#Demotion Dilemma

[crisp-writers]

Embracing Career Transformations with Courage and Resilience

Life often throws unexpected challenges our way, and navigating career transitions becomes a defining test of our resilience. In this article, we’ll delve into the story of an individual who recently faced such a pivotal moment, drawing inspiration and lessons from their experience. We’ll analyze the situation and outline a plan of action for moving forward with clarity, courage, and…

[todayontumblr]

Wednesday, July 5.

Taylor Swift Fan: Woman hides identity because she called in sick to work.

Not all heroes wear capes. That said, some nearly do. Some instead wear a pink, white polka dot towel over their head, adorned with sunglasses to keep the look effortlessly stylish. This magnificent look, like a nonchalant phantom, is then captured on tape forEvermore in live, broadcast interview—and sent gleefully around the World Wide Web. This is a look of disguise as necessitated by trying circumstance, yet fearlessness in the face of tyranny. This is someone who will not be bowed by threats of disciplinary measures such as "verbal or written warnings", "demotions", "pay cuts", "suspensions", or even "termination." This is the look of someone who spits in the face of such threats and then wipes the saliva dribbling down her chin with the towel handily draped over her head. This is Taylor Swift Fan: Woman hides identity because she called in sick to work.

Hers is ultimately a parable of choice—of the decisions made when confronted by tyranny, and the lengths one may take in pursuit of what really matters. Faced with the threats of those "superior" to you, and the opportunity to experience #the eras tour, what would you do? Cow from the promise of disciplinary measures? Or do whatever it takes to attend @taylorswift's magnum opus: a journey through all of her musical eras, a defying feat of over three hours of 44 songs divided into ten distinct acts to portray the albums conceptually, a tour that has received unanimous critical acclaim for its production, striking visual identities, execution of its concept, and Swift's musicianship, vocals, charisma, stamina, and versatility as an entertainer? 

Faced with such a dilemma, Taylor Swift Fan did what must be done. She took her phone, feigned a cough, and tickled her nostril until she started sneezing. She called her captors and told them im so sorry *cough* im sick and i wont be able to make it into work today, before taking the lift in her apartment, selecting B (for basement), and emerging in the TayCave below. She walks along a metal walkway, past supercomputers on standby. At the end of the walkway in a pristine glass cabinet, lit up lavender in the darkness, is a mannequin. This mannequin, silent and ready, sports a pink polka dot towel adorned with sunglasses. She presses a taybutton on the Cave wall, and the cabinet opens. 

Whoever you are, wherever you are, know that we see you. Know that you are the best of us.

[deaddee-anime-brownfanlady]

TOP 10 personal Favorite Manga.

Here's just a couple of manga that I love & just think are top-notch.

NUMBER: 1 : TOKYO GHOUL

A series that means a lot to me in many ways. When I first got into Tokyo Ghoul it was by the very first season of the anime during 2014 and upon hearing the opening theme of Unravel and seeing the first episode, I was hooked and went into the manga series right after. A nuanced morally compelling storytelling with an array of so many cool and great characters and narratives, incredible art progression from Ishida Sui, and overall just a satisfyingly great conclusion to boot.

NUMBER: 2 : J NO SUBETE

On the surface, looks like a regular BL series, but underneath an emotional-roller-coaster and pretty heavy story about a transwoman named J. Set in the 40s /50s, you fellow J childhood and the awful, rough bullshit she deals with in life as well as her love & massive admiration of Marilyn Monroe. Really such a good story that deals with some real heavy shit...but still so good.

NUMBER: 3 : MONSTER

Not only one of my favorite anime adaptations but also equally as wonderfully engaging & just as well done as a manga as well. Monster is such a captivating, intense story and truly one of my favorites from Urasawa's works. Following Dr. Tenma, a talented neurosurgeon who has grips with the moral dilemma of either saving the Mayor or saving a young boy who was shot in a murder. Tenma chose to save the boy instead and while it costs him being demoted he still believes he did the right thing. Unfortunately years later discovering the boy he saves...turns out to be a killer. This series is such a banger from its storytelling to the characters and just one of the best from Urasawa's.

NUMBER: 4 : GOODNIGHT PUNPUN

At first glance of this manga, you might think of it as something of a cute slice-of-life story about a cute cartoony bird. But actually when reading it...IT'S WAY MORE DARKER and GETS A LOT MORE FUCK UP! For real Goodnight Punpun is one of those series that's start-up pretty light-hearted and a little bit goofy with Punpun being a cartoony-drawn bird amongst very average-looking humans as a young kid in the first volumes of the series. But as things move forward within the story as Punpun gets older and his family situation gets more unstable as well as his life, the tone gets more depressing as a whole. Love the dark psychological storytelling, although it definitely the type of story you can only read once in awhile or in a good headspace because it definitely can be a hard read.

NUMBER: 5 : BERSERK

Seriously, what can I say about Berserk that already hasn't been said on some level. But this manga is seriously, I feel one of the most top iconic series within manga as well as one of the most engaging, moving, fantastic, epic storyline I've read thus far. I know the series itself is still ongoing, and I've been keeping up-to-date with this story since reading the very first chapter. Hearing about Kentaro Miura death....was tough, I knew he had serious health issues, which is why volumes would tend to go on pretty long hatiuses... but man. Another influential iconic figure in manga gone, Berserk is definitely a series any manga-lover or anime fan should read once in awhile.

NUMBER: 6 : SHOUWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJUU

Not only one of the most beautifully mature, well-written, compelling storytelling I've seen thus far in an anime series. But as a manga, even more so, a well-crafted story on the life and times of a sad, burden-ridden, slightly bitter, depressed, old man known as Yakumo Yurakutei, who is a highly skilled and experienced master of Rakugo, which for those who don't know is an traditional Japanese verbal form of entertainment. Think of it as something like a form of Improv done by only one person playing different characters to tell a story, This series has many layers to its storytelling that's is done so well dealing with Yakumo and those in his life that has impacted him as to the type of pained almost broken old man he is within the present time. Just a overall good & bittersweet but fantastic story that's deserves to be check out more.

