#why are are both will and el associated with ice?
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This is the source El finds in the void and it's twofold. It's the father. In this case it's Neil but he's just a stand-in for Lonnie.
The other source is the Steel Works warehouse BRIMBORN but that's not how it is presented to us throughout season 3.
It reads more like BRIMBORN as a shadow covers up the B pretty consistently, making us unable to read it
Warning for discussions of CSA under the cut
We also get the full address of the steelworks warehouse and it's
Brimborn Steelworks 6522 Cherry Oak Drive
This is how where the MF possessed Billy. Cherry Oak Drive
Lonnie also means oak tree
Max also tells us Billys full address
Billy Hargrove 4819 Cherry Lane
Billy lives on Cherry Lane but he lost himself and got possessed by the father at Cherry Oak Drive. A lane to drive on...
Source
Billy was a Cherry Lane at first until he got corrupted in the Cheery Oak Drive
Billy is short for William and a stand-in for Will
We also learn more about cherries and their availability
Hopper says there is no cherry in the 7-Eleven. Apparently they had only strawberry
That's not entirely true tough as we see with Alexei here. In fact it seems like they have only cherry and cola. But Hopper still drove there even though it was way out of his way. So I'm sure he would have gotten cherry if it were there, right?
Well, maybe it's more like an either/or situation with the Seven and the Eleven in which one number is the cherry and the other is the strawberry . Maybe they are mutually exclusive
As we've already seen though, it's Will who is already associated with cherries via association of Billy which in turn can only mean one thing
Eleven is the strawberry
But
In the end there is no difference. Cherry and strawberry taste the same. They are the same. Just sugar on ice
But what's a strawberry anyway?
Source
First of all of this goes with the Will Byers has DID theory.
For the longest time I was convinced that Will created Eleven on the day he vanished in the woods but I don't think that's what has happened any longer. I think she was there long before. Ready to take over whenever Will needed her to use her superpowers to absorb what he couldn't face.
That's why Eleven is a strawberry. She was there ready to save Will whenever Lonnie sold off his son to buy dr*gs. It's why there is still a cola next the cherry in the 7-Eleven. Coca-Cola or just coke. Other sources also say that a Strawberry is a woman who willingly sells se*ual favors to buy dr*gs. (although willingly is hardly the word I would use here)
In the beginning of the first season El could barely speak and was more like a child who didn't understand anything. This was also done for her protection throughout the years I think. The less she understood what happened, the better it is for her (or so the reasoning goes)
But she still understood the most important part
#cw csa#stranger things#stranger things theory#will byers#el hopper#lonnie byers#eleven#my meta#if you google the postal code of the steelworks address#you'll find a computer chip that was commonly used in the 80s#which also had a bug#but i understand too little of these things to make any sense of it#so i'm leaving it out here#i still don't know what the ice part is all about#i know he likes it cold but why?#why are are both will and el associated with ice?#but honestly thinking about all of what has happened to will and el#just makes me sad
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Theory: the car crash in the winter of 1976 (Part I)
More here
I've been working a lot on this theory, and I keep finding things. In this post I'm going to focus on the hidden references to 1976. In Part II I'll talk about the hints at the accident.
I think there are many hints that there might've been a car crash in the past, and that that changed everything. Maybe, after the accident, a wrinkle in time and space created a different timeline-timeloop in which two babies swapped places in the hospital/lab. Maybe the girl we know as El was born stillborn, and Will Byers was the subject of the experiments, as the newspaper in 1x08 suggests. But his death and the experiments created a wrinkle in time and now El now exists and has taken Will's place as the lab kid. Maybe that's why there are hints that they both died in the past and are so connected. There are many possibilities, I don't rule out anything.
If the theory is correct, that means that El wasn't originally abducted at birth. She was brought back, powers made her "crawl backwards", like Steve says to Nancy in S4 (here)


and "she was swapped in the hospital (to tell you the truth)" like Karen says in S3. It's interesting that Karen says in the hospital, and not at birth, and in S4 Brenner calls the lab hospital.
The flashback of Sara's death could be an altered memory of what happened to Will and El after the accident. Or maybe there's even a bigger twist about her, but I won't talk about it here.


@chirpsythismorning noticed something interesting. When El saves Max, the camera rotates counterclockwise. And her arm reminds of the hand of a clock. Same counterclockwise rotation when Brenner dies. Going back in time. Bringing someone back.



But why in winter, and why in 1976?
There are many references to ice, feeling cold and freezing to death, but both the gates weren't opened in winter. So they're hiding something else.

El says that she comes from a bad place, and the boys say that it's Sweden, a cold sub-zero place. Bad place-> frozen lake, or the accident in the lake is the reason she ended up in another bad place, the lab?

The lyrics California dreamin' on such a winter day, in this scene that parallels Brenner and Ten scene in 4x01.


The last line in S4, "It's snowing" while Max is in the hospital.


And here the hints about 1976.
S1: The reporter says that the authorities suspect that Will was victim of foul play and that seven years before ('76) another person drowned in the quarry (*) S2: Lucas tells Max that a very decomposed body was found there.

Castle Byers flashback. Will doesn't get too scared anymore. Joyce jokes about her witch and he says that he's not five anymore (he was five in 1976). Joyce's witch could be a reference to the Witch of the West. In S1 Hopper calls the lab Emerald City. Also, in Castle Byers there are a rainbow, a stuffed lion and a microscope -> connection to the lab?

Possible hint at Lonnie's involvement in the "accident". When Jon was nine/ten he made him kill a rabbit, an animal associated with El and Alice/Henry. Jon was born in 1967, so the rabbit died (there was an accident) in '76. I also think it's not a coincidence that it's Jon, a boy worried about his brother, who sees Barb disappear in a pool. Jon says he cried for a week. He mourned that little rabbit...
Also. When he tells Nancy about the rabbit, he says that he's a fan of Thumper. And in the Nancy and Steve dialogue about crawling backwards, Steve says that what he needed was a thump on his head, to finally start crawling forward.



First day of kindergarten ('76) Will was swinging by himself. Swing sets are associated with both Willel and the Creels, and one of the swings is always broken or missing. If I'm right, this beautiful Byler moment could hint that Will shouldn't have been alone that day. A kid is missing.




The lifeguard at the pool: 'No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree'. A very specific line and another possible hint that someone ended up in the water (a lake) and that powers (the strike) saved them. Behind him a poster with the date '76 and the word Happy Birthday.
In 4x01, El says that they're all time travellers and that it feels like it's been ten years since she saw Mike. 1986-10 = 1976.

There's also this poster of the Salizburger Festpiele of 1976- Der Talisman. We see it as Murray and Joyce are talking about Russia and Murray is preparing his ice bath (he was the one who thought El was a russian spy). Once again, connection between cold and 1976. Plus, The Talisman. in 4x09 Lucas read Stephen King's novel, The Talisman, a story about parallel worlds and Twinners.


EDIT 2/3/24: Ross posted a photo of A Wrinkle in Time. The book was published in 1962, but this is the cover of the 1976 paperback edition (here) Interesting choice.
(*) About the quarry scene.There's also a parallel with Fringe, one of my favorite shows. Mike wears the same shirt Peter wears in episode 3x15, Subject 13 (my post about Number 13 and Polivia-Byler parallel)


In that episode, Peter almost drowns in the same frozen lake where Walter opened a portal to the other universe.

