#basically a weapon of mass seduction

[ayoooo3]

Another take it and run idea- once upon a time someone posted something with hint of this idea and I haven’t been able to forget it. So here’s a snippet- if you want to grab it make into something bigger I’d love to read it!

Before doing anything with Steve Eddie always takes off his rings, sets them on his side table. They make a little noise, each time the same, as they tumble into each other. And then Eddie slowly takes Steve apart, Steve slipping into sub space so nicely under Eddie’s hands.

One day in the kitchen Steve is working at the table and Eddie is about to start dinner, so he takes off his rings and sets them near Steve. He starts cooking, chattering away about his day. It takes a minute for him to realize Steve hasn’t responded. When he turns around, there’s Steve, sitting so pretty at the table, his hands resting gently on his thighs, his eyes glossed over as they track Eddie’s movements slowly. He’s so far gone that he barely moves when Eddie steps into his space.

“What happened baby, where’d you go?” Eddie tips Steve face up to meet his eyes, Steve swallows heavily and let’s his eyes drag to the rings sitting a foot away on the edge of the table.

And that’s how Eddie learns he accidentally Pavlov dogged Steve into sub-space at the sound of his rings being set down on a wooden surface.

[xmangokun]

MY NEW AU——THE FAKE GOD！ AU

[Background

This setting is not related to any three times.

It is an AU setting based on your own TSP private settings.

[Origin].

Is the combination of all the dirty desires and emotions in human history, the Origin is a mass of unnamable mixture, rootless and unable to be eliminated, no one knows how it was born, with the development of mankind it seems to be more and more powerful, more and more insidious ……

It seems to believe that humans will eventually be destroyed by their own desires, and it will erode some humans from time to time. Normal humans who are eroded will usually do radical actions that do not conform to common sense, such as randomly killing people, causing public destruction, or committing collective suicide.

Only in a very small probability can he be seen in [this world], and those who have looked directly at its origin will basically go insane and die, but there are a small number of people who will go to a different end, and that is ……

[Favour].

Most of the time [Origin] won't directly affect humans, as those who are directly eroded will have their lifespan drastically reduced and lose their sanity, while those who have received [Favour] will be different, as they will tend to transform into a [False God] like species.

Through dreams, [Origin] can bestow [favours] on humans of his choice, and so far ‘almost’ no human has been able to resist the brainwashing of his [favours].

False Gods

are those humans who have been granted [favours] by the Source, and in a sense are no longer human beings.

The [Pseudo-Gods] will spread the thoughts of the [Source] so that the [Source] can infect more humans more perfectly, ordinary humans will die almost immediately if they are directly infected, the contagion is not strong, so the [Source] needs its own children [Pseudo-Gods] as a medium to influence this world.

Some of the [Pseudo-Gods] will maintain their human-era personalities, but most of the [Pseudo-Gods] will have their personalities changed to some degree after being transformed.

Pseudo-Gods are more inclined to be human beings after being transformed by the Source, with extremely long lifespans and high intelligence, but [Pseudo-Gods] are puppets completely subordinate to the Source, they have no [selves], even if they have extremely high seduction abilities or extremely high intelligence, but their minds are completely subordinate to the [Pseudo-Gods], and they won't be shaken by anyone else in terms of their belief in the Source, and the only way is to kill them, so that they can be taken away from the source of the world. way is to kill them and free them from [Origin]'s control.

[Erosion].

The longer a Pseudo-God stays in a place, the more erosion occurs in that place, and the more abnormal it will become, even creatures and humans will mutate, which is why many strange sightings will occur.

[A way to kill the False God

Some humans knew about the existence of the Pseudo-Gods and the Origin, and organised an association called [OPA] (Original Processing Association), which discovered crystals that could inhibit the actions of the [Pseudo-Gods] from some of the humans who were [suicidal] due to the influence of the Origin.

The OPA used these crystals to make weapons that would be used to confront the Pseudo-God when he appeared.

However, this is still a drop in the bucket, pseudo-gods are almost impossible to kill…they can always cloak themselves from the world and have strong recovery abilities, and can directly mentally contaminate humans, OPA's members are all extremely mentally resilient characters, so perhaps this is the last ray of hope for mankind.

[Description of Main Characters

Human Group (?) .:

Stanley.

The protagonist of this work, all the stories revolve around him.

Because he got lost while travelling and mistakenly entered a town with no signal whatsoever, the town's inhabitants were kind enough to take him in and told him that a bus would come to the town after a while, and that he could return to his original place via this bus then.

Stanley found that the town seemed to believe in a religion he had never heard of before, probably some local religion, Stanley thought.

The residents often invited Stanley to listen to the teachings of their religion, and Stanley found that he wasn't repulsed by it, but somehow there was a sense of dissonance ……

One day, one of the church's priests seemed a little surprised to see Stanley arrive ……

Violet James (Jim)

Vice President of the OPA, currently exploring the town alone, gaining the trust of the residents by going undercover himself and becoming one of the church's priests, waiting for the right period of time to wait for the False Gods to show up and then kill Him.

He was surprised when he saw Stanley, a newcomer, enter the town, and he wanted to immediately reach out to the still-untainted lamb and perhaps add his own company.

Effectively a human who had once been brainwashed by the Origin, but had not been successfully brainwashed, and was in a state between a human and a pseudo-god, and although he also died, he himself aged much slower than a human, and had a very strong ability to recover and fight.

Called ‘No. 432’ or ‘Prisoner of Time’ by the Origin and its puppets, it is a very special existence for the Origin. Perhaps this was the key to killing the False God.

Despite resisting the Origin's brainwashing, Jim's mental state was still very unstable, and the brainwashing of the Origin and the Pseudo-Gods still interfered with his mind from time to time. But it was all resistable.

Mariella

A brave and cheerful girl who is a member of the OPA and is in charge of Jim's outreach. Although there's no signal in the town, Jim can hike a little further out where there's an OPA liaison station, but that can't be exposed.

Mariara is in charge of compiling reports on Jim's observations of the pseudo-gods, trying to discover their weaknesses in them.

The non-human group:

Narrator.

A pseudo-god who became a god after being brainwashed by the Origin, he spreads his teachings in this town and is usually barely visible.

Retaining his personality from his human days, he is a very irritable pseudo-god.

His teachings are ‘From now on, you need only follow my voice, and you don't need to think about anything else, free will doesn't exist’.

Curator

A pseudo-god who became a pseudo-god after being brainwashed by the Origin, she is the sister of the narrator, and hardly shows up at all.

Somewhat concerned about Jim's appearance, seems to see that Jim is an undercover agent in ambush, but He doesn't care, He thinks it's fun to tease the little guy, he'll end up being destroyed anyway.

Instead of broadcasting doctrine, he is responsible for monitoring the residents of the town and the administration of the area, monitoring the residents for any ‘irregularities’ and ‘correcting’ them.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

the last reference:Dstory_to_NG

[fiestylittlebeetle]

I probably mentioned this before for khyware in GC

Cw kidnapping and toxic relationships

But Mal gets ditched by Khyber in the initial fight with Ben that reveals Mal is no longer up to snuff

But Khyber does come back later for him, and not in a romantic way. In a shitty possessive way.

Khyber manages to get his shit together and he's mostly back in the hunting game, trying for new trophies, even starts to build up a new collection. And he wants malware in that collection, after all, he is a rare one of a kind being, and one with a reputation at that.

Khyber doesn't really view malware as a person, and he's useless as a weapon now.

He views Mal as a prize.

Now, in what I'm imagining, he comes back for Malware after Aether has already become involved, so Mals recovery is already coming alone well by this point. Aether and him aren't together together but feelings abound if you know what I mean.

My idea is Khyber gets Malware alone, probably luring him away. And maybe even tries to play at romance cause, he's not stupid. He knows when they were together Mal was getting attached before Khyber ditched him to Bens mercy.

Unfortunately he miscalculates on plan A (seduction) and Mal is extremely not interested and is in fact pissed at him for even thinking he is anymore, like how fucking dare Khyber come to him like this after straight up abandoning him. Not happening.

Khyber has a plan B though, which is capturing him by force using a powerful magnetic device to disrupt his body mass and incompasitate him.

Mals disappearance does not go un-noticed. Especially not by Ben (who's basically in charge of making sure he doesn't go evil again.) and DEFINITELY not by Aether, who cares about and tries to regularly communicate with Mal.

Aether actually approaches Ben about not hearing from Mal in a few days. And being worried something happened. Ben thinks Mal might have betrayed them all (everyone else is like "he's been doing great lately though why would he do that" even Kevin is like "doesn't sound right to me")

Ben wants to track him down to ask him "what the fuck" if he did betray them. Aether goes with him cause he's worried.

They end up tracking him down to Khyber's ship where he's being kept. And Bens first thought is "oh he's with Khyber again" but upon searching his ship for him he's quickly proven wrong, as they find him contained in glass and restricted by powerful magnets (Khyber thought he looked prettier alive, also malware has plot armor now)

(Side note: I think Khyber was affected by the nemetrix in an almost similar way to Phil, and can mutate slightly with Tyrannopede. He doesn't go full but he does get bigger and has certain physical features of the tyranno)

So Ben and Aether work together to kick his ass.

I know I said Aether isn't much for fighting but he is PISSED at Khyber. Like first of all, Malware is a PERSON not a Prize. And second of all, that's his CRUSH you bastard!

Anyway they save Malware obviously and he's shook up. Ben feels bad for thinking he betrayed them. And Aether is just relieved he's at least alive.