NUMBER: 7 : INNOCENT

It is one of the most beautifully drawn manga series that I have read so far while also being equally gruesome as well. Innocent is a fictionalized historical manga set during 18th century France about the story and legacy of Charles Henri Sanson (actual real historical figure), who is the fourth generation of a family of Executioners known as the Sanson family who are the royal Executioners of Paris. The story follows Charles rough journey towards his path of becoming the Monsieur De Paris. This absolutely such a fantastic piece of work, both in terms of the visually amazing stunning artwork and along with the historical storytelling of Charles coming to terms with his hated lineage and becoming Executioner of Paris but also showcasing the societal/political chaotic changes and upheaval of France slowly leading up to the French revolution. Although some historical aspects are obviously fictionalized, but still such a good series.

NUMBER: 8 : THE PROMISED NEVERLAND

While my feelings on the anime are highly mixed due to really, really, really not caring for the way they handled parts of the storytelling from season 2 of the anime series. But the manga, on the other hand, is a totally different story. Seriously, reading this series was a blast and just an enjoyable experience from beginning to end, as well as seeing Emma and Ray also Norman grow & and develop throughout each arc was great to witness including seeing the rest of the kids thrive and survive the outside world. For this manga was a great read, and definitely, I'll say at least personally to me was done far better then the second season flimsy adaptation.

NUMBER: 9 : HOMUNCULUS

Truly an mindfuck of a manga in more ways than one. But still a pretty damned good and wild story, Homunculus is a story about a homeless man named Susumu Nakoshi who ends up meeting a seemingly antagonistic young medical student named Itoh Manabu to do a little experiment on him by drilling a actual hole in his skull for a total of 700,000 ¥en. Itoh, who is very fascinated with studying the human minds and amongst other things such as ghosts and the occult, but ultimately he thinks he can unlock the hidden psychic potential of Susumu brain. Nakoshi goes through the process, and at first, nothing seems to happen after going through the the operation. Until he closes his right eye and starts seeing otherworldly nightmarish monsters and shapes with his left eye when he looks at other people. This series is truly a weird but also such a highly intriguing and fascinating psychological read while at the same time being a bit of a downer, but still an excellent but messed-up good story.

NUMBER : 10 : ATELIER OF WITCH HAT

Okay, so I just recently started reading this manga series not that long ago, about a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm so freaking hooked. Atelier of Witch hat has truly captured my heart and mind with its engaging and creatively fascinating world-building involving witches and magic to the just as highly interesting characters and storytelling. Which centers around our young protagonist Coco ( the girl on the cover) who is this super adorably passionate girl who has such a huge love for all things magical /witches and deeply wishes she could become one as well, but unfortunately normal people or "outsiders" can't become witches, you have to be born into it, but that's doesn't stop Coco from trying her hardest to still wanting to be a witch. One of the things I love most about this world and how it handles dealing with magic and witches is that magic is really normal within this world and how witches tend to uses it to help and serve regular people in need or even for lighting up a cobblestone pathway also I really like how the magic system is structured in this series, such as instead of casting spells or any from of magic with words or a phrase, magic is casted by drawing, Coco here ends up in a pickle with accidentally casting magic that ends up turning her mom into stone & thus Coco journey towards witchood begins.

Seriously, even though I've just recently gotten into this manga & and its ongoing tale it's already has captivated me on so many levels and I just can't get enough of it so far wonderful storytelling and amazingly beautiful drawn artsy apart of it which really adds a lot of this series fantastical elements. Definitely a must to check out!!

Wanted to do a list of a couple of some of my most top favorite manga series and ones were I feel other's should give them a shot at checking out if there into any of these stories. (^ _ ^)

[barbwritesstuff]

I have the weirdest dilemma with the manuscript I'm drafting right now.

There's a fairly minor character that appears in the first part, leaves, and then briefly reappears again towards the end of the story. In the original synopsis/plan they played a much larger role, but they've since been demoted.

I'm happy with this choice to make them a more background character. The story works much better this way.

BUT!

I'm having a hard time figuring out how little I want them to be a part of the first part. They can't be too important but neither can they fade too much into the background.

I keep changing their name, deleting and re-inserting their scenes, cutting down then bulking up their character description.

I've been doing this for over a month now and I don't know what the hell I should do... except for maybe just move on and fix the first part of the story later on when the next part of the story is finished.

But that feels so weird! I don't want to leave the first 30k words in too much of a mess...

This is just me putting my thoughts out into the world. I'm not asking for any solutions. It's just amazing to me that with each and every writing project I do I end up with new and weird ways to tie myself into mental knots.

[sasubaeuchithot]

"It looks to me as if you are putting the feelings of your friend on a higher priority than the protection of your village."

As he should 🤷‍♀️

No okay real talk, I genuinely can't imagine Sasuke as a Kage purely because I don't think he could ever stand to pick the village over Naruto.

I mean, one of the most SKFJEIKWOSJDBDJKW lines ever written was his admitting that. "To think someone would choose a village" (I'm foaming at the mouth)

I think Gaara would, because that is his duty and his hands are tied.

But I actually. don't know if Naruto could pick Konoha either, to be honest. Like, obviously he'd fight tooth and nail so that he wouldn't have to choose, but I genuinely cannot see him picking the village, if the alternative means that Sasuke dies, or worse.

In a crisis, I think Sas would automatically be the first thing he thinks of, even when as Hokage, he'd have to think of the village first.

Even during Shippuden, he consistently chose Sasuke, even if it meant defying every single order he was given.

Some people saw that as Naruto trying to make Sasuke obey Konoha's every whim or whatever, but I fully disagree.

It had nothing to do with bootlicking Konoha and the system and everything to do with Sasuke's safety and happiness.

