#but still not anywhere near american standards

[disco-cola]

sometimes i dream about living in the states for a while but then i just read on cnn that the latest incident in texas was just the 199th (?!!) mass sh00ting with 4 or more casualties (like anything under that wasnt even counted in) THIS YEAR thats insane like i cant believe this but the gun v!0lence archive says the same its only may you literally cant fucking go to a store or to school or anywhere without constant fear how do yall live

[thinkingaboutjaedyn]

it wasn't me [t.rodman x reader]

prompt: trinity refuses admit to stealing your clothes

author notes: the word for this mini fic is "steal" obviously. i swear this is the most trinity coded fic i have written for her. i'm knocking out a request for more trin fics and helping myself write more, killing two birds with one stone. hope y'all like it 💞

trinity has a problem. actually the right word would be an addiction. she can't stop herself from stealing your clothes. the mix of your perfume and body wash you use rubs off on your clothes, making her heart all happy so can you really blame her? it was a cute habit except for when you needed to actually wear your clothes and half of your closet was gone. still you never stop her, so trinity happily indulges in her you-based addiction.

the only downside of this is the fact trinity does not like admitting it. even if everyone obviously knows it. this isn't even due to a pride thing, the american player just doesn't like to admit it. in her mind technically your clothes are her clothes so is it really stealing?

"baby! have you seen my mickey mouse pajama pants? it's going to be a little chilly and i wanna wear them," you shout out as you look through the closet in your bedroom. trinity comes into the room when she responds, "nope. haven't seen it, babes." she leans against the door frame, watching you look through your closet.

unlike you, trinity was already dressed. it was around ten am and practice started at twelve pm, so you forced her to get up eight to get ready. she groaned the entire time and demanded kisses after she did every part of her routine. you happily obligated every time.

"ugh.." you let out a groan. just deciding to give up on your idea of being extra comfy in your pajama pants and instead grabbing some black sweatpants. at least it matches your white graphic tee and the grey jacket you planned to wear out. you turn, dropping the sweatpants on your bed before coming over to trinity. "are you sure you haven't seen them?" you mumble into her chest after hugging her. trinity straightens up to hug you back properly. swaying a bit as she rests her face against the top of her head.

"nope. i don't even remember you having a pair of mickey mouse pajama pants. maybe you just made that up"

"wow, am i being gaslight right now?" you joke making her laugh loudly. the hug goes on for a long moment before you pull away. "gotta slip on these pants so we can go. i want to stop by that brunch place you like to get breakfast," you move away from the door and go to stand next to your bed.

"what? the spirit cafeteria breakfast food isn't good enough for you anymore?" trinity leans back against the doorframe. a badly hidden smirk on her lips as she watches you near your bed.

"don't you know? when someone gets famous they have higher standards. it comes with the fame," you put on a fake sad tone when saying the last sentence. trinity snorts, rolling her eyes. "oh god, where has my humble girlfriend gone?" she says.

"she's dead," you shrug before glancing at the clock sitting on one of your nightstands, "alright. get out so i can change."

"i can't watch my own girlfriend?"

"sorry, no. that choice expired after the last time we didn't go anywhere," you give her a fake pout before making a shoing gesture. the american player lets out a long groan before moving away from your room. going off into the kitchen to eat up half of your snacks.

it doesn't take long for you to get fully ready. having to also do your hair and find your training kit which somehow ended up in the guest bedroom. trinity and you leave out of the house at 10:40. with you carrying both of y'all bags since trinity claimed her arms hurt. you throw the bags into the back seat before getting into the driver's seat. trinity was already in the passenger seat before you put the bags away. you get ready to drive off, but is stopped by trinity saying, "wait!"

"what?" you look over at her, a confused expression on your face. the american player just smiles, "i have to go grab something. i forgot."

you just shrug when she gets out of the car. five minutes after going into the house, trinity comes back out. the shock on your face can't even be described as you watch trinity walk out of the house in your mickey mouse pajama pants. the one that she specifically said she didn't even knew you had.

trinity gets into the car just like before. snapping in her seat belt before looking over at you, "alright. let's go! i'm still starvinggg."

you give her a blank stare. thinking that would be enough for her to realize the current irony going on, but nope, trinity just looks away from you. focusing on connecting her playlist to the aux. "you know ashley texted me yesterday and she's actually getting along well in north carolina. i never thought i would hear her say that, weird," trinity's face scrunches up in slight disgust before shrugging.

"baby.."

"what?"

"why do you have on my pajama pants? i was looking for those!" you say as you pull out of the driveway. the american player side eyes you before looking out of the window instead of directly at you.

"i don't know what you're talking about," after saying this trinity tries to change the subject, but you aren't letting up. you keep reminding her of the earlier conversation you two had, but trinity denies that it even happens.

you drop the topic at brunch. enjoying the moments of eating nicely made bacon and pancakes while trinity gossips her head off. you try to bring it back up when y'all get back in the car to drive to practice, but trinity still doesn't let up so you drop it.

practice goes by smoothly with trinity annoying you every five minutes. you two go back to your place afterwards and slow down for the rest of the day. it's around ten pm when you bring the topic back up; and it wasn't even your fault.

trinity is in the shower while you're scrolling on twitter. mostly seeing fan tweets and bad jokes when a post about trinity catches your eye. on the tweet is the photo the washington spirit posted on instagram of trin's pre-practice outfit. she's waving in the photo while walking, with you trailing closely behind her. the tweet says the way the pants don't even reach trin's ankles. we all know who pants those are 😭

you immediately send that to trinity's phone. ready to start up the conversation once again after your thoughts were affirmed by some stranger on twitter; thank you to that fan.

© thinkingaboutjaedyn

[prettieinpink]

im the south american anon, thanks for your kind words, i love your account so much ♡. just wondering if you have a guide on how to prepare for a new school year or for 2024, have a wonderful morning/night 💗

GO BACK TO SCHOOL AS HER

ACADEMICS

Try to recreate your ideal study routine before. Study any subject you want using that specific study routine that you can when school opens. This gives you enough time before school starts to make any adjustments needed.

Get a head start. If you do have access to your curriculum or syllabus, read or actively study content on those topics. If you don’t, you can usually search up your class and your state which shows what you’ll be learning.

Experiment with study methods + note-taking. For study methods, search up different ways to effectively study, and pick at least three that appeal to you. Then pick any topic you want, and use those methods to study that topic. See which one worked the best for you and which wasn’t. 

For note-taking, search for some ways to take notes, and choose at least 3 that appeal to you. Then watch a video/lecture on any topic, and use those methods to take notes on it. See which ones that worked the best for you.

Create a planner or diary. Use it to keep track of your assessments, assignments due dates, events at school or any after-school activities. This planner would be just purely for school-related things. 

I think a digital planner would work best with most students, but some traditional ones are equally as good. It’s up to you to choose how you want to plan your school life, but you need to have at least one planner. 

Find a good study website/app. There are so many academic websites/apps out there that can aid you while studying, which are just at your fingertips. 

I recommend Duolingo, Quizlet and Khan Academy. Of course, there are so many more out there so I encourage you to explore your options. Some websites are just dedicated to one subject. 

Set SMART goals. Set academic goals that are achievable and realistic. Wanting all A’s or 100’s all the time is just way too unrealistic, and the pressure of wanting to reach the standard you set for yourself is just going to stress you out. 

Wanting a certain award, or A’s in certain subjects allows you to allocate your focus properly and is within reach. While you should definitely strive for good grades, avoid getting caught up in the mind trap of trying to achieve ‘perfect’ grades. 

Create a study place and ritual. Before school starts, choose a place anywhere in which you study regularly. Avoid having more than one, because having just one allows you to settle in and focus better. 

If this place is in your house, ensure that the space around it is clean and free of anything that wouldn’t serve you while studying. Plus, you can put up some cute motivational quotes.

A study ritual is habits that you do before studying, that help you while studying. You can create your own of whatever things that help you to be more productive and focused. 

HEALTH

Establish a sleep routine early. A week before school preferably, start waking up at the time you’d have to go to school and sleeping at your desired time. This is so that when school starts, you’re not feeling groggy while getting ready because you’ve already adjusted to the time. 

Talking about sleep, ensure that you practice good sleep hygiene as quality sleep enhances brain performance and improves energy levels throughout the day. 

Plan your meals at school. For us who have canteens or cafes near our schools, we tend to just eat whatever and we forget to nourish our bodies. You still can buy from them, but the night before, try to think about what you can eat for lunch the next day instead of impulsively buying. 

Carrying small containers of fruits or vegetables to go with my canteen lunch is my favourite combination. 

Carry a water bottle. I used to always forget to stay hydrated during school, so instead of drinking from fountains, I now prefer to carry around my water bottle from class to class. 

Wear SPF.

Just having it sitting on my desk while I’m working, reminds me in my mind to drink water. Water also boosts brain performance! 

Create a stress management plan. There are going to be times when you feel stressed, but we want to avoid stress impacting our academic performance and mental health. 

Before school starts, plan what to do if you feel heavily stressed. This could be like a menu of things you can choose from or a step-by-step guide that you follow through. This plan should contain things that relax you, make you happy and distract you from stress. 

Practice good posture. Once school starts, we sit at a desk all day, and most of us forget the proper way to sit while studying/working in class. This can lead to slumping or hunching on a chair, which encourages bad posture. 

Remember throughout the day to practice good posture, if you can, put a little reminder on your device. Posture stretches before the school days also help. 

Try to incorporate exercise into your schedule. Exercise is frequently neglected when we just have so much studying to do and we’re busy with other activities, but exercise is essential to leading a healthy lifestyle. 

The good thing, is you don’t have to do it every day. Doing it 2-3x a week should be enough. Going on walks during lunch/recess, cycling to school or participating in gym are easy ways to incorporate during the school season. 

Keep your bag lightweight. Carry the absolute essentials to school, having such a heavy bag can do a number on your back and also affect your posture. If you do have one, try to keep most things in your locker instead of bringing them to and from school. 

Engage in social media mindfully. There are so many toxic studying accounts out there that encourage unrealistic expectations or offer harsh ‘motivation’ to students. 

Please don’t interact with these types of accounts, even if they provide motivation to you, it is not sustainable at all. 

SELF CARE

Choose your favourite way to take a break. Not just once a week, but always take breaks every day. If you want these breaks to be somewhat productive like reading a productivity book or exercising, then go ahead. 

However, your breaks can also be ‘unproductive’. Play some games, go online shopping or just take a nap. One break is not better than the other, I just encourage you to take any kind of breaks you want daily.  

Plan to engage in hobbies regularly. It is easy to neglect our passions and what brings us happiness when we’re focused on school. If you can, have a chunk of the day just purely for doing hobbies. It can be for 1 hour, 30 minutes or 10. 

Or, join an afterschool club that focuses on that specific passion or hobby. Not only is it time for you to engage in the things you enjoy, you meet like-minded people who also enjoy it. 

