#and it's pretty consistent so damn good job little diana

[creatediana]

“Warmed Up to It” - a sestet written 3/04/2015

[wandercr-arc]

SKY’S BIAS LIST.

hiya! so, i don’t know how common these bias lists are anymore, but it’s been quite awhile since i’ve done one. (probably since 2016?? damn.) but i have a lot of amazing people that i follow, and i feel like you all deserve a little recognition. now, one thing that i enjoy doing with these bias lists is to not only point out the blogs i love, but to tell you all why i do. i feel like it makes these bad boys a little more personal, and can hopefully bring a little brightness to someone’s day. so, without further ado, here’s the list: (in no particular order; i’m just going through my following list)   //   under a cut for length. apologies in advance for typos. 

@fromlandtosea   /   @longthoughtlost   ---   RIN. there’s so much i could write here. you’ve been my friend for so long, and have put up with all of my nonsense for so long. i adore laura and every other muse that you write. you bring such a different life and voice to each of your characters, and i admire your ability to come up with unique and intertwined backstories for them. i will always love all of the threads, verses, and headcanons we’ve come up with together. you have absolutely made my time in the fallout community worthwhile, and i feel so very fortunate to call you my friend. (and also that you only show slight disappointment in all the stupid stuff that i do and tell you about lol)   ♥

@betterhealing   /   @sanguinariis   /   @psychotheory   ---    i love every character that you write. you’ve been willing to write with me on all of my blogs pretty much since the day i joined the fallout rpc, and your consistent support has meant the world to me. you clearly put a lot of time, thought, and effort into your characters, and it shows in their multitude of well-developed verses, relationships, and headcanons.

@iinxsearchofxisolde   ---   we haven’t had the chance to interact much, but you and tristan are always a joy to have on my dash. i think that your choice to write a brotherhood outcast is extremely unique and interesting. they’re a faction that was kind of lost in the fray, and i love seeing your headcanons about them and how tristan fits in. he’s also a very intriguing, multi-facted character with a distinct voice, and it’s been great to watch you develop him over the past few years.

@disciplc   ---   lainey !!! we haven’t been friends for very long, but i am so glad we are. i adore all of our discussions about nisha and el, and i appreciate how supportive and kind you always are towards me. i’ve followed your nisha for a long time . . . technically . . . and i’ve always loved how you write her! hell, i always appreciate people stealing side characters from bethesda and making them their own, and you’ve truly done that with her. she’s a perfect mix of danger and softness (emphasis on the danger ;-0). 

@pinkmanipulated   /   @hydrophobiic   ---   victoria, oh my god, we have written together for what feels like ages, and your writing, art, and dedication to your muses never ceases to amaze me. i’ve already mentioned this, but seeing how you write jesse has made me actually want to watch breaking bad, which is something i thought i’d never say. (and i promise i’ll get to giving it a go eventually ;w;) i can tell how much you care about his character and how much effort you’ve put into your characterization, and i love every bit of it. it’s the same amount of pride and dedication you’ve put into all of your muses, canon or oc, and you know for a fact  that i’ll follow and interact with you on whatever blog you choose to write on.

@fictitioussouls   ---   not gonna lie, i enjoy every character you write, original or canon. i’m so glad to see you back and active on the dash again, and that you still have the same love for all of your muses + a bunch of new ones. :’)) you create such unique and detailed backstories for your original characters (emily, diana, and sophia still have my whole heart tbh), and you keep them very consistent. i also enjoy reading the threads you have with rin, and hearing about the headcanons and worlds you guys have built together! overall, i’m very happy to see you on my dash again.

@america-redefined   ---   eliana might hate having enclave blogs on the dash, but i sure don’t! :’) we haven’t interacted (yet), but i’d definitely love to. i think you do an excellent job writing nathan, and capturing the attitude and aura of the enclave with the way you’ve created him. it’s clear that he has a lot going on beneath the surface, and that you’ve put thought into what kind of character you want him to be. i really like the way you’ve brought him into the fallout 4 timeline, too, and how his life changes once he’s no longer with the enclave. (i was scrolling through your blog the other day, and saw the post about all of his goals in the enclave, and then how those all disappear within the institute and might have chuckled a bit at the “mighty have fallen” trope vibes that gave me)

@adxmortem   ---   the amount of development you’ve done for harlan is just wild to me, i’ve got to be honest. you’ve taken him in his very own, unique direction, and i really admire that! (and it also reminds me that we really need a new orleans based fallout, stat.) he has a very strong voice, and you have an incredible grasp on his character. i’ve enjoyed the threads we’ve done together, and i hope we get to write more in the future! i also very much appreciate you for the immense kindness you’ve shown me in the past when it comes to my personal life. that will always mean the world to me.  ♥

@gwinnetts   ---   oh gosh, you are such a fun and prominent addition to my dash! the funny content and interactions you bring to the dash aside, i’m in awe of the amazingly detailed write-ups you post about your muses as well as the fallout lore. like a lot of the people on this list, you are someone who puts in a lot of thought to your muses, and really brings them to life in a distinct manner. i’ve also greatly enjoyed the ooc chats we’ve had!!

@shellheadtm   ---   we haven’t had many chances to interact, but i think your portrayal of tony is top notch. you capture his voice perfectly, and like gwinnetts above, always bring funny conversations / interactions to the dash, and i think that just makes it a brighter place for everyone! you’re an insanely talented writer, and your expansion of tony’s characterization and verses is fantastic.

@primeacumen   ---   viv is one of those really amazing, multi-faceted ocs that i would highly recommend anybody follows. we haven’t interacted a ton (mostly because i’m slower than molasses), but, from what i’ve seen of her, she’s wonderful. fandomless ocs often don’t get the love they deserve, so i want you to know that i see you and viv, and i am here supporting you 100%. people take for granted the amount of work that goes into building an oc for multiple verses, and it’s obvious you’ve done that work for her.

@not-completely-human   ---   i honestly knew nothing about alita when i first followed your blog; i just knew that you were a friendly and lovely person who i was willing to write with, and so here i am! i enjoy all of our threads together (and i will def enjoy the ones that my slow self needs to write starters for lol). i enjoy how you write alita, and the enthusiasm that you have for her. your writing has a nice flow, is easy to read, and i love all the little details and background you fit into it. and, you, of course, are such a nice person to talk to, and i’m very glad we follow each other!

@remnantrecruit   ---   another enclave oc for eliana to despise and me to love! we haven’t written together in awhile (which we should totally try and change soon :’0), but i enjoy seeing abner on my dashboard as much as i did when we first followed each other! enclave ocs are so rare as it is, but abner really stands out as a character even without that. his background is so sad but good. i also just appreciate your interaction with my posts, irl and character related. (your comment on my post when i was anxious about doing something dumb when i was driving still means a lot to me. it’s always nice to be reminded that we’re all human and capable of doing stupid things with two ton moving contraptions.)

@persistentflower   ---   what is there to say except i love violet ,,,, neutral karma lone wanderers are pretty rare in my experience, and i think you do a good job of capturing what it means for violet to be that. she and eliana contrast well, and i love their relationship, and how they support each other, no matter what verse we write in. (and the fact that we’ve essentially created a mini self-contained verse for our muses). i enjoy our chats ooc, too, and i look forward to us writing and interacting more !!

@miss-moreno   ---   we haven’t gotten to flesh out kay and eliana’s friendship, yet, but i see so much potential for them in what we’ve got going so far. kay has the sort of spirit that eliana loves, and i’m so excited to see where our threads take the two of them! in general, i like how you write kay, and how her life pre-war seems to haunt her quite a bit, and also how she knows she’s playing double agent for the railroad pretty early on. 

@ninesis   ---   i’ve seen quite a few portrayals of rk900, but yours is definitely one of my favorites! i like that your nines is very job-oriented, but still soft and sociable and overall just a Good Boy. he comes across as very likeable, and you write him as a consistent and well thought out portrayal!

@intelligentmiinds   ---   i love all of your blogs, but since this is your main atm, this is where you’re getting love. :’)) bailey, i enjoy each of your characterizations. you bring a unique and accurate voice to each one. based on what i’ve seen from your ooc posts lately, i know you’ve been going through some rough times, and i hope you know that you are so important ! and loved ! and even if people are shitty and don’t understand you, you always have people who care about you, too. (and i hope you can get your ferret soon! small animals are the best. i have two bunnies and can vouch for them. :’)) )

@contrariian   ---   i have been lucky enough to interact with two of your muses so far, but you should know that i adore what i’ve seen of all your muses. you write such a wide array of characters, and each of them has a personality that comes across in how you write them. your writing style is so gorgeous and nice to read, too. 10/10 would interact whenever

@vocaliist   ---   i followed you on your previous blog for magnolia and the one you had for des, and what continues to knock me off my feet about all of your blogs is your style. i always admire people who can write in a way that is somewhat poetic and very pretty without making it impossible to understand, and you do just that. plus, who doesn’t love magnolia?? i look forward to writing with you some more!

@synthesan   ---   i’ve already jumped into your ims to yell about how cute ode is, but here i am again, anyway. we haven’t followed each other for long, but gosh i love what i’ve read from you and ode so far. i’m a sucker for synth ocs, and she’s such a fun one with an amazing backstory. you are also so great to talk to ooc, and i hope we can yell about our muses and videogames more in the future :’))

@synthmama   ---   okay, i can’t lie, your blog is one of those that i admired from afar for a long time because i was a bit intimidated by it. not in a bad way, but in a ‘holy cow this person is an amazing writer and creator’ kinda way. you and quinn have been around for a long time, and you’ve grown her character a lot in that span. it’s so cool to see how you fit her into other universes, and how she interacts with the fallout world. institute sole survivors are also very seldom seen around here, and so i appreciate that quinn took that route, and that you had her do it in a way that doesn’t entirely conflict with her morals. 

