#also. why does everyone think that solving the moderation problem is free!!!

[starfieldcanvas]

for every "how dare you plan to spend money out of your entertainment budget while i, a complete stranger to you, am still poor" post i see i am buying another $3 worth of crabs

[skylinesnsunshines]

skz reading: bang chan ideal type + as a boyfriend

hi friends! today i’m doing a reading for chan’s ideal type and what he’d be like as a boyfriend. you all know the drill, askbox is open so submit requests if you’d like (but please read my rules first) with that being said let’s get into it!

DISCLAIMER: this is all speculative and for entertainment purposes only, so take it with a grain of salt :)

decks used: ethereal visions tarot, archetype cards by caroline myss, heavenly bodies astrology, the wild unknown animal by kim krans

(italicised is the card on the bottom of the tarot deck which is meant to represent the subconscious/blind spot of the situation + rx means reversed)

IDEAL TYPE

temperance, 7 of cups, 3 of swords rx, the chariot | liberator, child:wounded, hyena, house four: cultural and family roots, home, peace and comfort

chris wants someone who’s emotionally balanced and patient as the temperance card talks about doing everything in moderation, due to his libra stellium it’s unsurprising he wants a partner who is his “equal” and able to be calm in whatever situation and i feel he wants his partner to be the type to do actions “for the greater good”. with the 7 of cups, i feel chris doesn’t have a “specific type” he goes for but he does admire certain traits/characteristics of people which tells me he really does fall for someone’s personality and finds beauty in everything/everyone, this card can also describe someone who’s a dreamer and idealistic which tells me that chris likes the “creative types” as these people tend to have lots of ideas. the 3 of swords rx can indicate someone who has gone through difficult situations but has healed/is healing themselves due to their level of forgiveness, since his venus is in scorpio it’s unsurprising to me that he wants to have a really deep bond with someone and this card indicates that he wants someone who he’ll be able to be fully vulnerable with, this card can also indicate someone who’s a peacemaker so with the temperance card i definitely see someone who’s very fair and patient like chan himself. the chariot card is associated with cancer so this tells me the that i feel chan wants someone who resembles him but amplifies his positive traits, this card describes someone who has a very high level of determination and willpower though so underneath all that “fair” and patient energy this is definitely someone who’s a force to be reckoned with, cancer rules the moon and therefore deals with the divine feminine which means that there’s a possibility in his relationship he could want to be “nurtured” since he’s used to being the nurturer, he definitely wants someone who is very emotionally intelligent and is protective of those they care about. 

with the liberator card, this tells me chan definitely wants a leader type and someone who people look up to as it talks about someone who frees themselves and others from outmoded beliefs, on the card it illustrates a woman holding a torch so it gives me the vibe that this person is very selfless and is willing to help others before themselves (just like chan himself). child:wounded talks about someone who has a lot of compassion and desire to help those who are wounded especially children, it also talks about someone who is able to forgive themselves and others which reiterates my points made earlier with the 3 of swords rx card. hyena talks about someone who’s very humorous and sarcastic so sense of humour is definitely important for chan’s ideal type, i definitely feel his type of person has a natural knack for communication and their words can uplift people. house four is ruled by cancer so it reiterates the points i made about the cancerian qualities i pointed out earlier, i feel his ideal person is someone who is very attached to their family wether they’d be biological or not, definitely is a lot of people’s “home” and often is described as the “mum/responsible friend”.

AS A BOYFRIEND

6 of swords, death rx, queen of cups, the hanged one | mediator, gossip, turtle, libra: consideration, fairness and harmony

with the 6 of swords i do feel chris goes through a lot of personal transformations especially during relationships (cause of his scorpio venus), he’d definitely be the type to sacrifice himself for “the greater good” and falls extremely hard when he’s found his match, this can also mean that there’s two sides to him and he often keeps the part of himself he’s not proud of “hidden” because he doesn’t want to burden anyone else, i also get the feeling that he sees love as something that’s very transformative and cannot do surface level relationships as his soul craves something that is very intense. the death rx card basically reiterates the points i made earlier as this and the 6 of swords both represent scorpio and scorpio energy is very intense, chris definitely keeps his walls up and often bears his burden alone which is why he wants someone who’s very nurturing as cancerian energy matches very well with scorpio since they are both water signs, chris is only ever vulnerable to a handful of people and this card tells me when he finds someone he feels safe with he’ll let them in his life and be extremely loyal to them, but if they ever had a falling out he will take that very personally and struggle to move on as his scorpio venus can make him extremely attached to people. queen of cups tells he wants a nurturing soul cause he himself is one, since the cups describes emotions and is more of a feminine energy it tells me chris is extremely in tune with his emotions and has very pure intentions, i can definitely see people coming to him and venting as he often listens without judgement and has a high level of empathy. with the hanged one on the bottom, i feel chris could take his time when pursuing someone as this card talks about someone willingly pausing, he’ll take his time cause again he wants to make sure he TRULY likes the person as once he’s involved with someone it’s very hard for him to seperate, i feel he could be a bit quirky when he expresses his love too which is quite cute.

it’s unsurprising we got the mediator card as he is a libra after all, he’s definitely the type to solve problems from an objective point of view and people often go to him for advice as they know he’ll be able to come to an agreement that is fair for everyone, definitely the type of boyfriend to discuss problems rationally and logically. with the gossip card i do feel chan could be pretty talkative with his partner, once he’s comfortable with someone i totally feel he’ll tell them a lot of things and his person would be his human diary so to speak as communication is very important for him since it is an air sign trait. turtle card talks about someone who’s peaceful, grounded, adventurous and an old soul which describes chan to a t, he’s definitely very wise and loves peace which is why everyone listens to what he says as others know whatever he says will be beneficial for everyone. libra card for the libra stellium, chan definitely prioritises consideration, fairness and harmony in relationships and it tells me that he’s incredibly loyal especially to those he loves, i definitely think he’s gonna be quite romantic in relationships and will express his love in various ways but will get shy at times cause he’s easily flustered. overall, he’s definitely a dream boyfriend <3  

that is all! if you have any feedback, comments, queries or requests please don’t hesitate to reach out to me my ask box is always open. sending you all love, light, positivity and abundance <3 much love

[deerth]

my first mistake in witchcraft

yes i’m going to be petty over religion for a second here.

i have been slowly inching out of the broom closet as i now consciously move on from the atheist mindset to the pagan one. i was looking for more resources to research my path, and i ended up on a witchy server... woe unto me as i try to fit in once more, for it seems that not even witches are unified.

forget about all that shit about garden, cosmos and whatever witches. the religion actually broadly branches into two practices - Wicca and regular witchcraft. so you are primarily the one or the other, no matter what flavour of ritual you practice.

the primary difference between Wiccans and general witchcraft is your belief of whether religion can be used for harm or not. in short, Wiccans state “an it harm none, do as ye will” (as long as you don’t hurt anyone [including yourself], go bonkers), therefore you will not find Wiccans casting curses or hexes. we know the responsibility of our faith and we know that if you radiate bad vibes, it will come right back around to bite you in the ass later. that said, most Wiccans don’t mind witches who do curse or hex. some cultures use practices like voodoo, and even old eastern European practices were not free of rituals that were made to directly interfere with someone’s will (love spells that were supposed to make someone love you). therefore, a disclaimer: I’m not anti-hex. I would not use a hex because I feel that hate will not solve hate, and as long as you’re an adult, I trust you know what you’re doing with your power. maybe you are of an oppressed culture and have good reason to exact revenge on someone who severely hurt you, especially if you have a long-standing tradition of hexes. even Nina Simone sang “I Put a Spell on You” (albeit this is also a love spell). I know curses and hexes and even spells affecting with another’s free will are an inherent part of witchcraft and I won’t deny it. I follow my doctrine, you follow yours, that is fine by me.

what is NOT fine with me, however, is propagating hex culture among minors. why? because minors are not ready to take on that responsibility!!!! just like they are not truly ready to make healthy decisions about sex, alcohol or other substances, they cannot take true responsibility over causing harm, be it spiritual or otherwise. “what’s a little hex do?” you might ask, if you’re a minor. not to sound like a boomer, but when I was 16, I was edgy as fuck. I hated everyone while claiming to love everyone. I was in NO correct mental state to make decisions about the aforementioned things. even without casting any hexes, I made many mistakes. big ones. I hurt a lot of people. yes, I regret it all deeply. I wish I had thought things over rather than stay stubborn. in fact, most people under 20 are not ready to enter discourse, drama or a vicious cycle of hatred purely because it will always turn into “all bite but no bark”. I purposefully say it that way because although youngsters are admirably spirited and ready to take on the world... they often bite off more than they can chew. I see girlies straight out of high school trying to solve huge problems like racism, and although, again, admiring these young people, they have researched their stuff. to an extent, they know what they’re talking about... but I do believe hate will not solve hate.

one of the moderators of said server retaliated with it not being a universal truth, and claimed my take to be “unverified personal gnosis” (what is a verified gnosis, anyway? how do you measure it? especially in a practice like witchcraft where every bloody individual practises it differently and there are no priests or churches?). if the moderator happens to read this and wishes to elaborate, i’d be welcome for a bit of constructive discussion over what is and isn’t personal gnosis. I acknowledge that “hate cannot be fought with hate” is not a universal truth... that is perhaps where I went to the extreme. but believe me, I did not say it to be holier-than-thou. I was actually shocked to be called out by not one, but two moderators on my behaviour, instantly. I did not read in the rules that one would be forbidden to state their opinion or softly disagree, but perhaps it is so and I did not pay enough attention.

there comes another food for thought: is it possible to socialise without being opinionated in any way? would shutting down opinions truly prevent conflict? because I’m feeling very bitter and left out now. I know everyone on that server is not Wiccan. but to get slapped in the face right after I attempted to be friendly (laconic and feeble as that was), among who I considered to be my own people... I feel conflicted. now mind, I’m not going to leave witchcraft behind. it is my religion, and thanks to this experience, I learned that Wicca is the right thing for me. I don’t want to advocate for violence and a vicious cycle of hatred. my grandfather was Romani, therefore I believe I know a thing or two about mislabeling and hate enacted upon minorities and outcast people. does that mean I want to kill and hex every white in sight? the answer is no. if anything, me being both Wiccan and Romani, it would just add fuel to the fire. especially because Romani are stereotyped as evil witches in the first place, so it would be a double suicide. by propagating violence, I would give these people more reason to hate pagans and Romani people. both cultures are already feared and hated upon as it is. I am not going to give people more opportunity to hate me.

coming back to the minor I disagreed with in the server. I was shocked that the first thing that came to a teenager’s mind was a revenge hex. it screams of naiveté and irresponsible behaviour towards your faith. and not JUST your faith. as I am a student of psychology, I am well aware how mind patterns work, and here’s the funny thing: psychology has proven that witchcraft’s law of returns is somewhat true, not on a magickal level, but on a mental one. if you ponder over violence and revenge excessively, you are reinforcing those neural pathways in your brain. there is a reason why they say “hate breeds hate”. it is the same reason why depression is so hard to deal with. anything you obsessively ruminate over reinforces it again and again until escape seems impossible. I’m not only speaking as a witch, I’m speaking as a human being. is it correct to propagate petty violence among minors when we as adults can do better and guide young people to better paths?

I’m not saying young people shouldn’t use hexes. but I am questioning their ability to take on the responsibility of potentially hurting someone, or even just thinking of hurting someone. you plant a seed of hate and it may just grow. you knock on the devil’s door enough times and he will answer (disclaimer: I’m not Christian either, I just like the saying). soon there shall be nothing left but hate. if the person in question had not been a minor, I would have left it at that. but religion is sacred. a witch’s magick is essentially making something important to you sacred. it’s not a plaything. it’s not to be used light-handedly. it’s not a trend. and hexes should be the last resort if all else fails OR the person you hate has a damn good reason for being hated.

is it wrong to vote for love and peace? yeah, I sound like a hippie, but I think they’re right. love was not born from continuing to fight each other - love was born from unity, from coexisting. how does one fight racism? psychology says see more poc, interact with them, understand their struggles. how to fight religious fear? spend time with people of different views. how to get over homophobia? spend time with the gays and try to understand their views, and like, actually understand them. spending time with someone just to berate them is still bigotry. the interaction I mean here is coexisting with minorities in a shared space and them slowly, but surely becoming more accepted and normalised because we finally see them. even a bigot can’t stay a bigot if they are brought out of isolation. if they’re forced to see people different than them.

unfortunately, not even your own faith can comfort you sometimes, mostly because the community is still divided. there are rules on what should and shouldn’t be done, and woe upon thee if you dare to even peep one of your thoughts. I merely said thank you and sorry and left, as I always do when I feel misunderstood. it was a valuable yet harsh lesson, and I regret hoping for acceptance or even offering me a moment to be understood without being shut down without a second thought. I regret hoping for a little discussion where it is seen as a violation of rules.

again, as long as you are ready to bear the responsibility of harming another, do whatever you want. as a Wicca, I prefer staying benevolent and kind, even to those who traumatised me. you might argue that this essay in itself is not benevolent... after all, Wiccans don’t slander people behind their backs, you might say. but it is not my intent to slander. it is just me expressing sheer confusion over what I expected to be a community to hear out all voices, because why have a community at all if you allow for no discussion? do we shut off discussions entirely in fear of fights? but alas, it is human nature to be opposed, but it’s also human nature to still hold hands despite the differences - one just needs to acknowledge it.

blessed be.

[fernstream]

For months, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been a good soldier for the Democratic Party and Joseph R. Biden Jr as he sought to defeat President Trump.

But on Saturday, in a nearly hourlong interview shortly after President-elect Biden was declared the winner, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez made clear the divisions within the party that animated the primary still exist. And she dismissed recent criticisms from some Democratic House members who have blamed the party’s left for costing them important seats. Some of the members who lost, she said, had made themselves “sitting ducks.”

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

We finally have a fuller understanding of the results. What’s your macro takeaway?

Well, I think the central one is that we aren’t in a free fall to hell anymore. But whether we’re going to pick ourselves up or not is the lingering question. We paused this precipitous descent. And the question is if and how we will build ourselves back up.

We know that race is a problem, and avoiding it is not going to solve any electoral issues. We have to actively disarm the potent influence of racism at the polls.

But we also learned that progressive policies do not hurt candidates. Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker. Mike Levin was an original co-sponsor of the legislation, and he kept his seat.

