#but aside from that and general tiredness it seems to be improving my general well-being

[dorunasch]

went one whole day without even a little headache... merry christmas to me (*゜▽゜)_□

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: “The Enemy of Trust”

Welcome to the finale, folks! A quick fun fact for you all. Total length of RWBY Recaps Volume 7 is:

68,611 words, or 115 pages single spaced. Yeesh. No wonder I never got anything else done on Saturdays.

Overall thoughts on the finale? There are pieces embedded in this episode that I really liked. Meaning, all these conflicts and reveals could be seen as truly wonderful bits of storytelling... provided you ignore the horrible, messy context it’s all situated in. For example, I greatly enjoyed that fight with Neo... provided I ignore the stupidity that was the group keeping the relic in the first place. I love the idea of Penny becoming the Winter Maiden... it’s just too bad there wasn’t any setup for that in the form of Penny’s emotional growth, either by re-bonding with Ruby or by something amounting from that frame job. I adore that Ozpin is finally back!! ...So I guess I just have to ignore how he pretty much only existed as thematic exposition and that his bad treatment by the writers hangs over his return. It’s all very “Could have been good if the rest hadn’t been so astoundingly bad.”

First though, before the plot, I wanted to dip by toe into some of the questions we went into this volume with and some of the primary ones that sprung up along the way. Simple answers are attached.

Will the group’s dangerous attitude be addressed along with the introduced hypocrisy in regards to secret keeping? Ha! Not at all. Everything was thoroughly reinforced and last we saw the group---besides generic airship shots---they were triumphantly defeating Ironwood’s evil Ace Ops. So that’s that on that.

Will Ozpin come back and will there be reconciliation with the group? Yes! But also no! Why have a volume tackling with the biggest personal conflict the group has ever faced when you could instead just have another “Ozpin speaks a handful of words during a life-and-death situation”? Yes, yes he gets that massive monologue. We’ll get to that, but suffice to say it doesn’t exactly accomplish anything. Just hammers home how desperate I am to have his character back that I’ll take anything they’re willing to give me.

How will the group handle the death of Adam---one of the most significant deaths to date next to Pyrrha’s---and how will the reveal of his brand impact Weiss and her time at home? It won’t. Blake and Yang vaguely reference him once and that’s it. Apparently killing your abuser in self-defense creates no lasting trauma we should deal with and major reveals from villains straight up don’t matter.

What will the story do with their new character Maria? Uh, nothing. She exists off screen for the entire volume, only popping up in the last second to (maybe?) help Pietro get the scrolls working again. Oh, and she’s stolen another airship.

How will Qrow’s alcoholism continue to impact the group and how will he learn to start managing his addiction? No idea because that happened off screen. And then was presumably erased when Clover died.

Will the group ever discuss the hopelessness attached to their mission and come to the realization that their fight is worthwhile even though they can’t kill Salem? Sort of...? Because yeah they come to that realization but, again, it happens off screen. More significantly, it happens so well, apparently, that the group is now willing to feed Ironwood’s own false hope (like the fandom claims Ozpin did to them) and will be able to stand in front of Salem herself and announce that she’s totally beatable. And we’re going to risk a whole Kingdom on that came-out-of-nowhere confidence.

What does the Staff of Creation do and how will our characters potentially use it in their plans against Salem? We learn that the staff keeps Atlas afloat and it’s definitely a part of Ironwood’s plans, so there’s that.

How will Ruby continue to train and improve her Silver Eye powers? In the messiest and most contradictory manner possible. We’re shown twice in the last three episodes that she can’t get them to work and then suddenly they’re working again when the plot wants Cinder to skedaddle because there’s five minutes of the episode left. Like Qrow’s semblance, Ruby’s eyes are based on a switch that the writers turn on or off depending on their whim.

What will this volume tell us about Nora given all the hype surrounding the importance of her character this season? Nothing, really. All Nora does is solidify her relationship with Ren in a non-consenting manner and yell at Ironwood about Mantle while helping to orchestrate the city’s lack of resources. Even ignoring the issues inherent in these scenes, what we “learned” about Nora this volume is that she loves Ren, is protective of those who come from a similar background as she does, and will run to hug Oscar when given the chance. So...nothing. 

Now the reason I provided this long-ass introduction is so that a) we can remember what we actually hoped/expected the volume to accomplish now that we’ve reached the end (RWBY introduces so many things that viewers---myself included---outright forget that we were supposed to tackle certain plot points or character beats) and b) to demonstrate just some of the writing problems that are impacting this finale. This is what I mean when I say that this finale could have been really solid if not for... all of that. And “that” is just a small sampling of the issues we’ve built up over the last two years. 

But on to the actual plot.

We open on Jaune yelling, “Give up!” at Neo, which isn’t a heavy-handed reflection of the entire RWBYJNR group or anything. As said though, I did really enjoy the choreography of this fight. Oscar gets that excellent moment where he catches the relic with his cane, as well as when he grabs hold of Neo’s legs to keep her from fleeing. Jaune manages to protect them with two different kinds of shields now embedded in his shield. It’s a shield-shield. And Neo herself is always a joy to watch, demonstrating so much personality as she teases her way through each attack. I was thinking throughout this scene that I’d love to see her and Tyrian fighting together. That would be an excellent blend of insane/arrogant enjoyment.

The problem is that Neo is just having such an easy time of it. Which, I should be clear, is what I wanted based on the logic of the situation. Neo should be able to kick their asses with relative ease. The only reason why this is an issue is because it severely complicates what we saw last episode. How was Oscar able to survive her attack for however long? How was he able to land such a solid punch when now Ren and Nora fly at her with the same kind of obviousness and Neo deflects them with ease? I’m thrilled that the finale gave us such a long moment with Oscar, but the series as a whole still has a problem with relegating most of his development off screen. Seeing the comparatively vulnerable farm boy face off against one of our strongest villains should have been a focus last episode, not something that happens in the ether of, “Well I guess all that worked out somehow despite Neo kicking their asses here.” It’s an issue of consistency and convenience primarily. The show seems to have the characters on a very malleable power scale nowadays. Oscar isn’t strong enough to help with the geist, but he’s strong enough to land the first solid hit on Neo. Team RWBY is strong enough to take out the most elite group of huntsmen in Atlas, but Team JNR isn’t strong enough to take out a single villain four to one. It makes it harder to invest in anyone or anything because we’re always on shaky ground. The viewers never know when the writing will obey the rules it has set up or chuck them away on a whim.

The fight is interrupted though when the guards spot them. Did Ruby mention that they were being arrested in her announcement? Did Ironwood announce that before or after Ruby called? I honestly can’t remember and right now I’m too lazy to check. I was just a little surprised that Jaune immediately knew to run from the guards, rather than going, “Hey, crazy woman attacking us please help.” But eh, I’m happy enough to chalk that up to either my own shaky memory or a small connection lost. RWBY has way bigger problems than details like, “How did so-and-so know about such-and-such?” Not unless that information holds way more weight.

So they flee and we actually get to see some reaction to fighting for once. Oscar in particular is clearly exhausted and his clothes are done-in from the battle. Later, while hiding in the training room, all four of them will be leaning against the wall, heaving after facing Neo. Again, this is good. This is how newly-minted huntsmen should be reacting to fighting people way beyond their skill level. It’s only a problem when we compare these details to what we got last week with Team RWBY. Showing JNOR’s exhaustion from a quick bout with Neo no way aligns with RWBY’s perky, totally fine, no auras broken and no tiredness characterization after facing off against four Ace Ops for a significantly longer period.

So there’s some serious plot armor at work there. It became even more clear this episode that Team RWBY won because Team RWBY always gets what they want, not because it makes any sense in-world. But we’ll have to deal with any other consequences of that next volume because they’re barely in the rest of this episode. Instead, we return to the Winter, Penny, and Cinder fight where Cinder casually tosses Penny aside with her grimm arm. She’s briefly held back by Winter’s summoned birds, but that’s hardly going to faze her in the grand scheme of things. In fact, Cinder still has enough energy and confidence to start some philosophizing while she fights. She tells Winter that she may think “hoarding power means you’ll keep it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier.” Self-fulfilling words from the woman hell-bent on acquiring and hoarding all the Maiden powers? As absurd as Cinder’s beliefs are, that “And I refuse to starve” line was pretty badass. On the whole I think she’s a boring villain, but every once in a blue moon Cinder will have a cool moment before she becomes irrelevant again.

The fight continues as Penny returns to the fray and it sounded to me that she was making more noise during this fight than normal. Granted, we’ve rarely seen Penny engage in an all-out brawl that lasts for more than a few seconds, but the additions certainly help with where she’s heading this episode. Particularly moments such as when they’re outside and Cinder’s sword blows up in Penny’s face, causing her to outright scream. It’s a very human sound, setting up the reveal that yes, an android is human enough to take on the Maiden powers. And if you go by some fan theories, “woman enough” (for lack of a better term) given that her aura is a man’s, Pietro’s. Penny is a girl regardless of starting out with male aura, leading to some wonderful and interesting takes on her as a trans character. Now I’m not giving that praise to Rooster Teeth---this isn’t them giving us representation---rather, I’m praising the fandom’s ingenuity and ability to adopt characters into their own communities. You don’t need “evidence” to headcanon transness, but having a girl born of a man’s aura go on to acquire woman-only power can definitely help. 

Granted, Penny’s vocalizing here is just a tiny detail that I’m choosing to apply positively to an outcome. I nevertheless stand by my early belief that Penny simply didn’t have the development needed to land her in the Maiden position. Having her grapple with her own death, Ruby her resurrection, and the loss of Mantle’s support would have achieved that. It’s clear now why Rooster Teeth brought her back, but that doesn’t mean they’ve treated her character well for the last twelve episodes. Instead, in true RWBY fashion, a lot was introduced with no followup.

As said though, they take things outside to give us a decently cool battle between three characters who can fly. While in the air though Winter’s aura is broken and she starts to plummet. Obviously Penny catches her, to which Winter replies, “What are you doing? My life doesn’t matter!”