And it is revealed that Olivia can travel to the other universe when she's scared. The trigger? Her violent stepfather (looking at you, Lonnie) Why would he hurt the kids? Jealousy, money, or both. A possible parallel with Billy's father, who was jealous of his wife and in Billy's memory asks her: Did you see him again?
#stranger things#will byers#el hopper#time loop theory#my car crash theory#eleven hopper#timeline theory#byers hopper family#st theory#st analysis#jonathan byers#alice creel#lonnie byers#st parallels
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While many people are living through a sweltering summer, it’s the depths of winter in Antarctica. Usually, this means there’s a lot of sea ice around the continent. Yet, this year, it’s the lowest it’s ever been. What’s happening? NASA’s National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) satellite measurements show that through July of this year, sea ice coverage averaged only 13.5 million kilometers. That’s the lowest measurement since the center began measuring ice in 1978. Usually, Antarctic sea ice affects an area of about 15 million square kilometers. It grows and melts with the change of seasons. For winter 2023, the growth rate slowed down drastically, covering two million square kilometers less than the average. And, that’s unusual. “What we’re seeing this year is uncharted territory in the satellite record,” said Walt Meier, a scientist at NSIDC. There’s definitely a downward trend in sea ice, and it’s not new. It’s a continuation of a slump in production that began in 2014. That year, ice growth around the continent was quite high. In fact, for a while, it had been increasing about a percent per decade. Since that time, production slowed. One of the most drastic declines took place in 2016 and things have gone downhill since then. “Most of the months since 2016 have been well below average,” Meier said. Chart showing changes in Antarctic sea ice over time. Courtesy: NSIDC. Why Is Sea Ice Declining in Antarctica? The cause of this shift is not yet clear. “Both the increase in Antarctic sea ice prior to 2014 and its rapid decrease since are of great interest to scientists, without a consensus point-of-view on the drivers,” said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Parkinson is an expert in using satellite observations to map sea ice extent, and in 1983 she was part of the group that published the first atlas of Antarctic sea ice from satellite data. Interestingly, the decline seen around Antarctica between 2014 and 2017 was greater than the decline in ice seen in the Arctic. However, it’s interesting to note that northern ice fields are also being affected by something interfering with their ice fields. Hudson’s Bay, for example, was ice-free early in 2023. Other regions in the northern hemisphere, such as the Siberian Sea, the Beaufort Sea (north of Alaska), and the Kara Sea in Russia are also losing ice cover. The popular Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau, Alaska, is definitely smaller than normal, too. In early August, a nearby glacial lake outburst tied to melting ice flooded nearby areas. Authorities linked it to warming, which has helped shrink the glacier. Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska is shrinking due to warming temperatures. Courtesy NSIDC. Possible Explanations The Antarctic ice problem is definitely grabbing scientists’ attention with its most drastic decline in the entire 40-year satellite record. It, along with Greenland, is losing its ice rapidly. So, what could be happening? Obviously, climate change looks like it could be a culprit. Warming temperatures associated with it affect the oceans, which could be forcing a shift toward lower ice accumulation around Antarctica. In some of her research, Parkinson cites other possible drivers for ice loss, including ties to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effect, an interdecadal Pacific oscillation, or something called the Amundsen Sea low. Antarctic seas map. Courtesy: Rooiratel, CC BY-SA-4.0. Just as one example, Parkinson discusses studies that focused on the extreme sea ice retreat of 2016. There’s quite a bit of evidence linking it to conditions in the local atmosphere and oceans. There was a strong northerly atmospheric flow that caused rapid ice retreat in the Weddell Sea (just above West Antarctica). Other changes induced ice loss in the Ross Sea. There was also an extreme El Niño that peaked earlier that year, which warmed the waters of the Bellinghause, Amundsen, and eastern parts of the Ross seas. Other atmospheric conditions contributed to sea ice extent that year. In short, there wasn’t just one event that affected ice growth, but a combination of several. No Definitive Answers to Sea Ice Conundrum…Yet Could this combo of events and effects be what’s going on in 2023? There’s no consensus yet. Some scientists have speculated that perhaps the Antarctic sea ice is starting to experience some kind of shift toward lower ice production. However, even with 40 years of data, Meier said it was too soon to tell whether there is such a shift or not. Yet, recent studies point to changing ocean conditions as a possible driver. Ocean heat may be playing a stronger role than usual. If so, it could be limiting autumn and winter ice growth and then enhancing spring and summer ice melt episodes. For More Information Exceptionally Low Antarctic Sea IceA 40-y record reveals gradual Antarctic sea ice increases followed by decreases at rates far exceeding the rates seen in the Arctic The post We’ve Never Seen Antarctic Sea Ice This Low appeared first on Universe Today.
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I haven’t seen anyone analysing this scene, but I can’t stop thinking why are they talking so much about wheels in the van after Rink-o-Mania. What’s the point of this scene? Is there some hidden meaning? If you have some thoughts, you’re welcome to share, because I'm kinda stuck here.
For me, wheels are associated with Wheelers, however after this scene I started associating them with the feeling of hurt/pain. I’ll try to explain, but we need to come back to Rink-o-Mania. This is the first place where El, Mike and Will go after the airport. It should be fun, but it’s not. El & Mike are pretending to enjoy it, but not Will. After the whole truth about El’s lying to Mike is revealed, Will confesses to Mike that he feels like a third wheel - he is hurt by Mike’s behaviour. At the same time, El is hurt because of bullies, especially Angela, so she hits her with a roller (a shoe with wheels).
That leads to that weird dialogue between Argyle and Jonathan on how wheels made of different materials can hurt you.
Rubber/plastic wheels - we see El, Mike & Will. El literally hurt Angela with these wheels, Mike hurt both El & Will by his behavior, and Will...maybe, it’s foreshadowing he’s going to hurt Mike by lying about the painting?
Wood wheels - we see Jonathan. He’s not associated with wheels, but his girlfriend is. Nancy Wheeler. She is the one who had a wooden bat.
Jonathan feels hurt, because she isn’t coming to him with Mike. Argyle notices it when they’re doing some woodwork and we even see wheels beside Jonathan. Wooden wheels.
An interesting detail about Nancy’s bat - later we start associsting it with Steve, he uses it all the time and in the end of s4 Jonathan feels hurt when Nancy mentions him.
Metal wheels - we see Mike, looking at Will. He knows he hurt Will badly and also he’s feeling hurt by El lying to him.
Also, ice skate = shoes with a blade = sword = Mike & sword in s5?
Argyle continues talking, saying “the roller-skate attacks happen more than you think” and “it could’ve been so much worse”, basically looking at El (but it also looks like he’s talking it to the audience), foreshadowing more hurt and pain during s4.
The whole accident Argyle calls a little blip and both him and Jonathan start singing this word again and again. Blip. A spot of light. Another light reference. And not only light. The melody is the military march called “Entry of the Gladiators,” but it’s a remake called “Thunder and Blazes” that is more popular after becoming the theme melody for circuses, played especially for introducing clowns. This is 100% IT reference and I’ve analysed it here. Definately worth your time.
I don't know how to interpret this moment actually, especially when the camera shows us a closeup of Will and El, who are turned away from Mike, so it's connected to him.
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I’ve had this idea for how I would do a My Hero Academia Superman AU.
Introducing, the
MY HERO SUPERMAN AU
Here are the key points that I would like to make for this AU:
In this AU, Izuku is the unknowingly heir of two great legacies since his birth. The legacy of his parents, Hisashi and Inko, who were known to the world as the unlicensed heroes, Superman and Wonder Woman.
In this AU, Hisashi was born the Kal-El of this universe’s Krypton who was sent to Earth to save him from the planet’s destruction. He was found and adopted by Chiyo Shuzenji, aka Recovery Girl, and her husband Josuke Shuzenji, who raised him with the values that all people can choose to do good, they simply need a light to guide them towards a better tomorrow.
After learning about his adoption, Hisashi would leave his family farm in the countryside, being guided by a crystal found with him in his ship, leading him to create the Fortress of Solitude and training with Jor-El to control his powers.
Once his training was complete, Jor-El encouraged him to return home and resume his human life, so that he could answer the question, “Why do you wish to help them?” Jor-El encouraged Hisashi to, “Open your heart to them. Find out why you wish to be their champion.”
Hisashi was reluctant of becoming a pro hero, since he knew that the Hero Association would want to find a way to contain him and turn him into their personal weapon should they realize how powerful he really was and where he came from. Josuke encouraged him to simply do what he thought was best, and Chiyo gifted him his first costume, based on a dream she had of him, a great man soaring through the air. He would had his family crest to the chest.
Hisashi would initially act as a vigilante, only use his super speed and super strength to get around and fight, and not use his heat vision or ice breath, since he knew that people would wonder how he would be able to wield such abilities.
He would eventually draw the attention of Nana Shimura, and her daughter Inko Midoriya. For this AU, Nana would be the daughter of Hippolyta and Zues, making the equivalent of Diana Prince. This would make Inko the granddaughter of Zues, with her attraction quirk coming from her father.
Inko was the one who gave him the name Superman, and she and her mother realized early on that he was different, that he held back his power. They would confront him and tell him their own secret as a sign of trust.
Hisashi fell in love with Inko as soon as he saw her and told them his story, and why he was reluctant to show what he could really do. Inko would be the one to encourage him to show the world that they can be better, to remind why heroes came about in the first place, to not be afraid, “I wish it was okay for you to fly.”
Hisashi would take those words to heart and begin to show more of his powers while fighting villains, as well as truly helping people in everyday life, from talking down suicide jumpers and would be thugs, to providing relief aid in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
Inko would then take it upon herself to use the powers she inherited from her grandfather to help as well, and debut as Wonder Woman.
Hisashi and Inko would work together, both as hero/vigilantes, and as investigative reporters for Musutafu Hero News. They quickly began dating, and were quickly married.
They would continue their heroic work together, with support from Nana, but despite her public support of them, All Might was still wary of them, for showcasing multiple abilities. The public’s support of them would continue to grow with time, until the day that the whole world was shaken to its very core.
Doomsday would come to Earth, and many pros would be beaten into submission, including All Might, until Superman killed him, seemingly at the cost of his own life.
Superman would receive an honorary funeral ceremony, with the Hero Public Safety Commission hoping to be able to inspect his body, only for the body to go missing.
Hisashi would return to Inko, revealing that he was simply put into a coma. They then decide to retire, with the world believing them both to be dead. They would have Izuku a year after these events.
The events from the series go about the same, with Izuku proving himself worthy of inheriting One for All to Toshinori, and inheriting the quirk the day of the exam.
However, in the middle of the exam Izuku awakens his Kryptonian abilities thanks to One for All and Nana’s spirit jumpstarting his powers, allowing him to score enough points to break All Might’s record, and easily save Ochako.
After the exams, Izuku tells Inko about his new abilities, and she calls Hisashi. They decide to tell Izuku everything. He is initially overwhelmed, but Hisashi assured him that he is not a freak, and that they will always love him. He encourages Izuku to stop looking down on himself and that with their powers, “We can save them Izuku. We can save all of them.”
While training his new abilities, they learn that Izuku also has Telekinetic abilities that can be used to augment his Kryptonian powers while low on sunlight.
Once the school year starts, Izuku is much more confident and evens asks Ochako out on a date after the events of the battle training. While out on their date, they encounter and rescue Eri early and she is placed in their custody, with Hisashi and Inko spoiling her in order the earn the title “favorite grandparents”.
During the events of the USJ, Izuku goes all out and defeats the Nomu faster than All Might ever could in his prime.
This leads to All Might becoming suspicious of his successor.
The Sports Festival is announced, and Izuku uses it as an opportunity to reveal himself to the world as “Jon-El, the Superboy, Son of Superman”. While many in the audience are left in shock and fear at the kind of power he can potentially wield with such heritage, Ochako looks on with happiness, having been told his family’s secrets, unafraid of what others might think of him.
He gains much approval throughout the Events not just for his power, but his sportsmanship as well. He inspires Shinso to keep working hard and knocks some sense into Shouto, as well as breaks Katsuki’s underserved sense of superiority, and wins the Sports Festival.
He takes on Gran Torino’s internship, who learned his secret from Nana herself. He confronts Stain and openly challenged his unrealistic standards for heroes, proving that he was genuinely insane.
All Might’s paranoia has grown to the point that he believes Izuku to being manipulated by All for One in order to close to All Might, with his paranoia made worse by Recovery Girl and Gran Torino acting as if nothing is suspicious at all and refusing to elaborate.
The Final Exams come around, and All Might reaches his breaking point when all of his attacks don’t even faze Izuku, leading him to go on a rampage trying to hurt him. This forces Izuku to subdue him by force with a punch to the head, shocking everyone there with the fact that he was strong enough to do so.
He becomes dejected when he realizes that his class becomes afraid of him, but recovers with encouragement from Ochako, who declares his love for him, and Eri, who looks up to him in the same way he does Hisashi.
All Might is then berated by Recovery Girl and Gran Torino for lashing out, and inform him that Izuku is Chiyo’s Grandson as well as Nana’s, and that he can be trusted.
The events of the Training camp occur similarly to the canon, and the class is introduced to Inko and Eri, who tag along. Izuku gets Kota to open up and see heroes in a new light.
The League attacks and initially overwhelm the pros there, until Inko arrives, having been called by Eri, and reveals herself as Wonder Woman. She easily pushes the villains back and makes short work of the nomus. Izuku also makes quick work of Muscular by showcasing his telekinetic abilities to target his body’s vital points, and rendering him unconscious. Bakugo is still captured, same as in canon.
When the public learns of Bakugo’s kidnapping and confronts U.A. over it, Inko steps up and berates everyone there for accusing U.A. of being negligent over their students’ safety, instead of letting them focus on finding and rescuing Bakugo.
The group of students go out to rescue Bakugo themselves with Inko’s help. All Might confronts All for One, only for Inko to rush pass him and begin wailing on All for One for killing her mother, showing that her strength is slightly above All Might’s prime.
All for One manages to subdue her and hold her in place with his quirks and was able to weaken Izuku when he flew in to help with a chunk of Kryptonite. He reveals that he knew that Hisashi wasn’t human and that he was still alive, since he was the one who had really scarred All for One with his heat vision. He begins to beat on Izuku and forces Inko and All Might to helplessly.
He is about to deliver the fatal blow, when Izuku unleashes a telekinetic pulse that pushes him, and frees Inko allowing her to destroy the Kryptonite. And just as All Might is preparing to use up all of his power to confront All for One, a voice from above calls out, making everyone freeze out of shock and awe, “That’s enough!”.
Hovering in the middle of the air, with a presence akin to a divine being about to render their judgement, is the thought to be dead hero, Superman in a new suit. He makes quick work of All for One, and as All for One hangs defeated in Superman’s grasp, he yells out in defiance, saying that he was dreaming if he thought that he would surrender to an extraterrestrial being like him, with his declaration having been heard by the news crews nearby. Hisashi then knock him out with a punch.
Hisashi floats in the air, seeing and hearing the shocked and fearful words of those watching, shocked that he was alive all this time and afraid of his extraterrestrial origins. All except for his family, especially Inko, who all smile at him fearless, and he is reminded of why he fell in love with her, and reveals his greatest secret to the entire world.
“My name is Kal-El of the planet Krypton. I was sent to this planet as an infant by birth parents in order to save me from our planet’s destruction, and raised by a loving couple as their own son. You all believed me to have died in my battle against Doomsday, but I simple retired to be with my family. Know this, though I am an alien, I grew up on this planet. Earth is my home, it’s people are MY people. I’m still the one that you all called Superman, the man you all chose to be your champion.”
He and Inko then reveal the sources of their powers, and that the El family crest is a symbol that stands for Hope. Overtime, the world begins to accept them as heroes, with new heroes appearing with abilities that are much more powerful than quirks, with some not even having any at all!
I’ll determine what happens next at later date. But I’ll go more into detail over the Midoriya/El Family;
Hisashi Shuzenji Midoriya/Kal-El:
He looks like an older Izuku with black hair and blue eyes. His personality and powers are akin to Rebirth Superman. He is kind, courageous, compassionate and more human than any other pro. He truly embodies the principles of hope that tomorrow can lead to a better world. He is capable of moving or destroying entire planets, flying through a red sun, and can power through the weakening affects of Kryptonite. He is the counterpart of Clark Kent/Kal-El.
His original costume(he eventually goes back to wearing it):

His second costume(worn when he confronts All for One):

Inko Shimura Midoriya;
She is much like Rebirth Lois Lane, with the calming presence of DC animated universe Wonder Woman. She is fearless when it comes to facing the unknown and is accepting of others. She is nurturing by nature and wears her emotions on her sleeve. She is still prone to her bouts of intense crying like in canon. Her powers are akin to Rebirth Wonder Woman, and she does everything she can to ensure that hidden truth always comes to light. Her hair turns black when she uses her powers due to magic. She is primarily Lois Lane’s counterpart, with Nana being Diana’s primarily counterpart.
Her Original Costume:

Her Second Costume(worn when she revealed herself at the training camp):

Izuku Shimura Midoriya/Jon-El;
He much the same as Canon Izuku, and when his powers awaken, he begins to take on personality traits of both Teenage Jon Kent, and New 52 Superman. He wants to be able to help everyone, including the villains he’ll end up facing as a hero. He is a man of action and leading by example, earning him the title, “Teen of Tomorrow”. He’s powers are on the same scale as New 52 Superman and Superboy, and can use them to the same proficiency as Infinite Frontier Jon Kent. He has telekinetic abilities that he can use the simulate his dad’s powers when low on Solar Energy. He loves Ochako and their adopted daughter Eri,

and will make whoever harms them come to regret it.

His hair slowly started turning black and his eyes turned blue after his powers awakened, to show his Kryptonian genes becoming dominant. He is Jonathan Samuel Kent’s counterpart.
His Original Costume:

