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iceeckos12 · 4 years ago

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time travel snippet

little time travel au oneshot. season 5 jon travels back in time to season 1. from the perspectives of tim, martin, and sasha. 3.5k.

i dont think i need to tag anything, but please let me know otherwise.

Tim wakes up that morning, and it’s just like any other day.

Well—no, okay, that’s a bit misleading. Today is his first day working as an archival assistant, so he’s one part nervous, one part that breathless, exhilarated feeling you only get when you’re about to do something unfamiliar that may or may not redefine your life for the foreseeable future. When he says “it’s just like any other day”, he means that he wakes up, and he’s a normal person doing normal people things like eating a healthy breakfast and going to work.

(So, no. In short, he doesn’t realize that today is the day when It happens, that big, life-changing event that you think will Never Happen To You.)

He gets out of bed, stumbles into the bathroom. Washes his face of whatever residue that’d built up during the night, tries to scrape away the evidence of his nightmares, smiles big and bright at the mirror to see how successful his efforts were. He’s betrayed by the traitorous bags beneath his eyes, but that’s okay. Sasha taught him how to wield concealer as a shield whenever his past wore down his armor.

He shoots twin finger guns into his reflection, making soft pew, pew! noises that are almost too-loud in the hush of the bathroom. Then he turns on his heel and walks away, sauntering and humming along with the chorus of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.

He gets to the Institute twenty minutes before he’s supposed to—not because he’s trying to impress his boss or whatever (he and Jon have known each other long enough that there’s no point). It’s just, Jon will probably want to make some sort of game-plan before the actual workday starts.

The poor man had been relieved to an almost comical degree when Tim had said yes, I’ll come with you to the Archives. It’s painfully obvious how out-of-his-depth Jon is with the whole “Head Archivist” thing. Tim’s honestly baffled as to why Elias had singled him out for the position in the first place, considering his lack of qualifications.

But, whatever. It’s fine! Tim and Sasha will be there to help him—although the third assistant is a bit of a problem, considering that they know absolutely nothing about him. There’s no guarantee that this Martin Blackwood won’t report inadequacies or mistakes back to Elias. If that’s the case, Tim and Sasha will have to be Jon’s safety net, which is partially why Tim is hoping to talk to Jon before anyone else gets there.

He also wants to talk to Jon because he just knows the man is probably working himself up over all of this. Maybe reassurances won’t do away with the source of anxiety entirely, but at least it’ll remind Jon that he’s not alone, and that he can count on Tim and Sasha.

As expected, when Tim gets there he can see a sliver of light pouring out from the cracked door of the Head Archivist’s office. He selects a desk and sets his bag on top of it, noting a set of strange gouges in the fake wood with a raised eyebrow, and then an internal shrug. The Institute issued laptop is near the far edge of his desk, and his collection of pictures are strategically placed so that he can see them all clearly.

His eyes linger over the image of him, his mother, and his brother. Their smiles are almost perfect replicas of each other, like someone took a mold of one of their faces and recreated it twice over.

Briefly, he closes his eyes. Then he shakes himself, releases a slow, steadying breath, and goes to check on Jon.

Tim’s not sure what he’s expecting to see when he goes into Jon’s office.

(That’s misleading too, though. He’s not sure if Jon will be visibly calm or upset, if he’ll be on his laptop, if he’ll be picking at the skin around his fingernails, as he so often does when he’s stressed. He is expecting Jon as he is and always has been—a twenty-some year old going on sixty, who wraps his gruff, grumpy demeanor about himself to protect the soft, vulnerable core he likes to pretend doesn’t exist.)

He comes up to the door, and the soft rectangle of light that emanates from beneath the door paints the tips of his shoes gold. “Jon?” he calls softly, rapping his knuckles against the frame. There’s a soft rustling noise—papers maybe? but no audible response, so he shrugs and pushes the door open. “I’m coming in.”

Tim steps inside, a quip instinctively readying itself on his tongue—but then his gaze lands on Jon, and he freezes dead in his tracks.

Even years later, he still vividly, viscerally remembers the moment he saw Danny standing on the stage underneath the Royal Opera House, the way he’d looked...not quite right. The wrongness had been subtle, so much so that it had been unnoticeable upon first glance, upon second glance. The longer Tim had looked though, the more obvious it had become, exposing all the little faults in that almost-perfect recreation of his brother.

Looking at Jon now, it’s the first and only thing he can think of. Because—yes, there’s the long, silver-streaked black hair, there’s the rich brown eyes, there’s the pair of spectacles that make him look far older than he actually is. But that’s where the similarities between the Jon he knows and this Jon end.

Jon’s always been a small man, but his feigned haughtiness makes him seem much bigger than he actually is. Except—except this Jon looks smaller somehow, his shoulders curved protectively inward, like he’s trying to present less of a target. And there’s something about his face, too—his expression is too sharp, too much—

But the worst of it is his eyes. There’s something very wrong with his eyes.

Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with Jon? He doesn’t say it out loud though, just keeps staring at Jon, a heady mix of terror and horror making any sort of reaction impossible.

After a moment Jon’s lips thin, contorted by some distant cousin of displeasure, and he rises to his feet. Tim stumbles instinctively backward, his breath escaping him in a sharp gasp that’s immediately swallowed up by the apathetic stacks of books and papers surrounding them. He’s struck by the fact that if he dies here, it’s unlikely anyone will notice; he’ll become just another set of marks gouged into the desk, willed away with an uneasy shrug.

Jon freezes, lips parting subtly, as though he were about to speak. Tim feels his breath catch in his chest, unable to shake himself out of the clouded stupor his mind has fallen into.

In the end, Jon says nothing. Just releases a long, slow breath of air and sits back down, pushing his chair close to his desk. The motion looks heavy, tired, as though it takes far more energy than it should.

“You—you should go,” Jon rasps, and there’s something off about his voice too, though Tim can’t put his finger on why. He can’t cobble together enough of a train of thought to make sense of any of this, all he can think of is that clown ripping Danny apart—

He stumbles out of Jon’s office, sits down at his desk. Stares down at the cheap, fake wood, at the gouges that have marred the otherwise pristine surface. Puts his head in his hands, and tries to will his heart to stop pounding in his chest.

-0-

Martin’s heard things about Jonathan Sims.

He’s not usually the type to pay attention or encourage gossip, as the vivid memories of his classmates tittering cruelly whenever he walked by still leaves a sour taste in his mouth.The problem with the Institute is that the employees get bored pretty easily. Though most would consider academic research into the esoteric and the paranormal to be fairly interesting, it’s still academic research. And the subject content can get to be a bit...repetitive. There’s only so many gruesome statements you can read without thinking, oh great, more meat.

So the employees gossip a lot, and while Martin usually tries to keep his head down and avoid it, it’s difficult not to overhear some things. And from what little he’s heard, he’s...a bit concerned. Rude and unsociable has frequently been mentioned, as have arrogant and unnecessarily finicky, and worst of all, a bit of a stuck-up know-it-all.

Normally he tries not to put too much stock in office gossip—he’s well aware that the grapevine tends to exaggerate one’s most undesirable traits—but if any of it is true, then he might just be in trouble. It was hard enough being a library employee when his boss wasn’t even paying attention most of the time. If Jon is as exacting as they say, it might be enough to expose the fact that Martin has no idea what the fuck he’s doing. And if that happens, then he might get fired, and he can’t get fired, he needs this job, he can barely keep up with his mum’s medical bills as it is—

Calm down, Martin tells himself firmly, pressing his hand against his sternum, as though that will be enough to quell the rising panic. It’s only your first day. Maybe he’s nice, and we’ll actually be good friends.

(With his luck? Yeah, right.)

The Institute looms in the distance, growing closer with every terrified, grudging footstep. A shiver runs up his spine at the sight of its imposing presence, a dark, ugly blot of a building against the backdrop of the iron grey clouds.

If there’s one thing he’s good at though, it’s keeping his head down and muddling through until he’s able to figure out what is actually expected of him. He can twist and fold himself into whatever role they need him to fill, as he has done so many times in the past. Not easily perhaps, but he has always managed. The alternative is untenable, after all.

So he takes a deep breath, and shoves his panic down as deep as possible. Lifts his head and forces a smile onto his face, like a good attitude will be enough to protect him from his boss’s wrath.

