfits with symbols from fandoms or my own drawings so I have a rather unique style (most of the time I wear a NASA jacket and leather boots/sneakers, I also love sleeveless turtleneck) who changes a lot. I have malleable cheeks and tiny hands/fingers/wrist.

MBTI: INTP-T and chaotic neutral/good

Zodiac: Gemini

Personality : .Sarcastic,a little naive but I have a backbone (don't bother flirting with me and if you feel that I am flirting with you which happens a lot then it's just my personality and on the rare occasion I notice they have to confess or I won't believe it) ,calculative,protective,creative,expressive,manipulative,a devil's advocate,prideful,charismatic, smartass, bookworm, daydreamer, a little insensitive/blunt because I'm more on the logical side ,vengeful, mischievous, a huge tease, open minded, very curious, gets annoyed easily, impatient (unless it's in drawing because I am a perfectionist there) so kind of a bad temper, observant but not romantically,sadistic to a point but my conscience prevents me from doing these acts. Indifferent to many things, morally ambiguous as my moral compass is on the neutral side I don't believe in absolute evil/good, y'all better thank my conscience they work too well I never have fun.

With my friends I am either laughing, goofing around or annoyed. I love to give bad puns or cursed ideas who are gore/weird and saying I know y all love me. Those who don't talk to me see me as a nerd aggressive smart and blunt person ( even prideful) and strangers as polite and kind. I notice a lot of details because I don't let my guard down even if I daydream plus I have a photographic + sound memory and they work very well in all situations which can be a bother when I try to concentrate which is difficult for me because I get distracted easily. Also I have very weird reflexes so...anyone who approaches me by surprise gets hit, any sudden movement and I already have my leg/arm going their way which got me into a lot of trouble.

Dislikes: I fight for my beliefs. I have trust issues so I never talk about my problems and will use humor when confronted. Bright lights. Cooking. Slow things or people. When I get teased in a mean way (otherwise I actually like being teased it's a fun fight after). People who change side easily and hypocrites. Overly serious people. I tend to be aggressive and expose an annoyed face easily (I am moody), plus I hate orders and love pressing buttons it's funny(in a fun way rarely in a mean one) unless it's a sensitive subject. When I feel that I am unwanted or someone insults me or take me for granted I become very cold and distance myself and the relationship becomes strained the more they take time to ask for forgiveness, something I might give but will never forget.

Likes: I love cats/laughter/sweets/pranks/dark humour/ a true crime and Supernatural enthusiast and I love science especially concerning space, chemistry, robotic and psychology. Books, sleep, drawing and video games too. Cherries. Sushi.Oh and debates I love them. Surprises too I hate routine and runs away from it. I like making character analysis which I often get right but never show to the people around me because I know they will trust me less.

Hobbits : Reading, getting lost in a book, drawing, learning, debating, daydreaming, sports (I practice karate and shooting), art (piano/drawing/writing especially poetry) and video games

I have some bad habits like biting my nails (I just got rid of it by painting them black)/lips and moving my leg up and down because I am always nervous, disorganized room/sleep and eating schedule plus I am lazy. Also I might try to hide it but I am very competitive and a sore loser

Fun fact : I dream a lot and write my dreams. I don't mind nightmares on the contrary I welcome them because I find them to be a nice experience and they give me ideas plus the amount of emotions you can feel is amazing. I also tend to curse while talking.

When I get hurt, none takes me seriously because I start laughing uncontrollably even if it hurts a lot. Which means if I get stabbed, I am not dying of blood lost, nooo I am dying of laughter.

I rarely get motivated but when I do I give a very good work and put my soul in it, if I don't reach my goal I feel down for a while and become very snappy.

I am a lazy student (hell if I don't feel like writting I don't especially exercises that I understood) but also at top of my class so none says anything (i can befriend people easily if I want to, teachers included). My projects are often done last minute or just improvisation but I get a good mark at them which means that yes sometimes I can become arrogant and I don't really know what it feels like to study really hard and fail sorry. But I know it will bite me later. I often argue my way out of a situation with anyone : I know the exercise why should I write it? If I told you the answer then I know how I got it and you know it too no need for me to write the correction. Mum the brain is a muscle too so I am in fact exercising.