His Superboy Costume:
#my hero acedamia#boku no hero academia#midoriya izuku#izuku midoriya#hisashi midoriya#midoriya hisashi#inko midoriya#midoriya inko#izuocha#eri (bnha)#eriizuocha#dc superman#my hero superman au
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Meditation on The Mind of Winter song by David Duchovny.
David Duchovny's newest album is Gestureland. The song Mind of Winter is not my favorite song off the album, but it is the song that causes me to think the most. The Mind of Winter reference is to a poem by Wallace Stevens called The Snow Man. Some recent viewers of The Chair likely heard David Duchovny strumming his guitar and singing a few lines from Mind of Winter and heard Sandra Oh say "That's the only rock song I've heard that references Wallace Stevens" With all of that as the backdrop of this song, I wanted to share my thoughts on the lyrics.
First, let me express what the Stevens poem means to me. Worth noting that I did not study this poem in any academic sense or read much on it and so, my thoughts on it are my own and the reader of this may not agree or may have, in fact, more knowledge. However, these are my meditations. So, when I read The Snow Man I see two themes in opposition to each other (which is something that I enjoy).
The first is that the snowman must devoid himself of the emotion connected with winter to appreciate the landscape of winter. The second is that the snowman must be himself well familiar with cold and winter to see beyond the misery of winter and become unfeeling within that landscape.
The first appeals to me as a philosophy in that if we can devoid ourselves of preferring the beach in summer or knowing any of the literary imagery of the winter months or having walked in a snowstorm or fallen on ice, then we can experience the now and the moment and beauty of frost and junipers shagged with ice. It is the same way to me of how I see the beauty of the desert which is the environment in which I was raised and in which I now live. It has an amazing beauty if you stop associating it with concepts of a barren wasteland of heat and thirst.
The second causes my heart to feeze but I understand it so well. When you have lived without rain, then you can become accustomed to drought. In the poem then we take all the imagery of winter cold to heart and think that because I have not had warmth I have become immune to the element of cold. My emotions have frozen over because I have not felt the emotions of passion or caring I might prefer to have known.
This frames me, then, in a way for the contradictory elements in David Duchovny's song The Mind of Winter. The refrain hook of I swear that I'll be simpler is repeated in a song that seems to be not simple at all and sung by a character so complex that simpler is not possible. I have to remind myself that this is not a song of The Snow man. It is a song reflecting only a reference to the phrase The Mind of Winter from the poem The Snow Man.
So the song begins with a journey. As opposed to the snowman who cannot journey. There was weather everywhere on this journey and I bring in the emotion I have to the concept of "weather everywhere". That makes it a hard and dangerous "stormy" journey. A pretender on the throne could be someone usurping your place in a marriage or a stepfather to your kids, but it could also be a King or President who doesn't really belong in the position- but in looking back there didn't seem to be a silver-tongued pleaser who could rise to the times - another love to take the place in the relationship you've lost or possibly the person who could unite a nation?
Then the character explains the reason for the journey- if you hadn't put the words on me - if I could grow up and throw away the maps and geography. Did you tell me I was smart? Did you tell me I was born poor? Did you tell me I was a man and made me think toxic masculinity was the norm? Was I expected to get married? Was I expected to be a father? Was I expected to be a stud in order to be a man? How much of who I am and what I've done in my life is because of who I was told I was and what I was supposed to do? Can I become a better, more self-aware and self-actualized human being through this journey? Wow- that's a really great verse.
Then the chorus and If I come back sounds like he is not sure he will make it back due to the dangers of the journey, but it could also be that he will choose not to come back to the life he led or from which he fled. Perhaps he will be an expatriate never to return to his country. But if he does come back he will be simpler (I will wait to discuss this further). Then the refrain from The Snowman I"'ll have a mind of winter. (a mind that will live in the moment now on whatever landscape he finds himself, will not judge the moment or the landscape based on preconceptions or will learn to accept the frozen conditions of a life without love?}
The next verse is the verse I have the most difficultly understanding. I keep thinking there are references contained within this verse not to the Mind of Winter, but to other works I cannot connect. Certainly, the person is lost at sea without land in sight. Yet, he does not accept a landless condition or the beauty of the sea as a merman (a play on Snowman) might. This is a desperate man with no end in sight to his misery and in the fog which I am interpreting as the noise, the cloud, the environment which surrounds him, he sees blame and people pointing at him, blaming him, shaming him. Perhaps they are keeping him from the land because he is not deserving. He falls to his knees among the birds and dying bees. He is desperate. When I think of the birds and the bees I think of sex. But why the dying bees? Here I think this is a call to an environmental awakening because the bees are dying, folks! Then he tries to find his tongue to trace the maiden name of God. Ok, I still think of sex, but I also think of mother earth. I have heard about the rare Jewish use of the name El Shaddai which means nurturing God or the God that should be sufficient? I don't know enough about it to know if it fits within these words.
I need to have more knowledge or more meditation but for now, I think it has the double meaning of we are adrift with no way to solve our ecological disaster and restore mother earth and the man is adrift and is to blame and he must find his connection to the sacred within women so he can understand and relate to the harm he's done. Again, this is the verse I am the least sure about even my own interpretations or what I am reading into them.
However, the next verse reinforces what I believe I understood from the verse before which is that nature is wounded and we need to throw away all of our deadly philosophy around conquering, claiming, drilling and mining and learn to live in a more harmonious coexistent with mother earth. Also, that if I can feel my own pain and the pain of others and live the isolation I deserve then I can arrive at a place where I can both appreciate the landscape and the life I have at the moment I am in now AND that I have adjusted to the lack of warmth in my life enough to not seek warmth for the sake of warmth alone. Either way, the verse takes us back to the reason for the journey - I need to learn who I would be if I could shed myself of your deadly philosophy.
Then the chorus again. So does simpler mean I will have fewer expectations for myself? Does it mean I will stop consuming as much and try to leave a footprint of less ecological impact? I think it means both. I will have a mind of winter and be ok with where I am at now because that is all any of us can do. I will live life simpler so I don't destroy the planet more?
I think this song is very reflective of the title of the album Gestureland because we all want to reflect our identity and what it means - are we woke, or we politically correct, are we fuck the establishment, but all of that is complicated. Does the snowman have to wear a sign saying snowman for you to know that's what he is? Less noise. Simpler. But then I start thinking of everything is noise, and then the I can't reverse line from chapter and verse, and I am back to all the songs in the album which, without this being a theme album, fits so well together. Then I relisten to it all and find this is the song I stop at to mediate on a bit more.
Go to DavidDuchovny.com to read the lyrics to Mind of Winter and to wherever you find music to listen to it.
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Explaining the Iceberg #6
*Some things aren’t covered, namely things i’ve already discussed or content that I don’t feel is appropriate. And not everything is covered in depth
Tatterdemalion Moon Colonies: A since deleted forum post from MK, discussing the moon colonies of Reman that would later appear in c0da
Tamriel is the Far Shores: Orgnum is the immortal King of the Maormer, also said to be the Serpent God of the Sakatal’ indicating some connection to the Yokudan God of everything, Sakatal. Orgnum’s goal is to conquer Tamriel, this theory states that he may have mantled the Yokudan God and is confusing Tamriel for the Far Shores.
Water is Memory: One of the more difficult concepts to really pin down in these kind of theories, so bear with me. This topic has been brought up a few times in older lore discussions, and once again in ESO quite recently. First there should be clarification that I mean water both metaphorically and literally, just like the towers, there is no distinction between real and fake because this is a video game world. Second thing to note: There’s a lot of conflicting theories and ideas on this, i’m only providing the way I can conceptualize this all. If I provided every theory i’d surely hit some sort of character limit. Do you remember the metaphor about every soul in existence being a singular drop in an ocean? This is looking at the ocean itself, it’s the collective consciousness and memories of everyone out there, past, present and future. But this isn’t a synonym for souls and energy, this is a whole separate process. Sometimes souls are shown to be able to live without their memories (the soul carin), sometimes reflections of people's memories get stuck to places like ghosts (memory stones) When someone dies, their soul/energy and their memories may stick together and go to an Aedra or Daedra, or they might get split apart (like a Vestige) and end up in the Dreamsleeve to get recycled and in the Drowned Lamp which is a name for where all knowledge lost to history goes. This concept can be seen with the Daedra too, when discussing the ‘waters of oblivion’ when they get banished their essence heads back to this beginning place to spring back up. Water is memory also gets brought up quite often talking about Sotha Sil, who Vivec says is the selfishness of the sea, and whose ‘daughter’ is Mnemoli/Memory.
Crassius Curio, Time traveller: Another variant on the Crassius Curio plagiarism theory, accounting for why the lusty argonian maid is in ESO.
The Republic of Hahd: Mentioned in the Pocket Guide to the Empire, a group of people who claimed they lived off the coast of summerset, in an underwater civilization called Hahd. The only point in history that they became relevant was when they received tariffs for the transport of ‘mnemolite’ from the people of Hahd to the people of Nahd, and nearly sparked war between the Empire and the Altmer as they tried to figure out what was going on. Hahd and Nahd were both made up, thought to be by a group of psjjic students, as the island of Artaeum disappeared in that same year again.
Leaper Demons: Another name for Mehrunes Dagon, before he was cursed to become Dagon. Named this because of his ability to jump from Kalpa to Kalpa
Zero Stone: This is related to the towers, it’s the ‘heart’ of the tower, the piece that keeps it stable and functioning, essentially like a cornerstone. For the Red Tower and Walk-Brass this was a literal heart (the Heart of Lorkhan), but sometimes it’s other things like a fruit, or a person.
Tiber Septim Awoke Dagoth Ur: In the same short time as the Tiber Wars, where Tiber Septim was attempting to conquer all of Tamriel, Dagoth Ur awoken in Morrowind, which eventually forced ALMSIVI’s hand in signing the Armistice that would make Morrowind a part of the empire, hand over the Numidium, but allow Morrowind to largely keep it’s sovereignty. This theory suggests that Tiber Septim purposefully awoke Dagoth Ur as a long-term strategy, rather than trying to defeat ALMSIVI in wars. If not done purposefully, Dagoth ur may have been awakened by the presence of Tiber Septim (whose thu’um seemed to have came from Wulfharth, a survivor of the battle of Red Mountain and associate of Dagoth Ur)
Akatosh’s Shadow: MK mentioned Peryite as Akatosh’s shadow. Akatosh/Auriel largely introduced stability into the chaos of the Dawn Era as the God of time. Peryite has a similar function, that being natural order, where he micromanages Oblivion and Nirn. There’s more to this theory that i haven’t included due to sake of brevity https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/4zct3i/the_shadow_of_aka_peryite/
The people of Et’Ada: Mentioned in the books The Light and Dark and Sithis, the people of et’ada are the descendants of the clash between Anu and Padomay, the original spirits that would give up their forms to become mortal
The Dwemer became their creations: A thought that instead of the commonly accepted Numidium Skin Theory, the Dwemer souls are the ones powering their automatons.
Lefthanded Maomer: An in-universe theory that the Lefthanded elves and the Maomer are related. Evidence for this may exist in Orgunm being ‘Sakatal’
Skyrim getting Colder: A theory that says Skyrim is entering the ice age because of the recent snowfalls and the presence of Sabertooth cats and mammoths.
Anti-Magik Zones: Probably taken from D&D, areas where magic doesn’t work for some reason or other.
The Greedy Man: Another name for Lorkhan due to him ‘stealing’ the divinity of his fellow Et’Ada
Vvardenfell Lesbian Anomaly: The prescence of a large amount of wlw npcs in ESO and the presence of Tel Mora, an island full of women and Mistress Dratha who says she hates men. While the ESO one i’d argue that there’s a fairly equal spread of same sex couples, and Tel Mora is certainly the original developers adding in something ‘strange’ by having an entirely female island, various Lgbt fans of the games have made their own theories on this. @boethiah has proposed that Tel Mora was established as a safe place for lesbians, and Telmoran is the in-universe equivalent to ‘lesbian’
Prism Textract: A reference to a book from the mod Legacy of the Dragonborn
Ruptga: The chief god of the Yokudan Pantheon, people debate on whether he’s equivalent to Akatosh or Magnus, if he’s even equivalent to any god. He was the first god to figure out the Walkabout, and taught the other gods how to survive Sakatal (God of everything) shedding its skin.
The Elder Council world control: References a theory that the Elder Council is an incredibly powerful political entity that controls the entire world. (looking at how things were handled in Oblivion, doubtful.)
Tiber Septim Shapeshifting dragon: Ingame theories that Tiber Septim was a shapeshifting dragon based on the empire’s affiliation with them. (source seems to originate from GT Noonan, pre-Oblivion and Skyrim) Could be an early idea for Dragonborns, or perhaps just a wild conspiracy theory.
Insane Time-God: Another MK text, et’Ada Eight Aedra, Eat the Dreamer. States Aka has gone insane due to how many names he has
The Staff of Unity and Chaos: The object you need to assemble in tes Arena. Is able to open gateways to other realms, near instantly kill people. In some of the early drafts of the main quest of ESO, a similar relic was proposed called the Staff of Towers, and would have been similar to the main quest of Arena.
Dracocrysalis: Mentioned in the Nu-Mantia, it’s largely unknown what this means apart from ‘it keeps elder magic bound so it can’t change into something lesser’ based off wording it probably means something akin to changing into a dragon.
Telescopic Aurbis: Refers to a quote from MK A single Wheel? More like a Telescope that stretches all the way back to the Eye of the Anui-El, with Padomaics innumerable along its infinite walls. Essentially this refers to the cycle of Kalpas, all wheels lined up with one another would make a telescope-like shape. The focal point of the telescope would be Mundus, ascending upwards you hit oblivion, then Aetherius surrounding that, and then lesser, more chaotic realms beyond that. This is also mentioned in the Murkmire book ‘Lost tales of the Famed Explorer.’
Gaenor is Sai: Gaenor is said to be one of the hardest bosses of Morrowind, in the Tribunal expansion you can give him gold and allow him to become an incredibly strong warrior. He has incredibly high luck (770 points) making him difficult to hit. This theory states that he is either Sai, the god of luck himself, or a champion of his.
Haskill is the Actual Mad God: This might be a couple different theories. 1st: The events of the Shivering Isles is a trick played on the player character by Haskill/Sheogorath, and the Sheo you see and interact with is just a projection. 2nd: From a loremaster interview from ESO, Haskill states he’s the ‘vestige’ of Sheogorath, the mortal remnants of the person who mantled the mad god in the last greymarch.
Moraelyn=Nerevar: Moraelyn of the King Edward books was likely an early draft for Nerevar. Both have association with roses, both are from House Mora and are considered a champion of the Dunmer. He probably participated in the War with the Nords, being described in the 36 Lessons.
Tsaesci Vampire Language eaters: From MK’s And we ate it to become it and another interview. https://www.imperial-library.info/content/fireside-chats Tsaesci feed on language, he doesn’t state if this is metaphorical, or literal (if that even matters in these games)
Scarab’s transformation: Refers to Scarab that Transforms into the New Man, or Amaranth. The Scarab is a metaphor for godhood. (Scarabs are symbols of divinity in Ancient Egypt) and the New Man is a person achieving Amaranth and creating a new dream/universe.
Trinimalarky: A fun name for Malarky.
King Dead Wolf-Deer: A Bosmer transformed by the Wild Hunt. Lived from the first era until the beginning of the third.
Multiple Underkings: Another statement by MK, general consensus seems to be this refers to the existence of the Underking as two people, Wulfharth a nordic general from the 1st era who held the title. Zurin Arctus, who may have taken up the title after the 2nd Era, when Tiber Septim turned him into an undead being. Or both of them sharing the same body known as the ‘Underking’
Thot-Box: https://www.c0da.es/thotbox/7b10359a40bba7d2e654bc10226f694a68009f15 the worlds worst choose your own adventure. From what I understand of KIMMUNE, a thot-box is some sort of AI
Baar Dau is Shit: Pretty well known at this point. One myth states that Malacath got into a disagreement with Vivec and pooped on Vivec City..
Nu-Hatta: In reference to the person, they’re an ancestor cult member. Otherwise this is used to refer to the Nu-Hatta Intercept written by MK. The text in question seems to be a list of the various ways mortals have achieved divinity.
Talos brought back dragons: Not sure about this one, there’s too many results to filter through to find what this is specifically about
Lyg’s Numidium: The thought here is that if Lyg is the parallel to Tamriel, then it should also have a Numidium that reinforces time and makes events a reality.
Dawn Era Ideological warfare: From UESP, Quote: The Dawn Era was a period during which time followed an incomprehensible nonlinear path and the very laws of nature remained unset, making a timeline an artificial fabrication. A conflict was simultaneously a mere ideological difference of opinion and a manifest war. What this means in simple terms, all possible outcomes in the Dawn era were simultaneous. This might also refer to the Ehlnofey wars where the wandering ehlnofey (ancestor of men) and the old ehlnofey (ancestor of mer) differed in opinion about the existence of Mundus and went to war.
Vivec destroyed Yokuda: A reference to the 17th lesson of Vivec, where Vivec states For a year they studied under their sword saints and then for another Vivec taught them the virtue of the little reward. Vivec chose a king for a wife and made another race of monsters which ended up destroying the west completely. In a literal sense (not that this means much in context of the lessons), this seems to indicate that Vivec created the sword saints, who ultimately ended up sinking Yokuda with the Pankratosword technique. Vivec also said malewife rights.
Ayrenn KIMMUNE: Another MK text. This one states Queen Ayrenn is actually a 9th era cyborg from the future. This was written after MK read an early draft for the Dominion quests and wanted to make it cooler. The writers of ESO have stated they don’t consider this canon.
Tiger Guars: A bit of old morrowind lore, Imperials would mistakenly call Guars, ‘tigers’
Hermaeus Mora is a failed Elder Scroll: Two theories here: 1st: The Black Books are Mora’s failed attempts to create Elder Scrolls (The first pages reference concepts such as the Dreamer and CHIM, Elder scrolls are fragments of creation) 2nd: Hermaeus Mora himself is a failed Elder Scroll. The Census of Daedric Princes describes him as ‘born of thrown-away ideas used during the creation of Mundus’
SITHISIT: the Ehlnofex word for Sithis
Khajiit Tattoo theft: Rajhin the thief god was said to steal a tattoo off Empress Kintyra’s neck as she slept.
Mythopoeia: irl, it’s essentially a term for ‘world-building’ In the context of the elder scrolls, it means the ability to affect reality using belief or the will to change (similar to CHIM) In morrowind Yagrum uses it to describe the enchantments Kagrenac placed upon the tools.
Dragons Biological Time-Machines: In the early drafts for dragons, MK described them as Biological Time-Machines. While this isn’t entirely reflective of what they are now, some truth holds. Being shards of Aka, dragons inherently have some ability to alter time itself.
Argonian Tits: I can’t keep doing this.
The Elven Lie: From what I gather, it seems to relate to the idea that the gods are infallible, when in fact they have weaknesses and flaws.
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Be Still, and Know That I am Near
[I’ve also posted this on my AO3!]
As a freshman at Samwell University, Connor figured that he'd be leaving his home life behind in Arizona. However, an early morning encounter in the locker room provides him with the opportunity to grapple with his faith as well as find some sense of closure.
(A special thanks goes out to Emiliana [ @lifeofthetryhard on Tumblr] for her help with translating the Spanish. Although Connor is Mexican-American and she’s Venezuelan, her grasp of Spanish is much better than my own.)
“¿Estás seguro de sabes dónde está la pista?”
Connor pinched the bridge of his nose as he glanced up at the clock above his dorm door. “Sí, Mamá,” he answered, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice lest he be called out for using a tone. “Tengo el mapa que me dio.”
“Solo pregunto porque me preocupo de ti, mijito,” his mother reminded, still using the sickly sweet tone that she used when he was a baby. “Trajiste el-”
“Me tengo que ir, Mamá. Te quiero.”
“Te quiero, Connor.”
Putting his phone away, Connor picked his gear bag off the floor and quickly made his way out the door and down the lobby stairs. The fading summer sun was already halfway to its throne at the top of the sky, bathing Lake Quad in its brilliant golden light. Since the semester had not officially started, he could walk along the cobblestones without fear of crashing into someone.
As clichéd as it was, the photos on the official Samwell website could not compare to the beauty of the real campus. Given how the weather along the Eastern coast had been much warmer this past year, the trees were still lush with their leaves. It wasn’t nearly as warm as it would have been back in Arizona, but the feeling of the sun on his back was like a hug from an old friend.
Faber Memorial Rink was a decidedly modern building, especially in comparison to the more colonially-inspired architecture of most of the campus. It was almost intimidating in the way it loomed over the trees and shrubs that dotted its exterior. To some, sports were akin to a religion, so Connor supposed that Faber would be a cathedral. The giant windows that captured the morning light only more strongly enforced the metaphor.
“Mamá would probably have my head for talking about religion like that,” he grimaced as he entered the main hall of the rink. Still, Connor couldn’t help but compare the giant crimson banners that adorned the walls to the purple flags that his home parish would put up during Lent. Signs and symbols of what each institution held dear were woven into both. Even the Latin motto of “Penitus Potes de Fonte Sapientiae” was a reminder of the life he’d left behind at home.