He could really do with a cup of tea.

Martin trudges down the stairs, giving the blank walls, the old-fashioned carpet, a dubious look as he does. The Archives themselves are as he remembers it—he’s been down here a couple of times when Gertrude made a request for something specific, but—

He pauses when he notices a man sitting at one of the desks, his face buried in his hands. His shoulders aren’t shaking and his breathing is even, so Martin doesn’t think that he’s crying? He’s just….sitting there, his stillness so perfect it’s almost inhuman.

“Hello?” Martin calls softly, cautiously, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet.

The man looks up, revealing a very handsome face and brown eyes so dark they may as well be black. His cheeks are dry but his eyes are bright and a little wild, and his mouth is pressed into a small, tight line. He doesn’t speak, just keeps watching, blinking dazedly in Martin’s direction. Martin gets the feeling that this person isn’t entirely there at the moment, like a house in which every room is lit, but there are no people inside.

He swallows and shifts nervously back and forth, trying to decide whether or not to call for some backup. Eventually he sets his bag on the floor and shuffles a bit closer. “Um—are you—is everything okay?”

The man blinks rapidly, some semblance of awareness creeping back into his gaze. He shakes his head slowly, pushes his short, gelled hair back from his head. His hands are trembling. “I’m...yeah, I’m fine. It’s—everything’s, it’s…”

But then his gaze lands on something over Martin’s shoulder, and all the color drains out of his face, his mouth shutting with a painful sounding click. Martin quickly spins around, searching for whatever could’ve scared him so much—

There’s someone standing in the doorway of Gertrude’s office.

There are so many things that one normally takes in upon first meeting another person: their hair, their skin color, all the little wrinkles and marks that give you the briefest insight into their life. Martin looks at posture first, tends to check if a person is intentionally looming, or if they’re making themself smaller.

But all Martin can see are the eyes.

There’s—two of them he thinks, but two is such an arbitrary number when the thing you’re applying it to doesn’t ascribe to human values (he’s not sure how he knows that—how does he know that—?). That horrible, terrible gaze is an unerring arrow, all-encompassing, all-consuming, piercing the deepest corners of his mind. It hurts in some distant, nebulous way he’s not even sure he comprehends—

Then he blinks, and the sheer terror, that feeling of the horrible, violating exposure of everything that he is, abruptly snuffs out. What’s left is just a person, wispy and small, his slight frame fairly drowning in a chunky, cable-knit jumper. He’s leaning against his doorframe, his eyes—two big brown ones, rich and unfathomably sad and more than that, human—drinking Martin in, his lips parted in a soundless gasp.

“Um—” Martin glances over his shoulder, and almost leaps out of his skin when a land falls heavily on his shoulder. The man who’d been sitting in the chair is standing just behind him, a strained but polite smile on his face.

“Hi Jon,” the man says, an undercurrent of a warning in his voice.

Martin glances between the two, his confusion growing with every passing moment. This is not what he was expecting when he first came into work today, and the uncertainty makes him feel strange and off-kilter.

The person in the door swallows once, twice, then straightens, one hand still gripping the doorframe like it’s the only thing keeping him upright. When he speaks, his voice is soft, tentative, a little ragged around the edges. “Tim. It’s, um...it’s good to see you.”

“Martin Blackwood, was it?” Tim continues, injecting a bit of cheer into his voice. It takes Martin a moment to realize that he’s being addressed, and he shoots Jon—this is Jonathan Sims?—an uncertain look before nodding slowly. “We’re happy to have you on the team.”

“O-Oh?” Martin squeaks, then grits his teeth and bodily forces his voice back into its normal range. “I’m—um, I’m happy to be here?”

“Good,” Tim says through a grin that looks more like a grimace, giving Martin’s shoulder a friendly pat. The look he shoots Jon is a dark, mistrustful thing. The look Jon gives him back is fragile, vulnerable, that winds the tension in Tim’s shoulders so tight it has to be painful.

Jon’s gaze flickers to Martin, just for a second—and then he disappears into his office, leaving the door cracked behind him.

Tim and Martin stand there for a second, staring at the door. Tim’s still tense as a bowstring, and his grip on Martin’s shoulder is almost uncomfortable. The air in the Archives feels stuffy and too warm, and there’s a strange prickling sensation on the back of Martin’s neck, like he’s being subjected to close scrutiny.

Then Tim sighs and lets go of Martin’s shoulder, a little of the tension bleeding out of him, and without it he looks small, deflated. He goes back to his desk and sits down, booting up his laptop without a word of explanation to Martin.

Martin stares at the back of Tim’s head for a moment, a number of questions clamoring around in his brain—what the fuck was that? What’s wrong with Jon? Why are you so obviously suspicious of him?—but the words won’t come. Breaking the silence feels...sacrilegious, somehow. Every breath of air sticks against the back of his throat.

In the end, he doesn’t say anything either, just sits at his desk and takes out his Institute-issued laptop. Stares blankly at the screen as the machine slowly, laboriously, comes to life.

-0-

Sasha’s not entirely sure how to interpret the tense atmosphere that has descended over the Archives.

The first day she’d arrived a couple of minutes before she was supposed to, prepared to follow Jon’s direction and help him adjust as best she could. (Her feelings about Jon’s promotion...didn’t matter. She didn’t like it, but it wasn’t his fault that Elias was an old-fashioned misogynist.)

But when she’d come down the stairs, Tim and the assistant she didn’t know, Martin, had been seated quietly at their desks. They’d both had the same distant, shell-shocked look on their faces, like they’d received some shattering, horrible news. Sasha had sent Tim a confused look, but he either hadn’t noticed it, or hadn’t wanted to explain.

She hadn’t even seen Jon that first day, just received a polite email asking her to start organizing the statements according to the system which he’d devised.

It’s been almost three days, and nothing has changed. Oh sure, they’ve all started organizing the statements as directed. Tim cracks jokes, Martin tiptoes around them and makes copious amounts of tea. That strange tension that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up, like the world is holding its breath in anticipation, hasn’t faded though. And while she doesn’t know Martin all that well, she knows that something’s still up with Tim. He seems more subdued than usual, keeps sending uncomfortable looks in the direction of Jon’s office—

—which hasn’t been open since that first day. She hasn’t seen Jon at all either, no matter how early she arrives or how late she stays. The only proof she has that he’s still alive is the polite email she periodically receives, detailing some specific task that he wants for them to do.

Even then, his emails are...odd. She’s not sure how she can tell, but they feel...awkward? Stilted? Like he’s only half-aware of what he’s typing, or like he’s only asking them to do things because he feels like he should, not because he has any actual goal in mind.

Normally she’d be frustrated by this, would complain bitterly to Tim about Elias passing over her for someone who obviously doesn’t properly appreciate the position they’ve been given—except that she knows Jon. He’d made a point to explain the situation to her himself, an apologetic twist tucked into the corner of his mouth. More than that, he’d asked her to follow him to the archives, saying that he wanted the two people he trusted most, her and Tim, to come with him.

He respects her too much not to take this job seriously.

The strangeness of the archives is only emphasized by Jon’s complete and utter lack of presence within it, but she doesn’t—she doesn’t buy that. She doesn’t believe that he’d just suddenly decide not to do the job he’d been so anxious to excel at.

More damning than anything is Tim’s complete, utter silence regarding Jon’s strange behavior, but whatever he knows about it, he isn’t saying anything. Martin is willing to talk, but he seems to be as lost as she is.

“I—that first day, Jon…” Martin shrugs, shooting a nervous glance toward the door leading to the archives. He’s been spending a lot of time hovering in the break room making tea, not that she can blame him. “He—I mean obviously I don’t know him very well, but he seemed...upset?”

“Upset,” Sasha repeats dubiously.

Martin lets out an exhausted sigh and turns away, waving a dismissive hand. “Look, I’m not entirely sure how to explain it. He just—okay, so, bear with me for a second, but he reminded me of this guy who used to live in my neighborhood.”

Sasha backs off, folding her arms and leaning against the counter. “Okay?”

“There was this little old couple that used to live in my neighborhood. They were—they were really sweet! The husband used to give candy to us younger kids. But um—sometimes you’d see him sitting in the rocking chair on his porch, and it was like...he wasn’t entirely there? Like, he’d just sit there for hours, rocking and staring at nothing. That’s—that’s what Jon’s expression reminded me of.”

