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flipping-the-coin · 1 year

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[Audio file: #001 - Alpha Trion]

[Audio file of Optimus Prime: Security level = PRIME]

[Authorization detected… Confirmed]

[Audio playback commencing… Recording begins]

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I recently read one of Orion Pax’s personal journal entries and felt inspired to record my own thoughts on the subject matter in the hope that I might better understand my own… situation in a sense.

I would have been inclined to write these musings down if only to ensure that they could be kept in a more controlled documentation format. However writing has never been a particularly successful endeavor for me. When me and my host shared a frame, it was near impossible for me to write without pain since he could predict my thoughts and read the words I wrote down. Often he was displeased with my attempts to record my ideas, emotions, or considerations. Writing was merely a way to ask for suffering, so I kept from it as much as possible.

He could not hurt me for speaking, at least not as much since he was unable to predict exactly what I would say at any given moment. It certainly helped me to learn the ways of political and emotional manipulation, not that I am proud of that fact. I learned that if I warped my mannerisms and glyph usage to a degree, becoming more vague and leaving plenty of room for unsaid meaning, additional pain could be avoided. As much as my host seemed fond of causing me pain, he often did not bother hurting me while I spoke so long as I kept within certain parameters.

It is safe to say that the habit of speaking my thoughts aloud in this form has lingered, and I see no need to eliminate it. It is comforting to speak into the void as if another could hear me… it is easier to cope with reality that way…

With that said, when it comes to Alpha Trion, my views regarding him are… complicated to say the least. My memories have always been questionable, a fact that has become more and more prominent in recent cycles. Things come to me in tattered pieces and some memories are locked away from me entirely, unable to be accessed despite the fact that I can feel gaps in my recollections as starkly as I do the hostility from my host. I believe the Matrix may be involved, but that is beside the point.

The gaps in my memory notwithstanding, Alpha Trion holds a unique place in my mind and spark. I have vague recollections of a time long gone by, a vision of things that have since passed. I remember him speaking to me in a place where only stars hung overhead, calling me ‘brother’ and saying something about me having ‘a grand purpose’. He seemed younger in that memory, but I do not know where or when it is from. I remember a distant feeling of affection directed toward him, but it was a strange form of love, one that I only recall experiencing during my youth after my initial forging in the frame of my host.

In those tattered memories from the time when stars shone brightly overhead, Alpha Trion was kin, family in an odd sense, and a guardian to me. He was security and wisdom given form, a view I now find to have been somewhat misplaced.

To offer some context for any listeners, when I first came into being, all I knew for a blinding moment was agony, then complete adoration toward my host, before finally everything settled on a rather cold and calculating apathy toward that which was unrelated to my duty. At the time all I knew was that Cybertron’s children needed my aid and protection, that was all I was required to be aware of. It was a simpler time for me. Alpha Trion was there during my forging, and I recall quite vividly how he scooped me up as if I weighed nothing, threw me over his shoulder, and ran down a dark path as if his life depended on it. Looking back, his life very well might have. I remember the screams of agony from the priests who were there for my forging, the mecha who lingered in the shadows and watched in awe as I awoke.

I have yet to confirm my suspicions as I have not yet taken the time to speak to Megatron, but I believe he was there that cycle, and I am near certain he tore every last one of those priests and observers to pieces in his rage. I must have fallen into recharge somewhere along the path, as my next recollection was of me awaking once more, this time within the Primal Citadel, before its destruction of course. I believe that was the only time I ever entered that place. Something in me was terrified of that structure after what I went through there.

I have already stated that my memories are not exactly the most reliable. That fact becomes quite prominent here as I cannot recall what Alpha Trion put me through in full. I believe it was an attempt on the Matrix’s part to protect my mind and spark from corruption. However some things are clear to me amidst the fog. I knew Alpha Trion was my brother from the moment I came into being, it is the nature of Primes to sense others like us due to our rarity and common origin. To those who know the chill of the void and the warmth of Primus’s embrace, it is not difficult to locate those who have also seen the beginning of times. Thus, with that knowledge, I remember reaching out to Alpha Trion, searching for guidance from him as I could not seem to access my host.

However, instead of treating me with any degree of kindness as I flailed in confusion at being given a mortal frame and being unable to speak to my host, he gave me to the Elite Guard. Do not mistake what I am going to say following this as hatred toward the guard. No, if anything I pity those mecha who took me upon themselves in those early cycles of my functioning. When I was passed to them, I was cold, unfeeling, and did not at all care for others as I do now. The mind of a Prime… It is something I struggle to describe. I have unknowingly buried my nature quite deeply beneath memory and pain, but I know what I was, what I was intended to be.

With Alpha Trion observing, my fourteen elite guardsmen put me through vigorous combat, strategy, speech, and political training. It is all a large blur for me, as at the time I was still adapting to my host’s memory and attempting to soothe him, not understanding why he was so frightened and angry. Despite that, the aches of hydraulics and cables from long cycles of being pushed to the limit are a lingering sensation even now. I recall the hymns sung without end during my training in the dark halls as if it were my own spark singing them. I… I remember the confusion and the turmoil that burned within me as I struggled to find something to cling to amidst the storm of change.

The Matrix was quiet in those cycles. Upon consideration, I believe it was still adjusting to my presence and Orion’s aggression. Whatever the case, it offered little comfort, and reaching out to my host in a desperate attempt to seek affection yielded nothing. I see now that the way I expressed my desires was… frightening to a mortal. Primes have unique methods of communication that I did not yet know were unacceptable and likely only frightened my host further. Still, I made attempts, and when I received nothing back amidst the chaos, I reached for Alpha Trion, trying desperately to understand and to seek familiarity if not a chance to be soothed.

The cycle I went to him was a rainy one. Acid fell from the skies outside and looking out a window in the long dark halls revealed mecha running for safety. At the time, I felt nothing more than the slightest hint of concern before I continued on my way, eager to reach my destination. When I arrived at Alpha Trion’s office, I entered quietly and tried to ask him to help me, to explain and give me comfort in the only way I knew how. But when he stood to face me, I felt fear for the first time. He took my audial in his servos and tore my finial off, causing me to cry out on instinct, still unused to mortal pain. Energon fell from the wound and I remember being so confused, wondering why a fellow Prime would hurt me as I gazed down at where energon coated my digits from my attempts to staunch the bleeding.

“You are a Prime. A Prime does not show weakness or hesitation. Your duty is clear. The enemy must be destroyed and peace returned to Cybertron. Put these foolish mortal emotions aside and focus on what you were forged for, brother.”

That is what he said to me that cycle as tears fell from my optics. I did not return to him after that. I did not know why at the time, but I see now that it was because I was afraid. I did not wish to be hurt, so I trained with the guard until it was time to be deployed to the front lines to meet my Autobots with the false tale Alpha Trion gave me of my ‘acceptance’ of the Matrix and the ‘reforging’ it put me through.

He frightened me, and whatever else he did to me during my time at the Primal Citadel scarred me so deeply that even now I cannot recall all that came to pass in that place. I only spent perhaps three stellar cycles there, but it changed me, it snuffed the mortal emotions that I began to develop and kept me from trying to reach out to others in any significant capacity until Bumblebee came into my life. I do not know what Alpha Trion did to me… I do not think I want to know. But I am prone to believing that ripping off my finial was not his only crime against me. As I left that place and observed my frame for the first time in the quiet of my battle front quarters, I found quite a few additional scars, some looking to have come from a wide assortment of weaponry and others looking as if they were from claws.

I never returned to the Primal Citadel, nor did I ever wish to. My spark flared in fear whenever I considered the location, even now I am not yet content with whatever horrible atrocities befell me there.

Alpha Trion is my brother. I know that much. But… he was no friend, nor was he kind. He was cruel, and now as I learn more about my host, I have found he hurt Orion just as much, if not more than he ever hurt me. I will never claim to understand his motives, but his influence is everywhere. I struggle to see it amidst the storm within my mind and the Matrix’s constant whispers now that it is active, but sometimes I see his work in the way my guardsmen act. Sometimes I can sense the corruption he instilled as I observe my beloved’s total devotion to what he believes. Sometimes… I can see it in myself when I see the face I stole in the mirror and the sickening white of my optics that comes whenever I don’t want to feel… when I want to forget…

There have been no sightings of Alpha Trion or any indicator of his death. He has vanished, but I do not believe he is gone. If Alpha Trion is anything like me, he will not rest until his duty is done. I suspect he lingers, watching and observing somewhere in the dark, waiting for a chance to act again and move things as he sees fit. I am no fool, I can feel the fragility of my mind only barely held together by the affection of my lover, the adoration of my sparklings, and the soothing whispers of the Matrix. If Alpha Trion were to return…

I do not believe I would survive the encounter.

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[Recording ends.]

#maccadam #transformers #transformers prime #transformers prime au #two sides to a coin au #two sides supplemental writing #optimus prime #alpha trion #optimus prime audio files #orion pax #the matrix of leadership #cybertronian culture #tfp elite guard

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kledyboi · 2 years

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My first idea will be on Ai generated imagery. AI is artificial intelligence, and within this context, it’s an AI that’s capable of creating a fully made piece of art, with extremely high quality, for an extremely small amount of time (1-2 minutes), while also still being extremely accessible to the public. The themes that I’ll be exploring will discuss the ethics and legitimacy of the art, and the copyright issue that comes alongside with it. That, alongside portraying the works it’s capable of, and showing the possible implications, consequences, and benefits that come alongside it. My inspiration for this work come from how it directly influences my life, in a more than just a “direct” manor, as I’m and artist who counts on the technical side of things, which would make this machine a possible threat to my future as an artist. The technique / format for the magazine that I’ll be using is print. This format will assist in communicating my message through the medium, by the historical context that it presents. Printing is the older version of transmitting information, before the time of digital information transmission, which would put it in an ironic matter, that such an advanced technology is being put on the older version of transmission. As for the layout design, I’ll most probably be using a layout design including modular grid and Hierarchy, with a possibility of manuscript and column grid based layouts, due to the versatility of the subject, which requires a more diverse way of explaining its subjects. The design will include pictures of the works done by AI to give as an example for the readers to understand what it is and how truly terrifyingly advanced this technology is.