Or rather, the life he was trying to leave behind.
The lights already being on in the locker room was strange, but Connor brushed it off as one of the custodians passing through earlier. The expanse of rooms that he’d toured through after officially accepting his admission offer was by no means the most extravagant he’d seen. In fact, it disgusted Connor just how much money some schools put into their sports teams while letting their libraries and lecture halls fall into squalor. It was, however, nice that he didn’t have to worry about tripping over ripped carpeting.
He paused for a moment before the trophy case. In the aforementioned light, the wood finish of the cabinet appeared to be the same shade of crimson as the Samwell crest. Connor wondered if that was an intentional choice on the commissioner’s part. Beyond the glass panes were the various trophies, plaques, and medallions that had been awarded to Samwell players of yesteryear, though the majority of them were more recently dated. The name Jack Zimmermann seemed to be part of ninety percent of all the awards- he even had one all to himself for being voted team captain three years in a row.
“I guess he really was well liked, both on and off the ice.”
Another award that caught his eye was the John Carlisle Award. “For exemplification of team spirit through enthusiasm and devotion to the game,” Connor read aloud, his eyes falling on the only recipient of the award. “Eric Bittle, 2013.”
News about Eric Bittle had spread through the college hockey channels even before Connor had decided to accept his offer to Samwell. He was just rather different compared to almost every other up and coming forward- a background in figure skating, a fondness for baking, his… general demeanour, to put it lightly. Connor supposed it was noble in its own way for Eric to stick to his ways rather than try to change his personality for the sake of a sport. As long as Eric was good on the ice, he didn’t really care about what the guy did in his spare time.
Hockey wasn’t what Connor pictured himself doing after graduating- part of it was the lack of privacy associated with professional sports. Even if he didn’t do post-game interviews or speak to reporters, his whole identity would be up for the world to speculate about. That was the sort of perpetual attention that he couldn’t stand.
As he came out of his labyrinth of thoughts, he became aware of a repetitive sort of sound that couldn’t be attributed to the sound of the water pipes up above. Grabbing his bag, Connor tried to move towards the locker room as quietly as he could. Fear wasn’t something that ran in his blood- not fear of noises anyways.
Connor stopped just by the doorway. His grip tightened around the handle of his bag, as though he could swing it in self-defense. Most days, he paid more attention to his legs than his upper body. One of the upperclassmen- Chowder, he thinks their name was- had mentioned something about Coaches Murray and Hall being strict about workout regimens. That was the kind of infringement that Connor didn’t quite appreciate, though he understood why it’d be important. With bated breath, he whirled around and nearly stumbled into the locker room.
“Hello, Connor!”
“Tony?” he replied in surprise before quickly correcting himself. “I mean, Tango?” The nickname culture was still something he was trying to get used to. Prior to coming to Samwell, he had simply gone by Connor or, more rarely, ‘Con.’ The others on the team, however, were insistent on giving him a new nickname; he’d be damned if it was something silly like ‘Whiskers’ or even ‘Whiskey.’
“I don’t even like the taste of whiskey.”
“You’re on the floor.”
Tango’s eyebrows shot up as though he were surprised by this observation. “I was pretty much done anyways!” he answered as he got back on his feet. “Did you want some privacy? My stall’s over there anyways; I just like the airflow from the vent here and-”
“Hold on.” Connor sliced his hand through the air, his lips tight as he tried to keep his expression neutral. “Done with what, exactly?” It was only then he noticed that Tango had something in his hand that was also looped around his wrist.
With that, Tango simply opened up his fisted hand to reveal a rosary, its glassy blue beads refracting the overhead light. “Praying- I try to get a decade or two in before practices.” When Connor didn’t immediately respond, he started to explain. “Oh, it’s a rosary- Catholics use it to pray and we count along the beads, but we start here with the crucifix-”
“I know what a rosary is, Tango,” Connor quickly interjected before he got a Sunday school crash course. “I was just, I don’t know, surprised, I guess. To see you, you know…” He gestured at the part of the locker room floor where the other man was just kneeling.
To his surprise, Tango didn’t seem quite upset by his rather abrupt response. Instead, he simply ran his fingers over the beads before looking back up at Connor. “I didn’t scare you, did I? I’m just used to being the first one in a locker room since my dad was responsible for maintaining the rink back home.”
“No… Look, can I ask you something that’s probably a bit personal?”
“Of course! What is it?”
Connor sighed as he looked up at the vent Tango had mentioned earlier. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” he began, a sentence starter that was rarely, if ever, followed by an easy question. “Why here, why now? You could always go into Boston on Sunday.”
As the words left Connor’s lips, there was an aching at the back of his mind. He knew exactly why Tango would be praying the rosary. It was as if he couldn’t believe himself- the truth sounded like an utter lie when he said it.
Doubt, he had been told all his life, could not coexist with faith. In fact, it was the absence of faith. Connor wondered if the priests back home just had a script to follow when it came to quelling uncertainties about the hows and whys of Catholicism.
“You know in your heart that the teaching is clear.
Faith in the Father has led your soul here.
Bear up the cross, let the Church be your spine.
Don’t question too much,
And you’ll get along fine.”
Eighteen years of being told to follow, obey, and believe had caused Connor to falter in all three aspects. Actually, scratch that- it was easy to follow. Perhaps too easy at times. He went to Mass every Sunday because his whole family went- one had to be on their deathbed to miss out. Knowing his family, they’d even wheel him in and park said bed in the aisle during the Mass.
Obeying was similar in most respects. Connor knew the rules and why his family insisted they follow them. That was the difference, really- to obey was to intentionally follow, to be mindful of why the rules are what they are. Funnily enough, he had to look into the history of the Church’s customs to understand their context. The priest at his home parish always glossed over those in favour of condemning the ways of the world in his homilies.
To believe… that was the hardest part of his faith. Catholicism, like so much of life, was full of self-contradictions. Having existed for over two millennia, such was inevitable. Yet rather than try to reconcile the conflicting doctrines, the faithful were expected to accept it all as God’s will.
“What good is it to blindly accept it and believe? Do you really have faith if you don’t know who or what you’re putting your faith in? Not that I could ever ask that out loud- those would be grounds for excommunication. Or worse, rejection from my family.”
It seemed that Tango was also deep in thought because it was only now that he gave an answer. “I know I could pray at church, but why not make use of my free time right now?” He gestured to the still, empty locker room. “Everyone’s got their pregame rituals, their ways to clear their minds. Mine just happens to be prayer.”
“How can you believe in something that doesn’t make sense, in something that condemns people for things they can’t control?” Connor could feel a hauntingly familiar tightening in his chest and his throat. To keep his hands from shaking, he balled them up into fists, his nails digging into his palms. The thoughts bouncing around his head were no longer under his tight mental control- it was as if Connor was now feeling everything he’d been bottling up for so long all at once. “It doesn’t fucking make sense!”
Tango, by virtue of him being, well, Tango, was probably preparing to ask a question. So Connor steeled himself in preparation so that he wouldn’t end up lashing out at his teammate. His own questions about their apparent shared faith were already volatile enough, so he wouldn’t be surprised if Tango was offended by his language and gave him the cold shoulder from now on.
Yet, instead, Tango took Connor’s hand and just gave it a gentle squeeze. “I know it doesn’t make sense- if the Church couldn’t figure it out after two thousand years, they probably never will.” He looked up to meet Connor’s eyes. “There’s not a lot I’m sure about, Connor. But I know that praying helps calm me down. That and going to Mass are just things my family has always done- so I guess it’s like bringing a part of home with me?”
“Part of home,” Connor echoed as he reached into his bag and pulled out the rosary his Mamá had packed into his belongings before he left Arizona. The dark green glass of the beads were almost black in the shadow of his fingers, but the medal of St. Sebastian at its center seemed to sparkle nonetheless. “Jesus, I- wait, no, shouldn’t have said that. I just- I haven’t really prayed this in so long. Most of the time, I just followed my family when they moved their fingers.”
Tango’s eyes went wide as he looked at the rosary in Connor’s hand. “Woah, did you get that for your first communion too?”
“Uh… probably?
“Me too! Unless this was my confirmation rosary… or maybe it was my graduation rosary? What is it with relatives and giving rosaries as presents?”
Connor shrugged, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “You’re telling me- my abuela gets everyone in the family a rosary every Christmas, Easter, and September 8th. Somehow, she hasn’t bought any duplicates so far.”
“My aunt makes them with string and those plastic beads little kids use to make art- like this!” Tango gestured to a bead lizard that was hanging off the side of his own hockey bag. “I can’t even imagine how long it takes her to make them for all of my cousins…”
Instead of using the extra time on their hands to get changed, Connor and Tango ended up sitting together in the former’s stall, just talking about their families and lives before Samwell. For Tango, it seemed that praying the rosary was less about delving into his connection with God, but rather, about keeping his connection with his family.
If Connor were a philosophy or theology major, he’d be tempted to say that those things were one and the same.
As Bitty called everyone out to the ice to begin practice, Connor took one last look at his rosary, now hanging from a hook in his stall. Even if he wasn’t any closer to understanding the faith he’d been raised in, he at least had a friend to take this journey with.
⁂
Sundays, according to Bitty, were generally free days for the Samwell Men’s Hockey team unless they made it to the playoffs. So the following week, Connor met Tango in the South Quad early in the morning before heading into the suburbs around the university. He was thankful for the rows of trees that lined the campus sidewalks- it was always gross to sweat through his dress shirt.
Mass at the parish of Our Lady of the Incarnation didn’t start until 11:00 AM, so after they sat in one of the pews, Tango pulled down the kneeler. With a nod from his new friend, Connor fished into his pocket and took out the beads his mother had packed in his belongings.
“Go for it, Whiskey.”
His rosary, once a foreign, almost unnerving memento, now felt intimately familiar in his hand. He pulled out a small paper from his other pocket and began to read it, the pewter crucifix held reverently between his thumb and pointer finger.
“En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo. Amén. Creo en Dios, Padre todopoderoso, creador del cielo y de la tierra…”
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RP Headcanons: DC Edition, pt 1
Batfam
Bruce cares, tries, and fails, but generally keeps trying for his kids.
Baby Terry McGinnis is the cutest thing ever and his dinosaur t-shirts reinforce this.
Slade Wilson - terrible person, great assassin, loving (if strict) parent.
Dick and Bruce fight constantly! Once Dick gets mad about something, everything makes him more angry until he and Bruce eventually resolve the first problem. It's sometimes big stuff... sometimes really petty shit.
Steph loves waffles. She will trade Tim for a 4-stack with chocolate chips.
Everybody wants to pair with Bruce on Gotham patrols. He gets the best fights and he brings snacks in the belt - it's a 50/50 if it's protein bars or trail mix, though.
Nobody wants to pair with Bruce on Gotham patrols. He won't let you make Social Media posts or stop for a hotdog at Rico's corner stand.
Jason and Dick actually fight a lot, still. Jason knows how to push Dick's buttons and he uses that as a self-defense tactic when he doesn't want to talk. ("Get Dick mad and he won't ask if I'm okay!")
Cass loved Steph before Steph loved Cass. Stephanie figured it out... eventually.
Lucius Fox only helps with the really weird shit because Bruce trades him Alfred's secret holiday recipes sometimes. Alfred's recipes are the true treasures of Earth.
Duke does his best not to get swept up in the weird, wild lives of his batsiblings tbh.
Tim doesn't babysit, he gets babysat.
Ace is the Good Boy™ but he will try and take Krypto down.
Titus is trained, we swear, but he's goofier than a ferret on drugs sometimes. 10/10 derp.
Sometimes Dami gives Batcow walks through the garden to help her relax.
Every Batfam member will stab the other for the last piece of Ma Kent's apple pie. Even Alfred.
Superfam
90s Kon and YJ Kon both deserve to exist. What better combo than the Insta-famous, outgoing showboat and the blunt, introverted buffbaby?
YJ Kon is way more of a "Conner" than 90s Kon. 90s Con is now "Carter."
Carter + Tim = Flashy Disaster Couple
Conner likes Wally's freckles.
Ma and Pa Kent accept any and all grandkids, time-travel or dimension-hopping be damned because "They're our boys, now, Clark, of course we want to see them!", and there are family trips to the farm.
Clark will bribe his friends and teammates with his mother's cooking. He can't bribe with his own, though, because he's terrible at it.
Jon would happily fly to Gotham for dinner before eating what his father burned made for them.
Krypto would probably go, too.
Clark doesn't know what to do with all of his sons but at least they aren't like his cousins.
"It's not about whether the boob window would look good or not, guys! It isn't happening!" is still something he's had to say before, though, and Clark's mildly ashamed of it.
With three superboys up to bat, the real issue is that none of them want to share the name. Jon had it first and that's fine with his brothers, really. Conner looks and feels like practically an adult, so he's meh about it. Carter wants something catchier to say. The result? Superboy, Kon and Rao.
Jor-El had a conniption when Carter named himself "Rao" as a hero. "You named yourself after OUR GOD?!? You disrespectful little-!"
Lex thought it was hilarious.
The boys are constantly in the background of Carter's posts and there's a few Insta vids of Lex trying and failing to hide that he's mildly amused by his son's shenanigans.
Flashfam
Barry is face-blind (has prosopagnosia). He can gradually memorize specific elements of a person's face ("Uh... Ollie's hair is like mine, right? So he's blond! And I know he has facial hair.") but has trouble associating them together unless he's had long periods of exposure to the person.
Wally is a nervous bundle of anxiety. All of the time.
Barry is practically incapable of looking on the dark side of things, and tends to believe the best of people - this extends to his villains.
Cisco is his bro, Caitlin is like the ditzy aunt, and Harrison is the exasperated father-figure that just wishes his kids didn't drink so much coffee.
Speaking of coffee - Barry doesn't drink it on the job. It makes him antsy.
Captain Boomerang - Digger, to his friends - is always on the edge of getting out of the game. Raising Owen ("Little Diggs") is a higher priority than his Rogues work. He waivers between retirement and always that "last" job that'll set him up to take care of his son.
Little Diggs is too pure for this world, and a fan of Flash even though he knows his father is a villain.
Wally isn't as forgiving with the Rogues as Barry is. This is especially true for Heatwave, Glider and Cold, since they've all double-crossed the Flash before.
Cold isn't fond of Kid Flash. Barry earns his respect and, in some ways, his admiration - this doesn't extend to Flash's smartassed sidekick.
Lisa and Mick are a surprisingly functional duo despite their dysfunctional dynamic. Lisa is generally in charge in their relationship, and Mick knows Len would ice him if he ever raised a hand to Lisa.
Len and Mick are best friends, despite the friction from their clashing personalities.
Lisa keeps pushing Len to either date or pick a favorite hooker - anything to get him laid and chilled out for once.
Len is practically addicted to puns. Not even just cold- or ice-related puns, either! He will make puns out of anything when given an opportunity, and genuinely is amused by them.
Arrowfam
Oliver is never in control of his daily life. He's barely in control of his personal choices most of the time.
Felicity runs it all - the team, the company, organizing his assignments from the League... everything other than doing the hard stuff herself.
Ollie really is a capable hero, but he doesn't believe it. He also doesn't particularly believe that the League needs or wants him there, but couldn't tell you why exactly they keep him, then, if questioned about it.
Roy has totally given up the flash and mystique of heroism tbh. Trucker hat? Check. Bow, arrows, and backup guns? Check. Flip-flops? All the better to chase people with. The slapslapslap of justice will strike terror in the hearts of muggers everywhere.
Oliver spoils Lian relentlessly.
Artemis is glad to avoid the weird shit that Roy and his clones get up to when Ollie isn't paying attention. She's never been more thankful that she isn't one of the adopted sidekicks.
Jim: Big, friendly, easily guilt-tripped, the pretty one.
Will: Mature, down-to-earth, does the guilt-tripping, the mom/dad friend.
Roy: Trash, amger!!!, can't be guilt-tripped but can be blackmailed, has no clue what he wants in life yet.
Lian will either murder you in your sleep or you are now a member of her family. There is no in-between.
No pets. Ever. They will get shot with an arrow by accident and nobody in the house is willing to deal with that emotional burden.
Oliver wants exactly 0 people in the "Arrowfam" but will kill you and/or himself over losing any member of his Arrowfam.
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Why gambling mania?
Why gambling mania?
Fun, exciting, interesting, high adrenalin rush, loads of money are some of the adjectives associated with gambling. All these factors have made gambling an extremely popular game among all sections of the society. People, especially college goers are nowadays going crazy about gambling.
According to recent news, Australia is the country where almost 80% of the country’s population loves to gamble. From the casinos, pubs to horse races, Australians seems to gamble every where.
One of the crucial reasons behind the growth of gambling mania is recession and budget deficit. Both the American and Canadian government found an innovative method of collecting revenues from the people during recession period. They encouraged and legalized gaming canters on many parts of the country. The states introduced several lottery programs and gambling games such as bingo, satta matka, slot machines and video lottery terminals. Attractive royalties and winning prizes also encouraged people to gamble. This not only heightened the popularity of gambling but also created gambling maniacs. A large chunk of the jobless unemployed youths are also heavily addicted to gambling. With the introduction of gambling business in the internet, gambling mania has also witnessed a steep rise.
One has to admit that the mania over gambling is definitely infectious. It is hard to resist one self from playing, when the whole world seems to be playing. The cards and slotting machines are intoxicating enough to try again and again even when you are losing. Gambling is the easiest short cut to money. In an hour it can turn a beggar to an emperor of a big palatial home.
There are several ill effects of gambling mania. People in lure for money do not think twice before committing a crime. There are several heinous cases, such as, a boy killing his parents when they forbade him from gambling. It is good to gamble in a sporting manner and not turning into maniacs.
Uganda casino – best choice for all
Thanks to an assortment of accomplishments these days, Uganda has become well-known to a large extent. This nation is positioned in the midst of East Africa, succeeded in achieving its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and is on the whole a landlocked republic. We need not delve into other aspects of the country and focus on only one – presence of casino culture in the country. However, it has to be stated that casino culture is not powerful different from its counterparts. Casinos in the country happen to be the only legally recognized gambling on hand, and there is only one Uganda casino situated in the city center of Kampala. What is Kampala? Kampala happens to be the capital and largest city of Uganda and it is located on the north shore of Lake Victoria.
Kampala casino consists of twelve gaming tables and these include American Roulette,satta matka, blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Let It Ride, and Pontoon and have, in addition, an impressive restaurant known as Fortunes. Why am I using the word spectacular? This is perhaps your question too; well, the first and foremost reason is that Fortunes brings forth a wide-ranging carte du jour or carte. What can you get there? In brief, lots and these take account of salads and starters together with a specialty dish known as Chicken Shaslik. Well, Chicken Shaslik is on the whole strips of chicken grilled in barbecue sauce. Are you discontent still? Go for a great number of meat dishes then in conjunction with a wide range of desserts.
Never try to brush aside the bar in Uganda casino proffering beer together with a large amount of wines and cocktails. Even if you are a perfect teetotaler, try to have a sip of the local cocktail or Kampala Casino Iced Tea. Kampala Casino Iced Tea consists of a perfect blend of vodka, tequila, Malibu, Bacardi, Triple Sec, and Coca Cola.
Even if you are in quest of a grand family holiday, Uganda casino seems to be the best choice.
Guatemala casino scenario changing gradually
Now we don’t need to know anything more of Guatemala. It is already know that the country exists in the domain of Central America, shares borders with countries like Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. In addition, while it shares southwest border with the Pacific Ocean, the northeast border is shared with the Caribbean Sea. Again, even after containing an assortment of attention-grabbing facets regarding nature, environment, culture and history, Guatemala is skipped by most people thanks to its mounting political instability.
There is another peculiarity too and it’s in relation to the republic’s casino culture. Throughout the nation, there is only one casino and it is positioned in Guatemala City. It is recognized as Fantastic Casino, renowned for proffering three table games for the gambling pleasure. Two of these happen to be for blackjack,satta matka and one is for roulette, in addition to 190 slot machines. Whatever it is, the casino, as per players, is an ideal specimen a head-in-the-clouds ambiance, intense vigor in conjunction with the best thrill and fun.
This was the general picture till a few days back but it is changing too and this is on account of the mounting popularity of online bingo. The growth of bingo in the sphere of both United States and United Kingdom is almost complete or the market is getting saturated increasingly and it can certainly be said that the game has taken both countries by storm and is expanding tentacles to other parts of the globe.
What are its prime targets then? Aside from rest of Europe, it is targeting Spanish-speaking countries substantially. It is worthwhile to mention that Spanish is spoken in 21 countries all over the globe and millions of people in the US too make use of Spanish as their main language.
Do you know that one of these countries is Guatemala? Furthermore, it along with Nicaragua, El Salvador and others form a great unexploited market.
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Unfunnymen

