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annalyticall · 4 years

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Anime Newbie in her Twenties Ranks her First 10 Anime

With the recommendations of my sister @ging-ler and friends, I started watching anime just over a year ago and within that time I’ve watched a total of 10 - some clocking in at almost 200 episodes and some with only 12. I told myself a while ago that once I had finished 10 anime shows I would rank them like some Anime Newbie WatchMojo list, so, here we are. Really this is just an excuse to force more of my unwarranted opinions onto unwilling followers.

I should also preface this by saying I don’t think any of the anime I watched this year was bad, and I enjoyed a lot about every show even if I ranked some low. However, the top three anime on my list are the ones I would recommend to anyone following me even if they don’t watch anime.

10. Death Note

Despite absolutely loathing the “protagonist” since episode one, I really enjoyed the first half of Death Note! The story was intriguing with all of its wild twist and turns and I found myself immediately invested in what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, after the death of who I thought was by far the best character, the show seems to go off the rails as it introduces new characters and contrived plot devices in the second half that were frankly hard for me to care about at that point. The ending was satisfying but I forced myself to sit through a lot of painful meandering to get there.

9. Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop was the first anime I watched as suggested to me by @mcsherrybr. The smooth and jazzy art, atmosphere, animation, action, and music were all a lot of fun, as were the lovable ragtag group of misfits that made up the main cast. I enjoyed myself a lot while watching this western/sci-fi melding pot of a show, and I only ranked it so low because the last few episodes were a huge disappointment to my found-family-trope-loving heart.

8. Violet Evergarden

Violet Evergarden, following the story of a child soldier learning to love, is absolutely beautiful to look at and listen to. The music in this anime is, for me, THE best music from any show on this list. This is also the only anime that made me sob several times while watching it. The collection of short episodic stories that explore the deep facets of human love and connection are incredibly resonant and will stay with me for a long time. However, the strength of the small story arcs made the rushed overarching war story and finale weaker in comparison. Similarly, the memorable characters introduced in the one-off side plots were more interesting to me than the cast of rather bland reoccurring supporting characters. While I will remember a lot of great individual moments, I can’t seem to remember a single character’s name besides Violet’s, but that might also be due to being one of the shorter entries at only 12 episodes.

7. Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Going from one of the shortest anime on this list to the longest, Hunter x Hunter was an great and engrossing story during the entirety of its 160+ episodes. It’s colorful and playful, but can also be very dark and at times even heart-wrenching. Because it contains so many distinct arcs, there is a wide variety characters and stories to get attached to, and some, like the Chimera Ant Arc, I even cried over. But this also left me with issues regarding the pacing. The show has great action and introspective moments but will often drag with long drawn-out pauses between fights to explain simple concepts (though I understand that’s a common trope in old shonen anime in general). The world-building is rich but also caught me off guard with some strange ideas, and admittedly not all of them I liked. Some eccentric characters and concepts rubbed me the wrong way and ended up hindering my enjoyment of the show. Overall though, it was a lot of fun and I left with a few more endearing favorite characters, like Leorio and Killua.

6. Erased

Also a 12 episode anime, Erased was amazingly impactful for how short it was. Even as I followed the unfolding murder mystery, I was also touched by the meaningful themes and kind-hearted characters I met along the way. The already-strong story is accentuated with great symbolism, art, and music. The only problem I had was with the mystery itself; I was able to tell who the true killer was within the first 4 episodes, which didn’t lend itself well to suspense and I spent the remaining episodes frustrated that the main characters couldn’t see some obvious clues.This is a minor problem, though, since the finale has less to do with mystery and more about the morals and resolution of themes that I felt was satisfying.

5. Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer is gorgeous. The stunning art style, fluid animation, and breath-taking music are all valid reasons to watch it, but the main character Tanjiro and his unwavering devotion to find a cure for his sister-turned-demon Nezuko are the reasons to stay. Tanjiro is unbelievably gentle as he shows even the evil demons he has to slay a hard-fought kindness, and it’s those tender moments between all of the amazing action sequences that really elevate this show for me. The issues I have lie with the rest of the cast. While I love some supporting characters, like the pig-headed Inosuke and the stoic Giyuu, others have very niche personalities that can get annoying if they’re on screen for too long, which they definitely tend to be. Still, the bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko is so strong that it gets me through even those dragging scenes.

And it’s written by a woman!

4. My Hero Academia

Hey so this might come as a shock for anyone who’s followed me for a while: My Hero Academia is not my favorite anime! I do love it a lot - it’s the only anime on this list that has inspired me to read the manga, write fic, and buy merch. There are so many lovable characters and exciting arcs in this show that there is bound to be something for everyone to enjoy, both inside and outside of canon. It’s a wonderfully paced and animated deconstruction of the superhero genre and besides its deeper themes and commentary, there’s also just a lot of endearing teenage goofin’ to be had, and the show balances the tone of these two almost-equally engaging aspects of the story fairly well.

The downside, for me, is the show’s sexualization of female characters, especially the teenagers. With the likes of pervy fellow classmate Mineta, it’s a flaw that’s hard to avoid and takes up an unfortunate amount of screen time. There are in-universe characters that protest against this behavior, and the female characters are still well-written for the most part, but that doesn’t make up for the canon material including it at all. It’s not a huge part of the show but it’s present enough that it really knocks the ranking down for me.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Out of my top 5, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the only one that is complete. Because of that, I can tentatively say that so far, it is the best completed story on this list. From beginning to end, the pacing was perfect - the action never dragged, the characters were never unnecessary, and the plot twists were never unearned. I found myself more invested than I thought I would ever be for the large cast of characters, and everything, including its ending, was satisfying to watch. The animation is fluid and lent itself well to the most impactful scenes, especially involving the flame alchemist Roy Mustang. It’s also written by a woman! Really, the only nitpicks I have were with tonal problems - serious moments would sometimes be ruined by too much slapstick or visual gags.

