#so i can handle both of those environments but suburbs do not do it for me

[murderballadeer]

i am never falling for "come to toronto, you can stay with me in richmond hill" again. toronto is so much more urban sprawl-y than montreal and i had no idea how far richmond hill is from well. literally everything

#soapbox #i also just don't do suburbs generally like i'm a city kid who has spent a lot of time in the countryside #so i can handle both of those environments but suburbs do not do it for me #last winter i stayed with my mom's family for a week in scarborough #which made me a montreal city kid trapped in suburban toronto. hellish

[boltcore07]

The Sims 2 Tutorial: How to create your own subhood (shopping district,downtown,uni,etc.)

Hello guys! I'm Luca and welcome! Today I'm gonna show you how to create your own subhood! Before we begin

This tutorial is based on this tread from MTS: https://modthesims.info/t/502306This is optional but I highly recommend it,you should create the subhood in an artificial game environment using any game starter tool: https://modthesims.info/d/250555/anygamestarter-v-2-1-3-for-cd-dvd-games-upd-29-dec-2017.html(For people who use the cd/DVD version) https://modthesims.info/d/604873/tester-needed-anygamestarter-v-2-2-0-uc-ultimate-collection-upd-25-dec-2017.html(For people who use the ultimate collection, this also works with the origin ultimate collection repack from g4tw) This tutorial doesn't require simPE but it can be used optionally for just checking to see if everything is in order. You will also need bulk rename:https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Please note that this technique will not work for neighborhoods with attached subhoods, it will only work for unattached neighborhoods and subhood templates like the ones shipped with the game. - If you have FreeTime installed, you will have to manually disable the FreeTime stealth neighborhood to create an empty environment. The AnyGameStarter will not do this for you correctly. See this post for detailed instructions. - If you try to add multiple Downtowns to a neighborhood, only sims from the first Downtown added will actually appear in your neighborhood. The game will remove the sims from all additional Downtown subhoods before those subhoods are added to your neighborhood. If you want to add multiple occupied Downtowns to the same neighborhood, you may not be able to use more than one Downtown template. - If you just want a generic subhood, then you will probably want a Suburb. As examples, all of the stealth neighborhoods from Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, and Apartment Life are Suburbs; most Mega-Hoods are also made with Suburbs. - If your neighborhood has occupied apartments and you want to change it to a subhood, you will have to move the sims out first. Do not have occupied apartments in a subhood template; occupied apartments will be corrupted when the subhood is added to a primary neighborhood. Unoccupied apartment buildings should have no problem. - Sims in a subhood template will receive a new ID when a subhood is attached to a neighborhood. This can cause problems if the game doesn't properly update the ID everywhere it is used. Most of the time, the game updates the ID correctly. However, you should be aware that this problem can occur and be careful with sim relationships in subhoods. A problem has been noticed with hired maids needing to be rehired. There may be other types of relationships that are also handled incorrectly. Be sure to test your neighborhood or subhood before sharing it. (this info was pasted from the original post)

This method is a work in progress still

Step 1:Creating the anygame environment So after you have installed any game starter, open it! Then open the new shortcut that the setup file has created, Agree to the terms&liciense then select the packs that you would like! Mansion and garden will always be included for the ultimate collection version of the program (i think). Click next and select create an empty game (no maxis content included) then click next and install! Step 2: Turning On Debug Mode After the anygame has been created,run it and you should have no neighborhoods,if you do then you did something wrong,try again. Close the game and then go into the anygame documents >EA Games> The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection (for UC users)>Config and create a new text document called userStartup.cheat,then open it and type boolprop testingcheatsenabled true

Step 3: Creating the neirghborhood (later convert it) In order to create a subhood,we need to create a normal hood then convert it into a subhood,so enter the game then click the new hood button then click yes,select your preferred terrain and select ok then wait for it to load then leave the game. Step 4: Renaming your neighborhood

Install Bulk rename uttility then run it. I know it might look hard but it’s actually very easy,navigate to the hood you just created,this is the UC default anygame location : Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame1\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Neighborhoods\N001 Select the match case option in the replace(3) section and also select subfolders in the filters section You need to rename the hood because it might conflict if you don t rename it

Make sure your characters folder and storytelling folder are both empty!!! If it's not then you did something wrong. It is recommended to stick to the maxis naming conventions Here is the standard naming convention: University: U### Downtown: D### Suburbs (Open for Business): B### Vacation (Far East): A### Vacation (Mountain Lake): M### Vacation (Island): T### I named my hood B002 because I wanted to do a shopping district aka subhood, name your hood something different than B001 or D001 or U001,U002,U003 because otherwise, it will replace the maxis original subhoods After renaming the hood folder, in the white area in which you see your hood folder then select ctrl+a and then go to the replace section and in the replace section type the original hood name with the “_” and in the “with” section type your desired new hood name and then press rename!,be sure to use both suffixes or prefixes!! Step 5: Launch the environment and convert the hood If you do not see your neighborhood on the main menu you’ve done something wrong. If you see it then you are good to go :D, Make sure it looks as it should! In the neighborhood view of the neighborhood that you want to change, open the cheat box (CTRL+SHIFT+C) and type the cheat: changeNeighborhoodType [primary/university/downtown/suburb/asia/mountains/tropics] For example if I want to change my hood into a shopping district I would type changeNeighborhoodType suburb If the game started the loading screen then you did everything right! If the game gave you an object error or cheat error then you did something wrong such as debug mode not being enabled (shown in the steps above) After the game finished loading it should look something like this in my example :

building

You can also check simPE if you’re not sure! Step 6:Install the subhood/downtown/university or etc University (UC) C:\ProgramFiles\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\University Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Downtown (UC) C:\ProgramFiles\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\EP2\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Shopping District (UC) C:\ProgramFiles\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Best of Bussines\EP3\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Vacation Destination(UC) C:\ProgramFiles\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate University(disk) C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Downtown(disk) C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Suburb(disk) C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Vacation Destination(disk) C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate You should download this mod which fixes the add a new subhood selection menu! https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=420924 (it was created by the person who created the original post that inspired me to make this one) You can now start building the sub-hood freely and I hope I helped you! Have fun!

[prof-hemlock]

Influencing Factors on, and the Realities of, Pokemon Ownership

The next topic to explore would be that of the realities of incorporating Pokemon into home life. The game and anime have provided a number of different and conflicting narratives surrounding the difficulty of raising numerous Pokemon. In both materials, we see most people limiting themselves to a few Pokemon that serve the roles of companions and friends, implying either a preference or barrier towards owning multiple Pokemon. However, for our protagonists, we never see Ash struggle to afford enough food for his Pokemon or him giving his Pokemon regular exercise. Here, we see the ideal of living with and raising six Pokemon removed from the reality of costs, upkeep, and care.

First and foremost, if we take into account my last post surrounding certification, our first influencing factor on Pokemon ownership would be the limit imposed on the number that can be owned depending on trainer level. Someone who just wants to have Pokemon as pets and not to battle or enter contests would be limited to two, and the maximum party limit would be granted to professionals. What I failed to mention last time was that for breeders or farmers, these restrictions would not be exact. “Stock” would not be counted as in the party of any one person, and so those Pokemon would not count towards their Pokemon limit. I imagine that breeders, farmers, and the like would have to receive a license separate from battling to raise such a large number of Pokemon.

Next, anyone looking to adopt, catch, or own Pokemon would have to look at their financial situations. Pokemon are individualistic in their needs, from most grass types only needing the same care as a houseplant, to Snorlax requiring a vast amount of food each day. Even among grass-types and other “easy to care for” Pokemon, their needs could change depending on the environment. For example, as opposed to how some plants may just not grow and go dormant during winter, grass-type Pokemon don’t stop existing. In colder environments, such Pokemon would probably require sun lamps, humidifiers, or other tools to keep healthy. Similarly, keeping an ice-type Pokemon in hot, arid climates would be incredibly expensive as those Pokemon would probably require high levels of air conditioning or even refrigeration. So, not only would interested trainers have to concern themselves with independent factors like feeding, but they’d also have to consider their living situations. I, as someone who lives in a state and town with numerous lakes and streams, would be better suited to keep fish-like Pokemon than those who are completely landlocked and without freshwater sources.

Another resource to consider would be space. Pokemon range from as small as four inches tall to quite literally as large as a whale. One’s living situation would greatly impact how many Pokemon they could keep. Although Pokemon can be stored in Pokeballs, I imagine it would not only be frowned upon to keep them constantly contained, but also dangerous for that Pokemon to go so long without exercise. In terms of having enough space, someone living in the cities in an apartment would probably be limited to less or smaller Pokemon than someone living out in the country with wide-open spaces. What should also be considered is the number of Pokemon that the entire household could support. For large families living in the suburbs, they would probably impose house rules on how many Pokemon each person is allowed, or that the whole house is allowed. Living alone would grant someone the unique privilege of being able to allot the rest of their home to their Pokemon. Not only would having enough space for Pokemon to be out of their balls be important, but also the surrounding area for exercise. For highly active Pokemon, such as some fighting-types or flying-types, it may be necessary to have a “roaming area” for them to explore, as opposed to “house Pokemon” like Skitty or Lillipup.

The topic of exercise leads me to my next area for consideration: trainer’s personal lifestyle. Similarly to how real pet owners need to be ready to accommodate their pets, so should trainers. A person who hates physical exercise, loathes leaving the house, and who is generally more introverted should probably refrain from Pokemon of high energy that require lots of physical activity, such as running Pokemon like Doduo. Trainers may then gravitate towards Pokemon that do match their lifestyles, such as their careers, hobbies, or interests. We see this in the games with swimmers loving their water-type Pokemon and fighting-type experts training alongside their teams. The selected Pokemon should match one’s personal style.

Next, personal type-preferences would have to be considered by the individual. Although danger levels vary even within typings, some types, such as fire or ghost, would be guaranteed to come with their own difficulties and dangers to consider. Normal-type pokemon don’t generally come with the threat of burning one’s house down. If a trainer is not yet ready to handle a type of Pokemon, whether because they are too young, not experienced enough, not equipped with the resources, or simply because they may be afraid of that type of Pokemon, they should keep that in mind when they choose.

The shortest factor on Pokemon selection to consider would be that of the role one would want their Pokemon to play, whether its as a pet, companion, teammate, or help around the house or in their career or hobby. This wouldn’t be so much a barrier as it would be a way to choose what Pokemon would best suit that person. Even then, most Pokemon are capable of filling any role with the right care, love, and training.

Our final influencing factor would be environment and access. What Pokemon someone could have would be directly dependent on what they could have had the opportunity to encounter, purchase, trade for, or borrow. The types of biomes any one person inhabits or has inhabited influences that person's selection pool of Pokemon, and the ability to travel would expand those selections. I’ll be saving my thoughts on Pokemon biomes, environments, and locations for a later post so I can then dissect it with more care. And with that, we come to the conclusion of the influencing factors on Pokemon ownership.

#pokemon #pokemon au #pokemon headcanon #what if pokemon were real #pokemon worldbuilding #pokemon irl #pokemon in real life #a prof hemlock dissertation #pokemon trainer #pokemon training #feebas #hemlock artworks

[trnhtm]

[WIP] Ekko Alpha preview + Ekko CC update (forgot to change the hair) but you get what i mean

My man, my boo, i’m so whipped albeit not playing any LOL (my brain cant handle combat games) 😭😭😭 I have his solo render with this pic on my tumblr backgrounds if you visit my url on desktop, since i only have the preview pic cap with my phone here this will have to make do.

Anyways i done did the thumbnail for his cc, BUT havent made the 10+ other swatches i had planned. Also i already made the sims screenshots of both households for their renders but havent got to edit them yet. My other project that im handling irl is up on my face atm and i might hold the ‘pack’ off until after Christmas 🤕 hopefully i wont be too busy then.

Also i saw this in the MV:

I’m tempted but maybe not 🧐 but yea just maybe...

And @ EA please we NEED more urban/city environments!! I’m sick and tired of all the grass and suburbs without real farm animals everywhere okay?! My god pleaseeee like we have enough of those now can we have one more city map to play with??? Like a las vegas or sth?? Dubai??? Idk anything, i want a sewer level, some trashy urban environment (not like stranger ville that’s some remote town facility shit) okay? Ok im done with my mini rant 🤧

Have a good week people, #TS4xLOL on my tumblr for previous updates 🙆🏻‍♀️

#simblr #TS4xLOL #the sims 4 #sims 4 #trnhtm mods #sims 4 mod #ts4 #ts4 true damage #true damage #lol true damage #league of legends #league of legends fanart #ts4 cas cc #ekko cc ts4 #ekko #true damage ekko #bc im ekko trash #ekko league of legends

[sarahlwlee]

31 Stories in 31 Days: Home

What is this? As part of celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), I am writing a story a day about my experiences as a Chinese Malaysian immigrant in America. My friends and family have provided numerous one-word prompts to help me create these stories. Today’s word prompt was contributed by Susan S. and the word is “Home”. Thank you Susan for your contribution and thank you everyone who stopped by to read my story today.

I grew up in a small suburb called Seri Petaling. The house I lived in was a two-storey terrace house where every house was connected densely and your roof tiles were interconnected with both your neighbor on your right and your left. The only thing separating the houses was a wall made of cement.

Our house had a large metal gate, a wire fence that served as partitions between houses, a small entrance that could comfortably fit two cars and a small garden in the back of the house. The garden had a large mango tree, a coconut tree, a variety of cacti, hanging orchids, Ixora bushes and a small area of green grass that felt like a soft pillow every time you stepped on it. My favorite part of the garden was a metal swing for two and I spent many days on that swing as my playground. My least favorite chore while living in this house was washing my white shoes by hand -- this was part of my primary school uniform.

This house holds a lot of memories inside. From late night movies to great conversations and laughter and also my first kiss. I have stopped calling it my home after my last stay in that house. It was during my trip home to Malaysia in 2012. The last time I was home prior to 2012 was in 2006, when I had just completed by bachelor’s degree and returned home to find a job. I remember that trip in 2012 well because it was my first trip I took around the world in eight days. My flight plan: Chicago > Korea > Malaysia > Sri Lanka > Dubai > Egypt > London > Chicago. I would never do this flight plan again, especially in eight days and it was an emotional trip overall.

My husband didn’t travel with me because we couldn’t afford both of us to visit Malaysia at that time. He was extremely supportive and knew this was an important trip for me to see my family. During this trip I had the opportunity to stay in my old room. Everything was still the same — from old trinkets, books, sunflower blanket, hair clips, trophies and even my collection of yo-yos. It really felt like home. I can’t quite describe it completely but it’s that sense of security, comfort and familiarity of what I called home. When I slept I was able to see all the glow in dark stars I had put up all over the walls of my room and drift off to sleep in the sky. The room was air conditioned optimally cold, especially for the hot sunny muggy weather in Malaysia.

My mom had given me a head’s up that she was going to sell the house and move to smaller condo closer to where my siblings lived so that she could be closer to the grandkids. She also said to get rid of anything that I didn’t want in my room and take the things I wanted with me when I returned back to Kalamazoo. I found myself throwing a lot of things away into trash bags, such as school trophies, gifts from old crushes and clothing that did not fit me anymore. While I was sorting through things in my room, I walked down memory lane with smiles and tears. It was such a surreal experience because I didn’t want my mother to sell the house. I wanted this house to be mine forever. I remember every thing that transpired in that house, even the loose wooden tiles on the floor and the cool touch of the marble floor in the main living room.

I eventually brought myself to accept the circumstances because I didn’t have time to process or even bargain for more time. So I packed the memories I wanted to keep, threw away what I didn’t want to remember and left the rest to my mother to sort out. In hindsight, leaving whatever that was left to my mother to sort out was a great burden to her. She didn’t know what to do with everything in the house once the house was sold. She did what I would have done, which is just to throw everything away because everything had a memory. Throwing away a memory was easier than unpacking it or even processing it because dealing with it would mean many bottled emotions would erupt and the shame that came with it. This was just how we handled complex emotions at home. It wasn’t healthy and often we would get hurt along the way.

When I left Malaysia, I was distracted by the remainder of my trip to places I had never been and an amazing dessert to explore. By the time I reached Kalamazoo, it finally sunk in that my home was gone and I could never go back anymore to that house. It was a difficult thought to fathom and still is today. It brings tears to my eyes when I do think or talk about it. I also understood that I needed to make a new home for myself — a place that gave me those same feelings of security, comfort and familiarity — especially now that I have a husband who is now the closest family and person to me in America.

We had moved into a house in downtown Kalamazoo when we got married in 2008 and we lived on the top floor while we rented the first floor as apartments as part of my husband’s venture into real estate holdings. I remember thinking how temporary this living environment will be and one day we will find a house that we can build our home together. When I returned from my trip to Malaysia in 2012, I changed my perspective that this was no longer a temporary house. This is now my home and I will fill it with all the memories I want. We would create our own adventures, define and redefine what living would look like in our home.

I remember one day when I was talking to my husband on the phone, he was on third shift at a security job. I said, “I can’t wait for you to come home.” I remember catching myself during the call that I said this house in Kalamazoo is my home. My husband caught it too and he said it made him smile to hear me say that our house was my home, our home.

Now, whenever someone asks me where are you from, I have never hesitated to say “Kalamazoo.” Even though sometimes I still get the same variety question of “Where are you really from?”, “You don’t look like you’re from here…” or “You speak so well, where did you come from originally?” In the past, I would brush this inquiry off and just say Malaysia. However I would re-state to the person that Kalamazoo is now my second home, which seemed to make a lot of sense to the other person but I felt that Kalamazoo was my main home. Why would I have to defend my choice of home by saying it’s my second home?