My second idea is on gaming, and everything new happening around with it. The content will cover all gaming related subjects, from esports. To new releases, to (briefly) the history of gaming, and the strides we’ve made graphics wise and in sound design. The theme will be gaming related, with RGB coloration, as that’s the most gaming beloved settings. The theme will be exploring the nature of gaming, what it represents to us as humans, and the reason we find ourselves so attached to it. My inspiration to doing this work, comes from me being a gamer myself, and having grown up with gaming as a staple everyday thing. I’ve personally watched the progression of gaming, as it went from pixelated games, into more and more advanced ones, both graphically and sound wise, as even the sounds were rather primitive. My magazine will take the form of a print. This will form a sort of nostalgia to the old magazines that informed us about all the new and upcoming games, consoles and events, so on and so forth. For a layout design, the work will include a multitude of design, as it’s attempting to replicate the look of the older magazines of videogames, which included several different types of layouts with each page being slightly or significantly more unique than the other. It will include designs such as Hierarchal, column, manuscript and column grid types of design, depending on the given subject being discussed within that certain page.

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immanuelsubwayratsresearch · 2 years

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Research Methods Prompt # 1, The Case Against Reality

My topic is about "The Case Against Reality" by Donald Hoffman, I personally selected this discussion because the question of reality, sensation and truths hidden behind abstractions fascinates me a great deal.

The discussion is about questioning and unraveling the means of processing reality, that as humans in evolutions have created in order to ensure the highest outcome of fitness and survival in a world that we are continuously experiencing and understanding everyday. This process of experience happens unconsciously but always follow the same format of categorizing that, which is meaningful to a greater aforementioned payoff. However, the problem with this model of reality confined between the value of "space" and "time" is that there reaches a limit where the fundamentalisms of axioms end, due to the limitations of values that exist between space and time; such as gravity affecting the measurement of extremely fine particles. Not only that, but Godel's incompleteness theorem also puts every mathematical and common knowledge that we normally accept to be as fact, to great question, as even in observable truths there will always lie a true logic that cannot be disproven.

This issues a problem because once that limit is reached, the truth of any subject matter cannot be accessed, which - to me - creates the problem of loss of meaning-making or any curiosity.

Here, Professor Hoffman proposes that the way in which we perceive reality is the falsification itself, because we interpret consciousness as the entity outside of the physical domain, while what might actually be case, is that the physical domain we have perceived is the result of our consciousness itself. Meaning that the external world with all its rules and objects is the result of what we have chosen to attribute them as, according to our model of consciousness. The way we see the observable and interactable world then, is through this manner of "Headset" that we wear which behaves in a manner of "simulating" an interface where objects and entities become as "icons" in a constructed reality.

Yet some of these icons, particularly those which get smaller and smaller in spatial size have a reduced index - what seems to me - as "conscious connectivity", because of which, we attribute objects such as atoms, sand, ants as "non-conscious entities". This may or may not be the case at all, depending on either the theories of Dr. Hoffman or those in Panpsychism, but according to Dr. Hoffman, interacting with icons such as humans which have a higher index of conscious connectivity, does not result in us exploring a different world of consciousness or truth external to us, but rather sending each beholder of consciousness into their own selves, almost like an infinite portal of mirrors that send each person of consciousness into their own selves, that achieve truths about themselves and result in causing some sort of change in each subject/person they interact with.

Dr. Donald D. Hoffman is an American Cognitive Psychologist in joint departments of Philosophy, Logic and Computer Science. His most latest work, co-authored by Chetan Prakesh and his team of assistants is "Objects of Consciousness" that talks about the possibility that humans have evolved for the perception of fitness payoffs, gratifications and survival instead of the perception for reality itself.

To me, this is an almost Buddhist and Sufist marriage between science and metaphysics, where Dr. Hoffman proposes an "All-Intelligent" entity to which we return and are linked to at each stage of exploring the world outside of the simulated consciousness we create, much like the Buddhist belief of the "One Cosmic Mind" and Suhrwardi's theory of Illumination as all objects in the conceivable world to be fractures of God's divine light at varying levels and frequencies.

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wordsnstuff · 4 years

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Guide to Writing From Multiple Points of View

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

I think it’s worthy that I note that this post is about a single story being told from multiple, interchangeable points of view rather than covering the subject of individual points of view such as first person, third person, etc. I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this over the years so I’ve made this as comprehensive and detailed as possible.

PLEASE REBLOG | Tumblr suppresses posts with links :/

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Make Each Voice Distinct

The most difficult part of writing from multiple points of view is the attention to detail it requires to make each character’s voice distinct and interesting to read. Your best tools in this are vocabulary and the character’s personal, unique thought process. What’s the first thing they consider when they feel the key emotions? What do they notice when they first meet someone or visit a new location? What are their personal priorities and how does this impact the way they interpret each event in their life? Even when you’re writing from third person, their thought process determines what they do next, so it’s imperative that you know your main characters really well.

** It also helps to get into character when you sit down to write a particular scene featuring a character’s point of view.

Create Clear Transitions Between POV

One of the most effective ways to let the reader know they’re in someone else’s head is by describing what that character is doing or thinking at any given moment. If you wish to forego the traditional format of each chapter having one single point of view, it’s important to train the reader to detect a shift in perspective with subtextual clues and a distinct voice in the narrator. Any manner in which you choose to accomplish this is acceptable as long as it’s always clear whose eyes they’re looking through.

Keep Each Character’s Narrative Interesting

Each character whose point of view is present should have a distinct purpose and quality. Each character’s voice should have an appeal the others’ don’t, and each time you switch perspectives should be welcoming to the reader. If one characters POV parts repeatedly act as filler or a distraction, then it’s time to rethink whether their POV is necessary and whether there’s any opportunity you’re missing to bring something good to the table with their unique interpretation of events.

Choose The Right POV For Each Scene/Event

Whether you’re switching POVs scene-by-scene or chapter-by-chapter, it’s important that you are using the POV that is the most interesting, efficient, and effective in getting across whatever message you’re sending to the reader, whether that be foreshadowing, thematic payoff, etc. There’s a certain amount of trial and error here, so be prepared to write the same scene over and over until you get the perspective right because this can make or break the quality of your story overall. It’s also helpful to create a trend between scene objectives and POV characters.

Balance Without Repeating Information

Balancing time between POV characters is important, but if you’re going to show the reader the same thing twice, there has to be a justifiable reason, and it has to be written in a way that will introduce new information each time that is necessary to the story, and it must be revealing of that character’s personality, motivations, priorities, eccentricities, etc. Repeating the same scene multiple times isn’t about showing the reader it’s important that they remember that event. It’s a tool for character development and subtextual plot progression.

Common Struggles

~ How do I know if this is right for my story?... Multiple points of view definitely complicates a story, no matter which way you chop it. If you’re telling a story in a more complicated genre or intricate plot line with intersecting timelines and various important, tiny details, this structure may complicate it to the point of the reader being confused or the immersion of your story being compromised. If the reader will spend more time trying to piece together every facet of your writing than actually enjoying the plot and becoming enthralled by the storytelling, then you may want to reconsider telling it from multiple points of view.

~ How do I balance each POV character’s screen time?... I think this has a lot to do with planning. It’s important to seriously contemplate whether or not a character’s POV is necessary to propel the plot in an interesting and efficient way. If a character has no place being a perspective voice in the novel, that will usually manifest in you having a difficult time finding a place for them to speak. Listen to your instincts and focus on the story you’re trying to tell. In terms of balance, it’s also effective to reconsider which scenes are best told from whose perspective, and it’s crucial that you understand that telling stories from multiple points of view requires a lot of trial and error. You may have to write the same scene from each perspective a dozen times to figure it out.

~ When is the right moment to switch POV characters?... It truly depends on the beats of your story, and where natural transitions occur. A lot of the time, writers put switches in easy places to detect right away, such as the beginning of a new chapter or the introduction of a new location. When you reach a point where the information or situation would be more effective being told from a different character’s point of view, that’s the time to switch. However, always be clear that the transition is clear, even if you begin by describing what the POV character is thinking or doing.

~ How do I make key moments interesting if the reader has to see them multiple times?... Repetitive scenes should be few and far between in any story, including stories featuring multiple points of view. If you have a key moment or key characters that you need to introduce, and you make a point to do so through the lens of each POV character, you need to make sure that each POV character has their own unique reaction or interpretation of the character/moment and that you’re focusing on a new, important piece of information each time the reader sees the same thing again. They shouldn’t be focused on the same details they’ve read before. They should be noticing the details that other characters didn’t pinpoint in their own perspective.

~ Should I structure my plot around POV characters or the POV around the plot?... It depends on the purpose of your story and the actual story that you’re telling. If your story revolves around the shared conflict of several people, but the differences in their interpretation or experience, then it makes sense to structure the plot around who the focus character is at any given time. However, in most cases it’s better that you design the plot and then delegate scenes to difference perspectives to deliver information in the most efficient and interesting way possible.

Other Resources

Pros & Cons of Different Points of View

31 Days of Character Development : May 2018 Writing Challenge

31 Days of Plot Development : January 2019 Writing Challenge

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Describing Emotion

Alternative Method of Character Creation

Resources For Creating Characters

How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story

Connecting To Your Own Characters

Interview As Your Characters

Giving Characters Distinct Voices in Dialogue

Tips on Introducing Characters

Writing Dialects/Accents

Tips on Character Consistency

Introducing Secondary Characters

Tips on Character Motivations

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

How To Foreshadow

Novel Planning 101

Tackling Subplots

Character Driven vs. Plot Driven Stories

Plot Structures

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.

#writing #writeblr #writblr #writespo #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #writing resources #resources for writers #writer #author #authorblr

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fairy-writes · 4 years

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Fire Force K-9 Unit

ALL INFO ON THE UNIT FROM PREVIOUS POSTS IS ALL COMPILED HERE I’ve had some interest in people wanting to use the K-9 Idea and I’m pretty cool with that!

The only thing is you have to a) message me and let me know, b) tag me in your works with the unit, and c) give me credit! Just in case there are a few people interested, I only made 3 teams so if you make OC Teams (or just a single OC) for this let me and I’ll add them and tag you!