Try to plan things with friends and family. Before school, meet up with your friends or family and do things with them. Once school reopens, opportunities to hang out with your loved ones are scarce. So, do it now. 

Create a no-hard productivity day. Plan a day in which you are doing the most minimal amount of productivity that you can. While you can include a few productive things, nothing that is mentally or physically exhausting is allowed on this day. 

If you are way too much of a productive or goal-oriented person to spend one day of no hard productivity, create a catch-up day. Choose one day of the week that you focus on completing or doing anything that you didn’t do all the other days. 

Keep a journal on you. Sometimes things happen during the school year, and it does cause conflicting or upsetting emotions within us. Creating the practice of journaling before school reopens is a good way for us to process our emotions and situations. 

Carry a book you like in your bag or locker. When you finish all of your work in class, or you just want to take a break, you can read a good book. This is also a good alternative to spending your lunches and recesses when you’re not in a sociable mood. 

Create a reward system. For example, if I study for x minutes, I can do x for myself. Or I can x grade, and I’ll get x. These don’t have to be big or extravagant rewards, but something simple like one episode of your favourite show can do. 

MINDSET CHANGES

Practice a growth mindset. You are going to experience failure at least once (if not more) during your school career. You mustn’t take these experiences to heart, and instead, use them as lessons to encourage self-growth within you. 

Practice this mindset now, so that when school reopens, you won’t have a problem with extracting lessons from failures. 

Use comparison as a source of inspiration or motivation. It is easy to compare ourselves with our peers, as we are similar ages, but their skills can exceed ours. Instead of using up all of your energy to be envious of the, channel that energy into bettering yourself. Not to beat them, but to beat yourself. 

View studying as a time to develop your skills. While yes, we do study to get good grades, studying can help us to grow our other skills as well. We build our discipline, focus and critical thinking as well. 

So when you don’t get the best grade from an assessment or assignment, don’t beat yourself up and think all that studying was for nothing. You were building those skills, so next time, you can apply them when you have to study again.

Set firm boundaries with others and yourself. There are times when you just have to say, I have to study. Not just to others, but to yourself. Practice these boundaries before school when it comes to more general productivity. 

There is no rejection, just redirection. Change your mindset that rejection is nonexistent, and there is only redirection. Incorporate it in your daily life like;

‘there’s no more stock left of my favourite product, there’s probably something better out there.’ 

That being said, I’m not saying that if there is a barrier to your goal, you just move on. However, you should not be chasing things that are not meant for you and shift your focus when necessary. 

Detach when needed. Stop attaching your value or worth to things that are external and can easily be gone. This doesn’t have to apply to just grades, but also other situations. 

Try to start reading or researching about detachment before school reopens.  

Time is your most valuable resource, use it to invest wisely. Your teen years are going to be the most suitable time in your life to start investing in yourself. 

You have fewer things to worry about(aside from grades) and you have a lot of opportunities now to explore the things that you want. Please, don't spend this time doomscrolling or any other time-wasting activity. 

[whencyclopedia]

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly or Canyon de Chelly National Monument is a protected site that contains the remains of 5,000 years of Native American inhabitation. Canyon de Chelly is located in the northeastern portion of the US state of Arizona within the Navajo Nation and not too far from the border with neighboring New Mexico. It is located 472 km (293 miles) northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Canyon de Chelly is unique in the United States as it preserves the ruins and rock art of indigenous peoples that lived in the region for centuries - the Ancestral Puebloans and the Navajo. Canyon de Chelly has been recognized as a US National Monument since 1931 CE, and it is one of the most visited National Monuments in the United States today.

Geography & Prehistory

The etymology of Canyon de Chelly's name is unusual in the U.S. Southwest as it initially appears to resemble French rather than the more ubiquitous Spanish. "Chelly" is actually derived from the Navajo word tseg, which means "rock canyon" or "in a canyon." Spanish explorers and government officials began to utilize a "Chelly,” “Chegui,” and even "Chelle" in order to try to replicate the Navajo word in the early 1800s CE, which eventually was standardized to “de Chelly” by the middle of the 19th century CE.

Canyon de Chelly lies very close to Chinle, Arizona, and it is located between the Ancestral Puebloan ruins of Betakin and Kiet Siel in the west and the grand structures of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico in the east. Canyon de Chelly, as a National Monument, covers 83,840 acres (339.3 km2; 131.0 sq miles) of land that is currently owned by the Navajo tribe. Spectacularly situated on the Colorado Plateau near the Four Corner's Region, Canyon de Chelly sits at an elevation of over 1829 m (6,000 ft) and bisects the Defiance Plateau in eastern Arizona. The tributaries of the Chinle Creek, which runs through Canyon de Chelly and originates in the Chuska Mountains, have carved the rock and landscape for thousands of years, creating red cliffs that rise up an additional 305 m (1000 ft). The National Monument extends into the canyons of de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument.

Canyon de Chelly is one of the longest continuously inhabited places anywhere in North America, and archaeologists believe that human settlement in the canyon dates back some 5,000 years. Ancient prehistoric tribes and peoples utilized the canyon while hunting and migrating seasonally, but they did not construct permanent settlements within the canyon. Nonetheless, these prehistoric peoples did leave etchings on stones and on canyon walls throughout what is now Canyon de Chelly. Around c. 200-100 BCE, peoples following a semi-agricultural and sedentary way of life began to inhabit the canyon. (Archaeologists refer to these peoples as "Basketmakers." They are considered the ancestors to the Ancestral Puebloan Peoples.) While they still hunted and gathered like their prehistoric forebears, they also farmed the land where fertile, growing corn, beans, squash, and other small crops. It is also known that they grew cotton for textile production. Yucca and grama grass have grown in the canyon for several millennia, and indigenous people utilized these plants when making baskets, sandals, and various types of mats. Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia cactaceae) and pinyon are also found throughout Canyon de Chelly, the latter of which provided an important source of food for indigenous peoples in autumn and winter. Fish are found in Canyon de Chelly's tributaries, and large and small game frequent the canyon.

Continue reading...

[punknicodiangelo]

Lore dump for Ariel Brown!

His mom is a Jewish American nurse who works for the army, and his dad is Apollo. Ariel is transmasc and uses he/him pronouns, along with being asexual and gay. He has the standard ADHD and dyslexia of demigods, as well as autism and a dysautonomic disorder. Ariel tries his best to be helpful and feels horrible when he can't be for whatever reason. He loves fiercely and though he's not a great fighter he's very protective. Ariel's main weapon is a cane sword that has plot relevance. His special interest is in the Disney Renaissance.

Ariel is Nico's love interest (he was half created out of spite ngl) and has found siblinghood with Lacy, Meg, and Rachel. He's also best friends with Malcolm and Clovis! Here's him in Lemon Maker

Ariel arrived at Camp Half-Blood just a little bit after Nico, by a matter of hours. They near instantly became best friends while in the Hermes cabin

Ariel didn't stay in the Hermes cabin long and was claimed in the infirmary after a training accident. Ariel loves his siblings very much and wishes he could do everything for them

Ariel was devastated when Nico ran away. He spent every break from school at camp, and Malcolm helped with his worry quite a bit, which led to Ariel developing a crush on him between Labyrinth and the Last Olympian that doesn't go anywhere

When Nico gets captured by the giants , Ariel has a lot of dreams about it, and got a prophecy to save Nico. He was by Nico's side for most of House of Hades, including the Cupid scene, though Ariel didn't hear what Nico had to say due to passing out after trying to attack Cupid. I think this is the moment Nico realizes he likes Ariel

Ariel goes with Nico, Reyna, and Hedge in Blood of Olympus. After the battle with Gaea, Ariel has to spend almost all his time in the infirmary, but Nico often comes to visit often, which helps Ariel to realize his feelings

The infirmary on the Argo was Ariel's de facto room since he specializes in healing. He's a good archer and plays several stringed instruments, but with his disability and mom's job he's always lent towards the healing aspects of his father's powers

Ariel is scared to tell Nico how he feels because all of Apollo's lovers seem to turn into plants and Nico's surrounded by Demeter's children (Persephone, Lex, and I imagine he's friendly with the rest too). Lacy manages to convince Ariel to tell Nico, though, which he does at the beginning of ToA

Speaking of ToA, they're the Trials of Ariel Brown now. Nico lives with the Jacksons, and Ariel finds Meg McCaffrey on his way to see Nico and takes her back to camp, where Apollo, still a god, is visting Rachel. Ariel yells at him a bit for being a bad dad, so he has Ariel go save the oracles. He also goes to the Underworld along with Nico and Will in TSaTS

Nico and Ariel call each other moth and butterfly respectively, and Ariel learns Italian to talk to Nico when he's stressed

@jasontoddssuper @honeysgalaxy @insomniac-jay @theautisticcentre

[terrence-silver]

Who do you think Terry lost his virginity to?

Two options I always leaned towards myself;

Logically, considering he could've been no older than seventeen or eighteen, give or take, he either lost it in Vietnam, much like countless other GI's at the time undoubtedly did, to some nameless sex worker(s), in some nameless brothel, in some city, town or village along the trail of the US war effort in the country. Possibly, after much encouragement and pushing from John and Ponytail who were convinced it was due time and that Twig needed a shove in the right direction. Believable. Some teensy-tinsy amount of peer pressure might've been involved, yes. Maybe not. Who is to tell? A bit of both?

Or, perhaps, years and years before he actually went off to the war, I can see Terry Silver's father as the overly patriarchal, hyper-traditionalist type there to ensure his boy became a man as soon as possible, especially if he deemed his son was already 'too soft', gentle and shy and 'needed fixing'. That extreme measures in these extreme circumstances needed to be taken to avoid his one and only heir from going bad, like a rotten apple; something he had to be coaxed out of a taught a lesson in true manhood 'before it is too late'. What ensued is possibly a criminally young Terry, again, brought to a sex worker or rather, lets call it a 'trusted friend of his father's' who did the job for him as young as age twelve or thirteen and it might've been an affair as clinical as a medical check-up. After all, Terry himself said he has had many teachers and his old man was definitely one of them, I think we all agree, but nobody said the things he was taught were anywhere near sane or even good, not even by the standards of the early to late 1950's when this could've taken place.

Also, I see these two options as something that can coexist side by side.

Terry, or, a young Twig during Vietnam simply lying he was still a virgin at the time he was in the military to his friends who would've undoubtedly teased him relentlessly when he, ironically, fidgety and boyish as he was lost his virginity sooner than any of them (even sooner than the buff, more classically manly, borderline All-American John Kreese himself who had a full-blown sweetheart back home in Betsy), but if he told them that was the case and that he already knew what the fuss was all about, they wouldn't believe him. That he's merely saying it to seem tough and save face. Avoid ridicule. That's what he might've felt. After all, they had a preconceived notion of him and that notion was that Twig was clumsy, silly, a bit of a sheltered haphazard and definitely the type that can't pull poontang or ladies, because hey, c'mon, he's a cute kid, but it is still Twig. Women ain't exactly lining up for some scrawny, lanky guy who is all limbs. In truth, he lost his virginity extremely early. One would even saying worryingly early. Worse yet, I can imagine that for the longest time (or maybe even all his life) Terry Silver was convinced he was done a favor with this early loss of innocence and that it helped strengthen him as a man. That that's how things should be. He became a winner instead of a wimp.