[johnlocsin-johnyakuza]

So, I made some extra Stands based on Arcana exclusive to Persona

First up we have...

Stand Name: 『Aeon of Light』

Stand Ability: Gives the user the ability to manipulate and control different strengths of light. For example, the user can burn someones skin using a concentrated point of light, damages their skin cells at a rapid rate using ultraviolet light, create a deadly rainbow that can be reflected at will, as with any light attack the user can perform, can sense someone via body heat using infrared light, can absorb refracted light from the sun or moon for power, defense, and speed (think Necrozma), can run at a speed similar to that of light, can outright blind people temporarily or permanently using a bright flash of light, etc.

Stats:

Power: A

Speed: A

Range: B

Durability: C

Precision: A

Potential: B

Weakness: Powers are suppressed slightly at night (similar to Empress of Light from Terraria)

Next we have...

Stand Name: 『Lustful Hunger』

Stand Ability: First, the user uses their irresistable charisma or seduction to attract their opponent over to them. After, they can bite on the opponent's neck to create a wound that prevents them from using the Stand, which was absorbed by the user and can be used by the user of 『Lustful Hunger』. The user also has the ability to transform someone into food by controlling a mass of food, usually gelatine, and absorb their Stand that way. This lets the user gain what they desire most, more power, by gaining the Stands of others.

Stats:

Power: D

Speed: B

Range: E

Durability: A

Range: C

Potential: A

More of a utility Stand until the user absorbs another Stand

Weakness: Doesn't work on those who are oblivious, stubborn, or untrusting of others.

Stand Name: 『Maniacal Jester』

Stand Ability: The user tells a joke that the user knows will make the opponent laugh, which causes the opponent to drop their fighting and begin to laugh uproarishly and even tell the same joke to others. It spreads a special poison through the laughter which harms the opponent and anyone affected by the joke until they are entoxicated by laughter, coughing out their tongue and larynx, making them not able to breathe and die a slow, painful death with an eternal smile on their face.

Stats:

Power: C

Speed: B

Range: A

Durability: C

Precision: E

Potential: D

Yep, this Stand Power is inspired by The Joker (not the Persona one)

The only weakness to this Stand is if someone is deaf or is able to stoneface their way through the joke, making them immune.

Stand Name: 『Faithful Hope』

Stand Ability: When activated, the user will become so determined to overcome the opponent due to the user's own hope for a better future or hope the enemy can be redeemed or a faith in a higher power, that the user gets granted temporary immortality during the fight. The user can also harm other Stands with regular weapons due to their Stand being activated during the fight.

Stats:

Power: N/A

Speed: A

Range: N/A

Durability: A

Precision: A

Potential: A

The only way to beat the user is to have an equal or higher amount of determination

So basically, this Stand is Undertale/Deltarune

Stand Name: 『The Universe』

Stand Ability: Omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and omniaction

Stats:

Power: Infinite

Speed: Infinite

Range: Infinite

Durability: Infinite

Precision: Infinite

Potential: Infinite

Weakness: None

So basically, God Mode

Stand Name: 『The Councillor』

Stand Ability: Leader. The user will have a large group of followers to attack for them, with the user only getting involved once all of the followers have been defeated. These followers influenced by the Stand User can attack opposers in any part of the world. The followers can range from ordinary citizens to Stand Users, no matter how weak or strong. The user also has the ability to increase their strength for every follower defeated.

Stats:

Power: A

Speed: C

Range: A

Durability: A

Precision: B

Potential: D

Weaknesses: The followers can be anyone, even those who have many flaws or one massive flaw.

So basically, this Stand gives you the ability of Kingambit

Stand Name: 『13 Apostles』

Stand Ability: The user makes it their goal to befriend the opponent and, eventually, backstab them in a usually torturous manner.

Stats:

Power: C

Speed: D

Range: E

Durability: A

Precision: A

Potential: E

Weakness: Those who are untrusting are unable to fall into the users trap.

At this point, we’ll need a Persona X Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Crossover

[dom-bastiansmythe]

Shibari Basket

The ultimate weapons of mass seduction/punishment for any Shibari Master, or for anyone who loves bondage and wishes to learn the fine art of Shibari. The strongest Jute ropes available, colour-coded for your playtimes. A chromatic suspension shackle ring whip wheel used to suspend your sub from either your ceiling, wall, or bed hooks. Shibari rope butter and conditioning oil to keep your ropes supple and smooth. A triple pronged anal hook to deliver the most intense form of pain and pleasure - one that's unique and only achievable through Shibari.

Basically everything and more than you need to make all your darkest fantasies become a reality

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 54: Demigod Shit Magnet

Got a lot of stuff to talk about, no time for intro.

Class Profile - Ninja

The Nohrian thief class and base class of Saizo, Kaze, Kagero, and Asugi. Has good speed and skill and that's about it. Wields shurikens, which make them work best for inflicting debuffs. Also oddly good at mage killing. Oddly enough, the game considers them to be the Hoshido version of a Cavalier. Their first skill, Locktouch, is a utility skill that allows them to open chests and doors without a key. Their second skill, Poison Strike, deals 20% damage to enemies after battle but cannot kill, helping establish their niche of injuring enemies from a distance so stronger units can come in and finish them off. Ninjas can promote to Master Ninjas or Mechanists. I like the Ninja design a lot; the light armor fits well and the scarves, headbands, and arm knife thingies look cool.

Class Profile - Oni Savage

This game’s version of the Barbarian class and Hoshidan rival to the Fighter class. Wields axes, can promote into Oni Chieftain or Blacksmith. Weirdly, Rinkah is the only Oni Savage in the game, making the fact that it has two exclusive promotion classes weird. Oni Savages have great strength, hp, and defense, countered by atrocious luck, skill, and resistance. They can do good damage, assuming they can hit anything, or act as a wall, assuming they don’t die instantly to magic or a crit. Their first skill, Seal Resistance, lowers an enemy’s resistance after combat. I do not know why this was given to this class. Their other skill, Shove, is a utility skill that can be used to move a neighboring unit one space away. I actually like the Oni Savage design, despite it being ripe for fanservice, because the male and female designs are similar. My problem isn’t barbarians being shirtless, it’s when the game does stupid shit like have the female version of a class wear a thong while the male wears pants. The mask and beads worn by generic Oni Savages are also a nice touch.

Class Profile - Monk/Shrine Maiden

This game’s version of the Priest and Cleric classes, Hoshidan versions of the Troubadour class. Sakura and Mitama are Shine Maidens, while Azama is a Monk. Oddly enough, despite this game mostly getting rid of gender-locked classes, these two remain separate. They’re basically the same class, though. Both wield staves, have the same skills, and have good speed, luck and resistance, hampered by awful defense and HP. Oddly, Shrine Maiden has 5% better magic, while Monk instead has 10% better skill. Regardless, the job of these classes is to avoid combat and heal allies using staves. These classes can promote into Onmyojis and either Great Masters or Priestesses. Their first skill, Miracle, gives them a luck-based chance to survive a fatal blow with 1 HP. Their second skill, Rally Luck, boosts the Luck of nearby allies for a few turns. They also secretly have a 10% extra crit evade. I enjoy the simple, modest designs, which fit with the class’s aesthetic. 

Conquest Chapter 8: Cold Reception

As Felicia leads the group to her village, Moron and Silas are separated by a blizzard. Moron faints from the cold and is rescued by Kilma, the Ice Tribe’s leader. Moron begins to introduce himself, but Silas reminds him that they’re here to crush a rebellion. Corrin bemoans the fact that everything is so morally grey. Honestly, I wouldn’t call this route morally grey, so much as it’s the same black and white shit as Birthright with Moron being to stupid to understand he’s on the evil side.

Kilma says he only let Moron into the village because he carries Yato, the sword prophecized to save the world. Kilma introduces Moron to his daughter, Flora. The fact that Flora and Felicia are the daughters of the head of a small country colonized by Nohr is kinda weird. Garon conquered the Ice Tribe, took the daughters captive, and forced them to work as servants for his other kidnapped prince.

Felicia and Elise show up and Elise blurts out that they’re there to suppress Kilma’s rebellion. Elis is an idiot. Flora sounds the alarm and the Ice Tribe rushes in to fight the Nohrians. Flora calls Felicia ignorant and says war is the only language Nohr understands.

This chapter uses the same map as Chapter 17 of Birthright. The gimmick of this chapter is centered on five villages spread around the map. A pair of enemy soldiers will try to go to the villages to summon reinforcements, while the player can visit them to get gold. At the start of turn two, Odin and Niles show up to save us, acting on orders from Leo. Moron has to convince them to not kill everyone brutally, because Odin’s a chunibiyo and Niles is genuinely morally grey.

Odin

Owain from Awakening, now a Dark Mage instead of Myrmidon and pretending to be an evil wizard instead of a legendary hero. He also switches his costume to this tight, garish yellow outfit with a v-neck that stretches to his crotch. I’d complain if it was any character other than Odin; for Odin, it fits. I did like Owain in Awakening, but I will admit his schtick can get old. His personal skill gives him a boosted crit rate when using a named weapon with a name more than 12 letters long, something ridiculous that fits perfectly for a guy obsessed with legendary weapons and powerful spells. Also, he can reclass into a Samurai, a Hoshidan class, which makes sense given his class in Awakening.

Niles

Leo’s other retainer, a sadistic Outlaw. His personal skill, Kidnap, works the same as Orochi’s capture. Conquest is a bit harder than Birthright, though, so I’m afraid I won’t be grabbing another Kenshi. Fun fact, Niles is the only non-promoted bow user in all of Nohr. Niles’s design isn’t half bad; I like the eyepatch, white hair, and hood, although I’d like to note that it’s a bit odd that the sadistic criminal has a noticeably darker skin tone.