In-Depth Summary:

The Fire Force K-9 Unit is a special unit within the Fire Force that uses dogs to detect the chemical changes in the body before someone becomes an Infernal. (Similar to dogs detecting heart attacks, seizures, or cancer) The K-9 Unit is broken into three sections. The dogs, the actual K-9 handlers, and the extraction team. Each handler is paired with a dog and an extraction officer. These groups work together until retirement or until they die in the line of duty.

Each “Team” of the K-9 Unit is subject to being ‘assigned’ a Fire Force Brigade to aid in finding Infernals and putting them to rest. These assignments are set to be changed at any time and are not permanent. Teams cannot request to be paired with a Brigade and vice versa. They are paired according to what the Chief of the Unit thinks is best.

Dogs are usually fed a special high-calorie meal similar to what sledding dogs eat: high protein, high fat, almost a gruel or soup mixed with high-performance dry kibble. This is subject to change between Handlers depending on what they feel is best for their dogs.

The Handlers live in the barracks with their extraction officers and dogs. Each team is assigned a two-room dorm with access to a large communal outdoor area for their dogs to run around in their free time.

Name: Special Fire Force K-9 Unit

Controlled By: Tokyo Army

Members: All names are written in the format: (given name) (last name)

Chief of Unit: Edgar Bratton <Former Extraction Officer>: @fairytailwzard

Oversees operations and budgets of the Unit.

Develops programs.

Holds meetings and speaks at press conferences.

Oversees training programs (for humans) and will sometimes offer lectures at the K-9 Unit Academy.

May be called to action in case of an emergency.

Works alongside the Brigades’s captains in matters regarding Infernals.

Deputy Chief/Lieutenant: Akira Ishida <Former Handler>: @fairytailwzard

Dog: Porphyrion “Phear”

Breed: Dalmatian, Female

Assists Chief Bratton in any and all assignments he may get.

Advisor to Chief Bratton.

Oversees specific training for the dogs in the K-9 Unit.

May be called to action in case of an emergency.

Team A: @fairytailwzard

Misaki Hino <Handler>

Eddie Pritchard <Extraction Officer>

Magnum “Mags” <Dog/Male/Belgian Malinois>

Rambo “Bo” <Dog/Male/Belgian Malinois>

Team B: @fairytailwzard

Caesar Martin <Handler>

Francis Callahan <Extraction Officer>

Bruiser “Bus” <Dog/Male/Bluetick Coonhound>

Team C: @fairytailwzard

Bonnie Strikland <Handler>

Mary Sullivan Berkman <Extraction Officer>

Diablo “Dede” <Dog/Female/Catahoula Leopard Dog>

Team D: @slapphapp1

Kaede Akiyama<Handler>

Rin Saito <Extraction Officer>

Wendigo “Wendy” <Dog/Female/Bloodhound>

Team E: @thewaterlily (it’s not letting me tag you I’m so sorry!)

Her Post is Here!

Mai Hayashi <Handler>

Osamu Mochizuki<Extraction Officer>

Kayda <Dog/Male/Dalmatian>

Shiro <Dog/Female/Dalmatian>

Team F:

Team G:

Team H:

Positions:

The Handler:

Handles the dogs.

Has basic training as a fire force soldier.

Must be well versed in K-9 behavior and emergency first aid.

Training for K-9 Handler begins at age 18 and lasts a year in an academy before they graduate and are paired with a senior officer for a year of shadowing/mentoring.

Handlers are paired with dogs within the first week of the academy (can be paired with two dogs if they pass additional testing)

After a year of shadowing, they are paired with an Extraction officer and begin official work

The Extraction Officer:

These officers are trained to help remove the Infernal (whether before or after they become one) to a safe location until the actual Fire Force can get there to put it to rest.

Usually trained as a special fire force soldier or a regular firefighter.

Usually second or third generation.

Training begins at 17 when they graduate from the fire force academy and go into specialist training for two years before being paired with a Handler.

The Dog:

Used to detect Infernals before they actually become Infernals

Breeds usually used are Belgian Malinois, Labrador Retrievers, Hounds, Golden Retrievers, Dalmatians.

General training (obedience, protection, etc.) begins at 8 weeks and older.

Specialized training begins when puppies are about 6-8 months old.

Dogs are paired with handlers at nine months old and will work with them until death or retirement between ages 8-10 depending on the dog and their history.

Uniforms:

Handlers:

Black long-sleeved thermal shirt with K-9 Special Fire Force stamped in white across the back.

Fire-resistant cargo pants (in varying colors of gray or black).

Heavy-duty work boots (varying shades of tan, gray, and black).

Wears a fire-resistant MOLLE (modular, lightweight load-carrying equipment) vest that carries all of their equipment in pouches and on D-Rings.

Extraction Officer:

Wears something very similar to the fire force bunker gear except instead of blue stripes it’s white.

The gear is a bit thinner to allow for better movement and they don’t have as many weapons as they do detainment devices to move the infernal to a secure location to be able to put it to rest safely.

Dogs:

Black heavy-duty nylon MOLLE vests with reflective strips and lime stripes with K-9 Special Fire Force stamped on it and Velcro patches.

Black nylon collar with handle and name embroidered onto it. 6-foot leash.

Vests have handles and buckles to allow for easy picking up and moving and can even clip to the Handlers vest/belt if need be.

#fire force #fire force oc #enen no shouboutai #misaki hino #fire force k9 unit

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docfuture · 4 years

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Princess, part 12

[This story is a prequel, set in an alternate 2012, several years before The Fall of Doc Future, when Flicker is 16. Links to some of my other work are here. Updates are theoretically biweekly. Next chapter is partly done so I’m going to try to get it out early in September.]