When dealing with an emotional person I don't know what to do I will try to give them words to keep going, it succeed but I am rather harsh plus I try to make jokes to cheer them up.But if a friend breaks down before me I will do my best to cheer them up (ahem jokes and reminding them of all the success they achieved) and if I am comfortable and they want a hug I will give it. I hate people who denies that others helped them.

My love language is gifts, quality time, a little act of service and affection in private if comfortable. I also love to send memes saying it reminds me of us/you and holding pinkies.

I am stubborn, moody (one day I can be really cold/snappy to the person because I am in a bad mood but I apologize after). I speak Arabic, french and English (in that order) and trying to learn italian. I am also an only child.

Thank you!

vyn richter

vyn has an ambiguous moral compass that would allow the two of you to be more compatible than with the others who are more goody two-shoes type. he has an extensive understanding of the human psyche and doesn't need you to explain yourself; he just gets you.

he finds your dream log fascinating, and also respects that you don't fear nightmares. often times the two of you might get together for tea and discuss the meanings, having actual conversations instead of just "how are you" "good" and letting it die there.

vyn is an academic and would welcome debate with you. instead of getting hostile or making it seem like fighting, the debates would be properly intellectual. he would quietly try to motivate you as well, perhaps baking your favourite treat, and being cruel enough to withhold them until you get something done. in turn, he needs to you balance out his seriousness, introducing him to new standards of life he dismissed earlier.

#tot matchups #tot #tears of themis #vyn #richter #match ups

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thusatlas · 3 years

Text

Can we talk about Barty Crouch Jnr?

This tweaked bastard has been living in my head, rent free, since I read the Goblet of Fire - in 2005.

Think how much rent that is!

You see, this malevolent set of cheekbones is not only a brilliant portrayal of a true psychopath, but he’s also somewhat responsible for Voldemort’s death. And it all comes down to one, beautiful, sweet, doe-eyed glow-up baby -

Let me lay out fifteen years of thoughts here for you.

1. Is he a psychopath?

Well first let’s define psychopath. I’ve spent much time toiling over this conundrum for my Masters (not as long as Barty Crouch Jnr but enough). Hollywood has made the image of a psychopath synonymous with Hannibal or Patrick Bateman, but let me assure you - that is a very, very small percentage of what would actually be considered a psychopath. According to the DSM - V, there is no such thing diagnostically as a “psychopath”. This is for two reasons: law and philosophy. Philosophically speaking, the MindBody Problem is still at the forefront of conversations about the conscious, and so when faced with the paradox of a psychopath, the MindBody problem freaks the fuck out. Briefly, this problem is that we as neuroscientists and psychologists can map most - if not all - the ‘hardware’ of the brain. So the mechanical actions like moving your arm or drinking some tea. The hard problem - the actual problem - is we haven’t got a fucking clue what the Mind is. It’s all a bit... ineffable (that is legitimately how we academically put it, Neil Gaiman = God). Religion says that the Mind is the soul. Science says - we haven’t got a fucking clue what it is; it’s qualia, its unquantifiable experience that effects your entire worldview and make you wholey unique from everyone else on the planet.

And we can’t fucking find it on a map - hence its a problem.

Now this ineffable, unquantifiable mind, soul, conscious whatever you want to call it, is the thing that directs your moral compass. Psychopaths seem to present behaviour that does not prescribe to the moral code that we, in our relative societies have agreed upon. There is evidence to suggest that they do not feel guilt, which is a key ingredient in Moral psychology (I direct you to the research of Jonathon Haidt). Within the law, internationally, individuals with psychopathic traits are perceived as being predicated to criminal behaviour - therefore, exempt from taking any insanity defence. Now within psychology, because of the law and philosophy, and the mindbody problem - IT’S VERY FUCKING HARD TO DIAGNOSE A PSYCHOPATH BECAUSE WE CAN’T DECIDE WHAT ONE IS, because of all of the above. It’s all very... grey.

