#from shadows. ( study / blake b. )

[the-perverse-library]

Ask: Kamen Rider AU

Size Difference, Femdom, Hyperassets(Larger Cake)

After escaping from Merlot’s Lab, Jaune never expected for his life to be constantly moving from one town to the next, never being able to stay long for fear of drawing the Grimm to the place he stayed. He’d always clear the area of Grimm, stay for one night, and the leave in the early morning. He’d ended up with the earning the nickname ‘The Human Beowolf due to his armor looking like that of a Beowolf. However, he never expected to run into another humanoid type. How does Grimm Blake handle running into Kamen Roser Beowolf Jaune?

Jaune: “Who the hell are you?” *He then preps his claws to strike as he threw his brown and ragged cloak off.* “Another of Merlot’s creations?”

Kamen Rider Beowulf

https://pin.it/7aYMMgHxx

Grimm! Blake:

https://pin.it/1rD4uUPwK

Blake let out a deep, rumbling purr as one of her shadow tails removed the lower part of her Grimm Mask, revealing the red cracks that inched from the corners of her eyes down to the edges of her black lips. Her amber eyes pierced deep into Jaune as she studied... admired him. "As if you aren't?" she asked with a smile. The Grimmified Faunus inched closer, her body swelling, growing with each step until she was nearly twice Jaune's height. Ink-like fur dominated her arms and legs, giving the former Huntress an unmistakably monstrous appearance.

"I-I'm still human!" Jaune argued back as he flexed his clawed fingers. "I would never side with the Grimm."

Blake just rolled her eyes at Jaune's retort. "I'm not on their side, I'm not on Merlot's or Humanity's side either. I am on my side." The Grimmified Faunus adjusted her Grimm Mask, hiding her face again. "We could save Remnant! Rule over Humanity and Grimm alike! Me, it's Forever Queen, and you, my delectible King Consort." Jaune watched as Blake's shadow seemed to churn and bubble as the corrupted giantess spoke.

"Sure, any kind of peace would be nice. B-but... that's just trading people like Ironwood and Salem for other, equally terrible options. We will just have to find another way-arrrgh!" Jaune shouted as he launched at Blake, only to feel her slip through his hands. She can still make shadow clones! He mentally shouted at himself as he rolled across the ground to avoid a counter-attack. But it was his evasive action that threw Jaune into Blake's trap. Jaune felt his limbs sink into his own shadow, leaving him flat on his back and entirely at Blake's mercy.

The Grimmified Faunus lorded over Jaune as he struggled against her shadow powers. "Jaune, Jaune, Jaune... That heart of yours always got you into trouble, and I love that you still want to do good and be courageous. But right now, I don't want or need that." Blake said as her clothes melted away into shadows, and she knelt down, flooding Jaune's field of view with just her wet, dripping pussy. "You can be a just ruler once we've conquered Remnant, so for now, just enjoy the ride." But just before Blake slammed her pussy onto Jaune's face, the blond released a burst of Aura, freeing himself from her trap.

"You are corrupted! I'll save you too, even if it means beating you!" Jaune triumphantly cried out as he jumped to his feet. He was no longer a human but something entirely superhuman. What he couldn't achieve as a man, he could achieve as Kamen Rider Beowulf. He ignored the throbbing bulge that ran down his leg as he focused his power to try and charge once more. But his burst of confidence was shaken with every step he took as Blake didn't move a single muscle; one moment, he was staring at her smug grin and humungous breasts, and the next, his limbs were wrapped and bound.

Gambol Shroud!!! How could I have been so forgetful! Jaune mentally lamented as he had once again thrown himself into Blake's trap. He watched as Blake dragged a black claw down his suit, causing it to quiver and peel away, exposing his nude body underneath. He watched as several inky-looking tailed coiled around and massaged his cock and balls as Blake continued to smirk. Their touch left him biting back deep, needy groans; Jaune knew just how sensitive he was under his armour, and now, Blake did as well. Everytime he opened his mouth, silent groans fell from his lips instead of words. His hips developed wills of their own and began to relentlessly buck into Blake's touch, needy and desperate for more.

"Be mine and I can show you pleasure the likes of which you've never seen." Blake sensually purred into his ear. "Abandon everything and become ~MINE~." Jaune could only whimper as he lost all control of his body. "Hmph... well, it looks like I will just have to fuck all your brains away." Blake licked her lips before she slammed her pussy down onto his face.

[poisonously-alluring-sev]

Snape Preference ~ Books He Recommends

Severus Snape Masterlist

Context You ask him for something good to read and he gives you a pile of books he thinks you'll enjoy. (This is excluding the obvious amount of potions and herbology books he probably has)

The Secret History by Donna Harett Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E. B. Hudspeth

Philadelphia, the late 1870s. A city of gas lamps, cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn carriages—and home to the controversial surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a grave robber, young Dr. Black studies at Philadelphia's esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: that the mythological beasts of legend and lore—including mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs—were in fact humanity's evolutionary ancestors. And beyond that, he wonders: what if there was a way for humanity to reach the fuller potential these ancestors implied?

Masters Of Death by Olivie Blake

There is a game that the immortals play. There is only one rule: Don't lose.

The Maidens by Alex Michalides Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes Who hasn't wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you've probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this "Poison Ivy League" college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate...and where one's mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Botanical Curses & Poisons: The Shadow-Lives of Plants By Liz Inkwright In both history and fiction, some of the most dramatic, notorious deaths have been through poisonings. Concealed and deliberate, it's a crime that requires advance planning and that for many centuries could go virtually undetected. And yet there is a fine line between healing and killing: the difference lies only in the dosage! In Botanical Curses and Poisons, Fez Inkwright returns to folkloric and historical archives to reveal the fascinating, untold stories behind a variety of lethal plants, witching herbs, and fungi. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker Irish author Bram Stoker introduced the character of Count Dracula and provided the basis of modern vampire fiction in his 1897 novel entitled Dracula. Written as a series of letters, newspaper clippings, diary entries, and ships' logs, the story begins with lawyer Jonathan Harker journeying to meet Dracula at his remote castle to complete a real estate transaction. Harker soon discovers that he is being held prisoner, and that Dracula has a rather disquieting nocturnal life. Touching on themes such as Victorian culture, immigration, and colonialism, among others, this timeless classic is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats! Now available as part of the Word Cloud Classics series, Dracula is a must-have addition to the libraries of all classic literature lovers.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I'm concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I'm not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don't need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I'm probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I'll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

Hope you enjoyed this quick idea I had. Also, all of these books are amazing and I 100% recommend all of them!

[darkestrellar]

Brighton Hall's diary, re: The Shadow Crystal

Slightly cherrypicked but not too much. Read-more for length.

Today, several mysterious black stones were unearthed from the drilling site. They were unlike anything I had ever seen. They shone with a dark, alluring light. I felt something stir in my heart in response to its fascinating darkness…

Finally, we discovered a gigantic specimen of the Dark Shard… The Shadow Crystal! However, it is guarded by a Pokémon that is like darkness itself. Though we can see the Shadow Crystal, the Pokémon keeps us at bay. We have no choice but to make do with the small Dark Shards we can collect. They will allow us to continue with our studies on dream-energy sources. Today also happened to be my only child Wyatt Hall’s 13th birthday. But because I had become so enthralled with studying the crystal, it slipped my mind. I feel bad for having done my son Wyatt wrong…

--e Sh-d-w Cry---- is --- ans--- to o-- e-erg- -----  --- po--r is t-e ---r that c-- f--l us fo--ver in all per--tuity. We --- -- l---er b--nd by --- ------tions ------- -- -- ---- --- dr--m -- ----…

Today, my only son reached his 14th birthday. Over my wife’s protestations, I changed my son’s name from Wyatt to Blake. We, my son and I, held a ceremony near the Shadow Crystal for changing his name. We dedicated my son, who will lead Altru Inc., to the Shadow Crystal. In return, let the Shadow Crystal’s incomparable power flow to my son. May the Shadow Crystal and Blake lead Altru to glory.

My son, Blake Hall, having just turned sixteen, drove me out of the company. His parting words crushed me. I will eliminate anyone who stands in the way of my world domination, even my father. My son has become the main character in this nightmare. The nightmare woven by the Shadow Crystal…

I realize now that I made a terrible and terrifying mistake. The Shadow Crystal, over thousands of years, absorbed negative feelings. It took in the darkness from the hearts of people and stored it as energy. My only son Blake has become trapped in its infinite darkness. My own son, who drove me from Altru Inc. to become its youngest president! Blake Hall… No! Wyatt Hall! My son, I promise! I will save you! For the rest of my years, I will do everything I can to free you!

[whitleyschn33]

So while pursuing the manga section at my local bookstore, I found two of the RWBY manga anthologies, From Shadows and I Burn. Both were much higher than I was willing to pay, so I just ended up flipping through one of them to appreciate some of the art before moving on. And to my surprise, I stumbled upon this page - which I later went on a twenty minute late night Google journey to find a scan of; man, B//B shippers really let me down on this one, and the story is even titled Night of the Bumble//bee, you think they'd be all over this.

I honestly kinda wish this is the approach that they'd taken with Blake's hair in Atlas, or (what I've been using in my mental redesigns) something more like how Ren styled his hair in Atlas. It's a really cute style that doesn't necessitate chopping her hair off and lets them keep the bows and ribbons motif running. Also, having the makeover take place in a scene like this would give Yang and Blake the chance to have some of the conversations they desperately need to.

Honestly, from the stories I skimmed through to find this scan, these anthologies are honestly really cute and sweet. There were a few too many "haha, Blake is a cat" jokes, but there were a lot of great moments that make me really miss the Beacon days.

One story has Blake losing her bow in the middle of a training exercise and running off. Yang finds her later, ditching the class, and although she hadn't found her bow, she'd made an enormous flower crown from Blake to wear while they continued searching (and the last panel is Glenda scolding all of t!RWBY for being late, and they're all wearing flower crowns).

Another had Blake and Ruby trading reading material to try and get into each other's tastes, and Blake remarks that she'd read books like Ruby's fairytales before, but stopped right before she hit Ruby's age, and prefers romance now. This dives into a bit of a character study about Blake and her outlook on life through the books she reads somewhat contrasted with what Ruby gets out of the fairytales (the last panel is, of course, Yang getting a look at the book Blake gave Ruby and asking just what she's given her little sister).

In a couple more comedy oriented ones, one of Blake's dust replica statues comes up for sale on the web, with Blake freaking out but the price already much too high. Yang suggests making their own statues to sell as "offical merch" to make some money, while Ruby... says Blake should make statues for them to sell so they can afford the statue. Ruby. And of course, Weiss simply snipes up the staute at the last second. They also find a stray kitten in another, and Blake takes care of it while they find a good home - while also revealing that she actually has no idea how to take care of pet cats. It's got all the sugary sweet stuff you'd expect from this trope, but also the added hilarity of Weiss instantly producing cat toys and supplies with the most deadpan look on her face.

Honestly, I really enjoyed what I skimmed through, and if the volumes ever turn up for a more acceptable price, I might just buy them.

[bssaz97]

RWBY Post AU: Blaze

Part 1

- Kuo Kuana, Menagerie -

The beaches of Kuo Kuana are said to be the most beautiful and calmest places in all of Remnant. Since the end of the Dark War sixteen years ago, many would come from all across to see the shoreline and view the horizon to experience the tranquil peace of the Faunus Kingdom.

On this particular day, a young man came to this place to seek inner peace. This was Blaze Belladonna-Wukong, the son of the current Chieftain of Menagerie, Blake Belladonna-Wukong and the Captain of the Menagerie Guard, Sun Belladonna-Wukong. Under their lead Menagerie thrived and officially became the first Faunus-ruled Kingdom by the end of the Dark War. He of course was born a year after the war ended and was one of the first children born into a truly peaceful world.

At least, that’s what they originally thought...

Blaze is sitting down on a beach towel in a Burmese meditation position, he comes here every other day in a attempt to clear up his mind. He focuses on achieving a clear mind, on peaceful, stress free thoughts. He thinks of happier times, and allows his mind to take him back to his childhood. Almost instantly he is visiting a time of his life where his closest friends at the time were Joanna, Liena, Rowan and Summer. They would come visit his family with their parents, and it was here on this beach where they would play all day long under the supervision of his grandparents.

Collecting seashells with grandma, playing volleyball in teams, building sandcastles with Summer who chose to stay with him on the shore, and finally ending the day by eating cooked fish by the campfire his grandpa made...