Sooner or later one has to face El Brendel, in the same way that sooner or later one has to face death.
But by way of working up to the grim task gently, let's start with Joe E. Brown. This vaudevillian, graced with an unnaturally wide mouth, which seemed on the verge of separating cranium from lower jaw, and giving him the flapping head of a South Park Canadian, spelled fortune to the exuberant, hearty, not particularly funny man who had been applied around this yawning abyss like lipstick.
We tend to remember Brown more fondly than his moderate talent deserves, because he delivers a classic closing line in a classic comedy. The line is "Well, nobody's perfect," and the film is Some Like It Hot (1959) and it's a good demonstration that great dialogue is often great because of context rather than because of the brilliant assembling of words. Here, the phrase is a commonplace one, but nobody can forget it when they've heard it used to cap the film's closing scene. Perhaps it was the prosaic nature of the line which caused its writers to doubt it: Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond wrote it the night before filming, and turned in saying "Maybe we'll think of something better in the morning.”

Joe E. Brown says the line the way he said about every line of his career, enthusiastically, with a goggly stare and an effort to draw the corners of his rubbery mouth as far apart as possible. Stretching his elastic features like a chest expander was basically all he did. He was blessed with a funny face, but what was under it? A perfectly ordinary skull. No funny bones here.
Brown starred - actually starred! - in a whole series of pre-code comedies which prove that not everything made at Warners in the thirties was forward-looking, funny and challenging. He played "lovable" losers who win in the end. Like Harold Lloyd only with his face gashed open. His leading ladies included Joan Bennett, Ginger Rogers, Olivia De Havilland, Ann Dvorak. To contemplate any of those films proceeding beyond the final clinch-and-fadeout is to consider bestiality. One feels Bette Davis was lucky to escape his all-consuming maw. Every other Warners contract starlet was engulfed.
It's safe to assume Wilder gave him his great late role because Brown brought with him associations of a bygone age. Brown would remind audiences of the kind of stuff people used to laugh at. He isn't precisely used as a butt, more as a threat. He seems so genderless, acceptable jokes can be made about him marrying a man. Now that dream is a reality, but Some Like it Hot still seems just a little transgressive, or at least a rare film from its period which manages to imply a questioning of gender roles. Maybe Brown's earlier work would have been improved if he hadn't been required to show interest in girls. He would make a perfect speculative fiction hypothesis of what the third sex might look like. And his best quality as a comic is his alienness: like Harry Langdon, he seems to have beamed down from another world, some kind of asexual clown planet.
Warners had plenty of unappealing comic actors, but they didn't tend to make them leading men. And in small doses, mugs like Guy Kibbee or Hugh Herbert could work. H.H. had one bit of schtick, to say "woo-woo" and giggle inanely while flapping his stubbing fingers in nervous benediction. He did that for about twenty-five years and was never fatally shot or bludgeoned to death. Those were, in many ways, more tolerant times.
Woo-woo Hugh and "the Clown Prince" Brown appear together in Warners all-star A Midsummer Night's Dream, as rude mechanicals, which is perfect casting. A crowd of unfunny funnymen, delivering Shakespeare's less clever material, as background to Jimmy Cagney. The world has acquired some kind of order. But one film later, Brown will be in the lead again, baffling us.
It's bizarre that Brown played leads, since his equipment seems to better suit second banana roles. But its not as mystifying as the career of dialect comedian El Brendel, which requires the aid of a conspiracy theory to make it in any way intelligible.
The story is told that when studio boss William Fox was in a car accident, Elmer Brendel was the only one around with the right blood group to save his life. In gratitude, Fox disfigured his studio's entire output by thrusting the smirking, talentless goof into film after film.
El Brendel was in some good films, like the Oscar-winning Wings. But he's always the worst things about every film he's in, whether it's a classic like Wings or a schlock snooze like The She Creature (1956) at the far end of his career. A farrago about sea monsters and hypnosis, it's hilarious except when El is doing his comedy relief.
El Brendel's schtick was to play a fake foreigner - the Synthetic Swede was his sobriquet. With his little quacking voice he would play naive malaprops, garbling the English language. But he couldn't help smiling in apparent self-satisfaction at each of his would-be funny lines. For a character who's not supposed to know he's funny, this was a terrible mistake, and may explain why I want to murder El Brendel whenever I see him. There's a special circle of hell for comedians who act like they think they're funny. At its centre lies Red Skelton, encased in ice. But I like to think El Brendel is nearby, forced to listen to Red Skelton laugh at how hilarious he thinks he is. For eternity.
Asides from his tight little quarter-moon smile and his twinkly little quarter moon eyes in his punchable face, El Brendel is the comedian without qualities. To see him in what passes for action is to be reminded how much more than a mock accent Chico Marx brought to the screen. Chico was an incredible actor - the Brando of atsa-no-good. El Brendel couldn't even gesture at being funny. In William Wellman's You Never Know Women (1926), the clown makes his debut, playing a clown. It's all there, or rather it isn't, from the start. He is born fully unformed. Wellman resorts to putting him on a wire to try and make him funny. He doesn't even make a decent puppet. The presence in the film of an angry knife-thrower has you praying for a severed artery, but it never comes. Brendel would hang on to his eight pints until William Fox needed one of them. He wasn't talented, but he could marshal his resources.
El Brendel is not an actor, he's not a comedian, he's a gimmick in a flesh suit.
If Joe E. Brown was popular because people with an undeveloped sense of humor require comedians who look like clowns even without facepaint, and El Brendel was successful because movie executives need blood like everyone else, Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, who used the stage name Stepin Fetchit, is a different case.

