#i think that's pretty standard for a master's program

[flavia8]

Ugh. Gotta go to the Master's Project Fair.

[kimmkitsuragi]

i need to buy a bike. somehow . i need to buy clothes. i need to do so many stuff

[escherbug]

YEAR OF THE GRUB: JANUARY

Project: Needle Felting with Wire Armature

CRAFT STORE RUNS: 2

(The sleepy but patient Lt. for scale)

This year I started a Master's Degree program in Entomology. I wanted to make sure I was still making fun things while I'm so busy (mostly reading papers and books), so I arranged a set of media-based projects centered around my favorite insect (scarab grubs), trying to complete the project by the end of the month.

I didn't quite make it this time because I ran out of supplies a couple times and made the project a good deal harder for myself than I thought, but I think that's okay. This is just for me, after all.

STEP BY STEP:

First, I used sculpting wire and a pair of pliers to twist the skeleton of the grub. I wanted to be able to move all the legs and the main line of the body. I thought I'd be able to get an easier anchor in on the felt if I covered the hard wires with pipe cleaners, but I was pretty much wrong about that.

Next, I felted a bunch of spare roving into the general shape I wanted, and felted the head and the back end of the grub on in brown. I also hand-sewed six little socks to cover the wires on the legs and secured them as well as I could to the rest of the body so they won't fall off at random. This came out messier than I'd have liked, but I think also that I should cut myself some slack for having designed and patterned most of this on the fly.

Next came felting on the bulk of the fatty, cream colored body of the grub. Part of the reason I didn't end up making my deadline was that I ran out of white/off-white wool roving, and was unable to find it in stock at any stores, so I had to order it online and wait for it to arrive in the mail (it absolutely did and honestly, the new stuff from Shepswool.com is way softer than the wool I was using and a softer color, so it was well worth the wait).

From here, mainly all that was left was detail work. I didn't get a ton of photos of this because all these steps ended up being my Sunday (day of posting), but I used a finer wire, the same pliers, and super sculpey to make gently posable antennae, mandibles, a clypeus and labrum (as well as a pair of maxillae that absolutely did not show up in the end, just much too small), baked the clay on the wires and then affixed them to the existing framework I'd set up on the head for most of the face. The mandibles are attached to the antennae, so they move together, and the clypeus/labrum and maxillae are held on by the wires supporting the mandibles. I also glued on some cute little eyes that came standard with my felting gear.

All that was left at this point was final detail work-- I didn't feel like embroidering on a ton of hairs in the end, but I embroidered on some spiracles and felted those little sclerotized buts near the head.

And voila! A needle-felted beetle grub about the size of a small ferret. Wouldn't it be nice if we had more grubs around this size?

Further notes:

1) it's nice to be making something big enough for once while felting that I didn't stab my fingers constantly! I only stabbed myself like twice.

2) I bought a multi-needle felting tool for this, but I didn't really find it helped much beyond having a safety cover. It was also super noisy to work with, so I ended up going back to using a single felting needle halfway through.

Catch you at the end of this month, hopefully having completed my February project: WATERCOLOR ILLUSTRATION!

[writingquestionsanswered]

How important 100% correct grammar is to a writing project? I keep hearing about acclaimed writers that have writing styles that aren't fully in norm with the rules of grammar but I also keep seeing harsh criticism against amateur authors with imperfect grammar. Which people should I listen to? Stephen King said that writing doesn't need to have fully uniform grammar and that coming from one of the most acclaimed horror writers of all time is sure inspiring, but I don't want to get roasted to oblivion for using too much passive voice or clarity errors that may pop up whenever I finish something.

Importance of "Perfect Grammar" in Fiction

First, I think it's important to understand what grammar actually is, because "passive voice" isn't really a grammar issue. I mean, it is in the sense that passive voice is an aspect of sentence structure, but passive voice isn't automatically good or bad grammar.

When we talk about grammar in fiction, we're really talking about how words are used and how sentences are structured. Included in grammar are things like using words properly/appropriately, putting words in the proper place within a sentence so that it makes sense, and using proper punctuation.

Next, let's talk about Stephen King's stance on grammar, because my understanding is he emphasizes the importance of good grammar, but also feels you shouldn't be so obsessed with achieving perfect grammar that it stops you from writing. So, King's stance on grammar is certainly not permission to use bad grammar.

Let's also consider the difference between "good grammar" and "perfect grammar," because "good grammar" is really about best effort. As long as you strive to use proper grammar, it's okay if mistakes slip through. They happen to the best of us. "Perfect grammar" implies that there's not a single grammatical mistake, and honestly, I feel like this is a pretty impossible standard, because for one thing, language evolves over time, and it can vary from one group to another. For example, there are grammatical differences between British and American English. Also, there are grammatical rules from decades ago that are no longer used. Not to mention the fact that sometimes, you may break grammatical rules intentionally, because it actually lends to clarity, fits the character/situation, or is otherwise necessary.

So, the bottom line is this: your grammar doesn't have to be perfect, but that's not an excuse to be lazy. If you're worried about your grammar, you can use any number of apps and programs to spot errors, work with an eagle-eyed critique partner, hire an editor, or look up things you're not sure about and make the best choice possible.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[bigtreefest]

Hi Essie!

I was just reading your post on your application and this is just a thought -- you don't have to respond at all if you don't like this idea!! this idea is purely my CPH4 brain talking I swear I have nothing to do with this lol

So, a young man (okay maybe not so young he was born four years ahead of you according to his page in the uni website ) with some very serious frowning becomes your thesis supervisor at the end of the term. He taught one lesson that you attended and you didn't know him very well besides his name. He rarely speaks, always listening to your presentation/answer, and very occasionally asking "do you have any questions for me?"

Nevertheless, you have impressive GPA and at the end of that term, you decided to apply for a PhD. You already have two letters of recommendation, one from a professor that you have known for two years during your Master's, one from a professor that supervised your Bachelor thesis and teaching a few courses that you attended.

But this damn Graduate School that you want to get in requires THREE. THREE FUCKING RECOMMENDATION LETTERS. And it specifically requires the letter from your dissertation supervisors.

You ask, not with much hope, your current supervisor, the lecturer with a very serious frowning look on his face, whether he could provide you a letter of recommendation.

To which he responded, texting back in a matter of seconds.

-Ofc. When do you need it? Send your transcripts btw.

NOW, the question is: Is he

or

or

----I just thought it'd be hilarious if he's very serious during class and meetings while he's basically any 20-somethings when texting you and discussing things that he shouldn't be sharing with you (like the content of your recommendation letter, or the fact that three recommendation letters is absolutely worthless even though he's providing one for you, or that because another professor is cranky and possibly stealing work from their students, you def shouldn't be choosing him as your doctor supervisor)

Oh I absolutely adore this ask! Thank you so much for sending this in, I unfortunately know the hierarchy of academia too well which is why I honestly think I would be rolling my eyes at these standards, too. I took the prompt and ran with it. 😂

I wanna talk about the other two options before I get to my choice. All below the cut bc it’s long.