Which, if we open our third eye and tend to view what he, for example, gleefully did to a teenage Daniel Larusso back in the 1980's as a form of grooming (both into violence, bad habits and well --- god only knows) it also explains a lot. It was done to Terry once upon a time. Now, he is doing it to others. Perpetuating a multigenerational cycle of abuse. Hurt people hurt people. In Terry's case, though, he wouldn't necessarily even realize, admit or see himself as one of the hurt parties. Quite the contrary.

[victoriabyrnearth101]

My favorite animal when I was a child was a duck. My dad and I used to go for early morning runs on the Erie Canal and pass by ducks in the morning sleeping or just waking up. I love them because they are cute and just mind their own business unlike geese which will chase you if you come anywhere near them. Something I found out about ducks is that they cannot feel cold in their feet because they have no nerves or blood vessels in their feet.

During the fall for some reason I am always in the mood to listen to American Authors. When I played travel softball in middle school and high school, my mom and I would listen to their album “Oh, What a Life” on our way to my tournaments. For some reason, that album always reminds me of fall. My favorite fall movie is the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown movie. I am a big fan of horror movies, but overall that is my favorite fall themed movie. I love Linus dispensing his wisdom on everybody, Peppermint Patty making Charlie play football, and Snoopy and Woodstock trying to cook the meal. It just puts me in the fall mood!

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was established in 2002, the year I was born. This is a very important act for businesses as it aimed to make financial statements more accurate and reduce fraud. It increased the standards for companies as the company leaders now are required to sign off on their financial statements, making them personally responsible if there is any material misstatement. This came about because of mostly the Enron scandal where the company was knee deep in fraudulent activities, as well as some other large companies that were doing similar activities. I found this interesting because this comes up a lot as an accounting Major, and these big accounting standards came into place the year I was born.

The song “You are my Sunshine” (the Norman Blake version) was my favorite song as a child. I absolutely loved this song and still do. I made my parents play it on repeat during car rides until they became sick of it. It really is a sad song, but I have always loved it. The lyrics “you make me happy when skies are grey, you’ll never know dear how much I love you” always made me feel comforted, even though it is a song about a man’s wife leaving him for another man. It is a song about unconditional love as the man is pleading to his wife to come home and he will spend the rest of his life trying to make her happy and love him. As a child I saw it as a happy and sweet song, and even though I now know it’s meaning, it still resonated with me in the same way when I hear it. To me it means unconditional love and not giving up on someone.

Attendance Prompt:

“Gold has always been the color of reverence and revered itself. Part of its allure lies in the mineral’s scarcity and uneven distribution. Although mines have been discovered all over the world, gold rushes mean that they are quickly exhausted and abandoned in favor of those that have been newly uncovered.” (Page 85, The Secret Lives of Color)

I chose this quote because it reminded me of the Taylor Swift song “Gold Rush”. It is one of my favorites of her songs because it relates to this concept of people flocking madly to something desired. The song is about a guy that all the girls are in love with, which is like how people treat gold. They see or hear that there is gold and they rush to make it theirs. The scarcity factor of gold also reminds me of the economic idea of scarcity. In economics we face scarcity of resources, money and time, so gold reminded me of that and how the limited supply of it makes it a good form of money.

[naturalrights-retard]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under fake president Joe Biden wants to ban all gas-powered cars in the not-too-distant future in order to stop global warming and climate change.

Proposed new emissions standards would “move (the) U.S. car market decisively toward electric vehicles,” the agency revealed, adding that it hopes to convert “up to [two-thirds]” of all cars sold to EV models by the year 2032.

If implemented, the EPA policy would force most new cars sold by that year to be EVs – no gas allowed, meaning they cannot even be hybrids. Not long after that, the agency hopes to axe all gas cars from the market entirely.

The program would be phased in starting in 2027, when all light-duty vehicles sold new will need to meet new greenhouse gas performance standards. By 2032, between 64 and 67 percent of all new car sales would need to be EVs only.

“This is the planned rationing of vehicles,” says Marc Morano of The Climate Depot. “The planned rationing of American cars. That’s the only way this plan makes sense … the only result is going to be shortages of cars and a completely altered used car market.”

(Related: In case you missed it, the Biden regime also proposed a nationwide ban on gas stoves last fall, but then relented due to widespread unpopularity.)

America is going the way of Cuba and East Germany – straight into authoritarian communism

As explained by Morano, all of this is exactly what happened to places like Cuba and East Germany, which succumbed to communism under similar circumstances.

“You can look to Cuba to find out what it’s like to have a raging used car market because that’s what we’re looking at here,” he warns.

“And you can look to old East Germany. East Germany had their famed Trabant car, where people would have to get on waiting lists for years to get one, and that’s what we’re faced with here when the government is going to mandate that you can only buy a new electric car.”

The left-wing obsession with all things electric is nonsensical from the perspective of affordability and reliability. Earth-based fuels like oil and gas are abundant, inexpensive, and highly reliable, while electric power is expensive, unreliable, and just plain stupid.

How will the average person power his EV in the event of a power outage? What about when he becomes stranded out in the middle of nowhere with no charging stations anywhere in sight?

In the United States, at least, there is still time to stop this madness. Our country does not have to go the way of Australia, where some banks are now refusing to finance loans for people wanting to purchase gas-powered vehicles.

The World Bank is also moving in the same direction, having promised to phase out all funding for gas-powered cars in the shockingly near term.

“The powers that be, the corporate world, the bankers, the governments, academia – they’ve decided that gas-powered cars are over and they’re putting all the forces into play to end it without our say in it,” Morano warns.

Then we have the Biden regime, which wants the imposition of new pollution limits that would force at least 54 percent of all new vehicles to be sold as electric models by the year 2030.

“I believe it’s pretty doable,” said Margo Oge, chair of the International Council on Clean Transportation and a former Obama regime EPA official. “The industry is there. Europe is ahead of the U.S., China is ahead of Europe, and these companies are global companies.”

Everything big government is trying to do aims to stamp out freedom and liberty – but in the name of “saving the planet.” To learn more, visit GreenTyranny.news.

Sources for this article include:

ClimateDepot.com

NaturalNews.com

[skullymd]

How mobile games teach you about life.

OK so I'm gonna ramble quick cause its very late and I found something online by accident and now I feel like I'm having a stroke so bare with me. So, I know mobile games always kinda sucked and I stopped playing them in like 2016 but the thing is, there was one game I liked enough to remember from 2015, partly because it was a Fallout 4 tie-in, "Fallout Shelter".

But the thing is that I found out American Dad, of all things, made a complete rip off game 6yrs later in 2019. And when I say they are the same mobile game I MEAN IT! Graphics, gameplay, theme, and even a nearly identical art style!

It came out several years ago but I never saw any ads or mention of it anywhere. I looked into it cause with how insanely close to each other they are they must have common developers at first, but no. The original Fallout Shelter was made by Bethesda themselves and Behavior Interactive, as in the creators of Dead-by-Daylight! So I looked into "American Dad; Apocalypse Now"'s developers and found My.Games or My COM Games. Most of their library is all just average shitty mobile games… But then you look closer and realize... Not only is just about every game they produced a knock off of another mobile app game made by better devs, not only did they probably just actually steal coding from two major game studios, but they are also the ones who arguably started the terrible youtube mobile game ad trend. If you remember the name "Hustle Castle" you probably remember an aggressive and weird ad campaign online that involved ridiculous clickbait, awkward visuals, and no actual gameplay. But even if you remember the ads you still probably never really played it...

Because if you did you're know ITS ANOTHER FALLOUT-SHELTER CLONE!

And it came out 2017, 2yrs after Fallout-Shelter and 4yrs before the American Dad tie-in. This all means that the same year Disney bought FOX they had it hire a mobile game studio. One that not only stole from two triple-A gaming studios but blatantly tried to ripped off one of FOXs own property's art style for their prior game. All to produce a "new" game which was a near exact copy of a copy... AND THEN THEY MADE A THIRD FALLOUT-SHELTER RIP OFF WITH THE SAME STOLE CODE IN 2023!!!

Basically this one mobile game studio managed to rip off a single Fallout4 tie-in mobile game 4 separate times over a decade and get deal with a major animation studio to use their property's likenesses and were eventually bought out for over 640 million dollars. The original Fallout-Shelter game shutdown because it stopped being profitable but these guys just kept giving it a new wrapper and reselling it's micro-transactions to newer generations of unsuspecting children, young adults, and otherwise unaware people. So my point is this, the kind of capital driven world we live in doesnt reward hard-work, it doesnt reward ingenuity nor creativity, it rewards stuff like this. I'm not saying dont try in life because of this, but what I am saying is not to get upset when you cant live up to impossible standards that cant be reached without being born into wealth or using a lack of morals to step on people so you can get ahead.

[careeralley]