Martin gets more animated the more he talks, Sasha notes; his hands move in broad, sweeping gestures, his expression twisting into an expression of extreme concentration. The moment he finishes he deflates again, tucking his hands into his armpits self-consciously, a hedgehog curling protectively in on itself.

“So, yeah,” he finishes eloquently.

“Huh,” Sasha says thoughtfully.

She gets back to her desk. Looks over at Tim, who’s studiously working through a box of statements, his mouth set in a neutral, concentrated frown. Takes a deep breath, letting the taste of dust and old papers sit heavy on her tongue.

Then she opens her laptop and starts looking through the catalog of cursed items that are currently being held in Artifact Storage.

(She doesn’t think that she’ll find anything, but—but just in case.)

-0-

They all get the call the next Monday morning: Elias Bouchard was found dead in his office.

#tma #iceeckos12 writes #my writing #just a little time travel au #probably wont continue this but i thought it was kinda fun

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darling-cas · 6 years ago

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War of Hearts (Snippet)

A/N: I don’t know where this came from. I literally wrote it in 20 minutes after a stressful shift at work. For those of you who don't know, War Of Hearts would have been the third story in my figure skater series titled Worth The Fall. The first being my Rowaelin story We Are Young followed my Nessian fic Whatever It Takes. Will I continue this? I don’t know. I guess I’ll wait and see the response to this little snippet. So please let me know what you think. Also, this is the first thing I’ve written in eight months and I didn’t edit it. You’ve been warned.

I also really need to re-read WAY and WIT because I’m sure I’ve gotten some of my own facts wrong oops.

My Writing Masterlist Worth The Fall Masterlist War of Hearts Pinterest

——————–

Feyre Archeron never wanted to be a figure skater.

She could remember when she was younger, the tender age of seven with four years of skating lessons already under her belt. It was at such an age when Feyre decided she didn't want to skate. She didn't hate the sport by any means. She simply didn't like it.

She wasn't like Nesta, who displayed drive and passion for the sport from the moment her blade hit the ice. She wasn't like Elain, who followed after Nesta with a blooming smile.

Feyre did not want to skate. She felt no connection with the silver blades on her feet. She didn't want to wear the dresses or tights. She found the stadium too cold, the ice too wet whenever she tripped on her toe picks.

No. Feyre did not want to be a figure skater.

She wanted to be a painter, an artist.

She wanted to create and destroy with a stroke of her brush. She wanted to harm and to heal, to pour her feelings and emotions onto a canvas using shades of blue, purple, black. She wanted paint stuck under her nails, not mittens covering her fingers. She preferred red staining her hair as opposed to glitter in her too-tight ponytail.

Feyre didn’t want to follow after her sisters. She didn’t want to skate. Yet, whenever she tried to push away, her mother pushed back.

Their mother was never a skater or an athlete in any sense. She never had the pleasure or privilege to partake in such things growing up. Therefore, she wanted what all mothers did; to give her daughters the life she never had.

Money was tight. Their mother took on two jobs while their father worked long hours to support them. Feyre could remember lying awake at night, listening to her father argue that skating was taking up too much of their money. But their mother never backed down, even if, on those nights, seven-year-old Feyre wished she did.

Looking back, as an older woman, Feyre wished she’d been better. She wished she’d given her mother that joy by willing stepping on the ice. She wished she could take back all the pouts, the resisting, the arguments. If she has understood then how much time, energy and money their mother had to give for a sport she wanted her daughters to love, she would have been better.

If she’d known that her mother wouldn’t be around long enough to see her youngest actually fall in love with the sport…

“Figure skaters are artists. Their brushes are the blades, the canvas is the ice, and their hearts form the picture. Skate your picture, Feyre.”

From the moment her mother took her last breath, Feyre promised to do just that.

She poured everything she had into honouring her mothers dying wish. She dropped out of high school, took on three jobs while their father turned to the bottle to deal with his grief. She became the caretaker and provider for the family. She made sure the Archeron sisters continued to step onto the ice every season.

But there was one thing missing. A phantom that followed her around day and night. A passion that never came. A loneliness that never left.

The passion that Nesta and Elain had for skating, the love their mother desperately wanted to bestow upon her daughter, it never came. She just did want she had to do it get by.

Until one early morning practice. It was a rainy Saturday, the start of the season. Feyre was standing on the ice before Couch Alis, waiting to meet her new partner, when he showed up. When he came charging into her life, grabbing her hand and whisking her off her bladed feet.

He wasn't her first partner, but he was the one who made her feel something. Less lonely. More loved.

He was the one who started her story.

"Feyre Archeron," Coach Alis said as Feyre looked into those green eyes, marveling at the wolfish grin that accompanied it. "Meet your new partner, Tamlin Lente."

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isedonsdndgame · 5 years ago

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2020-02-08

They head out and return to their decadent lodgings to warm up and relax, sleeping the night to recover before heading into the Alabaster Mansus once more. All are rested the next morning, but Iskafar continues to have the feeling that something important was forgotten, heading to the common room he hears snippets of conversation of people talking about paying to experience new memories that seem familiar to him. The party then gathers and heads back to the Mansus and head to the sealed door to the armory and ritual chambers. He holds up the amulet to release the barrier and Driscoll knocks open the stubbornly frosty door revealing a frozen deep gnome corpse with a sword through its back, reaching up for the door. They back away from the corpse and watch to see if there is any reaction, but it is merely frozen in place.

Stepping into the chamber they see a few tables with various weapons, stands with suits of armor, and a total of eight uniformly armoured gnomes cut down and frozen, the remains of a grizzly battle. There is another frost covered door to the south that Driscoll opens after inspecting for anything out of the ordinary. Beyond they see a ritual chamber with an ice clad mummified gnome corpse wielding two blades turns its blue glowing eyes towards them, four icy corpses moving to engage them as well. Iltharian and Driscoll move to hold the door while Ignys sends a fireball into the room. Samantha moves in to melee while Iskafar fires off a distracting blast of energy. Driscoll manages 3 of the zombies for the time but the effects are shrugged off by the icy warrior. The warrior sizes up the situation and unleashes a power from the bow it wields to conjure icy chains that attempt to slow the party and entraps 3 of them.

The party re-positions and moves to engage the Warrior, Iltharian and Ignys downing one of the zombies first. The warrior then moves and relocates to the armoury, animating 4 of the fallen corpses around Ignys as he does so. Iltharian runs out to assist but the zombies slam into both him and Ignys. Driscoll, Samantha, and Iskafar move back out to assist while Ignys quickly teleports out of the way and fires a sunbeam through the undead, blasting and blinding them with radiant energy. The Warrior manages to siphon some life back from Iltharian, but the rest of the party quickly chips away at him until Ignys finishes him with another sunbeam blast, leaving a pile of ash, the swords and bow laying in the pile, another medallion clattering to the floor as well. Iskafar picks up the medallion and finds it similar to the two they already have, but this one has an image of icicles on it.

The party investigates the rooms and find little of value, but they do find the trappings of a necromantic ritual in a sort of lesser lichdom but one that appears to have scrambled mental faculties in doing so. Having searched the rooms and secured what valuables they found, they head back to the main entry hall and head up to the stairs listed as the Library. Upon reaching the floor, they find several desks, shelves lined with books, a lectern with a large tome, and a circular research desk at the center of the room. All these important and valuable looking items are covered in a thick layer of ice, with five gently glowing blue crystals around the room. They look around a bit and Ignys takes a close look at the glowing crystalline rocks and finds that there are four symbols depicted; blizzard, icicles, rime, crystal, the images matching the depictions on the medallions that they have collected so far, save for one with a crystal. Deciding not to touch anything here until the last medallion is located, they head down the stone stairs off the main chamber.

Descending, the air becomes much colder and they are met with a large wall of ice blocking further passage. Between their fire magics and mining implements, they excavate enough ice along the eastern wall to locate a vault door carved with protection symbols as well as the various medallion images. Ignys holds up his amulet to the door and the symbols glow and the doors open. Inside they find a dead gnome frozen to the wall, a crumpled up scroll, a medallion with a stylized crystal on it, and a journal laying next to him. The vault contains a glowing light source and several chests opened and rummaged through with coins and trinkets scattered about.