Previous: Part 11

Recovery--and a start at change and learning. Flicker thought about the wrap up of her first session, and Stella's comments on paying a bit more attention to the ways other people were already helping. "... and I just suppressed thinking about it at all because the frustration got real bad when I didn't," Flicker had said. "Understandable," said Stella. "Did you consider talking to Armadillo?" "I talked to her about some general stuff, but she's... old." Stella nodded slowly. "I can see how the Database might have given you the impression that sex was invented sometime in the 60s. And Armadillo was already middle-aged by then." "That's not fair. It just that the primary sources were so indirect and coded about it. And left so much out. The Database doesn't..." Flicker frowned, then sped up to check a few things. After a while she slowed back down. "Well, crap," she said. "I learned most of my 20th century history when I was randomly bouncing around the Database reading whatever caught my interest when I was 11 or 12. So I missed stuff. And I didn't go back, and made some implicit assumptions." "You might find a discussion with Armadillo illuminating," said Stella. "Have you considered that Doc might not be the person contributing the most to the collective judgement of your social maturity level that the Database uses to set your default access levels? He seems willing to delegate to people he trusts, and of those, Armadillo clearly has had experience with children." "Oof. No, I hadn't thought of that." Flicker sighed. "Sometimes I wonder about the amount of time I spend mentally running circles around things without looking at what's at the center." "Don't be too harsh on yourself. You blame most of your social difficulties on mental differences, poor references, and lack of practice. But the form of your education mattered, too. You never went to school before your graduate work, and you did most of that remotely. You learned from Doc, the Database, and direct observation--primarily of static scenes because of your speed. And the bulk of educational material in the Database was written by and for typical humans, with all the embedded assumptions that entails." "I really like the Database. And the summaries help." Stella shook her head. "Not always. Not if you don't know what's missing. The Database AI made judgements when you were younger about what was appropriate at the time. This shaped your knowledge map, which was already going to be very different from most humans. So do your Database access restrictions. Information revealed selectively or out of order can harm. And if the Database can't reveal A to you--for, say, privacy reasons--and revealing B without A would cause harm, it will restrict B as well. I'm sure Doc must have warned you about that." "Yeah, but a lot of his restrictions seem arbitrary." "Many will, if done right. Database restrictions can and do cause bias problems, but overriding them is inherently risky. The Database AI has to balance that, and there are no optimal choices, because the whole idea of the Database as an 'objective' knowledge map is a illusion. The Database is biased by what gets recorded. Your access to it is further biased, and what you actually do access is even more biased. But the idea that you are necessarily getting closer to impartial truth when you override a warning is dangerous." "So I can mess myself up with overrides." "You already have. Repeatedly. Information shaping is one of my more powerful tools. Cruder forms of it are in widespread use and getting more effective every day. But perceptions come pre-shaped." Stella had sipped from her cup of coffee before continuing. "For example, you are highly proficient in many math-heavy technical subjects not usually mastered until graduate school, and awkward in areas typically covered by early childhood education or peer group socialization. So when you made your implicit assumptions? Of course you missed things. However." Stella was good at an 'I have a secret to share--eventually' style of speaking that was both mildly annoying and very effective at focusing attention. "Yes?" said Flicker. "Anyone would. You just missed different things. Others might have helped with some of them. But no one could predict them all. Not Doc, not the Database, not me. So do what you can, but don't be too hard on yourself when mistakes happen." "Ah. I'll try to remember that." ***** Flicker tried to follow Stella's initial guidelines, which focused on short term recovery, stabilization, and 'stop making this worse'. Avoiding patrols was the most important and hardest to follow advice. Physical therapy and exercise were tedious, but not difficult. The dietary changes... were trickier. Flicker had lost weight from the accident and the isotope exchanger sessions which she really couldn't afford. And her kind of pseudo-shapeshifter healing depended on adequate body mass. Stella forwarded some funny essays on cuisine and recovery for shapeshifters supposedly written by a French werewolf, and had the Database reset her food and drink related warnings, with an eye to both mental and physical health. She'd also pointed out to Flicker that it only took a few early incidents of plasma in the GI tract while pushing the limits of her entropy dumping to cause lasting aversion to eating much while on call. So when she later started to feel like she was on duty almost all the time, she stopped eating proper meals except with friends. Staying off patrol for now made it possible to change that, but not easy. Theoretically, she could eat like an Olympic athlete in training while exercising appropriately, and recover quite quickly, but that wasn't realistic. She was stubborn, but so were her habits. She couldn't patrol, but she could keep busy by surveying--updating Database geographical and obstacle data--and doing interior construction and finishing work on her house. Back-ordered materials had piled up. Flicker used power tools mainly for precision and delicacy; she had custom hand tools for speed and power, and boxes of regular hammers and screwdrivers to replace the ones she wore out or broke. Superspeed and robotic help let her make rapid progress in the half days she was putting in to it. Common areas and guest rooms were finished, and recreation areas, a wider variety of workshops, and Database node expansion rooms were all taking shape. Making time to talk and eat with friends wasn't sophisticated advice, but it was obviously helpful. She'd had dinner with Jetgirl and her husband yesterday. Good food, carefully non-specific sympathy, then after dinner, 'girl talk' with Jetgirl. Which meant tech geekery--they spent a few hours discussing the instrumentation and results from Speedtest, and Jetgirl's suggestions for some issues Flicker had encountered expanding her robotics workshop. Reliable comfort. The aftereffects from the cybernetic interface withdrawal were finally mostly gone, and Flicker's metabolism and appetite seemed to be responding to her exercises. She was definitely putting on muscle faster than a human could. And she'd mentioned her problem to Stavros, the owner of her favorite Greek restaurant, he'd gotten a look on his face like he'd been personally called upon to save the world, and now she had enough takeout in her fridge to feed a starving pseudo-mythological extradimensional being for a week. Today, a visit with Armadillo. She had promised something interesting. Flicker had once asked Armadillo why she hadn't picked the name Glyptodon instead, because that seemed closer in size and fearsomeness to her appearance. Armadillo had laughed and said she'd never heard of them at the time--the late 40s. The two of them were at Armadillo's house, sitting at a table with an impressive feast. It was not unusual for Armadillo; with super strength, near invulnerability, and half a ton of mass, she ate a lot, and saw no reason not to enjoy it. Armadillo was cheerful and a good friend, as well as effectively family. And at an age of 98, she knew a lot of history, especially the kinds that didn't usually get recorded very well. The main reason Flicker didn't visit more often was an embarrassing one: When she'd been younger she'd had episodes of severe insomnia. But Armadilo knew how to spin a story to help. So when the biological part of Flicker's brain was working, it associated Armadillo's stories strongly with drowsiness. Which didn't mean they were boring. Armadillo was sharing some anecdotes from the late Pre-Net era--the 50s through the 70s--when Luce Cannon, Belle Tinker, and One-eyed Jack had been prominent superheroes. They had set precedents that ended up shaping the way the Database had been assembled. The norms Luce had established as a practical way of preserving relationship privacy and security without centralized infrastructure required narrative indirection and implication in order to discuss certain subjects at all. Armadillo was very good at the style needed. Unfortunately, that and the lack of unrestricted Database references hindered the usual ways Flicker updated her memories, so she was having trouble with details. But there were definitely differences from the way she'd thought about the origins of the Database. "Huh," she said. "I always assumed that Doc decided everything important when he first built the Database, and the rest was just legacy format and historical records." "Not entirely," said Armadillo. "Luce knew all about records and careful access--she built her own intelligence operation, after all--and Belle was already starting to convert some of them to electronic form and building early bots in the fifties. But reliability for anyone but Belle was always a problem, and she didn't have the level of conscientiousness about documentation that Doc did." "Um. Doc isn't always that great about documentation. He gets--" "The Database AI or someone else to do a lot of it. I know. But someone does. Heck, I've done my share. Belle was way ahead of her time, but we never found anything but cryptic notebook scribbles for some of her weirder stuff. Left a bit of a mess after she was gone. Doc brought in organization, documentation, robustness, and speed, and then extended it to everything. But the first Database grew out of what he built for Luce not long before she died. And Luce set some access conditions, which Doc won't change without a good reason. So don't blame Doc for all of them." "So the age restrictions are from Luce?" "Some of them, yeah--but they aren't hardcoded, they're more flexible; we knew they'd have to accommodate aliens and extradimensional beings and whatnot. It's really a maturity threshold." Armadillo smiled. "But I have a treat for you." "Oh?" "There are a few things I have personal discretion about. And you've hit a block involving one of them twice now. It's a good example of how we handled a few things back in the day, and might help you understand some of the ambiguity. I can show it to you, but you'll have to put your visor on locked standby or take it off--no unrestricted electronic images of this are allowed." Flicker frowned, but arranged a protocol with the Database and pulled back her hood. Armadillo pushed back a plate, picked up a small case, opened it, and pulled out a large photographic print. "This is a copy of the last known good photograph of Belle Tinker. The original is in my family photo album in one of Doc's vaults." Flicker moved her chair closer to get a better look. It was a group photo, centered on a younger Armadillo. "What's that blacked out area?" "Non-superheroes with living relatives. The photo is from my 60th birthday party in 1974." Given the date, Flicker wasn't surprised that Armadillo was a bit narrower--she'd still been slowly adding mass. But... "Head spikes?" Armadillo laughed. "Yeah, that was my last try at regrowing them. I'd been on a trip to Tokyo the previous year, and there was a translator around during a Kaiju attack. I ended up stopping it by talking to the big fellow about the relative effectiveness of head spikes for challenge bellowing. We had a nice talk, and everyone went home happy. No property damage, even. So I decided to give them another try. But mine were only a little stronger than steel, so they kept breaking off--same kind of problem you have with your hair. I finally gave up in 75? Or maybe 76? But really, I'm the least interesting person in that photo. I'm curious what you think about the others." "Okay," said Flicker. "But that goblet you're drinking out of... Is that a demon skull?" "Yep. The goblet was a birthday present. It would have been rude not to try it out." Armadillo nodded towards a nearby cabinet. "I still have it, but I hardly ever use it anymore. Little call for it, and it's tricky to clean." "Um, okay." Flicker studied the image of the woman with red hair, a lab coat, safety glasses, and an expression of indulgent patience. "Belle has the same kind of 'I could be in my lab working on something cool' face I've seen Doc make. Most of the contemporary sources I found in the Database were really bad at describing her. She'd have been, what, in her late forties? She looks younger than that, fit, and tough, I don't understand what was going on." Armadillo smiled. "There were a few that treated her reasonably--but they tended not to emphasize appearance. Belle did not fit any 'feminine' stereotype back then, there were a number of media bigwigs who really didn't like her, and she didn't humor patronizing reporters. So it was common for them to distort or belittle her intelligence and accomplishments, insult her appearance, attack her character, or just use bad pictures. If they had to write about her at all. That's one reason why the quality of much of what you found about her is poor." Another woman with short dark hair was leaning against the table with a relaxed smile, but a very clear presence. "Did Luce Cannon always look like she was in charge?" asked Flicker. "I mean, it was your party, but..." "She could hide it, but she was keeping an eye on someone who could get overenthusiastic." A girl wearing a black outfit was smiling intently at the camera with a predatory look. She appeared to be around eleven; it was hard for Flicker to judge ages. "Is that a toy sword?" asked Flicker. "It looks awfully realistic." "Nope. That was Katya's first magic sword. She outgrew it; it's in the vaults now." "Magic sword? Wait... Katya? That's Jumping Spider?" "Oh, goodness no; she wouldn't use that name for years. That's Katya the... Hunter, I think? She switched from the Devastator sometime around then. This was only a year after Luce started teaching her." "Did... What... Why is she waving a sword around at your birthday party?" "It was a compromise; she wanted to make a little pyramid out of the other skulls for the picture, but Luce vetoed that as unsanitary. Just as well; Belle said they smelled pretty manky." "Other skulls?" Every time Flicker got a question answered, she immediately had several more--and she couldn't speed up and check the Database because her visor was off. "Besides the one Jack and Belle turned into the goblet for my birthday present. It was Katya's idea, so she got to hunt the demons, and she went a little overboard getting spare skulls. Jack took her to the dimension where they lived--nasty place, but they were immune to poison, which was handy." "...it's a magic goblet." "Oh, yeah, it detoxifies anything in it," said Armadillo. "If I ever want to be absolutely sure I can't be poisoned or I'm worried about contamination, I use it. But it's usually overkill, it makes most non-alcoholic beverages taste kind of funny, and properly cleaning the precipitate chamber is a pain." "Doc never let me hunt demons when I was ten," muttered Flicker as she studied the figure standing next to Belle in the photo. "Mores change, and your adoption process wasn't complete yet. It would have been awkward to explain." "Did One-eyed Jack ever show any sign of aging? It doesn't look like his appearance changed at all in pictures." "Nope," said Armadillo. "At least not from when I first met him in '50 or so until he disappeared in the nineties. White hair, neatly trimmed beard, and the eyepatch. He almost always wore that hooded robe and carried that staff with the magical doodad on the end. Occasionally he'd switch to a really old style suit and a dress cane--he could do an impressive Offended Aristocrat act. But his apparent age never changed. I suspect he was some kind of shapeshifter, and I know he could create illusions, though, so I'm not sure anyone really knows for sure." "Wait. Disappeared? The Database lists him as 'presumed dead' with supporting evidence; someone found his eyepatch and a scrap of robe near a small crater in the Topaz Realm and Doc verified they were genuine." "Yep. Doesn't mean he died. He might have just decided it was time to stop being Jack. Hard to believe someone as careful as him would botch a portal like that, and it seemed awfully pat that it happened somewhere with enough ravenous scavengers to ensure the lack of remains wasn't suspicious. If he was a shapeshifter, there could be someone with his memories who looks quite different running around somewhere. And he had a saying: 'Sometimes you see something coming and all you can do is get out of the way.' I think that's what he did." Armadillo grinned. "But then, I've been accused of being sentimental from time to time." "Okay," said Flicker. "If you're suspicious about Jack, what about Belle? She was declared dead, but all the Database says is that something catastrophic happened to her portal generator late at night and she was gone afterwards. Jack is recorded as testifying that as far as he could tell, she hadn't been murdered or kidnapped, definitely wasn't alive on Earth, and he wasn't able to tell quite what happened with the portal. But Doc said that if she really wanted to burn her bridges, she could have set the portal generator to self destruct, then gone through to somewhere before it blew. He still has the remains of it in the vaults." Armadillo looked out the window. "All true. She seemed kind of withdrawn for a while before that. Well, withdrawn for her--she was always full of more ideas than she had time to try. She'd had a disagreement with Luce and the Volunteer for a couple of years over... I guess you could call it public policy. She made some predictions that turned out to be pretty accurate, and the first part of one of them had just happened--that was '80. It's conceivable she might have just been tired of Earth. But then she was kind of close to Jack, and he was pretty down afterwards--and if she went somewhere else, I don't know why he wouldn't be able to visit. I tried talking to him about it once, and he just shook his head. So I really can't say." "Were they a couple?" asked Flicker. "Database is ambiguous--they at least pretended a few times, but it wasn't clear what was going on. I assume it's okay to ask about that now that they're both gone?" "Heh. It's not forbidden to ask, and they worked well together in the lab when Belle wasn't out causing trouble with Luce. I'll say this; Belle never showed interest in most men--she'd roll her eyes at most of my jokes--and Jack never showed any interest in anyone but Belle. But it could just have been cover; a convenience for both of them." "Oh." Flicker frowned at the last figure--a middle-aged man in nondescript clothing, leaning back in the chair beside Armadillo. His glasses were perched precariously on the end of his nose, his fingers were laced over his chest, and his eyes were closed. "Who is the guy beside you, and why is he asleep?" Armadillo smiled. "Oh, he'd had a long day, then a nice meal, so he just was catching a little nap. He sometimes answered to the name of Chandler Devon." Okay, now I know I'm being tested. Flicker sped up. The name was vaguely familiar--why? She glanced at Luce again, then remembered. Chandler Devon was connected to Luce Cannon in some way, perhaps one of her agents, or possibly romantically linked--but that had been a shaky source. Documentation about him had been really spotty, with large gaps. He'd been a skilled enough amateur geologist to get a few articles published, later in life. But his fondness for volcanoes had apparently done him in--he'd disappeared during the Mount Pinatubo eruption a few years after Luce's death. That made the third nominally dead person in the picture with a missing body. The only person who was definitely dead and buried was Luce--she'd died of cancer in the late 80s. There were several odd things that required explanation about 'Chandler Devon'. Why was he even at Armadillo's party? Had Luce brought him? Why hadn't anyone woken him up for the picture? It was a memorable occasion. Was it a prank? Wait. Armadillo had said she was the least interesting person in the photo. What could possible make him more interesting than her? If he-- Oh. So that's what he looks like when he's asleep. But how did he manage... Luce. Of course. She was the original super spy. Jumping Spider's teacher. If anyone could cover everything he'd need, it would have been her. That explained so much. He'd gone more than fifty years without anyone-- Idiot. Everyone in that picture probably knew. He'd always had a family. A family of choice. They just never, ever gave it away. Even when they disagreed with each other. But still, a few years after Luce died, he decided it was time to stop being Chandler Devon. Could he still maintain cover? Probably; Jumping Spider was 27 by then, and Doc was 17, with the Database up and running. But the Lost Years were about to start, and Doc had seen that coming. No longer worth the trouble, maybe? How much had Luce meant to Chandler Devon? A lot to think about, most of it not even about Belle. But there was etiquette to be observed. And as far as Flicker could tell, it was to indicate obliquely that she'd guessed, but not say anything unambiguous. She could come up with something. She slowed back down--and found herself blinking back tears. "He looks like... someone who works very hard," she managed. "And doesn't get a chance to relax very often. I'm glad no one woke him up." Armadillo nodded slowly. "So was I." She started to put the picture back in the box. "Wait," said Flicker. "Who took the picture? I thought I knew, but now I think I was wrong." Armadillo paused. "Another time, maybe. You probably have enough to cogitate about today already." "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