The Top 6 Emerging Careers In Public Health

A career in public health can have a positive impact on your community. An individual in the field of public health may provide educational services to various populations, study and interpret data to make informed decisions, or manage a facility's business side. Since the U.S. population is aging and public health crises are ongoing, there are many career opportunities in public health. Check out this article to see if you're suited for a career in public health. Why Consider a Public Health Career? Healthcare careers are highly sought after. Professionals in the health care field will always be needed because people will always need health services. The 2020 pandemic has increased the demand even more. Moreover, the health crisis has underscored the vast inequities in healthcare services between different American groups. Many public health positions require only a bachelor's degree, making them attractive to many students. The field also offers flexibility, which is a key benefit. Additionally, you can practice public health in any sector, for any industry, and anywhere in the world. While a career in public health can be beneficial, professionals in other fields may wonder if it's too late to switch careers. The growth of distance learning has made it easier for many people to prepare for a new career while still working full-time. If you are worried that you will not have time to prepare for entrance exams, now many universities offer masters in public health online no GRE programs. This program allows you to advance or change careers without sacrificing your current commitments. When considering a career change, you're better off enrolling in one that offers a higher salary and/or more fulfillment. Healthcare careers are highly sought after. Professionals in the health care field will always be needed because people will always need health services.Click To Tweet Emerging Public Health Jobs According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most of the following careers are expected to offer relatively high salaries and above-average growth rates in the near future. 1. Health Educator The BLS estimates that health educators' job growth will be 13% from 2019 to 2029, with a median salary estimate of $48,140 in 2020. Health educators promote healthy habits and promote wellness in the communities they work with. These professionals create health-related programs and distribute educational materials based on their research. In addition to health care facilities and colleges, health educators can work in nonprofit organizations. There are different roles that health educators play in different settings. For example, government agencies may run campaigns to encourage vaccinations, while health educators in the private sector may offer incentives to motivate employees to get active. This position requires a Bachelor's degree in public health or health education. Obtaining a certified health education specialist credential may be necessary for some positions. Job titles for Health Educators include Community Health Educators, Health Education Directors, and School Health Educators. 2. Occupational Health and Safety Specialist and Technician The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 4% job growth for health educators from 2019 to 2029, while the median salary for this position is $72,530. Specialists and occupational health and safety technicians inspect and evaluate workplace equipment and best practices to ensure employee safety. These professionals aim to ensure that employers follow safety standards and government regulations. Some specialists designed and implemented safety training programs to teach employers and employees how to correctly handle accidents and use equipment. Further, occupational health and safety specialists ensure that workers are treated fairly and safely and have access to protective equipment, such as gloves. This career requires a bachelor's degree in occupational health and safety or environmental health and safety. Some positions require a master's degree in health-related fields. Occupational Health and Safety Jobs include Environmental Health and Safety Technicians, Registered Nurses of Occupational Health, Safety Specialists, etc. 3. Social and Community Service Manager BLS statistics indicate that health educators' job growth will be 17% from 2019 to 2029, with a median salary of $69,600. Social workers and community service managers usually supervise workers who provide direct services to the public. Collaborating with the community and other stakeholders, they develop and manage public health projects, programs, and organizations. Social and community managers also determine the effectiveness of projects and initiatives to make important decisions around health programs. Those seeking social and community service positions can work for small and large organizations. In some cases, these managers specialize in particular demographics, such as children or the homeless, or they work in certain fields, such as mental health or drug abuse. This position requires a Bachelor's degree in social work, public health, or a related field. Social and Community Services Managers can be employed as Community Engagement Managers, Residence Services Managers, and Social Services Department Managers. 4. Hospital Administrator Based on BLS statistics, health educators' jobs are expected to grow by 32% between 2019 and 2029, while their median salary is $104,280. As medical professionals, their responsibilities include creating budgets, coordinating medical services, and hiring doctors. Hospital administrators ensure that hospitals run smoothly and efficiently while continuing to provide patients with the best care. These positions are available at private medical centers and large hospitals. Most people who work in this position have years of experience working in medical facilities. To become a hospital administrator, you will need a Bachelor's degree in healthcare administration or a related field. Most employers prefer to hire candidates with a master's degree in healthcare administration. As a hospital administrator, you can be an assistant administrator, a health services administrator, or a health services manager. 5. Healthcare Consultant The BLS estimates that health educators' job growth will be 11% from 2019 to 2029, with a median salary of $87,660. The purpose of healthcare consultants is to examine a medical company and find ways to improve production. Using data analysis and interpretation, healthcare consultants analyze a company's numbers and offer ways to improve efficiency and productivity. There are two healthcare consultants: contract employees who work through an agency and independent contractors who work directly with clients. The minimum educational requirement is a Bachelor's degree in a health-related field. Some employers may prefer candidates with master's degrees or specializations. Consultant jobs in public health include Behavioral Health Consultants, Health Navigation Consultants, and Healthcare Economics Consultants. 6. Public Health Nurse From 2019 to 2029, the BLS predicts 7% job growth for health educators, while the median salary is $75,330. Nurses who work in public health provide care and education to communities. Depending on the populations they serve, they offer different services and training. Public health nurses can, for example, ensure that health information is accessible, provide vaccination information, and offer prenatal care. These professionals can also work with government agencies to manage community health program budgets, advocate for better health services for underserved populations, and manage patient care. The minimum education requirement is an associate degree in nursing. Some employers seek candidates with a nursing degree or master's degree. To become a registered nurse, you must also meet additional licensing requirements. Nurses who work in public health can work as Community Outreach Nurses, Public Immunization Nurses, and School Nurses. Conclusion Pursuing a career in public health makes it possible to contribute to the overall health of a community without attending medical school. The primary focus of public health workers is prevention, which involves educating, researching, and collecting data. Jobs in public health are stable, in demand, and available in many settings. Find a public health career that matches your strengths and interests, like medicine, technical, or business, and take the first step toward your dream career! Read the full article

[bmpmp3]

JUST finished the main case in Jake Hunter Ghost of the Dusk and FIRST of all it took me 11 hours and 8 minutes to finish which i was Not Expecting as all the cases in Jake Hunter Memories of the Past took me anywhere between an hour and a half to four hours at the most SECOND Of all im obsessed with this song from the OST. soundtrack to when im taking a jazzercise class but the shadowy ghost figure only i can see that follows me in my every waking moment is manifesting itself in the dance studios mirrors

[blackwoolncrown]

For the past few days, a heatwave has glowered over the Pacific Northwest, forcing temperatures in the region to a record-breaking 118ºF. Few people in the region—neither Americans nor Canadians—have air-conditioning. Stores sold out of new AC units in hours as a panicked public sought a reasonable solution to the emergency. Unfortunately, air-conditioning is part of what’s causing the unusual heatwave in the first place.

We came close to destroying all life on Earth during the Cold War, with the threat of nuclear annihilation. But we may have come even closer during the cooling war, when the rising number of Americans with air conditioners—and a refrigerant industry that fought regulation—nearly obliterated the ozone layer. We avoided that environmental catastrophe, but the fundamental problem of air conditioning has never really been resolved.

Mechanical cooling appeared in the early 1900s not for comfort but for business. In manufacturing, the regulation of temperature—“process cooling”—controlled the quality of commodities like cotton, tobacco, and chewing gum. In 1903, Alfred Wolff installed the first cooling system for people at the New York Stock Exchange because comfortable traders yielded considerably higher stock returns. Only in the ’20s did “commercial cooling” appear. On Memorial Day weekend 1925, Willis Carrier debuted the first centrifugal air-conditioning system at the Rivoli Theater in Midtown Manhattan. Previously, theaters had shut down in the summer. With air-conditioning, the Rivoli became “the talk of Broadway” and inaugurated the summer blockbuster.

-another direct tie to capitalism. Everything born out of colonio-capitalism carries its toxic mark. Article totally not under the cut for those who can’t pay for Time. It honestly paints a really clear picture of the situation. Bolding mine.-

“It’s time we become more comfortable with discomfort. Our survival may depend on it.“

Before World War II, almost no one had air-conditioning at home. Besides being financially impractical and culturally odd, it was also dangerous. Chemical refrigerants like sulfur dioxide and methyl chloride filled most fridges and coolers, and leaks could kill a child, poison a hospital floor, even blow up a basement. Everything changed with the invention of Freon in 1928. Non-toxic and non-explosive, Freon was hailed as a “miracle.” It made the modernist skyscraper—with its sealed windows and heat-absorbing materials—possible. It made living in the desert possible. The small, winter resort of Phoenix, Arizona, became a year-round attraction. Architecture could now ignore the local climate. Anywhere could be 65ºF with 55% humidity. Cheap materials made boxy, suburban tract housing affordable to most Americans, but the sealed-up, stifling design of these homes required air-conditioning to keep the heat at bay. Quickly, air-conditioning transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. By 1980, more than half of all U.S. homes were air-conditioned. And despite millions of Black Americans fleeing the violence of Jim Crow, the South saw greater in-migration than out-migration for the first time—a direct result of AC. The American car was similarly transformed. In 1955, only 10 percent of American cars had air-conditioning. Thirty years later, it came standard.

The cooling boom also altered the way we work. Now, Americans could work anywhere at any hour of the day. Early ads for air-conditioning promised not health or comfort but productivity. The workday could proceed no matter the season or the climate. Even in the home, A/C brought comfort as a means to rest up before the next work day.

The use of air-conditioning was as symbolic as it was material. It conveyed class status. Who did and didn’t have air-conditioning often fell starkly along the color line, too, especially in the South. It conquered the weather and, with it, the need to sweat or squirm or lie down in the summer swelter. In that sense, air-conditioning allowed Americans to transcend their physical bodies, that long-sought fantasy of the Puritan settlers: to be in the world but not of it. Miracle, indeed.

But it came with a price. As it turned out, Freon isn’t exactly non-toxic. Freon is a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which depletes the ozone layer and also acts as a global warming gas. By 1974, the industrialized world was churning out CFCs, chemicals that had never appeared on the planet in any significant quantities, at a rate of one million metric tons a year—the equivalent mass of more than 500,000 cars. That was the year atmospheric chemists Sherry Rowland and Mario Molina first hypothesized that the chlorine molecules in CFCs might be destroying ozone in the stratosphere by bonding to free oxygen atoms and disrupting the atmosphere’s delicate chemistry. By then, CFCs were used not only as refrigerants but also as spray can propellants, manufacturing degreasers, and foam-blowing agents.

The ozone layer absorbs the worst of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Without stratospheric ozone, life as we know it is impossible. A 1 percent decline in the ozone layer’s thickness results in thousands of new cases of skin cancer. Greater depletion would lead to crop failures, the collapse of oceanic food systems, and, eventually, the destruction of all life on Earth.

In the 1980s, geophysicist Joseph Farman confirmed the Rowland-Molina hypothesis when he detected a near-absence of ozone over Antarctica—the “Ozone Hole.” A fierce battle ensued among industry, scientists, environmentalists, and politicians, but in 1987 the U.S signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which ended Freon production.

The Montreal Protocol remains the world’s only successful international environmental treaty with legally binding emissions targets. Annual conferences to re-assess the goals of the treaty make it a living document, which is revised in light of up-to-date scientific data. For instance, the Montreal Protocol set out only to slow production of CFCs, but, by 1997, industrialized countries had stopped production entirely, far sooner than was thought possible. The world was saved through global cooperation.

The trouble is that the refrigerants replacing CFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), turned out to be terrible for the planet, too. While they have an ozone-depleting potential of zero, they are potent greenhouse gases. They absorb infrared radiation from the sun and Earth and block heat that normally escapes into outer space. Carbon dioxide and methane do this too, but HFCs trap heat at rates thousands of times higher. Although the number of refrigerant molecules in the atmosphere is far fewer than those of other greenhouse gases, their destructive force, molecule for molecule, is far greater.

In three decades, the production of HFCs grew exponentially. Today, HFCs provide the cooling power to almost any air conditioner in the home, in the office, in the supermarket, or in the car. They cool vaccines, blood for transfusions, and temperature-sensitive medications, as well as the data processors and computer servers that make up the internet—everything from the cloud to blockchains. In 2019, annual global warming emissions from HFCs were the equivalent of 175 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

In May, the EPA signaled it will begin phasing down HFCs and replacing them with more climate-friendly alternatives. Experts agree that a swift end to HFCs could prevent as much as 0.5ºC of warming over the next century—a third of the way to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Yet regardless of the refrigerant used, cooling still requires energy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, air-conditioning accounts for nearly a fifth of annual U.S. residential electricity use. This is more energy for cooling overall and per capita than in any other nation. Most Americans consider the cost of energy only in terms of their electricity bills. But it’s also costing us the planet. Joe Biden’s announcement to shift toward a renewable energy infrastructure obscures the uncertainty of whether that infrastructure could meet Americans’ outrageously high energy demand—much of it for cooling that doesn’t save lives. Renewable energy infrastructure can take us only so far. The rest of the work is cultural. From Freon to HFCs, we keep replacing chemical refrigerants without taking a hard look at why we’re cooling in the first place.

