#actually as a SW student i have my guesses

[queenwille]

how can some people go to bed at night satisfied that they ripped off/defaced posters of actual civilians being held as war hostages just to make a point

well idk, couldn’t be me but sure go off you’re doing great honey fighting for human rights

[sir-klauz]

Reading list for this month!

(Rb or like if you decide to read one of these titles after seeing this, I love knowing if I’ve inspired anyone to read things I have! It’s fun)

Pond Snail Robber

“The delightful and brutal life of living with a robber! Ji Ho ends up missing the deadline to apply for a dorm due to a slip of carelessness but luckily a sunbae from his major helps him get a room nearby. Unfortunately, not even half a day after moving in he gets attacked by a robber. After managing to get away, Ji Ho later comes back home to see the robber shedding tears over the novel he wrote in high school...But this robber, with the reason of wanting to continue reading his unfinished novel, asks to live with him in exchange for taking care of the house?! The sweet and fierce life of these two has started!”

(I wouldn’t say the description is totally great at describing what’s actually happening but it’s good at hiding spoilers of what the actual circumstances ended up being and it’s kinda a funny joke about the “robber” part once you read it. Also, it has the cutest unique font design ever, a snail!”)

Boyfriends.

“Want a boyfriend? How about 4?! Meet Prep, Jock, Goth and Nerd -four boys with a lot of love to share!

A comic about getting yourself a boyfriend... or multiple boyfriends! Four college students begin a polyamorous relationship and navigate the adventure that is their dating life!”

(I freaking love this, it’s really smooth and fun, and wholesome. As someone who’s poly you don’t get a lot of kind depictions of poly relationships, or there’s only threesome, foursome, or more being writing about for kinks or open relationships that aren’t poly or about polycules. The graphics are great on the eyes with lots of pastels, and each character has their fun personalities, not to mention actually including a trans guy within a gay relationship! It’s grand. 10/10 love Goth or wanna be Goth ahaa. Nerd is too adorable. Really recommend.)

Minmotion Syndrome

"The 600 million that was left to you, I’ll pay it off for you." Seo Taeyoon, who was dragged into the situation because of his father's debt, got angry and sneers at Park Jaein for being an omega after the latter made a sarcastic remark. Although Taeyoon detected Jaein's faint pheromone scent, he was able to identify him as an Omega. Jaein found Taeyoon interesting, as nobody else can really detect his smell, so he offered to pay off his debt in exchange for buying him...! Thus, Taeyoon now wears a leash designed for dogs. How would their dangerous relationship begin and end?”

(So this whole thing is so tongue in cheek so far, and absolutely not digestible for everyone, though I’m only at chapter 9. but the art, is phenomenal and I adore the styles for both characters. And well, it’s nice to see omegas which are characters designed to always submit and be mindless totally being the top dog. I like it when things don’t fit into boxes, it’s kinda like in any nsfw circumstances where someone typically assumed as having to be subservient, isn’t, because it’s not as cut and dry as that nor has to for, for instant when people are like big macho bois can’t “bottom”… if you catch my drift.~ Park Jaein is pretty mentally whomped aha, his “crazy eyes” are spooky hot. I’m so bad. Taeyoon is an omega hating alpha son of a poor drug addicted male omega SW (adult worker). It goes into their stories about why they’re the way they are, and I guess I’m hoping it works out and they don’t hate each other anymore.)

The Pizza Delivery Man and The Gold Palace

“Woowon has spent his entire life repaying debts with his mother as a result of his father's irrational business investments and gambling. When his mother falls unwell, she retreats to the countryside, where she struggles by herself. One day, Woowon is fired from his part-time job, and while searching for a new job, he is introduced to one as a delivery man at a pizza shop in a wealthy area by a friend. Not only was the food delicious, but the staff was also known for being attractive. Woowon, who had a dashing appearance, goes to an interview and immediately passes. Seo-an has spent his entire life being swayed by his father's greed, who would not tolerate even the smallest flaw. That was how he lived, chewing at himself with bursting panic and constant avoidance of people. One day, everything came to a halt and Seo-an locked himself up at home. Then, a person who had done him a tiny favor appeared. After a long time, he was no longer afraid of others. A young love story in which two people who are tired of life fall in love.”

Lover Boy (Jeky)

(I really adore the art here and that a moan character is an artist, it’s a trialing story for both of them!)

Ongoing reading list still reading from month prior:

-

What's with this strange dream?!

“Jungoh was just expecting to take on a part-time job as an assistant. What he didn’t expect was working inside people’s dreams with a cute, but grumpy shaman named Ibeom. And he certainly didn’t expect Ibeom to be cursed by a nightmare seedling!”

(Sorry I had to use this image, it’s hilarious.)

Night by the sea

“Kim Euihyun, who had given up everything due to reaching his limits, ran towards the sea with a child in his arms and was caught by an alpha, Yeo Taejoo. Euihyun, who is left with only debt by his father running away, was given money, a house, by Taejoo and even a job if he gives his body..."

Intoxicated

“Omega Shen Tingwei wakes up after a traffic accident and soon realizes something is very wrong. The people around him have no idea what an omega is, the local pharmacy doesn't carry his heat suppressants, and no one - including the doctor at the nearest hospital - seems to understand the reason he is feverish is because he's going into heat. Enter Lian Jue, a wealthy man with Emotional Deprivation Disorder who is struggling to balance running his company, appeasing his difficult family, and caring for his adopted son, Kangtong. When he encounters the heat-drunk Shen Tingwei staggering around the city and saves him from getting hit by yet another vehicle, the two men soon become entangled in each other's lives. Shen Tingwei is lost and helpless in a world not his own, and Lian Jue can't help but be drawn to the unusual stranger...”

“Shen lived in a place as a lawyer where there are three gender known: alpha, beta and omega however an incident caused him to be transported in a society where there are only two gender recognized: male and female.”

Is there a love at first sight in e-sport

“The Asian champion is free to take the girl to score points in the game. Finally, he brings a girl to Kaimai but finds that the other party is a boy. Mr. Champion left behind the online dating that ended before it started. When he went to train with the club, he accidentally had a little friction with another team. When the opponent's deputy captain showed up, Mr. Champion was instantly tempted to doubt life. When the opponent spoke, it was the "girl" he personally brought that day. Is there love at first sight in e-sports? Exists.”

[loopy777]

So from a comercial perspective, do you think either of the two "likely"(it would not shock me if the Rey movie geta canned down the road like so many other SW projects) star wars movies are likely to be successes?

No doubt the sequel to rise of skywalker is Dead on arrival, but I think the mandalorian movie might be able to.

Honestly i was shocked when Ahsoka(which i wasn't a particular big fan of) wasn't a smash hit with viewers just looking at the numbers. I guess apathy really has set in at this point.

But what do you, a guy who actually likes disney star wars think? Can the mandalorian movie beat the overall apathy, or will it be a bomb?

Well, let's all note that I'm terrible at predicting commercial success. I wouldn't have expected that keeping Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield out of the advertising would have resulted in the highest grossing Spider-Man movie of all time.

But I think both of these Star Wars movies have the chance of succeeding.

However, I think the Rey movie is a big gamble. The character and actress were well-received initially, and I honestly don't have a solid idea of how much of a failure 'Rise of Skywalker' was as far as general audiences go. Yeah, it didn't make the money that was expected of it and less than the previous sequel movies, but it still was an overall success financially. And the prequels demonstrated the phenomenon where the movies are accepted blindly by kids who grow up to tout them as artistic tour de forces. By the time this movie comes out, the 12-year-olds who ate up the loudness of RoS might be college students looking to reclaim something from their childhood.

On the other hand, RoS has become the face of Disney's hubris (even though 'Solo: ASWS' is more emblematic of the bland, sloppily written stuff we're getting these days and it came out first) and the cultural narrative around it casts it as an inarguable disaster. (I agree with that narrative, as a reminder. I think it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen.) And even before it's come out, this new Rey movie is landing in the crosshairs of the bigot-fueled culture wars stuff that's dominating youtube and utterly exhausting the sane half of the fandom. It's possible most people who might otherwise be enthusiastic will just not want to think about the movie with that kind of cloud around it.

So there's potential there for great gain, but also potential for great loss. Perhaps it will average out, a middling success that no one talks about afterward, the Star Wars equivalent of Ant-Man 2.

But there's no doubt in my mind that the Mando movie is going to be a big hit unless something goes very wrong (although I doubt that Grogu's name will still be in the final version of the title). People love Baby Yoda. They always have and they always will. It doesn't matter that Mando Season 3 got a mixed reaction; the main dynamic of the title characters is still beloved, the series provides a perfect formula for a blockbuster movie (specifically: pick a Kurosawa movie and remake it in space -- my vote is for 'Yojimbo'/'A Fistful of Dollars,' but 'The Hidden Fortress' would be a hilarious pick), and Pedro Pascal is currently pretty popular. This movie is as close to a guaranteed hit as is possible in movie-making.

My overall perspective is that people aren't tired of or apathetic to Star Wars. They're just bored of the typical Disney+ formula of a weakly-scripted miniseries that requires 200 hours of TV-watching homework in order to understand it and is mainly relying on a mix of nostalgia and good-for-TV special effects to sell itself. That reaction is hitting Marvel as well- and entertainment in general, given the performance of the entire movie industry this year. The initial success of 'The Mandalorian' is proof of that: when it was an episodic Space Western with a cute sidekick, people loved it, but when it tried to do real narrative stuff and positioned itself as a partial sequel to Clone Wars and Rebels, people cooled on it. And its big successful start was amidst both Solo and RoS underwhelming, so it bucked that trend very easily.

Basically, I see people proving themselves as discerning. They have their tastes and peculiarities, but it's becoming less and less about the brand. Even good actor performances aren't enough to save them if the actor has nothing solid to do.

I just wish I knew what brought this on!

Because 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' is a weakly-scripted mess of a movie that coasts on brand-recognition and gives great actors nothing much to do besides play the hits. And people loved that!

Basically, I might just know nothing.

It would be nice if these movies are good, though.

[ben-the-hyena]

The one thing holding me back from drawing SW until then is because I am not an expert at drawing realistically like the show or semirealistically, so SCREW IT, if I want to draw all the ideas I have for it I will have to use my own style. I am usually not a fan of this because I love using a media's artstyle instead both to pay hommage to it and to train, but I do it when it's either live action or on the contrary pixels. Guess for realistic drawings too lol

Starting with young Baron Dark and young Dr Cyborn before actually being a "Dr". Baron Dark being a noble regularly came to the science elite students in the royal school to see who he could hire and trust for his family's secret centuries-long scheme, and he got very interested with that scrawny young man who felt much smarter and more interesting in his explanations than the lot to him and unlike the others did not want to bootlick and seemed to hold a certain darkness, hate for society and the regime he couldn't helo but admire. As for Cyborn, no matter how much he tried to push that brainless rich privileged playboyish noble away because he kept bothering him in his work and he didn't want to abandon his anti-nobility beliefs, couldn't help but find him extremely attractive as well as genuinely love his compliments sincr it was the very first time in all his lonely life someone seemed to genuinely love his work and intelligence and complimented him over it and wanted to know more even if not necessarily understanding and at that didn't seem to judge him over his fangs and talons. Very soon, force of coming just to see him he potentially saw as the right one for his plan (all while genuinely admiring him!), Baron Dark would start to find him beautiful in his own way and Cyborn would start to greatly appreciate his personality and see how despite his appearances and exterior he too was a misanthropic asocial with darker thoughts. A mutual attraction that grew into more and more to the point that even when the new Doctor was offered to work alongside Ursak as royal scientists, he accepted to be there just part time and do part time with the Baron to have an excuse to be with him and happily hear about his plans for him

[fruitcoops]

You write Moody so well! I would love to see something where Moody and Remus talk for the first time after Coops was outed. Whether it happens after the meeting Coops had with Arthur and Alice or after the all star break. I feel like they have such a good relationship!