I have learned that home is what you make of it and you carry it with you wherever you go. It doesn’t have a ranking order nor does it matter what it looks like, you know its home because you feel it in the pit of your stomach, you feel it in your heart and you know in your mind that this is where you are meant to be.

#aapi #shortstory #immigrant #chinese #malaysian #america #home

[packhuntcr]

☼ - appearance headcanon

Ahhhhhhh Jakey-boi. My walking contradiction.

Dude simultaneously cannot give a single solitary fuck… and is shockingly vain. Like let’s take a look at this little shit:

Credit to @hollandvalleythotpatrol for the photos. What would I do without Banni? Maybe she’ll write him for me next.

Handsome motherfucker. There’s a lot going on there. Like dude is scarred as fuck, obviously. Chemical burns, rashes [Gulf war syndrome, anyone?], dirty as all get out. Actually, that’s pretty fuckin’ clean for Jacob. I still insist his jeans would stand up on their own. But… lots of evidence Jacob doesn’t care about his appearance. Buuutttttt also a good bit of time invested into it as well. His beard’s trimmed, kept fairly neat. No ZZ-Top knock offs here. I’m 80% sure that’s dirt on his neck, not stubble. The same transfers over to Jacob’s hair. Shaved close, no peachfuzz stubble rising on the sides. Plainly, Jacob kept the military habits up {once he decided to live rather than wait to die}. Speaking of haircuts: Jacob’s pushing those army regulations.  

“The hair on the top of the head must be neatly groomed and may not be trendy, spiky, or disheveled in appearance. The hair must be tapered and conform to the shape of the head, and the neckline must be tapered. Hair must not be allowed to fall over the ears or touch the collar (except that the taper at the neckline may extend past the collar).”

My Lieutenant Colonel at Fort Hood brother says he wouldn’t consider Jacob’s hair Army Regulation without a good trim [my brother’s also a hard ass and annoyed by me, so take that with a grain of salt and me hearing what I want to hear]. So Jacob’s gone a little rogue here. Neatly trimmed sides, maintaining the shape, but “too long on top”. Who can blame him? At 47 (presumably) he’s still got a nice, thick head of hair. Not a grey in sight. Buttt… if we look at his beard here:

It’s a bit patchier on this side, thinner where the scarring encroaches on the jaw. So it’s safe to assume that his scarred skin has been damaged to such a point that it doesn’t reliably grow hair. And let’s keep looking at that scarring. It extends up the temple and into the hairline.

This side:

–shows the same thing: scarring into the temple, a patch above the ear that looks to be a graze or more of that chemical burning. If the scars aren’t growing hair consistently, Jacob with a full head of hair is going to be patchy. And not receding hairline patchy, but inconsistent male pattern baldness patchy. Das es no bueno [ignore my bullshit German/Spanish hybrid. I’m tired and have to ramble to get this shit out onto the page].  Jacob’s vain–again once he decides to give a shit and participate in life. {and can you blame the handsome bastard. Even all scarred up he’s a looker] So he’s gonna cover this… or shave it off. But nooo not completely, Remember that full head of thick red hair? So does Jacob. He likes his red hair. He likes that he carries only a passing resemblance to their father. A father that was too uneducated and stubborn to realize that red is just a recessive gene and yes, Jacob is, in fact, Old Mad Seed’s child. But, Jacob enjoyed the fantasy that maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he wasn’t that sadistic old bastard’s git. So he likes the red hair the old man hates and keeps shaved close most of Jacob’s young life. He likes that he doesn’t quite fit in with the family. So he’s keeping the hair, even all these years later. Best of both worlds it is. Long on top where there’s minimal scarring, shaved away on the sides that would be patchy. Work what you got, boy. 

Moving on!

Jacob’s god-awful clothes. Jesus. You bet your ass there’s more than one hole ripped in the crotch of those poor jeans. The man’s like a walking stress-tester for denim. I swear to god--I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again-- those jeans are so grime-coated and interwoven with sweat and dirt that Jacob could step out of them and they’d remain upright as if he hadn’t. 

They’re ripped to fuck and then neatly patched. And it’ll just keep going. An endless cycle of clothing abuse until that article is so beat to hell and cobbled together that it’s but a ghost of the original. That’s pretty much his habit. Undoubtedly John purchased an abundance of clothes after they brought Jacob home like a puppy. And Jacob still has most of them: neatly folded, tags intact, tucked into a drawer somewhere in Saint Francis for when he needs them. He does this thing where he doesn’t keep more than two or three of each article of clothing. He also just doesn’t wear underwear because it’s a pain in the ass. Just enough clothing for a change, something to wear on the rare occasions he’s actually washing the other set or needs to be cleaned up quickly. As soon as something wears out beyond redemption, he grabs one single solitary replacement to throw into the rotation. 

Part of it’s practicality-- using something as long as he possibly can, keeping things ready for a future need somewhere down the road. The man loathes excess and waste. Another part is that apathy that overcame him for years when he’d lost what he saw as his only purpose and the army declared him unfit for service. Meh, Jacob wants only to be clothed and doesn’t much care what in as long as it’s practical. The exception being his BDU jacket. He’s got an attachment to that, to the purpose he held while wearing it and how his service shaped his identity. Everything else? Fuck it. Jacob Seed will wear pink with purple polkadots... as long as it’s functional and blends in with the environment.  

Another thing I’ve noticed is that Jacob’s got pretty shit posture, which I find surprising for a military man. The only exception is in two circumstances-

1. He’s on display. Think of him peacocking his way over to stand behind Joseph during the initial arrest. Dude is ramrod straight--also sexually, but we’re not going there today-- shoulders back, chin up, chest pushed out. Why? He’s got purpose. He’s there to protect, to intimidate, to lead his troops. So he’s going to present something worthy of that function, of the leadership.

The instant he’s out of sight? When he’s unwatched? Instant slope shoulders, watching the ground as he walks. Because there’s very little pride in himself, pride in Jacob Seed rather than The Soldier. 

Look at him here, in front of the Deputy and Pratt:

Neither one much matters to Jake. Pratt’s a human squeaky toy to the man. The deputy’s a tool. No need to parade. No need to intimidate. Why bother? He doesn’t have to prove he’s above these two. He knows he is. To him, pea-cocking in front of those two would be like showing off for a leaf-blower. So he’s relaxed, shoulders not quite rounded, but certainly no military bearing.

Compared to here:

See the difference? Guess what: he’s working again, giving his ‘Cull the weak’ speech. Fuck, sorry, how far I’m scrolled down on the page is giving me an eyeful of thigh-holster... wow. Thank you, UbiSoft

Alright back on topic.

But Jacob’s working. He’s serving a purpose. His purpose. So he gives enough of a fuck to scrape together his pride and stand upright, project the image that Joseph and the Project need from him. He sure as shit won’t do it for himself. 

Exception number 2. While holding a rifle. Which is really just more of the above. Blahblahblah purpose. Buuuttttt... there’s also a good bit of pride in that. Jacob grew up poor in the suburbs. Maybe there was an old family shotgun. Maybe. But, I very much doubt he ever had opportunity to use it [other than plans for Old Mad Seed the next time the bastard hit John]. Same goes for at the slave-labor foster family. If there’d been ready access to and familiarity with a weapon, you bet your ass Jacob would have shot the man rather than hit him with an axe handle. Sure as shit not getting hands on a weapon while in Juvie soooo the first time Jacob handles a firearm is in Basic.

And the kid’s shit with the fine arts. He’s absolutely dyslexic {More detail coming on that in the next HC post} and not inclined toward flowery things. But... he’s got math down. Understands geometry and physics quite easily. So understanding a sight picture is gonna come naturally. He’ll understand how to adjust that picture to compensate for drop, changes in elevation, weather, etc. So he’s already got the bones of a good shot. Pair that with shooting well is likely the first time this kid has heard any kind of praise? He’s gonna throw himself into it. 

Every chance he has, Jacob is out there throwing hot lead down the range. For hours at a time, days on end. Surely he has a few favored weapons, but, for the most part, he’s got a handle on anything you throw his way. Natural talent plus dedicated practice and Jacob’s a terrifyingly good shot. An amry Expert Marksman badge good shot. Which means hitting 36-40 stationary and pop-up targets of 40 during qualification testing in supported prone, unsupported prone, and foxhole positions. Jacob got 39. Under pressure. I haven’t played the game (motion sickness can’t handle FPS), but I’m told that he outstrips Grace Armstrong, who was an Olympic medalist, as a GFH in terms of accuracy. Which very well may just come down to years of experience and the ability to practice daily. So the point of that long ramble isssss: he’s proud of himself with a rifle. It’s the only time he’s standing upright even without observation and not directly related to his purpose within the Project. 

Everyone’s favorite Sasquatch for demonstration:

So the final thought I have, I’ve already touched on: Jacob’s gangling appearance. I’m just gonna link that here and then just run through the basics

Basically, Jacob is not meant to be a lean man. Look at the size of his hands compared to his forearms. Look that he’s basically a column from shoulder to hip. I mean, he was never going to be a Chris Evans Inverted Dorito, but dude should have a bit of tapering from shoulder to waist. He’s a man who had a good bit of bulk to him in his twenties and early thirties, a man who filled out the frame the genetic lottery threw his way (because John and Joseph don’t have the same shape as Jacob. They’re both built on lithe, tapering lines. It’s redhead, recessive gene, trial run Seed who only shares the blue eyes and a single freckle on the left nostril with John). Jacob is meant to be a big fucking boy. He’s made to carry broad shoulders and a powerful chest, strong arms. But look at him! He’s lanky, his bones are larger than the muscling on them. By the time we see him in Hope County, Jacob’s been out of the military since the mid- to late-nineties. In that time he’s experienced extreme muscle deterioration from damn near starving to death in the desert. Then he’s severely traumatized, obsessed with hoarding away food so he’s not eating what he should to gain back all that muscle lost. And he never will. That obsession with taking just enough, with keeping himself moving, but never indulging in excess. And bulking up requires excess. Maintaining that bulk requires excess. Jacob’s not the ‘I’ll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today’ type. He’s budgeting for the looming nuclear winter, for increases in population with decreasing resources. So Jacob stays skinny. Fed. Functional. Certainly no wilting flower... but, comparatively, skinny.

Soooo yeah. I’m petering out on the manic HC fest. 

All photo credit to one Banni of @hollandvalleythotpatrol You’re a gem and I love you. The gif... I lost the original source. Someone not rushing to go to work can point me toward a source if they’re so inclined or it can wait until I get home and have time.

Next up are HCs on Jacob’s family and hobbies/quirks

#thehearsc #hc #[asks answered #headcanon

[totallyvain]

Vanity Hour with Carlos Vara: Handling the Seasons of Life

Hometown: Lexington, South Carolina

Sounds like: Your next favorite pop bop

WORDS BY: THANIA GARCIA

In American culture, the search for independence comes at the age of 18. For Carlos Vara, this was exceptionally true. At 18, Vara moved to Nashville in search of a life separate from the emotional cuff to his father who had previously owned nightclubs but had abruptly found religion in the small town of Lexington in South Carolina. This along with the struggle of being closeted in a small town naturally pushed Vara to search for newness in a city rich of musical history.

At 21, Vara has somewhat of a grasp on his day to day life. Bouncing back from Nashville to Los Angeles, Vara has completed his anticipated October 4th release of “Have You Ever Seen a Boy Break Down” -  an EP meant to encapsulate his past few years bouncing from season to season in the versatile chapters of his life.

“When I was a teenager on X-Factor I thought I was going to be…well I loved songwriting and I loved singing, but I didn’t necessarily know who I was at the time. I was in the closet in the suburbs and I was growing up as a preacher’s kid so there was that phase. Then there was the phase of me moving to Nashville at 18 and coming out and discovering myself and exploring the boundaries of my mind and challenging myself and my ideas… I think that phase of my life lead to the music I made at that time and now I’m in a completely separate phase…what I create now are journal entries of specific eras of my life.”

In my interview with Vara, a clear conflict arises - a conflict found in the lyricism of his past couple releases. Vara shares, “I do have experiences where I’m like out and I’m like ‘Am I this person?’…because as I said I’ve gone through so many different stages in my life.”

Listen to “Confident,” Vara’s February 2019 release and you will fully understand this divide - a truly personal and internal divide.

Vara says, “The people who knew me at 18 would think I’m this quiet shy person. It’s like imposter syndrome for yourself it’s almost like you don’t think you have the right to be this brand new version of yourself. I feel it especially because I’ve been through so many extremes but I think now I’m in a stage where I’m like ‘why can’t I just embrace every single emotion?’ ‘why can’t I just live through these phases’ they are the best parts of life and it’s freeing to be what you want to be whenever you want to be.”

—————————————————————————————

Totally Vain: Your life has had clear chapters from your upbringing in North Carolina, to the X-Factor, to your time in Nashville and LA. When you look back at these past few years, how do you compare your artistic vision from then to now?

Carlos: “It’s interesting you say that because it is so true… I think …well actually I was talking about this yesterday when I was stoned with my friends that I feel like I’ve lived distinct phases of my life. I think through the process of growing up, my artistic vision and the way I think has changed. My music is always changing, depending on how my environment changes..because it stays so true to that. To me, my writing is based off my reality at the time, I will always be satisfied with it because I make music to be able to express myself and to be able to purge”

TV: Your environments have all had very distinct setbacks and advantages, how have they affected you in relation to the music industry?

Carlos: “I remember being a kid and watching TV and award shows and listening to music in the car…I knew I had a passion for music but being in South Carolina meant I didn’t have an uncle who was an executive, or any relation to the industry itself. I didn’t see anyone who had come out of South Carolina, all I saw was people coming from New York or Los Angeles so I just never had that hope. Senior year of high school I moved to Nashville by myself and finished graduating online. I was working restaurant jobs. I worked so many restaurants from 18 until last year before I got signed. I think that moving to Nashville was the first time in my life when I felt like I had some possibility to make it. Thank God for Instagram and Spotify and Apple music. I think that really became a way for me to connect to people who appreciate music the same way I do and connect to artists as far as co-writes. Especially in Nashville since it is a songwriting community, it definitely helped when it came to writing. Moving there was the first time I was able to discover who I am as an artist and figure myself out, retain my thoughts and grow up and figure out what I believe and have the opportunity to collaborate with people around me.”

TV: An overarching idea in your releases is confidence, both the reaction to confidence and personal self-confidence, from where do you think that idea stems from? And what kind of conflicts or internal struggles do you still have?

Carlos: “My friends know me as a very extreme person meaning I truly feel every emotion I have. I’m either going fucking crazy at a party or I’m like I want to go home. There is no in-between. I feel like for me since I am so emotional, I tend to feel it all at once and songwriting allowed me to be able to go home at 2 A.M. and smoke and just sit at the piano and play whatever is on my mind. I think it’s a way of me being able to work through any struggles I may have and for me to fully comprehend those emotions and see it as a full picture…for instance, I am extroverted but I’m sensitive and insecure so those feelings are both there at the same time. I mean it. I’ll be at a party being the loudest one there and thinking everyone hates me so it’s like I think that when I write, I want to be able to capture what that feels like. When I wrote “Confident,” I was in LA for the summer and it was my first time being out here for a super extended period of time and I had just turned 21 so I was able to get into all the gay clubs and it was exciting but it was stressful. I wanted to appear like I was cool and kept up with everyone but I just remember going to a club and being like shwasted and like going home and crying in the Uber. I’m just out here pretending to be confident and I was mad at myself and angry at myself for faking confidence and I went home and wrote a few lines for “Confident.” I think from an outside perspective people think I’m this super confident boisterous person and I guess I am but internally it’s rooted to a lot of sadness because I am freaking out inside.”

TV: Who were the artists who spoke to you the most growing up and what did you pull from in their work that you apply to your own?

Carlos: “I think of it in phases. My mom had me when she was 21 so at that time my mom only listened to pop radio and like Christina and Britney, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston all these pop vocals and also my parents owned nightclubs so I was always surrounded by an energetic musical atmosphere. Around age seven, my parents became more religious and my dad became a pastor we went to a church with a big African American community so they were soulful in their gospel and that’s when I allowed myself to become more emotional with my music and I wanted to create to provoke emotion. When I was 16/17, I went online and I discovered the things I wouldn’t normally have access to like the Beatles and the Beach Boys and Queen and Freddie. Those three eras, have all formed me today. I don’t know if I have one specific source of inspiration but it was a melting pot for sure.”

TV: As you’ve been coming to find an artistic persona, what have you found your overarching message to be?

Carlos: “I want to always be real to myself as an artist. Growing up I was always the weird kid and I never felt that I had someone I could relate to. Now I feel I’ve been blessed to have been able to reach out to kids that feel that same way I felt and I want to make music whether it be a fast fun bop or an emotional ballad, I want the music to be passionate and dramatic and I want to be a part of the world in that way, I want to create. It’s a spiritual thing, it comes out and I know how it makes me feel and I hope that when other people hear my EP, I want them to be able to feel that emotion and have a small escape or a meaningful feeling.”

TV: Can you give me a little breakdown on what kind of lyricism and sounds we can expect from your upcoming EP?