Comfort cooling began not as a survival strategy but as a business venture. It still carries all those symbolic meanings, though its currency now works globally, cleaving the world into civilized cooling and barbaric heat. Despite what we assume, as a means of weathering a heat wave, individual air-conditioning is terribly ineffective. It works only for those who can afford it. But even then, their use in urban areas only makes the surrounding micro-climate hotter, sometimes by a factor of 10ºF, actively threatening the lives of those who don’t have access to cooling. (The sociologist Eric Klinenberg has brilliantly studied how, in a 1995 Chicago heat wave, about twice as many people died than in a comparable heat wave forty years earlier due to the city’s neglect of certain neighborhoods and social infrastructure.) Ironically, research suggests that exposure to constant air-conditioning can prevent our bodies from acclimatizing to hot weather, so those who subject themselves to “thermal monotony” are, in the end, making themselves more vulnerable to heat-related illness.

And, of course, air-conditioning only works when you have the electricity to power it. During heatwaves, when air-conditioning is needed most, blackouts are frequent. On Sunday, with afternoon temperatures reaching 112ºF around Portland, the power grid failed for more than 6,300 residences under control by Portland General Electrics.

The troubled history of air-conditioning suggests not that we chuck it entirely but that we focus on public cooling, on public comfort, rather than individual cooling, on individual comfort. Ensuring that the most vulnerable among the planet’s human inhabitants can keep cool through better access to public cooling centers, shade-giving trees, safe green spaces, water infrastructure to cool, and smart design will not only enrich our cities overall, it will lower the temperature for everyone. It’s far more efficient this way.

To do so, we’ll have to re-orient ourselves to the meaning of air-conditioning. And to comfort. Privatized air-conditioning survived the ozone crisis, but its power to separate—by class, by race, by nation, by ability—has survived, too. Comfort for some comes at the expense of the life on this planet.

It’s time we become more comfortable with discomfort. Our survival may depend on it.

[nevermindirah]

Do you have any thoughts on the use of AAVE for Nile (or lack thereof) in TOG fanfiction? I've been reading some Book of Nile fic and some writers seem to write her as a Millennial™ (using words like "fave" and "woke") but never acknowledge her Blackness in her patterns of speech. I know we don't see her use as much AAVE in the films, but I would argue she's in situations where code-switching would be valued (first in a "professional" environment in the army, then around a group of non-Black strangers).

Hi anon! I have many thoughts on this and I'm honored you asked me! But I should start by saying I'm white and any thoughts Black fans and especially Black American fans have on this that they want to share would be beyond lovely. (I'm not gonna tag anybody bc that feels rude but please add onto this post if any of y'all see this and want to!)

The main reason I personally avoid AAVE for Nile in my own fics is because I'm not Black. But Nile-centric fics by Black writers tend to avoid using much of it too, at least from what I've noticed/understood, and my guess is it's largely for the reason you mention, that she's in situations that encourage code-switching.

In movie canon Nile is highly competent at tailoring her language to each situation she finds herself in. This fantastic linguistics analysis meta shows how skillfully Nile chooses her vocabulary and grammar to meet her goals with different conversation partners in different contexts. In comics canon Nile had a bunch of different civilian jobs before joining the Marines, so she would've had experience code-switching in the ways that made sense for all those different contexts as well as the Marines and her family and high school and wherever else she spent her time before we met her. And now she's spending her time with a handful of immortals none of whom are native English speakers and a fellow Black American but one with a Queen's English UK accent whose professional experience is in the CIA where high-status code-switching is often an absolute must for success or even survival.

Fics featuring Nile are charged with extrapolating from that to how it might show up in her use of language that she's coping with a traumatic separation from her family and her career and pretty much everything she's ever known and now she needs to be able to make herself understood to people who seem to care about her and each other but are super duper in crisis, three (soon to be four) of whom predate Modern English entirely and the only one who's anywhere near her contemporary she's not supposed to talk to for a century. All of these people are telling her that pretty much any contact with any mortals poses an existential threat to her and the rest of the group. How the FUCK is she supposed to cope with that, like, generally? And would it be a more effective way for her to cope if she talked to Andy Joe and Nicky using the speech patterns that she used to use with her mom and brother, to at least retain that part of her identity even if it means having to do a lot of explaining, or would it meet her needs better to prioritize Andy Joe and Nicky understanding what she means with her words over using the particular words and grammar forms she used with her family?

I've seen several fics, both Nile-centric / BoN and otherwise, explore this a little bit in how/whether Nile uses Millennial™ speak. It's often a theme in Nile texting Booker despite the exile because of the popular headcanon that he as The Tech Guy is the only other immortal who understands memes. But Nile's much-younger-than-Booker mom probably uses Boomer and/or Gen X memes and Andy has been adapting to new communication styles for forever as evidenced by her canon high level of fluency with standard-American-accented English.

Which brings us back to people avoiding AAVE because they're not Black and they don't want to make mistakes (or they're not Black and they don't want to get yelled at for making mistakes, though I think many people overestimate how much they'll get yelled at while underestimating how much these mistakes can hurt). I can imagine some Black fans hold back from using much AAVE in fic because they don't want to share in-group stuff with white people who are likely to then adopt and ruin it, as white people so often do with Black cultural stuff. Some links about this including a great Khadija Mbowe video. I'm saying this gently, anon, because you might not know: woke, an example you cited as Millennial™ speak, is AAVE, and that's gotten erased by so many white people appropriating it and using it incorrectly online.

And also there's the part where fandom is a hobby and you never know when you're reading a fic that's the very first thing someone's ever written outside of a school assignment. This cultural considerations of language shit takes a level of effort and skill that not everybody puts into every fic, or even could if they wanted to because they haven't had time to build their skills yet. It's definitely easier for non-Black fans to project our millennial feels onto Nile than to do the layers of research and self-reflection it requires to depict what Blackness might mean to Nile, and it's not surprising that often people sharing their hobby creations on the internet have gone the easier route. There's not even necessarily shame in doing what's easier. It's just frustrating and often hurtful when structural white supremacy means that 3-dimensional Black characters are rare in media and thoughtful explorations of them in fandom are seen by the majority of fans as not-easy to make and therefore Nile Freeman, the main character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, has the least fic and meta and art made about her of our 5 main immortals.

I've been active in different fandoms off and on for twenty years and I barely managed to write 5,000 words about Sam Wilson across multiple different fics in the 7 years since I fell in love with him. There's an alchemy to which characters we connect with, and on top of that which characters we connect with in a way that causes us to create stuff about them. Something about Nile Freeman finally tipped me over the edge from a voracious reader to a voracious writer. It's not for me to judge which characters speak to other individuals to the level of creating content about them, but I do think it's important for us to notice, and then work to fight, the pattern where across this fandom as a whole Nile gets way less content, and way less depth in so much of the content that's in theory about her, than any of these other characters.

Anyway, back to language. My two long fics feature Nile with several Black friends — Copley and OCs and cameos from other media — but all of those characters except Alec Hardison from Leverage aren't American. It's very possible I'm guilty of stereotyping Black British speech patterns in I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. I watched hours and hours of Black haircare YouTube videos in the research for that fic and I modeled my OCs' speech patterns on what I heard from some of those YouTubers as well as what I've heard people like John Boyega and Idris Elba saying in interviews, but the thing about doing your best is you still might fuck up.

I'm slowly making progress on my WIP where Nile and Sam Wilson are cousins, and what ways of talking with a family member might be authentic for Nile is a major question I need to figure out. For that, I'm largely modeling my writing choices on how I hear my Black friends and colleagues talking to each other. I haven't overheard colleagues talking in an office in a long-ass time, but back when that was a thing, I remember seeing a ton of nuance in the different ways many of my Black colleagues would talk to each other. Different people have different personalities! And backgrounds! And priorities! A few jobs ago my department was about 1/3 Black and we worked closely with Obama administration staff many of whom were Black and there was SO MUCH VARIETY in how Black people talked to each other, about work and workplace-appropriate personal stuff, where I and other white coworkers could hear. There are a few work friends in particular who I have in my head when I'm trying to imagine how Sam and Nile might talk to each other. From the outside looking in, God DAMN is shit complicated, intellectually and interpersonally and spiritually, for Black people who are devoting their professional lives to public service in the United States.

One more aspect of this that I have big thoughts on but I need to take extra care in talking about is the idea of acknowledging Nile's Blackness in her patterns of speech. There's no one right way to be Black, and Nile's a fictional character created by a white dude but there are plenty of real-life Black Americans who don't use much or even any AAVE, for reasons that are complicated because of white supremacy. (Highly highly recommend this video by Shanspeare on the harms of the Oreo stereotype.)

Something that's not the same but has enough similarity that I think it's worth talking about is my personal experience with authenticity and American Jewish speech patterns. My Jewish family members don't talk like they're in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and I've known lots of people who do talk that way (or the millennial version of it), some of whom have questioned my Jewishness because I don't talk that way. That hurts me. Sometimes when another Jew tells me some shit like "I've never heard a Jew say y'all'd've," I can respond with "well now you have asshole, bless your Yankee-ass heart," because the myth of Dixie is a racist lie but I will totally call white Northerners Yankees when they're being shitty to me for being Southern, and this particular Jew fucking revels in using "bless your heart" with maximum polite aggression, especially with said Yankees. But sometimes I don't have it in me to say anything and it just quietly hurts having an important part of me disbelieved by someone who shares that important part of me. The sting isn't quite the same when non-Jews disbelieve or discount my Jewishness, but that hurts too.

Who counts as authentically Jewish is a messy in-group conversation and it doesn't really make sense to explain it all here. Who counts as authentically Jewish is a matter of legal status for immigration, citizenship, and civil rights in Israel, and it's my number 2 reason after horrific treatment of Palestinians that I'm antizionist. But outside that extremely high-stakes legal situation, it can just feel really shitty to not be recognized as One Of Us, especially by your own people.

It can also feel really shitty to be The Only One of Your Kind in a group, even if that group is an immortal chosen family who all loves each other dearly. Sometimes especially in a situation like that where you know those people love you but there are certain things they don't get about you and will never quite be able to. I'm definitely projecting at least a little bit of my "lonely Jew who will be alone again for yet another Jewish holiday" stuff onto Nile when at the end of I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore she's thinking about being the only Black immortal and moving away from the community she'd built with a mostly-Black group of mortals in that fic. Maybe that tracks, or maybe that's fucked up of me.