Thanks! This was partially inspired by watching The Karate Kid (1984) last night, so I hope y'all are ready for some mentor hurt/ comfort this fine Sunday! SW credit goes to @lumosinlove

TW for mentioned forced outing

Remus was almost done. He only had a few more drawers to clean out. The whiteboards were as squeaky and shiny as the day he arrived; the desk had a few more dents and coffee stains decorating the surface, but overall it looked decent. He still couldn’t bring himself to take the pictures off, though. It was his life. His friends. He just couldn’t do it.

The sleeve of his ancient Wisconsin hoodie was still damp when he smudged it under his runny nose. No tears had fallen, but he could feel the maelstrom gathering in his throat. Everything he had worked for, gone because of one stupid mistake.

Not Sirius, of course. Sirius would never be a mistake. It was Remus’ fault they had been caught in the first place.

He stared around his office in misery—no official notice of his layoff had arrived, but he knew it would come, and it was always better to be prepared. Maybe it would hurt less if he did it himself, one final ‘fuck you’ to the homophobes before he trooped off with his tail between his legs.

The tiles were cold through the seat of his comfiest jeans. He tucked his knees closer to his chest.

A quiet knock at the door interrupted the suffocating silence. He didn’t answer.

“Kid?”

Remus’ lower lip wobbled and he croaked out a ‘come in’ with as much strength as he could muster; it wasn’t much. The door opened with a creak—he had never gotten around to having it fixed, after all—and uneven footsteps shuffled in, followed by a sigh as his visitor settled next to him on the floor.

“You have a chair, you know.”

“I know,” he whispered.

“Not all of us have young knees. Doesn’t your ass hurt?”

Remus nodded.

Moody huffed through his nose and hoisted him up by the arm. “Well Christ, kid, up you come. You’re awfully dense for a beanpole. What, you got concrete for bones or something?”

“No,” Remus mumbled as he followed Moody across the hall and allowed himself to be plonked down in the soft chair by the door. It was his favorite of both their offices; as far as he knew, Moody never let anyone else sit there. His chest seized as a sob tried to fight its way out. “I’m sorry.”

Moody shot him a look at he got comfortable in the adjacent seat. “For what?”

“I dunno.”

“I don’t like useless apologies, Lupin.”

Remus sniffled. “I should’ve told you.”

“Says who?” Moody snorted. “Your business is your business. You’re a bright young man, none of this is your f—oh. Okay, Lupin, easy does it.”

“I’m sorry,” Remus blubbered as the tears finally started to fall. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t like crying, but I’m kind of a wreck right now.”

Moody made a few soft shushing noises, inching closer until he could wrap an arm around Remus’ shoulders and pat his arm like he was trying to soothe a frightened dog. “Don’t be sorry,” he said. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

The sobs were near-silent; Remus never cried loudly if he could help it, and he already felt bad enough for dripping his perpetual raincloud all over Moody’s office. He caught his breath after a few hitching inhales and scrubbed at his face with his sleeve. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Remus pulled his knees up again and hugged them tight to his chest. “I haven’t called my parents yet.”

“Did they know?”

His heart gave another painful yank. “Nobody knew. Nobody. And—and now it’s everywhere and people won’t leave me alone and I’m gonna get fired—”

“Woah, deep breaths,” Moody interrupted gently, giving him a little shake. “You’re not getting fired.”

“Yes, I am.” Everything felt gross and cold and sad.

“Who told you that?”

“Coach said it might happen ‘cause I’m a doctor.”

Moody scanned his face for a moment, then reached over and grabbed a box of tissues off his desk. “First of all, take some of these. You look like a mud puddle, Lupin. It’s very unsettling. Second, this is a complicated situation and I wouldn’t be too quick to make assumptions. And third, I’ll go to bat for you.”

He paused midway through blowing his nose. “What?”

“You’re a good man. An excellent PT. The best colleague I’ve ever had, actually. You know your shit and if they try to fire you over this, I’m not going to make it easy for them.”

More tears threatened to fall over the edge of his itchy eyes. “You’d do that for me?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Moody grumbled.

“He hasn’t called.”

“Who?”

“Sirius.” Remus swallowed hard and, before he could second guess himself, leaned his head on Moody’s solid shoulder. “I’ve called him 23 times and he hasn’t answered a single one. He just…left. Didn’t even look at me.”

“He’s making a mistake.”

“I ruined his life.”

“Hey.” Moody’s tone turned stern. “You don’t get to talk shit about yourself in my office. This is a Lupin Appreciation Zone.”

Remus’ shoulders shook and he closed his eyes; he wished he could just dissolve into the floor and stay there until someone mopped him up. Everything hurt. The world sucked. Moody—

Moody was petting his hair.

The tears stopped abruptly and Remus hiccupped in pure confusion. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m bad at comfort, kid, gimme a break.” The sat in silence for a few seconds as Moody continued to pat his head and muss his hair, which was in dire need of a cut but just long enough to cover his eyes when it was pushed forward. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, actually. How did you…?”

Something akin to embarrassment tinted Moody’s cheeks and he cleared his throat. “My cat hates thunderstorms.”

“Oh. Cool. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks,” Remus said again, much quieter. Moody’s office always felt safe; all the clutter was in its proper place, clean and homey. The touch of familiarity was more of a comfort than he cared to admit. He sat up straight and wiped his face clean, then leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “If I do get fired—”

“You won’t.”

“If I do, I wanted to say thank you for changing my life.” The words hung in the air. “You—without you, I would never have felt at home here. You were the best mentor I could ever ask for and I’m never going to forget that. You did more than just teaching me routines. Thank you.”

Moody cleared his throat again. “Tissues.”

Remus silently passed the box.

“If anyone gives you shit for being gay, you call me and I’ll take care of it,” Moody said once the tissue had disappeared into the depths of his pocket.

Remis blinked at him. “Are you offering to hurt someone for me?”

“I’ll deny it in court.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he laughed. “Fuckin’ hell, this is a mess. I’m a mess.”

“You just got outed and your boyfriend ditched you in an airport,” Moody said bluntly, fixing Remus with a look. “You’re allowed to be a mess. Now go talk to Lily. Call your mom. Do whatever you do that makes you so sunshiney, and then we’re gonna unpack all your shit and put it back where it belongs.”

Remus swallowed hard. Fuck it. Fuck the NHL, fuck the homophobes, and fuck being sad.

Moody narrowed his eyes. “You want to use the kicking bag, don’t you?”

“I really, really do.”

---------------------

“Stupid—fucking—son of a bitch!” Remus gritted out as the beat-up and half-folded gym mat squeaked under his assault. It was two inches of plastic and therapy—he was 90% sure Moody had stolen it from a middle school gym, and it had rapidly become the team’s favorite way of winding down after a frustrating day.

“Harder!” Moody barked behind him.

Remus wound up and slammed his foot into it again. “I worked too damn hard to be kicked out for this bullshit!”

“Damn right you did!”

The kicking bag creased in the center. “And I’ve got too much student debt to walk out of here like—like a coward!”

“Yes, you do!”

His grief had burnt off at least five minutes prior. Remus was well and truly pissed now. “And it’s nobody’s goddamn business who I kiss!”

“That’s the spirit!” Moody cheered.

“And maybe his face is stupidly pretty!” Remus threw his shoulder against the mat before he resumed kicking it. “And, yeah, he has really nice shoulders and a great ass—”

“Lupin—”

“But fuck him for leaving me in an airport! What kind of douchebag does that to a guy? I’m hot and smart and nice and I can date whoever the hell I want if he doesn’t appreciate that!”

“That’s certainly one approach!”

Remus stopped with a harsh exhale and dropped one last halfhearted kick to the base. “I don’t want anyone else, though. And I miss his stupid pretty face.”

A hand, heavy but gentle, squeezed his shoulder. “Then go get him.”

[softprincesso]

✨HOW TO BECOME A WEALTHY MIDDLE-AGED MAN✨

PT.2: Overview to understanding different saving/retirement methods, investments, and forms of income

2.1 Savings and Retirement

Welcome lovelies to (what I hope will be) a helpful series on gaining wealth and becoming financially literate and independent!

*disclaimer: while this advice can generally apply to many it will not apply to all. Everyone is in a different situation and should do their own research before they take what ANYONE says as fact or law. This is also coming from the perspective of a young, biracial, first generation female business student following a hypergamous lifestyle and who does sw so some advice may be specific to my like-minded ladies, but for the most part I just love money and want to help others find joy in their wallets as well. I am also operating in the US so things regarding accounts, stocks, and certain laws will vary by your country. Also, this is just a fun thing I wanted to do because talking about leveling up and learning and growing and money are my favorite past times. None of these pictures are mine, however I am using some links which may compensate me in some way, but I only used links which were mutually beneficial and would help you gain something as well, they are still just actual sources I use for myself.

✨THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND✨

Financial independence is different than financial confidence.

Financial Independence: “The most common sense of the term is that someone has enough wealth to live as they wish for the rest of their life without having to work.” -Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/declare-your-own-financial-independence-day.aspx

Financial Confidence: “We define financial confidence as having three aspects,” says Miler. “The first is awareness of how money can be a tool for helping you reach your goals and dreams. The second is financial literacy and understanding economic factors. The third is trust and knowing where to turn for financial advice.” -Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleyzalis/2018/06/16/women-money-8-steps-for-growing-your-financial-confidence/?sh=2175b65e2468

While the ultimate goal is financial independence, financial confidence should be the main focus. I’ll give an example why. Imagine there are two people: Rhonda and Jill. Both of them like nice things, love to shop, and participate in the occasional splurge. Rhonda works a regular 9-5 and has a decent salary. She doesn’t have much financial knowledge (translation: financial confidence), but she has a savings account at her local bank and puts a couple hundred into retirement each year and she thinks that's enough. Suddenly, Rhonda wins the lottery. Overnight she has become a millionaire, so she quits her job, moves to LA, and goes on to live life to the fullest. She would now be considered financially independent. However, Rhonda has no idea how to manage all that money. She puts a small amount into that bank savings account and takes the rest to do what she will. One day she tries her luck at a casino, in less than five hours she has lost all of her money and has to start back at square one with no job, only a few thousand to get her through, and no-good way to explain to employers that she just wasted the last 5 years spending money on handbags she now has to sell at a depreciated value. (BTW you would not last not working with only a million dollars in LA for that long)

Now, let’s look at Jill. Jill is an independent contractor and has a relatively steady income. She knows very little about finances, but she actively learns how to manage what she has and keeps up to date on the latest money news. The day that Rhonda won the lottery was just another Thursday for Jill, the only unique point for her was that she opened a savings accounts with a high APY (we’ll say 1%) and put in $5000.00. A little later she also opened a Roth IRA and puts in the maximum yearly allowance of $6000.00. Along the way she opened a brokerage account of her own and started trading in the stock market along with investing in real estate which has given her some extra income to play with each year. Unfortunately, another housing crash occurs, and all of the money Jill invested into real estate is gone. However, since Jill learned the skills behind her choices early on, she is knowledgeable and understands the ups and downs of the market and how to invest her money in other places in the meantime. And, that High yield savings account accrued around $50 more without her doing anything and she has that to fall back on, or worst case she can take out part of her principal Roth IRA contribution. 10 years from now Jill should start to see a steady increase in her Roth IRA that by retirement will be a little over 1 million and she should be comfortable and invested enough into stocks that she gains around $200-1000 extra each month.

I think you understand why you want to be Jill.