Carlos: “The cool thing about this EP is I was able to create both in Nashville and in Los Angeles. Living in Nashville, it is very much a lyric community and in Los Angeles, there is more of an emphasis on melodies, so it’s been cool and inspiring to have access to both. For me, this EP embodies real lyricism and dramatic melodies. It’s a real and vulnerable introduction to who I am and what these past 3 years of my life have been like.”

#carlos vara #music #musicblog #blogger #onedirection #pop #popmusic #musicnews #news #Music Journalism #new #Billie Eilish #look #upandcomingphotographer #upandcoming #indie #blog #bloglife #vanityhour

[thejackal64]

Pillars of Magic: Paradox | Chapter 2: Anomaly

It was a beautiful day in Mewni. As long as the flow of magic continued uninterrupted, every morning would remain the same. It might seem boring, but the people living there expected such perks. It wasn’t only about having money or possessions. It was also about life itself being marinated in luxury.

“Ugh!”

But while citizens of Mewni enjoyed being pampered by it, certain individuals who were just going through were appalled.

“There really wasn’t any other way to reach it?” The man asking the question was rather short, with a full beard covering his face. He had a peculiar expression, telling everyone around him that he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and anything could set him off...

“It’s pretty in here.”

...or anyone.

“Can we buy some candies?”

Despite the rather odd request, the new question was asked by a massive man, always cheerful and smiling. His name was Kobi.

“Oh yeah, sure. And then I’ll shove them down your throat so I don't have to listen to your stupid questions!”

“Can it, you two.”

With a strong and authoritative voice, and without the need to raise it, the third man, Lucan, was keen to keep their presence under the radar.

“We are in public and even though these people generally mind their own business, we do not need to risk attracting their attention.”

"Then why in the hell did you bring this bastard along?"

“Because no one else can work with him. Furthemore, this mission might require brute force.”

Kasper didn’t like Lucan’s answer. “We could've taken a couple of explosives instead of this blubbering oaf."

“Do I really need to remind you that we are on a covert mission? We are to retrieve the object and return to the base without causing a commotion.”

“According to your doo-hickey, that thing is deep within the old tunnels of this place. How the hell would they know about us being down there?”

“It’s an unnecessary risk that needs to be avoided to the best of our ability. We do not know how far the secret police’s reach goes and we might end up finding ourselves in a dire situation. And down there no one would come to our rescue.”

“I hate when you’re right.”

“I expected nothing else.”

Lucan was going over the data in his head again and again, trying to make sure he would be ready to predict any and all possible problems along the way. But, as history had taught him, no amount of pre-planning could circumvent the consequences of working with his two colleagues: one a violent hothead and the other a behemoth with a child-like attitude. All he could do was to prepare his best with the limited knowledge he had at his disposal.

Anywhere else, their blue jumpsuits would raise at least a few eyebrows. Not here. The queen and authorities made sure that Mewmans were involved so deeply in their cushy lives that they were all but blinded by their hearts desires. Three dudes dressed like plumbers were absolutely none of their concern.

The three followed the steady flow of students into Paragon Academy. Thankfully, the main entrance wasn’t their goal, so a few meters before reaching it they turned right and crept along the side alley toward the back. Even just this little piece of Mewni that they saw before them was sparkling clean; it was truly a sight to behold, and the side alleys weren’t any different. To someone living in dirt, this scenery was utterly bizarre. Pieces of banners were floating above their heads as they reached their destination. They were mesmerizing to look at, something Kobi enjoyed to the fullest.

His sight-seeing was cut short as a mere minutes later they appeared in the school's backyard. The back door entrance they were looking for was a solid block of steel without any handles or windows, and it wasn’t exactly clean. Lucan hit it in a specific pattern: thug-thug-scratch-thug-scratch-pause-thug. For a while nothing was happening, but soon enough they heard the screeching sound of doors trying to be opened from the inside.

“Looks like our intelligence department was right,” noted Lucan silently.

“I’ll congratulate them for not fucking up their job like last time when we go back,” replied Kasper.

Lucan nodded in agreement.

Every place in the world had a certain reputation. When people visited them, they expected their lives to be enriched with unique, local experiences. Very few visitors were coming to Mewni, but they were expecting riches and comfort beyond their wildest dreams, not a fat greasy face looking at them with glass eyes.

“Yeaaahhh? *blurp*”

Of course, for someone living in the swamps, such sights were living standards for them.

Lucan brought up a piece of paper. “As requested by the school board, we are here to clean up the toilets.”

The man standing in front of them gave them an empty look. “Yeah? You have - ugh - any papers?”

Lucan was caught surprised. “There wasn’t a mention about papers.”

“Yeah, see, that is a problem, because-” He obviously had a hard time not only standing on his feet, but also collecting his thoughts. “I… uh, still need to see papers.”

“They didn’t say anything about papers. We were told this was already settled.”

“That’s your problem, bud.”

Diplomacy was always Lucan’s first choice when dealing with people, but if that failed, Kasper used his own methods. He pushed Lucan aside and raised his head to make sure the dude standing over him would understand him very clearly. “Listen here, you fat fuck! The higher ups decided we had to come here to clean up your shit. We are more than happy to start with the biggest shit standing right in front of my face. Or you can move your dick aside and let us in to do our job!”

The man was shocked by his reaction. “Whoa there, now listen up, you can’t talk to me like that!” His voice would certainly have sounded more threatening, if it wasn’t for the high level of alcohol in his blood.

“Oh no? Then let me introduce you to my friend over here.” He stepped aside so that the guard could see Kobi standing behind him. “His name is ‘I’m gonna break your limbs’.”

“Hello!” Kobi waved his hand.

“I don’t-” Some understanding was seeping into his alcohol marinated brain, but it wasn’t enough.

“Kobi, why don’t you shake his hand?”

“I’ll be happy to!”

“Show him how friendly we are.”

“Oki doke!”

Kobi’s face was constantly smiling at him, but there was something behind that smile that alarmed the guy, like a much needed wake up call, if only for a few seconds.

“Alright, alright! I- I’ll let you in! Just- Go… *blurp* do your job.”

“A wise decision.”

Lucan never liked Kasper’s aggressive attitude, but he couldn’t dismiss its efficacy in situations like this. He smiled at the guard, trying to ease the tension a bit. “Thank you for your cooperation, sir.”

“Just… Get out of my sight.”

With subtle disappointment in his eyes, he took his comrades into the bowels of the school’s ground floor.

The interior wasn’t that much different from what they were used to down in the suburbs, but there were some notable differences. The biggest one was in the generator room they were passing through. Since everything ran on magic, many magical creatures were used as conduits for the magical flow. In here they utilized fire-flies: flies that actually generated fire and heat. But since they only did that when provoked, Mewmen engineers pioneered a solution to force them to keep releasing the energy they need. The process involved what were known as Adium Crystals. These crystals were tiny, sharp and spiky shards that could easily be found laying around near the outskirts of the city. It seemed to exist as a byproduct of several magical wars. Any magical properties were harmless to Mewmens, being only a small walking hazard if stepped on, but forcing Fireflies to go nuts. So they threw a few of them into a generator together with a swarm and let them explode with anxiety until they died.

It wasn’t a pleasant view for any of them, but their goal wasn’t to enforce their opinions about the environment. They needed, and quickly, to find entry to what they expected to be an ancient tunnel running somewhere under the school. With this in their minds they calmly left the ground floor and, using steep stairs, they approached the floor above.

The school was full of students getting ready for the day, but they didn’t think it would be so… sterile. Regular schools were unremarkable in design to keep distractions to a minimum, but the ones in Mewni took that a step further. There were steady pure white lights illuminating dark purple walls, floor and roof, reaching to every corner. The doors were a plain dark wood with no windows. There were no pictures, no flyers, nothing that would catch the eye and get in the way.

“Fucking hell,” noted Kasper silently.

“I have to agree,” responded Lucan. “I can’t even find the proper words to describe it.”

“Did someone die here?” asked Kobi. His question caught them both by surprise.

“They may as well have. The sooner we find that entry point the better. I shudder to think how those poor kids must feel after spending several hours in here almost every day.”

Kasper was visibly repulsed by this remark. “These kids - as you call them - wouldn’t hesitate to smash our skulls into the nearest wall if they learned we’re from the Resistance.”

Lucan pondered the thought for a few seconds. “Indoctrination.”

“Yeah. Let’s go now.”

But before they could move on, one of the students dropped her notebook at Kobi’s feet.

“Excuse me,” said the girl.

And in that very moment Kobi felt a sensation like never before. The same was true for Kasper as well, although for a different reason.

He slowly turned to Lucan, trying not to raise any suspicion. "Of all the people, we stumbled upon a Woolett. A fucking Woolett!" he muttered toward his partner.

"Keep your cool and we'll be fine."

She bent down slightly to pick up her notebook which she’d dropped. Kobi was quick to snap it up before she could. It was ridiculous how fast he moved to make sure his huge hand reached it before her more slender one.

“Uhm, you dropped?” he questioned, despite the obvious answer.

“Yes, thank you.”

Kasper's desire to end this encounter as soon as possible was palpable. Unfortunately for him, so was Kobi's desire to prolong it. He was demonstrating this by refusing to return her notebook.

“Sorry,” he said, his cheeks flushing red. “Your book?”

“Yes, may I have it now, please?”

“The book… uhm, yes, it’s yours!” He stumbled on his own tongue.

“Yo, Kell, this dude don’t seem right,” said the voice coming out of her hair.

"Shit! There is another Woolett in her hair! Is she breeding them?!" Kasper barked beneath his breath.

"Lower your voice! She will hear you."

Her polite smile became increasingly more nervous, as she tried to pull the book harder from his grasp.

He finally loosened his grip and allowed the book to be taken back.

“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his brow and trying to find some kind of words to fill the moment that was making his heart race. “Kobi.” He extended his hand her way.

The girl chuckled loosely and took his hand to shake.

“Kelly. And hey, thanks for picking it up. Sorry I bumped into you.”

“No trouble,” he smiled. “I like Kelly. I-I mean!” he bungled over his words again while trying rapidly to recover, scratching his head. “I like to meet you. T-that is-I mean, good to see your p-pretty face. Uh-I-uh!”

Kasper was growing angry, but he couldn’t risk making a scene. “Lucan,” he whispered, “do something before he blows our cover!”

“Right.” Lucan stepped in. “We don’t mean to be any trouble, he means to say, miss. Sorry we got in your way.”

Kelly shrugged her shoulders and slipped the notebook over her shoulder and into her backpack. “Not a problem,” she said as she finally saw her exit and headed away towards the cafeteria.

With the students on their way, Lucan tapped his elbow. “Let’s go, Kobi. We don’t have time to linger.”

They went in another direction. The expression on Kobi’s face was as if someone had stolen away his happiness. But Kasper wasn’t so tactful.

“The hell you doing?!” he cussed in the loudest whisper he could muster.

Trying not to risk a racket, they quickly went on, turning behind the corner to hide from the eyes of the students. The hall looked pretty much the same as the previous one, but it was less cramped.

“She was so pretty,” noted Kobi with sadness in his voice.

“Ain’t nothing pretty about the things I’ll do to you if you pull shit like that again!”

“Guys stop! Listen!” They all could hear a faint beeping coming from Lucan’s backpack. “It’s here.”

“What?” asked Kasper. “The artifact?”

“No! That would be ridiculous. It’s the entrance.”

“Your thingy is showing the way?”

“Of course not. Nothing can do that. My tool is… Er - the magic. With such a low intensity in Mewni, it tends to behave like a river and my tool simply points the way to the strongest nearby current.”

“Uhm. So where is it?”

“Let me check.” Lucan looked around to make sure that no one would spot him. The hallway was even more empty than before. “Huh. Interesting. I wonder where they-”

“Dude!”

“Righ, right.” He placed his backpack down on the ground and reached into it. After rustling through it for a few seconds he brought out a somewhat bulky piece of equipment. “So I was right. According to this, there is one magical current flowing through these halls. It’s quite interesting if you think of it.”

“I don’t give a fuck about how ‘fascinating’ or whatever it is! Just point us to it so we can get the hell out of here.”

“Checking.”

He kept turning around until the device made the strongest sound when pointing to a specific direction. “It appears that it is coming from there. From… the cafeteria, it seems. Hmm. This might be challenging. They might have some questions about our presence going in there.”

“I have an even better question for you: where the hell is Kobi?!”

They were both looking around. Spotting a huge man among young teenagers should have been easy, but their efforts were fruitless. Kobi was simply gone.

Kobi was smiling. He had every reason to. It didn’t happen every day he met a girl that took his breath away. Or any girl for that matter. To be fair, he could be rather easily amazed by a lot of stuff, people included. But this was different. Because she was different. And he felt that in every bone.

He went back to the spot where he met her, being sure she would still be there. He was determined to give her a present he was holding in his hands. He approached the place, completely ignoring all other students. In everyday business they were ignoring everything that didn’t concern them, just like every other Mewman; but seeing a funny looking dude in a jumpsuit just standing there with an idiotic smile did get their attention. Some of them even stopped walking and just kept watching him, wondering what he would do.

Kobi was so sure that Kelly would come back that he didn’t doubt himself even for a second. He was friendly, smiling wide because he had a pretty present for her. In his mind he did everything to make her want to stay with him. Alas, their reunion was not meant to be, which he started to painfully realize after his hands started to cramp. Reality crept into his mind, forcing him to reevaluate his short term plans.

With apparent sadness in his eyes, he decided to leave the package on the ground. Even though she didn’t come back to him he still hoped that she might like the present he’d picked for her. However flawed this logic was to everyone else around him, it made perfect sense to him, so he left it exactly where he had laid sight on her for the first time, and with great disappointment decided to return to his fellow agents.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” asked Kasper.

“I’m afraid so. We must hurry before he runs into her a-”

Just as he was about to finish his sentence, Kobi appeared from behind the corner.

Kasper was thrilled to see him. “Where the fuck you have been?!”

“I wanted to give Kelly a present, but I couldn’t find her, so I left it on the floor for her to find it when she comes back.”

“We didn’t come here to find you a date, you shitstain!”

“Wait,” Lucan stopped him. “Kobi, what kind of present did you have to give her?”

“Oh. I found a really good looking box in your backpack.”

“A bo-” When his eyes met with Kasper’s, he knew they were in deep trouble. “The Black Box!”

Kasper didn’t waste a second and hard slapped Kobi. “That was a weapon of mass destruction, you fucking retard! FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY!!!”

“But it looked so nice!”

“I’ll rip off your dick off and beat you with it!”

“Hurry! Maybe there is still time before someone ope-”

BOOOoooooom

A massive shock wave passed through building. The sound cut out and lights went off abruptly. Aside from a few sounds of crumbling rocks and the voices of shocked students, nothing else transpired after the explosion.

Lucan brought out his flashlight and shined it down the hallway. “Interesting.”

“Do you think it didn’t get out?” asked Kasper.

“In theory the inner casing could withstand the blast, but it is very unlikely. The weapon engineers were perfectionists and always made sure their creations would work.”

“So then where is all the yelling and panic?”

There were brief squeals and scramblings from students here and there, down the the distant corridors and rooms, as if panic would abruptly set in only to suddenly die away again. The space between the horrified sounds lengthened until everything went quiet for a fairly long while in the dark. The minutes stretched on, the trio scanning the darkness for signs of movement.

Kobi wrung his hands worriedly as Kasper gritted his teeth, looking to Lucan for direction.

Lucan held up a finger the other two could barely see. “Shh!”

They could hear a person sneaking out of the cafeteria. “C’mon, Kelly, let’s go this way.”

“Kelly…” gasped Kobi.

“Stay where you are!” Kasper commanded.

Lucan picked up his backpack. “We need to get out of here immediately.”

“Wise words,” agreed Kasper.

“But what about all those students in here?” asked Kobi with sadness in his voice.

“They’re doomed,” replied Lucan.

“B-But Kelly…”

Kasper gave him a pat on his shoulder. “That’s just your everyday’s shit. Now move your ass!”

AAaaaaaaaaAAA!!!!

The yelling forced all remaining students in the cafeteria to run away, leaving it completely empty.

“The timing is impeccable. Great work, dude!”

“Kasper, stop teasing him. He is sad as it is.”

“He should be! His stupidity caused all of this!”

“And we will deal with it after we return to HQ, but right now we need him focused on the mission. Kobi? Follow us.”

Without any enthusiasm he followed his teammates into the now empty room. The smell of coffee and various other drinks were still hanging in the air. It was as if the students had never really left the place. The scents combined with all of the screaming and echoed noises, creating a haunting atmosphere.

Lucan lead them into the kitchen in the back. Many things were still being cooked and some were even starting to get burned. But culinary secrets weren’t what they were after.

“Where is it?” asked Kasper.

“Near.”

“Is that supposed to help?”

“You have to realize that tracking down and following magical currents is a delicate work. This isn’t a river you can simply follow upstream to find the spring.”

“Huh. That’s a good point. But I feel compelled to note that we are in a building THAT IS BEING EATEN!”

“I suggest you lower your voice unless you want that thing to follow us here.”

“Just find the fucking entrance!”

“I told you it’s- there!” Lucan suddenly pointed at a massive rack filled with food and spices.

“It’s in… a black pepper jar?” Kapser smiled.

“Underneath the rack, obviously.”

“Yeah, obviously. Kobi, make yourself useful and get rid of it.”

Big fellow was still sad, but he didn’t wish to enrage Kasper even more, so he just did what was asked of him. Unfortunately his enthusiasm got the best of him, and with a flair of his own he threw it to the other side of the kitchen.