The BIG campfire...the flames would roar and the smell of smoke and ash would overwhelm his nose...the sounds of his screaming parents calling out for him...he can’t breathe...he was coughing rapidly...he looks up and sees a dark figure looming over him with his dark eyes...all he could make out was that white fucking mask! Grandpa where are you?...GRANDPA!!

No...No! Wake up!...wake the fuck up!

“Guh!”, Blaze returns to his senses, his amber eyes wide and clenching his shirt in a sweat. When his heartbeat finally settles his face contorted into a scowl and hits the ground in frustration.

“Damn it”, Blaze muttered. He stands up from the sandy ground immediately after, then goes to grab his backpack that contains his books, papers, and other school supplies but most importantly, his weapons Bàoyìng and Yîng Zhâo.* He rolls up his beach towel then leaves the beach and start the rest of his day. He predicts that this day was going to be a long one.

- Flashback (9 Years Ago) -

A eight year old Blaze creeps around his family’s house, looking for his prey. He stealthily enters his grandfather’s study where he spotted the man at work, reading some ‘adult paperwork’ (or something like that). Good...

*taptaptaptaptap!*

Ghira looked up from the documents inquisitively, hearing the sound of tiny footsteps near his vicinity. He eyes scan the vicinity of his study and was about to dismiss the noise all together, that is, until he spotted the slightest bit of a black tail poking out behind one of the couch in front of him. A smile came to his face and he made a silent chuckle as he identified his culprit. He determined that he could do one of two things, he could A.) let the young boy play his game and return to working on his documents, or B.) have a little fun today before today’s summit.... Ghira decided to indulge in his grandson’s game.

“What’s that? I could’ve sworn I heard a sound just a moment ago. I suppose I should better investigate the room, who knows what sort of dangerous creature could have snuck in”, Ghira stated out loud as a not so subtle warning to his intruder. The sound of muffled goggles met his ears and thus began the game.

The elder Faunus stood up from his chair and quickly removed his boots, letting his panther feet touch the wooden floor. Ever so quietly Ghira moved towards the couch, preparing to snatch up the little cub so that he may give him a lesson in trying to sneak up on the elderly. As he nears the corner that he’s certain the cub was hiding, he does his best maniacal laugh, “Looks like your time is....UP!” Ghira pounces around the face of the couch expecting to find a naughty cub but all he’s met with is a stuffed animal.

“What...?”, Ghira questioned aloud. He could have sworn that the culprit was behind here, but where could the boy have-?

“RRRAAAAHHH!!!,” a small shadow pounced at Ghira from above behind him and laced their short arms his neck. “Hehehehe, I caught you!”, the young Blaze proclaimed.

“Oh no! I have been caught! Oh woes me, how could I not have foreseen this,” Ghira cried out dramatically and got onto his knees and began sinking into the floor. “Life...fading...I see...a light...at the end of the tunnel...hrk-blegh!”, Ghira did his ‘best’ death impression as he laid face down on the floor.

The young Faunus looked at his grandfather’s fallen form and with a tilt of his head Blaze poked the elder’s cheek, “Grandpa, you’re not really dead.”

Ghira’s eyes snapped open and smiles, “No...but I do have second wind.” With a playful growl Ghira took hold of his grandchild, the surprise attack resulting in a playful game of tickle war with Blaze being greatly outmatched. All the young cub could do was squirm and lightly kick at his cheating grandfather.

“GRANDPA!-Hehehehe-THAT’S-hehe-CHEATING!-hehehehe,” The young Blaze giggles out.

“Ah but I suppose attacking an old man from behind is much better?”, Ghira asked the young cub, ceasing his tickling at Blaze’s ribs and neck.

“Yeah, huff....But there isn’t a rule that says that I can’t do that,” Blaze boldly claims.

Ghira chuckles then pats the boy’s head, “Fair enough.”

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

Both Ghira and Blaze looked towards the opened doorway to see the amused face of Blaze’s mother, Blake Belladonna-Wukong, who by the looks of it had witnessed a good bit of their tickle war. “Well it looks like you two are enjoying yourselves,” Blake smiling at her father and son after catching them in their fun.

“Hi Mom! I caught Grandpa real good this time!”, Blaze exclaims to his mother while sitting in his grandpa’s lap.

“Really? That’s cool. Certainly a first, my little tama,” Blake walked over to them and bent down to pet her son’s cheek. This action caused her son to lean towards his mother’s hand, a soft purring being heard from him.

Ghira smiles at the interaction between his daughter and grandchild, no doubt reminding him of when she was no younger or bigger than her own son.

“Sorry to interrupt your game you two, but it’s almost time for us to head out,” Blake told both her father and little cub.

“Aw... but I want to stay with Grandpa some more. Can’t we stay a little longer,” Blaze pleaded to his mother, his amber eyes widening and becoming wet.

“I’m sorry but we have go back home sweetie, we’re going to be waking up early tomorrow morning and I want to to get a full nights sleep,” Blake told her small son.

Blaze pouts sadly until feeling a larger hand nestle into his dark locks and hears his grandfather’s deep chuckle, “No worries Blaze, we will have plenty of opportunities to play again soon.”

“But what if you’re not here when we come back,” the young faunus asked.

“Blaze, precious child, wherever you are and wherever you are going, as long as we have each other in our thoughts and in our hearts, we will never be apart from each other. I will have you in my thoughts and if you carry me in yours, then I will be with you as well, can you do that for me Blaze,” The older faunus asks his grandchild.

Blaze whimpers gently but still nods, “Yes grandpa.”

Ghira smiles and ruffles Blaze’s nape, causing the young child to giggle loudly, which results in both grandfather and mother to laugh along with him.

After nearly a week of vacation, his grandfather’s words had proven to be true, as they would meet again after he and his parents came home from their trip, visiting family friends in Solitas. As always, his grandfather did not failed him and never lead him astray once in his short life....

What they did not know was that these happier times would only last a few more years, and then nothing would ever be the same again.

[blake-belladonna-defence-force]

So, random writing prompt for you, if you'd like. One of my favorite headcanons is that before she went to Beacon, Weiss was a pop/rock singer that recorded under a pseudonym, and all the songs you hear in the show were sung by her. What if Blake and Yang find one of her albums (say it was the one that had BMBLB on it) and played it in the dorm and Weiss walked in? (Inspired by a discord conversation)

Have a gremlin Blake, cautious Yang and a furious Weiss 😊

Set at Beacon.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Okay, So Ruby’s studying with Jaune and Weiss is training with Pyrrha. What is my favourite partner up to this b-e-a-utiful afternoon?” Yang sang as she entered the room, a playful smirk on her face.

Only to be met by the smug and self satisfied smirk of Blake Belladonna. Yang cocked her head, a curious expression on her face that immediately melted to a frown of concern at the dangerous glint in Blake’s eyes.

“Blaaaake…” Yang called hesitantly. She knew that grin. She knew that expression. It spelled trouble and Yang wasn’t sure if she had the energy for it today. “What did you do?” She asked, suspiciously glancing around the room. Literally everyone thought that she was the troublemaker of the team. And they were wrong.

“Is that any way to talk to your favourite partner?” Blake said, reclining against her wall, knee propped up and leaning her chin on it and gazing up at Yang with a far too innocent grin.

“Blake.” Yang sighed wearily. She was very fond of her partner. But dear God, her playful moods were something else. But she enjoyed them nonetheless.

“Buzzkill.” Blake teased as she stood up and walked over to Yang with a very proud swagger. “It would appear, Miss Xiao Long, that a certain teammate of ours who has released acoustic songs that are played on the piano…” Blake drawled as she held up her scroll and tapped Yang on the shoulder playfully. “Has released several songs under a pseudonym.”

“Oh?” Yang grinned, immediately intrigued. “Why, Miss Belladonna. What kind of songs are we talking about here?”

Blake leaned in, close enough for Yang to smell her perfume and see the darker flecks of amber in Blake’s golden eyes as a wicked grin grew.

“Rock.” Blake whispered before stepping back and taking great joy in Yang’s reaction.

“You- She- What?!” Yang stuttered in shock. “You’re spitting more crap than a bull!”

Blake covered her mouth as a large and amused grin spread across.

“I’m sorry. More crap than a bull?” She teased as Yang blew out her cheeks in embarrassment. “That’s adorable.”

“It’s a common phrase on Patch!” Yang defended, arms flailing and cheeks red as Blake giggled behind her hand.

“It’s still adorable…” Blake said before smirking. “Cowgirl.”

Yang gave an irritated shout. Playful mood indeed.

“Just… show me the stupid rock music.”

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

“I burn Remix?” Yang asked quizzically.

“Mmhmm. Want to press play?” Blake asked cheekily.

The two had gotten into their leisure clothes (T-shirts and sweat pants) and had been listening to the music for the past half hour before they came to the current song they were on.

“It would be a pleasure.” Yang grinned back as she pressed play on Blake’s scroll.

Both girls blinked in surprise. This song was vastly different from the others. It carried snippets from other songs. The biggest ones being “Red Like Roses” and “From Shadows.” “From Shadows” especially seemed to play a big role in this song.

“Huh. That’s interesting.” Yang murmured, receiving a nod of agreement from her partner.

“Come at me

And you'll see

I'm more than meets the eye.”

Yang glanced at Blake who was giving her an odd look, a small and knowing smile on her face. Yang rolled her eyes and continued paying attention to the song, nodding her head to the beat.

“You think that

You'll break me

You're gonna find in time

You're standing too close to a flame that's burning”

Yang shot Blake a playful grin and stood up, pulling Blake up with her and started dancing around the room with her. Blake merely rolled her eyes fondly and played along.

“Hotter than the sun in the middle of July.

Sending out your army, but you still can't win

Listen up, silly boy, 'cuz I'm gonna tell you why...”

Yang let out a laugh as Blake stumbled over her own feet. For somebody who was so graceful in battle, the girl had no rhythm.

“I burn!

Can't hold me now

You got nothing that can stop me.

I burn!

Swing all you want.

Like a fever I will take you down.”

The two girls stopped when the song ended, laughing breathlessly and leaning on each other.

“Okay. I freaking love that song!” Yang said through her snorts.

“I can see why.” Blake hummed knowingly. “Too many people judge you based on your looks and fighting style. But there’s far more you than what they all see.”

“Oh!” Yang said, a surprised and flattered blush colouring her cheeks. “You think so?” She asked, feeling shy for perhaps the first time in her life.

“Yes. But I see you.” Blake said quietly, a small half smile on her face. “And I like what I see so far.”

“Oh my Gods!”

The indignant screech of Weiss pulled their attention and they quickly jumped back.

“How did- why would-“ Weiss sputtered in outrage as she held Blake’s scroll. “Whose idea was this?!”

The two girls looked at each other and nodded.

“Weeeelllll…” Yang drew out.

“The thing is…” Blake added.

And they abruptly ran from the room with Weiss’s shrill yells following them.

As they ran, Yang spared Blake a glance and felt her heart melt at the sight of the large, laughing grin that split her face in two and the delighted light in her eyes.

‘I see you too, Blake.’ She thought fondly. ‘And I think you’re beautiful.’

[keeroo92]

Savior, Bloodstain, Hellfire, Shadow Ch28 (V x Reader)

So here’s another chapter that somehow never got posted on Tumblr. My bad.

Chapter 28 - Last Glimpse of Sunlight

Soundtrack for this chapter is Coheed and Cambria’s Love Protocol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1hs4fj-B-k

_______________________________________________________

June 15th, 12:00 pm

A cacophonous rumble breaks your stride as you and V trek through a park after your… break. Instantly you both look at the Qlipoth to watch in horror as it grows suddenly, massive chunks of roads and buildings mysteriously floating skyward as its spiny branches reach above the clouds and into space.

“We’re almost out of time,” V mutters morosely.

The shaking earth prevents you from answering as you're forced to take off running, the stable path you’d been walking crumbling away into a chasm. V falls behind quickly to your dismay, and you slow just enough to keep him close.

Even so, you’re separated when the ground you stand on rises as the terrain he remains upon drops. You fall to your belly immediately, looking back as V reaches out to grasp your forearm as the soil continues sinking away. You grunt and grit your teeth as your shoulder wrenches from taking his weight but you miraculously manage to hold on, your other arm quickly joining the first to spread the strain out. He glances back and forth between your determined face and the destruction beneath him, his clever eyes judging whether you’ll be forced to drop him or if you’re strong enough to pull him up to join you.