Flora apologizes to Moron for standing by her actions, calls Felicia a moron, and tells Jakob she wishes she was meeting him under better circumstances. Felicia’s battle quote with Jakob is especially interesting, confirming she was a hostage and hinting that she has feelings for him. Kilma prays for forgiveness for fighting Felicia and says Moron deceived him.

Moron spares Kilma. In fact, he wins the battle without killing anyone. Somehow. Moron has Elise treat the enemy wounded. Kilma is shocked by Moron’s kindness. Moron negotiates a deal where the Ice Tribe stops rebelling in return for more autonomy, something he has the authority to do that totally won’t be ignored by the child kidnapping mass murderer Garon. Kilma says that Moron might be the legendary hero after all. Flora apologizes for defending her people from an invading army who kidnapped her and her sister as a child and swears fealty to Moron.

So, here’s my problem with Conquest. Nohr is evil. Garon is evil. But Moron is good. So every chapter has him win battles without violence or negotiate people into working with him. Rather than having Moron struggle with his morality, it has him keep his hands clean, even as he conquers neighboring nations for the glory of a brutal dictatorship. It’s idiotic. And it will only get more idiotic as this game goes on. But first, we have some Supports to read.

Support: Corrin/Odin

C: Corrin finds Odin posing. Odin says his stance needs a unique name. Corrin gets annoyed by Odin and walks away.

B: Odin asks Corrin to name his pose. Corrin says they need tome to think of a name.

A: Corrin tries to hide from Odin. Odin tracks them down and annoys Corrin for a while. Eventually, Odin comes up with a dumb name for his pose: Shadow Glitter. Corrin is relieved that they don't have to talk to Odin anymore.

S: Odin asks Corrin to marry him. Corrin gets tired of his long-winded proposal and demands he get to the point. Odin gives a heartfelt proposal and immediately gets back on his bullshit.

Review: Not bad. Odin toes the line between funny and annoying and seeing Corrin get sick of his bullshit is a good dose of realism. This is also one of the only times Corrin isn’t ridiculously friendly. Also, by marrying Odin, Corrin joins yet another royal family.

Support: Elise/Effie

C: Elise asks Effie to go on a walk with her, but Effie is full from eating and asks Elise to roll her like a barrel.

B: Effie uses Elise as a dumbell. The two of them reminisce about how they met: Elise snuck down to the underground and befriended Effie and, when the guards tried to take Elise back, Effie tried to fight em off.

A: Effie talks about how she trained for years to become a castle guard so she could protect Elise.

Review: This is what Corrin and Silas’s relationship should have been. That is, free from dumb bullshit about Corrin having the memory of a goldfish. Lore is always good in Supports and this does a great job establishing Elise and Effie’s friendship, while also having some great comedy bits.

Support: Felicia/Niles

C: Felicia spills some soup on Niles. Niles begins stripping seductively. Felicia offers to take his clothes to the laundry.

B: Felicia offers to give Felicia a special, heavenly dessert. Niles assumes she's coming on to him. Felicia gives Niles a cookie.

A: Niles mocks Felicia for not understanding his double entendres. After finding out about Felicia's childhood as a hostage, he apologizes.

S: Niles proposes.

Review: A fun, kinda dumb comedic Support.

Support: Arthur/Mozu

C: Arthur finds Mozu analyzing the soil around camp. Mozu rambles about how farming is awesome.

B: Arthur helps Mozu plow a field. Mozu corrects his form. A: While Arthur is plowing, a heard of dragons fly over and shit all over him. Mozu is overjoyed because dragon droppings are great fertilizer. Also, I'd like to note a script error in this Support: dragons and wyverns are not the same thing. Wyverns are the mounts with animal-level intelligence, dragons are ancient magic beings that can transform into humans. Unless a flock of demigods flew by to shit on Arthur, the game means wyverns.

S: Arthur proposes by giving Mozu a special flower that is supposed to be planted by a husband and wife. Mozu accepts because Arthur's bad luck is a good source of fertilizer.

Review: The start of this Support is a bit bland, but Arthur getting covered in shit is great.

[jawabear]

(6) A Lesson In Want (Maxwell Lord x Reader)

A/N: Welcome to the past. This part is set before and during the very first meeting. Sorry for any mistakes. Hope you enjoy!

Genre: Fluff, angst

Warnings: none, it gets a little sad at the end though, Pedro Pascal comes with his own warning

Summary: To put things simply, its the beginning of the end

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Epilogue

(Y/N) walked back into her room to see a black box at the foot of her bed and a new case file waiting for her on her pillow. She wouldn’t really call it a pillow, more like a slab of stone, that’s what her entire bed felt like but it’s what she had to live with. She reached for the file and read over the name of her next target.

MAXWELL LORD

“Ooh lucky, you get the handsome rich guy again” Mia giggled like a child from over her shoulder. (Y/N) didn’t answer, she remained silent as she skimmed over his information. It had the basics, his name, age, birthday, appearance, height, occupation etc, nothing she hadn’t read before in news articles about him, nothing to dissimilar to a few of her previous targets who also happened to be rich, stuck up, arrogant men. “My target is boring...” Mia pouted “I wanna go after the rich ones”

“It makes no difference if they’re rich or poor, they’re a target so why should it matter?” (Y/N) grumbled to her self as she looked into his dark eyes printed in the picture the was clipped to his file. They were interesting to say the least, dark and intriguing. She could hear Mia talking to her, but it was blurry in her ears, she was getting lost in Maxwell’s gaze, even though it was through a picture.

“-wouldn’t you agree (Y/N)?” Mia laughed. (Y/N) blinked rapidly, pulling herself from her trance and looked over to her friend.

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to a single word you said” (Y/N) told her. She flicked through the pages and saw the list of events that he would be attending, the first one being that night. “I was doing something far more interesting”

“Well, that’s just mean” Mia whined as she folded her arms over her chest like a child. She turned her head from (Y/N), flicking her faded grey hair in her direction before slumping down on her bed, pulling the thin cloth, they would call a blanket, over her body.

“My first scoping is tonight so don’t wait up for me, I don’t know when I’ll be back” (Y/N) called as she stood from her bed and went to the box that had been placed at the foot of her bed, it was expensive looking but (Y/N) already knew what it was, a dress for her to wear. She opened the box and saw a dark blue dress, it was simple, like all of her dresses had ever been, she was in no position to need to stand out in a crowd. In fact she was to do the exact opposite, be seen by no one, only him. And that’s exactly what she planned to do. Everyone else at the Academy was impressed at just how easily she was able to hide in plain sight, she could stand in front of someone and the still probably wouldn’t notice her.

“It’s not like you to have sex on the first night (Y/N)” Mia said as she turned in her bed so she was now facing (Y/N). (Y/N) picked up the dress and walked over to the mirror in their room and held the dress against her body “who are you going as?” Mia asked in reference to her never ending list of covers that all had better lives then she did.

(Y/N) thought for a moment and looked over to the file that rested on her bed “I think I can tell Mr Lord’s type by the look in his eyes. I’ll go as myself”

Mia sat up slightly, shocked at her friend’s words “are you sure (Y/N)? Is that even allowed?”

“Of course it is. It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re ghosts remember? We could give our names to the CIA and they wouldn’t be able to find a damn thing on us” (Y/N) explained “I’ll be fine, it’s not like anyone else will want to talk to me other then him. That is, if all goes to plan”

“When does it not go to plan with you?” Mia questioned with a slight laugh. 

-

She managed to slip into the hall unnoticed, grabbing a drink from the tray of champagne in the doorway before weaving through the crowds. She would never stand in one place, she would take a different route with each circle of the hall that she did, standing in one place gave people a chance to talk to her, if she kept moving no one who bother her, unless she bothered them.

Her eyes scanned to room for Maxwell Lord, she had already memorised his face, and looking around at the mass of people, he wouldn’t be too difficult to pick out. He was a lot younger then the majority of people at that gathering, most of them in their late 50’s early 60’s or older, very few looked younger then that. Aside from a few girls she could spot in the arms of men. She wondered how many of them work in the same place she did.

The Academy was very strict, any woman who worked there was rarely able to mingle with anyone outside their roommate. (Y/N) wouldn’t have care to talk to people anyway, she much preferred to do her job and leave, she didn’t have time for friendship, Mia being the only exception. The Academy is an assassin organisation, unknown for obvious reasons, they take young orphan girls and train them to be master assassins of the richest and worst men in the city. Masters of disguise and seduction, their two greatest weapons. They’re taught that any man will fall to the feet of a beautiful woman if they talk the right way, and of course that what they do. Members of the Academy scratch rich names off one by one, they are told after every assassination that they are one step closer to cleansing the world of greed and corruption. Brainwashed into believing what they are doing is right, being denied any emotions towards a target, being denied any sort of emotion at all really. You can’t kill if you’ll feel guilty afterwards.

And (Y/N) was the best if the best. Aside from Mia, no other girl had met her, but they had heard stories. About how she had never failed a mission, about how strong she is, about how collected she is. Defiantly, she was the one to handle Maxwell Lord.

Ten minuets in to her being amongst the crowd, she spotted him. He was taking to a younger gentleman. Max wore a dark grey suit and a matching tie, he liked to match. For a while, she just stood back and watched him, she didn’t attempt to approach him just yet. He seemed engrossed in the conversation he was having, using hand gestures to emphasise his point. She was fascinated to know what was getting him so flustered. It was almost comedic to watch. But soon the show was over, he had calmed down and taken a large sip of his drink, his eyes moving from the man before him and looked around the room.