Like, in Naruto's mind, it wasn't "Sasuke, you're better than this, you're a Konoha shinobi and you have a duty", it was a bit more like "Sasuke, why are you so careless with your life?! You know what Orochimarou plans to do, how could you be okay with that?! You're hurting yourself, you don't have to do this alone"

that is the entire moral dilemma of ALL positions of power, fictitious or not. i write kakashi struggling with the idea of the individual vs the mass throughout the entirety of his chapter. i write him realizing that eventually the individual becomes a mass. in reality, people in positions of power have to recognize that "the mass" is an illusion. every mass is nothing but a collection of individuals, and failing to see that results in individuals being demoted to nothing more than a sum of everyone around them. the minute you view a demographic- any demographic- as one entity, you're forsaking the humanity of every individual that demographic makes up. that's how prejudice and bigotry begin, even if you think you're giving that demographic positive attributes. Sasuke views the individual vs. the mass as the individual being more important. he would make a great kage because of that. but Naruto recognizes that the individual is the mass in a way that's much more nuanced, which is why I think he's so destined for a revolutionary leadership position. in a situation where Naruto would be split between the village versus Sasuke, he would pick Sasuke because Sasuke is the village, and he would do it in a way that saved everyone or else die trying. Naruto views every life as important and worth protecting, because everyone is someone else's most important person. Sasuke is Naruto's most important person, so he's who he fights the hardest for. but the random villager who works the corner store is someone else's most important person, and deserves to be fought for with the same vigor. Naruto fights for that balance. he sees it as his job to fight for Sasuke, but aims for a world where everyone has someone fighting for them with the same determination that he fights for Sasuke, and in doing so he tries to be that person for everyone. Naruto does his best to try to make this reality.

[madara-fate]

https://www.tumblr.com/madara-fate/738616185450643456/hi-madara-have-you-been-keeping-up-with-boruto?source=share sorry you didn't understand some of my questions. Here you go.

What I mean about Sakura's cicrle is that all her closest friends/relatives are suffering from the plot i.e Naruto is sealed away and presumed dead by everyone due to Omnipotence and Sasuke has been Jubified also "sealed" into a tree to use his chakra.

All we need to know is what will happen to Sakura since she's in the middle of this pandemonium? They haven't been paying attention to her for nearly 4 years it's sickening and disrespectful. Team 7 are in a dilemma but Sakura is in the middle and they don't address the elephant in the room. I'm starting to believe the Byakugou link with Karma will be passed down to Sarada and skip Sakura. Such a big name such as Sakura purposefully ignored...

To be fair, I expected Kakashi to be the Hokage just like Hiruzen. In a 2020 interview Ikemoto was asked why a popular character like Kakashi didn't appear yet and he led on onto something important he will do in the future. We all believed he will resume village leadership because Konoha didn't carve Shikamaru's face in the monument.

I also expect to much of Sakura. Trees in the village, I want the Head medic to start the investigations she should have started in relation to Karma but plot didn't allow her. Konohamaru said they will save Moegi with their allies and Sakura must have entered the battlefield because medics are the first thing to appear after an attack, she's the most important person in Konoha after the Hokage. Should have drawn similarities between her own seal and Karma, the regeneration, the history with the Six Paths, etc. The author really hates her.

Expecting her and Hanabi to have trained Himawari. Sakura trained Sarada too I hope. Hanabi Head of the Hyuga clan soon too.

About Ino, since the cohabitation mission the team with their chakra communication device helmets (used since the 4th War) have been communicating with Shikamaru, Kawaki and some people, monitoring on Amado and tracking infiltrators without her. What I mean is, they're doing what they used to with Ino showing up but without her and her sensing isn't very good (no feats in Naruto but brainwash a bird to find Akatsuki) so Naruto had to replace her with Sage Mode to track Boruto and Kawaki. So they can replace her, they have better people and they (and Ino) have been following Hokage's orders since the start so people say she has been demoted. I believe so too because her replacement and equal working efficiency is evident.

What I mean about Sakura's cicrle is that all her closest friends/relatives are suffering from the plot i.e Naruto is sealed away and presumed dead by everyone due to Omnipotence and Sasuke has been Jubified also "sealed" into a tree to use his chakra.

I see, thanks for clarifying.

All we need to know is what will happen to Sakura since she's in the middle of this pandemonium? They haven't been paying attention to her for nearly 4 years it's sickening and disrespectful. Team 7 are in a dilemma but Sakura is in the middle and they don't address the elephant in the room. I'm starting to believe the Byakugou link with Karma will be passed down to Sarada and skip Sakura. Such a big name such as Sakura purposefully ignored...

I wouldn't really consider this as disrespectful. Sakura is not a main character anymore and people are really gonna have to start acknowledging what that means. Let's just wait to see what happens with the Byakugou Seal/Karma plot point before jumping to conclusions about it.

To be fair, I expected Kakashi to be the Hokage just like Hiruzen. In a 2020 interview Ikemoto was asked why a popular character like Kakashi didn't appear yet and he led on onto something important he will do in the future. We all believed he will resume village leadership because Konoha didn't carve Shikamaru's face in the monument.

Yeah but Hiruzen didn't have a Shikamaru figure like Naruto does, he didn't have a right hand man to help him in his daily responsibilities. He had the Council, but that wasn't the same.

I also expect to much of Sakura. Trees in the village, I want the Head medic to start the investigations she should have started in relation to Karma but plot didn't allow her. Konohamaru said they will save Moegi with their allies and Sakura must have entered the battlefield because medics are the first thing to appear after an attack, she's the most important person in Konoha after the Hokage. Should have drawn similarities between her own seal and Karma, the regeneration, the history with the Six Paths, etc. The author really hates her.

Again, Sakura is not a main character, so can we please stop with this whole "the author hates her" stuff. Just because Sakura doesn't appear as much as you want her to appear, doesn't mean that the author hates her. I want to see her more involved on the plot too, but we shouldn't equate her lack of panel time to author hatred.