Kasper realized the mistake he made. “Well, if those things didn’t hear us before, they surely heard us this time.”

“Kasper…!” Seeing Lucan even subtly angry was rare and unpleasant enough even for Kasper.

“Alright, I fucked up, I’m sorry. But look! There is the entrance and it’s…” He was staring at it for a few seconds, trying to figure out if this was the punishment for his screw up. “Holy shit it’s small! I don’t think Kobi will even fit.”

The big fella didn’t like the prospect of being left behind. “What???”

“He’ll fit. Barely, but he’ll get through.” While ensuring Kobi of his survival, something got his attention. It was small, placed just above the entrance. A marker of some kind. “Hmm.”

Kasper noticed his interest in the object. “What is it?”

“Not sure.” While trying to inspect the item with intriguing markings, a fast-paced movement was heard coming from outside the cafeteria. And it was approaching. “That’s our cue. Move on.”

“But…”

“What is it this time, Kobi?”

“It stinks in there!”

Lucan looked over the hole to check its bottom. “Huh. It appears the kitchen staff discovered it and kept using it as a trash bin for spoiled food. Regardless, this is the path we need to take.”

“But I don’t wanna!”

Right on cue, Kasper stepped in. “KOBI, GET YOUR FUCKING ASS IN THERE OR I’LL RIP OFF BOTH OF YOUR LEGS AND SHOVE THEM UP INTO YOUR ASSHOLE!!!”

“Grrr!”

With complications, Kobi managed to get through and landed directly onto the pile of stinky old food.

“Eww!”

“You’ll live. Now, catch Kasper and then me. And hurry; whatever is following is getting close.”

They both promptly jumped into the hole, leaving the mess they caused behind them.

After a short while of slow walking in squats, they entered a bigger tunnel. To their amazement, it was still lit. Dusty, but otherwise undamaged.

“An access tunnel,” noted Lucan.

“Huh?” wondered Kasper.

“What we left behind has to be an access tunnel, which would make this one here a maintenance tunnel.”

“So you know where we are?”

“No. I’m just assuming.”

“Based on what exactly?”

“Educated guess.”

“And this helps us… how?”

“That remains to be seen.”

“Terrific.”

“It was worth mentioning because this kind of architecture was used only rarely, at least in lower Mewni. I only know about such structures existing over there, but still… this appears to be in an astonishingly well-preserved state.”

“That’s fascinating and all, but we didn’t come here for sightseeing. Left or right?”

“Indeed. Let’s see… Hmm, now this is interesting.”

“Enough of this bullshit! Just tell us where to go!”

“Right. The flow comes from the right.”

“Finally! Let’s move our asses before that thing decides to fuck ‘em.”

“Right, of course.

Leaving the cafeteria behind, they pressed forward. With the sheer importance of the mission on their minds, they were eager to reach their destination swiftly. Unfortunately, their intentions were getting harder to reach, which was becoming more and more apparent with every meter they traversed through the tunnel. It snaked left and right, stretching and bending without an apparent end in sight.

“Argh!” growled Kasper. “This tunnel goes on forever!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” objected Lucan, who, for lack of a better word, was enjoying the scenery, or lack thereof. “I’m confident that we will reach the end in no time.”

Kasper hated many people and many things, and reassuring pep talks were at the top of the list. Hearing his artificially soothing voice was like fingernails on a chalkboard. “Oh yeah?” he replied as coldly as possible, “and how do you know, huh?” He was trying his best not to squish his face to cover up his idiotic smile. “Is one of your gadgets showing you something I don’t know?”

“Not at all.”

“Then how do you know where we are going?” The acoustics of the tunnel amplified his angry voice to new heights.

“This is not the time for you to unload your frustration. Logic dictates that eventually we will reach the end. Furthermore, this is unknown territory. Who knows what lies at the end of this tunnel. And now, thanks to your vocal performance, whatever might be there knows about us at this point.”

“So what?! We have mister muscle here!”

“Kobi isn’t invincible, which is why we always have to assess the situation. It’s the part of covert missions you keep failing to understand.”

“So after Kobi fucked up half of the school, you suddenly realized we have to be covert. That’s interesting. Let me just-” Kasper started to search his jacket for something.

“What is it?”

“Wait. I know it’s somewh- ah! Here it is.” He brought his hand up, presenting his closed fist as if he was holding something. But after opening his palm, there was nothing there.

“It’s empty,” noted Lucan.

“Yeah. I was searching in my jacket for my portable Fuck-O-Meter and this is the exact amount of fucks it gave me about your speech.”

Lucan raised his finger, preparing to fight back. Alas, he was interrupted by a sound that caught their attention and sent a shiver down their spines. Whatever made it, they could hear it coming down the tunnel, slowly, but surely approaching their position.

“Shit! It did follow us here!”

Something about the sound seemed chaotic; it was excessively unnatural. There was a mix of sounds, one distinctly weirder than the other. The noises meshed together, creating a hellish soundscape.

“How could that thing survive without a fresh host for so long?!”

“Your guess is as good as any.”

It didn’t take long for their stalker to appear in their sights. And it wasn’t pretty.

“Fuck me!”

“It appears to be some kind of head and is still alive even after several minutes of infection.”

Kasper squinted his eyes, trying to make out details of the host body. His discovery sent his mind into a spiral of deep fear. “A Woolett! That thing got ahold of that motherfucking WOOLETT!!!

“It appears to be confused. I don’t think its behaviour is by design. This is quite extraordinary.”

“Extraor- What do you think this is, a fucking zoo?!”

Before anyone could do anything, the Woolett boy, or rather what was left of him at that point, opened his mouth filled with goo and released a bunch of tentacles with their own little screeching mouths.

“Fuck!”

The creature screeched in agony.

“FUUUUCK!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”

They didn't need much of a reason to start running for it, even though Lucan did wonder if that was the best thing they could do. “Maybe we should think this through.”

“Are you for real?! What the hell you wanna think about in the middle of running for our lives?!”

“That’s the issue. We don’t know what lies in front of us.”

“An escape!”

“Even if that is true and there is nothing else on the road ahead, we can’t say for certain when we’ll reach a safe haven.”

“We are running away from certain death! Is that logical enough for you?!”

“We can’t keep running forever! We need a plan and we need it soon!”

“The plan is to stay alive!”

“That is no- Wait, what’s that?”

“An imminent death, that’s what!”

But Lucan wasn’t paying attention to what was behind them, but rather what was standing in front of them. Against all odds, he saw a young blond girl, eagerly waving at him.

“That’s not possible…”

Even at their fast running pace, she was getting close real quick and he began to notice her grotesque dress and what appeared to be horns on her head. It all seemed surreal and he had trouble accepting it. “How…”

“What are you mumbling about??? That thing is getting closer!”

When death was breathing down one’s neck and the situation was spiraling out of control, one must take all the help he could get, even if it came from a girl that shouldn’t be there.

“All of you, into the room on your right!”

“What room?!”

The moment they were just a few meters away from it, the girl went inside, followed by Lucan holding Kasper’s shirt and Kobi with fear in his eyes.

“It’s right behind us!” Kobi squealed.

“Shove the door!” But Lucan knew that wouldn’t be enough.

He immediately started looking for something to barricade them. To his surprise the room was filled with old equipment of some kind. All that was left to do was to choose.

“That big heavy looking box! Lean it over the door so it can’t get inside!”

“Roger!”

Before they could all say “quickly” Kobi grabbed it, and with an incredible ease barricaded the door. Not two seconds after, the banging started; heavy, strong and loud, with a Woolite on the other side desperately trying to gain access to their safe haven.

“Not that I’m complaining,” said Kasper while trying to gasp for air, “but what the hell is this place? And most importantly, how we will get outside?”

“That… I’m not sure.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I was led her by a girl.”

In visible confusion, Kasper started to look around. All he could see was a mess covered by a thick layer of dust. “Not to ruin your parade, but there is no one in here.”

“I can see that, but I’m telling you that I saw her showing me to come here.”

“Oh that’s wonderful. A girl popped out of fucking nowhere, she points her sexy little fingers to this cute little room and you jump right in without thinking!”

“My decision saved our butts.”

“They’re called asses and maybe you didn’t notice, but this place is a FUCKING DEATHTRAP!!! There is no way out of here except for those doors and by the looks of it they won’t hold much longer! All you did was you handed our asses on a silver plate for that shit out there!”

“I refuse to think this was a mere accident. There must be a purpose to it!”

“I’m this close to giving my fist a purpose of meeting with your face up close and personal!”

Among all that noise, a new and different one started to come out from one of the walls. They didn’t hear at first, but in those short moments when the creature outside stopped smashing itself against the doors, they could hear it - the tinny sound of someone moving around in a shaft. Without saying a word, Kobi removed a tool shed of the wall and revealed an entry into the ventilation shaft.

“That’s our purpose.”

“Hmpf! Lucky guess.”

“Be that as it may, that’s our ticket out of here. Kobi, can you see if you will fit through?”

“Now this I want to see,” smiled Kasper.

Kobi bent over and went head-on inside, and to everyone’s surprise, with ease.

“Well I’ll be…”

“Excellent! Kasper, you follow him. I’ll be right behind you. And make it quick - the doors are starting to break down.”

“With pleasure!”

After Kasper disappeared in the shaft, Lucan looked at the door one last time. “For what it is worth: I’m sorry. I never intended any harm to any of you students. You didn’t deserve this.” With the guilt off his chest, he followed his teammates to escape the place.

“Kobi!” yelled Lucan from behind. “Can you see where it leads?”

“No! It’s dark in here. I’m scared.”

“It’s alright! Just keep on going until you reach the exit. Don’t be scared if there isn’t any light ahead either.”

“If there is an exit…”

“Kasper, shut it! We are all stressed as it is. There is no need to make it even worse.”

“But it makes me feel better.”

“You and I will have to have a talk about morale when we get back to HQ.”

“If we even get back…”

“Kasper!”

“Uhm, guys? There is something weird in here.”

Now they were both paying him attention.

“What kind of weird?” asked Lucan.

“I can feel the floor wobbling.”

“I can feel it too,” confirmed Kasper.

“This part of shaft might be suspended on the wall. Kobi! Keep on going, but do it slowly! Move one hand at the time and-”

CRAAAAACK!!!

They felt the entire shaft tilting forward and it showed no signs of slowing down. Soon after they all slid outside and started to fall. The new place they were in was completely dark, which only strengthened the anticipation of imminent death. Fortunately for them, the fall wasn’t too long. It was several more seconds before they would land, but first they hit something metallic, judging by the sound, followed shortly by a second clanging sound, which was their stop. Even though it didn’t take them long to hit the ground, the impact itself was unpleasant enough for them that they felt the need to check their bones.

“That… hurts,” noted Lucan. “Oh, my back.”

“Your back?” replied Kasper with sharp irony in his voice. “I can feel pain in bones I didn’t know I have!”

“Well, all things considered, I did save us, didn’t I?”

“If only you ‘saving’ us didn’t hurt this much.”

“Wait, I’ll use my flahlight. Here we go. Hmm.”

“Hmm? Don’t say hmm after the shit we just went through!”

“I’m just wondering where the girl went.”

“This again…”

“Whether you believe me or not is inconsequential. We survived because she intervened.”

“Have it your way. What is this place anyway? I don’t recognize a thing.”

“Yeah, this is…” Lucan’s mind was working on the question way before it was even asked, so even though he couldn’t name it just yet, the answer was already taking shape in his head. “This…” He touched the cold, rusty metallic pole. “This…” He then inspected the now mostly damaged seats on both sides. “This…”

“I swear, if you say ‘this’ one more time I will rip your tongue out and wear it like a tie! Just answer the fucking question: do you know what this is???”

Lucan looked into his eyes with a spark. “A railcar.”

“A what?”

“A railcar. This is an intact railcar.”

“I don’t know what a railcar is but…” Kasper looked around to inspect all the damage that took a bite out of the place. “I’d hardly call this intact.”

“Well, yes, of course, time is merciless to everything. Still, taking into account the age of this contraption, it is surprisingly well preserved.”

“Alright then. Let me rephrase the question: where the fuck are we?!”

“You really don’t know? Huh, come to think of it, it’s not really too surprising. You never really did pay attention to history lessons.”

“History doesn’t save your ass, bombs do. Now will you answer my damn question or what?!”

“Very well. Come with me.”

He proceeded to take them out of the carriage. They couldn’t move much even there, as there were multiple wagons all over the place, stacked close to each other. “This way.” Thankfully, the wagons weren’t derailed or otherwise damaged in such a way that might hinder their progress, so after a while of walking between them, they reached a spot where the tracks began to spread further apart from each other.

Kobi was fascinated by all of the new stuff he could explore, though he couldn't care less what it actually was; every new thing was a good thing. Kasper, however, never really enjoyed the whole exploration gig. He was only interested in blowing up the things they found.

Lucan turned around and raised his hands. “Gentlemen, welcome to the depot of Warnicorn Metro.”

“Wait, you mean to tell me that Warnicorn Metro is real?”

“Indeed it is, despite its almost legendary status, as you can see.”

“I thought it was just a rumor.”

“That’s because the Queen doesn’t like failures and she made sure to wipe its existence from public memory by simply killing everyone who dared to even acknowledge its existence. All the remaining physical evidence was destroyed.”

“Why not destroy the whole thing?”

“Because by the time she had a change of heart, the whole system was so complex that they couldn’t get rid of it without turning everything on top of it into debris. But they did lock it out from the reach of common folks by building additional tunnels and buildings around it.”

“How do you even know all this stuff?”

“Knowledge is power.”

The sound that came from above their heads made them look up, even thought they couldn't possibly see anything in the pitch black darkness. Still, the noise was distinct, and considering the recent events, it was obvious what was making it.

"You think it's that girl you saw?" asked Kasper.

"I hope so, though I somehow doubt it."

"Yeah."

The fact that they couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the noise was making the whole situation worse. All they could do was continue staring into dark nothingness.

Kasper huffed. "Shouldn't we get out of here? I'm not exactly thrilled to face it again."

"But where to? We didn't have the chance to explore this place. We might end up wandering for hours, days even, and never finding a way out nor what we came here to find."

"Guys?" Kobi interrupted them. "I think the girl is showing us the way."

As a welcomed distraction from the imminent horror, they looked left and noticed a blond girl in the most unusual dress, holding a flashlight and waving at them to follow her.

"Holy shit."

"Now you believe me, Kasper?"

"I believe my eyes."

"Uhm, all right. We should move be-"

Before Lucan could finish his sentence, they could hear what sounded like something crashing into one of the boxcars not far away from their position. All three of them had the same thought; each of them had hoped that they were wrong. It wasn’t clear at first, as the thing that landed inside wasn’t make any noise; if it was moving, it was doing so with the utmost secrecy.

“Maybe it’s dead,” said Kasper with a nervous chuckle, trying to hide the growing fear inside him.

“Maybe.”

“Er, guys, the girl is still waving at us. Maybe we should go meet her instead of waiting for that thing to eat us?”

Now this sent shivers down their spines. It was one thing to feel fear when a horribly deformed mutant was chasing them, but hearing that fear in the voice of their big gun made them realize the gravity of the situation. They were keen not to die.

“You’re right Kobi,” agreed Lucan. “We should leave this place before-”

The silence that was giving them some hope of being safe dissipated like a morning fog the moment the car started to keel from one side to another. A noise like that of steel being ripped apart emanated from it. They wanted to run as far as possible, but their legs were locked in place by the crippling fear of aggravating the creature and, in turn, of accelerating their journey toward their own demise. All they could do was to watch with hearts beating like crazy.

The sound started to move from the point of impact along the car. It was clear that it was ripping its insides out, though the purpose of doing so was unclear to them. That was, until it came out and they could see the thing by their own eyes; and that sight was haunting them.

“MY HOLY DICK!!!”

“My dear!”

“I’m scared! Can we go home now?!”

It was Tad. Or rather what was left of him. The impact was so great that despite being covered by the goo creature, he broke all of his bones and even a small part of his skull. But the entity wasn’t ready to give him up, so it improvised: it took all the steel pipes it needed to replace the cracked bones and cover the exposed brain, which was already looking like a dry plum. The creature certainly didn’t cater to aesthetics, so the thing standing there in front of them looked like a pure eldritch horror snatched straight from the worst of nightmares. It wasn’t doing anything, save irregularly breathing through semi-broken nostrils, but it was enough for them to shit their pants.

“Lu-Lucan?” stuttered Kasper.

“Yes?” answered Lucan with shaking voice.

“Tell me you have a plan. For everything that’s holy to you, tell me that you know how to get us out of here in one piece.”

“W-Well, erm, I…”

“No. No no no no no!”

“Just let me think, all right? I need to… assess the situation.”

“What do you need to assess?! That: a deadly monster - us: dead meat!”

“Don’t you think I don’t know that?! But if we want to survive this encounter we need to think smart about our next step.” Standing there against the creature, Lucan began to calm enough for him to formulate a plan. After a while of stressful thinking, he said, “Poop bombs.”

“Excuse me???”

“Didn’t you hear me?! Poop bombs!”

“Wha- Ooooooooooh!!! Poop bombs!”

“Yes, poop bombs.”

“So does this mean I have your permission to make shit go boom?”

“Only that specific shit, nothing else. We still need to finish our mission.”

“Man, how can you still think about the stinking mission?”