@neomacaught   ---   you are absolutely one of the sweetest muns i’ve ever interacted with, tbh. your enthusiasm for threads and the wellbeing of your fellow roleplayers is such a lovely thing to see on my dash!! and neoma is such a cute character. i think she and el’s interactions have just been incredible. i like that she’s a bit awkward, yet very straight-forward, and that she upholds high morals. she fits in with el pretty damn well, and i think they’ll be very good friends!! plus, i can tell that you’ve put a lot of work into neoma purely by taking a peek at your blog; you have so many verses and ideas for her. she definitely deserves a lot of love

@voiceofmany   ---   we haven’t followed each other for very long (or interacted, which is my bad for being slow to talk to people about threads lol), but i wanted to mention you on here, regardless. i honestly am not familiar with a whole lot of your muses, but the way you right them, and your writing style, tends to draw my eye so much that i often find myself reading through your threads as i scroll the dash. the way you change dialogue to fit your characters is pretty damn great, and it’s always obvious you’re writing for/in a different voice for each of them

@theirsalvation   ---   we also haven’t followed each other for very long, but i enjoy the content that i see from your blog!! you have a wide range of muses that all come across as very different and distinct in the way that they’re written. when i read your reply from josh this morning, i was awed by how well you captured his voice and mannerisms, tbh. so, yeah, i hope we can interact a bit more sometime soon!! B)

[thesportssoundoff]

“A very weird card for a very weird month” UFC Fight Night: Weidman vs Reyes Preview

Joey

October 14th, 2019

It's Octobr and the UFC's scheduling usually goes like this in my estimation:

Jan- New year, we're all excited, folks get injured, overpacked shows in December hurt the new year but we deal with it.

Feb- Injuries/cold means makeshift cards, people get mad.

March- Shows are a bit fatter, big title fights are coming around, people are excited.

April- The "set up" for the summer months, usually really good fight cards on paper with little to no name value.

May- Normally the "bad" PPV month, free events are good.

June- The last month before things get wild and wooly. PPV's tend to be damn good, free cards tend to be pretty balanced.

July- Everything has to be BIG so you get BIG PPV and then an event or two after the PPV that drag down the blocks average.

August- The end of the summer, injuries get heavy because of the seasonal change, focus is on prepping for November and December.

September- OH MY GOD EVERYBODY IS HURT! EVERYTHING IS REALLY WEIRD! THERE'S SO MUCH GOING ON!

October- The down month where they're scrapping and salvaging just to get to MSG. Shows are pretty much whatever they can put together without working too hard. Usually where they do some kind of weird Canadian card. The cards tend to bounce between "This is surprisingly good" and "I don't have the time or the energy for this".

November- IT'S MSG! IT'S LOADED! What about the rest of the month? Ah, okay then. Carry on.

December- The end of the year where they try to end with a bang. Normally a lot of drama, prep for 2020. We get fights announced for next year that usually top what we're being offered this year. Big PPV to end things on the right note.

This card is pretty much 100% October. You have a kind of weird but kinda good main event at the top of the bill, a really good yet weird co-main event under it, a really weird but kinda good HW fight and then a bunch of Northeast projects and prospects. If you remove the top three fights, finding the next good fight that is objectively good might depend on how you feel about Gillian Robertson vs Maycee Barber. Me personally I think you can do far, far worse than Barber vs Robertson and actually quite like the fight as a good test for Maycee Barber. After that? You have some highly touted prospects coming off losses (Manny Bermudez, Randy Costa, Boston Salmon), some guys off the Contenders Series trying to find their niche (Brendan Allen, Sean Woodson, Jonathan Pearce)  and a bunch of filler. It's kinda not bad filler though? Everything about this card is just weird, folks. Bare with.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Tanner Boser, Brendan Allen, Sean Woodson, Sean Brady, Diana Belbiţă, Ben Sosoli, Jonathan Pearce

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: (Zabit Magomedsharipov vs Calvin Kattar CANCELLED/Eric Spicely OUT, Kevin Holland IN vs Brendan Allen)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 5 (Greg Hardy, Jeremy Stephens, Yair Rodriguez, Chris Weidman, Joe Lauzon)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 1 (Joe Lauzon)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Dominick Reyes, Chris Weidman, Greg Hardy, Gillian Robertson, Maycee Barber, Kevin Holland)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 24-15

Chris Weidman- 1-2 Dominick Reyes- 5-0 Jeremy Stephens- 3-3 (1 NC) Yair Rodriguez- 2-1 (1 NC) Greg Hardy- 2-1 Ben Sosoli- 0-0 Joe Lauzon- 1-3 Jonathan Pearce- 0-0 Gillian Robertson- 4-1 Maycee Barber- 2-0 Deron Winn- 1-0 Darren Stewart- 3-4

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Featherweight- 3 (52) Women’s Flyweight- 2 (31) Middleweight-  2 (40) Heavyweight- 2 (31) Welterweight- 1 (62) Light Heavyweight- 1 (39) Bantamweight- 1 (53)

Lightweight- (66) Women’s Strawweight- (26) Flyweight-  (15) Women’s Featherweight- (8) Women’s Bantamweight-  (18)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (33-55-1)- Tanner Boser, Brendan Allen, Sean Woodson, Sean Brady, Diana Belbiţă, Ben Sosoli, Jonathan Pearce

Short Notice Fighters (28-35)- Kevin Holland

Second Fight (52-34)- Randy Costa, Boston Salmon, Deron Winn

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (20-37-1)- Charles Rosa, Joe Lauzon, Daniel Spitz

Undefeated Fighters (35-37-2)- Dominick Reyes, Sean Woodson, Maycee Barber

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (11-8)-

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (29-20)- Chris Weidman, Manny Bermudez

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Why is a New York vs New York fight taking place in Boston? I know that might not matter from a lot of folks but as the guy who grew up with boxers headlining in their home markets, this irks me.

2- I feel like this main event almost depends entirely on how you view Volkan Oezdemir as a fighter. The last time we saw Dom Reyes, he was given a really hard tough fight against Volkan Oezdemir in London. I don't think "robbery" is fair but I do think if you scored it for Volkan then you have a justifiable grumble about him losing that decision. What has gone under the radar is that Reyes did a tremendous job to adjust to what wasn't working and mix in more work to the body to keep it close and then the general rule of "win the third round, win the fight" wins out. I think there's no shame in a young prospect getting tested on his way up the ranks and managing to get by. You'd rather see warts now than in the middle of the first round of a title fight. Also Volkan Oezdemir is proving to be a pretty good quality 205er who even in his losses has moments of success. As such, I'm left to wonder if folks are a bit too harsh on a dude who iced Jared Cannonier, had no issues with OSP and remains the most exciting LONG TERM prospect at 205 lbs.

3- Is it too late for Chris Weidman? Despite the calls of folks to move up in weight, Weidman held off until seemingly all options were exhausted at 185 lbs. The fact of the matter and the unbearable truth is that Chris Weidman's style was based all on his durability and versatility simply fell apart when he needed it the most. He couldn't withstand the wars he was putting himself in at 185 lbs and his wrestling isn't as advertised anymore. At the same time, he still subbed Kelvin Gastelum, has a Hall of Fame worthy resume and enters a division where mid tier MWs are having breakout runs to title shots. Weidman can still crack, has a variety of offensive tools in his backpocket and in SPURTS he's still a good wrestler. Weidman's biggest problem for me as a wrestler has always been his lack of control once fights hit the turf but maybe cutting less weight will help. Then again Luke Rockhold didn't get much help in that regard either.

4- Here's how I'm beginning to feel about guys from 185 lbs going up to 205 lbs. If you're an athlete (Thiago Santos, even Anthony Smith to some degree) then it can work because the athletic barometer at 205 is better than HW but lowert han any other weight class. Guys who are fast at 185 lbs will remain fast at 205 lbs because that travels. They're also likely to hit a lot harder given the increase in weight. That said, if you're slow or clunky, no amount of weight cutting is going to fix that. Luke Rockhold simply looks and perhaps may just be a slow and clunky guy. Against Jan Blachowicz, he LOOKED like a heavier version of his usual self. What makes me worried about Chris Weidman and his chances at 205 lbs is that he's slow, clunky and kind of sort of broken. I don't think his body and his (lack of) speed will travel much at 205 lbs.

5- So who is hurt more by having to cut weight again for this fight, Yair or Jeremy Stephens? I kind of think it'll be Yair but I also saw him show up on two weeks notice to fist fight the Korean Zombie.

6- I really hope there's a chance, honestly and truthfully, that Joe Lauzon calls it quits win or lose. Lauzon feels like one of those guys who would be better suited in his personal life giving up the ghost and embracing the next phase.

7- This feels like the first real card to roll out the Contenders Series for season 3 so I'll break down who is whom and how they got here:

HW Ben Sosoli faces Greg Hardy- Sosoli is an Aussie kickboxer who made the MMA transition, fought on TUF and emerged on the DWCS in season 3. He had a "no contest" but was on his way to winning the fight before an eye poke (by him) ended the fight. Sosoli is being brought in to have a slugfest with Hardy.

LW Jon Pearce has a pretty crazy story. He was in a coma after getting jumped by somebody at his gym after hours. He recovered and fights like every southeastern dude who has ever fought in the UFC; basically scrapping when he wants to and wrestling out of trouble when he has to. I would say "He's the kind of guy who can give Joe Lauzon trouble" but I think at this point anybody with a working pulse gives him trouble.

FW Sean Woodson is REAL interesting. He took on a super prospect in his DWCS fight and struggled with the consistent wrestling----then he hit one of the cooler flying knees ever and scored a walk off second round KO. Dana even admitted that his finish was TOO good to not get signed despite the concerns he had about his wrestling.

MW Brendan Allen is your yearly "LFA has a middleweight champ and we gotta sign him" guy. He's accomplished-ish at 12-3 with some losses to good competition (Anthony Hernandez and Eryk Anders are both having solid runs). He's a violent kinda dude but I think he's a step below Ian Heinisch and Anthony Hernandez IE: he's kinda sketchy.

8- Boston Salmon was a really hyped L(R)FA prospect, the kind of guy who the UFC normally signs before he's ready and rushes out there. Salmon won on the DWCS in Season One and disappeared, re-emerging this year before losing in ugly fashion in his first fight with the organization. We've detailed here how badly debuting fighters struggle but also how much better they do in their second go around. Of course the same could be said for his opponent Boston Salmon. I guess win or lose, I think Salmon's going to look worlds better than he did in his debut. It couldn't in theory have looked much worse?

9- I wish I knew about Molly McCann's opponent so I could somewhat excited about her fight upcoming. Diana Belbita lost to Ariana Lipski who Molly McCann beat so....I dunno dudes.

10- I wonder how many fighters people would know off of this main card. 4 or 5 tops? Manny Bermudez, Molly McCann, Kevin Holland  and then?