Sometimes I wonder if Rooster Teeth bothers to think about the dialogue they put in characters’ mouths. I mean seriously? Winter is not stupid. Nor is she so hard that---as the episode hammers home---she wouldn’t experience fear. So:

Anyone is going to be happy about being caught from a 100% deadly fall. In a situation like this survival instinct trumps responsibility. Even if it didn’t “responsibility” doesn’t make any sense here because:

They’re not giving up on the Maiden. Penny isn’t making a decision here that requires forever and always choosing Winter over Fria. They’re gonna turn right around and continue the fight

Seriously, it takes a few seconds to catch her. This isn’t that big a deal

The fight thus far has clearly proven that they need all the help they can get. Penny can’t take Cinder on her own and indeed, even with her aura broken Winter manages to be incalculably helpful

Fria still has her powers, which she’s about to demonstrate. Does Winter really not realize that Fria is still pretty capable of defending herself?

In short, this line is stupid. More than just stupid it’s twisting a character to get them to fit with the volume’s badly imposed theme. Oh look Winter cares sooooo much about her orders that she would needlessly die for them. Penny must teach her the value of her own life and how “blindly” obeying Ironwood is a big, bad thing. Come on. Lines like these---Harriet claiming the Ace Ops aren’t friends even though they clearly are, Qrow blaming Ironwood for Clover’s death when he’s not even there, Yang sniping at Elm about how she can’t think for herself---only serve to say Protagonists Good; Ironwood Bad. Rooster Teeth really loves to introduce justified and sympathetic characters, only to have other characters go OOC to backtrack on that verbally. Ignore what you’ve seen and just believe the nonsense words that never would have come out of this character’s mouth otherwise. And yes, that includes Yang and her comment to Elm. She is by far the most loyal character, considering that she’s canonically done things she did not want (following Ozpin) purely because Ruby was doing it. If the story had any sense embedded in it Yang would be the one who understood where the Ace Ops were coming from in their devotion to Ironwood, or at the very least the narrative would call her out on her hypocricy. As it is, the story functions around the “fact” that following Ruby is just intrinsically good. No matter what Ruby herself might do and how it does or does not compare to others’ actions. She’s the hero, always. In the same way, having Winter spout such a nonsense line works only to say, “See? Following Ironwood destroys all your self-wroth. Following Ruby? Like Penny does? You learn the value of friendship!” Never-mind that the first thing Ironwood does this episode is congratulate and apologize to Winter when he thinks he’s coming down into the vault...

Enjoyable pieces aside, I’m obviously still salty, but we’ll get to Ironwood in a minute. For now, Oscar is seriously dragging behind JNR and manages to get separated. He’s hidden from the guards by “Nora” who is, obviously Neo. Within the span of a second she’s gotten the relic and will keep it until she hands it over to Cinder.

Congratulations, team! Not only did you allow Ironwood to harm Mantle for weeks on end when you knew his plan was doomed to fail, you’ve also lost the relic you came to secure in the first place, thoroughly betrayed the one powerful ally you had in this war (just like you did Ozpin), have destroyed any hope of escape as---surprise!---Salem actually showed up, and you took out the one elite team who might have helped you fight her. Oh, and Qrow, you got arrested in the end anyway so congrats on getting your friend killed along the way. Seriously, how does anyone---how does the narrative---insist that these people are heroes? At this point this is a story about fallen heroes, but rather than emphasizing precisely how badly the group has screwed up the last two volumes and taking them on a journey back from the brink, they’re still being painted in a perfect light.

So... yeah. Relic is gone. Which we all saw coming the second Ruby happily agreed to keep holding onto it, then got protective when Ironwood mentioned taking it back. Loyalty aside, you cannot possibly think the relic is safer on your or Oscar’s belt than it is in a freaking magical vault. The group should be denied the title of “heroes” for their stupidity and arrogance alone. Especially when they never bothered to tell Ironwood that there was still a question left. That might have changed his mind about letting them carry it around. 

Thus, relic in hand, Neo makes easy work of the rest of the team. Most notably by keeping Nora’s face and giving Ren sad eyes when he tries to strike her. This is a really good moment of visual storytelling and more how RWBY should be using their fights to do double-duty and develop characterization. Neo’s trick not only demonstrates her cruel skills, but tells us precisely how deeply Ren cares for Nora. Even knowing that’s not her he hesitates. Then, obviously, we’ve got the tears as the team runs off. So obviously things are still eating at him and their relationship is a big part of that... which just makes me all the more frustrated that the story passed over his fears at the party. I really don’t care how eager everyone (myself included) was to finally get a renora kiss. We never should have seen Nora ignoring those problems and insisting on moving the relationship forward in a way he clearly wasn’t ready for yet. Ren’s words told us that, as does his grief now. Everyone was wondering if ignoring his anxiety would come to a head in the form of Ren siding with Ironwood, but we didn’t get the chance to find that out this volume. Which, I get it. RWBY doesn’t have a lot of time, but that’s precisely the problem. Tiny tid-bits are dropped and then ignored for weeks, if not years on end. That moment between Ren and Neo was excellently crafted and told us a lot about both, but ultimately it’s just another moment cast adrift from everything else. Who knows if this plot-line will actually continue in Volume 8’s premier, if at all.

So Neo wanders off in an Atlas disguise and hands the relic off to Cinder. What’s Cinder going to do with the relic precisely? Not sure. Gonna have to wait on that one. We do have some decent setup for Neo’s betrayal though. She not only looked pissed at Cinder just snatching the prize, but sad about it too. Neo has always been driven by her own, messed up love, notably for Roman. Now that he’s gone it seems like she was looking for someone else to latch onto. Now that Cinder has proven that Neo is only a tool to her, she’d better watch her back.

Returning to Fria. She, as said, still has a lot of kick in her and easily pushes Cinder back. “That’s the power of a fully realized Maiden,” Winter says as crazy power shoots into the sky. Again, good setup... if I believed RWBY was capable of following up on anything. Remember at the beginning of the volume when Harriet dropped setup on Ruby’s semblance? Yeah, nothing came of that either. And though it still might, again, when? I know I use this example a lot, but you can’t introduce Raven speaking with Tai, drop that for three years (or longer), and then pick it back up like that’s still a relevant thread to follow. By having Winter proclaim that this is a “fully realized” power we imply that others, such as Cinder, may be able to become more powerful as well, but there’s little faith on the viewer’s part that such a line will actually amount to anything. Or if it does, it will happen so far in the future that most viewers will have forgotten about it.

For now though Fria is super-duper powerful. Cinder and Winter can’t even get near her. So it’s up to Penny, the one person not made of flesh and blood, to get the job done. I like that. Great use of difference as a strength. So she dives in and gets Fria to calm down, reigning her power back in. They discuss transferring the power and when Penny tries to remind her of the consequences we get, “I’ll be gone. I know I have a hard time remembering, but I remember that.” Hey. Hey, hey. I want the entire fandom to pay attention to this line because a lot of you still have a tendency to erase agency so as to more easily pin the blame on characters you don’t like. Pyrrha didn’t choose to fight Cinder against Ozpin’s orders, Ozpin killed her! Qrow didn’t choose to fight Clover and team up with Tyrian, Ironwood killed Clover! The Ace Ops didn’t choose to be loyal and maintain the responsibility they swore as military huntsmen, Ironwood just brainwashed them into being obedient puppets! Here, we get another glorious reminder that yes, these characters can actually think and act for themselves. Even the characters with dementia. Asking someone to do the hard thing (Pyrrha) is not in any way comparable to making them. It’s crystal clear from Fria’s line here that Ironwood spoke to her about the situation. He, like Ozpin, was upfront about the consequences. She in turn decided to accept this duty. Yes, I know I’ll die. I’ve accepted that. I have a job to do and I intend to complete it.

So yeah, #stop-taking-away-one-character’s-agency-just-because-you-don’t-like-another-2020.

Penny is thus faced with a glaring responsibility of her own: will she take on the Maiden powers? Because Fria may remember her job, but not who else was supposed to complete the job with her. Was it you? Penny, meanwhile, is looking at all that ice and wondering if Winter can even get here in time. It may well only be her... unless they want it to be Cinder.

As she thinks through this decision we return to JNR. Ren has a brief freak-out about how “We weren’t ready to become huntsmen” but instead of a truthful statement about their maturity and skill levels, the story twists it into a false statement by having Ren start yelling at Nora and placing unnecessary blame. We’re not supposed to believe him here because he’s irrational and lashing out... even though I think “We weren’t ready to become huntsmen” is a 100% truthful statement. The last two volumes have proven to me, if no one else, that having a job with that much power and responsibility isn’t just about whether you can swing your scythe really well. It’s about having the emotional fortitude and, as said, majority to treat it as a job and put that responsibility ahead of your own desires. RWBYJNR has consistently demonstrated that they’re unwilling to do that. It’s their way or the highway, damn promises, responsibility, loyalty, or consequences.

Before things can really break in the group though more soldiers show up and as they’re hiding behind Jaune’s shield he realizes that Oscar is missing. Over the comms Oscar says that he has something he needs to do alone, heading for the vault. I really appreciate this moment because Oscar is the one person in this group who has actually extended some of the unity and sympathy that RWBYJNR keeps yelling that everyone needs to give to them first. He apologizes to Ironwood whereas Yang sticks her nose in the air and insists she did nothing wrong. He approaches Ironwood and asks to find a way forward together while Ruby yells that Harriet has to do what she wants or no, I won’t stop attacking you. We get that moment where Ironwood thinks it’s Winter descending and goes, “I know that must have been hard for you. I’m so sorry,” demonstrating his own care and compassion. We see Oscar embodying Ozpin in his folded hands, use of the cane, and harder eyes, despite the fact that it’s still him in control. 

He has a piece of that maturity the rest of his team lacks. He’s open, Ironwood is open, they’re poised to do what the others around them can’t...

Too bad it all goes to total shit.

You know, I feel like I should be more mad about this but at this point I’m just kind of numb. Why in the world would I be surprised that Rooster Teeth would erase all the work above to turn Ironwood into a generic villain? They did it before, or did I suddenly forget the twenty-minutes that humanized Ozpin only to be followed with two volumes of bashing him non-stop? I knew Ironwood was going to get screwed, I just didn’t think they’d go so far as to do it like this. And shame on me because I should have.