✨HAVING ADEQUATE SAVINGS = BEING YOUR OWN LIFEGUARD✨

As discussed in Pt.1 the first goal you should achieve is securing an emergency fund that could sustain you for a couple of months if things were to ever hit the fan, and starting a retirement fund should be in your top 5 goals to complete. The saying, “the rich get richer” is popular for a reason. Wealthy people know how to make their money work for them instead of them having to work for money. An easy way anyone can do the same is by opening the right accounts for your savings and retirement.

Savings: 

All of your savings should be in a high yield saving account or split between different high yield accounts. This is an account which will reward you some interest every period for having money in your account with them. This is incredibly easy to do. You can either research/ask your bank about their high yield accounts or do some googling to find some other bank. Then transfer your money and there you go! When looking at banks understand that the highest Annual Percent Yields (APY), or the interest they will reward you, are going to be from online banks because they have less operational costs than a brick and mortar, but they will also come with their own disadvantages, like less ATMs to access or the inability to use when outside of your country so make sure to look into that. IMPORTANT: Make sure that whatever bank you choose is FDIC-insured so if the bank were to ever collapse or lose your money you have insurance up to $250,000.This won't generate a lot of extra cash, but an extra $20 every year is better than $0.

Retirement:

These accounts usually go by your current situation and what you see for your future.

401K: Probably the most known (I believe it’s only in the States but there might be something close to it in other countries) and that’s just because this is what employers usually offer if they offer anything. It is a retirement fund that your employer will set up and you can predefine how much of your paycheck you want to automatically go into it every time. Sometimes, the employers will also have a match program, and if they do you better max out the money they will contribute because that is FREE money! Most advice that I have seen has said to really only focus on this fund if your employer has that match program, otherwise I would focus on one of the accounts below. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/08/401k-info.asp

IRA: An IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account. There are three kinds…

                         Traditional: This IRA lets you put in pre-tax money and lets it grow tax-free until you make a withdrawal. Once you make the withdrawal that money is taxed at the current rate of your income at the time. Your contributions are tax deductible so you can write them off of your taxable income of that year. There are limits to how much you can contribute depending on your income, status, and whether you have another retirement fund as well.

                          Roth: With this IRA your contributions are taxed, but when you withdrawal money later on it is tax free. For those of you in a lower tax bracket than you believe you will be in the future, this IRA makes the most sense as you will pay less taxes now than you will when you are 59 ½ (The official age of retirement in the States). There are limits to how much you can contribute depending on your income, status, and whether you have another retirement fund as well.

                           SEP: Simplified Employee Pension. This is also an employer-based plan and may also work better for my self-employed gals out there. I don’t really know a lot on this one so I’ll just leave a link you can look into if it interests you: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/102714/how-does-simplified-employee-pension-sep-ira-work.asp

You can have both a traditional and Roth IRA as long as you are eligible for both. Anyone with earned income (with a job or can prove a steady income) can contribute to a Traditional IRA, however with a Roth IRA, as a single you can earn up to $139,000 and contribute. Personally, if you are just getting started with all of this just set up one IRA and as you learn more you can take steps to get another or switch accounts.

https://www.investopedia.com/retirement/roth-vs-traditional-ira-which-is-right-for-you/

There are a plethora of other accounts, but they are more specialized and the top four should get you started on the right path to saving for retirement. I’m guessing that the majority of the audience reading these are women between the ages of 20-30. Trust me when I say that I love to spend money as much as the next girl, but I also would like to be completely comfortable should anything happen in my older years that screws up my marriage or job, and no one is going to secure that for you.

Also, I’m sorry this is so US-based, but once again it is all I know. I believe IRAs are more widespread than a 401K, but all that takes to find out is a Google search on your part.

Either way, make sure you have a plan going into 2021 for your savings and retirement because this economic whirlwind is far from over and there is always a chance for another recession, depression, or disaster. (Wow O, way to keep the mood light)

This was getting way too long with the investments added so look out for Pt.2.2 on the overview for investments (where the actual fun begins and I can stop being such a stick in the mud)…

VOCAB TO KNOW/RESEARCH:

Financial independence

Financial Confidence

APY

Roth IRA

brokerage account

High yield savings account

principal

401K

Traditional IRA

Once again… if in these posts I ever give bad advice, F- something up, or am just generally ignorant PLEASE call me out! Remember that just like you I am a young woman figuring everything out and while I am confident when talking about money, I am by no means a genius (only in spurts) so any chance to learn I appreciate. I hope you all learned something new today and as always…

With Love,

O

[elrhiarhodan]

12 and 23 for the fabric ask would be magnificent! 🏜

Fabric? Autocorrect issue? But I am so glad you asked.

12. Favorite character to write about this year

Hands down, Luke Skywalker. I have been in love with Luke since 1977 and I was a very impressionable 13 year old. All of my friends (all two of them) were "Han girls" but I loved Luke with the passion of, well, Tatoo I and Tatoo II burning down on the sands of the Jundland Wastes. I hated how the Sequels destroyed his character and just lost all interest in SW, but I had heard so many good things (plus a free subscription to D+) about the Mando Show, that I started watching. And when he made his surprise appearance at the end of the S2 finale, well, all my love, long buried, burst back to life like a star reborn. Since I was not (and likely never will be) deeply conversant with Canon and Legends outside of the movies and some knowledge that happens just by existing in the world, I felt more comfortable writing an AU and using it to explore things about Luke that I wouldn't be able to do within a GFFA setting.

I am, at heart, a hurt/comforteer, and Luke Skywalker is the perfect character for me to exercise my Force-given rights to cause pain and bring comfort

23. Fics you wanted to write but didn’t

SO MANY FICS!!!!

(Thank you, Tumblr, for chewing up my post).  Let me reconstruct...)

In addition to falling into the Din/Luke ship, I also fell hard into the Qui/Obi ship.  And there's a funny story to that.  My bestie,@timeforalongstoryis NOT a Din/Luke shipper. Her GFFA ship is Qui/Obi, but when she told me that, I had just finished reading an amazing reverse-padawan story by SPQR (title escapes me at the moment), where the Council denies Obi-Wan his knighthood and makes him Anakin's padawan. I was brand-new in the whole Star Wars fandom and didn't know jack from shit, and this story leaned hard into the Jedi Apprentice books (which I really knew nothing about) and all of the crap that Qui-Gon dealt to poor wee Obi-Wan (Melida/Daan, New Apsolon, even the stupid elevator incident), so at that moment, I was feeling A LOT of unkindness towards Qui-Gon, and kind of shrugged off the idea of Qui/Obi.

Then I encountered @darkisrising's Vampire AU, and well, that kind of spun me right round baby. (Dark, please finish this. I will bribe you with pretty jeweled things for the end of the story). I got stuck in the hospital for nine days and worked my way through almost all of the Qui/Obi tag, including some truly incredible Old Skool fic imported from the Boys in Chains Archive, some written circa 1999.

Anyway, that set my brain percolating on Qui/Obi almost as hard as it's been bubbling away on Din/Luke. I have notes on the following stories:

1 - Broken Qui/Obi, post Naboo (Qui-Gon lives, of course, no Clone Wars), where the Council is pressuring Obi-Wan to take a padawan. Obi-Wan refuses, disavows his master and lineage. Much, much pain... Not sure how to get to a HEA.

2 - Obi-Wan kills Maul in anger, touching the Dark Side and Sidious feels that, and tries to form/force a bond. In his rage and grief, Obi-Wan rejects it and actually kills Sidious (who is back on Coruscant!) Qui-Gon lives, but is, of course, terribly wounded and is in a bacta tank and a force-induced coma/healing trance for months. When he wakes up, he's told that Obi-Wan is dead. Qui-Gon does not train Anakin (Mace or Depa does), and he spends the next 20 years grieving and doing his diplomacy thing across the galaxy. He decides to retire from the Order, but Yoda asks him to take one more mission, to return an artifact to a small, restricted world on the Mid Rim. Guess who he finds...

3 - Modern AU where General Kenobi is taking an adult ed class taught by hippie professor Qui-Gon, who is outraged by the bodyguards watching over the damn warmonger student.

4 - And then there was the Beethoven AU that I wanted to write (musician Obi, conductor Qui-Gon) which I tossed out to the wonderful people on the Qui/Obi writer discord, and while at one point, it looked to become a group project, the amazing Temve wrote the whole thing - and it needs to be read: Save Me From The Grave and Wise: A Qui/Obi Fic in Nine Symphonies if you have any love for either music, Star Wars, or breaking your heart and getting it mended perfectly.I've nattered on way too long, but I've got a bunch of Din/Luke and Din/Boba/Luke ideas that I've started but have stuck in my WiPs folder, hoping to get a chance to finish them next year. Right now, I have to write my Qui/Obi Winter Exchange fic, finish Stars/Scars, and finish Lost and Found - those are my priorities. I signed up for the Star Wars Big Bang, but will probably drop out - I don't really need to do a Big Bang, not when I average 5-7 thousand words a chapter. Having art is nice, but not that much of a reason to drive myself nuts. I may let myself get distracted by the Chocolate Box exchange. It's one of my favorite pan-fandom events, and I've always liked what I've written for that.

[mimdecisive]

The Blatant Fandom Sexism Regarding Castaspella

Or, things that bother me about Castaspella's treatment by the fandom.

Woman Emotional

I don't know how many times I have to reference my post about Castaspella masking her emotions, but considering it has (1) note as I'm typing this, the fandom doesn't seem to be getting it.

Castaspella rarely lets herself feel emotions for more than a minute, and I've read Castaspella fics and I regret most of them. One in particular had Castaspella as essentially a sobbing, incoherent mess upset about something irrational, rambling about Angella keeping excluding her from Glimmer's life or something.

Which, uh, yikes.

There's a tvtrope for this. Because, I guess, woman emotional. It's not like Castaspella is calm and practical even when she had to deal with Shadow Weaver for hours.

This is a common thing in Castaspella fanfictions. She'll turn into a sputtering mess if, say, she's questioned about not being there after Glimmer's coronation, which is a real fic. You know, because apparently Castaspella doesn't have a full-time job and can just move in with her niece. Fun.

You know Castaspella probably came to Bright Moon after the Portal Incident, as soon as she got the news, and stayed a little after the Coronation. She probably told Glimmer to write if she needed anything.

But apparently, she has an obligation to abandon all of her other obligations in favour of her niece who constantly pushes her away. Her ruling a kingdom? Nah, that's not important. The health and safety of all the students in Mystacor, or the protection of non-Runestone related magic... not important at all.

(here's an edit: it's actually the same person who wrote both fics I'm vagueposting about, and I feel very strong dislike towards them.)

This also feeds into this next part.

Woman Overreacting

Oftentimes, in both fics and the show, Castaspella is framed as if she's overreacting. Her yelling at Adora in S1? That was justified. Adora could have gotten people hurt because she was 'sleepy'.

Not to brag, but I've not slept before. I've never taken a magic sword and used some kind of laser beam to trash my house, or blown a hole in the door with it. Which is the equivalent of what Adora did, except it's also an important door.

She could have taken down the lenses that protect Mystacor, but Castaspella doesn't ban her from Mystacor or even demand she leave. She instead gives Adora room to sleep in while she and the other Sorcerer's guild members inevitably cleaned up the mess Adora made.

Her strained relationship with Angella? That's justified, on Casta's part at least. Castaspella actively tries to have a good relationship with Angella, and is actively reaching out to Angella.

She is actively writing letters. Angella just chooses not to send one back. Angella will not make time for her, and will not let Casta in. She will, however, call Casta the moment she needs her. And Casta will come, in the middle of the night, to interrogate a prisoner.

Castaspella throughout this whole episode is being quite pleasant with Angella, not even making fun of the "prison" despite the fact before Casta showed up, they didn't have the forcefield. They didn't even have a guard in the room while SW was unconscious.