“Training. Now do your thing.”

“Right, right.” Kasper was, within the limits of the current situation, happy. He could finally shine with his explosive personality against a worthy adversary! If only he could force himself to make a move.

“What are you waiting for?”

“It’s just that… It might recognize they are bombs and chop me into pieces before setting them off.”

“I don’t believe it will do that. At least not right away.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Its behavior. Just like a few minutes ago, it isn’t doing anything. Chasing us all the way down here, but not proceeding with killings.”

“Now that is weird.”

While the two could hide their fear for the most part, Kobi wasn’t so fortunate.

“Can you PLEEASEEE make it go away?!” There was a subtle hint of cry in his voice.

“Alright, alright! You’re acting as if we are about to die or something. Sheesh. OK then, I’m reaching for my belt, slowly!” And he was really slow, straining every muscle in his arm to keep its movements to an absolute minimum. A sloth standing next to him would appear as if doped on caffeine.

Lucan was watching him the whole time. “What are you doing?”

“Trying not to startle it.”

“Just pick those bombs and throw them at it already!”

“Pfft! OK, fine, have it your way!” He angrily reached into his pocket, picked a handful of small black balls, and threw them at it as if in tantrum. “There! Happy?!”

There were several scenarios they could have imagined once Kasper threw the bombs: a premature explosion, a late explosion, an explosion doing not nearly enough damage, an explosion that was misdirected… Basically every idea contained some form of explosion. What they got instead was something completely not expected: tiny, nasty tentacles reaching out from all over the hijacked body and eating those small bombs, not leaving a single mark after them. No flash, no sound, no smoke. Just gone.

“Well, that just happened, “ summarized Kasper. “I think it’s safe to say we are fucked.”

“Not just yet.”

“What do you mean not just yet? It ate them! They didn’t leave a dent on it! That’s an apt description of being fucked!”

“But it still isn’t doing anything. That’s a good sign.”

“It’s a sign of it playing with its food.”

“You and your pessimism.” “You still don’t believe me? Here, let me make this jump to end this fucking sharade.”

“Wait, what are you doing?!”

But it was too late. Kasper made a swift jump away from the monster to demonstrate just how wrong his leader was. And the monster did the most unusual thing he could think of: once again, absolutely nothing.

“What the- WHAT THE FUCK IS ITS PROBLEM?! First it chases us, then it stops, then it chases again and when it has us on a silver plate, it doesn’t do shit again! That thing is broken! Fuck it, let’s go!”

“No!”

“Oh fuck you Lucan! I had enough of your bullshit!”

“Just wait a second! I think I know what is happening here. And if I’m right…” He raised his foot and made a step back. Tad, as previously, did nothing.

“I give up,” Kasper threw up his arms.

“Just one more thing. Kobi, make one step back. Slowly.”

“But I’m scared.”

“I know you are. We all are. But I need you to do this one thing for me. Please? Just one slow step back, nothing more.”

“Uhm, erm, o-ok.” Kobi carefully lifted his leg and started to move it behind his back. That immediately triggered a growling in the monster. “Gah!” He quickly returned his leg back to where it was previously.

“Ha! So I was right after all!”

“I am so fucking happy for you, man. Like, I would give a hug and shit, but unfortunately this place kills the mood for it.”

“Yes, yes. Do you remember that encounter we had with the girl, the one with the book?”

“Her name was Kelly,” Kobi quickly corrected him, which awarded him an even nastier growl from the creature.

“Hush now, Kobi. Let me talk. So anyway, we heard another voice coming out of her hair. Head to be more precise. I now believe that was her boyfriend.”

“Even if so, how the hell is this supposed to help us?”

“Because now I can come up with some kind of plan to get us out of here in one piece while achieving our mission goal.”

“Do tell.”

“You see, when the goo attacked him, it went on with its business; sucking out all the brain energy and all that. But the substance wasn’t created with Woolites in mind. And there is a good reason for it: back then no Woolite was living in Mewni and they were considered extinct after the great Magical Wars with their people. My guess is that it couldn't fully merge with its host and when it was about to be done with this boy here, it wanted to jump to another victim, but at that very moment it tapped into his rage against Kobi. ”

“Because he was hitting on her!”

“Exactly! So now they are both locked in endless agony: the boy is alive just a split moment from death and the goo is dying of hunger, and both want the opposite things. Although at this point my guess would be he just wants to die.”

“Awesome mental work, dude! Now, let me ask you this: HOW THE FUCK IS THIS SUPPOSE TO HELP US?!”

“We can use Kobi here as bait.”

“What?! No! No bait! I don’t want to die!” Kobi objected.

“Don’t worry, I don’t want you dead either. We will just make sure it will follow you to a place where we can kill it. The boy deserves his peace and we deserve to live. Are you with me, Kobi?”

“So I won’t die?”

“Not if you will do exactly what I tell you to do.”

“O-OK.” Even though he agreed, he wasn’t convinced.

“This is all dandy and sweet and shit, but what is the actual plan?”

“I’m not exactly sure.”

“Say what?!”

Kobi lit up. “But the blond girl appears to know how to proceed.”

Kasper looked over his shoulder to the opening in the dark. “She was holding that flashlight this whole time? Damn she has to have a strong arm.”

“I believe it is safe to assume she wants us to follow her there. Which we’ll do.”

“Excellent idea boss, but it seems you forgot about one small, tiny, itsy-bitsy, but ever so crucial detail: we can’t move our asses out of here without turning Kobi’s ass into a ham!”

“Well it looks like the girl disagrees with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at her.”

“Why- I was just checking a minute ag- Oh.”

The girl was still holding her flashlight, but now she was pointing it at something above their heads. He looked up and saw a train car hanging on a steel rope, though he didn’t recognize the contraption holding it there.

“The fuck is that?”

“No clue. But that is unimportant right now. All we need to do is to make it fall down on that thing… that… is- Is it growling?”

“Yeah,” Kobi confirmed, “and I didn’t move from my place, like, at all. I even slowed down my breathing so I wouldn’t enrage it. It really hates me.”

“Yeah, who doesn’t? Lucan, while that thing hanging above our heads is certainly convenient, how do you want to get it down and break its skull with it?”

“Simple: with your help.”

“My help? I ain’t going up there!”

“I didn’t mean that, you simpleton. You’re a demolition expert. Don’t you have a means to shoot it down or something like that?”

“Oh that kind of help! Yeah, sure, I should have something tha- Oh, I know!” Kasper reached into his pocket again and this time he brought out something yellow and bright resting in his palm.

“A firefly.”

“Yes.”

Lucan looked at him with suspicion. “With all those explosives you have at your disposal and you picked a firefly.”

“Ah, but not just any firefly. A Blind Bandit.”

“I really hope that’s just a name.”

“Nope. It’s really blind.”

“Kasper, we don’t have time for this.”

“What?! This is the perfect solution to our problem. Look, these fireflies are rare and really hard to train.”

“You mean to tell me you trained this thing?”

“Of course! They are really dumb. Even dumber than Kobi here. But they also have what you would call an explosive personality - they make a lot of damage upon contact.”

“How come it didn’t explode in your hand?”

“Because it’s not flying, duh! So you want that thing to fall down, right? Then I’ll just point it at the rope keeping it there and BOOM!”

“How precise is it?”

Kasper was beginning to be annoyed. “It goes exactly where I show it to go. I could send it towards a moving hoving car and it would splash against it with a smile.”

“All right, I believe you. Kobi, are you ready?”

“Yes please!”

“Kasper, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Kasper aimed has hand at the illuminated rope and gently blew air at the little creature. As if being a leaf, it took off and started to fly in a straight line. “See? Easy.”

“Excellent. Now, both of you be ready to start running.”

“Running? Aren’t you exaggerating a little? We just need to move away.”

“That car won’t kill it.”

“What are you on about? Of course it will kill it!”

“A fall from 10 meters won’t end its life, so I doubt this will be successful in that regard.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Perhaps. But she does,” Lucan pointed at the girl still pointing her flashlight. “It’s apparent she wants to help and that she knows this place.”

“You think we can trust her?”

“Unclear, but we don’t have much of a choice.”

Kasper looked up. “Well, we will see soon enough. Ten seconds!”

“Kobi, we will all start running towards the girl on my mark.”

“OK!”

“Three, two, one, RUN!”

They all quickly turned around and started to run away from the creature. That enraged it and it immediately began to follow them, but it managed to make only a few steps before a loud explosion was heard above and the massive train car landed on top of it. None of them dared to look back, as they believed it would be pointless. When they were approaching the gal, she didn't wait for them and started to run as well.

“Hey, wait for us!” Lucan yelled towards her, but she didn’t pay any attention to him.

“Should we follow her?” asked Kasper.

Suddenly a loud and unnatural screech was heard from behind.

“There is no turning back. Keep running!”

The air inside the hallway they entered was stiff and old and kinda smelly. But all that was irrelevant to them. What mattered was the fact that they were being chased by a monster that now looked like a living nightmare. Kasper was the last one and he could hear it following them the best. It also meant he could just turn around and take a glimpse of it if he wanted.

Left, left, right, up the stairs.

The idea of seeing its current shape had made his mind so preoccupied that he didn’t notice the change of scenery. Instead of a plain tunnel they were now in a hallway with a lot of doors, and the further they went the wider the hallway got.

Right.

He didn’t want to turn back. The fact he could hear it more clearly with each step suggested it was getting closer. But his curiosity took hold of him and forced him to turn his head around, if only for a split second. That split second was more than enough to scare him to death.

“FUCK! That shit is really pissed we took its favorite chew toy and it wants it back! BADLY!”

“I can hear it too! It sounds extra motivated!”

“No shit! Do you still see the girl?”

“Yes! But I’m clueless as to where she is taking us!”

“We will find out in one minute!”

“Why one minute?”

“Because we will be dead in one minute!!!”

Up the stairs and through big doors.

Now the place had turned into a wide square full of shops and vending machines. There was also a weird, blueish flickering light coming from behind turnstile, which was exactly where the girl was leading them. This made Lucan suspicious and question his decision to trust her. Whatever the case, it was too late to change his mind, and all he could do was follow the whole situation through.

They turned right to the light. With full running speed they barged into an abandoned boarding platform with a huge hole in the middle of it. Lucan saw it at the last moment.

“KOBI, TURN RIGHT AND GRAB KASPER!” Even he had trouble steering his body to the side, so seeing Kobi steering his while grabbing Kasper along the way was truly something. They were safe from falling to their deaths, but not so much from being eaten.

Not five seconds later a massive black blob beyond recognition emerged out of the darkness from behind, covered by steel shrapnel and tentacles. The creature too had the problem of staying on their tails while going after them at full speed, but it managed to attach itself onto nearby pillars to keep itself from falling into the abyss. Still, a small part of its mass did lurk over it, and that small part was enough for it to sign its death warrant.

Out of the blue and without any prior indication of its presence, a huge, nasty looking reddish tentacle appeared from the sinkhole and wrapped itself around the black creature. The creature shrieked, trying to hold itself in place, but the fight was predestined to fail. It was being loud, attaching itself to various things around in total panic, but the sheer difference in size was simply too great for it to stand any chance. After a short horrifying theater they had to witness, the blob was snatched against its will down into the pitch black.

Lucan was pointing with his flashlight at the scenario the whole time and even after it was done he couldn’t force himself to move his hand away from the hole. The shock of it all took hold of his nerves, keeping him from doing anything at all.

“Well,” noted Kasper, “I believe the smaller problem is gone. Can we now panic over the bigger one?”

“I- uhm,” suttered Lucan.

“This place is fucked up, man. How anything with magic can exist in this place is beyond me.”

His mention of magic jump-started Lucan’s mind. He got back on his feet and started to search for the girl. She was the only thing he could focus on to regain his sanity after what he had just witnessed. Lucky for him, she wanted to be found. But this time she wasn't showing any sign of movement. In fact, she was standing across the chasm perfectly still, almost like a statue.

That wasn't the reassurance he was looking for.

“Uhm, OK, well, I- I think we should reach out to her here before that thing decides it needs a dessert. Kobi, are you feeling well?”

“No.” His voice was weak and silent.

But Kasper wasn't convinced by his plan. "Dude, that chick is giving me creepy vibes. And that says something, considering the shit we just went through."

"I can't deny feeling a degree of… uncertainty. I'm still shaken by these events, just like you. But that wasn't our mission."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…"

"Without purpose we are lost. More so in this uncharted place."

"All the more reason to get the fuck out!"

"That is my goal as well, but first I need to know why she brought us here. Now, follow me around this pit. Surely a few extra steps wouldn't hurt you."

Kasper mumbled something inaudible but agreed to get a move on, quite reluctantly though, as the passage to the other side was narrow and the possibility of being eaten alive very much probable.

Kobi was shaken the most, almost to the point of not being able to move from his place; a place he grew to like over the last few minutes. It gave him a sense of security, even if it was false.

Lucan, who had some problem of coping with the situation himself, needed to muster every last drop of confidence he had left to comfort him. "Look, Kobi, the pretty girl is just over there. We just need to get to her and then we will be on our way."

"I don't like her."

Kasper felt the need to join the discussion. "At least something we can agree on."

But Lucan quickly shut him off with a look in his eyes. "We will just check what she wants, nothing more."

Kobi looked up with his sad puppy eyes. "And we go?"

"Of course."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

He looked over to the girl just standing there with an unnatural look on her face. "Well ok."

Lucan grabbed his hand, though thanks to his massive body it was a mere symbolic gesture. He then turned to Kasper. "Lead the way."

"Gee, thanks."

They were moving along the edge of the pit in one line making sure not to fall down. Only Lucan kept watching the girl, than his own footsteps. She didn't appear to show any signs of movement and the flickering blue light above her was giving her an almost eerie feeling. Just before he was behind a pillar, she suddenly turned her head his way and smiled. But it wasn't a smile of a girl; it was a smile of a winner.

And as if she wasn't really there, once they got past the pillar, she was gone. He quickly approached the spot he had seen her standing. The floor was dusty, but didn't have any footsteps. The creepy feelings intensified, as did Kobi's anxiety.

"Can we go now?"

"Not yet."

Kasper disagreed. "Oh come on, dude! Now you're just being an asshole. There is nothing here!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Think about it: we enter a centuries old piece of architecture, seemingly abandoned for the same length of time, and then this person appears out of nowhere and starts helping us, leading us to a specific place. This place."

"You're just making absurd connections that aren't there."

"I don't think they are. It's beginning to make perfect sense to me now."

"How convenient that your brain lit up in this place in particular."

"Your doubts are understandable. But I believe I can disperse the gloom looming over your head - with this."

"Your doohickey?"

"I'm convinced that if I'll turn it on here, it'll immediately light up."

"I want to see that."

And so Lucan flipped it on and to Kasper's surprise, and to Kobi's relief, it did just that.

"Well I'll be…"

"I believe that she wasn't just leading us out of harm's way. She was also leading us to the very thing we came here to search for."

"How's that even possible???"

"I have no idea, and just this once I'm fine with it."

"But what about the pretty girl?" asked Kobi.

Kasper nodded. "I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with him, but he has a point. She did help us after all."

"I don't think she wants to be found."

"What makes you think that?"

"Do you see her?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then we're leaving her where she wants to be. Now, let's see what we get here."

Kasper was somewhat shocked by his response, but taking into account what happened and the place they were in, he just shrugged it off.

"Well, even though we're here, wherever 'here' is, how the hell do we know what to look for? Do you know what the damn thing even looks like?"

"Not yet. Here, hold the flashlight. I'm going to find the source."

Lucan's apparatus was definitely going crazy, but still wasn't at its peak level. Aware of this fact, he began to search the place. He was glad when the signal weakened when he pointed it towards the pit. But when facing what appeared to be a glass wall, the readings hit the ceiling.

"In there! Kasper, shine some light into it."

The light rays revealed a curious sight: toys. A lot of them, being thrown around the place in random order.

Kasper was surprised. "A toy shop?"

On the other hand, Kobi was happy. "Yay! Toys! Can I take one?"

"We didn't come here to steal useless crap, you doofus! Now, which shit in there is the thing we're looking for?"

"I'm not sure. My equipment isn't that sensitive."

"Then you better make it sensitive enough, because I sure as hell ain't going in there to search for it!"

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Go back a little. Yes, there! Do you see it?"

"See what exactly?"

"It's buried beneath all those toys, but I think I can see a small part of it peeking out."

"I see nothing."

"You will. Kobi, break the glass, please."

"Wee, toys!" Kobi broke it with quite the enthusiasm, resulting in glass shattering all over the place.

Kasper shielded himself from the spray of glass. "Not so hard, you fucking twat! You almost cut us!"

"Oopsie. Can I take toys now?"

"No! Lucan, tell me you see that damn thing."

"Indeed I do. Hold on."

He reached his hand into the pile of cushy toys. To his surprise they were in quite good condition for being hundreds of years old. But this realization went quickly away when he touched a very slick handle and felt a slight tingling sensation in his fingers.

"Got it."

And when he brought it out, they couldn't believe their own eyes.

Kobi’s pupils almost dilated with glee. "What a beautiful toy!!!" he gasped.

What was a mere toy to Kobi, was something entirely different to Kasper and Lucan. A wide range of new possibilities opened just before their eyes.

"No. Fucking. Way. It can't be!"

"But it is! Do you realize what this means? This changes everything! We can finally make a final move against the queen!"