There are times when things happen on screen... but by god it isn’t canon. Because it’s just too stupid to be canon. It’s so horrifically out of character that the only explanation is that this is an impersonator and the writers just forgot to tell us that along the way. Because James Ironwood would never kill a child. Or hell, maybe he would, but it would have to be under RADICALLY different circumstances from these. People realize right that this is so beyond out of character as to be laughable, right? We get:

A man who has devoted himself to fighting the biggest evil his world has ever seen

Learning the importance of care over brute strength, adopting Ozpin’s lessons by giving Mantle Penny

Has spent the last year trying desperately to keep all his people safe, making the hard calls in order to achieve that

Was beyond delighted when the group first appeared, kneeling down before Oscar and hugging Qrow

Has frequently asked after Ozpin throughout the volume, demonstrating a strong desire for him to return

Immediately forgave the group even after learning about Salem’s immortality, still pushing forward with them

Just sacrificed his arm in an effort to continue protecting those around him

Finally realized he didn’t have allies in this team and called only for their arrest, not any violence or mistreatment

Hired the Ace Ops, a group whose conflict was their need to perform that arrest pushing against their desire not to hurt anyone

Ironwood just began the scene by extending sympathy and apologies to another

And you’re going to tell me that this man, this man defined by his compassion and desperate need to protect others... is going to shoot the 14yo kid housing one of his oldest friends? Shoot to kill?

Because make no mistake, that was a killing shot. Ironwood knew Oscar was at the edge. Even if it hadn’t broken Oscar’s aura, that fall isn’t anything you can survive without Humanity 1.0 magic---magic Ironwood clearly wasn’t counting on to save him. They literally took this man and erased EVERYTHING that made him-him, deciding that randomly Ironwood kills kids now because he dislikes a conversation. Kills Ozpin too. It makes zero sense... but you know all precisely why they did it. Because Ironwood is the villain now. He dared disagree with Team RWBY and now that he’s an antagonist they had to make sure he did something he couldn’t come back from. You don’t try to kill the youngest of the group and then come back into the fold. Ironwood is finished. He’s either going to die next volume or the group is going to lock him behind bars as a “witty” parallel of him trying to arrest them, dropping a one-liner about how they’re sorry it came to this.

Which, obviously, I absolutely despise. The rest of the episode? Had a lot going for it. Cool and interesting developments that might have been great if not attached to the horror show of the last twenty-five episodes... but still cool and interesting nonetheless. This? This is the worst thing RWBY has done to date because they not only irrevocably messed up one of their best characters, but they did so in a way that highlights everything that has been wrong with the show the last two years. There was no buildup to this. None. Don’t @ me with “But Ironwood is unstable and the Tin Man has no heart.” No and also no. Rooster Teeth simply decided that they wanted him as a villain and made that happen in the span of a few seconds. It’s just as absurd and insulting as if, last volume while angry at Qrow, Ruby had picked up her scythe and cut through Weiss as a form of anger management. Ironwood aiming to kill the kid he’s been bonding with all volume and Ozpin to boot because they’re having a slightly heated conversation is insane. 

Which isn’t to say that conversation itself helped matters. Because Ironwood remains right. Those are all pretty, philosophical questions, Oscar, but what are we going to do about our situation? Oscar might express more sympathy then Team RWBY, but he’s just as naive and dangerously stubborn. He doesn’t have a plan either, just a continuing insistence that they try. In fact, his arguments are really... nonsensical in places? He says that if Ironwood abandons Mantle they’ll lose hope of uniting the whole world, even though we’ve never established why that’s still a goal when a world-wide army can’t defeat Salem. He likewise makes the absurd claim that because Ironwood is thinking about the big picture “Then you’re as dangerous as she is, James.”

No??

If RWBY is going to incorporate philosophy and moral conundrums into their writing then they actually need to do the work to think them through. Because sorry but the man making a currently still necessary sacrifice in order to keep the world as a whole safe is not the same thing as the genocidal grimm queen hell-bent on destroying it. Again, do they think about the words they’re putting into the characters’ mouths? The worst is how many viewers just eat it up. Because Good Boy Oscar said something vaguely wise-sounding then it must be true...never-mind the absurdity of the statement itself. I love Oscar to bits, just not when the writing uses him as a prop to promote these absurd themes. Not to keep dragging Witcher into every possible part of my life, but it immediately reminded me of this quote from Geralt. “You wizards are all the same...

Just because Oscar says it with confidence doesn’t mean it makes any sense.

Which is where we end up. Oscar falling, Ozpin arriving, the two of them managing to survive the fall. I have to admit that at this point Ozpin’s return just felt damn underwhelming to me. Like yes, of course I’m thrilled he’s back, but watching them mangle James like that just kicked all the enjoyment out of the rest of the episode. That, combined with the fact that Ozpin’s return actually was pretty lackluster. I mean, I feel like a shit for complaining about the thing I’ve wanted since the beginning of Volume 6... but is that really all we get? Ozpin doesn’t save him, Oscar saves them both, because he apparently has complete access to the magic and memories now. What does Ozpin matter then? Ozpin doesn’t speak really, just says Oscar’s name and is then cut off because Oscar doesn’t want to hear anything he has to say unless it’s about saving Atlas. He does express something like gratitude though--- “You’re back, aren’t you? You saved me”---so that’s more than we’ve gotten from anyone else. And Ozpin does narrate... but who is that to? Obviously very reminiscent of our series’ premier, but is he speaking to Salem again? We’re not told---or shown---and as it is that monologue exists purely for the audience. It’s a speech we could have gotten from any character and just happened to get it from Ozpin. It’s not being spoken to Oscar and therefore not forwarding any of the relationships that still need to be mended. In fact, this could well be a speech Ozpin gave years ago, disconnected from who he is now. Perhaps the biggest issue is that the speech is all about fear, further hammering home the finale’s BS stance that Ironwood being afraid of actual, legitimate threats made him into an unhinged child-killer.

Because his “paranoia”? It’s about this. This is what Ironwood was afraid of.

And oh look it’s here.

So yeah... I just can’t fall in love with this moment as I feel I should. RWBY has burned me too many times lately---the last time seconds before this scene---and frankly now that Ozpin is back I don’t trust them to treat his character well. So his return is automatically laced with more worry than excitement to see what comes next. Because if they do this to Ironwood, somehow who has done nothing but try to help this whole volume, what the hell are they going to do to Ozpin, someone who actually lied to and kept secrets from the precious team? I want him back, but not while we’ve got these themes going. I’m legit worried about how the group will react to his return and what the narrative is going to make Ozpin do as penance for his supposed sins. I’m not really thrilled about the prospect of watching more assault that’s painted as heroic justice. Normally I’d be going, “Well you never know, RWBY could prove me wrong...” except that after Ironwood? I really don’t think it will. Because Ozpin may ask, “Will you forgive them? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did?” but it’s “staring back at you is the very thing you should have feared from the start” is what we get when Ironwood is shown again when he’s told Winter doesn’t have the power, he can’t open the vault, and he has no way of escaping this army. Rather than painting this as a tragedy that’s on our “heroes,” Ironwood is just made to look deranged. The story doesn’t encourage us to forgive him, no matter Ozpin’s words. 

The scne was pretty though! lol. Stunningly gorgeous, really. If I just turn my brain off and don’t think about everything surrounding Oscar falling while Ozpin re-joins him, it’s an absolutely fantastic scene...

Yeah, the rest of the episode is mostly things I’ve already covered. Maria picks everyone up in their “getaway ship” because her character apparently only exists now to provide comic relief in the form of illegal actions. 

Penny takes on the Maiden powers while Winter holds Cinder off with no aura. That was badass as hell.  Go Winter, you’re still one of my faves this volume.

Ruby conveniently uses her silver eyes even though they’ve failed twice in the last three to four episodes. 

Qrow is arrested and holds onto Clover’s blood-stained badge. 

Robyn is apparently just fine. 

Watts is potentially getting freed by Tyrian, or else was just distracted by the arrival of Salem, I honestly wasn’t sure. 

The only other thing of consequence is that Winter and Weiss acknowledge that they’re on different paths. They can’t support one another in who they’re loyal to, but Winter will still give her sister a head start.

Oh, that moment and this, of course.

I’ve already spoken about my very iffy feelings about introducing Salem as an actual enemy before the final volume and those feelings are compounded by this absurd denouncement of hard, practical choices. I mean... seriously. What is the group going to do at the start of next volume? “These readings can’t be right,” an Atlas soldier says, horrified at the number of grimm that are appearing around them from an ominous red cloud. That entire army we saw at the end of Volume 6. Plus a giant whale grimm that could easily swallow any of our heroes (Pinocchio reference, anyone?), plus the immortal sorceress who could do any number of things to obliterate you---and take all the time in the world to do it. Like... they’re screwed. They are dead and Ironwood was 100% right to try and take whoever he could to safety and regroup. Except that obviously the series doesn’t end in tragedy here so they’ll wiggle their way out of things somehow. It just won’t be satisfying. Because we absolutely have a hopeless situation here and the story hasn’t allowed the group to acknowledge and then try to circumvent that in any practical manner. Ruby’s silver eyes will inexplicably get crazy powerful. Or Salem will randomly decide to leave. Or they’ll discover some new and untapped skill through the power of friendship. Then, at the end of it all, we’ll be told to look back at Ironwood and call him crazy for trying to save lives with a realistic approach because see? We managed a miracle after all.

I can’t believe I’m going to watch that nonsense. But I will. Because RWBY was a show that I loved and some small part of me still hopes it’ll return to what it once was. At the very least I need to find out what happens to these characters---no matter how stupid and insulting---and this episode, despite all my expectations, did give me tiny glimmers into what RWBY used to be. Moments that were fun or badass or legitimately touching. I almost wish it wouldn’t, just so I could make a clean break with the show. Absolute trash is better than trash that demonstrates skill just enough to make you think there might be hope for a better written story the next time around. Ah well. At least writing the recaps is always fun!

So I’ll still be here, answering asks and chucking out nonsense. Feel free to come join me if you’re ever inclined.  