To your first point, Democrats lost seats in an election where they were expected to gain them. Is that what you are ascribing to racism and white supremacy at the polls?

I think it’s going to be really important how the party deals with this internally, and whether the party is going to be honest about doing a real post-mortem and actually digging into why they lost. Because before we even had any data yet in a lot of these races, there was already finger-pointing that this was progressives’ fault and that this was the fault of the Movement for Black Lives.

I’ve already started looking into the actual functioning of these campaigns. And the thing is, I’ve been unseating Democrats for two years. I have been defeating D.C.C.C.-run campaigns for two years. That’s how I got to Congress. That’s how we elected Ayanna Pressley. That’s how Jamaal Bowman won. That’s how Cori Bush won. And so we know about extreme vulnerabilities in how Democrats run campaigns.

Some of this is criminal. It’s malpractice. Conor Lamb spent $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election. I don’t think anybody who is not on the internet in a real way in the year of our Lord 2020 and loses an election can blame anyone else when you’re not even really on the internet.

And I’ve looked through a lot of these campaigns that lost, and the fact of the matter is if you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook with fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders. And not a single one of these campaigns were firing on all cylinders.

Well, Conor Lamb did win. So what are you saying: Investment in digital advertising and canvassing are a greater reason moderate Democrats lost than any progressive policy?

These folks are pointing toward Republican messaging that they feel killed them, right? But why were you so vulnerable to that attack?

If you’re not door-knocking, if you’re not on the internet, if your main points of reliance are TV and mail, then you’re not running a campaign on all cylinders. I just don’t see how anyone could be making ideological claims when they didn’t run a full-fledged campaign.

Our party isn’t even online, not in a real way that exhibits competence. And so, yeah, they were vulnerable to these messages, because they weren’t even on the mediums where these messages were most potent. Sure, you can point to the message, but they were also sitting ducks. They were sitting ducks.

There’s a reason Barack Obama built an entire national campaign apparatus outside of the Democratic National Committee. And there’s a reason that when he didn’t activate or continue that, we lost House majorities. Because the party — in and of itself — does not have the core competencies, and no amount of money is going to fix that.

If I lost my election, and I went out and I said: “This is moderates’ fault. This is because you didn’t let us have a floor vote on Medicare for all.” And they opened the hood on my campaign, and they found that I only spent $5,000 on TV ads the week before the election? They would laugh. And that’s what they look like right now trying to blame the Movement for Black Lives for their loss.

Is there anything from Tuesday that surprised you? Or made you rethink your previously held views?

The share of white support for Trump. I thought the polling was off, but just seeing it, there was that feeling of realizing what work we have to do.

We need to do a lot of anti-racist, deep canvassing in this country. Because if we keep losing white shares and just allowing Facebook to radicalize more and more elements of white voters and the white electorate, there’s no amount of people of color and young people that you can turn out to offset that.

But the problem is that right now, I think a lot of Dem strategy is to avoid actually working through this. Just trying to avoid poking the bear. That’s their argument with defunding police, right? To not agitate racial resentment. I don’t think that is sustainable.

There’s a lot of magical thinking in Washington, that this is just about special people that kind of come down from on high. Year after year, we decline the idea that they did work and ran sophisticated operations in favor of the idea that they are magical, special people. I need people to take these goggles off and realize how we can do things better.

If you are the D.C.C.C., and you’re hemorrhaging incumbent candidates to progressive insurgents, you would think that you may want to use some of those firms. But instead, we banned them. So the D.C.C.C. banned every single firm that is the best in the country at digital organizing.

The leadership and elements of the party — frankly, people in some of the most important decision-making positions in the party — are becoming so blinded to this anti-activist sentiment that they are blinding themselves to the very assets that they offer.

I’ve been begging the party to let me help them for two years. That’s also the damn thing of it. I’ve been trying to help. Before the election, I offered to help every single swing district Democrat with their operation. And every single one of them, but five, refused my help. And all five of the vulnerable or swing district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory. And every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss.

So I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy. And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for all is not the enemy. This isn’t even just about winning an argument. It’s that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they’re just setting up their own obsolescence.

What is your expectation as to how open the Biden administration will be to the left? And what is the strategy in terms of moving it?

I don’t know how open they’ll be. And it’s not a personal thing. It’s just, the history of the party tends to be that we get really excited about the grass roots to get elected. And then those communities are promptly abandoned right after an election.

I think the transition period is going to indicate whether the administration is taking a more open and collaborative approach, or whether they’re taking a kind of icing-out approach. Because Obama’s transition set a trajectory for 2010 and some of our House losses. It was a lot of those transition decisions — and who was put in positions of leadership — that really informed, unsurprisingly, the strategy of governance.

What if the administration is hostile? If they take the John Kasich view of who Joe Biden should be? What do you do?

Well, I’d be bummed, because we’re going to lose. And that’s just what it is. These transition appointments, they send a signal. They tell a story of who the administration credits with this victory. And so it’s going be really hard after immigrant youth activists helped potentially deliver Arizona and Nevada. It’s going to be really hard after Detroit and Rashida Tlaib ran up the numbers in her district.

It’s really hard for us to turn out nonvoters when they feel like nothing changes for them. When they feel like people don’t see them, or even acknowledge their turnout.

If the party believes after 94 percent of Detroit went to Biden, after Black organizers just doubled and tripled turnout down in Georgia, after so many people organized Philadelphia, the signal from the Democratic Party is the John Kasichs won us this election? I mean, I can’t even describe how dangerous that is.

You are diagnosing national trends. You’re maybe the most famous voice on the left currently. What can we expect from you in the next four years?

I don’t know. I think I’ll have probably more answers as we get through transition, and to the next term. How the party responds will very much inform my approach and what I think is going to be necessary.

The last two years have been pretty hostile. Externally, we’ve been winning. Externally, there’s been a ton of support, but internally, it’s been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive.

Is the party ready to, like, sit down and work together and figure out how we’re going to use the assets from everyone at the party? Or are they going to just kind of double down on this smothering approach? And that’s going to inform what I do.

Is there a universe in which they’re hostile enough that we’re talking about a Senate run in a couple years?

I genuinely don’t know. I don’t even know if I want to be in politics. You know, for real, in the first six months of my term, I didn’t even know if I was going to run for re-election this year.

Really? Why?

It’s the incoming. It’s the stress. It’s the violence. It’s the lack of support from your own party. It’s your own party thinking you’re the enemy. When your own colleagues talk anonymously in the press and then turn around and say you’re bad because you actually append your name to your opinion.

I chose to run for re-election because I felt like I had to prove that this is real. That this movement was real. That I wasn’t a fluke. That people really want guaranteed health care and that people really want the Democratic Party to fight for them.

But I’m serious when I tell people the odds of me running for higher office and the odds of me just going off trying to start a homestead somewhere — they’re probably the same.

[bandomslayed]

I’m not saying you should focus more on racism, I’m just saying that that’s something that the community as a whole needs to focus on and try to repair, I’m sure they all already know that people don’t like their ships. If that’s an issue, then groups can have a strict age limit. Easy solve. The other things are things that can be taught and learned but with hostility all that’s going to happen is a deeper divide. You said you wanted to argue with people about the things you don’t like that they do in this community. I’m paraphrasing, but why not instead want to educate them. No one will ever react well to feeling like they’re being ridiculed or patronized. People worth spending your time on are the ones you can talk to without it being a shitshow. We’re having a dialogue. I’ve felt this entire time like everything I say, someone is going to search for one thing to deliberately misinterpret or magnify unnecessarily when, if there’s something that they have an issue with, it could be a perfect opportunity to educate me instead of people being hostile. I’m college educated and can think critically, I’m moderately well spoken, I’m open to instructive criticisms and discussing things that aren’t agreed upon so I’m just sort of confused by the fact that what I’m saying is being picked apart by other anons and to a degree, you. You all want to change my mind about age gaps, despite me being with someone older irl and feeling safe and genuinely valued for the first time in a relationship in my life so why do you think that calling my dead grandpa names, redirecting the conversation and then kinda mocking me when I attempt to understand wholly and agree with some of the things you’re saying? That’s not going to convince me or anyone else. It just makes people feel defensive. Reiterating here that I’m not saying YOU specifically need to talk about racism more, and I’m not trying to diminish your experience or anything like that In just saying that those topics (discrimination of any kind, abuse of any kind) in the community are things we should be discussing instead of ships we think aren’t comfortable. I feel uncomfortable with relationships in real life and in rp all the time but that isn’t up to me to say it’s wrong or bad. It’s no ones right to tell any two consenting adults that what they’re doing is wrong. But it is a human right to tell someone when they’re being insensitive, and that’s a flaw in the community that people can be educated on and learn to handle with more sensitivity and knowledge but we’re never going to reach that point if we’re all just hostile and cruel to one another. Also reiterating that I’m not using personal examples to get cred, I just like examples because I think using them shows where I’m coming from so that any person who wants to have a dialogue can have a frame of reference for why my opinions are what they are on any topic. If I’m wrong, or insensitive, or just kinda dumb I want to know that but simply telling me I’m wrong or insensitive or dumb doesn’t teach me how not to me. And this doesn’t just mean me, I mean the whole community. It will never improve if we all just talk about the things we don’t like and give no feasible solutions.

alright i see what you want so let me switch to my white pleaser voice and deliver since you're so keen on being patronizing and in the same breath, acting like me taking what you say "the wrong way" is the problem. in bullet points so next time u come back to keep going at it u can pinpoint exactly what it is i misconstrued because u will do it anyway.

you're asking the community as a whole to care more about racism but you're talking to me who's leading the conversation in the first place. i understand you didn't imply i specifically should care more about it, but you're still using racism to discredit my point of view on age gap relationships being an important topic to discuss as well, and watering it down to just me not liking people's plots when that is not the message.

nobody is telling anyone how to live their lives. im bringing awareness to the fact that this culture is not okay. it's dangerous to our young. it NEEDS to be uncomfortable to you (you, plural) to invite to this so called critical thinking.

im not saying your partner doesn't have a right to be loving or grandpa and grandma had abuse masked as a good relationship. im saying, since it needs to be spelled out with no room for misinterpretation; the culture behind someone 10+ years older finding it completely okay to pursue someone that much younger — especially when we're talking 18 - 30 age range — needs to be looked at more closely. it's not safe in general. do exceptions exist? absolutely, but the whole two consenting adults point is a terrible one to make when at 18, you're considered that when you're still essentially just a child.

a strict age limit, which most groups adopt now, does little to actually prevent age gap relationships within roleplays. moreso, uneven power dynamics within plots being glamorized. my boss is not over 5 years older than me, but he is my boss. kpop boybands don't have age gaps of 10+ years in groups, usually, but there is a leader most times acting like a father figure, not to mention korean culture is heavy on emphasizing age-related hierarchical order, so a literal still wet behind the ears child establishing a romantic connection with someone who is not their equal? dangerous.

now let's halt. i already told you, i don't give a shit about respectability politics. it is not my job to be nice and educate anyone. and i don't mean just on this blog... most of you whites have come to assume and expect, even, that poc will be subservient, docile, and always willing to switch and nicely explain to you why the very core of the way you think about the world because you grew up sheltered w/e is not the whole picture for everyone. the worst part? most of them do. most of them do put their thinking caps on and write these novel worthy, intelligent, respectful, calculated think pieces only for the white in question to turn around and still deem it aggressive, etc. i don't do that. that is labor that most of you do not deserve.

the implication that there are feasible solutions for these problems that don't require for people to literally rework their entire mindset is naive at best. what am i supposed to do? be like nooo don't be racist, racism is bad BECAUSE it hurts people. i think all of you are old enough to know that by now. you definitely have enough internet exposure to know that, even if you grew up in all white sundown town america.

i explain my points. i actually explain my points more than the average person, yet here we are still saying im not doing enough to educate those around me as if it was my responsibility to change the way people think with sugar spice and everything nice so they feel their hand is held and it's safe to make a mistake that will consequently hurt other people as many times as they need to make it to finally grasp the reality of it and be able to just... not do that in the future. when no. no. when you hurt me, im allowed to react emotionally, not intellectually. when im angry and upset and still explaining why, its YOUR job to swallow it down and listen to what im saying, because YOU hurt me. i don't owe you civility (again; you, plural). i especially don't owe you civility when ive given you nothing but in the past and the end result is still me being an aggro freak who doesn't care for your precious feelings.

you're also assuming things. for example, assuming that im mocking you specifically when i really have not done that. if im going to mock you, im going to reply to your anon and say "okay stupid", then yeah, im mocking you. otherwise? don't assume im directing anything at you.

we're having a dialogue and this whole time all you've done is tell me to stop talking. your messages have all, in essence, said, if people want to date other people who have a shitton of years on them, that is not a problem and you look prettier talking about something else. yes, that's also paraphrased. you didn't say that, of course, but why are we still here if not because you feel personally scrutinized over the reaction to the life examples that you willingly provided?

nobody is trying to change YOUR mind, you're just not willing to consider that your age gap relationships that have been beautiful and loving and safe coexist within a culture that is wicked. a person who's 10+ older than me, 24, has no business seeing me as a potential partner. it's not appropriate. yet if they do, and i also see them as a potential partner, there's nothing inherently evil about that specific instance. it is the circumstances (past), that lead to this kind of thinking in the first place what im asking everyone to analize and understand. and it does matter. it matters as much as racism, abuse, ooc mistreatment of rp partners. again, issues do not queue and wait for something to end so they can begin anew. every conversation i choose to have i consider worth having. you're free to stay out if you don't deem it important.

you're exhausting me thinking by turning my inbox into ap debate we're achieving grand things sooo hope this helps 🖤

[salty-donut-collecter]

I don't usually post many headcannons, but can we have a side!au where everyone is really good at things people wouldn't exactly expect them to be good at?

Below the cut are the ideas,, it’s a lot sorry, I got a little carried away with brainstorming.

Like Roman, who's not only creative, but also really good at using that creativity to build things? Like, idk the original thought was him not having enough money to but certain things like those makeup vanities, so he just built it himself, and he's very casual about it when people ask.

("Dang, Roman, that vanity looks sweet! Where did you get it??"

"Oh, I built it. Didn't have enough money to buy one, and the teachers had some extra supplies lying around. The light bulbs were expensive, though. Found the original dresser on ebay for about thirty dollars. It was a steal, really.")

and I know that they're technically that hard to make, but y'know, just Roman being really good with construction, carpentry, etc. Just because he likes knowing how to use his hands. (He is creativity, after all.)