I did NOT spend three days searching Dante’s library just to drop him!

The thought makes you snarl and sends a blast of adrenaline through your system, temporarily lending you the strength you need to haul him up beside you with a primal shout of exertion. His legs scramble against the dirt fruitlessly for a moment before he finds enough friction to help raise his body higher. The moment he can support himself safely you let go with a gasp, flopping over onto your side and panting.

I miss Griffon.

He drops down and lies there beside you as the trembling terrain settles, his chest displaying his racing heartbeat. His emerald eyes find yours and the rhythm of his breath changes as his laughter fills the air.

“When they find they must, my lord, they will,” he quips between his relieved chuckling. You let out a snort of your own, sitting up as your cheeks stretch and your laughter mixes with his. His eyes sparkle with delight, the widest smile you’ve seen in days showing his white teeth to the sun above.

“I never knew that William Blake had a line of poetry for every conceivable situation until I met you, V,” you remark as the humor begins to fade. He smirks at you as he rises to his feet, his cane taking most of his weight. You join him with much less effort, still choking back the last of your giggles as your steady stride accompanies his limp forward.

The next half hour passes quickly; the hordes of demons apparently enjoyed the rumbling earth even less than the pair of you had and left the area. Your thoughts drift back to revisit every aspect of your theory, dissecting it and searching for flaws in the haphazard ideology yet again with no results. Frustration at your lack of new insight fills you and you irritably imagine what your life would have been like if you’d lived in a different city, fallen for a normal guy with normal problems.

You know exactly what it would look like; you’d lived that life before. The image you form seems drab, colorless and without flavor.

Contentment would’ve been easy, that much is true. A comfortable home, a decent paycheck and a special someone to buy you flowers on your anniversary, rub your back when it ached or, if you were lucky, who would cook dinner from time to time. A reasonably attractive man who was acceptable in the bedroom, someone your mom would like. Maybe you’d finish school, earn a position as a trauma surgeon like you used to dream about. Save lives every day, helping people you’d never see again after they left the operating table.

A life like all the rest, a cog in the machine of society struggling to achieve a pale shadow of the joy that fills you every time you draw your sword, every time you hear Nero’s battle cries or Nico’s muttered curses as she tinkers. A soft echo of the incandescent love you feel for your poet. You don’t even bother picturing a face for the amorphous form representing a romantic partner, knowing that regardless of the creativity of your imagination it would be like holding a single candle up to the sun at its zenith compared to V.

I have a life most people lack the capacity to even imagine.

Your eyes drift to study his face, taking in the small growth of dark stubble on his strong jaw. The curve of his nose, the small indent on his cheek by his wide lips. The arch of his brow, the intensity of his gaze under his dark eyebrows, even from the side. You force yourself to ignore the thin scar on his cheekbone, choosing to focus instead on the smoothness of his alabaster skin.

His lips twist into his signature smirk, his eyes catching yours glued to his face.

“What are you staring at, love?” he asks teasingly. You blush at being caught but meet his eyes with a smirk of your own.

“Nothing much, just the most attractive man to ever exist,” you reply casually, adding a shrug for good measure. His smirk deepens and he stands a little taller, breaking your stare bashfully to look at the sky as his cheeks tinge pink.

 Gotcha!

He recovers quickly, playfully swatting your ass with a light tap of his cane. You gasp in mock horror.

“And here I thought you were a gentleman!” you remark, easily stepping out of his range.

“You know very well that I can be gentle, and I can be rough. You’ve never complained about my performance in either category,” he easily shoots back at you with a wry grin. The reminder of his… variable tastes sends a torrent of lewd memories through you and your thighs shake as you step forward. You turn to face him and raise your arms in surrender.

“You win, you win! No more, kind sir, I beg of you,” you plead playfully, and V chuckles softly in amusement.

“Then allow me to claim my prize,” he growls, his arm already extending to pull you against him. You don’t resist, happily letting him capture your lips with his own. His kiss is soft and sweet, a light pressure lacking any urgency as he molds his mouth to fit yours. You part with a soft sigh, taking his hand as you step ever closer to the Qlipoth.

The tree seems to grow with every step now, its form meeting the ground mere blocks from where you stand. The closer you get, the worse the devastation. Instead of chunks of rubble, entire buildings are simply gone, only the outline of their foundation marking where they once stood. Even the trees that once lined the roadway have been uprooted, the very asphalt cracking to set their roots free. And the smell… if you’d thought the Glutton was the worst imaginable aroma, you are quickly proven wrong by the sickening stench of blood, death, decay and dirt that permeates the air.

Two blocks away, the ground turns slimy with the amount of blood that’s soaked into it, the dirt stained red along with the lower portion of anything unfortunate enough to be touching the desecrated earth. The once white soles of your faithful slip-resistant shows turn crimson, then almost black. You’ll never be able to wear them again without remembering this place, this carnage.

A block left; you can see where the accursed tree meets the pavement and you smile at V. The resounding relief in his emerald eyes as you slowly creep forward is almost painful to behold, telling you exactly how worried he’d been about getting this far. The ground here is so sticky you have to be careful not to lose a shoe with each step, the caked-on blood sucking the soles in a tight embrace. You’re amazed that the area is so flat, expecting more of the strange elevation changes or shifted surface to impede you yet finding nothing of the sort.

The daylight vanishes as you enter the shadow of the massive structure at last. The change in lighting is reminiscent of an eclipse, the darkness so complete it feels like you’ve entered a cave. Through a convenient gap in the structure, you spot Nico’s van within, hastily pointing it out to V and rushing toward it to reunite with your friends. As you enter the base of the accursed tree the stench reaches a new level and you have to hold your shirt over your face and breathe through your mouth to keep from retching. Trish and Dante are loitering nearby, talking seriously as if they haven’t noticed the smell.

I bet I know what they’re talking about…

As you approach, Griffon flaps over with a relieved caw, settling back into V’s dark tattoos instantly to rest. You glance back at the group as Trish tells Dante something and his eyes go wide. Nico, Nero and Lady are nowhere to be seen.

So now Dante knows, too. Good.

The man in red glares at you and V as you enter the small area, fury radiating from him in waves as he stomps over, hands balled into fists and chest heaving. He stops just before you and the poet, restraining his anger visibly with a clench of his jaw.

“You’re dying? You’re part of Vergil?” the son of Sparda demands harshly. V sighs heavily, taking a seat on a conveniently located stretch of Qlipoth roots. You meet Dante’s enraged eyes with your own, making him pause.

“Yes, he is. Now get a hold of yourself, Dante. We don’t have time for this right now. We can deal with it after Urizen is gone,” you reply firmly, leaving no room for argument.

He shakes his head and is silent for a few long moments, his hands slowly relaxing and his lips twisting into a smirk as he faces you once more.

“There’s that fire. Careful not to burn him, sweetheart,” he comments wryly, his flirtatious tone making your fingers twitch angrily.

“Lucky me, I can’t get burned,” he adds slyly, and you growl in frustration at your own restraint keeping you from slapping him silly.

V cackles softly, his emerald eyes rising to meet Dante’s blue. His amused smirk soothes your anger as he speaks.

“If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must be his eternal lot,” the poet quips sarcastically and you have to choke back your laughter. He winks at you, clearly noticing your mirth. Dante grimaces but doesn’t respond to the teasing, instead finally focusing on what’s important.

“Hey, where’d that garbage god go? What is Urizen after?” the brash man asks you both.

“He’s at the top of the Qlipoth,” V answers in a strained whisper. Trish steps over to join your trio, adding her own considerable knowledge to the conversation easily.

“It's the other way around, Dante. This is the lowest level of the Qliphoth's upper echelon. Human blood is the source of demons' power. The fruit born through the Qliphoth is even more dense than the blood that created it. Its power is unparalleled. Even the almighty Mundus used it to become king of the Underworld. V told me everything,” the blonde woman explains carefully, crossing her arms and tossing a dismissive nod of her head at the poet.

Dante gives her a look as he responds, striding away confidently.

“Yeah, well, that’s a lovely story and all, but… as long as we know where to find him,” he rumbles, his hands already hovering near his waist in preparation for the showdown. Nico steps into his path with a huge grin and you almost laugh as she meets her personal hero for the first time, her nervousness evident in her every motion. If this moment wasn’t so obviously important to her, you’d already have her in your arms in a relieved hug.

“Whoa! You are the infamous Dante! Um, I'm Nicoletta Goldstein. Sounds familiar? My grandmother is Nell Goldstein. The gunsmith that made all your fancy weapons that you got... strapped... back there...” she gestures lamely at the two pistols strapped within Dante’s coat and he pulls them out to show them to her kindly.  

Nico points to one of the portraits on the handle excitedly. “Yeah, there she is!” she exclaims proudly. Dante glances between the portrait and Nico doubtfully.

“You don't look much like her...” he mumbles.

“Yeah, I got my looks from my daddy. That's about all I got from him,” her southern drawl replies, but your attention is elsewhere as Nero steps forward from behind the van. You dash over to envelop him in a hug, hopelessly thankful that your friend is alright. He briefly hugs you back, agitated by something and not entirely focused on you. He doesn’t even scratch the back of his neck like he always has in the past at any sign of physical affection. Nico’s voice rises even higher as she presents a gift to the man in red and you both glance over silently.

“Um...it--it-- consider it a gift! In honor of us finally meeting! Meeting,” she tells Dante, holding out a white cowboy hat with a small piece of demonic decoration adorning it. Dante shakes it suspiciously, as if he expects something to fall out of it, but the hat instead leaps onto his head. Your eyes widen as a red and black scarf forms around his neck and he winks right at you before smirking and dancing to music only he can hear.

His moves, while skilled, are ridiculous. He adds several exclamations and crotch grabs, ending with a moonwalk and a pose that is an obvious imitation of Michael Jackson. Nico claps happily, laughing as the man in red nods at her.

“I’ll take that,” he states simply and walks away, clearly about to resume his hunt for Urizen. Nero quickly joins him, an angry scowl on his expressive face.

“Dante! I'm gonna go too,” the young warrior informs him. Dante turns around to face him with a serious look on his face.

“Why don't you sit this one out?” the devil hunter asks, trying to be kind.

Nero is having none of it and his scowl deepens. “Oh, and let you call me dead weight again? No thanks. I got all the power I need. Right here,” he retorts, flourishing his metal arm to emphasize his readiness for battle. The whole conversation makes no sense to you; Nero is a capable fighter, already having proven himself many times over in your eyes.

Why doesn’t Dante want him coming along?

“You don't understand. That's not what I mean,” he begins, exasperated.

“Let him go, Dante. Time is a luxury we can no longer afford. We must chase after him, post-haste,” V pipes up from his perch, carefully standing and limping over to the two men. Being near them only highlights how weakened he is, how frail his posture marks him to be and you frown, anxiety tugging at your thoughts.

“Why? Does this mean you're going too?” Dante replies in confusion.

“I have a duty to see this through,” the poet reminds him hoarsely, and you step over to stand beside him in silent support. Your breath hitches painfully as you notice more flakes of his flesh floating away in the still air. Dante shrugs, walking backward to the edge of the small area your group stands upon with a smirk.

“Well that's all you have to say, Mr. Poetry. I'm gonna go my way, you guys can go yours. Let's just say that's best for the cause,” he claims, and jumps over the edge without any further comment. Nero and V exchange a look but follow quickly behind him, each choosing their own pathway. V twists his wrist and Griffon’s side of his body lightens as the bird appears overhead, swooping around to take his outstretched arm and carry him to the next level. You wait impatiently until Griffon comes back for you.

“C’mon, little lady! No time to waste!” the mouthy demon informs you and you roll your eyes as his claws close around your arms and carry you to join V below.

[kob131]

https://sokumotanaka.tumblr.com/post/185075585017/chill-disscussion

Ah yes, because the guy who shat himself in rage because RWBY ended up in the same game as Persona is such a reliable source....

So with death battle’s upcoming Mitsuru vs Weiss match I wanted to talk about, mostly nerd out about mitsuru, look regardless on weather you like rwby or not weiss isn’t on mitsuru’s skill level.

Spoiler Alert: he uses numerous conflicting examples and sources to effectively inflate Mitsuru as a fighter.

(I mean she fought two gods and lived to tell about it.)

Neither of which she is confirmed to fight. That’s the issue with feats like these: they rely on possibility. And it's equally likely that Mitsuru did nothing. Only Makoto is canonically confirmed to fight the Nyx Avatar.