Next: Part 13

#FallofDocFuture #FallMisc

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neshabeingchildish · 4 years

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League of Extraordinary Geniuses || Chapter 2

Not gonna lie, this chapter is dialogue heavy and a little rushed. Something was going on with my device where I couldn’t quite get the formatting correct and I grew impatient because this is currently the only thing I’m getting feedback on from people other than Lil’ Dynamite and so I wanted to push it out anyway, regardless of errors. I’ll probably go back and change those later. Patience isn’t my ministry. So, whatever. Thanks. Enjoy and sorry. All the platitudes you require, I give. Tagging @kiddangers @just-a-j-reallly and @sunbeameyes (Please lemme know if you wanna be taken off while you do all the stuff you’ve got going on). TW: for alcohol drinking. Idk. Sometimes, that bothers people, even if nobody’s drunk or abusing it.

I Didn’t Say Overthrow the Government

Charlotte gave the twins hugs and kisses before sending them off with their caregiver. It was just something about having access to these children that she couldn’t see them as experiments or projects, even if that was in essence what they were. And the caregiver would definitely have to shapeshift into her at times in order to calm them down, because they were extremely attached to their “mother.”

Charlotte had a work program for bionics and supers that didn’t want to be heroes. She felt like it was unfair to presume or worse, force people into positions where they had to risk themselves for the rest of the world. She knew that her previous boss had that type of childhood and he never grew up past that of a superpowered 8 year old, then he simply continued to repeat that cycle by inducting underage sidekicks and even opening a school to keep that process going.

She knew that Chase might have wanted to be something else had he not been raised and forced to be a protector. He mentioned, in passing, as though it was completely ridiculous, that when he was younger, he wanted to be an astronaut/lawyer. He laughed at his expense, until Charlotte wondered, “Why didn’t you do it?” He stared at her as though the question was ludicrous, so she had to tack on, “I have the credentials to be quite a few things that some might laugh at, and you definitely are more than qualified to be an astronaut lawyer, if that’s what you want.” He gave a little chuckle and moved on with the subject.

That was actually the thing that compelled her towards a new project. She loved new projects, because even though it kept her busy, it opened up her brain for new opportunities to touch the world in an impactful way. She went live on her page the next day and asked supers and bionics, “If you could do ANYTHING ELSE in the world, right now, what would it be? I know that some of you have certain abilities that have made it to where you have focused in on using that gift to help the world, but… What if you had the means and the opportunity to do something else? What would you do?” She read all of the comments and in the same conversation made a decision, “You know what… I feel very moved by a lot of these testimonies. So, this is what I’m going to do…” She created an email address and shared it with the viewers and posted it to her website, “I am going to have everyone who is interested in transitioning from an imposed future that revolves around your ability to a career or even just a hobby that you would love to get into to email me so that I can try to figure out how to make a some of these things happen.”

The number of “I STAN!” comments she received were nothing in comparison to the amount of mail that she got. She had a guy named Bob that she heard went to the academy on Bionic Island who had super strength, but was very gentle and hated having to fight. That was exactly the type of person she was trying to seek out. She had Chase introduce her to this guy… he was sweet, but by God, he was not bright. Sort of reminded her of her best friend, Jasper, in that regard. And it hit her! Jasper! “Hey, Jasp… I’ve got this bionic guy named Bob. He doesn’t want to have to be out on missions. He doesn’t like fighting. He’s very nice, but not that smart and he really doesn’t have a lot of skills beyond mission training and superstrength.”

“We ABSOLUTELY could use someone with super strength around here. I can teach him some maintenance stuff to help out around the lair and the shelter while he finds himself and figures out what he wants to do. Henry’s been enrolling in adult classes at the Vision Institute. Bob could maybe do that?” Jasper said.

“Yes, I’m definitely getting him in touch with an advisor, but I was more like checking to see if you had an empty room to put the guy up in and also if you could maybe mentor him a little along the way, since you have a lot in common?” Charlotte said. Jasper gave her ideas that she was already in the process of setting up, but a support system would be a huge part in these transitions. A lot of people who went to the Vision Institute went for the reason it was created - to figure out exactly what they wanted to do with their life now that their brains were fully formed and they were adults who realized that they had spent all of their lives going in directions that they were pulled in, instead of where their minds led them.

NOW, she had to try to get a more nuanced system in place for those bionics and supers who suffered the same existential crisis, but with the added pressure that they HAD to do whatever direction they were pulled in because, “the world depended on them.” Know who else the world depended on? Caretakers and caregivers, and Charlotte found a perfect shape shifting one who just wanted to be able to look after kids and stuff. She was bionic, so she definitely had been trained and conditioned to fight and protect, but now she was able to play with a couple of adorable babies who turned into adorable puppies AND, she would be able to help them hone their shifting, whenever they were ready for it! Charlotte loved that for her. She loved that Bob might be able to live out his dreams. She loved that she put things in motion to help people be happier and more successful and safe.

The twins were gone to the cottage, which was where they generally stayed, since the castle was fairly new and Charlotte wasn’t even there a lot of the time. With having the guys there, it would be easier anyway.

She came back inside to Max coming from his guest quarters and almost immediately asking, “Do bionics have twin powers?” She froze and folded her arms, thinking. She didn’t know and he didn’t either, so they both rushed to her desk to work on figuring out if they could figure that out.

Chase surfaced later, and found the two of them walking around one in one of Charlotte's famous theory rooms, which was a room with the walls covered in notes and models hanging from the ceiling, and spots where it was clear that experiments were done. It was sort of like if a lab didn’t have everything that was needed to do the work, but had everything that was needed to get to the work. Chase had seen the one that she had in her Dystopia home and the one in the Defender Dome, but this one was bigger, but less used. She and Max went to hover above a model with little figures of people and the scene of what looked like Centium City. “Good afternoon. I made a late start. I think that something is wrong with the guest capsule,” Chase said.

“Do you feel rested and like you’ve had the best sleep ever?” Charlotte wondered.

“As a matter of fact, yes!”

“Then, how could there be something wrong with it?” She asked, rhetorically, not turning her attention away from the model.

Max asked, “Hey, Bionic Boy, do bionic twins have the ability to tap into twin powers?”

Charlotte gasped and said, “I didn’t even THINK about just asking Chase, and we went through that whole thing earlier only to come out as inconclusive.”

“What are twin powers?” Chase asked. Now, Charlotte and Max looked up from the current tangent/theories that they were mulling through to stare at Chase. He smiled awkwardly. “You know what, I’ll just look it up,” he said and touched his finger to the side of his face. “Okay… um.. No, I don’t think so. It would most likely have to be programmed into the coding for their chips. Kind of like my override, but like… something mutual that becomes something else.”