Basically, this got very long but it's complicated, writing about experiences that aren't your own takes skill which in turn takes time and practice to build, writing about experiences not your own that our society maligns can cause a lot of harm if done badly, it can also cause a lot of harm when a large enough portion of a fandom just decides to nope out of something that's difficult and risky because then there's just not much content about a character who deserves just a shit ton of loving and nuanced content, people are individuals and two people who come from the exact same cultural context might show that influence in all kinds of different ways, identity is complicated, language is complicated, writing is hard, and empathy and humility and doing our best aren't a guarantee of avoiding harm but they do go a long way in helping people create thoughtful content about a character as awesome and powerful and kind and messy and scared and curious and WORTHY as Nile Freeman.

[retorioworld]

Taylor Swift is Leading the Candidate Experience Revolution (Really)

An applicant may not be a pop star, but word travels quickly in this digital age. Twitter. Glassdoor. Reddit. LinkedIn. Word on the street about a poor interview experience and a company could be trending hashtag.

Taylor Swift at the American Music Awards (AMA) may be now the new record holder for most wins (29) at the awards ceremony (surpassing Michael Jackson’s 24), but she’s become a defacto candidate experience coordinator of sorts. 

Swift’s kerfuffle with music mogul Scooter Braun backlights her current war with her former music label, Big Machine: she’s not legally allowed to redo her old songs. In an unprecedented move, Swift took to social media, notifying her fans of the legal stand-still and its effect on upcoming projects. Her experience in the music industry showcases how serious an issue it is that big industries continue to fail to prioritize candidates and their overall interaction with a company.

Swift’s publicized legal battle drew the attention from all different areas, including politicians, like Senator Elizabeth Warren. The saying, “any publicity is good publicity” may be popular, but also certain publicity could be the death knell of companies. Remember viewing the flight passenger that got dragged off a United Airlines flight? The airline's stock price fell after the and CEO Oscar Munoz was forced to issue two public apologies.

Companies must fundamentally understand this modern phenomena: the customer is the candidate.

As much as companies believe they prioritize customer service, they are failing to miss the biggest blindside: the people they hire. Ask Richard Branson’s Virgin Media. They calculated they lost more than $5 million in revenue due to poor candidate experience. Individuals coming in for an interview were met with inconsiderate interviewers, unclear interview procedures, and more. In turn, a considerable amount of applicants, 6%, canceled their Virgin Media subscriptions. Disgruntled applicants and former employees (like Swift) are looking for a candidate experience coordinator---a person or a system that respects the time and work it takes to apply to a position, work at record label, or wait years to re-record some tunes.

What can companies do now?

Create a transparent interview process

We understand what abuse of power is. It’s when a person of authority uses their position to prey on or demean those in less-powerful positions. Could it also not be termed to be an “abuse” when applicants are kept in the dark about the whole recruiting and hiring process? In each stage of the pipeline, individuals should be told in advance what the hiring manager is looking, what the role’s expectations are, and how the entire interview process shall proceed. Some HR departments fail to meet this standard, withholding valuable information from an applicant. Candidates may prepare for an interview by focusing on the wrong area; or they may be unaware of the person or department they’ll be working for.

Companies need to create a consistently transparent and easy recruiting process. Enhance and streamline HR functions like pre-screening assessment, mobile-friendly application process, and a “roadmap” of action items and hiring decision timelines. Edelman found that 1 in 3 employees don’t actually trust their employer. If a first interaction with an employer is confusing or humiliating, the relationship suffers, even if the employee signs on the bottom line. Hiring managers must build transparency into their employee experiences, which is the gateway to a trusting relationship.

Invite the digital experience

Taylor Swift swung a mean punch by taking her Scooter Braun feud to Instagram. Not only did that provide a rare insider peek into the world of music celebrity, it highlighted how fundamental that an easy, digital experience is for applicants. Candidates want convenience, ease, and piece of mind. Think of LinkedIn’s Easy Apply feature. Thousands of job postings are listed daily on the global networking site. Companies, from big corporations to one-person agencies, are hunting for the most qualified talent. With LinkedIn, applicants can upload their resume (CV), save it, and then hit “Easy Apply” to certain job listings. With only a few clicks, a company tore down a huge barrier in creating a broad talent funnel. Technology could be considered the back office candidate experience coordinator: it could exponentially improve the lives of both hiring managers and candidates.

Integrate AI-powered chatbots to quickly answer candidate's common questions, like IBM does. Or make sure that interviews can be held via a video phone call. Or better, use a convenient tool like Retorio to have candidates record short video clips of their responses to interview questions, anywhere and at anytime. Pre-employment assessment does not have to be dull or reminiscent of a 1970s office tool. It can be convenient, intuitive, and streamline the entire interaction.

Keep it human

Most people just want to speak to a human. The ease of smart phones, the beauty of near-instant delivery services (hey Instacart!), and how we can sit in our pajamas to watch the latest blockbuster is all pretty useful. However when we’re making a life change or a key career move, like deciding whether to work at a company, we crave human interaction. We need the assurance that someone is invested in their work to find the best fit and because of that, we’ll receive humane and thoughtful treatment.

Taylor Swift at the AMAs revealed her need for fan support and how she wants to be treated fairly. Companies should take note of building trust with personable interaction. It could be training the assistant to greet applicants with warmth when they arrive for their in-person interviews. At Boston Consulting Group, candidates receive a little note telling them a bit about the person sitting across the table from them. All these little steps to add in the “human touch” means plenty to a candidate.

Companies are awaking how key a positive full-cycle is for their bottom-line. Many are creating a new position, that of a candidate experience coordinator. This person is in charge of creating and managing the entire interaction and operations in the candidate search funnel. They strategize with marketing to figure out how to reach candidates via social media, email, or other venues. They look to emanate personalization and authenticity to candidates with each and every touchpoint, even the undesired rejection email. A candidate experience coordinator can be a linchpin in securing the “good feeling” a candidate has about a company. Even if candidates are not offered a job, they’ll be able to walk away feeling valued and respected. This kind of trust can pay dividends in the future.

If trust is not delivered...well, ask Taylor Swift.

Retorio is a video-based behavioral assessment powered by AI. It uses facial expression, language, gesture, and voice to create a Big 5 Personality profile. Companies like BMW and Lufthansa use Retorio.

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[tennessoui]

this is probably too many prompts lol but uhhh obikin: #6 meeting at a coffee shop au; #24 literally bumping into each other au; #40 exes meeting again after not speaking for years au (i'm a sucker for breaking up and getting back together again lol); #42 star-crossed lovers au; #48 meeting again at a high school reunion au

hi!! you probably forgot you sent this at all and I wouldn't blame you in the slightest. I'm pretty sure someone else already asked for 24, 40, and 42, so I wrote #6 instead! warnings for this one: bittersweet in that both anakin and obi-wan are sad, also the author is sad, also this takes place in the midwest in america (this is the first fic that is obviously set in america!!! wow!!)

6. Meeting At A Coffee Shop Diner AU (1.9k)

“Have a seat anywhere you want,” the hostess tells Obi-Wan without looking up from her phone.

Obi-Wan blinks and then looks around the deserted seating area. “Thank you, uh.” She’s not wearing a name tag.

“Angel’ll bring you the menu and take care of you, thanks for coming in,” she says, glancing up at him and then away.

Well then. Obi-Wan reminds himself that customer service isn’t everyone’s strong suit, that she might have had a rough day, that he’s here for the quick food on his way through town, that his ego isn’t fragile enough that he needs to be led to a table with a smile.

The restaurant is almost completely deserted. There’s two truckers eating their weight in bacon and eggs at the counter, and a family of four seated around a table, resolutely picking at their food instead of talking to each other. And then there’s Obi-Wan.

He chooses a booth by the window, one that overlooks the absolute nothingness of midwestern American scenery. If he cranes his neck, he can probably see corn.

God, Obi-Wan’s sick of seeing corn, and he’s only been in this part of the country for a few hours. He needs to go right through most of it to get where he’s headed. He’s not sure how he won’t die of boredom.

The thought sends a pang through his chest. It’s too soon to think of death even in an offhand way. He taps his fingers on the cover of his leather journal, before a line of dark brown under one of them catches his eye. He studies his hand critically.

It’s been two days since the funeral. Surely he wouldn’t still have grave dirt under his nails. Surely things like that wash away eventually.

“Hey,” a voice says from in front of him. A man is turned around and kneeling up in the booth in front of Obi-Wan’s, leaning over the garishly red vinyl of the empty seat with a menu clutched in one hand. His hair is short and dark blond, an undercut with a long fringe settling over his forehead. He has a nice sort of smile, one that looks genuine but doesn’t touch his eyes. Obi-Wan notices how long the man’s neck is and how predominant his collarbones appear in the loose white shirt he’s wearing, before he forces himself to focus only on his face. “I’m Angel,” the guy says, passing over the menu. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

Obi-Wan accepts it gingerly. It looks like something that’s perpetually sticky. “Water is fine,” he says politely. “Thank you.”

“Will do,” Angel salutes him and ambles away. Obi-Wan watches him go before shaking his head to rid himself of any sort of thought, and opening the menu.

It’s standard food fare, of course. Breakfast options served all day if anyone were to come in and request them. Lunch and dinner options are also served all day, probably for the same reason: a diner like this can’t afford to turn anyone away, even if they want a hamburger at nine in the morning.

A glass of water clinks down onto the table next to him, making him look up at Angel, who’s looking at him curiously.

“You ready to order?” he asks, even though Obi-Wan is still very much looking at the menu and it’s also only been a few minutes at most since Angel gave it to him in the first place.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Obi-Wan asks politely. “I’ve never been here before. What’s good?”

“The water,” Angel says and then laughs like he’s said something funny. Obi-Wan finds his own mouth curling up at the sound. Sometimes people’s laughter is contagious, like a yawn.

And then Angel says, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No,” Obi-Wan admits. “North of Boston.”

Angel whistles, like Obi-Wan has said something impressive. “Boston, huh? What are you doing all the way out here?”

The pit in his stomach intensifies. He does his best not to look at his nails and the grave dirt that might still be under them. “Driving,” he finally says. “And are you...from around here?”

Angel’s eyes grow distant for a second, and when he focuses again on Obi-Wan, they’re cold. “Born and raised,” he tells him flatly. “Never got out.”

“Oh,” Obi-Wan doesn’t know what to do with the sort of bitterness in Angel’s tone. It complements his own well enough.

“If you like eggs, I’ll put you in for the house special omelette,” Angel declares suddenly, all business again. “It’s four eggs, tomatoes, peppers, cheese. The usual.”

“What makes it special?” Obi-Wan asks, closing his menu and setting it down on the table in front of him.

“For you?” Angel drawls, “I’ll watch the cook to make sure he doesn’t get any egg shells in it,” and then he winks, holding out his hand.

Naturally, Obi-Wan shakes it. Naturally, Obi-Wan realizes a second after feeling Angel’s warm, calloused rough palm against his own that the man had meant to take the menu from Obi-Wan.