Fetchit only appeared as a supporting player, but his effect was striking, slowing any scene he was in to the pace of coastal erosion. For that alone, he deserves acknowledgment, whether you welcome his derailment of fast-talking thirties movies or not.
The discomfort Fetchit produces today qualifies him as an honorary unfunnyman, since he was a black actor specializing in playing servant characters of awesome slow-wittedness. Sloping apelike into a scene, his lower lip hanging like the rear flap on a truck, as if the energy to raise it were missing, Stepin Fetchit seems to embody every negative stereotype of his day. Billed as "the laziest man alive," he melded lethargy with ignorance to create a perfect simulacrum of stupidity.
But Perry was very popular with black audiences, who understood something white viewers missed. How much fun it would be, to act like Fetchit in front of white authority! They can punish you for disobedience, but not for your failure to understand an order. Nobody was going to get any meaningful work out of this man, sunk as he seemed to be in the depths of psychomotor retardation. It seemed to be all he could manage to raise his head above chest level. His voice issued in a reedy rasp, painfully stringing words together like an infant assembling building blocks, with the sentences liable at any moment to falter, turn back on themselves, or fade out altogether. Will Rogers, embodiment of the benign white master, could demonstrate his saintliness by finding Fetchit's stream-of-unconsciousness monologues interesting, enlightening.
It is questionable whether even John Ford, who cast Fetchit regularly even after liberal embarrassment had rendered him largely unacceptable elsewhere, understood the subversive side of the comic's character. Probably he just found him funny, and a useful modifier of the generally rambunctious Ford comic scene. Fetchit had the legendary minus factor: entering a scene charged with high emotion, he could make it feel as if someone had left. Where other actors are praised for presence, he had absence. Looking around him in bewilderment, he forced the narrative to its knees, to proceed at the slothlike pace of his dull comprehension.
Of course, the joke cut both ways, since the Fetchit character made white audiences feel comfortably superior. But it's hard now to look upon his schtick without feeling racial shame, an inward cringe. The last laugh is Stepin Fetchit's: no one else is laughing.
by David Cairns
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prompt idea: Will's anxiety/sadness about him being stuck, and the party leaving him behind grows in size to where El starts sensing/picking up on it, and drags Mike's oblivious ass out to make up with Will because she has a feeling it has to do also a lot with Mike.
[related sequel! and third part!]
It felt like an itch at first. El would feel it every time Will would walk in the room, his feet dragging along the floor and sneakers skidding with each begrudging step. El was sure she was the only one who could feel it, deep in her chest and scraping up against her ribs. She ignored it and continued to smile at Max or Mike each time. It was an invisible nudge from something deep inside Will, radiating from his hung head and exhausted, pale eyes. She didn’t say anything. She was the only one who saw it when the Party was around.
But then she started to see it at home. Will would cross the hall to the bathroom and El could hear the drag of his socks on the carpet. It sounded like he had a broken leg, knee unable to bend and all his energy going towards thrusting his leg forward for just one. more. step. She’d crack her door open and watch Will cross back over to his room. The springs in his bed would creak fast and hard as he flopped down on his bed. Her chest would feel another set of nails grab at the inside of her ribs, tugging on each one on the way down to the pit of her stomach. She was afraid one would snap the night she heard a muffled sniffle coming from Will’s room.
El can feel her brother hurting, the digging and itching at her own heart coming from Will’s trembling hands trying to reach out of the darkness he’d fallen into. She’d become so familiar with the dark after so many years, she’d swallowed it up and kept it hidden from the rest of the group. But Will had found it. He’d become it.
El tries once to bring it up to Mike, the one she knows hopes will understand:
“Does Will seem… sadder– more sad to you than usual?” She asks Mike, sitting down beside him on her couch. He has his feet up on the couch beside her, tucking her into the crease. She places her hand on his ankle, getting his attention from the magazine he has open.
“More sad? For you to say that implies Will’s typically upset about something.” He says. Mike places his finger on the page where he’d been reading. He looks up at her like she’s lost again. But she can feel Will tugging at her; he’s asking for help without knowing. He’s bargaining with the blanket of black around him and El is the only one hearing it loud and clear.“He seems fine to me.”
“But… the darkness.” She says quietly, placing a hand on her chest. “I feel it.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head and ends the conversation. “Tell me about your book.”
She listens and pays attention to Mike, her “friend” as Mike starts to say with emphasis. She doesn’t mind the sound of it, but the darkness does.
She itches at her chest when he says it, trying to give relief to the ache inside her. Mike seems to love to say it, grinning each time. El starts to relate the joy she feels with the sinking loss that shifts inside her every time Will is around to hear it. Soon, she begins to associate Mike with the darkness. Will isn’t alone in there, scraping and screaming. He’s screaming to someone.
The second time El tries to voice for her darkness, she has to rattle the light out of Mike:
“Mike, I’m worried about William.”
“Why?” Mike is sitting on the floor of her room while she sits on her bed. El can feel Will sulking in the other room. He hasn’t come out in two days. She’s worried, but she can still feel the itch so she knows he’s at least alive.
“The darkness. He’s loud.”
“El, what are you talking about?” Mike is always patient when El talks over his head, trying to bring her back to their dimension. He’s always patient with her, but no one else, she thinks.
“Will. He’s upset. I think with you. Will is upset with you. You’ve done something to Will.” She says boldly. The darkness stops stirring. A body into the other room does instead.
“A-Are you talking about me?” Will’s voice croaks from the other room. El’s door was kept open for this reason; she wanted to hear him emerge when he finally broke free.
“N-No!” Mike answers, staring at El with furrowed eyebrows. “I mean, El is mentioning you, but we’re not talking about you. Or to you.” He seems embarrassed. The darkness scrapes harder, gripping her ribs.
“I am!” She corrects. “I am talking about you, Will. I’m saying your name. Come in here! Join the parlay!”
The darkness shifts and it feels suffocating to El, like a hand is pushing against her lungs. Will stands in the doorway, blanket around his shoulders and pajamas on at three in the afternoon.
“Did you mean party. Join the party.”
“Parlay has to do with gambling.” Mike adds, looking back at Will. He corrects her vocabulary to not comment on Will’s state of exhaustion.
“Gambling is… risk, right?” She asks, hand resting on her chest.
“Yeah.”
“Parlay.” She repeats. Bringing the darkness closer to Mike, to the light, was a risk. “Will is upset with you.” She says next, suddenly.
“I am not!” Will squeaks, shaking his head. “I’m not.”
“You don’t talk to him.” She says.
“I called him on the phone yesterday.” Mike says with confusion, lifting his hand to shrug.
“Will doesn’t talk.” She repeated. She patted her chest. “The darkness does.”
For a moment, the itching stops. It sinks into the pit of her stomach and pools like a melting icicle. It’s cold and unnerving. Will looks like he wants to throw up or cry. Or both. El knows it’s possible to do both.
Mike looks like he wants to laugh or question El’s reality, but he turns to Will and sees it. He can’t feel the same itching, El still knows that, but she knows he sees it on his face.
“Will, what is she talking about?”
“Nothing. Can I go back to bed?” The hands get frantic, crawling and scraping. It doesn’t want to leave the light, but Will’s panicking.
“No. Stay.” El says.
“Yeah, sit down, Will. W-What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s just stupid.” Will shrugs them off and turns around. Mike reaches out and grabs the end of Will’s blanket, keeping him in his reach. Finally, a new hand has a grip on the situation. It’s a softer hand though, it guides the pain away rather than causing it.
Mike tugs Will to the ground and places his blanket more evenly around his shoulders.
“Talk to us, Will. What is El talking about?” Mike is scared and El wonders for a moment if she isn’t all alone in her consumption of darkness. She wonders if their “friendship” is a reunion of two deep, dark pits they’d learned to swallow long ago. No, it can’t be. Mike’s eyes are wide but bright.
“You hate ‘friends’.” El says without malice. They don’t understand. Again. “When Mike says ‘friends’, you sink. It feels like you fall into the dark. You’ve cried before.”
“Friends?” Mike repeats the word slowly, trying to track the intonation El had given it. Friend. Friend. Friend. His face is tight with confusion while Will continues to wince with each word until finally the itch hitches along El’s ribs. “Girlfriend! Are you talking about when I call El my girlfriend– I’ve done it like, twice.”
“Five times.” Will corrects quickly. “You’ve said it five times.”
“Oh… I wasn’t keeping track.” Mike sounds bitter. “Why were you?”
“Nothing.”
“Hey, no I asked you a question.” Mike says.
“Mike, please, I don’t want to fight right now.” Will’s voice cracks. El’s glad it isn’t her rib. He’s fighting more than Mike at the moment, she feels.
“No, go on.” He stops and adjusts his tone. “Please.”
“I just… hearing you call her that is weird. And don’t tell me I’m going to get a girlfriend too because I won’t! I’m–” Will stops. The cold in her stomach turns to ice. “I’m just not going to. And that’s okay, but it’s hard sometimes.”
Mike is lost again, but he shows patience for someone other than El. His eyes go soft and his hands reach to fix Will’s blanket. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I–I didn’t mean to bother you.”
“You’re not– please don’t think you’re the problem. It’s not that. It’s not you. You’re fine! You’re perfect– it’s me. I’m the one who’s… different.” Will panics and surges forward but doesn’t touch anything or anyone. He hovers, but strangely enough, so does the itch.
“Different? You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Mike laughs and shakes his head.
“Isn’t it?”
“No! God, no. You’ll find someone who likes different. We all love different– El’s different isn’t she?” Mike waves out to her with a bright smile. Will looks at her and with a slow blink, she can feel him let go. He stops scraping and his voice fades to a whisper:
“Okay.”
“You’re going to be okay, Will. I promise.” Mike places his arm around Will’s shoulder and rests his head against his. “You’re going to be just fine. You’ve always got us.”
“Always got me.” El agrees. “Always got Mike.”
“Yeah.” Will smiles and it’s only partly empty. It isn’t dark, just hollow. It’ll be filled again soon enough. He’ll be okay.
“We love you, Will. Different or not. It’s all good to us. All our Will. My Will.”
El knows there is no darkness in Mike, at least not the same kind. There might be shadows in him, phantoms that she can’t feel or understand like she can with Will, but that’s because most of Mike is light. He’s bright and warm inside, the darkness inside El and Will silencing and enjoying the sunspots of his smile. Will needed to know he had a place in the light one more time. He seemed to be very forgetful.
El doesn’t know what it’s like to have the darkness grow inside from too much light, but she wants to understand. She wonders if that’s what love feels like.
#byeler#byler#stranger things writing#will byers x mike wheeler#prompts#will angst#to link#thehufflepuffwholeaptthroughtime
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You’re an idiot, Mike Wheeler
description: Since the beginning of time (or at least as far as El Hopper can remember) the town of Hawkins, Indiana has been split into two sides, north and south. With two rival High schools, Hawkins high and Clearwater high, she can't imagine ever being associated with someone from the neighbouring school.
Little does she know that she'll soon get to know a boy who will make her forget all about that.
Fandom/Pairing: stranger things - mileven, lumax & (minor) jancy Rating: general audiences Wordcount: 1571
*author’s note: this fic might include a whole lot of Romeo and Juliet references, but mark my words when I tell you, Mike and El are smarter than they are so despite the fact that Romeo and Juliet die, Mike and El most certainly will not.
Chapter one - there’s a fine line between love and hate
You know those times you're sitting in class, staring at the clock, as if it'll go any faster if you stare at it.
Mike Wheeler liked biology, well… he usually liked biology, but at this very moment, he didn't want anything more in the world than for it to end.
On the other end of town, in another school, El Hopper was sat down staring at the clock in her classroom, the sound of her English teacher's voice merely a background sound. She was waiting for the class to be over. For the bell to ring to signal that it was 12:30 and that it was finally lunch.
“You can only imagine how they must have felt, Romeo and Juliet, having to hide their love from the world, scared that if their friends or families found out they'd be forced to leave each other,” Mrs Phillips was a great teacher, she really was, but she seemed to be a big fan of tragic love stories. In Els opinion, Romeo and Juliet were quite stupid. It wasn't their fault, they were merely innocent victims of their own story, but at the same time she couldn't help but think about how weird it is to die because of a boy that you've only known for a few days, a week at the most. She didn’t really understand why people wrote grand love stories, of tragic deaths and everlasting love. Why on earth would you sacrifice everything you have just to feel love, to be with someone for eternity. She didn’t think she’d ever fall in love. Every single boy in Hawkins High was repulsive to her, she’d only ever had a crush on one boy, but he went to Clearwater high and there was no way she’d ever date anybody that lived on the north side of Hawkins. It was an unwritten rule of Hawkins, Indiana. The North and Southside didn’t interact.
El was snapped out of her thoughts all too suddenly by a light kick to her shin. She looked in the direction of the person who had kicked her, ever so impolitely in the shin. A red-haired girl and a boy wearing a terrible bandana on his head laughed at her. She rolled her eyes and tried to listen to her teacher ramble on about how teenage love is the strongest force on earth, nothing will ever stop it or destroy it.
The bell rang. A faint “the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do!” could be heard through the students rushing out to get to lunch. Now if it were any other day she would’ve just gone to lunch with her friends but it wasn’t any other day. It was Wednesday and on Wednesday she went to Benny’s diner and had waffles. For free. None of the kids from either Hawkins high or Clearwater high went to Benny’s for lunch and for that El was grateful.
She rushed outside to her bike and hurried as fast as she could to the diner. The second she walked inside she was met with the usual smell of french fries and the sound of burgers sizzling on the grill.
She was met with a couple of hellos from the staff when she sat down at the counter where the owner, Benny, was pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Hi Ellie,” he smiled “the usual Wednesday?” he had already started writing her order; waffles with ice cream, a chocolate milkshake and a small fries to the side. “You know me so well” she smiled at him.
She stood up and started walking towards her regular booth, she sat down and took her assigned reading for her English class, Romeo and Juliet, out of her bag.
“Hey, El!” Benny yelled from the kitchen, snapping her out of her book,
“what?”
“So last week there was a boy here for lunch, Mike, I think his name was. That Nancy Wheeler is his sister. You know him?”
“I’m pretty sure that he goes to Clearwater, I've never seen him at school.”
She wasn't pretty sure, she was certain. She knew who he was. He was the cute kind of nerdy. She'd seen him at the library, sometimes with two of his friends, one curly haired boy, slightly shorter than Mike and a lot more talkative. Then there was another boy as well, Will Byers. He was smaller than both of them and a lot more soft-spoken and quiet. She'd never spoken to any of them, god forbid she speak to a northsider.
She turned back to her waffles and the book, which was boring her to death, really, took a sip of her milkshake and looked out the window.