I would have made fun of Angella for this, honestly. They didn't even remove all of the cushions.

Her being upset Glimmer never visits is also valid, considering Angella never writing and Micah being presumed dead, means that Glimmer is her only family and she never makes time for her.

Castaspella is always making time for Glimmer, and Angella, but no one ever makes time for her. She's allowed to be upset about this.

Obeying Canon Only When It Suits You

Canon Castaspella should be stronger than she is, and I've never seen anyone try to fix that. She was severely powered down from her original version, and they gave all of her power to Micah.

Let her be strong. It's not hard. Any problem you could solve with Micah, you can solve with Casta instead.

Shipped With A Side Character or a Child Abuser

This is self-explanatory. I'm not shy about being Anti-C*stawe*ver. It's really gross to ship her with SW when Castaspella is literally an amazing aunt and has never abused a child, and said child abuser also groomed her brother and tortured her niece???

But I'm also not personally interested in Casta/Juliet, because for one, Juliet is probably not the General's name. Noelle was just choosing random names, and called Catra "Elizabeth", and everyone takes it as canon. Most of the things Noelle says just isn't canon.

And if it is the General's name, it's really lazy. I mean, come on, I've seen much more creative names that fit better into the She-Ra world than 'Juliet'. Lumina, Titania, etc. I even saw someone suggest she could be a Rebooted version of General Sunder.

And secondly, "Juliet" has the absolute bare minimum of a personaltiy. She wasn't given a name in the show, and she's kind of just a blank sheet of paper. I guess send me Juliet headcanons to make her more interesting.

I obviously prefer castaliet to c*stawe*ver, but I do wish there was Castaspella content that was focused less on her romantic relationships and more on the family relationships she's been chasing throughout the show. Between her niece never having time for her, Angella shutting her out and Micah being MIA, I just want to see her family appreciate her for once.

She knits Glimmer sweaters. Knitting is hard, and Glimmer won't wear the sweater or even tell Casta if she doesn't like it. How is Casta supposed to know if she should make another one, Glimmer? Are you just going to leave her knitting sweaters that don't get worn forever, pouring her heart into it?

Anyways, Castaspella deserves better treatment by the fandom.

[angelicjadamv]

The story so far

One month after graduating high school in 2015 I was finally able to move away from my family. I was 18 and moved to California for college. Fortunately one of the scholarships I earned was accompanied by a summer program that started in the middle of the summer before fall semester. Shortly after settling in a safe, stable environment for the first time in my life I started to get better. A lot better at first. Then life happened, as it does, and 18 years of repressed trauma and abuse broke me. My nervous breakdown ruined my fall semester, I couldn't go to classes or take exams or function as a student anymore. Until this point, being an exceptional student was all I had and basically how I survived. My safe and stable environment now was dependant on maintaining a certain GPA, among other requirements I could no longer meet. I failed one of my main courses because I had a 0 on 2 exams, including the final. When I went home I was put on antipsychotics. Returning to campus for the 2016 spring semester, I attempted to seek more therapy. I wasn't successful in finding a good therapist (for me, therapy is a personal thing. Just because someone isn't a good therapist for me doesn't necessarily mean they are a bad therapist). I did continue to see my 2 psychiatrists (emergency and regular) often as they attempted to adjust my medication to find something that work. My agoraphobia worsened, I stopped sleeping, I could barely eat, I was manic one moment and dissociative the next, SH and suicidal ideation worsened. I was a burden to my friends and loved ones. I made it through this because I had a beautiful support system that I will forever be grateful for, but I ended up taking a leave of absence academically for my second semester, earning no credits and putting my scholarships at further jeopardy. I was allowed to stay on campus because it was clear I was dangerously unstable with no safe environment to return to and because I had incredible advocates looking out for me. I had realized that I wasn't going to get better in time to salvage my academic career and my life, and was mostly clueless as to how I would survive. I had had an internship in my field since I started college, but I earned basically no money. STEM internships aren't really made to be livable for undergrads, so I had mostly been working for experience in a field I would no longer be able to progress in. Bummer. My physical health had taken a huge dive for all of 2016. I basically always knew I was chronically ill, but I had been abused and gaslit my entire life to believe and act like I was fine, I was just a weak baby, I didn't know what real pain or suffering was, seizures were to be ignored, no I didn't have migraines or pinched nerves (um hello SCOLIOSIS), etc etc. And 2016 was the year my body finally started to break, so I knew "regular" jobs weren't going to be a viable option for me, at least not for long.

And thus I became a survival SW. I stayed in college for a final semester, because I didn't want to miss my friends, I loved my campus and didn't know where else to live, I still needed a lot of campus resources. I also kept my internship as long as I could, because I knew I would miss it for the rest of my life. I didn't really go to classes, again, because as much as a desperately wanted to and as much as my advisors moved heaven and earth to try to make it work for me, I couldn't handle it. I was finally able to find 2 great therapists who I started seeing regularly who actually knew how to diagnose and treat me, one at school and one outside. This is also when I met Daddy (Jace) online. After talking for what is probably a stupidly short time, we fell in love and started dating. This is honestly my first real relationship and time actually catching genuine feelings for someone, something that I hadn't thought I was capable of. Despite being happier than I had ever been in so many ways, my mental and physical health was still steadily declining. My migraines and pain were getting worse, I hadn't been able to eat normally in months and relied entirely on medication to eat or sleep at all. Many people recommended mmj at this point in my life, but I was afraid of how it would interact with my other meds. I only smoked occasionally at parties at this point (because no way was I spending my super duper limited money on weed). I wonder if medicating with something that actually worked well for me, like weed, would have allowed me to finish college. Oh well I guess. Because of my inability to attend classes, I had to take another leave for the fall semester 2016. I worked at a strip club briefly, but my health couldn't handle it for long.

I didn't want to go home for the first winter break in 2015, but campus closed and I had nowhere else to go. It was turbulent. When summer 2016 came, I still didn't go home despite having no place to stay. Until a month or so later, it was revealed to me a relative had terminal cancer. I had to go home again. It was worse than turbulent. When winter 2016 came, my relative was in much worse condition. They only had a few months left, and this was probably my last chance to say goodbye. This visit was by far the most traumatic, and more because of my parents than watching a loved one die. At least Jace was able to come meet me for the first time in person. He also got to meet my relative before they passed 🖤

Freshly fucked up by family, I retuned to California at the beginning of 2017. I was mostly taking a break from SW because of my health and was working vanilla jobs as I could (so not much). I had a pretty decent job that I was really good at and had been promoted, but then my relative passed. I started losing consciousness again ( I had many seizures and fainting spells in my childhood and during high school) and had to quit my job. the funeral was in spring 2017, I flew to Jersey to be with Daddy for a few days and then he drove me several states over for the memorial. That was the last time I saw my family. I wanted to transition to online/content creating, but I had no tech knowledge or equipment (even my phone was a potato). In high school I wasn't allowed to have a smartphone, most social media other than what was heavily monitored (and still had 0 experience with platforms sw is popular on besides Tumblr I guess), I didn't really know much about cameras. Way too sheltered and broken to feel like I could start anything. I was now seeing my outside, or I guess regular and only, therapist twice a week and doing treatments that while working for me were insanely (literally) hard. I had been able to get an apartment with roommates at a super discount in return for taking care of their crazy dog, which was a win win for me (he was a good boi just crazy from a bad past and had the worst separation anxiety). The agreement was that I would live with them until the lease was up in September, and then we would reevaluate the situation. Then they both got promoted at their mega corporation jobs. And after their wedding found a really gorgeous apartment in a much fancier part of the city, and paid to break our lease early in June leaving me homeless. I had been fired from my last 2 jobs (probably for being disabled because California is at will employment but who knows I might have been fired from the nanny job because the husband wanted to fuck me). I had no money or anywhere to go. All of my friends were almost as broke as me, so while I had offers to couchsurf at a few of their places they had other roommates who would have been pissed and in a few months they would be going back to school anyways. Daddy and I had been trying to save up to move in together for months, but he was going to move to California. We didn't have any money for that, so instead he asked me to move in with him in New Jersey. Leaving meant I lost my health insurance and my therapist. It was supposed to be much more temporary and we were supposed to move back to California much sooner than we were able to. I try not to be mad at those roommates because being angry doesn't change anything, but it really sucked.

Moving in with Daddy meant we could start our blog! And I was super happy at first, the happiest I could ever remember. But the years had been too hard and my health started to get worse than ever before. Without treatment and so traumatized, my brain and body were constantly at war. I would wake with splitting migraines, throwing up, my chronic pain became completely unmanageable. I started to need weed all the time because it was the only thing that stopped my cyclical vomiting episodes and kept me out of the hospital. My antipsychotics and other meds had been high-key fucking me up (probably shouldn't have been on them in the first place, thank you doctor who also ignored my seizures even when I had one in front of you) and were almost impossible to come off of because the withdrawals. (Seriously, kicking xanax was easier for me than my antipsychotics.) I'm not anti medication or anything, I just know the ones I was on were not good for me anymore. I'd actually like to be on something again, I just need a doctor who actually understands PTSD and DID.

My health continued to be shit for most of 2018, with several ER visits for severe dehydration from vomiting for days on end. We started to make videos and do snapchat and online sessions to be able to make ends meet. Despite being in the worst situation and thus everything being a trizillion times harder, we really loved (and still love 😇) doing SW and creating content. Our fans and clients have been there in some of our darkest moments, just being lovely or pulling through for us when we needed it most. During 2018 and 2019 I became actively suicidal for the first time since I was 13. I struggled with self harm again. I have gotten worse than I ever thought possible. But I wouldn't have made it at all if it wasn't for SW, this community and our supporters.

At the beginning of 2020 we were finally able to move back to California. Obviously, the pandemic severely disrupted many of our plans, especially regarding my recovery. Despite things being delayed or shifted, we are in a much better place currently. I have what I need to get better and I can build a support system again. I will get better.

Talking about things is hard for me. Being open and honest is hard for me. For 18 years I was trained and abused to not be sad or show negative feelings, or talk about upsetting things, and it has been killing me slowly my entire life. I genuinely don't want pity or to make others feel bad, but I do want to give you the chance to get to know me. I don't always talk about things so much. But I'm trying to get better at it.

[misscrawfords]

4, 18, 20 and 30 (for the ask a fic author meme thing).

4. Do you outline before you start writing? If so, how far do you stray from that outline?

Uh, in my head I guess. I rarely write notes. The times I have done, I usually get about half way through and then tightly plot out the rest of the stories. Totally coincidentally, I'm sure, those are the ones I've finished!

20. What’s your favorite minor character you’ve written?

Hmm fandom wise...hmm. Hard to say. Most recently I've enjoyed all the secondary characters in Growing Beyond like Finn, Rose, Phasma... They're just very fun and have their own characters and backstories. SW modern AUs are great for ensembles. Rey's relationships with Finn and Rose are honestly my favourite.

30. Tell us an idea for a longfic you want to write in the future.

I thought you'd never ask! I've got two I've got bouncing around my head at the moment (I make up whichever I'm more in the mood for at any given time). The first is a James Bond/Alias Reylo AU - a light-hearted spy adventure story:

Rey Smith is an elite 00 agent, license to kill, working for MI6. But when her investigations into the terrorist organisation First Order bring her into contact with a mysterious masked warrior, she risks uncovering some secrets that MI6 would rather remain hidden - secrets that could hold the key to her own past.

I've always wanted to write a spy story (cheesy spy stories are honestly my favourite genre) and I'm slowly developing the plot for this.