He can’t remember the last time he’s blushed this red, but he is absolutely regretting everything about this road trip. God, he’d pay money just to be able to leave now.

He should get in his car and drive back to Boston. It had been a stupid idea to come out here anyway, a result of stir-craziness and a desire to outrun the death of his father.

And now look what he’s doing. Shaking hands with his handsome waiter, as if he isn’t thirty-nine and perfectly aware of social norms.

Thankfully, miraculously, Angel laughs and this time it sounds real. “It’s okay,” he tells him, reaching out to pick up the menu.

Luckily for everyone involved, Obi-Wan finds it very easy to laugh at himself. “Well. It’s nice to meet you, Angel, I’m Obi-Wan.”

“I’ll go put the order in,” Angel says, “Obi-Wan.”

He’s back within five minutes, sliding into the seat across from Obi-Wan. So much for no eggshells in his omelette, but he can’t bring himself to be disappointed. There’s something magnetically fascinating about Angel. He’d like to know more.

“So you’re driving?” Angel asks, picking up a thread of conversation from several minutes ago. “Where are you going?”

“I was thinking of Alaska,” Obi-Wan says. “I’ve--I’ve always wanted to go.”

“You’re driving from Boston to Alaska?” Angel whistles, raising his eyebrows in shock. “I think the gas money alone would cost me two months of work.”

Obi-Wan shrugs. It’s not like he makes much himself as a teacher in Massachusetts. “My father was a lifelong gambler,” he discloses without really knowing why he’s telling this to a stranger. “He came into a bit of luck near the end. A bit of a fortune as well. And when he...died, I inherited it and his house.”

Angel touches his hand softly. “I’m sorry,” he says. “When did he pass?”

Obi-Wan huffs out what might be a chuckle. “A week ago, actually. It’s summer break in Massachusetts--I’m a teacher--and I suddenly had nothing to stay for, for a bit. It was either leave for Alaska or find some other way to cope.”

He runs a hand--his free hand, the one Angel isn’t touching--over his beard as he gives the man a rueful smile. “Dad always wanted me to see more of the world.”

“My mom was the same way,” Angel leans forward to tell him, as if it’s a secret. Obi-Wan feels like it is a secret, that there’s something delicate and fragile in the air. Something that matches whatever emotion is filling up Angel’s eyes. “Always telling me to leave, go get famous, go get happy, come back and tell her about it.”

“You didn’t?” Obi-Wan asks, his chest tightening at the thought that the man before him could be unhappy.

“I couldn’t,” Angel sneers, looking out the window and propping his chin on his hand. Some things must be too close to the heart to tell someone to their face. “Mom got sick. I wanted to get out, I was so close. Graduated high school, packed my stuff. I was going to go to California. To Los Angeles, really make it big.” He rolls his eyes and scoffs, as if there’s something inherently funny about the dreams he must have cherished for so long.

“Then mom collapsed going down the stairs. Just passed out in the middle of the day. Doctors told us she was sick. Then life became all about treatment plans and monitoring symptoms and getting the money for the medicines and I never left. Got a job here when I was eighteen years old, right before I graduated high school. It’s all I’ve ever known, I guess.”

“And your mother?” Obi-Wan asks, mouth dry and heart all tangled up in itself for this stranger man, for Angel with the hard, sad eyes.

“Died a year and a half ago or so,” Angel says flatly like he’s repeated the words so often in his head that the truth digs no barbs into his flesh. Obi-Wan knows that voice is a lie. How often has he looked in the mirror this past week and told himself, ‘Qui-Gon Jinn is dead’? He can’t imagine a year and a half would make the pain go away.

“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan says seriously, reaching across the table to touch Angel’s hand this time.

Angel shrugs but doesn’t pull away. “Is what it is, I guess,” he says. “I’ve made my peace with it. And the fact that I’ll never leave this godforsaken town.”

“You could,” Obi-Wan points out hesitantly. “You could leave tomorrow.”

For a second, a wild and previously undiscovered part of Obi-Wan wonders what it would be like, if Angel did leave tomorrow--with him. If they got into the same car and headed to Alaska together and Obi-Wan wasn’t alone at the wheel and Angel wasn’t alone in this town. If Obi-Wan could look over at the man in the passenger seat, asleep against the doorway as they crossed into Canada.

Obi-Wan wonders. Obi-Wan aches.

“I could,” Angel says, laughing once. “I guess I could. I guess I just can’t think of a good enough reason to.”

There’s a call of his name from the kitchen, and Angel stands and stretches, checking the time on his watch. “That’ll be your omelette, sir, which is perfect timing considering I’m off shift as of five minutes ago.”

“Thank you then,” Obi-Wan replies, ignoring the pang in his gut at the knowledge he won’t be able to keep talking to him. “It was nice meeting you, Angel.”

Angel’s face grows dark for a second as his jaw clenches. “That’s not my name,” he finally says, scratching at his neck with one hand. “That’s just what they called me when I started working here. Angel, like Los Angeles. Cause I told everyone for weeks this was a temporary thing, you know? I’d be going to California soon as mom got better. Guess they knew better than I did.”

Obi-Wan has never wanted to kidnap a grown man away from a place more, so he hides his hands under the table instead. “Would you tell me your name then?” he asks, wondering if he’s overstepping but needing to know too much to censor himself.

“It’s Anakin,” his waiter says, sticking his hand out, no menu to grab.

Obi-Wan takes it gently, turns it over, and cradles it between both of his hands. “Then it’s nice to meet you, Anakin.”

Maybe, he thinks as he picks at his omelette and watches Anakin shoulder his way through the front doors of the diner before disappearing down the street, maybe he can stay a day in this nowhere town. Just an extra day.

Yes, he thinks, taking a sip of his water. He’ll try the pancakes next.

[bananaflavoredlemonade]

Can someone please take THIS Maura and THIS Jane and continue THIS AU I started work on and cannot for the life of me manage to find the time nor energy to work on. 

RIZZLES COLLEGE AU

She was an enigma, this mystery woman. You’d probably seen her a dozen times before you even spoke a single word to each other. She was always just around. You’d spot her leaning casually against the side of an old black Jeep Wrangler, jeans hanging low on her hips and ill-fitting Red Sox t-shirt slung over her frame. She’d wizz past you as she chased a frisbee across the quad, or pause her rush out of doors to silently hold them open for you before fleeing back off. Her laugh would catch you mid-bite of your salad and without fail every time you’d spin to find her cackling with her mouth wide and half chewed food balancing precariously on her white teeth. For reasons you could not explain, you were obsessed. When her air freshener caught your eye, you’d gone home and spent hours scouring specialty air freshener companies to figure out who the man was who’s head was lucky enough to grace her presence. Someone named Jim Halpert was quite the lucky gentleman. And maybe if knowing exactly what her car smelt like before you got anywhere near it filled you with butterflies and warmth well… who could blame you.

She pulls into her typical parking space and waves enthusiastically at a beautiful young man with deliciously creamy chocolate skin and your heart stalled into a palpitation. Watching her tug on a t-shirt over her bikini top and taut abs certainly didn’t help. But when she climbed from the topless car in the sweltering summer heat and clapped a hand on his shoulder blade in a friendly greeting, you caught your breath and heaved a small sigh of relief. Maybe becoming enamoured with a complete stranger was not the best decision.

You’re staring down at your phone, speed walking across the quad to get to your next class when heavy footfalls start landing beside you. Black Nike slides are beside your birkenstocks as they pass over the grass you’re crossing and you immediately question the motivations of whomever would choose to wear white tube socks with a sandal-style shoe. That is until the culprit speaks and you realise that you absolutely should’ve picked it sooner.

“Maura Isles” the gravelly voice speaks as a hand casually comes to your lower back and averts you from becoming roadkill under the size 13’s of some speedy and oblivious jock running across your path. “You’re quite the hazard. With your head down all the time, or staring off into space. One of these days someone is going to wipe you out and I’ll have to take out a douche in a jersey, then we’ll have trouble.”

Her eyes are such a deep brown that you’re unsurprised you’ve been unable to make out her eye colour from afar. “You know my name.” it’s a ridiculous statement to make, but instead of judging you she simply laughs with her head thrown back and hand still burning a hole into your lower back.

You’re almost at the study hall that you’ll be trapped in for the next hour and for once you aren’t looking forward to class. “Of course I do.” You quirk your brow at her, because you’re almost certain you’ve never interacted with any of the people you’ve seen her around, she’s definitely not in any of your classes, and this is the first time you’ve spoken. “It’s on your phone case.”

In your palm, you flip over your leather encased phone to survey the back where – as you already know – ‘M. Isles’ is imprinted in silver. “Ah, yes.”

“I usually only see those with initials. But then again; I’m no phone expert. Mine are typically held together by duct tape and desperation.”

Your eye roll is instantaneous and unavoidable as you helpfully relay to her, “My mother. She insists that I ‘take pride’ in my name. So when I requested a personalised phone case with my initials on it and opened this, I was truly unsurprised.” You pause to laugh “displeased, but unsurprised.”

Her feet stop suddenly as you reach the lecture hall and her calloused hands disappear into the pockets of her short black shorts, fingers outlined within her pockets as the tips force the inners of the pockets from the bottoms of her shorts. “Well, this is you.” You look up and it is. You open your mouth to ask how she knew, but she’s already speaking. “It was nice speaking to you, Maura Isles.” It’s absolutely salacious the way that your name rolls off of her tongue and for the first time possibly ever, you’re pleased to hear someone use your full name.

Only, you’ve just realised that you’re unsure how she knows your first name. By the time you get around to asking, she’s already backing away with you with a smirk on her face. “Hold on! How did you know my name is Maura? That’s not written anywhere.”

Her singular stride back towards you is so deliciously long and your eyes are helpless against the tantalising display of thigh muscle on display when she leans towards you to whisper “You have quite the intriguing Tinder profile. I put two and two together.” Closely resembling a fish out of water, you watch as she chuckles and backs away with a wink. “Have fun in Bio.”

“What’s your name?” You call after her much louder than is necessary. She says absolutely nothing as she raises her hand in the air above her head so that you can see if over her shoulder and makes a repeated swiping motion, her thumb moving to the right repeatedly before slipping back into the pocket of her shorts.

And if you spend your entire class with your head down and eyes intently focused on the app you’ve left untouched for months, swiping left for the next 37.5 minutes until a tanned and angled face with sparking eyes is looking at you from your screen over aviator sunglasses; well you’ve never been known to back down from a challenge. “Jane” you say aloud before closing the app on a photo of her chiselled abs and bulging biceps straining against the weight above her head.

Two days later you pass her once again leaning against her jeep in the ridiculous socks and slides combo that makes you smile despite the fashion atrocity that’s being committed. You’re not close enough to speak, and even if you were, you’re unsure you’d be able to stop the beautiful black boy in his monologue long enough to get a word in. But her eyes are on you below the sunglasses she placed on her head as you began to approach. When you quirk a smile and silently mouth “Hello Jane” you know that she’s caught your greeting. And as a smile takes over her face, you raise your phone between you and swipe left on her profile. “Work for it” you mouth with a wink.