Let’s discuss Ari:

Throughout Ari’s undergrad degree, he played football and was greatly interested in world policies, so everyone thought once his sports career and degree was over, he’d be ready to get out there. Nope. He really wasn’t sure where to start, so instead, he decided to keep going with schooling.

His grades were just good enough for him to get into the program you were applying to now. Varsity athletics looked great on the application and his charm was the extra boost. Now that he’s in it though, it’s been almost seven years instead of the usual four to five. Part of it is him going in without much of a plan, wanting to try every avenue, while the other is him just not caring enough to push further and just finish the degree. He’s getting paid just enough to get by and no one has threatened to kick him out, so he enjoys the coasting and the free time it gives for him to look into his actual passions.

Part of the PhD program is all of the grad students sitting in a room grading exams of undergrads every few weeks, and during this, Ari really shows his personality. They have to sit there for hours on end, and it can get boring, so Ari will tell stories to the kid next to him to pass the time, except the room is so quiet that everyone hears. These will range from the various dates with odd girls, to that time he saw a video of someone cooking salmon in the dishwasher, so he tried it out. “It was pretty decent. I swear it’s Kosher! I would do it again if it didn’t take so long.”

Any time he gets trusted to teach, which is rare since his advisor doesn’t really want it in order to guarantee the kids are being taught correct content, questions are not answered very well. It’s either with a “hell if I know. Use google. That’s how they do it in the real world.” Or “wait for the professor to get back. This isn’t my expertise.” Both technically valid, but not what a younger student wants to hear from someone in a position of authority.

Star Student Steve:

Steve was born for upper-level studies. He’s been ready to graduate essentially since getting into the program, knowing exactly what he wanted to research right off the bat. He knows all the content well and is well-liked by students and professors alike. The undergrads have a habit of ogling him and crowding his office hours, so you never even bothered to go. Pending his early graduation, he’s already been offered a job at the university with a full federal research grant, which he could use to travel or gain equipment for his projects. He’s probably considering this, unless one of the prime companies/agencies gives him a better offer. He can’t wait for the opportunity to make new rules and discoveries in the field, just needs to find the best route to get him there. (Talk about a CPH4 brain, haha)

With all of this going on, though, he doesn’t have time for much else. Sure, he’s very kind, but he’s always on the move. Students are not his first priority right now if he wants everything in place to be successful and make history. When it comes to picking an advisor, everyone wants Steve, but after hearing all that, and the standard he might hold you to without giving you the time of day to reach that level, do you really want him?

My wonderful choice Curtis:

(Even before I saw my options, this description was screaming ‘Curtis’ to me.)

He’s definitely the kind of silent student who puts his head down and does his work because it’s difficult stuff. Some may say it’s even more difficult than Steve’s if they knew what Curtis actually did, but he’s so silent and keeps it to himself unless he’s asked. It’s not because he doesn’t want to share, it’s more because when he’s interacting with students, he understands his job is to help them first and foremost. Although Curtis may have been busy, he never rushed and made sure his full attention was on the task or person at hand.

All the Professors know Curtis and really like him for his work ethic and ability to maintain balance and remain a grounded person, except he’s just not a poster boy like Steve. For this reason, his advisor trusts him enough to teach certain classes since Curtis parses out his time well and not only knows the content, but cares about it deeply. At the end of his lectures, though, when he asks for questions, it’s radio silence. Perhaps it’s because he taught the material so well, but even Steve and Ari get the odd question about their research or last Sunday’s football game. Curtis gets disinterested stares until he dismisses everyone. Office hours are pretty quiet, too, until right around exam time when a few students come to him for help since everywhere else was so full. After seeing how helpful he is, yourself included, they keep going back to him, keeping it to themselves, though, keeping him their hidden secret gem.

The lack of recognition Curtis gets is a shame, though, because he’s so nice. Actually, not just nice, but genuinely kind. When you were assigned with him as your advisor, you weren’t really sure what to do. Not many talked about him and the stoic demeanor was a little intimidating, until you actually spoke with each other. He was so sweet and engaged, asking you questions and providing guidance not only on what he thought might work the best, but how to go about it and how to properly convey ideas to the committee panel members at the end. He gave you his phone number, too, in case you needed any help at all, saying he’d pick up anytime.

When you asked him for your letter of recommendation, he was elated. “No one has ever come to me for that before, but ofc. When do you need it? Send your transcripts btw. And your resume.”

Curtis was right, though, he had never had to be the voice of authority vouching on someone’s behalf since up until this point, he was in your exact shoes. “Don’t be nervous to ask questions, but I also don’t want you to think that I’ve got all the answers and you’re not good enough. The only difference between you and me academically is like four classes content-wise. I just have more hands-on experience.” He said it with a soft, reassuring smile that really put you at ease.

He’s aware of the system, and of course he hates it, because he knows what it’s like to be at the bottom. Throughout his time putting together your recommendation, he’s messaging you with updates. “I’m going to add this because they really like to see it specifically highlighted,” or “I’m not even sure what they’re asking here, but it’s fucking stupid if you ask me. Conventions like this are ridiculous. I hate that these decisions are made by people who aren’t even on the ground. If they actually took part in this program, they’d see you’re more than qualified to get into it. But no, for some reason, all important decisions are made by old people so far removed from actual work.”

That second one was in person, though. It wouldn’t look good to have him saying those things in writing. He rolls his eyes before switching back to his reassuring, charming self.

“Anyway, don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s good.”

And then as he sits down to write, he constantly sends you lines from it. “Does this sound too braggy? Am I hyping up your work too much? I feel like it wouldn’t be fair if I was casual about it, but we’re rocking with a lot of enthusiasm right now and idk where the line is where it’ll seem insincere.😅”

You tend to hang around Curtis a lot while you’re working on finishing up. On small work breaks, he tells you about the weird little things the other PhD students have sent to his email. “I’m what, four years older than you? And so are these other guys, but I swear they act like they’re twelve.” It helps you to laugh at his small little complaints in a time of building stress. He lets you into his life and you see he’s a normal person, just a few years older than you. He’s the whole reason you know about Ari and the dishwasher salmon, and he helps to break down the barriers you feel against everyone in his program that seems to know so much. Half of your conversation is weird everyday things about his life you’re sure no one else has given him the space to talk about. “You texted me while I was watching the hockey game, they were losing anyway so I was grateful to do something else.” He was in the city…at the actual hockey game…drinking a beer and scrolling emails…. Or “my apartment has a no pet policy, but my roommate got a cat, so I hope you don’t mind the little guy joining us today. Just while the landlord does some maintenance so we don’t get kicked out.” He’s half shuffling through the papers on his desk, half giving you an amused smile thinking of the whole situation. Of course, it can’t all be personal, though, so he continues to sprinkle advice in here and there.