About Ino, since the cohabitation mission the team with their chakra communication device helmets (used since the 4th War) have been communicating with Shikamaru, Kawaki and some people, monitoring on Amado and tracking infiltrators without her. What I mean is, they're doing what they used to with Ino showing up but without her and her sensing isn't very good (no feats in Naruto but brainwash a bird to find Akatsuki) so Naruto had to replace her with Sage Mode to track Boruto and Kawaki. So they can replace her, they have better people and they (and Ino) have been following Hokage's orders since the start so people say she has been demoted. I believe so too because her replacement and equal working efficiency is evident.

You're downplaying Ino's sensory abilities if you think that she had no feats in the original manga other than mind controlling a bird. I mean, think about all the sensory feats and Yamanaka clan abilities she displayed during the 4th Ninja War, The Last movie and during Boruto. To say that her sensory ability isn't good, just isn't right.

[mattlauria]

The title says it all so prepare yourself...

Paula Newsome did say something nice about Josh/Maxine: "there will be a bit of a resolution between Max and Joshua (Matt Lauria),” regarding the latter’s season-opening demotion to a Level 1 CSI.

[beikonsims]

If Buzz didn't have enough dilemma already, he got demoted from the top of his career. Guess he used up all his luck on previous big bonuses.

On top of that, Buck started acting up a little. Buzz wasn't sure if his son is testing his patience or if he's getting a bad influence after his best friend ran away from home. Buck tried being smug towards his father, but Buzz knew his boy is too good to do anything stupid. Hopefully.

[frazzledsoul]

I'm thinking lately of how Buffy's annual "big bad" is often used to simplify storylines on supernatural shows and movies, so that everything has to be a black vs white dilemma, no matter how truly, truly fucked up the protagonists were. Certainly Marvel and the emphasis on how everything has to end in an Avengers Endgame spectacle contributes to this, but unless you get your simplified villain arc, people say it's not good enough. Many Walking Dead fans were convinced that the Richonne spinoff was going to end up in tragedy so that they could get the CRM villain storyline they wanted, no matter how often it was emphasized that story wasn't about that (thank Gawd they were wrong). Many of the less cerebral Yellowjackets fans were gravely disappointed that Lottie was (in their words) demoted from being the "big bad" that the protagonists fought against and whined endlessly that Shauna grieving the loss of her baby was keeping them from the cartoon villain arc they wanted. It's a discourse that has poisoned all talk of nuance or characterization or (God forbid) character development because they want their "big bad" so much. It didn't even work out that way on Buffy in the end, but people still expect it from everything else.

As if Lottie could ever be as good as evil as Missy is, anyway.

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Sun 12 May // Day 228 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

The Resident (with mum) 3x10 Whistleblower (mid season break)

On Devon's last day as an intern, he and Conrad are faced with a moral dilemma over a suicidal patient who is in need of a liver transplant. When Bell discovers that Cain is keeping braindead patients alive in order to boost his survival rates and add to Red Rock's profits, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Meanwhile, Adaku goes into early labor, causing a strain on her heart and Mina is left in doubt over how to best handle her care.

You just knew Conrad wasn't gonna make it to the end of his shift without being caught. Red Rock pounced. Hopefully Conrad's dad helps defeat them. How smug they were to demote Bell, but him being more focused on making sure Kit gets to keep her job. And I hope Adaku and baby are ok.

Star Trek: Prodigy 1x14 Crossroads

When the crew attempts to secure transport to the Federation, they unwittingly cross paths with the Vice Admiral who is hunting them.

I like that Starfleet aren't clean cut 'good guys'. They seem to be thriving on the power afforded to them by the Federation and the story is building effectively to show how dangerous that can be.

Amphibia 1x12 Civil Wart / Hop-Popular

Anne exposes Wartwood to a teen romance film, and the town is split on the movie's love triangle. / After losing his stand, Hop Pop decides to run for mayor of Wartwood.

Shipping wars are serious business in Wartwood. Sequel Plot Twist: the boys are in love too! I had a good giggle at the end with not-so-subtle references to fandom culture. / And being a theatre major, Hop Pop would be a marvellous mayor.

[mimsiical]

Febuwhump Alternate Prompt #10: Inferno

Warnings: Minor character death, discussions of clone decommissioning and reconditioning, moral dilemmas

Read on ao3

Not everyone could be saved.

Fox knew this. His command team knew this. It was something they’d all agreed upon at the start of their venture into insubordination. They would save as many of their siblings as they could from the grasp of court marshaling.

Courts martial were expected to have certain results. For the more severe end, decommissioning. In the most complex of cases, they transferred the accused off to a full military tribunal. Fox tried to avoid that outcome, if at all possible. Nothing good happened to a clone in prison.

For most cases, the long term outcomes were demotion, reassignment, and so forth. However, the first step was almost always returning to Kamino for remedial training. Lots of clones were sent for remedial training if they stepped too far out of line. It was hardly commonplace, but nobody batted an eye over it either.

Why should they? Remedial training was just that — difficult, humiliating, miserable, sure, but none of that was foreign to a clone. There was nothing unknown to fear. If there were any whispers otherwise, everyone knew reconditioning was little more than a story to scare gullible cadets into better behavior. Any worries to the contrary were swiftly silenced.

“Scanning ident chip,” reported Sergeant Paper, who wielded the handheld scanner with long practice. He scanned the deceased’s arm. “CT-389-7732.” He then held the scanner out so Fox could check the numbers.

“Confirmed,” Fox said crisply. “Go ahead, Sergeant.”

Paper slid the body tray into the wall, taking the sight of the nude body of CT-389-7732 with it. “Lop,” he called over his shoulder. “Initiate incineration process.”

“Yes, sir,” said the trooper at the desk. “Initiating.”

