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eruden-writes · 4 years ago

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The Sorceress’s Orc

I was going through my Goodreads “want-to-read” list and stumbled on The Sorceress’s Orc.

I put it in that list in 2019 and totally forgot about it. So, I decided to see if I could find it.

Sadly, I could not through regular methods. The book in question no longer in print and many of the author’s other books are out of stock on Amazon. (Not sure if it’s a stocking issue or maybe the author stopped updating them? idk)

I also didn’t find The Sorceress’s Orc on Thriftbooks and the author’s pseudonym seemed most active from 2011 to 2014ish. The author’s website tied to that pseudonym is also defunct, along with a Twitter account.

Now, I’m taking the time to talk about the author and how hard it was to find this book, because I did cave and use 1lib.us to download an ePub of the book. While reading, I did some more digging and eventually came across another pseudonym the author used:

Jordan L. Hawk, an author that specializes in MLM, or men loving men, paranormal romance. And he is a trans man. (It appears he transitioned while under this pseudonym which seems newer than the previous one, so there are some articles and interviews he gave before transitioning.)

I have since joined Hawk’s Patreon to pay for the book. It’s a lower tier to give myself a few months, since I am damnedly distractable, but I intend to poke around other offerings.

Now onto the review of The Sorceress’s Orc!

First, this is the book’s summary:

Giavolo: proudest of the city-states and home to the great university, where the Magical Sciences are taught alongside more mundane studies. The city has been at war for longer than any of its inhabitants have been alive. Vervain: Mistress of the Magical Sciences, she is dismayed to find herself assigned a bodyguard after divination reveals an ill-defined threat to the university’s teachers. Even worse, the bodyguard is an orc. Riyu: Vervain’s orc bodyguard is determined to save her life—if she’ll let him. Brighthand: When this sinister figure attacks the university and kidnaps Vervain’s partner, it’s up to Vervain and Riyu to get him back...or die in the attempt. You don’t have to be a 20-something babe to save the world.

The quick and dirty rating: 4 out of 5

The summary doesn’t prepare you for how intense or action-packed the story gets. While we know Vervain is attempting to save the world, I expected the story to revolve a lot around Vervain and Riyu and entirely be based in Giavolo.

I was wrong on both accounts. Along with our Mistress of the Magical Sciences and her orc body guard, we get:

Hawthorne, Vervain’s charismatic and hard-working journeyman who acts as her student-teacher/journeyman at the University.

Amethyst, one of Vervain’s students who - while showing promise - isn’t as diligent as Vervain would like.

Tourmaline, another teacher at the University that specializes in Art and Dance. He’s a bit foppish and says things that makes Vervain roll her eyes.

Kiki, a younger orc girl from Riyu’s contingent, and the orc leader’s daughter, who strives to prove herself. She is essentially Riyu’s student, when the group goes off on their adventure.

Cardamom, a cadet from the University that... ugh. I’ll leave it at that.

We also get Jasper and Briar, but in the former’s case, his appearance is relatively short lived, and in the latter’s case, he comes in near the very end.

Of course, I can’t describe the secondary characters and neglect the primary.

Vervain is an uptight sort of professor, but not without reason. She teaches magic sciences, where a wrongly drawn circle or rune could cause awful damage. Though particular and somewhat standoffish, she’s not without a soft side. Even in her unwavering confidence, she has moments of uncertainty or outright blames herself.

Riyu is an orc who has taken up the warrior’s path, which has particular rules like not striking somewhat out of anger or being prepared to give one’s life to keep their charge safe. He’s observant and intelligent, along with strong and intimidating. Also, a bit of a hopeless romantic, but maybe that’s my interpretation. lol

For the most part, the plot was engaging without immense focus on romance. It takes you though various settings and felt believable, as far as the rigors of traveling and battle. The descriptions were just enough to give you a mental image, if necessary, but not overwrought.

I greatly enjoyed Riyu and Vervain’s interactions, especially when we start seeing the realization of romantic feelings solidify. They are built up as friends, before getting into the mushy warm feelings.

The sex scenes were not detailed or lengthy; so if that’s the mood you’re in, save this book for when you want something engaging.

The world building sprinkled in was fairly interesting, giving the universe a particular feel to it. (One such example is humans from richer lineages are named after gemstones and poorer human families tended to name their children after plants.)

The clickers, amalgamations of machine and organic material, were basically machines for the antagonists. I don’t want to give much away about them, but their descriptions were rather horrifying.

Overall, there was a lot that was very good about the book. However, there were a few pitfalls.

Firstly, the term “golem” is used to describe machines created with magic. Golems are particular to Jewish culture and non-Jewish people utilizing them can be seen as cultural appropriation.

There’s an array of discussion about this topic, but I’m not sure if such discussions were as widespread in 2011, when this book was published.

Secondly, and this is more of a personal qualm, Vervain repeatedly mentioned the fact she prematurely judged orcs - believing they were all unintelligent brutes - very frequently once she gave Riyu a chance. There were like three mentions in the same chapter. This was early in the book and it didn’t last, thankfully.

I did appreciate that Vervain acknowledged that her behavior and presumptions were unfounded - especially since she still had some missteps at interspersed moments later in the book - but I just felt it was repetitive early on.

Overall, a solid 4 out of 5, perhaps even a 4.5 out of 5 if I was prepared for a action-heavy fantasy.

I was expecting more focus on romance and sexual heat than I got, but I am not disappointed in the slightest.

#books #fantasy #orcs #Orc x Human #bookblr #book review #idk if ya'll like me reviewing books #but I wanted to share this one #especially since the author is trans and does have more options #Also I didn't use the previous pseudonym because I know my partner hates to see her dead name #idk if that's the same for dead writing pseudonyms but I was airing on the side of caution

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sierrageportfolio · 4 years ago

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TASK 3 - Reflective Teacher meets Digital Competence

Where do you see potential space for improvement?

I think I could make communication with my students more efficient and transparent. I usually send them emails or make a group message on the class page in managebac. However, many of my students neglect their email inbox and some complain about having a flood of managebac messages each day. I’d like to figure out if there’s a better way to communicate with my students all at once, perhaps a method like Teams, where it’s like a group text message minus the lack of privacy and mediation of group discussions. I would also like to expand on collaborative and more interactive digital activities in class, as many of my students are gamers and would likely pick up digital tools quickly.

Lastly, I would like to enhance pedagogy in my lessons as well as pay closer attention to holistically addressing my students’ individual problems and needs.

How could you imagine improving your digital practice within teaching?

I could see myself improving on the use of digital tools for film-making, editing, and sound, as I often include films as a task for both of my subjects. I could also see myself learning more about digital worksheets and activities that would engage my students more during a lesson. I could also see myself improving on how I keep track of student grades and how I secure both the data of myself and my students. I also wish to include more opportunities for the students to become more digitally competent, e.g. making powerpoints with voice recording, creating digital art, and using programs like onenote to keep track of their work portfolios.

Can you imagine fostering your involvement inside your workstream?

Yes. I can definitely imagine this. My school is relatively small, so whenever one of us comes back from a training or develops a new skill/competence, we are encouraged to lead a staff meeting or a formal presentation sharing our findings with the rest of the team. As a newer and somewhat more digitally competent member of staff, I would be very happy to get more involved in fostering digital competence across my workstream.

What is your aim for this module?

I would like to learn more about digital learning tools that will enrichen my teaching practice and empower my students. I also wish to develop more digital competencies that will make my teaching role more efficient and effective. I want to be more equipped to find solutions to day to day technological problems and improve my learning environment.

**My score was 58, so an Expert. This was better than I expected!

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waywardwrestlewritingwaif · 5 years ago

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The Guardian’s Oath, Part Two

Here’s the second part in the series! You can read the first part here (and you probably should, since it won’t make any sense otherwise and because there are some plot points in there that will come up again later).

Pairing: Feargal Devitt/ Finn Balor x OFC

Word count: 2,978

Content advisory: Nothing for this part, however there is adult content to come in later sections, so if you’re underage or prefer to avoid sexual material, you might as well spare yourself the time and effort of reading these early sections.

I rose early the next morning, my body aching from fruitless attempts to get comfortable enough to do more than doze off for a few minutes. The children were still in bed but Kate was already hard at work in the kitchen. Seeing my face, she quickly prepared me a cup of coffee.

“Are you having a time of it trying to sleep, dear?” she inquired.

I gave a wan little smile. “It just feels quite different than what I’m used to. I’ll get used to it soon enough.”

She fried some toast in the skillet with bacon fat and served me, Telling me a little of her life and of Bray as we sat in the kitchen together. I learned that the reason people referred to both “the town” and “the village” was to differentiate the newer and more prosperous area- the town- from the older settlement that had been home to the tenant serfs dating back to when the area had been part of a large estate. Kate had lived her whole life in the town, while Susan, who I had yet to meet, was from the village. The way she put it, it felt like the difference between the two parts of Bray marked everything, down to two women who both made their living as servants.

Susan arrived at six-thirty. She was younger than either Kate or I, although taller by some measure than either of us. She gave a friendly greeting and her pleasant demeanor lasted until she began to sort through the basket of clothing to be washed.

“Not again,” she grumbled. “They’ve gone out in the rain and just look at the state of these stockings! I’ll never get the grass stains out!”

“Mind your tongue, Sue,” Kate cautions her in a kindly enough tone. “They’re children. Even the best ones can’t help but get into some mischief.”

As she turned to say more to the girl, I saw her expression change.

“Miss Miles, did you not have any of your own clothing to be washed?”

“I didn’t want to trouble anyone. I can wash them myself. I’m afraid that there’s sand and salt on them and I didn’t want to make any more work for…”

Susan gave an exasperated sigh.

“You’ll have your hands more than full with the children, ma’am. Susan, go collect Miss Miles’ clothing from the garrett and add that to the washing.

Susan made a show of balancing the already full basket on her hip and her footfalls were heavy as she proceeded to mount the stairs to the attic.

“I should have gone to fetch them myself.”

“Don’t let her moods get to you,” Kate answered. “She’s a good girl but she’s got a lazy streak. If you give in to her, you’ll end up doing all her work as well as your own.”

Eager to change the subject, I decided to tell her of my discussion with the children the night before.

“The children were regaling me with other stories of Bray before I could get them to sleep last night. Stories of all the fairies and monsters you have here.”

“Oh yes,” she sighed, “they do love their stories. A bit too much if you ask me, although I’m partly to blame because I’ve told them enough myself.”

“They recited a dark little rhyme for me about something named Finn Balor that can’t have helped me sleep any.”

Kate pursed her lips as Susan flounced back through the kitchen and out the back door, my clothes piled on top of the others.

“They’ve heard that from her,” she muttered with a sharp glance back towards where Susan had exited. “I’ll tell them some stories my grandmother used to tell me but she goes telling them all manner of ghoulish things and getting them all excited over it. They’d no business bringing it up to you.”

“Oh it was just one of the things they wanted to share, like the ghost in the cemetery or the Bog Queen. We have a version of her where I come from too. I believe Balor must be unique to this place, or to the coast. Is it a common story?”

“Common enough, certainly. It’s the sort of thing parents tell their children or young women to frighten them. But Master William and Miss Sophia seem to delight in that sort of thing.”

“Well I hope that I can find some healthier outlets for their imagination.”

Kate collected the mugs and my plate and took them to the sink.

“I suppose I should go and wake the children so that we can get their lessons started.”

As I rose, I saw Kate staring at me. Her face was tilted and filled with concern and her fists closed tightly on her apron.

“Their father, the Reverend, is as good, as gentle and as pure a man as God ever made,” she began haltingly. “I liked to think that I come from good folk but he is truly unmatched in his character.”

I started to agree with her but she spoke again, her tone darkening a little.

“The children, though, have a little too much of their mother in them. She was… she was a wild animal. I know I’ve no business speaking of my former mistress this way but you’ll hear it from the townspeople asif you don’t hear it from me. He brought her back from a mission to the Brittany coast and she was peculiar at the best of times. I’ll not burden you with any stories but I can tell you that no other man would have indulged her the way Reverend Devitt did. He treated her well throughout her life and mourned her passing with his whole heart.