“Also, if you wanna keep your sanity around here, keep away from Levinson’s advisor. Not only is he just straight-up a ridiculous man, but he won’t push you if he likes you. And if he hates you, you’ll know it a mile away. That’s why I never chose him for my committee meeting.”

As you prepare to defend your thesis, Curtis is sitting with you in the hallway. He’s been prepping you for this presentation for weeks, but for peace of mind, he asks you potential questions as you wait to be called in. He holds a paper copy of your thesis, saying once again “you’ve got this. Just like the rehearsals. No one knows this stuff better than you. Show them that.” As you stand in front of the small crowd, he gives you a thumbs-up and watches with approving nods as your blow it out of the water.

He gives you a big hug when you pass and an even bigger hug when you stop by the small TA office and visit his desk to tell him about your official spot in the PhD program. “I can’t wait to work together more with you. You’re going to do great things, I know it, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #5 | 08.31.23

August is OVER and that means a brand-new Lost in Devlog!!! 💜 We are very excited for September to begin because that will definitely mark a new era of Lost in Limbo's production as the whole team will be finally free of the shackles of the spanish education system!

This devlog contains mainly progress in the programming and writing department (yours truly in charge), but we have also made some progress in the art department.

In addition, we will use this devlog to discuss a few changes and decisions we have taken in regards to the course of the demo—so feel free to grab a drink and join us for the ride!

First and foremost...A glimpse of our main menu! 🎉💜 I have been working hard this month to implement the UI as we finally got the files, and I've also animated and programmed the main menu screen, the configuration screen, save/load, etc. The dialogue box and everything else is also implemented and working perfectly, and of course we have a custom cursor thanks to miss Raquel! 🎉

Needless to say, LiL is my first coding adventure, so I'm sure our code isn't perfect or in optimal condition, but hopefully our Kickstarter will allow us to hire a programmer to fix that. I think I've done a pretty good job considering my lack of experience!

Also, special thanks (again) to our dearly beloved @crescencestudio for bearing with me and graciously lending a hand when I struggled the most. They are officially my ren'py mentor and I'd like to take a moment to illustrate our my struggle to y'all with a simple screenshot:

(Also it's kind of funny we both have animal crossing pics in our discord accounts, that was ✨ a coincidence ✨)

<<Inside the holy judgement chamber of the Silver Spire, may your words carry only truth, lest punishment is what you seek.>>

This month our dear Raquel has been working on backgrounds when she's had a moment, and this is one of the pieces she has been rendering and polishing! We'll also take a look at another background (a really important one) to bring it up to our new standards. As I said in another devlog, the master degree we were (and still are, until the 15th) attending has changed our way of seeing and approaching art pieces, so we are looking into improving pieces that are still in the making!

First of all; we are super proud and happy to welcome a new member to the team of Ravenstar Games: Allie! They'll be our editor and proofreader, and I'm sure you know and love some projects she's been on, like Blooming Panic! or our recent and beloved Intertwine. They are a fantastic fantastic writer, an incredible person and a passionate dev that I've had the pleasure to know and work with for a while now, and I would trust no one else with the script of our baby! (and if you are a writer, you know how hard it is to let others read your stuff sometimes. It's like baring your soul to them; it could only be Allie for me!) So please give them a big warm welcome!!

For the writing department, some devlogs ago we talked about the script suffering some changes—well, they have officially solidified now!

We have cut some content that was not exactly relevant for the first experience we want y'all to have with the game. A lot of context and exposition that helps, but is not absolutely necessary to enjoy what is perhaps the most important thing for an indie team and their game; the first demo and the impression it leaves behind. That content has not been scraped and we have decided to save it for an extended demo; the first demo will still be as long as it was in the beginning, as a lot of new content has also been added to prioritize the LIs, which is what you are here for.

We also made this decision because we were once more faced with the reality of: there's only four of us and it's not realistic to do seven LIs + six supporting characters + their expression charts + 13 backgrounds + everything else for a first demo. We are learning as we go, for better or worse, and sometimes you have to sit back and say "right. this is not going to work" so we had to do that. Sadly, we were not realistic with what we wanted to do, but hey, we all get too excited and dream too big sometimes!

This changes will ensure you get the best first experience with LiL without losing important, meaningful content, and hopefully be excited for what will come later. In my humble opinion, the demo script is now in much better shape than it was a month ago. Trust. And just wait for Allie to edit it—that's going to bring it to perfection.

Oh! We'll also be modifying the Masterpost soon as some things are a bit outdated and can be improved, so expect to see some new stuff in there!

It's 1 am here right now as I write this. I'm in bed. Today has been a day. Tomorrow I'll take a look at this and correct a million typos. See? Another reason we need Allie with us. There's screenshots to take, videos to make, and everything is slowly coming together. We are in really good spirits, motivated and hopeful for the near future. This has been long enough as it is, so as always, thank you for being part of Lost in Limbo's journey, and for the love and kindness you give us again and again. We hope you all are doing great, staying hydrated, and taking care of yourself 💜 See you very very soon!!

[okayto]

Biannual Research Instruction Reflections

My research post is going around again (RIP my activity page), which always brings a bunch of fresh comments on a variety of related topics, and I always wish I could add some little addendums that people should keep in mind:

The original point of the post is that you shouldn't automatically assume a mid-high research familiarity with anyone, even people who have previously completed university degrees (outside of specifically-demonstrated proficiency as an admissions requirement or something). The post was particularly sparked because the master's program that student was in, at the time, did not include a library orientation that even showed students what databases were or the program-specific guide, and I hated that the program thus relied on students to realize they should use the library and just intuit how to find everything.This has since changed.

It was also sparked because, as seen in the dialog, the student did not demonstrate even basic computer-search semi-critical thinking skills like "maybe I should try rephrasing my search."

Yes, it is fairly common AFAIK in the US for first-year college/university students (or students in beginning-level college courses) to get some sort of library or research instruction. To my knowledge it's also pretty common in certain disciplines to have a dedicated research methods-type course at a higher undergrad level before graduation.

It's a reasonable assumption that students in a master's program have had information literacy instruction (or a full research class) before since everyone had at least one prior college degree, but I strongly believe all programs need, at a minimum, a basic library introduction (even a virtual tutorial, which is what this program now does) so they know/are reminded of what resources exist.