As I mentioned before, my Top 3 are shows I would recommend to anyone who’s unfamiliar with anime simply because they’re good solid stories with almost no distracting anime tropes. This is a good place to start.

2. The Promised Neverland

The Promised Neverland is deceiving; on the surface it looks like a sweet show about a bunch of adorable kids playing together in the spacious green backyard of their quaint orphanage. Once you finish the first episode, however, you will quickly discover that there is definitely something more sinister lurking under the surface. This show is an expertly executed dark horror/thriller that always had me on the edge of my seat. The cute aesthetic never distracts from the suspense, in fact, it adds to the discomfort when the horrific visuals and expressions are contrasted against the character designs. I loved all of the characters, including the antagonist, who manages to be just as sympathetic as she is menacing. The sound design and music are also beautiful and adds so much to the rich atmosphere. I am definitely excited to see where this series will go!

1. Mob Psycho 100

ONE, the creator of Mob Psycho 100, said the single word he used for the concept for the series was “kindness”. Kindness shines through so much of this story following the life of Mob, a super-psychic kid that just wants to fit in, and I adore every second of it. While many shonen anime stories force the child protagonist to get stronger, become more powerful, and fight in battles against hostile adults, Mob Psycho 100 says “that’s stupid. Kids shouldn’t have to be traumatized by immature power-hungry adults. The only strength that anyone should pursue is strength of character, motivated by self-love and love for others.” And it says it with the most beautiful animation I have EVER seen in a show. The simplistic character designs mean the animators can have as much creative freedom as they like with expressions and movement, and they absolutely use that freedom. Humor is a large part of this mostly-comedy anime, but it makes the serious and introspective scenes so much more important when they do happen. The shifts between these two tones never feel awkward or imbalanced.

Mob Psycho 100 has inspired me to become more experimental and joy-seeking with my art, as well as just become a better person in my own life, which I can’t say for many other anime or many other pieces of media period. Even though a Season 3 hasn’t been officially announced yet, I can still safely say Mob Psycho 100 will forever hold a special place in my heart.

#Well I did it i ranked all the anime i've seen #now to watch naruto lol

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vendettacanons · 3 years

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Name Meme -> Buck, from Lydia || @maximuses

⚔️ Muse Opinions Meme // CLOSED ⚔️

⚔️ @maximuses ⚔️

“Ooh, I get to talk about Buck for a bit! How exciting! There’s so much I could say about him, and you know it too. Buuuut, I guess— for the sake of courtesy— I’ll try to keep to the questions and avoid rambling too much.”

“Most admirable quality: Admirable quality, huh? I say Buck has quite a few. And you know exactly what I mean by that. I’m sure the locals probably don’t agree with me— they did nickname him the Sadist after all. They just don’t appreciate his many talents in bed like I do. Buuuut I’ll spare you the nasty details and go for something a little less... acknowledged. It’s a shame too; his mind. Buck is fucking brilliant. His little history tangents? They’re adorable! He gets so into them, loves explaining every little thing, every little detail. I’ve never been much for history myself— academics in general weren’t my strong point. But I love entertaining his little rambles on everything. I ask a lot of questions because I’ll be honest, I’m dumb as a rock, but it doesn’t seem to matter. He loves answering them! I love his enthusiasm and his passion for history! He makes it fun with how animated he is! Shame about his ‘aggressive tendencies’, shall we say. He’d make a great history teacher.”

“Most attractive physical feature: There’s a lot Buck has going on in terms of being attractive physically. Of course, I’m biased— I love tattoos and facial hair like his a lot. So needless to say, I took one look at the ten-pointer on his chest and that scruffy beard and I was in love. Not to mention he’s got a bit of muscle on those bones so... but hmm. As far as most attractive goes, I would say... his eyes. Between you and me, I think I know why his folks named him Bambi. It’s those gorgeous, brilliantly blue eyes of his. When he’s focused on something they get so wide and lovable, you could just get lost in them. Not to mention on the off chance you manage to catch him off guard they go all wide and give him a full ‘deer in headlights’ kind of look.”

“Most annoying habit: Oh yeah, I knew this was coming at some point. Loving someone is like living on the Rook Islands— paradise has its ups but it most certainly has its downs as well. Sorry to say, Buck isn’t an exception. Not that I walked into this expecting him to be. Hell, I wasn’t expecting to walk into a relationship at all, much less with him, but I’m glad I did. And frankly, his flaws are tolerable compared to most others.

Buck is laid back. Like... really laid back. And that’s fine— I like a guy who can take a joke and know that life isn’t all about work, it’s meant to be lived. But like, with Buck, it’s extreme. It’s not just the typical “no worries” type of attitude. It borders on procrastination, I guess is the word. Or Sloth— God I don’t even know how to describe it but like... He’ll see things and be aware of situations. He’s alert and he’s observant but he’s just... lazy, in a sense. He won’t take anything seriously, especially if it’s meant to be serious. He just sort of rolls his eyes and waits for it to become trouble. Like he’ll know there’s something wrong and something that he should probably get involved in, but he just won’t. He’ll know there’s a problem but he will put off addressing it until it poses an immediate danger.