11- So let's talk about Kevin Holland briefly, shall we? Holland's UFC run has been weird to say the least. Holland debuted on short notice against THIAGO SANTOS (!), took all of Santos' best offense and somehow lived to tell the tale about it. In large part, Holland's ability to just talk copious amounts of shit no matter the circumstance endeared him to UFC fans and supporters. In the end, Holland got his best opportunity and since then the UFC has taken it slow and steady with him. Holland has wins over John Phillips, Gerald Meerschaert and most recently a close decision win over Alessio Di Chirico. Holland's rep as an action fighter is overstated (as is most of his game) but to go 3-1 in the UFC under any circumstances is pretty solid. He's the sort of guy who doesn't like to work too hard theoretically but lacks the middle ground to carry himself beyond that point. Yet he's so gifted, long and determined that he tends to be able to get by doing the bare minimum. Brendan Allen is probably going to give him plenty of opportunities to be offensive if he wants to be but that's entirely up to Holland and his mentality.

12- The last time we saw him, Deron Winn was having a FOTN style war with Eric Spicely on short notice. Winn has a lot of "poor man's DC" about him which is a really unfair comparison but I can't think of a guy that short in a weight class who prioritizes the same arsenal of strikes that he does other than DC. He gets a kind of risky step up in competition with Darren "The Dentist" Stewart. Stewart has a bit of a funky UFC record, he started his run 0-3 and then hit a stride of sorts since then, going 3-1 with the sole loss being a super close split decision to MW prospect Edmen Shahbazyan. Stewart hits really hard and has found some tremendously timely resolve with his takedown defense, creating a sort of fight that should be closer on paper than some folk might realize.

[gothify1]

Trends and It products come and go—we know this. It's part of the gospel truth pertaining to the world of fashion and beauty. But when certain cool-girl products and trends from our elementary and high school days become suddenly cool again, we can't help but brim with excitement. The cozy feelings of nostalgia are a force to be reckoned with, and when hair accessories we glorified thanks to the Spice Girls and jars of spacey body glitter we hoarded from Claire's become not only acceptable but encouraged, we're the first to pounce. We're very much embracing the trending onslaught of products previously dubbed outdated, and right now, there are a lot of them. From nail and hair trends to makeup and skincare product musts, there has been a resurgence in outdated beauty trends. In fact, brown lipstick and butterfly-bedecked strands are practically taking over our Instagram feeds and, by association, our shopping carts. To celebrate (and because we're secretly hoping they never fall back out of vogue), we're highlighting all the must-try viral beauty trends we previously considered outdated. Keep scrolling! Sure, the crimped-hair trend has taken on more of a beachy (versus small and compact) identity in 2019, but the resurgence of crisp mermaid bends and S-wave hot tools is impossible to ignore. We don't have to remind you of how important your collection of glitter-crusted rainbow butterfly clips was back on the playground in fifth grade. But we are here to remind you that a more subdued take on the outdated trend is currently blowing up on IG in the prettiest and most whimsical of ways. Hairstylist Justine Marjan created this mesmerizing look using paper butterflies she found at the craft store (before attaching them to clear string and pinning into the hair), but there are also tons of cute clip-in options available right now as well if you're not feeling super crafty. Remember how happy you used to be when your headband gained you an extra few inches on your elementary class's height scale? Same. In 2019, however, we're more here for the trend in regard to how fun and playful it makes any outfit. To be honest, we didn't see the pastel and rainbow hair color trend lasting more than a few months or a year tops. Alas, we're still seeing so many of our favorite influencers and celebrities trying out different shades on their strands—even if it's just temporary. The below is the exact formula behind Zendaya's recent red streak, and the brand also has other playful tones, from teal to rose gold to magenta to green. Remember the fake hairpieces you'd buy complete with tinsel, tiny braids, rhinestones, and maybe even a streak of blue for good measure? Well, they might not be quite so ornate, but statement-making faux ponytails have had a major comeback and are actually a two-minute solve for a bad hair night pre–going out. Another hair trend that's had surprisingly long legs? Scrunchies. In fact, the fervor only seems to deepen as more and more brands are getting on board and debuting the prettiest looks. We're collecting them faster than we collected Pokémon cards on the kickball field, especially since the trend has graduated from ho-hum silk to velvet, crystal, sherpa, and more. Lizzo, we love you. Sure, chunky glitter was all the rage a few years ago during Coachella (still a little scarred, TBH), but right now, the glittery hair trend is more about bold tinsel looks (like this amazing moment from Kacey Musgraves) and sheer mists of fine glitter all over. We're obsessed with trying something like Musgraves's look for Halloween, but for your basic night out, we suggest one of these hydrating shimmer sprays for a barely there glimmer that's still stunning and perfectly on trend. This one from IGK is still my fav. Yep, you heard it here first. Demure (and not-so-demure) French manicures are making a comeback. However, unlike our burn-worthy prom vibe complete with press-ons, our nails aren't long and squared-off. Instead, we're keeping this previously outdated beauty trend fresh with bold colors as additional options to chic white while also playing with your nail shape. Try short and rounded or long and almond. Or try a reverse French mani as shown above! Of course, dove and navy blue nail polish are iconic staples we always have in our kits, but metallic blue? Eh, we haven't seen it as much since we toted bottles around in caboodles. That said, the tides are changing and metallics in cooler hues like purple and blue will be big for fall and winter. Just take Smith & Cult's gorgeous fall edit for example. Of its three new hues, we're by far the most obsessed with the shade Ice Tears. Yep, we're serious. Brands such as LeChat are resurrecting color-shifting nail polish, and trust us when we say it's way more elevated than the stuff you'd chip off in a matter of seconds back in grade school. Nail stickers were cool, and then they became quickly outdated for a spell with the influx of cool freehand nail art and other embellishments like crystals, pearls, and rhinestones. Now, however, luxe brands like Olive & June are making stickers cool again and reminding us how handy they are for making our nails look like a professionally perfect paint job in less than 10 minutes. Remember when our favorite '90s women like Naomi, Drew, and Winona wore blue eye shadow, and we thought it was so, so cool? The trend didn't last long, and quickly thereafter baby-blue and pastel-purple were pretty much the most outdated shadow shades you could sport on your lids. But then, a resurgence! We've been seeing the color family all over the internet and in the talented hands of some of the industry's most illustrious makeup artists. And, of course, it's become way cooler in the form of bold graphic shapes and lines. Juicy Tubes: We loved them then, and we love them today. Though, now our favorite glossy tubes come in less sticky consistencies and slightly less saccharine scents. You know, so you get a hint of nostalgia without feeling like you need to go out and buy book covers and Lisa Frank pens. We're happy the lacquered shiny lip is here, and we're hoping it's here to stay. Even before the makeup hysteria spurred by Euphoria, glittery eyes were having a major moment on the celeb and makeup artist front. We couldn't be more excited that it now feels especially socially acceptable to wear chunky AF glitter during the day, and we're pretty sure it's one previously outdated trend that might actually stick around for a while. Brands like Stila and Lemonhead.LA were ahead of the curve and make some of the most cult-loved glitters and glosses on the market, but now more and more major makeup brands are catching on and pretty much each line has its own version of a disco-ready eye in a jar. Pick your poison, but we still hold Lemonhead.LA as the crème de la crème of wearable glitter. In case you didn't know, '60s Hollywood icons like Diana Ross were the queens of graphic liner. Almost 50 years later, the graphic-liner trend has come back with the most exciting surge of vengeance. Every makeup artist is doing it, every celebrity is wearing it, and every makeup brand is debuting cool new pencils and pens to help us achieve it. Up-and-coming stars such as Ella Balinska are favoring the trend as of late. Her makeup artist, Vincent Oquendo, used Shiseido. Like it or not, brickish-brown lipstick is a major trend for fall and has been wheedling its way into our hears for a while now. Yes, it feels painfully '90s but paired with glowing skin, luminous hair, and lots of lashes, it's fresh, not outdated. Gigi Hadid has made an art of it, and mass-loved brands like Huda Beauty keep churning out more and more lippie options for us to choose from. Glowing, healthy-looking skin is always in vogue, but we'd go as far as to say that we've surpassed "glow" at this point and treaded into very shimmery, very glittery, very glossy territory. And, honestly, we love it. It's fun, it looks damn good in photographs, and all of our favorite brands taking part—Dior, Huda Beauty, Patrick Ta Beauty, and Fenty—are spiking their glimmering products with good-for-your-skin ingredients to boot. Up next: The Exact Products Makeup Artists Use on Celeb Clients to Make Their Skin Glow

[zecretsanta]

Fic: A Failed Santa 

To: @qqideest

From: @zeroiv4

A fic made for @qqideest using the prompt ‘Secret Santa Party Gone Wrong’.

AO3 LINK 

As a failed Santa himself, Aoi had not been looking forward to Christmas.

The group had all agreed that they couldn’t afford to buy gifts for all of the others. The group was seriously low on money as it was, and most of what they were earning via their respective jobs was going to Seven’s contacts.

Aoi knew they needed help to find the fanatic, and these people were competent and trustworthy, but their rates were way too damn high.

Adding that to the huge crash of Cradle Pharmaceutical stock and Junpei’s… interesting adventure with bitcoin investment, every single person in the group was flat out broke.

Well, bar Lotus, but almost the money she made was all going into her kids, and Aoi couldn’t really argue with that. He had tried once, but that only left him with a rather large bruise that he told Akane came from a confrontation with a rogue member of Free the Soul. Fortunately, she didn’t question it.

Anyway, due to their lack of both money and time, juggling work and their search for the mysterious ‘fanatic’, the group decided to go for a ‘Secret Santa’ approach, so each of them would only have to buy one gift.

And guess who was lucky enough to be picked to organise the whole thing? Aoi was really regretting his choice of code name, but it was a little too late to change that by the time Junpei had ever so helpfully put him forward for the job.

Eric, Mira and Sean had opted out so they could give each other gifts instead. Aoi was glad they were happy… and also that Mira wouldn’t be involved. She still didn’t have any idea how emotional things like gift-giving worked, and Aoi was petrified at what she might send.

Sigma had also suggested just having a quiet family Christmas to Diana and Phi, but the latter had disagreed, saying she “didn’t want to continue the family tradition of getting gassed and playing a death game, as merry as the last time was”. The girl made Aoi smile. And she did have excellent fashion taste.

Anyway, despite Sigma’s repeated protests that that had only happened one time, it was left up to Diana to mediate, and after a little ‘girl talk’, which from Aoi’s experience just consisted of the two hugging until Phi told Diana her issues, she found out the real issue Phi was having was that she still felt weird being the same age as her father. So the two had decided to continue acting as friends until all this fanatic stuff was over.