Until next volume 💜

[upstartpoodle]

I love your Poldark stories. I was wondering, if you are taking any requests, would you consider writing a story on the following: George is seriously injured (either during the finale when he saves Ross, or afterwards when Ross and Dwight return from France) and is treated by Dr. Enys, who saves his life. He'll have the chance to thank Dwight for saving him from himself during his mental ill-health. Dwight, Ross and Demelza will see George as never before, perhaps giving way for reconciliation.

Hi, thanks for the ask! I’m always open to fic requests, and I’ve started writing a fic based on this prompt. I’d hoped to keep it as a one shot and post it fairly soon but, as so often tends to happen when I end up with ideas, it’s turned into a ridiculously long monster which will probably take me a while to finish since everything’s a bit hectic irl at the moment. I’ve put an extract of what I’ve got so far under the cut, just so I don’t end up leaving you waiting for ages. I hope you like how it’s shaping up! :D

                                                            ***

The first thing George noticed when he came to was that he was in no small amount of pain. He screwed his eyes tight shut, gritting his teeth against it, but he couldn’t quite muffle the discomforted groan, quiet and hoarse though it was, that escaped his lips. He tried to shift, to identify the source of the pain, but all of a sudden, a gentle yet firm hand planted itself on his shoulder, stilling his movements. With a soft murmur of protest, he peeled his eyes cautiously open. For a long, horrible moment, his vision swam and blurred incoherently before he image coalesced into the kindly but concerned face of Dr Dwight Enys.

“Try to stay still,” the doctor said, frowning. “You still have a long recovery ahead of you, I’m afraid, and I do not wish for you to aggravate your injury.”

“Wh—?” George attempted to speak, to ask—good God, who knew how many questions, but all his parched throat could produce was a kind of faint croak.

“Ah, one moment. I shall fetch you some water.” Dr Enys disappeared briefly from his field of vision. There was some clinking, and the sound of liquid being poured, before he returned with a cup of water in his left hand. His right moved to lift up the back of George’s head and, ignoring his patient’s quiet noise of indignation at being directed like a sickly child, raised the cup to his lips so he could drink from it. The cool liquid was a relief to his dry throat, but he was mindful enough only to swallow in small sips. Once he had taken his fill, Dr Enys set the cup aside and lay his head carefully back onto the pillows.

“Wh-what happened?” he asked faintly once the doctor had settled himself once again; though the water had restored his voice a little, he still felt weak and tired and altogether distracted by the pain which seemed to be coming from the region of his abdomen.

“You were shot,” replied Dwight, “by Ralph Hanson. Do you…recall the incident?”

Had George not been so caught up in precisely everything he did recall of said incident, he might have noticed something significant in the tone of the doctor’s question, but as it was, he was far too occupied with the sudden memories of racing to get to Nampara in time, of Ross and the Frenchman, of the gunshots and then Hanson—

“What? Are they—? Did I—?” He stumbled over several questions at once, unsure which he wanted the answer to first. Dwight opened his mouth to reply, but another voice cut across him and, for the first time, he became aware that he and the doctor were not alone in the room.

“If it is any consolation to your pride, you shot Hanson too. He will be fine, unfortunately.”

“Oh, good God” George muttered instinctively on hearing that voice. Into his vision, behind Dr Enys’ right shoulder, stepped a distinctly amused looking Ross. George stared at him, dumfounded. What was he doing here? Surely he wouldn’t be—? It was then that he realised, with a jolt of alarm as he took in his unfamiliar, somewhat rustic surroundings, that he hadn’t the slightest idea where he was. “Wha—?”

“You are at Nampara,” said Ross, correctly interpreting the look on George’s face. “We carried you in from the barn after you were shot.”

“Good God” George repeated, fighting back a wince as another sharp pang of pain shot through his abdomen. Well that was the last time he ever tried to do a good deed if his reward was to be trapped in a sickbed and subjected to the tender mercies of Ross Poldark.

“Oh, and you also shot the General, if you recall. He is dead. Personally, I would have rather you killed the other one, but we mustn’t be greedy.”

“Good God!” This was the most vehement curse yet. In response, Ross’ eyebrows travelled up his forehead at lightning speed.

“Well, I am glad to see that that bullet has not addled your brain at least, George” he said drily.

George scowled at him. Somehow, he doubted Ross would have been any more coherent if he had woken up to discover that he had been shot by a former business partner and the man who had come far too close—he shuddered to think—to becoming his father-in-law, taken to the home of his longstanding rival to recuperate, and—as if that had not been enough—had killed a man.

“And I see that your close encounter with death by Frenchman was still not sufficient to bestow you with any measure of tact” he replied caustically, before he could quite stop himself. He half expected Ross to fly into a rage at his words, but instead the man’s usually frowning countenance broke into a wide grin as he, much to George’s bafflement, let out a loud snort of laughter.

“Now that sounds more like the George Warleggan I am acquainted with,” he said. “For a moment, I was afraid I had broken you.”

“I assure you, Ross, if anyone were to succeed in destroying my faculties, it would not be you” he retorted, pointedly avoiding Dr Enys’ gaze, lest he think of another doctor, of beatings and ice baths, of waking, frightened and sore, to the feeling of unyielding leather restraints biting into the skin of his wrists, of the wind whipping through his dishevelled hair s he stood at the edge of the cliff, wanting desperately for it all to be over—

He hissed through his teeth as the pain of his bullet wound once again chose to make itself known. Despite the unpleasantness of it, a part of him was grateful for it—at least it distracted him from those horrible phantom pains and memories that, no matter how hard he tried to bury the incident, he could never quite seem to forget.

“Unfortunately, the rest of me does not appear to be quite so intact” he remarked, a little wryly, in the hope to distract the two men from his momentary relapse—though Ross, to his understanding, was unaware of what had occurred, the doctor would probably be able to guess at the discomfort such a line of conversation would cause him at the very least.

“Your wound was quite serious,” Dr Enys replied with a frown. “You caught a fever from it after the initial surgery. We were concerned for a while that you would not…”

He trailed off, but George caught his meaning nonetheless. He swallowed convulsively.

“How long have I—?,” he began. “How long has it been since—?”

“Five days, more or less” replied Ross grimly.

“Five days? But I— Hanson…what has—?” He tried, without thinking, to sit up, only to be reminded by the sudden sharp pain in his side why that course of action had been inadvisable. Once again, Dr Enys placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down onto the bed.

“What has happened?,” supplied Ross. “Very little so far. Hanson has been recovering from his wound, but I intend to make sure that he shan’t remain in comfort for much longer. Nor his brother.”

George nodded slowly. He wanted to mull the situation over, come up with some sort of solution—Merceron would know what he had done by now and was surely even at this moment attempting to realise some form of retaliation—but the tiredness he had felt deep in his bones when he had first awoken was beginning to overcome him. Fortunately, Dr Enys seemed to have sensed this, as he jerked his head at Ross in a clear shooing motion. Surprisingly, the man left with little fuss, leaving the doctor and his patient alone.

“Would you mind if I performed a quick examination?,” Dwight asked. “I should like to be assured that you are on the road to recovery before I depart to Killewarren.”

George had never liked being touched—with a few notable exceptions—and that was truer than ever in the wake of the…incident with Dr Penrose. Still, he couldn’t very well refuse, and so he gave the man a sharp, curt nod of assent, preparing to endure his pokings and proddings as quietly as he could.

To his credit, the doctor was quick about his work, and was soon declaring himself pleased by his findings.

“All things considered,” he said, “you seem to be much improved. Nevertheless, it will set my mind at ease if you were not to be moved for the duration of your recovery.”

George, now caught fully in the grip of his exhaustion, could not manage much more than a disgruntled “hmm” in response, heavy eyelids fluttering closed.

“Now, I am aware that this situation is hardly ideal, and I—” Glancing down at the bed, Dr Enys cut himself off. His patient was already fast asleep.

[whispers-of-ink]

2186, Chapter XII: The reflexes of the consequences

The pain, overwhelming and disconcerting, made its way  from the forehead to the epicenter of thoughts like an arrow, dominating them. Slipping between the folds of consciousness, awakening each nerve center, expanding like lightning, forcing the brain to return to reality. The muscles began to wake up, regaining control of them, letting the light of a cold lamp penetrate the retinas. The light became shadows, and Harper found a hospital room.

The therapist watched sitting on the edge of the bed with a cup of steaming coffee in his hands. He was warming up with it, rather than drinking it.

“Good morning, Harper. How was the adventure?”

Harper couldn’t tell if it was sarcasm, disappointment or the sad condescension that is given to a child who has really screwed up and nothing can be done about it. Wanted to answer him, maybe even furiously, but the throat was so dry it hurt to think about it. Trying to move the hand, Harper noticed the handcuffs. Wanted to be angry about this, but for now the body weighed too much, tiredness pulled from every joint, so Harper laid still and squinted the eyes in mild defiance.

"That’s for your own safety, believe me,” he said, looking at the handcuffs. “We’ve been here several times. I know you’re wondering what do I mean, and we will give you water in a few moments so you can relieve that sore throat. It’s better if you don’t try to say anything until then.” He turned to the door, stopped and turned back. “But first... I want us to talk about what you’ve been doing this past months.”

Harper did not remember his name and, as seconds went by, was starting to feel real panic. Perhaps, for the first time in that future, it felt like the Old Town was kind of a lost home. The fact was that Harper felt away from home, vulnerable, and no one knew where to head for a rescue mission. With the body immobilized and a nameless doctor, in a hospital room... Anything could happen there. The explosion, they had been caught, they had fixed the machines before anyone could celebrate. The room had a window but on the other side there were only nurses, there were no other beds, did not know where Zuri or Maura were... What had happened to the rest? Where were they? What had happened to them?

They skinned people, dismembered them and threw them to the cows. What little remained of them was turned into machines, servos, robots, spies, tincans, slaves of the system. That was legal and whatever that man wanted to do next probably was too, no matter how macabre. The overwhelm was beginning to turn into anxiety.

The therapist put a filing cabinet between his legs and started to pass the sheets.

 “We gave you a job at a school so you could get in touch with reality. You achieved a more than acceptable productivity, but for some reason you decided to quit. I imagine you felt the pressure of change in society; did you think that someone would hurt you because of your organicity?”