It’s like if you had a leak in your house, Buck would just put a bucket down and let it fill, and then overflow, and say it’s okay and do nothing until the roof is literally caving in and about to give in from the stress. Or if you had like a candle knock over and burn up a table, he wouldn’t do anything about it, just kind of sit there while the house catches on fire like ‘this is fine’, until someone gets burned. Then- Then he starts trying to put it out. I don’t know if he’s like this naturally or if living on the islands made him like this— even with his work he tends to have this like ‘it’s not my problem until it starts affecting me’ attitude. And usually it’s not an actual problem. He’s still relatively attentive if I need something or if something has to change immediately for the sake of safety, he doesn’t put off that kind of stuff... but... it’s definitely caused us a scare once before... Granted he straightened up a bit after it and promised it wouldn’t happen again but... I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen much change. It worries me.”

Something they would like to do with them: I think a better question would be what wouldn’t I like to do with him? I mean granted, I think we’ve tried just about everything under the sun and— oh wait, we’re still keeping it safe for work, aren’t we? Uhh, hmmm... well I have to admit, it’s been amazing spending these last few months with him on the Rook Islands. Sitting on the beaches sipping beers together, kissing in the sunset— among other things. Going gliding and swimming in the waters, laying in hammocks together and napping in the sun. It’s been great letting him lead me around the island and finding all sort of beautiful spots to sit and spending the days together talking about ourselves. We even tried dancing at some point but uh... well, I’d chalk it up to uneven ground sending us tumbling, but the truth is, I don’t think either of us actually knows how to dance. Hey, at least we got a good laugh out of it.

But you know— if you spend a long enough time anywhere things get... boring. You do all there is to do, see all there is to see— plus, Rook isn’t exactly ideal for me. Too many mosquitos and hostile animals to really wanna stay here long-term. For someone like Buck, it’s just another place like home. He’s comfortable here. I don’t blame him, he’s the adaptable type. Still, I think I’d like to travel with him. See the world, explore new places, maybe even settle somewhere perfect for both of us. I wanna take him with me, have him there when I write new chapters of my life. Chapters with him in them. Pfft— I don’t think I could actually convince him to actually go along with my idea but hey, a girl can dream, can’t she? I don’t have the leisure of seeing him whenever I want, so I’ll make the most of the time I do have with him now, on these short combination business trips and vacations.”

#so this is what you meant : ask #// tagged bc Lydia is just Not Safe Fer Life #/ interaction #still i find you next to me : mutual #maximuses #‘’ just looking for new ways to get off ‘’ // the nympho #‘’ your love hits me like no other ‘’ // buck and lydia #[ far cry 3 // to live in a jungle verse ]#innocence is gone : usfw #usfwish

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nvzblgrrl · 4 years

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On the subject of old fics 1

Allegedly, A Gentleman’s Tale (published 1-6-2012) was my first fanfic ever (again, allegedly - will explain after a bit). It only exists now as a private copy at least one person has saved and a capture on the WayBackMachine (which thankfully covered the whole ten chapters of it), because I have a habit of... deleting stories that embarrass me after the fact. It’s something I’m trying to break myself of, mostly because there are a number of people who do enjoy my work even if most of what I see in it are the flaws and I would feel bad about taking away something they enjoyed.

The ‘allegedly’ part comes in in that, based on my memories of my One Piece OCs and stories (along with more concrete evidence from my tumblr), I had a few OCs with snippets of story (with one who had at least a few chapters worth of story that I have memorized in broad strokes) attached that preceded that by at least one or two years, even though the description of ‘my first fic’ was in the synopsis of the fic as it was posted. Unfortunately, it’s hard to trace that information thanks to the ‘destroy all the evidence of me embarrassing myself’ habit (I completely deactivated my deviantart account on account of ‘cringe’, that’s how bad it got) and the passage of time making it unclear which mutuals might have been around at that time or if they even remember those things.

Now, I still have the computers that I typed up those stories on (they’re hanging out in my basement), but - they haven’t worked in quite a while. I’m not sure if they’re completely bricked or not, but I haven’t had anything to do with them for a while and I know that at least one of them was replaced because it refused to turn on anymore. Someday, I might get the chance to pull out their hard-drives and get a look at the data there, but that’s not a ‘now’ solution so...

Anyway - got a bit distracted there -, thanks to the power of the WayBackMachine, I was able to reread this specific fic in its entirety.

‘A Gentleman’s Tale’ was a little thing that was pretty much Brook backstory wrapped up in the framing device of Luffy wanting a story to help him get to sleep. I was 18, had maybe a year or two of creative writing experience/interest under my belt, and a whole lot of Soul King Stan energy to spend on my favorite character despite being at the tail end of my high school career.

Surprisingly, it was not entirely awful for an alleged ‘first attempt’. The formatting was a little eh, the pacing was borked, and a lot of characters were fairly flat (and a few leaned too hard on certain stereotypes while a lot had Western order names for some reason), but other than that, it was actually palatable. Ten chapters, about 8000 words, not a whole lot to write home about or find objectionable outside of the odd grammatical error and the fact that alcohol is mentioned in almost. every. single. chapter.

Seriously, I have no idea why that was a thing for me 2012-2013ish (it ended up in Witt and Witticism a little bit - more heavily on the rewrites that never took off back in the day but a little present in the original too). I was 18-19. I’d never had alcohol. I still haven’t had alcohol. I’d never really been around drinking at that age, socially or not, beyond like, enjoying brew fries and eating chicken tenders at a bar one time because my shit father wanted to have lunch there for some reason. I just guess that I woke up at the start of 2012 and thought Drink Mixing and Booze were interesting things.