It’s worked. Her mouth drops open, pupils and eyes blowing wide. You can feel them trailing after your swaying hips and short shorts, and the burn they leave on your ass is delicious. Game on.

It’s over a week before there is any indication that Jane is going to meet your challenge with anything more than a heated look and tantalising lip bite from across the quad. However hope is struck every day that you spot her loitering around the college grounds, and that’s just enough to keep you from giving up. You’re walking out of your Tuesday morning chemistry lecture when she sweeps in next to you.

There’s a single yellow sunflower in between the fingers of her left hand and her right comes to rest hotly against your lower back. She’s dressed unseasonably warm in a white button-up and black jeans that are folded up at the ankles and skimming the top of brown leather boots. It makes you feel inferior in your simple sundress and standard birkenstocks. “For you.” She smiles, holding the sunflower in front of you. The nervousness in her eyes sets off butterflies in your stomach.  

“Thank you, it’s beautiful.” Her nervous energy shifts to confidence as you sniff the flower and hold it close to your shy smile. “What’s the occasion? It feels like such a privilege to see you in something other than jock couture.”

“Jock couture?” she snickers. “What exactly is jock couture?”

You look her up and down appraisingly with a cheeky raised eyebrow before muttering “Socks and slides” disapprovingly with a nod towards her feet “running shorts, oversized shirts, baseball caps.” She laughs at you with her head thrown back and her perfect white teeth on show. “I would make the assumption that if we were to open your closet, you’d be able to dress the entirety of the football and baseball teams with its contents and not have anyone question it.”

“I don’t know, I don’t think Frost would look nearly as good as me in my shorts.” Your eyes shift to the parking lot where unsurprisingly your eyes clap onto the beautiful African-American man you’ve seen Jane talking with previously. “Now can we please stop slamming me for how I have been dressed, and appreciate the effort I put in today?” Your eyes run over her form again and you do have to agree that she looks great. “I’m sweating my ass off to try and look half decent.”

You stop her in the middle of the footpath and turn to look at her approvingly. The hand on your back slips off and comes to rest in her pocket as she watches you looking her up and down. “You do look very handsome.” Her approving smile has you nervously shifting your bag up your shoulder and you have to shake your head to dislodge the smitten look on your face. “Now why are you looking so dashing?”

“You’ll see” she winks as she spins you back into motion and suddenly you’re striding back down the footpath towards the restricted Phelman quad that sits to the side of the western lecture halls, and at the base of the Phelman dorms. You’re about to comment that the area is only accessible to tenants of the dorms when she tugs the Red Sox lanyard from her pocket, swipes a fob against the gates keypad and pushes against the ornate entrance. She guides you in and gestures to a picnic blanket set up in the centre of the grassed area. “Everyone’s gotta eat.”

You’re too busy standing in awe of her to follow over to the blanket. However, your eyes track her over to the set up and watch as she rests down on the mat, pulling out containers and drinks from a cooler. She sets down a tray of assorted sushi, a bowl of salad, a packet of your favourite lentil chips, and a tub of homemade guacamole. It all looks delicious and your mouth salivates so aggressively that you doubt you’ll need the soda water or iced tea she’s brought to wash down your meal. “How?” you mutter in disbelief, and it shocks you when Jane smiles up at you charmingly. You were sure she’d not’ve been able to hear you.

“I.. um…” She rubs the back of her neck nervously and you finally see another side to the cocky seductress you’d spent weeks surveying. “I guessed at most of it, but I saw you eating these chips the other day while you read under that big oak by Mossman Hall, and I’ve seen you pick this iced tea from the vending machine before. So I figured they were both a safe bet.” She shifts the tray of sushi out of the way and pulls a wireless speaker from the cooler to put in its place. “I got some vegetarian options if you don’t eat meat, but honestly I don’t know a twenty year old who doesn’t like sushi so..”

Her hands are shifting so nervously over the picnic rug that you feel the need to take pity on her. “Are you making a generalisation Jane?” Her eyes trail you as you hike up your skirt in anticipation of sitting down next to her, and as your fingers skim the tops of your thighs as you lower, you see her breath catch.

Her eyes are on your face as you reach for the container of guac and inspect the flecks of coriander, onion, and chilli that you can see mixed amongst the avocado. “Yeah I guess I was.” You laugh at her and peer up from under your eyelashes. “But it took me a week to figure out the chips and tea, so if you wanted I could go away and come back in a month with a more personalised menu.” She jokingly pushes up from her seated position and you tug her back to the rug with a laugh.

You’re typically hesitant to use colloquialisms or any term that had to be inducted into the Urban Dictionarybefore it could be submitted to Websters, but you know from observing Jane that they’re all frequent participants in her vocabulary, so you resolve to at least try. Starting by venturing with the statement, “Well I guess then that you could call me a ‘typical white girl’, because I am quite fond of Sushi. Though I would prefer traditional Nigiri, I’ve been known to consume a westernised sushi roll in between classes.”

Jane looks as if she is about to choke on the air trapped between her cheeks and you know that the laugh will be explosive when it’s released. “Did that sound as ridiculous as it felt to say?” She nods at you and releases the laugh through her teeth. You laugh along with her and rub your forehead, “Colloquialisms and I are not exactly what you would call well acquainted.”

“You’re just not at all what I would call a ‘basic white girl’ is all.” You blush and reach for your sunglasses inside your handbag, hoping to provide yourself with an escape from both the sun and her stare. “You’re unique, Maur. Don’t ever take that for granted.” You clasp eyes with her before you can secure the Ray Bans across your eyes and the look you share is intense. She’s burning into something so much deeper than your eyes, and you don’t know how to appropriately characterise it without venturing into a belief system that you’ve never before given an ounce of credit. Eventually you both slip from the visual embrace and as you raise the glasses into place, she presses play on the speaker, softly releasing the first bars of Surprise Yourself by Jack Garratt. You’d be flawed by the immediate similarities in your music taste if it weren’t for your brain already stalling at how beautiful she looks tipping her face towards the sunshine. Maybe ‘Handsome’ wasn’t quite as apt a descriptor as you’d thought at the time. With the sunshine on her high cheekbones and rays kissing at her exposed chest beyond the opened buttons of her shirt, she is decidedly striking in a uniquely feminine way that you’d not considered moments ago.

You’d spent some time talking idly about your families – jane has two younger brothers and her mother, her father has been absent for the past few years -, the weather, and your classes that are scheduled for the remainder of the day. Jane tells you about the boutique florist just off campus that she’d visited for your flower and promises to take you sometime when you fail to hide your delight at the news of a new local source for your botany habit. You’ve worked your way through a good portion of Jane’s playlist and its as Falling Down by This Wild Life begins lilting through the speakers that you realise that for the first time in what feels like forever, you’re not uncomfortable with another human being. You slip your feet out of your birks and tuck your legs up under you, sipping at the soda water in your faux flute while you watch Jane swipe a napkin across her plump lower lip. It’s infuriatingly seductive for such an unconscious action. A sigh of contentment runs through you and you shift again to stretch your legs out, flexing your toes into the points that years of ballet had made commonplace. Jane watches the action and you rest back on your elbows, body fully extended and at ease. “What just happened here?” she queries, motioning to your body.

You sigh and tilt your hear towards the sky, “Whatever do you mean?”

“This” she says, eyes raking over your form, “Something just happened with you.”

“I guess I’m just comfortable” you say to the sky, lips parting in a relaxed smile. “humans are.. they’re not an area I excel in.”

Her boot taps the bottom of your foot and she giggles. “Arent you pre-med? I hate to break it to you, but you’ll need to deal with one or two of ‘em after you graduate.”

You smile in her direction in the same relaxed way you had been earlier, “I’m studying to be a pathologist. I know that I’d be a disadvantage to the medical community if I were to work with live patients. My social skills are questionable at best, completely inept at worst. I’m incompatible with most personality types, and my lack of understanding around social queues and societal norms makes me somewhat unappealing to most people.” You meet her eyes when you say the next part, “So to realise that in this moment I’m at ease..” you trail off into a sweet sigh, “it’s so lovely.”

“I’m glad I could do that for you.”

“So tell me about you Jane” you say from your reclined position, eyes closing against the warmth of the sun. “I know so little about you, apart from your family, your evident love of the Red Sox, and the fact that you watch The Office.”

Jane laughs into the air, “How do you know I watch The Office?”

“Your air freshener. It is Jim Halpert from The Office, right?” She gives you a disbelieving look. “I googled it.”

Her smile is infectious and you can feel it projecting into the side of your face from where she sits across from you. “You would be correct Doctor Isles.” She boosts her body up into a more prone position and leans towards you. “Where to start..”

You speak up from your position, “Should we start with what you’re doing on campus? I assume you don’t study here. I’ve never seen you in a class, you never have any books, and you always seem to be the centre of whatever social gathering is happening in the parking lot.” She gives you a comical glare and you challenge her with a quirked brow, “Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re not wrong.” You exchange a smile and your face returns to the sky. “A lot of my buddies go here. Frost who you would’ve seen, Riley, Joey, and a couple of the guys from my baseball league. Between their classes and my work schedule it’s easier for us to just catch up here. I get out of my shitty little apartment, and they don’t have to travel off campus.”

“Work” you offer helpfully.

“I’m a security guard. I mostly work nights at private events for the upper crust crowd. My boss, Korsak, he’s an ex cop, teaches me things on the go so that I can be prepared when I finally get around to enrolling in the academy.”

You smile to yourself, truly unsurprised by this revelation. “When are you planning to apply?”

Jane is reaching for the leftover lentil chips from your lunch when she answers you, “Most likely in the winter. I didn’t wanna just leap right in. I wanted to be prepared, ya’know.” She puts a couple of chips in her mouth and speaks while she chews. A truly repulsive habit that you have to keep your eyes closed against. “Work on my form, get all my ducks lined up, prepare my Ma. She’s gonna have a real hard time accepting that I’m signing up to chase criminals and murderers every day. Plus I wanted to take the time to really get myself mentally prepared; Korsak talks all the time about Cadets and Rookies who join the academy all gung-ho and then drop out when they cant hack the pace. The way he tells it, they all crap out because of the mental strain.” Jane eats a whole handful of chips in one mouthful and continues to speak as crumbs fall from her lips, “We all oviuzlee in peak pisikal fom wen we sign up. Couple-a push ups aren’t taking this down.” She slaps a hand against her stomach that echoes hollowly the way that only a perfectly-toned abdomen would. Crumbs dislodging from her shirt.

“Speaking with your mouth full is a truly repulsive habit.” You tilt your head in her direction and look over your sunglasses at her.

“So sorry Mrs Manners.”

Your face tilts back up to the sun when you respond, “That’s an admirable career choice Jane. When did you decide you wanted to work in law enforcement?”