In fact, the closest thing to a canonical representation of the battle was the P3 movie Winter Of Rebirth...where Mitsuru is fighting Shadow hordes, not Nyx who is getting soloed by Makoto. And since Makoto is a Wild Card user. he would be VASTLY more powerful than Mitsuru.

As for Erebus: Again, only one person (Aegis) was required in the fight. So we don’t know.

So let’s talk about mitsuru and then weiss as combatants. Both women fight on teams and manipulate ice in some way. They both summon things That’s about all I can compare, why? cause I took a deep dive into both series, and I’ll be frank, mitsuru fighting gods and monsters that can cause nukes is a feat enough.

That was enough for ‘Yu Vs. Jotaro’...

And again: That’s not confirmed. The only god you could be talking about here is Erebus-

And you know what? I’m just gonna preemptively go full Autism on you.

here’s Erebus’ stats according to the Megami Tensei wiki:

STR: 80 MAG: 75 END: 90 AG: 60 LUC: 70

And here are the stats of all the party memebers in Persona 3 at Level 99:

Junpei: 82 44 69 56 53

Yukari: 50 91 55 55 53

Akihiko: 69 70 55 63 47

Mitsuru: 55 85 52 61 51

Aigis: 61 58 84 56 45

Ken: 55 66 58 70 55

Koromaru: 58 56 58 82 50

Notice something?

The so called ‘mountain crusher’s’ STR stat is LOWER than the best physical attacker and Junpei’s never seen cracking any mountains.

Not just that but Mitsuru also has average agility (which dictates speed and hit rate with physical attacks) and average luck (dictating the success of status attacks) alongside the LOWEST END stat in the game meaning she wouldn’t be able to keep up with Weiss, she’d most likely fail using status attacks since they have a base success rate of 25% and one solid physical hit would do serious damage.

So right there are reasons why Weiss would have a chance if we follow your apparent standards of using gameplay.

But mitsuru is the team’s tactician and well studied in her academics despite fighting monsters, she’s top of her grade, she’s a great fighter and when she returns in persona 4 arena/ultimax she’s kinda insane as a fighter. (going through the full story in both’s massive text walls would take ages But I played through both a few months back and the things they write them capable of doing is insane)

yeah, like saying a monster can crush mountains but is weaker than an above average baseball player?

Then we have a little issue of; she’s not the tactican. Makoto is. Mitsuru is just the boss.

Yeah and? Can see use it in the battlefield?

Most death battle fighters are great fighters.

Also so now we’re using Arena as an example? Does that mean you accept her moveset in that game as canon? Meaning No status moves and no Diarahan?

so I decided to come up with a post (originally a power point before it crapped out) as to why mitsuru at her current skill is just too much for weiss.

So we’re using gameplay as a basis with Mitsuru’s P3 stats and her P4A moveset, judging how you’re talking.

Let’s talk about mitsuru first

Mitsuru kirijo:

Feats/Abilities/skills:

Mitsuru is top of her grade, she’s so good the school often ask her to make speeches for assemblies that rouse the school so much, the principal tried copying them word for word out of jealousy.

And? So is Weiss so which school has higher standards? Also speech giving ability Is not the same as tactical thinking.

Despite also studying for school, she leads and runs S.E.E.S as a tactician (a chairman actually has the final say on everything but she leads them in battle) Her persona is both good for combat and sensory support (meaning she can sense her allies and other people, persona and non persona users)

On and off mind you as you’re only required to go into Tartarus occasionally and extended time in Tartarus will wear out a Persona user.

Meanwhile, Weiss’ studies ARE fighting since she needed to qualify for Beacon so her life has been revolving around being a good fighter.

Mitsuru’s persona can conjure ice in an instant and is completely unaffected but any ice type attacks done to her, she doesn’t even react at all.

She can also heal and is a pretty good healer in battle (When she isn’t casting marin karin! Regardless there’s no rule in death battle that says they can’t heal, the only rule was outside help and with the last handful of death battles some of them had healing factors) 

She can also charm her enemy or cause them to go into panic

Yeah and she’s super weak to fire.

And-wait a minute. Why are you referencing Diarahan and status attacks in the same post as the one where you try citing feats from Arena? Are you just picking choosing what Mitsuru gets?

Mitsuru doesn’t need to use her evoker and can actively summon her persona in the real world. (This is also mentioned in persona 4 arena and shown in battle as mitsuru states she only uses it out of habit.) This is also stated by when she calls her persona in both the game and manga she doesn’t use her evoker.

Bullshit.

This is from Mitsuru’s first battle in Persona 4 Arena. 

And even IF she does summon her Persona without her Envoker here: She’s in a different world. Same in Ultimax.

You’re just lying at this point.

Also: That ice spear doesn’t look very impressive when you remember Weiss summoned an ice WALL that fast in Volume 1. Yeah, if you’re gonna use outlier feats, so will I.

She is able to again as I said snap second conjure ice within seconds in any shape she deems necessary 

Proof and no, the ice mirror from P4A doesn’t count.

Non persona users can’t see persona (one guy remakes on how he sees a silhouette but only cause he’s standing next to her, another character natsuki walks into a battle and can’t see the others persona from the distant she’s at.

And yet in Persona 4 Yosuke reacts to seeing Yu’s Persona awakening.

Her persona Artemisia has a whip that can reach long distances and instantly freeze her opponents, she can also make floating and homing projectiles.

A. That whip thing: proof

And B. Only in Arena which you pick and choose which to use.

Mitsuru herself is remarked as moving faster than the eye can react when others watch her fight her shadow, this is also reflected in her normal combots where she moves faster than the eye can see and can hit a person over 15 times (don’t believe me? watch her combo video)

https://youtu.be/fw-2yn_vKG0

Pretty sure the same thing happened in CTB with Weiss-Point is?

And at one point while fighting naoto a person with a gun who is also a persona user is able to disarm and disable in two fluid motions.

Disarm who? When? under what circumstances? Also a gun shoulding matter if Mitsuru can tank nukes right?

Need I stress mitsuru is incredibly smart, she has to run a magic C.I.A and outsmart a bunch of idiotic men in suits who think she can’t handle it, and had to at one point outsmart detective naoto, which is a feat in itself.

https://sokumotanaka.tumblr.com/post/185075529807

A. She runs it with help

B. You said ‘idiotic’

and C. Your post proves nothing

Weaknesses:

Fire is mitsuru’s weakness and while that sounds like an easy solution remember when weiss’s weapon starts burning with fire, mitsuru is either gonna back off, or disarm her.

That being said it’s her only weakness.

She also has average agility, less versatility, unreliable versatility, no debuffs or buffs aside from Mind Charge, limited mobility, a reliance on her Persona for big attacks and Mitsuru is never shown disarming someone so thee fire weakness is still major point. Especially by P3 standards which would cause her to be dazed and buy Weiss time.

That might seem bogus as being it but mitsuru has a lot of “human” weaknesses that won’t come into the death battle.

as a fight she is the superior, not just because I prefer her but because she’s been doing this longer and has to manage a fighting lifestyle and being a normal woman dealing with people who probably think she’s breaking the law for speaking out of turn with them.

Like what? Are you afraid they’re gonna bring up how Mitsuru and other Persona users tire out in places where they can use their Personas?

Also most of what you said doesn't pertain to Death Battle.

Up’s:

(this here is the things each fighter has against the other in terms of the fight.)

Persona is invisible to weiss

Persona and her ice magic have the superior reach

Mitsuru is older and more experienced

Mitsuru is smarter as she was the tactician of a team while also juggling high school.

Wrong

Unproved

Unsubstainated and unreliable

Unproven

Great upsides

Weiss schnee:

Feats/abilities/skills:

Weiss on the other hand doesn’t have much going for her. (let’s list these first)

Weiss’s semblance

Weiss’s fire dust (albeit finite)

Weiss’s speed glyph

Ignored how her glyphs can be used to leap and jump in air

Ignored how fast her glyphs can make her (stunning Flynt)

Ignored her Wind, Ice and Earth dusts

Ignored her Time Glyph which gave Blake the ability to slice lazer beams in order to cut down missiles in mid flight (outlier feat I know but has that stopped Soku?)

Ignored her Armor Gigas which is shown to be incredibly durable and powerful, slicing apart a Grimm that tanked several boxes of Dust exploding on it without a scratch

Ignored her Queen Lancer giving her projectile attacks, aerial mobility and backup

Ignored her Ice Wall which historically held the stringer of a complex sized scorpion in place for several minutes.

Wow you ignored a lot.

Weaknesses:

Weiss drops her weapon, alot, it happens often.

When weiss is surprised, she freezes up

weiss doesn’t have the experience to fight off mitsuru.

weiss hasn’t fought against opponents on mitsuru’s level or fought against gods/god tier monsters.

Example

Example

Unproven

Neither has Mitsuru

Up’s:

Fire dust

Speed glyph

Summon size change.

And the stunning coming from Fire Dust

And The ice wall giving her a time borrowing option

And the Armor Gigas being stronger physically

And The Queen Lancer being agile, flying and having built inprojectiles

And her Time Glyph giving her a powerful ranged option

And her glyphs giving her far greater mobility

And her speed glyphs giving her a blitz option.

Funny how if you explain shit and pay attention, you see things are actually very even. But hey, Soku’s never been honest when it comes to RWBY so why start now?

Real talk?

Weiss in her one on one fights has lost to all her opponents. White fang lieutenant, Flynt, And Vernal.

All powerful close range combatants. Something Mitsuru is not.

The third whom I must stress is a normal bandit, she doesn’t summon things herself, use magic, she’s not a god trapped in a human body, she’s just a normal woman, and she beats weiss down, while weiss struggles to get afoot and she loses this bout as well.

Let's just ignore how vernal is technically stronger than a complex sized scorpion and was posing as a demigod at the time....

Now I know it seems like I’m only glossing over negatives, which I must stress I’m not doing out of dislike, I took a deep dive-

Bullshit. One look at Persona then RWBY shows you doing the bare minimum for RWBY while giving Mitsuru the best versions of all her elements.

For example super and goku one which has insane feats that the other will never reach, hench each one literally ending with clark winning.

superman just has feats that are too insane.

Superman lifted infinity. Mitsuru help weaken one giant Shadow that was aid to be strong enough to destroy a mountain and yet it's strength stat is weaker than Junpeis. (And before you complain about me using gameplay on a supposed non gameplay feat-Erebus HAS NO non gameplay feats.)

They are nowhere compatible, even in the comparison range.

Weiss can kick some grimm ass, but we’ve yet to see her have a decisive victory against an opponent single combat.

where as we get to see/play (depending on weather you read the manga or play both arena/ultimax (both are canon because it’s the same thing but contextualized as a comic) mitsuru fights people with the same skill as her and comes out on top.

A. By the same standards, Mitsuru is in the same boat as Weiss

B. You’re using Arena as your line for feats but not moveset (or even consistently as feats since you still quote P3)/

And C. Np she didn’t. The investigation team is LESS experienced than Weiss so logically they’d be easier if we accepted your interpretation.

The winner should be Mitsuru with all due respect.

And yet you feel the need to lie about Mitsuru and completely gloss over and lowball Weiss.

God, now i’m scared because not only does this scream ‘Ben and Chad, do as I say or else’ but since you’re lying, it makes it seem like Weiss will WIN in a fair fight.

Word of warning Soku: I will tear you verbally into shreds if you so much as glare at Ben and Chad. And god help you if Dudeblade recognizes your bullshit.

[missboomissquick]

This November, the Whitney Museum of American Art offers a major reassessment with “Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again,” the first American retrospective of the artist in nearly 30 years. Featuring more than 350 works of art, ranging from paintings Warhol did in his childhood living room in Pittsburgh to his notorious films of the 1960s to his late-career collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, the exhibition will later travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

One of its most groundbreaking aspects will be the concentration on the least-known time of Warhol’s life, the 1950s. During his first decade in New York, he was a young commercial artist and an openly gay man, trying to turn himself into a fine artist. The Whitney show brings together about 70 Warhol works from that period: elegant drawings of shoes for advertising campaigns, ballpoint pen drawings of men in drag, fey illustrated books that he printed privately for friends, male nudes in gold leaf, a sketchbook of men’s torsos. The assumption has been that Warhol’s career as a serious artist began in the summer of 1962, with Irving Blum’s famous exhibition at the Ferus Gallery, in Los Angeles, of 32 soup cans, but the Whitney show allows the earlier paintings, drawings, and commercial work to be seen in a new context. “This early period was critical for Warhol,” says Neil Printz, the editor of the artist’s catalogue raisonné. “It was instrumental and utterly productive.” Blake Gopnik, who has spent years researching a biography of the artist, to be published next fall, believes that past discussions of the period, especially in the context of the hyper-conservative McCarthy era, have been off base. “What truly matters about Warhol’s 1950s drawings is the brazenly gay content they carry,” Gopnik says. “The very banality of their style lets them function as a transparent carrier, you could say, for their queer themes.”