“The mystery kinda dies with that, doesn’t it?” Max asked Charlotte, disappointed. “Well, at any rate… Definitely gonna work on twin powers for the Swagger Twins,’ Max said, into his phone, recording.

Charlotte added in a smol voice, “They is good boys and they deserve!” Max looked at her, absolutely smitten and smiled.

Chase watched with some judgment. He knew that Charlotte frequently switched up for who she needed to be, whenever she needed to be it. The Charlotte that she was with her best friends, the professional in a business meeting, the one that had to deal with Mr. Davenport, and so on. This one was new to him, and if he didn’t know any better… he’d say that this one was into Max. There was obviously some type of inside joke there with the strange voice and the grammatically incorrect phrasing, but the smile that Max gave her made him… irritable. “Are we doing some work today? Anything that I can latch on to?”

“Oh! Yes… We were actually just having a discussion about roleplaying, chess, and boardgames,” Charlotte counted off on her fingers. “We’ve been determining - out of the bionics worlds and the supers worlds, which heroes would be which characters or pieces.”

“We keep on switching and changing between chess and DND, because neither of us is making a list. Making a list might cut into the creative juices and this is all for fun…” Max added on. Chase knew all about chess and Dungeons and Dragons, though that was because Mr. Davenport had casually mentioned it one day and of course, it only took him a few moments to research and memorize it all, but he still hadn’t had the chance to ever play it. Charlotte and Max were talking about this current train of thought, until Chase projected a hologram for them, with a chess board and a diagram that he was creating in progress, split screen with the chess board as he explained, and went through all of the bionic people he knew from the database, where they would be on a chess board and why.

He blinked it away when he was done and offered, “I’m not as hip to DND, but I have some ideas…”

“Um, no… Let’s discuss whatever that set up was!” Max said, practically cheering. “You can do cool shit like that, and you… just don’t? You could be fanboy famous with that gift!” Chase blushed a little and Charlotte smiled at this and at Max’s enthusiasm for that display. “You honestly should take that online.”

“But, it doesn’t fit the Chase Davenport brand that Mr. Davenport approved,” Chase said, coming closer into the room.

“Who is Mr. Davenport?” Max asked, looking between the two of them, then gasped and asked, “Wait, is that what you call your Dad? Uncle? Dude?” Max started laughing and shook his head, “You’re ONLY supposed to do that when you’re a corny dude at a fancy meeting and you say the cliche phrase, “Mr. Davenport is my father.”

“Well… that’s what we call him,” Chase said, annoyed, again. Max backed off and went back to their current mind game…

There was definitely still tension, and Max and Chase were being cordial, but it was clear that they still weren’t sold on one another, so Charlotte decided that maybe after a good day of mental stimulation, a few small experiments, a nice meal and some fine drinks, she could talk to them about the future.

So, after all of that, they retired to the lounge, and she poured wine, lit candles and played easy listening music overlayed on nature sounds. Chase smiled, comfortably and announced, “This is a very satisfying lounge.” Honestly, she was setting it more for him than for Max, so that was good feedback for her.

“I was thinking about something,” she said and picked up her wine glass. “I was thinking about a couple of years ago whenever I started trying to open doors for people who didn’t want to be reduced to their bionics or superpowers. People who just wanted to be people and enjoy their lives whether or not they could fly or breathe underwater… I couldn’t help but to think about it today and the fact that neither of you ever really said anything about wanting to do something else besides be heroes.”

Max narrowed his eyes suspiciously and took a drink of wine. “Gross. I’m raiding your liquor cabinet,” he said, put down his wine and telekinetically collected a few bottles of brown liquor and three shot glasses to himself.

“Well, I can’t speak for Max, but there really isn’t another option for me,” Chase smelled the wine and took a sip. It was good. How could Max not enjoy it? It was a very excellent year and a perfect aroma…

“But, there ARE though. Today alone, you proved that you could, if you wanted to, create an online presence for fandoms - which don’t give me that look could be extremely successful! - make exciting and fun games, excel in theoretical physics, improve mission suits and super suits, recreate the Internet with better accessibility and less monopolizing, if you wanted to, and like.. Several other things, and that was just today!” She insisted.

Max took a shot of whiskey and poured another, “You want one?” He asked Chase, knowing that whatever Charlotte was about to say, this uptight Chase dude was gonna feel some type of way about it.

“I’ve never had it before…” Chase said, a little leery. Max floated over the shot glass and Chase received it, smelled it and winced. To Charlotte, he said, “Yeah, I enjoyed doing all of that stuff in the theory room, but in real life, I have commitments and obligations…”

“That The Dom forced upon you,” she mentioned, taking a sip of her wine.

“That! That’s what I know that dude as.” He snickered under his breath and mumbled, “Mr. Davenport.”

Chase threw him a short glare, took a sip of the whiskey and groaned, then dropped the shot glass, but Max caught it and floated it back up. “That’s disgusting! Get it away from me! People DRINK this? On purpose??”

“You’re supposed to shoot it, Dude. Like this,” Max demonstrated, blew out a deep breath and nodded, “Then, give it a moment, and it runs through you and feels warm and good.”

“It feels like poison,” Chase said, grabbing the floating shot glass. But, Charlotte had it in her home and Max had just had two, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as the initial taste. He shot it like Max did and slammed the shot glass down, breathing hard and shaking his head, “I’ve decided that I am not a whiskey man.”

“Fair enough,” Max said, smirking.

Chase used his own molecular kinesis to put the shot glass away, then told Charlotte, “I thought that you had accepted that I’ve accepted that this is what I’m doing with my life…”

She furrowed her eyebrows and wondered, “Why did you think that? Chase, you were my motivation to start liberating supers and bionic people from destinies written out for them, so I don’t accept you accepting that, unless you’re accepting it because it’s what you want and not what you believe you should be doing!”

“What’s wrong with keeping a purpose that you’ve already been given?” Chase asked her, looking at her extremely hard and starting to kinda feel what Max was talking about, with the whiskey.

“Nothing… Unless… The person that gave it to you wasn’t qualified to create it for you. Davenport is a genius. We can’t take that away from him. But, he’s not a god and he isn’t infallible. His purpose for you makes A LOT of sense and helps a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean that it’s perfect or shouldn’t be challenged.”

“No, but me trying to do something just to be happy whenever what I do now actually saves lives… I mean… You’re a utilitarian, Charlotte. Does that seem like a better world to you? One where I’m creating games or… Or… being an Internet personality or whatever?”

“She didn’t say that you couldn’t still save the world, Man. I think she’s more like, thinking about the fact that you spend all of you life and make all of your decisions within those confines that Davenport put on you and nothing else. You could have been enjoying things like you did today, instead you’re like… such a Davensnore when you come out of the mission suit. You can save the world and still be your own human,” Max said. Then chuckled again and repeated, “Davensnore. Put it on the books, Folks. That’s his name now.”

“That’s not his name!” Charlotte said, but chuckling at little. “But, he’s right about everything else. IF you accept that what you want is to be a bionic savior and do that, then of course, I support that. But, you seemed so lighthearted and fulfilled today, exercising your smarts for fun and also coming up with very great ideas too, and maybe you’re meant to be a different kind of hero. I feel like I’m a hero and I definitely rarely hit a battlefield personally.”

“You DO! But… You’re not like me,” Chase said.

“What’s THAT supposed to mean?” Max asked, sitting up straight

“Just that she was able to grow up with the mentality that you can be what you want to be and do what you want to do and everyone will support it and motivate you, instead of put you in a box.”

“I WHAT?” Charlotte asked, putting her glass down.

“Now, you’re in trouble,” Max said, with a smile.

Chase’s eyes were wide with apprehension of whatever Charlotte was going to say next, but instead of saying anything, she just stared at him, in disappointment. God. That HAD to be worse than whatever he thought she was going to say. She looked so betrayed and let down and he wished that she would just tell him where he messed up at so that he could bring about a solution. Instead, she simply stared at him and thought her explosion inside of her mind...

“I know that you grew up in a basement, so normally, I’d let you slide on that, but you have learned too much history, have read too many books, and have an entire two black female humans in your immediate family and one male counterpart, as well. You have to know on some type of level that that statement you just made is NOT true at all and even now, today, with the things that both of us have accomplished in our own ways, IF you had accomplished the things that I have accomplished, do you know how much more well received and adored that you would be? Have you SEEN some of the criticisms against me and compared and contrasted it with what you get? Have you done the same with the compliments? I’m in your corner, Dude. Don’t… downplay my stuff because you don’t like what I’m saying. If that’s how it’s gonna be, forget that I asked you to venture into this with me.”

“Well,” she said after five full minutes, Chase noted almost right on the dot. He had upset her SO MUCH, that she just “took a five” and used it to stare at him in upset. It kinda made him miserable. He NEEDED her to say something to him about it. Even now, she didn’t. She picked her wine glass up, shot the rest and pointed at Max, “The scotch, please.”

“Coming right up,” he said, telekinetically pouring the shot and sent it to her. "By the way, what's this venture you and me are doin'? You still hadn't said."

Chase was quiet, mulling over the things that were unsaid while the other two talked.

Charlotte was a little flustered, but brightened up as soon as Max asked her about her idea. "I want to find and collect people like us, those who can and could change the world if only they didn't have significant barriers to doing so. I want to find and gather as many of us as I can, help to guide them in the right direction and with all of our combined intelligence, hard work and determination, we can undo our current, flawed system and rebuild a new and improved one that will benefit everybody."

"You… want to overthrow the government?" Chase tried to clarify.

"I want the government to be changed into something that makes sense and is run by smart and capable representatives, and works for the people in it."Chase looked really bothered and so she explained, "For far too long, the system has been slanted.. it was created by men who were all in the same type of station, with the same interests and they made a system that has been benefiting them and almost exclusively them for so long that it is DEBATABLE for anyone else to have a fair shake. I think, if we really want to change the world and save some lives, we've gotta change the foundation. Just like with Dystopia, but like… farther and wider."

”You had me at “overthrow the government.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You… did. You just used way too many words when you said it.”“Well, I meant enhance life for the people.”