He inclined his head forward, looking at Harper over the glasses that, as Harper noticed right then, had no glass; optimal people didn’t have vision problems.

“We have told you before that these changes in society, often with roots as radical as those witnessed in your school, are only passing, if somewhat worrisome. I imagine you’ll be happy to know that a few months ago those responsible for certain disappearances were brought to justice. By the Optimal Order, of course, your little gang had nothing to do with it.”

Yes, Harper was happy. Or would have been happy, rather, if running out of that place to confirm it was true would have been an option. But of course.

He passed a couple of sheets.

“You had a prettyserious argument with a co-worker. Amanda, is it? Cruel on your part, by the way, but it was to be expected given your Deficiencyist mentality. It seems another constant in your behaviour; facing a reality that isn’t what you expected you tend to... rejection.” He passed more sheets. “Ah, another example, that you fled after our little chat. Your inability to attend to logical reasoning is overwhelming.”

No saliva, the tongue was a foreign body, a dry, stiff cloth in the mouth, that would gladly have spit at him if it could. What did he know? And why did he know so much?

“I know what you’re thinking.” He smirked with too much self-sufficiency. “What I want to know is what did you think you’d achieve by assaulting a power plant with your little gang of terrorists. Don’t look at me like that, Harper, that’s what you are. Terrorist. Do you know how many people have died because of you? Are you aware of the costs of your little adventure? Not to mention that my thesis is now hanging by a thread because of you, and it is the work of four opyears that I am not going to give up.”

He stood up and brought back a cart with a TV on top. The image was frozen in something indecipherable.

He handed a glass, too, “Here.”

The liquid was bluish, that was not water, but what could be done but drink it with resignation? Not obeying would likely made it worse, someone would come to force it down the throat.

“Good, I wouldn’t want your jaw to break again. It’s too expensive.”

He took away the glass, drank from his cup and stepped aside. He pushed the play touch-button. The image cleared. It was fire, an explosion. The flames reached everywhere as the frames advanced. It looked like a tunnel. An underground road. There were screams.

A journalist explained that the sudden general blackout had caused several accidents in the area, preventing health services from reaching the most affected. Several optimals, who had been in the midst of explosions and reason to the accidents, hadn’t been able to make it out. They had been trapped in the flames. Their brains had melted inside their metal casings. Others had suffocated when their steel lungs had began to malfunction, unable to filter the smoke. Even in the vicinity, many improved and organics had had no chance of survival.

On the other hand, there had been several collapses. The foundations of the buildings were prpared for catastrophic eventualities, but the ground was not. Several first floors had fallen on the tunnels that passed below, exploding gas systems and plugging the roads. Chaos reigned on the screen, and as Harper’s mouth began to feel better, the sirens of ambulances, police cars and screams penetrated the mind like darts. The images went on with ferocity, each one more raw. Some had been censored for being too hurtful to sensitivity.

Unable to say anything, Harper watched with cold horror the consequences of their actions knowing that there was no way to fix it. Broken families, dreams, futures. Tincans, yes, but organic people too. They should have known. Zuri should have been aware of this. No, ne sure knew this would happen. Did ne care about anyone’s life? Why hadn’t ne said anything? Why hadn’t ne prevented it? What kind of monster was ne?

Harper felt fury, but did not dare to let it out.

The therapist turned the television off. All that remained on its shiny surface was Harper’s face, whimpering in daring silence. Seconds went by, eyes returning an unrecognizable empty stare.

Zuri was not going to take responsability of any of it, so, what did it matter? Who was going to believe Harper had no guilt in this?

“What are you waiting for!? What do you want from me!?”

“Look at yourself.”

“I am not guilty of any of this! Do you hear me!? I’m innocent!”

“Weren’t you at the plant with your Organist friends, precisely at the LGT room?”

“Yes, but...?”

“Face your mistakes, Harper.”

What Harper did was scream with all the strength. Shouted, and kicked, and tried to get free of the handcuffs until the fatigue, not long after, won. Then, looked back at the reflection in that makeshift mirror.

"I don’t...” Harper stopped.

There was something there. A small fault in the face. A subtle yet strange, almost mechanical movement in the skin from the jaw to the right eye. It moved, even if when not talking. A slight tension sliding towards the nose, exposing, under the flesh, a piece of... a...

A scream of horror escaped the lips.

Harper lost the notion of time. Several people came to inyect tranquilizers in the arm. The screams went on without control, the muscles tensing to the point where they seemed to break.

Only, they could not, because they did not exist. There had never been a single muscle under that skin. Nor flesh, nor bones, nor veins, nor body.

“Three hours and twenty-three minutes.” The therapist wrote down on a sheet. “Your average.”

"What have you... done to me?”

A strange calm. Forced. The drug impeded total consciousness, but what consciencie could one have being little more than an articulated metal plate?

“Oh, Harper,” he laughed, lovingly. “I haven’t done this to you. No, this was done to you some time ago. You see...”

He sat back on the bed and removed the earplugs from his ears.

"There was an accident halfway through your cryogenization. The contract required us to keep your life safe, so they had to optimize you.” He shrugged. “But, there was the tiniest problem...” He adjusted his glasses with a clear intention to give effect, although Harper was barely aware of it. “Your data got lost. Every hard drive, shup!” He gesticuled. “Gone. The accident compromised your history and body. Female, male, in between... Who could know? Lucky for you, the technology had advanced enough to allow for slight modifications of memory and... Well, that’s where I come in.” He smiled. “We’ve already been more than twenty times around here. Your organic memory was broken, there was, right there, an incredible opportunity to learn about the brain and improve it, so... why not help you?”

“I’m not more than an experiment?” An dissapointed voiced said, but Harper didn’t recognize it as the own.

He showed a paper. “No, no, you gave your consent.”

"That’s not my signature."

“Or maybe it is, it’s not like you’d be able to remember.” He winked, putting it back into the folder. “You’re a wonder, Harper, just like your partner. Zuri, that’s what ne goes by, isn’t it?”

“... Zuri?”

“Yeah, ner body had to be optimized too. But ne was able to accept the optimization. Ne got away, you know? A very smart one. You’ve found each other several times before, ne was very fond of you. Other times ne has managed to remove the tracker chip from you, but it seems ne has forgotten it this time. Tsk. It’s for the best, really. It is the first time we’ve been able to catch ner, it’s a pity that one of those explosions ended ner life. Ne was magnificent.”

He stood up and pushed the television away. Harper hardly noticed the difference. With closed eyes, the world ceased to exist around anymore.

“Thanks to you two, we can understand better the human brain. With you we have managed to erarse memories without affecting the generation of new ones. Isn’t it wonderful? Maybe one day we can gor beyond the vision and sense chips, rebuild brains!”

He seemed fascinated by the idea, but Harper didn’t know how to react to that.

The only clear thought was not wanting to be it.

“Please... please... kill me.”

“What?”

The therapist came closer to the bed. Harper opened the eyes a little.

“Let me die,” whispered.

He smiled slightly and nodded. “Don’t worry. There will be no pain.”

Harper nodded and closed the eyes again.

“You won’t remember any of this when you wake up.”

Previous Chapter | The End

Well, this is the last chapter to Harper’s story in 2186!

I feel the need to clarify something; this story was a challenge from me to myself. I’ve wanted to write a pronoun-less story for a very long time, and I eventually managed to do it. But I did it in Spanish, where the possesive pronouns are neutral, and we don’t need to specify the subject in every sentence. When I began translating it to English I just noticed... it’s almost impossible! I’ve done it to the extent of my best capabilities, but at the expense of some (minor) meanings gettiing lost, and some complex phrasing.

I also loved writing my first ever non binary character! Ne’s probably going to be around sometime, even if not in this blog.

So...  I hope you liked it a lot and please, leave your comments below! What did you think of it? Did you like it? Any constructive reviews? How did you see Harper? Male, female, woman, man, non binary?

[acoolguyscoollife]

Chapter 32: The Grid

The next two days were, to put it simply, busy as hell. Tabitha was closing in on Uchen’s location, and while we hoped we were wrong, it definitely seemed like we were going to fight, which meant training. I didn’t mind too much, finding that sinking my time into what I was doing helped keep my mind from other issues, but I could tell that people were getting as tired as I was, and had no reason to push themselves further like I did. I felt especially bad for Amy and Aki, who were the ones that were training with me constantly. 

Seth and Tabitha only came in when there were short periods of downtime between the computer doing… something I wasn’t aware of. Aki, however, was forcing herself to fight on the same level as I was, challenging me at every chance she got. I wasn’t stupid enough to go easy on her, because if she thought she was already on a similar experience level as I was, she would end up being reckless and it could get her hurt. I tried not to pull my punches too much, but there are only so many ways you can fight with a sword without actually severing any limbs or stabbing them. Amy posed more of a challenge, with the two of us pretty much hitting an even level of exhaustion when we duelled, only stopping because if we tried to fight harder, there would end up being more than just basic injuries. By the end of the second day, however, Aki had gotten a lot more improved, only having slight flaws in her fighting style that seemed more like flukes than anything else. When she challenged me to another duel, once again with no holds barred, I could tell that something was different. Sure enough, I hadn’t been as prepared as I should have been, and almost got my ass kicked for it. However, at crucial points, her attacks were slower than they could have been, so knocking her down was an opening quickly given to me. It was only when she used one of my signature moves against me that things began to click. Her foot connecting with my groin, knocking the wind out of me and causing me to cry out in pain, made the gears in my head turn. The slower movements, where she had been as agile as the cat that most of her appearance and mannerisms seemed to come from, were because of tiredness, more than usual. And while I didn’t have a patent on groin-kicks, the way she had let herself fall onto her back, and how she had been fighting leading up to that, made it clear that she had chosen to mimic me, presumably with the recording of us training. The sheer number of cameras in this place was insane. With her having taken me down, and with my own move no less, I had to concede her victory, and congratulate her, both while keeping my cool demeanour.

“Ow.” I said, one hand on the back of my head and the other on my unmentionables. Looking around the room, I could see that Amy was wincing, one eye covered very poorly by her hand, and that Aki was clearly considering whether she had gone too far. “Good round.” I reassured her, despite still not being able to feel my legs. “Here’s hoping that whatever we fight has balls though, otherwise that move won’t really work too well.”

