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shekorla · 4 years

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Linked Universe Zeldas

So last December I decided to draw my idea for the Zeldas on a whim. Found the WIP recently and decided to finish it.

Also, I typed up all my headcanons for them because I have a lot. They are below the cut.

And I put down nickname ideas, because I'm bad at naming things, and I think the LU discord has already decided on a set of nicknames that they like. Personally, I really dislike most of those though.

❖Corresponding Link: Four

o Age: Teen, just older than Four. Not a major difference, just enough that she can tease him about it.

o Status: Officially still holds the title of princess, acts more like a queen. Her father is extremely protective of her, but after Vaati he conceded that he couldn’t protect her forever. Since then she has been learning to fight, forge (not good at it), and taking over more and more responsibilities from her aging father

o Nickname ideas: Light, Picori, Force

o Fighting style: Mostly fights with a sword and shield. Has extremely strong innate light magic. (light force, although weaker now) Doesn’t necessarily know how to focus it yet (magic bomb, some healing). If you are going to be on the battlefield stop running around like that.

o Current relationship to Link: Best friends, practically siblings. When they were kids there was definitely some major crushing going on. Then everything with Vaati happened and things got… complicated. Neither she nor Link really knows what type of romance they want for the future. They still play lots of pranks on people. She helps keep him stable on the days when his colors get a little too wild.

o Random stuff: Hyperactive and cheery. Always something new to see or learn and she wants to do it. hates sitting still, she is always moving somehow (got turned to stone). Top is hers; Link made the sword (gift), rest is extras from four’s parts (stolen). Hair is naturally extremely curly, lets it down for formal things, tied up for adventuring. Helped four get back to functioning as Link after being four people. Will attack him to get him to take care of himself. Is taller than both four and wind.

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❖ Corresponding Link: Hyrule

o Age: At least a hundred. Was 18 when she was cursed to sleep, no one is exactly sure how long she was asleep.

o Status: Was a princess before falling asleep, offered the crown once woken up. Really over being royal. Link helped her get a job and lodging on a farm at the edge of Hyrule. Really likes that.

o Nickname ideas: Legacy, Farmgirl, First, Ancestor.

o Fighting style: Healer. Lots of bandages to patch everyone up. Doesn’t like to fight, but will stab a man if the need arises. The world is cruel, be kind. Has weak magic, a little bit of healing, and lots of prophetic. Knows the best places to hide on a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They are good friends. He checks up on her from time to time, and she makes sure that he always has a place to rest and relax in safety. Their world is a little bit of a mess, everyone needs a support system.

o Random stuff: Has insomnia. Afraid of not waking up. Extremely wise, or maybe just world-weary. On tense but good terms with current queen Zelda of Hyrule. Forgives her brother, has come to terms with her fate. Taciturn and calm, probably depressed. Extremely sensitive to dark magic. (like an old burn wound) Dislikes people who use it to forcefully get their way. Doesn’t outright hate the principle of it, but will actively shy away from the presence of it.

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❖ Corresponding Link: Time

o Age: Adult, mentally/physically the same age.

o Status: Queen of Hyrule. She is married and has a daughter.

o Nickname ideas: Destiny, Sheik, Queen, Lyre/Harp (what is that thing?), Sage.

o Fighting style: Fights mostly with magic. Uses the harp to play songs (ironically fights like HW sheik) has basic sheikah skills. Has only been training to fight for a short time, is still fairly physically weak. One of the most proficient magic users all round. Can take down the basic mooks, but won't last long against a bigger enemy. Knows how to fight alone.

o Current relationship to Link: Strained. Not OOT sheik. Is MM Zelda. Only knows link as the boy who showed up to save the day, then left. Has had occasional interactions, she visits the ranch, he works with the guard. Only in the past year or two, she has had dream glimpses of the alternate timeline. She knows that she and link killed Ganon side by side, that she helped link disguised as sheik. Does not know about the seven years or most of the trauma. Basically, seen like five cutscenes and nothing else.

o Random stuff: Prophetic dreams. Knew she would be leaving on a quest. Kingdom is well set up to work in her absence. Loves her family, is an idiot who doesn’t know the importance of checking in via letters for anything other than politics. Snobbish, proud, put too much stock in titles. Best manager, not a great leader (doesn’t have the personal skills for it). Sees the world as extremely black and white.

❖ Corresponding Link: Twilight

o Age: Young adult.

o Status: Newly coronated queen, has been running the show for a few years now, it's just barely official

o Nickname ideas: Dusk, Dawn, Shadow

o Fighting style: Uses mainly rapier to fight. Also, a great archer. Because of temporarily sharing a soul with Midna, has access to powerful twilight magic. Not as strong as Midna, still strong. Has goddess magic (channel through weapons). Tries to hide twili powers mostly since it's “dark magic”, but only technically. She knows it's not true dark magic and really just wants to avoid a lecture (does not get along well with time’s Zelda). Knows her way around the edge of a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They barely know each other. Only really interacted through saving the world things. Then they went separate ways. She considers Midna a sister and wants to slap both Midna and Link for not realizing they like each other. Once she knows Link better, she will probably tease him a lot.

o Random stuff: Unlike most of the other Zeldas, sees the world as being mostly shades of grey, rather than stark black and white. Somber and stoic. Secretly a massive gremlin. Has a few habits picked up from Midna's soul along with the magic. Is awkward around ‘normal’ people. Has spent almost her entire life in political settings. One of the best politicians. Rather open about her feelings, it's just small and easily missed. Feels guilty for the troubles that befell both Hyrule and the twilight realm. Hates having to stand back unable to help. Screw rules she is going to help.

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❖ Corresponding Link: Wild

o Age: 118-120ish(?) I don’t know how long it has been since the events of BOTW.

o Status: Technically queen, currently is focused on rebuilding Hyrule. Has no intention to take up the throne any time soon.

o Nickname ideas: Scholar, Architect, Champion, Urbosa, Scientist, Little Bird.

o Fighting style: Not a great fighter but she is learning. Decent with a sword. Gets a crossbow from twilight and then makes her own out of sheikah tech. (currently has no magic and good riddance). Learning to navigate a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They are good friends, but it's awkward. Neither of them are totally sure how to act around the other. Basically, either gremlin adventures, or awkward small talk. Past the first road trip, only interact a few times a month. She is caught between trying to mourn her knight and accepting her new hero. Cooking shenanigans.

o Random stuff: Loves learning new things. Can and will study and find the effects of every plant. Knows poisons, antidotes, elixirs, potions, and everything else. Still trying to come to terms with everything that happened. Frequent nightmares. Claustrophobic/minor insomnia. Knows all the languages. Loves studying sheikah tech, and finally gets the chance to as much as she wants. Hates the castle. So many things change culturally over 100 years and she has no idea what to do. Awkward, but sincere.

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❖ Corresponding Link: Wind

o Age: Teen

o Status: Technically the queen. Hyrule currently consists of a single town on the mainland, and lots of plans. Queenish. Anjean is teaching her how to politics.

o Nickname ideas: Name is tetra that’s it.

o Fighting style: Uses a pirate saber as well as the phantom sword. (IDK if spirit tracks is part of Wind’s story, but I was not passing up the opportunity to give tetra a massive sword). Decent archer, and can channel light magic into weapons…. most of the time…... It’s a work in progress. Also has general goddess magic. Big explosion of light. Knows her way around a battlefield

o Current relationship to Link: Serve on a crew together. Best friends and partners in crime. There is a lot that needs to be done to start a country, they will do it together. It’s not going quickly. They keep getting distracted. Why do paperwork when you can steal things.

o Random stuff: Smol. Link hit puberty and got a growth spurt. She did not. Not a politician, this child should not be in charge, whose idea was it to let a pirate child run a country. Great leader. All the social skills. Shoot first… that’s it. Sassy. Trying her best to be a good princess and live up to her lineage. It's hard. There is no book. Feels like she is letting everyone down. Hates big birds. Occasional nightmares. Really hates being cold. (turned to stone)

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❖ Corresponding Link: Legend

o Age: Older teen

o Status: Queen. Has ruled for a while. Amazing support system. They regularly keep things running when she gets kidnapped. Good relations with all surrounding countries.

o Nickname ideas: Maiden, Sage, Hilda.

o Fighting style: Doesn’t. Pacifist. She can attack with light magic, chooses not to. Healing magic, team buffs, defense. Just because she doesn’t fight doesn’t mean she will let her team die. Strongest support magic. Does not know her way around a battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: Good work friends. They get along well enough. No massive personal relations. She asks him for help with killing monsters, he asks her for help with laws. It works for them. Occasionally they will get lunch together and catch up. (aka make sure he didn’t get himself killed.) Can use telepathy to contact Link at any time. Keeps it to emergencies only. Because he finds it massively annoying, and a little creepy.

o Random stuff: Massive romantic. Currently single. Misses being able to gossip with Hilda. Kind and compassionate. Does not stand for injustice. Will forgive until the end of time. Just because she is kind does not mean she is weak. Strong-willed. Good politician. Loved by her people, even if Ganon has attacked like five times. Ganon is the only person on the list of people she would happily shank. So much paperwork. Give the girl a break. Keeps craft supplies on her for long imprisonments. Scrying magic, and a little bit prophetic.

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❖ Corresponding Link: Warriors

o Age: Adult. Older than warriors, younger than time or his Zelda.

o Status: Queen of Hyrule, and commander of its army. Her Hyrule has been in turmoil for a while even before the war with Cia.

o Nickname ideas: General, Commander, Tactician.

o Fighting style: Best fighter. Can use all the weapons. Summon a bow or rapier of pure light magic. Strongest understanding of how the goddess magic works with weapons. Mostly fights as Zelda (basically her gameplay style), still uses her sheik disguise sometimes (ironically fights similar to smash bros sheik because of extensive sheikah training.) Lives on the battlefield.

o Current relationship to Link: They work seamlessly together in battle and are friends outside of it. They haven't actually known each other very long so it's awkward sometimes. She still has to occasionally remind him that she doesn’t need a title. If they were two kids in a village then they would probably date. But they are not, and things are complicated. Duty to the kingdom comes first.

o Random stuff: Best makeup. Amazing, if ruthless, politician. Best historian. Blunt. No time for crap. One of the best leaders doesn’t have the pure charisma to outdo warriors though. Resting B Face. 90% of soldiers are scared of her. Comes across as harsh, rude, cold. Really, she is just a bit awkward and hides behind a mask. Can’t do people, can do basically anything else. Minor prophetic magic.

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❖ Corresponding Link: Sky

o Age: Old teen/young adult. Older than Sky.

o Status: Technically the queen, but Hyrule hasn’t been founded yet. Officially goddess Hylia reincarnated. She doesn’t go around flaunting the title, but sometimes the memories of Hylia she gained will overwhelm her. Full goddess mode. Doesn’t stand for dark magic.

o Nickname ideas: Hylia, Sun, Swallow.

o Fighting style: trained at the academy and knows how to fight with a sword. Not a good fighter. massive bursts of power usually win her fights. Sometimes she can channel a little bit of her power, but usually, she just gets overwhelmed by all of it. General goddess magic, cannot channel through weapons. Thinks she does, but in fact, does not know her way around a battlefield

o Current relationship to Link: Do I need to explain? These two are head over heels. Sappy love birds all the way. Childhood friends. Everyone is surprised they're not engaged yet.

o Random stuff: More adventure-ready style to reflect working on founding Hyrule. Fierce and determined. Kind. But she will get her way. Struggles to balance her mortality and newfound divinity. Feels bad that Sky had to fight for her. Loves her bird. Beautiful singing voice. She is trying her best but is in fact very bad at being an adventurer. Good at sewing. Loads of people skills, working on leadership skills. Best with children. 6th sense type prophetic magic. (aka see a shot before it is taken, but not a coming calamity.)

That's it. Congrats on making it to the end. You get a cookie. 🍪

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #legend of zelda #princess zelda #zelda #loz #LoZ Fanart #long post #headcanons #my art #shekorla #sorry discord #yall are great #dont like almost all of the nicknames

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brokenbuttonsmusic · 3 years

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Laura Cantrell: Nashville-born, New York-based, Acclaimed Country Singer-Songwriter & DJ (& Kitty Wells Fanatic)

This post is a near- transcript of the Broken Buttons: Buried Treasure Music podcast (episode 2, side B). Here you’ll find the narration from the segment featuring the pioneering rock band Fanny, along with links, videos, photos and references for the episode.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Anchor or Mixcloud.

Music blog Stereogum used to have a running feature called “Quit Your Day Job” where they interviewed indie musicians about their current or former jobs. There was one with Marty and Drew from the band Blitzen Trapper. The two discussed being torn about walking away from teaching as their third album, Wild Mountain Nation, was starting to blow up. There was another where the lead singer of War on Drugs detailed some of the disgusting things he had to clean up while working as an apartment property manager. Mostly dead rats and clogged toilet stuff, but he did walk into an apartment that had been converted into a porno set. I remembered this discontinued “musician day job” feature while reading up on my next featured artist and it got me thinking.

How many professional musicians do you think have a full time day job? How many juggle multiple side gigs and still manage to tour and put out records regularly? How many have really successful careers all while trying to make it as a musician?

I don’t actually know. I did some research and there aren’t any reliable stats that I could find. There is a lot of anecdotal discussion on the topic. The consensus seems to be that most musicians are not getting by with music as their only, or even their primary source of income. I don’t think anyone is surprised by that.

One Reddit user said less than 5% of musicians derive all or most of their income from music. He didn’t offer a source or anything, but he seemed very authoritative in his post. And then after a few more Google searches I lost interest and listened to more Laura Cantrell.

Laura Cantrell’s story is what got me pondering how indie musicians go about juggling making art with the necessity of, you know, making a living to survive. In 2003, after two critically acclaimed albums, including a tour opening for Elvis Costello all across the United States and Europe, Cantrell was at a similar crossroads. Laura had risen to the position of Vice President of Equity Research at Bank of America in New York. Yes, you heard me right. Laura Cantrell was working as a corporate executive and touring with Elvis Costello at the same time. She actively worked on the road during the day and then performed for thousands of people each night.

Before we get further into what led up to this point and what came after, let’s hear a song from Laura Cantrell’s debut album, Not the Tremblin’ Kind. Here’s the title track.

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That was Not the Tremblin’ Kind from Laura Cantrell’s first album back in the year 2000.

Laura grew up in Nashville. She played a little bit of piano and sang in the church choir, but did not get into performing music and playing out until her college years. As a teenager she worked at the Country Music Hall of Fame as a tour guide. This job, in addition to the influence of the diverse musical tastes of her parents, sparked an interest in traditional music, particularly classic country. She also became somewhat of an aficionado in this area.

This love and knowledge of the early days of country music would help differentiate Laura as she honed her sound and selected her songs while developing as a performer down the road. Before that, however, it would make her an excellent college radio DJ and later an even more excellent DJ at WFMU, one of the best and longest running free-form radio stations in the country. Out of the New Jersey/New York area, WFMU is awesome to this day, with a wide array of programming where DJs still get to play whatever they want.