She hadn’t meant for him to find her so quickly but she was prepared nonetheless. His eyes seemed to widen slightly when they met hers, he dropped his glass from his lips and stared at her for a moment. She pulled her own glass to her lips and gave him a teasing look before turning into the crowd. She managed to find a quiet place and hoped that he had followed after her.

(Y/N) waited for a few moments and then he appeared. He looked calm and collected as she slowly approached her. “Excuse me” he spoke, his voice smooth and deep, not how she would’ve imagined it but she wasn’t complaining. He held his hand out to her “Maxwell Lord” he introduced.

She gave him a smile and gently shook his hand “(Y/N)” she said.

“Just (Y/N)?” He asked her as he removed his hand from her.

“For now” she said “what was getting you so flustered?” She asked him “made for quite a show”

“Some of these people don’t know how to properly run a business. I was trying to help him but he was adamant he knew exactly what he was doing” Max summarised.

“Ah, I see. And do you know exactly what you are doing?” She asked him.

“What I’ve been doing seems to have done me well so far. So I would say I do”

“Of course. I should’ve known not to ask such a question, the great Maxwell Lord clearly has everything under control. Any one would be lucky to gain advice from him” he couldn’t help but notice a hint of mockery in her voice as she spoke to him.

“Are you mocking me?” He asked her. If anyone else had spoken to him the way she just did, he would’ve destroyed them, but something about her just drew him in further, like he was happy to be mocked her. Her sheer beauty was mocking his very existence.

“Defiantly not” she shook her head “quite the opposite, I was complimenting you” she took a sip of her drink and raised an eye brow at him “surely you are familiar with the term compliment” she teased “I can’t imagine you are unused to hearing them in your position. You must have to shell out quite a fortune to keep the line if kind words flowing your way”

“I’ll have you know Miss (Y/N), any words that come my way, good or bad, are completely free. Unlike most people here tonight I accept criticism, it makes you a better person in my opinion”

“I somehow find that hard to believe. You don’t strike me as a very gracious looser”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never lost”

She let out a chuckle as she finished off her drink and rested it in the table behind her. “Well, Mr Lord, seems we both have that in common. But there is always a first time for everything. I have a feeling we may be meeting more often, so, until next time Mr Lord” she gave him a seductive smile and a soft wink before seamlessly disappearing into the crowd.

Max put his own empty glass down and followed after her, he wasn’t prepared to have her slip away so quickly, but even following in her exact footsteps he had lost her. He must’ve looked like an idiot, his head flicking in every direction looking for her but she had vanished. He let out a low growl of frustration and swore to himself in that moment that she was to be his.

(Y/N) lay beside his sleeping figure. He looked so at peace. A few stray pieces of his usual neat blonde hair had fallen from their place. She gently brushed them away from his face. She often thought of their first meeting, she often thought of every meeting after that too. She often thought of him. Everything about him. His soft hair. His beautiful, warm eyes. His voice. His body. The way he touched her, the way he spoke to her, they way he smiled at her. They way he made her feel.

She had to finally admit to herself that she was in love with him, she tried to push it down but the longer she was with him, the more she forgot herself, the more she fell for him. And she didn’t want to stop. She loved the feeling he hand planted inside her. She loved the warmth that spread through her body whenever he looked at her, whenever he touched her. She was in love with him and she knew she shouldn’t be. But she couldn’t help herself. This was the first time she had felt love and it was completely consuming her.

And being with him in that moment certainly didn’t help. His arm loosely around her waist, his mouth hanging slightly open as he let out soft snores. She wanted to snuggle into his chest, wrap both his arms around her and just stay pressed against him until the end of time, but the low buzzing in her ear stopped her from them. The noise from the earpiece signalled that she was to return back. She let out a quiet sigh and slowly slipped out of his hold. She immediately felt cold. She could’ve just slipped back into bed with him and ignored her job but she couldn’t, she wouldn’t be able to.

She was quick to put on her clothes and make a silent escape from his home that she had come to love. She had left him another note, thanking him for helping her relax in the bath and being so open with her about his past love. As she walked down his drive way she glanced back at his house, up into his bedroom window. She didn’t know why, she wasn’t expecting him to be in there, but for some reason she hoped he would be, but he wasn’t.

Once she had returned back to her room she flopped down into her solid mattress, a complete contrast to the comforting softness of Max’s mattress. She longed to be back in his bed, to have the thick covers over he body rather then the stupidly thin blanket she did have. To sink into his feather mattress, rather than be in pain from sleeping in her slab of rock. But mostly to have him beside her.

What she wouldn’t give to be able to just spend one entire night with him, to sleep soundly for once, and then to wake up next to him, to see the sun peek through his curtains and cast its golden light over his body, making him glow like some sort of god from the heavens. She would give anything to have a chance at that. Not that she had much to give. So, for now, she would have to be content in what time she did have in his arms. And god knows she was grateful for it, because she knew he didn’t have much time left. 

23/04/20

[typinggently]

I don’t know much about the plot yet but I will write a fic with Brucie at some kind of event and it will be called “A hoe never gets cold” in reverence to the iconic Cardi moment I can’t link because then the tag won’t show this glorious clusterfuck of a post

Possible elements:

Bruce “good naturally” annoying Clark and basically just hitting on him under the guise of being a little shit while they’re both in their public persona

Brucie in a see through shirt of some kind because he needs to balance the thot look with not showing his scars

Possibly MET gala to justify the Extraness of the outfits?

Costume ball? Brucie Wayne rolling up as a sexy penguin or some ridiculous shit? Sexy cat? Sexy Superman??

Sexy James Bond. He can keep wearing his sleek suits and still be a thottie about it! A classy thot! A thot with class! Everyone wins!! (“Mr Wayne, James Bond is already a very sexual character...” “Well, but he usually wears a shirt that doesn’t show off his nipples” “....well, that’s true” - “Mr Wayne where’s your gun?” “I’m a lover, not a fighter. But don’t worry ;) I have a permit to handle this ;) weapon of mass seduction ;)”)

Maybe some plot about Clark having enough of Bruce and, being in his Clark Kent public persona, opting for “politely offering a jacket because that outfit looks cold”? Bruce refusing?

A moment in privacy where Bruce acts like himself and Clark has to concentrate on listening to serious BatTalk while the Tiddies™️ are Out

What are we thinking, pals?

[allthctjczz-a]

THE BELLE OF THE BRAWL

Name: Mary J. King Jezebel

Nickname(s): Jezzy, Jez, The Belle of the Brawl

Gender: Female

Age: Appeance - Mid 30s // Actual - Early 100s

Death Year: 1941

Means of Death: Burned Alive

Birthdate: May 6th, 1904

Species: Demon

Sexuality: Bi-Curious

Occupation: Chanteuse, Mob Boss Leader, Overlord of the southern territory of Pentagram City

Personality

Virtues: Audacious, Adventureous, Humorous, Seductive, Intelligent, Motherly, Bold, Daring

Vices: Greedy, Manipulative, Deceitful. Wrathful, Bossy, Murderous, Insane

Deadly Sin(s): Wrath

Enjoys/Likes: Fancy perfumes, Singing, Nightclubs, the smell of cigarettes, Scented bubble baths, Arson, Murder, Crime, Chaos

Despises/Hates: Losing territory, Handsy audience members, Incompetence, Losing,

Favourite Food(s): Chocolate-covered strawberries, Champagne, Wine, Martinis, Strawberries, Mangos, Apples

Favourite Colour(s): Red, Crimson, Gold, Silver

Favourite Activity(s): Singing at various nightclubs around Hell, Commiting crimes, Murdering the ones who get in her way

Appearance

Height: 6’6

Weight: She’s not a fan about disclosing that kind of information

Clothes: Thigh-cut dresses, Boas, Heeled shoes, Trenchcoats, Bow ties, Buisness casual, Suspenders, Button-down shirts, Pencil skirts

Skin/fur colour(s): Light pink

Accessories: Crimson pearl necklace with matching pearl earrings, Bow tie, Machine gun, Bombs, Opera Gloves

Stats

Intelligence: 8/10

Strength: 10/10

Social Abilities: 4/10

Agility: 8/10

Anger: 100,000/10

Singing: 10/10

Dancing:8/10

BASIS

   Jezebel is a 1930s film noir chanteuse that performs regularly in nightclubs across Hell and Pentagram City as well as run the South side of Pentagram city as the leader of her own mafia with an iron fist.

   Though she looks sweet, she is certainly sour to those she isn’t familiar with, only showing her soft side to her closest adversaries. Jezebel isn’t afraid to start trouble when somebody gets too touchy with her during her performances or when they try to take things that belongs to her. With the help of her arsenal of various guns, bombs, and weapons of mass destruction under the sun and literal explosive temper, she certainly is a force to be reckoned with.

LIVING YEARS

  Being born into a poverty-stricken town near New Orleans in the early 1900s, a little girl named Mary had to learn at a young age how to fend for herself. After her mother died while giving birth to her, Mary and her two older brothers were left in the hands of an abusive father. She never really quite had a childhood due to being forced to work in the factory system to make ends meet for her family. She’d work day in and day out, only to come home and be beaten up by her own father. Things would only get worse as Mary grew into her teenage years, her father violating her all because she looked like her mother.