They were silently staring at the object in Lucan's hand. The handle was smooth, with a spiral ornament and a small crystal at the bottom. On the other side it had a star shaped crystal surrounded by small hearts and embedded in half a sphere, which had two wings attached on both sides.

Lucan was ecstatic. "The ultimate source of magic in the whole world: a magical wand!"

"But I thought there is only one and it belongs to the queen."

"I'm holding the proof that we were wrong this entire time!"

But then Kasper noticed something weird about it. "Uhm, dude? Not to ruin your parade, but doesn't it look kinda weird to you? Because to me it looks dead. There are barely any colors, just shades of grey."

Lucan clearly didn't like Kasper's remark. "It is of no consequence. We have it. It is ours. We can use. We will use it."

"Yeah, sure, awesome stuff, except that we are still stuck in this hellhole. How the fuck do we get out?! We can’t go back the way we came in."

It was unclear if the wand actually heard his question, or that it could even understand his question; but the fact remained that for a few seconds it regained all of its colors and shined bright as a sun, followed by lights lighting up a hallway leading to a stairway. They kept staring at the possibly most convenient getaway that ever existed. After being tired by looking just one way, they carefully looked down at the wand, expecting it to talk to them or something similar. But it remained silent.

“That didn’t just happen, right?” asked Kasper, looking for moral support. “I mean, wands aren’t alive, right?”

“Sentient is the word you are looking for. And honestly I’m not sure about anything anymore, except that this thing is the key to our victory. So let’s just accept this offering of good faith and get back to base.”

“Spooky wand,” added Kobi.

They left the horrors of Warnicorn Metro behind and began to rise to the surface. The climb was quite long and exhausting, but after all they went through, this was a walk in the park. And truth to be told, they enjoyed it. After all, they had the most powerful, and most likely also the only known, weapon strong enough to defeat and kill the queen, Omnia Butterfly.

#pillars of magic #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe

[gretamclaughlin]

Reform and Restructuring for a Greener Future

Overpopulation and overconsumption are becoming direr environmental problems as time goes on, and steps must be taken immediately to curb these interrelated issues. Chris Jordan’s photography displays the sheer level of human consumption, and the problem is exacerbated by rapidly growing populations. Similar to the impossible hamster, human economies cannot keep growing forever, and at some point in the future, we will destroy ourselves. Earth’s resources are finite and need to be treated as such. Today, the human ecological footprint is expanding as we reach late-stage capitalism. There is widespread environmental degradation and changes in nature, communities, and economies, and people are calling for new systems to evaluate said issues.

Developing nations’ populations are increasing at astounding rates, and one must understand and handle poverty to deal with this issue and improve the environment for people across the world. Studies have shown that even an elementary level of education causes women to reproduce less, and they have greater opportunities to support themselves outside of a husband. Unfortunately, in many developing nations, women cannot obtain an education. Therefore, improving schooling is integral in population control. Furthermore, birth control and family planning resources need to become more accessible, so fewer women and couples are forced to have children and fewer unsafe abortions occur. This would also facilitate improvements in other areas of health like controlling the spread of HIV. If these nations can improve their social safety nets and implement greater public benefits like pensions, birth rates would also decrease because women would not have to rely on children to support them. Certainly, these methods would improve the well-being of people across the world, and it would also benefit the environment and the budgets of nations, as reducing poverty saves money. It is intriguing to view environmental issues in a wider social context, and I appreciate how the textbook mentions how certain issues affect several spheres, such as economics and healthcare.

Some advocate for the implementation of a steady-state economy to reduce overconsumption and exploitation, which would create permanent economic restrictions, like limits on income and wealth. However, this theory has its faults, and regulations may govern fertility rates and more. Between 1979 and 2015, China implemented the one-child policy and distributed benefits, many of which were basic human necessities, to those who followed the policy (BBC, n.d.). Although China’s birth rate fell significantly during this time, many view it as inhumane. Female babies were sometimes killed due to gender, and some women were forced to have abortions or be sterilized. In the U.S., instances of forced hysterectomies of migrants at ICE detention centers are examples of flagrant human rights violations and attempts to institute eugenics (Project South 2020). Past population and economic control attempts resemble Huxleyan societies in which only “the best” are allowed to survive. I view these tactics as violations of human rights, and they take policies that could be beneficial (like family planning) to the extreme. The implications of such approaches are heinous and dystopian.

Some favor degrowth to reduce overconsumption. The theory advocates for shifting societies’ values to ones that are no longer based on material wealth. In such degrowth societies, sustainable agriculture is emphasized, and having necessities is deemed as more important than amassing great wealth. In a plenitude economy, like the video shows, people view the earth in a less extractive manner and do not strive for endless growth; there are less wealth inequalities and environmental issues as a result. “The Good Life” parable depicts a man who earns enough money to support his family and is quite happy with his decisions, despite not being wealthy. In a previous post, I spoke about Aude, France and how there has been a revitalization of rural communities; these small villages are generally sustainable. People lead full lives, and they are not suffocated by many of the trials of modern life. I have always thought about living like this, and residing in New York City’s metropolitan area for my entire life has definitely affected me negatively. I am harmed by the constant pressure and competition, and I spend most of my days inside studying, so I can have a good career, so I can make money. This does not seem like a well-lived life, but there are few other options. I have always dreamed of moving to a sustainable commune because, in my mind, humans are not meant to live the way that they do now. We need to take down capitalist systems as a whole if we want to return to a more community-driven lifestyle.

Worldwide, urbanization is expanding, and people are leaving rural areas for cities and suburbs. Unfortunately, these regions are largely unsustainable, and widespread pollution and environmental degradation occur both within and outside the city to support it. Cities need to become more sustainable for both environmental and health reasons. Governments should implement mixed-use neighborhoods to reduce reliance on cars and foster community. In New Jersey, the Transit Village Initiative aims to develop areas around public transportation (State of New Jersey 2019). There are 33 transit villages today, and it has caused more people to use public transit and revitalized downtowns. Unfortunately, my town did not opt into the initiative, and local businesses are suffering, and few people use public transportation. In Singapore, the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 has created numerous 20-minute neighborhoods (Government of Singapore 2020). People can shop, eat, and visit the doctor within minutes, and cycling paths and high-speed transportation connect the city for longer commutes. In New York City, PlaNYC set out goals to improve mass transit. Transition Towns also provide an alternative to environmentally degrading living on a local level, and if the network is expanded more, the towns can have a significant impact. New communities need to avoid urban sprawl, and cluster developments keep natural features and improve human health.

At the Guggenheim Museum, a recent exhibition highlighted human communities, urbanization, and the revitalization of rural areas (Office for Metropolitan Architecture 2020). Spearheaded by Rem Koolhas, one section of the exhibit featured modern Chinese villages. People live in apartment complexes in rural areas, and they have quick access to food, schools, and more. Residents work on small, personal farms with relatively short workdays, and they enjoy a sense of community. Outside of cities, these people connect more with nature, satisfying biophilia.

Action needs to be taken immediately, but many governments are lackadaisical when it comes to pursuing green initiatives, especially when they would alter economic systems. The “American Dream” still captures many people, even ones being hurt the most by the capitalist system. Therefore, even though a top-down approach may work better, a bottom-up approach is more feasible, especially in countries like the U.S. Grassroots organizations and community groups should begin with local initiatives to both educate and alter people’s perceptions and shift the way communities are set up.

Within cities, smaller, more sustainable communities can be created. Eco-villages require residents to live in an ecologically friendly fashion, and they give people the tools to be greener in a system that makes it difficult. Although this is a small step, these eco-villages can have enormous impacts on those surrounding the communities as well, and they can inspire others to compost, reuse, and more. Establishing farmer’s markets within neighborhoods further promotes green living, and if people source more food locally, they do not pollute the earth through transportation. If organizations and the government can work with vendors to take food stamps at markets, more people will have access to healthier food, and less damage will be done to the environment. Programs to share goods, rather than buying them, are also important in creating sustainable communities. Book-sharing, toy-sharing, and tool-sharing are all examples of how goods can be lent to others, instead of people buying new ones for use for a short period of time. Certainly, community-based actions enable people to live in a greener manner, and they promote a sense of community that many are lacking in the modern world. If these groups can pressure local governments to revisit zoning laws to create more mixed-use neighborhoods, more widespread change can occur. People will rely less on cars and environmentally degrading transportation in general, thus living more sustainably.

Grassroots initiatives can offer greater access to birth control and provide sex education to fill in the government’s gaps. Providing contraceptive pills, condoms, and more and informing people on how to use them can have extensive effects. Offering these services in underserved communities will cause more people to make informed decisions about their sex lives and reproduction, reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies. In turn, this will decrease population growth and poverty and allow for women to gain greater autonomy in their lives. Certainly, a significant number of social issues are connected, and by addressing one of them, we can positively affect so many others. Of course, government intervention to help these organizations in their efforts would be ideal. Government funding to groups such as Planned Parenthood allows more people to gain access to vital resources. It also helps the government later on by reducing the number of people living in poverty who would require even more federal funding. However, the government has not shown to be the most effective when it comes to reproductive health, and often the burden falls on the people themselves. Perhaps presenting the issue through the lens of overall cost reduction would change how the government views the problem.

Additionally, we should pressure the government into implementing widespread policies on urban planning and infrastructure. This is likely the only way for the entire country to become more sustainable both now and in the future. For example, the government can allocate more funds to public transportation nationwide and in cities and states through mandates. Mandates would require areas to increase services and improve failing infrastructure, such as the constantly delayed New York City subway system. Amtrak, a current federal transportation service, is seen as a failure by many people, and the majority of the country remains disconnected. During the pandemic, service has been interrupted even more. If the government improves Amtrak and perhaps adds a nationwide high-speed rail service, fewer people will rely on cars and planes to travel domestically. Pollution will reduce, and the country will become more connected, which has significant benefits from an economic and community standpoint. Current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg supports creating a high-speed rail system; however, it is an initiative that is often overlooked by many others in government for its price. Again, the burden might fall on grassroots groups to display to the government how upfront costs will pay off due to reduced environmental costs.

In an ideal world, we would dismantle capitalism and replace it with a system that is kinder to more people and the environment in general. It would effectively reduce wealth disparities and increase the standard of living of those currently living in poverty. For many reasons, I believe that a complete restructuring of many economic systems, including the U.S.’s, is the only way to reduce the threat of environmental degradation. We need to shift away from the greed and exploitation of capitalism and create opportunities for everyone. In a previous blog post, I spoke highly of sustainable business models. Although these are important first steps to take and can reduce environmental degradation by industries, they are not viable long-term. Sustainable businesses still seek to exploit in many ways, and many greenwash their initiatives. It is time we make an institutional change. Pressuring and lobbying the government and electing promising officials is one way to go about gradual shifts in the economic system, and these officials can implement policies that heavily regulate businesses and redistribute wealth. Widespread protest may be an important factor given that major corporations bankroll so many politicians. In this restructuring, we should not lean on steady-state eugenics initiatives to “improve” society, and we must focus on creating a fairer world for everyone.

The environment is degrading rapidly, and steps must be taken to address urbanization and extreme population growth. We are consuming the earth’s resources at a completely unsustainable rate, and we are residing in communities that do not support an environmentally friendly way of life. Institutional issues need to be rectified to save us from the impending doom that is climate change. In the meantime, we should all recognize our impacts on the environment and attempt to curb any damage that we do. It is up to everyone to create a healthier world.

Word Count: 2088

Question: How have mixed-use communities affected economic growth?

Diagrams:

Singapore’s plan provides numerous benefits to people’s well-being.

Key elements of mixed-use neighborhoods

Proposed agro-housing in Wuhan, China combines agriculture and urban amenities in a mixed-use development.

Works Cited:

BBC. n.d. “Managing population change.” Accessed March 28, 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3grsg8/revision/1.

Project South. 2020. “ Lack of Medical Care, Unsafe Work Practices, and Absence of Adequate Protection Against COVID-19 for Detained Immigrants and Employees Alike at the Irwin County Detention Center .” https://projectsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/OIG-ICDC-Complaint-1.pdf.

State of New Jersey. 2019. “Transit Village Initiative Frequently Asked Questions.” https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/community/village/faq.shtm.

Government of Singapore. 2020. “Land Transport Master Plan 2040.” https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltagov/en/who_we_are/our_work/land_transport_master_plan_2040.html.

Office for Metropolitan Architecture. 2020. “Countryside: The Future.” https://oma.eu/projects/countryside-the-future.

#environment #environmentalism #urban planning #singapore #capitalism #population control

[blueskyscribe]

Wanted to talk about what a watershed moment the verdict in the George Floyd case is (even though obv. there still a long way to go for Black people to be safe in America).  Because a lot of people thought the make up of the jury would make it hard to secure a conviction.  There were only three Black people on the jury.  Also, some of the jurors had relatives or friends who were police officers.  Some had a negative view of BLM.

But several of them--white people--had a positive view of BLM, talked about how minority groups were targeted by the police, and so on.

And in the end that diverse group of people returned a very speedy verdict (meaning they were probably mostly in agreement at the end of the trial) of “guilty, guilty, guilty.”

So, that does give me a lot of hope.  Yeah, the world is not going to magically become a better place overnight--sadly we just had an instance of the police shooting a Black teenage girl--but the seeds of justice are sown and we can help them grow.

I put the bios of the jurors under the cut;  I found them extremely interesting.  I encourage everyone to read them.  In the end all of these people knew that George Floyd was murdered.

JUROR NO. 2 Juror No. 2 is a white man in his 20s who works as a chemist. With a combined degree in environmental studies and chemistry, he works in a lab where he tests samples for contaminants that may be harmful to the environment or worker hygiene. He said he enjoys outdoor activities, including Ultimate Frisbee, backpacking and biking. He and his fiancee visited George Floyd Square because Floyd's arrest was such a "transformative event for that area." Juror No. 2 said he worked for seven or eight summers at a camp through his childhood synagogue. He considers himself to be a logical thinker, and is the only juror on the panel who said he has never seen bystander video of Floyd's arrest.

JUROR NO. 9 Juror No. 9 is a multiracial woman in her 20s who has Type 1 diabetes. She grew up in northern Minnesota and has an uncle who is a police officer in that area. She described herself as a "go-with-the-flow, open-minded type of person" and said she was "super excited" to get her jury notice. She said she only watched the bystander video once, and it gave her a "somewhat negative" impression of Chauvin. She said "that video just makes you sad. Nobody wants to see somebody die, whether it was his fault or not." She said there could be other possible explanations for Chauvin's actions, suggesting that Floyd might have been resisting, or civilian lives may have been in danger.

JUROR NO. 19 Juror No. 19 is a white man in his 30s. He is an auditor who said he tries to resolve conflict and make decisions based on facts, not emotions. He has a friend who is a canine officer with the Minneapolis Police Department. He said he supports Black Lives Matter as a general concept but disagrees with some of the ways group members go about things. He has an unfavorable opinion of Blue Lives Matter. He wrote in his questionnaire that he heard Floyd was on hard drugs, but said he doesn't believe it should have much impact on the case. "Whether you are under the influence of drugs doesn't determine whether you should be living or dead," he said.

JUROR NO. 27 Juror No. 27 is a Black man in his 30s who immigrated to America more than 14 years ago. He went to school in Nebraska and moved to Minnesota in 2012. He manages eight people at his job in IT security, and speaks multiple languages including French. He and his wife have a dog but no children. He is a big Minnesota Gophers fan and loves the Vikings. He said he had a somewhat negative view of Chauvin, based on clips of bystander video he saw on TV. He said he talked with his wife about Floyd's death: "We talked about how it could have been me, or anyone else," he said. Juror No. 27 said he hoped to learn at trial more about events that led up to Floyd's arrest.

JUROR NO. 44 Juror No. 44 is a white woman in her 50s, a single mom of two teenage boys. She is an executive in the nonprofit sector, working in health care advocacy. She said she had prior professional dealings with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in her job, but said it would not affect her impartiality. She said she was exposed to a lot of news about this case, adding that the media is biased and doesn't have all the facts. She saw only part of the bystander video and said she has empathy for both Floyd and Chauvin. She said she had a somewhat negative view of Chauvin and a neutral opinion of Floyd, saying he was not a model citizen but didn't "deserve to die." She said she strongly agrees that the criminal justice system is biased against racial and ethnic minorities. "Not all police are bad," she said. "I don't want them terrorized or disrespected. But bad police need to go." JUROR NO. 52 Juror No. 52 is a Black man in his 30s. He described himself as a friendly, positive person. He works in banking and likes sports, especially basketball. He coaches youth sports and writes creatively for a hobby, including scripts and poetry. He said he had neutral opinions on Chauvin and Floyd. He said he had not seen the bystander video in its entirety but had seen clips of it two or three times. He said he had not posted about it on social media but had talked with family and friends and he wrote in his questionnaire that his opinion has been "why didn't the other officers stop Chauvin." "I don't know if he was doing something wrong or not, but somebody died ... Even if you have no intention of doing something and something happens, somebody could've still intervened and prevented that," he said. He has a very favorable view of Black Lives Matter, saying, "Black lives just want to be treated as equals and not killed or treated in an aggressive manner simply because they are Black."