Continuing that thought, why wouldn’t Remus be able to do those things too, y’know? Roman and him grew up together, and they were still too poor to just,, spend money on things. (Although, Remus would also probably solve this problem by shoplifting a lot, but idk that’s just me thinking)

or-- or Remus actually has more morals than people give him credit for. He isn’t a fan of shoplifting/pick pocketing-- even if he may have done so before/ knows how. He’ll see someone pickpocket someone else, and he’ll snatch whatever they took to give it back to whoever they took shiz from. (This would also be an interesting headcannon for Virgil/Janus, but rn I’m just spitballing I’m not gonna lie.)

Not only that, but Remus is surprisingly good with instruments. Like, sure, people wouldn’t be surprised if he knew how to play something deemed ‘wacky’, like kazoo, or the slide whistle. But violin? Only, like, Roman and Janus know that he plays violin, but god damn is he good with it. (The violin had been in the family for forever, and everyone assumed Roman would be the one to play it, but he never really cared for it. Remus plays very unconventional songs with the violin, but that doesn’t mean he’s practically a pro with it.)

Give me a Virgil who is scary good with cooking. When he was younger, he was terrified of the kitchen, which exactly why his parents gently exposed him to it more and more often. They showed him that there was nothing to be scared of, and that it was something to instead be respected. Through that, Virgil found joy in cooking, and he’s been doing it ever since. (Also, does he eat school lunch? No. No he doesn’t. It’s a disgrace and he refuses.)

He’s also good at baking, so he and Patton will have “bake days”, but he prefers cooking.

Okay okay, ready?

Logan who literally makes makeup masterpieces. Practically taught Roman everything he knows. He’s actually very artistic, but he’s very casual with it. Everyone thinks he’s just a prodigy in general, but they have no idea this dude just gets it. (He is very bad at baking, though. And while Virgil has tried to help him with cooking, Logan is really only good with most pastas and basic meal plans, and he almost always needs a recipe. Although, he is surprisingly good at making sushi and no one understands how or why.)

He also is very good at sewing, embroidering, and working with cloth in general. This is mainly because he wears nicer clothes 24/7, and he always manages to rip them somehow, so eventually he just started fixing them himself because he didn’t have time to wait for someone else to do it, and he was too embarrassed to keep asking his parents to help him with it. The skill just grew from there, and now he’ll reuse a lot of his old clothes, and help his friends patch theirs. He’s currently trying to help Patton learn how to patch his jeans, because he keeps ripping them while off doing god knows what with Remus.

Janus has mad math skills. Y’all thought Logan was a nerd? No, he’s just good at things like that. Janus both enjoys and knows math. I, however, do not so I can’t go into too much detail, but barely anyone knows and those who do are always surprised by it.

Janus also knows how to fix just about anything wrong with a car. He can change tires, exchange motors and car batteries, jump start your car, modify your car, etc. Most people don’t  know this either, but everyone who does will go to Janus before taking their car into the shop. This is something Janus and Remus have in common, but Janus is a better, safer, driver.

Patton. Now Patton was one I struggled with, but I think I’ve got it. Most people don’t expect him to be good with tech, and he himself will never boast about it, but the kid is actually surprisingly good at coding, finding his way through websites, doing research, etc.

You need to find something online? Go to Patton. He might not do it for you for moral reasons, but if you ask nicely enough ans he decides to, he’ll find it within the next ten minutes.

On top of that, he actually speaks a few languages. He grew up learning them so he could talk to more people, because he realized not everyone spoke English. He for sure knows ASL, but he’s also moderately fluent in Spanish, Chinese, and he knows some Arabic. He’s not as fluent in other languages, but he tries his best, and he picks them up very quickly because he knows how to look for things. (Code, he was told, is a language, which is why he’d picked it up at first. He stayed around cause he just thought it was nifty.)

So, uhm, I’m not sure why I wrote this, but give me the Sanders boys with more skills that don’t exactly go with their character until you make the connection.

Feel free to take this idea and run with it, also! I don’t know too many skills off the top of my head, and I got kinda stuck on Remus, so if there are other skills that would be cool feel free to join in on the brainstorming!! :D

[myulalie]

On modern comment culture

First off, I’d like to make the distinction between honesty, and being hurtful under the pretense of being honest.

Hate, be it anon or not, is hurting someone’s feelings on purpose.

You can receive hate and be a hater too. It might be easier, even, to go from the hate you receive on your work, and take it out onto someone else’s.

Here is how I picture a hater's mind: “easy to pour some hate into a comment section, you don't see the person and they receive nice comments. They probably won't even notice.”

Sometimes, constructive criticism, even with your best interests at heart, hurts.

We don’t expect it, it’s not what we meant to write, or we just didn’t worry about how our work could be perceived.

It might be a very European vs American perception of criticism, and I aspire to get better, so the choice I made is to receive constructive criticism (concrit for short).

I wish someone would tell me if I’m writing something that doesn’t work, and why it doesn’t. I wish someone would point it out if I misuse a word.

Positive feedback is great and encouraging, actual comments about what someone likes/dislikes and why is helpful.

Not wanting any concrit is the author’s choice and I respect it. This is the reason I only offer concrit to anyone who told me they’re interested.

I wish concrit was still a thing

Modern comment culture is protective of authors, and there is a general agreement that concrit, especially unsolicited, is unnecessary.

I fully support the fact that fanfic authors are writing for free, so they deserve basic respect for their work.

This doesn’t give them the right to be assholes.

You put your work out there, you have a responsibility to at the very least let people know you’re not interested in concrit, and to disable/moderate comments if you don’t want them.

If someone comes to bug you when you explicitly mentioned you’re not interested in concrit then yeah, by all means, tell them to fuck off.

I think it’s important to let haters know their behavior is unacceptable. As they say, the only way to deal with a bully is to punch them in the face (or make them face the consequences of their actions as a general rule).

The author’s reply to hate tells a lot about them, but their reply to concrit also does.

Being polite should be a given.

And it goes both ways!

Readers are offering concrit for free too, they take the time to do so because they genuinely want to help. They enjoy your story enough to want to interact with you.

I’ve had a lot more comments than usual with kinktober, and I’ve built up a new habit of replying the next day before or after posting my daily take on the prompts.

I am aware that the amount of comments I receive is manageable, and some people have to deal with a lot more every day (like, hundreds).

In my experience, replying to short and sweet comments can be challenging because a simple thank you message isn’t personal enough, and you as a writer don’t have much content to actually reply to either.

Longer comments often open up more possibilities to reply, even if it’s just to let the reader know how you felt when reading their comment.

I believe that no matter how shy or busy you are, copying and pasting a little thank you message isn’t that difficult, and doesn’t take that long. You could even leave a note in each new chapter to let your readers know you read their comments and appreciate them.

Acknowledging readers will encourage them to comment your fics more, and potentially to the benefit of other authors too.

Don’t start fights because of concrit

Readers, please know that a simple heart as additional kudos goes a long way. Saying what you liked or just that you're enjoying the story is really encouraging too!

If you’d like to leave concrit, maybe formulate your comment as a question instead of pointing something out, to avoid upsetting the author.

I’m sure you mean well when you leave a comment, and you don’t want to discourage the author if you like what they’re writing!

If the author is open to concrit, they’ll probably reply to your question and ask their own, which leads to a conversation. Better safe than sorry, offer concrit and wait for them to agree, there is no use in getting into a fight with the author.

A better use of your time as a reader would be to read even more, I’m not getting in the way of your fun, or go and offer comments & concrit to someone who is interested in what you have to say.

As a writer, I guess you can always write more, and maybe thank readers for their kind words!

How to establish dialogue with your readers

Disclaimer: I’m still learning, and the amount of comments I receive compared to my free time is manageable. Before you proceed, please note I asked my reader for permission to use their comments as examples.

Myulalie: I would like to make a tumblr post about comments and include yours as an example.

It's to explain why I value them and how I proceed to reply, because I have strong feelings about author/reader relationships ^^

Would you be okay with that? It's totally fine if you're not, I am asking for permission because I don't want to make you uncomfortable.

Also, if you agree and for some reason change your mind once you've read the tumblr post, I'll remove it, no questions asked ^^

Reader: I don’t mind at all, I know a lot of people don’t leave feedback, for a variety of reasons, so any education in how/why is always important. I’m just glad my comments fall in to the good category 😁

Thanks for asking, you have my permission to use any you like.

The context is as follows: The characters went on vacation and asked friends to pet-sit their cats. I then used the characters’ cats as plot devices for the characters to move in together. A cat hid under the sink and refused to leave, which brought forth the “moving in” conversation.

Reader: Alcohol + other person = trautamised cat and an empty drinks cabinet... which I would be making them restock, oh and embarrassed friends... the cat might want to stay but I know the signs of a traumatised let.. sometimes taking a chance on something turns out to be the best thing in your life, so far, until the proposal

This reader is lovely and has been commenting on every chapter of this story, as well as some other stories. We never had any issue whatsoever and even chatted about their cat.

This is what I consider a good relationship, and when I read this comment I was surprised. I did not expect them to interpret the story this way.

The fact is, this reader is “wrong” because it’s not what I meant when I wrote (nothing happened to the cat, the alcohol part of the chapter is not related to the cat’s behavior).

This reader is also right because this IS what I wrote. The cat is hiding for plot purposes, but the plot also includes the pet-sitters getting drunk. I implied them making out, then regretting it later, thus behaving weirdly around each other, which was meant as comic relief.

I have seen replies to similar comments and needless to say people get into fights over such misunderstandings.

Here is my reply:

Myulalie: I would like to make the official statement that nothing bad happened to the cats D:

Ragnor & Jace's shenaningans were meant to hint at drunk making out and nothing more. The worse thing Church had to go through is second hand embarrassment I promise ♥ I can't bring myself to traumatise Church and I'm glad you pointed out that it sorts of look like something was wrong with him ^^ The only thing "wrong" is the plot device I used to have malec move in together haha :')

I appreciate this reader trusting me enough to point this out and letting me know how they feel.

I think it’s important to be aware of how this can be read. A beta would probably have told me how the chapter looked from an external point of view and suggested writing the same idea differently. As things are, I didn’t have a beta-reader for this fic.

Here is the reader’s reply:

Reader: Lol, good to know, although in my experience cats bring it on themselves, nosy little voyeurs that they are....

See how we solved the problem by simply having a conversation? This is why I appreciate concrit and do my best to treat readers well.

edit: upon checking in with the reader to make sure the post sat well with them, they told me they never meant it as criticism and actually found the chapter funny, their comment was written in a sarcastic manner that I totally missed!

There, you have it. I am full of good intentions and I still miss some of the meaning of the comment!

There was a second comment on the following chapter.

I’ll just mention that one of the cats dipped his paws in a can of paint and made a mess on the wall. One of the character makes a pet account on Instagram to post pictures of the cat’s “artwork” with paint.

Reader: I always love a story that ends on a happy ever after, although I do think alec was taking a big chance tying the rings to the cats collars, especially after the paint incident... we won’t go in to what I think of people having Instagram accounts for their pets, although the paining does sound nice...

This was a very cute story and I’m glad that they found their forever person :grin:

If you don’t get it, this reader and me disagree on pet accounts.

The fact is, they are allowed to express themselves, and they did it respectfully. I don’t think this comment is rude, and I don’t think this reader feels “entitled”. Quite the contrary, they’re polite and felt comfortable enough to let me know what they think.

I didn’t argue with them. My reply consisted in politely reminding everyone who might read this story that this is a work of fiction, and that it’s here for both the reader’s and the author’s entertainment.

Myulalie: Well, I definitely don't recommend doing your proposal this way IRL, fortunately stories are a safe space to make crazy proposals for entertainment's sake :')

I'm glad you liked the ending! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me all throughout the story, I really appreciated our chats ♥

edit: I thought we disagreed. We chatted again and they told me they don't have IG so they don't see the point of running 2 accounts, which fair. Because I used to run a pet account for my dog, I felt "attacked" where I absolutely wasn't.

One more example of misinterpretation!

I think the only way forward is together.

Authors deserve respect for their work, it doesn’t exempt them from being polite. Readers might need some sort of education on “comment etiquette”, and should be respected in return.

I want this platform to be a safe space for authors AND for readers.

[roleplay-salt]

About; Rules; FAQ

Welcome to Roleplay Salt! This is a blog for roleplayers to vent & rant anonymously about the things that peeve or hurt them in the roleplaying community.

GENERAL

Your submission will always be posted anonymously; no exceptions. (This includes positivity submissions & shoutouts.)

Your submission’s text will be placed in a graphic and then copied as plain text as its caption for accessibility purposes.

Topics must be roleplay-related. (This can, of course, include experiences with partners doing things that may be unrelated to roleplay, but would still be considered relevant if it impacts your roleplaying experience with that particular partner.)

Anyone following our blog will be allowed to leave replies on submissions, whether in agreement or disagreement, and everyone is allowed (even encouraged) to reblog submissions, with or without their own commentary. However, we will delete any spamming comments, including ones that are or are similar to “Why don’t you come off anon and say that?” Such comments provide nothing to the discussion. In fact, they usually shut down discussion and it completely disregards the entire point of this blog’s existence. No one has to “come off anon” nor are they “cowards” for seeking safety behind anonymity. Your aggressiveness with that sentiment only reinforces the reason why they want to be anonymous in the first place. ADDENDUM: We will delete salt replies that involve simply telling others to, essentially, “shut up and move on already” and “stop sending salt replies in about this”. You’re more than allowed to say this things in the comments, but we will no longer be making them a part of any future debates.

We actively edit and restructure the wording of submissions. We read every single one of your submissions and we care about consistency and readability. We will correct any spelling errors, grammar errors, and odd sentencing structure, and we will often lengthen abbreviations and slang, and we will fill out any curse words or sensitive terms that were originally 'censored' in the submissions. Do not take it personally! Again, we aim for consistency. We will never just copy/paste your submission and then post it. That's terrible.  

T Y P E S    O F    S A L T

Vents & Rants

Complaints

Negative Confessions

Callouts

T Y P E S    O F    S U G A R

Advice & Suggestions

Critique

Positive Confessions

Shoutouts

T Y P E S    O F    F L O U R

The “Flour” category is reserved for any submissions that do not appropriately fit under “Salt” or “Sugar”, often involving personal confessions and storytelling.