Ignys reads the journal:

Journal from gnome (Pelebip, Crystalizer of Knowledge) -Ever since we found that dragon scale, the Frost Frenzy afflicting our family has only increased in frequency. Our fortunes have dwindled as we seem to be pursuing every unlikely avenue of research. Wielder of the Icicle, Alunius, suspects he has the answer and is going to try some necromantic ritual to sidestep the consequences. -By the gods, what a horrible failure! We’ve had to seal off the martial wing but we’ve lost the entirety of the house guard trying to contain the monstrosity that Alunius became. He may have bypassed the ailment, but no one is willing to follow up on his research. <Several entries pass> -Selemond, Transmuter of the Rime, thinks he has found an answer in alchemy to purify the elemental essence to ride the spike of frost energy rather than succumb to it in a frenzy. It sounds promising, similar to my own research. Let us hope his method is sound. -I don’t… He… Gods. Now we’ve lost the alchemy wing as well. <Several uneventful entries pass> -Gemel of the Blizzard is getting desperate and urging me to speed my research. I think Selemond was on the right track but perhaps we can use a pure elemental. I tried a fire elemental with a willing volunteer to counter the surging frost, but the poor fellow is now left without access to magic. He’s been given a modest parcel of gold and sent away from the Mansus. -Gemel insisted. I’d prepared a concoction of Frost elemental essence and dragons blood from a true chromatic dragon. He pulled rank and demanded to apply it to himself first as he was starting to show signs of the Frenzy. After he consumed it, everything seemed to be fine for a while, but later he went into the fiercest display of magic I’ve seen. Being the last remaining elder I’ve decided to lock down the library so no one else tries anything foolish.

-It’s chaos out there, I was able to retreat to the vaults with some supplies to hopefully ride this out. -The door is frozen stuck, and I foolishly grabbed the wrong scroll in my haste. I can only hope someone recovers one of the other elders medallions and clears whatever is on the other side.

-I think I’ve got it, the essences of both frost and fire would not cancel each other, but balance each other. Along with dragons blood to bind and stabilize…. But it’s no use, it’s been almost a week since I heard anything, and I’d still have to recover all the medallions to end the lock-down for the rest of my rituals. If anyone else from the Mansus finds this, follow my research but mix BOTH elemental frost and flame agents, take them at the same time, and you may just end the effects of the Frost Frenzy.

They take the medallion and stuff the treasure into the bag of holding and head back up to the library. Ignys takes all four medallions and touches them to one of the blue crystals causing all of the ice to sublimate away in a cloud. He takes the book of research, found to belong to Pelebip, the same name on the journal, and also copy down the design of a runic teleportation circle found under the ice. Several members of the party are starting to become very chilled by the cold, but they want to excavate a bit more of the ice in the vault, hoping to find out if any more treasure is concealed that way. Another hour or so of work and they breach through to gusty frigid winds coming from a swirling vortex in a stone arch lined with glowing sigils, apparently a portal of some kind. As they get closer to investigate, and possibly shut it down, a huge blue creature, long like a centipede but with a flared hood and glowing red spines down its back bursts out of a chamber on the western side of the vault hall and sizes up the party.

Game ends as the party prepares for combat.

#D&D

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unknownogre · 2 years ago

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My Writeblr Info

(Edited on 3-19-24)

Hi I’m Ogre(He/Him) and I’ve been writing since about 12 years old so we’ll say about 28 years at this point. I have other creative outlets but writing has been the most consistent and the one I’ve improved upon the best. I’m neurodivergant, ADHD. So of course I support that community.

I’m a chill person who likes a multitude of genres. If you’d like to talk to me, I’m always happy to get a message. I will always reflect the energy of those that message me.

This is a safe place for most...if you read my stuff you’ll know who isn’t welcome. No Nazis, no TERFS, no BIGOTS. I’m LGBTQIA+ friendly and supportive. Black Lives matter. I do what I can when I can. This is a writing blog and not a political one, but my views are def shared now and again.

My Genres:

-Fantasy; This is where my heart lives. I’ve been role playing online since the yahoo and Lycos chatroom days and in all of those rooms I’ve been drawn to fantasy. Between that and many years playing DnD, Fantasy is my default.

-Modern Fantasy: I LOVE writing this. I’m getting better at it with each passing year. I simply love combining magic and modern tech and the mix allows me to go wild with world building. This is where I put my current Dark Sanctuary Saga at. Superheroes to me are a type of fantasy.

-Cyberpunk: I LOVE this kind of setting. I’ve played Shadowrun and really liked the system...not the racism, and liked the idea of the setting. I’ve written a little here and there but if you have any prompts or ideas shoot em my way and I’ll see what I can do to work with them.

-Adult themes(Sexual) I’m actually very comfortable writing out this sort of content. I’ll be self posting on Amazon at some point unless I’m pointed toward a better option.

Those will be my main writing points I think for future works and what not. A lot of my writing is just responding to writing prompts set up by various pages here and there. I love just making up an entire world for about 1.5k words and then moving onto the next one. So many ideas to revisit.

Also most of what I post are rough drafts at best. My time is limited for editing and when I write something at 10pm right after work I’m not going to self edit much. I just like putting the creation out there and the positive emotions. If I can make someone happy even through spelling errors, then I am happy as well.

Works in Progress:

40 year old Bastard in Another world.

This is really my driving force right now, I’m really enjoying writing this story and I think I’ll be keeping this up for a while. Sure its a shameless self insert but I don’t think enough main characters have ADHD or even mention it. Its just fun for right now. Its an isekai about a man who gets pulled into another world and has to deal with the politics and such there.

I’ve started to re-write it and I’m much happier with the retold version.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60846667/chapters/155415544

Unnamed erotic work

As I said I’m very comfortable writing this, and am trying to get something written so I can venture into amateur self publishing or something along those lines. This is a long way off of being completed, and I won’t post any snippets on this blog. I might start a second blog for that stuff but I might just write it and put it out with little fanfare. Not quite sure.

If you can or feel like you want to support me in anyway...I won’t be mad. I’m thrilled that you’ve taken the time to read my profile. I’ll be ecstatic if you could leave a little something for me too. But no pressure, I’m not in dire straights or anything.

Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/unknownogre

This is where I am publishing my longer and chapter-ed works. If you want to take some time and read through longer bits. Its easier to find here. So give it a visit, I don’t make money off of it but It would be cool if you read some of it.

My Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnknownOgre

#UnknownOgre #Writeblr Info #Writeblr #Writers on Tumblr #Creative writing #Writing prompts

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riverheadbooks · 8 years ago

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READER HOROSCOPE FOR FEBRUARY 2017

Turning the celestial pages of love

AQUARIUS

Bust out the champagne and crank up the music - it’s your birthday month, and you are ready to party! You’re full of energy this month after a pretty drab and boring January, and it’s infectious! Have you noticed a recent uptick in the number of brunch and happy hour invitations in your inbox? Get used to it! You’re in the spotlight this month, Aquarius, and you are loving it. While you embrace moment in the sun, just be sure to monitor your calendar so you don’t overbook yourself. Looking for a high-energy read that fits your current mood? Look no further than your lucky book for this month, a wildly imaginative and deliciously unusual account of the dawn of the modern era. You’ve undoubtedly heard snippets of the circumstances around the death of Anne Boleyn, or memorized some facts about the Aztec people in middle school, but be warned: this is history like you’ve never experienced it before. While you whisk around this month, charming the socks off of everyone you meet, remember the power that a sparkling personality and a tiny twist of fate can yield. Who knows, you may end up altering the course of history yourself.

LUCKY BOOK: Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue

PISCES

Time to bring out the bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, Pisces. You’re in desperate need of some rest, and this month is your time to finally indulge in the magical art of doing absolutely nothing. Well, okay...doing less. You know how to read your body, and you know when your mind is stretched to the breaking point - this is the time to slow down and use your spare time to just let yourself be. Work is work, and the pressure from deadlines and upcoming projects may trick you into thinking that you need to be on edge all the time, but that is simply not the case! Allow yourself to do what you need to do at the office, and then give yourself the freedom to pursue an activity you want to do - whether that be taking more naps, dusting off your baking pans, or settling down with a good book. And speaking of good books - if you’re looking for a long, juicy read to fill the time you’re gaining this month, your lucky book this month is just the ticket. Take a walk through several decades of history - from Kingston, Jamaica to the streets of New York - and read a fascinating fictional account surrounding the assassination of Bob Marley, and the world-changing events that followed. There’s no better time to sink your teeth into a gripping, spellbinding story than during a self-imposed exile from the noise and clamor of the real world, so get ready to dig in.