The second is a pan-Austen university AU which I'm growing increasingly attached to, especially my unexpected crack OTP that has developed out of it (and now, I'm not saying who they are - that will be a crazy surprise if I ever write it):

Pemberley University, an idyllic Derbyshire campus on the outskirts of the small Peak District town of Lambton. Idyllic it may seem, but budget cuts and restructuring are causing any amount of stress to its faculty and students, especially the Head of Women's Studies, Dr. Elliot - though she's got more to worry about when her ex suddenly returns from America; and Student Council President Lizzy Bennet who is determined to fight the changes with everything she's got ("Down with Capitalism! Down with Patriarchy! Stick it to the Man!"). Also featuring characters and stories from all of Austen's novels woven together.

I think it would really work and I'm quite excited about it. It's just... a lot of characters and relationships to keep a track of!

18. What is a line/scene you’re really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene.

HAaaaaaaah because I'm feeling contrary, I'm going to give you an extract from Chapter 4 of my next gen HP fic, "Cassandra" that I wrote as a teenager. I wish I'd been a good enough writer to finish it. I still think about it a lot and I love it. Anyway, I'm copying and pasting the extract here because I know for a fact nobody here has read it:

Context: 13 year old Cassandra Potter has been taken to a political meeting during the school holidays by her parents, Harry and Hermione, to be shown an example of how demoracy works. Predictably, it turns into a literal brawl. Cassandra is overwhelmed.

"Oh look! It's the little heiress! Look who'll get the galleons if her parents 'happen' to die! Ready to duel, Miss? I heard you were top of your class. You going to prove it?" He was an unpleasant looking fellow, and a good deal larger than me.

I almost considered turning down the challenge, but then I remembered that I was a Gryffindor, that I was Harry Potter's daughter and that I actually wouldn't mind trying out what I had learnt in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Then one of the man's friends said, "Aw, leave her, Spike. She's only a kid!"

That did it! I jumped up, flicked my hair out of my face and stood in the ready dueling position. I adapted my voice into the one that annoys Nero and Emilia Malfoy the most. "Actually, you know Spike, I am top of my class. How clever of you to find it out! I'm perfectly ready to prove myself."

He appeared taken aback, yet maintained eye contact with me as we circled. I had no idea what my parents were doing, or even where they were.

I was just about to fire my first spell when a hand grabbed my wrist from behind me. I let out a small scream. Spike yelled, "Here where do you think you're going, Potter?! You promised me a duel!"

The hand dragged me through the fighting crowd. "Let go of me!" I cried. I had a duel to finish or my honour as a witch would be damaged. Still, he was too strong. He pulled me out of the hall, through the vestibule and into a crisp, clear, cold winter's night. Eventually he let me go, once the door was shut behind us. It was Nero Malfoy.

"You- you!" Words failed me, I was so angry. I glared down at the red lines on my left wrist where his fingers had dug into my skin. I shook my arm in his face, "Look! Look what you did to me! How dare you! It hurts! Just look at it!"

"How can I look when you're shaking it so hard?" He grasped my hand again and stilled it. For a slender fourteen year old, he was pretty strong.

"Are you all right? Did I hurt you?"

What a question! He almost looked concerned. Luckily I was not taken in. He was trying to get me off my guard and then jump me.

"Yes, it did hurt, actually! What did you mean by dragging me out like that?"

"That hall's no place for someone like you."

I was growing angrier by the second. "What sort of a sexist comment is that? Did you see my mother? dealing with five thugs at the same time?"

"That man who challenged you, Spike, do you know who he is?"

How Malfoy could be keeping calm and cool like he was was beyond me. "No, do I care?"

"You should. He's a trained assassin. He works for my dad."

The news gave me a slight shock; I had definitely not acted wisely. Still, I'd never let that on to Malfoy. "Says something about your family, doesn't it?" Nero flushed. "My father punched yours. Your father has to hire people to do his dirty work for him, my father fights his own battles. I don't appreciate your interference in my life- I can manage perfectly well without your help and nonsensical ideas of saving my life or whatever you thought you were doing." Inspiration hit me- "You're just scared yourself so you got yourself out by pretending to save me." I smiled triumphantly. I was right, of course.

Nero seemed to have eventually lost his cool. "Your wrong, Potter. If you can't see why I did it then you're blinder than I thought. Go back to your mudblood loving parents-"

I saw red, pulled out my wand and dashed at him, "DO NOT INSULT MY PARENTS! THEY ARE WORTH TWENTY OF YOURS! YOUR MUM WASN'T EVEN AT THE BLASTED MEETING!"

He grabbed my wrist to stop me cursing him, "Don't say that about my mother!"

We struggled outside while our parents struggled inside. Eventually, when I thought I was getting the better of him I panted, "I'm going back inside to fight Spike and you can't stop me!" Somehow I found I had been pushed against the wall. I tried to pull Nero's wrists off mine. I was very out of breath.

"I can and will!" he hissed, his face a bare few inches away from mine.

The door opened and Catherine Shortstraw appeared into the night. She saw me immediately, "Cassandra!"

Malfoy let go of my wrists and jumped about a metre back. "Nero!" Catherine said in equal surprise. She walked quickly towards us and glanced at each of us in turn. "Now, what's been going on here? That you want to tell me about, that is," she added. She sent a somewhat confused look towards me. I was too out of breath to answer and I was nursing my arms.

Nero answered smoothly, though he too seemed a little puffed, "Cassandra was being attacked by a very dangerous man. I brought her out here."

My godmother's eyes lighted up for a second, "That seems very sensible, Nero. I shall talk to you about who that person was when we return to school."

He nodded, "Yes, Professor."

"Thank-you again, Nero. Now, Cassandra, I think you'd better come with me." She put her arm around me and steered me towards the dark blob in the distance that was the car park. I felt overcome with exhaustion. "I'm glad you came," I muttered. I did not look back at Malfoy.

Catherine and I walked in silence for a bit then out of the blue she asked, seemingly embarassed, "You and Nero, you were, er...er..."

"Fighting, you mean? Yes, of course we were! What did you think we were doing? Drinking tea?!"

Catherine looked relieved and even more embarrassed, but would not enlighten me.

So, anyway, I wrote that when I was 14, not much older than Cassandra herself. I know that it lacks a lot of subtlety and has more wrist grabs than a Korean drama from 2010 and I would definitely change some things now, but it's also doing a lot of the things I was trying to experiment with in that fic and it was a scene I was super excited to write at the time. The thing I loved about that fic was having Cassandra as an unreliable first person narrator. She's totally wrong about, well, just about everything that happens to her and I really loved writing from her perspective while also trying to show through the narrative what was actually happening. This extract, for example, shows the first time Nero steps into the spotlight in the story. So far he's just been in the background making typical Malfoy-esque snide remarks to her and her friends. But this is the first time they really interact and actually he's not behaving like a stupid bully. Not that Cassandra can see it. She's also very emotionally immature even for a 13 year old so she totally fails to pick up on certain undertones in their interaction that her godmother, the responsible adult in the situation, certainly does. So writing such a complex and oblivious heroine was very exciting to me. And I was also very excited to bring Nero forwards and begin his character arc as the story's anti-hero. Both of them are dealing with their parents' legacies and inherited prejudices and they deal with them in different ways and Nero's character development and journey was one of my all time favourite things about the story, not that I ever fully explored it, alas. He became very quickly ride-or-die for Cassandra - "There's my wife!" from about the age of 15 and it was extremely annoying for him. It takes her a lot longer to get with the scene, obviously.

One day, somehow, I'll find a way to tell their story in an original context. They're my OC OTP for ever and ever, probably. Teenage me knew what she wanted. :P

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 3 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Episode 1: I know in the original series She-Ra was the sister of He-Man so I'm curious how much of that will be carried over to this series. Not saying He-Man has to make an appearance, same as how Batman didn't need to show up in Teen Titans. That was Robin's story, not his, and similarly this is Adora's story, not Adam's. Regardless, it makes sense why Hordak was so annoyed with the baby Adora in Shadow Weaver's flashbacks. To SW, there was something different and special about the baby, but to Hordak, whom seems familiar with the world before Mara separated Etheria from the rest of the universe, including Eternia potentially, Adora is just another "First One" child like he's seen many times before. Special in comparison to those who only know Etheria.

Great clap-back from Catra to Hordak, and not entirely unfounded. It's debatable how much he actually cares about conquering Etheria. He has others leading his forces in his war yet all his focus is on his portal creation.

According to Entrapta, productivity of the Horde is up 400% ever since Catra became Hordak's 2nd in command. I wondering how much of that is Catra's direct doing? Is she genuinely just that good of a commander? Is it because she's properly delegating and Scorpia has been handling most of the load? Or is this just because it's in comparison to Shadow Weaver? Entrapta said Catra's focus on First Ones' tech has been greatly aiding them and SW definitely focused more on magic, which was an aid mostly to herself since everyone else in the Horde seems to fight only with weapons and technology. And most of what she saw of SW while she was Hordak's 2nd was her being obsessed with bringing back Adora rather than fighting the war.

Episode 2: Let's see... Hordak's easily an adult and Entrapta is...[checks google] late twenties, early thirties. Oh good, then let's sail this ship!

But yeah, that was a heck of a backstory for Hordak. This reminds me of a video by a Youtuber named Savage Books comparing the villain Steppenwolf in the theatrical and Snyder Cut versions of Justice League and how, while he still wasn't a great villain, just a small addition made him a much better villain, that being a failure in his past and the desire just to go home. And in this case, Hordak is the much better, or at least way more developed, version of that. One of many clones of Hordak Prime but having a defect that labelled him a failure and had him cast out to Etheria, a "backwards world" as he's called it before. If he can conquer Etheria, perhaps by building a portal that'll bring forward Prime's army, he believes that'll prove to Prime that he is not a failure and that he can return home to rejoin his forces. Just this bit of backstory adds SO MUCH to Hordak, including new insights on his past interactions, and keeps him from being a flat character like theatrical version Steppenwolf. His lack of tolerance for failure makes sense when he himself is trying to prove that he's not. It gives him compelling motivation to want to conquer Etheria beyond just power and greed. Not motivation you're meant to agree with but one you can still understand.

I like the story with Huntara too. It's a nice little tie-in to something Adora was talking about with Glimmer and Bow last episode. Adora defected from the horde, not because she was different but rather very much in spite being very much like every other soldier there. She wanted to believe Shadow Weaver may have at least some goodness in her too and now we have Huntara as a fellow defector who realized the evils of the Horde, even if she chose to stay out of the war entirely after.

Episode 3: I legit thought Catra stabbed the goat lady for a second.

After Scorpia asking her why don't they just stay in the wastes I'm seeing a bit of a parallel between Catra and Hordak. They've both found a place where they can be the top dog, where they can do and have basically anything they want; her with the wastes and him with the Horde. They can be happy. ...But there's still this pull they're feeling to somewhere else. Catra back to the Horde and Hordak back to Prime. Because they feel they have to prove something; prove that they're not failures. They could be happy but they can't let go.

And that scene between Adora and Catra at the end. That was such a great line read from Catra's actor. "She left me for you. Everything that's happened is because of you." I got chills.

Minor note: While I'm only judging off the Mara hologram, which didn't have color, I do think the She-Ra outfit looks better with pants than shorts like Adora's She-Ra form. I think it makes it look sleeker, if that makes any sense.

Episode 4: Catra's spiral has turned into a drill and its taking her down as far as she can go. Though something I had to a laugh a little at myself over was that my biggest "Catra, no!" reaction wasn't to her wanting to open the portal but rather when she lied to Hordak and said Entrapta let the princesses in. She was actually a positive influence on Hordak's life and Catra with one move just destroyed that relationship and all progress Hordak had been making.

I'm guessing there's going to be some kind of long-term effect from Shadow Weaver continuously siphoning off Glimmer's magic. The woman is basically a parasite and the magic she uses is very different from the kind Glimmer does. I can't believe it never occurred to me that since Shadow Weaver trained Glimmer's father there might be a connection there between the two of them later in the story. While we don't know about anything that might've happened after she left, SW clearly had enough affection for Micah still to not kill him. I could see her trying to take Glimmer on as a student later like she did him.