Laura is my favorite kind of DJ, and the kind that has been dwindling in numbers since the rise of music downloads, which then gave way to streaming and endless algorithms. First off, she’s knows her stuff. She carefully curates each shows, and thoughtfully sequences each set within every episode. She packs in history, context and story to create something that transcends your typical weekend-afternoon-background-radio-soundtrack. I know this show is about under appreciated bands and artists, but Laura Cantrell’s contributions to radio deserve to be heard by more people. You can find her past WFMU shows, called The Radio Thrift Shop, archived on the WFMU website. You can hear her present day on her “States of Country” radio show on the Gimmie Country radio app, or on her SiriusXM George Harrison themed show “Dark House Radio,” on The Beatles station.

This concludes the part of the show where I babble my enthusiastic endorsement of Laura Cantrell’s past and present radio career.

Laura began playing music with others in college at Columbia University. Her jam pals included Andrew Webster, future member of Tsunami Bomb and Mac McCaughan, who would go on to form Superchunk and Portastatic + found Merge Records. The friends would call their band Bricks. A lo-fi, mostly apartment recording projects that played sporadic gigs over the years.

Here’s the Brick’s song, The Girl with the Carrot Skin.

Living in New York, Laura began playing guitar and writing her own songs. She also plucked some choice classic country finds and incorporated them into her own performance catalog. One day she met a guy named John who asked her to sing on a song that would appear on his band’s next major label release for Elektra.

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That’s The Guitar from They Might Be Giant’s 1992 album, Apollo 18. John Flansburgh asked Laura to sing on that recording. It was the first time Laura recorded in a professional studio. John Flansburgh became a fan of Laura’s music and released her first recorded material as part of his Hello CD of the Month Club, an EP called The Hello Recordings in 1996.

Let’s hear another Laura Cantrell song. This time one that she wrote with Amy Allison. From Laura Cantrell’s 2014 album, No Way There From Here, this is All the Girls are Complicated.

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That was Laura Cantrell with All the Girls Are Complicated from her last full length release, No Way There From Here. Actually, that was her last full album of new material, but Laura did release an album a few years back of her BBC recordings on John Peel’s radio show. That album is called At the BBC: On Air Performances and Recordings 2000-2005.

I mentioned earlier that Peel was a big fan. Again, here’s John Peel’s full quote about Laura’s first album, Not the Tremblin’ Kind: "[It is] my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life.” Having the endorsement of the legendary English disc jockey was enough to give Cantrell wider exposer throughout the UK. She developed a loyal fanbase through regular appearances on Peel’s show, as well as US and European tours, including the opening slot for Elvis Costello. Which brings us back to Laura’s fork in the road. Before her third album, Laura decided to walk away from the corporate gig. She was excited to focus on music full time, but a little worried about walking away from the security of a successful career she liked and position she was good at.

From a spotlight CNN Business did on Cantrell in 2004:

“For several months until she finally quit, Cantrell balanced her day job with a growing schedule of rehearsals, gigs, recordings and publicity. On the day she appeared on the Conan O'Brien show she was at her desk until lunchtime.”

“And while life as a professional musician is a dream come true, Cantrell still looks back with fondness on more than a decade on Wall Street.”

“‘I came into Wall Street with a very typical kind of stereotype that it was all going to be people just obsessed with money. What I found was that there were just loads of interesting people who were a lot like myself, just doing it as a job and who had lives that were full of other things.’

‘So I miss some of the contact with people I met. Ironically it was a very supportive environment for me as an artist.’”

Laura’s first two albums were released on the the indie label Diesel Only, which was founded by her husband, Jeremey Tepper. Her third album was released by Matador Records, also an indie label, but with an impressive roster that included Liz Phair, Modest Mouse, Pavement and Sleater-Kinney. Released in 2005, Humming By the Flowered Vine continues Cantrell’s classic country sound, but with some evolved production and arrangements. Laura’s mastery as a song selector gets more and more impressive. This album includes a cover of a rare, unreleased Lucinda Williams song form 1975 called, “Letters.”

In fact, Lucinda Williams herself was thoroughly impressed with Laura’s cover of “Letters.” She attributes the cover to bolstering her confidence to go back through her earlier material and look for her own buried treasures.

From Blurt Magazine:

“The inspiration for her journey through the past struck when she heard Laura Cantrell’s version of her song ‘Letters,’ which Williams wrote around 1975 and recorded on a demo but never officially released. Explains Williams, ‘She got a copy from a mutual friend and did a beautiful, really sweet version of it that made me think wow, she brought this early song back to life, maybe I should go back and review some of my old stuff. I’ve got all these tapes of old little songs, but I never thought they were good enough to do anything with.’”

You know you’re an ace at finding under appreciated gems when you surprise Lucinda Williams by helping her discover one of her own songs. Let’s hear Laura Cantrell’s version of Letters.

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That was Laura Cantrell with Letters from her 2005 release Humming by the Flowered Vine.

In 2008, Laura returned with an EP called, Trains and Boats and Planes with 9 songs about… trains, and boats and planes. It’s very good and it includes a fun cover of New Order’s Love Vigilantes.

Throughout this time, Laura continued her radio show. She also started a family and became co-owner and co-operator of Diesel Only Records.

In this clip from an interview with Face Culture, you can really hear Laura’s passion for country music and its roots. She talks about the importance of country’s influence on rock n’ roll, and how each artist is inspired by something great that came before.

And Laura continuously pays tribute to the greats that came before through her radio show and on her own records. In 2011, Laura released a tribute to Kitty Wells called “Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs of the Queen of Country Music.” The collection includes nine Kitty Wells covers and one original, the title track, Kitty Wells Dresses.

From the Washington Post:

Here’s Laura talking about the inspiration for the album.

“Kitty wore very typical stage clothes for women who performed at barn dances and in early country music shows,” says Cantrell, a Nashville-born, New York-based country singer and host of an old-time music show on the legendary radio station WFMU.

“They were these frilly gingham dresses, non-threatening and cutesy. It became this uniform that all the women of the era wore, and I always thought it was a great metaphor for how you can underestimate the strength of the person or the value of the artist underneath.”

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That was the song Kitty Wells Dresses from Laura Cantrell’s tribute album of the same name, released in 2011. Wells was the oldest living member of the Country Music Hall of Fame upon its release. She was also the first woman inducted into the hall. Cantrell met and talked to Kitty about her album. She said that Kitty asked which songs were selected and as Laura began calling them out, Kitty would sing each one.

I’ve mentioned all of Laura’s past and present DJ efforts, all of which I’ll link to on my website, brokenbuttons.com. Laura also continues to release music. She had planned a host of special activities for the 20th anniversary of Not the Tremblin’ Kind, which had to be put on hold due to all things 2020.

You can contribute to Laura’s IndigGoGo campaign to help fund her new digital singles collection that she’s already started releasing. The plan is to release six singles with an A and a B side, all working with different musicians and producers. I’d recommend the $50 Kitty Wells Dresses Pack, which gets you access to the digital singles as their released, a signed CD copy of both the singles collection and the Kitty Wells Dresses album, as well as a copy of Laura's essay on Kitty and Patsy Cline from the book "Rock and Roll Cage Match: Music's Greatest Rivalries"

Laura Cantrell is the rare performer whose work is deeply rooted in its original source material while still feeling fresh and exciting. Laura’s radio shows can be described the same way. A buried treasure unearthing buried treasure and taking the old and classic and making it new and lasting and so much sweeter. Laura Cantrell.

References and other stuff to check out:

Laura’s Indiegogo campaign for her digital singles series

The Radio Thrift Shop - Laura’s prior radio show. You can stream past episodes and check out her playlists

Gimmie Country, where Laura hosts her current show States of Country. New episodes air 3:00 Monday EST. Laura chats during the show with listeners in the app.

Darkhorse Radio on Sirius XM. Laura’s other show dedicated to George Harrison. New episodes air Thursday at 3:00.

John Peel wiki entry about Laura

TMBG wiki entry about Laura

A Wall Street journal feature on Laura

An NPR feature on Laura

A CNN Business Week feature on Laura

Stereogum archive of the Quit Your Day Job feature

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zoffra · 4 years

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Yesterday I received a message from someone asking me to give my opinion about what happened during Kuruta's massacre with phantom troupe and I think I deleted it by mistake, so I answer here!

Hi, dear anon! This is the first time I've received a tumblr request, so I'll try to answer as my best. I'll not extrapolate on what happened in the camp - I'll probably one day do it in scenario form - but here, I'll focus on what we know for sure.

So after having 'succedeed' the 3 tests - language, general culture and self-control - Kurapika's authorized to set off discover the outside world. 6 weeks after his departure, medias around the world announce Kuruta's clan massacre. The 128 clan's members were found by a female traveler lost in the woods - presumably by Sheila.

Sheila is a traveler meet by Kurapika and Pairo 1 year before these events. They find her in the forest, injured, and she asks them for water. They don't speak the same language, so Kurapika will borrow a dictionary so that they can communicate. They find her a shelter in a cave, regularly bring her water and food, and treat her. They've many conversations about the outside world, and this meeting will play a determining role on the Kurapika's will - which was already eager for curiosity - to want to discover the other world and pass hunter's exam. When she left, she simply left a note - that they're now able to read - and a book whose main character is a hunter. Kurapika and Pairo will hide this book but village's Dean will find it and take it them back.

The massacre's details reported by medias are follows: Family members were forced to look at each other whereas they were stabbed, they were still alive when they were deheaded. Children's bodies were found with merciless injuries. Kuruta's eyes becoming scarlet under an intense emotion's blow like anger, it's supposed the culprits tortured children so that their parent's eyes become an even brighter red. Next to massacred bodies - in the 'phantom rouge' film it's planted on the Dean's body - a note was left: 'We reject no one. So take nothing from us.' This note is the inhabitans's Meteor city signature, where the troop is from.

This message is first mentioned in chapter 102 from manga. One day, in another country, a vagrant from Meteor city was unjustly accused of murder and sentenced. Three years later, the real murderer was arrested and some time later, the 31 people who contributed to the false vagabon accusations were killed by residents of Meteor city. They had placed bombs on their chest and detonated themselves with their victim. The message 'We accept anything. So don't take anything back' was found next to a body part of one of the martyrs. The mafia man searching for the troupe says 'they've deeper ties than a family'. This is how far inhabitants moral's sense goes.

Regarding Kuruta clan massacre, we don't know how Kurapika managed to conclude that it was Phantom troupe.

What we are sure of is that they at least participated in the massacre. This was confirmed by Uvogin during his fight against Kurapika, and also during the Shizuku's prediction, when scarlet eyes are mentioned, Pakunoda and Feitan remember them.

Question that can be asked is if they were the only participants. We don't know why the troop would specifically leave this message during the massacre. At the York Shin auction they left no message for example. Maybe a Kurta clan member did something wrong to the Meteor City people. Perhaps Kurta clan has been unjustly accused of this bad thing so that someone can get their hands on the scarlet eyes. We only can speculate.

I come back to Sheila whom I mentioned a little earlier. We know Kuruta are very careful because in the past, their clan was victim of many discriminations, 'cause their eyes were worth gold in black market, but also 'cause people were afraid of them and took them for demons. We learn from Kurapika's mother that they hasn't been attacked since 100 years. Sudden Sheila appearance is suspicious. As is Kurapika's statement about her: 'She kept falling and injuring herself again right when she was getting better'. This is definitely not a normal behavior for a recovering person.

Perhaps she was in conflict with the troop at that time and that she sought to hide. Perhaps the troop punished Kurta clan for hiding her, and took their red eyes by the way. But that would not explain their brutal actions.

We also wonders too if she wouldn't have stolen the book from Meteor City and the troop went to recover it. This would give meaning to the written message, if they thought Sheila was a Kuruta member , since they would have found the book in the village.

Voila, anon! It was long I apologize, but it was a subject that I wanted to deal with in depth so it took a little time. I don't know if this is what you really hoped for, if is not, don't hesitate to resend a message!