One of Fox’s many responsibilities as Commander of the Guard was to serve on the panel of judges at a court martial, along with one of his high rank subordinates — usually Stone or Captain Thire, but it varied. During the hearing, they could usually gauge the clone’s personality, whether they would listen to their explanations, how likely it was that they would follow the strict rules Fox applied to all the troopers they snuck off the decommissioning lineup. Most clones were none too fond of the Guard for voting decom instead of a few weeks on Kamino. That was fine. What mattered was whether they would believe that reconditioning was real, when faced with the evidence of it.

“Incineration complete, sir.”

If they refused to believe that reconditioning was real, or protested the necessity of keeping their survival quiet, or seemed likely to desert entirely at first opportunity (and thereby put the whole operation at risk if caught) — well. There was little the Guard could do at that point.

Ultimately, it was Fox’s responsibility to carry out the sentence.

With a curt acknowledgement, Fox turned on his heel and left the room. He had many more things to do before the day was done, and it did no good to dwell on practicalities that he had found no way around.

[closetednobody]

You know, watching like all of last season and then this I keep finding myself going ‘Maya knows there are other fire departments right’ cause it’s pretty clear she’s not gonna be treated well in SFD even before the blackmailing. Before the blackmail her online ‘wrong’ was literally saving a kids life. So yeah, Maya is my favorite character but I can’t help but wonder why not just get another job?

Hello OP! I want to apologize first as I'm about to go all nerdy about this because i loooove your question~ ☺️ this is one of the most common dilemma at any work place too : "why don't you leave?"/"why can't i leave?" - either switching jobs/career or switching workplace.

Generally, there are 7 answers/questions that i would look for/ask in this type of conversations.

Do they feel valued? In the sense that do you feel respected and appreciated in your current environment or while doing your current job.

Are they micromanaged by their manager? Do you feel like you are being monitored all. the. time. up to an extent that you feel suffocated or anxious.

Are they constantly stressed and unhappy? Do they have a unique passion for their field? What is the source of their stress? Funny enough, we can be swamped by tasks and STILL feel happy and contented with our job.

Are they growing? Is there any potential for them in the position? Are they interested in growth? Or do they prefer comfort?

Are they paid enough?

Do they have enough tools and resources to carry out their tasks?

Are they chronically disengaged from their work environment? And why?

If there are more yes-es, then no-s, then most likely they would subconciously stay where they are despite being unhappy. For the no-s, i will need to know : how long have they felt it and when did it start and maybe, why, AND can it be fixed?

Depending on their personality, sometimes, even if there's only one yes, they would still stay and endure. E.g. from personal observation, for hyper-achievers, if the answer for Q4 is a yes, nothing else matters.

I could write a book for each item, but let me not do that 😅 and i believe you could roughly guess the context of each item.

I definitely do not oppose the idea of Maya moving to another station or even change careers (and get a Marina spin-off).

But let's try to deep dive into Maya's case, on why she stays.

First, i would divide her career in the series into 4 phases :

Pre-captaincy

Captaincy : 1st phase (with objection from her best friend), 2nd phase (with team acceptance)

Demotion

You can try to analyze her too! What do you think the answers for each item of each phase would be? Why? And what do the changes mean?

You will probably be able to presume why she stayed in each phase and why.

But, in her situation right now, she probably has more No-s. And a Yes, e.g. for Q4, is probably her main source of frustration, because despite having the room and potential for growth, she is facing what seems to be a dead end because of an unfair treatment. And because she is driven and has a unique passion for her job, it would affect her even more.

Trauma response is also a contributing factor on why she won't choose to run away and, instead, choose to muscle her way to her finish line.

She was an abused kid who won an Olympic gold medal for her country on a sprained ankle. She was an excellent athlete and she was trained to win. She stepped wrong and sprained her ankle; but she has a finish line and nothing else at stake.

Eyes forward. All that matters is the finish line.

She is now an excellent firefighter and she was the youngest female captain. She was demoted for insubordination which saved a kid's life. All she needed was a fair trial, a hearing, for her to be heard and maybe get her captaincy back. Her finish line.

But she made a wrong move and now, she is abused by her superiors. A sprained ankle.

She has a finish line. It's right there. But why is it blurred?

Oh. She's an adult now. And the world is never a plain track. It's a battlefield. And now, everything seems to be at stake.

😌

----------

To conclude, it's important for us to be aware of our thoughts and reasons when making choices in life. But we also need to accept that there are no such thing as a perfect decision. There is always opportunity cost to every call we make. Career decisions are one of the simplest, but most complicated and illogical decisions we need to make.

Just like Maya, sometimes we need to refocus and evaluate :

Eyes forward. All that matters is...?

[kwshahrazad]

Christmas Eid (Coming of Age Fiction) Snippet

From Chapter 5 - The Teenage Dilemma

HARUN: You need to change your username— Abdi-Hakeem flops front first on Harun’s bed, groaning. ABDI-HAKEEM, muffled by the comforter: I’m. Not. Changing. My. Name. HARUN: —to LilMoShmoney. ABDI-HAKEEM, turning on his side: I’ll die first. HARUN: Isn’t your death exactly what we’re trying to avoid? ABDI-HAKEEM: That’s not an option. I’m not changing it. HARUN: Think of it as exchanging part of your username. Replace the ‘big’ with ‘lil’. You can’t drop ‘MoShmoney’ completely because then your career would be dead. But not changing it will mean that you might end up literally dead. Ergo, my solution, Demote yourself. You’ll come off smart enough to avoid being a first-degree murder victim. ABDI-HAKEEM, flatly: A) Never say ‘ergo’ again. B) Next idea. Quickly. Harun takes a break from his pacing to slump down in his desk chair. He fiddles with one of his many figurines. HARUN: Think about how your death will affect the family. I can’t be a Muslim minority related to the delinquent casualty in a Florida Man headline. I’ll never make it in politics! Wait… Now that I think about it, that might make for a good sob story. If I made you the ‘call to action’ in my ‘hero’s journey’, I could milk your death all the way to State… Abdi-Hakeem sits up and whips a pillow at his cousin. Harun catches it with his face. --- Christmas Eid is Booksmart meets the holidays but with a Muslim immigrant family and written in a unique, novelplay format. It's available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Chapter One is available on my website. If you liked reading this and are interested in receiving a free copy of the book, feel free to message me!