 The only time that Mary really and truly had a friend was when she met Robbie, the son of New Orleans’ own kingpin. The two children got along immediately and soon enough, Robbie introduced Mary to his father, who took an instant liking to her. After that, Mary would constantly sneak away to be with Robbie and his father, with them becoming more like her second family.

 As the years go by, Mary learns how to shoot a gun, read, write, do basic mathematics, count money, rob banks, and so much more with the mafia. Soon, she was old enough to leave her abusive household and be with her own kind. After Robbie’s dad died, he handed down the leadership to him and after a tragic accident leading to Robbie’s demise, handed the position to Mary, who has now mastered the art of being in a mafia gang.

 Now, Mary had the power of being a leader, she was in control, and she liked it. A lot. However, the memories of her father’s abuse still lives on and causes her to explode into random fits of rage and near insanity. Mary remained as the boss in life and in death, after she was burned alive by the police in order to stop the terror she inflicted on the citizens of New Orleans.

 Once in Hell, Mary never recovered from her traumatic childhood experiences, causing that wrath and hatred to fuse with her as she descended into Hell. She wanted reinvent herself, start fresh and new, for she was no longer known as Mary, but as Jezebel.

[goldiesugar]

Seduction? What?

Here’s a list of tips that you can try out, use and adapt to attract your prince charming… oh yeah by the way, forget that stuff… Prince Charming doesn’t exist.

Be confident

Self-confidence… that’s a phrase I like. Would you like to bring every man to his knees?

Start the work of seduction on YOURSELF. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, you can keep wasting all your evenings watching Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives in your SpongeBob pyjamas, which you bought for 99 cents… For the love of God, don’t underestimate yourself…

EVER! All women are beautiful, and EVERY woman has her charms and her qualities. If you are less beautiful than other women, you SURELY have a very fine quality that others do not possess. If you have hang-ups, forget them! Nobody’s perfect and everyone has their own flaws!

Nowadays, and since time immemorial, beauty has always been considered something common, that everyone has, but today a woman with good qualities has become something rare [I’ll come back to this in the last paragraph] and exceptional! A woman with graceful and noble qualities is, precisely, a WOMAN…

So stop making dramas and comedies about yourselves, ladies … put your right hand on your heart, and repeat after me:

“Today, I accept myself, WITHOUT any conditions at all, I am a woman, and I can seduce every man that I want.”

Think about your Look

There’s nothing better than chatting and having conversations with a woman whose physical appearance is attractive! I respect all women, but more the ones who take GOOD care of themselves, and invest heavily in their look.

Your mom probably tells you that beauty is on the inside and blah blah blah, but if you have a hairstyle shaped like an artichoke, wear super-large jeans and a supermarket shirt, men will avoid you like the plague… Beauty is, FIRST, external, if you don’t have style and class, no normally constituted man will give you a second glance. Not even a SD.

Change your hairstyle more often, and if you can, try to grow long hair, it’s a typical sign of femininity. Invest in clothes that are more or less sexy and glamorous. In summer, wear skirts, it’s another sign of femininity… and you know what, burn all those masculine clothes you have in the closet, men HATE to see women dressed like them.

Before I forget, I’d like to give you a little tip… Keep several different perfumes! I remember this girl who wore a different perfume on every date, it made me go crazy every time I smelled a sensual and pleasant new scent. Try this trick and let me have your feedback.

Be a “rare” woman

Everything rare is expensive: the more we’re seen, the more we’re heard, the more we do, the more ordinary we seem. If you’re part of a group, stay away for a while and people will talk about you more, they’ll even admire you more. Practice absence: scarcity will increase your value.

In the excellent book by psychologist Robert Cialdini, Influence and Persuasion, the author discusses the principle of scarcity as a weapon of mass persuasion and, appropriately, seduction goes together perfectly with the art of influence and persuasion. Therefore, ladies, use scarcity as your weapon.

Make yourself into a woman who is rare and special, today’s men can’t stand conventional and ordinary women, all interesting men are TOO demanding on this point. In general, a situation of scarcity makes them react in a way that clouds and diminishes their powers of judgment, and pleasure no longer consists in enjoying something rare, but SOLELY in possessing it.

In other words, as soon as a man sees you as a special woman, trust me ladies, your work of seduction has definitely achieved its goal… it’s in the bag!

To put it in different terms, the “Romeo and Juliet” effect is probably the most widespread phenomenon associated with the principle of scarcity, so in fact, the more the parents oppose a relationship, the more united the couple will be.

In this situation, the sensation of loss they feel will drive them to focus more and more on you, blindly and with every means at their disposal.

Make use of this principle of persuasion, don’t give him the impression that you’re seduced and already won over.

And how do you seduce a man while remaining natural?

That’s the question I’ve focused on in recent years, in order to provide THE right answer! In fact, if you want to seduce men you have to start by seducing YOURSELF.

Next, you need to master the techniques of communication, confidence and, finally, optionally, the techniques of seduction.

Additionally, you should adopt and develop the mindset of the seductive woman, and you’ll be surprised to see CLEARLY that the secret codes of seduction, have become a child’s game for you.

Personally, I am firmly convinced that if you want to learn to be seductive, you must:

Develop self-confidence

Work on your personality to make it attractive

Master the art of communication with others (the better you communicate, the better your basic level of seduction)

Take care of your appearance and image.

Know the techniques of seduction, and adopt those that suit YOU!

There is no magic formula in the galaxy of seduction. But there is the work you do on yourself, and what’s known as personal development. That’s the motto of my philosophy.

To your success,

~ Bleuet 💸💖

[jadedamber]

The Snow White and the Huntsman

Today was a bear, I just got home, so I'm going to try and cheer up by watching Snow White and The Huntsman and writing down my reactions. And then posting it. Disclaimer: I'm not trying to piss on any actors or actresses, nor infringe on anyone's fandom. Pls take any and all hating elsewhere. Thx. Also, I'll try not to spoil major plot points but obvy if you don't want any spoilers, probably stop reading now. Let's do this then. Princess bby, your mom is not feeling well, the last thing she needs is an unsanitary bird in her face. Whoah king bro! Dudeness. Chill with the nuptials. You literally just pulled this lady out of chains, do you really feel that this is a fair and unbiased situation for said lady? I'm so uncomfortable right now. Honestly am not blaming her for that, um, unconventional reaction. Aaaah, the queen reminds me of my current boss in the heebiest-jeebiest way! Snow White = Царевна Несмеяна apparently. That slide into the sewer is pretty badass though. Hellooo nurse, I mean horse. A random horse conveniently on the beach. Ok that was a one trick pony apparently. And now she's having a really bad trip, what even. The Queen's rant is so extra. Jesus lady, you gonna strangle herself with your weirdass headdress. The first look at our hero is, well, underwhelming. He got nothing to lose and … ooooooh what a thing to gain! Dudeness, don't fall for it! Necromancy never ends up well. Where does a simple huntsman learn to fight like that? Dude, no shit, did I not tell you not to trust the Queen? Princess bby, who taught you to bargain? You got it all backwards. If the guy's ok to do it for 30, don't offer a 100. I mean, that's basic math. It's Robin of Locksl… nevermind! False alarm. Oh, hello! Hi! ☺️ Haha! It's hilarious because she's royalty. And he does have a point. The king could not keep it in his pants, and now the whole economy is shit, the ecosystem is shit, there are ppl dead. Hello again, William. You have a hell of a way with job interviews. Ok, mr Scraggy Huntsman. That was a fucked up instruction, and the princess should really take it with a grain of salt. MACHETE!!! TROLL!!! When confronted with a terrifying hulking beast, my instinct, too, is to yell at him. Holy shit it worked!!!! 😲 I guess that's why I'm not royalty. River ninjas? "Are you bad guys?" "Us? No." "Ok then" "Why didn't you tell me you're a princess? I only bitched about your father ruining everything like half the time." Also, not to be judgy, but the river ninjas hairstyle makes no practical sense. FIRE!!!! How the fuck did they find them? Meanwhile in Queen's head… things just got darker. Damn lady. May I suggest therapy? DWARVES????? Really. Also, is it possible to get some kind of geopolitical map of the area? I'm very confused as to whose jurisdiction is where. Why are all the dwarves speaking with different accents? FAIRIES???? TURTLE!!! Argh! They are one tribe, why do they all have different accents?! No I can't let it go. Language is important to me. Really? Dancing? Hawkward. He feels lovely! Ok, now the princess has healing powers? What. CGI magpies! Argh! Creepy fairies! BUNNY! Gooooo towards the liiight! TURTLE! Oh deer. Is she… walking on water? Careful with the antlers. What. "She is life itself." Hashtag religion. Magic deer gets shot in the middle of blessing The One. We refused to ask for directions, and made the wrong turn into a Studio Ghibli movie. Hello William 😊 OMG dude!!!! How dare you bring up his wife, so uncalled for. Totally deserved the impalement. Oh, and now we get to feel sad for a bit because in this movie the good guys die too. Oh hello William! Hiii! Hello. Everyone in this movie is full of guilt over something. At least it's a theme. Themes are important. Also magpies are a theme?! For some reason? Holy shit the Queen. So extra. Where did they find the furs in the middle of wilderness? Like, has it been long enough for Eric to kill, skin, and cure some hides? Could we get a time frame on this? Oh hello two hot guys having a heartfelt conversation about the girl while watching her as she sleeps. SNOW??? Is that… is that supposed to be symbolic? "How do I inspire?" Lady, I'm also very interested in the answer to this question. WILLIAM??? The fuck is wrong with you, William! I did not see this coming. What did you do to William?!! BIRDS!!!! Aaaaaahhhhh!!!! William don't cry honey! Aw, Chris don't cry either! William pls don't kiss unconscious women. It's bad manners. BIRDS!!!! Aaaaahhhhh!!!! Omg that's so gross. The makeup/costume departments did so well. That geopolitical map would be very handy now pls. Why are we now in a castle keep? Whose castle is it? Chris, I mean Eric, where are you going with that speech. Eric honey. Heimlich! Not kissing. She's out cold. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT IS THIS SHIT. Will bb calm down. Grief has never made anyone see clearer. Princess. What are you even. We need strategy! Planning! Like maybe some… What are you saying. Ooooh another symbol "embers must turn to flame" like in the beginning of the movie when she literally did that while locked up. Eric dude why are you looking pleased as punch, they're about to go get slaughtered. I admire the actress who plays the queen. To keep a straight face throughout is quite impressive. OMG just literally realized/remembered it's Charlize Theron. Wow. Hello Chris I mean Eric. Dang that smile is devastating. Just use that as your weapon of mass seduct… I mean, you know, as a weapon. Certain demographics will be decimated. Go dwarves!!! FIREBALLS!!! Who even fights like that. Why is the castle deserted on the inside? The princess apparently had time for a sort of elaborate hair braiding but not for coming up with a plan to deal with the Queen's magic. Oh my God you guys. Holy fuck shard warriors. Queen bby, when I say you're on fire, I don't mean it metaphorically. Pls pay attention to your surroundings. KNIFE!!! What. Really. "You can't have my heart" No REALLY? We didn't get that through simply following the events that transpired. Thank you for the explanation. Happy ending! HI RIVER NINJAS! Hi dwarves! Oh hello William! Always a pleasure. GASP ERIC. You sure clean up well. Though you might've dressed up a bit for the occasion. TEXTURES!!! CREDITS!!! Those who managed to get this far, I thank you for following my journey. It's been real.