But what we can agree on, is there is a list of qualities that you would usually find in a psychopath, these are measured on the PCL-R (Hare 2003) and the PPI-R (Lilienfield and Widows 2005):

Machiavellian Egocentricity

Rebellious Nonconformity

Blame Externalisation

Carefree Nonplanfulness

Social Influence

Fearlessness

Stress Immunity

Coldheartedness

Early behavioural problems

Lack of realistic long term goals

Juvenile Delinquency

Parasitic Lifestyle

As you can see, Voldemort was a psychopath, but I digress. Barty, not so sure, and this is earmarked with the fact that we don’t know the entirety of his character. By the time he’s outed the first time, he has a seat on the Wizengamot and Crouch Snr is all shocked - like he never saw this behaviour coming. It can be inferred that a) Crouch Jnr is a excellent liar, capable of manipulation those closest to him with machiavellian behaviour; b) probably quite a well behaved young boy. So I would disregard the idea of juvenile delinquency and early behavioural problems.

And this scene stands as evidence that Crouch Jnr is capable of Rebellious Nonconformity as well as Blame Externalisation. We know that he was a politician prior and well liked, so I will again infer that he had Social Influence. I will also infer that he had a predilection for Stress Immunity given he was outed infront of the entire court room and his reaction was this:

Not screaming and running for the high hills. I’ll raise you the fact that he was undercover as Moody for an entire year, rubbing shoulders with Dumbledore, and seemed pretty chill about the whole thing given that he was acting in, what I can imagine to be, was a very stressful situation.

So as you can see, a fair argument could be made for Crouch Jnr to be diagnosed as a genuine psychopath.

And yet we come to the reason why this has bothered me for fifteen years.

2. The Character Development of Neville Longbottom

It’s a well loved narrative that Neville goes from the bumbling bucktooth first year, to the Gryffindor God slaying Nagini in the Battle of Hogwarts.

...deceased.

Anyway, years 1,2,3 Neville is still treated as the weakling: he’s forgetting books, he’s leaving Common Room passwords lying around so that they’re stolen by nefarious Kneezles who let in escaped convicts etc etc. Come forth year, we open with Neville stepping in the trick-step that everyone knows to miss and yet bumbling Neville, still doping along. At this point, you’re like, ‘na this kid is gonna die because he trips over his own shoelaces or something.’

And then that fateful Unforgiveable Curses lesson happens.

For those who need reminding, here Neville offers up the Cruciatus curse to which Professor Moody - aka Barty Crouch Jnr, tortures a spider using it as a demonstration. Neville is stricken by the whole event because of his parents. After the lesson, Hermione hurries Ron and Harry (who haven’t really realised that Neville was that effected) to find Neville who staring at a wall in a side corridor or stairwell - I can’t remember which. Neville’s shellshocked, saying he’s fine but keeps talking about dinner. He’s in full trauma.

Then Moody Crouch comes along.

3. The paradox

Moody Crouch then takes a traumatised Neville to his office, gently reassuring him, offering him tea and calling him ‘laddy’. Here, he tells Neville that Professor Sprout was singing his praises in Herbology and gifts him the book on African plants, I think it was. This book is what Harry and Ron see him avidly reading later. This is the start of his love of herbology, which then leads to him being the one to get Harry through the second challenge, which then allows Harry to go on and touch the portkey Triwizard cup. Whilst also setting Neville on the path of having confidence in himself. By book 5, Neville’s braver, he’s no longer forgetting things, and this only improves by the time we get to the Battle of Hogwarts where he becomes a literal Hero from a Greek Myth.