“I would never say that the children are bad. They are smart and they can be as gentle as angels. But they do have her blood in them and it makes them prone to a certain amount of… mischief and trickery. And I beg your pardon for speaking so far beyond my station but I know that the other governesses have struggled to take them in hand.”

I shook my head to indicate that I had no problem with her speaking in this way. “How many other governesses have there been?”

“You’re the fourth ma’am.”

“The fourth? How long ago was it that their mother passed?”

“She died when Miss Sohpia was five and her brother four.”

My jaw slacked a little. “There have been four governesses in four years?”

“They are good children but they are always easy to manage. I told you when you first arrived that I felt right away that you could be at home here. I believe I can see a spark in you that the others lacked and I would hate to see your chance to flourish thwarted when I could have offered you a warning. Treat the children with a sense of caution and keep in mind that they are prone to tricks and mischief, more so than they should be. Don’t be afraid to assert yourself.”

I nodded and thanked her before ascending the stairs to rouse my young charges.

Over the next days, as I settled into the best pace for their lessons, I could see the truth in Kate’s words: much as they had on that first night I had read to them alone, the two of them had little routines designed to lead me where they wanted to get me. They were innocent enough but it made me wonder how far they could push their advantage. It also made me wonder about their mother and what strangeness they might have inherited from her.

They were fast learners, and the greatest challenge was keeping them from growing bored. It was when they were bored that their tendency to misbehave presented itself. Both of them loved hiding things the other needed and making them work clues to find it. Both loved seeing how far they could push a rule imposed on them without actually breaking it. I had to admit that even their bad behavior was interesting because there was so much thought put into it. After a couple of months, I started to come up with puzzles and games of my own to help them remember and focus on what we were learning. I knew that this would have been frowned on by any school and by most other employers. I gambled that Reverend Devitt would be unlikely to question any method that saw his children happy to be learning.

The times the Reverend was at home were brief but I treasured all of them. Those times were dominated by the church service on Sunday mornings over which he presided. He went early and we would follow afterward, taking our places near the front, the children and me, as if we were all a family. I loved that hour of the week when I sat looking up at him, flanked by his angelic-looking children. Even more, though, I loved that he almost always invited me to join them for dinner, as if I were an equal. His attention was focused on his son and daughter, of course, but I was never left out and as he saw how much and how quickly they were learning, his warmth toward me grew greater than ever.

Once when he was back for more than just the day, we packed a picnic lunch and made our way to a rugged area along the water, just past the crescent beach where I had first seen the ocean. I tried to preoccupy myself with the children but it was the height of summer and they only wanted to run around, leaving me for an extended period alone with my employer.

“Please be careful,” I pleaded with William as he deposited a couple of new shells for his collection onto the blanket. “The path down to the beach is steep and rocky here. You could fall and hurt yourself.”

William was off again without another word. I was about to call to him but the Reverend waved his hand to indicate I shouldn’t bother.

“Let him work off his energy,” he sighed. “The tide’s out, so if he falls making his way down the hill, maybe the scrapes will teach him the lesson he needs.”

“I just worry that he could-”

“Helen,” he insisted, “they’re children. And you worry too much.”

“I’m sorry, Reverend,” I murmured. “I just don’t want to see any kind of harm befall them, no matter how small.”

“It’s Feargal,” he said softly, leaning back on his arms and regarding me through his long lashes. “I prefer you to call you Helen and I would prefer you to call me Feargal.”

“Of course, sir.”

He laughed and rolled onto his side to face me. “I owe you a debt of gratitude, Helen,” he told me. “You’ve been a marvel with the children. I’ve always known they were smart but they’ve never learned as fast or as well as they have with you. Most times when I’ve come home, they’ve found something to grouse about with their governesses, but with you, it’s quite the opposite. They adore you. And Kate loves you, by the way. She always makes a point of telling me what a humble, kind woman you are.”

“I am greatly flattered,” I answered, desperately wanting him to say he had similar feelings for me. “I can’t imagine that anyone could be unhappy working in your home and with your children.”

“I assure you, it’s possible,” he said wistfully.

I thought he might say more but William and Sophia rushed up, dropping handfuls of seaweed on the blanket. Some bits were dry, but most was sodden and stunk. I tried to hide my distaste for the scent but William and his father spotted it right away and teased me a little. We all laughed and I told myself that I would adjust to things such as these strange plants over time.

“Look at this one!” William exclaimed, scrabbling up next to me and brandishing a new specimen. “Look at these!”

The weed he held was unlike the others he’d brought. It was still soaked but it was built like a vine and it was covered in blister-like growths. I found this one even nastier than the others and my face showed it, even though I tried to contain my dislike.

“Watch!” William ordered.

He pressed down hard on one of the blisters and it popped, the viscous contents spraying out and hitting my face. I made a sound, muffled slightly because I didn’t want to open my mouth in case some of the weed guts fell into it.

Sophia laughed delightedly but the Reverend upbraided his son.

“That was terrible behavior. I think it’s time I took a switch to the back of you again.”

William looked terrified and I heard Sophia give a little gasp.

“No, please, sir. It’s just a plant. I overreacted.”

“You’re too kind, Miss Miles. But if I catch any more behavior like that, I can assure you that a hiding will follow.”

There was a moment of silence, after which William tossed his seaweed samples off to the side and wound his arms around my waist. I let my arm rest on his shoulder, unsure of the appropriate amount of affection to show in my position. He clung tighter and I rubbed circles on his shoulder, trying to quell the nervous tension I felt in his arms.

During the summer, I often delayed going to bed. The garrett was pleasant enough but it was hot even if I opened the window. I was much happier to retire to the drawing room once the children were in bed, where I could write in my journal or read a little. I had finally settled in enough that I was able to sleep a little but the heat robbed me of that. I tried to fight through the fatigue and nerves but sometimes it overwhelmed me.

One such night, Kate could see that I was in such an overtired state that she insisted on putting the children to bed herself, so that I could rest in the drawing room in peace for a little. It was not quite dark, although the sun had gone. I could see the last streaks of light trailing towards the west, the last traces of a glorious summer day.

Looking out the window, I saw a dark figure next to the gate. My first thought was that it was an itinerant laborer from the village looking for any work he could find. It wasn't unusual for them to stop at the cottage, but none had ever passed so late. My only other thought was that he was a gypsy hawking door to door. I'd seen a few near the town. I'd never seen one alone, or in this area, but I knew very little of their ways.

I watched the man for a few minutes and realized that he was making no move towards or away from the house. He stayed still and silent. If Mr. Jones had been there, I would have dispatched him to deal with the situation but the gardener had gone home for the night. I didn't want to confront a strange man on my own but I felt a sense of danger coming from him. I had been charged with caring for the two children and that meant protecting them.

I stepped outside and waved my hand to get his attention.

"You there! What do you want?"

He showed no sign that he'd seen or heard me and so I walked a few steps on the path towards him. In the distance, I could hear the waves crashing and the branches of the trees clattered overhead, but the wind seemed light in the yard, so there was no chance the man did not hear me when I called to him again. Nevertheless, he paid no attention and I was forced to approach closer still.

As I did, I observed that he was striking at the gate post with his hand. It took me a moment to see that he was holding a rock and that he was actually marking the post with a few scratchy lines.

"What do you think you're doing?" I demanded, stopping just out of arm's reach. "Move on and don't let me catch you hanging around this place again."

It was difficult for me to see much of his face, for he wore a brimmed hat that kept most of it in shadow. He had on layers of clothing, completely inappropriate to the heat, that appeared old and dirty. I thought his face remarkably dark but when I looked at his hand, still grasping the rock he'd been using to mark our gate post, it seemed like there was dirt clinging to his skin as well.

"I told you to be off," I snapped.

For the first time, he reacted to me, a sneer crossing his lips. His eyes flickered in my direction, shaded by his hat, and some ugly, guttural sound came from his throat. I could smell a mix of salt and leather and smoke hovering like a pungent blanket around him.

The sneer spread and I could see a quick flash of teeth before he tightened his grip on the rock and raised his hand.

I gave a little cry and took a quick step back, believing he was about to hurl it at me. However, he simply lowered the hand and placed the rock on the post before disappearing in total silence. I went over and pushed the rock away, tossing it to the far side of the street. There were three parallel lines roughly scratched and nothing else.

#finn balor imagine #finn balor fanfic #wrestling imagine #wwe fanfiction #nxt fanfiction #nxt imagine #wwe imagine #wayward wrestle writing

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serpentstole · 5 years ago

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Tasty Drama Clickbait Title

While the timing of this post might feel like I’m responding passive aggressively to recent miscommunications and disagreements, the topic is something that’s been floating around in the back of my head for at least a year now, and I want to address it to the tumblr occult community as a whole rather than any individual member of it. I think I’ll put this under a cut to spare peoples’ dashboards, but it felt worth saying at length for the sake of being very clear with my intentions.

Most of us do not present ourselves as an authority or a teacher... but I think we recognize how easy it is to be seen that way by the young or inexperienced. And I do want to emphasize that it’s often the young and the inexperienced on this site, because its users do skew that way, and there is often no way of knowing the exact age of the person you’re talking to. Unless you genuinely only interact with mutuals, you will eventually bump into someone who’s far younger than you, and roasting them is probably a bad look.

If someone is annoying, or very obviously trying to pass themselves off as more experienced or mature, or is painfully sincere but equally misguided, there’s always the good chance that they’re a literal teenager, or else a very young adult. I’m not saying to support glitter jars and emoji spells, but to remember that some people are still developing the skills they’ll need to deepen their understanding and polish their research methods. Having someone they respect and look up to scoff at them or mock them isn’t really how we encourage those who are trying to do better and find their path and learn how to research properly. It would likely be better and kinder to ignore them at that point, or else tell them you don’t have the time or interest to teach or inform people beyond what’s provided in your public posts.

I won’t name some arbitrary point at which some newer practitioner is “worthy of respect” or has shed the uwu/fluffy/woowoo label because it honestly seems to be judged differently by different people, and I think it’s typically a journey and process for that person.

I’m not as learned or experienced as I perhaps come off at times, and that’s because I’ve learned when to shut up, and what I can do research for myself, and who I have the sort of relationship with where I can ask for help. I like to think we all understand that this sort of awareness is learned over time. I cringe at what I’ve said and done a year ago, let alone five, six, or seven years ago. I still wonder if I’m being too annoying, or asking too many questions, or if something I’m unsure about will seem laughably basic. It’s like we’re expected to be experts the moment we’ve decided to take our practices seriously, and I think it’s an unfair standard a lot of us hold both ourselves and each other to.

I think poking fun at the people who are a little annoying or a little embarrassing can be a guilty pleasure... especially if they’ve done something to annoy or offend us. But I hope we can strive to remember just how much is likely done in ignorance. We aren’t all at the same point in our journeys or on equal footing.

If you’re sitting there thinking to yourself, “I haven't’ done this sort of thing” I’m very glad, and this post isn’t about you.

If you’re sitting there wondering if you maybe are guilty of this kind of behaviour, thank you for taking the time to consider it, but please remember this post still isn’t explicitly about you. We basically all do this to a degree. I have done this to some degree. I am not vague-posting or disappointed in anyone specific. I just want us all to collectively do better, and be more patient with one another. Peers should be talking more honestly to one another when issues arise in this so called community, and its newer, earnest members shouldn’t be laughed out of it.

This post is unreasonably long but I hope that what it lacks in brevity it makes up for in clarity, because all this can be a touchy subject at times and I didn’t want it to feel like I was attacking any singular person or group.

#personal #rambles #witchblr #occultblr #drama #now we can all hold hands #and sway

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taexual · 6 years ago

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Disciplined / Wonho x Reader

The newest addition to Hoseok’s team proves himself to be reckless when he breaks Hoseok’s rule and starts a conversation with you only to discover that you weren’t going to be his damsel in distress.

pairing: mafia au! – lee hoseok x reader

warnings: some mentions of death, strong language, some sexual themes

words: 5.1k

ANON REQUEST: Monsta x Mafia AU! Where Wonho is at a business meeting and leaves his men at home to take care of his girlfriend, but a new(er) recruit hits on her?