Warhol arrived in New York in the summer of 1949, when he was just 21 years old. On his second day in the city, he approached Tina Fredericks, the well-known art director of Glamour magazine, who told him that she was looking for drawings of shoes and that she needed them the next morning. She hired Warhol on the spot; his first illustrations appeared in the magazine’s September issue, depicting five red pumps ascending the ladder of success. His rise as a commercial artist was meteoric. He regularly illustrated articles for Glamour, Seventeen, and Mademoiselle, and drew album covers for Columbia records. By 1955, he was the sole illustrator for the prestigious ads for I. Miller & Sons shoes, which appeared on the society pages of The New York Times. By the mid-’50s, particularly in the New York fashion world, Warhol had arrived. As a New Year’s gift in 1957, he sent Diana Vreeland, who was at the time the fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar, a small book of 18 delicately colored lithographs, 25 Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy. “How much I appreciate the book I have on my desk of the delicious cats,” Vreeland wrote Warhol. “Your drawings are so charming.”

At the same time that he was making elegant, whimsical drawings of smiling perfume bottles for magazines, Warhol was exploring more personal work, such as sexy portraits of tattooed sailors and fanciful drawings of gold slippers that he named after such iconic figures as Mae West and Zsa Zsa Gabor. But his first attempts to move into the realm of fine art were not successful. In the mid-1950s, Warhol was commissioned for the first time by the department store Bonwit Teller to create displays for its windows on Fifth Avenue. His installation appeared next to that of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, artists just as unknown as Warhol, who worked together under the pseudonym of Matson Jones. Hoping that the visibility would lead to important gallery exhibitions, Warhol used a photograph of a man in drag posed as a fashion model. Even other gay artists were horrified. As Warhol later recalled, “Bob and Jasper came and looked at what I was doing and laughed at me. They pointed their fingers and laughed—they were so mean.” As De Salvo, who met Warhol in the mid-’80s and has become one of the leading experts on his early work, characterizes the incident: “Andy was too swish and chichi for Bob and Jasper.”

Considering that homosexuality was against the law in the U.S. in the 1950s, and certainly not accepted in the New York art world, Warhol was remarkably open about being gay (an essay in the Whitney catalog about those years is cheekily titled, “Picture Portraits: Miss Warhol Knows What the Client Wants”). “Being gay was absolutely vital to who Warhol was in 1950s New York, to how he was seen—both for better and worse—and to the art he made,” Gopnik points out. “All his attempts at making serious art in that era involved imagery that still reads as gay to us and screamed it in the 1950s. That made his art highly appreciated in the gay world around Warhol and almost intolerable, and mostly incomprehensible, to mainstream straights.” The subjects of Warhol’s drawings were often men in drag. He did not hesitate to depict two men kissing or, it is said, to ask nearly any man he met if he could draw his cock. His first exhibition of art, in 1952 for the openly gay Alexander Iolas at the Hugo Gallery, in New York, was called “Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote.” “An air of carefully studied perversity,” a leading art critic deemed it.

Although there is overt homoeroticism in much of Warhol’s personal art in the ’50s, later in the decade it is often disguised. “It is the beginning of seeing how Warhol, as the years go on, and his style emerges into the Pop art that we know, has this layered language,” De Salvo explains. “Marilyn Monroe can be read multiple ways. Elvis Presley can be read multiple ways. And the early Popeye, Superman, and Dick Tracy paintings—it is interesting that he focuses on these archetypes, all of these straight, powerful guys. Everything has multiple meanings, and this notion of his sexuality—of gay sexuality—continues to be coded, obscured, but it’s there, depending on who is reading it.”

Male Nude, circa 1957, is typical of a time when Warhol would routinely ask men if he could draw their private parts.

© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York.

With the Warhol show taking over nearly three floors at the Whitney, making it the largest devoted to a single artist in the new downtown building, which opened in 2015, De Salvo believes that this more complete picture will deepen the understanding of his development into one of the most important postwar artists, particularly for those yet to be convinced of Warhol’s seriousness as an artist. It’s a big Warhol moment: In addition to the Whitney show, the Dia Art Foundation will present Warhol’s Shadows, 1978–1979, a monumental painting in multiple parts, at the Calvin Kleinheadquarters in New York, through December 15. “There are the naysayers who really hate Warhol, who saw him as someone who introduced a crass commercialism, who blurred the line between art and commerce,” De Salvo says. “I think he was making an honest statement about the nature of the United States, which is now true in a way it could not have been imagined in the 1960s. I can’t convince the people who do not want to be convinced, and that’s fine. He’s a provocative figure—he provoked.”

[b-reads-books]

I read 230 books in 2017.

Down fifteen from last year...I am a math genius and initially miscounted by ten somehow, so I though I had hit 240...this was not so. The fluctuations tell you when I was studying for exams. (I’m done with all my fall exams now so I only have one scheduled for next year!) I did not make a new year’s book-of-the-month resolution and did not really expand into audiobooks more either. Oh well. This was a tough year for me all around and I’m hoping for a better one to follow.

Standouts:

Sorrow’s Knot, Erin Bow

Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor

A Conjuring of Light, Victoria Schwab

The Hating Game, Sally Thorne

Always and Forever, Lara Jean, Jenny Han

Thick as Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

Now I Rise, Kiersten White

History is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera

Genuine Fraud, E Lockhart

Less, Andrew Sean Greer

In the Wreckage, Hailey Turner

Far From the Tree, Robin Benway

Complete list with more favorites in bold below the cut.

January – 23

The Lovely Reckless, Kami Garcia

The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer

Bad Blood, Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Soundless, Richelle Mead