LUCKY BOOK: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

ARIES

One may be the loneliest number, Aries, but that's not a worry you'll have this month. People are just clamoring to be in your orbit, from friends to strangers to colleagues, and you're working on making your exchanges both smooth (always check your teeth after going to town on a kale salad!) and profitable (business cards at the ready!). Collaboration is of the utmost importance right now, as the connections you forge today will only help you become a better team player, listener, and person overall. Having at least one partner to work with in all things academic, corporate, or even romantic can help the both of you become greater than the sum of your parts - and perhaps even create the beginnings of a lifetime bond. The characters in your lucky book can attest to this: two orphans abandoned at birth, who grow up together and eventually fall in love. Follow them on a whirlwind journey through the world of dance and theater, through temporary separation and desperately trying to find their way back to each other to make their childhood dreams come true. It's a spellbinding paean to the wonders of enduring love, suffering difficult times, and coming out on the other side stronger together - an appreciation that you can truly share this month.

LUCKY BOOK: The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill

TAURUS

There's no stopping you from getting what you want this month, Taurus, and it's inspiring to see. They don't call you the bull for nothing - you refuse to be deterred from going after your dreams, and you're willing to do just about anything to achieve the level of success you've always wanted. That means, of course, that this is a month in which your social calendar will be pretty bare bones: you only have so much time to spare, and getting your affairs in order to strive toward the next level in your career or passion is of utmost importance right now. When is the last time you spoke to your mentor? That's one lunch date that should be prioritized - you can have all the ambition in the world, but without a bit of guidance from someone who's seen more and experienced more, you may merely end up spinning your wheels or even end up suffering from the residual effects of self-sabotage. In your lucky book this month, you'll learn all about a nation that achieved an incredible feat way ahead of its time: establishing a modern-day revolutionary theocracy. From the outside, Iran now appears to be dangerous, a threat to our way of life, but within it lies a much deeper and more complex story of the many religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists that have staked their entire lives and beliefs on what they feel their country should represent and be capable of. For a mover and shaker like yourself, this is the kind of book you won’t know you needed until you're halfway through. Go get em, Taurus. We'll be cheering you on.

LUCKY BOOK: Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran by Laura Secor

GEMINI

This month is focused on personal growth, Gem, and not a moment too soon. If you've been feeling bored and listless, then find a class to take or new route to run. If you've been feeling hopeless about the state of the world, use this time to push yourself to action - get involved in a way you may have been afraid or hesitant to until now. This is the time to expand your everyday reality, to take small leaps of faith that leave you with some pretty undeniable results. Your inner circle will be crucial during this time of self-discovery and boundary-testing: they're smart, reliable, and you trust them to have your best interests at heart. That is not a gift to be taken lightly, so be sure to learn from them this month, and let them know how much you appreciate their presence in your life. To assist you in thinking on a larger scale than you normally do, your lucky book this month is a small volume with dizzying scope. Learn the facts around some of our most common yet awe-inspiring realities, like the makeup of space and time, and the elementary ingredients that comprise our world. It's the perfect reset button, going back to the basics of our physical world and coming to a deeper understanding about how truly miraculous and beautifully fated our very existence is. You'll walk away from this book with a much richer perspective on life, and less fear around wresting control of your own, and shaping it in the way you've always dreamed. You know what they say about shooting for the moon, Gem. Landing among the stars really isn't such a bad deal.

Lucky Book: Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli

CANCER

Who says being a recluse is a bad thing? There are times you just need to be alone, to recharge and re-center yourself, and this month, it's your turn. A lot has happened over the past few months, both in your personal life and on a global scale, and if you want to be able to navigate the many different challenges that have presented themselves, reconnecting with your values and checking in on your state of mind is a must. This doesn't mean you need to confine yourself to your apartment at all times, just that it would be in your best interest to embark on a journey of some inner exploration, and maybe limit your social engagements to outings with only your closest friends. The clarity that can come from this time spent with yourself or with your most trusted loved ones is invaluable. The main character of your lucky book this month makes that discovery as well - on a trip to Greece to search for her missing husband, there are some questions about his disappearance that are never answered, but by the end of the book, she has plumbed her emotional depths and discovered long-dormant truths about herself that could only be found during a sustained period of solitude. Don't be afraid to do the tough psychological work of digging through your own impulses, desires, fears, and hopes - self-reflection is a skill that becomes more crucial the more life is lived. Dive in.

LUCKY BOOK: A Separation by Katie Kitamura

LEO

Once upon a time, there was a Leo who felt like they would scream if they had to answer another benign "How are you?" You know what, Leo? We certainly can't say we blame you. You're all about the real talk this month - you say what you mean and mean what you say, and don't have time for meaningless pleasantries. Life is too short for wasting precious minutes on anything but the conversations and experiences that will help you get where you're trying to go. January was a bit slow - the first month of the year tends to be a rough one - so now you're fired up, ready to go. Your mind is buzzing, and your creative energy is flowing - so keep that vibe going! The author of your lucky book this month is the perfect accompaniment to your current mindset: quirky and unusual, a series of traditional fairy tales with stunningly inventive departures from the norm. Is it a love story, a tragedy, or merely a series of strange misadventures? That's up to you to decide. Go on a journey filled with twists and turns, and surrender yourself to the glorious ambiguity of familiar stories turned on their head. I know you’re a straight shooter this month, but there is value in taking the road less traveled to your intended destination - or, perhaps, to a destination you didn’t even know you wanted to reach. You’re going to make it to your _______ ever after - and filling in that blank is the best part.

LUCKY BOOK: Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

VIRGO

Fire up that blender and start stretching those limbs, Virgo - this month, personal fitness is the name of the game. Chances are, you’ve been following the news cycle obsessively, nearly driven to the edge with worry, and stress-eating is often the only solace to be found after going down a dark social media hole. No more! Banish the Doritos from your room and just say no to the peanut M&Ms. Get rid of the nagging guilt by listening to your body and doing what it’s politely asking you to do - put your health at the forefront of your concerns and allow yourself to shut everything else out, if only for an hour a day. Better yet, put your money where your mouth is, and get outside to volunteer with an organization doing the work you feel passionate about. Aside from it being a small humanitarian act that can go far, you’ll feel better for having spent your energy on an activity that helps put the world to rights, just a little bit, rather than simply complaining about it on your Facebook feed. After all, this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint - better to limber up for the long haul rather than let yourself burn out quickly. For inspiration, your lucky book of the month is a historically accurate account of a slave’s escape right before the Civil War - a reminder that despite even the most inhumane and depraved circumstances, the human will to persist, to survive, is more durable than we often believe. Remember the struggle others have faced before you: grieve their sacrifice, but take strength from it too. You are capable of more than you know.

LUCKY BOOK: Song Yet Sung by James McBride

LIBRA

Ooh, la la, Libra! Love is in the air this month, and you are just reveling in it! And what a beautiful thing that love is, when it’s free, and shared without guilt or shame. You feel light, unburdened, and that’s not an easy feat. Few can allow themselves to wear their hearts on their sleeve like you do, but that doesn’t make you weak-willed or unable to keep a secret. It means you have courage in an area where others often don’t: the courage to be rejected. The courage to be disappointed. Instead of hiding your affection for whoever has captured it, you’re letting it shine and going after what you want. In a world that increasingly favors mind games and obfuscation in matters of the heart, your approach is a wholly refreshing one - so don’t be surprised when it works! Your lucky book this month is written from the point of few of the outsider - the witness to an extraordinary love story that grows into a personal passion. Such is the power of love - particularly in this case, when it’s between a housemaid and a policeman, two individuals who come from totally different cultural and political backgrounds. As they struggle to legitimize their true feelings in a society that does not want them to be together, the narrator becomes more and more attuned to their private anguish, and is ultimately changed just by having seen their relationship blossom. If that’s not an endorsement of living and loving out loud - especially in a time and place where you are granted that freedom - then what is?