Pretty sure it's not uncommon to get some sort of instruction in high school, and even basic skills earlier than that. IDK what's widespread at pre-college levels, guys, I was homeschooled. But educational standards vary from state to state, and education is, if you haven't noticed a notoriously politically-influenced profession (in that often people spouting opinions and making rules are not educators).

That said, I have personally seen many instances where students did get a very good introduction, tutorial, or in-depth lessons on how to research, and they didn't pay attention or take it seriously. This is not a problem that lies solely with people designing educational courses or standards. The problem of equating "I can google for basic questions on a phone" with "therefore it's easy to look for academic and/or specialized publications and research in subscription databases or other less-public locations" is something students also do all the time.

Research is also a skill, meaning that if you don't use or practice it, you'll likely lose some of that knowledge. This isn't a judging statement; it just means if it's been a while since you had to use those skills, even if you knew stuff before, you might need some help to refresh that knowledge.

This was true when I wrote the post and it's true now: reaching out for help is a good option.

My research and library tips tags would probably also appeal if you like that post.

[bloodgulchblog]

Have you seen that YouTube video where some guy reads every Halo novel back to back and then reviews them? If so what did you think

The Brian David Gilbert one? Oh yeah, all my friends showed me it when it came out. (It was honestly kind of cute seeing how many people thought of me immediately.)

Rewatching it to refresh myself because it's been a couple years and a full-novel reread for me since the last time...

High fiving BDG because the Master Chief parts of The Flood were definitely the most boring parts.

He didn't have anything to say about First Strike which I think is a shame because I think it's better than The Fall of Reach and actually has A Theme I Find Interesting.

Rightful recognition of Contact Harvest as pretty damn good.

Rightful recognition of the Forerunner Trilogy as dense oldschool-style SF with deep worldbuilding. (Also the San'Shyuum thing.)

I disagree with him about, and have significant problems with, Kilo Five. He is correct that Kilo Five actually delves into some of the dark places in Halo in a way it really needed, and I would even say that its writing is extremely engaging by Halo novel standards. However, while he does notice the obvious parallels between what ONI is doing post-war and the kind of shit the CIA has pulled again and again irl, I think he misses some of the subtext I see where it feels like it justifies some shit a liiiiittle too much if you know the author's irl politics re: the military. He also doesn't seem to notice the character assassinations (particularly of Catherine Halsey) that I and a lot of other fans see/object to in those books. I kind of gaze into the middle distance with a haunted expression at the suggestion that these are the ones to read if you don't touch any of the others just because they are, ironically, so heavy-handed and feel like they treat certain kinds of evil as inevitable in a way that actually feels way worse to me than the excuse plot offered by the earlier/lighter Halo novels. (But idk, that's me? Nobody is committing a crime if they disagree with my frenzied insane person red string diagrams about Kilo Five.)

I'd swap Pariah for Dirt in the Evolutions anthology if it were me, but I think these are solid standouts.

Broken Circle is neat but really nonessential he's not wrong.

A one-sentence review of New Blood is probably not enough space to get into how fucked up the Spartan-IV program is, but yeah. New Blood is fun if you don't find Buck's first person narration annoying. (It comes and goes for me in that one.)

BDG you're an absolute sweetheart, I think Hunters in the Dark is kind of goofy in a way I cannot in good conscience ignore if I'm gonna review it. But it really really is so much fun and I love that one a lot anyway. The "it's like Halo 3... 2" observation is solid.

High fiving him again because I also found Last Light disappointing. And it is also a me problem.

Fractures!

Hell yeah these are all good pulls from Fractures, I would say Shadow of Intent is the pick of the litter in that anthology for me. Interesting that as a Kilo Five enjoyer he didn't single out Rossbach's World, which is the last we've heard about Osman and Black Box. (Also, that one is good.) I think Oasis is worth an honorable mention because I'm an Envoy stan, and the Forerunner stories are interesting but I wouldn't go for them if you don't already have a healthy interest in the trilogy.

This tangent is so fucking funny now that we know more things:

Oh BDG, oh buddy, it's really not for the people like you and me huh. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if BDG likes the Halo tv show or not and I have no desire to dig up evidence about it.)

Also, while you're here, this is the bloodgulchblog origin story:

Smoke and Shadow is fun so it's a little sad that when he ends that sentence with "whatever," I can't actually say he's wrong to. (Sorry Rion your part of the lore just.... hasn't... touched anything that touches anything else anymore.)

ENVOY IS GOOD AND EVERYONE SHOULD CARE ABOUT IT okay okay I'm cool I'm normal, anyway. Envoy is the Halo novel that restored my faith in reading Halo novels and reminded me that authors can care and know how to do nuanced, interesting themes in this space. It's great. Everyone in this book has war refugee trauma (except the Spartans which have Spartan trauma) and that's incredible to me. Please care about Envoy if you have spare room in your heart for Halo side characters.

I am cheered to see someone indifferent to the Veta Lopis stories, but I still feel petty for feeling it.

I don't have a lot to say about Legacy of Onyx here but it's always so fun seeing someone else suffer and care.

Bad Blood, the Blood is Bad now is a fun joke but lol yeah. It does have this very vital moment where Chief and Arbiter talk, though. For the first and only time in years.

PROPS FOR NOTICING THE YA NOVELS they're actually pretty nice.

"The Master Chief is the protagonist and boy does he shoot some people" is most of how I feel about Silent Storm and Oblivion too, I know they have their fans but Troy Denning's Chief books don't do much for me personally.

Renegades hadn't had its followup Point of Light yet but yeah, Spark stuff is interesting.

I had to remember that oh yeah, there are multiple books now that didn't exist when this was made. I wonder if he read them?

OKAY I THINK THAT'S ALL I HAD TO SAY as always if y'all want specific book opinions, I might have a tag for them. Or just yell in my ask box, I'm sure I can scrounge up some thoughts.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

the thing is though that these checklists don’t mean if you have BPD it is not allowed that you have nightmares / if you have CPTSD you are legally obligated to never experience impulsiveness etc etc; it’s not just “making stuff up” — though ig in the strictest sense yeah, first you make stuff up but then you test it and see if your hypotheses align with the population. Basically chances are if you meet 8/9 BPD criteria and some for CPTSD but not enough to meet the diagnostic standard (which afaik isn’t recognized just yet but i think they’re trying to get it recognized in the diagnostic manuals but correct me if i’m wrong) then it’s pretty likely you’re going to respond better to BPD treatment and ALSO if your practitioner completely ignores one diagnosis in favor of the other they’re probably not that good at their job. Psychology doesn’t speak in “rules” and absolutes, it speaks in trends and likelihoods and everyone trying to sell you a 100% true and immovable psychology fact is a sham

as someone who unfortunately has a degree in psychology (and whose undergrad began right as the infamous replication crisis became more widely acknowledged in the field), yes, historically a lot of this field is bias and hegemony imbued with some metric. when homosexuality was still classified as a mental disorder, the conversion therapy program by masters and johnson (who were like, some of the earliest pioneers of research into human sexual responses lmao) would often boast high success rates due to participants merely adopting signifiers of heterosexuality. the modern day pop psychology movement (and it's subfields, new ageism, self help books, uhhh Market Christianity) also cannot be disentangled from academic psychology, which further bends the way in which people understand and interact with psychological phenomena. this of course does not mean that all data is junk data, or that methods of measurement are without some rigor, or that therapy is completely useless, but it's just patently incorrect to insist that this field is even predominantly an apolitical force attempting to further our understanding of human beings. it's bizarre that you acknowledge that credentialized individuals in the field can be flawed while also being uncritical of psychological categorization for mental illness.