He always said it wouldn’t take long and that he’d be back within an hour. That was never true – you were lucky if you’d see Hoseok again the same night after he’d left for a meeting – but you still believed him every time he said goodbye to you by the door. In your defense, Hoseok’s charming smile and the affection in his eyes would have made anyone fall for his words in a heartbeat.

“I’d really rather wait for you alone,” you whispered against his chest as he hugged you goodbye, seemingly unphased by the three men he’d brought into the house before leaving.

“They’re here to look after you,” Hoseok said, clutching you very firmly. He always seemed to squeeze you tighter right before he let you go, so you knew he was going to leave in the next few seconds. “They’ll make sure nothing happens to you while I’m out.”

“Nothing ever happens to me,” you insisted, fighting a useless battle. Changing his mind was about as likely as you getting killed while these men were in your house. “And I’m sure they’d rather be somewhere else anyway.”

“I don’t really care about that, to be honest, sweetheart,” he said, pulling away from you – just like you’d expected – and bringing his hand through your hair. “They work for me and I need them to be here tonight. That’s all.”

“You could really just give me a gun and teach me how to defend myself instead,” you mumbled.

Hoseok smiled and shook his head. You knew his reasons for his constant need to have you protected and you knew every explanation that made sense of his paranoia. He’d watched his father’s peers turn on him and kill his wife – Hoseok was already smart enough to know that leaving a person completely defenseless was bound to bring bad luck but he didn’t do anything to remind his father that his job constantly put his wife in danger – and, although he wasn’t particularly close to the woman, her death had still left a deep scar in his mind.

A scar that, evidently, was not deep enough, because Hoseok made the exact same mistake his father had made, only three years later. He had left his best friend’s house for five minutes to check up on what appeared to be the sound of gunshots coming from the outside, and then, upon returning back into the house, discovered nothing but a bloody room and a dead body of someone whom he once considered to be his own family.

So, yes, you knew Hoseok wasn’t purposefully keeping you locked up – he was only trying to keep you safe in any way he knew how – but you still did not agree with his methods. And how could you? You did not share his experiences. You’ve never watched two people die because of something that could have been avoided so easily. You’ve never blamed yourself for not being there to protect them and, if all attempts to save them failed, not taking the bullet, too.

“The day I see you with a gun,” Hoseok said, his hand on your cheek, “is the day I’m laying on my deathbed, yeah? Let me and my men do the dirty work. You focus on yourself.”

Although life with Hoseok had completely flipped your world upside down, there were a few things that he insisted stayed the same – your hobbies, your job, and your education. You may have seen enough blood to last you a lifetime, but in spite of all of that, Hoseok still tried to keep your life as normal as possible. Not to mention, even though he belonged to the Mafia, Hoseok had a deep hatred for guns – the losses he’d experienced had contributed to that, of course – and refused to allow you to keep one, which, truth be told, made you feel a lot more normal. At least, you wouldn’t have to fire any weapons and your only crime would be falling in love with a notorious criminal.

Hoseok never understood your apprehension about his choice to have his men protect you. He knew you never got to know them simply because Hoseok had forbidden them to talk to you but he wasn’t trying to get you to bond with his Mafia members. He was looking after you – like he should have looked after all those people before – and this was the only way he could show you that he cared. However, as caring as he was, he also had a certain possessiveness in him that attracted you most of the time, but managed to piss you off just as much.

“You’re treating me like a baby,” you told him.

“Yes,” he replied, ignoring the complaining in your voice and pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead. “You’re my baby.”

You tried to groan – the look in his eyes making your heart flutter more than the pet name – and crossed your arms over your chest. “Just be home soon, okay? I’m done with my thesis, I literally have nothing else to do in this house now.”

“I’ll be back as soon as possible,” he promised. “Gotta keep my girl entertained, right?”

And with a quick wink your way, Hoseok was out of the door.

Sighing at his departure, you turned around with the intention of heading to your bedroom upstairs – you already knew better than to try to have a conversation with Henry and Jay who stood by the door; all of your previous attempts have been fruitless – but then you heard someone chuckle.

Stopping suddenly, you looked around. The sound was by no means unusual, but you were surprised to hear one of Hoseok’s men show an actual emotion while you were around.

“He really keeps you locked up in here, doesn’t he?” someone said and you turned your head towards the corner of the kitchen where one of Hoseok’s men had been standing.

You haven’t seen him before and, even though you weren’t exceptional at remembering everyone’s face, you could tell that he had to be one of the newer additions to Hoseok’s army.

“Not really,” you said, intrigued because not a single one of your guards had dared to talk to you before. “I could leave if I wanted to.”

“And we would, of course, have to go with you,” the guy replied, a smile not leaving his lips.

You squinted your eyes, unsure if you should approach him or just carry on with what you’d planned to do – which was nothing – because you knew the guy had strict orders not to talk to you and yet there he was, ignoring them. If you encouraged him, he could very much lose this job – and his life, too.

“Yes,” you ended up saying. Maybe you thought the risk was worth it; talking to someone was so much better than spending your night staring at the ceiling, after all. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t go wherever I want to go. I just happen to have a bunch of obnoxiously quiet men following me around. No offense.”

You’d addressed the two men by the door but they, of course, remained quiet. The only signs that they were alive and weren’t, in fact, some sort of advanced robots, were the warning looks they’d given the member of their team that had addressed you.

“And do you like that?” the guy pressed. He obviously had a lot of courage and you feared he was going to waste it all on this conversation that he wasn’t supposed to be having. “Do you seriously don’t mind this lack of freedom?”

Crossing your arms over your chest in a defensive manner, you leaned against the door, leading into the kitchen. You didn’t dare to enter the room and approach the guy just yet.

“I do mind it sometimes,” you replied honestly. “But I love Hoseok and that’s the price I have to pay if I want to be with him.”

“Is it worth it?”

You didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

“Hmm,” the guy smirked. “Sounds like he’s got you whipped.”

You didn’t like the way he made it sound. The way he spoke about your relationship was as if Hoseok owned you and did whatever he wanted with you. As if you never had any right to say anything. And while you knew your life choices were somewhat limited, Hoseok had never made you feel chained. He’s never stripped you off of your ability to make decisions for yourself unless he knew better.

And, actually, there were many things that Hoseok knew better, one of which being the ability to recognize when he was stepping over the line. He backtracked if he realized he was starting to control you in a way that suffocated you. He apologized if he said something demeaning. And he always made sure you were comfortable with the decisions he’s had to make on behalf of you.

Although you’ve tried to fight him every night, not wanting to have his men babysit you, you’ve also allowed Hoseok to convince you that this was the right decision. You knew how much your agreement meant to him. Had you said no and really pressed on the issue, Hoseok would find a different solution – he’d remove his men from your house, but then take you with him to the meeting instead, or do something else that still allowed him to keep an eye on you – but he would never physically lock you up inside of the house against your will. That just wasn’t him.

“I may be whipped for him,” you started to say, “but it’s certainly not because I listen to what he tells me. Contrary to what you might think, I’m actually capable of recognizing real danger. I know what could happen if I was left here alone.”

“Yeah, but what are the chances of something happening?” the guy continued. “I mean, no offense, you’re really beautiful, but stalking people takes time, you know what I mean? I’m sure there’s no one lurking outside of your windows at night, waiting to kill you. And if there is, then Hoseok would know, wouldn’t he? He has a gift of… ah, extraordinary intuition.”

“That’s a nice way to call him paranoid,” you said, watching the guy chuckle. “You really don’t know much about Hoseok’s life, do you? You’re new, right?”

“I am, yeah,” he replied. “I just joined late last year. I’m a quiet guy under normal circumstances – I guess that’s why Hoseok trusted me enough to bring me into his house – but I couldn’t help but say something to you. See, I’ve never really seen the partners of the guys from the Mafia before. I’ve never seen the way they interact with their loved-ones.”

“Well, get used to seeing that, then,” you said. “Since you’re a member now, too.”

“Right,” he nodded. “I don’t think I’m the kind of member that those other guys are.”

You glanced over your shoulder at Henry and Jay, positioned in the hallway, still standing there as stoic as ever. Their serious, unmoving facial expressions could have given the Terracotta warriors the shivers. Actually, you would have thought they had turned into stone as well but you could still notice glimpses of concern on their faces whenever you replied to something their member had said.

“Yes, I don’t think you are, either,” you said, turning back to face the guy in front of you. “We shouldn’t be having a conversation.”

“And yet we are,” he said, smiling as though the consequences of tonight did not matter to him in the slightest.

You frowned. “What’s your name?”

“They call me Yuto here.”

“Okay. Do you have a death wish, Yuto?”

He laughed. “No, not at the moment. Why? Are you saying the penalty for talking to the girlfriends of the men from the Mafia is death?”

“Actually, I don’t know,” you said. “No one was ever brave enough to address one before.”

You’d entered the kitchen – you couldn’t help it, something about this brave stranger interested you despite his obviously negative attitude towards your relationship – and approached the jug of water on the counter next to where Yuto was standing.

He smiled as he watched you pour yourself a glass but did not say anything, waiting for you to continue the conversation instead. You knew you shouldn’t have – you could just imagine how much danger you were putting him in just by being in the same room as him when he was given instructions to pretend as though you didn’t exist unless you were dying – but you still did.

“Do you think it’s possible,” you started to say in between sips, “that Hoseok put you here as a challenge?”

“A challenge?” Yuto asked. “No. Why do you say that?”

You put the empty glass back down on the counter and sat down on the bar stool by the kitchen island, opposite to where he was standing.

“Well, you’re a new recruit,” you said. “These men in the hallway? They’ve been with me since Hoseok and I started to date three years ago. There were a few other guys but I never found out what happened to them – both of them were Hoseok’s long-time friends, too. And now there you are, a brand new addition to his team. The reason why Hoseok brought you into his house can’t be because you’re quiet.”

“No?” Yuto was smiling even wider now. He hadn’t expected you to be so witty and smart but, needless to say, he did not regret starting a conversation with you at all. “So, you’re saying Hoseok is testing me by bringing me around you?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Why not?”

“Well, what’s the test? Is he going to fake an attack on you to see what I’d do?”

“No, I think it’s simpler than that,” you said. “Maybe he just wanted to see if you’d follow his orders. Obviously, you don’t.”

His glittering eyes let you know that instead of being scared – like any sane human would have been – Yuto was actually excited. For a moment, you weren’t sure if it was Hoseok challenging him, or if it was the other way around.

“That’s right,” Yuto said. “I have a hard time sticking to the rules. Maybe that’s why I joined the Mafia.”

“There’s got to be some sort of order even among criminals,” you pointed out.

“Has there, really?” he questioned and then leaned back when you raised your eyebrows at his question, “you could say I’m a bit of an anarchist.”

“Huh,” you shuffled on the stool, throwing one of your legs over the other one in search of a more comfortable position – and not failing to notice the way his eyes followed your every move. “So, you’re here to show Hoseok he can’t control you, then?”

“I’m not showing Hoseok anything,” Yuto replied, his confidence captivating your attention. “All that I do is a favor to him. He doesn’t own me. I don’t work for him.”

This surprised you. “No?”

“No,” Yuto confirmed. “I work with him.”

You weren’t exactly sure how to respond to that because you had a feeling Hoseok wouldn’t approve of this attitude. There was a strict hierarchy in his team and Hoseok was on top. No one’s ever challenged his authority before – not openly, at least – and if they had, well, then there had to be a reason why you’ve never heard of them.

“Perhaps you should keep quiet about it,” you suggested, starting to feel uncomfortable. Although you could agree with Yuto’s point of view, you didn’t think now was the right time to challenge the system that had existed in the Mafia for decades. “Or better yet, find a different occupation. You’re young. You don’t have to be in the Mafia.”

If you had to choose one reason to explain how the Mafia managed to achieve so much – Hoseok had ties everywhere, it was impossible for anyone in an important government position to do anything without him finding out – then you’d say it was because of the authority of a leading figure. There would never be a successful underground criminal syndicate if someone didn’t lead it.

Chaos was easy to kill – the police would catch one member and he’d spill the truth about the rest in an instant – while order was not.