Chase interjected, unsure if she knew what she was suggesting here, “You CAN’T without overthrowing the government!!”

“That sounds like the government’s problem,” Max said, taking his last shot of the night. (He knew his limit).

Charlotte now got up to sit next to Chase and look right at him, the most serious and concerned look on her face that he had ever seen before and he knew that this meant a lot to her and that she needed it to mean something to him too. Something good. He wasn’t FEELING that this could actually lead to something good, but he WANTED to feel what she seemed to want him to feel as she spoke, “Don’t you hate the fact that this country, this WORLD is constantly at war, people are always going without, someone is always oppressed, and almost everybody doesn’t have what they need not just to be happy, but to survive? And who is to blame for it? It shouldn’t be us, but it usually is. Scientists need to find a way. Doctors still haven’t found a cure, etc, so on and so forth. When people like us work beside or even worse BENEATH clueless ingrates who see us as their smart… equipment. And you two understand this more than my previous team. The world does read you a certain way, but also, when they know what you are, they let their biases slip in. They don’t trust bionic humans any more than they do androids. And supers? Not if they don’t know every single solitary fact about that individual and still, they keep them at bay. I don’t feel like I should have to speak about or make a list of my struggles with this place. It. Has. To. Change. We have to try to change it. We’re qualified to and if that isn’t being a hero and saving the world, I guess I just don’t know what is. I don’t want the future to be as oppressive as the present. The world isn’t in God’s hands. It’s in the hands of the smart and the brave.”

Chase nodded his head, “I... have to think about it. I mean.. How would it work? Are you just compiling a genius database and visiting them like some type of secret society and just inducting them and giving them this speech, or...?”

“Pretty much just like that, Sir,” she said, with a little shrug of her shoulders.”But, do think about it.” She stood up and Max stood up as well. “See you tomorrow,” she said. “I’m going to go unwind.” Max stretched and grabbed the bottles from the table to move to sit closer to Chase, who looked confused as to why Max was moving next to him. Charlotte went through the corridor that passed through her courtyard to go inward to her quarters.

“Sure you don’t want anymore?” Max asked.

Chase furrowed his eyebrows and wondered, “You said that I was in trouble... What is it that you know that I don’t about what I said?”

Max scoffed out a little laugh and shook his head, “Have you never read one book about racial injustice or the lingering effects of chattel slavery in America?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with - Ohhhhhhhhhhh.”

“You basically just told one of the most historically subjugated and mistreated persons in the nation that she had more privilege than you and the unspoken presumption, that her privilege was why she wanted to take this on.”

“Do you think she’s mad at me for it?”

“I think you hurt her feelings,” Max said. “A genuine apology goes a long way, though.”

“I’ll talk too her tomorrow.” They were quiet for a while, then Chase wondered, “Are you really on board with this? You’re answer is undoubtedly yes, to this idea of hers?”

“Yeah. Not like she asked me to rip out my own heart and throw it at a politician. She’s talking about moving silently to help fix things that a lot of powerful people are often loud and wrong about and STILL gain support. Whatever side of history Charlotte is ever on, I’ll always know its the right side.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But, you’ve gotta do what makes Chase Davensbore happy.”

“I thought it was Davensnore?” Chase said.

Max shrugged his shoulders. “It’s both, Bionic Boy. You’re super bland.”

“Your ego is unwavering.”

“I talk like this ‘cause I can back it up,” Max said.

“I can too, and I don’t act like this!”

Max furrowed his eyebrows and wondered, “You don’t know Beyonce song references when you hear them?” He suddenly sat upright and looked right at Chase, like he had something very urgent that just happened. Chase sat up, equally as urgently, in reflex alone, only to have Max ask, “You do know who Beyonce is, right?”

Chase sank back into the seat and sighed, “Ugh. Of course I do... I just don’t know her catalog that well...”

“Just as shameful. I’m going to bed. You’d better apologize to Charlotte.”

“Of course, I will!” Chase snapped and whenever Max was gone, he got up and went to find her. Things were easier to communicate between them without “her other friend,” around. He was convinced that there never would have been any weird miscommunication without Max there, but it didn’t matter now. He was big enough to admit when he was wrong, and even if he wasn’t, in his mind... Charlotte was worth putting himself aside for a moment. Was she worth taking on the world, though? The status quo? He found her on the terrace, wind blowing through her curls. Her silhouette doing nothing more than watching the moon shine down on her and still looking like music. Is she worth it? Yes. Yes, she is.

#Henry Danger #Lab Rats #The Thundermans #Chasing Thunderbolts Fic #League of Extraordinary Geniuses #LOEG Update #Nesha Fics #Multiverse Fics

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eldritchsurveys · 4 years

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1028.

Do you remember much from high school? >> Not really, tbh. In my defense, I spent the first year of high school in an actively abusive household and the remaining three years in an emotionally neglectful household while grappling with both the aftereffects of the former household and the typical hormonal roller-coaster that is being a teenager, along with being hospitalised every few months and being put on drug cocktails that definitely didn’t do any favours for my already-fucked cognitive development. So, yeah. I don’t fucking remember much of high school. I just have flashes of experience, and the general knowledge that certain things happened at certain times.

Where would you go for the ultimate honeymoon? >> Well, our “honeymoon” was just the rest of our time in NOLA. Which is basically all we wanted anyway (especially since we can’t possibly afford anything extravagant like a European trip or whatever).

Can you access the roof of the building you live in? >> Not without a pretty tall ladder.

Do you know anyone who has a strong accent that is hard to understand? >> I don’t know anyone like that right now, but I’ve definitely encountered people I couldn’t understand because I wasn’t familiar with the particulars of their accent.

If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would you get? >> ---

What was the last podcast you listened to? Do you listen to it regularly? >> The last podcast I listened to was Welcome to Night Vale, and no, I don’t listen to it regularly. It’s notoriously difficult for me to maintain interest in a podcast, even if the subject matter is something I’m interested in. The format is just not my thing.

Are you more of an optimist or a pessimist, and why do you think this is? >> I lean one way or the other depending on my mental state, not my general philosophy about life (which is pretty much “it is what it is and then we all go in the ground so... idk what to tell you, man”).

When was the last time you moved houses? >> Four and a half years ago. (That’s a first. Usually it’s more like “ten days ago” or something.)

Have you ever held a gun? Did you fire it? >> Never held a gun.

Do you like simple questions or deep questions that make you think? >> I like questions I can answer, and that’s really all. A mix of simpler questions and deeper questions is usually best.

How long have you been using Bzoink? >> Er... let’s just say ten years, because I don’t really know and that sounds about right.

When was the last time you threw up? Why were you sick? >> I really have no idea when the last time that happened was. At least two years ago.

Are you on a first-name basis with your boss? (or last boss if unemployed) >> ---

What brand is your laptop or computer? >> This one is a Lenovo.

Would you ever wear a bright orange shirt? >> Nah.

What was the last thing you wrote in a word document? >> I don’t use Word, but the last thing I put in Evernote (which is my catch-all notepad and word processor) is the notes I’m taking about the book I’m reading so I can review it later. Because otherwise I’ll forget everything I wanted to say before I’m done with the book.

Who do you miss and what do you miss about them? >> ---

What were the best and worst costumes you’ve ever worn? >> ---

Do you know anybody who is gay and married? >> Sparrow is. Ha!

What did you last take painkillers for? >> A headache.

Are there any hobbies you want to get back into? >> ---

Have you ever shared a home with a friend? >> Something like that.

What’s the craziest or weirdest place you’ve ever slept? >> I think my bar for “crazy/weird place to sleep” is in a different place than most people’s because I’ve spent so much of my adult life homeless. Is a subway car crazy or weird? how about a park bench? the sidewalk? a business doorway? Columbus Circle? None of that seems particularly weird to me, unfortunately.

What did you have for lunch today and who made it? >> I had coconut rice with roasted veggies and furikake for flavour. Sparrow roasted the veggies and made the coconut rice last night.

Do you believe in anything supernatural like ghosts or ghouls? >> “Belief” isn’t really the concept that I apply to things like that. It’s just “have I seen/encountered one or haven’t I?” and in the case of ghouls and ghosts, I’m going to go with “not as far as I’m aware”.

How many hours of sleep did you get last night? >> I’m not sure. Seven or eight, I’d imagine, if you don’t count the several times I woke up because of being too hot. (My kingdom for a normal body temperature...)

Are you allergic to anything? How did you find out? >> No.

What’s your favourite Thai dish? >> I’m pretty partial to pad thai for now. Haven’t had much experience with other thai dishes.

Do you have any alarms set? What time and what for? >> Yeah, I have an alarm for 9.45p to remind me to take my Pill. I usually don’t need a reminder because I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s just part of my routine, but it’s good to make sure.

What are you going to do when this survey is over? >> I’m not sure. I might do another one, but that depends on if I can find one that looks to be worth taking. Otherwise I’ll probably just poke around on my dashboard and see what’s happening.

Have you ever been on a date with someone you met online? How was it? >> I’ve met up with people I’ve met online. Most of the time it went fine.

What colour is the rug in your living area? >> The carpet is the same ugly khaki colour throughout the whole apartment. Who invented carpet, anyway? Fuck that person.

Do you call it a couch, sofa, lounge or something else entirely? >> Couch.

Who is your favourite character on Friends? >> ---

When was the last time you used a pair of headphones and what for? >> Earlier while playing FFXIV.

Describe the temperature of the area you’re in right now. >> Outside? It’s chilly and windy. Likewise, it’s a bit chilly in my room because I have the window open.

Who was the last very physically attractive person you saw? >> Heh... gonna go ahead and say Bruni for this one.

Have you ever had teppanyaki? >> No.

How long does it take you to get ready before you go somewhere? >> Like five minutes, ten at most.

Do you find it difficult to get rid of material possessions? >> Rather the opposite, I’d say.

What sort of games do you like to play? >> Video games.

What was the last candy you ate? >> Uh... hmm. Good question.

Have you ever been hit in the face? What’s the story? >> Yeah. The stories are either “tldr: abuse” or “tldr: bullying”, idk what else to tell you.