LUCKY BOOK: A Word for Love by Emily Robbins

SCORPIO

Kick off your shoes and relax your feet, Scorpio - this month is shaping up to be a quiet, introspective one. There’s no place like home right now, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of - everyone needs a chance to just relax in their own abode from time to time. If you’re feeling the sudden urge to paint, or change your curtains, or even do some plumbing - go with it! This is your sanctuary, and it can be incredibly therapeutic and soothing to put the time and care into maintenance that it deserves. Your home is much more than the physical structure, however; be sure to spend some time with the people closest to you as well. They are your anchors - whether it be your girlfriend, roommate, little cousin, or parents - and keeping you grounded can be a pretty taxing job, if we’re being honest here! Don’t neglect those relationships; they need as much maintenance and TLC as your apartment does. Your lucky book this month is a heartwarming, hilariously realistic tale of two families who learn, through a series of misadventures, how vital they are to each other, despite any build-up of resentment, or jealousy, or awkwardness. The people who love you the most know your flaws, and continue to love you in spite of them - and what an incredible reminder when the world just makes you want to lie down for a long time. There truly is no place like home.

LUCKY BOOK: Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

SAGITTARIUS

You’re just the life of the party, aren’t you, Sag? You’re radiating positive energy this month, and it is joy to be around. It’s rare that you run out of things to talk about, because you have opinions to share and refuse to keep them locked away! Good for you - a little bit of honesty is healthy, and breaks down walls that keep potential friends apart. Your forthrightness is attracting all sorts of people to you, and there’s a good chance that it may lead to a brand new friendship - or more! There is little doubt that you will find a kindred spirit in the protagonist of your lucky book for this month: a young woman who charms her way from small-town girl-next-door to mega-popular It Girl. You know the risks of laying yourself bare, inviting commentary and criticism from friends and strangers alike - it can be demoralizing and downright scary, as people will often take your kindness for weakness. This is where your signature optimism and honesty come in handy - sometimes in order to protect yourself, you need to let people know when they’re crossing your boundaries. And if they take offense, well then, that’s their issue. You know who are you, what you want, and you’re not afraid to stand up for yourself when no one else will. Keep doing you, Sagittarius. It suits you well.

LUCKY BOOK: Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

CAPRICORN

Work, work, work! Cap, I truly admire your commitment to your craft and seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy. You’re firing on all pistons this month, breezing through deadlines and taking on extra projects - and killing it! This is your month of productivity, and so far, it’s a very successful one. Be careful to avoid burnout, though. If you haven’t already, scale back your side-ventures and hobbies, if only for the next few weeks while you’re in work-mode. Balance is vital - either work less and socialize more, or vice versa, but at all costs, avoid burning the candle at both ends. You always want to be economical with your greatest commodity - your time. But guess what, Cap? Being focused on your work actually doesn’t preclude engaging in play - quite the contrary. According to your lucky book this month, some of our most invaluable resources were the result of an innovator having fun. Makes weird sense, doesn’t it? Think about your own daily schedule. How much more productive are you when you actually enjoy what you’re doing? How much more exciting are the ideas you come up with when you’re truly enjoying the brainstorm, or are working towards an enjoyable product? Work doesn’t have to be boring - and, really, it just shouldn’t be. And you can - literally - take that to the bank.

LUCKY BOOK: Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson

#riverhead #riverhead books #february horoscope #february readerscope #astrology #zodiac #aquarius season #aquarius #tbr list

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jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

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How Do We Feel About Aziz Ansari’s Return to Netflix?

The ranks here at FASHION are not filled with men. Shocking, right? But there are one or two (there are actually, literally, two). Naturally, when a question about male/female dynamics arises it’s only fair that one of them stand in for the members of his gender and provide some insight. Our last topic of conversation was about Bohemian Rhapsody’s controversial director Bryan Singer, and today we’re talking about the fact that Aziz Ansari is returning to Netflix with his first post-#MeToo comedy special. Two of our staffers—from the men’s corner, Greg Hudson, and from the women’s, Pahull Bains—talk it out.

Pahull Bains: It’s a familiar tale: men screw up, disappear for a while, and return stronger and more powerful than ever. Some men, like Trump, don’t even have to do the disappearing bit. They just get stronger and stronger right in front of our eyes. It’s like watching Mark Ruffalo transform into the Hulk, only with less grunting (and a lot less saving-the-world).

Anyway, the latest disgraced man to return is Aziz Ansari. Next week, he’s back on Netflix with a new comedy special, directed by Spike Jonze (is it just me or is that a weird choice?). Aziz Ansari: Right Now was filmed during the Brooklyn stops of his ‘Road to Nowhere’ tour, which has taken him everywhere from Mumbai to Sydney to London to Austin over the past several months. Now, we know comebacks are inevitable. But because we’re either eternal optimists or just absolute idiots, we seem to hold out hope that these disgraced men will return as chastened, repentant, more respectful versions of their earlier selves. Louis CK has already proved us wrong. So what can we expect of Aziz?

Judging by the reviews coming in from various international outlets as he makes his way across the globe, the comedian who built a career on being a woke ally is dancing around the elephant in the room instead of mining it for thoughtful, introspective material. Reviews have been mixed—Vulture called his New York show “sombre,” while the Guardian deemed his London set “combative”—but a word that comes up often is bitter. It shows up in a New Yorker review of his New Haven show, in a Cut report from a show in Massachusetts, and a Quartz piece from Connecticut.

So rather than grapple with the complex gender dynamics, social norms and patriarchal traditions that landed him on Babe.net’s homepage, he seems to have directed his energy towards criticizing his critics. Well not his critics necessarily but in general the “really hardcore woke people” trying to outdo each other in a “secret progressive Candy Crush” game. In short, he’s angry with people for being angry, instead of taking a beat to think about why.

I’m not quite sure what to expect of this documentary of his Brooklyn shows but considering he knew they were being taped, I’m betting he brought a fair bit of introspection and penitence into this one. Because when you’re plotting your return to the small screen for the first time after a scandal of this magnitude, you make damn sure that you look good. What do you think? Or rather, what are you expecting to see?

Greg Hudson: I’m not looking for points or anything, but when I have an internet-based written discussion with a co-worker, I like to read their thoughts before responding. I know it’s not required–after all, listening before we speak isn’t really something most men “do”– but I’m glad I did. Because this is hella interesting!

Aziz Ansari’s inclusion in the #MeToo narrative was always ambiguous: some people–and not just dudes–saw it as a sign that the movement was overreaching and overcorrecting, whereas as others saw it as an opportunity to call out and discuss the more insidious, banal side of misogyny that allows men not to think about their partner’s comfort and pleasure, so long as they don’t explicitly shout NO TOUCHING! Even those who were ready to cancel Aziz along with all the other MeToo Men would begrudgingly admit that what he did was in a different category than what Weinstein, or even Louis did. But…there was still a shadow cast over him.

What I find so interesting is that, more than a year later, Aziz Ansari is apparently still up for interpretation. (Granted, that’s true of literally everything in the world: it’s all subject to individual interpretation and meaning). Maybe we read different reviews of the same events, but I think we saw a lot of the same stuff, and yet our conclusions are not the same.

When I read about shows from his tour, sure the writer mentioned that she sensed “a bitterness emanating from the stage,” but I wonder how much that was confirmation bias. I wasn’t there, nor do I know what the writer’s beliefs were going in that she was looking to confirm. But, for me, the lines that stood out from that review were the ones that seemed to contradict the idea he was traveling down the same path as Louis. Namely: “Unlike Louis C.K., who seems to have given up on trying to win back the affections of people who wrote him off… Ansari’s set had moments of genuine contemplation.”

For me, who (full disclosure) felt that Aziz didn’t deserve to be in the #MeToo conversation at all [and we can totally re-open that discussion if you’d like!], it sounds like the theme of the show is totally appropriate. “The set revolved around the question of cultural forgiveness, and the idea that we’re all flawed people who make mistakes and that the knee-jerk ‘cancel culture’ that we all participate in only serves to exacerbate divisions.” Isn’t that an entirely appropriate angle to take? It’s not claiming innocence, nor is it raging bitterly against progressive politics. It’s pointing out a social issue that is surprisingly hard to address: people who pride themselves on doing the right thing have an almost impossible time admitting that they are actually doing harm.