So, Psychopathic Machiavellian behaviour would say, he needs to get Harry on side. You do that by showing that you care. So you go over-board punishing the known bullies and enemies:

Whilst being nice to Harry’s friends (Neville with the book). He could have deliberately orchestrated the Unforgiveable curses lesson, in the attempt to traumatise Neville so that he could then be the Hero and be seen looking after him by Harry. Then you use the friend as a means to ensure that Harry is able to get through the second challenge, by setting him on the path of plants. Ergo, you complete you mission and your year long con. You got Potter to the graveyard, to the Dark Lord - you’re the best little psychopath and nobody suspected you the entire time.

BUT. He was nice. He was caring. He was tender with Neville.

And if you remember, psychopaths also have a tendency to have a Lack of realistic long term goals, and have behaviours that display Carefree Nonplanfulness and Coldheartedness. Getting Harry to the cup had to be a sure-fire thing. The plan had to be solid. It is my belief that Moody Crouch had a plan in place for every trial, but I do not believe he was the puppeteer pulling the strings. The aforementioned plan has too many if’s and but’s. Too much causality. Too much left up to circumstance. I think if Neville hadn’t done something, then Moody Crouch would have, but it was never the intention for Neville to be his tool - just a happy accident.

While he can be ascribed to portray some true psychopathic behaviours, I don’t believe that Barty Crouch Jnr was a psychopath. I think he was just rebelling in a really hard way from his Stiff, Loveless Father. Because this moment of caring, was a product of guilt. This was where Moody Crouch’s moral compass kicked in and he began to mentor Neville throughout fourth year (like a father) thus inadvertently setting Neville on a path to defeat Voldy-bollocks.

Thus the paradox: the best teacher Neville Longbottom ever had was a Death Eater.

And that just fucks me up.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

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shanta-shinso-vantablack · 3 years

Photo

SHINSO MEETS VANTABLACK

(Art drawn by Keiid, this art does not belong to me.)