#hxh #phantom troupe #genei ryodan

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Catholic church abuse: Women from French order speak out (CNN) — Lucie was just 16 when she became involved with a Catholic religious community after attending a holiday camp in Switzerland. At the time, she told CNN, she was “very, very, very alone” and looking for friends and affection. What she found at first was “really like a family,” she said. But two years later – by which time she was preparing to become an “oblate,” a lay person affiliated with a religious order – she says a pattern of sexual abuse by a charismatic priest who she considered her spiritual father began. It took 15 years for Lucie – a pseudonym used at her request to protect her family – to realize that what she says she experienced over several months in the 1990s was abuse. At the time, just 18 years old, she felt “disgusted” by the physical intimacy she says the priest forced on her but also wracked by guilt and powerless to stop him. “It was like automatic you know. He wanted to go to the end – to ejaculation – and I was just like an object for him and I had a feeling he did this a lot of times,” she said. Her story is not unique. Source Provided Lucie, pictured in 1994, says she was abused by a priest with the St. John community in Switzerland. CNN has spoken to several other women who say they are victims of the devastating sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse they suffered within the Community of St. John. For Liene Moreau, who says she was abused by a priest in France for 15 years, starting when she was a novice, or trainee nun, in her 20s, the breach of trust and of faith were the hardest part to deal with. “The psychological abuse was worse than the sexual abuse; it’s my inner life, he took my dignity, my femininity, all that I was. And still today it is very hard to have confidence in myself,” she said. The order to which the women belonged, the Contemplative Sisters of St. John, was founded at St. Jodard in the Loire region of France, in the early 1980s – one of three orders set up by Father Marie-Dominique Philippe. Laurence Poujade, a former nun who now heads a victims’ organization, says Philippe’s doctrine – and his crimes – are at the heart of the order’s problems today. “He believed that because he was involved in mysticism, everything was possible,” she told CNN. “But no, everything was not possible. Courtesy Laurence Poujade An undated image of former nun Laurence Poujade, who now helps abuse victims. “I think very often about the victims who will never be able to be heard,” she said. “We are talking about victims who don’t speak out, but what about those who went straight to psychiatric hospitals, what about those who mutilated themselves? I know of one case, her parents called me to tell she had cut out her own tongue. What can you say? What can have happened for a victim to do that?” In 2013, seven years after his death, the Brothers of St. John revealed that Philippe “had committed acts contrary to chastity with several adult women whom he accompanied at the time.” Nuns were among the victims of this abuse, the order later confirmed. For years, there were also rumors about other priests and other victims within the order. Herwig Reidlinger The late Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, founder of the Community of St. John, is seen in a file image. But the lid was fully lifted on the scandal earlier this month, when Pope Francis for the first time acknowledged the sexual abuse of nuns and other women by priests and bishops as a “problem” for the church. In one breakaway part of the Community of St. John, “corruption” had reached the point of “sexual slavery,” he told reporters, leading his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to dissolve it in 2013. The Vatican subsequently sought to soften that characterization, saying that when Francis “spoke of ‘sexual slavery,’ he meant ‘manipulation,’ a form of abuse of power which is reflected also in sexual abuse.” But the genie was out of the bottle. And it’s clear the Catholic Church – already grappling with a global scandal over the sexual abuse of children by clergy – has questions to answer. Shortly after the Pope’s comments, the Community of St. John issued a statement recognizing that, beyond the allegations against its founder, “some sisters or former sisters have also testified that brothers and priests of the community were also responsible for abuse. Many of these brothers and priests have already been sanctioned and others are in the process of being sanctioned.” CNN contacted the Vatican for a response to this story; its spokesman would not comment on any specific allegations but did confirm that cases involving clerics belonging to the Congregation of St. John were being investigated by the Vatican. For Lucie, Francis’ words were a watershed moment. They brought huge relief – and a sense of justification after years spent struggling to be heard. “When I first read the article, it was incredible, it was like a bomb,” she told CNN, in her first interview about her experience with a branch of the St. John community in Switzerland. “I thought, like, okay, everything we tried to tell the Vatican, the Pope, the bishop, there is something happening… because sexual abuse, nobody ever say before.” Lucie told CNN her alleged abuser had misused his position of authority and the order’s central tenet of “loving friendship” to justify what he was doing. On the first occasion Lucie says the priest tried to kiss her on the mouth, she pushed him away. But she says he was not deterred. “I didn’t feel I had any power in front of him, I couldn’t say really something. When I was trying, he always had arguments to tell me that I’m wrong and he’s right. How can I not believe him?” she told CNN. “He was taking off his clothes and I saw everything – it was the first time of my life, and I was really disgusted. But I realize that on the moment I didn’t feel anything. Because I was not there anymore, it was a protection, to not feel.” Saskya Vandoorne/CNN Lucie keeps a prayer corner in the home she shares with her husband and children. Lucie has struggled to grasp why she didn’t realize what was happening at the time but now believes it was down to that disassociation and what she calls brainwashing. “It was absolutely 100% impossible for me to see him like a predator,” she said. In response to the allegations made by Lucie, a spokesman for the St. John community told CNN there had been “several accusations of sexual abuse” made towards this particular priest and that he had left the community 10 years ago. “It is now the Vatican’s responsibility to look into these complaints and a legal proceeding is ongoing,” the spokesman said. “All the measures at our disposal have been taken to remove him from the community.” The problem is not isolated to one rogue community. In recent months, CNN and several other news organizations have highlighted the abuse of nuns by male clergy elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Asia, South America and Africa. Bishops from around the world have been summoned by the Pope to an unprecedented summit this week in Rome to discuss the crisis over clerical sexual abuse. But the four-day meeting will likely focus on the shocking array of claims of abuse of children. All the women who spoke to CNN said their first struggle was simply to recognize the abuse for what it was. Only after many years did they seek justice, first within the church and then through the courts. Lucie, who is now married with five children, tried to take her alleged abuser to civil court, but a Swiss public prosecutor ruled that the statute of limitations had expired. A lawyer for the priest declined to comment to CNN on the allegations made by Lucie. Lucie, who eventually moved to Belgium and still attends church regularly in the small village where she lives, says that before attempting legal action, she had tried unsuccessfully to raise the issue with the St. John community. “After I don’t know, maybe two years, I was conscious that the community was not doing anything, I was talking about (it) with other victims, realizing that they know, that it’s been 15 years that they know, that there’s other victims. So they don’t want to do anything,” she said. Moreau, now 41 and married with three daughters, tried to take her alleged abuser to court in France, but the statute of limitations meant the case was dropped by the Tours prosecutor. Saskya Vandoorne/CNN Liene Moreau, from Lithuania, says the abuse began while she was a trainee nun with the St. John community in France. She sought a meeting in 2017 with the priest in question, to confront him, but was advised against it by the order. A brother from the St. John community sent an email in November 2017, seen by CNN, in which he acknowledged “the gravity of the abuse” Moreau suffered but said she must see a psychotherapist for her own sake before seeking contact with that priest. In letters shown by Moreau to CNN, dating from her time with the order, the priest suggests “discretion… in the future we will have to meet elsewhere … I pray that we can find clever ways of meeting.” He ends by saying that his “crazy love” for her comes from Jesus. Moreau, who is Lithuanian and at first spoke limited French, now thinks the priest may have targeted her in part because of that. “I was far from my family, in a foreign country, this is already something, and that might also be why he chose me, an easy prey in the end,” she said. The priest also made her believe that the fault was hers, as a “temptress,” she said, despite the fact she says she tried to distance herself from him. The priest in question is being investigated by the Vatican and has been removed from some of his duties, a St. John community spokesman said. In a February 7 statement, the leaders of the three orders within the Community of St. John said they condemned “every situation of sexual abuse and abuse of power” and reaffirmed “their clear resolve to eradicate any and all abusive situations.” They said the order dissolved by Benedict in 2013 – and referenced by Francis – was a small, Spain-based splinter group which separated from the St. John community in 2012 after church authorities tried to bring in reforms following Philippe’s death. The dissolution of the order has brought little closure for Moreau, who is still coming to terms with what she says happened to her. “It lasted for 15 years, and it’s now been two years since I was able to put the word ‘abuse’ on this, and still today it’s very complicated to admit that I might be a victim,” she said. “If only just for myself, I don’t want to be a victim. And yeah, I feel responsible because he made me responsible, he made me complicit in his acts.” CNN’s Melissa Bell and Saskya Vandoorne reported from St. Jodard, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. Barbara Wojazer contributed to this report. Source link Orbem News #abuse #Catholic #church #French #Order #speak #Women

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wallpapernifty · 4 years

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The History Of Blue Corsage | Blue Corsage

Posted: Jun 18, 2020 / 09:25 AM CDT / Updated: Jun 18, 2020 / 12:02 PM CDT

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crsinclair · 7 years

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Dragon Age Inquisition!Voltron AU

@bluelioncub and I have been screaming at each other because of this Dragon Age Inquisition AU. We've got a hodge-pod plan to do some one-shots on all this, as well as maybe a few for Dragon Age Origins. Here's a bit of a teaser for what's to come (hopefully you're not all waiting too long) in the form of character headcanons!

Shiro:

The one who stepped out of the fade. The rumor going around after he got out was that Andraste kissed his head, turning his bangs white, and took his hand to guide him out, which gave him the Mark.

Trevelyan backstory: Was training to be a Templar, and spent a few years traveling around Thedas as a personal training mission. Spent some time in the Southern part of Nevarra helping his cousin Sven defend the ports from Pirates and bandits, thus earning him a bit of fame.

Legitimately wants to do good in the world. Josephine is so happy, he basically does all the work for her.

His one true wish in life is to have a Mabari pupper.

At the start of his part in the Inquisition, he believed that the Circles were a good thing and that they served a very definite purpose. Not to say that he believed that the Templars were doing things the right way in the Circles, but more that he had slightly blinded views of how good things actually were for the Mages. Over the course of his time as the Herald and later the Inquisitor, he realized slowly that things were NOT as they seemed, and made it a personal mission to try and change things – for the Mages and the Templars both.

Chose to recruit the Templars. More on that later. ;)

Seriously this boy just wants to help everyone, Leliana finds it simultaneously unrealistic and adorable.

Best friends with Cullen.

Best. Friends.

Seriously these two are so alike and get each other so well it’s insane.

Cullen also shares with Shiro his stories about how things actually were in the Circles, and that helps in Shiro’s view of things.

Actually doesn’t mind the Hinterlands. This earns him the ire of all his Inner Circle.

Keith

Joined the Seekers ASAP

He was actually left on the doorstep as a baby of the Seekers. He was raised by them (mostly because no one person knew how to raise him by themselves. “It takes a Village” was never more true…)

Even growing up with the Seekers he thought there was a small unit of them that went out and hunted for Cryptids.

He was so disappointed when he actually became a Seeker and found out no such unit.

(He plans on starting that Unit.)

Trained under Seeker Cassandra Penteghast. Turns out he’s one of the only ones who doesn’t really care that TECHINICALLY she’s part of the Navarran royal family.

He also adopted her taste in trashy romance novels.

He actually met Shiro when he was younger and. Very angry. His advise of “Patience Yields Focus” helped him in his career as a Seeker.

Up until Cassandra goes all “I see a problem and I fix it” on him and welp, conflicting advise. (This is the Keith we all know and love.)

Will fight all the bears. All of them. Single-handedly and unarmed.

Honestly he doesn’t care about where you come from or why just so long as you are there to help. That’s it.

“Shiro if you take me on another bull-crap mission into the Hinterlands, I swear to the MAKER – “

Pidge

City Elf!

Actually comes Denerim, but the family moved to Orlais. She worked very hard to NOT pick up the accent.

Joined the Red Jennies a few months before the Conclave exploded – her brother Matt went missing, and when no one of actual authority would help the “Knife Ear”, she decided to find another market of information. Her work with the Red Jennies eventually got her the information that her brother was taken by a mysterious group known as the Venatori – and they were bigger than the Red Jennies could handle. Luckily, the Inquisition was forming…

Has a very irrational hate of magic. Not of Mages, of MAGIC. There’s a difference.

Smartest cookie this side of everything. Makes very fast friends with the Alchemist of the Inquistion and with Dagna.

…Maybe a bit more than friends with Dagna.

The first time she stepped foot in the Emerald Graves she wanted to climb all the trees – seriously, she’d NEVER seen trees so big.

Turns out that the Red Jenny information network is more complex than Leliana’s, who knew

Does she lord this over Leliana? Yes. Pidge is probably the only person in all of Thedas that doesn’t have a healthy fear of Leliana.

Very Viscious Prank Master. Do not mess with her unless you want bees somewhere very unpleasant.

Was VERY SURPRISED when she found out that Shiro knew Matt.

It took Shiro a while to figure it out because Pidge only started going by Pidge after joining up with the Red Jennies – Matt would always talk about his sister Katie.

“WHAT THE WHAT YOU KNEW MY BROTHER!?”

“I will throw this bottle of bees at you, Shiro, don’t you DARE say we’re going to the Hinterlands – “

Lance

Mage from Tevinter!

Pariah of Tevinter – but due to plot can’t go too far into that. ;)

HAS THE BIGGEST CRUSH ON SHIRO. Followed Shiro’s adventures around Thedas as all the stories hit the news and developed a big Hero Crush on him.

Can’t tell you what they might’ve been talking about during the last serious meeting between the War Council and the Inner Circle but can tell you every single detail about the Pirate Battle of the 15th Ferventis 9:31 on docks of Cumberland down to the weather. This comes up entirely by accident when Josephine is asking Shiro about some of his exploits and Lance just…starts rattling off facts.

He was very embarrassed.

Really truly cares about Tevinter. He’s honestly a bit conflicted about fighting his fellow country men, but his belief in what the Inquisition is doing is stronger than his confliction. If he has a chance to try and talk to a Venatori instead of burst them into flames, though, he’ll take it.

Has a tendency to Fade Step when startled.

Like the warm rain of Northern Tevinter, not the cold, freezing rain of Fereldan, Keith, there’s a DIFFERNCE.

Took on all the bandits by himself in Crestwood for the promise of a warm bath.

When he came to Haven to warn them of the Venatori Mages marching, he barely got the warning out before near-fainting in Shiro’s arms. Near-fainting because Lance managed to squint an eye open and squeeze out a “Hey, are you my big buff savior? *wink*”

“Not the Hinterlands, not the Hinterlands, not the Hinterlands – *it’s the Hinterlands* *unholy screeching*”

Hunk

Qunari Warrior!

He’s actually pretty terrible at lying, but he’s reeeeeeally good at eavesdropping. So that’s how he ends up as a Hisrad wandering around Southern Thedas.

Came to Spy, Stayed for the Food.

At least, that’s the joke he tells Shiro when he joins up with the Inquisition. Honestly, after being away from the Qun for so long, he’s starting to see things from different perspectives than what he grew up with, and it’s…starting to get to him.

Has a small Mercenary Guild! The Yellow Lions. (He really likes those big cats, okay?) His main team: Rax, an Avvar Warrior; Shay, Rax’ half sister who has excellent control of magic but doesn’t call it magic; Nyma, an Elven Rouge that was abandoned by her Clan; Rolo, yet another Elven Rouge but from the City; and Beezer, the Dwarf who doesn’t talk but is great with Alchemy (specifically: BOMBS).

Lance gave him the nickname Hunk and it just…kinda stuck. Eventually he stopped trying to correct people on it and that was that, he was Hunk, end of story.

Actually really, really smart and a fantastic engineer. Happened to walk by when Cullen, Shiro, and Leliana were discussing how to make changes to Skyhold to be more defensible and he started rattling off a bunch of calculations on which areas would be best for renovations.

This led to an in-depth conversation that revealed how much Hunk knew about engineering specific weapons and within the week he became to go-to person to speak with about new designs for arms and weaponry. Gives Bianca a run for her money.

A few times literally.

He and Keith entered into the most uncomplicated relationship. It basically amounted to: “Hey you wanna be a thing?” “Sure, let’s be a thing.” And that was that.

Is probably the most un-Qunari like Qunari that ever Qunaried until there’s a dragon involved.

“Boss, I know you like doing things for the people in the Hinterlands but I’m starting to think I might be allergic to, well, ALL OF THE HINTERLANDS.”

Allura

Fanciest Maker-damned Apostate Elvhen Hobo

Like, she doesn’t even really have much in the way of personal belongings but what she has she makes SPARKLE.

Not an Egg.

Legitimately sad that the Elves of today have fallen to what they are; she attempts to lecture everyone about the way things should be. (Much nicer about it than an Egg ever would be.)

Honestly stayed with the Inquisition not because of the Anchor and what it could do, but because she’s grown attached to the members of the Inner Circle.

Cried by herself when she realized how much she loved these silly, ridiculous people that surround her, and what that might mean for her plans for the future…

Has a weakness for all the mice in Skyhold.

“I can hear them talk to me.” No one knows if they should take her seriously or not. She does, after all, regularly walk through the fade on purpose.

I repeat: NOT AN EGG.

Takes tea with Josephine and Leliana to talk fashion every once in a while. Vivienne de Fer took some doing to get her to join them for Tea – Vivienne didn’t have the best first impression of her, what with Allura being an Apostate.. But when Allura starts talking about fashion, well. Vivienne can put aside their differences to talk about the latest trends in boots and skirts.

“*silently threatens Shiro with fire when Shiro mentions going to the Hinterlands*”

Slav (THAT’S RIGHT, SLAV)

The Spirit in the form of a young man that saves Shiro from the Envy demon at Therinfal Redoubt.

(I’ll post a drawing of him later when I have time, it’s actually adorable)

Capable of seeing many realities and uses the ones with the highest “frequency” to decide on a course of action. Prefers the realities that involve the least amount of violence, but what needs must.

Shiro eventually teaches Slav to try and see around the most “frequent” violent realities and try to reach for the ones that lead to less violent. It takes some doing, since Slav is…Slav, but he gets there.

Eventually.

When scared will puff out of existence.

This happens a lot.

“Slav, what are you doing.” “In 72% of realities the fluffiness of these pillows will determine whether or not our Commander Cullen gets a headcold.” “…”

He is not invited to play cards anymore because most people think he’s cheating. Shiro and Allura assure everyone that he isn’t, he’s not that type of person.

He is.

Once got into a theoretical scientific debate with Hunk, Pidge, and Dagna about…something.

No one is really sure what, since most of it was spoken in pure numbers.

Every time Shiro approaches him about a trip to the Hinterlands he just disappears.

#dai!voltron au #alternately known as:#We Hate the Hinterlands #also this is a very shance series #shance #throwing that out there #heith #I am a heithen #allura is not an egg #all the voltron characters have their parts and you'll see them all eventually #seriously bluelioncub and I have been screaming almost nonstop since 8/9 #our chat has literally gotten pretty ridiculous it's pretty great #shiro is the inquisitor #he makes a pretty great one #keith is the seeker #seeker of cryptids #pidge is a red jenny #the scariest red jenny #lance is the pretty mage #and ho boi bluelioncub and I have fucked him up because what's a voltron series without some langst #(I mean seriously he's the dorian character he was NOT going to get fucked up a bit)#(don't worry there's some fun fucking in there for him too ;) )#hunk is the qunari spy #loveable and squishy and honestly he doesn't want to fight qunari spy #I repeat allura is NOT AN EGG #those of you who know dai know what i'm talking about here #she's amazing and so heartsick and honestly wants to bring the world peace #she's just...misguided... >_>;#and yes slav #slav is the spirit

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hub-pub-bub · 5 years

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Maybe you just want to write a book and get it into people’s hands, but there are more dangers out there than you might realize.