It's not that I don't get what you're saying, but it's not reflective of reality. yes, I know that practitioners are supposed to help you feel out your symptoms and see what treatment works for you, but that isn't just what they're doing (assuming it's even being done with care and competence). it's inaccurate to insist that psychology doesn't speak in absolutes- I know that we are taught not to do this, but for any social science related field this is the equivalent of going "stop hitting yourself". in any practical real-world setting where accredited institutional psychology is present, there are rules. in a clinical setting, there are rules, and you can be inpatiented against your will for breaking those rules (or recently here in canada, randomly stripped of your driver's license). in neuromarketing (<- yes this is a real discipline.), which is intensively oriented towards results due to the profit incentive, there are rules. the conditions of release for many offenders necessitates staying on court-mandated medication or participating in specific programs. when H.B. Phrenology from The Heritage Foundation wheels out his thousandth manicured study on crime and race (and when a different journal publishes a study indirectly debunking it), that is him tacitly acknowledging that there are rules.

anyway did I ever tell you guys that in my first year at University of Toronto (UTSC campus baybee) they brought in a guest speaker to my abnormal psych course who gave us a lengthy talk on how autogynephilia theory is objectively true. this was like 2013ish maybe 2014 btw.

[rararazaquato]

Tell us more about le cartoon version of Raincode you have please.

Like of other characters appearing and more dynamics, including episodes.

oh BABY you're in for a treat!!!

i have a whole google doc planned out for this thing, despite me having no animation experience gjgkhkh... this is gonna be the Public Lore Dump Post btw, and spoilers for all of rain code will be under the cut.

so the concept for this whole thing came about while watching the animations of youtuber OkayScreamingNow. super cool animation btw, their "psycho teddy" animation moderately blew up but i'm a huge fan of their "everybody likes you" video.

between watching those, a ton of aimkid videos, wince media's meat bun song, and nicktendo's mighty b review, i started feeling really nostalgic for mid-late 2000s animation, the stuff i grew up on. growing up creepie, yin yang yo, kenny the shark, all these were shows i adored as a kid. so, combined with my current rain code fixation, this little au came to be!

the general conceit of this au is that "Master Detective Archives" is a 2008 animated children's program that lasted for 20 episodes and is majority lost media. only a couple episodes exist in the bowels of shitty piracy sites, and even then those sites keep getting taken down. the more screenshots and concept art i make, the more is "revealed" about the show.

one of the things that interests me the most about children's media is how people worked around the censors. a lot of people are familiar with the story of the ren and stimpy adult party cartoon. for those who aren't familiar, when john "god's mistake" kricfalusi created an adult oriented reboot of ren and stimpy, the show was dogshit. with the new ability to rely on the crutch of whatever grossout sexual humor it wanted, it became a massive stain on john k's career (he has had other horrific stains both before and after apc, but i need to stress, no one liked apc).

for a more positive example, i love pretty much all of jhonen vasquez's work, but i find the humor and even some of the horror of invader zim to be more interesting than the same stuff in jthm, because iz was working under far stricter standards and practices.

what i'm trying to get at is that i enjoy the challenge of seeing how i can take concepts and make them more kid-friendly while still keeping the intrigue and interest the concepts originally had. i worked at a summer camp in 2022, and the driving force behind this little project was "keeping rain code camp-appropriate, but also keeping it interesting".

this ethos will hopefully explain some of the Big Changes i made to the story and characters. i do want to stress that i do not think i am improving on the original work. i think rain code is a story that, inherently, works better as an m-rated, gritty, cyberpunk-y murder mystery. i've just always been uniquely fascinated by this particular genre shift.

so, first major change: nocturnal detective agency has turned into nocturnal detective academy. this is a place where young minds, particularly those with supernatural powers, go to hone their craft. or at least... it was. now it's run exclusively by three people: headmaster Zange Eraser, school nurse and therapist Melami Goldmine, and teacher (and everything else) Yakou Furio.

i grew up with a book series called school of fear, which was about a small group of kids with severe phobias being sent to help conquer their fears at a highly rated school. however, it was actually just a kooky old lady and her massive mansion, and while she helped the kids get over their fears, she did it in unorthodox and occasionally darkly humorous ways. i remember a scene in the books where she put the claustrophobe and the kid afraid of death in a coffin for a few hours, and while that is absolutely NOT how exposure therapy works, the idea of a school that's just a few adults running a lowkey scam out of their house has always tickled my funny bone.

so the nda is a school, teaching detective skills and the like. of course, because yakou is my beautiful failwife, he mostly just sends his students out into the city of Kanai Ward to do their own investigative work and report back with what they've learned... as long as they don't get in trouble with Hecksmile or his goons, at least!

yeah, the other big change is that the peacekeepers are more like team rocket than corrupt cops. while i agree that the police suck, and a lot of older cartoons seem to share that sentiment (even some newer ones like gravity falls), having all the villains be evil, corrupt cops seems like a recipe to get s&p on your ass. so now, the cops just don't do anything, and Hecksmile and his goons just wreak havoc whenever they feel like it.