C A L L O U T S    &    S H O U T O U T S

A callout submission is specifically speaking nastily and meanly about someone else, regardless if it’s the truth or not.  All URLs & names in a callout submission will be marked out to preserve the other party’s anonymity as well.  We are a safe place for you to release your anger, frustration and hurt, even if it’s towards someone and not something. But we cannot and will not participate in the true nature of a callout. That will need to be something that you do for yourself if you believe that it’s important for you, your friends and your fandom community.

A shoutout submission is specifically speaking kindly and positively about someone else.

All URLs & names in a shoutout submission will remain visible, and the person will be tagged & mentioned on the post so as to better the odds of them seeing it.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

“Who are the moderators?”

Currently, there is only one operating the blog: Moderator Bull.

“Am I allowed to know your roleplay/personal blogs?”

Unfortunately, no. To preserve our own anonymity (for many of the same reasons as the submitters), we have agreed on the terms to never give out our URLs if requested. If we are interested in your blog, then we will follow you at our own discretion!

“Will you remove a submission for me?”

That depends on the type of submission, what it is about, and what your reasoning for wanting it removed is. The whole point of anonymity is that nothing gets tied back to you. The only cases where we will greatly consider removing a submission is if it’s involving a shoutout about you and you don’t want to be affiliated with us. 

“Will you remove my comments on a submission?”

Of course! However, we will not remove any corresponding responses to you (except in instances where, if yours is removed, the next comment is made to look like it’s being directed to the person prior to your comment. We don’t want to cause unnecessary conflict.) We will also not be relied upon to keep deleting comments you regret leaving behind. If you’re wanting to leave a public response on submissions, then you must be prepared to have others possibly publicly disagree with you.

“Can I ask you for roleplay advice?”

Go right ahead! But we can’t promise the best or most insightful of answers, or that we’ll get to them relatively soon! Chances are, we will post your questions anonymously so that others in the community can help.

“Why did you follow my blog?”

To make our existence known to you and, if you like us, hoping that you will send in a submission of your own or tell your roleplay partners about us!

“How did you find my blog?”

Most likely through the Recommended sidebar feature, a mutual, or just the good ol’ search function.  

“Could you unfollow me?”

If you don’t want to be associated with us, then we recommend blocking the blog so that we don’t unintentionally follow you again!

“Hey, could you do something about the people leaving rude, mean responses on the submissions?”

Unless they are throwing bigoted slurs, threats, or suicide-baiting remarks at the anonymous submitter, they are not doing anything wrong. They have just as much right to disagree with your submission as you had when you sent it to us. We are, first and foremost, a place to vent frustrations or hurts behind the safety of anonymity, and we are also a free-speech blog. We are of the belief that discussions, no matter how heated, is healthy and brings the community together as a whole. Just as your submission may provide someone else with the awareness that they are not alone in similar frustrations, someone disagreeing with your submission may provide a new perspective to you and others that had not been considered before.

“How does name-calling and swearing and being mean add to a discussion? You and your blog are what are wrong with the roleplaying community!”

Just because someone isn’t being nice to you as they give their side of the argument, doesn’t mean that it cancels out their actual argument. You’re choosing to be offended and distracted by how abrasive they are, and that’s no one’s problem to deal with but your own. You have the ability to block anyone so that you no longer have to see their comments on future submissions. Why would we police what people say, the endgame of which would be to ban them from ever reblogging or commenting on submissions again if they don’t listen to us, if you’re not even willing to try solving the problem first by just blocking them? Wanting to have the last word or being upset that your submission didn’t receive the feedback you wanted is not a reason for us to step in and step on someone else’s right to speak, rudely or otherwise. If you’re not going to block them, then why should we?

“Could you not post submissions on sensitive topics like noncon, incest, and pedophilia?”

We have started tagging posts that we believe might be sensitive and controversial in nature with the tag “#twcontroversy”. We recommend blacklisting this tag. If that is still not enough, then we recommend unfollowing/blocking us. These are topics just as relevant in the roleplaying community as anything else.

“Could you promote me?”

Certainly! But only if you are another community-involved blog (a blog that provides a ‘service’ to the community, such as advice, roleplay help, a place for confessions, etc.), and it must be relevant to the roleplaying community to some degree! If you want to promote a roleplay blog, then we suggest sending in a shoutout submission!

“I sent a confession in weeks ago. Where is it? How long will it take for it to get posted?”

It’s either sitting in the queue or sitting in our drafts, waiting to be queued. We have 1,200+ followers so far, and on average we’re sent 15+ submissions a night. We only post between 5 to 8 submissions at night. Your submission is on a wait list. That’s all we can tell you.

“Why don’t you just close your submission box until all the current confessions are posted?”

Because we’re a vent blog first and foremost. If we close our ask/submission boxes, then we’re no longer an option for people who might desperately need to vent or talk about something that could have happened to them that day but have no other options. We want to be a healthy alternative to just bottling it up or possibly lashing out at the wrong people.

“I don’t believe you! I think you deleted my submission because one of you didn’t like it! You’re not unbiased at all!”

We’ve posted submissions about highly controversial roleplay topics like noncon, racism, transphobia, and pedophilia. We reassure you that your salt submission about OCs, theme trends, blog selectivity, etc. is not on that same level, least of all to the point that one of us would delete it. The only submissions that we have deleted, so far, are the ones that have included racial and homophobic slurs.

“[insert OP/commenter] is obviously a rapist/pedophilie!”

If we find that you have accused someone of being a rapist, pedophile, or apologist of either because of their defensive views on noncon/pedophilic ships or roleplay, your comment will be removed and you will be blocked. These are serious accusations that you shouldn’t be throwing at people over fictional content and we refuse to to let you use this blog as a platform to spew such slanderous accusations.

[tongueselect1]

Arbitration As Well As Related Processes.

What Is The Proof That Mediation Works In Child Security?

Content

The Four Vital Principles Of Kid Inclusive Arbitration:.

How Does A Court Decide About Our Kids?

A Public And Also Bitter Divorce Battle, There Is One More Means.

Kids.

We Make Arbitration Help You

The events retain ownership of the disagreement, as well as do not hand power to the moderator. Our arbitration solution offers a quick and also cost-efficient way of settling all kinds of sporting activities disagreements where it is necessary for the resolution to remain private and for the relationship in between the events to be protected. The Moderator will typically make contact with the experts to talk about independently the best use of the day or days reserved for the arbitration. In some cases it will be helpful to prepare a preliminary conference with the mediator before the arbitration, sometimes prior to there is also arrangement on a timetable.

But if you wish to go to court over a household problem, you have to show the court that you have met with a mediator initially as well as thought about mediation. In method really couple of instances end up in a court hearing, and for good reason.

The 4 Key Concepts Of Child Comprehensive Arbitration:.

This paper also advises you that the arbitrator can not provide lawful guidance which the web content of the arbitration discussion is confidential, it can not be used in any type of future processes or procedures that you might be associated with. These concerns are talked about and if you reach an arrangement the moderator will compose it down for you as well as ensure it claims what you both desire it to claim. Everyone signs the contract and also you decide that else, if anyone, should see a copy.

As component of this process our conciliators' backgrounds implies that they are appropriately knowledgeable to reality test the celebrations' instance thus aiding the celebrations to determine the staminas and also weak points of their case. Our participants use their histories as successful civil and also business professionals to offer a remarkable solution as mediators in all areas of technique. We have moderated disagreements in a wide variety of areas including business disputes, building, residential property damages, insurance policy as well as reinsurance, professional negligence, injury as well as professional oversight. Landlords as well as occupants have disagreements which sometimes wind up in court. Going to court isn't the only method to settle issues as well as is commonly pricey and also takes some time. A totally free mediation solution is available to personal property managers and occupants to aid reach agreement.

Exactly How Does A Court Make A Decision Concerning Our Children?

Subsequently, we believe that most of the times arbitration will certainly be most reliable if only parties to the argument are involved with the moderator. There may, however, be great reasons why you feel you require to bring an agent to the arbitration as well as you should review this with Human Resources as well as the appointed conciliator before you start the procedure. It is essential that all those included know beforehand that will certainly be participating in and also what their duty will be. The mediator overviews the people via the procedure as well as assists to them to identify the real concerns and develop concepts to boost points.

Experience shows that where the suggested option originates from individuals associated with the conflict, it is far more likely to stick than one imposed from outdoors by, for instance, a court or tribunal. Conciliators do not establish the end result in a conflict but rather encourage parties to comprehend the problems at stake, solve their distinctions and also manage any conflict in order to get to an equally beneficial result. An arrangement reached in mediation will usually be taped in a binding negotiation agreement, or if Court proceedings are currently in progress in an authorization order. Mediation is significantly made use of as an alternative technique of dispute resolution. St John's Chambers offer very experienced moderators, in any kind of type of dispute, to aid events reach an agreeable option to their trouble, nevertheless complicated or evidently unbending, without the risk and also cost of going to test. The idea of a joint conference with the individual you are not quadrating can be stressing, however, mediation is much less tough and also time-consuming than experiencing an official process, and also it functions. It works because it assists people find functional options that really feel fair to everyone.

A Public And Also Bitter Divorce Fight, There Is One More Means.

To make the most of such a meeting it typically requires to take place at the very least six weeks ahead of the mediation. Time spent by doing this is seldom lost and also is typically very handy. With the assistance of the conciliator, the parties with the conflict decide whether they can deal with points as well as what the remedy ought to be. The conciliator will certainly make sure that both events get a possibility to state their case, listen to the opposite side, overcome the concerns that are important to them and make an arrangement. To work as a household moderator, you'll require experience in sustaining children and also grownups with numerous concerns. Functions in social care services, health and wellness person advocacy or family members law technique are useful.

Does a mediator decide the outcome?

Unlike a judge or an arbitrator, the mediator won't decide the outcome of the case. The mediator's job is to help the disputants resolve the problem through a process that encourages each side to: identify the strengths and weaknesses of their case.

The mediator's duty in this joint conference is to assist you have a different sort of discussion with each other in a risk-free space, as well as to help you focus on what you need. The conciliator holds both of you to the ground rules and sees to it you have equivalent time to speak and also to pay attention per various other. Typically there are just 2 people entailed, though occasionally there are numerous, you will certainly know that you are meeting with. The procedure does not enable lawful representatives, union representatives or any kind of other agents to be existing during the specific or joint meetings. At the beginning of the mediation you are asked to authorize a Confidentiality and also Responsibility Contract.

Youngsters.

You have to wait quite a long period of time for court procedures as well as for many people it sets you back a tiny lot of money - so it is neither fast neither very easy. If you are not eligible for lawful aid it normally is considerably more affordable to mediate. But it does depend on whether you have the ability to pertain to a contract or not, and also if so how promptly. If you can settle on some issues relatively quickly as well as narrow the factors of disagreement you will certainly have saved money. If you can not concern a contract or have just settled on some points, you have to spend for the mediation and also for whatever solicitors and court costs it takes to obtain the remainder of the matter arranged. You can ask the court to make the contracts about funds you have actually arrived at throughout arbitration right into a court order so that they are legitimately binding.

If you are thinking about litigating you require to have had an initial conference about mediation first. Most people after that need between 2 sessions to concur concerns around the children as well as 4 sessions to agree economic problems, each lasting 90 mins. Several conciliators bill people according to their revenue, so if you get on a low income you may pay ₤ 120- ₤ 150 per session and if you are on a high earnings you might pay more like ₤. Some arbitrators likewise charge a higher cost for sessions at night or at weekend breaks. A lawyer is a lawful expert who will certainly give you legal advice and also prepare court records for you. A lawyer can likewise manage settlements in your place to reach an agreement with your ex lover, either about youngsters's plans or funds. One option is to satisfy together with your ex lover and an arbitrator, that has actually been properly educated to assist you put your sensations apart and focus on the useful issues that require to be figured out.

We Make Arbitration Work For You

They do this mostly by asking questions yet if you find it handy they can use their experience to make tips. The people included will make a decision to they intend to use up these ideas. Bothe sides can talk to the mediator freely due to the fact that the conciliator will not hand down anything said without the contract of the person that said it. Those entailed with the arbitration will certainly be given a composed copy of anything that is concurred. If you accept participate in arbitration, Human Resources Solutions will certainly choose a mediator. The events to the mediation will not have the ability to choose an arbitrator or challenge the chosen arbitrator. Occasionally people have the concept that litigating is what you must do.

Mediation is a way of resolving problems directly with the aid of a conciliator.

It is a private and totally volunteer procedure which includes a collection of conferences in between the pair and also a conciliator where, with each other, they try to get to an agreement.

Our arbitrators are additionally family legal representatives therefore have a specialist understanding of the problems included.

Or the search on Resolution's site, clarifies in the outcomes the length of time the conciliator has actually been a household regulation lawyer.

( Not all great family arbitrators and solicitors show up on Resolution's search, just their participants).

( If you wish to do it anyway, you can.) If you want a mediator who is likewise a solicitor, make use of the search on the Family members Mediation Council's website and also examine what it says on the arbitrator's web site regarding their history.

A parent or young adult can request for dispute resolution any time during the SEND process.

They can not provide you lawful suggestions however they are required to tell you if you are about to make an agreement that is really various to what a court would certainly buy.

Individual concerns may require a household or counselling-led conciliator, whereas lawful and expert conflicts will call for a mediator with work or industrial understanding. Actually, arbitration can happen any time in the dispute, as long as the events agree. Some occur before court proceedings, some take place whilst the trial, or settlement, is occurring. No, people commonly participate in mediation without an attorney yet may well have actually listened from one before doing so. mediators Ireland ex pats is likewise readily available from some organisations run systems for a particular industry and some deal pro-bono or fixed-rate costs, especially on the lower-value conflicts. We offer functional, effective and easy to use conciliators that are experts and lead the way in energetic mediations, leaving behind the traditional passive arbitration layout. The energetic procedure is rapid moving as well as dynamic and the celebrations as well as mediator interact to swiftly identify as well as accomplish alternatives for negotiation.

Uks Leading Mediation Chambers.