“You’re young, too,” Yuto countered. “You don’t have to spend the rest of your life hiding in Hoseok’s shadow because he’s afraid to show you to the world. You don’t have to live in a cage like you’re his own personal little bird.”

“That’s not at all what life with Hoseok is like,” you replied, feeling the way your muscles tensed up after his words. “I already told you, I could leave if I wanted to.”

“Could you, really?” he scrunched his nose in doubt. “How many ex-girlfriends of the Mafia members do you know? Frankly, I don’t think that category exists. Not in this world, at least.”

You squinted your eyes at him.

“So, let me see,” you said. “You’re saying I don’t have to live with Hoseok because he’s keeping me locked up. But you’re also saying I’ll die if I leave this so-called cage. Sounds to me like you’re painting my life in very pathetic colors.”

“Not at all.”

“Really? Then the only to outcomes of my life, according to you, aren’t to either submit to Hoseok completely, or to die?”

“No,” he said.

“What else is there?” you questioned.

“You could run away.”

“Run a—wow,” you laughed at the absurdity. “I thought you were brave but now I just think you’re not smart enough to realize what you’ve gotten yourself into here. Even if I didn’t love Hoseok with all of my heart, do you really consider me stupid enough to try to run away from him?”

“Maybe you couldn’t do it on your own,” Yuto said, shrugging his shoulders, “but if you had the right people helping you—”

“Whoa, alright, let’s stop this conversation right here,” you said, standing up from the stool. “I don’t want to hear you say that you’re the Knight in Shining Armor that’s come to get me out of a castle guarded by a dragon, yeah? Because, like I’ve already told you, at least, three times, I’m in love with Hoseok. I don’t want to leave and if I did want to, I certainly wouldn’t need an action movie worthy plan to escape.”

Yuto looked like he heard you – a smile was his response to your words – but he was not convinced. Although he could see where you were coming from – even if he’s never been in love – he was still certain that your relationship with Hoseok wasn’t something that you deserved. And even if it wasn’t Yuto’s original plan to play an almighty hero in the story of your life – he wasn’t lying when he said he’s never met a girlfriend of a Mafia member before – he still thought you needed help.

“Okay,” he said, not pushing his opinion because he knew your defenses were too high up now. “Sorry if I crossed the line.”

You nodded, turning away. “Okay. Let’s just—let’s pretend like we never talked, alright? That’ll save us both some energy. I’ll head to my—”

“You don’t want Hoseok to know you talked to me?” Yuto asked, cutting you off.

“No,” you replied. “I don’t want him to know you talked to me. I’m allowed to do whatever I want – it’s you who’s not allowed to reply to me. If anyone’s the little bird, trapped in a cage, in this situation, it’s you, Yuto.”

He was still smiling but you could see the way he’d clenched his jaw. Perhaps you’ve gotten to him now. You’d have said something else but you decided not to waste your time. Yuto had thought it was Hoseok who was treating you like his property but, really, Hoseok was the one who saw you as a human being, while Yuto only looked at you as a girl who needed saving.

“I’m going to go,” you said after he didn’t reply to you, but right as you headed out of the kitchen and towards the staircase, Yuto grabbed your hand.

“Wait,” he’d stopped you, pushing a piece of paper into your palm as he held onto your wrist. “Keep this in case you change your mind and realize that you can always start a new life.”

Almost angered at his bold move – and his audacity to still talk to you about the same thing even though you’ve told him you’d never even consider leaving Hoseok – you stopped and were about to toss the note he’d given you into the trash, but then the door of the house opened, distracting you.

“They fucking canceled on me,” Hoseok was saying as he threw the door open. He had his phone by his ear and did not notice your surprised eyes, watching him from the kitchen. “I got into my car, drove to their quarters, even fucking texted them three times to check, and they—”

He stopped once his eyes finally landed on you. Although, it wasn’t really you he was looking at – his gaze was too focused on Yuto’s hand still firmly on your wrist.

Barely a second passed after Hoseok clocked the close proximity of you and his newest recruit, and he’d already hung up his phone and took one quick step towards the kitchen until he was standing right in front of you.

“Was there an accident?” he demanded in a cold, serious voice. “Did something happen?”

“Hoseok—”

“Hold on for a moment, sweetheart,” he cut you off, his eyes on Yuto. “I’m trying to find out what reason could explain his hands on you. I’m only assuming he was trying to stop you from leaving which, of course, means that he’d been talking to you and then refused to allow you to end the conversation by leaving the room.”

“I wasn’t—” Yuto started to say but chose to let go of you before he continued, “I wasn’t refusing anything. I had some things I wanted to say to her.”

“Were those things a warning, perhaps?” Hoseok questioned. You had a feeling that the flames in his eyes weren’t caused by Yuto’s hand on yours but rather by your obviously uncomfortable and even angry expression that he’d seen as soon as he entered the house. “Were you trying to tell her not to leave the room because there was a bomb in the house? Were you warning her about a sniper that’s been aiming at her from outside?”

If Yuto was scared or worried, he didn’t show it. “No.”

“Well then why, for the sake of all hell, did you think it was a good idea to manhandle my girlfriend after you’ve been specifically told not to say a single word to her?”

“I don’t think you’re treating her fairly by locking her up here and not allowing her to talk to anyone,” was Yuto’s overly confident response.

It made Hoseok sneer. “Oh, she can talk to anyone she wants. She has more friends than I could count, but this isn’t about her. Your job here was to stay put and make sure nothing happened to her. That’s it.”

“Hoseok, it’s fine,” you said, feeling the need to interrupt – and potentially save Yuto’s life – despite not agreeing with the young boy’s point of view. “I was the one who started the conversation.”

Your boyfriend turned to look at you with the same warm smile he’d used on you before he left, a huge contrast to the way he’d looked at Yuto before.

“None of us deserve you and your heart, my love,” Hoseok said. “But I know you’re lying. I’ve had you protected since the day we met and not once did you dare to start a conversation with my men. Especially not after you found out they weren’t allowed to talk to you.”

You lowered your head, looking away. Hoseok didn’t blame you for trying to take the heat off of Yuto – perhaps, a part of him knew that you didn’t object against Yuto talking to you because it was nice to finally talk to someone that was staying in your house – but he thought your attempt was quite useless. He’s already decided what he was going to do. In fact, he’s had this decision ready even before he left the house.

“Let’s go,” Hoseok said, turning his head to give the other two men in the hallway a nod. “You’ll take him back, yeah? I’ll join in a few hours.”

“Of course,” one of the men said, entering the kitchen and, surprisingly, giving Yuto a chance to cooperate. “Come on, we’re heading out.”

“What are you going to do?” you dared to ask as you watched Hoseok’s newest recruit walk himself out without even a glance your way – thank God for that. “Will you kill him?”

Hoseok may have hated guns but he was no stranger to violence. He had chosen to keep the majority of what he did under wraps but he wasn’t deliberately hiding his work from you. He protected you from the worst of it, but you still caught glimpses over the years.

“Not yet,” was his response to your question as his men escorted Yuto out of your house – although, really, it looked like the three of them left together amicably and if it weren’t for the sudden yelp of pain you heard as soon as the door of your house closed, you would have thought this was going to blow over peacefully. “I’m a firm believer in second-chances. He did do his job, at the end of the day. He just didn’t listen to the orders that were given to him. We’ll teach him how to listen.”

You bit your lip, almost afraid to imagine his methods of teaching, and Hoseok – after noticing your awkward expression – wrapped an arm around your shoulders.

“Please tell me this won’t traumatize you and scare you off from my men,” he said. “We still have to attend that dinner next week.”

“Dinners are fine, I get to talk to the other girls during dinners,” you replied, sighing. “But it’s not me you’re scaring off from your men. It’s the other way around. They’re afraid to even look at me.”

“Good,” Hoseok said, smiling teasingly as he did not see what the problem was. “Do you really need other men looking at you? Am I not enough?”

His playful tone made you raise your eyebrows in surprise. You’d heard him swear when he returned home and you’ve seen the lightning in his eyes when he talked to Yuto, so, obviously, you weren’t expecting him to tease you about this in such a relaxed way.

“No, you’re enough,” you replied. “But you’re away a lot and—”

“Oh, so you need someone for when I’m away?”

“No. I only need you,” you said. “I always need only you.”

“Yeah?” Hoseok’s hand slid from your shoulders to your waist as he brought your body closer to his, a smirk still decorating his features. “Can you prove that to me, baby?”

“Hmm,” you replied to the teasing grin on his face with one on your own as his playful mood brushed off on you. “How do you want me to prove it? Would my words work?”

“They would,” he said, his eyes burning into yours with the utmost love and adoration. “But I’m sure you’ve already shown your love for me with your words when that useless son of a bitch bothered you, haven’t you?”

“I…” you pulled away from him a little. “Were you—?”

“—listening?” he guessed and then shook his head. “No. I’m not paranoid enough to listen to what’s going on here when I’m away. But I had a feeling Yuto would say something to you. He was far too quiet in every meeting that I’ve seen him in. The quiet ones are always the ones plotting something.”

“Why’d you bring him here, then?” you asked, suddenly confused, “if you knew he was going to—oh,” it hit you in the middle of a sentence. Your speculations about Hoseok’s true intentions were somewhat correct, after all. “You were trying to get him to disobey, weren’t you? You knew he was going to stand up to you and you were waiting for exactly that.”

“Maybe,” Hoseok replied, his eyes falling to your lips. “I also wanted him to meet my girlfriend and realize that she could kick his ass just as well as I could if he tried anything with her.”

“So, was it all for laughs?”

“Most of it,” he admitted. “I knew Henry and Jay were more than enough to protect you and I needed a way to teach Yuto a lesson. I couldn’t exactly teach him some discipline just because I was suspicious he was going to rebel, could I? I had to wait until he actually did something that went against my orders.”

“So… was there even a meeting tonight?” you asked, unsure if you were impressed or angry at him for playing you while he tricked Yuto. “Or did you just—”

“Oh, who cares now?” he cut you off, his impatience finally resurfacing as he got tired of you asking him questions you already knew all the answers to, when he could have been watching you undress for him. “I’m back now. I’m all yours for the next few hours before I have to go back and actually deal with this. We’ll talk about this then, yeah?”

“You mean we’re postponing the conversation?”

“Mmhmm,” he hummed, leaning in closer until his lips were hovering over your neck. “Unless you’d rather hear me explain how I schemed to get this poor disobedient young man beaten up, instead of letting me kiss you everywhere you want.”

“I would—you’re beating him up?!” you asked, almost dizzy from his close proximity and the feeling of his breath washing off on your neck. You still tried desperately to keep your mind working.

“No, I’m not going to touch him personally,” Hoseok replied, finally pressing his lips to the sensitive skin right below your ear. “I’ll just ask him some questions, talk to him a bit… nothing big.”

“Oh,” you exhaled, barely acknowledging what he’d said, too focused on the feeling of his lips moving down your neck. “You’re very distracting, do you know that?”

“I hope I am,” he pulled away from you – the coldness of the room immediately hitting the wet trail his kisses had left on your neck – and leaned his forehead against yours instead as he watched you try to catch your breath. “Because, if I’m not mistaken, I believe you were going to prove something to me, hmm?”

“I can’t seem to remember.”

He chuckled, the feeling of his chest vibrating against yours sending sparks of electricity all throughout your body.

“I believe you’ve told me you only needed me,” he said, his voice suddenly much lower. “So, let me refresh your memory, baby, so you’d forget all about the other men. And then you can prove to me how much you love me.”

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script-a-world · 6 years ago

Note

What are your five rules to new authors about world building? I struggle with this, as a minimalist author. And I would love suggestions on how to build a world in as few words as possible, while the description is still efficient and powerful.

Constablewrites:

Teach us about the world through the characters interacting with it. If your characters never interact with it, is it really relevant to your story?

Culture and society all ultimately derives from people--what they know about the world around them, how they survive in their particular environment, how they ensure the survival of future generations, and so on.

Conflict and tension come from limitations. Infinite and/or ill-defined power kills a reader’s emotional investment.

Don’t answer a question we haven’t asked. Context first, then explanation only if necessary.

Your reader will comprehend your world based on what they know of ours.