And yet, more and more stories are coming out about the real world pain and disproportionate punishment that arises from cancel culture. I don’t think talking about that, especially if it’s with humour and humility (which his sets are, according to the reviews), should be seen as bitterness. Nor should we see this as an example of how naively, foolishly forgiving we are to men who screw up.

We all talked about how the danger with #MeToo was that there was neither a process in place to adjudicate complaints, or to provide a path to redemption. (Actually, even saying that sounded like a defense of bad behaviour in the moment). If we don’t allow someone like Aziz, who never denied his actions, who apologized both publicly and privately, and who clearly had made being an ally not just a talking point in his comedy, but a part of how he worked, the freedom or space to “come back,” then is the movement really about justice?

PB: I feel like his take on the current culture of “cancelling” people would be stronger if he actually acknowledged his place in it. I don’t think we can hope for any progress if we sweep things under the rug or try to address things in blanket terms rather than specific ones. I know we both agree that what’s being lost in present-day discourse is nuance, and how can you have nuance without specifics? I also find it odd for a comedian who very publicly mines the personal and private (talking about his grandmother’s Alzheimers, his immigrant experience etc) to suddenly take a giant step back from the personal at this crucial moment. As a person who’s a medium-level fan of Aziz’s (I really enjoyed Master of None but haven’t seen much else that he’s been in), I think I would admire and respect him a whole lot more if he addressed all of this straight up, if he talked about how cancel culture suddenly got real for him when the Babe piece came out, and how it made him think about wokeness being taken to an extreme. (As well as his own, former, place in our culture as a woke poster boy.) I guess what I’m saying is I’d love to hear from him why he thinks he doesn’t deserve to be cancelled, instead of just railing nebulously against the system that might be trying to do so. (And I don’t even agree that it is!)

A couple of reviews mention Aziz briefly touching upon the experience with Grace: “Ansari recalled a conversation in which a friend told him it made him rethink every date he’s been on: “If that has made not just me but other guys think about this, and just be more thoughtful and aware and willing to go that extra mile, and make sure someone else is comfortable in that moment, that’s a good thing.””

Now I’d love to hear him riffing more on that. You mentioned how Aziz had made being an ally a focal part of his work, and I’m curious: how do you see him continuing to be a feminist ally if he doesn’t publicly—through his comedy, which is the easiest way to reach millions of his male fans—address what he’s learned and how he may have changed? If all his fans take away from these comedy sets is that it’s the people who are wrong for overreacting, that’s not correcting anything at all is it? I just don’t see how he’s going to hold on to his woke badge if he refuses to engage meaningfully—head on—with this issue.

GH: Obviously, this is all hypothetical at this point, since we’re basing our opinions about a comedy special we haven’t seen on a handful of small write ups that describe snippets of new material that may or may not have survived long enough to be in the show. So, we don’t know if he digs deeper into that specific event, or his general complicity in a patriarchal society. Maybe he does and it’s masterful!

But, my question is: why is his woke card at risk? Divorced from the social context of the time, what must he address, reckon or wrestle with? To me, this a reminder of the fungibility of memory. Tests have shown (I know because I spent about ten minutes Googling it) that people will still make inferences and judgements based on misinformation, even after they’ve been told that the information they were given was inaccurate.

So, if a group of subjects were told about a house fire, and then told about how there were highly flammable paints and chemicals in the garage before the fire started, they understandably infer that those paints had a hand in the fire. Interestingly, and kind of distressingly, even after subjects were told that at the time of the fire those paints had been removed (so they definitely weren’t a catalyst), subjects still surmised that the fire was probably caused by those damn paints and things.

While Aziz’s story was unfolding, there was a general acceptance that this wasn’t as serious as all the other stories, but that acceptance started feeling as genuine as “I’m not racist, but…”. Aziz isn’t as bad as Louis, but….

And so now, that’s how we remember the story. We know he didn’t do anything super serious, but it all happened at the same time, and we remember the outrage and so…now Aziz has to be a proxy–or at least a pilot–for every other man who has been shamed.

Still, one might argue that the conversation about entitlement, consent, communication and sexual privilege needed to happen, and so any negative consequences experienced by Aziz was justified (and likely negligible). I think that’s probably true–or rather, I believe the people who take this stance. But if that’s the case, then it shouldn’t be about Aziz, and whether he’s grown now.

Stipulated that you may not be able to write in Aziz’s voice, what does him reckoning with his actions even look like? I’ve started to notice, as we talk about presidential candidates and their personal and professional histories, that when a pundit says that X will really have to reckon with Y, what they really mean is that Y should disqualify X. The idea of reckoning is so vague as to be meaningless. When we don’t have a firm definition of what “reckoning” looks like, let alone when it is done sufficiently, then the whole process becomes futile in its subjectivity.

Yes, there is the lesson men need to learn about explicit consent and communication, but more broadly, everyone can look at their willingness to pile on strangers while giving themselves a pass, and see something untenable and unjust.

PB: One major thing I think we tend to forget when we talk about how/whether public figures should atone for misdeeds/misbehaviours is the fact that they’re public figures. They don’t owe us any explanations but by this point they should be damn well used to being asked for them. (You wrote that if a friend had done the same thing, I’d assume he’d wrestled with it enough but no I certainly wouldn’t, unless he explicitly told me so.) So since we’re not all best buds with Aziz, and he’s not telling us any of this over a glass of scotch, we expect him to address it on stage. Because when you’re a public figure whose career is built on engaging candidly and irreverently with both what’s going on in the world and what’s going on in your life, it seems particularly disingenuous to just ignore a scandal that you’re at the centre of. Don’t you think by not addressing this whole thing directly, he’s basically just asking us all to pretend it didn’t happen? And the thing is, one of the reasons I want him to address it is precisely because I think he can move on from it, that it’s not disqualifying.

I feel like this is one of those instances where the actual problem isn’t as telling as your response to that problem. I, like many others, agree that this shouldn’t be conflated with the other #MeToo stories, and is emblematic of a larger, structural issue than a single man’s actions. He’s a tiny symptom of a much larger problem, and at the same time, uniquely positioned to address that problem in a way that, down the line, might even result in real change. To just ignore it seems like a huge missed opportunity.

You asked earlier at some point: “Divorced from the social context of the time, what must he address, reckon or wrestle with?” And my response is that you simply can’t divorce context from these sorts of game-changing conversations. We wouldn’t even be talking about Aziz and Grace 20 years ago — it wouldn’t have even been a story. Heck, Peter Farrelly said in a published story in the ’90s that he liked to whip his dick out at unsuspecting people and that barely registered as a blip. As our culture’s threshold for bullshit changes, so do the kinds of conversations we have, and what we accept from the men (or women) responsible for that bullshit, whether in our personal lives or public ones.

GH: I do think that the conversation that grew out of the scandal was a positive one, or at least one that was needed–more needed than I would have thought, which shows how much it was needed (Hello circular reasoning!). But if a positive thing came out of it, then why is his ‘comeback’ controversial?

PB: I don’t think it is though. I don’t think people want him to be exiled or to become a pop culture pariah. I think it’s the substance of his comeback that might be considered controversial if he just pretends the whole Babe thing never happened, or worse, says the onus is on everyone else for overreacting, not on the patriarchal culture that made it okay, for so long, to behave the way he did and not think twice about it.

GH: I think he can call out and critique cancel culture without implying that it’s society’s fault that he got in trouble. Can’t he? And based on the little snippets of his shows in some of the reviews, he’s not saying people are too sensitive. He’s saying society picks and chooses who to cancel, who to be outraged by, without consistency or accountability. And he’s saying we all do it to a certain extent. Hence the difference between people’s reaction to R. Kelly vs Michael Jackson. It’s why John Lennon, who abused women, and Led Zeppelin, Motley Crew, Guns and Roses, and hell, David Bowie who all did horrible things with and to groupies, are still beloved. It’s hypocritical. But, since we weren’t around for their misdeeds, we’re cool about overlooking them?

Normal people can make mistakes in private, they can apologize to who they offended, make restitutions as much as possible, and grow, all without people calling them out on social media. Historical people already did their misdeeds, and cultural consensus is pretty hard to change, so they often get a pass. What Aziz is saying is if we were to shine celebrity-level spotlight on any random person, we’d likely find something for which, if they were a present day celebrity, we could yell at them about. For instance: still listening to Michael Jackson. And so, if no one is perfect, it’s awfully dangerous to hold people up to a perfect standard.