Anyway, Aoi had gotten distracted. He heard far too much about the others in the group from Akane. He guessed all the meaningless gossip was just one of the downsides of living with his sister into adulthood. Not that he’d ever want to live anywhere without Akane, he just liked to complain a little.

So Aoi had found himself cluelessly sitting in front of a list of all his friends’ names. And in the moment, all he could think of was how much he hated “Secret Santa”. For one thing, there was never any secrecy involved. It was so easy to tell who bought a certain present, especially with people as different as their group. And Aoi was really not a fan of the whole ‘Santa’ thing in general, as a failed Santa himself.

And right then, as he was thinking about that Christmas, eleven years ago by then, an idea struck Aoi. He was conflicted for a while, but eventually he just thought “What the hell?” and went ahead with it. Maybe not the best way to make a decision, but Aoi couldn’t exactly change his mind afterwards.

And it had worked out fine. Aoi was looking forward to this Christmas… Until Akane told him she’d invited everyone over here on Christmas Eve.

And no matter how much Aoi protested, Akane assured him that they couldn’t just swap presents without a Christmas party. And once again, it was too late for Aoi to stop it. Aoi was almost beginning to hope he would be attacked by Free the Soul, if that would allow him to SHIfT back and change his mind.

But unfortunately, nobody tried to kill him, so when the day came, Aoi finally swallowed his pride and approached Akane.

‘Hey, Akane?’ As his upbeat sister turned towards him, Aoi cleared his throat. ‘Do you remember when we were kids? How we had to live on our own?’

‘It’d be kind of hard to forget that…’ Akane replied with a little giggle. Aoi never understood why she could be so casual about their past. ‘But… what’s wrong, Aoi? Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden.’

‘Yeah, well…’ I’d almost forgotten how good Akane was at reading me. ‘Do you remember how every year, I’d save up money for Christmas? And I’d always try to get you presents, but it was a struggle to afford anything.’

Aoi definitely remembered those days, at least. The way Akane’s face would light up as she tore the paper off her gift was an image that would never leave Aoi’s mind. It was pretty much the only thing that kept him going through those difficult years.

‘Where are you going with this, Aoi?’ Akane was beginning to look really concerned. Damn.

‘Here, just- come and take a look.’ Before she had a chance to respond, Aoi turned and walked to his room, where he’d been storing all the gifts he’d been sent. Everyone had sent theirs to him in advance, except Junpei, who was being characteristically unreliable and still hadn’t given him anything.

Akane let out a small gasp as Aoi swung open the door. At his instruction, she took a closer look at the four neatly stacked items under the fake Christmas tree that was kept in there. They really did look like the image he’d imagined for years. A pile of colourful presents lying under a tree on Christmas morning, all left by “Santa”. And they all had one recipient listed on them.

Akane Kurashiki.

‘A-Aoi?’ Akane couldn’t seem to figure out how to respond. She turned to her brother, whose eyes were firmly fixed on the floor. ‘How did you do this?’

‘I, uh…’ Aoi wasn’t sure how to explain himself, but he could see Akane figuring it out as he tried to figure out how to word it. He decided to just skip a bit.

‘I took the fall.’ Aoi explained. ‘It’s just five of them - one isn’t here yet - , and I told them all I was meant to be getting them something but ran out of cash. A few of them are pretty pissed, but they’ll get over it. I got Clover something so her and Light won’t get talking about how they both didn’t get anything. And I said we’d exchange the gifts on another day ‘cause exchanging them all’s got messed up as well. So there’s no problem.’

‘There’s a big problem, Aoi!’ Akane protested. Her mouth was wide open in disbelief. ‘You can’t just do that!’

‘Yeah, I know, it’s… pretty bad.’ Aoi admitted. ‘But it’s too late now, so we just gotta go with it, I guess.’

‘No, there’s got to be something we can do…’ Akane’s forehead furrowed in thought. ‘I wish we could get to the transporter. Then I could just create a bunch of Akanes to make presents for everyone…’ The thought of a whole horde of Akane’s running around the place sent a little shiver down Aoi’s spine. Taking care of one was difficult enough.

‘Yeah, well…’ Not having any ideas himself, Aoi trailed off into silence. Akane and he remained there staring blankly in thought until they were eventually interrupted by the buzz of a timer.

‘Oh, that’s the food!’ Akane hurried off to deal with that. She’d been cooking all morning, although she refused to let Aoi see what it was. She was there until the doorbell rang.

Aoi counted the time in his head as it was rung again. Two seconds. A pause. Seven seconds. Six seconds. The code.

Akane was also satisfied that it was safe, and she made it to the door far before Aoi. He chose to watch from his doorway.

As it opened, he saw Diana give an awkward smile as the silence of the apartment was broken by the sounds of bickering from outside.

‘Look, I know how to drive, ok?’

‘Are you serious? That’s the worst experience I’ve ever had in a car, including being kidnapped.’

‘Maybe it would’ve been easier if you shouted less.’

Sigma opened his mouth to snap back at Phi, but was cut off by Diana before he could start.

‘Uh, guys…’ As she began to speak, the pair suddenly gained awareness of their surroundings.

As the four exchanged greetings, I ducked back into my room. Thankfully, these three were the only ones I hadn’t messed with. I’d kind of picked up on the weird situation between them, and being forced to exchange presents might help. As much as Aoi wanted to get presents for Akane, he wasn’t selfish enough not to do that for them. And from the entrance they’d made, it looked like Aoi was right. They needed help. Badly.

So after grabbing the three items exchanged between the three of them, Aoi made his way to their living room, where Akane had led them.

‘I thought we weren’t doing the gifts today?’ Diana looked up at Aoi confusedly from the sofa Akane had invited the three to sit on before going back to her cooking.

‘Oh, well, you guys’ are ready now, and since nobody else has shown up yet, I thought you may as well have them now.’ Aoi tried to explain himself, as he doubted the truth of “You guys seem to hate each other right now so I thought this might help” would go down well.

‘Are you sure you don’t want us to wait until the others’ gifts are ready?’ Diana’s reaction told Aoi that she bought it, and Sigma’s expression made it pretty clear he did too. But Phi was giving Aoi a glare that made him wonder if she’d figured him out. He really hoped she hadnt.

‘Oh, no, it’s totally fine.’ Aoi reassured Diana. ‘Go ahead.’ But despite that, Diana yet again tried to protest. She really was stubborn for someone who seemed so shy. But thankfully for Aoi, the doorbell rang before she could finish.

As the echo of the third ring of the code faded, Aoi excused himself to answer the door. But as he walked through the kitchen, he was accosted by Akane.

‘Aoi, how did you have presents for them all?’ Akane questioned him. ‘Did you just give them some random ones?’

‘Huh? No, I just had theirs. I gave them each other from the start. It was just the others who I… y’know.’ Akane seemed satisfied by the explanation, but Aoi himself was left wondering something as he made his way to the door.

As he opened it, Aoi came face to face with Clover, Light and Lotus. Well, Clover, Light and Hazuki. Aoi was still a little used to using Hazuki’s code name, since they hadn’t known each other before the Nonary Game.

‘Oh, hey.’ Aoi casually greeted them, not paying much attention to them, until something suddenly hit him. ‘Wait, hang on. Did you all come here together?’ The Field siblings always seemed to be with Alice, when she wasn’t off undercover like she was now. Did they bring in Hazuki as a replacement permanently underdressed and angry woman? Aoi could make so many jokes out of that.

‘Ah, no. We arrived at similar times and just met here in the hallway.’ Unfortunately, Light explained before Aoi could make a single joke. He really just had to ruin it, didn’t he? Oh well. Aoi wasn’t really looking forward to spending Christmas in the hospital.

‘Right. Well, you can all go on and head through.’ Aoi gestured to the living room before quickly stepping towards his room, explaining that he just had to grab something.

‘Hmph.’ Hazuki indignantly marched through, clearly upset at not being personally led like this was some kind of fancy restaurant. Aoi could already tell he was going to get a lot of complaints about his hosting from her.

But Aoi continued on, unperturbed by the grumpy old lady. In his room, he spread the six presents he had out on top of his bed. Well, there was what he’d gotten for Clover. He set that one aside. He also set the one from Seven aside

Seven sent a picture of himself and his coworkers with his. It wasn’t exactly “Secret” Santa per se… but whatever. Aoi shouldn’t even be focusing on his. It was a present for Hazuki.

Her and Seven were good friends… at least, Aoi thought so. He could never really figure out what their relationship was. It seemed like some kind of love/hate thing. He thought maybe letting him give her a present might reduce the hate side of things a little, but giving them both each other would be a little suspicious.

But as he thought about all that, Aoi was distracted by the photograph. He hadn’t seen Seven in a long time, and the man looked very different. He’d grown a beard, and even seemed to have lost a little weight, Aoi guessed to look less recognisable to Free the Soul members. Weird.

Anyway, with the others, Aoi could try to use Akane’s idea. Well, sort of. He wasn’t going to do it randomly, but Aoi might be able to reuse these presents. It might turn out horribly, but it was worth a shot.

He just needed to pick someone’s present to give to Light, then. Well… Aoi had no clue. He thought through each of the five others whose gifts sat in front of him again and again, but none held any special relation to Light. Well, Clover did, but the two of them had already exchanged presents of their own, being siblings and all, so that wouldn’t work either.

And as Aoi was trying to figure out if his whole swapping idea would even work, the doorbell began to ring again. Great.

Two seconds. A pause. Four seconds? And nothing else. What the hell was that? Was someone trying to guess their code? Aoi peeked our of his room, and the door was still. At least there was nobody trying to bash it in.

Aoi guessed it was safe to take a quick look through the door’s peephole. He tried to approach the door as silently as he could in the hopes that whoever was out there wouldn’t notice him.

Through the peephole he saw a teenage girl. She was hunched over with her hands on either side of her head. What the hell?

While Aoi was still trying to figure out what was going on, an arm reached down and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. A very muscular arm.

As the man bent down next to the girl, Aoi was able to get a look at him. Satisfied, he slowly opened the door.

‘So this is Maria?’ Aoi asked the man. ‘You never told us she was coming too. It’s kinda weird if she’s not included in the whole gift exchange thing.’ Aoi still refused to call it a ‘Secret Santa’

But the only response Aoi received was a hand help up to stop him. Thus he was left to just wait awkwardly while Carlos slowly coaxed his sister’s hands away from her ears and helped her to stand up straight.

Then, finally, he stepped over to Aoi. Maria slowly followed behind, giving a nervous smile to Aoi as she was introduced.