(i've already explained the hecksmile bit in a previous post, but i dont think any of the other names would need changing. maybe if this was the 90s, desuhiko and fubuki would get their names changed to something more eurocentric, but this isn't the 90s and that stuff was cringe even back then.)

there are only seven students at the academy, and i've de-aged these characters to be more relatable to the target audience: our main character yuma, halara, desuhiko, fubuki, vivia, pucci, and aphex. i'll detail them a bit here, because yakou, zange, and melami can all stay pretty similar (actually, melami doesn't randomly feel up strangers to get their clothing measurements anymore, but that's a pretty minor change).

yuma is still our main character, acting as the straight man and audience surrogate. the whole "number one" twist isn't really a thing with how this whole plot is set up, so his awkward and generally "scrunkly" attitude from the game is his natural state here. though none of the ages of the characters are specified, he's often called out as the youngest detective, probably in his preteens or early teenagehood. his coalescence is used for a lot of teamwork-based solutions to problems, but he isn't that great at actual mystery-solving.

this is where shinigami comes in! in the first episode, after some hijinks, yuma accidentally summons a death god. fortunately, he summons a teenage death god. she can only appear in her cool human form in her summoner's dreams, she can't interact with anyone in the physical world except her summoner, and she doesn't even have her reaper's license yet! regardless, she likes having a friend, so she helps yuma see things from different perspectives. i figured death spirits wouldn't be off the table, exactly (i mean, look at billy and mandy), but i think there's a certain humor in a death god not being able to do any soul reaping. i like to think she talks about it like her driver's license. "ugh, i'm not allowed to reap any souls until i'm 16 thousand years old! i'm only 14 thousand!!!" because of her teenagerdom, her human form is going to be far less sexualized. also because i think her canon outfit is a little ugly.

halara doesn't change much from canon. very mysterious and intimidating. no one knows their gender because everyone's too afraid to ask (and to find out, you'd have to pay them about $100 in cash). they still love cats but have an allergy to them, they still don't trust people, etc.

desuhiko changes a lot from canon. he's less actively creepy and more of a wannabe romantic. he has a tendency to fall for grown women, although he has absolutely no chance with any of them. this is played for laughs.

fubuki is another character who doesn't change much from canon. obscenely rich and super out of touch with everything around her. has occasional bursts of intelligence for comedy.

vivia is still everyone's favorite emo sadboy, writing poetry in the fireplace. his passive suicidal ideation, though interesting to explore in media made for adults, is very dangerous to put in a children's show, so we're nixing that. instead, he's just real sleepy and goth. he's also the least interested in doing actual detective work, so when he and yuma are investigating together, it gives yuma a chance to take the lead.

pucci doesn't change much from canon, but admittedly, we don't know too much about her. she's sensitive to noise, very thoughtful and introspective, but very awkward around people being nice to her.

and aphex. what to say about aphex. i don't like aphex for a number of reasons (anyone who played with jpn audio can back me up on this one), but the idea of someone who is initially violent and cruel becoming your (still somewhat violent and cruel) ally is a fun character trope to me. my go-to example is buford from phineas and ferb, and i think that's the role aphex would play. initially a threat, but eventually becomes softer and more well-developed. well, if the show got more seasons.

and that's our main cast! i could talk about kurumi, makoto, and martina, as i have a lot of cool ideas for them, but i have been writing this for like an hour and i think i need to chill ahaha... ty for the ask!!!

[junowritings]

Hi, could I please get a BG3 matchup?

Pronouns- she/her

I generally prefer men

About me-

I love love love cats.

I tend to be pretty shy/timid until I know for sure the other person wants me around. I rarely ever approach someone I don't know; they need to make the first move. In social situations I tend to be more of an observer than a participant unless someone specifically includes me. Once I'm comfortable around someone, I'm still pretty quiet, until the conversation turns to something I'm really enthusiastic about; I'm okay with people infodumping as long as it's genuine & interesting. I can be a bit sassy, too, and I'm (usually) not afraid to laugh at myself. I'm a bit of a homebody, but if someone invites me out to do something, I'm usually game.

In a relationship, I'm pretty cuddly/affectionate- they'd better be prepared for all the touching, hugs, kisses, being my pillow… as long as they're into it, too, of course (even better if they're reciprocating).

I like to think I'm pretty smart- I got good grades in school and I tend to learn new things quickly. I'm pretty curious/inquisitive; I'll take almost any opportunity to learn something new. I like to figure out how things work (including taking things apart to fix them, like my old laptop to replace the keyboard or my original Nintendo DS to replace the broken hinge), and I even built my own PC! I've also dabbled a bit in programming.

For hobbies I like video games (imagine that!), ttrpgs, board games, also stuff like sudoku. I like gardening even if I'm not very good at it. When I get time, I enjoy doing cross-stitch, too.

Pet peeves/things that annoy me (aside from "standard" stuff like people being condescending, bigotry, etc.): unnecessary noise- dogs barking nonstop or children throwing temper tantrums in the grocery store; I hate repeating myself and being repeatedly interrupted; preventable stinkiness- people reeking of cat pee, cigarettes, wet basement, etc. (sweaty from a workout or something is one thing -and can even be kinda hot-, smelling like a month-old dirty litterbox is another)

Many thanks!

Heyya sorry that this one took so long! Literally got a few lines in and just knew who would be a great fit for you,,,

I match you with Gale!

From the word go, the pair of you end up hitting it off from the very first run in. Thanks to a little outside intervention of course.

You say you like cats, and Gale’s got one better - he’s got Tara. Just treat her with respect and compliment her and you’ll already be giving her a view on your fine character. It certainly helps that you mean no ill will towards her master either, but that’s besides the point.

If anything Tara’s ends up being a wingwoman for Mr. Dekarios - by the time you’re quietly cooing over how fluffy her wings are and she is set on instigating this match and by the gods will she go through with it. It will do him well to meet someone with such a fine taste for company after all! Of course Gale has been admiring you from the sidelines before his Tressym’s attempt at introductions, watching how you’re content to observe the world around you unless someone makes a point to include you. And the wizard does his best to make you feel included! He will absolutely make sure that you want his company and that you’re comfortable having him around before he goes intruding on your revelry.

Don’t worry at all about being quiet! If you prefer to have the silence filled he is more than happy to wile the time away regalling you with whatever current topic has intrigued him at the moment - usually it will have something to do with a breakthrough he’s made in his studies, or detailing a novel that he’s been pouring over with witty commentary on the contents to match. Will get a little too hung up about the wow-factor of the topics he tells you about, wanting to genuinely impress you with it. Just assure him that you’re interested in what he’s saying and he’s not boring you and this guy is a goner. Knowing that you don’t mind listening to him? With no expectation for something from the wizard? It doesn’t seem like a lot but I can tell you his heart is done for and the pining begins.

PLEASE, I cannot stress this enough - shower this man in all the affection you want to give him. He is an absolute sponge for it and gives you this little lovestruck look if the potential for love and affection is on the table. Kiss his cheeks till he’s red all the way up his ears and down his neck; hug him as tight as you’d wish or tuck yourself in close to his side. No matter the expression of affection, Gale would gladly spend the rest of his days under the onslaught of your attention. What he loves most is when you hold him close; the casual intimacy of being close to someone he cares for so much and cares for him in turn makes his chest swell and the aches melt from his bones. Card your hands through his hair for good measure? Gods you must be trying to kill him with love, yet he can think of no finer a demise than beneath the soft touch of your hands. 