Personally, I think minimalism can be a good thing! New authors tend to err on the side of waaaaaay too much world building and explanation thereof. The best way to figure out the balance is to read closely. If you’re reading something that makes you feel really present in the scene, pay close attention to how they do that: the details the author chooses, the things they merely suggest or infer, the senses being evoked, and so on. And remember that contemporary literature has to world build just as much as genre stuff does; I’ve spent just as much time on a ranch as I have on Mars, so while I might be bringing more knowledge/assumptions to the table I’m still relying on the writer to make the world come alive.

Brainstormed:

Do you enjoy what you’re making? If not, let the idea lie fallow to be recycled, and ask yourself what would make you enjoy the worldbuilding again. Even if what you’re doing will never show up in your story, it’s still worldbuilding and therefore great. Just prioritize plot-relevant details, and make sure to have fun.

How different would the plot and/or characters be if this detail was changed? This question allows you to figure out the really vital parts of your world and its natural consequences in your story. The details that don’t affect much of your plot/characters are still good, as they add depth, but okay to parse down for a more minimalist perspective.

How far am I willing to ask my readers to suspend their disbelief? Can be asked of specific parts of your world, like magic systems or physics or geographical oddities, or of your setting in general.

Is this self evident? That is, does this part of your worldbuilding become foundational to the plot and/or setting in such a way that the reader understands and extrapolates without ever requiring the dreaded infodump? Not every detail has to be self evident, and in fact I don’t think every detail should be. There’s plenty of things about the real world that I would love to absorb infodumps about, but the way the sun in the sky affects my day to day life requires no context.

Breadth vs. depth, which is more a function of your plot and cast than setting. If your plot follows your characters wandering through a great deal of varying places/cultures/times/etc or a very diverse cast of different races/beliefs/jobs/etc, you’ll need a lot of distinct and interconnected settings with just enough detail to function and stick out as unique in the reader’s mind. Buckling down on a single world/culture/nation/etc to flesh out its complexities and variants will get far deeper into the why’s and how’s of your plot and/or characters, just be careful not to turn it into an encyclopedia instead of a story. (of course, you could do like me and create a lot of breadth and then murder yourself by trying to achieve depth with all of it)

Saphira:

Worldbuilding itself, and setting up the world, comes before the writing in my book. I find that chronic descriptors fall into two categories:

Those who know their world so well that they want to tell EVERYTHING. These I affectionately call the Gushers.

Those who are discovering their world as they write. The world is a mystery to them until the written word tells the writer where they are. These I affectionately call the Explorers.

I suspect you are concerned about being the former. In my gut, however, I suspect you may be the latter. Now there are different rules for each method.

FOR GUSHERS: Use Constablewrite's rules. Those rules underline what's important.

Worried you're still overboard? Count your paragraphs. How many has it been since something happened?

FOR EXPLORERS: Write as normal. Then go over it and look for the things Brainstorm mentions! Highlight them, or copy the stuff on another document.

When you get to rewriting your work, look at your notes and see what you feel is important! You've already explored, so now you can filter.

Worldbuilding in the scale that we know it is relatively new to novel-writing. (Thanks to Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors in the 1950's? Ish? Research it. Cool stuff.) That being said we're already getting really good at it. We've seen the wild phenomenon of cultural diving that Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and Harry Potter have had, and we want to give our readers the same experience!

Though I will note, what draws a reader into the world is the intrigue of the questions they can ask! If we can give our readers just enough information about the world to ask the coolest, deepest questions? We have succeeded.

Tex: I'm not a big fan of generalized advice, especially in regards to "new"... anything. I'm not aware of either your flaws or your strengths, though your use of "minimalist author" intrigues me - what do you consider minimalism? Is it descriptions, is it settings, is it dialogue? Is it something else?

I don't know whether this minimalism is the result of developing your writing voice or the result of underdevelopment in various writing skills, so I hesitate to give any concrete answers. In that respect, I would like to recommend @scriptstructure for the finer points of writing descriptions.

The others look to have covered about everything on this topic, but I would like to reiterate the idea that worldbuilding for the purpose of exposition is heavily dependent upon the plot. Whatever the focus of the plot is, and to some degree that of the characters, is the focus of your worldbuilding.

What's important to your story? Can you remove an element and still make sense? Those are consistently my two biggest guides when worldbuilding because everything outside the immediate needs of the plot are usually extraneous.

Feral: I don’t have rules so much as questions to provide some guidance for new writers getting into worldbuilding.

What quirk of character or plot stands out as being from a society different from my own, and what society would produce this? For a sense of verisimilitude in fantasy and sci-fi, it’s important that the characters not be reproductions of who you would expect to meet in the author’s own society especially when that society does not reflect the author’s own. Dragons, a post-singularity Earth, and a hundred other things that cast the story in a specific genre would create very distinct pressures that would lend themselves to different worldviews, economies, traditions, etc.

Would a particular feature of the world make my character or the plot more interesting? Would it create more problems than it would solve? I always advise against creating a feature of the world that solves your characters’ problems. Features of the world should either a) provide a lovely flavor or b) create obstacles for your characters to overcome or c) both. New writers, particularly those who don’t want too much superfluous flavor might look at Premise Brainstorming, or “In a World Where…” brainstorming to create world ideas that tie directly to the character and/or plot.

Am I avoiding describing something because it is not in my style or doesn’t fit the narrator’s voice? Or am I avoiding describing something because I can’t picture it in my mind or lack the confidence to execute it? This is me all the time. 2 decades of writing, and my first couple drafts are always a little lean on world details because I’m still wrapping my mind around what things really look like and how to take the image in my brain and translate it to the page. It’s ok to take your time getting the world rendered out; that’s what multiple drafts are for.

How have writers I admire and whose writing style matches what I want for myself handled the question of worldbuilding? If you’re not familiar with The City and the City by China Mieville, I strongly recommend checking it out. When I think of so-called minimalist world building, that is what I think of.

Do I know enough about my world to know what is important and what is not important to include? I recommend the Iceberg Principle for newer writers/builders: 90% of the world isn’t gonna make it into the story. So, that 10% better be enough and relevant.

#pylons #world building #rules #kt-anansi

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notesonnotes · 5 years ago

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Rosedale. Herkimer 2009. Some friends and I had followed Honor Bright; The Doppler Effect and Lacerda to a show in Herkimer, NY. We'd never seen Rosedale, or heard of them. We didn't know what to expect when we saw them setting up. I was in awe of the sheer height of their front-man, Mike. (I am a over a foot shorter than he is, and at that point he was the tallest person I'd ever met.)When they started playing, I was in awe of their drummer, Emerson Tavares (he played faster than most drummer I'd seen). After the show, we saw a big purple bus, and we had the chance to hang out with Mike and Emmo. A week later, we'd get to meet Mitch and Zan in Watertown, NY. We were hooked. Soon after, we got them to our college in Northern New York.Since then, I've watched Mike progress from the 4 man band to the last solo act in Toronto in 2018. He is multi-talented, and probably one of the most down to earth people I've met. He takes time before, during, and after shows to talk with as many people/fans as he can, and has been an inspiration to many that have followed his journey.Today, we're going to take a look at where he came from, and where he plans to go. Take a few and read through. It's the anniversary feature for Notes on Notes! What better way to celebrate that with the one who inspired it all?!

NON: Rosedale was an early project of yours as a teenager in Brampton, ON. What brought you and your then band mates together?

ML: Pretty much skateboarding sparked it all. The skate scene was really booming in Brampton (and everywhere) as I was becoming an adolescent. Tony Hawk Pro Skater was huge, all the skate magazines were doing well, all the local skate parks were packed and hosting contests, pro skaters were celebrities- it was wild! I've always been pretty awkward on a skateboard and could never really improve past the basics, but I was definitely making progress on the piano so my parents finally granted my wishes to switch to classical guitar, as I'd been begging for years and the skate culture was surrounded by a lot of guitar music. After about a year of struggling to figure out how to play "cool guitar" I started convincing my friends to learn drums and bass and would try to jam with them. That led me to connecting with a friend I hadn't really seen since kindergarten; Nick, who was a pretty solid drummer. So I started showing him songs I'd written and we'd jam at his place on weekends. I think it started lighting a fire for a few of my school and skater friends as they started getting more serious about learning instruments and starting bands. We'd eventually teamed up with Mitch and Jon's band, as their drummer, Emerson, was still figuring out how to drum. Fun fact, there was about a month or two where I was kicked out of the band because my squeaky voice, cheesy lyrics, shrill guitar tone, awkward stage presence, and thick wavy blond mushroom cut were all just too unbearable. (They were very blunt and honest with me on that phone call...) So Jon started singing and they eventually called me back into the new band to play guitar, piano, and sing super high emo backup vocals. From there; we replaced Nick with Sam, named the band Rosedale (because when our gear was stuck at Nick's house we'd walk up Rosedale ave to the local music store to practice and write). Then we eventually replaced Sam with Emerson. Me and Jon started taking vocal lessons from our friend Steve, who was a drummer and backup singer in one of our favourite local bands, By Permit Only. Eventually we just asked him to be our lead singer and after recording our first EP with him, he quit the band and I took over lead vocals again. I met Zan in our high school, Mayfield. He was a bassist in the music program so I'd jam with him from time to time during lunch in our school's practice rooms. He eventually replaced Jon... I guess I could have just summed it up with "Skateboarding and school" but we all have a little more time these days so why not take a trip down nostalgia lane!

NON: You've had 5 EP's and albums over the years; could you describe the progression of your creative process through the years?

ML: It's pretty crazy for me to look back on. We recorded Past Times With Old Friends in Sean Andrew's little bedroom on a Line 6 bean-shaped Pod with Cue-base on his laptop. We'd tried to record about 3 demos with 3 different producers prior to that EP but nothing ever got finished. Each time we'd record I'd learn a few more things about how to engineer. Back when we had Sam in the band, one of his dad's friends "Stereo Mario" (one of the 3 producers that we'd demo with) would teach me the basics of Pro Tools and I was very eager to learn more. Before ever using any real recording equipment/DAW I'd multi-track covers of my favorite songs onto three-and-a-half inch floppy discs with my Yamaha Clavinova (a multi-patch midi amplified keyboard from the mid 90s), drums and all! So I kinda came full circle back to being a solo, multi tracker, multi-instrumentalist after having several different band mates and methods. The big turning point in my progression as an artist and producer, though, came when I started an internship at Drive Studios in my senior year of high school. I believe everyone needs a roll model and mentor to really progress and the owner of that studio, Steve Rizun, took me under his wing and pulled me in the right direction. Not only did he train me to be a sound engineer and let me work with some world class punk/prog/metal/emo bands, but he also would show me how to make additional production for Rosedale's sound and how to bring it to our live show. I became obsessed with songwriting and production and as soon as I graduated I worked to save up for a Macbook and an audio interface...and a lot of other gear! Had it not been for Steve, I probably would have wasted a lot of money going to a college to learn a fraction of what he was teaching me for free; hands on in the most punk rock environment! Since that internship he's mixed and mastered all the Rosedale records, mixed a handful of my live shows, he even showed me the ropes of being a live sound engineer, and continues to be a great ear to for mixing and advice! I've had a lot of other great friends show me how to edit video, hold a drumstick, where to book shows, gear advice etc. Even though I'm kind of a "Lone Wolf" I guess my process has always been to keep creating and ask for help and advice along the way from those who are more experienced (and YouTube tutorials, of course). Now that I'm in a new market playing with a new band (Mainsail in San Diego) I feel like I'm teaching and working more often than I'm learning. And that's been really healthy too!

NON: How has the journey from "Past Times" to your most recent projects helped you grow/learn as a musician/artist?