Episode 5: There is something kind of hilarious about it being Scorpia's jealousy of Catra and Adora's closeness that causes her to be the first one after Adora to pick up that something is off.

11 is my favorite of the Doctor Who Doctors so naturally I'm comparing all this to the crack in Amy Pond's bedroom wall. Whatever goes in gets forgotten about and basically never existed. Though does that mean Bright Moon isn't going to remember the Horde? Basically that entire place got sucked up in the collapsing reality. There shouldn't be at war anymore because their enemy literally no longer exists.

Adora and Catra had their own little Star Trek 3 moment there.

Adora: "If we don't help each other, we'll die here!"

Catra: "Perfect! Then that's the way it shall be!"

Catra's just so far down her spiral she doesn't even care about getting her own win, just so long as Adora doesn't get one, despite just minutes ago clearly loving having Adora back in her life and on her side, to the point was trying to resist remembering the old reality. Her "perfect" world was them together again but when given the chance (another of many. I love those cuts to their past woven in there) she slapped the hand away.

I'm sure I'm wrong but I'm starting to theorize Madam Razz is actually Mara and just at some point went kind of crazy and started thinking as and Mara were two different people.

Episode 6:

"You are everything I ever wanted in a son. This... This is everything I ever wanted in a life. ...But I've got responsibilities, Van. And...I have to...go now."

-Superman, Justice League Unlimited: For the Man Who Has Everything

That was my favorite episode of JLU, where Superman is trapped in this world that isn't real but still perfect in every way, and the only way out was to give up everything he'd ever wanted, including a son he remembers watching grow up, even if it never really happened. With a similar premise, this definitely helped elevate Angela up a bit for me, whom I was kind just meh with before. I didn't dislike her but I didn't really care much for her either. This episode gave her a lot to work with though, with the heavy sacrifice she made. Not just saying behind to pull out the sword but just simply forcing herself to accept her husband is gone and not coming back. I was right that they wouldn't remember the Horde, but I definitely didn't think of the full effects of them never existing. They never exist, Bow never becomes a rebel instead of a scholar like his dads wanted. They don't exist, Micah never dies in battle against them. Glimmer gets to grow up with her father in her life. Everyone, most especially Angela, has to reject everything they would love to be real in favor of what actually is.

I'm guessing we're going to have Shadow Weaver taking advantage of this situation, trying to act like a teacher and mother-figure to Glimmer now that she's basically a orphan.

I talked before about how Catra and Hordak seem to have a parallel between them, especially regarding failure. Catra seems like she has a very hard time accepting her own failures and mistakes and thus why she more or less uses Adora as a mental scapegoat for all of it. Nothing is ever really her fault, it's Adora's, or Shadow Weaver's, or Hordak's. It makes for a great moment when Adora finally punches back, both literally and figuratively. She's not going to accept responsibility for Catra's actions anymore. She gave Catra every chance to make the right choice and she didn't, so now she has to finally live with the consequences. Heck of a glare She-Ra gave Catra at the end. Very much a "If I ever see you again..." and it certainly scared Catra, at least for a moment.

Now, someone go save Entrapta from Beast Island!

Season 3 verdict: Easily the best season thus far. I know this was technically the second half of season 2 but even in comparison to the full season 1 there was just so much that happened in this, so much that got revealed, and so, so many moments of emotion or tension. Weirdly I feel kind of disappointed that Hordak Prime is probably going to come in now and be the new big villain. I really like our Hordak's motivation and Prime seems like he might just be the generic conqueror for power that Hordak seemed like he was going to be at first. Not saying those types can't work. I love All For One from My Hero Academia and Frieza from Dragon Ball. Those guys are pure evil and selfishness, but they also have a captivating presence/charisma to them.

Naturally, since I bring her up the most out of all the characters, I'm very curious to see what happens with Catra now. She's basically nuked every positive relationship she had with anyone. Entrapta's gone, she threatened Scorpia, Hordak's not going to trust anyone including her anymore now that he thinks Entrapta's betrayed him, and Adora firmly sees her as an enemy. She has no one (those under her direct command don't count) and it's entirely her own fault.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o0trfz/going_in_blind_watching_season_3_for_the_first/

[communistkenobi-archive]

i probably overthinking the hell out of it but this bit about how sheltered obi wan in m&a always made me wonder: why?? is this obi wan thing or is it common with many jedi? is it his age? why qui gon didn't just sit him down and explained? yeah eventually his ignorance shattered with years and experience i guess but why did i took so long?? I always thought that padawans get to experience weird as fuck sw galaxy so early that all rose-colored glasses must shattered really quickly, but apparently not and it makes me wonder. honestly i would love to have (any) canon material about padawans' education in Temple so much. probably even more than something that shows in length everything about the Council in tcw

obligatory preface that this seems to be legends now (although to my knowledge it hasn’t yet been contradicted in new canon), but in the Jedi Path book, which is a training manual for Padawans, I believe it says that initiates do not leave the Temple at all except for rare outings where they are heavily supervised by Knights/Masters, so age 12-14 is when students would first be exposed to life outside the Temple, let alone the topside levels of Coruscant. This seems to be reinforced in a passage in Master & Apprentice:

so any exposure to inequality, marginalisation, or even just different ways of life prior to that point would be hypothetical (or even absent entirely), unless the children have prior memories of their lives before going to the Temple - which is emphasised as being very unlikely, given that they are retrieved by the Jedi at such a young age (Obi-Wan arrived at the Temple at age 3, which is apparently the upper limit for most Force-sensitive children).

I think you can make a good case for why this education/exposure would be absent from early Jedi training - it helps with upholding the legitimacy of the Republic if it’s always discussed as an inherent good, in much the same way primary education in North America is delivered. Myth-building for the state is a lot easier if you don’t expose children to any of its flaws. This naivety WILL break eventually, but that foundation is still extremely important for instilling a loyalty to the Republic.

Because there is no reason for the Jedi, who are “diplomat class” of the Republic so to speak, to withhold that information from their students that is not ideologically driven. It would make sense to prepare them from a young age for all the various problems and inequalities that plague the Republic so that they can be sensitive and compassionate when encountering those things for the first time. Anakin is a good example for this - he is critical of the Republic in a way that most other Padawans are not, and Obi-Wan has to do a balancing act of nurturing that critical curiosity in Anakin while also not disillusioning him too much that he forsakes his duty as a Jedi entirely (which I think is explored really well in the 2016 Star Wars: Anakin & Obi-Wan comic, which I don’t have on hand atm but I highly recommend).

Edit: link to a post here with the relevant panels of that comic.

I think the real answer is that no person who actually writes for Star Wars thinks this hard about any of this, so all this is just fun flavourful worldbuilding that no one really considers the implications of. But that doesn’t mean those implications aren’t still there, and while Qui-Gon himself doesn’t seem to have a coherent critique of the Order, he has a very good point about how the Jedi tend to be overly isolationist with their young, and that this practice is detrimental (and even traumatic) in a lot of ways.

[crimesandcuriosities]

SO I’ve been obsessed with your blog and I can’t believe how much work you put into it while simultaneously being a student. You’ve probably answered this question a million times, but what do you plan to do after you achieve your degrees? Is there a specific career that interests you that would be applicable to the degrees you’ve obtain? I work as a Surgical Technologist in the OR and I’ve seen the worst of the worst, but I may be interest in switching careers paths. I guess I’m just asking what jobs are available to those who choose to go into criminology? Sorry this is so long, and you’re absolutely a stone cold fox!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that. Your current work as a Surgical Technologist sounds fascinating! I can imagine that must be really stressful work, but extremely rewarding. Is there possibly a medical side of Criminology that interests you? Because I can imagine you already have hugely transferable skills (i.e. forensic pathology?) Or are you drawn to something entirely different (i.e. law enforcement/criminal psychology/victim support?) I think there’s a lot of opportunity within this subject area as it covers such a broad array of different professions/skill sets. Whichever path you choose to take, you can do anything you’re passionate about and put your mind to.

I’ve actually graduated now and work a full time job. I did a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology, and then went on to do a Master’s degree in Sociology. I worked for some time as a researcher, support worker and fostering panel member for a children’s fostering agency, which I absolutely loved during that time. I was really drawn to a career in child protection for a while and was set on becoming a Social Worker, but eventually the work became very emotionally draining and I became very aware of the massive caseloads/stress that my SW colleagues faced. I gradually began to realise that I was more drawn to the research/academic side of Criminology and Sociology rather than doing something more frontline within those fields, so since 2018 I have worked in higher education assisting postgraduate university students and I really enjoy it. My ultimate goal is to eventually return to university and complete my own PhD in Criminology, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[self-proclaimed-chaotic-good]

Persephone | John Wick x Reader (One)

Words: 2262

A/N: Just an idea that popped in my head at three am. What is sleep haha. I might post a few oneshots that are related to this one, not sure if I want to make it into a proper series, given the other wips I have. Depends on how I feel, I guess. Let me know what you guys think.

Warning: Usual JW-verse violence, reader is also an assassin

-

Now teamed up with the Bowery King to take down the High Table, John Wick still needed allies that were willing to risk their lives to help their mission. There weren’t many that would want to oppose the High Table, so their options were limited. John took the time to heal up while they planned High Table’s downfall, using the Bowery King’s people to scout for other assassins.

“There is another option,” the Bowery King said, leaning back in his chair.

John took a swig of bourbon and raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

“Persephone,” he grinned. John recognized that name, not just from the Greek mythology, but of the assassin that nickname belonged to. The Bowery King continued, “I’ve heard she’s in a tough situation right now, though. Wanna know why one of the most deadliest assassins in the world have been out of business this whole time?”

“I assume you’re going to tell me anyways,” John said, his pitbull having jumped on his lap.

“A puppet is useless when it realizes they no longer needs strings to move. She started asking questions and knowing what they’ve created, her people… restrained her. She’s constantly being monitored, none of my people had seen her alone. It seems that she’s lost her memory.” The Bowery King shook his head at the woman’s situation.

“Why not kill her?”

“They’ll probably want to use her again. It’d be a waste to throw away the skills they gave her. All they can do is have her forget she even has them until the time came to utilize her, have her dependent on those strings again.” He tilted his head and looked at John. “And you’re gonna have to be the one to cut those strings for her, John Wick.”

-

You could vaguely remember your family. At that point, you couldn’t even remember their faces, only the feeling that they gave you; warmth, love, comfort. You were raised along with other kids to be killers. With a cutthroat regime that mirrored ballet, the Instructor, a former student of The Director, would continuously run drills and eliminate those who couldn’t keep up.

You were one of the few that made it and it wasn’t simply through determination or strong work ethic. You were scared. No one knew what happened to those kids that were eliminated, maybe it was literal, but you didn’t want to find out. It was surviving through fear, until you were strong enough to overcome it. If they killed you, fine. If they didn’t, then what?

Execute the mission, no mistakes. Like a ballet recital.

The missions and the training were the only life you knew. The targets you were assigned to were only pieces to a massive puzzle to the world that you were raised in. Eventually, you had enough to make out an image. The Underworld where highly trained assassins were everywhere. There was a system, strict rules to follow.

You were familiar with the Continental, the hotel you and many others used while working, and the coins used to gain access to the serves that the Underworld provided. You eventually became familiar with the other faces at the Continental and around you.

One in particular stood out. The Boogeyman. The man, the myth, the legend. You ran into him a few times when he was still active, a tall man with a calm demeanor. It was like standing next to an ocean around him. Many respected him and even feared him due to his reputation of being Death himself. You couldn’t imagine the Underworld without John Wick.