Trouble is a Friend of Mine, Stephanie Tromly

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray

Rebel Angels, Libba Bray

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling *

The Sweet Far Thing, Libba Bray

Beautiful, Christina Lauren

My Sister Rosa, Justine Larbalestier

Take the Key and Lock Her Up, Ally Carter

Timekeeper, Tara Sim

The Operator, Kim Harrison

Sacrifice, Cindy Pon

Declare, Tim Powers

Zinnia, Jayne Castle

Orchid, Jayne Castle

Trouble Makes a Comeback, Stephanie Tromley

The Hogwarts Collection, JK Rowling

After Dark, Jayne Castle

After Glow, Jayne Castle

Armed and Magical, Lisa Shearin

February – 21

Of Fire and Stars, Audrey Coulthurst

Infini, Krista and Becca Ritchie

Ghost Hunter, Jayne Castle

The Ghoul Vendetta, Lisa Shearin

Blood Red, Snow White, Marcus Sedgwick

Sorrow’s Knot, Erin Bow

The Infinite, Lori M Lee

A Darkly Beating Heart, Lindsay Smith

Dragon’s Bait, Vivian Vande Velde

By These Ten Bones, Clare B Dunkle

Girls on Fire, Robin Wasserman

The Trouble with Demons, Lisa Shearin

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mark Haddon

Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley

Blood Vow, JR Ward

Cherry, Lindsey Rosin

The Female of the Species, Mindy McGinnis

Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

Cousin Kate, Georgette Heyer

King’s Cage, Victoria Aveyard

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

March – 15

The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide, JR Ward

Before the Fall, Noah Hawley

The Killer in Me, Margot Harrison

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, JK Rowling*

Bewitched and Betrayed, Lisa Shearin

Difficult Women, Roxanne Gay

Our Own Private Universe, Robin Talley

One Blood Ruby, Melissa Marr

The Swan Riders, Erin Bow

Passenger, Alexandra Bracken

Silver Master, Jayne Castle

Dark Light, Jayne Castle

Etched in Bone, Anne Bishop

Cowboys Are My Weakness, Pam Houston

Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor

April – 13

Aerie, Maria Dahvana Headley

Into the Fire, Jeaniene Frost

Obsidian Prey, Jayne Castle

Midnight Crystal, Jayne Castle

Canyons of Night, Jayne Castle

A Conjuring of Light, Victoria Schwab

Listen to the Moon, Rose Lerner

Beheld, Alex Flynn

Wayfarer, Alexnadra Bracken

The Song Rising, Samantha Shannon

Silence Fallen, Patricia Briggs

Because of the Sun, Jenny Torres Sanchez

The Hating Game, Sally Thorne

May – 19

Big Little Lies, Lianne Mortiarty

Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith

Spindle, EK Johnston

Always and Forever, Lara Jean, Jenny Han

The Bone Witch, Rin Chupeco

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling*

Empress of a Thousand Skies, Rhoda Belleza

The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner*

The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner

The King of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner

A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner

Thick as Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner

Tales of the Peculiar, Ransom Riggs

It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover

Hunted, Meagan Spooner

The Chosen, JR Ward

The Girl from Everywhere, Heidi Heilig

Lord of Shadows, Cassandra Clare

A Crown of Wishes, Roshani Chokshi

June – 23

Girl Out of Water, Laura

Radio Silence, Alice Oseman

The Lost Night, Jayne Castle

Caraval, Stephanie Garber

Cold-Hearted Rake, Lisa Kleypas

Starfall, Melissa Landers

Marrying Winterbourne, Lisa Kleypas

How to Be a Person in the World, Heather Havrilesky

Devil in Spring, Lisa Kleypas

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling*

Stranger in My Arms, Lisa Kleypas

Grunt, Mary Roach

Again the Magic, Lisa Kleypas

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

A Court of Wings and Ruin, Sarah J Maas

The Cold Eye, Laura Anne Gilman

Secrets of a Summer’s Night, Lisa Kleypas

It Happened One Autumn, Lisa Kleypas

The Devil in Winter, Lisa Kleypas

A Scandal in Spring, Lisa Kleypas

Stiff, Mary Roach*

Damaged Like Us, Krista and Becca Ritchie

Deception Cove, Jayne Ann Krentz

July – 19

White Hot, Ilona Andrews

Now I Rise, Kiersten White

The Distance Between Us, Kasie West

As You Wish, Cary Elwes*

Wintersong, S Jae Jones

Our Dark Duet, Victoria Schwab

A Wallflower Christmas, Lisa Kleypas

The Hot Zone, Jayne Castle

Not Your Sidekick, CB Lee

All-American Girl, Meg Cabot

Indigo, Beverly Jenkins

Mine Till Midnight, Lisa Kleypas

Unnatural Deeds, Cyn Balog

Avenged, Amy Tintera

The Upside of Unrequited, Becky Albertalli

Seduce Me at Sunrise, Lisa Kleypas

Tempt Me at Twilight, Lisa Kleypas

The People We Hate at the Wedding, Grant Ginder

The Ship Beyond Time, Heidi Heilig

August – 15

History is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera

Love in the Afternoon, Lisa Kleypas

Frogkisser! Garth Nix

Dating You, Hating You, Christina Lauren

Wildfire, Ilona Andrews

Swarm, Scott Westerfeld et al

Split the Sun, Tessa Elwood

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, Mackenzi Lee

Night Hawk, Beverley Jenkins

Unleashed, Sophie Jordan

Masquerade, Laura Lam

The Wish Granter, CJ Redwine

In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan

Married by Morning, Lisa Kleypas

Gem and Dixie, Sara Zarr

September – 14

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, JK Rowling et al

The Angel of Losses, Stephanie Feldman

David, Johnny Worthen

Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire

Carve the Mark, Veronica Roth

Slammed, Colleen Hoover

Silver Silence, Nalini Singh

Genuine Fraud, E Lockhart

Girl Mans Up, ME Girard

Dreaming of You, Lisa Kleypas

Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan

Then Came You, Lisa Kleypas

When Dimple Met Rishi, Sandhya Menon

Topaz, Beverley Jenkins

October – 15

Vanguard, Ann Aguirre

The Pearl Thief, Elizabeth Wein

The Ruby in the Smoke, Philip Pullman

The Debt, Karina Halle

Point of Retreat, Colleen Hoover

Crystal Storm, Morgan Rhodes

The Courtesan Duchess, Joanna Shupe

The Harlot Countess, Joanna Shupe

The Lady Hellion, Joanna Shupe

Turtles All the Way Down, John Green

Good Behavior, Blake Crouch

Sunshine, Robin McKinley

Warcross, Marie Lu

Someone to Watch Over Me, Lisa Kleypas

Lovers Like Us, Krista and Becca Ritchie

November – 26

The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stiefvater

Tower of Dawn, Sarah J Maas

Iron Cast, Destiny Soria

Lady Sophia’s Lover, Lisa Kleypas

Worth Any Price, Lisa Kleypas

Where’s My Hero? Kisa Kleypas et al

Roar, Cora Carmack

Somewhere I’ll Find You, Lisa Kleypas

China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Kwan

Less, Andrew Sean Greer

Because You’re Mine, Lisa Kleypas

All the Dirty Parts, Daniel Handler

Jane, Unlimited, Kristin Cashore

Where Dreams Begin, Lisa Kleypas

The Shadow in the North, Philip Pullman

In the Wreckage, Hailey Turner

10% Happier, Dan Harris

Archangel’s Viper, Nalini Singh

Suddenly You, Lisa Kleypas

The Possible, Tara Altebrando

In the Ruins, Hailey Turner

Before the Devil Breaks You, Libba Bray

Ringer, Lauren Oliver

When Strangers Marry, Lisa Kleypas

Terminal Alliance, Jim Hines

Only with Your Love, Lisa Kleypas

December – 27

The Way I Used to Be, Amber Smith

Want, Cindy Pon

Midnight Angel, Lisa Kleypas

Rich People Problems, Kevin Kwan

Dress Codes for Small Towns, Courtney Stevens

Prince of Dreams, Lisa Kleypas

In the Shadows, Hailey Turner

The Knowing, Sharon Cameron

Release, Patrick Ness

A Line in the Dark, Malinda Lo

Love, Come to Me, Lisa Kleypas

Con and Conjure, Lisa Shearin

Always Hungry? David Ludwig

One Dark Throne, Kendare Blake

In the Blood, Hailey Turner

Rosemary and Rue, Seanan McGuire

The Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo

Heat Wave, Karina Halle

Far From the Tree, Robin Benway

All Spell Breaks Loose, Lisa Shearin

The Girl in the Tower, Katherine Arden

A Local Habitation, Seanan McGuire

An Artificial Night, Seanan McGuire

Late Eclipses, Seanan McGuire

One Salt Sea, Seanan McGuire

Wedding Bells, Magic Spells, Lisa Shearin

The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan

[kalico-to-the-letter]

REVIEW: RWBY – Vol. 5, Ch. 1: “WELCOME TO HAVEN”

Yeah, in a roundabout kind of way. Not punking or anything like that, but you know. I see you, RoosterTeeth. I see what you’re doing.

Welcome to my review of the 1st Chapter of Volume 5, entitled “Welcome to Haven”.

By the way, I’m introducing grades in my reviews for this season. So you can understand the scale, I’m doing A, B, C, & D, including plus and minus grades (A+ being the best, D– being the worst).

This week gave us: the local roflcopter, a dickish pilot, “just need to talk”, and bouncing out the building.

If spoilers ain’t your thing, scroll away!

In “Welcome to Haven”, this show appears to be shifting away somewhat from last season’s contemplative tone. Not all of it – there are some great moments with Yang, Blake and Weiss which I will get to – but in its place, is a new feeling which runs throughout this episode, a feeling of rejuvenation; of determination, and beneath it all, simmering under the skin, is anger.

If you haven’t seen RWBY since Volume 4 ended earlier this year, you can be forgiven for feeling a bit confused by the state of play as far as the actual situation in Mistral goes. Basically, it’s going the same way as it was in Vale. The Grimm have already been around, but beaten back at the cost of a lot of local Hunters. There is fighting going on all around the kingdom, and it’s not exactly going well. There’s also a struggle in diplomatic relations with Atlas – not surprising, and the only local dude in this episode who understands the situation is in the pocket of dastardly forces.

Oh, and there are some relics which can only be accessed by the four Maidens – the whereabouts of Mistral’s relic is dodgy, to say the best, and Mistral’s Spring Maiden ran off forever ago to join up with one Raven Branwen, aka Number One Mom.

Don’t worry though. Because Qrow’s old buddy, Professor Lionheart, is a man under pressure, Ruby and co. are convinced that they can’t actually go run a smash and grab on Yang’s mom’s crew of bandits, so they’re going to be chilling around town for a bit. Meeting Oscar and the Ozpin within is a good way to set up a story which preoccupies them for the time being, while Yang follows the Raven path.

Yeah – I’ve got a problem here.

At the end of last season, I thought I knew where Yang was going. I thought for sure that she was going to Mistral to link up with Ruby. In fact, I remember her at a signpost, with one sign that said “Bandits” and another that said “Mistral”, and her riding off in the direction of Mistral. Why is it that she is now seemingly back on Raven’s trail, asking around about Raven, when she made the decision last season that she wasn’t going to go looking for her?

It’s not like I’m nitpicking, I just need some clarity with this direction, and I hope it’s addressed soon, because right now the continuity in this storyline doesn’t seem to have made the jump to the new season. Look at it like this: It’s okay to change the direction of her story, but tell us why. Establish her motivations and why she’s changing her mind, if that is what’s happened. As awesome as Yang has been in her evolution as a character, it would be a crime to mishandle her first steps back into the world by stuffing up the details.

It’s a strange anomaly, when the rest of the episode is just so tight in that respect. Both the RJNR and Blake stories are looking for renewed pushes, but they make sense.

That said, Yang’s scenes are cool. She punches some lowllife so hard that he bounces off the ceiling and floor and out of a building, and it’s not something played for laughs – it’s just cool. Her biker look is great, fresh with aviators, and she’s still carrying some of her uncertainty from last season. Her hand is trembling after punching the dude, and she smiles at the rush it symbolises. That is good stuff.

Speaking of Blake, my favourite character and yours (I won’t hear otherwise) is still mired in the tension of Menagerie. I’ve come to the conclusion here that while the wider storyline is intriguing, what is really hooking me along is Blake’s progression throughout it. Her interactions with her family, with Sun, and with Ilia, are fascinating as a study of the battle raging inside her. She’s determined to see this out, but she’s worried that it might be too late, or too much.

It’s like some of the clouds of Volume 4 have parted, and now these characters are energised again, for the most part. They have clear goals as a result of last season’s exploits, and that determination that made them such promising young Huntresses is coming back to the surface. It’s a bit difficult to see right now how things play out – premieres are always tricky with how much they can give away or establish, but it’s interesting.

This was a competent start to the new season. It achieved what it needed to, and left a number of hooks for next week, without being particularly moving or shaking. What gives this premiere its verve is the character work it does. All the way through, I was watching these characters – the way they behaved and spoke and came across as genuine. 

This is the benefit of having Volume 4 in the bank. Now, we know so much about these characters, that seeing them work with and build on those foundations is so great.

Additional observations:

- Mentions of Weiss are best kept here, since her appearance was but a cameo. She had some strong character moments, speaking with the pilot that smuggled her out of Atlas. Him rebuffing her immediate wish to go and investigate a mayday was an interesting point to end on, and it makes me wonder how this interaction and others like it might influence her thinking this season.

- Was I the only one who took one look at Lionheart and immediately thought “Don’t trust this dude”? His entire scene with RNJR and Qrow had such a Cloud City from Empire Strikes Back feel.

- That gay couple with the heart-shaped plant at the beginning of the episode. Very lovely.

- Is Ruby a DC or Marvel gal?

- "Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are each entangled in journeys of their own, but they all share one destination: Haven Academy”. Hmm. I mean, kinda. No trolling going on here, in the actual RoosterTeeth-endorsed promo of Volume 5.

- This show has never looked better. The art is gorgeous (It’s interesting how far a few more shadows go in making an image more vivid) and the animation is so clean.

- The opening is decent. Packed with more content than any other. The song is expectedly good, but nothing is topping “Let’s Just Live” from Volume 4′s opening. As a whole though, this one could grow on me.

- Speaking of music, the scoring throughout this episode is so rich. It’s certainly more prominent in the audio track, but not to the detriment of the scenes. The background music in Yang’s scene was particularly fantastic.

GRADE: B

Final thoughts: With renewed focus, RWBY wastes little time in reestablishing the positions on the chessboard. The characters are determined again, and the joy of watching them in action, coupled with a raising of dramatic tension, is enough to make up for some plot inconsistencies and somewhat dry exposition. – Kallie

[blackkudos]

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. She was the recipient of many awards for her work and influence; including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on May 1, 1950, making her the first African American woman to receive that award.

Throughout her career Brooks received many more honors. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968, a position held until her death, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.

Early life

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas, and died on December 3, 2000 in Chicago, IL. She was the first child of David Anderson Brooks and Keziah (Wims) Brooks. Her father was a janitor for a music company who had hoped to pursue a career as a doctor but sacrificed that aspiration to get married and raise a family. Her mother was a school teacher as well as a concert pianist trained in classical music. Family lore held that her paternal grandfather had escaped slavery to join the Union forces during the American Civil War.

When Brooks was six weeks old, her family moved to Chicago during the Great Migration; from then on, Chicago remained her home. According to biographer Kenny Jackson Williams, Brooks first attended a prestigious integrated high school in the city with a predominantly white student body, Hyde Park High School, transferred to the all-black Wendell Phillips High School, and then moved to the integrated Englewood High School. After completing high school, she graduated in 1936 from Wilson Junior College, now known as Kennedy-King College. Due to the social dynamics of the various schools, in conjunction with time period in which she attended them, Brooks faced racial injustice that over time contributed to her understanding of the prejudice and bias in established systems and dominant institutions in her own surroundings as well as ever relevant mindset of the country.

Brooks began writing at an early age and her mother encouraged her saying, ''You are going to be the lady Paul Laurence Dunbar."

After these early educational experiences, Brooks never pursued a four-year degree because she knew she wanted to be a writer and considered it unnecessary. "I am not a scholar," she later said. "I'm just a writer who loves to write and will always write." She worked as a typist to support herself while she pursued her career.

She would closely identify with Chicago for the rest of her life. In a 1994 interview, she remarked on this,

"(L)iving in the city, I wrote differently than I would have if I had been raised in Topeka, KS...I am an organic Chicagoan. Living there has given me a multiplicity of characters to aspire for. I hope to live there the rest of my days. That's my headquarters.

Career

Writing

Brooks published her first poem, "Eventide", in a children's magazine, American Childhood, when she was 13 years old. By the age of sixteen she had already written and published approximately seventy-five poems. She received commendations on her poetic work and encouragement from James Weldon Johnson and later, Langston Hughes, both well-known writers with whom she kept communication with and whose readings she attended in Chicago. At seventeen, she started submitting her work to "Lights and Shadows," the poetry column of the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper. Her poems, many published while she attended Wilson Junior College, ranged in style from traditional ballads and sonnets to poems using blues rhythms in free verse.

Her characters were often drawn from the inner city life that Brooks knew well. She said, "I lived in a small second-floor apartment at the corner, and I could look first on one side and then the other. There was my material."

By 1941, Brooks was taking part in poetry workshops. A particularly influential one was organized by Inez Cunningham Stark, an affluent white woman with a strong literary background. Stark offered writing workshops to African-Americans on Chicago's South Side, which Brooks attended. It was here she gained momentum in finding her voice and a deeper knowledge of the techniques of her predecessors. Renowned poet Langston Hughes stopped by the workshop and heard Brooks read "The Ballad of Pearl May Lee." Brooks continued to work diligently at her writing and growing the community of artists and writers around her as her poetry began to be taken more seriously. She and her husband frequently threw parties at their apartment at 623 E. 63rd Street and it was in the kitchenette of that apartment that Brooks hosted a party for her friend and mentor Langston Hughes. Once he unexpectedly dropped in and famously shared a meal of mustard greens, ham hocks, and candied sweet potatoes with Brooks and her husband Henry Blakely.

Brooks' published her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), with Harper and Row, after strong show of support to the publisher from author Richard Wright. He said to the editors who solicited his opinion on Brooks' work:

"There is no self-pity here, not a striving for effects. She takes hold of reality as it is and renders it faithfully.... She easily catches the pathos of petty destinies; the whimper of the wounded; the tiny accidents that plague the lives of the desperately poor, and the problem of color prejudice among Negroes."