ML: What a journey it has been! As I'm sure any artist or even entrepreneur could relate, The Faces sang it best; "I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger!" I think the biggest difference is the decision making ability. I used to take so damn long to make such bad decisions! Debating who, what, where why- it's important to think things through but sometimes you gotta just leap and learn from it. If you keep questioning things you'll never know. Also, the more I learn the more I realize how much more I still don't know! And that's part of the climb. Even now, being in the beginning stages of getting my 10,000 hours on the drums, I look back to how I used to play, say, 100 hours ago- and shake my head. That can sometimes be humiliating and demotivating while knowing you're still at the bottom of the mountain- or even just dealing with the ongoing yin and yang of confidence/hope vs. doubt. But what usually gets me to keep on going is to remind myself to just be better than I was yesterday. For a long time I was holding myself to the standards of my heroes which usually just creates inauthenticity, bad technique, bad decisions, clutter, and setbacks. Sometimes I'm worse than I was yesterday so I need a little push and that's okay, too! The journey from Past Times to Again was a big balancing lesson of letting things go while learning you can always do more to improve. And it's no surprise; but the newer the album, the more proud and less embarrassed of it I am!

NON: You've played bass in Mainsail for roughly a year, maybe a bit more; how did you meet up with them? What spurred you joining?

ML: Yeah since February 2019 I've been in Mainsail. I've been friends with them since 2017 and they really helped me get my show in front of a lot of people in San Diego. When I finally moved out there Nick was really cool about bringing me out to shows and jamming together. They needed a new bass player so I figured I'd offer and it just all escalated really fast. Since finally accepting that it was time to move on from the name Rosedale I've had a lot of luck with being a sort of "yes man". I'm usually very strict with staying on the path to my vision, as it requires a lot of time, but since moving and letting go of the past I've been finding that sometimes letting the wind take you where you're needed can be really beneficial. And a lot of great things are starting to happen for Mainsail so it has been fun. It has also kind of kept a stream of new listeners seeing what Rosedale is all about too so that is a nice bonus.

NON: You've performed at the House of Blues in San Diego; how was the experience for you?

ML: It was one of the best moments of my life playing that stage in front of so many great SoCal people, some who have been supporting Rosedale over the years. That has always been one of my favorite venues and since moving to San Diego I've seen a lot of amazing shows there. House of Blues is always great in Boston and Anaheim too. I'm really grateful that they give independent acts like myself not only a chance to play there, but they really give you the same professionalism and respect as they do to the giant national acts, it's pretty remarkable. I really hope they're doing okay during this pandemic and I hope all venues find a way to pull through this. I can't imagine how tough it's getting for some.

NON: You've toured the U.S. and parts of Canada multiple times; played on a stage at Warped Tour, and toured Europe: What would you say is your most memorable moment?

ML: That is a great but very tough question. Playing in Vienna Austria in 2016 to a bunch of kids that knew my songs is definitely up there. But 2012 Warped Tour was probably the most fun and rewarding summer of my life. It was a grind and very uncomfortable at times, but there were so many epic moments packed into that summer that I look back on in disbelief. The biggest turning point was about two weeks into the tour in Minnesota (I think it was Minnesota...) I got called into the Warped production office and was told to check in with Kevin every morning for any open stage time, given a wristband, and some tasks to help out with in production. I played my DIY one-man-show in the parking lot that same night as kids were leaving the festival (as I would every night) and while I was standing at my merch table selling stuff and taking photos, I noticed that Ryan Dawson (from All Time Low) and Anthony Raneri (from Bayside) were hanging out watching. Once things slowed down they came over and bought 10 CDs each! It was so cool of them to even give me the time of day, let alone buy CDs to (probably) give out to people on the tour. I had a similar experience with Caleb Shomo (from Attack Attack/Beartooth) the year before outside of Cuyahoga Falls Warped tour. I had a drummer and bass player with me at the time and Caleb stood front & center to watch our whole set while kids kept coming up to him for autographs and I could see him pointing at us saying good things to all the kids. After our set he handed me all the cash he had in his pocked and apologized for not having more, I gave him some merch and we chatted for a good 15 minutes about how being an artist is a roller coaster and good things come and go, encouraging me to hang in there. He kept emphasizing how he just considered himself and everyone on the main stages lucky. All of those memories are enough motivation to last a lifetime and they're also reminders to pay it forward.

NON: Touring as much as you have, there must have been some odd things that have happened. What has been the strangest thing to happen to you while you were on the road?

ML: Lots of strange tour stories for sure. The little ghost girl I caught on camera in the former German concentration camp was pretty crazy. (You can find it in the RosedaleMike Europe Tour Blogs via Tumblr if you don't believe!) It always freaks people out when I show them. And I remember everyone's reaction in the van right after I caught the footage. But the craziest thing that happened to me...there's been so many hard luck slaps in the face, as so many touring bands have also experienced, I'm sure. One time I had this great opportunity to be the opener/direct support for Everlast in Colorado Springs. I had just released self-titled, the tour was going well, and this Everlast show was sold out at Black Sheep (a great venue!) I had a day off so I got to town a day early to be extra prepared. While at the gym I received an email from the venue that Everlast had to postpone due to weather conditions. So now the show was cancelled and I offered to find local bands to fill the night for the venue so that I can still play for my small crowd. I went straight to a library for wi-fi and started plugging away on my laptop, emailing bands asking if they wanna do me a solid and play a last minute show at Black Sheep tomorrow night. I had two confirmed, told the venue, and they announced on the Facebook event page that there will still be a show but Everlast will be rescheduled, and they made me a host so I could update the event as I confirmed new acts. Some kids in Montana saw this and started saying that Rosedale cancelled the Everlast show! It turns out that they just randomly decided to troll me. They were even sending pictures of these little ridiculous hand written notes they made that read something like "I am cancelling the show - Rosedale". They were leaving random comments claiming that they were Everlast and bashing my fans as they tried to help clear the confusion. People were messaging me asking "Why'd you cancel the show?!" I had to explain to them and the venue what was really going on. The venue was in shock watching it all happen too and they said they have never seen anything like that, ever. I went to a local show that same night and convinced a couple of the bands to play Black Sheep tomorrow. All four locals were really awesome and the show ended up turning out to be pretty well attended. Even some people that had Everlast tickets came out and had a great time. The venue was really impressed that I pulled an event together so last minute and I was stoked to have built another great venue relationship. I got in my van and started to drive to my next show in Flagstaff, AZ. As I was climbing a rocky mountain pass, some slick snow started coming down. I was pulling my trailer and sliding pretty bad until eventually I couldn't move anymore and was stuck on the side of the road. As the sun was coming up an emergency truck pulled up and started laying sand down in front of my van so I followed him until my wheels started spinning again and one wheel gripped to the sand while the other spun and blew my transmission and rear differential. I didn't make it to Flagstaff or the next five shows. $4600 repair bill. And the next show back in Encinitas was an afternoon show at a biker bar where I was told after my first set (of three) to pack up and only received one sixth of my guarantee as my fans started showing up for the second set. There ended up being some good intertwined in all of all of that but it was just such a frustrating and confusing week. Sometimes I swear I'm in a movie like The Truman Show.

NON: You draw a lot of inspiration from The Used; Blink-182 and Angels and Airwaves: Who else has inspired you along the way?

ML: I definitely have a lot of heroes. Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service, The Ataris, The Starting Line, Metro Station, Dashboard Confessional, Boys Like Girls, The Matches, Underoath, The Almost, Motion City Soundtrack, Red Hot Chili Peppers, All Time Low, The Band Camino, Owl City, Radiohead, John Mayer, Coldplay, Paramore, Yellowcard, Moneen, Boxcar Racer...That's probably 10% of them. I've been to a lot of great concerts and being six foot nine gives me a good view and very memorable experiences.

NON: Do you see yourself continuing making music or helping others in music in the future?

ML :Both!

NON: What song that you've written do you connect with the most?

ML: That's always changing to be honest. Depending on where I'm at, what I'm doing/going through. It's usually the most recent song or idea I've written which doesn't get released for sometimes a year or two after. Of the songs I've release, that would be Sustain. That is the most recent Rosedale song I've written. I wrote it right before we started tracking Self Titled and Again and its kind of about being in both shoes of that Warped Tour situation I just mentioned. People sometimes ask if I'm referring to myself as the Star or the Kid in that song and the answer is both! I'm still that star struck kid who can't wait to ask my favorite artists a thousand questions but I also get a lot of questions from fans who are trying to start their own thing or make their passion their career.

SHOUT OUTS

Mainsail, Palapalooza Podcast, Time & Distance, I Set My Friends on Fire, Alex Baker, Plans, The Home Team, OCML, FXav, Adam Sisco, my parents and family, everyone at Gnarlywood, Abby Lyn Records, Jonny Cooper, my old band mates and everyone who's ever come on tour with me- Thank you all. And all the bands, artists, venues, studios, street performers, restaurants that are trying to make it through this lock down. Hopefully all this is over soon and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Believe things will get better eventually and use this alone time to improve yourself. Keep supporting live music even if you're stuck at home. And if you need help reach out and ask. Let's all stay safe and help one another

LINKS

Facebook

YouTube

Instgram

Twitter

Spotify

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md-admissions · 6 years ago

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Hi MD-A! Have you heard anything about California Northstate med school, which is a for profit school? I'm not so sure how I feel about it since it's for profit and I've heard some people say it's similar to a Caribbean school? I've heard good and really bad stuff so I was wondering if you and other medblrs had an opinion about this school?

Hi there, anon!

I had not heard anything about this school until your ask! So I did a little research. Fascinating stuff, in both a positive and negative way. Now that I’ve read a little bit, I am by no means an expert and would invite anyone to inform me on anything I have wrong.

There are some things that caught my attention that warrant pause and thought. I would caution anyone interested in such for-profit med schools to proceed carefully and apply critical thinking skills when approaching.

1. For profit. I would say that financing a medical education in the US as a whole is dicey and problematic, so it’s not like the traditional method is Good and for-profit is Evil. There is only a Traditional Evil We Know and Accept (applying for government financial aid, universities that are not for-profit but still come with massive tuition fees) and Slightly Newer Evil That We Don’t Completely Know Yet.

Frankly, the price tag on American medical education is excessive and the majority of us, including myself, wouldn’t have been able to fund our medical educations without student loans from the government. There are some folks claiming on reddit that doing one’s homework to find a private loan can be just as, if not more reasonable, than federal funding. This sounds like just another means by which for another for-profit entity to earn money from young adults with little in the bank and a lot of years to be chained to these loans. Someone with more financial savvy should definitely educate me and show me the real numbers, if I’m wrong.

2. GPAs, MCATs, and Step score averages. One thing that the school’s website keeps touting is that their students’ overall numbers are comparable, if not higher than, some of their local Californian competitors. The goal of not just this school but any medical school is to tacitly make you think “good numbers= smart people= the school made these people smarter”. But is that true? Well...

GPAs and MCATs do not reflect how well a med school teaches their students because students COME IN with these scores. They are also not equivalent to intelligence. They also do not necessarily correlate with increased chances with matching in one’s desired specialty or in the state of one’s choice. But that ran across your mind, right? It did in mine, when I was first applying. These scores only mean that the applicants they matriculate know how to test well.

Step score averages speak less to the curriculum, only how well the students prepared. Whether that was with or without the assistance of the school, we cannot know unless we ask the students ourselves. We must also keep in mind that all of us who have gone through med school in the US who took Step 1 can say that Step 1 isn’t about clinical medicine and not always reflective of our curriculum. So the Step score says nothing about the school, either.

3. But MD-A, I heard they matched like 96% of their class! And I mean, good on them, right? That’s awesome! I would never want people to fail the match; it’s the actual worst feeling and emotional/psychological rollercoaster when the Match goes awry. I cannot understate that.

But I think we need to look at the actual match list, made publicly available by CNU itself here. The Match list is an important tool to use when planning your career trajectory. Because where they send their students tells you what the students are interested in, what specialties are emphasized or stronger/strongest at the school, the potential aspirations of the students and the goals of the school. If they do not align with yours, then I’d recommend thinking carefully before applying.

So this match list had a few key trends: mostly primary care specialties, many community programs with an emphasis on retaining people in California, few intensely academic programs overall. Interestingly, a lack of OB/GYN, which usually has a good showing at any medical school. What this says to me is that if you are interested in a career as a sub-specialist or an academician, if you’re interested in training at a highly rigorous, academic residency program or staying in academia, or interested in going out of state, this may not be the program for you. If you are interested in staying in California and being seen as an eligible trainee who would flourish as a clinician, that’s their forte.