To set the stage, I’ll go back to a recent event: the Amélie Wen Zhao controversy. You could be forgiven for not having heard about it, given that it’s only a big deal if you closely follow the world of young adult novels, and in particular the young adult communities on Twitter and Tumblr. I’ll do my best to summarize what happened.

Zhao is a young woman, born in Beijing, raised in Paris, educated in New York City and currently living there. She scored a 6-figure book deal with Delacorte Press, the first book of which was to be Blood Heir. Some reviewers got advance review copies. Then, a couple of things happened: Twitter user @LegallyPaige posted a tweet (since deleted) accusing Zhao of taking screenshots of tweets made by people who disliked her or her book, and of stalking and possibly harassing critics; marketing descriptions of the book, as well as tweets by advance reviewers like Ellen Oh, suggested that the book was racially insensitive as it focuses on an indentured servitude system with parallels to American slavery. There were also accusations of anti-blackness based on the treatment of a character who was racially ambiguous, at best, as well as talk of plagiarism that, as far as anyone who has read the book can tell, are not really credible.

Again, if you don’t run in these circles this might all sound like a pretty minor controversy–a mild storm that Zhao could easily weather. But YA Twitter doesn’t work that way. It is a microcosm of Twitter as a whole, dominated by clout-chasing “influencers” and full of cliques who follow what their preferred influencers say. If a book is presumed to be problematic, or the author presumed to be bad, it is a small matter to organize mass review-bombing on Goodreads, Amazon, or anywhere else one can have a say. If you speak out on behalf of someone accused in this way, you are inviting legions of opposing followers to come after you. The old adage is true: the only way to win is not to play the game.

Zhao herself chose not to play the game, as well. She wrote a thoughtful apology letter in which she announced the cancellation (or at least postponement) of Blood Heir. I’m not here to take issue with that decision, as it is a highly personal one. My purpose is to critique these cycles more generally.

All cards on the table: I’m a white man. I consider myself anti-racist as well as a feminist. I recognize the vast structural oppression that exist essentially everywhere, as well as the specific history of anti-black racism in the US. I am always on the side of social justice, which is why I think it’s necessary to call out the excesses of such movements.

For perspective, of course, in this case nobody died, nobody lost their livelihood. Zhao’s publisher stands by her and she will likely publish other books, and possibly Blood Heir itself after some revisions. What happened to her isn’t censorship, nor even what I would consider abusive. It’s more unfortunate than anything else.

What is concerning to me is the tendency to manifest an online mob on an extremely thin basis, and that the people who have large enough followings to spark these controversies know the power they wield, and don’t seem to have much sense of responsibility about it. Consider that this particular incident was sparked by an essentially anonymous accusation of screenshotting–an activity which is petty, at worst–and spiraled into allegations of racism.

As a writer, I do think it is very important to be sensitive to the issues of the world around me. It is entirely possible, even likely, to fall into unintentional racism or sexism. The best of intentions do not necessarily lead to a piece of writing that is free from the biases and inequities of our world. It is important to write mindfully, and to be careful not to reproduce oppressive cultural messages. This can take many forms, though. Some people object to depictions of racism, violence against women, and other horrors in the first place. Even if the purpose of portraying them is to critique them and make clear how awful those things are, there are readers who would rather not encounter such material in the first place. It is an understandable position to not want to read something like that, as it can mean having to face bigotry in fiction that you get enough of in your daily life. People who don’t want to read books like that are absolutely welcome not to!

Where I take issue is the idea that because someone doesn’t like a particular book, no one should be allowed to read it–that it should be withdrawn altogether. The comparisons to historically ineffective book bans apply pretty well here. In addition, it just seems like a big waste of energy. In a country where Donald Trump is President and is actively enabling literal Nazis to march in the streets and kill people, spending a lot of energy attacking a book that may not have anything all that wrong with it seems totally absurd. Yes, people can care about more than one thing at a time–but time and energy are finite resources.

I used the phrase “manufactured outrage” in the title, and that was with good reason. I have been around long enough to know that most of the time, these controversies are not drummed up out of a genuine concern for people who have been harmed, but to raise one’s own profile, and to demonstrate power as an influencer. (Note that all you really need to be an “influencer” is a lot of social media followers!) The emergence of the “#MeToo” movement, which has achieved some real accomplishments in terms of dislodging sexual predators from positions of power, has also put wind in the sails of online controversy-seekers. Everyone wants to be first in line to “cancel” the next “problematic” public figure. A writer faced with such a backlash might be inclined to simply ride it out, and hope the furor dies down after a few days. It usually does, but there is another problem: media coverage.

Only 15% of Americans actually use Twitter, and an even smaller share of those use it regularly. It would not have much influence over public debate except for one thing: it is massively popular among journalists and freelance writers, almost all of whom have column space to fill. Going out and investigating is difficult and expensive; mining Twitter for the latest clickbait topic, by comparison, is easy and free. Thus, these relatively tiny kerfuffles (consisting of a few hundred or a few thousand people, at most) get elevated to the level of national or even international discourse. Dozens of articles get written about online scuffles involving handfuls of people, and you’d think there was a real crisis brewing. The reality is just that journalists and freelancers tend to be Extremely Online (to use the Twitter jargon) and know that drama pulls clicks. This is a big part of the “manufacturing” of the outrage. We’re generally not talking about mass movements, here. “#MeToo” is a mass movement. “#Cancel[WriterOfTheWeek]” isn’t.

Another part of the “manufacturing” is that these outrages often emerge from circles that are not just insincere, but actively malevolent. Imageboard site 4chan and *chan sites of similar formats have forums where the entire point is identifying targets and organizing social media outrage against them. They tap into social justice circles and plant whisper campaigns that a particular person is problematic in some severe way–maybe the target is a sexual predator, or plagiarized parts of their book. If this can get picked up by a prominent influencer, the mob does the rest. Likewise, infighting is fomented by inventing wedge issues, a couple recent examples being “Santa shouldn’t be a man” and “pedophiles belong in the LGBT+ umbrella.” Yes, those are real things stirred up by bad actors and I did not make them up.

The point of all this is that it can be easy and exciting to focus on drama, to be an active participant in fomenting it. It might even feel good to play a role in getting someone to pay penance for their perceived wrongdoing. But it’s hard to say that any of it makes the world a better place, or actually serves any of the causes social justice is meant to. In Zhao’s case, one would think that her identity as an immigrant, a woman, and a person of color would bless her with the benefit of the doubt–but those things are instead liabilities, as she is held to a much higher standard than, say, the middle-aged white men who churn out sexist drivel every year.

A common piece of writing advice is to simply ignore critics. Critics will always find something to hate–it is essentially their job. That’s still true, to a great extent. It is sometimes necessary to publicly respond to criticism, but the best way to handle that is to take the high road. Let people know that they are heard and you are taking their advice into consideration–and then, decide for yourself what that means, and how it should change your work, if at all.

If you write a book condemning injustice, and people attack you and say you aren’t condemning it correctly, odds are there’s not actually anything wrong with your book–just the people doing the attacking.

Post written by J. D. Huffman so direct all fanmail to him <3

#writing #authors #sensitivity #reading

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chocolate-brownies · 5 years

Link

Episode 33 of the Science of Happiness Podcast from the Greater Good Science Center, featuring Tim Ryan in conversation with Dacher Keltner.

Episode 33: Trying Compassion on Capitol Hill

15:16

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Recently in my own campaign for re-election I had an opponent who was just bashing me for not doing anything and never got anything done for the area and all this stuff. This kid fly in from New York – he hadn’t been in the area for 10 years – and then he comes in and he starts lobbing bombs at me for not doing enough. I’m like, “Wait a minute. I’ve been here in the foxhole for 15 years, where you been?” You know, that kind of thing.

I took it personally. You know the Buddhist story about, if someone’s shooting an arrow at you, don’t be there? Well my ego was there so I got hurt. And I was like, ‘Well, how dare you question me?’ You know?

I think anger was the initial feeling that I had, and then you work your way through that and then you get a little deeper understanding of where the other person is coming from. And that ultimately gets you to some level of compassion for them and an understanding of, ‘Alright. Let it go. Everything’s going to be fine. Make your arguments, tell people what you’ve done. Don’t judge this kid. He’s gotten you focused now. So thank you for that. And, you know, let’s go.’

DACHER KELTNER: Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan has had his fair share of political opponents since first winning election to the House of Representatives in 2002, representing Northeastern Ohio. In today’s political climate what has kept him going is mindfulness

He’s on the House Appropriations Committee and has also created the Quiet Time Caucus in the House of Representatives, where members of Congress and staff meet regularly to meditate. He sums up this work in A Mindful Nation. It’s a book about how to reduce stress and capture the spirit of the United States.

On each episode of our show we have a happiness guinea pig try out a science-based practice to increase kindness, connection and happiness – even around our opponents. This week, we’re honored to have my friend Congressman Tim Ryan on our show. Tim, thanks so much for joining us on the Science of Happiness.

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: It’s so great to be reconnected with you.

DACHER KELTNER: I want to ask you about how you discovered mindfulness and started to build meditation into your political life. How’d that go?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: I went on a five-day retreat right after the 2008 election and that blew the top off my head. And I’ve been meditating ever since.

DACHER KELTNER: When you started to integrate mindfulness into your life as a political presence in our country, how did it change your thinking about politics, about our country, about your constituents?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: It’s got me focused on the fact that we’ve got to figure out how to come together. Just seeing things disintegrate before our very eyes is really frustrating. So it helps me kind of stay on task, stay focused on that. It helps with focus and then, you know, not judging. I mean, it’s really been helpful for me just to not judge. It’s so easy to slip into that mode. ‘The other side’s stupid and the other side’s wrong. And they’re’—you know, on and on. We could live in that space forever.

It’s so easy to slip into that mode. ‘The other side’s stupid and the other side’s wrong. And they’re’—you know, on and on. We could live in that space forever.

DACHER KELTNER: Tim, you’re at that life where you’ve got your hands full—you’re a parent of three kids, including your youngest, Brady, who’s just four years old. And you’re also navigating your work on the Hill, and your home life, and being on the campaign trail. How in the world do you keep up a mindfulness practice going?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: What I try to do is is really try to carve out time every day and I’ve been really trying to do the breathing techniques before before I start my meditation. Because it seems to get my mind in a place where I can really just drop in. And so I’m normally now doing 10, 15 minutes of breathing before I even start with kind of sitting in silence.

DACHER KELTNER: So Tim, you did the compassion meditation, which is a practice begins with cultivating feelings of compassion for someone we really care about, and then it transitions to cultivating that same feeling towards somebody we have conflict with, or actually an enemy. What you do is, you first find a comfortable place to sit, you relax. There’s actually a guided meditation on the Greater Good in Action website that walks you through it.

DACHER KELTNER: You continue to focus on your breath for two minutes, noticing the sensations in your body while you breathe. Then you picture someone who is really close to you. And then you notice what physical sensations around your heart. Then notice how this love makes your heart feel. So Tim, who did you think about in this first step of the Compassion Meditation?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: I would think of Brady, who’s just, you know, love of our lives and just the immediate pure connection to joy. Just warmth and relaxation. And it’s almost real to the extent, you know, you just sit there with your eyes closed. It’s almost like the dude’s right there.

DACHER KELTNER: Did you see his face?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Oh, yeah. Just big, smiling, shit-eating grin on his face that just just cracks me up, and so to kind of connect to that when you’re not with him is just amazing. And so just—yeah, that was great.

DACHER KELTNER: With Brady, first you sort of walk through these phrases or say them in your mind about wishing Brady happiness and freedom from suffering and the like?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: You know, may you be peaceful. CMay you have love, and feel love. CMay you have joy. I don’t know if I followed exactly what the phrases are but you know, my version of that which I think is important, to kind of make sure you make it your own.

DACHER KELTNER: And then you think about that same person and it gets a little trickier—you focus your attention on a time when that individual was suffering emotionally or physically. What did that feel like in your heart?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Very real, real pain. You’re empathizing with him. Whether he’s sick, or hurt himself, or got his feelings hurt. If you sit there and you focus on that. It’s real. And that’s the goal, is how do you try to you know feel the pain? That’s how you connect.

DACHER KELTNER: Compassion for children, especially our own, can be easy; it’s hardwired in us by evolution. But we’re not as great at showing compassion towards ourselves. The next step in the Compassion Meditation is to think about a time in your own life where you were feel suffering, and then you share that love and compassion you felt for your son Brady with yourself. How did if feel to orient the compassion towards yourself?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: I haven’t done that in a long time. And it’s almost like just accepting that you have pain in your heart from wherever it came from. And that was very relaxing almost because you didn’t have to like fight and pretend like you’re tough guy. And so it was very decompressing and I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t have to pretend like I’m the only human being who’s made it through forty-five years of my life without being heartbroken.’ You know, you just kind of sit with it. You realize how that pain helped you in some way, develop in some way. Got you where you are in some way because it’s a lot of times that heartbreak’s a big motivator.

It’s almost like just accepting that you have pain in your heart from wherever it came from. And that was very relaxing almost because you didn’t have to like fight and pretend like you’re tough guy. And so it was very decompressing and I was like, ‘Okay, I don’t have to pretend like I’m the only human being who’s made it through forty-five years of my life without being heartbroken.’

DACHER KELTNER: The next move then is to think about a neutral person who you don’t have strong feelings, positive or negative, and you start to direct some compassion towards that person. Who was that?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Well, I won’t give the name, but a family member. [laughter]

DACHER KELTNER: You have a neutral person in your family? I can’t believe it!

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Yeah, well, I mean, they’re not all neutral. [laughter] You begin to see what you bring to this neutral experience that sometimes isn’t so neutral. So, you know, you got up first like, ‘I’m neutral with that guy,’ and then it’s like you’re in a little bit and you’re like, ‘Maybe I’m not neutral. Maybe there’s something there.’ [laughter]

But, you know, wishing them to not have suffering and wishing them joy and peace and love. So that was kind of a nice transition into some of the more complicated relationships.

DACHER KELTNER: Yeah. Next comes the hardest part, where you practice the Compassion Meditation where you really focus your attention on somebody you don’t like. You’re in conflict with, who’s insulted you, who’s caused problems in your life.

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: You’re taking on emotions that—you’re not afraid of them, you’re not trying to push them down. That’s the same kind of thing like, OK, breathing in the negative emotion or the negative thought and, you know, as a tough guy, old football player quarterback I’m like, ‘Yeah, bring that fear in here! I’ll breathe you right in, baby!’ [laughter]

DACHER KELTNER: Chew it up and spit it out! Take that!

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Yeah like, “You’re not going to control me!” I kind of I really like that because I think we have a tendency, unwittingly, to really stuff that stuff down and really try to ignore it. And so to breathe it in and face it.

DACHER KELTNER: Take it on.

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Yeah, you take it on and then it helps you with conflict outside of the practice, obviously, which I’m assuming is the whole purpose here of all this, is not to just do it when you’re on the cushion, but applying it.