‘Yeah, this is Maria.’ Carlos went ahead and answered his question as if he had just asked it. Apparently he hadn’t noticed the fact that he’d completely ignored Aoi for a while.

‘Well, she’s recovered from her Reverie Syndrome, but she still has some issues with getting overwhelmed sometimes. She’s doing pretty bad today, so I didn’t want to leave her all alone back at home. That’s not a problem, right?’

So the doorbell had just set her off or something, Aoi guessed. That made sense, but he didn’t exactly understand why Carlos thought a party was going to be the best place for Maria not to be disturbed. But Aoi couldn’t really stop him from having bad ideas, could he?

‘No, it’s fine.’ Aoi told him, returning Maria’s smile as he did so. But as he looked down at the rather short girl, he noticed her tugging on Carlos’ arm and staring intently down the corridor. ‘Uh, is there something there?’

The girl nodded. ‘There’s a big man… coming this way.’ She was painfully quiet. Aoi guessed being in a coma for so long would make someone a little awkward, but still, Maria seemed to be struggling just to get the words out. Aoi felt a wave of pity for the girl.

‘Hm?’ Carlos seemed to finally notice Maria pulling him. Instinctively, he stepped around Maria in order to get between her and the approaching man, nudging her inside towards Aoi, and irritatingly preventing him from being able to take a look.

‘Oh, it’s just Seven.’ Carlos announced. Aoi breathed a silent sigh of relief.. But then he remembered the photo. Would Carlos recognise him?

‘Hey, does he have a beard?’ Aoi shot out at Carlos.

‘Huh? No, why?’ Carlos turned back to look at Aoi inquisitively. He actually turned away from the man. Aoi could not believe how screwed they were.

‘Shit!’ Aoi thrust his hand out and grabbed the doorknob, but barely managed to move it with Carlos in the way. Why didn’t he move, damnit?

Seeming to notice the slight movement, the man shouted to hold the door. His voice did sound really familiar… Aoi could hear his huge thudding footsteps speed up. Within moments, he arrived at the door and flung it completely open.

It was Seven. But… the old Seven. There was no sign of a beard, and he was just as big as before. Aoi didn’t get it. He’d thought the man could be an impostor, but looking at him this close, there was no way. Aoi didn’t know how to react, so he was left just stood there staring for a few very long seconds, before he was interrupted.

‘Hey, somethin’ wrong?’ Seven tilted his head a little as he looked at Aoi. ‘What’re you lookin’ so surprised for?’

‘You…’ It took Aoi a few seconds to regain his composure.. ‘You changed back from that photo. What’s up with that?’

‘There’s a photo?’ Carlos chimed in, clearly having no idea what was going on. I quickly whispered that I would show him later, without taking my eyes off Seven.

‘Oh, yeah!’ Seven seemed to suddenly remember his complete change in appearance, as if it was something trivial and easily forgotten. ‘I tried changing for a bit, ‘cause I thought it might make it harder for all those cult weirdos to recognise me. I didn’t like it though, so I stopped. I thought you all might wanna see the photo.’

Aoi felt impossibly underwhelmed. He’d really just done it all for no reason. Geez…

‘Sure, sounds about right.’ Aoi replied, completely aloof. He shook his head slightly as he did so, just so it would be clear to everyone that he was being sarcastic. Carlos was so nice and boring he didn’t understand Aoi sometimes. ‘Well, come in then.’

He motioned for all three of the guests to come inside, and sent them off to sit with the others while he grabbed the presents. But before he did so, Aoi quickly sent Junpei a text. Everyone else had arrived now, and he just wanted to be sure that Junpei was actually going to make it. He wasn’t exactly known for being reliable.

Having done that, Aoi took another look at the gifts. He just needed to swap them around enough that they wouldn’t go down horribly. And after a little shuffling, Aoi managed to get it sorted. Sorted well enough, at least.

Aoi stacked them up, but before taking them in, checked his phone to see if Junpei replied. He had. Aoi couldn’t wrap his head around it, but Junpei was somehow always too busy to pick up a phone call yet able to reply to a text in seconds. But anyway, the message read:

“Omw but stuck in traffic”

“U guys don’t wait tho”

Aoi let out a sigh. He wasn’t exactly surprised. Junpei was the kind of guy who’d be late to his own funeral. And his wedding. Oh god, that was going to be with Akane. Aoi shuddered at the thought. Sadly, he couldn’t do anything about it, since Akane was way too wrapped up in love to recognise Junpei’s many flaws.

But that was an issue for later. For now, Aoi grabbed the presents and headed over to the others. On his way to the kitchen, he noticed that Akane was finally done there. And sure enough, there were now snacks laid out all over the coffee table. Most people had politely taken just a couple, but Seven was completely demolishing a plate of sausage rolls. Aoi wasn’t sure if there was enough food in the country for him.

As soon as everyone noticed Aoi, the conversation came to a halt. He cleared his throat before speaking to the group.

‘Ok, so… there were some… logistical issues… so we’ve had to swap the presents around a bit. It should all be fine still, but just to keep things from getting weird, could we all not talk about who was meant to get everything?’

‘What kind of “logistical issues” do you have with Secret Santa? It’s not exactly a complicated thing, Aoi.’ Damn. Hazuki didn’t seem to be buying it.

‘Uh…’ Aoi didn’t really have a response to that. Hazuki was making a good point. But thankfully, she was pretty easy to distract.

‘Probably the same logistical issues you had trying to find actual clothes.’ Aoi said dismissively. Hazuki let out a guttural roar, and stood up, poised to lunge at Aoi, when she was grabbed around the waist by Seven, who was perfectly positioned next to her. He’d probably seen something like this coming.

Hazuki shook and protested, but Seven was too strong for her to escape. Eventually she wore herself out and sat down again. The moment she did, Aoi apologised. She turned away from him with an indignant grunt, but seemed to accept it. And that was how to handle Hazuki.

‘Ok, so.’ Aoi broke the awkward silence that had formed. He’d forgotten that not everyone here was as used to Hazuki as he was. Fortunately, their shock did mean that they didn’t object to Aoi’s present swap. Akane was giving him a confused look, but she seemed to understand just to go along with it. ‘Here are the presents.’

He walked around the room, placing four of the carefully wrapped items in front of the people he’d chosen, and holding two himself, his and Junpei’s. Sigma, Diana and Phi already had theirs, but none of them had touched them yet. Akane and Carlos were left without one, however.

‘Oh!’ When she noticed him, Akane jumped up and ran off to the kitchen. She returned carrying a tray, which she laid in front of Carlos. ‘Here’s your present! Oh, guess I kind of ruined the “secret part” though…’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Carlos smiled at Akane. ‘So what is this anyway? Wait-‘ He lifted something up out of the tray. It was a gingerbread man. And there was black icing all over it. Especially on the head. It seemed to have some really emo vibes going on.

‘Is this Junpei?’ He asked. Akane nodded, and they both burst out into laughter, quickly being joined by Sigma, Diana, Phi and Seven. It took Aoi a second longer to get it, but then he recognised the gingerbread man. It was Junpei a year ago, when he dressed all edgy and shit.

To help those who hadn’t known Junpei then, Aoi quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket and pulled up a picture of Junpei that Seven had sent him once. When he held it up next to the gingerbread man, everyone except Light finally got it too.

After a couple of minutes, when they had finally managed to stop laughing, Carlos began to look through the other gingerbread men. There were nine of them, each decorated to look like the nine people who had been at the Mars Mission site, but greatly exxagerated.

‘Akane!’ Carlos chided, still laughing, as he pulled out one that was covered with red icing. Mira. ‘You can’t just have all that blood on her! What if she was here?’

‘She’d probably like it.’ Clover interjected. When everyone stared at her, she continued. ‘What? It’s true. I’ve seen her in prison. She tries to make jokes, but she doesn’t really get humour.’

‘Is this supposed to be me?’ Sigma picked up one of the remaining ones. ‘Hey! Why’s it covered in wrinkles. I’m not old!’

Luckily, he was stopped by a tap on the arm by Diana before he could launch into a whole tirade about his age.

‘Sigma… I’m pretty sure that’s Delta.’ Sigma went bright red as he realised his mistake. But Diana carried on anyway. ‘See, the dark glasses here?’

‘Wait you thought you were the one with glasses?’ Phi jumped in to join the mockery of Sigma. ‘Why would that be you?’

‘I-I dunno!’ Sigma shouted. ‘I thought they were just like… cool shades or something.’

‘“Cool shades”? Since when have you been cool?’

‘Since when haven’t I?’

‘Guys…’ Diana stopped the two from arguing yet again. Doing so seemed to be her main job as a mother/girlfriend.

‘Thank you, Akane.’ Carlos seemed to really appreciate the gift. So did Maria, according to the headless body of Eric in her hand.

‘Ok.’ Now that the interest was dying down again, Aoi took it upon himself to get things moving. ‘Let’s all get to it and open these, right?’

Everyone else nodded and began tearing coloured paper into tiny scraps and making a huge mess that Aoi would definitely have to clean up later. Great.

But instead of opening his, Aoi watched Sigma, Diana and Phi. He’d hoped having them but presents for each other would help them be closer, but there was honestly just as much of a chance of this backfiring completely and screwing up their relationship forever. So there was no pressure there.

Diana was the first to get hers open, due to the kind of half-assed wrapping job. Sigma had somehow wrapped to be about ten times as thick as what was inside it. Apparently it had been done so weirdly to prevent the present from being damaged, but Aoi was pretty sure Sigma’s incompetence was also a major factor.

Whatever the reason, the wrapping fell apart almost as it was picked up by Diana, and she quickly salvaged a sheet of paper from inside. There was a drawing on it. It was tough for Aoi to make out, but it looked like a desert at night. And there was some kind of dome in the ground.

‘Oh…’ Diana turned to face Sigma, who sat on her right. ‘That’s so sweet! I always have wondered what it looked like…’

‘Yeah,’ Sigma returned her warm smile. ‘Well, the moon was a pretty interesting honeymoon destination. I thought you’d want to be able to see it. I know it’s not really realistic, but you can kind of get the idea.’

Sigma was starting to panic, but Diana’s expression stopped him. Then they leant in and kissed. Aoi wasn’t sure whether to look away or not. They just had to be awkward, didn’t they. Thankfully they stopped fairly soon, being interrupted by Phi.

‘Ah!’ Phi had turned away from the lovers and opened incredibly neatly wrapped package. She was completely taken back by what she found inside.