Speak of the devil and he appears, right? Perhaps not but at this very moment, none other than Mike Wheeler was hopping out of his beat-up jeep right outside the diner. El frowned. Why is he here?
The bell above the door rang as he walked in, El slouched down into her booth, still eyeing him (only slightly thinking about how cute he looked). Despite El trying not to make eye contact he turned to her. As soon as he saw her his eyes darted away, only for him to mumble something to himself and look back up, more determined this time he started to walk towards her booth until he was standing on the other side of the booth.
“Hi?” El didn't really know what to say, he was just standing there and kind of staring at her.
“Hi, uh- y-you're Jane Hopper, right? Sheriff's daughter? You go to Hawkins High?” he seemed incredibly nervous. El was amused.
“Yeah, I go by El, actually” she kept on eyeing him as he sat down in the booth, now sitting opposite of her.
“How does Jane become El? I don't, I mean- that doesn't,” He stuttered before taking a deep breath “It doesn't make sense”
“Doesn’t need to, does it?”
“It does not, and that's not why I'm here”
She took a sip of her milkshake.
“Well?”
“You write, right?” He looked as if he'd regained some of the confidence he'd walked in there with,
“Yeah, I mean sure, I write sometimes,” she was really confused as to why he was there, why he even knew her name and how he knew about her writing, “What’s it to you?”.
“I need your help with something”. He smiled at her, flashing his pearly white teeth at her.
“Isn’t Nancy Wheeler your sister? Isn't she a journalist for the New York Times or something? I'm sure she can help you more than I can,”
He laughed. “Well, that's the problem, she lives in New York, and…” he trailed off. She scoffed.
“And what?”
“And she didn't go to Hawkins High.”
“What is this thing you need my help with?” El was actually quite flattered that he'd come to her for help.
“I’m supposed to write an essay on something that I a) don't know and b) get help from an insider, and obviously I thought of Hawkins high, a school that I don’t really like but I also don’t really know anything about” (damn those beautiful eyes). The only reason that she'd say yes is that if she doesn't she's doomed to spend her time with Max and Lucas who spend more time staring at each other than being with El.
“Sure. I'll help you,”
“Really? Thanks”
“On one condition though,” he sighed. She smiled.
“You won't tell anyone that I'm the insider”
He smirked to himself, then he moved his hand toward her and shook it.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, Hopper”.
When Mike pulled over in the Clearwater high parking lot he felt an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. He talked to a cute girl and she'd even laughed with him.
When he walked in he was still on his little happiness high. He walked over to his locker, where Will and Dustin stood, pouring over their copies of the lord of the rings.
“Mike! Where have you been?” Dustins’ voice cracked the tiniest bit and Will hid a tiny laugh behind a cough.
“I was working on the new project” he beamed.
“Where? Haven’t seen you at all today”
“Bennys’ diner, great fries”
El Hopper went to sleep that night with a warm, fuzzy feeling in her stomach, the thought of dark almost-curls freckles and a smile that probably hadn’t left her face since a certain someone had left the diner during lunch. Even her dad mentioned how happy she looked.
She felt as if everything had changed during one lunch hour, she somehow had a tiny crush on Mike Wheeler, a northsider. Shit. This could not end well for either of them.
Little did she know that on the other side of town, in another neighbourhood, Mike Wheeler was laying in his bed, playing with the thought of a curly-haired and brown eyed girl. Of high-waisted jeans worn with a band t-shirt (the clash, yes! She listens to the clash!) and a pair of dirty converse shoes, of eating waffles and french fries on Wednesdays at a certain diner in the middle of the highway. A blue bike parked out front and the smell of strawberries and cinnamon (gingerbread, he’d thought). Mike felt as if he could drown in her smile, be blinded by her light, and somehow, when he thought about it, he didn’t mind at all.
#mileven#high school! mileven#mike wheeler#el hopper#jane hopper#lucas sinclair#max mayfield#lumax#mileven fanfiction#stranger things fanfiction#stranger things au#aliwritesfics#dustin henderson#will byers#nancy wheeler#steve harrington#enemies to lovers au#secret relationship au#all the tropes! in one#because i have no slef control#*self
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3, 13, 24 for end of year fic asks?
from this meme
3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year
You know how sometimes you have The Scene--that one thing you want to write in a fic and it’s alive in your head for much longer than anything else? I had that for Finale, it was one of the first things I wanted in the CMBYN Pense-bête series. Elio and Oliver would be in bed and Elio, knowing he had to get on a flight later that day and unwilling to miss any more time, would stubbornly fight sleep. Oliver, much more awake, would go from his own slightly removed second person narrative into first person, which we’ve come to associate with Elio.
It is a simple, almost cheap move. But one of the things I loved about the book/film is the idea of being one and the same with the beloved, that interchangeable magic because you both love, at the same time, just as fiercely and I thought why not give in and allow them to shift towards one another.
“Elio, Elio, Elio. I love your laugh.”
“Okay.” You are Elio now. Elio-Oliver, Oliver-Elio. I.
His fingers grab at the hair on your chest; curling like claws. “Get on. Get. Walk me to the gate.”
“I will.”
“Kiss me in a bathroom stall.”
“Yes.”
“I.” His eyes open. “I... I...”
“I?”
His ear has a freckle on the lobe. It begs to be kissed. There are two tiny ones on his top lip. I will kiss every single freckle on his body. He has so many. In every bedroom, every room. Every country. Every airport, every airport bathroom stall. Walls in old cities, him clinging to me with parted lips.
“If you want. You can. I.”
“I, what, Elio?”
His jaw hangs slack and his tongue glistens in his mouth. I kiss the corner of his lips and he doesn’t stir.
This time he’s the one on the train and I’m the one on the platform.
I like the last line best.
13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year
I listened to the El-P remix of Lorde’s Supercut on a loop because I love the idea of idealized memory and it seemed really fitting. This remix turns Lorde’s sad lyrics/joyful music into something eerie and dreamlike, deftly using a sample of Radiohead’s Everything in it’s Right Place to anchor it there.
24. favorite fic you read this year
I HAVE TOO MANY FAVES. This time I’ll send a shout out to A Silky Nightmare by Fxckxxp, an Even x Isak SKAM fic which has the unfortunately oft-found-in-fic sentence “undeniably male” in the first chapter but you should forgive it, because the rest of it is beautiful, melancholy and tender. It’s an AU set not in the show’s present day but in 1970s Oslo when homosexuality was a crime and the central love story is a hidden, fraught thing. There is a scene in it where the characters are enjoying a near-empty city due to holidays and they share a brief on the lips kiss in broad daylight, in a public park. It’s fast, doesn’t linger but you can feel the aching weight of that moment.
The grass is wet from the rain earlier, but that doesn’t stop Isak from falling to the ground under the tree outside the Kjærlighetskarusell in a satisfied slump. He closes his eyes and splays his arms and legs, letting the sunlight trying to break free from the clouds find his face. There’s a little chocolate ice cream on his chin, which they had to get from the grocery store because the shops were closed.
Even just watches a little indulgently. When Isak notices him not following his lead, he peeks an eye open and pats the grass beside him welcomingly.
Side by side, but not touching, they lie in the grass.
“What’s it like to have a girlfriend?” Isak breaks the silence, catching Even off guard. His pointer finger traces up the underside of Even’s arm when he asks, like he’s not even curious about his own question. As if he’s asking something else.
It’s like this. Even doesn’t say it.
Highly recommended.
thank you for the asks, @theawkwardterrier!
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Rwby Volume 6 episode 5 “The Coming Storm” Micksterecap: The Not-much-Happening(spoilers)
Hey everybody, hope you had a happy Turkey day! I did, despite the MASSIVE mess I had to clean up, EITHER WEITHER-let’s GET to the Micksterecap!
We start out with Cinder returning to Little Miss Mauve (I know its malachite, but malachites are naturally GREEN dammit) who tells her that Team RWBYJNORQ was headed to Argus, and through the most BASIC of basic ass deductions realizes they were going to Atlas.
With that, Cinder than walks out of their with noooooooooooo catc-
LilMiss: You know you turned out to be quite the interesting customer *DRAMATIC PAUSE OF DRAMATICISM* Cinder.
Oooooooooooooh crap she knows who she is, well that’s okay its not like she told anyone who might want to kill her for leading an attack that got their boss/implied lover kill-
2:42 Oooooooooooooh boy, BUST OUT THAT MAGIC CINDY-its fightnin’ time!
2:49 LilMiss: Maybe put away the GOOD glasses.
Chaps:...wait if we knew the mute ice cream lady was gonna try and kill the skeleton handed burnt face lady in a HUGE scuffle...why’d we leave the good glasses out at all?
LilMiss: THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING-whoever the hell our busboy is they are SO getting a stern talking to!
Neo starts it out with a classic SMASH AND SHATTER-
Neo than hits left, hits right, while Cinder blocks every other hit, making Neo pull the EVER FAMOUS-
BOWL TOSS MANEUVER!
LilMiss: Okay seriously, who left my nice glass bowls out for these bitches to smash? THIS IS A BUSINESS!
Cinder strikes punches, Neo umbrellas away AND THEN CINDER REMEMBERS-
3:38
Cinder: OH YEAH-i have magical superpowers, the FUCK was I doing?!
But all good bar fights come to a close as Lil Miss tells them to take it outside-
3:47
LilMiss: Please take this outside or my...associates will force you to.
Cinder:...w...wait, why should I be threatened by you and your gang of mooks? I have the powers of ancient magic and she’s got some OP unexplained mirror quirk, why the hell should EITHER of us be threatened by you?
LilMiss: Because the plot SAYS SO!
Cinder:...EH-I’m easy! TOSS ME NEO!
3:52 SMASH!
LilMiss: Okay everyone, let’s treat this as a learning experience, when setting up meetings between two people who want to kill each other, do NOT make the meeting in your bar full of breakable glass.
Chaps: Yeah we could’ve set this up WAY better, now we’re gonna have to call the cleaning guy for just ONE stupid meeting, not to mention we’re gonna have to patch that window-UGH-mondays.
Outside Neo pulls a QUICK DODGE-but Cinder’s too smart for that, as she AUTOMATICALLY blasts a fireball at Neo’s umbrella, UNDER WHICH REVEALS-
4:08
GAH ROMAN’S HAT ITS ROMAN’S HAT...wait, where the hell was she keeping that thing? Was she using her illusion powers on JUST her head and her tattered clothes for this whole fight, JUST to remind Cinder that her boss/boyfriend died in that attack? There’s EXTRA, and then there’s Neopolitan folks!
After a brief and pointless sword on umbrella fight-
-heh, love those swords, Cinder ONCE AGAIN remembers-
4:39
Cinder: Oh yeah, I have superpowers...fuck, where IS my head today?
Cinder than calmly tells Neo that they both have a common enemy in Ruby, and decide to start a BLOODPACT to kill her, RIGHT before this scene
Cinder: Okay then, let’s talk.
Cinder:...right.
Jesus Cinder, forgetting you have powers, forgetting your co-worker’s a mute(CANON), where the FUCK is your head today?
A. THEN. CUT. TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
5:11 Brunswick farms, formerly a BUSTLING agricultural scene, now a (possibly literal) ghost town where team RWBYQOM(pronounced Ruby Com for you filthy casuals who didn’t know) is staying for the night!
After Ruby briefly wanders why the a completely intact town wasn’t ravished or incomplete like MOST villages. The team busts inside a locked house where ITS REVEALED-
5:54 NOTHING!
Qrow: Aw dammit, no bad guys? Busted down a door for nothing. Ah well-WHERE’S THE BOOZE?
After Maria rightfully tells them to shut the door they broke, Ruby than looks at-A PHOTO!
6:42 HOO boy, if “A series of Unfortunate Events” has taught me anything, its that the people in a mysterious group photo are either all dead, part of a secret society, or BOTH!
Weiss: *SCREAMS*
7:03 CALLED IT!
After blanketing a LOGICALLY traumatized Weiss-
7:21 How the hell can a screen shot look so cozy and so terrified all at the same time?
-Qrow than comes in telling everybody that EVERYONE in the village is dead, and because of the heavy snow they can’t leave. Yo Qrow, do that have a Semblance equivalent of Meta-cuffs yet, like from the Flash? Because your Misfortune power is getting a LITTLE irksome to our main cast.
Making the best they got, everybody decides that no-one besides Qrow goes out alone while looking for supplies, and BLAKE-
8:22
Blake: Yang and I can go search for other vehicles.
-capitalizes on a chance to get back on Yang’s good side, which LOGICALLY-
-either Yang sees RIGHT through it, or is STILL logically mad at her high school love interest for abandoning her. MAN am I glad I’m not these kids.
Ruby than takes-
-her OBVIOUSLY still traumatized potential girlfriend on a food search. Look at her, she looks like one of those victims on a cop show. THUS LEAVING OSCAR-
9:10 -left alone with a totally not mysterious old lady, whose totally not gonna tell a story that in NO WAY ties into anything in the plot...totally.
Blake and Yang continue their not-date of looking for vehicles in one of the sheds-WHERE THEY FIND-
10:18 A CART-that they can put Yang’s now-useless motorcycle on if and when they find a car with snow tires! Well that’s nice, I’m sure Yang isn’t gonna see anything els-
10:22 GAH-possibly real, possibly just trauma Adam-RUN!
After realizing it was just a PTSD flashback(OR WAS IT) Yang mentions how that attack still effected her, and I’m SURE Blake wouldn’t make her mad by comforting Yang wron-
11:21 Blake: I’ll protect you.
Yang:...what?!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH-bad move on Blake folks, she starts out strong by saying she’ll be by her side but then FUMBLES at the last minute implying that Yang isn’t someone who can take care of herself and needs protection. I don’t know HOW Blake will come out on top this season, but we still got half-way to go.
After that Yangsty scene where they decide to hook the flatbed...TO Bumblebee instead of putting said cycle ON the flatbed with a vehicle behind it-HA THEN CUT TO-
11:50-Ruby and Weiss(who ISN’T wearing a blanket, continuity, WHAT’S that?), who lucky for them find a FULLY stocked liquor cabinet and bar, which I’m sure Ruby has NO problem with at al-
Ruby: On second thought, maybe we should keep this room closed. I’m just...not sure how well my uncle’s taking all of this.
Weiss:...Oh.
God DAMN this is a bad day of discoveries for Weiss, first she sees TWO dead bodies, THAN realizes that Ruby has negative feelings about her uncle’s drinking problem. BUT MORE THAN THAT-the show FINALLY addresses that Qrow’s drinking problem...is a problem, instead of just “TEE HEE-he’s drunk!”
After that, bla bla bla, serious conversation about still going to Atlas given the fact that Salem is an immortal killing machine and their quest may be ultimately fruitless, going into a room with a spooky door that obviously holds Satan-BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT-
13:20 FUCK YEAH-Three Brothers Beans, SHRIMP flavored! Because when you wanna start a barbecue and only got enough cash for either beans OR shrimp, Three Brothers got your back with a great combination. Three Brothers, available at all Just Rites close to abandoned villages.
After Weiss begrudgingly agrees to eat poor people food, CLOSE IT OUT-
*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK* *SLAM!*
Weiss: Hey Ruby, did you just hear a door slam just now?
Ruby: All I hear is how mother-flippin’ TASTY these shrimp-beans are gonna be!
So yeah while it had a cool opening fight scene, YET another build-up episode to this season’s big bad Grimm, and I guess its fine but I just want more scenes of the team KICKING ASS y’know? Either way, an okay mostly expository ep but I hope next week is better. SEE YA NEXT TIME on Micksterecap! And if you wanna donate to my Paypal or Kofi, just ask me first! I’d put the links up but this recap is two hours late as is.
#rwby#rwby volume 6#rwby volume 6 episode 5#the coming storm over the supreme court#ruby rose#weiss schnee#cinder fall#little miss malachite#maria calavera#oscar pine#qrow branwen#yang xiao long#yang xiaolong#blake belladonna#rwby spoilers#rwby volume 6 spoilers#rooster teeth#roosterteeth#rooster teeth first#roosterteeth first#vrv#first spoilers#adam taurus#yoshimickster#micksterecap#micksterecaps
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First Lecture
What is a brand ?