What’s powerful about this practice, and it’s not just the wishing them well in so many different ways, but it’s also I think understanding like why they are like they are and how like the negativity that you feel about them comes and stems from some negativity that they got from somewhere else. And they are, in some ways, perpetuating that. And then the practice is really about letting go of all that energy and it’s almost a forgiveness practice in so many ways.

DACHER KELTNER: Yeah, yeah. Finally, you open up the practice to the entire world, wishing happiness and joy and love and the absence of suffering for all human beings. Who did you think about?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: One of the committees I sit on is the committee that funds the Defense Department. And our operation’s intimately connected with everybody in the world. And to really see the suffering in these places—the whole issue now is caravans coming to the United States, about the wall and all this other stuff. And the reality of it is there are a couple countries in Central America where there’s so much pain, there’s so much suffering. And parents getting shot if they try to protect their kids. And so it got so bad where people, the best option for parents is to pay somebody to take their kid and run them through the desert through Mexico and try to get to the United States. When you think about compassion for all the world, my mind kept going to these countries and these families that are there that are experiencing so much pain and how we are intimately connected with the problems that are happening in that country. And the real compassionate move would be to try to stabilize it ahead of time so it doesn’t get to that point

DACHER KELTNER: Tim, now that you’ve tried compassion meditation, do you think there is room for something like this on Capitol Hill? Especially in our political climate?

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Whether it’s a compassion meditation or just straight, you know, slowing down. You know, I was just on a joint interview with the Republican colleague of mine. He said, “The problem around here is nobody listens to each other.” And these practices are inherently teaching you how to deeply listen. And that is going to be the trick of us getting out of this mess that we’re in right now, is for us really to start listening to each other. And having compassion for each other I mean, if someone has a view on how to fix something that’s not your view on how to fix something, you know, they have a reason why they think that way. But if you really sit down and your intention is to solve a problem, you will get there, if that’s what you want. And that starts with listening.

DACHER KELTNER: Tim, we are honored to have you on the Science of Happiness and grateful for the bold work you’re doing out in the world.

CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN: Awesome, man. Thank you so much. Keep up the great work.

DACHER KELTNER: We live in politically tense times. The polarization between blue and red, or Democrats and Republicans, has really increased. Makes it hard to connect with and to humanize the people who are on the other side of ideological disputes. The real test of compassion is to see how it works in these kinds of contexts. I love how Congressman Tim Ryan is trying to bring the practices of compassion and mindfulness to Capitol Hill. This isn’t just about good intentions—there’s actually solid science behind it.

Helen Weng is an expert in the science behind the benefits of training ourselves to be more compassionate. In one recent study, she randomly divided people into two groups.

One group was told to think about a specific experience in their lives differently so that they felt less upset and stressed. The other group listened to the audio of the compassion meditation 30 minutes a day for two weeks.

HELEN WENG: After two weeks we found that the people who learn compassion were more generous in an economic exchange task to a stranger. They witnessed an unfair economic exchange that a stranger went through, and they were more willing to spend their own money—and it came out of their study payment—to help out that person they didn’t even know.

And then we found changes in the brain that corresponded to how generous they were. So in the brain scanner we showed them pictures of people suffering before and after the two weeks and asked them to evoke a sense of compassion towards those people who were suffering. And the more changes we saw in empathy networks, the more generous they were to strangers.

So basically, the more they could change their brain to be more empathic—while regulating, right, you have to be less distressed in response to someone suffering and also focus on their well-being—the more it actually change their behavior. What I like to say is that although you’re attending to things internally when you’re meditating, for some people it can actually change how you act towards people on the outside. So it’s internal to external transformation.

Produced by the Greater Good Science Center and PRI. Episode 33 of the Science of Happiness Podcast by the Greater Good Science Center, featuring Tim Ryan in conversation with Dacher Keltner.

The post Trying Compassion on Capitol Hill appeared first on Mindful.

#sleep sounds #sleep music #white noise app #nature sounds #relaxing sounds #rain sounds for sleeping

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virginiamurrayblog · 6 years

Text

A Comprehensive Guide to Cambridge, Ont. (a.k.a. Justin & Hailey’s New Home)

(Photos: Splash, iStock)

I grew up (and currently live) in Cambridge, Ont. As a child it was fine, as a teenager it was boring, and for a few unfortunate years in my early-to-mid twenties, it was the bane of my temperamental existence. It is surburban, it is quaint, it is strip malls, it is history. And while I’m allowed to make fun of it whenever I want, if I hear any of you talking shit about my hometown, I will fight you in the same parking lot the boys I loved once skateboarded in.

Which is why I’m the only person qualified to map it out for our newest additions, Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin. Having just purchased property outside the city limits—and with Justin reportedly wanting to make Canada his homebase—my precious son and his soon-to-be bride are in need of a guide to Cambridge that’s honest, accurate and will ensure that we run into each other frequently. And while I guess the rest of you can follow it too, I also couldn’t care less. This is for J-Biebs, Ms. Baldwin, and a future in which I hang out with them regularly. See you soon, precious fam.

Langdon Hall

Finished in 1902, the restaurant/spa/hotel was formerly a country home but is currently the closest I will ever get to living in Downton Abbey. Naturally, the food is unparalleled, the high tea is tremendous, and the photo ops are spectacular. But most importantly, Drake shot album art for Views on the driveway a few years ago, which brings us all nearer to the dream of Aubrey, Justin and myself bonding over scones and clotted cream. That, or seeing ghosts of the former owners.

I’ll take either.

Downtown Galt

A fact I like to scream into the faces of strangers is that The Handmaid’s Tale films in a part of Cambridge called downtown Galt. (Specifically, the scenes in which Offred and friends walk by the river.) This typically earns a half-hearted, “Wow, really?” while I nod smugly, as if I scouted the location myself. I did not. But should Justin and Hailey want to look at old buildings and churches that back onto the Grand River, this is where they can do so. Provided they invite me.

LA Frank’s

And since we’re in Galt, we might as well take advantage of LA Frank’s—the seasonal hotdog/hamburger/ice cream stand that I personally can’t order anything from (I have the digestive system of a small infant), but will happily stand awkwardly near as my friends consume food like normal adults. A right of passage. A fast way to make me feel sad and jealous.

iBowl.ca

Years ago, Cambridge was a city brimming with bowling alleys. (There were three. Maybe four.) Today—and until the construction of the bowling alley/arcade/restaurant in the mall is finished—there is one. And while I don’t know the origin story of this Galt-based mecca’s name, I do know that when I was 21, I wasn’t paying attention on my way out and fell down the stairs, spraining my wrist as my friends stifled laughter. I also learned that black lighting makes one’s tears glow. Biebs and Baldwin deserve to see this for themselves.

The Cambridge Centre

Behold! The mall I worked at from 2005-2009. Is it worth going without being able to see me fold jeans at American Eagle? No. But maybe Hailey likes Marshall’s. Perhaps Baby Biebs adores Bootlegger. And if all else fails, there’s still a movie theatre inside. So let’s just meet up after the 7:10 screening of Little Italy, and take it from there.

Value Village

Thrifting in Cambridge (and the Waterloo region) is better than in any other region and in any other city. Last week, I paid $49 for seven pieces that will make me look exactly like Sandra Bullock in Practical Magic. (Exactly. I will look exactly like her.) And why wouldn’t two kids saving for a big wedding want to wade into the waters of previously owned and loved clothing? Why wouldn’t Justin want to pick up a few new Hawaiian shirts? Why wouldn’t he want me to push him around in a cart like the caring mother I am? Why wouldn’t he look up at me from between ’90s-era sweaters and tell me how proud he was to be my son?

Rising Dough Bakery

Of course, after burning through calories trying on pleated pants, we could and would descend on the Scottish bakery in Preston (another area of Cambridge—please don’t worry about it, unless you grew up here, you won’t care and it doesn’t matter) where the pasties and pastries are equal parts prevalent and delicious. Once, I bought a week’s worth of cookies and and ate them in about two days. I felt deathly ill, but it was worth it. And guess what: I’ll probably do it again.

Fashion History Museum

And then there’s Hespeler. (Okay, fine. Here’s the history: Cambridge consists of three parts that used to be former towns. They amalgamated in the 1970s, but some of us grew up in families who do not acknowledge said amalgamation. Thus, Hespeler, to me and my family, is superior in every way.) Located in the old post office, the Fashion History Museum is, in a word, the fucking bomb. The two owners have a collection that spans centuries, continents and historical narratives, and the exhibits are well thought-out and interesting. It’s also not-for-profit, so only good things can come from visiting. Which is why Hailey and Justin should go. Also, because I’m specifically ordering them too.

Ernie’s Roadhouse

This is the restaurant I grew up eating chicken wings at. It’s also older than time. I’d be ashamed to find out Biebs and Balds didn’t go. I’d also be ashamed if they didn’t order me chicken wings.

The Hespeler Arena

No, not the actual arena. (I mean, sure: hockey and figure skating happens there, but also welcome to southern Ontario where there are no less than 46 arenas per person per city.) Instead, let’s focus on the parking lot. And, since we’re talking about paved spaces ideal for parking, standing, and talking shit, let us also branch out to include the McDonald’s and Food Basics plaza parking lot, where much of my young life was shaped by standing, by sitting, by drinking Mike’s Hard Lemonade, by smoking Players cigarettes, by watching skateboarders.

Frankly, you will never “experience” Cambridge until you experience it in a parking lot. Which morphs this guide into a straight-up challenge: when Justin and Hailey find their own lot to loiter in, Cambridge will finally be home.

Anne T. Donahue is a writer, podcaster and person on the internet. Her memoir, Nobody Cares, comes out on September 18.

More from Anne T. Donahue: What Buck-a-Beer Feels Like to an Alcoholic How I Get Shit Done Working from Home How to Use Professional Jealousy to Figure Out What You *Really* Want #HowIMadeIt: How Anne T. Donahue Became a Writer Even Unf-ckwithable Women Need Help Sometimes

The post A Comprehensive Guide to Cambridge, Ont. (a.k.a. Justin & Hailey’s New Home) appeared first on Flare.

A Comprehensive Guide to Cambridge, Ont. (a.k.a. Justin & Hailey’s New Home) published first on https://wholesalescarvescity.tumblr.com/

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downtowns-universe · 6 years

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52 stories #27

What if... the sun doesn’t rise one day

Characters: Dai, Zian

Words: 5758

It wasn’t until late in the morning that people had started to panic. The cycle was off sometimes, they were all used to it by now. But normally the light would come in at some point, usually when people were on their way to work, or had already started their day in the dark. But today was different. The world stayed dark, the sky ranging from pitch black to dark grey or deep blue in some places. Especially the humans and younger demons, who had never experienced the way it had been before, were disoriented by the prolonged night. For older demons it was a reason to reminisce about the past, about the time where patches of darkness moved across the land much like clouds would, propelled by the elements, their trajectory only roughly predictable. For school teachers it was a reason to repeat that lesson about how their master conjurors had created an artificial night and day cycle, much like that of earth, which had brought rhythm and order to their lives.

Dai had been in a meeting in LA, and because of that had been informed of the situation pretty late. When he arrived in Trenmer he saw there were already people out on the street, trying to regulate things and addressing people’s concerns. His soldiers saluted as soon as they recognised him. He could see the surprise on some of their faces, as they had not been informed of his arrival. It wasn’t exactly necessary for him to be here: he was sure his people could handle the situation without his supervision. He didn’t even really know what to do since he knew nothing about the powers at play here. He’d planned to take Tharryn, as he suspected he’d be interested, but to his surprise had found him asleep and couldn’t bring himself to wake him, not even for a situation like this. Zian on the other hand had been eager to come along, saying he’d always wanted to see how the construction behind the cycle was set up. Of course he was, if it was time-related.

When they entered the building, people were frantically running around, reminding Dai of a colony of ants. If they knew what they were doing, their actions surely didn’t show it. Amidst the mayhem he spotted their supervisor, Oleander, who was issuing commands but his soft-spoken voice was overruled by the crowd’s panicking. How different was this from his previous visits, when Oleander would have his people strictly in line, often only needing a slight movement of the head to make them understand his wishes. A well-oiled machine. Right now it seemed like something had thrown the machine terribly off-balance.

“Something’s wrong here,” Zian mumbled, while looking at the scene, alongside Dai.

“Really? What makes you think that?” Dai chuckled.

“I mean, it doesn’t feel right. Like someone’s messing with time – not me,” he added unnecessarily.

“It would make sense to be time-related,” Dai considered. “You think you can find out what it is?”

“Maybe… but first this chaos needs to end. And I’m gonna need someone who knows the place.”

“Could be arranged,” Dai said while throwing some magic together and releasing it above their heads, resulting in a loud bang.

The people stopped to look up, some taking cover or defensively putting their arms up, but they were all quiet. Dai started to make his way through the crowd towards Oleander, who had taken the opportunity to issue commands that people could actually hear. Only now that the chaos had slowed to a standstill, it became clear that there was more going on than just blind panic. Lights were flickering on panels everywhere, and structural spells laid out along the walls sparked dangerously, seemingly on the verge of collapse. Some people had already refocused their attention on their tasks to keep them from doing so.

“What’s the status?” Dai asked when they’d reached Oleander.

“There’s been an incident that destabilised one of the spells at about 5am this morning,” the supervisor reported. “We’re not sure yet what happened, but it caused a chain reaction, rapidly destabilising the entire cycle, causing it to be stuck in the same position since that moment. I’ve called in all of the workers and controllers, but we’re making slow progress on getting it back up, seeing as we’re too busy trying to keep everything from falling apart.”

“It seems like you could use some help.”

Oleander nodded, looking at his workers who had already begun to run around again, most of them without a clear purpose.

“I’m not sure what’s gotten into them, they’re completely out of control. That’s why I called in those who were off duty, to get some fresh eyes on the situation. They’re the only ones that seem to be doing anything useful. The rest are just… doing that.”

“Perhaps they’ve been affected by whatever caused this. They were all present while it happened, right?”

“Yes.”

“We need to figure out what happened. Where did the first incident take place?”

“Follow me.”

They moved towards a different part of the building. Oleander stopped a few times along the way to respond to questions his workers had. He also tried to put more people to work, but most of them just stared at him with big eyes. They did seem to listen, but as soon as they’d acknowledged and turned around they seemed to have forgotten already.

“That strange energy is getting stronger here,” Zian remarked.

“You’re feeling it too?” Oleander asked.

Zian nodded.

“Something’s off, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

He turned to Dai.

“Don’t you feel it?”

Dai could feel energy escaping from the damaged spells everywhere around them, but nothing that indicated that someone had been messing with time.

“No. But time isn’t exactly my specialty,” Dai shrugged. “That’s what I have all of you for.”

It was a good thing he brought Zian. Perhaps he’d be able to help in a way the controllers weren’t capable of. Although both were time-based, the abilities of those who worked on the cycle differed from Zian’s. Controllers were selected from schools all over the country, based on their potential, but the base of their magic was one that every demon above a class of 5 could in theory inhabit, were they trained this way. Zian’s powers were of a more unique kind, and couldn’t be acquired just by the right training; you either had it or you didn’t. Dai was sure there would be more inherent differences as well, but he didn’t know all of the details, just that cycle controllers weren’t able to manipulate time on the kind of scale Zian did.

A construction on the wall close to them creaked alarmingly when they passed by.