[superherostudentproject-blog]

Understanding Superheroes; Abilities, Weaponry, and Beyond.

          Superheroes and comic book characters alike have appealed to a wide range of audience members throughout time, and will most likely continue to do so. Characters like Batman, Aqua Man, Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, or Supergirl all come from very distinct backgrounds, hold a vibrancy of unique abilities, and some even are literally out of this world. Quite possibly what distinguishes one superhero from the next, is how they defend themselves and fight for justice in the rage of fury. Thor has his hammer, Captain America has an indestructible shield, while Wonder Woman wears a complete battle armor ensemble. So how do these weapons and abilities tie into what makes a superhero, a superhero?

           The first printed superhero comic book with a distinct costume and superhuman abilities was Action Comics #1, released in 1938; staring Superman himself. It arguably was the faint beginning of major franchises like DC and Marvel, and still to this day is the most valuable comic book in existence. ( An estimated $3.2 million at its peak) Since then, audiences have seen these characters have deal with deep seeded personal issues, politics, social issues, even times of war and terror. The ideas behind creating Superman originated during the Great Depression, when people sought after a new world, one to give hope and bring optimism. Soon after came a darker, but still determined Batman, and eventually sidekicks like Robin or Toro. After Wonder Woman joined the game, writers chose to represent current political reflections of groups like the Axis Powers and the Allies by creating different universes. Not everyone within the general public supported the age of Superheroes however, as it defied authority, in addition to highlighting provocative romance and bloody violence. Some advocated for superheroes to work alongside the police and detectives, as a way to truly represent unity. By the mid 50’s and early 60’s, powerful clans like the Justice League and Fantastic Four introduced a newer, more specialized set of guardians like Iron Man, Aquaman, Captain America, Spiderman, and Black Widow.

          By the time we had reached the late 80’s and early 90’s, writers with audience members alike felt it crucial to expand on character development as it may relate to the reader. We learn that Iron Man was once an alcoholic, Spiderman may have been molested as a child, Hulk was viciously abused as a youngster, and Batman’s parents were murdered point blank in front of him. Eventually as we all know, the superhero franchises went on to make billion dollar films with A-list talent, in addition to selling out on everything from trading cards to board games, t-shirts, dolls, Halloween costumes, even auctioning for props used in the films.

          With the immense and almost overwhelming amount of characters being developed on such a consistent basis, how can we distinguish good from evil, a hoax hero from a warrior? How does weaponry, sexuality, or appearance play into a role?

          For the last several decades the demigoddess Wonder Woman has been the face of feminism, furthermore representing appreciation of culture, strength of character, and dignity. Not to mention, her armor tells a story of its own.  Her royal tiara not only represents a physical symbol of her royalty and heritage, but its jagged edges are used as a throwing weapon with a boomerang effect frequently. Her Lasso of Truth not only has a pretty cool glow to it, it still was designed as an apparatus for pulling truths from villains in times of crisis. Her magical sword doesn’t have as much of a strong history as the rest of the ensemble, except that if needed, the sword could take down Superman and allegedly break through the smallest of atoms. The Sandals of Hermes give her abilities to fly, increase in speed and in strength. Her entity is a direct reflect reflection of the type of warrior she is.

          A common factor in deciphering men and women in comic books, is seduction. Rogue from X Men for example, harnesses the ability to absorb power over her enemy by a simple touch. She gains exclusive access to an archive of thoughts, emotions, and memories, in addition to being able to strip ones abilities if touched long enough. While a hero like Storm who also makes an appearance in X Men, holds a direct line to mother nature herself. Storm controls the elements; wind, fire, earth, sea, and sky.  Scarlet Witch who too is connected to the franchise, has the ability to manipulate reality in a number of ways, most notably with a single stare.

          On the opposite side of this superhero spectrum, we find heroes like Superman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. Juxtapose to feminine ideals of holding integrity and pride, even celebrating sisterhood, more male dominated heroes are seen as protectors or providers. Superman was meant to represent the American Way in his farm boy roots, he cuts down on the war on crime, and without him, the world would basically fall apart. Masculinity is the driving force behind each of these men. Notice that more often than not, the majority of male figures grapple more so with each other than against the enemy. Batman vs. Superman for example is initially built upon misunderstanding, but ultimately becomes territorial. In the DC world more male figures hold strengths through physicality’s and less through weaponry, as seen in a Marvel World. While Batman and Spider-Man may hold sophisticated gadgets as accessories, characters like Iron Man and Captain America strictly rely on their suits to give them power in battle.

          Going a bit more in depth, perhaps the initial attraction to Captain America was his unique relatability to the audiences of the time. In the midst of war, Steve Rogers decides to enroll in the army by doing his part to give back to our great nation. When turned away for his frail figure, he joins an experimental program designed to make him the next super-soldier. Though the experiments increased his overall muscle mass, his star spangled shield makes him stand out from the rest. His arsenal is comprised of everything from assault rifles, to pistols, firearms, and bombs. And why not? He is Captain America. He’s normal just like everyone else but with his impressive gadgets, anyone could be the next guardian of our galaxy.  Once again, reinforcing principles of masculinity and power through physical actions, less through spoken word and emotion.

          If there is only a single concept both male and female superheroes share, it is calling to fight for a better world despite their original circumstances. Superheroes resonate with their audiences in a much deeper capacity then we may fully be able to comprehend; they ultimately represent the people we one day hope to be. 

Written By: Ashley Burton

Sources:

May, Cindi. "The Problem with Female Superheroes." Scientific American.       SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF NATURE AMERICA, 18 June 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

Moore, Rose. "Wonder Woman's 12 Most Powerful Weapons." Screen Rant. Screen Rant, 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Casalena, Emily. "15 Most Powerful Female Superheroes Of All Time." Screen Rant. Screen Rant, 21 Nov. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

Parrish, Robin, and Skywalker Says. "10 Awesome Superhero Weapons." Forever Geek. Splashpress Media, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.Rosenberg, Robin. "The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories." Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

"Superheroes 101: A History." Review. Web log post. Hellblazer. Comic Vine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Contributor, George Marston Newsarama. "10 BEST FEMALE Superheroes Of All Time." NewsaRama. Purch, 01 Dec. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

Newquist, Vadim. "Mindhut Ranks: The All Time Greatest Super Hero Weapons!" The Mindhut. SparkNotes, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

[lilaetleloup]

the signs that point to a manipulator V

19. he is cut from a large part of his emotions.

He doesn’t know love, nor happiness: he has no quality attributed to the heart. The only positive emotion he knows, it’s pleasure. Most notably the pleasure of winning: money, energy, influence, power, your attention. And he is always running after it.

And so we find ourselves in he Troll movie, with the big bad Bergens who, in order to have an agreeable moment, think they have no other solution but to eat a happy Troll.

Because as I said in the precedent article, his main emotion is anger. And it cuts him from every others. The manipulator doesn’t face his emotions, he flees them. He is basically a coward.

20. he doesn’t like to give

His ego is always whispering he deserves everything.  So when the manipulator gives, it’s to receive more in the bargain or to build his charitable image.

As one of the members of my family said: “generosity is just well thought selfishness”.

When the manipulator gives, he thinks he deserves effusive thanks and, if at all possible, a visible display of his gift.

21. he doesn’t like physical contact...

... unless it’s used to brand you and mark his power. Or for his personal pleasure. And there are all kind of gestures he will use to control you: his hand on your back to make you feel inferior, your hand he will grab and keep in his space to prevent you from escaping, the punishing handshake to show you who is boss...

He doesn’t like touching to give affection because he doesn’t like to give. And he doesn’t like loosing his grasp on control.