SHINSO: After a long day Shinso dragged himself to the library. He decided to get in some studying before turning into the dorms. Ignoring the commotion of 1-B students on the other side of the room, slightly irritated, he scanned the psychology section, pressing a curved finger against his bottom lip in thought. Crouching down he reached and pulled out a book by its spine. The spine read The Lucifer Effect. It was a classic, the whole idea of it being the difference between good and evil. Shinso was obsessed with the concept, reading it about a hundred times. He felt that if he understood what exactly people perceived as evil, then he’d be able to avoid it. Shinso wasn’t keen on changing his behavior, he already felt restricted to what emotions he could actively express as to not scare or unnerve people, as stupid as it sounded. He stood up with his choice, briefly scaling the section once more. Maybe I could pick up a book on behaviors later. He thought curiously, Todoroki’s cold shoulder in mind, frustrated that he couldn’t read that icy stare. Shinso thumbed open the paperback book and skimmed it with his dead, amethyst eyes, gradually becoming more invested with each word, drowning out any other sound while taking in every ideal. VANTABLACK: Vantablack had just passed the history section as he subconsciously entered the psychology section, quickly coming to a stop. It’s Him, Vantablack thought, as he noticed the lavender haired boy. The first time he took notice of him had been at the sports festival during his match with the enthusiastic green-haired kid from class 1-A. His interest in Hitoshi Shinso had immediately peaked at that point. A quirk that allows one to control one's mind... How taboo. Shinso hadn’t won, nor did he advance in the final tournament, though even still, Vantablack knew that his quirk was one to be revered. Shinso was an anomaly, and Vantablack was all about the unknown. It fueled every fiber of his being. He made his way quietly towards Shinso, looking to see what book it was that he held in his hand. “Keh” he cackled softly, drawing Shinso’s attention. “‘The Lucifer Effect’, good choice,” Vantablack spoke with a slight nod and a grin that showed his white teeth beneath his charcoal black lips. “Though I think one that would be of great use for you would be ‘Obedience to Authority.’” Vantablack reached for it leaning in close to grab it from beside Shinso’s shoulder. He gave Shinso a smug smile as he held out the book. Vantablack was surprised that they were nearly the same height, Shinso had seemed so tall and foreboding from the stadium. “The name is Shihai Kuroiro,” he said with a sly smile. “Though please, call me Vantablack.” SHINSO: Shinso flickered his cold stare towards the source of a low cackle that snapped him back to reality. His lazy expression fell upon a boy who resembled the abyss himself, his blinding white teeth pulled into a confident grin. Who was this? Shinso thought to himself, quirking an eyebrow at the stranger, his expression being less than pleased to be bothered. He narrowed his cold stare at the boy. Obedience to Authority? What exactly was this guy implying? Shinso thought to himself, aggravated at the suggestion. Shinso shifted away awkwardly as the boy reached for a book on the shelf beside him, still a bit taken aback by the remark. Shinso sneered at the boy as he held out the book and introduced himself with a sly grin. His name was Vantablack? One of the 1-B students who were making a commotion, what did he want? “Actually, I’ve already read that. Not my style of book, er- ‘Vantablack’.” Shinso replied curtly, rubbing the back of his neck as he scanned Vantablack, studying his body language. Shinso couldn’t help but feel put off by him, something about that smirk was unnerving. His dark features absorbed any visible expression he may have had. “Is there something I can help you with?” Shinso asked with a stern tone, waving off the book he was offered. VANTABLACK: Vantablack wasn’t surprised by Shinso’s caution. He expected nothing less from the aspiring hero. This was the kind of person he had hoped he’d be. He tucked the book under his arm rather than putting it back. “What I found most fascinating about the book was how much power words hold over one's mind. You don’t even need a quirk to convince the masses to do unspeakable evil.” Vantablack smirked at the thought. He was staring directly into Shinso’s amethyst colored eyes, who’s attention appeared to finally be won. “And yet, people choose to be afraid of you because they are afraid that they would be convinced to do evil deeds.” He ran his tongue along the edges of his teeth before he continued. “What they fail to realize is that what they should be afraid of, is being evil by their own volition. All it takes is one powerful voice, and people are quick to abandon their morals. Manipulation is a powerful tool, but only to those who are weak minded. And people would rather not admit to their weaknesses.” Vantablack was pleased to see that Shinso was holding his breath. He continued on, "So now that we've established that a quirk is unnecessary to manipulate the minds of the weak, that leaves your quirk good for another thing..." Shinso's eyebrow lifted ever so slightly, "Manipulating the minds of the manipulators." SHINSO: Shinso blinked a few times, resting his expression from annoyed to confused. This guy was… something else. Who says this to a stranger? Besides even being a stranger, Vantablack’s demeanor changed drastically. Shinso thought he was just some random person trying to make friends, but he certainly seemed to have some kind of agenda. Whether it was a good or bad one, Shinso had yet to tell. Vantablack’s piercing, pale eyes gripped Shinso’s attention, wild with passion as he spoke. That mischievous smirk remained prominent against his void features. He was ready to completely ignore Vantablack, but he seemed to pique his interest. Shinso slightly lifted his eyebrows and straightened his confused expression to that of intrigue. Using his quirk to manipulate the manipulators? Shinso hummed in amusement as he topped off his speech. Someone has been watching too many action movies. Shinso thought to himself, loosening his lazy features amusingly, but something about his words stuck with him. “Quite the philosopher. Tell me, what exactly did you expect to achieve by sharing this with me?” Shinso asked rather bluntly, his curiosity piqued, flashing a challenging stare at Vantablack’s eager expression, almost daring him to continue. What exactly were his intentions? VANTABLACK: Vantablack gave a soft cackle that led into a sigh. For one who hated being mistrusted, he sure was hesitant to give an inch. “Just some food for thought,” he whispered in his raspy voice. He gorged himself with every feature of Shinso, he wanted to take it all in. From his dark circles around his eyes, to the way he carried himself. Vantablack made sure to memorize each and every detail. These details would become useful one day. How exactly, was yet to be determined. Vantblack relaxed his position, stretching as he did and let out a drawn out yawn. “Well you look busy, so I won’t disturb you any longer. Once you’ve had time to ponder over these words, I’m sure you’ll find me again.” Vantablack began to turn away when his eyes noticed one particular book on the shelf. A classic, he thought as he placed a black finger on the top of the spine and pulled it from its home. With it in hand, he turned back to Shinso and placed the book on top of his copy of ‘The Lucifer Effect’ without giving him much choice in the matter. “I also recommend this book, it’s an… Intriguing read. I think you’ll like it.” He gave a small wave over his shoulder as he sauntered away. Glancing to check Shinso’s expression as he read the title of the book he had handed him, ‘Live, Love, Laugh.’ SHINSO: Shinso’s cold, challenging expression remained unfazed by Vantablack’s cackle. Just some food for thought huh? Shinso’s mind began whirling as he digested the words, still unsure of the intention behind them. He scaled the void features of the boy beside him, his relaxed posture and now seemingly relaxed expression from what he could make out remained open and friendly, the way he spoke however, was a different story. This guy certainly enjoyed being coy. Shinso thought to himself, lowering his features back into a dead stare as he watched the white haired boy pluck a book from the shelf. Before he had the chance to wave Vantablack off he placed a book in Shinso’s hands, disregarding any protest he may have. Shinso looked down at the book, dumbfounded at his persistence. Live, Love, Laugh? He blinked, puzzled by the interaction, looking up once more to see the boy turn back to flash him a sly grin as he waved. “Thanks, I guess?” Shinso muttered under his breath, flipping the book over to skim the back, his eyes wide with curiosity and bewilderment from this brief exchange. Vantablack, whoever he was, definitely knew how to make an impression. “Might as well.” he decided, huffing in defeat as he took both books to an empty table, curiously opening the one he was given, hoping to find some answers to Vantablack’s vague words. [END SCENE]