“We need to hurry,” Oleander said. “More and more spells are starting to give out and I don’t have any more people to keep them in place. Constructs such as these might start to collapse soon.”

“Can’t you just freeze everything to buy the controllers some time?” Dai asked Zian.

“No?!” Zian responded, sounding perplexed. “Combining multiple temporal elements would probably only make it worse!”

“I wouldn’t know, I didn’t study temporal magic,” Dai shrugged.

“Then shut up,” Zian responded, dead-pan.

Dai noticed how Oleander’s gaze nervously shifted towards him, analysing his response. If this had been anyone else, a comment like this wouldn’t go unpunished, but from Zian he’d more or less expected it. Besides, they had more pressing matters to focus on now.

The hall they entered next looked very much like a bomb had gone off in the middle of it. There were scorch marks all over the floor, spreading outwards, and whatever had been standing there had been blown back against the walls. Whatever spells had been on the walls had been either evaporated, traces of them seared into the plaster, or so heavily damaged that they’d collapsed in on themselves, leaving only a tangled mess that was risky to get close to due to the bolts of energy they regularly released. Workers had started to clear out some of the debris, while controllers attempted to rein in the unmanageable spells. The air in the room was thick with energy, probably that which had been leaking from the spells for hours now. Dai could tell that any effort of charging spells anywhere in the complex were futile as long as things weren’t fixed here.

“I guess it’s safe to say something exploded here,” he said.

He started walking towards the blast site, but Zian held him back.

“Wait.”

He halted for a moment, but continued when his warning wasn’t followed by an explanation. Dai knelt down, touching his fingers to the charred floor. Apart from the black marks, there was nothing noteworthy about the area. No shards, no residual energy from whatever weapon was used: only the constant presence of energy seeping from the walls, pressing down on them like a blanket. He looked back at Zian, who was still keeping his distance.

“I don’t feel so good,” he uttered.

“It’s quite overwhelming,” Oleander agreed. “I already let my people work in shifts to make sure they aren’t overcharged with all of this energy running wild.”

Zian vaguely shook his head.

“No, no, that isn’t it. I can take the energy. Just tingles a bit. There’s something else…”

He looked at the blast site in the middle of the room.

“Something… wrong. Like the fabric of time is being stretched and folded and…”

Zian gestured around him, trying to find the right words, then looked at Oleander for support. Dai observed him and soon came to the conclusion that Oleander had no idea what he was talking about.

“I thought you felt it too?” Zian tried.

“I felt the energy leaking from this room, and I can feel all of the spells that are failing because it’s my energy flowing through them,” Oleander considered. “I can feel everything my controllers are doing to fix it, and the confusion of the others who are just walking around aimlessly. I can feel all of that, and in the meantime there’s this little voice in my head that keeps yelling that it’s not enough and eventually everything will go horribly wrong.”

He took a moment to take a breath.

“Apologies. What I’m trying to say is, I can feel a lot of things being wrong, but they all originate from the spells. From my work. Nothing like what you described. But my connection to the flow of time isn’t as strong. I don’t think I’d be able to sense it amidst this mayhem.”

Zian, in the meantime, had been taking some steps back towards the door. Dai noticed he’d gone very pale.

“Do we need to leave?” Dai asked.

Zian shook his head.

“I just need a moment.”

“We can discuss what to do from the hallway as well,” Dai decided, and dragged Zian along.

When they’d moved away from the source, Zian started to feel better again. He stared at the room for a while, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

“Were you here when it happened?” he eventually asked Oleander.

“I wasn’t. I was at home, which is practically next door, so I was able to get here shortly after.”

“So you weren’t affected by whatever was released here,” he suggested.

“I guess it’s safe to assume that I wasn’t, considering I still know what I’m doing.”

“Fair point.”

Zian stopped a glassy-eyed worker who happened to pass by. There was a glint of surprise in their eyes, then they just stared at him.

“Would be great to have Tharryn here,” Zian mumbled while putting his hands on them, trying to detect anything at all.

Dai couldn’t agree more with this statement, and regretted letting him sleep. He could feel Zian release healing magic, but it didn’t have any effect. The effects that this outburst of magic seemed to have had were more of a mental nature than a physical one – that, or it was a curse, which would make it even more challenging.

“If we find no other option, I could try to persuade them,” Dai offered. “It wouldn’t help them, but we’d at least have a better chance of fixing the cycle. It would be easier to find a way to help them later, when everything isn’t about to explode.”

“Yeah…” Zian absentmindedly mumbled, while trying some more time-based solutions on the worker.

“I don’t have any better plans,” Oleander shrugged.

“We need to take care of whatever’s in there first,” Zian said, pointing at the room. “Right now it will just screw up any attempt of fixing anything.”

Right as he said that, a big amount of sparks was released from one of the spells. The controllers who’d been working on it managed to dive out of the way, but they’d have to start the work they’d been doing all over again.

“You might be right,” Oleander sighed. “I can’t say we’ve made any progress since this all started. If I’m honest: I’m surprised anything is still standing at all. Nothing has changed…”

“…like it’s being kept in place!” Zian finished, veering up.

He looked at the room again with renewed interest, and even – cautiously – stepped through the door. Dai could tell he was working to connect the dots in his head.

“Talk to me,” he said as he followed him inside.

For a moment he thought Zian hadn’t heard him, then he turned around. Dai recognised the look in his eyes as the one he always had when he was monitoring or controlling time.

“This… bomb, or whatever it was, it created a bubble in which time moves differently, much like I can do. It’s just… a lot more complex than anything I’m capable of. It’s as if time is paused and moving at the same time. Like…”

He seemed to look for words, then sighed.

“Tharryn would probably kill me for this description, but… imagine there are two scenarios, one in which time is stopped, and one in which it continues as if nothing happened. Usually, only one of those scenarios will come to pass, right? Now imagine that there is something – for convenience sake, let’s call it a bomb – that’s capable of letting both of these scenarios become reality. For that to happen, one would need two timelines, two dimensions, whatever you want to call it – and combine them into one. Now, I’m not sure how someone would be able to pull this off, or the mechanism behind it, but – and this is the part Tharryn isn’t going to like – we can all agree that it would become a giant mess. These things can’t be happening at the same time, and yet they somehow are. Things would change, while at the same time staying the same. It would probably create some kind of paradox, and become a bigger and bigger mess the longer it’s allowed to continue.”

Zian took a moment to take a breath – and a step back, since being in the room still didn’t seem to be very pleasant for him.

“So, adapted to the situation here,” Oleander contemplated. “When the bomb went off, everyone inside got frozen in time, as it were. But at the same time they weren’t, since they’re still walking around. But they’re not really here.”

“Yes. For them, it is still that moment. That’s why they’re unable to follow commands, or do anything useful, really. They’re either in a constant state of panic, or stuck in some kind of loop that keeps them from retaining information.”

“That’s why it doesn’t affect anyone who came in later. They only exist in one of the scenarios.”

“Technically, I think everyone inside the bubble exists in both, but let’s not get into details,” Zian waved it away. “When the bomb went off, the power surge travelled through all of the spells, causing some kind of short-circuit. Part of them is still acting like this is happening or has just happened, part of them has moved forward in time, collapsing in on itself. Only they aren’t able to actually collapse as they are being held in place by the part that’s frozen.”

“Which would be why there’s such a huge amount of power leaking away, even though the spells should have been drained or collapsed by now,” Dai added.

“Exactly. Basically, they’ve turned this place into a giant generator, creating energy by tricking physics.”

“Tharryn is going to be so mad he missed this,” Dai sighed.

“We’ll bring back a sample for him, if I can manage to safely isolate some. But first I need to find out where exactly it’s coming from.”

“That’d be nice, but I think our first focus should be to stop it,” Dai pointed out.

“I agree. For now this thing is contained to a bubble, I’m guessing about the size of the explosion radius, so everything outside of it will be unaffected and time there will continue as usual. But if it’s allowed to go on, more and more power will start to build up inside of the bubble, which I guess will at some point… pop.”

“Creating an even bigger bomb,” Oleander added.

“Of course!” Dai realised. “This has been the plan all along. I already thought taking out the cycle was an odd move, but I assumed it was just to create chaos. But a giant bomb…”

“Another faction must be behind this,” Zian sighed. “Or rebels, maybe.”

“Would this bomb spread the, uh, weirdness even further?”

“I don’t know. Not planning to find out either.”

“How do we stop it?”

Zian squinted at the centre of the room, again trying to look for some clue.

“Since it’s time-based, I could go in there and try to mess things up.”

“You just said combining temporal magic was a bad idea.”

“It is. But destabilising it could be just what we need.”

“It would destroy the cycle,” Oleander reminded him.

“The way it’s heading now, it’s going to destroy way more,” Dai sighed.

“How long would it take to recreate the cycle from scratch?” Zian asked.

Oleander considered this.

“Weeks,” he said. “Some of these elements are centuries old. We have blueprints, of course, and I’ve studied them closely, but creating them would be time-consuming. Not to mention all of the calibrating that needs to be done once everything is back into place.”

“I could probably arrange some help,” Dai offered. “There’s more time-based facilities out there.”

“That would shorten the wait a little, but even then there’s only so many people who can work on a spell at the same time.”

“I don’t think we have any other option,” Zian said, still staring at the blackened floor. “The spells are already in a terrible state; even if I could find a way to end this without destroying them completely, they’d collapse as soon as they’re no longer suspended. We’d be left with a tangled mess even worse than this. I don’t see how fixing that would be any faster than starting from scratch.”

“You’re right. And if someone were to make just a tiny mistake, the safety of everyone inside would be at risk.”

“Alright, so we’re blowing this thing up,” Dai summarised. “But first we need to get everyone out. The energy that’s been building up so far could already cause a lot of damage.”

He took a moment to assess the air around him, then turned to Oleander.

“Collect everything you need to rebuild the cycle; blueprints, spell books, magical items– everything.”

“Yes, sir. But what about my people? Sounding the alarms won’t work for those that are stuck and won’t listen.”

Dai put a hand on his shoulder, marking him with a trace of magic.

“Leave them to me.”

Oleander nodded and disappeared down the hallway.

“What are you going to do, persuade them one by one?” Zian asked. “There won’t be enough time for that.”

“I’ll just have to tell them all at once,” Dai grinned.

“…How? You’d need a giant reach for that. Not even you have that much power.”

“You seem to be forgetting one little thing,” Dai continued while gesturing around them. “I can just take it out of the air.”

Zian seemed taken aback for a moment. He obviously hadn’t thought about that.

“Right. Yes. Great!”

He seemed to be considering new possibilities.

“Take in as much as you can. The more you absorb, the smaller the chance it’ll explode.”

“What if I channel it to you?”

“I… I’m not sure I’d know what to do with that much power, but we could try. But you’ll have to stop as soon as I say so. If you don’t, I’ll be the one exploding.”

Dai chuckled.

“That’d be interesting.”

“It really won’t.”

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. But first, let me get those people out of here.”

Dai started gathering energy from his environment, a technique he’d developed with Tharryn’s help. He didn’t really have to put any effort into it, as the energy had built up quite some pressure inside of the time bubble, and seemed to be glad to find a way to escape into. Soon, he’d gathered enough to be able to pull it off, but he kept going, just to see how far exactly he could go. This was the perfect setting to test such a thing, where the energy he took wouldn’t be creating a vacuum and endanger everything around it. Because of this risk, he didn’t use this skill very often. He also didn’t really need to, as his capacity to contain energy was already substantial just in itself.

“Dai,” he heard, rather pressing.

“Yes, yes, I know.”

To exclude him from the command he was about to give, he touched Zian’s shoulder, who flinched at the amount of energy crackling through him. And then he hadn’t even released it yet. He decided to hold back with supplying Zian once they’d get started, or else he’d probably fry him on the spot.

At this point, he didn’t even need to give a verbal command – which was good since he couldn’t shout that loudly – and just pushed get out into the heads of everyone within reach except for Zian and Oleander, who he’d excluded earlier. The workers still present in the room immediately reacted, dropping everything they were working on and heading for the door.

“I guess that worked,” Zian said, watching them as they passed by.

“I’ll give a heads-up if they’re all outside,” Dai said. “I think you have about five minutes to prepare.”

“You know,” Zian said over his shoulder while he approached the blast site. “I have no idea how long we’ve been in here. This thing has completely thrown off my powers. How do you people do this?”

“Do what?”

“Not knowing what time it is.”

“We use these things called clocks,” Dai grinned, leaning against the doorframe while taking in new energy.

“Yes, but… you know what, never mind.”

Zian continued to circle the blast site. It was obvious that he was still being affected by whatever was going on by the way he moved; sluggishly, like every move cost him effort. Dai in the meantime worked on placing shields in various places throughout the building, after they’d been cleared of all workers. Hopefully they would help to minimise the damage just a tiny bit. He made sure to create the most powerful shields he could manage – he had some energy to burn through.

Once everyone had gone outside, including Oleander, Dai placed a shield along the walls of their room as a finishing touch. He noticed some resistance in trying to keep all of them up, probably caused by the two timelines both pushing and pulling on them.

“Ready?” he asked Zian, who’d backed off to lean against the wall, still staring at the middle of the room intensely.

“Guess I have to be,” he sighed while pushing himself off the wall.

“I’ll shield us in case something goes wrong.”

“Thanks for the confidence,” Zian grinned, but didn’t seem very certain himself either.

He moved towards the blast site, stopping just at the edge of the blackened floor.

“Alright,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Alright.”

Dai stood right behind him, lightly touching his shoulder to be able to channel the excess of energy towards him. Or at least a fraction of it. Dai still hadn’t stopped taking in energy, which kind of surprised him, but of course the shields also demanded a lot. By now he wasn’t able to tell if the energy levels inside the building had gone down, as the portion of it that was crackling through his body distracted him too much from getting any accurate readings.

“Here goes nothing,” Zian said as he started to flood the room with his energy, then held it tightly in his grip.

Immediately, there was a reaction, as a deep rumble could be heard from some unidentifiable source. He could feel how Zian increased power, and the rumbling became louder. It was like everything in the room started to vibrate, the spells dangerously warping out of place, sparks flying from them. Some of them flickered, as if they jumped in and out of existence. This must mean it is working, Dai thought. The two timelines were separating again.

Then, without a warning, Zian released his grip, and everything blinked back to the way it was before.

“Are you alright?” Dai worriedly asked.

“I’m fine,” Zian panted. “But it’s not enough. This room isn’t enough. I need to target the entire bubble, or it will all just slip away out of my grasp.”

“It? What’s it?”

Zian vaguely gestured.

“Whatever is causing this. I thought it was just energy, but it feels more like something… alive.”

“Alive?” Dai considered this. “The bomb released a creature?”

“I don’t know. All I can tell is that it keeps slipping through my fingers like smoke.”

“Alright, then we’ll target the entire building. …Can you do that?”

“I can, but not for long. So you’d better up the dosage.”

“By how much?”

“Surprise me.”

Without wasting any time Zian got back to it, spreading his powers further this time, until he had the entire bubble in his grip. Dai felt his energy levels quickly depleting, and continued transferring his. The rumbling started again, more intense this time as the entire building was shaking. He could tell Zian used different techniques, even though he didn’t know what for, but he assumed it was to counteract whatever the clash of two timelines had created. The spells started blinking in and out of existence again; first really fast, almost unnoticeable, then slower and slower until they’d reached a steady pace.