“Well, it’s just one guy, right? No matter how smart someone is, they can be defeated by a kick in the nards.” Amy’s wisdom as to testicular torment got me thinking, mostly about how much pain I was in, but also in how little I actually knew about Uchen’s former protégé. Tabitha had told me that that the guy was smart and also insane, which, judging from her having roped us into this whole thing, wasn’t too uncommon. The more I thought, the more I wanted answers, and I knew I wasn’t going to get those answers by sitting around and fighting someone who was now able to fight back. I needed to go straight to her.

 The three of us marched back into the main room, where we were greeted by a bleary-eyed Seth, and a manic-haired Tabitha, neither of whom were a very good welcome wagon.

“Sup, man?” Seth asked, or it might have been Eddie. It was getting annoying that there wasn’t any way to distinctly figure out who was who, but what could I really do except bitch about it? I gave him a wave, not stopping my stride towards Tabitha.

“Oh hey guys, you’re just in time. We’ve pretty much locked on now, but obviously we need to brief each other and prepare for what’s coming.” Tabitha said, looking up at us with a smile that definitely suggested that we were test subjects.

“Yeeah, on that subject…” I began, drawing out my words ever so slightly because I had a feeling that she wouldn’t like putting her plans on hold for some boring exposition. “Me and the others were thinking that maybe we should know more about the guy we’re fighting. The last thing we need is to go in unprepared.” I finished, and before I had even been given a chance to close my moth, I was sold down the river.

“I never said that.” Amy said, to which she got murmurs of agreement from Seth and Aki. Tabitha raised an eyebrow.

“Why would you screw me like this, damn it?” I said, turning back around to face her. Seth giggled from where he was, and I quickly knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“That’s what she said!” He almost exploded, before bursting into peels of laughter. We let him take a second to finish, before turning our focus back to the main task at hand.

“So, you were saying something about how we should delay the important thing we need to do in order to make sure you know some life details about someone we’re probably gonna end up killing?” The room quickly fell silent as Tabitha finished her question, with my only response being to nod.

“Honestly, now that he brings it up, it makes sense.” Seth conceded, making me feel less like the only one who actually gave a shit about this stuff. Tabitha gave a sigh, before turning her attention to the computer again. Without looking at us, she began to speak.

“His name was Gerald Untermeyer, and he was… well, amazing.” She began, almost as if fangirling over him. “I told you about the stuff he’d been working on, but I barely even touched on everything he’d already made. Without his help, I doubt Uchen would have even been able to get as far as he did with the machine.” Though Tabitha didn’t say what the machine was, it didn’t take much effort to figure it out from context clues.

“He helped that much? Surely if he was that smart, he’d have made it by himself and the whole issue of what to do with it would never have come up.” I said, briefly forgetting that the guy in question had been insane and probably would have just not thought to do that. However, Tabitha had a more reasonable explanation.

“He lacked the money. While some of what he had worked on was astounding, it was a net loss overall. So he came to work under Uchen, and soon enough they were like partners.” Tabitha tapped a few buttons on the computer keyboard, and diagrams appeared on the screen. There was a lot of scribbling that I could barely decipher, but a 3D-rendered image of some of the machinery I could see in the room was also visible. “Uchen worked on the hardware, and Untermeyer worked on the software, including…” She trailed off as she hit more buttons, causing the screen to now display something entirely different. It almost looked like a room of sorts, with neon lighting covering the floor and walls. I watched as the colours pulsed, and changed, with every few moments. “The Grid.”

“Aptly named.” I replied, deadpan. “What is it?” The room didn’t changed as the view zoomed out, revealing more of what was inside the room. Or rather, revealing more of what wasn’t in the room, which was anything.

“The void we stay in sometimes is an offshoot of The Grid. The void holds our physical attributes, while The Grid digitizes whatever data it can, serving as a backup in case of any issues that might arise.” Tabitha pressed a button, and figures appeared in the grid. Though I’d never really seen it from an outside perspective before (aside from the clone in Despair), one of them was unmistakably me. The others were everyone else that was in the room and listening to her, which only prompted more confusion. “These are our data selves. They remember pretty much everything we do, but they’re not alive. If we end up losing memories, we can use them to restore our own.” Tabitha looked over at them. “I’m not going to lie, even I’m not completely sure what they can be utilised for.”

“Then what’s the point in telling us about The Grid? Surely we should be focusing on Untermeyer, right?” Seth asked, and I could tell from Tabitha’s expression that it wasn’t that simple.

“In theory, that would have been the situation, but the closer we lock on to Uchen, the more apparent it becomes as to where he is.” Tabitha bit the bottom of her lip as she paused, looking back at the screen. “They’re inside The Grid.” Of course they were.

“What does that mean for us?” Amy questioned, and Tabitha shrugged.

“How are we going to get in?” Aki chimed in, and Tabitha shrugged again.

“Will we even escape?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer, and not sure that Tabitha even knew it. Sure enough, Tabitha shrugged in response.

“I can’t answer any of these questions because I don’t know The Grid like Untermeyer or Uchen do. Thankfully, when we get to him, Uchen should be able to help us get out of there.” The general situation didn’t bode well at all, but Tabitha at least had a plan for getting out. “My assumption is that Untermeyer ended up becoming purely digital, so the mirrors, while working, will only be splitting him into separated chunks of data. From there he should hopefully fade into nothingness with time.” Tabitha reassured us, or maybe it was herself.

“I swear to god, if we end up riding on motorbikes and throwing disks at each other, I’m going to kill myself.” I said, looking back at the rest of the group. “Actually, thinking about that, what are we going to be fighting with?” I asked, unsheathing the Cobatana and the magic dagger and looking at them. It would be the first fight I would have done with the dagger, which was definitely going to be interesting.

“Well, nothing really changes, we still have everything we had.” Tabitha said, doing a hand-wavey gesture to signify her magic. “Except Seth, who for some reason threw away a shotgun ages ago.” Tabitha raised a very valid point, and soon enough all eyes were on Seth.

“I like my pistols more.” Seth said, and I groaned aloud. He had forgotten what every game we’d ever played together had taught him, and had decided against hoarding everything he could weapon-wise. What a moron. “Besides, Eddie should be able to help me, and I’ll just get Amy to make me a second pistol.” Seth finished, and now it was Amy’s turn to be annoyed.

“What am I going to be making a second gun from? The air?” She asked exasperatedly, and from the look on Seth’s face, it was clear he didn’t know that wasn’t possible.

“I… uh…” Seth began, which was a glorious way to start a sentence, in the grand scheme of things. Amy rolled her eyes.

“I can probably tweak something we have, but you really need to tell me when we’re doing stuff like this.” Amy replied, and Seth moved to thank her. However, a chime rang out across the room before he had a chance, and I looked around in confusion.

“Was someone microwaving something?” I asked, unsure of where the noise had come from.

“We’ve locked in. Ready or not, we’re going.” Tabitha said, moving to the area where we would be in the sights of the machine. I was most certainly not ready, but I was also definitely not about to say that. We were in the endgame now.

[trendingnewsb]

The Definitive Guide to Cope with Work Stress (Simple and Effective)

Workplace stress is a modern epidemic. More than one-third of American workers experience chronic work stress. This is estimated to cost American businesses up to $300 billion a year in lost work hours and medical bills.[1]

Clearly, if you’re suffering from work stress – you’re far from alone. But, work stress isn’t inevitable.

In this article, I’m going to help you identify the root cause of your stress and suggest the most suitable ways to cope with it so you can become a happy and productive worker again.

Where does work stress come from

Certain factors tend to go hand-in-hand with work-related stress. The causes of stress include:

Too much work – you find yourself saying: “There are not enough hours in the day!”

The job is too easy, not challenging or inspiring – this is where boredom (which is stressful) sets in.

Pressure from co-workers or lack of social support – colleagues are not helpful or only care about their own tasks.

Little praise and lots of criticism – this is where a lousy manager uses constant criticism to ‘try’ to motivate you.

Very demanding or competitive working culture – sales departments often fit this category.

Not having enough control over job-related decisions – this is when people try to micro-manage you.

High expectations on yourself or seeking perfection – while it’s good to do your best, being a perfectionist can be a powerful stress generator.

Low salary – if you work hard but receive slim financial rewards, you may start to feel downhearted, frustrated and stressed.

The negative effects of stress on your mind and body

Chronic stress is bad news for your health. These are some health symptoms of stress:[2]

If stress hormones are triggered in your body for extended periods, they can lead to increased physical aging. This is because stress makes your cells look and act older – and this is reflected in your physical appearance.[3]

In addition to the negative effects on your body, stress also has a significant influence on your brain – negatively impacting your daily performance.

I recommend you watch the 4-minute video below to see just how stress can wreak havoc on your brain and your performance:

How to cope with work stress

You don’t need to be a victim of work stress. Here’s how to manage stress in the workplace:

1. Set aside some time for planning

If work has become too much for you, and you’re constantly falling behind… stop! Instead of trying and failing to catch up, you’d be much better off spending some time thinking about your goals and how your prioritize your tasks.

Learn how to set clear goals with this step-by-step guide:

How to Set Goals: 10 Steps to Stay Focused

For instance, if your initial goal is just to get on top of your work (probably for the first time in months), then take 10 minutes to think clearly and deeply about how you can achieve this. Most likely, you’ll be able to come up with tasks that you need to complete to reach your goal. And once your goal and tasks are clear in your mind, you’ll be ready for the second step.

2. Align your tasks with your goal

Just knowing your goal and associated tasks is not enough. Many people reach this stage but still fall behind with their work and fail to achieve their goals.

The secret is to understand which of your tasks should be high priority and which ones can be done when you have spare time.

For example, checking your inbox every 20 minutes may seem to be a productive task for you, but in reality it acts as a constant distraction and productivity killer. Instead, you’d be better off setting aside 30 minutes in the morning to check your emails and 30 minutes in the afternoon to do the same.

By doing this, you’ll free up the bulk of your day for tasks that can help you reach your goal. These tasks are likely to be things like: writing a business proposal, creating a PowerPoint presentation, and finishing an important project.