Sometimes, sadly, if his mass-scale manipulative job requires it and he must seem to care, he will force himself to do as he’s supposed to: hands displayed just so, eyes closed, big smile, white teeth. A less careful narcissist will be seen kissing the air or pretend touching his kid for a photograph when in fact, his hand is staying prudently away from the surface.

In bed, it can give a variety of consequences, from asexuality to 50 nuances of Grey. To love pleasure but to run from affection has manipulators looking for a delicate sex balance. Some will rape or enjoy sexual harassment, fully embracing their predatory nature.

And sometimes, at last, he has learned to be a good lover as another weapon to hunt you down.

22. he knows how to get your love

They all know how to be loved. You should never underestimate him. But it’s always puzzling for those who know the victim: how can it be he doesn’t see? Why doesn’t he realize he’s bamboozled?

The gas-lighted victim will answer something like “you don’t know him like I do” with a sprinkle of “he has excuses, he has had a difficult childhood/marriage/something.” And it’s true the victim won’t have seen the manipulator under the same light  as his kin.

Because the manipulator uses his poisonous charm on a selected few. And for a limited period.

The victim will have thus the impression to know a totally different person than the one others describe, when they try to save him. And the victim believes he knows best because he thinks he has had access to the manipulator’s intimate self. In reality, the victim is fooled: the one under which charm he has fallen, lover, wife, friend, politician, guru... isn’t real.  It’s an illusion created to seduce him. And this is, by far, the most difficult to let go. Because this illusion has been invented especially for you, for what you miss in life, for your traumatism, your faults, your dreams, your needs, your wishes and your fantasies.

The manipulator won’t always keep this illusion alive. He can’t. And even if he could, he wouldn't. He won’t make more efforts than necessary and will let the illusion progressively disappear. But the victim, dazzled by his dream in the flesh, has already committed emotionally. Or more: he can have married his manipulator, have had children with him, let his previous life go, lost his financial autonomy or his friends...

And so, in love of an illusive star or stuck in the swamp, the victim will find more and more excuses to his torturer, find justifications. And become in the deed, the accomplice of his own ordeal.

23. the more toxic the more charisma

Because it’s fairly known you don’t attract flies with vinegar. And you are the fly.

I believe in love at first sight, first and foremost when there is a manipulator involved. And it could seem a paradox, that a person I describe lacking in personality could also be so seductive. It’s because charisma doesn’t depend on personality but depends on some very clear and definite tricks: an apparent self-confidence (in fact, no shame which allows him to dare anything, lots of arrogance and self-love), this way he has to savour life and the energy of those around, and an everlasting narcissism that has him play a role to get anyone’s attention. If all that weren’t enough, some can turn an internal switch and project some kind of electric energy.

The human energy exists, the manipulator knows it.

As his total lack of conscience, his ambition and rage may have propelled him to the highest levels of money and power, we have here a classic potent aphrodisiac. And a romantic cliche à la “Pretty Woman”.

I’ve recently seen on social media, this sentence, meant to be motivational, I guess, and which could be the perfect motto of manipulators: “There is the lamp and there is the butterfly. I choose to be the lamp.”

Knowing the poor insect will, in the best case scenario, loose his time flying around an illusion, and, in the worst case, been consumed on it, you get the idea...

You can’t be too careful of neon lights.

(to be continued...)

[yesterdanereviews]

The End of Agent W4C, as Staged by Mr Fousta’s Dog (1967)

Film review #325

SYNOPSIS: International spy Cyril Juan Bourgette is undertaking a mission to travel to a hotel in Prague and retrieve plans for the militarisation of Venus hidden in a salt shaker. However, every other spy agency in the world also sends operatives on the same mission, and so they are all on the trail of the secret plans while trying not to blow their cover to one another. The Prague counter-intelligence unit also seeks to send someone on this mission, but being shorthanded, they are forced to send Fousta, their accountant. Bringing his dog Pajda along, Fousta enters the spy’s world of cunning and intrigue, while lacking either of those qualities, and ends up in way over his head...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: The End of Agent W4C, as Staged by Mr Fousta’s Dog (Konec agenta W4C prostrednictvím psa pana Foustky) is a 1967 Czech film that is a spoof of the James Bond 007 films. The film starts off by introducing spy and international heartthrob Cyril Juan Bourgette (or agent W4C), who simultaneously defeats a group of spies alongside seducing a woman in typically over-the-top, yet suave fashion. He is called on an assignment to retrieve a salt shaker from a hotel in Prague that contains a microfilm detailing plans for the militarisation of the planet Venus. However, as is typical of the spy game, spies from all other countries have learned of this, and are sending their own spies to retrieve the salt shaker. Prague intelligence also intend to join in on this, but as they have a shortage of spies, have to send in their accountant Fousta, who they designate as agent 13b. Fousta brings along his dog Pajda to the airport where he is to tail W4C to the hotel, but the film quickly reveals Fousta’s complete incompetence as a spy, as he misses W4C and fails to recognise that everyone else that gets off the plane is a spy that is tailing Bourgette as well. The film follows this basic formula of Fousta being the inept spy that is way out of his league, and completely oblivious to the complex spy games going on around him. The film is a lot of fun, especially when you see the spies from all around the world spying on each other and pretending that they aren’t spies at all. Bourgette is obviously a spoof of James Bond with his silly gadgets, cool demeanour and seductive charm, and Fousta is in contrast a complete buffoon who does not know the first thing abut spying, relying on his dog to get out of most situations. There’s plenty of comedy and it’s all very easy to follow, even when the spy games get ridiculously complicated and silly, you know it’s what makes it such a good spoof when everything gets way more complicated than it needs to be.

Bourgette, Fousta, his dog and every other spy end up in the hotel bar where the salt shaker is apparently located. This is definitely the best scene in the film, with the spies all trying to keep their cover while covertly searching all the salt shakers without trying to blow their cover, and eventually a massive brawl ensuing, with only Fousta oblivious to the spy game going on around him. The scene goes on for an extended amount of time, but remains engaging by constantly escalating the ridiculously overblown spy games, culminating in a mass fight where weapons are pulled out of instruments and other ridiculous scenarios, and which Fousta still manages to overlook. The film makes a lot of effort to showcase the whole spy game as a ridiculous show, and takes it to the extremes you would expect it to. All the scenes have a theatrical sense about the, insofar as none of the spies want to give up their cover, even when everyone knows they are all spies. A lot of the events that happen feel quite inconsequential, even though apparently there is a lot at stake in the salt shaker, but that’s part of the success of the spoof: that the spies take being a spy a lot more seriously than their mission. Even near the end and all the spies end up being electrocuted to death in a swimming pool, it’s all portrayed as the climax of the espionage farce, and its a bit of dark humour that works quite well. Overall, the film mixes some silly comedy from the ridiculous spy-themed antics and the dog’s clever antics while portraying the dark world of espionage as rather ridiculous when taken out of context. The plot is quite inconsequential to the spoof, and the strength of the film lies in it being a parody that has some bite to it. The characters fill out their roles quite nicely, and are recognisable while developing their own personality. The setups are well paced and thought out, and match the spy theme well, as a lot of it is just watching and waiting as you would expect. Oh, and the film delivers what the title promises, as W4C meets his end inadvertently at the hands of Mr. Fousta’s dog. Not hugely groundbreaking, but it’s clever, sufficiently deep and takes its subject matter seriously...before spoofing it anyway. All in all, an enjoyable watch.

[tendance-news]

Picking up a man isn’t as difficult as people sometimes lead you to believe… But Learning to seduce menand to understand them is still an art form… an art form that you can master, Madam, starting this very instant!

In this first article from the series, seducing a man, we’re going to cover the basic rules you should know, along with a set of techniques and methods of seduction that will let you EFFECTIVELY seduce a man, with class and elegance!

Many of you visit the site, and it is our duty to serve you and especially to boost your knowledge of feminine seduction, or if you prefer, to sculpt it.

But before sharing the secrets of seduction that will enable you to capture any man you desire, let me tell you a secret.

As I explained in my first book , we men are like ON/OFF buttons. Simply press the ON button, and there you go! Meanwhile you ladies, you’re like volume buttons that move incrementally, we have to turn the volume up bit by bit, or in other words, we need a whole seduction arsenal to achieve our goals. See the difference.

I would also like to pay a small tribute to my first girlfriend, who seriously *cruelly* seduced me, and made me go totally crazy over her, and still managed to stay…

Classy and elegant! I’m grateful to her because, first of all, I am currently in Hawaii next to two beautiful supermodels while I write this article but, more importantly, because I’ll analyze all her diabolical little techniques and draw inspiration from them, and then I’ll add the techniques of feminized men, to give you, ladies, the best recipe for seducing men.

But seriously … I’m not in Hawaii, and I’m not next to a supermodel, it’s actually my cat who’s messing around with the mouse on my laptop, and keeping me from writing… Go on Hitch, get down! oh thank you now… (yes, his name is Hitch )

Let’s move on…

Men aren’t all jerks, as some desperate women say, and women aren’t all sluts, as Loser men say… everything is a question of…?

Seduction!

Bravo…

Here’s a list of tips that you can try out, use and adapt to attract your prince charming… oh yeah by the way, forget that stuff… Prince Charming doesn’t exist.

Be confident

Self-confidence… that’s a phrase I like. Would you like to bring every man to his knees?

Start the work of seduction on YOURSELF. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, you can keep wasting all your evenings watching Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives in your SpongeBob pajamas, which you bought for 99 cents… For the love of God, don’t underestimate yourself…

EVER! All women are beautiful, and EVERY woman has her charms, and her qualities. If you are less beautiful than other women, you SURELY have a very fine quality that others do not possess. If you have hang-ups, forget them! Nobody’s perfect and everyone has their own flaws!