#mha #bnha #roleplay #rp #fanfic #hitoshi shinso #shihai kuroiro #shinso #vantablack #fluff #my hero academia #mha class 1b #Keiid Shanta

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mandoalorian · 4 years

Text

What the Pedro boys are like at college

This is my first time doing one of these so please be nice! Yep, TUWOMT isn’t out yet but I have read the script and I have written for Javi Gutierrez here. If you don’t want spoilers, maybe don’t read his scenario. I’ve made it so Javi’s is the last one so you can skip over it easily. I write for all the main Pedro characters! These include:

· Din Djarin – The Mandalorian

· Javier Pena – Narcos

· Frankie Morales – Triple Frontier

· Maxwell Lord – Wonder Woman 1984

· Jack Daniels: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

· Oberyn Martell: Game of Thrones

· Dave York: The Equalizer 2

· Pero Tovar – The Great Wall

· Ezra Prospect – Prospect

· Marcus Pike – The Mentalist

· Max Phillips – Bloodsucking Bastards

· Dio – NYPD Blue

· Javi Gutierrez – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

· I DO NOT WRITE FOR PEDRO PASCAL.

Please please request a ‘Pedro boy’ scenario HERE. You can also request for me to write a one shot HERE.

Masterlist

Enjoy!

***

Din Djarin: Does college exist in Star Wars? I’m not sure… but if we take a moment to imagine Din being schooled by the Mandalorian Creed. He learns the history of Mandalore, about the great leaders such as Satine Kryze. He learns the importance of ‘the way’ and studies the art of weaponary, learning how to use guns, detonators, vambrace, and whistling birds. He learns about the legacy of the darksaber and, as we already know, he trains with the Rising Phoenix. I imagine Din likes to keep himself to himself and has been a loner his whole life. He places his trust in his fellow Mandalorian’s but they are not his friends. They are simply just his allies. Being schooled in the Mandalorian Creed would be physically exhausting but it’s something Din can manage. After all, he doesn’t have a choice. This is the way.

Javier Pena: We know Javi always wanted to leave Texas, and I think college was the perfect time for him to venture out. He didn’t choose a school with a pristine academic reputation, but instead, he picked a school that had the best renowned night life so he could go out and enjoy drinking and partying. Javi wasn’t a complete wild card. He was the kid who seemed to be good at almost everything. He was able to graduate top of his class with honours in Criminal Law.