Learn how to prioritize in my other article:

How to Prioritize Right in 10 Minutes and Work 10X Faster

3. Remove, change or accept the stressors

How to tackle specific work stressors? I recommend the following method that WellCast introduced:[4]

Take a piece of paper and divide it into three columns. At the top, write remove in the first column, change in the second and accept in the third.

Next, think of the stressors that are getting to you the most. Perhaps it’s your paycheck; it might be way smaller than you’d like or feel that you deserve. Don’t worry, this is your chance to break free from the stress surrounding your low pay.

Think for a few moments, which would you prefer:

To remove yourself from the company

To try to change your salary by asking for a pay rise

To accept that your salary is okay for you

You may be surprised at what thoughts come into your mind. Don’t reject them, but allow yourself time to be clear on how you’d like to proceed.

If the status quo feels good to you, then write “paycheck” in the accept column. If you decide you want to increase your salary but stay in the same company, write “paycheck” in the change column. And finally, if you decide the time is right to seek a new opportunity at a different organization, then write “paycheck” in the remove column.

By being decisive in this way, you’ll immediately feel freer and in control of your destiny. And your stress levels will begin to trend downwards. All that remains is to set yourself a clear goal of what you want to achieve and how you’re going to do this.(Luckily, steps #1 and #2 above will help you out!)

Of course, if you have multiple work stressors, then use your remove, change or accept sheet to work through all of them. It will be time VERY well spent.

4. Create positive relationships at work

One key to improving your ability to manage stress is being able to accept help from others. Not only does it alleviate negative circumstances by simply distracting you and creating a buffer between daily tasks and their negative connection, it will provide a sense of support and relief.

Make an effort to create friendships with your colleagues. Go to the after-work happy hour or just ask a colleague out for coffee at lunchtime. Not only will you have someone to confide in, but you will start to associate positive feelings to work.

Forming a healthy relationship with your manager or supervisor is also a good way to alleviate stress. Positive, two-way conversations about where you stand in your job, being honest about how you feel, and working together to make a plan of action in terms of improved work conditions and expectations are paramount. This will lead to opening up and receiving the necessary resources you need to support or help you.

5. Take time out for yourself

Anyone can get overwhelmed when stress occurs at work, and this can spill into other areas of your life. This is why it’s important to clock out mentally from your job from time to time.

Take time off to relax and unwind in order to regain your energy and come back to work invigorated. Make sure you actually do something you enjoy like spending time with your kids or partner, or visit that country you’ve always wanted to explore.

If taking time off work isn’t possible in the midst of your stress, take scheduled breaks throughout your day. Sit quietly somewhere or do some stretches to get your blood flowing like in the example below:

6. Take mindful action towards your health

The irony of stress is that your healthy habits can take a backseat. Maintaining and even improving your health will keep your stress under control. Here are some ways to keep you physically fit:

Eat healthy foods. Make sure your diet is full of foods that provide your body with sufficient nutrients. Eat more fruits and green vegetables, whole foods, omega-3 rich fish, and seeds such as flax, chia and hemp. These types of food ensure your body is working optimally to cope with its stress mechanisms.

Avoid unhealthy foods. This is obvious, but it’s these kinds of food you reach for in times of stress and negativity. High fat foods such as cheese and red meat cause sluggishness and tiredness. Foods high in refined sugars like biscuits, chocolate bars, and bread can be convenient snacks, but they cause you to crash and burn. Same with caffeinated drinks such as coffee and sodas – these are just ‘band aid’ habits that interfere with your ability to sleep.

Exercise regularly. Endorphins are the best for counteracting stress, and what better way to release them than doing physical exercise. Exercise creates a distraction and helps you get your thoughts back together in an orderly way. Start a new exercise regime – whether it’s running, swimming, cycling or walking to work. Getting your blood and endorphins flowing will make you feel happier.

Get enough sleep. Make getting 8 hours sleep a priority. When we’re stressed it can sometimes feel hard to get to sleep but sleep deprivation only exaggerates our current stress. A well-rested mind is able to find solutions to problems more easily and reacts better to daily stressors.

Everyone encounters stress at work. It’s a natural and normal human reaction. The difference between letting the stress overcome you and coping with it is getting a head start by creating a positive environment and lifestyle.

Counteracting stress is both an inside and outside job. Focusing on improving your health will create a positive mind able to react better. Forming positive relationships with certain people around you will give you emotional support.

Beat stress with the right mindset.

Featured photo credit: Caio Triana, Pixabay via pixabay.com

Reference

[1]^Business News Daily: Employees Reveal How Stress Affects Their Jobs[2]^MPH Today: The Effects of Work Stress on Your Body [Infographic][3]^The Blue KC Channel: Effects of Stress[4]^WellCast: The Workplace Stress Solution

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[healthylifepage]

THE ‘RECOVERY’ TRIO…

To me, sleep has long been ‘everything’, but others have been coming round to this stance, as already, sleep is emerging as quite the hot topic in 2018, with several national newspapers drilling down into its favourable effects our constitution; as health and well-being (quite rightly) occupies a growing mindshare of ‘the Zeitgeist’, it seems only natural that society will begin to challenge that age-old travesty of sacrificing sleep to ‘look committed’ to a cause. We may, in our machismo, think of it as a bank account that can be raided, as a currency which can be exchanged for kudos, or perhaps as an unproductive use of our 24 precious hours, but times – and attitudes – are unquestionably changing. Sleep is fast being seen as an indulgent luxury of which we should consume more, not time wasted but time well invested, and even perhaps as a currency to be spent of its own accord. The tide is beginning to turn, it’s no longer as socially unpalatable to prioritise one’s own recovery, to have an early night, or even (heaven forbid) two in a row! The nation has begun a long overdue conversation about this topic; recovery is on the agenda more than ever before, whether you’re into fitness or not. This post is in collaboration with Tempur, and highlights the so-called Holy Trinity of Recovery; Sleep, Stretching and Sports Massage! Click MORE to read on…

To my mind, there are several components to optimal recovery, chief amongst them is sleep, followed closely thereafter by stretching, sports massage in equal runner-up positions. This is the Holy Trinity of Recovery! Taking each in turn;

1) SLEEP 

It is the time-honoured antidote to tiredness, and perhaps more broadly, the regular cure for wakefulness, that condition by which we grow wearier as each day drags on! Foregoing the right amount, or right quality of sleep can weaken our immune systems, leave us sluggish and with less energy to work out, slow our metabolisms, make it harder to lose weight, affect blood sugar and blood pressure levels, increase appetite due to a depletion of satiety hormones, and trigger some pretty grumpy mood swings!

But if you get it right, regularly, it can enhance muscular recovery, restore mental acuity, release Human Growth Hormone, restore bone and organs, and generally make you a more content individual with whom to interact! It’s easy to preach that someone should ‘get more’, but harder to implement in practise.

On my travels writing this Blog, I’ve encountered a number of the country’s leading sleep scientists, several times each, and there seems to be a consensus amongst them for tips to optimise slumber. Investing in a good bed which is the largest possible size is the single largest and most game-changing adjustment most people can make, as they’re often sleeping on outdated, unsuitable, un-sleepworthy beds; Tempur mattresses and pillows are made with an optimally comfortable orthopaedic material on which to recover after a tough workout. Mindfulness and unflappable patience matter too, as does restrained alcohol consumption and no caffeine after 13:00; plus don’t exercise late at night, keep the bedroom temperature cool, introduce a clockwork routine every night, avoid props like sleeping pills, take a warm bath and burn a little lavender oil, and eradicate the blue light emitted by screens an hour or two prior to bedtime. Further, it seems de rigueur not to go back to sleep when the alarm clock rings!

2) SPORTS MASSAGE

This is one of my top luxuries to lavish upon my body after a hard session, but it’s not just a personal opinion; top athletes consider it critical to boost recovery as part of their physical conditioning program. Far from the lightweight, superficial ‘cosmetic’ sort of massage you ought to find at your local spa, this is an intense dose of focused, physical therapy schooled in the medically demonstrable study of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, administered by qualified professionals. It helps loosen and soften hard muscle tissue, corrects imbalances, improves mobility, and releases accumulated tensions around the muscle sheaths. What’s more, rock-like muscles clumps make it harder for blood to flow, stopping your muscles getting what they need! With sports massage, the blood vessels dilate & membrane pores widen, allowing better oxygen flow, the transportation of lactic waste, as well as nutrients for the restoration of the muscles. It also reduces the muscular pain you feel called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, promotes relaxation, releases endorphins when some of the knotty nodes are targeted and can help to boost overall performance. It is a superb pursuit for the goal of recovery!

3) STRETCHING

Too often at the gym, I observe stretching to be considered a sacrificial part of the workout, as if it’s somehow perfunctory to the purpose of training, and can therefore be cast aside until some nebulous time in the future. Yet just a few minutes after each session will form a habit that changes the way you age with your body.

You’ll retain muscle balance better, as some muscles are tighter than others after hours of desk work each day but stretching helps to evenly condition them.

Also to help minimise the aching feeling we experience the day or two after a big training session, a stretch is essential. DOMS, the industry acronym for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, is kept at bay when you stretch as you’re elongating and softening the muscle fibres, which helps you to re-condition for the next session!

You’ll also expand your range of motion to encourage supple flexibility; when you stretch out a joint, you elongate the surrounding soft tissue i.e, ligaments and tendons, which means you’ll become more flexible with time, putting yourself less at risk of injury when you move into extremes of motion.

Crucially, as the body ages, you’ll need to train it to remain as mobile as it is now. Many experience postural difficulties, and whilst some of these are unavoidable, many can be alleviated through a regular stretch.

So there we have it, the Holy Trinity of Recovery! With that in mind, perhaps now go and get some rest

Faya x

______________________

THIS POST IS A SPONSORED COLLABORATION WITH TEMPUR AS PART OF THEIR POWER OF RECOVERY CAMPAIGN. FOR MORE ABOUT WHY I TAKE ON SUCH PROJECTS, PLEASE SEE MY DISCLOSURE PAGE. THANK YOU. 

The post THE ‘RECOVERY’ TRIO… appeared first on Fitness on Toast.