Until he got out.

The night of his impossible task was the same night you made a difficult decision. For a long time, you knew that you wouldn’t be able to escape the hands of the Instructor until you were skilled enough to overpower her, so you waited.

Using your resources, you found out what happened to your family. They owed a debt to the Instructor and they paid it off with their daughter. If it had stopped there, you could move on, but it didn’t. The Instructor had them killed anyways, using the trainers and a few of the older trainees to do the job. They knew and they kept it from you.

Life under the Instructor was all you knew and you could continue as if you never knew your family’s demise or you could release yourself from her hold and make sure it never happens to anyone else.

John Wick stormed through the building looking for the Instructor, but there were already bodies scattered around the place, either unconscious or dead with their throats sliced open. You tried to avoid using loud weapons, preferring stealth so as to not alert everyone at once and especially the Instructor. Although it would have been considered sloppy to leave unconscious bodies on your part, you had no quarrel with everyone under the Instructor, only the ones ordered to kill your family. Besides, you knew of the ones that were reluctant to follow orders and killed off those who followed without question.

There was a trainer that you had been close with and took you under her wing. She’d push you to train harder and had faith that once you think you’ve reached your full potential, you could push even higher. And all that time, she hid that secret about your family. She was the leader of that mission, after all.

You saved her for last. It wasn’t as satisfying as you thought it would be. She knew the day was going to come when you find out and she was ready for it. With the blade she gave you for your initiation, you fought her until you had her pinned down, running the blade through her throat. She choked on her own blood, a smile on her face. A shiver would have ran down your spine you hadn’t known how much of a relief it might have been for her. Maybe she wanted out, too.

The door slammed open and the Boogeyman appeared, his gun raised. You stood up slowly, your hands in the air with your blade on the floor. He kept the barrel trained on you and you were glad he hadn’t shot on sight. It would have been over quickly, but you wanted to be the one to turn the Instructor in.

“The Instructor should be holding up in her office, fourth floor,” you said, slowly taking a golden coin from your pocket and holding it out to him,“just let me go. My other targets weren’t home. I need to go get them.”

He seemed to mull it over in his head and ultimately lowered his gun. He held out a hand as you tossed the coin to him. John nodded a thanks towards you and headed over to the fourth floor.

That was the last time you saw John Wick. Unfortunately, the others were ready and so was the Instructor. Her last mission was to wipe you clean, drug you until you can’t remember a thing. And while John Wick was able to finish his impossible task, the Instructor’s remaining people were able to finish their mission as well.

-

It was hard to believe that the young woman that he saw take down assassins from her former home was running a flower shop. Then again, he did the impossible and got out of the Underworld until he was forced back in again.

There was always another worker with you, even on your lunch breaks. Whoever took over for the Instructor was placing a tight hold on you.

John waited until the last customer walked out, five minutes before closing. He walked towards the shop and slipped in before the door closed. You were busy sorting out inventory to notice his presence, your coworker hovering close by you.

Ever since you woke up in a strange bedroom with people you didn’t recognize, they told you that you were in an accident and they were your found family after you ran away from home. In fact, the flower shop was theirs but they gave it to you to run. You were thankful that they took care of you while you recovered, but you would appreciate it if they gave you some space to figure yourself out alone. You haven’t even bothered telling them your strange dreams, either. They were cold and violent and worst of all, you were the one holding the blade.

“Mari, can you double check the boxes we have in the back so we could update the inventory list?” you asked your coworker. She pursed her lips then nodded, grabbing another clipboard with a copy of the list and headed towards the storage.

You breathed out a sigh of relief, already feeling lighter once she left the room. You walked to the front to close up when you jumped, seeing a tall man in a suit waiting.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the door,” you told him, putting your clipboard down and walking towards the counter, “Can I help you?”

Upon closer inspection, the man’s brown eyes seemed tired but alert, his long black hair just above his shoulders. He was quite handsome that you could barely look him in the eye, and surely a man like that would have already been taken.

The corner of his lips turned up slightly. “I was looking for you, actually,” he said smoothly, pulling out an object from his suit jacket.

You watched him cautiously, inching closer to the counter where Marion kept the small handgun. You didn’t like to use guns, you didn’t like the sight of them for some reason, but Marion insisted on keeping one at the store.

He took out a golden coin and held it out. You grabbed it from his large hand and inspected it, the engraving feeling strangely familiar to you under your finger pads.

“Do it!” a voice hissed in your head, the image of a woman choking on blood, the strong iron stench hitting your nose and soaking into your hand that held some kind of dagger.

You dropped the coin, backing away from the man. “Who are you?” you demanded.

He held out his hands. “My name is John Wick,” he said, “And I’m here to help you, Persephone.”

“Persephone…”

“Persephone, again!” an older woman shouted. She stood in front of a wall of mirrors with her hands on her hips, staring down at you, your feet aching and sweat pouring down your face. “Get up!”

“You’re asking to be killed, Mr. Wick,” Marion spat, suddenly at your side with a gun in her hand. “There’s a heavy price for your head, it’d be a shame to have been hidden from the High Table for so long, only to be killed in a flower shop.”

“Mari, what are you doing?” you asked, shocked that she knew the man.

“I always knew the Instructor favored you, but to have kept you alive and have us babysit you even after she’s dead was too much.”

Marion gripped your forearm, nails digging into your skin. You gasped, a strong sense of betrayal taking over you as the flight or fight response kicked in. She had never treated you this way before and it didn’t take much to understand that something was wrong. More flashes of your past flew through your mind, particularly when Marion mentioned the Instructor.

Your hands shot out, twisting her arm and knocked the gun out of her hand. She stumbled on the crates on the floor, your surprise attack leaving her stunned. You used her momentary imbalance to grab her hair from the roots and slammed her forehead against the counter, knocking her unconscious. You dropped her and stepped back, your hands shaking as you start to sweat.

“What did I do, what did I do,” you began to mumble over and over.

John gave you a moment, locking the front door and flipping the sign, moving around you to turn the front lights off. You took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, gripping the counter for support as the headache and nausea start to settle. John picked up the coin and carried Marion’s body to the back office then got a cup of water from the small breakroom. He set the paper cup in front of you and took the time to scan the area, pulling the blinds down. 

When you came to, you took a sip of water and shuffled yourself over to where John stood, your eyes stinging from the tears that didn’t seem to stop. You sniffed, quickly wiping them away, your head still sore from the occasional flash of an old memory in your head. Your phone had been buzzing during that time, several missed calls from your so-called family. You turned off your phone and stuffed it back in your pocket.

“Thank you,” your voice cracked as you spoke to him, “but why?”

John sighed, silently assessing your current state. “I need your help, but first, we need to leave. They’ll be coming after us soon.”

He held out a hand for you to take, letting you make the choice to go with him. You may not have all of your memories back, you recognized him enough to know that going with him would mean gaining your independence and actually finding out who you were. You grabbed his hand and he lead you through the back entrance and through the streets, all the way down below the city, back to the Bowery King.

You were back in the Underworld, but at least you were not alone.

[gummy-eyes]

Like what I’m hearing. What kind of issues do you mean. Any idea for pairings I’m partial to Perfuma/Entrapta along with main ones, Catradoras my favourite. Is Micah alive since he might as well be as he is in the show. Are Hordak and SW romantic or marriage of convenience. I’m also guessing Catra and possibly Adora are adopted.

Thank u for giving me an excuse to ramble abt my au oh lord 🥺🥺💕

I was thinking about issues where adora and lighthope don’t have a very good relationship, it’s very strained. Lighthope puts a lot of pressure on adora to be a perfect student and athlete, to where it can be kind of overwhelming. So adora liked to spend a lot of time with catra at her house which leads to a little bit of jealousy for catra since SW is always telling catra to be more like adora. Kinda like “she likes you better and you don’t even live here” type of deal, yknow?

I didn’t really think about other ships but that has me thinking... I like merfuma but I ALSO like scorpfuma... oh no choices ://. I also actually like entraptadak so I wonder if I make them both teachers at the private academy, would the au would still be good if it’s just catra and SW, and they became friends with lighthope and adora bc it was another single parent in the neighborhood? Or would it be more interesting if catra lived with both hordak and SW? Much to think about haha 🤔🤔

Adora would be adopted, but for catra I’m thinking maybe taken in by SW , a surviving relative? (clearly not sticking to canon here my bad). Also Micah and Angella are both here bc I love them and I want glimmer to have some happiness, as a treat.

[arabian-bloodstream]

TROS: The Good, the Bad & the Huh?

So, I watched The Rise of Skywalker on Thursday. It met my expectations which were to not expect too much. I hadn't read the leaks, but I had still been spoiled. I didn't want to believe that Ben would actually die, but I knew it was a very real possibility so when it happened, I wasn't terribly surprised. Overall, I liked the movie, because, duh, it's Star Wars. However, I had a lot of problems with it because a lot of things didn't make sense.

I watched it a second time on Saturday and sadly, those things still didn't make sense, but I still liked it because, you know, Star Wars. So, here are my thoughts, first off with all of those things that don't make sense without having to rely on the SW visual dictionary or EU (because you should NOT have to rely on outside source to understand stuff) to explain them, then my biggest issues with the film, the things I did really like and my rankings of all the films as of now before it comes out and I can do a full rewatch:

Questions... So Many Questions

Where is Kylo in the beginning? Who is he mowing down? How does he find the wayfinder?

How did Palpatine come back?

Who has been taking care of him for the last 30-odd years?

Who are all of those hooded creatures in the stands?

Why are there a couple of Snoke puppets? Molds? What the fuck ever? In aquarium tanks?

Who is this General Pryde dude and why is he so high up and we've never heard of him before?

Who was Palpatine's girlfriend/wife/one-night stand that led to Rey's dad(?) mom(?)?

Where did this all come from!??!? Palpy having a child seems like a pretty fucking big deal to just OOPS! pop out of nowhere?

Some random THERE ARE ONLY TWO SUPER-SEKRIT-SITH wayfinder thingies to find Palpatine that Luke was on a SUPER-SEKRIT mission with Lando THAT WAS NEVER MENTIONED in between him training his Jedi students and his temple getting destroyed, having a split-second 'maybe I should murder my nephew' moment, 'nah!' and going into exile. Uhm, OK.

Leia was trained in the Force by Luke? Uhm... when? When she was pregnant with Ben? Because she got pregnant pretty much right after Endor. So... she learned enough from Luke--even though she didn't complete her training--to train Rey... enough that Rey became super-duper powerful. Because I highly doubt that Leia had time to train while pregnant and helping to start up a new government. OK, then.

So, Leia and Luke *knew* that Rey was the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine--the most evil who ever eviled--and had no problem believing that there was good in her and she could be molded into an awesome Jedi... but didn't believe the same about their own son/nephew because he had too much "Vader" in him? Even though, Luke believed that Vader could be redeemed? Huh?! I mean... huh?

And on that note... so, all of the old Jedi decided to let the grandson of The Chosen One fall down a pit and crawl back up in agony with a shrug, but were like, 'yeah, we're gonna help the granddaughter of the man whose goal in life and in-between life and now life again after sucking out the life-force of the two remaining Jedi in the Galaxy.' OK, then.

So... how come, when Rey died she didn't just fade away? I mean, when Ben died he faded away right away. Why didn't Rey fade away right away?

So those horse-creature thingies... why were they on the ships to be on the destroyers? I mean, like... was there even room? And when that was destroyed, did like those horse-creature thingies all die? How sad... and no one cared.

The 'Rey, I need to tell you something' from Finn. I know now it was that he's Force-sensitive. AFTER watching the movie and hearing other people say it. Watching it the second time, I picked up on the clues, but those I watched it with the second time thought it was that he loved Rey. A lot of people thought it was that he loved Rey. I thought that the first time. It was clumsy, it was tacked-on. It was... stupid. Why would you leave a dangling thread, one of JJ's "mystery boxes" in the final chapter of the ninth-film saga? WHY?!