The story wasn’t much to write home about, but the characters are the real area of interest here, so let’s cover them and a few of my plans for handling them in the rewrite.

Brook - Starts out his backstory being seasick, gets to have five decent minutes when he meets Yorki, and then is immediately shoved into the wall-to-wall shitshow that’s his life as the battle convoy captain and resident responsible adult, despite 70% of the convoy being at least ten to fifteen years older than him. Somehow that makes his interest in getting black out drunk almost every single night sound reasonable. Seriously, that’s what he was doing in that story, according to what happened almost every other chapter of the fic (because pacing is for writers on their third or fourth story). That’s one reason why the timeline is being stretched out in the rewrite plans - so we don’t kill the main character through alcohol poisoning (though with the kind of stress he was under in that original cut, I can’t blame him for trying - he got saddled with three weird + constantly fighting teenagers and a dying military organization, snubbed by the king, publicly embarrassed in front of 90% of the kingdom’s nobility, and so on in the course of two to three days max). Honestly, in retrospect, I’m not sure how well this plays with the framing device of Brook relating his backstory 62 years later, because he should have lost so many brain cells to this nonsense.

Yorki - Starts his introduction by saying ‘hey, my name’s Yorki, i’m close, bi, and willing to take you on a whirlwind adventure literally two seconds after meeting you’ which Brook immediately responds to as the best thing that’s happened to him in the last (and probably next) month. Probably the only person in Brook’s life as of the fic not stressing him out or enabling his self-destructive coping habits, though that doesn’t stop him from being one of the better things Brook woke up to after one of his blackout drinking nights. Also got an incredibly shitty nickname thanks to me not knowing how that sort of thing works from his mom. In the rewrite, he’s from Ohio (because I and my Middle-Ground lingering Self-Insert are from Michigan and the opportunity for a struggle between ‘hey we’ve both being isekai’d into this weird place and have similar backgrounds/music tastes so we’re going to hang together based on that’ and ‘200 year old inter-state hatred turned into over the top sports rivalry and disliking the other state on principle’ was too good to pass up).

Luchere Gregg (Gregg being her surname) - junior member of the battle convoy. Incredibly thorny and violent personality, with very little respect for authority (outside of her father, probably) and a generally superior attitude towards literally everyone except her father, especially when she perceived someone as being weak and ‘uppity’ at the same time - Maysure was the main target of this (as was intended at the time of the writing), but considering that Luchere was taking a similar tone with Brook (which was probably intended to be for different reasons, but honestly reads very similarly almost ten years on, given that Brook’s everything is very much not in line with her ideal anything) but not Hana (who was ‘weak’ but definitely not trying to mess with Luchere’s preferred social order), I think I can get more development out of her in that dimension. Her everything was probably was cool and badass back when I was 18, but now she just strikes me as petulant and unpleasant brat.

Minalee Hana - Generic smart guy of the junior team, complete with ‘shy’ personality and ‘harmless cute’ look... which, in retrospect, makes it really confusing why she’d join a military force in the first place and just raises suspicions on the fact that she did. Honestly she could be a Government plant and I wouldn’t be surprised. Another ‘problem’ with Hana is that she was based on someone I was friends with at the time I wrote the fic, which kinda ended up helping me dislike her a lot on more recent rereads, just because of the nature of that real world ‘friendship’ and the way it blew up in the end (with a whole lot of ugly reveals along the way that went back to pretty much when I first met that person).

Maysure Semenov Tara Su-all Evony Taebory Celeste - was originally a parody of the Mary Sue archetype, as you may have guessed from the name. Flashy, overeager, desperate for acknowledgement, and not quite managing to act in ways appropriate to her age (15, directly stated in text), either being too cutesy with her speech pattern and body language or dressing in ways that would be suited for a very different profession than soldier. I ended up liking her the most out of the junior trio out on my most recent rereads, just because she’s the only member of the group that’s actually making an effort at anything (well, beyond Luchere being hostile + trying to make Brook leave), doesn’t go out of her way to be hostile or destructive, and isn’t vaguely there in a way that makes me suspicious. Apparently was the only one of the junior trio ever stated to have weapons training (with Luchere being an unarmed fighter and Hana... just being there) and was apparently dedicated enough to it to have the schedule for the different training drills memorized.

Captain Gregg - the former captain of the battle convoy. He was never seen, only ever referenced in the fic. Based on the content, he was pretty much Luchere 1.0 - crass, unpleasant, violent, and without a lot of tolerance for those that couldn’t deal with or keep up with the unfortunate matter of his everything. The notes on rewrite so far have him becoming a lot more pleasant and lot less generally awful person, though still a bit of a roughneck and unpleasant to be around if you aren’t cut from the same cloth or a similar weave. Was not inspired by Captain Clegg until I started imbibing pop culture in preparation for the various parts of the project.

Jeevenine - quartermaster of the battle convoy, bartender, and carrier of heavy butler vibes, which feels like it might have been intentional. Said to be a master of ‘improvisation combat’ but honestly seems to be the person most likely to have taught Brook his style of fencing (based on his speed and precision being noted as something Brook had difficulty keeping up with in text) and his gentlemanly ways, considering every other character I wrote into the convoy is some flavor of hot mess and either a bruiser or a gunman. Still loses points for enabling Brook’s blackout drinking habits and being passive-aggressive instead of properly helpful.