“More,” Zian said. There followed no explanation; he’d been struggling enough to speak the one word while keeping his concentration.

Dai had been supplying him with a steady flow of energy, putting in about the same amount as was going out, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Scared to overdo it, he slowly upped the dose. When it had gotten to a point where many a human would simply give out, he stopped again.

“More!” it sounded again.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

Figuring Zian was no average human, and would know his own limits, Dai obliged. For a moment it seemed like he’d overdone it as Zian needed to steady himself and his grip on the room appeared to weaken. Then he straightened up and sent out a pulse of concentrated energy, the sensation of which was almost surreal. Dai felt its strength, and the force with which it was sent out, but could see none of those things reflected in anything around them it came into contact with. The rumbling stopped. The vibrating stopped. The spells had stopped popping in and out of existence and instead remained hidden. There was just a deafening silence enveloping them, without any hint of movement.

Zian had finally gotten the entire bubble into his grip, Dai realised. As usual, he was still able to move, but for the first time he wasn’t sure whether this had resulted from Zian being unable to stop him. He suspected that in this case he’d simply excluded him, so he’d be able to continue supplying him with energy. They stood like that for a couple of minutes; nothing happening, nothing moving. The only thing still going on was the steady flow of energy Dai still transferred to Zian.

“Did you get it?” he carefully asked.

Zian, still deeply concentrating, didn’t respond.

Another minute passed. Dai felt the energy levels from his surroundings dropping quickly now that time was suspended. Just when he was about to point this out, Zian turned around.

“Get ready,” he said, looking up at him, eyes lit up from the power still coursing through him.

“For what?” Dai asked, right as Zian released his grip.

For the first couple of seconds, all Dai registered was something hitting his shields in the far corners of the building. That feeling rapidly came closer, and just as he’d pulled Zian close – he’d gone strangely limp – and formed a shield to protect them, the world around them lit up in a series of bangs and hisses, accompanied by blasts of brightly coloured energy. It was as if every spell that had been on the walls had simultaneously exploded – which was probably exactly what had happened.

The chaos didn’t take long, and when the smoke had cleared Dai looked around them. Now not only the floor, but also the walls had been blackened. There wasn’t a single spell left standing, and not many other things either, save for some unidentifiable burning remains. Zian had gone unconscious, but Dai could feel a large amount of the energy transferred to him still inside of his body. He’d probably be fine soon. Not wanting to wait for that moment, he lifted him up and carried him outside.

Oleander spotted him immediately as he set foot outside, and came running. The many workers surrounding him seemed disoriented, but otherwise fine.

“Is he alright?”

“Probably. I wouldn’t touch him quite yet, though. Or me.”

A crackle of energy ran down his arm as soon as he said that.

“Follow me,” Oleander said. “We can bring him to my house.”

Zian needed about half an hour to come to. Dai was sitting by his bedside, scrolling through his phone to see what he’d missed, when his friend suddenly gasped and jolted upright.

“Welcome back,” Dai grinned.

After one look in his bewildered eyes he could tell Zian still had a huge excess of energy.

“Did we do it?” was the first thing he asked.

“You did it.”

“Oh, good.”

He dropped backwards onto the pillow again.

“That sure was something.”

“Sure was,” Dai agreed.

“Is everyone alright?” he asked, eyes closed, hands folded behind his head.

“They’re fine. All back to normal. But those affected are being brought to a hospital just to be sure.”

There was a soft knock on the door, which was already open but Oleander didn’t want to intrude, even though this was his house. This man was so damn polite.

“You’re awake,” he said, relieved.

“It appears so.”

Zian sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

“You know what, I’m not tired at all.”

“Not surprising, with all of that leftover energy,” Dai pointed out.

He looked up from his phone.

“I’ve made some calls. You’ll have some people available to help from tomorrow until as long as needed.”

Oleander nodded gratefully.

“Thank you both for your help. It is much appreciated.”

“It’s not every day we get to destroy hundreds of years’ worth of spells and we’re thanked for it,” Zian laughed.

“There was no other way,” Oleander sighed. “We’ll begin reconstruction first thing in the morning. Some of my workers are already clearing out debris. I told them to get some rest, but they insisted.”

“Contact me if you need any help,” Zian offered.

“I will.”

They shook hands – Dai had to put effort into not accidentally shocking him – and went outside, where the sky surprisingly had become lighter.

“Seems like it was just a small patch of darkness,” Zian pointed.

“There will be more,” Dai knew from experience. “It’s going to be a chaotic couple of weeks.”

“Especially for people who’ve never experienced it.”

“Yep, there’s going to be a lot of confusion. Perhaps a bit of panic. There’s always going to be people taking advantage of the dark.”

“It’ll only be for a short while. I think the new cycle is in very capable hands.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Dai glanced at his phone. Surprisingly, there weren’t any urgent messages. But it undoubtedly wouldn’t be long until he’d have to make some kind of public appearance to state his reaction to all that was going on. There was still some time.

“So,” he grinned. “How about we get rid of that energy by doing some target practice? On something big.”

“Sounds great,” Zian grinned back. “But maybe we should visit Tharryn first.”

“To tell him what he’s missed, before he has to hear it from the news? – he’s going to be so mad if he has to hear it from the news…” Dai mumbled to himself.

“That too. But I said I’d bring him a sample of whatever caused this.”

“Oh, right. Did you manage to get any of the energy?”

“I did… and not just the energy; the creature too.”

“Really? Oh, he’s going to love that.”

Zian stopped, hesitating just a bit too long before answering.

“Ehh,” he just said, shrugging.

Dai observed him from head to toe. Zian averted his gaze, suddenly finding the gravel under his shoes very interesting.

“So where’d you put it?” he asked. “I suppose you didn’t happen to have a containment unit on you.”

“I didn’t,” Zian sighed.

Great. This was just what they needed. Knowing Zian, he’d probably have used whatever was in his pockets at the time. Unsafely contained energy could be just as dangerous as any bomb. Especially if there was something sentient involved.

“Then where is it? It’s going to be highly unstable, I’m going to have to shield it right away. Give it to me.”

“I can’t,” Zian said, still staring at his shoes.

Dai crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation. After a while, Zian seemed to have gathered enough courage and looked up.

“I’m the sample.”

#whoops i got carried away #story #52stories2018 #dai #zian

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weekendwarriorblog · 6 years

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – Uncle Drew, Sicario and More

June comes to an end with a couple smaller movies that probably could have been released any time during the year, but their respective studios feel there’s a place for them among all the bigger studio tentpoles and franchises taking up movie screens. Oddly, one of the movies is a sequel to a movie released by the other studio.

UNCLE DREW (Summit/Lionsgate)

The first offering trying to get some business away from the big boys is this PG-13 sports comedy directed by Charles Stone III, whose last movie Step Sisters streamed on Netflix without much of a theatrical release. Even so, Stone has had a number of hits in the early ‘00s including Drumline and Mr. 3000, a baseball comedy starring the late Bernie Mac, so he might be the perfect helmer for this movie.

This one brings together a varied cast of African-American talent including a number of actual basketball players wearing make-up and wigs to make them look like old baseball players. The title character is played by the Boston Celtics’ Kyrie Irving, who originated the character for the short on which this film is based, but a lot of the comedic focus for the movie is put on Lil Rel Howery from Get Out and Tiffany Haddish, who broke out in last summer’s Girls Trip. Lil Rel plays Dax, the coach of a street ball team preparing for the 50thRucker Park Classic, who loses the team to his lifelong enemy, played by Nick Kroll from The League. When Dax sees the elderly Uncle Drew schooling a bunch of kids, Dax enlists Drew who puts together that team.

That team includes former basketball star Shaquile O’Neal, who hasn’t been appearing in many movies in recent years, other than a voice role or two. O’Neal transitioned from the basketball court to the movie screen in the ‘90s with movies like Kazaam and Steel, so this is kind of a throwback to his older fans. Other basketball players (barely recognizable in old make-up) include Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, Chris Webber, Aaron Gordon and Lisa Leslie, so one expects that basketball fans will be the main draw. Rounding out the comedic cast are vets Mike Epps and J.B. Smoove as a comedic Greek chorus. The results are kind of a cross between Johnny Knoxville’s Bad Grandpa and the Barbershop movies.

Other than maybe Haddish, it’s hard to see any of the cast being much of a draw to non-basketball fans, so it’s up to the marketing, which has done a good job selling this comedy even to those outside its expected target audience. This may be a tougher movie to gauge its box office prospects, not being the target audience i.e. I don’t watch basketball, but Lionsgate is giving it a wider-than-usual release for this type of movie into 2,600 theaters, similar to the Barbershop films, all of which opened over $20 million. (For more perspective, Stone’s earlier film Drumline opened with $12.6 million in less than 2,000 theaters, and Uncle Drew is likely to have a similarly regionalized appeal.)

The trailers and ads look amusing enough and the movie isn’t bad (see below), so presuming that the movie was advertised during the last few months through the NBA Championships means that the film’s target older male audience will likely give it a chance and maybe they’ll bring some younger b-ball fans. That should help Uncle Drew make around $15 or 16 million, possibly even more, which should put it just ahead of Sicario despite being in fewer theaters.

Mini-Review: While the movie is about as silly and predictable as one might expect from watching the trailers, there’s definitely something to be said for how funny and entertaining it is, even if you don’t really know the players beneath the make-up. It’s pretty great that Lil Rel Howery, who stole so many scenes in Get Out, has been given such a great vehicle, and some of the funniest moments are when he’s being picked on by the ball players or being bullied by Nick Kroll and Tiffany Haddish, as his ex-girlfriend. Not all of the movie works, and it’s a little hard to believe that a team of “old men” could perform the way that they do, but I guess if you’re a fan of their work on the courts, that can make up for the obvious lack of acting skills chops in Irving and the others. (Yes, even Shaq, who has been acting for decades now.) There probably isn’t that much more to say about the movie, but it’s more in the vein of the Barbershop movies with basketball players instead of comedians. Even having ringers like Mike Epps and J.B. Smoove show up randomly doesn’t fully use their talents, but hopefully the movie will do well so Howery will get more opportunities like this. There’s definitely a potential franchise to be had if they can figure out how to get past the feeling that this should be its own standalone comedy. Rating:7/10

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO (Sony)

While the summer movie season regularly produces a number of sequels to hit franchises, this sequel being released by Sony is the follow-up to a smaller independently-made film that showcased a lot of brilliant talent and ended up creating a cult following while also receiving three Oscar nominations.

The original Sicario was directed by Dennis Villeneuve, who would go onto bigger hits like Arrival (for which he received an Oscar nod) and Blade Runner 2049. The movie was released by Lionsgate in select cities for two weeks, but when it expanded into 2,620 theaters, it made over $12 million on its way to $46.9 million domestic based on a $30 million budget. It also the first produced screenplay by Taylor Sheridan, who also went on to be nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for Hell or High Water.

Emily Blunt isn’t in this sequel, as it instead focuses on the characters played by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro as a CIA fixer and the Colombian assassin he works with to help fight the Mexican cartels. In this case, they’re dealing with the cartels’ human trafficking across the border, which certainly is timely to what’s going on in the country today, which should make it of interest.

Brolin is already having a bang-up summer, having starred in two of the season’s biggest hits, playing Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Cable in Deadpool 2, and the original Sicario has been playing on Netflix to presumably build up anticipation for another movie in the franchise.

In a perfect world, the sequel to Sicario would have a similar bump as John Wick: Chapter 2 had over the original John Wick, opening with twice as much, but it’s hard to tell whether there’s nearly as much anticipation for this sequel. It certainly could do well among Latino males in North America, especially with little direct competition, but the subject might hit close to home to make this a choice for weekend entertainment.

At one point, I thought Sicario would be good for a third place showing, but I think it will fall just short of the far-stronger Uncle Drew, even though that’s in a few less theaters*, just because it’s a far stronger sell as a comedy. Sicario should end up in fourth place with between $12 and 15 million, not great but not awful either. (*Quick Correction: It seems like the estimated theater counts have been adjusted so that Sicario might be in fewer theaters than Uncle Drew, but I’ll know for sure on Thursday.)

Mini-Review: I deliberately didn’t rewatch the original Sicario before seeing this sequel, and it’s probably a good thing, because it would have just left me even more disappointed. I loved that film and it’s look at the government’s war on drugs, but this time, it’s more about the government’s war on terrorism and the Mexican drug cartels transporting people across the border. Sound familiar? Yeah, there are definite correlations with what’s going on in the country right now, but the fact that Oscar-nominated writer Taylor Sheridan probably wrote this movie before Trump was elected makes it ridiculous to even mention this fact (as I just did). Mind you, this isn’t the first movie to explore the Latin American immigrant experience, and there are far better instances, such as Jonas Cuaron’s Desierto and Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre.

Josh Brolins’ FBI agent Matt Graver is commissioned to do whatever it takes to take down the Mexican cartels, which are now being considered terrorists after a supermarket is bombed. The idea is to start a war between the cartels, and the way Matt does this is by kidnapping the young daughter of the top Mexican druglord, played by Isabela Moner from Transformers: The Last Knight (once again playing a character with her own name). What this does is allow Del Toro to have some great scenes with Moner, creating a relationship that almost makes up for the fact that Brolin seems to be phoning it in this time, not to mention there only being a few scenes with Brolin and Del Toro together. (The movie also keeps cutting back to this young man being recruited by the cartels, but it doesn’t make much sense to even have him in the movie until near the end.)

Italian director Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah) leans so heavily on the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir, the Icelandic protégé of the late Johann Johannsen, who scored the original film, that the music’s attempt to create tension instead wears out its welcome fairly quickly.

There’s probably room for another movie if this one does well, but it’s a shame that the movie only starts getting interesting in the last 20 minutes and then it just ends, leaving you wondering why they couldn’t cut something out from the dull first two-thirds of the movie.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado is noticeably lacking due to the absence of so much of what made the first film so good, particularly Villaneuve, so it’s hard to imagine many people will be as into this as the first movie. Rating: 6/10

Of course, neither of these movies will have enough of an impact to knock the 1-2 punch of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Incredibles 2out of the top spots with the former having a bigger drop in its second weekend then the latter in its third. Another film to keep an eye on is the Bollywood biopic Sanju, starring Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay Dutt, which is a highly-anticipated film being released by Fox International Productions (FIP) into around 350 theaters, which should be enough to get it into the top 10 as well. (It won’t have Thursday previews, so it might be hard to tell how it’s doing until Friday estimates on Saturday.)

So the Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) - $63.6 million -57%

2. The Incredibles 2 (Disney-Pixar) - $44 million -45%

3. Uncle Drew (Lionsgate) - $15.6 million N/A

4. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Sony) - $12.6 million N/A

5. Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros.) - $7.6 million -35%

6. Tag (New Line/WB) – $4.5 million -45%

7. Deadpool 2 (20thCentury Fox) - $2.9 million -45%

8. Sanju (FIP) - $2.5 million N/A

9. Solo: A Star Wars Story (Lucasfilm/Disney) - $2.3 million -50%

10. Hereditary (A24) – $2 million -47%

LIMITED RELEASES, ETC.

I’m happy to say that there’s quite a lot of good stuff being released in select cities this weekend, including two of the bigger buzz films from Sundance.