Bear in mind this is most likely to cost you approximately an added ₤ 600 for the necessary solicitors and court charges. If you assume your ex-spouse will certainly lie concerning their funds you might want to think about using a lawyer instead of arbitration. Some people feel that it's simpler to conceal the true economic picture in arbitration than if a lawyer is a lot more included. But if you intend to go to court over a family members problem you have to show the court that you have met a conciliator initially as well as considered mediation. mediationeurope.net’s accounting software is due to the fact that the government assumes with great reason, that it is normally much better that you decide these points in between yourselves if you can, as opposed to the court telling everyone what to do.

A mediator can provide you lawful information but they can't offer you lawful recommendations. The arbitrator will certainly be neutral as well as can not inform you whether the settlement is fair. They will certainly likewise help with preparing an official contract that can be included into a court order. Conciliators will certainly always advise that you obtain legal guidance together with the mediation procedure and our family members lawyers here at Stowe are trained to support you with this process. As soon as the concerns have actually been agreed, they will be laid out in a "Memorandum of Understanding". At this point your attorney will certainly provide their advice on the outcome, as well as create the lawful documentation.

The mediator won't take sides or decide what is reasonable for you - they exist to help you reach a decision that you think about fair. Arbitrators don't offer you lawful recommendations as well as can't formulate official records, so it is typically wise to see a solicitor as well - the arbitrator can tell you when that is required. It is vital that one party not be able to control another or unilaterally determine the outcome of mediation.

Why Virtual Mediation Is Here to Stay The Legal Intelligencer - Law.com

Why Virtual Mediation Is Here to Stay The Legal Intelligencer.

Posted: Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:15:39 GMT [source]

At the very same time, remember that mediators are trained to evaluate power discrepancies and also can typically intervene to stabilize injustices. The presence of lawful advise or use of independent lawful consultants is one way to develop negotiating equal rights. Dominic as well as Ruth have a therapeutic, rather than a lawful, background. The service is complimentary, personal as well as offered by certified moderators. The conciliators do not offer any kind of recommendations or at all talk about the conflict as well as they will not recommend any solution or course of action. Rather they aid you a solution that solves the disagreement which finest fits the demands of everybody involved.

The conciliator is constantly a neutral third party that assists the participants to generate their very own remedies. It enables people to inform each various other just how they feel about the dispute, to share the impact it is having on them and to make ideas and also compromises which lead to a solution.

Don’t want any vicholiya: Farm unions on Nanaksar sect head’s mediation offer - The Indian Express

Don’t want any vicholiya: Farm unions on Nanaksar sect head’s mediation offer.

Posted: Sat, 09 Jan 2021 05:41:26 GMT [source]

Mediation is commonly most successful when those really in conflict straight work with the mediator to resolve it-- particularly when you need to collaborate in the future. Experience of mediation reveals that you are the most effective individual to discuss how you feel. An open as well as frank discussion of the concerns, which is managed by the arbitrator to make certain justness and also suitable practices, can be key in sorting out problem.

If you are uncomfortable with sharing the joint contract with individuals who are not in the room after that a decision is made concerning what, if anything, to show the person or individuals who referred you to mediation. The College of Southampton is committed to the principles of mediation as well as is keen to promote an alternate conflict resolution service for people that selected to look for a casual method of solving their conflict. Mediation motivates functioning in the direction of unified practical relationships which will certainly have a positive impact on personnel as well as pupil health and wellbeing and also efficiency. Worldwide Arbitration supplies cost-efficient, efficient as well as private mediation as well as argument resolution solutions for a broad range of individual or specialist disputes. As arbitrators can't use lawful guidance you may intend to choose this choice if you have a great deal of intricate legal issues to settle.

[copiosis]

How NOT Paying People Makes Life Outstanding For All

A post appeared on a conservative blog highlighting innovations the private sector is developing to get around the still lingering Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Unfortunately, the blog no longer exists. But the point was, and remains, that conservatives do not like healthcare for all, likely because someone has to pay for it, and, frankly, some people just don't want to pay for it.

That's understandable. When money is scarce, as it is in this system, people get stingy about it. They believe they work hard for their money. So should other people. The same for things like healthcare. Everyone should pay their way.

It reminds me of comments some conservatives make about Copiosis. When they hear the amazing benefits Copiosis produces, it's hard for them (and most people really) to understand how they can be produced without paying for them. Even communists struggle with the idea.

^^Scott Pinkerton is a proponent of Communism and even he can't understand how things can be provided at no cost. Why would conservatives understand it right off the bat?

Society already accepted subconsciously that it wants healthcare for all. Many argue it's a human right. So no-cost healthcare is coming. Today the majority of Americans want more healthcare and more spending on healthcare. The challenge is other people are concerned about how all that healthcare will be paid for.

They way out of paying is not paying

This rock-and-a-hard-place situation is where policy makers find themselves. This situation - people wanting more care and more spending on care, but not wanting to pay for it - is also why the problem won't be solved by the private sector. It needs to make a profit. If no one pays, there's no profit.

In Copiosis, all healthcare (except for elective medical procedures) are provided to all at no cost to anyone. How on earth can any system do that? Common thinking, such as that exhibited by Pinkerton above, goes like this:

It takes all kinds of resources, but generally, land, labor and capital, to make "healthcare" happen.

Essentially, none of those resources happen by themselves, you have to pay people to access these resources, to get people to contribute their labor, or their capital.

Therefore, unless you're going to pay people, "healthcare for all" is not going to happen.

But do you really need to pay people? Let's think out of the box starting with a couple of assumptions:

Assumption #1. All human beings deserve healthcare as basic human right.

Assumption #2. Traditional ways of "paying for it" may not work anymore given assumption one. A capitalist country can't pay for all that healthcare if it is given to people without them paying for it.

These conflicting assumptions require creative thinking. Let's see if we can do that.

Reverse engineering healthcare for all

First, let's redefine how our free market works so that the "cost" is isolated. What does it really cost to deliver healthcare? It doesn't cost MONEY.

For most people, getting them to work doesn't mean paying them, it means providing them a way to get what they want. We think people think they want money. But what they really want is a way to get what they need to live, so that they can spend their time enjoying life, which includes consuming things they want.

So the question about COSTS (if you ignore the intermediary of money) is: how do you satisfy people's wants and needs in a way that will inspire them to work?

First, let's tackle the needs (food, clothing, healthcare, shelter, education). Let's provide those for everyone without them having to pay for them (bear with me). People who produce these things (raw material providers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers) and everyone else now have all the basic necessities they need at no cost to them, so they don't need money to get those things.

Remember, everyone is getting these now at no cost, including healthcare. So the people providing healthcare products and services no longer need money to pay a mortgage or pay rent, buy food, etc.

Now, let's look at those wants. People's wants aren't as easy because they vary considerably per person. Let's classify all those things that people want, generally speaking, as Luxuries.

Now, some luxuries are more valuable than others, so we need to capture that value somehow, so that we moderate demand. To do this, we need to use money. But we're not going to use money as it has been used throughout human history. That causes too much bad stuff to happen.

Instead, let's define money this way:

It is totally virtual and fictional. That means it exists in digital form only. It comes into existence when it is needed and it goes out of existence when it is spent.

It can only buy Luxuries.

When a person buys a Luxury, the buyer's money doesn't go to seller, it just disappears (remember point 1).

So now, we have satisfied everyone's needs and have created a way to moderate demand for Luxuries (wants). Left as it is, we've removed a big motivator to people taking action: paying for what they need. We've made people lazy (or lazier if you believe people already are lazy)!

But wait, we're going to motivate people through their desire to consume luxuries. We're going to do that by paying people. But we're not going to pay people for the work they do. That's too arbitrary. What if I work as an assassin? We don't want that.

So instead, we're going to pay people for the RESULTS their work produces. But not any result. I could still get paid for killing people!

Let's assume we all agreed on a way that accurately determines how much one's work benefits other people. The more a person's work benefits another person, the more that person gets paid for her work.

If no benefit shows up, she gets nothing. Under such a scenario, a healthcare worker would eagerly provide healthcare services to a person (a patient) because obviously, improving one's health produces a tremendous benefit for the person receiving the care, right?

Now, there are no costs in paying this person, because there are no costs using virtual money. All the IT work needed to support the virtual money is being provided by IT workers in the same way healthcare is being provided by healthcare workers. The healthcare worker's output is measured according to how much benefit is produced and that kicks out a payment to the worker using this virtual money. The worker isn't paid by the place where she works, she is paid by a third party. Who that third party is doesn't really matter for purposes of this example. So there is no need for an "employer" that "pays" the worker. The healthcare worker does what she does as an independent producer.

So now we have healthcare workers delivering their valuable services at no cost to the patient. The healthcare worker doesn't care that their patient isn't paying for the services, because she is getting paid as soon as the benefit shows up. She uses the money she gets to buy the luxuries she wants.

Meanwhile, all her needs are being supplied by other members of her community at no cost to her because those people are getting their money in the same way the healthcare worker is getting hers: by benefiting others.

Generally, this is how Copiosis solves the healthcare problem, and all other problems currently faced in Western capitalism. This is the kind of thinking that naturally transforms capitalism so that it works for everyone. It's still a free market, but now it's totally open, fair and gets things done while costing society nothing but the expenditure of resources.

So in the end, conservatives are right asking "how will you pay for all this?" The answer is: we won't. And neither will you. No one will.

Problem solved.

[katzenkrieg]

Loredump: Cam’s Thoughts on Urianger

I have a massive loredump (see link in my bio) I work on updating occasionally, recording all kinds of details on my WoL, paladin Camille Delane, and his journey to date. Just finally got Urianger’s entry updated! So if you like reading other people’s thoughts on their characters and on NPCs, here you go.

Spoilers through all of the ShB!

Urianger (canon, Scion; 29 at start, 33 before ShB time jump, 37 at end of ShB) – Up until the events that returned the Warriors of Darkness to the First, Camille had no idea what to make of Urianger. Why was Urianger even in the Scions? How did everyone else know him? Why does he talk like he does? No one bothered to explain any of this to Camille, and he mostly left Urianger alone because...that seemed to be what the Elezen wanted. He did let Urianger know everything he learned about primals in combat, but that was about it.

Following Urianger’s collusion with the Warriors of Darkness, Cam just about had had it with him. Yes, it worked out well in the end--but summoning primals and risking another Calamity without telling anyone else about what he was doing *really* seemed like a bad way to go about solving the problem. Or any problem, really. Alisaie joining the Scions saved Urianger from being cornered by an angry Warrior of Light who wanted to know what the fuck Urianger thought he’d been doing. Alisaie read the situation immediately after the final battle with the Warriors of Darkness accurately and had a number of pointed conversations with Urianger and Camille, both individually and together, that defused most of the tension between them--mostly by calling them both out on a mutual failure to communicate or trust each other. The fact that Alisaie has known Urianger since they were both very young has also helped Camille trust him more.

Urianger and Cam didn’t really have much to do with one another during the fight to free Doma and Ala Mhigo--aside from Urianger handing Cam a stick and being like, “This’ll only work if you have no idea what it is. You’re good at not having any idea what anything is.” At least Urianger was being direct about keeping secrets that time, and everything worked out well and without any Calamity-inducing surprises in Cam and Lyse’s fight with Fordola, so Cam didn’t hold the “hey, ignorance is your gift” thing against Urianger. Too much.

Meeting Urianger again in the First was something of a shock. Cam had never really thought of Urianger as an actual *person,* with his own life and interests; in Il Mheg, Urianger seemed to have found a place where he felt comfortable and engaged enough with his surroundings to actually *not keep secrets* and live a full life. At first, Cam was more than happy to help the pixies pull pranks on Urianger (like making his books into living, biting creatures…), but as time went on and Cam saw more and more of Urianger’s relationships with Ryne and Thancred, with the pixies and other fae, and with the First as a whole, he began to stop resenting him and seeing him as a mystery and a cypher, a symbol of the Sharlayan Scions’ pretentiousness, secretiveness, and exclusionary, gatekeeping ‘white tower’-ness. Urianger’s obvious feelings of duty to the First and to Ryne and Minfilia, and his, to Cam, fairly goofy interest in fairy tales and fairy-tale-type magic, in particular, threw Cam’s perception of Urianger off-balance and made him rethink his feelings toward the Elezen.

After overhearing Urianger’s very honest, open, supportive, and generally incredibly emotionally respectful and perceptive talk with Ryne, encouraging her to believe in and have faith in herself and admitting his own past mistakes, Cam finally had to sit down with himself and admit that Urianger had become the Scion he most trusted to deal with complicated emotions and relationships among the Scions. In fact, Urianger playing moderator between Cam and Thancred probably saved the group from dissolving into useless fighting and finger-pointing many times. 

Of cross, Cam also had to deal with the fact that Urianger was, despite these apparent changes, *still* keeping secrets from him--not telling Cam that he was undergoing obvious Light corruption, for instance. And then, finally, revealing that he had, in fact, decided to accept G’raha Tia’s desire to sacrifice himself to save Cam and go right along with it and not question it through the entire time the Scions had been in the First…

Though he *was* understandably angry about this last set of facts, when it finally came to light, Cam also had a lot of other things to think about at the time (for instance, being a Lightwarden in all but physical form…) *and* he had more insight into what seems to make Urianger tick, to explain Urianger’s actions. Cam sees Urianger now as someone whose primary weakness is the same love of lore and fairy stories that is his strength--Urianger will cast himself as tragic lead or the tragic lead’s secret accomplice in any interesting story that comes along, and it’s up to Cam and the other Scions to keep alert to that impulse and check it constantly. As the Light is finally banished from the First, Cam’s resigned to it being his business, in the future, to push into Urianger’s private life *and* to drag Urianger out into the larger world regularly, just to make absolutely sure Urianger’s not wrapping himself up in another self-isolating unnecessary tragic narrative. Cam’s incredibly grateful that Y’shtola’s also decided this is her job and that Urianger has Thancred, Ryne, and Gaia to impose social life on him now.

Cam’s certain Thancred and Urianger are a couple these days. He has no idea when or how that happened (beyond knowing it’s new to their time in the First), and he hasn’t asked about it yet. He’s not sure he wants to know…

Cam considers Urianger one of Ryne’s primary parents. Thancred, of course, is also one of Ryne’s primary parents, but Urianger’s done a much better job in the role than Thancred, really, to date.

If the Scions in the First ever get back to the Source, Cam may just drag Urianger off to get blessed by the kojins’ kami, because honestly, *swimming is not that bad,* Urianger. Who makes deals with the fuath just to avoid learning to swim?