‘Diana? Is this your-?’ Phi spun around as she lifted up her present. It was a small golden birdcage on a similar chain. Inside the cage was a miniscule blue bird. But before Phi could ask her question about it, Diana pulled down the neck of her jumper to reveal an identical necklace of her own.

‘I found the shop where I got mine from,’ Diana explained as she smiled sweetly at her daughter. ‘And I asked them to make another one.’

Tears were starting to brim in Phi’s eyes. Diana wrapped her arms around her and the two embraced for a while. From Aoi’s knowledge, this was what most of their interactions consisted of. Still, these gifts all seemed to be going well.

‘Alright, then.’ Sigma took the opportunity to open his own. Beneath the wrapping paper was a rectangular box, and from that Sigma took… a mug.

Aoi winced when he saw that. A mug? That was one of the worst present ideas he could think of. A mug is the kind of thing a little kid buys on… father’s day or something. Not that Aoi had any experience with those kind of things from his childhood.

Then Sigma spun the mug around in his hand, giving Aoi a view of the other side. There was writing on it. It read

“#1 Dad”

Aoi stared. And stared. And stared. He was in complete disbelief. What kind of present? How would you even find one of those at Christmas? Why would you want to? Was it the very last thing left at the shop? So much for this helping their relationship…

‘Phi…’ Sigma interrupted Aoi’s thoughts as he met the eyes of the girl, who had finally been released from Diana’s hug. ‘This is… purr-fect.’

As Phi held her face in her hands to disguise her laughter, it finally hit Aoi. The point was, Phi was calling him her father. He smiled. Widely. Then stopped himself, since he didn’t want to be seen watching their intimate family moment so intently.

To give them a little privacy, Aoi turned to look at the others. Light had already opened his. It was a large canvas with some really weird art drawn on it. Ugh, abstract. Light was running his hands over it, but didn’t seem to be completely satisfied.

‘I believe I have the general sense of this piece.’ He announced. ‘But not being able to see the art probably detracts from it a little.’

‘Mm…’ Carlos seemed deep in thought. Right, he was the one who this present was from. Weird, Aoi never thought he was much of an artsy type.

‘Hey, Maria, why don’t you talk to Light about it?’ Carlos suggested out of the blue. Light tilted his head a little upon hearing that, prompting Carlos to speak a little more. ‘She’s the one who painted it. It’s based on what she felt during her time unconscious. Maybe it’d be interesting to hear about that, Light. I mean, maybe you can understand that feeling, without your, uh, sight.’

It was a fairly good improvised plan, seeing as the present hadn’t been designed for Light. So with Light’s agreement, Maria finally released Carlos’ arm from her grasp, and moved to sit next to Light.

‘Ah, but first.’ Light paused for a second to think. ‘Aoi, is it you who’s being given my gift?’

‘Uh, yeah, it’s me.’ Aoi wondered how he’d he managed to work that out before everyone had been given their presents. He’d probably been able to figure out how much everything weighed by the sound it made as Aoi put it down, or some crap. Light could do some serious shit without sight.

‘Ah.’ Light didn’t seem particularly thrilled with that. Well, there was no point in Aoi wasting time worrying about that. He ripped open the package and found… plants.

Clovers. Eleven four-leaved clovers. Well, Light wasn’t completely wrong. Aoi had never liked clovers. Not since the last time he’d been given some by Light.

But Aoi couldn’t just keep hanging onto that. Because in the end, Aoi guessed he was following the clovers all throughout those nine years. He’d been doing it all because of his love for Akane, and even though hope and faith were pretty much the same thing, Aoi had certainly needed all of them to work for so long on rescuing his sister.

But Aoi refused to believe that anything was up to luck. He couldn’t handle the idea that he could be unlucky, and the whole thing could fail. And honestly… that was a pretty dumb reason to hate a plant. So Aoi decided not to.

‘Thanks, Light.’ While the other boy couldn’t see it, Aoi did have a little smile on his face.

‘I didn’t think you liked clovers.’ Light mused. ‘Perhaps you’d prefer some different flowers… I could definitely buy some.’

‘I’ve changed my mind. And besides…’ Aoi explained, a little uncomfortable. ‘They weren’t meant for me anyway. They’re a cool present.’

Light looked like he was about to say something else, but Maria was very eager to talk to him, so he merely smiled at Aoi before turning to the girl and letting her speak.

Aoi realised as she launched into her description, Light nodding every so often, that she hadn’t spoken at all since they got in. It was weird to see her so animated all of a sudden. Still, Aoi guessed it was good.

‘Hey, Carlos.’ Aoi did have a little suspicion to confirm though, and so he leant towards him and whispered. ‘You just wanted a break for a little, right? Don’t worry, I’d do the same with Akane.’

‘Maybe a little.’ Carlos smirked, still shaking out his arm, which hadn’t moved in a while. ‘But it’s mainly because I want to see her speaking. She’s not really been good with people since her coma.’

‘Don’t worry, I’d do the same with Akane.’ Aoi’s sister could be very high maintenance, so he did enjoy a little time on his own every so often.

But as he was whispering, Aoi noticed the present he’d bought being opened. As he turned to her, Clover was excitedly tearing off the wrapping paper. Inside she found a pack of panties. Shocked, she looked up and immediately made accidental eye contact with Aoi. It was pretty clear she realised it was him Shit.

‘Aoi! What the heck are these?’ She waved the panties in the air, catching the attention of pretty much everyone in the room. Aoi was kind of forced to explain himself then. Oh well, at least it was a funny story. At the very least, Seven would enjoy it.

‘Ok, ok, I’ll explain.’ He hell his hands up defensively. ‘I thought you’d remember, Clover. It was the first time we went on a mission together. We had to climb up a fire escape to get into someone’s apartment. Then, being the gentleman I am, I let Clover climb the steps in front of me. And when she did-‘

‘Stop!’ Clover suddenly interrupted, remembering the story. ‘Why the hell were you still thinking about that, you perv?

‘Hey, believe me, it wasn’t a pleasant experience for me either.’ Aoi replied. There’d had been a lot of screaming on that fire escape. So much that they managed to alert the apartment’s owner and ruin the mission.

‘The stair trick.’ Sigma shook his head. ‘Classic.’

‘Ugh! Why are you all like this?’ Clover shoved the panties into her pocket and crossed her arms sulkily.

‘Y’know, I’m not sure you can be complainin’ about inappropriate presents, Clover.’ Seven held up his own, that he’d apparently opened earlier.

It was a photo of Clover, Lotus and Akane. Lotus was wearing a variation of her usual weird clothes, Clover had on her ‘disguise wear’, which was just as revealing, and Akane…

‘Akane?’ Aoi turned to confront his sister. Even with her looking as uncomfortable as she did in the photo, Aoi was not ok with it. ‘When was this?’

‘We’ve had girls’ outings!’ Akane protested. Aoi knew about those, but he had no idea this kind of stuff was what they did there.

‘Wait, hang on!’ Something had dawned on Clover. ‘How do you have that?’

‘What d’you mean?’ Seven asked. ‘It’s my present. Oh yeah, thanks for that, Clover.’

‘What? No! That wasn’t meant to be for you! I don’t want you doing all… creepy stuff with it!’

Clover made a grab for the photo, but Seven saw her coming. He stood up and held the picture high above his head.

‘Hey! Give me that, you sicko!’ Clover kept jumping and grabbing at it, but Seven kept it firmly out of her reach. Carlos apparently felt the need to try and stop them, but his efforts to reason with the pair were in vain.

As the fight was ongoing, the doorbell rang. Finally. That had to be Junpei. Aoi quickly excused himself and hurried to the door. Opening it, he was greeted by the sight of a black gas mask. The doorbell hadn’t been rung in the code.

‘Shit!’ Aoi put all his force into a shove, pushing the person backwards. They tripped over a cardboard box, and fell flat on the ground, the impact knocking off the mask. Aoi cautiously stepped towards him until he could see the person’s face.

‘Junpei? What the hell, man?’ Aoi could not believe this. It wasn’t enough for Junpei to be this late, he had to try and pull something like this too. ‘Use the damn code, at least.’

‘Oh, right.’ Junpei replies as he stood himself up again. ‘Sorry, guess I forgot about that. But come on, that was pretty funny.’

Aoi refused to give him the benefit of a laugh. Instead, he asked Junpei about the box.

‘Oh, that’s Akane’s present. Yeah, could you give me a hand carrying that in.’ Aoi obliged and they lifted the box together and walked into the apartment..

‘Oh, try to be gentle with it.’ Junpei instructed. When Aoi didn’t reply, Junpei sighed. ‘Look, man, I know you’re pissed at me for being late, but I’ve got a good reason, ok? I’ll explain it soon.’

‘Alright.’ I was pretty sure Junpei was just still trying to think of what excuse to give, but I figured I’d just let him go ahead and say whatever he was going to and then tell him it was bullshit.

As they made it over to the others and set the box down, Junpei got a few greetings from the others, and one especially excited one from Akane.

Aoi scooped up the present from Hazuki and threw it to Junpei, who barely managed to catch it without it falling on the floor. ‘Yeah, here’s yours.’

‘Hey! Be careful with that!’ Hazuki shouted. ‘It’s made of expensive stuff, so don’t go breaking it.’

‘I thought we weren’t spending much money?’ Sigma asked upon hearing that.’’Cause if not, I definitely want another mug.’

‘Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t buy any of it.’ Hazuki explained. ‘I got it from work.’

‘Wait, so you just stole expensive stuff from your job? Don’t they care about that?’ Seven questioned her. ‘Maybe I should arrest you.’

‘Everyone takes office supplies!’ Hazuki defended herself. ‘Don’t make such a big deal out of it.’

‘Yeah, but look at this thing!’ While we were all focused on Hazuki, Junpei had unwrapped his gift, and he now held it out for us all to see. It was a small square box with a screen set into it. ‘This is a computer. With a touchscreen. That stuff’s expensive. When people take office supplies they take, like… pens.’

‘Once I tried to take a pen from SOIS.’ Clover added. ‘Alice really did not like that… She still talks about it.

Ignoring her, Junpei turned on the box and tapped the screen a little before looking back up at Hazuki. ‘So you play sudoku on it?’

‘Well, I thought some practice was in order.’ Hazuki said, pointing at Junpei and Akane. ‘Last time you two had to play sudoku, we all almost got burnt to death.’

‘Geez…’ Junpei seemed to find it kind of funny. Then he turned it off and gasped. ‘When it goes off… it has… the Funyarinpa!’