Gale fully accepts his new future life as your pillow during cuddles. He sees it as a perfect compromise - you get to use his soft chest to lounge on at your own leisure, and he gets to bask in the weight of your presence curling up upon his torso as you make yourself comfortable. Likes to let his hands smooth over your back as you relax, calloused fingertips moving in such a way you could swear that he’s tracing patterns, but he’s far too good at easing the tensions from your muscles to spell out what he’s tracing unless you focus. (Spoiler alert it’s something sappy - maybe hearts). May or may not doze off if he finds himself relaxing too much - what can he say? It’s more comfortable than he thought! Plus the thought of waking up with you there makes the prospect of a quick nap far too tempting to pass up.

He loves your inquisitive nature; it’s one of your many stunning attributes that allows the pair of you to mesh so well. You’re a quick learner, taking to any new tidbit that Gale is excited to share with you as naturally as you breathe. It’s beautiful, really, watching you process the world around you and seeing what inspires your mind, and Gale loves nothing more than to encourage that curious mindset that you possess.

Fascinated watching you take things apart. He’s got a myriad of artifacts scattered around his home, thanks to a penchant for collecting them and keeping a small hoard of the stuff around for when he’s looking for stuff to pass the time. Feel free to take some of the non-lethal-to-the-touch ones and have fun prying them open to find out what makes them tick. He can think of no better use for them, and is actually rather intrigued to see what new discoveries you can make in dismantling and piecing these items back together again. He’ll even go out of his way when he’s out at the markets to find things that will stimulate that curious brain of yours. If you’re into those intricate puzzle boxes to test your skills he’s more than happy to bring them back for you,

The kind of partner who will lean over your shoulder while you’re working through a sudoku page and help you point out ones that have you stumped. It’s cute, but you may have to playfully ward him away with your pen if you’re absolutely set on solving these things on your own. He’ll take to ttrpgs like a duck to water - literally give him like an hour to go over the mechanics of whichever one you wanna show him and he is so ready you have to laugh at how invested he gets. You may have just introduced the man to his second favorite pastime - the first being you, of course.

[lensman-arms-race]

TV-unit serials in the setting for my fics

(Link to my fics is in my pinned post.) I'm not setting out to create an AU; my fics are meant to be canon-compliant in the sense that 'DFB never says it can't happen this way'. I'm just having fun making up extra details that probably won't be covered in canon.

Most TVs have 4-digit serials, which are procedurally-generated. Serials below 4 digits are manually assigned.

1-digit serials:

0001: The Imperator (the term I use for the Matriarchs in my fics)

0002: The Titan

These would be rendered verbally as 'triple-zero-one' and 'triple-zero-two'. These two units very rarely need to reference their serials because of their status; everyone already knows who they are.

Serials 0003 to 0009 are currently unused.

2-digit serials:

Currently Polycephaly has the only 2-digit serial: 0010, rendered verbally as 'double-zero-ten'. Again, Polycephaly rarely has cause to refer to themself by serial. Being the only large unit in their faction makes them pretty distinctive.

Serials 0011 to 0099 are currently unused.

3-digit serials:

Currently not in use. Serials 0100 to 0999 are available and will likely be allocated for research/experimental purposes.

4-digit serials:

As used by standard TV-units.

While it is physically possible to build a TV shell, load a new software brain into it and power it on, this is not recommended and not done. A unit built in such a way would likely be forever a stimulus-response machine rather than developing full self-awareness or much of a personality, would likely have poor control over its screen powers, and would not necessarily even be loyal to its own faction.

Instead, units are 'born' as software in server farms called 'creches', where they start off as simple programs and gradually bootstrap themselves into self-awareness, moving onto simulated training until they're ready to be uploaded into actual hardware bodies. In this way, you end up with a unit with a proper theory of mind and personality, that's loyal to its faction.

(I am assuming the above is also true for Cameras and Speakers, but I haven't explored this in my fics. I think the TVs must take longer to create given that there are comparatively few of them, perhaps because they have all their screen and teleport powers to master before they can be allowed to let loose with a real body.)

The 4 digits are allocated as follows:

Corresponds to the creche (server farm) number.

Random digit.

Corresponds to the day of the month of activation (placed into a hardware body).

Corresponds to the server number within the creche.

Cygnus, for example, has the serial 5022 (rendered verbally as Fifty-Twenty-Two). This tells us they were generated in server 2 within creche 5, and were activated on a day ending in 2 (the 02nd, 12th or 22nd). The zero is just a random identifier to distinguish them from any other TVs that happened to be generated on the same day from the exact same server. (This has yet to happen in practice. It's rare for more than 1 TV to come into existence on the same day. Plus, most of the nascent softwares will simply error out of existence rather than become sentient.)

The Titan's chief engineer has the serial 1668 (Sixteen-Sixty-Eight), and the Titan themself had the serial 1791 (Seventeen-Ninety-One) when they were a normal pre-Titan unit. This tells us that both the Titan and its main engineer were generated in the same server farm (1), but on different servers.

(I've no idea what system the Cameras and Speakers use. I'm inclined to think the Cameras just have sequential serials because they're squares like that.)

The Imperator's (TV Matriarch's) two bodyguards have the serials 1153 and 1566, but they are a rare exception, as these aren't their original serials. There were 16 candidates for being remade into the Titan, and the two bodyguards were 2 such candidates. All the candidates had their serials expunged and new ones allocated, so that no-one (besides the chief engineer and the Titan themself) would know which candidate had become the Titan. The two bodyguards have hypothetical serials (as do the other 13 candidates that were considered for Titanhood).

Feel free to steal any parts of this you like for your own OCs/fics; I don't own the concept of allocating numbers.

[doshmanziari]

This is a question I originally posed on Instagram recently, and I thought I would extend the question here, since I am sure it will find some resonance among this account's audience (and others').

To quote (and elaborate on) my IG post:

Despite all of the ostensible advances made in recent years regarding the amplifying of marginalized creative voices, I find that one of the greatest persistent prejudices of the art world continues to be the positioning of painting as fundamentally more important than drawing. Pay attention and you will see that the art world -- galleries, museums, and art-makers, too -- still largely gravitates around the idea that it is only in exceptional cases that drawing can be painting’s equal. It is highly uncommon, in my experience, to find galleries which prioritize two-dimensional artwork to showcase as much drawing as they do painting. In fact, drawing seems to be a rarity in the upper echelons of the gallery world. Painting, sculpture, "installation" work, and -- to an extent -- photography occupy spaces of priority. This obviously has great ramifications for both what is highlighted and, as a consequence, what sort of work sells. The reasons for this bias, I believe, are complex and various; but I do think a lot of it stems from cultural conditioning, who we decide to canonize, and which work of theirs is chosen for highlighting. Michelangelo, for instance, was a masterful drawer (actually, I find that his drawings much more powerfully exhibit his abilities to render and selectively distort bodies than his paintings do), yet we still largely think of him in terms of his sculptures and frescoes, and treat his drawings as pretty much intermediate work.