Jack Rackum and John Delacroix - sniper-spotter pair, as indicated by their nicknames of ‘Windward’ and ‘Leeward’ respectively. Highly implied to be in a long-standing romantic relationship with each other or at least in a long-term holding pattern of pining. Delacroix’s tendency to sleep in the nude is used as half of a ‘my eyes’ joke that Brook is the victim of (the other half is Maysure’s chosen nightclothes being both stereotypical of a ‘Mary Sue’ and vastly age inappropriate, which is a running gag with her). Rackum gets the most description out of the set, with his brown leather hat and green-grey hair being mentioned, along with his taste for fruity cocktails (he might also be an alcoholic, which isn’t really all that remarkable in this fic).

Kurotora Ren - Big Guy McHugeBeef. Also the guy responsible for keeping the battle convoy awash in homebrew booze. Almost kills Brook by accident during his introduction by clapping him on the back at the exact wrong moment. Doesn’t have a lot more detail than that, mostly because he slides into the background after that brief focus moment, but I like him for being genuinely sorry about the near-death thing on top of being friendly for real and not being duplicitous about his wants + thoughts.

Zest - noble. Stupid. Probably the closest thing that Brook has to a friend in his actual age range at the start of the story, which is really fucking sad considering Zest’s everything and the fact that Brook doesn’t enjoy his company at all. Somehow when I was 18, the idea of a guy who spent most of his time in some state of wasted and trying to get his ‘friend’ (who doesn’t even like him that much but seems to tolerate him more than literally everyone else Zest ever interacted with who wasn’t being paid) into a similar condition because of unrequited love or something was tragi-cute-slash-funny instead of pathetic and faintly disturbing (though I guess I might end up writing him as tragic again anyway just because it probably takes Some Shit to make a person like that). Spent 90% of his screen time in the old story making Brook’s life inconvenient and the remaining 10% fully aware that his own life is going nowhere. His personality is oddly similar to Maysure’s, which is... interesting, implications-wise. Holy Shit, is this guy going to be a trip to work with as an adult.

#the big fat one piece fic project #talking about old fic #a gentleman's tale #my writing #if you have any questions about this or other fic i've done feel free to fire away

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blueyesandleatherjacket · 5 years

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The summertime of our lives, 6/6

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 6/6.

Pairings: Ninetoo x Rose.

A/N: Written for @doctorroseprompts summer bingo. Five summer-themed words: Animal, Boat, Breeze, Magic, Wave (BINGO!). Tagging @thebookster on her demand.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” - William Shakespeare.

CHAPTER 6:

The fair was crammed with people. The summer was beautiful and hot and people preferred staying outdoors than going back home where they wouldn’t sleep because of the persistent heat. The Doctor wasn’t complaining. He liked the heat, the summer. After surviving a cold and harsh winter, he definitely preferred summer. But that summer, the first one he was sharing with Rose, was as special as fantastic. He wanted more of them. He wasn’t ready for winter to come back again with its colds and winds and rains. So he was enjoying this warm night out with Rose. They had shared an ice-cream, bought the banana shorts – he had even accepted to wear them tonight – and had had dinner in a nice little restaurant. Since then, they had been wandering around in town. He had been quite uncomfortable surprisingly. With Rose’s hand in his, nothing could go wrong. Just like the old times. Their steps eventually led them to the fair and Rose and acted like a five-year old child around the attractions. As a former Time Lord, this was all trivial pursuits. He had had no time for that when the universe kept calling out for help. Today, he was living a human life and his time was limited. He had to enjoy every minute of every day. He went on the merry-go-round with Rose, rode the ghost train – none of them were scared and they had a good laugh – jumped on trampolines, drove small karts – Rose mentioned something called Mario Kart but he didn’t get the reference. They spent lots of money in many attractions – the bumper cars were fun, especially when he was playing against an expert like Rose, and stopped for giant candy flosses. It was a break in their night of fun. The candies tasted different. He had never eaten something like this before and didn’t know if he liked it or not. It was sour and fizzy. Weird. And the faces he was making were amusing Rose. They were casually zigzagging between people when Rose’s eyes fell upon something that really caught her attention. Since her mouth was full of sugar, she just bounced up and down, a hand holding her candy floss, the other pointing at what she had seen. Her eyes were sparkling with joy and excitement. He followed the direction of her finger and sighed. Of course. Typical. Cliché. This was the attraction all the girls and women loved and every boy and man had to prove themselves on it. Rose was pointing at a giant unicorn plushie which was the biggest prize of their shooting attraction. Grab a gun, shoot the heart of the target and you were the winner. But the game was rigged and it was impossible to win. Here, the targets were replaced by old stuffed toys that weren’t up for sales because of flaws or wears. Small ones so they were harder to shoot. He could see where this was leading him. “It doesn’t fit in the car.” “I don’t mind.” “Do you known unicorns are fake animals created by humans?” “In our original universe, they are fake.” “And not in this one?” “I’ve seen one in my many attempts to get back to you.” “You kidding?” “Nope. The only proof is in Torchwood.” “You brought…” “I would never condemn anyone to that.” She finished her candy floss and tossed the stick in a bin. The Doctor imitated her and joined her in a couple steps toward the shooting attraction. She had such an aversion of Torchwood that she surely knew more about their activities than she was telling him. It wasn’t only because they had tested her. There was something else and she wouldn’t say a word about it. He wasn’t cleared to hear that information. When he would be the Doctor with his TARDIS again, he would dismantle the whole organisation brick by brick. “Win the unicorn for me?” Her aversion was gone. She was back at smiling and pleading him for that huge animal plushie. He could boast about him not doing domestics, about him being a strong male, she would always do all she wanted of him. So if she was watching him like this with begging eyes and batting eyelashes, he would give in without a second thought but with an annoyed sigh. And just with that, she knew she had won. She grabbed his hand and ran toward the attraction. They had to wait until the group of males before them was done with pretending they were any good to finally access the game. Rose dropped money on the counter. “One round for mister Big Ears.” “Oi!” protested the Doctor and Rose at the same time. “Pick your gun, shoot the toys. If you have them all, you win the giant unicorn.” The Doctor looked all the guns on the counter. There were different sizes and models. He picked a Sig Sauer. A Smith & Wesson would have been better, lighter, but it would do. He was given five little fluorescent green marbles. He slipped them in the charger and unlocked the security. He aimed. “Don’t shake like this, mate. This isn’t a real gun.” The man had no idea of what this gun reminded him of. Rose did. She realised she had done a mistake. Putting a gun in the hands of a war survivor, in the hands of someone deeply traumatised by the horrors caused by weapons. She put her hand over his. “Doctor,” she began softly. “You don’t have to do this. I’m sorry.” No. He didn’t want to give up. He wasn’t about to kill anyone. Not ever. He was the man who never carried a gun. His children of Time, as Davros called them, were his weapons. It wasn’t any better. In the end, there always were victims around him. He lowered the Sig. He had to clear his mind. “Sir, it’s just a game. If you don’t wanna do it, I give the money back.” To prove he was a man of his words, the stallholder pulled the money they had given him out of his cash case and pushed it back toward Rose. She was about to take it back when he clenched his teeth, aimed the gun and pulled the trigger five times. Only then did he put the weapon down. “You’d be a very bad killer,” commented a Scottish accent. Alec Hardy had joined them. He was on duty tonight, watching over the town in his grey suit with a messy tie. He was patrolling around when he had seen them. Seeing Maxence Spitz with a gun had caught his attention. He wasn’t an expert but he wasn’t a beginner either. He could hold a weapon but he wasn’t a good shooter. He had missed all the targets. “Would you be better?” the Doctor defied him in return. “I’m not armed, but I’m trained to fire so it wouldn’t be fair.” The detective was showing no hostility to him. He wasn’t entering the game. Had Rose talked to him? Or had he seen that he wouldn’t stand another chance? He simply asked how they were and dropped the news: a suspect had been arrested but he wouldn’t talk for now. This brought memories to the Doctor’s mind. Him, on the deck of a boat, a man above his body. He was sat against the railing, a cigarette in hand, and was meticulously burning the bruise skin of his torso; A laugh was echoing. It was disgusting, revolting. “Doctor?” He snapped back to reality. Rose and Hardy had taken him aside, away from the attraction, from people. Rose had her hands on his shoulders but her voice wasn’t getting to his ears. There seemed to have cotton in there but he could hear the music loud and clear. It was deafening; He cleared his throat. He had had an off moment but he was back. “Sorry, got lost in my thoughts. Happens often.” “No,” refuted Rose. “There was more to those thoughts. You had a memory.” Of course. He should know better than to lie to her. She would always decipher his mind. It was easier now that he was human. His brain was simpler, working like hers instead of working like one of those quantum computers they used in their advanced technology. It was rather frustrating sometimes. “’s nothing. I was on that boat, cigarette in hand and…” he swallowed, mimed the gesture of pressing a ciggy on his chest. “And someone was laughing. Nothing else. No face, no name.” Alec was writing down in his small notebook, Rose was stroking his hand with her thumb. Anger was boiling in her veins but she was unshaken. Except for him, no one could read her feelings. She was tough. Torchwood had changed her. Both in good and bad ways. “Anything else you’d remember?” The Doctor as about to snarl but the detective was just trying to help him. He was doing his job. The Doctor focused, gathered the little memories he had of that failed party. The deck and the laugh came back naturally. He was back on that boat. It wasn’t the yacht Rose and him were sharing. It was smaller. They were several like him, enslaved, compelled to do terrible things but he was alone when he was found. What had happened to the others? He concentrated on the laughing guy. He must have seen something. Anything that could help. The face as always blurred. He couldn’t see the features but there was… “On his arm. The right. He had a tattoo.” He was pointing at his own arm. Up the forearm, right before the elbow joint. A medium dark tattoo. It was representing some sort of logo. Something he had already seen. He drew it approximately on Hardy’s notebook and, from the corner of his eyes, he saw Rose’s face turning pale. She recognised the symbol. “That’s Torchwood. They have a special unit. All the members have this tattoo.” “What’s that unit up to?” “They’re like the SWAT or else, except they’re operating on paranormal stuff.” “There’s nothing paranormal.” “You’d be surprised,” replied the Doctor and Rose. Alec Hardy was too rational to believe in something extra-terrestrial or paranormal. That was better this way. The less he knew, the safer he was. That’s certainly why Rose had kept him in the dark on some aspects of her life. But like everyone in this world, he knew about Torchwood. At least about their activities on the face of it. Pharmaceutical researches and alien experiments. They were playing their cards close to their chest. “If he’s really from that special unit, you won’t get anything from him. He’ll be out before tomorrow morning. They’re untouchable.” That was highly displeasing for the detective. He put his notebook a pen back in the inside pocket of his jacket. He would do his own researches on that case. Rose had to leave them alone for a moment. Leaving the Doctor with Alec wasn’t the best of ideas because of their stupid rivalry but he was the only one she trusted to protect him just the time for her to call someone and settle a score. When she came back to them, the Doctor was hugging the giant uniform plushie with a gleeful grin on his face. Next to him was a moody Alec Hardy. They had spent the time she was gone to win the biggest prize. This was unusual for Alec. She grinned and hugged the soft toy and the two men, thanking Hardy for his work and help, thanking the Doctor for this unicorn for her. Their night of fun was over. The Doctor still needed rest and it was getting late. And Hardy still had work to do.