THE ‘RECOVERY’ TRIO… posted first on yummylooksbest.blogspot.com

[rebeccaflaneus]

THE ‘RECOVERY’ TRIO…

To me, sleep has long been ‘everything’, but others have been coming round to this stance, as already, sleep is emerging as quite the hot topic in 2018, with several national newspapers drilling down into its favourable effects our constitution; as health and well-being (quite rightly) occupies a growing mindshare of ‘the Zeitgeist’, it seems only natural that society will begin to challenge that age-old travesty of sacrificing sleep to ‘look committed’ to a cause. We may, in our machismo, think of it as a bank account that can be raided, as a currency which can be exchanged for kudos, or perhaps as an unproductive use of our 24 precious hours, but times – and attitudes – are unquestionably changing. Sleep is fast being seen as an indulgent luxury of which we should consume more, not time wasted but time well invested, and even perhaps as a currency to be spent of its own accord. The tide is beginning to turn, it’s no longer as socially unpalatable to prioritise one’s own recovery, to have an early night, or even (heaven forbid) two in a row! The nation has begun a long overdue conversation about this topic; recovery is on the agenda more than ever before, whether you’re into fitness or not. This post is in collaboration with Tempur, and highlights the so-called Holy Trinity of Recovery; Sleep, Stretching and Sports Massage! Click MORE to read on…

To my mind, there are several components to optimal recovery, chief amongst them is sleep, followed closely thereafter by stretching, sports massage in equal runner-up positions. This is the Holy Trinity of Recovery! Taking each in turn;

1) SLEEP 

It is the time-honoured antidote to tiredness, and perhaps more broadly, the regular cure for wakefulness, that condition by which we grow wearier as each day drags on! Foregoing the right amount, or right quality of sleep can weaken our immune systems, leave us sluggish and with less energy to work out, slow our metabolisms, make it harder to lose weight, affect blood sugar and blood pressure levels, increase appetite due to a depletion of satiety hormones, and trigger some pretty grumpy mood swings!

But if you get it right, regularly, it can enhance muscular recovery, restore mental acuity, release Human Growth Hormone, restore bone and organs, and generally make you a more content individual with whom to interact! It’s easy to preach that someone should ‘get more’, but harder to implement in practise.

On my travels writing this Blog, I’ve encountered a number of the country’s leading sleep scientists, several times each, and there seems to be a consensus amongst them for tips to optimise slumber. Investing in a good bed which is the largest possible size is the single largest and most game-changing adjustment most people can make, as they’re often sleeping on outdated, unsuitable, un-sleepworthy beds; Tempur mattresses and pillows are made with an optimally comfortable orthopaedic material on which to recover after a tough workout. Mindfulness and unflappable patience matter too, as does restrained alcohol consumption and no caffeine after 13:00; plus don’t exercise late at night, keep the bedroom temperature cool, introduce a clockwork routine every night, avoid props like sleeping pills, take a warm bath and burn a little lavender oil, and eradicate the blue light emitted by screens an hour or two prior to bedtime. Further, it seems de rigueur not to go back to sleep when the alarm clock rings!

2) SPORTS MASSAGE

This is one of my top luxuries to lavish upon my body after a hard session, but it’s not just a personal opinion; top athletes consider it critical to boost recovery as part of their physical conditioning program. Far from the lightweight, superficial ‘cosmetic’ sort of massage you ought to find at your local spa, this is an intense dose of focused, physical therapy schooled in the medically demonstrable study of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, administered by qualified professionals. It helps loosen and soften hard muscle tissue, corrects imbalances, improves mobility, and releases accumulated tensions around the muscle sheaths. What’s more, rock-like muscles clumps make it harder for blood to flow, stopping your muscles getting what they need! With sports massage, the blood vessels dilate & membrane pores widen, allowing better oxygen flow, the transportation of lactic waste, as well as nutrients for the restoration of the muscles. It also reduces the muscular pain you feel called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, promotes relaxation, releases endorphins when some of the knotty nodes are targeted and can help to boost overall performance. It is a superb pursuit for the goal of recovery!

3) STRETCHING

Too often at the gym, I observe stretching to be considered a sacrificial part of the workout, as if it’s somehow perfunctory to the purpose of training, and can therefore be cast aside until some nebulous time in the future. Yet just a few minutes after each session will form a habit that changes the way you age with your body.

You’ll retain muscle balance better, as some muscles are tighter than others after hours of desk work each day but stretching helps to evenly condition them.

Also to help minimise the aching feeling we experience the day or two after a big training session, a stretch is essential. DOMS, the industry acronym for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, is kept at bay when you stretch as you’re elongating and softening the muscle fibres, which helps you to re-condition for the next session!

You’ll also expand your range of motion to encourage supple flexibility; when you stretch out a joint, you elongate the surrounding soft tissue i.e, ligaments and tendons, which means you’ll become more flexible with time, putting yourself less at risk of injury when you move into extremes of motion.

Crucially, as the body ages, you’ll need to train it to remain as mobile as it is now. Many experience postural difficulties, and whilst some of these are unavoidable, many can be alleviated through a regular stretch.

So there we have it, the Holy Trinity of Recovery! With that in mind, perhaps now go and get some rest

Faya x

______________________

THIS POST IS A SPONSORED COLLABORATION WITH TEMPUR AS PART OF THEIR POWER OF RECOVERY CAMPAIGN. FOR MORE ABOUT WHY I TAKE ON SUCH PROJECTS, PLEASE SEE MY DISCLOSURE PAGE. THANK YOU. 

The post THE ‘RECOVERY’ TRIO… appeared first on Fitness on Toast.

from Donald Fitness Tips http://fitnessontoast.com/2018/02/26/therecoverytrio/

[mixtrendingupdates-blog]

Supreme Boostr Review:

Supreme Boostr Review:

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Working of Supreme Boostr:

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[leaslzr]

“Best of Summer 2017☼″

A season where the day is longer than the night and one of the long-awaited time especially for students is called summer. The scorching hot sun, maybe sometimes, is annoying and frequent rain may be expected during this season due to extreme heat but it’s still definitely the best season for me and surely for others as well because summer means vacation. Pens, papers, and books are set aside while we grab our swim wears, sunglasses, and flip flops to enjoy the cold water of the pool and the sea. I was born during summer and that’s another reason why I love this season. I’m able to celebrate my birthday with my family and other relatives every time so it makes me feel grateful that I was born at this time. When we say best, what does it really mean? For me, we considered something as one of the best if we are overwhelmed with positive feelings such as happiness and gratefulness therefore, since I was filled with happiness and enjoyment last summer, I have a lot of good moments which I can share to all of you. Hear my story on why I think of them as the best of my summer.

It was a sunny day when the first day of vacation started and although it was not yet that fun at first, I soon enjoyed it because many of my favorite cousins stayed at our house for almost three weeks. I was overflowing with smiles because my cousins chose to spend their summer with me despite the fact that they could spend it with their other relatives. Like others say, the normal things we do become more interesting when we do it with people whom we treasure. Their presence definitely made each day extra special and because of that, I was very thankful. We cooked foods to fill our empty stomachs and everyone took turns in washing the dishes we used. Our days together were mostly about cooking and eating so I wouldn’t be lying if I say that our stomach is like a pitfall that never gets full. After several days being with them, I’ve realized that a summer wouldn’t be a summer without water and when I say water, it’s the pool and beach! This time, we decided to go to a resort we’ve never been to. Although it’s expensive, we chose that resort because it has many slides both for kids and adults and a wave pool which many resorts don’t have. I like slides so much since it gives me a thrilling feeling of falling. Well, I do like thrilling things and I also love the fact that I am able to overcome and enjoy the things I once feared. Me and my cousins rode all the slides together and screamed our lungs out as it was, at first, scary, especially the tall slides. Soon after, we rode it again and again without any fear anymore and enjoyed it as much as we can. The wave pool was also really entertaining especially when all of us tried to sit on a big life buoy despite the waves. We fell, helped, and sometimes pushed each other and laughed till our cheeks and sides hurt. The weather that day was extremely hot but we didn’t care at all and all we ever thought of is ‘just to have fun’. It’s delightful that there are other entertainment factors present in this resort but it was plenty of fun because I was with some of the most important people in my life. No matter how amusing slides are for me, if I’m not with them, I would surely lose interest on it. As days passed by, my birthday came closer and closer and I felt very excited about it. Why? It’s because I’m going to celebrate it in Bolinao! Bolinao is far from where we live but it has many tourist spots that everyone would love to visit and that include our family. We went to the Bolinao falls first and its crystal-like water and beautiful scenery wiped away all our tiredness from the long trip. It was my first time going to a falls and I was just stunned on how man-made structures like swimming pool are nothing compared to this wonderful natural creation. I was anxious at the beginning because there might be fishes or any other aquatic animals there however, the temperature of the water was relaxing so I soon forgot about it. The water was deep but with the use of life vest, I was able to swim all I want and I even jumped from a small cliff. Afterwards, we went to the well-known Patar Beach. If the falls stunned me, the beach amazed me even more for its white sand which seems to be pieces of crushed shells and the sea was almost as blue as the sky. There were a lot of people there and many of them planned to stay overnight so some brought their own tents while others rented a place to stay. We made use of the remaining time we have to enjoy the view through playing with the sand and water and also taking a lot of pictures.

Try new things to experience new things, this is what we thought so although we spend a quite big sum of money, it’s all worth it because we created countless special moments. We have strengthened our bond as a family and it’s something that cannot be bought by anything. In addition to that, all of this won’t be possible without my mom so I, and my other relatives, was grateful for her generous hands. She may not be here with us but she always wishes us the best and wants us to be always happy. “Live life to the fullest”, as many say, is true because we indeed only live once. Make the most out of it even if it may cost you nevertheless, don’t forget your responsibilities on your respective roles. A good sense of balance in life is the key of living a good life. This is my own belief which I hope for others to believe as well since following this philosophy so far has lead me in a fine place. When we think of summer, we think of having leisure time, and while it is true, summer is supposed to be also a time to improve ourselves and become productive. Do not just spend your entire summer having fun and do some activities that will help you improve as a student, worker, or even just as a person. Reading books is enough seeing as it could teach you lessons about life. Every time the summer season comes nearer, we always look forward to it but even if it ends, we still have to feel the same on the other days because every day is a blessing from God.