I think mostly though–and this extends beyond Aziz–I don’t like the vagueness of people’s expectations. He didn’t reckon with it! But what does that mean? It’s like, people always say the most important thing in a relationship is communication. As a divorcee, I totally agree! But also, no one actually tells you, while giving you the communication advice, what that means.

PB: Yes but that’s just it. He’s not a “normal person.” He’s a public figure that “normal people” look up to and possibly even emulate. Yes, society does pick and choose who to outraged by and to what degree, but the response is still dictated by the level of the “crime” (using this term very loosely here). I think most people would agree that Aziz’s role in this whole conversation is very different from say, Weinstein or Kelly or CK. And I think that’s largely why people are hoping he addresses it; there’s not much room for defense as far as those guys go, but there is plenty of room for Aziz. I think what people are hoping for is a thoughtful take on everything that’s happened in the last year—happened to Aziz, specifically, and to our culture as a whole, as a result of that story. Like it or not, he’s at the centre of a culture-shifting conversation that’s incredibly important. It’s hard to say what him adequately “reckoning” with it would look like, but maybe we can circle back on this once we’ve actually seen the damn Netflix special?

GH: And if it isn’t good, we can just talk about John Mulaney’s specials. They are also on Netflix and not at all controversial!

The post How Do We Feel About Aziz Ansari’s Return to Netflix? appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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hub-pub-bub · 6 years ago

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Vanschoonbeek: ‘A Spirit of Consensus’

In a statement issued today from the Brussels offices of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), the organization’s president, Rudy Vanschoonbeek hails the new action today (April 15), in which European ministers have given the final approval to the Single Digital Market framework’s controversial copyright directive.

It’s worth noting that it was not a unanimous ratification. As Laura Kayali is reporting at Politico, “Italy, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden voted against the measure, while Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia abstained.”

Vanschoonbeek at the FEP is quoted, saying, “After two-and-a-half years of discussions and votes on the directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, the council has approved the text adopted [on] March 25 by the European Parliament.

“Upon signatures by the presidents of the council and the parliament, it will be published in the official journal and come into force 24 months later.

“If you are looking to develop solutions for your authors and readers, the adoption means that you can work constructively with researchers, teachers, libraries, and of course your authors to establish, if they don’t exist yet, results that will benefit all.

“As president of FEP, I wish to thank everyone who has contributed to the debate with a spirit of consensus and driven by the will to bring forward solutions.”

Of course, as has been part of our coverage of the issue, the book publishing industry in Europe, on the whole, has seen the advent of the copyright directive as a boon, rather than as a negative event, not least because it allows member states the chance to direct copyright collection agencies to distribute copyright revenues to publishers as well as to authors–something that was practiced in some parts of the union but not codified in its laws until now.

As Ryan Browne is writing this morning at CNBC, the backing today from 19 of the EU’s member-states brings into law provisions that Internet freedom activists and tech platforms have complained could result in censorship.

“One of the most heavily scrutinized aspects of the law, Article 13 — or 17 as it’s now numbered,” writes Browne, “would make tech firms liable for copyright breaches. This means they will have to acquire licenses from rights holders to be able to host such content in the first place. Opponents of the law say this will lead to filtering systems that block everything from memes to GIFs before they’re even uploaded.

“The EU, however, says this won’t be the case, claiming that people will still be able to share such content freely. Either way, it’s expected to hit platforms that rely on user-generated content—like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram—hard.”

What’s more, as Kelvin Chan of the Associated Press in London is writing (here carried by The Washington Post), “Another section of the bill that caused concern requires search engines and social media sites to pay for linking to or offering up snippets of news articles.”

Member-states of the European Union now have two years to comply with the directive, “transposing” it, as it’s called, to their specific markets’ needs, and placing it into their national laws.

Because of the six-nation opposition in today’s vote in particularly, court challenges are anticipated.

Sänger: ‘Difficult Questions’

As regular readers of Publishing Perspectives know, we’ve had many useful inputs from Dr. Jessica Sänger of Germany’s Börsenverein—its publishers’ and booksellers’ association—as the issues and various stages of negotiation have progressed.

Particularly because of earlier controversy around the copyright-revenue issues in Germany, Sänger and her colleagues have been closely engaged with the campaign to see the copyright directive clear its legislative hurdles.

We’re glad to look back with her now and assess where things have ended up at this point, not least because there’s enormous energy in the debate round tech platforms’ handling of copyrighted content, and for the most part, this has not affected the discussions in book publishing, at least for its own needs and operations in the field.

We being by asking Sänger about her and her associates’ feelings in the wake of a protracted period of negotiation and effort on this.

Jessica Sänger: We are very happy with this result which shows that the European Parliament is willing to tackle difficult questions in order to ensure that creators and their publishers and producers are rewarded for their work and investments. The directive covers a broad spectrum of copyright-related questions and will bring a good deal of legal certainty in areas that are important to us.

From the point of view of German publishers, of course the legal basis for re-introduction of a publisher share in CMO [copyright management organizations] revenues is the most important achievement. We hope that this can be transposed into national law very quickly.

But the directive also clarifies what is permissible for teachers and educational institutions when it comes to uses for illustration for teaching in cross-border contexts. Important questions around uses by libraries of works which have fallen out of commerce have been addressed. These are just a few of the subjects in this piece of legislation that matter to publishers.

It’s fair to say that the directive is not perfect for us, nor probably for anyone. But it represents a set of hard-fought compromises that overall seem acceptable. Years of work went into this project, so it’s a relief that the first reading was completed before the European Parliament’s legislative period ends in April.

We would not have been able to get here without very close collaboration between authors and publishers.

Publishing Perspectives: While the most heated debate around the directive hasn’t been based in the parts that most affect book publishing, can you speak to the controversy from your perspective?

JS: Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a tremendous public debate erupt around the directive in Germany. While the provisions addressing the “value gap” and introducing a publisher’s right for [news and entertainment] publications were controversial all along, there was not a great deal of public attention until quite late in the process. This was focused mainly on Article 13, the value gap provision, which turned into Article 17 of the final document. As heated debate in the chamber showed, this issue has proven tremendously divisive. Parliamentarians and European Commission officials alike have told us that this is the hardest-fought policy battle they’ve ever witnessed in the EP.

Given that a vast majority of MEPs [members of the European Parliament] claim to be in favor of rewarding creative work, this may seem surprising. But it’s the way in which such remuneration is put into practice that’s been so fiercely debated. The campaigning term “upload filters” was used to describe mechanisms allowing not just takedown of infringing material, but “stay down,” something that has been quite burdensome for rights holders to achieve in practice by way of litigation.

The directive essentially sets out that certain platforms whose commercial business model is built around massive amounts of copyright protected material being posted on their services by users who do not hold the rights to the content shall be liable for copyright infringement under a certain set of conditions. The stated aim is for platforms to agree [to] licensing deals with rights holders or CMOs to cover the uploads by users. This way, uploaders are no longer at risk, since the liability is borne by the platform.

A massive campaign against this provision has been underway for months, specifically addressing millennials, claiming that it would mean the “end of the Internet as you know it” and calling on them to “save your Internet”. Much misinformation was spread, and soon enough, young protesters were out in the streets, in fear of “censorship” across the web.

I’ve spent the past weeks speaking to many critics of the reform, explaining precisely why there’s no such danger and how Article 13, now 17, is actually a compromise that carefully protects freedom of expression. Unfortunately, the mainstream media in Germany painted a very one-sided picture of the reform, sometimes casting the debate as a generational conflict in which the old guard that supposedly does not understand modern technology is failing young voters. I’m very relieved that most MEPs remained calm in the face of what has been quite a hysterical debate in Germany–though not in the same way in other countries–and have adopted this important directive.

PP: And as for today’s final assent from the council in Brussels?

JS: Some opponents were casting this vote as the last chance to avert “disaster” for a “free Web,” but politically speaking, a result differing from the vote in February would be something of an earthquake. … Member States will now have two years to transpose the new rules into national laws.

More on the EU’s Digital Single Market legislative efforts is here, and on copyright in general is here.

#germany #copyright #digital media #books #publishing

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bluejanuarysky · 7 years ago

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Why Your SEO is Missing the Mark (And How You Can Fix It)

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