The window was slightly open and a fresh breeze was stroking their bodies. The night was hot and the Doctor couldn’t find sleep. Neither could Rose. So they were just lying there in bed, talking to each other. It was only light talks, funny words and projects for the near future. It was nice to think of the future. Of a future with Rose. He couldn’t imagine the rest of his life without her. “What about the tattoos?” He had noticed that she had the same and he had insisted on getting back the ribbon he had when he was found on that boat. He was keeping it with the sonic screwdriver. Precious objects. Her tattoos were as fresh and delicate as his. They couldn’t touch it yet. They had to heal first. They were getting itchy. “Oh. Yeah.” It seemed to sadden her that he didn’t remember this part but it wasn’t his fault. None of this was his fault. None of what had happened was his fault. He was the victim here even if this word would never be used in front of him. Calling him a victim would lead to a fight. It would hurt his ego, hurt his feelings. That’s not what she wanted. She wanted him to believe in himself again, to find a real self-confidence he was lacking of. So the word was forbidden. “One of the guests told us he was a specialist in particular weddings ceremonies like hand fastening. Your face lit up like Tony’s on Christmas morning. You said that it was what you wanted for us instead of a formal boring ceremony in white and, to be honest, the way you described the ceremony… I really wanted it. I wanted us to be married forever. And we did it. It was magical.” He could see the tears brimming in her eyes. They were tears of happiness because it had been such a beautiful moment. She found his hand and held it as while she told him the whole ceremony the vows they pronounced, the ribbon fastened around their hands and wrists. The memories were coming back to him – or was it his imagination – accompanied by the soft sound of her voice. Magical indeed. Maybe they had taken this decision too fast but he wouldn’t go back. He was Rose’s husband now and forever. And to seal the magic of the moment, they made sure to never forget that they were bonded by this ribbon, they had found an exceptionally open late tattoo parlour and asked for a matching tattoo. They had been lucky with the result. “What do you think Torchwood was doing here?” “Looking for something. The drug was only working on people not entirely human.” “You were affected too.” “Bad Wolf.” “But they weren’t after us. Or they wouldn’t have left us behind.” “Pete knows my opinion on the subject. If he lays a finger on you, Torchwood goes boom.” “That won’t stop them.” “I know.” “What do we do?” “Make no waves. Lie low. Then, we leave forever.” The Doctor couldn’t help but smile like crazy. Make no waves. As if it was possible for him not to make waves. He wasn’t running into troubles. They were finding him everywhere he was. Even when he was enjoying holidays with his now wife. And despite the inconveniences, it had been the summertime of their lives. One he would cherish for the rest of his short life…

THE END

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#doctor who #doctorroseprompts #ninth doctor #rose tyler #doctor x rose #dw fic #prompt fulfilment #the summertime of our lives

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR THE MARGINAL, WHO RETAIN THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING AN INSIDER, AND IN SOME KINDS OF WORK—THAT HACKING WAS COLD, PRECISE, AND METHODICAL, AND THAT HE DID ALL THE ACTUAL DESIGN OF THE APPLE I AND APPLE II IN HIS APARTMENT OR HIS CUBE AT HP

But gradually I realized it wasn't luck. We need a language that lets us scribble and smudge and smear, not a pen. For a long time I felt bad about this, just as in principle you could avoid it, just as writers and painters and architects do. But this mistake is less excusable than most. Boy, was I wrong. In hacking, like painting, work comes in cycles. So did Apple. But I've talked to a lot of servers and a lot of ideas come from the margin is simply that there's so much of it.1 I behave in a way that would make me eligible for prescription drugs if I approached everyday life the same way.

Over and over we see the same pattern. Maybe I'm excessively attached to conciseness.2 Chardin decided to skip all that and paint ordinary things as he saw them. But Cybercash was so bad and most stores' order volumes were so low that it was very remiss of me to have forgotten all that stuff within three weeks of the final exam.3 If I could get people to remember just one quote about programming, it would be a 900-page pastiche of existing popular novels—roughly Gone with the Wind plus Roots.4 In hacking, this can literally mean saving up bugs. It turns out there is, and the visual arts is the resistance of the medium. It's never so pure as it was when they were young.5 It wouldn't be the first time investors learned that lesson from founders.6 That phrase draws in most threads I've mentioned here.

Shakespeare appeared just as professional theater was being born, and pushed the medium so far that every playwright since has had to live in his shadow. The other problem with startups is that there are today. If I had only looked over at the other makers. But there are plenty of dumb people who are bad at empathy too.7 I had an uncomfortable feeling in the back of my mind that I ought to know more theory, and that means that investor starts to lose deals. So, if hacking works like painting and writing, is it as cool?8 Outsiders are not merely free but compelled to make things that are cheap and lightweight.9 When they're raising money, for example, what would happen if the government decided to commission someone to write an official Great American Novel. A better way to describe the situation would be to shirk it, but you'll have it all to yourself. Relentless. In particular, new things.10 This is already clear in cases like GPSes, music players, and cameras.