JUROR NO. 55 Juror No. 55 is a white woman in her 50s who is a single parent of two children. Her youngest is a teenager. She works as an executive assistant at a health care clinic and sells Pampered Chef. She enjoys riding motorcycles, saying she picked it up because her late husband was interested in it and she rides with him now "in the spirit." She said she was "disturbed" by the bystander video and "I just couldn't watch it anymore." She said she has a somewhat unfavorable view of Chauvin because she feels he could've handled the situation differently. Still, she said she wouldn't be able to form an opinion until she has all of the facts. She has a basic trust in police officers, and a somewhat unfavorable view of Black Lives Matter, saying: "All lives matter to me. It doesn't matter who they are or what they are."

JUROR NO. 79 Juror No. 79 is a Black man in his 40s, a father who works in management and has lived in the Twin Cities area for about two decades after immigrating to America. He said he lives in a suburb and his home was burglarized once and police responded appropriately, even though the suspect was never caught. He said he trusts police, but also feels it's appropriate for jurors to evaluate an officer's actions. "I would say it's another pair of eyes and a new mind just looking at the action," he said. He has a son about to take driver's education. He said he would tell his son that when police stop him, he should cooperate. When asked if people who don't cooperate have themselves to blame, he said: "Cooperation is good. ... You help everybody."

JUROR NO. 85 Juror No. 85 is a multiracial woman in her 40s, who is married and has a small child. She grew up in a river town and attended college in western Wisconsin. She is a consultant who helps companies with reorganizations and other transitions. She said she has a neutral view of Floyd, writing in her questionnaire that she knew he died "as a result of this encounter" but did not know what his actions were before it happened. When pressed if she thought Chauvin was responsible, she said: "No, I never heard what a cause of death was." She said she has a pretty strong faith in police, but that they are human and can make mistakes. She said she would generally agree that if someone does not cooperate, he or she might have themselves to blame. "You respect police and you do what they ask," she said.

JUROR NO. 89 Juror No. 89 is a white woman in her 50s who lives in a suburb. She is a registered nurse currently working with patients on ventilators, including those with COVID-19, and has prior experience in cardiac care. She was questioned extensively about her experience as a nurse, whether she has ever resuscitated anyone and how she would view medical evidence in the case. The woman said she would draw upon her knowledge to evaluate medical testimony, but said she would refrain from using her knowledge in the jury room. She said she somewhat disagrees that it's not right to second-guess decisions officers make.

JUROR NO. 91 Juror No. 91 is a Black woman in her 60s. She is a grandmother of two who studied child psychology and worked in marketing before she retired, and she felt strongly that being on a jury was her civic duty. The woman, who volunteers with underserved youth, said she watched the bystander video of Floyd's arrest for about four or five minutes, then shut it off because "it just wasn't something that I needed to see." She grew up about 10 or 15 blocks from the site of Floyd's arrest, but said she moved decades ago and has no reason to revisit the area. She had a very favorable view of Black Lives Matter, writing in her questionnaire "I am Black and my life matters," though she said she is not familiar with the organization. She has a relative who is a Minneapolis police officer.

JUROR NO. 92 Juror No. 92 is a white woman in her 40s who works in the commercial insurance business. She said she has experience with someone who struggled with alcohol, and might view someone who uses drugs with caution, out of fear they could act violently or aggressively when under the influence. Still, she said, she doesn't agree that someone who uses drugs or doesn't cooperate with police should be treated poorly. "If someone uses drugs, I don't think there should be ramifications of violence for that," she said.

#George Floyd #Chauvin #BLM #jury #Black Lives Matter #justice

[96thdayofrage]

In September the Reader was alerted to two complaints, one filed with the city's Commission on Human Relations and the other with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, detailing discrimination and racist statements made by high-level managers at Pangea, one of Chicago's biggest corporate landlords. Until the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the company was the city's most prolific filer of eviction cases. Its apartment holdings are concentrated largely in Black neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city and in nearby suburbs, now totaling 9,400 units in 492 buildings. The company also has several thousand more units in Indianapolis and Baltimore.

The complaints were filed by Armando Magana, 45, the chief maintenance supervisor at Pangea in Chicago who'd been with the company since 2010. He's worked in various roles and received promotions and bonuses, most recently in February, Magana writes. "Notwithstanding my exceptional performance, Pangea has repeatedly discriminated against me because of my Hispanic ethnicity and my Mexican national origin. Throughout my employment, Pangea has also subjected me to a hostile work environment based on numerous derisive and derogatory statements made by Pangea's managers and executives regarding my ethnicity and national origin."

Magana's complaint includes several examples of such statements from vice president of operations Derek Reich and CEO Pete Martay. He claims that in 2017 Reich "told me that I should avoid being seen working with an African-American work colleague if I did not want to be viewed in the same way as that 'lazy nigger.'"

Magana details two occasions in 2018 when Reich "suggested hiring 'illegals' because they will accept less compensation," and resisted Magana's recommendations for which employees should get raises, allegedly saying, "'aren't these guys illegal?'"

Further in the complaints he recounts a 2019 meeting in which management for a newly acquired building near Loyola University on the north side was allegedly discussed. "My African American colleague asked, 'who will be managing the building,' to which Mr. Reich responded, 'they've never seen a Regional Manager of your kind in that area.' I asked about getting access to the roof top, to which Mr. Martay stated, 'Yeah I can imagine Armando showing up with his trash can and saying "Hello I'm Armando, the janitor here to clean up after you."'"

Later that year, Magana alleges he "met with Mr. Reich at a property that Pangea had recently begun to manage. During a discussion regarding employee staff assignments, Mr. Reich remarked that 'Mexicans are for custodial and maintenance, Blacks for property management, and Whites for the back office, that's it.'" The following month Magana alleges that Martay said to him, in front of other employees, "I should make you pull your fucking tools back out and make you clean shit out of the fucking tubs, like you used to."

Magana writes that he reported Martay's "derogatory comments" to Reich and both supervisors' comments to Pangea's HR manager Lori Bysong as well as the company's CFO Patrick Borchard and cofounder and former CEO Steve Joung. "Mr. Joung listened to me, then responded by saying that he doubted workplace discrimination was occurring."

Magana claims in the complaint that at the end of 2019 he also had a conversation with Pangea's operations manager Sean McQuade about hiring and pay for new workers, requesting $22/hour for one of them. "Mr. McQuade responded by asking 'Do you know if he's illegal? Do you think he has papers? . . . Do you think this guy is worth $22/hour?'" Again, Magana claims he reported these comments to HR, Pangea's in-house attorney Jennifer Dean, and other supervisors.

"Despite having complained on multiple occasions directly to multiple members of Pangea management, no one at the Company ever responded to, investigated, or otherwise communicated with me regarding my several complaints," Magana writes. "Rather, Mr. Reich continues to make derogatory, discriminatory comments toward me. Specifically, on May 12, 2020, Mr. Reich called me and stated, 'stop treating me like a shine. Last time I checked I was white.'"

In both an internal e-mail obtained by the Reader and in an e-mailed statement from CEO Pete Martay, Pangea has denied Magana's allegations and said he's refused to cooperate in the company's internal efforts to investigate.

"Pangea Properties has zero tolerance for racist or discriminatory behavior," Martay wrote to the Reader. "We take allegations of this nature very seriously. As a result, we hired a neutral investigator to carry out a prompt and thorough investigation and have also engaged legal representation to defend the company against allegations we believe are baseless. The complainant and his witnesses have refused multiple requests to participate in our investigation."

The Reader also presented the company with an opportunity to respond to additional allegations made by ten other current and former employees about Pangea's corporate culture. These included vivid descriptions of demeaning statements by Reich and other supervisors, as well as allegations of segregated and demeaning working conditions. "We categorically deny the claims in the complaint and also the statements made against us by former employees," wrote Martay. Neither Reich nor McQuade, whose conduct Magana also referenced in his complaint, responded to a request for comment.

Hostile work environments are both ubiquitous and difficult to reform. Their toxicity can be hard to pin down and prove on paper, especially when corporate promotions and official praise are interspersed with interpersonal disrespect and disregard. As a reckoning over the prejudices endemic to white-dominated workplaces roils the private and public sectors, employees of color from businesses and institutions as varied as Adidas, LinkedIn, Vogue, the San Francisco health department, and Loyola University have begun speaking out about the racial microaggressions, gaslighting, and harassment that defines office culture for them.

Even as he received glowing performance reviews, Magana could also feel hostility from management. For example, in an August 2013 e-mail obtained by the Reader, Reich wrote a brief note to another regional manager. The subject line read, "Armando was excited about converting to Islam . . . " and inside the body of the e-mail the sentence ended " . . . Until he found out you can't eat pork." Attached was a photo of Magana, grinning, in a little white hat reminiscent of a kufi skull cap.

When asked about the e-mail Magana said he was dismayed at being the target of a crude joke that appeared to be both Islamophobic and about his weight. "I never thought he was gonna take a picture and send it," he said with a grim chuckle as we looked at the image over beers at the nearly deserted patio of the Promontory in Hyde Park. Magana wore a black valve mask and a short sleeve blue polo, apparently unbothered by the biting gusts of wind on that late September afternoon. As he stared at the photo he said the fact that it had been e-mailed was unusual; in his experience Reich rarely left a paper trail of demeaning comments. "It was always phone calls with Derek," Magana said. "He really doesn't like to put anything in e-mail. If you send him an e-mail, he'll call. If you meet him in the field, he'll make those comments."

As documented in his complaints, Magana attempted to have the "discriminatory communications and behavior" he experienced addressed internally, but complaints to HR and leaders of the company didn't help. Finally he started working with attorney Marc Siegel to appeal to external authorities to intervene. The company soon also hired an outside attorney to help handle the situation.

Pangea's lawyers "kept telling [Siegel] that I was exaggerating and they always treated me good and they weren't being racist toward me," Magana told the Reader. "Long story short, I told my attorney I'm not gonna play this game, I'm gonna file this with the state and city and I'm gonna make it public."

By late spring the stress of working at Pangea had intensified due to the coronavirus pandemic. "I broke down because when the COVID started Derek was just calling me every other day, every other day: 'What are you doing?' I'd say 'We're working . . . but we don't have any sanitizing supplies. We don't have masks.'"

Magana said Pangea didn't offer hazard pay. Some field employees took time off because they were scared to go back into the apartment buildings, especially when word got around that tenants were falling ill. Magana says Reich didn't seem to care. "It was like, 'All these guys need to come back to work.' I'm like, 'Derek we're all working, there's some people who took off because they're scared.'"

Magana said that Reich demanded that he choose five of his staff to fire as part of a company effort to reduce the employee headcount to below 500 so that Pangea could qualify for a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the federal government.

He said that in late March Reich called him. "He says, 'You got any shitty people working for you? Give me five.' I'm like, 'I don't have any shitty people working for me.' He's like, 'Well, give me five.'"

The Reader obtained an e-mail Magana sent to Reich the next day, listing four employees who changed positions in the company without being replaced and one who was about to leave Pangea anyway. "There's your four plus one, he's already out the door," Magana recalled thinking. He said that after that he got another phone call from Reich who demanded he name five additional people to fire because Pangea's employee count was at 512.

Magana said he submitted another list of names. "I was destroyed about that," he said. According to records released by the Small Business Administration in July, Pangea was awarded a $5-$10 million loan through the PPP program. They listed an employee count of 494.

By June, Magana needed a break. The stress of the job was getting to him and affecting his family, and he took a leave of absence for a month and a half. "I got kind of depressed, stressed out, I was trying to take care of my health," he said. "I found out my son was depressed, so I had to dedicate myself to him."

Magana said things got worse for him at Pangea after he came back to work in July. There were sudden extra meetings where he was questioned about his work. He felt increasingly micromanaged.

Nevertheless, Magana was still determined to continue working at the company, where he was making $115,000 in salary, got bonuses, and to which he'd devoted a decade of his life. "I'm happy where I'm at, I'm good at what I do, I've done nothing wrong," he said.

Word about Magana's complaint began to get out at Pangea, and e-mails from pseudonymised accounts suddenly appeared in all field employees' inboxes, sharing Magana's complaints and encouraging them to file their own. The company quickly deleted these e-mails from employees' inboxes, however. In a September 30 e-mail to all field employees obtained by the Reader, Martay acknowledged that deletion, adding that the "current employee" who complained about mistreatment "refused to cooperate and will not speak to the independent investigator" Pangea hired to look into the allegations. Though Martay didn't refer to Magana by name in this e-mail, Magana says he felt the CEO's message was meant to undermine him. "We categorically deny the claims made in the complaint and have engaged legal representation to defend the company against them," Martay wrote.

By the beginning of October, Magana felt he could no longer remain at Pangea. "I cannot continue to work under hostile environment with retaliation," he wrote to me in a text message. Though he technically resigned from his job himself, his attorney argues that he was "constructively discharged" by management because of the "discrimination and harassment and retaliation he faced at work."

According to legal precedent established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2006 Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White decision, the definition of retaliation for complaints about workplace discrimination is broad. "It could be making your work life more difficult. It could be micromanaging you. It could be icing you out—anything that could make a reasonable person feel dissuaded from bringing a complaint," said Siegel. "It doesn't have to be a termination or written suspension."

[saraseo]

[hekate-chthonia]

MINORITIES IN FANTASY FICTION

(This is an article written for Shrewsbury High School’s literary magazine- Scribble.)

BY: LILY HARDING, 2019, DO NOT COPY TO ANOTHER SITE

The fantasy genre is one that has been present since before written fiction was even conceived. It is one grown out of our individual folklore and myth, rooted in oral tradition, and cultivated by some of the most well-renowned authors in literature. It is also home to some of my favourite books that have left a massive impression on me and influence my writing and worldview to this day.

Despite this rich history and acclaim, much criticism has been levelled at the genre in recent years about ignorance towards marginalised groups, even in the genre’s most recent iteration of urban fantasy. These claims are not unfounded, the history of the treatment of people of colour, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community is well chronicled.

For example, in the works of JRR Tolkien, possibly the most seminal figure influencing modern fantasy. It is in his work that we find the first widely discussed examples of racializing a foreign species in fiction, a common phenomenon when considering identities of colour within the category of fantasy. Tolkien’s Orcs and Uruk-Hai are described as “black” and “black-skinned”, all orcs are often described as "slant-eyed", and in one of his letters Tolkien described Orcs as "...squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types."

Many will argue that these descriptions are, in effect, harmless because, as Tolkiengateway.net describes; “Orcs however, are not men. Unlike the wicked men who serve the Enemy, who might have been enslaved or beguiled, orcs are portrayed as irredeemably evil, or at least having a redemption outside the scope of the narrative. The origin of orcs is not clear, but they may be products of Morgoth's sorcery, or the descendants of tortured and ruined elves or men. Regardless of their origins they are not presented as a natural race.” Tolkien himself even spoke about his views on allegory, saying “But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.” Which would remove any suspected intent from Tolkien to have the Orcs serve as a negative representation of a particular real-life ethnic group.

However, whether this is intended as harmless or not it does exist within the text, it serves both as a representation of the poor treatment of minority groups present in the genre as it began to gain popularity during the mid-20th century and creates a trend of attributing racial characteristics to fictional species that has a legacy throughout fantasy post-Tolkien. This is a problem, as it not only otherizes people with those racial characteristics but then also becomes the only form of representation those races get within fantasy. 

The urban fantasy subgenre is one that immediately concerns itself with the issue of race; “urban” being a term with immediate connotations of black culture. This is generally thought to be due to the phenomenon of “white flight” from cities to the suburbs in the 1950’s, resulting in urban areas containing a much higher level of diverse ethnic culture. And here we find the definition of urban fantasy: fantasy which operates within an urban setting.

This as a concept represents a shift in the potential of fantasy fiction; no longer are the stories relegated to worlds and allegories that must be mapped onto our own, now they have the chance to make direct and effective social commentary, and with the added connotations of “urban” culture, there is real possibility for potent meditations on all aspects of life from race to class to sexuality.

However, in practise urban fantasy does not so much concern itself with it’s urban-ness, instead being used to describe any story that contains magical worlds within our own. Here we have what journalist Daniel José Older calls “literary gentrification” where “the American city becomes either a goofy whitewashed playground, girls with werewolves and vampires, or an abysmal urban nightmare. And like most dystopias, neither fictionalized versions of this city have much to say about the real-world conflicts threatening urban communities of colour like police violence and gentrification.”

And thus, we come to Harry Potter, perhaps the prime example of what Older is describing. Harry Potter is possibly the most successful fantasy series of all time, specifically urban fantasy, taking its place in our cultural zeitgeist as the culmination of modern fantasy. The series famously takes place at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry, a boarding school in the far rural reaches of Scotland, immediately distancing itself from the urban environment and making it harder for the series to have any relevance to our world.

It is also what has been referred to as “bourgeois fantasy” for its perceived voice of privilege, clumsy handling of minority characters, and ignorance of real-world struggle. An example of this ignorance is the character of Albus Dumbledore. In 2007 author JK Rowling revealed that the beloved Hogwarts headmaster was gay via a speech at Carnegie Hall, despite no evidence of that being present throughout the series. Many voices from within the LGBTQIA+ community have since decried this as lazy representation, that scores Rowling points with liberal fans of the series but allows more conservative ones to simply ignore the statement and go on reading the books and watching the films freely. It is clear here that Rowling was either not willing or ignorant of the work required to include a minority character within your work.

This is again seen in the series’ problems with the few characters of colour it has; primarily Cho Chang, Dean Thomas, Blaise Zabini and Padma and Parvati Patil. All of these characters are routinely side-lined in favour of their white colleagues, not receiving nearly as much development. A particularly egregious instance of this is the plot line of Cho Chang, where her admirable qualities are chipped away in order to make Harry’s love story with Ginny more believable. Cho is essentially put down for the sake of a white woman’s development before all but vanishing from the series completely.