4. A lack of basic inclusionary language. One thing that I noticed going through this CNU med school’s roster is a significant disproportion of men to women, 2:1. Which, I mean, could just be what happened in the most recent year; it totally can happen. So eh.

But as I continued to look through the website for CNU, there are no statements available on their website regarding affirmative action, zero tolerance policies on discrimination, whether they select applicants to represent the population, dedication to minority representation in medicine in any capacity. Which is odd, considering that their mission statement says they are about “social accountability”.

By the way, these ‘buzzwords’ I’m looking for aren't radical statements; these are basics that all med schools around the US are adopting/have long ago adopted in their mission statements or application process because medicine recognizes that doctors’ who represent our patients and communities make medicine better.

I bring this up because I would wonder if and how they address discrimination issues brought up. Because they happen all the time in medicine.

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botanyshitposts · 7 years ago

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I wanna get into botany but textbooks and shit are hard to reead fuck I just see walls of words how do I read that shit

ok this actually isn’t the first ask ive gotten about this recently!! textbooks are a severely underrated class of book, but also take a lot of practice and finesse to read at first.

something that i’ve discovered about textbooks- and this is one of those things that i wish someone had told me and i ended up finding out on my own- is that there are two types of textbooks: 1. the books that you have to buy for class to teach you the basics, or 2. compilations of current stuff on a specific topic

a thing ive noticed about being an undergrad/learning the basics is that ur essentially catching up with the rest of the world, and that’s how all the textbooks u gotta spend like $314231 on at the beginning of the year on are written. so the type one books are structured on teaching you things, which means that each chapter is structured in a cumulative lesson that you have to read all the way through, sometimes slugging through pages upon pages of just…..shit, because you need to know whats on page 9 to be able to understand whats on page 32. these books suck ass. theyre essential and very painful but once you get through them you can get to the cool type of textbook, type 2.

type 2 textbooks are a weird thing academia does where they get a shitton of scientists together and have everybody write down the new shit they learned, and then they put it in a big overview book. these are kinda few and far between, but are super cool because due to it being just a giant compilation of individual results put together into one giant stack, if you arent interested in what ur reading you can literally just skip it and go to the next cool passage. nobody gives a shit and nothings building on anything else so if you dont understand one, you might understand another better, and u can skip around in the chapters as you please, which makes it SO much easier to read. the best example of this i own is Carnivorous Plants: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution, which is the newest non-school textbook i own (published last february) and by far one of my faves even though i just got it (side note- some people have told me that they think its super interesting but are hesitant at the price tag and i would like to clarify that i saw this, it cost me Quite A Few Hours At Work, and because im going into the field, dont own any plants at all right now aside from one (1) fern, and had my birthday very recently i am giving myself CONSIDERABLE leeway on my book budget lmao).

on a similar note: books like this are more expensive because the newer a text is, the more expensive it is because of the demand for new shit. a book 5 years out of date will cost about $20, and a book 10 years out of date will cost $8, and antique books usually cost around $2 lmao. on the flip side, the type 1 botany textbook required for my formal class this semester was bought used for me by my mom for by birthday a few years ago in high school, and cost about $90; books being used by any university for a class immediately jump in price, and books with new editions just released will cost SIGNIFICANTLY less than their counterparts. your best bet in some of these cases is a university library, but i digress lol

as for botany textbooks for class and how to read them- again, start at the beginning of the chapter and slug through, because you gotta build up a knowledge base. if you’re taking a formal class, then lecture will most likely cover what chapters are assigned, so usually with my undergrad ones i listen intently and take notes in class, then supplement with my textbook by reading the parts that i’m confused on. when i need to read a type 1 textbook, i implement the method i used in high school to pass my AP courses: right when class gets out and i’m still in the ‘We Are Focusing Right Now Yes’ mindset, i sit myself down and dont get up until the chapter is read. this is sometimes more effective than other times. In terms of understanding the material, i find it helps if you look for how the concept you’re learning about is applied irl in studies and stuff, because if gives u a handle on it and brings to light what you do and don’t understand. on a more basic study habit level, if you’re like me and have ADHD but aren’t medicated, if i know i have to Focus ™ i take a caffeine pill or drink coffee in the morning and then try not to eat a ton of sugar until after i’m done studying, because it makes me feel frazzled. really, a lot of ‘learning the basics’ textbook reading is sitting down and slogging through it.

in type 2 books, i usually flag the pages that i find interesting with little sticky note flags, because it gives my brain a background task of ‘hhhhh find place to put colorful item yes’.

if you’re experiencing executive dysfunction with the intimidation of reading Big Important Thing: this sounds stupid, but think of it as a long online article. like when you open ur book for ur chapter be like ‘yeah just gonna read this wikipedia page now’. like i’ve learned that when applying an online layout, my brain is like ‘ah yes short and good and will remain focused now’, but when working in a book format- even in an online textbook- my brain immediately goes offline because ‘No!!! Big Stressful Chunk Of Text Gives Me Anxiety. Do Not Like’. i do this while encouraging myself to read regular books, too (*opens horror novel* ‘wow this is a pretty long creepypasta huh’).

#this is so long im sorryyyyyyy #h its like 2am lol #botany education #long post #asks #plont asks #Anonymous

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shabootyisland · 7 years ago

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Howdy! I’m bored and I’m making this post on a whim to help introduce people to the whole Touhou thing! I’m gonna teach y’all a few tips I wish I’d known myself. I’m not qualified to make this post. Anyway!

REASONS TO GET INTO TOUHOU

An almost all-female cast. Seriously, I’d estimate 97-98% female

VERY STRONG FEMALES. Many of them could kill you very easily.

The characters (in-game at least) aren’t sexualised! They just fight each other. And then have parties. Lots of them drink.

The games (the ones that aren’t fighting spin-offs, at least) are all made by one dude who is drunk basically all the time. Art, music, coding, it’s all done by one guy (commonly known as ZUN)

The art’s really charming, even if it isn’t the greatest

The game is really hard but beating it is very rewarding

Lots of great music, and remixes of said music!

You can’t really spoil a Touhou game, and can start pretty much anywhere.

Now, having that said, here’s how to get into Touhou.

METHOD 1: MEMORIES OF PHANTASM

Memories of Phantasm is a fanmade adaptation of the stories of a few Touhou games, though it is not in the order the games were released. Although, that doesn’t really matter too much. Each game basically has its own story, or incident, as they’re often called, that is rectified by the protagonist.

While Memories of Phantasm is officially non-canon, it’s a great way to meet many of the popular characters. Since the characters are spread out through various different games, it can be difficult to get to know some of the more important ones. Most fan favorites make an appearance in some way or another.

This is how I personally got into Touhou! After watching this, I downloaded and played the Touhou games, and was able to recognize some characters

You can watch Memories of Phantasm subtitles on youtube here.

METHOD 2: ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAMES

So, you’re like, “I heard there’s games, so why bother watching an anime?” And that’s valid.

But there’s one pressing question: Which game should you start with?

Short answer: any of them. The stories aren’t really “connected,” and you won’t really be losing anything by playing a newer game.

If you want something easy, my suggestion is Touhou 8: Imperishable Night.

IN is considered the easiest by most fans. Start off on the easy difficulty. Trust me on this one. Easy is a lie. Touhou difficulties can more accurately be described as:

Easy > Hard

Normal > Really Hard

Hard > Really Goddamn Hard

Lunatic > Absolute Shitfest

(BTW, most ENG fans refer to Touhou games by making an acronym of their English Subtitle. For example, you might see Touhou 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom simply referred to as “PCB”)

If IN ain’t your style, pretty much any Touhou game from 6-12 is probably a good bet.

Avoid Touhou 15. Its difficulty is unspeakable. Do not start with Touhou 15 unless you have a death wish.

You can download English translations of Touhou games from either moriyashrine.org or nicoblog.org. I usually go with the latter because my laptop doesn’t like the Moriya Shrine for whatever reason.

Alternatively, you could just type “touhou (number here) download” and you should be able to find it, though I can’t guarantee you’ll be downloading an English translated version.

If you’d like to support ZUN with real money, you can buy Touhou 16 on steam. It’s very cheap at only $15. The only real downside is that it’s in Japanese, but, since all Touhou games play relatively the same, you should be able to get the hang of it.

(Oh and you can also buy the fighting spinoff Antimony of Common Flowers on Steam it’s $25)

HOW TO PLAY TOUHOU

Here comes the part that I really wish someone had told me about.

Touhou is a danmaku/bullet hell shooting game. Your objective is to shoot down the enemy while managing to avoid the metric fuckton of bullets they’re shooting back at you. Basic controls are as follows:

Z to Shoot/Confirm Menu Selections

X to Bomb/Cancel Menu Selections

SHIFT to Focus

Arrow Keys to Move

ESC to Open the Pause Menu

Shoot at all times. There is no reason to not shoot. Touhou does not have a pacifist mode. Not shooting will only lengthen the time you must suffer.

Bombing is for when you get into a tough situation/a really hard boss. A bomb will do massive damage, and temporarily rid the screen of some/all of the bullets. Additionally, in some games, you can perform a “deathbomb.” By using a bomb right after you get hit, you won’t lose your life. You will, however, use your bomb/lose some power. (Whether you lose a bomb/power depends on what game you’re playing.) Bombs are also known as Spell Cards.

Focusing changes your shot type, and lets you move slower. Many of the bullets are only pixels apart from each other, so you can use it to help you dodge them. Sometimes, slower is better than faster.

Additionally, while focusing, you can see your hitbox. It’s the little circle pictured here:

Since there are so many bullets, it’d be unfair if the whole character sprite was a hitbox. So, hits will not count unless they make direct contact with that circle.

There are a few things you’ll want to collect, or, actually run into when you play a Touhou game. Specifically, these:

The P’s will make your shot stronger once you collect a certain amount of them. In older Touhou games, (6-8) Power could range from about 0-130 (that may not be exact.) In newer Touhou games, power ranges from 0.00-4.00, with a few exceptions depending on the game and shot type you choose.

If you collect enough of the blue thingies, depending on the game, you’ll get another life! You should stock up as many lives as you can, because you will lose them. (In other games, these just add to the score.)

These thingies (sometimes they have a B on them) are bombs! Useful.

In games where those blue thingies don’t get you a one-up, five of these life pieces will.

In newer games, when you start, you’ll see an “Item Border Get Line” message:

If you pass that line, all the P’s and blue thingies onscreen will automatically drift toward you, as if you were a magnet. It’s risky, but useful.

The item get line does exist in other games, it just doesn’t show up as a message.

Graze is when a bomb nearly hits you, but does not, it adds to your score.

Score is kind of like it is when you play Super Mario Brothers. It’s there, but it’s not really a big deal unless you make it one.

Touhou games are played like arcade games. Meaning you can’t save and come back to them later. (Unless you’re playing Touhou 15/Using Steam Cloud.) You’ve gotta do it all in one go. A successfully cleared run only takes about 25 minutes.

You can replay your playthroughs later if you choose to save your replay upon dying/clearing the game. It’s very useful in case you want to like, record it r upload it to youtube.

By the way, you can upload any part of your Touhou LP to Youtube. ZUN won’t copyright you. All he asks is that you don’t post the endings you get upon clearing the game in video form online. Of course, you won’t be punished if you do, but you probably shouldn’t do it outta the kindness of your heart.

Aaand that’s about it! Phew, hopefully that wasn’t too overwhelming. If I forgot somethig or any of this is wrong, let me know! I’ll fix it up right away.

SOME LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT:

Touhou Wiki

EricVanWilderman’s Let’s Plays (ESOD/PCB) (He explains how the game works as he’s playing, in case you’re more of a visual learner.)

/r/Touhou

Moriya Shrine (it has more than just game downloads! Also I stole like 2 pics from them oopsie)

Touhou Character Introduction Twitter Thread

#touhou #touhou project #東方 #東方Project #intro to touhou

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slaycinder · 3 years ago

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This post already irked me, but after finding and reading the article OP cherry-picked above (a truly herculean effort, I know), I have some points:

1. Things like file directory systems generally aren’t taught in primary schools anymore, thanks to the “digital native” scale—a ridiculous IQ-esque measure of how “tech savvy” kids are. Millennials have been considered tech savvy from a young age because those skills were taught to us in school, not because we had some biological predisposition toward it. Zoomers didn’t get that curriculum, partially because adults expected them to magically figure it out themselves, and partially because technology has evolved and changed rapidly, and those skills have been relegated from “essential” to “specialized.” So a zoomer might not even be offered courses in file directories or programming unless they enter IT/STEM for secondary or post-secondary education.