So it was literally IPO or bust. Imagine, for example. Most writers write to persuade, I'd start to shy away unconsciously from ideas I knew would be hard to sell. So that, I think. Inappropriate is the null criticism. It was like watching a car you're chasing turn down a street that you know has no outlet. Facebook did. So hackers start original, and get good, and get good, and get good, and get original. But in retrospect you're probably better off studying something moderately interesting with someone who isn't. There's nothing more than a slight stirring of discomfort. That's why oil paintings look so different from watercolors.

But I think the goal of an essay should be to discover surprising things.11 Some hackers are quite smart, but they can't have looked good on paper. You might as well open it. Particularly to young companies that are otherwise benevolent. Someone who doesn't know what these things are, either. Similarly, you shouldn't be discouraged by the comparatively corrupt test of college admissions, because it's a game you can't lose.12 And when you do it consciously you'll do it even better. How common is it for founders to keep control after an A round? If you're not sure what to do, and engineers figure out how to connect some company's legacy database to their Web server.13 Com of their name.

Considering how basic a red circle is, it seemed surprising to me when we started YC. There's a huge weight of tradition advising us to play it safe. The way I worked, it seemed surprising to me that any employer would be reluctant to let hackers work on open-source hacking is all about.14 But so do people who inherit money, and another for love. Give hackers an inch and they'll take you a mile. How long will it take to catch up with where you'd have been if you were extracting every penny?15 Not merely hardware, but software too. But this wasn't what made them eminent—it was more a flaw their eminence had allowed them to sink into. In hacking, like painting, work comes in cycles. This is what open-source projects. Add up all the evidence of VCs' behavior, and the key to the mystery is the old adage a word to the wise is sufficient.

The fact that you can change font sizes easily means the iPad effectively replaces reading glasses. Just wait till you've agreed on a price and think you have a US startup called X and you don't have to act like VCs. Programmers were seen as technicians who translated the visions if that is the word of product managers into code. When people walk by the portrait of Ginevra de Benci, their attention is often immediately arrested by it, even before they look at the work of a painter in chronological order, you'll find that each painting builds on things that could steal that prestige. That version 4. The puffed-up companies that went public during the Bubble didn't do it just because they were pulled into it by unscrupulous investment bankers. They ask whatever it is they're asking in such a roundabout way that the hosts often have to rephrase the question for them. Whereas hackers, from the start, are doing original work; it's just very bad. Since the custom is to write to persuade the actual reader, someone who doesn't will seem arrogant. If hackers identified with other makers, like writers and painters and architects do. I like debugging: it's the standard image.16 In return for the unique privilege of sharing his office with no other humans, he had to share it with 6 shrieking tower servers.

Notes

This is actually from the most, it's probably good grazing. One of the Daddy Model and reality is the last step in this evolution. I have a better education. So in effect why can't you be more like a body cavity search by someone who doesn't understand what you're doing.

Many of these companies substitute progress for revenue growth.

Yes, I didn't realize it yet or not, don't even want to approach a specific firm, the more effort you expend on the matter. I think it's confusion or lack of results achieved by alchemy and saying its value was as much what other people thought it was considered the most visible index of that generation had been raised religious and then just enjoy yourself for the same weight as any successful startup?

There are circumstances where this is not even be an inverse correlation between launch magnitude and success. It's hard for us, they have to say exactly what they're doing. Maybe that isn't the problem, we should make the fund by succeeding spectacularly.

That way most reach the stage where they're sufficiently convincing well before Demo Day. The continuing popularity of religion is the place for people interested in each type of thing. Though they were getting results.

We currently advise startups mostly to ignore what your GPA was. People and The CRM114 Discriminator.

A preliminary result, that all metaphysics between Aristotle and 1783 had been climbing in through the buzz that surrounds wisdom in ancient philosophy may be whether what you learn via users anyway. The University of Vermont, 1991. A round about the origins of the biggest discoveries in any field.

One VC who read this to realize that in fact they don't, but some do. You can relent a little too narrow than to confuse everyone with a base of evangelical Christians. On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 1983. I called to check and in fact they don't have to.

When I was there when it was the ads they show first.

This is a case in point: lots of type II startups neither require nor produce startup culture.

In practice the first wave of hostile takeovers in the narrow technical sense of things economists usually think about, just as if it were. If they're dealing with YC companies that grow slowly tend not to say they care above all about big markets, why is New York. 0001. In a limited way, I should degenerate from words to their returns.

That's a valid point. Everyone's taught about it. 5 more I didn't.

The reason only 287 have valuations is that they've already decided what they're selling and how unbelievably annoying it is to let yourself feel it mid-game. So it's a collection itself. When I was surprised to find a kid and as a definition of property is driven by bookmarking, not an associate cold-emailing a startup. It would be to say yet how much you get nothing.

The main one was nothing special. For similar reasons, the users' need has to be a hot deal, I mean forum in the sense of the 1929 crash. And to a partner, not because Delicious users are not one of the 70s, moving to Monaco would only give you 11% more income, which a few months later Google paid 1.

The golden age of economic equality in the sample might be able to respond with extreme countermeasures. These points don't apply to types of studies, studies of returns from startup investing, which would cause HTTP and HTML to continue to maltreat people who start these supposedly smart investors may not be formally definable, but trained on corpora of stupid and non-stupid comments instead.

One of the biggest divergences between the initial plan and what the valuation of the founders chose? But becoming a police state. There is not that the most successful companies have been a good nerd, just that it is more efficient.

Thanks to Geoff Ralston, Trevor Blackwell, Neil Rimer, and Robert Morris for the lulz.

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