The book earned instant critical acclaim for its authentic and textured portraits of life in Bronzeville. Brooks later said it was a glowing review by Paul Engle in the Chicago Tribune that "initiated My Reputation." Engle stated that Brooks' poems were no more "Negro poetry" than Robert Frost's work was "white poetry." Brooks received her first Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946 and was included as one of the “Ten Young Women of the Year” in Mademoiselle magazine.

In 1953, Brooks published her first and only narrative book, a novella titled Maud Martha, which in a series of thirty-four small vignettes, follows the life of a black woman named Maud Martha in detail as she moved about life from childhood to adulthood. It tells the story of "a woman with doubts about herself and where and how she fits into the world. Maud's concern is not so much that she is inferior but that she is perceived as being ugly," states author Harry B. Shaw in his book, Gwendolyn Brooks. Maud suffers prejudice and discrimination not only from white individuals but also from black individuals who have lighter skin tones than hers, something that is direct reference to Brooks' personal experience. Eventually, Maud stands up for herself by turning her back on a patronizing and racist store clerk. "The book is ... about the triumph of the lowly," Shaw comments.

In 1967, the year of Hughes' death, Brooks attended the Second Black Writers' Conference at Nashville's Fisk University. Here, according to one version of events, she met activists and artists such as Imamu Amiri Baraka, Don L. Lee and others who exposed her to new black cultural nationalism. Recent studies argue that she had been involved in leftist politics in Chicago for many years and, under the pressures of McCarthyism, adopted a black nationalist posture as a means of distancing herself from her prior political connections. Brooks' experience at the conference inspired many of her subsequent literary activities. She taught creative writing to some of Chicago's Blackstone Rangers, otherwise a violent criminal gang. In 1968 she published one of her most famous poems, In the Mecca, a long poem about a mother's search for her lost child in a Chicago apartment building. The poem was nominated for the National Book Award for poetry.

Brooks' second book of poetry, Annie Allen (1950), focused on the life and experiences of a young Black girl as she grew into womanhood in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; she also was awarded Poetry magazine's Eunice Tietjens Prize.

Her autobiographical Report From Part One, including reminiscences, interviews, photographs and vignettes, came out in 1972, and Report From Part Two was published in 1995, when she was almost 80.

Teaching

Brooks said her first teaching experience was at the University of Chicago when she was invited by author Frank London Brown to teach a course in American literature. It was the beginning of her lifelong commitment to sharing poetry and teaching writing.

Brooks taught extensively around the country and held posts at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, City College of New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

On May 1, 1996, Brooks returned to her birthplace of Topeka, Kansas. She gave the keynote speech for the Third Annual Kaw Valley Girl Scout Council's "Women of Distinction Banquet and String of Pearls Auction."

Archives

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) acquired Brooks' archives from her daughter Nora. In addition, the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley has a collection of her personal papers, especially from 1950 to 1989.

Family life

In 1939, Brooks married Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr. They had two children: Henry Lowington Blakely III, born on October 10, 1940; and Nora Blakely, born in 1951.

From mid-1961 to late-1964, Henry III served in the U.S. Marine Corps, first at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and then at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay. During this time, Brooks mentored his fiancée, Kathleen Hardiman, today known as anthropologist Kathleen Rand Reed, in writing poetry. Upon his return, Blakely and Hardiman married in 1965. Brooks had so enjoyed the mentoring relationship that she began to engage more frequently in that role with the new generation of young black poets.

In the year 1990, her works were given a permanent home when Chicago State University established the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing on campus. On her eightieth birthday, in 1997, Brooks was honored with tributes from Chicago to Washington, D.C. Gwendolyn Brooks died of cancer at her Chicago home on December 3, 2000.

Honors and legacy

1946, Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry

1946, American Academy of Arts & Letters Award

1950, Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

1968, appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois, a position she held until her death in 2000

1976, the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America

1985, selected as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, an honorary one-year position whose title was renamed the next year to Poet Laureate

1988, inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame

1989, recipient, Life Time Achievement Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

1989, awarded the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement by the Poetry Society of America

1992, awarded the Aiken Taylor Award by the Sewanee Review

1994, chosen as the National Endowment for the Humanities' Jefferson Lecturer, one of the highest honors in American literature and the highest award in the humanities given by the federal government.

1994, Recipient of the National Book Foundations's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters

1995, presented with the National Medal of Arts

1995, honored as the first Woman of the Year chosen by the Harvard Black Men's Forum

1995, received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Literature

1997, awarded the Order of Lincoln award from The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the highest honor granted by the State of Illinois

Brooks also received more than 75 honorary degrees from colleges and universities worldwide.

Legacy

1970: "For Sadie and Maud" by Eleanor Holmes Norton, included in Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement (1970), quotes all of Brooks' poem "Sadie and Maud"

1970: Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois

1995: Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School, Aurora, Illinois

1990: Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, Chicago State University

2001: Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, Chicago, Illinois

2001: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, Harvey, Illinois

2002: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, Oak Park, Illinois

2003: Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois State Library, Springfield, Illinois

2002: 100 Greatest African Americans

2004 Gwendolyn Brooks Park named by the Chicago Park District, 4542 S. Greenwood Ave. Chicago IL 60653

2005: Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, Bolingbrook, Illinois

2012: Honored on a United States' postage stamp.

Wikipedia

[whythedeveloper]

congrats on all of your followers!! 5 for bellarke? prompt: I just moved into a new apartment and went to buy groceries, but I bought more than I could carry back. I’ve stopped to catch my breath when I hear someone asking if I need help and I look up and the sun is literally making you glow like a damn angel (or really anything, i'll read everything with these two)

thank you so much! I hope you like this!? 

The car door slammed as Clarke pushed the button on the keyring for the trunk to pop open. This was the third time this month that she had impulsively bought $300 worth of groceries for one person. She couldn’t help it that she was physically worried, to the point of waking up from a dead sleep, that she’d run out of food in her house. 

It was a weird thing to worry about since she was a girl from a wealthy family who had never once gone to bed hungry. But recently she had started to work at a mission center down the road, where local families who couldn’t afford things like Clarke’s family could, would go to get free food and even clothing if they needed it. It probably had something to do with that, she thought. 

Still. 

Now she needed to carry at least 20 bags to her apartment which was on the fourth floor of the building. Clarke rolled her eyes at herself, “UGHH” she let out as she placed two bags around her wrist and searched for another handle. 

She started the trek to her apartment with bags in each hand, pulling at her fingers and causing them to turn red. It, of course, didn’t help at all that the ground was slippery from the snow storm the night before. She waddled like a little penguin all the way up the walkway until she reached the stairs that would bring her up to her floor.

When Clarke got back to her trunk for round 2, she this time decided to grab an even bigger chunk of handles for each hand and began regretting it as soon as she got a few feet from her car. 

She sighed as she felt the milk tip out of the bag in her right hand. She tried to reach for it but it was too late - the sidewalk was covered in milk, her face and arm were dripping wet. 

“Fuck,” she growled out.

She wiped the milk off her face and stomped her feet a little, acting like a small toddler, before she bent down to pick up some of the glass shards from the milk bottle.

It wasn’t until Clarke saw a shadow forming on the sidewalk that she decided to look up, “Do you need some help?” 

She must’ve had a confused look on her face, causing the man to repeat his words, “I said, “Do you need some help?” 

Whoever this man was, Clarke was in awe at the sun rays forming around his silhouette, causing him to look like a literal angel standing in front of her.

“Uh, sure,” Clarke mustered out as she kept staring, but rising to eye level with the man in front of her. 

She squinted as she finally made eye contact with the person in front of her, “Do we know each other?” She questioned.

She was pretty sure she had seen him around the apartment complex, but also somewhere else. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, though. Clarke was positive his name was Bently or Brady? Something with a B. And she knew there was a littler girl, probably his sister, that lived with him. 

“Yeah,” the boy smiled, “We’re neighbors.” 

Clarke smirked, “Well, yeah, I knew that. But I swear I know you from somewhere else.” A puzzled look formed on her face as she tried to study his face. 

A girl’s voice rang out from behind them, “Bellamy! Hey, so Cerberus just threw up. On your bed.” 

Clarke couldn’t help but laugh, and the girl in front of her smiled too. She was a little younger than Clarke, probably still in high school. Jet black hair and light skin, with only a few freckles, compared to the hundred or so that lined Bellamy’s face. They must be siblings, she thought.

After studying the girl for a minute, Clarke realized where she knew the small family from. The city mission. 

They had come in a few times here and there, but never stayed long enough for Clarke to greet them. Almost 100% positive now, she thinks their last name is Blake. Octavia and Bellamy Blake.

It certainly wasn’t the time nor the place for Clarke to bring up how she knew them, most people from the mission were embarrassed and didn’t want to be called out in public. 

She looked down at the handful of groceries she was carrying, and the huge pile she already had upstairs, she looked like a fool with too much for one person. 

Bellamy was deep in conversation with Octavia when Clarke came out of her thoughts, “O, I told you not to give him treats right after a walk,” Bellamy spoke. 

Octavia rolled her eyes and turned back toward Clarke, mouthing He’s so annoying toward her. 

Clarke smiled and tried to fix the sliding bags from her hands, but Bellamy reached down and grabbed a few that were intertwined in her hand. 

“So you guys are my neighbors?” She asked, but wasn’t looking for a reply, “Well, I’d love to get to know my neighbors better. Tell ya what, help me bring these up - and I’ll cook us all dinner. Deal?” 

Bellamy smiled, “Sure, sounds like a plan,” he replied as he started to walk toward the staircase, little sister in tow. 

[jazzworldquest-blog]

USA: Baritone & Tenor Saxophonist Jared Sims Tells His New York Story On Forthcoming Ropeadope CD, "The New York Sessions," Set for October 12 Release

Baritone & Tenor Saxophonist Jared Sims

Tells His New York Story

On Forthcoming Ropeadope CD,

"The New York Sessions,"

Set for October 12 Release

    Sims's 5th Album as a Leader Is a Post-Bop Quartet Outing

Featuring Pianist Chris McCarthy,

Bassist Alex Tremblay, Drummer Evan Hyde

Saxophonist Plans CD Release Shows in

Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, Boston, New York,

Ashland, VA, & Portsmouth, NH

       August 30, 2018

    Jazz saxophonist and educator Jared Sims pays musical tribute to experiences that influenced his creative development on The New York Sessions, his fifth album as a leader. Set for release by Ropeadope Records on October 12, the disc is a post-bop quartet outing that comes 20 years after Sims was performing regularly at clubs like the Knitting Factory, Wetlands, and Brooklyn's Tea Lounge.

  Joined on The New York Sessions by pianist Chris McCarthy, bassist Alex Tremblay, and drummer Evan Hyde, Sims plays his main axe, baritone saxophone, on only one of the album's five tracks, the jaunty-mid-tempo ballad "Brooklyn Tea," named for the defunct Tea Lounge venue. Becoming a kind of outsider to himself, he plays tenor on all the other songs: "Tribeca Tap Bar" (which shows off his Getzian influence), "Wetlands Preserved" (named for the famed Tribeca club), "The Bodega," and "Pelham."

  "The theme of this record is not just what New York means to me, but what New York meant to me before it just became all Starbucks and strip malls," Sims told CD annotator Michael J. West. "Not so much looking backward, but telling my New York story."

  Jared Sims, who turns 44 today, started playing the baritone in the fifth grade in his hometown of Staunton, VA, and attended his first jazz concert, by Michael Brecker, in tenth grade. He saw the World Saxophone Quartet perform the following year, and his fascination with the saxophone went "over the top" after speaking with members of the WSQ after the show. He dedicated himself to the baritone after bringing a tenor to a class at the New England Conservatory (NEC) and having his instructor warn him he'd never be great on it because he'd be following in the footsteps of too many legends. Far from taking offense, Sims took his teacher's words to heart. "There are a lot of gold standards on tenor," he says. "I was trying to find a way to move past those influences. Playing the baritone felt really natural to me. I felt like I could do something personal and interesting with it."

    While an undergraduate at West Virginia University, from which he graduated in 1996 and where he's now in his third year as director of jazz studies, Sims studied traditional styles with David Hastings. At NEC, where he played clarinet in addition to baritone, alto, and tenor, he was exposed to non-traditional genres including Third Stream, under the tutelage of distinguished faculty members Gunther Schuller, George Russell, and Ran Blake. Another of his NEC mentors was Allan Chase, with whom he collaborated for various projects.