Frankie Morales: When Frankie was younger, he loved helping his dad work on the family car and he even scored a part-time job at a garage when he finished high school. At high school, he never really found interest in the core subjects like English, math, science, history… and so when it was time for college, he wanted to develop on his hobby. Frankie chose to major in engineering, with a minor in transportation and logistics. This was perfect for him. In his second year, he went from looking at cars and motorcycles, to different forms of aircraft. He remembers one morning, he sat in the pilot seat of a helicopter after the fuel compressor had went bust and he had never felt more at home. On a whim, he dropped out of college and was lucky enough to get a place in piloting school. Frankie stuck by Santiago throughout college, but while Santi went out and partied, Frankie would slump down in his chair, drink a few beers, and be ready to head back to his dorm at 9pm. He had a few flings in college but had no interest in pursuing an actual relationship. It was important to him that he used his time in college to discover what he really wanted to do with his life.

Maxwell Lord: He probably went to Cornell, or Harvard. Maxwell could’ve gotten in from his family name alone, and if he wasn’t the most academically bright, no doubt his mother would’ve paid him into college, but Maxwell had always been smart. He was home schooled his whole life and so college was a big change for him. He worked hard. He showed up to every class early, and handed in homework and dissertations early, and used his charm to schmooze with the teachers, doing all he could to make sure he got the best grades. Maxwell majored in Business and Economics, and minored in Marketing. He didn’t have much choice in what he studied in college because he had his life set out for him the moment he was born. Maxwell didn’t have friends, but that’s not to say he was a loner. Everyone on campus knew who Maxwell was, and everyone knew the kind of family he came from.

Jack Daniels: Despite Jack and his high school sweetheart going their separate ways for college, they couldn’t stay away from each other for long. He was a Political Science major but never really cared much for it. He had a lot of friends, was a care free spirit and attended parties. He is someone who has natural academic ability but his failure to attend class and do homework meant that he, inevitably, began to drag behind. Realising political science isn’t for him, he dropped out of college and moved in with his high school sweetheart. He much preferred it that way, and he was able to be with her all the time. Having his company meant that she was now distracted from her studies and when she fell pregnant with their first child, they decided to run away from college all together and start a family far away.

Oberyn Martell: Is there college in Game of Thrones? I’m not sure, but a modern! Oberyn would major in classical studies and minor in philosophy. He is a prince, after all. He excels in both subjects and picks up languages such as Latin and Greek easily. It comes natural to him. He passes with flying colours and never has to try too hard because the words of Aristotle and Plato were engrained into his brain ever since he was old enough to read a book. As prince, he knows it is important to graduate with honours and that it’s his priority but that doesn’t mean he can’t make time for fun. He doesn’t commit to any relationship during college but does embrace his sexuality. He’s kind, gentle, and respectful. He’s a really great lover, but an even better friend.

Dave York: Dave studied criminology and forensic science at college. He was able to learn the ins and outs of criminal psychology and the process that cops and forensic teams go through when trying to trace a murder. His knowledge in this subject sure helped him in later life. He passed with flying colours, but never wanted a career in crime – or at least, not a career you’d need a degree in. But his newly received qualification, Dave decided to join the CIA as an operative where he met Robert McCall. He played good guy for a long time, but his bad intentions linked to criminal activity traced all the way back to college. He met his wife in college, and truthfully, she was the only thing who kept him from spiralling into criminal activity at an earlier stage.

Pero Tovar: Again, I am almost certain college didn’t exist during this time period but if we make it a modern AU, I think Pero would have majored in geography and minored in cultural studies. He had a goal to travel the world and see all the magnificent places. Pero was a grumpy adolescent, and seemingly he never really grew out of it. He had a group of people he hung out with who were similar to him but he never really considered them friends. He didn’t partake in extracurricular activities and he would just focus on studying. But he did have a flare in art which was lost on him during later life. He used painting as an emotional outlet and a means to express his feelings.