‘It’s a dog, Junpei!’ Hazuki snapped back. Stop calling it that made up name.

‘Made up?’ Junpei sounded even more indignant than Hazuki, which was an achievement if I’d ever seen one. But sadly, I couldn’t just sit back and watch this.

‘Akane?’ I whispered to her. ‘We gotta stop this. You deal with Junpei.’

With that, I stepped towards Hazuki, and just as she stood up in rage, grabbed what she’d been sitting on. I’d noticed that her present had disappeared at some point, and from then on there was something peeking out from underneath her.

‘Hey, this is your present, right? From Seven?’ As Aoi said that, Hazuki wheeled around and found me holding some… official police documents. What a fun present.

But then Aoi opened the first page and saw was the documents were about.

“Gentarou Hongou, prison escapee was found crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S and taken into custody.”

‘Hey, wait, why were you hiding this?’ I asked Hazuki. Why would she keep good news like that from us.

‘It’s not real.’ Seven cut in. Before I could speak again, he continued. ‘Hazuki’s kids told me they were having nightmares about him after they saw he got out on the news. So I made those myself. Thought it might help ‘em.’

‘I hope it will…’ Hazuki avoided making eye contact with anyone. ‘They’re starting to feel like they did back when they first went through all that…’

‘They’ll be fine.’ Seven reassured her. ‘They’ve got a pretty good mother looking out for ‘em… even if she’s not much good at controllin’ her anger.’

The two of them smiled hopefully at each other. Aoi didn’t really know what to add, so he glanced around for something to detract from the awkwardness. Doing so, he saw Akane about to open her present. Perfect.

Aoi stepped over just in time to see Akane open the box and pick up something small. A tiny, black and white rabbit.

‘It’s just like…’ Akane began speaking.

‘The ones from school.’ Junpei finished her sentence. I did vaguely remember Akane showing me a rabbit hutch at her school one day, way back when we were kids. Oh yeah, she was in charge of taking care of it with Junpei. I guess they must’ve spent a lot of time together there.

I had to admit, it was a pretty sweet gesture, to think way back to something like that. Especially for someone like Junpei, who struggled to remember anything. Well, he wasn’t really as bad as Aoi made him out to be. He still had a lot of issues though. Like his lateness.

‘Oh, yeah, Aoi?’ Junpei somehow managed to interrupt Aoi’s thoughts just at the right time. ‘This is why I was so late. The shelter wanted to do a background check, to make sure I wasn’t going to abuse it or anything. And since I just disappeared for a year, they got suspicious and it ended up taking a long time to get it sorted out, and that made me late. So, yeah, I’m sorry for it though.’

‘Alright.’ It was a fair excuse. Aoi was being a little harsh on the guy, even if it was kind of his job as the older brother. ‘But don’t think you’re odd the hook for that gas mask stunt. That must have taken at least a little time. It was pretty funny, though, I’ll give you that.’

They shared a quick smile before Akane interrupted.

‘Oh, Jumpy? Does he have a name?’ She asked. Apparently she’d determined that the rabbit was male.

‘No, but I was thinking of calling him Santa.’ Junpei surprised Aoi with that. ‘Y’know, because it’s Christmas, and there’s that whole story with the Black Santa and the White Santa.’

Aoi had thought about about that story a lot, as a failed Santa. Well, he thought of himself as a failed Santa. But…

He had failed to give Akane what she wanted back then. For everything to stay the same. But looking around right now, Aoi couldn’t really say things were worse than back then. The pair were still broke, and they’d been through some terrible things, but Aoi had to admit that without all of that, they never would have met any of their friends here.

And looking around at the scene surrounding him; the Klim family joking with each other; Hazuki confiding in Seven about her daughters; Light helping Maria talk more confidently; Carlos offering Clover to eat Sigma as a symbolic victory against “the pervs”; and Junpei and Akane playing with their new pet, Aoi couldn’t really fall this a failure. It had all worked out pretty damn well.

And while it was too early, as a Santa himself, Aoi was already looking forward to next Christmas.

[valarhalla]

Dr Maru’s notes, translated

As an Assyriologist-in-training, I was pretty excited about cuneiform’s little cameo in Wonder Woman- there are no films at all about Mesopotamia, so even three seconds of flipping through a notebook of the languages I study was pretty exciting to see on the big screen. Now, I assumed at first that the writing in Dr Maru’s notebook, would simply be gibberish, but one thing about it stuck with me: how well copied the letters were. Now, Cuneiform writing was designed for clay and stylus, and it is BRUTALLY hard to write cuneiform symbols with pen and paper. You’d think you could just draw a bunch of triangles, but nope; the system was so clearly designed to use nuances only possible with stylus and clay, they’re nigh on impossible to accurately reproduce using pen. And whoever wrote that piece of paper did a damn good job of it. So, I remained convinced the text might actually have some meaning, and when I got home I started tinkering with it.

First things first: though the notes were described in the film as “Sumerian and Ottoman”, they’re not Sumerian. Dr Maru’s notes are very clearly written in the quite distinctive script of Neo-Assyrian Cuneiform, which was used on official inscriptions of the Assyrian Empire from around 1000- 700 BC. Sumerian died out as a spoken language in around 2000 BC and though it continued to be used in writing long after that in the same way Latin was in Europe, it was probably never written in the formal Assyrian script.

I’m going to safely assume the man who mistakenly called the page “Sumerian and Ottoman” got it wrong, but the fact that Diana doesn’t correct this, despite her vastly superior knowledge of ancient languages is interesting. Consider this though: historians estimate the destruction of the site of Hissarlik, which is thought MIGHT be the inspiration for the Troy legends to around 1300 BC, around the time of the Bronze Age collapse and dawn of the Greek Dark Ages. If we take this as the end of the Greek Mythic age and the hiding of Themiscyra in the DC Universe, Diana would only have been able to study Cuneiform scripts written before this period so she would know only Old Babylonian Cursive, or possibly even only Old Babylonian Lapidary. Neo-Assyrian script would be just legible with effort, but difficult for her to read.

Now, the way cuneiform works is that any one cuneiform symbol can represent one or more alphabetic sounds, OR syllables, OR entire words. Most stand for a number of those things, but some represent only one. The symbols that represent entire words are called Logograms, and they remained largely consistent through all the changes of the cuneiform writing system. If Dr Maru’s notes were primarily written in Logograms (which they turned out to be), it would make sense for Diana to still be able to read them despite the considerable changes between Old Babylonian Lapidary and Neo-Assyrian script, and also that she wouldn’t have to know Assyrian-era Akkadian to understand the logographic signs (because they represent whole words at once rather than spell them out alphabetically, they can be understood by speakers of multiple languages who know the signs).

So having sorted all that out, I began to translate. Virtually all the symbols were logograms standing for words like mountain, woman, king, builder etc, but a limited few stood for single syllables like “ru” or “ti”. This made no sense, because the signs used were consistent enough with the actual context in the film to make some sense and logically repetitive. Whoever wrote this knew what they were doing. Why intersperse them with random letters? I finally realised: Dr Maru is a chemist. The way her code works is that she uses mostly logograms, but uses signs for syllables when those syllables are our modern symbols for chemical elements. Every sign where a syllable-only translation was my only option, that syllable matched up with the abbreviation for a chemical element in the periodic table.

So, working with the assumption that Dr Poison’s code technique is using Logograms to represent whole words, and the symbols for sole syllables like ka, ga, la etc in their standard transcriptions from cuneiform to represent chemical elements, here it is at last, the first page of Dr Maru’s notebook:

 To divide the town, one unit of the weapon to the throne of the builder: to please the builder, in the company of the god: lithium, 1 grain/seed of europium. 1 daughter of gold woman -  yours. Country [given?] to god and then [to] lord/god/king. Ruthenium possibility, carbon disulfide*, and then rhenium. May it be pleasing to the country. Animal shoulder** Uunhexium*** . Lord/god and then gallium, and then radium. Weapon, iodine, administrator.

 *This sign can mean “tree, wood” or, just stand for the sound “s”. So, i was left with a choice between carbon and sulfur, and settled on the compound

**I have no fricking idea why that’s in there, but it’s definitely that sign. Maybe she wants to make a pot roast and scribbled it down? Someone draw me happy dr maru and her pot roast pls

***This sign was VERY hard to identify, but i finally settled on the Old Babylonian Lapidary sign for “uuh”. Uuh also happens to be the chemical symbol for Ununhexium or Livermorium, a rare earth element not identified until the year 2000. This is strange, because this sign is CLEARLY Lapidary, while all the others are in the Neo-Assyrian script. So my conclusion is that Dr Poison isolated Uunhexium 92 years ahead of the game, it’s her big secret, and decided it needed a unique Logogram of its own, for which she adopted the sign for Uuh.

[theconservativebrief]

The debate over current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s future in House leadership has turned acrimonious and, given the nature of the argument, personal. But if you step back a bit from the infighting, it’s easy to see that Pelosi and her critics are making fundamentally compatible points.

On one side, Democratic Party loyalists and the bulk of the House caucus feel that Pelosi’s earned the job — she’s good at it. She holds the caucus together. She raises astounding sums. She’s arguably better at the job than any other modern speaker. Pointing to her competency, Pelosi and many of her allies accuse her critics of sexism and ageism.

Pelosi critics, meanwhile, don’t generally dispute that she delivers in the House. Their objection boils down to the fact that they do not think Pelosi is a strong communicator who should serve as the face of the party, especially as the newly elected Democratic majority in the House becomes the major locus of resistance to President Donald Trump.

It seems pretty clear at this point that Pelosi is going to triumph and retake the gavel. And as an effective leader, she ought to move to address her real weakness; Pelosi should make sure that someone else is in place to serve as the unofficial national party spokesperson — someone who goes on television to argue with Trump and the Republicans.

Pelosi’s closest allies have never maintained that her great strength in politics is as a stump speaker or a high-energy television presence. Pelosi’s critics are a grab-bag of conservative members, restive progressives, and newly elected members from swing districts — all of whom are united more by a lack of seniority in Congress than by a distinct ideological perspective. They don’t really have a coherent critique of her leadership or a different direction in mind, they just don’t want her to be a national lightning rod when a more-effective messenger could represent them.

The speaker could be a constant presence in national media, routinely appearing on Sunday morning chat shows, firing off tweets, producing in-house web videos, headlining rallies, and dishing out pithy quotes to Washington’s top reporters. But the speaker doesn’t have to do that work. And the person who does certainly doesn’t have to be the speaker.