Opening on Thursday at the Metrograph in NYC is Bobbito Garcia’s doc Rock Rubber 45s (Saboteur Media), which is basically an overview of his amazing life and career, starting as a street basketball prodigy, to his tenure working in A&R at Def Jam during its heyday, becoming a sought-after DJ, as well as a sneaker-designing pioneer. Garcia is a bit of a Zelig with his presence felt in so many different aspects of music, sports and fashion, and if you’re into streetball then you should definitely check out this movie either before or after seeing Uncle Drew. The Puerto Rican Garcia enlisted a number of celebrity friends/fans including Lin Manuel Miranda, Michael Rapaport and Rosie Perez to help tell his story, and yeah, it’s a little weird for Garcia to be directing a doc about himself, but hey, who else would know him better? (And there’s some really personal revelations made in the doc.)

Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik returns with Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street), starring Ben Foster and newcomer Thomasin McKenzie as father Will and daughter “Tom” living in the wilds of Portland, basically wanting to live by their own rules instead of society. When they’re found by the authorities, they’re forced to change their ways, but it’s going to be tougher for Will, a former soldier, to adjust to a different life than the one they’ve created for themselves in the woods. This fantastic drama will open in select cities Friday.

Tim Wardle’s doc Three Identical Strangers (Neon), a hit out of the Sundance Film Festival, takes a look at the three young men who discovered at the age of 19 that they were one third of a triad of triplets. They spend the rest of their lives taking advantage of the fame they received from the amazing revelation only to discover a dark secret about why they were separated at birth. This is a great doc that I highly recommend if you’re looking for more of the genre to see after Won’t You Be My Neighbor and RBG. (What a GREAT year for docs we’re having!)

Jessica Chastain stars in the Susanna White-directed Western Woman Walks Ahead (A24) as New York painter Katherine Weldon who travels to North Dakota to paint a portrait of Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes), who is contending with the government trying to get his people to agree to their land treaty. Also starring Sam Rockwell and Ciaran Hinds, this is a decent historical drama that includes a bit of romance but also offers an inherent timeliness with our current government treating immigrants as badly as the government did its natives back in the 19thCentury. I also had a chance to interview director Susanna White at Toronto, and you can read that interview and learn more about the film over at NextBestPicture.com.

If you’re looking for some alternatives to the wide releases, I can recommend all four movies above.

After that, there’s a few odds and ends, including Pasha Patriki’s undersea action-thriller Black Water (Saban Films/Lionsgate) starring ‘80s legends Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren – seriously? Have these two never been in a movie together?!? –with Van Damme playing an operative being kept as a prisoner by the CIA on a submarine until he joins forces with a fellow prisoner, played by Lundgren.

That movie is not to be confused with Dark River (Filmrise), Clio Barnard’s psychological drama starring Ruth Wilson as Alice, a woman who returns to her hometown after the death of her father to claim the family farm from her brother (Mark Stanley). It’ll play in select cities and be available On Demand after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival last year.

The Craft and Hamlet II director Andrew Fleming reunites with Steve Coogan for Ideal Home (Brainstorm Media), which co-stars Paul Rudd, the two of them playing a bickering gay couple whose life is changed when a ten-year-old shows up claiming to be one of their grandsons.

Kate Bosworth stars in Mike P. Nelson’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Domestics (Orion Classics) along with Tyler Hoechlin, which will be released in theaters Thursday, then On Demand Friday, so don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

I haven’t seen Xavier Legrand’s French drama Custody (Kino Lorber), which opens at the IFC Centerafter running the festival gauntlet, but it involves a couple getting divorced who get into a custody battle. The IFC Center is also playing a 4k restoration of Alexandre Rockwell’s In the Soup starring Steve Buscemi following its premiere at Tribeca a few months back.

Israeli filmmaker Ofir Raul Grazier’s The Cakemaker (Strand), the Centerpiece of the New York Jewish Film Festival is about Thomas, a gay German baker who begins an affair with a married Israeli businessman, but when he dies, Thomas travels to Jerusalem under a false identity and begins working with his lover’s widow. It will open at the Quadin New York on Friday. (The Quad is also starting an ambitious series called “The New York Woman” with female-centric films set in New York City. Lots of good stuff in there!)

Other stuff out this weekend include Matt Osterman’s sci-fi film Hover (Syfy Films), written and starring Aussie actor Cleopatra Coleman (The Last Man on Earth, Step Up Revolution); Oscar-winning filmmaker Louis Psihoyos’ new doc Gamechangers (Parade Deck Films) about UFC champ James Wilks’ road to recovery after being injured; Daniel McCabe’s doc This is Congo (Abramorama), which looks at the ongoing conflict in the African country (on the 58thAnniversary of its independence); and also the self-explanatory Larger than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story (The Orchard) will open in Chicago Friday, in L.A. on July 20, and then be On Demand and digital starting July 31.

If you’re in New York, you’ll probably already know about the New York Asian Film Festival, which kicks off its 17thyear this Friday with Tominaga Masanori’s Dynamite Graffiti and closing with Erik Matti’s Phillipine film BuyBust. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to see any of the movies in advance, but there are always some nice surprises.

But honestly, if you don’t feel like going out to the movies and just want to stay home and watch Season 2 of the Netflix lady wrestling show Glow, then I certainly won’t blame you.

That’s it for this week. Next week is the 4thof July (on Wednesday) with Blumhouse’s The First Purgetaking on Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp opening Friday. I hope to have the column up by Weds. morning.

#TheWeekendWarrior WhatToWatchThisWeekend UncleDrew Sicario SicarioDayOfTheSoldado BoxOffice Movies Reviews

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hsews · 6 years

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Since the Korean War was fought in the 1950s, these soldiers would be now 90 years old at the very least, meaning all those many people asking Trump to bring their remains home would be at least 110 years if not older.

Illustration: John Shakespeare

Photo:

What else did he really mean us all to believe in the address? – Louise Whelan, Chatswood

Frankly, only time will tell if the achievements of Trump and Kim’s meeting will grow over time to outshine his meeting with the Kardashian Kim.

At least with the original Kim meeting, one American was set free after a number of decades for a first offence, an act of humane clemency which, if they ever heard of it, may inspire greatly the imprisoned and economically deprived masses in North Korea, some of whom will have been waiting since 1948 for the freedoms that Europe and Japan have enjoyed since 1945.

Surely our recent record of humane treatment of refugees could not suffer by offering refuge to Kim refugees, as long as they managed their alleged political influence a bit more discreetly than their neighbours. – Garry P Dalrymple, Earlwood

What else could we expect from a lying braggart but mendacious bluster? So it was with Trump’s post-summit press conference, a nauseating, hour-long, self-congratulatory rant.

President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

Photo: AP

Only two things were achieved by this meeting, and neither were mentioned by Trump. First, a murderous and dictatorial international pariah secured legitimacy and security for his regime without giving up a thing. Second, a shallow conman secured a gold mine of self-promotional material to con his way towards a second term.

Everyone else is a loser. The art of the deal indeed. – Michael Hinchey, New Lambton

I think of my old school motto – res non verba – when Trump claims his handshake with Kim is history-making. Such political handshakes offer great photo opportunities but have an unproductive history. Handshakes are a beginning but also, too often, the end. – Ron Sinclair, Bathurst

Talk is cheap.There will be likely many a twist and turn before Trump and Kim arrive at a quid pro quo agreement .Any talk of a permanent paradigm shift is presumptuous as both are erratic ego-driven leaders. – Steve Ngeow, Chatswood

The blurry line between friends and enemies

Donald Trump is carving a new path through the world order inspired by the adage to keep your enemies close.

So allies are now backbenchers and the new ministry is made up of strong men and bad guys: Putin, Kim, Duarte, Xi for a start.

Trump is on a slippery slope with delisting voters and demonising minorities. – Robert Caraian, Crows Nest

It’s come to this. The leader of Canada is a very, very bad man. The leader of North Korea is a good one. – Max Staples, Wagga Wagga

An interesting few days in the world of Trump. On one hand Justin Trudeau, who has brought a humanity and balance to his country, and on the other a leader who has only brought terror and death to his people.

It is to be hoped that Trump and Kim can continue their friendship because, by the end of the year, it’s likely the only friends the US will have in the world will be Russia, Israel and North Korea. – Charles Hargrave, Elizabeth Bay

Trump is so out of his depth. It is so much easier to be presidential in a meeting with a weakling impoverished nation than be an equal participant among equivalent nations of wealth and influence at the G7.

I truly pray for the impoverished North Koreans that actual change can come of this meeting but I can’t help but feel that it’s all window dressing and egomaniacal posturing on both sides. – Rebecca Semple, Abbotsford

While we rightly focus on the appalling human rights abuses in Kim’s North Korea, the Australian media has been almost silent on the atrocities for which the Americans have never atoned during the Korean War itself (“Remember who Kim is and his victims”, June 13).

In a remarkable 2017 book, NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Pembroke chronicles the grotesque almost total obliteration of North Korea, its infrastructure and millions of people with more bombs being dropped on that one small nation than in the entire WWII Pacific campaign.

As we all hope for this summit to actually mean something, let our media and government also call on the Americans to own up to what Pembroke concludes were crimes under international law. – Bruce Donald, Waverton

Any graphologist will tell you that Trump’s brutal, heavy signature is evidence of his egocentric, aggressive and cruel personality. By contrast, Kim’s tippy-toeing lightly upwards suggests he is enormously optimistic, even perhaps away with the fairies.

The scary thing is that the world’s future hangs on the actions of these two men. – Nedra Orme, Neutral Bay

A hairy call

US President Trump and his hair.

Photo: AP

Please tell me I am not the only one alarmed that the responsibility for making sure that the world does not end up in a ball of flames and rubble has been left in the hands of two men sporting such weird and unfathomable hairstyles. Does not the hair maketh man? – Cristina Corleto, Stanmore

I reckon the summit between the US and North Korea has been very successful. There have been literally millions of photos, mentions and column inches in the media of Trump and even the possibility of a Trump apartment complex on a North Korean beach. A very successful summit, indeed. – Hilton Symes, Hamilton (Vic)

I hear President Trump has given orders to remove maple syrup from the breakfast menu. – Julie Robinson, Cardiff

Bully boys meet, pose, pander and sign a vapid document. Kim plays Trump and gets a concession. Tune in for the next instalment of world reality television when the narcissistic protagonists need another high. – Deb McPherson, Gerringong

William Shakespeare’s report on the meeting would have been the most prescient: “It is a tale told by an idiot (two actually) full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.” – David Goss, Woonona

For sale: prime NSW real estate sites

How long will it be before the NSW government decides to sell off Government House and the Conservatorium of Music (“Museum site was marked for housing”, June 13)?

Think of what could be built there. I suppose it will be a decision of cabinet made commercial in confidence and nobody has the right to see the business case. – John Bracey, Forestville

Is anyone really shocked that the NSW government’s Powerhouse Museum business case involves the sale of prime Parramatta real estate so the state government can build two super-towers on our riverbank? In return for the land sell-off it’s been revealed that Parramatta gets half the museum for double the entry fee.

What family can afford $150 tickets? It’s cheaper for a family of four to take a train from Western sydney to visit the Powerhouse in Ultimo.

This should be the start of a great cultural tourism economy for western Sydney. Instead what we are being offered is a second-rate hatchet job. – Suzette Meade, Toongabbie

The NSW government selling off iconic sites for development? Well I never, what will they think of next? – Janine Burdeu, Mona Vale

Life in the slow lane

Will the proposed $2.6 billion F6 extension consist of two-lane tunnels in each direction only so that in years to come the NSW government will have an excuse to contribute a further $8 billion to the private contractors to add another single lane on either side (“New toll: costly catch for motorist on F6”, June 13)?

After the same debacle with the M5 it is incomprehensible that this road format was even considered, let alone approved. Not only does it allow no capacity for growth, the inherent disadvantages of a two-lane tunnel in the event of a breakdown or accident should be obvious to even the most moronic politician. – John Collins, Loftus

The joy of reading

Reading wars (“Phonics wins reading wars, research finds”, June 13)? Only in academia. Those at the coal face have been using a blend of strategies for nearly four decades in my time in teaching.

Best practice by those teaching the initial stages of reading know those that need what strategy and when. A basic understanding of letter/sound relationship combined with a solid core of sight words and the children, in a majority of cases, “get it”.

Watching them take to reading is one of the great joys of teaching. – David Woodward, Warners Bay

So refreshing to hear that phonics is now recognised by one of our university research teams as a significant aid in the teaching of reading.

So boring to hear that this war just goes on and on. Fifty years ago, as a remedial reading adviser, I was asked to talk to a gathering of local infants teachers.

At the conclusion, one approached me and said in hushed tones how she appreciated the emphasis I had placed on the teaching of phonics as part of a balanced reading system but she stressed that she used phonics very discretely as she recognised the distaste that the system was viewed officially at that time.

If those people who regularly, historically, attack phonics took time to more fully understand how much of the English language follows simple, logical, understandable rules. – Ed Raftery, Davistown

Turning teeth green

Why would Byron Bay residents want fluoride in their water (“Minister won’t force towns to add fluoride to water supplies”, June 13), after all, how damaging can a diet of kale be to one’s teeth. – Peter Miniutti, Ashbury

Stop the NRL clock

The NRL wants free flowing football so, not unexpectedly, it looks for someone other than itself to blame and this time the referees cop it (“Penalty blitz to end as NRL overhauls sin-bin system”, June 13).

Maybe, the NRL could make the effort to discover what the fans want. Near the top of their wish list is their desire to see 80 minutes of action. Stop the game clock every time the ball is out of play.

Admittedly, that’ll require some adjustments, not the least the need for games to start earlier, perhaps half an hour, if current finishing times have to be maintained. – Col Shephard, Yamba

Suffer the children

Another report about dysfunction in the child protection system (“System ‘failing’ children”,June 13). Unfortunately we have seen these reports for decades and nothing changes.

No system can protect children until we get on top of substance abuse. That is where the emphasis should be and unfortunately until it is nothing will change for the kids involved. – Greg Loder, Springwood

The first straw

Plastic straws are on the EU’s environmental hit list.

Photo: AP

Whenever I see words like “fashionable”, “virtuous”, “trifling” used in relation to our environment I feel fury and despair (“Banning plastic straws won’t save the oceans”, June 13). Our environment is not a boutique issue, it’s our only home. Replacing plastic straws falls in the category of “every little action counts” as does declining a plastic shopping bag, taking my own coffee cup to a cafe and leaving plastic-wrapped meats and veg in the shop. – Sue Young, Bensville

Days of rest and recreation

All this fuss again about the significance of the June and October long weekends when the reality is that they simply mark the beginning and the end of the official ski season (Letters, June 13). – John Truman, St Leonards

With suggestions we should abolish Labour Day, due to unions having low memberships these days, perhaps the same can be said about Christmas Day and Easter public holidays. With so few people attending church surely these religious days, and maybe even Sundays, can be relegated to being just another ordinary work day? – Con Vaitsas, Ashbury

Our culture is evolving

I think the point that is missing is that we are living in a cultural melting pot (Letters, June 13). A new Australian culture is evolving with contributing influences from all the many cultures that constitute our society. Western culture is at its basis but we all need to recognise we are a part of a new Renaissance and should revel in the wonder of it all. No thanks to Malcolm but we live in exciting times. Enjoy. – John Grinter, Katoomba

Stars in his eyes

Now that’s a film (“Hogan to star as himself in new film”, June 13)! – Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga

Hoges might end up being the only person to watch it. – Mustafa Erem, Terrigal