Also, more importantly, why were the Resistance celebrating at the end? Because "The Final Order" were taken out, but uhm, The First Order is still around. Unless I'm remembering it incorrectly (and I could be), it was the Final Order ships, General Pryde's destroyer and a bunch of First Order fighters, but not ALL of the First Order destroyers were there. They've got thousands of destroyers spread across the galaxy. They weren't all there. They took out the Emperor's fleet, not the Supreme Leader's fleet. And sure, the Supreme Leader is gone, and Pryde and Hux are gone... but there are other Generals who will step up. So, yeah, the First Order is still around. The First Order is the huge, massive enemy that our heroes are fighting the entire two films. And there is LITERALLY no mention of their defeat, of how THEY are brought down in this film. Instead, JJ brings in Palpatine and his thousands of somehow functioning Final Order fleet... and *that* fleet* is destroyed. YAY! Celebration ensues. WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST ORDER!?!? The one that we spent the last two films fighting?!? The ones that the rest of the galaxy had zero interest in helping to fight during the battle of Crait and ANYTIME in the interim before the Battle of Exogol. That's kind of huge.

Why did Rey go to Tatooine? Seriously? Why. Did. Rey. Go. To. Tatooine? Luke hated Tatooine. And besides, Rey spent at most a week with the guy and didn't have a very good relationship with him. Sure, they had a decent post-death conversation, but that was it. It really was like JJ intended (after TFA) for Rey to go to Luke and for Luke to train her in the ways of the Force and for there to be this great relationship, much like Luke and Yoda. I guess he expected for Rian Johnson to redo so much of TESB much as he had done with ANH. But Johnson didn't do that, and Abrams clearly didn't care. So he just ignored the relationship that Johnson *did* establish between Rey and Luke and pretended like the one that he envisioned had happened had, well, happened. (Psst, even though it didn't.) But it made no sense. Again, at most a week Rey spent with the grumpy old dude who wasn't very nice to her, whom she fought with and who told her--yeah, no, this ain't how it's gonna be, and so she took off and went her own way. Sure, Luke changed his mind, but she wasn't there for that.

Why did Rey have BB-8 with her? BB-8 is Poe's droid, not hers. Oh, right... it paralleled TFA--where it made sense that BB-8 was with her, when Poe was "dead" which he is not now. Mmhmm.

Why did Rey take the last name Skywalker? She didn't have the relationship with Luke that warranted it. You know who she DID have the relationship with? Han SOLO. Leia Organa-SOLO. Ben SOLO. Those are the people with whom she had that kind of relationship. The man who DID become like a father to her in a few short days. The woman who did become like a mother to her. The man who was literally the other half of her soul. If she was going to take a name... it should have been Solo. Rey Solo. Taking the name Skywalker, much like going to Tatooine was not in character for Rey, and it wasn't FOR Rey. It was nostalgia for the Original Trilogy fans (oh, like JJ Abrams). It wasn't true to the narrative, the character, of the story that has been told over *this* sequel trilogy.

Why was there no Force Ghost of Ben? There needs to be some specific training in order to be a Force Ghost, sure. Which Luke *probably* got from FG Yoda. And which Luke gave to Leia in cut footage. And this specific training was mentioned briefly in the Prequel Trilogy, and more extensively in The Clone Wars.... but unless you remember that one line from the PT or watched TCW and know about that cut footage, you have no clue. So, many are left wondering, again: Why was there no Force Ghost of Ben? If Luke *probably* got that training from Yoda, why didn't Luke train Ben in it? He's gotta know how tragic the lives of the Skywalkers are... ain't no way he didn't train that boy early on about that bit of info, right? So, yeah, why no Force Ghost of Ben?

So many questions, so many things that had me going: Wait? What? Huh? Why... I don't... huh? How did--? When? Huh? That should not happen this much in a film. Period. That is bad writing. That is bad directing. That is bad pacing. That is just bad film making.

The Big Four Issues

I. Ben Solo Dying.

Had he had not been the last Skywalker, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

Had Han not sacrificed himself essentially which was then used as a narrative to build into a huge reason as to why Kylo was having such a hard time staying on the Dark path, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

Had we not been given some hints that Ben had been manipulated his whole life by the Dark Side and abandoned by his family, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

Had we not been told that he was literally sharing a soul with Rey (one soul-two bodies), meaning that she will be bereft and lost without him for the rest of her life because her literal soulmate is dead now, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

However, because of all of the above, narratively speaking, no, I am not OK with it. I have always said in every fandom I have been a part of that if it makes sense from a narrative point of view--even if I'm not happy as a fangirl--I will be OK with it. From a narrative point of view, this did not make sense. So, yeah, I had an issue with Ben Solo dying.

II. Kylo Ren's Helmet and Rey's Hairstyle

I said when I first saw the triple-bun-hairstyle again and Kylo with the helmet that I was wary because I felt that JJ had fundamentally missed the symbolism of what Rian did with the progression for both characters. I hoped that I would be proven wrong and there would be a reason for the return of both things (beyond needing the hairstyle for scenes with Leia to match the footage). Alas, I was not.

Kylo without the mask was him no longer in Vader’s shadow. The mask was about him being the scared, little boy, hiding who he was. At the end of The Last Jedi, he supposedly got everything he wanted. He no longer needed to hide. By destroying the mask, he was doing his best to let go of the past. He let go of Snoke, let go of Vader. But, of course, that wasn't the story that JJ wanted to tell. He wanted to keep Kylo answering to someone else, holding onto Vader. So because Rian got rid of Snoke, JJ brought in Palpatine for Kylo to be submissive to, beholden to Vader still, no longer the leader and back came the helmet, undoing all of that great character progression that Rian had crafted.

As for Rey and those buns, sigh. Once she realized–as she did in the cave, even if she didn't admit it fully to herself until Kylo called her on it–that her parents weren't coming back, she let go of that hairstyle. Why? Because that hairstyle is the only way she could figure that her parents would still recognize her. It's the hairstyle she had when she last saw them. By letting her hair down and not putting it back up, she let go of the fantasy that they were coming back. JJ putting her back into that ridiculous style, like with Kylo, he erased that huge, beautiful character arc of Rey's. She was once more a girl in search of her identity, her self. That self, that woman that she had found at the end of TLJ was gone. *double sigh.*

III. Rose's Presence or Lack Thereof

The toxic bullying and horrible way that Kelly Marie Tran was treated was completely unjustified in every way, shape and form. JJ Abrams pretty much rewarded that treatment by sidelining the character of Rose and wrote her as a glorified extra. Period. There's pretty much nothing else to say about it. Anything else will just devolve into ranting. It--yeah, just gonna stop here.

IV. The Force Bond Scenes

Least "big" issue, but it bugged me. I noticed it the first time I watched the film and hoped that it would be more clear the second time I watched it. That second time, I watched it with my brother-in-law and nephews and asked them if they had the same issue. They did. I wasn't sure honestly when Rey and Kylo were actually together or were having Force Bond moments. One of my nephews didn't realize that Rey and Kylo were actually fighting in person on the Death Star until Kylo was talking to Han. That entire scene from when he showed up inside the Death Star remains, through the fight scene, through her stabbing, then healing him and her taking off... my nephew thought that it was a Force Bond scene. Both times, I didn't realize it wasn't a Force Bond scene UNTIL they moved outside of the Death Star remains. When they were talking inside, I thought it was a Force Bond scene.

Rian Johnson did such a wonderful job establishing they were having a Force Bond moment. It was like the air was being vacuumed out of the room. You could feel the tension. It was obvious, but in these Force Bond scenes unless the scenes were drastically different or there was dialogue establishing it, you just could NOT tell.

But, It's Not All Bad!

The Han/Ben scene gutted my very soul in all the best way possibles. I ADORED the callback to The Force Awakens scene. How the play on the dialogue worked in the opposite direction, with Han urging him that he could it, he did have the strength to turn to the light. How Ben held the lightsaber, and once again, Han reached out to touch his face. Oh, God, and when he said "Dad," his voice breaking and Han said, "I know." I died. I was just.... gah, a total mess. I teared up both times. That was just everything. SO. VERY. HARD!

Babu Frick may be my new spirit animal. No, I do not find him cuter than Baby Yoda (puhleeze!), but dear Lord, I loved him so. When C3P0 (who will forever remain in my heart, I love him so) had his memory wiped and was introducing himself, I laughed out loud both times when Babu immediately pipes up with, "I'm Babu Frick!" and then later on when whoever mentioned that Babu sent them a message, 3P0 pipes up, "Oh, I know Babu Frick, he's my oldest friend," I lost it. So good.

Speaking of C3P0, every moment with C3P0 was gold (hehehe, see what I did there?). I seriously do love Goldenrod. I liked the sentimental, the sweet, the serious and the funny with him. Outside of the Babu Frick moments, my favorite was when he mentioned something about the Passana Desert festival and they all looked at the annoyance that is 3P0 and he has no clue and turns around himself to see what they are looking at. Oh, I love him so.

When Finn told Rose that he was staying on the ship... JJ may have cut the Finn/Rose dead in the water that Rian set up, but damn did KMT give it her all. That moment where she looked after him, oh it was beautiful. You could see all of the worry, the love, the pride... everything on her face in that moment. So good.

I may have felt that Zorri Bliss was a completely useless and pointless character, but that final bit with her Poe was hilarious.

The lightsaber battle on the Death Star remains was AWESOME-SAUCE. Every moment of it. I especially loved: Kylo walking out of the rain/water. Kylo and Rey both so exhausted they can barely keep going. Kylo having the kill-shot like two or three times and just not able to do it. Ben hearing Leia say his name. Ben dropping his saber when he senses her end is near.

Chewie finally got his damn medal!

Chewie mourning over Leia. That was all of us.

Man, when Rey and Kylo were fighting over the destroyer and then lightning came out of her hands... it was like WHOAH!! SO FREAKING COOL! I loved that. I really totes did!

I loved every single, solitary moment of Ben Solo. From his running to save Rey. From his free-for-all jump to his "Ow." To his facing of the knights, knowing he was outnumbered, but still determined to take them all. From his 'We got this babe!' look to Rey to his shrug once he held that lightsaber in his hand and took on every one of those Knights and took them all down, Ben Solo was sassy, bad-ass and amazing all without saying an actual word.

Dear Lord. Crawling from the pit, forcing himself across that rocky floor on a broken leg, gathering the woman he loved in his arms. The relief of finally, finally, truly holding her in his arms, the devastation at knowing she was lost to him, and then the determination, the refusal to let her go, to lose her. He truly finished what his grandfather started. He would not let the woman he loved die. So be brought her back, pouring every ounce of his life, his love into her.

I loved that she told him that she wanted to take Ben's hand, and so she did. And she said his name, one last time. "Ben." And I loved that we got that beautiful, beautiful smile. So happy, so free, so full of light. And no pain.

*sigh* The kiss. I loved, loved, loved that we got our beautiful, epic space kiss. *double sigh* Because it was beautiful. And it was epic. And it's canon, bitches! Yeah, baby!

Overall, I liked the movie. I believe that when I watch all the films together, I will be satisfied. I just wish I loved it. I AM happy for all of those people who do love it though. I truly, truly am.

The Skywalker Saga Rankings

Yes, I consider Rogue One part of the Skywalker Saga since both Darth Vader and Leia appear in it.

The Empire Strikes Back

The Last Jedi

A New Hope

Rogue One

Attack of the Clones

The Force Awakens

Return of the Jedi

The Rise of Skywalker

Revenge of the Sith

The Phantom Menace