So to the extent that the controversy is really about who goes on television rather than who leads the party, Pelosi and her critics should try to work something out.

Congress is weird, and one of the weird things about it is that people who spend a lot of time in Congress start to care about the elaborate details of congressional leadership posts.

For example, right now Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is “conference chair,” the No. 3 position in the Democratic hierarchy. He is set to move up to majority whip, which is a higher title (leader > whip > chair), but still No. 3 in the hierarchy because with Democrats in the majority, the speaker will outrank the leader.

Back in the real world, nobody gives a damn what Clyburn’s title is or who the chair or whip of the Democratic caucus is — most people don’t even have any idea what any of this means.

What people care about is what prominent members do: raise funds, recruit candidates, speak in public, develop policies, push factional agendas, build consensus, effectively stand in against the opposition, etc.

A model for this is House Speaker Paul Ryan. He was a prominent leader of House Republicans long before he became speaker. He wasn’t even part of the leadership hierarchy. He was Budget Committee chair and then later led the Ways and Means Committee.

He drew up PDFs and slides about Republican Party policy ideas and convinced credulous reporters to take them seriously. He became the party’s ideas man and face. He was good at it. Ryan had useful skills and he deployed those skills in a fairly consistent way, even while wearing a range of different hats and job titles.

In the case of House Democrats, the thing that gives members the willies isn’t the idea of Pelosi holding a gavel or having a nice office or getting to use the speaker’s special letterhead. It’s the idea of Pelosi as a constant presence in national political media who voters back home will see as the most prominent symbol of the Democratic Party.

When Pelosi’s allies make the case for Pelosi, none of them say that she routinely kicks ass on Morning Joe. They say she’s a prolific and tireless fundraiser, she builds consensus inside a diverse caucus, she’s a shrewd legislative tactician, and she deserves credit for holding things together when the Affordable Care Act seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.

Compared to those substantive strengths, it can sound a little silly to say, “Okay, but what we really want is to kick ass on Morning Joe.”

That said, Morning Joe isn’t going away. Trump is incredibly skilled at controlling the media agenda. And since many prominent Democrats are going to spend the next 18 months running against each other for the 2020 presidential nomination, someone has to try to be a unifying spokesperson for the party.

Pelosi’s discursive style of speaking does not lend itself to sound bites. There are no viral Pelosi clips, no iconic Pelosi speeches, and no vast cheering crowds at Pelosi rallies. The speaker doesn’t necessarily need to be a high-wattage, charismatic public communicator. But — especially if she isn’t going to be those things — someone else has to step up.

It might be most natural to have Pelosi’s deputy step in and serve in a larger public-facing role.

House Democrats’ problem, however, is that the No. 2 and No. 3 people in the leadership hierarchy — Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Clyburn — are basically identical to Pelosi in this regard. Clyburn was born in 1940 and has been in Congress for 25 years. Hoyer is a year older and has been in Congress since longer than several newly elected members have been alive. They’re products of an earlier era, and as veteran lawmakers they’re more comfortable with congressional jargon than with mass communication.

But Democrats have a bunch of viable options in the next generation of party leadership. The task is to find someone reasonably agreeable and someone who wants to do the job in a good-faith way.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), for example, who’s been leading the charge against Pelosi, could conceivably do this well. But he would have to commit to genuinely speaking for the party rather than positioning himself for a Senate primary or musing about a presidential run.

David Cicilline (D-RI) would be a more progressive choice but, again, would have to commit to speaking for the party consensus rather than serving as a factional voice. Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), who spearheaded the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s successful 2018 campaign and is looking to move up in leadership, seems in many ways an obvious choice to me, but he seemed to shy away from the spotlight as Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair and maybe doesn’t want to do it.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) could serve instead of pursuing her futile-looking challenge to Clyburn for the No. 3 spot, or Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) who currently serves as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, could take the reigns as solo chair and step into a larger public role.

In an ideal world, the big three currently running the Democratic caucus would work on this problem as part of a larger project of crafting a succession strategy. Pelosi’s successor should probably be someone with experience in leadership, which means moving to anoint someone younger than Hoyer and Clyburn as heir apparent. And offering some kind of roadmap to retirement would calm the restiveness among ambitious members who are pushed to either rebel or leave the House.

But whatever Pelosi does with her future, she ought to show the wisdom of a real leader and acknowledge that there is truth in the criticism of her as a communicator and move to actually address it.

Her greatest success as speaker, after all, came when the extremely charismatic Barack Obama was in office to serve as the face of the Democratic Party, leaving her to do the work of crafting a legislative strategy.

The precise circumstances today are different, but the conceptual division of labor is sound. While it would hardly quiet all criticism of her leadership, it would do an enormous amount to address what’s driving the constant swirl of controversy.

Original Source -> House Democrats don’t need a leader, they need someone to represent them on TV

via The Conservative Brief

[canaryatlaw]

Agh, it's late and I have to wake up at least semi-early so I want to make this quick but I also have so much to talk about....issues lol. But today was so good! Really awesome all around. So I woke up at 9:45 and got ready for the baby shower, then drove there with my mom and my sister. It was at this really pretty restaurant that backs up right on this lake and the view was actually the prettiest thing ever, and despite it initially being chilly it actually turned into a gorgeous day! It was so nice. The baby shower was really fun! I was so happy to see my cousin and just celebrate with her because ahhhh I love babies so much and I'm going to love this baby so so much. I didn't know most of the people there other than a girl from high school in my grade who goes to the same church as my cousin and they're in the same small group. I thought she would be there and I kind of wanted to see her too because she's also pregnant right now and she's like, the first girl who was there all the way through high school (she technically left senior year but she was always around anyway so I don't really count it) that got pregnant and we were always friendly so it was nice to see her too. The food was really good, it was brunch so they had like Mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, French toast and fried potatoes and such. They did a little game where they passed out cards with things like "learned to walk at 9 months" on them and you had to guess if it was the mom or the dad that did that as a baby. I was kind of cheating off my mother because she was around at the time enough to know which was my cousin for almost all of them lol so I ended up getting all but one random one right. She opened all her presents, and we got her a bassinet that they'll use for a while before moving to a crib. And they got lots of books since that was the thing they asked for instead of cards which was nice. So yeah, I really enjoyed it. After it was over we ended up dropping my sister off at her friend's house for a bit and then headed home. My dad and my brother were gonna take a trip out to the outlets to look for suits, so I decided to join them because, lol, clothes. I did need some blazers and just general work clothing for the summer and such. The first store was Sachs 5th avenue "off 5th" outlet which has a ton of different designers and has some really reasonable stuff, and dude, I just kind of went nuts and ended up with so much clothing, lol. I got this cute floral t-shirt from this company that made another tshirt I got from there are really like, and a super cool leather jacket with a hood that totally reminds me of Jessica Jones and I love it. I got two blazers, one gray and one tan, which is good because I was wanting more neutral colors. And then there were the dresses, and I just kept finding dresses that would be like, perfect for work that were in my size and reasonably priced so I was like "well okay I'll try them on" and all but 1 fit really well and looked nice haha plus one dress that was more like for a party and its pink and black which has always been like my favorite color combination for dresses but I never find anything with it so I was super happy about it. And yeah, my dad was just like "k cool" and just bought everything haha sooo that was pretty awesome. Neither my dad or my brother actually found any suits at the stores they looked at, so I was the only one that ended up buying anything lol. Went home and got Chinese for dinner, then not long after that my sister's friend who's staying over and coming with us to the show tomorrow came over and hung out for a little bit (we're friends) before we went to pick up my sister and went to see Wonder Woman! Ahhh, I knew it was going to be amazing and it totally met every expectation I had. Like, it was just so damn good and I loved every minute of it. Gal Godot was absolutely perfect, like she was just completely Diana I don't know how to say it any other way lol. Chris Pine was excellent as well, and they did a good job balancing his storyline as the "male lead" but still making it very clear that this is her story and he was very much aware of that. The scenes with little Diana were too cute as I knew they would be, I was like, squeeing the entire time just like "she's so cute!!!!" And I loved the whole Zeus backstory with the "godkiller" and immediately I was like oh, it's not the sword, I know where this is going lol. The battle scene with the Amazons was so freaking fantastic, there was so much amazing fight choreography going on I couldn't even take it. I love Diana's character so much just because I feel her like so much. It's like I said about the line from the trailer, the "who would I be if I stay?" and I loved how much that showed in the scene with the trenches and no man's land where she just doesn't accept that there's "nothing she can do to help these people" and is just totally badass and blows everybody away. That was an AWESOME action scene. And of course the ultimate showdown was pretty epic. It was interesting how they did it. I have to say, I didn't expect her to get an actual showdown with Aries. I didn't really expect him to be making an appearance, lol, but as soon as that guy had come onscreen earlier I was like HE'S EVIL and I totally knew the whole time he was gonna end up betraying them so I felt satisfied in that. The fight with the general was pretty sweet, but then Diana afterwards when she saw man still fighting was so sad and I wasn't sure how they were gonna come back from that, but they did it amazingly well to have Aries show up and try to get her to feed into what she was feeling only for her to just reject it. And STEVE. AHHHHH. I legit cried as the plane exploded. Such an awesome self-sacrificing hero. Often in stories we are characters prepared to sacrifice themselves, but they somehow get out alive. We knew that wasn't gonna be the case here. Steve was all in, and he was going out like a hero, and oh how beautiful it was. I really, really loved his storyline. I was wondering how they were going to have Diana discover that she was the "weapon" when she wasn't told it by the time she left the island, and having Aries tell her was just such an excellent choice because it made her realizing her power and roaring up to use it against him that much more incredible. And the wristcuffs! AHHH! I died, it was so great I could keep going on about it for quite a while but I'm sure you get the idea. So yeah, I was really satisfied with it and very happy DC finally knocked one out of the park, and that it was such an epic female movie (there was a moment at dinner when the all-female showing of it came up and my dad was just like "I just don't see why they had to make a movie into a political statement" and then was like "what would an all-female showing be if not a political statement?" and I literally laughed in his face before yelling a lot about women's safety and existing in public and how only men could see that as a political issue). So afterwards of course we just came home and hung out for a few before getting ready for bed in preparation for tomorrow, and in anticipation of that early morning I'm not going to drone on any longer about what it will consist of because you will be hearing plenty about it tomorrow! So I will talk to you then. Goodnight, awesome females (and occasional male). Stay wonderful.