2. Calling zoomers stupid for not knowing how to use file directories is like calling millennials stupid for not knowing how to use a rotary phone, or calling boomers stupid for not knowing how to use a printing press. Why would they? The technology of the day didn’t require the same skills to operate, and unless you have a hobby or a certain job, there’s not a lot of incentive to study increasingly obsolete technologies.

3. Humble yourself if you think you, or anyone else, is immune to the rapid evolution of technology. I’m only 28 (and consider myself above-average in tech savvy) and already I have to go out of my way to master newer programs and systems, simply because they aren’t structured the way they used to be, even 15 years ago—they’re not intuitive to me, but I can still learn. My parents, now approaching their 70s, didn’t grow up with texting and gifs and online bill pay, but they adapted and learned.

4. Instead of calling someone stupid for not having been exposed to certain methods or tech, try teaching them instead. Offer resources. Rethink your curriculum if your students have different challenges than previous years. And take a moment to appreciate what your students ARE capable of. The article talks about how muscle memory has partially taken the place of filing systems on zoomers’ phones. It’s just a different approach, equally effective in many cases. Adaptation is a necessary part of progress.

And finally, 5. Can we lay off zoomers now? Can we stop? Can older generations look at the steaming pile of world they gave the children, at the resources they took away, and just accept that younger generations are doing their best with a bullshit hand? If the student made it to grad school, they’re clearly smart—so what if they need an extra seminar or two to learn directories?

Stop blaming the kids for not knowing, when you didn’t bother to teach them. We’re not doomed because a 20-year-old needs help using WINRAR. We’re doomed because instead of helping and teaching each other, we post inflammatory shitposts about it online.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Here’s the article, btw. I noticed OP didn’t bother to link it. :)

#don’t @ me #I said what I said

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evosseminar · 6 years ago

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YouTube Science Communication Syllabus

Biology / EvoS 283Q 2019 Summer Session 1 Meeting Times: Mondays & Thursdays 10:00 – 12:00 PM (plus 1 Wednesday 5/29 and one Friday 6/28)

List of Meeting Dates: We meet 11 times in total : May 29, 30 June 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 27, 28

All meetings are virtual and take place via video chat.

All meetings are required.

Instructor: Maximus Thaler ([email protected]) Office hours by appointment – I am available for private video chats most times.

Course Description:

This is a 4 credit course about making evolutionarily themed educational Youtube videos, and about the 4 billion year history of life on our planet. The best way to learn is to teach, and so in this class every student becomes an instructor. Our subject of study is the epic history of the tree of life, and you will learn this history by making 9 short videos. You are not expected to know anything about video making, or about life’s phylogenetic history at the start of this class, but you are expected to work hard and demonstrate improvement by the end. The best videos in the class will be posted on the course youtube channel.

Course work consists of watching youtube videos made by professional science communicators, making videos of your own, and critiquing the videos of your peers. The majority of your grade is based on peer evaluation. The class is challenging, and requires significant time commitment. Consistent effort will be noticed and rewarded. By the end of the class you will walk away with a deeper understanding of the grand history of life and your place on life’s tree, as well as with foundational skills in video production and editing – a highly sought-after skillset in today’s job market.

Video course description can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/BUyoutubeclass.

Required Resources:

A computer built in 2015 or newer, with functioning webcam.

An optical mouse.

A smart phone, or higher quality digital camera.

A high speed internet connection (at least 10 mbps)

Zoom, Google Chrome & Google Hangouts.

Adobe Premier Pro.

A one month subscription for $29.99 is available at http://www.adobe.com/

Your computer will need significant processing power to run this software. Contact me if you are concerned your machine is not equipped.

Optional but Recommended Resources:

Tripod.

Microphone.

External hard drive.

OBS screen and webcam recorder.

Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, & Audition

A one month subscription to the full Adobe CC is available for $74.99 at http://www.adobe.com/

Class Format:

This course takes place completely online. Twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays from 10:00 – 12:00 PM, we will virtually gather via Zoom to review each other’s videos Prior to each meeting you will receive an email with the URL video chat room.

Each meeting we will watch each other’s videos and then grade and critique them. A key component of the class is peer review. You are expected to think critically about your classmates’ videos and offer constructive criticism. The best way to get better at a new skill is to practice, and to listen openly to feedback from others about where you can improve.

Homework after each class is to watch assigned educational videos, and then to make a video of your own which responds to or summarizes the videos assigned. Course material will become more difficult as the course progresses, to keep pace with your expanding skillset.

4 credit online summer courses require 35 hours of work per week. Treat this class like a full-time job. We meet as a class for 4 hours a week, meaning you are expected to devote 31 hours a week to homework. This amounts to approximately 15 hours per video you make.

Throughout the course, in addition to the assigned videos, I will post other educational content or tutorials on making video. Watching these videos is required – they will be your primary source of information on how to do your video assignments. The videos I post will be made by myself and other professional science communicators. I am available for private sessions for help with video editing.

Course Schedule:

Wednesday May 29: Introductions. HW: What is life? vlog

Thursday May 30: Peer review What is life? vlogs. HW: Plant ID video

Monday June 3: Peer review Plant ID videos. HW: Fungus ID video

Thursday June 6: Peer Review Fungus ID videos. HW: Tinbergen’s 4 questions video

Monday June 10: Peer review Tinbergen’s 4 questions videos. HW: Origin of Life video

Thursday June 13: Peer review Origin of Life videos. HW: History of Life video

Monday June 17: Peer review History of Life videos. HW Symbiosis video

Thursday June 20: Peer review Symbiosis videos. HW: Final Video Proposal

Monday June 24: Peer review final video proposals. HW: Final Video

Thursday June 27: Peer review final videos. HW: Course review video

Friday June 28: Reflections and Conclusions

Evaluation:

Your grade is based out of 130 points. To keep things simple, any 1 point that you receive on assignments will be exactly equal to 1 point on your final grade.

Points are rewarded for completing the following tasks:

A) Attendance: 11 points

This class meets 11 times during summer session I. Each time you virtually attend a seminar you will receive 1 point.

Missed broadcasts: If you have a legitimate reason for missing a seminar, you must contact me before class and arrange how to make it up.

B) Watching Educational Youtube Videos: 11 points

Throughout the course, I will be posting videos from a variety of science youtubers. I will also be posting tutorials I have made about how to complete specific assignments. You are required to watch all of these videos. Think of this as your textbook for the class.

There is much more excellent content on youtube that I could ever provide you links to. You are strongly encouraged to explore on your own. Watching many videos, from many genera and styles, is one of the best ways to improve your content and develop a unique video voice. You are also required to watch the videos your classmates make.

At the end of the class you will be asked to submit a word document enumerating a list of all the videos you watched during summer session 1. Here is a video tutorial about how to generate a list of watched videos from your youtube history.

Points will be rewarded based on the number of videos you watch. You will be rewarded between 1 and 11 points for this video list assignment. The more videos you watch, the higher this portion of your grade will be. If there are videos in your history you would prefer I do not know you have watched, simply remove them from the list before submitting it.

This is not meant to be tricky or invasive. I won’t be closely scrutinizing your watching decisions closely – I’m just going to skim the list at the end of the semester to make sure that you engaged with the content of the class.

C) Educational Videos: 72 points

You will be submitting 9 videos this semester, 7 of which will be graded by your peers. A video is due each lecture. Each peer reviewed video is worth 9 points, except your final video which is worth 18. Your final grade for each video will be the average of the grades your peers assign.

You will be provided with much more information in the coming days about what is expected from these videos. For now, here is an abbreviated rubric to give you a sense of how your videos will be evaluated.

Video grading rubric:

Your videos will be graded on a 9 point scale. Grades are based on the following qualities:

Clarity(1-3 points): Your communication should be clear and accurate. Use simple language. Focus on brevity. A video in this class should not be longer than 4 minutes unless absolutely necessary. Your communication should be quick, with no time wasted. Videos which are longer are usually boring. Make sure you have an explicitly stated focus. Your video should have an overall thesis, and every second of the video should be in service to that thesis.

Creativity(1-3 points): Your video should have aesthetic quality, and use novel techniques to keep the viewers’ attention. Use animations, props, and other secondary visual cues to make your point twice, once with words, once with visuals. Unusual titling, effective animation, illustrations, novel props, and innovative cinematography are some of the many ways to make your video unique.

Technical skill(1-3 points): Your videos should utilize basic editing and cinematography techniques to ensure your content is tight and easy to watch. Cuts should be clean, with no pauses in between shots. Speakers should be framed using the rule of thirds. Titles and other post production content should be well timed.

Descriptions of videos receiving various grades:

9: A video which receives the full 9 points will be promoted and published on the class youtube channel. A 9 point video is short, accurate, and has a clear thesis. The editing is clean, and it uses creative visual methods to reinforce the points made by the narrator. The video has an engaging thumbnail and title.

8: A 8 point video is accurate and clear, but may be slightly too long. The editing is clean, and efficient, but not necessarily innovative. Narration is reinforced by secondary visual cues effectively, but minimally. The video has an engaging thumbnail and title.

6: A 6 point video is mostly accurate and fairly easy to follow, but there may be small factual errors or ambiguities. Editing is clean, but could be better reinforced by more elaborate secondary visual cues. The video could be improved if it were shortened.

4: A 4 point video gets the job done, but there may be factual errors which undermine it. Or, while the details of the video may be accurate, it may be rather simple, and not explain very much. The video may lack a clear thesis or a sense of focus. Editing could be tightened, and the narration could be significantly improved by secondary visual cues.

3: A 3 point video needs improvement. It has factual errors and does not synthesize the subject into a cohesive story. If the video has a thesis, or much of the video is tangential and does not argue the thesis well. The pace of the video is slow, with little done during editing to hold the viewers’ attention.

0: A 0 point video is incomplete or never uploaded.

E) Effort and Improvement: 36 points

A critical note about grades: Grades do not represent your worth as a human being.

Grades exist for institutional reasons, not human reasons. Grades exist so that institutions can communicate about their educational caliber. Grades do not reflect how much you know, they reflect how well you were able to adapt your scholastic efforts to the university system.

I do not appreciate student concerns about low grades. I think worrying about your grade misses the point. Grades are there motivate you, not to measure you. If you receive a low grade, interpret the grade as a message to try harder, not a message that you are inadequate in some way. This point bears repeating: Grades in this class are a motivational tool, not a measurement.

The 36 points dedicated to effort and improvement are there to make the motivational purpose of grades explicit. These are points I will award to you at the end of the semester holistically, based on how hard you tried, and how much your videos improved over the course of the semester. In grading this section, I will pay particular attention to your first and last videos as an indication of your passion for the course material and your improvement over time.

I don’t care if your grades are high or low. I care that you are learning, and that you can do something at the end of this class that you could not do at the beginning. 36 points is the difference between a C and an A. As long as you demonstrate to me that you are trying your best, and that you are learning, then you will receive most of these 36 points.

So do not be concerned about low grades. The grading structure is built so that any student who is working hard will do well. If you do not work hard, you will not do well, and if you try your best, your final grade will reflect it. It’s really that simple.

Grade Summary:

11 (Attendance) + 11 (Video Watch History) + 72 (Videos) + 36 (Effort) = 130 points

A+ 126-130, A 121-125, A- 116-120, B+ 111-115, B 106-110, B- 101-105, C+ 96-100, C 91-95 C- 86-90, D+ 81-85

A note on writing:

The deliverables of this class come in video form, but this means that your writing actually needs to be of higher quality. The fact that you will be speaking your words doesn’t let you off the hook, it constrains what kind of things you can write so that they are clear and easily vocalizable. Script writing is hard. I recommend that you read everything aloud that you write, to make sure it sounds good. I am available for extra help on script writing by appointment.

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