Cam goes through Urianger’s stuff whenever he can, surreptitiously, and isn’t above also asking pixies, including Feo Ul, to look through Urianger’s stuff/keep an eye on him. He’s not going to let Urianger surprise him with some ridiculous secret tragic plot again.

If Thancred and Ardbert hadn’t been around, there’s a chance Cam would have gotten together with Urianger, or at least tried to, while they were in the First. He was lonely! In any AU where Cam ends up the Faery King, Urianger and Cam *definitely* get together, because Urianger is very clearly fascinated by the fae and also very clearly into seeing himself as responsible for his friends’ weird, life-altering choices.

He won’t admit it, but prior to events in the First, Cam was actually jealous of Urianger’s closeness to Alisaie sometimes. Especially when Urianger gave her that really cool, extremely appropriate for her pink crystal sword and Cam was like WHY DIDN’T HE THINK OF THAT. Urianger doesn’t even fight using a sword! How could Cam not have thought to give her a sword? He beat himself up over that one for a while.

[chapitre7]

Rebirth.mp3

The Untamed [陈情令] | Mo Dao Zu Shi [魔道祖师] fanfiction

Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian (Wangxian)

Radio/Broadcast AU

Inspired by Welcome to Night Vale

Happy Halloween/Wei Ying’s Birthday ❤

Read on AO3

No one knows how he does it. He drives occult enthusiasts mad, while young adults breathe his every word with the passion only lost souls who are desperate for escapism are capable of. His shadow and name have been a passing figure in mystery, horror and cheap literature for years already, and grandparents speak of him in low voices when the power goes out and the children are scared of the dark but paradoxically hungry for fear.

 “Good evening, citizens of Yiling.”

 The voice reaches the earbuds of the willing, no proper channel, no hyperlink to follow. But he’s there, he’s always there when the moon is bright, maybe not even full, and the air is crisp with the smell of rust. Everyone knows it comes from the Burial Mounds up north, where nothing lives but leafless trees and the decrepit building of an old radio station.

 And him.

 “This is the Yiling Patriarch with news from the Cultivation World.”

 The skeptic are firm believers that he’s just a teenager with moderate to decent hacking abilities and too much time on his hands, yet they can’t help but listen in, waiting deep into the cloudless nights.

 “At this month’s grand conference, the great five sects discussed the recent disappearances in Yunping city. Heavy was the burden on Yunmeng Jiang, whose brash Sect Leader has yet to succeed in defeating ghosts with the power of his temper.”

 The listeners chuckle at the fictional antihero, a constant pariah in the Yiling Patriarch’s episodes. It never fails to disturb them, however, that the man is willing to dwell into recent occurrences without respect for the living. The authorities have no lead to follow on the case in Yunping but there he is, spinning tales about immortals who exorcise evil and save the world. How convenient it would be. How wonderful.

 “The young Lanling Jin sect leader, ever eager, suggested flaunting his fortune in spiritual traps, which almost earned him a whipping from the legendary Zidian and ended the conference right there, as in previous occasions. But even though he means to solve the case on his own and recover some face before the Cultivation World, sect leader Jiang still brings no new clues to the table, which begs the question: how capable are the great sects in this age anyway?”

 The Yiling Patriarch laughs away from the microphone, and his voice appears to echo, which is irrational, for how could he be in a place that echoes and still broadcast such a clear stream? His listeners lean forward, as if they’re his confidantes, listening in to a secret.

 “Do they not wonder why the lotuses of Yunmeng look so pink this time of the year?”

 His voice is closer, much closer, as if his lips are about to touch the microphone, their ears. The message makes them shiver, something crawling up their skin, not the sultry voice of the urban legend, but something else, unpleasant, sticky.

 “Masters of Gusu Lan, play your songs to the lake closest to Yunping and rise them, rise them up, so Qishan Wen can shoot their arrows and immobilize these lost souls, and finally Qinghe Nie shall pluck the biggest lotus of the lake and carve their saber through her broken, resentful heart.”

 They can practically see his smile, wide and feral, when he says, “Now, was that so hard?”

 Oh, if they were real, they’d hate him. How easily he always cut through their conundrums, how he always spoke the solution like a detective who could so easily see the culprit through his myopia, with his hands taped to his back. Of course he can, he’s the puppeteer of the show, and there are no sects, no resentful ghosts.

 But if there are also no wizards and no fights for glory in our present either, just the cold, harsh reality of days following one another and the crushing weight of responsibility upon our shoulders, how hurtful it is to imagine the honorable sects and their immaculate robes with a black-clad jester who mocks them for an audience?

 There’s a tap against their ears, the Yiling Patriarch demanding attention.

 “But dear citizens of Yiling, who can blame the sects for their confusion in this modern world? Thousands of years ago, times were simpler, resentment was simpler, death was simpler. Now there are so many small deaths, the death of character, the death of trust, the death of connection, each building resentment into a kind of core. Can you feel it? Did you feel it recently?”

 His listeners nod, you nod, thinking of that colleague who spoke behind your back, your partner who complained about one of your habits, that relative you can’t stand but that you’re forced to smile at during family reunions. The Yiling Patriarch hums and the listeners close their eyes, readying themselves.

 “The elders of Gusu Lan believe in purifying their bodies and mind, they believe in cleansing and rest, and they have tomes upon tomes of songs to deal with the illnesses of the soul. I believe they’re just as full of shit as the other sects and that there’s not one of us who’s free from resentment. But the songs... After millennia fighting blood with blood, they help me remember different times.”

 The Yiling Patriarch inhales next to the microphone, and the next second, the notes of his flute flow through the stream, soft like a breeze, calming like a mother’s touch. The legend says that his flute Chenqing could raise the dead to fight against the corrupted, and even now, in our modern world, when we listen to his lullaby with our smartphones, the moon shines a little red, inviting, so inviting to the beasts inside us. His tune pierces through resentment and pulls us forward, as though physically, with his very hands. It’s an elegant melody. Romantic, even.

 Ah. Is that where his heart is today?

 “It’s been a year since the young master has been hot on my trail, Yiling.” His laugh is young, joyful. “He almost caught me in Yunping during the conference when I was distracted. Our tirade has been going for how many years now? I admit I’ve grown tired of it already. Tell me, second young master Lan, don’t you get tired of following me? Have we not chased each other across the globe enough, yet you still want me to pay for my crimes? It’s a new era, and I’m still way ahead of you all. Shall we not see eye to eye and go on night hunts together? Do you hear me, Lan Zhan?”

 The Yiling Patriarch breathes against the microphone, close, so close, voice low against one’s ear, seductive like a kiss. And after beating resentment, what could take its place, if not romance?

 “Beautiful, honorable Light-Bearer. The moon looks auspicious for us tonight. Don’t you want to come with me?”

 A series of knocks sound in the background, instantly followed by the Yiling Patriarch’s intake of breath. His listeners hold still, having never heard an interruption to the broadcast before. It was always a piece about a conference, then a piece about the human condition, followed by a song and a personal anecdote. The young master Lan was mentioned plenty of times as an example of excellence where the other cultivators fail, although, by the old tales, he’s his very nemesis, the light to his shadow, the bringer of his destruction.

 But there are knocks, and the Yiling Patriarch’s gleeful surprise.

 “He’s here? Though I’ve secured myself behind a wall of charms and spells, he’s reached me?”

 He sounds exhilarated, as though he finds happiness at the prospect of dying.

 The listeners know. We can hear the longing at the edge of his sentences, read between the lines of his faux poetry. If the Yiling Patriarch has lived for thousands of years, then the Light-Bearer has lived just as long, for the sole purpose of him.

 Of course it’s impossible, as there are no such a thing as immortals. They must be lovers role-playing to a wide audience, capturing us like a cheap romance book, ready to fall into the saucy bits.

 “Yiling, remember to let spirits rest and to cultivate a kind heart. And if we never speak again, be patient with the cultivators of today, who have their hands full of young minds who have lost themselves. To all the sect leaders, stop relying on my broadcasts to solve your problems and cooperate with one another instead of measuring your egos in your conferences. And sect leader Jiang, stop frowning so much or your face is getting stuck that way.

 I don’t know what awaits me on the other side of that door, but the moon is high and the spirits are abound, and my hands tremble with the wish to play a duet.

 Above all, Yiling, remember...”

 You can hear his smile.

 “No dogs are allowed at the Burial Mounds.

 Good night.”

 He doesn’t cut off the broadcast. You can hear his steps fading away, and the sound of a door creaking open. There’s a new voice, the calling of a name, long known and long treasured, and echoes of movement, of breathing. You think it’s a struggle, that the Yiling Patriarch has finally met his demise, until he lets out a drawn-out moan.

 Some listeners cringe, others hold their headphones tighter against their ears. Either way, you think you’re listening in to something personal, something you’re not supposed to. But the Yiling Patriarch is an exhibitionist, and the broadcast marches on.

 There’s no such things as cultivators or immortals or ghosts.

 But the crimson moon is high in the sky, and it’s the kind of night where the spirits are out and eager to play.

 >Repeat 10_31_2019_-_Rebirth.mp3?

[bpro-cardstories]

Goshi Kaneshiro Kizuna 01

2019 ー Respective Viewpoint [それぞれの主張]

"Your dance is too flashy. The song’s quality won’t come out at all like this.”

Part 2 | Part 3

THRIVE have dance practice for their newest song. Tsubasa joins them in the morning.

‘Good morning, everyone!’

‘Morning’, Goshi keeps the greeting short.

‘You are already so lively in the morning, Tsubasa. Did you look forward to see me?’

‘That’s not true! Tsubasa-chan was also looking forward to today’s lesson, right?’

‘Yes, it’s finally the choreography of the new song. I can’t wait to see how it will look like!’

‘Fu’, Goshi gives a small laughter.

‘What are you laughing, Goshi’, Kento asks with displeased tone.

‘Yes yes, save this for later, ne ~! Since Tsubasa-chan is excited, we have to give it our best ♪’

Goshi was closely involved with the making of the song, that’s why it is only natural that he is attached to it. Yuta finds it cool that Goshi never gets tired of the song, no matter how many times he listens to it. The song makes your body move and it will be exciting even at the live. Kento wants the performance to be a challenging one, to match the up-tempo beat of the song. Tsubasa and the boys are ready to make the performance a success. So Kento suggests to start to lesson.

But the atmosphere soon becomes heavy. Goshi stops the training because Kento doesn’t dance like he imagines it. Both quickly engage in a heated discussion about the style of the performance.

‘Your dance is too flashy. The song’s quality won’t come out at all like this. I’ve said it before, your arrangement is too overdone!’

‘That’s why the performance probably is too moderate for the song’, Kento counters.

‘The attention will be more on the dance than the song this way’, Goshi argues.

But Kento is not willing to back down.

‘It sounds more like you want to stand out.’

‘Haa!? Don’t joke with me! As it is now the song’s impression will be overshadowed. We are not a dance performance group!’

‘Especially because it’s a new song, the impact is important. Don’t you think it emphasizes the musicianship?’

‘If the song’s goodness is not conveyed, it’s meaningless!’

‘It’s not just about to convey the song’s goodness. Don’t you understand, Goshi…’

‘Aa!? Who is the one that doesn’t understand!’

‘Hey, both of you calm down~ !’, Yuta finally steps in.

Yuta understands both of his teammates’ opinions but suggests to try one more time. Perhaps a good idea will come up. So he urges both to go back to their original positions. However, after a while Goshi stops the dance once again. This time the dance is all messed up, an opinion Kento and Yuta don’t share. The former is more relaxed about the situation and says to simply start over again. Moreover, he thinks more solo parts would be good too. Goshi disagrees, solo parts are unnecessary. They should concentrate more on the performance. For Kento, this is not the problem right now. He talks about the composition.

If Goshi is stuck with the sound alone then the dance won’t have a personality. It will be rather boring. In the end, both conclude that’s it’s meaningless to discuss with each other.They turn to Yuta to ask about his thoughts on what to emphasize more, musicianship or dance.

Their younger teammate doesn’t exactly help the problem to be solved. He likes both of their standpoints. On the one hand, he thinks Goshi’s song is really cool and is particular with the lyrics, he also wants people to concentrate on the song. On the other hand, Kento’s dance is cool, too. It they can perform it perfectly, it would be great because it fits the song.

‘Then let’s leave it at that’, Kento says with a sigh. ‘Moreover, Yuta’s dance part is quite difficult. Are you okay with it?’

‘Yes, I’m fine!’

‘Will you really be fine?’, Goshi comments doubtfully.

‘Of course! Absolutely!’, Yuta answers enthusiastically.

‘Good grief… Don’t you cry about it later.’

‘Then it’s decided!?’

‘I wonder if you can do it.’

‘Hoorayー!! Then, let’s work together and do our best ~ ♪’

_________

(-- It’s already been one hour. I am glad Yuta-kun gave me a summary but...), Tsubasa thinks worriedly to herself.

‘Oi, you can’t get the pitch of the solo’s start right, Ashu. How many times is this now.’

‘Uuuh,... I’m sorry! Why can’t get I the timing right…’

‘The dance is also a bit delayed. Are you really fine?’, Kento expresses his doubt.

‘I’m fine! The next one will definitely be successful, so let’s try one more time ~!’

(Yuta-kun really does his best but somehow it seems to be fruitless…He looks quite tired. As it is now, it only will become worse the more this continues.)

‘Ehm,.. everyone looks a bit tired. Why don’t you take a small break?’

‘Sumisora… Haah, you are right’, Goshi agrees.

‘Eeh, I’m still fine though?’, Yuta cries out incredulously.

‘Don’t be unreasonable. It’s better to continue after a break’, he is lectured by Goshi.

‘Well, since it’s free time.. look, you need to rehydrate, Yuta’, Kento agrees with Goshi and Tsubasa.

‘Uuー.... I understood.’

(Yuta-kun, is he a little bit depressed? Will he be fine?)

‘Sumisora, do you have a moment?’

‘Yes, what is it?’

‘I need to talk. Let’s go out for a bit.’

_______________

‘Ehm… talk…?’

‘Listen carefully. What did you think of today’s practice?’

‘E-ehm…’

‘It will be found out anyways if you lie, so tell me honestly what you thought about it’, Goshi urges her.

‘I understand. For me, both song and dance are THRIVE. I think, they are really wonderful and come from the bottom of your heart. But... ‘

‘But?’, he replies with a shocked look.