Ezra Prospect: I guess this is a modern! Ezra then. He studies geology, and he’s really smart. He does a lot of reading, but he actually prefers non-fiction over fiction. His interest in geology goes past his degree, and he actually collects a variety of rocks and gemstones, going into deep research about them and believing that certain ones possess healing powers. Ezra has a partner throughout his time in college, and they spend a lot of time with each other. Ezra’s partner encourages Ezra’s love for geology and finds his passion endearing, even encouraging him to earn an income from his knowledge! You help Ezra use the rocks that he collects to create bath salts and make jewellery to sell on and earn profit.

Marcus Pike: Marcus was an art and design major, and all his teacher’s loved him. He was never the best at the practical side, but he excelled in art history and his knowledge on the subject was outstanding. Marcus had one long term relationship during college but his partner ended up breaking his heart. It took a long time for Marcus to recover, but he’d always been one for second chances. He’d hope that he’d never get his heart broken again.

Max Phillips: Max was a bit of a player in community college; a jock, who studied his undergraduate in Physical Education. When Evan had Max kicked out for sleeping with his girlfriend, Max went and studied Sales Management at a university just for Vampires. Filled with a feeling of wrath and hatred for Evan, Max made it his mission to ruin him. No more time could be spent partying in his fraternity, playing soccer for the college team and sleeping with the cheer leader’s – Max made it his goal to graduate from Vampire University with a top major and steal the job of leading Sales Manager from Evan. And that’s on holding grudges.

Dio: Yeah, Dio didn’t go to college. He dropped out of high school when he was fourteen. In his youth, his hobbies included making fire and stealing from the rich.

Javi Gutierrez: He’s a film major of course! He was born into a rich family, we know that, and comes from a very financially privileged background. His parents knew that he did not have to pursue a degree in something that would ensure him a job, because Javi would be well off no matter what, and so they were fine with Javi doing something he was truly interested in. Javi has loved literature, art and movies his whole life. He minors in screenplay writing and excels top of his class, constantly impressing those around him with his ability to memorise anything from one liner quotes to whole scenes from movies. He shares his extensive knowledge of trivia, and all his lecturer’s firmly believe that the film industry is something that Javi could one day potentially succeed in. However, Javi is awkward. He shy’s away from all the partying and spends Friday night’s in his dorm, munching on popcorn and watching classic movies. A relationship is never in question for Javi because of his family circumstances, so he just lays low and focuses on his studies. As soon as he graduates, he heads back home to Mexico and his dreams of being a famous Hollywood screenplay writer seem so distant.

#pedro pascal #pedro pascal x reader #din djarin #frankie morales #javier pena #agent whiskey #maxwell lord #ezra prospect #javi gutierrez #pedro boys

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lilikags · 3 years

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Hello! Can I request a romantic matchup for tears of themis please? I am okay with my info being posted since for some reasons none can tag me....

MBTI: INTP-T and chaotic neutral/good

Zodiac: Gemini sun, Taurus rising, libra moon

Enneagram : My dominant is type 5 then 8. Quizzes says that I am a 5w6 or 8w7

Hobbits : Reading, getting lost in a book, drawing, learning, debating, daydreaming, sports (I practice karate and shooting), art (piano/drawing/writing especially poetry) and video games

When I get hurt, none takes me seriously because I start laughing uncontrollably even if it hurts a lot. Which means if I get stabbed, I am not dying of blood lost, nooo I am dying of laughter.

I rarely get motivated but when I do I give a very good work and put my soul in it, if I don't reach my goal I feel down for a while and become very snappy.

My love language is gifts, quality time, a little act of service and affection in private if comfortable. I also love to send memes saying it reminds me of us/you and holding pinkies.

Thank you and take care!

sorry, all the matchups for this month have been taken up. feel free to request next month though! >.<

#celestine #really sorry you typed this much into my inbox only for it to be rejected but at least you can copy and paste it for next month if you make #it

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