Thanks for reading,

Shahra

[justbusterkeaton]

“What makes the Keaton of the Arbuckle years fascinating to watch—once you get past his mind-bending acrobatic skill and knee-buckling good looks—is the relative permeability of his persona. After a childhood spent as a poker-faced projectile, he seems to have welcomed the chance to explore a wider range of expression. In his first months at Comique, as his role behind the scenes grew from apprentice to assistant to codirector, Keaton played third-banana roles to Al St. John’s second: he was the delivery boy, the waiter, the saloon keeper, the farmhand. But far from resenting the demotion to forty-dollar-a-week bit player in a troupe after a lifetime spent headlining a family act in top vaudeville houses, he seems to have thrown himself into his new job with a will. He invested those supporting parts with deft touches of character humor and never missed an opportunity to wedge in a spectacular stunt or fall. Since his character was seldom at the center of the film’s story, he often appeared in cutaway shots, reacting to his surroundings or to whatever dilemma “Fatty” found himself in. This brief respite from centrality gave Keaton the chance to simply be onscreen in ways he never could in his own films, where his body, always in motion, often in peril, was always at the crux of the action”

-Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens 2022

[undermarcotics]

Encore

Soul Eater Reader Insert

Chapter 1

Summary: (Name) and their sidekick Jas stay up late on a kishin hunting quest and the pair run into Soul and Maka.

Warning/s: Swearing, Violence

Language: English

Word Count: 2,962

-----

The night was barren; silence filled the streets of Death City with only the noise of swinging rickety old signs of pubs and the soft pitter-pattering of street rats in the corner just 'round a closed café. Not like the teen really cared, it was the silence that always had their back on these missions. It was their friend. The wind rustled through their hair that had matted since yesterday, being unable to even get a quick bath right before bed was impossible considering how dead they and their partner looked once they captured the rogue kishin.

"Fuck. I stink." They can even hear even more obscenities coming out from their partner's mouth, the weapon in human form with an expression full of dread. They see him raising his arm to smell his armpits. Gross. "Let's just get this over with so I can take a nice long shower and that the extras at Shibusen don't keep avoiding me." The boy brought his hand to brush along his own matted locks of hair. The once currant red hair had dimmed slightly, obviously in need of taking care of.

They smirk, "I think that's for the best. They obviously wouldn't want some freckled weirdo calling them 'extras' near them. Good-smelling or bad." Immediately, they received a glare. Dark purple eyes, almost like velvet, bore into them.

"Like they weren't doing the same to you?" He huffs. He had crossed his arms, walking slower than before.

"They were avoiding me because I'm a Top Tier Meister. I proudly flaunt my rank— which you should also act like one," they bump their shoulders against him, making him stop and step back with a sour look and pursed lips. They see him ruffle his clothes. The ugly mustard colour of his long-sleeved shirt hiked upon his body, resting just atop the hem of his black jeans with homebrewed rips.

"H a h? What was that, you condescending shit? You're a One Star like me." The chain of his dog tag necklace rattled when he shoved himself forward. "By the way, you smell like one too."

"Damn, I wish they could demote students like you," the young meister comments, smirking still. They ignored the weapon's insult, but still felt offended. "You know? Bad morals? Inappropriate behaviour?"

The weapon jumped back, startled, "Ina—?!"

The meister scoffs at his outburst, starting to pick at their nails, "Black☆Star? At the tip of the Shibusen spikes?" They start to make the questions hurt a little, making sure they hit the right buttons— and they successfully did.

"He. Was. Being. Annoying," he says with gritted teeth. "Screaming some… muffled bullshit about being god???" He continued walking, hands now shoved into his jean pockets.

"Yeah, yeah. You hate him or whatever," they wave their hand to dismiss whatever dilemma their weapon was having. "We should hurry up and get this over with before we end up sleep-deprived again." Another smirk rises to their lips now, cocky and confident. Their hand gestures outwards towards their partner, commanding almost and it caught his attention. "Jas," they started, and the weapon already knew what they wanted. "bow form. We've got a kishin to bust."

"Do we get to go to the hot springs afterwards?" Jas mimicked his meister's expression with the same amount of confidence.

They playfully scoff at the question, "Only if we do our job right." And at that, Jas took his meister's hand, his body engulfed in a bright white.

"It gave itself the name Boogeyman. I thought it was gonna be some Michael Jackson or Prince bullshit but no—!" Tan hands threw themselves into the air, "It was just some weirdo in a weird— fuckin'— mummy costume!" They watched Jas turn right towards them and only laughed tiredly at his exasperation, "A mummy. One— that's some shitty branding, two; all it did was hang his tongue out like a dumb dog!" Their snorts reached his ears and he stood still, confused for a minute "What's so funny?" He asked.

The two had just recently acquired one of the kishin eggs they were tasked to deal with and had already contacted Shinigami to give a brief report. Both were now stretched across their couch with Jas's leg across his meister's stomach.

The childish, nasally laughter continued, only getting louder by the second, "Are you just pissed because you wanted to fight a popstar themed enemy for once?" They smirk, fully knowing the answer.

Jas frowned, "That's—"

"You've been putting in too many hours into playing Plants versus Zombies, haven't you?"

He was quiet.

"And your favourite is the Disco Zombie?"

His lips were sealed into a tight thin line before he gave up, letting out a huge sigh. "Yeah," he confessed, "He is so cool—" Loud, hoarse laughter then roared into his face, making him roll his eyes. They only rolled back further because of the comment he just had to hear.

"Stupid. Boogeyman doesn't mean Boogie."

"Like you didn't almost face-plant in the doorway," he snickers, pointing towards the entrance hall of their home.

"Almost. You were there to catch me." They point out, laughing.

Jas sat up and hit them gently over the head with a rolled-up magazine, "Wish I didn't."