‘Looking at it separately, right now song and dance clash with each other. It’s as if they are fighting one another. Because of this, Yuta-kun too doesn’t seem to do well....

Somehow, it would be good to find a way to harmonize.’

‘....Harmony….’

‘Yes. The song is already completed. Even so, there is probably no other other choice than to lower the difficulty of the song?’

‘That’s…. I wonder…

I’ll also take a break. Sorry, to have taken your time. You should rest too. It seems it’s going to be long todayーー’

To be continued...

[neuxue]

Dear Yuletide Author

Thanks for writing for me! I’ve probably written too much here, so...when in doubt, write the story you want to write, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it! The below are more guidelines than actual rules.

GENERAL

Likes:

Fictional characters in pain (physical, mental, other).

Complicated dynamics between characters (friends, enemies, strangers, all of the above, other). Bonus points for enemies-to-friends/friends-to-enemies/enemies-to-lovers/any movement on the friendship-ally-enmity axis, really.

Betrayals, pseudo-betrayals, etc (see above about complicated dynamics). Bonus points for betrayals made out of necessity. Double bonus points if the betrayed doesn’t know it’s necessary.

Villain-by-necessity or antagonist-by-necessity.

Exploration of power (individual, interpersonal, or both. Again, can be as dark as you want, if you are so inclined.)

Ambiguity, in pretty much all its forms.  

Dark fic. You don't have to, but you absolutely 100% can. This is a blank cheque on content warnings, up to and including the major archive warnings.

Plot! You absolutely do not have to write a complex plot, but if that's your thing...go wild. Political machinations or detailed worldbuilding or some absurdly complicated scheme or that sequel you wish were written.

Fic formats I am very happy with, if they’re your thing: fic-as-character-study, theme-and-variation (so 5 times fics are 100% cool with me), or unconventional fic formats of any kind! But more conventional or linear formats are also A+. This is another ‘blanket permission to do whatever you want’

Dislikes/DNW:

Explicit sex, unless it’s absolutely essential to the story (if it IS absolutely essential: fade-to-black is fine, lightly explicit but not quite porn is usually fine. If I’m going to read sex I’d actually prefer it to be a bit darker in some way - definitely doesn’t have to be related to consent, though it certainly can, but I’d prefer there to be some tension/pain/angst/tragedy/betrayal/darkness/power dynamics to it.y)

Romance as the central focus of the story (partial exceptions include enemies-to-lovers or ‘complicated character dynamics’).

Children (child characters or characters having children).

Alternate setting AUs (like Hogwarts AU or Modern AU or A/B/O, etc. AU that alters canon events - eg ‘X doesn’t die’ or ‘Y happens differently’ is completely fine).

Fluff (humour is fine; sweetness is fine in moderation).

FANDOM-SPECIFIC

His Dark Materials - Marisa Coulter, Lord Asriel

HDM was very much a Formative Fantasy Series for me, and these two were defintely my uh...Formative Fucked-Up Pairing. Enemies, lovers, partners in damnation: they have it all, and they move fluidly between all of those. Individually, they’re some of my favourite characters in the genre: forces to be reckoned with, powerful and capable and driven, terrifying, and somehow still human.

Together, their dynamic is…everything I want in a story. It’s a mess, but it’s a devastatingly beautiful and functionally destructive mess that has the capacity to take down heaven and earth.I love their complexity, both individually and together, and I just want more of it.

“I wanted you to come with me, and I thought you would prefer a lie” has always been my favourite line for these two, if that helps. But really anything about their fucked-up contradictory mess of a series of betrayals and antagonistic workings that somehow form a relationship.

Feel free to include any other characters (nominated or otherwise) you see fit, but I would prefer the focus to be on these two (though if you think an outsider viewpoint, for instance, is the best way to do that, I have no complaints).

As a point of clarification, because romance is loosely on my DNW list: There’s definitely an aspect of Marisa/Asriel that could be called romance, and I have no objections to you exploring that in the context of the rest of their clusterfuck of a dynamic (but it’s the clusterfuck I love the most).

The Baru Cormorant / Masquerade Series - Svirakir

I have this bad habit of loving minor characters, but was rather delighted to see Apparitor not only get some screen time but even get a name in the second book. So I just want...more about him. He was hardly in the first book but was very present on the sidelines, once you know what to look for: what was he up to? What does that look like from his side of things? What did he think of Baru then? What’s his origin story, from his perspective, beyond the brief pieces of it we hear? What other tasks has he carried out in his role as Apparitor? Where has he travelled? Where does he want to go? What’s his great secret, his true aim? What was his first mission, or what would his version of a book-one-esque beginning look like? 

Any of the above, none of the above...I’m being frustratingly nonspecific here, but I really will be happy with mostly anything. He’s a good candidate for fic-as-character-study, if that’s your thing. Or if you’re a plotty sort and want to write him and the others carrying out some absurd heist, I’d be 100% here for it. Or if, like me, you enjoy some good old-fashioned whump and just want to rough him up a bit...yeah, he’s the sort whom suffering looks good on.

Really, knock yourself out. Include any and all other characters from the series as you see fit, or don’t.

The Dragon Prince - Aaravos, Runaan

I feel like I should maybe apologise for this one, especially because it’s a children’s show and yet my immediate thought on this one is ‘if dark is your thing, go dark here’. If dark isn’t your thing that’s absolutely fine, of course, but if it is...yeah. Have fun. Go wild. 

I’m happy to read either of these characters individually, if featuring both of them doesn’t work with what you come up with, but if you do feel like including both, that would be excellent. Maybe they meet somehow -- do the coins and the mirror lead to the same place, and they’re both trapped and meet as uneasy allies? Or as enemies? Or as friends? Or perhaps they’re both trapped and completely separate and never actually meet but their experiences run either parallel or opposite. How did they each get to where they are? What happens to those who are shut away from the real world? Any or none of the above, really.

I’m just super curious to see what is even happening with either or both of these two. Trapped and powerful and mirrored and mysterious...it’s a whole lot, for me, however you decide to slice it, and the world that’s been built is still an open playing field, so have fun!

If it helps, my favourite moments of these two individually are:

Aaravos - when he responds, in that voice of his, to Viren asking ‘why should I trust you’ with ‘You shouldn’t. Yet.’

Runaan - that first shot we see of him chained to a wall.

I know. I’m sorry. 

Oh, also, I know Season 3 is meant to come out before Yuletide fics are due; include or ignore any content from that as you wish.

Machineries of Empire - Vauhan Mikodez

This whole series is really just designed to ruin me, full as it is of characters who are all My Type in different ways.

So first of all, feel free to include any other characters from the series you see fit. Personal favourite candidates include Kujen, Jedao (either version but mostly the first), Cheris, Istradez, Zehun, any of the other Hexarchs/Heptarchs including Faian, any of Kujen’s anchors...the list continues.

Mikodez is fascinating to me because of the contrast in...not quite how he presents himself versus who he actually is, but in how he fully embodies the persona his role demands -- the murdering, amoral, ruthless, scheming, pragmatic Shuos Hexarch -- and yet also manages to be one of the more morally grounded characters in the series. He just doesn’t let anyone (often including himself) see that. So he ends up perceived as having taken a similar path to, say Kujen in terms of murdering his own conscience, stifling his ability to feel pain or empathy in order to become what he must, but he hasn’t. He just follows that path as far as making it clear, to himself and everyone else, that those feelings are a privilege the Shuos Hexarch cannot afford; but he feels them anyway, as himself, and it’s just a whole Problem for me.

And so the way he interacts with other characters, especially those like Jedao and Kujen, is rather fascinating to me. But so is his relationship with Istradez, because again, based on how he presents himself, you wouldn’t really expect Mikodez to be generous and understanding, but he so very much is. 

Mikodez is another great option for fic-as-character-study if you want to go that route, or just go all-out and throw him in way over his head, or let him watch from the shadows, the longest-serving Shuos Hexarch, as everything else plays out. Apologies for not really giving much in the way of prompts here, but I’m pretty much game for anything, and I’m super curious to see what you might come up with.

Sunshine - Robin McKinley (any - Charlie, Rae, Onyx, Con, Mel, Rae’s grandmother)

Knock yourself out. Go wild. Pick any one of the 189237 loose ends this book left and run with it.

Who the hell even was (is?) Onyx Blaise? Actually, if you feel up to it, anything involving Onyx and his mother (Rae’s grandmother) would be fascinating to me. Or, throw Mel and Con and Rae together in some mess they have to work together to solve. Or just give me Mel’s backstory. Or Con’s. Did Con and Onyx meet, and what was that like? What does Rae’s life look like after the book ends? 

If you have an idea for this world, for any or all of these characters, write that. I will read anything, because there’s just so much there to play with.

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: 4x02 Heavy Lies the Crown

The season 4 premiere wasn’t that great, but this is much better and much more typical of the overall quality of season 4.

The Polis storyline is, for a change, actually quite good. I’ve always thought that season 4 did a much better job with most Grounder characters than season 3 or even season 2. And the storyline in and in relation to Arkadia is great, with Bellamy, Clarke and Raven having to do make difficult choices. In particular, Bellamy finds himself in the position to make a really tough choice, and the choice he makes really encapsulates his leadership style and worldview.

The title is another literary reference – after Dante and Poe, now it’s Shakespeare – although it is a misquote of the line “Heavy lies the head that wears the crown” from Shakespeare’s Henry IV. They supposedly chose to name it that way because they thought it sounded better – or maybe they just thought that would make it more obvious to the viewers that the theme of the episode was the difficulty of being a leader.

The flashback that opens the episode would have fit better as the opener of 4x01, which was much more about the fallout of the City of Light and people who died because of ALIE. (No surprise, since it was originally meant to be in 4x01.) It’s the introduction of another interesting new Grounder character, Ilian, whose family suffered a really tragic fate – ALIE made Ilian kill them or torture them in order to force his mother to take the chip. Seeing it all happen helps build sympathy for Ilian and makes it easier to understand his later actions. It’s also one of the few times we see Grounder farmers. I like the fact that the show isn’t focusing just on Grounder warriors  anymore and that we get to see more and more of Grounders of different professions and worldviews.

In Polis, the leader who has to make decisions is Roan, who is preparing to meet the challenge of an ambassador of one of the other clans, Rafel, who is trying to use the fact that Roan is still recuperating from his injury and isn’t full strength, Roan is a good character to watch because he’s smart and capable, and morally grey – he isn’t one of the bad guys, but he can be ruthless and sneaky if he has to. The fact that he’s a very different leader from his mother certainly helps. This is emphasized when Echo, who is sparring with him, goes on about how awesome Queen Nia was, in her mind, for being so ruthless and murderous and not giving a damn about anyone other than Azgeda; After being questioned why he decided to accept the Sky people as the 13th clan, Roan finally tells Echo the truth about Praimfaya and that they need Sky people to survive it.

Talking about Roan’s chances in single combat, Octavia says Lexa kicked his ass when he wasn’t wounded, but she doesn’t know that the Nightblood basically gives you superpowers, which is only revealed later during S4

Kane is again the Chancellor – but we don’t learn if another election was held or not. He is mostly acting as a diplomat, however – he’s more of an ambassador, while Clarke pretty much acts like acting Chancellor in Arkadia.

Kane tries to reason with Rafel, and makes the good point that, if they are going to blame Sky people for the City of Light, they should also credit them for destroying it. But don’t expect Rafel to listen to reason. So Octavia eventually solves Roan’s and everyone’s problem by murdering Rafel, which is later portrayed as a heart attack. I should be generally against assassinations and Octavia using violence and murder to solve problems, but, you know what, I liked this solution.

Major development forward for the Kabby relationship: After the kiss last season, there’s a rather steamy, by CW-standards, sex scene and, while there is no “I love you” in so many words, the relationship between Abby and Kane is strongly affirmed. Initially, after their sex scene, we see that Abby used to wear her wedding ring on a necklace. She’s unsure or uncomfortable with putting it on again, as Kane sees it, but Kane tells her Jake is a part of her, But later Kane realizes that she is not wearing it – and they kiss, as Abby has just shown him that she has really moved on from Jake and committed to him.

Abby decides to go back to Arkadia to help Clarke and the rest find a solution for Praimfaya

In Arkadia, Clarke, Raven and Bellamy arguing over what to do; Raven is concerned thatthere are not enough volunteers to repair the ship. She also has insecurities and feel she shouldn’t be main engineer - Sinclair should be, but he is dead, Clarke replies that she’s in a similar position since she’s no Chancellor. However, they’re all basically back to their own season 1 roles, when they were the only ones on the ground and leaders of their people.

One of the most pleasant surprises about season 4 is that it found a purpose for Jaha and started using his character in a much better way, and even managed to make me finally interested and enjoying his character, even though he hasn’t actually changed his personality. This is probably because 1) he is not in position of power now, 2) he wants to and manages to be useful – as an engineer, which is his original profession, and 3) most importantly, he has a number of interesting interactions with the main characters that he didn’t get to interact much before, like Clarke, Bellamy and Raven. In the season when they are faced with particularly difficult leadership choices, which are similar to the situation on the Ark – having to make choices who will live and who will die because it’s impossible to save everyone; having lie to people in order not to cause panic – Jaha is both there to offer his perspective and advice (which may be good or bad), and as a cautionary tale: he is what they all used to hate and what they really don’t want to become, but now they are afraid they may be becoming like him.

The crux of the episode is Bellamy’s mission (with Monty, Harper, Bryan and Miller) to go into the Azgeda territory, to the remains of the Farm Station that Azgeda occupied, and retrieve a hydro generator that would help produce water for the people in Arkadia during the five years of radiation. They start off hoping to get it peacefully, by showing Roan’s seal. They get a hostile reception instead, but eventually the head Azgeda guy agrees to it. However, things change when they learn that the people working at the station are slaves…

…Let’s take a moment to emphasize the fact (for the benefit of all of those who like to portray Sky people/Arkers as the Bad Guys and Grounders as Good Guys, that, in addition to everything else we know Azgeda did under Queen Nia’s rule, like killing Arkers indiscriminately, including children, from the moment they landed, and blowing up a bunch of Arker civilians as a part of a political power play that wasn’t even about them, they also practice slavery, enslaving both Arkers and other Grounders.