Vision and Purpose
A brand is more than just a nice logo its about what it actually stands for, the meaning and story the behind it.
Vision means the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom.
Purpose is the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
A vision and purpose lies at the heart of every successful brand.
It provides businesses with guiding principles and values for the development and delivery of their brand and its outcomes.
A vision and purpose can be serious, life-changing or just a bit of fun. It gains a deeper meaning in the context of the brand.
In order to be successful, the vision and purpose must be authentic and the brand must live it’s values from the way it treats its staff to the products it sells and the way it talks to its customer.
“... the most important brands in the world make you feel something. They do that because they have something they want to change. And as customers, we want to be part of that change.
These companies have a reason to exist over and above just to make a profit: They have a purpose.
Yes, we admire the products they make. But the thing we love most about them is the change they are making” David Hieatt Do Purpose.
Selfridges Vision and Purpose -
“To the be the destination for the most extraordinary customer experience. To, surprise, amaze and amuse our customers and everyone is welcome.”


Patagonia’s Vision and Purpose -
“Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted. The approach we take toward product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility.”
“build the best product
Cause no unnecessary harm
Use business to protect nature
Not bound by convention”
After researching more about Patagonia I found they build the best product without any unnecessary harm. They use the business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Patagonia is a brand that relates to our brand well. Patagonia is a perfect example of what it means to be purpose-driven. The brand has always been environmentally conscious, the company keeps looking further into environmental activism. The majority of Patagonias materials are made from recycled fabrics, including polyester, mylon, and wool. Patagonia belongs to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and 1% for The Planet. They reject fash fashion by creating high-quality, long lasting products, and offers a repair and reuse program. As a group one of the first idea we discussed was having a sustainable brand, which is why I think Patagonia is a great influence to our brand. Their vision and purpose is continuous throughout everything, this means they’re a successful brand. Before Patagonia, Yvon the owner was a rock climber. He started out making pitons for rock climbing, but he found pitons left damage on the rock, Yvon was committed to finding an alternative. This led Chouinard Equipment (the predecessor of Patagonia) to create aluminum chocks and other forms of protection that were more sustainable and inspired our first environmental essay in the catalog, which was on clean climbing. Both him and his partner redesigned and in 1973 they rebranded. He brought a shirt which has a high collar that helped him when rock climbing, it stopped the ropes from rubbing against his neck. This is when he decided to sell clothes.
The current slogan is “We’re in business to save our home planet”. The slogan is simple but memorable. The Patagonia logo is a stylistic version of the mountain Monte Fitz Roy located near the El Chalten village in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in Patagonia. The font featured on the logo is Belwe Bold, designed by Georg Belwe, it gives a friendly and personal effect. Additionally to the black and white the logo also consists of several shades of blue, and a soft shade of orange. The combination represents the colours of the Patagonian sky when the sun is not far from the horizon.
Brand Identity
A brand identity is what makes your brand recognisable to your customer and how you want your brand to be perceived.
Brand Identity is created by bringing together:
Brand name
Logo
Slogan or taglines
Tone of voice
Colour palette
Typography & graphic styles
Visual identity




Customer
A successful brand puts the customer at the heart of everything they do.
You can’t know your customer based on Google searches or reports, you can only know your customers by reaching out to them and getting to know them.
In order to have a lasting brand loyalty you must understand the past, current and future needs of your customer - where are they now and where will they be in 5,10,15 years.
Begin by asking questions:
Where do they shop for food, fashion, beauty, interiors?
What do they do for a living?
What income do they have?
What does family life look like?
Where do they live?
How do they socialise?
What media do they consume?
Why are they your customers?
What can you do for them?
Where do they get inspiration from when it comes to their fashion and style?
Identifying your competitors can help you gain more insight into your customer.
If there are already similar offerings on the market doing well, this should demonstrate that a market exists for your product - be sure they are actually doing well.
Identifying competitors means you can identify what you customer expects in a product and what you customer will expect to pay for that product.
If there is a brand that would serve your market but are not doing good, this can offer you the possibility to see how to interact with your customer better and could be potential new gap in the market.
In groups we made a survey for people from our chosen target adudience to help gain more of an understanding of them to help inform and expand our brand further.
Price
The method of how you plan to trade your order will also impact your pricing significantly:
Wholesale: you produce a product and sell it to another retailer.
Wholesaler: you buy a product produced by somebody else and sell it.
Direct to customer: you produce a product and sell it directly to your customer without the middle man
Factors affecting price include but are not limited to:
Economic factors & physical limitations
Value perception
Price psychology
Although you might start as Direct to Customer, your margin should also take into account potential to wholesale your products. Not doing this could end in you loosing money if you don’t work with a retailer in the future.
Although you make less in your margin by wholesaling, having your product in well respected retailers can be a great marketing tool. It can introduce your product to new customers and adds value to your product.
Large global retailers have also invested greatly in their webstores and distribution meaning your product could reach new international markets.
Economic factors:
Retail model
Marketing you are selling to
Cost to develop product
Cost to produce product
Material costs
Packaging costs
Taxes/ VAT
Exchange rates
Shipping costs
Marketing costs
Store overheads
Staffing costs
Perceived value
Brands adjust pricing to reflect their customers perception of a products value.
Things that can add perceived value to your product include:
Packaging
Social media campaign
Catwalk/fashion show
Ethical/moral interests of the brand eg. Sustainability
Materials used
E-commerce experience
Instore experience
Press coverage
Brand heritage
Celebrity endorsement
Availability
Pricing psychology
Brands use methods to influence customers to spend money:
3 for 2
Buy one get one free
Everyday low price
Product
Selecting the right product for your customer is important and essential.
You need to consider:
Is your product timely and relevant?
Is your product responding to a need or a desire?
Why would a customer want to buy this product? Is it desirebale?
Always refer back to your customer and your vision and purpose.
There are two ways for sourcing product:
Product development: this is where you design and manufacture your own product.
Product buying: this is where you ‘buy’ and sell product that is already developed by a brand.
The two most common product types are seasonal and continuity.
Seasonal: product developed to be sold for a short period of time
Continuity: also known as carry over, this product is sold all year round.
Place
All businesses consider where they want they customer to interact with their brand.
In today’s retail environment this does not necessarily mean a physical place.
You need to consider:
Where do you want your brand to be seen?
Where will your product be sold?
What would your store (physical or digital) look and feel like?
How should your product be displayed?
What is the customer experience be?
Do you just want to have an online store? Is a physical store necessary?
Whilst a web store can be cheaper than a pycical shop, all elements of your online presence should be cohensive and communicate your vision and purpose clearly.
There are lots of costs associated with having an effective web store, making sure it is visually engaging, updated regularly and there is enough information about all your products to help the customer when purchasing their product is vital.
Customer expectations of online shopping are now night with companies like ASOS and Amazon offering same or next day delivery for free; small brands can’t compete with this.
How will customers find out about your website? A physical shop will always have a certain amount of foot fall, how are customers going to find out about you?
The pandemic has turned many businesses focus when considering place as global lockdowns are enforced. This doesn’t mean that an online shop is enough to keep customers engaged. During the pandemic online shopping has risen in popularity. As customers face loneliness and digital burnout businesses need to consider how they can create a “third space” for consumers to foster community. The pandemic drove a change from traditional high street shopping to a focus on fostering local communities and independent business.
Promotion
“While online tools like Instagram and shopify have made it easier than ever to start a business, attracting attention to a new product is still incredibly difficult. Social media is flooded with brands, new and old, competing for the attention of their feeds. Acquiring customers in this environment requires creativity and ingenuity.”
Ways to increase Instagram engagement in 2021:
Create “savable” content for your feed
Start conversations with Instagram stories stickers
Regularly test and analyse new content types
Add an element of fun
Create shareable content
Open up about your brand and business
Write longer captions
Share data your audience will love
Create more video content
Discover your best time to post
Pay closer attention to your hashtags
In order to successfully promote your brand you should have a detailed plan in place which covers:
PR:
Press release
Target publications
Collaborators
Influencers
Events
Customer events
Industry events
Marketing
Advertising including photoshoots
Media partners
Digital marketing
Website
Editorial content
Social media
Agree a hashtag
Multi-media content
Packaging
Product packaging is an important customer touchpoint.
Packaging often encourages value perception to the customer - cheap packaging = cheap product.
Packaging can form a significant element of your cost price.
Environmental factors play a huge role in the decisions surrounding packaging.
The type of product and method of sales will drive your packaging needs (online vs instore).
Where packaging is manufactured can have a significant impacted on your critical path.
Brands use packaging families to ensure a consistent look and feel across their products.
Colour is an important tool in growing brand recognition.
Luxury brands invest heavily in packaging as part of the sales ritual.
Vision and purpose

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