Imagine deciding to accept two missions that involved taking out high-ranked kishins that only attack during the night. They were students, them and their partner. Jas barely gets sleep, to begin with, being such a comic enthusiast, he would spend nights awake until morning just to finish reading a whole set of them. But even if Jas didn't spend nights awake, taking two missions without break was still out of the question, yet Shinigami allowed them to take both missions at once.

"Ya think it's 'round 'ere?" The lazy tone of their weapon echoed.

In the meister's hands was a bow with a sleek black finish that they could see Jas's reflection on it. The grip was curved and made of rubber with tiny buds for extra friction. It was darker and obviously not reflective like the bow's surface but perfect for a technician to hold the weapon comfortably. Though the bow was beautiful, it didn't have a string connecting the two ends, but it's nothing they can't fix. They hold the bow with an outstretched arm so they can lick their thumb. "[It's] for the theatrics," the meister once said and Jas, for good reason, thinks it's disgusting. They could already feel Jas shiver when they did it.

"Pretty sure. It's already near midnight, so it's sure to come out soon," they reply, "besides, we already got reports of its sightings being around here. We gotta trust that."

Their eyes rolled and they took their hand to the notch as if they were attaching the string. However, it didn't have a string at hand— that's when sparks and crackles of electricity started to overflow from the meister's hand. They pulled away from the notch to reveal a luminescent string, made completely out of their soul's wavelength. The meister looked proud as the bright light shone across their features. They continued pulling until they reached the lower notch, securing a tight and durable string. It kept sparking and they couldn't help but grin. They pulled on it, pulling far back, simulating them about to shoot an arrow.

"Perfect," the self-compliment rolled from tongue effortlessly and Jas snorted.

The weapon's reflection shone against the sleek black once again, "Yeah, yeah, Captain Perfect. Let's go." Jas licked his lips, "Can't wait to get my hands on another kishin egg."

"And to think you were repulsed by this idea the first time," the meister laughs.

"I was not, in any way, r e p u l s e d,' the weapon defended. " I was just… against it."

"What do you think is going to happen?! Do you expect the kishin to knock at our apartment door, greet us a swell night, offer us cookies, and ask us oh-so-politely to take its soul?!"

"It's a possibility~" The meister chirped, swinging their legs back and forth, bouncing the heels of their shoes against the cemented railings of Shibusen's balcony-type thing. The two never knew what they were called. "If they're chocolate chip cookies, I'd be more than happy to finish the deed." They watched as the demon weapon looked close to exploding and the sight of it could never be funnier.

"... You are insufferable," Jas deadpanned. "I have, like, two?? five?? a lot of assignments due on, like, Friday."

"And I am, like, your meister. You're, like, stuck with me, like, loser," they clicked their tongue, chuckling as they mocked Jas's way of speaking. "Also, it's your fault for not doing them ahead of time."

Jas just stared at them in disbelief, ignoring the fact he was just insulted right in his face, "You NEVER do yours though??? You copy off ME."

The meister tsks, tapping a finger on Jas's chin, "And that is why you should do them early. You don't want me failing, do you?" Oh, the doll eyes. It never affected the very apathetic demon weapon, but why not try and try again until it works?

"You look disgusting."

Or just fail. That works too.

"You were so repulsed by it," the meister pushed.

"Was not."

The meister readied themselves as they began walking through the dead streets of Death City, cutting their and Jas's petty little argument right then and there. They had one hand on the bow's grip, their other hand gripping nothing but pressed tight on the bow's arrow rest. The pair entered an alleyway, hearing voices from the other side of the dark passage.

"Is that the kishin?" Jas's voice perks up from the silence but is quiet as a whisper, still aware that he might alert what could be the kishin they were hunting.

The meister shrugged, unsure, "Dunno. But there're more voices than one. They don't sound distorted or creepy either. Could be drunk townspeople from the cabaret." It was dark and the voices were muffled, but they could make out three voices. Two too familiar than the other.

"Hearing the word 'drunk' is making me want a bath more. Just hurry up and find out what the voices are— or maybe they're inside your head?"

"Not the time for jabs, Jas," the meister frowned at their partner.

"Yeah, yeah. Wish you could see souls though…"

What?

"You know?" Jas's voice was getting louder, "Like Maka Albarn?" Not this again— "Isn't she at the top of the class with… whatshisname… Orobas? Ototo? I forgot, or I'm not close to what I'm guessing." Is that a smirk or just the moon's reflection on the bow? "But I wish you could be like her… see souls and stuff… so we can know if kishins are nearby…"

This guy—

"GEEZ, I GET IT. I'M SORRY I'M NOT TALENTED AS FUCKING ALABAMA-BARN. CAN'T SEE SOULS BUT AT LEAST I DO MY SHI—"

Their words were cut off by the distant chanting of "pump-pumpkin, pumpkin… smashing pumpkin!" and a huge explosion. The sound had already reached the pair's ears before they were blown away by a gust of smoke, pushing them out of the alleyway and onto the hard cobblestone ground. The meister choked on the smoke and Jas had reverted back to his human form, groaning. They hear a scream.

"What the hell was that—?"

In the air, they see the person the meister didn't want to see the most. Dusty blonde pigtails flowed in the wind and Mickey Mouse gloved hands tightly held a black and red scythe. The girl landed roughly on the terracotta roofs. It looked like she was in a pinch… too bad for her—

"Is that Albarn?"

Please, just shut up for once Jas. Can't a teen have a grudge in peace? Even then, the meister stood up, stepping back a few feet so they could see a great view of Ms Top of the Class failing to catch a kishin.

"Is that a witch?"

"Shut your trap, Jas!" Oop, they snapped. But their eyes did stare up at the dark-clad figure in the sky, riding on a giant floating pumpkin. It did look like a witch with the stereotypical black garments and pointed witch's hat. But, "Something is off."

Jas quirked a brow, "In what way?"