…This is a big moment where the group has to decide whether to prioritize getting the hydro generator, or blowing it up to free the slaves. Bryan argues in favor of the latter, especially since he recognized one of the slaves as a friend of his, called Riley. (Now, I know that the fandom likes to make fun of Riley because of the way that this character was made important in spite of never being heard about before, but this is more of a problem in 4x05. I don’t see any problem here – we never saw any of the Farm Station before season 3, either, and we knew very few of the people on the Ark in season 1, and many we knew are dead. And the actor does a good job playing someone who has been traumatized and beaten down by slavery and abuse.) The group split votes – Bryan and Harper for freeing the slaves (Harper compares their fate to her experience of being put in a cage in Mount Weather), Monty and Miller for getting the hydro generator, so Bellamy makes the decision and chooses to free the slaves.

This decision is something I need to talk about a bit more. I love the way season 4 in particular has so many situations where there is no obvious right or wrong choice - neither choice is great and wrong in some way while good in another way, and you can make good arguments for either alternative. This is one such case. Personally, while I understand and respect the position that the hydro generator should have been the priority and slaves ignored, I was happy with Bellamy's decision, was rooting for him to make that choice, and it's what I would probably do. Regardless of how things turn out in the end, I think this is the better principle to live by: "We save who we can save today". (Which also reminds me of the decision Bellamy made in 2x04 – save the person who is in the most immediate danger and need.) There are many leaders in this show, maybe too many, who advocate the Big Picture thinking, which is a legitimate position if moderate, but taken too far, it can lead to (in the name of some hypothetical better future) present oppression, killing the people you're supposed to protect, executions for all sorts of silly reasons as on the Ark, letting innocent people die from enemy bombs, or cold blooded murder of an innocent person for "pragmatic" reasons - as Jaha did in season 2, using the motto "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". I don't trust anyone who uses that motto to justify killing other people rather than sacrificing themselves (which was how that character we all know and love used it in that well known movie that the quote comes from). And I don't fully trust anyone who does things in the name of an abstract notion of "people" or "my people" while not caring enough about individuals that make up that abstract collective

I liked Bellamy’s decision before I knew how things would turn out, and would like it regardless of the eventual consequences. But as it turns, out, if they had saved the hydro generator, it would have been for nothing, since Ilian will blow up Arkadia in a few episodes. This way, those people who had been slaves a couple of months of nice life back with their families.

Another minor in-character moment: when they are about to take the Grounder ex-slaves to their villages, Bellamy is again taking care of a little girl in the group.

Raven is angry over Bellamy’s decision, and Clarke at first seems to disagree, but eventually accepts it, and Bellamy he sticks to it and takes full responsibility. Clarke finally decides to tell people a half-truth: she tells them about Praimfaya, but claims they will be able to save everyone, even though, without the hydro generator, they can only save 100 people there. Raven gets to display my least favorite character trait of hers, getting all judgmental and b1tchy and sarcastically telling Clarke: “Your father would be so proud!” I dunno, Raven, if you think the people should be told the truth, why don’t you simply tell them? No one is stopping you.

Both Raven and Jasper compared Clarke’s decisions to that of Jaha and the rest of the Ark leadership. Except they forgot the minor detail that she hasn’t executed anyone, imprisoned anyone, or sent anyone to die.

Jasper is now in a very different, but still similar mindset from the one from season 3: he has embraced the “Seize the day” approach, and seems very cheerful, having a shower, singing, asking Monty to bring weed, and telling Clarke he doesn’t want them to survive, he wants them to live. But he is like that only because he knows it will all be over in a few months.

The song Jasper plays is “I Don’t like Mondays” by Boomtown Rats, which includes the line “Silicon chip inside her head”…

This is the last episode where Bryan appears, which is a shame, because he was an interesting character, and his and Miller’s relationship actually got some focus and development, unlike Miller’s mostly off-screen later relationship with Jackson. The actor got a role in another show, but instead of getting killed off, he was just written out quietly – he simply never appears after this episode, and we never learn of his fate. The first time I watched this, I didn’t even realize that the argument between him and Nate at the end of this episode was the end of their relationship, so I was later wondering “so where is Bryan?” when Nate and Jackson became a couple out of the blue. Rewatching this, I can see how this was the end of the relationship. I like the fact that Bryan (who, we have it confirmed now, is now the only survivor, aside from Riley, from the initial number of around 160 people who were on the Farm Station when it fell to Earth) refuses to condemn Pike and still feels loyalty to him – because it would be really unrealistic if everyone now had the same opinion about him. Bryan confirms that he basically never stopped supporting Pike, who he felt loyalty to because he saved his life and they spent several months fighting together, and simply chose his boyfriend over him. But I think the main reason why the relationship broke was not just political differences, but because, after Miller didn’t support or understand Bryan’s decision to prioritize freeing the slaves, Bryan felt that Miller doesn’t understand what he went through with the rest of the Farm Station people in those 4 months and the trauma and effect it had on him.

Timeline: It has been 9 days since the season 3 finale, which means it’s about 8-9 days since 4x01.

Body count:

In the flashback (which is technically in the timeline right at the end of season 3 or the beginning of 4x01), Ilian’s father, brother and mother got killed by ALIE-controlled Ilian. Add them to the list of people who died because of ALIE, We don’t see how the father died, but Ilian killed his brother and almost killed himself, and tortured his mother, and she eventually died of injuries.

Rafel, Trishanakru ambassador, killed by Octavia. (Good riddance- he was really annoying. We’ve seen way too many irritating whiny Grounders who rant about how Sky people are to blame for everything. That’s so last two seasons.)

Several Azgeda slavers got killed in the explosion of the hydro generator.

Tybe the head slaver, beaten to death by the freed slaves. Bryan revealed that he was the one who killed Monty’s father, saying he was therefore Monty’s kill, but Monty chose to do justice in a different way, letting the ex-slaves decide Tybe’s fate.

There are some pointers about the number of surviving people – from a list that Clarke made of the number of people that need to be saved. It’s a partial list: we learn that there are about 500 people Arkadia, 4000 in Polis (out of which 400 children), 300 in Tondc, and we see several smaller places with just a few people. Just counting the numbers we see, we get 4877 Grounders  in addition to 500 Arkers (obviously, neither are exact numbers, since the numbers for Polis, Tondc and Arkadia were rounded), but it’s clearly not a full list, as we don’t see the numbers for,  e.g. Boat people, Shallow Valley people, and many other villages and towns, so I don’t know if the numbers of Grounders in this part of Northern American territory is around 5000-6000 or more like 10.000.

Rating: 8.5/10

[ravimyneni]

Reasons why we must get rid of IIT-JEE

The entrance process is such that IITs produce one-dimensional graduates who may not even be interested in the subjects they gave many years of their life to.

We should get rid of the IIT-JEE. Given the iconic status of the IITs and the resulting craze for its famed entrance exam in India, this statement may come across almost as blasphemy.

But IITs are scientific institutions, and the tradition of science is to hold nothing sacred and examine everything through the less of evidence.

Radical as it may sound, this sentiment has been gaining ground of late. The HRD ministry mooted a proposal to radically reform the IIT-JEE by even dismantling the JEE-Advanced, the flagship exam for the IITs. That proposal, however, was shot down by the IIT council a couple of months back. This rigidity to re-examine, introspect and improve oneself is alarming, and that is indeed the root cause of many of the flaws of this celebrated exam.

 The test has been gamed by coaching centers

When a high-stakes exam, watched closely by millions of people, is not redesigned for years, the stakeholders manage to decipher it completely.

 Coaching centers have figured out the typical problems given in the exam, built a library of similar problems, and approaches to solving them.

Lakhs of students take the IIT-JEE every year. It is the gateway to the dream destination for those students, the source of the ultimate bragging right for millions of their parents, and the fountain of unlimited riches for the coaching centers. With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that the exam is watched closely and patterns of its questions analyzed in great detail.

On top of that, the exam has not seen any radical redesign. Originally a single-phase exam, it was split between JEE-Mains and JEE-Advanced some years ago, but the main focus of the exam — testing high-level problem-solving abilities based on quantitative sums drawn from Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics — has remained the same over the past 30 years or so.

With so many interested parties avidly scrutinizing the broadly unchanged exam for the past few decades, is it really a surprise that the exam no longer remains a test for raw brainpower?

The coaching centers have already figured out the typical problems given in the exam, built a huge library of similar problems, and approaches to solving them. They start drilling those problems and solutions in the students’ head from early years, often from as early as Class 8.

So what was once a test of intelligence (of the quantitative kind, admittedly) has become more of a test of how much money you can spend to access the best coaching centers, and how early you start your single-minded pursuit of this dream (or nightmare?).

 The test has become so difficult so as to render it meaningless

If too many students compete for an exam and start preparing from an early age, it breeds an arms race. The same level of questions that separated students of different abilities ten years ago will cease to do so now — because everyone is simply more prepared to handle those questions. The questions need to become increasingly difficult to differentiate between students.

This is compounded by the fact that IIT-JEE tests skills in a narrow area — quantitative problem-solving in Physics, Chemistry, and Math. It is possible for a student to attain a high level of mastery in a narrow area. With so many students attaining near-perfect competence in one narrow domain, the test must, over the years, become much, much more difficult to retain its ability to select — which is exactly what happened over the years.

  If too many students compete for an exam and start preparing from an early age, it breeds an arms race.

Instead, if the test evaluated wider (and possibly unrelated) skill sets — for example, quantitative skills, reading skills, and social skills — it would have been difficult for students to master all of those to a certain level of perfection; and differentiation would have been possible through even a moderately challenging test.

 It breeds unidimensional professionals

As a result of focusing so narrowly during the formative years of learning, millions of students are ignoring important skills needed for success at the workplace and in life.

In IIT-factories of Kota, and in similar cram-schools all over India, students are learning Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics at the exclusion of all other skills necessary for success.

In future, they are often handicapped by an inability to read, write or speak at a level needed for professional success. They often lack nuanced social and historical awareness needed to become vibrant members of the society. Working solo with their textbooks for many years, they often underappreciate the value of teamwork and collaboration.

The comeuppance sometimes comes mid-career, when these unidimensional professionals cannot progress to managerial levels.

Sometimes, the day of reckoning comes sooner, as they get rejected in numerous interviews right at the beginning of their career due to the lack of ability to express themselves.

Sure, one can argue that many IITians become successful corporate leaders and entrepreneurs. However, that’s a tiny fraction of the graduates IITs churn out — most remain anonymous cubicle-dwellers in mid-level positions.

 Students training for just one exam from early in life lack social and historical awareness needed to become vibrant members of the society.

Given that the IITs pretty much get to choose the best from lakhs of school-leaving students, should we, as a nation, be happy with only a few success stories? Shouldn’t such ‘chosen elites’ have left a much stronger imprint, both in scientific domain and elsewhere?

 The difficulty level of IIT-JEE makes studying in IIT redundant

To stay ahead of the coaching centers and to be able to differentiate between intensely prepared students, IIT-JEE now has to necessarily pose notoriously difficult sums to the aspirants. This simply meant that the level of sums posed has become more advanced, rather more inventive or creative.

While the exam theoretically stays within the prescribed syllabus, most of the problems posed in IIT-JEE are practically college-level sums. Even when I studied for IIT-JEE around 25 years back, the recommended Physics books for preparation were Fundamentals of Physics by Resnick and Halliday, and Problems in General Physics by I E Irodov: both college-level calculus-based physics books. I presume things have gotten only more difficult since then.

Now the question is: what is the value of a college education if you are expected to study a lot of college-level stuff just to get there?

 A college entrance exam should test interest

IIT-JEE fails miserably here. College admission processes in most advanced countries, notably in the US, check for the aspirant’s demonstrated an interest in the college as well as the intended major. IIT-JEE, however, does nothing of that sort.

Lakhs of students, through unthinking herd mindset, pursue a dream that’s not really theirs. Many, after reaching their dream place, become disenchanted and end up switching careers to pursue MBA. For some, the frustration leads to drug abuse. Some end up committing suicide. Even students who plod on and finish their degrees do not end up doing anything remotely related what they studied in IIT.

Such mismatches happen because unlike most other college admission processes, IIT-JEE restricts itself to a written exam, without any test of interest. Everyone knows that people are most productive when he or she works on areas that he or she are interested in. By not checking for this obvious area, IIT-JEE indirectly helps breed a discontent workforce.

 For IITs, IIT-JEE is the hammer, and everything looks like a nail

I was delighted when a few IITs decided to offer a BS in Economics a few years back. Our society’s economic understanding is quite limited, which pulls us down. People from all strata of society fall for Ponzi schemes, unable to understand the relationship between risk and return. Most people do not appreciate the importance of copyrights and patents, hindering innovation and progress. In addition, common masses have a fetish for free goods that the government doles out, not knowing that there is no free lunch.

I thought an economics course at the IITs could go a long way to make our society more economically literate. However, that hope was soon belied, because I saw the selection process for this course is the same old IIT-JEE.

Yes — you heard it right, one has to master quantitative Physics, Chemistry and Math to be eligible to study economics, a discipline requiring vastly different skill sets.

 Shouldn’t such ‘elites’ have left a much stronger imprint, both in the scientific domain and elsewhere?

Not only that, those Economics graduates need to study all the common first-year engineering courses, including electrical circuits and mechanics of deformable bodies! Nothing can be more ill-conceived than that.

Solution: A standardized test

So, if IIT-JEE has outlived its utility, what could be the way forward? A clear solution is a standardized, skill-oriented exam like SAT or ACT. Almost all US universities accept SAT or ACT scores as one of their key admission criteria. Such a system will obviate the need for multiple selection processes and entrance examinations in India, reducing student burden significantly.

As such exams test a wide range of skills (reading, critical thinking, analysis of science and social sciences, problem-solving, writing), it will also make our learning more skill-oriented.

We may argue that the cost of SAT is prohibitive for most Indians. If that is so, we can develop our own home-grown version. Skeptics may also reason that a standardized test like that does not test aptitude in subjects like Physics or Chemistry, so how will an elite engineering institute like IIT select students through such an exam?

Well, top-ranked scientific institutions of the world, including MIT and Caltech, use precisely this test to admit their students.

A person who is widely read can communicate well through writing and can critically evaluate issues can become more successful as an engineer or scientist as opposed to one who has only a narrow mastery over a small range of subjects.

We Indians take our exams very seriously. The only way to get the nation to focus on skill building is to incorporate it into the exam system.

If we are really serious about addressing our skill-shortage, if we want our future generations to cope with the rapidly changing world, we must reform our exam system radically, and urgently.