  Sims went on to earn a doctorate in classical music performance at Boston University, where his lecture recital was on the modern Italian composer Luciano Berio and his solo Sequenzapieces. He also did research on Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, and American popular music.

  While in Boston, where he earned a reputation as a "saxophone colossus," Sims roomed for four years with virtuoso baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase, a cog in Either/Orchestra, who turned him onto Sahib Shihab. He played in numerous Boston-based bands including the Afro-Latin group Mango Blue; the organ funk outfit Akashic Record; Blueprint Project with guitarist Eric Hofbauer; and the jazz-rock quartet Miracle Orchestra. He has collaborated with an eclectic list of artists including the late Bob Brookmeyer, Han Bennink, Matt Wilson, Dave Liebman, Anat Cohen, the Temptations, 10,000 Maniacs, and Oasis's Noel Gallagher.

  Sims made his recording debut as a leader with the trio effort Acoustic Shadows (2009) and followed it with another trio session, Convergence (2011), and the collective quartet album The New Stablemates (2012). On Layers (2016), he overdubs himself playing saxophones, clarinets, and flute on tunes by Ellington, Monk, and Mingus, while on Change of Address (2017), a soul-jazz quintet date featuring the Hammond B-3 organ, he plays only baritone.

  Jared Sims will be touring in support of The New York Sessions at the following venues:

  Sat 10/6 Ashland (VA) Coffee and Tea (8pm)

w/ Ayinde Williams, p; Mike Hawkins, b; Emre Kartari, d.

  Fri 10/12 Wallace's Whiskey Room, Pittsburgh (7pm)

w/ Cliff Barnes, p; Paul Thompson, b; Tom Wendt, d.

  Mon 10/22 Marvin, Washington, DC (7pm)

w/ Collin Chambers, p; James King, b; Nasar Abadey, d.

  Thu 10/25 Button Factory Stage, Portsmouth, NH (8pm)

w/ Mike Effinberger, p; Rob Gerry, b; Mike Walsh, d.

  Fri 10/26 Lilypad, Boston (7:30)

w/ Mark Shilansky, p; Keala Kaumeheiwa, b; Steve Lagone, d.

  Sat 10/27 Silvana, NYC (9pm)

w/ Frank Straub, g; John Feliciano, b; Alex MacKinnon, d.

      Photography: Adam Lewis  

      Web Site: jaredsims.com    

Media Contact:

Terri Hinte 510-234-8781 hudba@sbcglobal.net terrihinte.com

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2IntdAC

[ktrn-smlv-blog]

The list of different art based on dreams

Visual art 

Many works by William Blake (1757–1827) 

Many works by Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) 

Many works by Man Ray 

Many works by Max Magnus Norman 

Many works by Elle Nicolai Many works by Odilon Redon (1840–1916) 

Many works by Jonathan Borofsky (born 1942) 

Many works by Jim Shaw (born 1952) 

Many works by David Reisman (born 1958) Many works by Jane Gifford (www.janegifford.co.uk) 

The works of Alan Sweeney Online illustrated daily dreams of Robin Whitmore Many works by Kevin Coffee 

Many works by Carl Linkhart Alfredo Arcia’s art Sheila Heldebrand Toth’s collages Art presented on exhibitions of the International Association for the Study of Dreams Comics 

Many short works of Julie Doucet 

Many short works of David B. 

Jim by Jim Woodring 

Psychonaut by Aleksandar Zograf 

Rare Bit Fiends by Rick Veitch 

Slow Wave by Jesse Reklaw 

Film

Several films of Andrei Tarkovsky, most notably The Mirror 

The major films of Sergei Parajanov, most notably Sayat Nova and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 

Much of the filmography of David Lynch (e.g. Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, etc.) 

The Brother from Another Planet by John Sayles Dreams (1990) by Akira Kurosawa 

Many works of Federico Fellini (1920–1993) 

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), At Land (1944), and Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) by Maya Deren. 

3 Women (1977) by Robert Altman 

Waking Life (2001) by Richard Linklater 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Science of Sleep (2006) by Michel Gondry 

The works of Luis Buñuel Paprika (2006) by Satoshi Kon 

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) by Stanley Kubrick 

Inception (2010) directed by Christopher Nolan Works intended to resemble dreams, but not directly based on them 

Un chien andalou (1927) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí (actually started when Buñuel and Dalí discussed their dreams, then decided to start with two of them and make a film) 

Many films by Maya Deren (1917–1961) 

Many films by David Lynch, especially Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, contain dreamlike elements. Dream scenes are popular in many horror movies, notably the Nightmare on Elm Street series 

The Trial by Orson Welles (based on the novel by Franz Kafka) 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind features around witnessing the effects of having one’s memory erased through dreaming. 

The Science of Sleep (2006) by Michel Gondry 

The Cell (2000) by Tarsem Singh contains vivid and surreal imagery to convey the mind-world of a serial killer. 

The Good Night (2007) by Jake Paltrow 

The animated science fiction film Paprika (2006) by Satoshi Kon features intense dream imagery.

Inception (2010) by Christopher Nolan contains extravagant sequences inside the dreams of people through “dream sharing”. There are many sequences in ‘reality’ that also feature very dream-like imagery, questioning the main protagonist’s state of consciousness. 

Comics

Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend (1904–1921) and Little Nemo (1905–1913) by Winsor McCay (also his animated films) 

The Sandman (DC Comics/Vertigo) by Neil Gaiman 

Many works of Milo Manara 

[newstfionline]

Why President Trump is probably right about the ‘ridiculous standard’ of the first 100 days

By Kristine Phillips, Washington Post, April 23, 2017

The date was July 24, 1933. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sitting behind a desk in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room. To his left was a microphone, to his right a glass of water. In front of him was his speech, written on a few pieces of paper.

That day, about four months after his inauguration, Roosevelt delivered his third radio address to the people. That speech--one of the nearly 30 fireside chats he made as president--was an appeal to raise the minimum wage and an update of sorts on his plan to pull the country out of the Great Depression. In his nearly 3,000-word progress report, Roosevelt talked about the achievements of his young presidency--the first 100 days “devoted to the starting of the wheels of the New Deal.”

Since then, the idea of the “first 100 days” has taken on a life of its own: Some try to gauge the success (or failure) of an administration by the actions conducted in the first few months, while others view it as a time for leaders to set the tone of the rest of their presidency.

But what has become apparent over time is that the first three months say little about a new president’s achievements, let alone his legacy or his agenda, experts say. It’s simply too short a time to achieve something lasting and meaningful.

“I think what history tells us is that it’s an arbitrary benchmark,” said Fredrik Logevall, a presidential historian and an international affairs professor at Harvard University. “It hasn’t correlated very much with subsequent success or failure. Whether an administration has success or not really depends on the four years, or eight years if you have two terms.”

In reality, Logevall said, it’s a trap that many presidents after Roosevelt have knowingly walked into, pressuring themselves to turn their administration into a “beehive of activity” to meet what they know to be a shortsighted deadline.

And given the heightened partisanship in Congress, passing a major piece of legislation in just three months has become a nearly impossible feat. That makes legislative output within the first 100 days just a “crude measurement” of success, said Jon Schaff, a political-science professor at Northern State University in South Dakota.

“Productivity in the first 100 days rarely says anything about the occupant of the White House,” Schaff said. “It usually says more about the circumstances in which that occupant is serving.”

Still, the first 100 days has become a tool for journalists to take a snapshot of a young presidency, and a public relations strategy for an administration to sell itself to the public, experts say.

That’s understandable, said Nicole Hemmer, a presidential studies professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, but one should not overinterpret what little that snapshot says.

During Roosevelt’s first 100 days, 15 major bills were passed in Congress. One of them, the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which was meant to stabilize the banking system, was drafted in four days. Congress passed it in eight hours. Roosevelt signed it just five days after he took office.

Roosevelt and Congress moved at an unprecedented speed. That’s because they had to.

By the time he took office, a quarter of the country’s workforce was jobless and millions of homeowners had defaulted on their mortgages. Scores of banks had folded, and thousands of farms were being foreclosed on every month.

His successful 100 days was, in some ways, the product of a perfect storm: a massive economic crisis and a congressional majority that gave Roosevelt the ability to swiftly pass major pieces of legislation, said John Frendreis, a political-science professor at Loyola University in Chicago.

That makes Roosevelt “something of an anomaly,” Schaff said, because he faced challenges still unmatched to this day.

For the most part, the first 100 days of presidencies after Roosevelt have become less and less productive, experts say. Part of that has to do with Congress.

In the 1970s, Congress massively expanded its subcommittees to give members more opportunities for leadership roles, Schaff said. That added extra steps in the legislative process, making enacting legislation a longer and more complicated process.

Partisanship and polarization also have become more pronounced, particularly over the past decade or so.

“The parties were differently construed. You have conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans,” said Hemmer of the Miller Center. “That’s less and less true today.”

That divisiveness seems to be even more heightened during the Trump administration, when disagreements are not just between the two major parties, but also within the party in control.

In 2000, George W. Bush ran with an intention to focus on tax cuts and education reform.

In an interview with CNN about his first 100 days, President Bush said he’d made progress on his plan to cut taxes and was continuing negotiations with Democrats about his education agenda. His major tax reform and No Child Left Behind were passed within the first year of his administration.

But as Bush would soon learn, the world has a way of intervening with even the most well laid-out plans.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, just eight months after Bush’s inauguration, the president who had planned on focusing on domestic policy found himself leading the country through a $3 trillion war.

“It was a complete 180 from the domestic agenda,” Hemmer said. “The attacks on 9/11 … and then the failures of that policy would define the second half of that administration.”

But even without natural disasters or terrorist attacks that can completely change the course of an administration, presidential legacies in the form of massive pieces of legislation rarely happen within the first 100 days, except in times of crisis.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, about seven months after he ascended to the presidency.

Obama signed his signature health-care bill, the Affordable Care Act, on March 23, 2010, more than a year after he took office.

Even Roosevelt’s Social Security Act was signed Aug. 14, 1935, almost two years after he became president.

“Most presidents wouldn’t try to push through massive, era-defining legislation in the first 100 days,” Hemmer said. “You’re finding your footing in the first 100 days, and you make mistakes and you get some wins, but it’s generally things that happen a little later in the first year (that define the presidency).”

President John F. Kennedy was clear about his frustration about the 100-day benchmark. He saw it as an impossible pressure to have to work some sort of magic in just three months, said Harvard professor Logevall.

“He told advisers that this is kind of crazy and he doesn’t want to be bound by this,” Logevall said.

He made that clear in his inaugural address: “All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration … but let us begin.” (Of course, he was assassinated about 1,000 days into his presidency.)

Nevertheless, many presidents have succumbed to that pressure, and the shadow of Roosevelt’s first 100 days continues to loom over them.

Take this exchange between Johnson and his congressional liaison, Larry O’Brien, as an example. It happened April 9, 1965, about three months after Johnson’s second inauguration and just days away from his 100th day. O’Brien was reporting a congressional victory on an education bill.

LBJ: Now, you’ve got to … jerk out every damn little bill you can and get them down here by the 12th.

O’Brien: All right.

LBJ: … You’ll have one major really with education. Now, Appalachia’s a super major one … But on the 12th, you’ll have the best Hundred Days. Better than he did!

O’Brien: Right.

LBJ: And that gives your boys (in Congress) something to run on if you’ll just put out that propaganda … That they’ve done more than they did in Roosevelt’s Hundred Days.”

President Richard M. Nixon went as far as forming a Hundred Days Group--advisers in charge of selling the notion that his administration was buzzing with activity while also trying to, as Nixon said, get him “off the hook on quantity of legislation being the first measure of success of the first hundred days.”

The bottom line, experts say, is that presidents, the public and the media would be better served by paying less attention to an arbitrary deadline.

The 45th president of the United States of America would seem to agree.

As a candidate, Trump touted his “Contract With the American Voter”--which he described as “a 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again.” On the trail, Trump talked repeatedly about what he’d do in the first 100 days.

“On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities and honesty to our government,” Trump wrote in his Contract. “This is my pledge to you.”

With the president failing to fulfill major promises in his 100-day plan, his tune has changed.

As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote: “President Trump appears to have seen some news coverage Friday morning that mentioned his fast-approaching 100-day mark. And he decided that he does not like this arbitrary standard--at all.”