Nowadays, and since time immemorial, beauty has always been considered something common, that everyone has, but today a woman with good qualities has become something rare [I’ll come back to this in the last paragraph] and exceptional! A woman with graceful and noble qualities is, precisely, a WOMAN…

So stop making dramas and comedies about yourselves, ladies … put your right hand on your heart, and repeat after me:

“Today, I accept myself, WITHOUT any conditions at all, I am a woman, and I can seduce every man that I want.”

Think about your Look

There’s nothing better than chatting and having conversations with a woman whose physical appearance is attractive! I respect women who take GOOD care of themselves, and invest heavily in their look.

Your mom probably tells you that beauty is on the inside and blah blah blah, but if you have a hairstyle shaped like an artichoke, wear super-large jeans and a supermarket shirt, men will avoid you like the plague… Beauty is, FIRST, external, if you don’t have style and class, no normally constituted man will give you a second glance.

Change your hairstyle more often, and if you can, try to grow long hair, it’s a typical sign of femininity. Invest in clothes that are more or less sexy and glamorous. In summer, wear skirts, it’s another sign of femininity… and you know what, burn all those masculine clothes you have in the closet, we HATE to see women dressed like men.

Before I forget, I’d like to give you a little tip… Keep several different perfumes! I remember this girl who wore a different perfume on every date, it made me go crazy every time I smelled a sensual and pleasant new scent. Try this trick and let me have your feedback.

Be a “rare” woman

Everything rare is expensive: the more we’re seen, the more we’re heard, the more we do, the more ordinary we seem. If you’re part of a group, stay away for a while and people will talk about you more, they’ll even admire you more. Practice absence: scarcity will increase your value.

In the excellent book by psychologist Robert Cialdini, Influence and Persuasion, the author discusses the principle of scarcity as a weapon of mass persuasion and, appropriately, seduction goes together perfectly with the art of influence and persuasion. Therefore, ladies, use scarcity as your weapon.

Make yourself into a woman who is rare and special, today’s men can’t stand conventional and ordinary women, all interesting men are TOO demanding on this point. In general, a situation of scarcity makes us react in a way that clouds and diminishes our powers of judgment, and pleasure no longer consists in enjoying something rare, but SOLELY in possessing it.

In other words, as soon as a man sees you as a special woman, trust me ladies, your work of seduction has definitely achieved its goal… it’s in the bag!

To put it in different terms, the “Romeo and Juliet” effect is probably the most widespread phenomenon associated with the principle of scarcity, so in fact, the more the parents oppose a relationship, the more united the couple will be.

In this situation, the sensation of loss we feel will drive us to focus more and more on the other person, blindly and with every means at our disposal.

Make use of this principle of persuasion, don’t give him the impression that you’re seduced and already won over.

And how do you seduce a man while remaining natural?

That’s the question I’ve focused on in recent years, in order to provide THE right answer! In fact, if you want to seduce men you have to start by seducing YOURSELF.

Next, you need to master the techniques of communication, confidence and, finally, optionally, the techniques of seduction.

Additionally, you should adopt and develop the mindset of the seductive woman, and you’ll be surprised to see CLEARLY that the secret codes of seduction, have become a child’s game for you.

I’ve prepared and assembled everything in a single book, The Seductress’s Guide.

This book, let’s be honest, is not about transforming you into some kind of tease or man-eater.

No, far from it…

Personally, I am firmly convinced that if you want to learn to be seductive, you must:

Develop self-confidence

Work on your personality to make it attractive

Master the art of communication with others (the better you communicate, the better your basic level of seduction)

Take care of your appearance and image; and finally:

Know the techniques of seduction, and adopt those that suit YOU!

There is no magic formula in the galaxy of seduction. But there is the work you do on yourself, and what’s known as personal development. That’s the motto of my philosophy.

To your success,

[csadby88js]

Continuing research

This time I will focus my research on more different topics and views about the photo manipulation. 

So lets go back with the manipulation and focus on the photography. 

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/staging-manipulation-ethics-photos/

The truth value.

The writer starts by describing the situation that came up at World Press photo competition. The problem were the manipulation of photos and how there was too much digital post processing done on them, but moves fast to a another interesting point that came up, staging. It is another way of manipulating the images without the help of digital softwares and post processing. Staging is setting up everything ready for the photo to achieve the wanted message. The truth value of the photo is completely gone.

The competition and set of certain rules brought out alarming facts about staging and how photographers use it.

“One of the most disturbing findings was that more than half of the news photographers who replied said they sometimes staged photos — with 12 percent saying they did so at least half the time. All of the major wire services and newspapers in the United States forbid staging news photos.” ( The New York Times, 2015)

Writer focuses on the outcome of the survey in which the photographers took part and the amount of staging is much more that I was expecting. Of course I understand that the photographers go for perfect moments and choosing right angles to improve the message of the image, but if we have this much manipulation going on even before getting the images on our computers, there is no point on focusing the digital post processing of the image.

This takes us a little bit further with the manipulation problem. Depending on the use of the photos, they should hold their truth value. We already are wondering the amount of Photoshopping done to the photos and now we should also start guessing where the original images comes from ? For sure certain images are made to deliver certain messages for audience. Considering this, the whole advertisement business is in a way staged situations turned to commercials, but there is more to photography and certain medias like news and more serious topics should use imagery that have the truth value of the reality of the situation.

As the writer interviews Stanley Greene, a founding member of Noor Images, he states an obvious fact that “I think setting up photos — where they are completely staged — is very widespread. I’ve seen it done by very-well-known photographers, mostly in conflict or disaster situations. I’ve witnessed photographers try to recreate moments when they arrived to a scene too late.The public has lost trust in the media. We have to be ambassadors of the truth, we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard because the public no longer trusts the media. We are considered merchants of misery and therefore get a bad rap.”.  ( The New York Times, 2015)

If I think this, we really don’t have that much trust for media anymore or we have to time to time consider the fact that it might not be true. Does this just make us numb to important news and decreasing our participation on certain topics as we can’t relate to the importance of them anymore as we challenge the truth value of it in some ways.

As writer describes the conversations that he had with various people, Santiago Lyon, vice president of photography for The Associated Press, continues with the photo manipulation and staging happening at the scene.

“For example, the photographer who might ask a combatant to fire their weapon so they can capture a more dramatic image. Or the photographer who agrees when the subject proposes doing something solely or primarily for the benefit of the camera — burning a flag or chanting during a demonstration.“  ( The New York Times, 2015)

So what is actually happening at the scene ? It just seems that at this point person taking the photographs and if also being one to write the situation, seem to just throw more gas on fire. I truly hope that this isn’t case, and that we can trust that the media shows the pressing issues what we face today as they are and not totally go overboard by creating scenes that basically create more conflicts and suffering.

But not everyone take up on staging scenes but tries to find the truth. Michele McNally, director of photography and an assistant managing editor at The New York Times, points out quite disturbing evidence but points out the good that the photographerss go through with.

“That said, no publication is immune to getting burned. For example, one of our photojournalists covering conflict in Lebanon once gave me a heads-up that I wasn’t going to see a dramatic image of a dead baby being paraded through the streets. That’s because the crowd saw the photographers and actually dug the baby’s corpse from its grave, held it aloft and paraded it. He refused to take that picture.”  ( The New York Times, 2015)

It seems that we, humans, can go quite far to make certain messages delivered, gaining support for the cause, making money, creating a cause, etc. And I think this is one of the points we have to start with. Providing the truth. If we are expecting truth from the media, we should expecting to deliver it ourselves. But do we ? Maybe our society can’t handle it all. Truth usually hurts, cold harsh reality can be something that people don’t want to face, rather they would choose the reality they already live in. This could be one of the reason why we keep on following the manipulated media as it fits into our comfort zone better than the cold harsh reality.

As the writer finishes up, he has picked up few interesting comments from the readers and I will share them here as well. This gives us a little bit more perspective to the matter and questions the matter taking a bit different views.

Steve Liss, Associate professor of Media at Endicott College, former photographer for Time magazine:

“Candid = truth? That’s accountant’s truth. It’s comforting and seductive. But it’s simplistic, in my view. I would respectfully submit that a directed picture can sometimes convey a greater truth about a subject than a candid picture. We aren’t surveillance cameras. We’re thinking photojournalists searching for truth…sometimes as a direction, not a finite end. And we’re often limited by practical considerations of time and access. We’re called upon to make judgments all the time and, whether we want to admit it or not, we affect the scenes we photograph by our presence.”  ( The New York Times, 2015)

Jack Zibluk

“As the profession diversifies and changes, the ethical lines between staged and unstaged image use overlap and blur. As we use more video and sound, the traditions of print ethics and the traditions of broadcast ethics and other forms of storytelling don’t always coincide. In television and video, standups and narrations are often staged and it’s considered acceptable. But the photographer’s presence in a still photo as a shadow or reflection is considered unprofessional. In my classes at Southeast Missouri, where I am professor of mass media, we apply various professional codes of ethics to various case studies. Class members seldom agree on whether a staged picture can tell a truth better than an unstaged picture, which some students call “found art. The consensus is that it comes down to intent. We all agree that a willful deception of the audience is wrong. period. Beyond that, it’s pretty much an open dialogue, and I think the profession doesn’t have enough of these dialogues with professionals or with audience members.”  ( The New York Times, 2015)

At this point I leave you, dear reader, to digest this and have few thoughts about the matter yourself.