"I know I can't concentrate and see souls to save my life, but I know for a fact that the vibe I'm getting off that woman isn't a witch." With Jas already on his feet, the meister held out their arm once more. Their eyes follow the figure of their classmates running across the roofs, squinting. "Bow, now," they commanded, "we're trailing them."

"Huh? What about the kishin?" Jas looked like he was about to disobey his meister's wishes. "Don't we need to finish this?"

"I'm not getting one-upped by Albarn," they snapped, "I'm stealing that kill."

Jas was really confused now. "Why would you do that? And you said it wasn't a witch, right?" He sighs, rubbing his temples, "So why bother?'

"... Just do it."

This dumb grudge is going to kill Jas someday. The weapon transformed into a bow once more, the meister cleanly snatching it by the grip in the air and they ran off. At the same time as they tailed behind the other pair, they re-attached the string on the bow, but this time also pulling from the arrow rest after the string. Electric-like sparks circled around the glowing arrow that just formed out of thin air, pulled back into the wavelength-made string. They were locked and loaded.

Making a sharp turn around fallen debris, the meister found themselves in a clear street, and not alone. They see the famous scythe, now in human form standing by the 'witch' with Maka looking betrayed just a few metres from them. What was this? A lover's spat? They clicked their tongue and started to aim, gaining the attention of the three in front of them. One step taken back was all they needed as they crouched down and turned their bow sideways. All their attention turned towards the glowing arrow aimed point-blank at the witch, pulled the farthest it could by the bow meister. A grin crept on the meister's lips as they heard the young girl call out their name in shock.

"(Name) Luck…?"

"The one and only."

The arrow shot through the witch's chest, piercing clean through the body and to the other side. It barely scraped Maka's cheek as the arrow whizzed by her. For a moment, the witch looked down at the hole made in her chest, but she didn't seem too surprised until her physical form exploded, creating a large gust of wind; it barely pushed (Name) back though. They could only stand and watch, pride welled up in them as they saw the soul finally appearing from the dusty mist. (Hair Colour) hair was now messed up on top of the teen's head and they looked like they just rolled right out of bed. (Eye Colour) eyes were squinted with absolute glee from that clean shot.

(Name)'s bow started to glow and the meister tossed it slightly in the air, allowing space for the weapon to transform back to his human form. He cracked his neck, stretching just slightly before walking towards the soul with a hand tucked into his pocket.

"Don't forget about me," he tutted.

The scythe was the one who uttered out a name this time, "Jas Simmons."

"That's my name. Don't wear it out, Soul Evans," he replied, coy.

He reached for the soul, snatching it from Soul's side. He gave him a grin, teasing him by dangling the soul in the air for a few seconds before dropping it into his mouth. He began chewing. Slowly. The weapon made sure he was keeping eye contact with the scythe before swallowing.

"Oh— and thanks for the meal," he grins.

Maka was instantly filled with rage, bitterness laced her words as she barked at (Name), "What are you—!" It seems like the shock had made her fall short on words. She stomped towards Jas, grabbing the taller boy by his cheeks and the bow couldn't be any more bored with the action. "Spit!" She screamed and Jas just pried her hands off his face.

"Can't. And not a dog. Want me to regurgitate the fuckin' thi—?!"

Just as Jas shooed Maka away, she delivered a nasty uppercut into Jas's stomach, making him fly backwards.

"JAS!" (Name) yelped. They watched their partner fly up into the air, startled yet made no effort to run after him.

The boy's body flopped to the ground like a ragdoll and, slowly, the soul he just swallowed escaped from his mouth, floating just above the battered body.

Maka stomped over to Jas's unconscious body, snatched the soul and called out for the scythe. "Soul!" Pretty sure her volume woke up a few people. "EAT THIS."

Her partner immediately declined, crossing his arms as he jumped further from the furious meister, "NO!"

As if Maka had superhuman speed, she was in front of Soul's face in a blink of an eye with the soul in her hand. Soul tripped and fell down and Maka kneeled over him to pin him down. He was pleading by now to not have to eat the gross seconds. Would it be called seconds? Eh. (Name) could only watch in both awe and fear at the other pair, but they also took a few glances at Jas's body to make sure he was relatively alive.

Her other hand crammed itself into Soul's mouth, forcing his jaw open so she could shove the soul down his throat. Oh, the poor soul.

"EAT IT."

"NOOOOOOOOO—"

gulp.

"Nya~!"

"Hah?!"

----

just wanted to share this lmao. there've never been many fanfics that had gender neutral reader inserts or fanfics that didn't involve a lot of romance so i wanted to do this! plus my funky oc. i love him so much

[secondhandbagofholding]

I went to see ant-man, as my partner was invited by friends and invited me too, so I went (I try not to willingly give Disney money, but this seemed important to my partner, so)… And I have thoughts.

What was that movie about??? Like it honestly feels like I watched the longest bit of filler and like… a couple minutes of actually important and meaningful movie/storyline interspersed throughout. The dialogue was almost all quips and one liners. Characterizations all felt one dimensional. You could have removed 90% of the characters and the story wouldn’t have suffered at all. Like Hope literally said three lines in the whole movie, and they were all in service to exposition. Hank literally just made self deprecating jokes. The daughter who I forgot her name already’s personality made like no sense. Ant-man’s lines were 90% just being awkward about what other people were saying. And the stakes were, “if you don’t let me go on a murderous rampage through the universe I’ll kill your daughter,” which is the worst fucking moral dilemma ever, like Ant-man deserves to be demoted from hero. AND AND none of it mattered anyway. The stakes were bad and literally didn’t matter. The state of the world and the characters is literally exactly the same at the end as the beginning, nothing changed. In the end the “hero’s” didn’t even do that much. The deus ex Machina of the hyper evolved ants did that.

I’m just an amateur storyteller and been DMing and playing RPG’s for many years now. I’m not a trained art or movie critic, I have zero authority here. But I have studied and read enough to recognize and avoid bad storytelling in its simplest forms, and this movie reeked of it.

And that’s just how I feel about it.