Do you know anyone who is deaf? >> No.

Name one thing on your bucket list. >> ---

#surveys #survey #random survey #not for reblogging *glare*

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beesandbooks1 · 4 years

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Discussion: Give Readers Some Credit.

So. Let’s talk about readers, and authorial intent, shall we?

First a detour. Who here is familiar with the Hays Code? Just in case: in the 1930’s it was established for motion pictures in the USA and presented strict guidelines about what could and couldn’t be put into films. The Code lasted until the late 1960’s but its impact on film is absolutely still seen today, specifically in the rating system for films. The Hays Code dictated various moral guidelines that somewhat stripped viewers of film of their autonomy, implying that the general public wouldn’t be able to distinguish between good and bad or right and wrong without films making it very clear what those lines were. There was no grey area in the Hays Code.

Literature, for its part, has had various formal and informal rules and guidelines applied to it throughout centuries of publishing that dictate who can and can’t read certain topics. I’m not going into a history lesson on that, but suffice to say that at some point just about every person who wasn’t a white cishet man has had a restriction put on them for reading at all or reading certain things. Today, the big issues come down to censorship, banning books, and lobbying against books for a particular reason.

Censorship Today

Censorship is a big ticket issue today, both formally and informally, and internationally. I will admit to having limited knowledge and experience of the kind of censorship experienced in places such as China, but I am aware it is present, enforced, and potentially dangerous. Formal censorship worldwide comes in the form of preventing books being published or translated in the country at all, banning its sale in its original format, and sometimes going so far as to censor access to websites that sell the book and social media platforms where the book is widely discussed. Government level censorship of books generally is inspired by fear of what the books might inspire, from protests to full on coups. Usually, this act of censorship is indicative of larger systemic problems within the government not real problems within the book’s content.

Informal censorship is a bit more complicated, and comes about in a few ways, including straight out banning books in a community which I will discuss in the next section. Informally censoring a book usually comes from a community speaking out against something in the book or something about the author they are opposed to. This differs slightly from lobbying against a book because if a community quietly agrees to censor a book from those in the community that shouldn’t be exposed to it (whether with good intentions or not) they won’t also attempt to have the book banned elsewhere, or turn it into a political topic by protesting the books very existence. More on that later. Instead, this informal censorship is more in line with parents or groups of parents agreeing to forbid their children from reading certain books–usually for moral and religious reasons.

An example of informal censorship from my own life: when I was attending Catholic school as a preteen The Golden Compass was released as a movie. The school itself never released a statement or talked about the book or movie, and the farthest I got to an adult’s opinion on it was when someone asked my religious studies teacher about it and she pointed out that the books are fiction so did it really matter if the subject matter went against religious beliefs? However, the parents of my classmates at least were scared. My mother received an email from a concerned parent who was encouraging all the parents in our class to prevent us from seeing the movie, and that if for some reason one of us did see it to keep it to ourselves so as not to encourage the rest of the kids to want to see it too. This act of informal censorship resulted in a group of preteens who probably didn’t even care about this issue being prevented from reading Philip Pullman’s works or seeing the movie based on them. The parents didn’t want to try and get the books removed from the public library or the movie taken out of theaters, they just wanted to ensure their children were never exposed to it.

Fun fact: the day my mother read that email she came home with the full set of His Dark Materials and later she bought me the movie on DVD.

Banning Books

Banning books is a lot more straight forward than the degrees of censorship. Most readers are familiar with the idea of banned books. Books tend to be banned from smaller communities, such as a town’s library and school, but are rarely enforced at a higher level without censorship getting involved. I’m going to be using “banned books” to refer to that lower level, not government level censorship. Thus, banned books are still purchasable in this context through retailers such as Amazon and chain bookstores.

A banned book can be banned for any number of reasons. I see banned book lists often enough that have things such as “unrealistic female characters” referring to The Wizard of Oz. Many readers who chance upon one of these lists tend to take pride in having read much of its contents, especially depending on the context of the book bans. Some book bans are focused on schools and keeping “unsuitable” material out of students’ hands. This ranges from “this book is too pornographic to be appropriate” to “this book encourages witchcraft and we can’t have that!” While there might be something to be said about schools having age appropriate books available in the library–if the oldest kids in the school are ten then maybe Stieg Larsson’s books aren’t a priority–many book bans are comical in their ridiculous reasoning.

Book bans come from a combination of underestimating the critical reading abilities of others and from fearing what those others might do with the knowledge the book contains. For example, a highly misogynistic person might not want books that portray women in positions of power to become available for the next generation of young girls. They both underestimate the girls’ ability to choose a lifestyle for themselves by assuming any fiction they consume will immediately shape their decision making, and they also fear what the girls might choose to do if presented with the idea that they have options. While many book bans sound like silly reasoning, a lot of them are insidiously chosen as a form of disenfranchisement. Preventing Black readers from having positive role models from authors of color, for example, assists the school to prison pipeline.

Lobbying Against Books

Lobbying against books is where book banning gets more serious. This is the middle step between book banning and book censorship, really. Lobbying against a book is when a group or sometimes an individual take it upon themselves to ban a book for their own community and then try to get it banned on a larger scale. Now, there are times that lobbying against a book is actually done with good intentions and not with the intent of banning or censoring the book. There are times where the author reveals themselves to be…lacking in some way, and that may have affected the writing they produce. I know I’m dancing around some authors in particular, but I didn’t make this post to call out specifics so.

An example of a bad lobbying idea: An upcoming YA release is announced and hyped by excited would-be readers. The book sounds awesome! It’s written by a new author, has really good Own Voices representation, and presents a unique story. It is largely regarded as an excellent contribution to literature by bookish folks. A conservative parent purchases the book upon its release with the intention of giving it to their daughter, and due to their household rules about book content the parent reads the book first to ensure it complies. The parent discovers that the book contains a relatively mild romance plot, but that the main character does have sex in this plotline, though the scene is hardly explicit or erotic. Conservative parent is very worried that reading about the idea of sex will inspire their daughter to have sex and decides this book is dangerous and not suitable for their daughter. Unfortunately, with all the excitement over the book, the daughter keeps asking to read it. Perhaps her friends have all read it, perhaps it’s being pitched by the school library as a great new release, perhaps it’s being developed into a film or TV series that her classmates are excited to watch. The parent now starts telling other parents that they shouldn’t allow their children to read this book or watch anything based on it, largely out of fear that their daughter will be exposed to it somehow. Other conservative parents jump on board, banning the book from their households and attempting to have it banned altogether so as to prevent their kids from getting their hands on it. Perhaps the ban makes it through the school and the public library, but the local Barnes and Noble continues to sell copies and they’re going fast. In order to get the book taken off of a chain store’s shelves, the parents now have to lobby to have the book banned on a much larger scale, so they do so. All because they don’t want their teenagers having sex yet.

An example of a good lobbying idea: A really popular author has come out with a new book. This is his fourth book, and many readers are excited to get a copy and devour it. Book bloggers and other voracious readers have torn through the previous three because they’re witty, have appealing characters, and a unique worldbuilding set up. However, a bisexual reader immediately recognizes that this fourth book has the main character being extremely biphobic. The biphobia is upsetting for the reader, but they persevere because up to this point the main character has been a good role model and perhaps the biphobia is a character flaw that’s going to be called out and corrected. It is not by the end of the book, and the reader is now uncomfortable. Unsure. The reader tells other bisexual readers to be careful, that the content can be triggering due to its biphobia. LGBTQ+ readers in general are warned and slowly become cautious about the books and author in general. The fifth book comes out, and the bisexual reader timidly approaches it with an open mind, hoping that it was just a multi-book character arc. The biphobia continues, reinforced by the positive reception to the character in the fourth book. It’s clear that this is here to stay. The LGBTQ+ readers who are aware of this problem start to speak out, asking others to critically read this book and not internalize the biphobia in it. The author doubles down on the biphobia, defending it when criticized. Now more readers speak out, pointing out that this is potentially harmful, asking other readers to be very critical when consuming the author’s works and to consider ending their support of the author over his remarks.

Why all of this sucks

Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to stripping readers of their autonomy. Think about people who argue that some books are bad because a character in them does bad things. The majority of those that read the book probably recognize those bad things for what they are, and know that the character is nuanced and not always right. But there are those that would lobby to have the book removed from all reading spaces because the character that does bad things might be appealing to an impressionable reader and encourage them to do bad things. This is a very narrow-minded view that is also highly condescending. Teenagers can read a book where a seventeen-year-old has sex without immediately going out and having sex themselves. Readers in general deserve the credit to know that not everything that happens in fiction is realistic or positive. If a reader can tell the difference between reality and fiction, they can certainly make their own choices in real life without being unduly influenced by the actions and thoughts of fictional characters.

This belittling fear that certain readers are too impressionable to be exposed to certain media is astoundingly simplistic. We have to give readers more credit than that. Sure, there will be books that need to come with content warnings, trigger warnings, and disclaimers. There are some authors whose racism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism (among other things) leak into their writing and those books when read need to be read with the knowledge of that. There are even some books that are irredeemable from that standpoint and it is absolutely a valid choice to refuse to read books by an author whose morals go against your own. However, not everything someone views as morally wrong is also unnuanced when presented in a text. Additionally, not every reader takes what they read at face value. Many readers appreciate a well written villain while also recognizing why that character is a villain. Many readers also appreciate flawed main characters who aren’t always correct but are allowed to make mistakes.

As bloggers we are in a position to point out the nuance in such books. Reviews are excellent for helping readers figure out whether a book will be too far over the line for their moral compass, if there’s something in the text that matters for them or not. However, we have to give readers some credit. Just like in communities that would censor and ban books, sometimes book reviews overlook nuance. They make hard lines around characters saying that something is problematic and therefore the whole text is corrupted, or misidentifying an action or a thought as a moral or ethical opinion. I am not exempt from this, there are certainly times where I draw a hard line in the sand that I refuse to cross for any book regardless of the praise it receives. But I also recognize that there are other readers who will cross that line and read certain texts and find value in them where I didn’t. I have to give those readers credit and believe that they will also be able to see the negatives of the text and not internalize or forgive those.

#bookblr #books

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