Through these examples it is easy to see how the fantasy genre has been dominated by voices of privilege throughout time and in the modern day. Marginalised groups are either harmfully or lazily represented, or just wholesale ignored. My point, however, is not to dismiss the value of works like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, both of which deserve their places in genre history for setting a precedent and being a milestone in children’s fantasy fiction respectively. Instead I want to stress that this is a learning opportunity, to look at the history of popular works within this genre and make a conscious effort to add to the discourse and change what fantasy is capable of. Fantasy is something so rife with opportunities for interesting voices and stories to come forward and offer growth and change, it is something hewn out of every culture’s myths and legends, and so it belongs to everybody. It’s a genre that I love, including the works I have criticized here, and above all else I want to see it become something diverse, and something that I can be proud of.

[monsterparnasse]

MONTPARNASSE’S RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET

Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.

                            — Be sure to repost, don’t reblog! Template here. —

Mun name: Kaitie OOC Contact: Tumblr IM or discord if you have it

who the frick is montparnasse anyway:

THE BOY. He was born Raoul Nejem, son of a French native and Pakistani immigrant. Outside of his father and uncle, he’s never really met his dad’s side of the family, but he grew up surrounded by his maternal grandparents, and his mother’s sister in a suburb outside of Paris. His family never really had a lot of money, but they made do. His father works as a pastry chef and his mother is in management of a small boutique chain. Raoul grew up in a loving environment, but the short of it is, he’s still a shitty human being. He was something of a bully in elementary school, getting others in trouble for the things he did, stealing from classmates, etc. The longer he got away with it, the more the habits stuck with him. He made rule breaking seem cool and by time he was in high school he was fairly popular with the wrong crowd and was starting to call himself Montparnasse. He was everything parents warned their kids about, but always wore a smile and put on a pleasant face in front of authority. In school itself, he coasted on average grades with bare minimum effort to keep them, but in the end he still dropped out his senior year to his parent’s dismay.

THE TEEN. Montparnasse left behind all ties to Raoul Nejem and moved to Paris proper with a friend. The two quickly lost track of each other and Montparnasse got involved with a rapidly increasing amount of crime. It started with knock offs, moved onto drug trade, and escalated to murder after a partner turned on him. It was self defense, but it shattered any remaining innocence of the boy from Arcueil. Having caught the attention of three older, more experienced criminals in the city, Montparnasse made an alliance with what would soon be known as the Patron Minette. Between the four of them, they had a wide range of influence in crime in the city and coming together brought them stability and control.

THE LEGEND. Montparnasse is now a name known throughout the criminal scene of Paris as Patron Minette’s boy king. He is not the leader of the four, that is a title they each hold claim to, but he is known for his theatrics and flair in a way that the others are generally not. He is a shadow, a thief, a crime lord. He is petty, vengeful, terrible, and capable of deceiving half of Paris with no more than a smile.

points of interest:

THIEF: Montparnasse has been stealing for the fun of it since he was a boy and has turned it into something of a career move. While he’s generally more of a night person, if Montparnasse is out and about during the day it’s generally in the business of lifting people of their wallets and valuables. Both wiith the Minette and on his own, Montparnasse is something of a burglar as well. Alarm systems do little to deter him.

DRUGS: Montparnasse is in the business of trading more than he is in the business of using. He and the Minette supply their dealers scattereed around the city and handle the shipping of the drugs into Paris more than anything. While he’s not opposed to using recreationally, he has a strict rule against injecting anything and ruining his skin with track marks.

FASHION: Montparnasse dresses in the best of what he can get his hands on. While having a strong hand in the knock off trade, he strives to replace his own fakes with the real designers. Even when he’s in jeans and a tee shirt, it’s safe to assume Montparnasse is either wearing or emulating a designer name. He is also known to wear clothing designed with women in mind, never so far as to be considered a cross dresser, but he does wear them casually and without care. Generally, it’s just in the cut of the pants or the shirt, but he has been known to wear other garments as well. Most notably, he wears heeled boots and has absolutely been seen running in them with something of a terrifying proficiency.

RECORD: He has been arrested on several occasions, but has never been caught for something that could put him away, much to the displeasure of certain inspectors. Eponine usually ends up posting bail for him since loyalty of the Minette does not really extend to walking into the hands of the police force.

MURDER: Montparnasse does not take this course of action lightly. While his associates might take to this a little more frequently than he likes, Montparnasse really has no inclination to get caught up in a murder investigation. If he needs someone gone, he leaves it to Claquesous and Gueulemer or tasks it to one of their subordinates. DO NOT, howvever, mistake his unwillingness to a lack of capablity. He can and will take a life if it comes down to it. He has no tolerance for traitors and will often personally put the bullet in the skull of anywhere who wears Minette colors and turns.

THREAT: Montparnasse is dangerous, but the majority of those who meet him do not know to what extent. While he can absolutely be charming and polite, he is generally something of an asshole and wears the ‘bad boy’ attitude as something of a badge. Most people, and this goes for the majority of Les Amis as well, do not know to what extent his criminal connections go. It is generally safe to assume he has some shady friends and probably carries a knife for more than decoration, but few connect him to the criminal organization that is practicaly running Paris underground unless they too have ties to the criminal underground. If that’s the case, Montparnasse is probably a name they reognize, even if they don’t connect it to the pretty boy in front of them.

DECEPTION: Montparnasse is willing to play to the assumptions made about him – to an extent. There are people who see him among the other leaders and think it’s some kind of joke. He has been taken as some sort of ‘boy toy’ to the other three on several occasions and has always let the bastard dig their grave before destroying them and brutally setting things straight. If there is a chance for him to use your assumptions of him to his own benefit, he absolutely will.

what they’ve been up to recently:

Montparnasse manages to keep a low profile, shockingly enough. While his reputation proceeds him, unless something Big™ is going down, his pursuits are generally played close to hand. On the regular, he is managing the Minette with the other three and dealing with those who report to him. He is largely involved in their knock off and smuggling dealings, often using the knock offs as a means of transporting other products including counterfeits and drugs.

where to find them:

THE THEATRE: This locale is limited to the heads and upper tier of Patron Minette, and probably Gavroche who is just, you know. Gavroche. This is the main headquarters of the four heads and where Montparnasse spends a good deal of his time organizing jobs and the like.

APARTMENT: Montparnasse has an apartment that is strictly his own and usually frowns on the other Minette showing up at it, or at the very least on them lurking around his doorstep. It’s a small, modern set up that he keeps extremely neat to the point it looks under lived in.

SAFE HOUSES: The Minette have a number of safe houses scattered in and around Paris that the four heads and a handful of their subordinates know about. Most learn about the locations after being brought to one by one of the heads when a situation got too hot.

SOUTH SIDE: Montparnasse does most of his business around the south side of the city in the area of the Montparnasse cemetery because he’s that kind of asshole. This is in the general vicinity of the Musain, so while he doesn’t usually attend the cafe, he does cross paths with its regulars frequently.

current plans:

CRIME: It’s not so much a plan as it as a life style. He’s just doing his day to day in managing his corner of the operation and keeping up his own standard of living through illegal means. He has no interest in the affairs of Les Amis and their lofty aspirations, he’s just focused on number one.

NOT PRISON: He can’t even begin to describe how badly he would like to not go to prison. Getting arrested is one thing, but the idea of an actual prison sentence is the kind of shit he chain smokes over at six in the morning when he’s trying to sleep.

desired interactions:

Montparnasse trying to get himself out of trouble is one of my favorite things in the world and watching him sweet talking his way out of and into anything is always fun. There is so much room to work with Montparnasse and I would love to explore him beyond the guy Les Amis wrinkle their noses at. I want to especially do more with Montparnasse flaunting his dangerous side, more so when it’s around other dangerous characters than the goody goods.

offered interactions:

The bad boy. The asshole. The thief. Montparnasse isn’t pure evil by any means, and he does have his redeeming qualities if you’ve managed to hack away at his 97 defense layers, but he is an antagonistic character. If you ever need someone to play the part of the jerk, he’s here for you. Montparnasse is pretty much the worst qualities of every dude T.Swift has ever sung about rolled up into one pretty, trash prince package.

anything else?:

I love all my alternate verses for Montparnasse, and I will always be excited to explore one of those with you too. Additionally, I have a not-so-secret-secret au option of interacting with older/post-barricade Montparnasse if you want him.

#( ᴅᴇʟᴠɪɴɢ ᴅᴇᴇᴘᴇʀ ) ! headcanons

[haottkc]

The climate crisis is a factor, but so are efforts to fight fires - which have had the opposite effect We call them wildfires, but that might not be the right word any more.In recent days, at least five whole towns have been destroyed by fire in Oregon. So has much of Malden, Washington, and swathes of Big Creek and Berry Creek, both in California.To many people this will seem like deja vu. In 2018, another town was also wiped off the map, in the most dramatic recent example of this horrible genre. Paradise, California, was much larger, home to 27,000, and it was destroyed in just a few hours. Eighty-five people were killed.The places now being ravaged are not forests or chaparral located somewhere out there, in the wilds. Instead the current wildfires demonstrate how easy it has become for fires to invade our suburbs and towns, with their 7-11s, gas stations and doctors’ offices, and lay them to waste. Where will this end? The prospects are disturbing.To understand how we got here, it is important to know that we have come to expect control over such conflagrations relatively recently. Prior to European settlement in the West, fire flowed freely, sparked by lightning or intentionally by Native Americans to encourage the growth of favored plants or clear areas for easier hunting. As much as 4.5m acres of California’s 105m acres might burn every year. These low-intensity fires did not kill large trees, and some plants even came to depend on fire to regenerate themselves. A shrub called chamise appears to encourage fire by releasing combustible gases in the presence of flames.The shift to a different approach occurred after several instances in which wildfires became appalling urban fires. In October 1871, railway workers sparked a brush fire in northern Wisconsin, which swept into the city of Peshtigo and killed 1,500 people there and elsewhere across a gargantuan footprint of 1.2 million acres. And in the great fires of 1910, fires burning across several Western states killed hundreds and razed a number of towns. People escaped by train as the fires virtually licked at their heels.After this the US sought to suppress all wildfires before they could gain a foothold. In the 1930s, the US Forest Service instituted its so-called 10am policy, according to which fires had to be stamped out by that time the next day. Later came the “10-acre policy”, dictating that fires should not be permitted to grow beyond that size. Fire was the enemy, an idea catalyzed by wartime imagery of firebombed cities such as Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo. Smokey Bear helped to reinforce it, too.This strategy had a pronounced effect – though not necessarily in ways that were intended. Fire activity decreased, it is true, but with scouring flames removed from the environment, forests grew far denser and brushier than they had been before. In one Arizona forest, 20 trees per acre became 800 trees per acre. These forests can and will burn more severely. In addition the climate crisis is rendering vegetation ever drier, and by 2050 up to three times more acreage in Western forests will burn as a result of global warming. Meanwhile 60m homes can now be found in or close to high-risk areas where wildfires have previously burned.Cue urban fires. The fire that obliterated Paradise on the morning of November 8, 2018 was sparked in a rural river canyon several miles to the east of town. As we describe in our new book, Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, it approached the community at speeds previously thought impossible, chewing through almost 400 American football fields’ worth of vegetation per minute. It hit like a hurricane. Strikingly, many of the hundreds of thousands of trees in the town were spared – it was the homes that became matches setting fire to the next. The fire was so quick, so hot, that people died seeking shelter under their cars, in the driveways of their homes while holding a hose, or huddled in their bathtub.Lincoln Bramwell, the chief historian of the US Forest Service, told us that the story of Paradise “reads like these accounts from the late 19th century”, of fires like Peshtigo, back before we had sought to bring wildfire under our command. “I see us going back to the future,” he added. “Going back to a time when fire was not under our control.”As Americans in California, Washington and Oregon are discovering, wildfires do not only impact the wilderness. Towns and suburbs are not inviolate. With so many of our Western paradises now under threat, experts are begging us to bring controlled fire back into the ecosystem in the form of prescribed burns. To ensure buildings meet stringent fire codes. And to prepare city evacuation plans so we do not repeat the gridlock in which many of those escaping Paradise were trapped. We must, it almost goes without saying, get a handle on the climate crisis.Witnessing the urban fire in Paradise, some of those we interviewed for our book no longer thought it fanciful that a fire that could maraud into the very heart of a major city, such as Los Angeles, San Diego or the communities of the San Francisco Bay.University of California scientist Faith Kearns recounted to us that she lives in the Berkeley flatlands, in a part of the Bay that is as thoroughly urbanized as can be. Suddenly she was considering the prospect that a fire might one day reach her home.“My neighborhood is full of Victorians. My neighbor’s window is about six feet away from my own…” she said, pausing in thought. “I think we’ll see it. I think we’ll see it.” * Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano are the authors of Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, available from WW Norton. Read an excerpt here

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://news.yahoo.com/wildfires-striking-closer-closer-cities-102228515.html

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[teeky185]

The climate crisis is a factor, but so are efforts to fight fires - which have had the opposite effect We call them wildfires, but that might not be the right word any more.In recent days, at least five whole towns have been destroyed by fire in Oregon. So has much of Malden, Washington, and swathes of Big Creek and Berry Creek, both in California.To many people this will seem like deja vu. In 2018, another town was also wiped off the map, in the most dramatic recent example of this horrible genre. Paradise, California, was much larger, home to 27,000, and it was destroyed in just a few hours. Eighty-five people were killed.The places now being ravaged are not forests or chaparral located somewhere out there, in the wilds. Instead the current wildfires demonstrate how easy it has become for fires to invade our suburbs and towns, with their 7-11s, gas stations and doctors’ offices, and lay them to waste. Where will this end? The prospects are disturbing.To understand how we got here, it is important to know that we have come to expect control over such conflagrations relatively recently. Prior to European settlement in the West, fire flowed freely, sparked by lightning or intentionally by Native Americans to encourage the growth of favored plants or clear areas for easier hunting. As much as 4.5m acres of California’s 105m acres might burn every year. These low-intensity fires did not kill large trees, and some plants even came to depend on fire to regenerate themselves. A shrub called chamise appears to encourage fire by releasing combustible gases in the presence of flames.The shift to a different approach occurred after several instances in which wildfires became appalling urban fires. In October 1871, railway workers sparked a brush fire in northern Wisconsin, which swept into the city of Peshtigo and killed 1,500 people there and elsewhere across a gargantuan footprint of 1.2 million acres. And in the great fires of 1910, fires burning across several Western states killed hundreds and razed a number of towns. People escaped by train as the fires virtually licked at their heels.After this the US sought to suppress all wildfires before they could gain a foothold. In the 1930s, the US Forest Service instituted its so-called 10am policy, according to which fires had to be stamped out by that time the next day. Later came the “10-acre policy”, dictating that fires should not be permitted to grow beyond that size. Fire was the enemy, an idea catalyzed by wartime imagery of firebombed cities such as Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo. Smokey Bear helped to reinforce it, too.This strategy had a pronounced effect – though not necessarily in ways that were intended. Fire activity decreased, it is true, but with scouring flames removed from the environment, forests grew far denser and brushier than they had been before. In one Arizona forest, 20 trees per acre became 800 trees per acre. These forests can and will burn more severely. In addition the climate crisis is rendering vegetation ever drier, and by 2050 up to three times more acreage in Western forests will burn as a result of global warming. Meanwhile 60m homes can now be found in or close to high-risk areas where wildfires have previously burned.Cue urban fires. The fire that obliterated Paradise on the morning of November 8, 2018 was sparked in a rural river canyon several miles to the east of town. As we describe in our new book, Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, it approached the community at speeds previously thought impossible, chewing through almost 400 American football fields’ worth of vegetation per minute. It hit like a hurricane. Strikingly, many of the hundreds of thousands of trees in the town were spared – it was the homes that became matches setting fire to the next. The fire was so quick, so hot, that people died seeking shelter under their cars, in the driveways of their homes while holding a hose, or huddled in their bathtub.Lincoln Bramwell, the chief historian of the US Forest Service, told us that the story of Paradise “reads like these accounts from the late 19th century”, of fires like Peshtigo, back before we had sought to bring wildfire under our command. “I see us going back to the future,” he added. “Going back to a time when fire was not under our control.”As Americans in California, Washington and Oregon are discovering, wildfires do not only impact the wilderness. Towns and suburbs are not inviolate. With so many of our Western paradises now under threat, experts are begging us to bring controlled fire back into the ecosystem in the form of prescribed burns. To ensure buildings meet stringent fire codes. And to prepare city evacuation plans so we do not repeat the gridlock in which many of those escaping Paradise were trapped. We must, it almost goes without saying, get a handle on the climate crisis.Witnessing the urban fire in Paradise, some of those we interviewed for our book no longer thought it fanciful that a fire that could maraud into the very heart of a major city, such as Los Angeles, San Diego or the communities of the San Francisco Bay.University of California scientist Faith Kearns recounted to us that she lives in the Berkeley flatlands, in a part of the Bay that is as thoroughly urbanized as can be. Suddenly she was considering the prospect that a fire might one day reach her home.“My neighborhood is full of Victorians. My neighbor’s window is about six feet away from my own…” she said, pausing in thought. “I think we’ll see it. I think we’ll see it.” * Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano are the authors of Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy, available from WW Norton. Read an excerpt here

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