Consider an instance of how this prejudice works within language. While we have the term “painterly”, which seems to refer to some activation of paint’s inherent sensuousness (often, it is applied in tandem with work where paint is applied generously and the brushstrokes are visible), we lack an equivalent term for drawing. People searching for a word might say something about “draftsmanship." To me, this word connote precision -- but also some sort of mechanical aspect, denying drawing its inherent sensuality too; and, with the inclusion of the word "draft", implying that drawing is merely that which precedes the "finished" work. One of the most prevalent witty critiques in my graduate program -- probably originally perpetuated by faculty, and then adopted by students, eager to utilize the slickest slams -- was to describe a work as “illustrative." I see this pejorative as in some way connecting to drawing, since we are most familiar with illustrations through the format of drawings, or a mixture of drawing and painting. I wonder, too, if this description was not reinforcing a notion that illustration has some inherent adjacency to literalism or crass commercialism -- that it would somehow be beneath the "professional" or "fine" artist were they to ever illustrate a book or make a comic book, or that such work strictly and forever stands outside of a worthy context.

Of course, I think this is total bullshit. Many of my most precious experiences of art as a child and teenager came by way of illustrations, and I still have great respect and admiration for those artists, even if I may not draw like them. While growing up, only rarely did I have the opportunity of going to galleries or museums and taking in artwork that way -- which isn't to say that I would not have responded with equal excitement to any of the art which may have been on display at such institutions. But it is to say that illustration -- representational drawing -- served as one of the greatest motivators and standards to which I held myself in my growth as an artist (a growth, mind you, which has never ended, and never will), and that it would be pointless and self-demeaning to treat these points of inspiration with an arrogant contempt. For me, drawing holds a great and unique appeal of accessibility -- in its making, the visibility of how it was made, and how it may encourage others to take up art themselves. Compare, for example, what you need in order to execute an oil painting against what you need in order to execute a colored pencil drawing. I would encourage anyone who may hold biases otherwise to reconsider why they are perpetuating this privileging of material. I would additionally ask people to consider why "importance" is ostensibly the greatest indicator of art that's worth paying attention to (while noting that a general agreement, as indicated by majority culture, is not always an indicator of pernicious hegemony). For myself, I have found that a lot of the most "important" artwork -- at least by contemporary, or still-living, artists -- tends to be fairly one-note and anti-visual. The largest crowds, most laudatory curatorial statements, and biggest installations can never make me care about such stuff.

[lunarmoonanons]

Quiet Nights

🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕  

When Anakin and Ahsoka get leave, they both like to spend time with his wife. Family night and the HoloTv. Let me live in a daydream that it all turned out okay.

🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕  

Masterlist 

It was a calm evening on Coruscant, the sunset was shining into the private apartments of Senator YN. The Senator was sitting on her couch, her husband was next to her, and his padawan was crisscrossed in front of YN; all three were watching shows on the holoTV. Some random drama was playing as all three spent time together on the rare nights all were free from responsibilities.

Ahsoka was leaning her head back as YN twisted the silka beads so they held better, the beads had gotten loose due to her excursions on the battlefield. Anakin was resting his hand on YN’s thigh smiling at her absentmindedly. It was always a treat to have a night at YN’s.

“Ahsoka stop moving. I’m gonna end up pulling it out.” YN lightly scolded.

“Can’t help it. I’m just way too invested in whether this Casso guy is gonna keep his promise or just betray Amma.” Ahsoka excused and decided to lean forward in spite, making YN laugh slightly.

“I don’t think he’s honorable. He’ll definitely run off.” Anakin added his two credits in. :I don’t care how pretty he is, he’s a sleemo. Ahsoka never fall for his type.”

“But he’s so pretty.” She laughed and pretended to argue.

“Listen to your Master, little miss. That boy ain’t good enough for you.” YN laughed as she ‘scolded’ Ahsoka, finishing her beads and patting her montrails.

“Yes moooommm.” The teen teased back, causing all three to laugh slightly.

YN sat back and rested her head on Anakin’s shoulder, lacing her fingers between his. These ‘family’ nights had started only a few months ago. Since Ahsoka was so clever she basically rooted out her master’s and the senator’s secret marriage only a standard month into her time with him. Shock gave way to acceptance, eventually YN and Anakin were treating Ahsoka like their own daughter. Even though she had a family in the jedi, their little tight knit group was another home for her.

One day, they’d let others in. When the fear of their consequences would dull they’d be open about their love. But for now, Anakin was content to have it just them, occasionally Rex if he was up to it.

“Artoo, how many episodes are there?” Ahsoka asked the droid who was stationed near the couch watching with them. He responded with an optimistic number.

“24? Oh that’ll require some planning if we’re all gonna see it together. Threepio, can you make sure to remind me to set time aside for us when available?” YN asked the golden droid who stood next to his astro companion.

“Of course ma’am. I’d dare say R2D2 and I would also look forward to seeing more.” The protocol droid responded, resting his hand on his companion's top.

Once the sun was set and the stars had settled on the night sky, YN and Anakin curled together. YN’s head rested on his chest as he lightly ran his fingers up and down her upper arm. Their previous program had ended so they were watching a reality series. YN was content to let the night fade on like this, when they were interrupted by a news segment. A separtist force had attacked and was occupying the moons of an outer rim republic planet. YN sat up and removed herself from her husband's arms. She knew that the system had been defended by the 501st, so it was most likely they’d call them up to retake it. Lo and behold, Anakin’s comlink went off and he went outside to answer it. Ahsoka noticed YN’s worried face and went to sit next to her on the couch.

“It’s okay, YN. I won’t let anything happen to him.” She tried to jokingly reassure. “We’ll both come back.”

“I know, ‘Soka. I just wished we could’ve spent more time together before the war snatched you all from me. It must sound selfish, I do know that.” YN sighed. Ahsoka hugged her tight, YN rubbed her back in appreciation.

“I don’t think you’re selfish.”

Before she could respond, Anakin walked looking rather irritated and tired.

“Ahsoka, we gotta get going. I need a moment with YN, please.” Anakin mentioned, Ahsoka nodded and got up offering a small ‘bye’ to YN, taking Artoo with her. YN got up as well and placed her hands on his chest.

“I wish you didn’t have to go. I wish you both could just stay here with me.” YN murmured. Anakin held her cheek in his palm.

“I know my love. I wish we could stay too, but we have to go. We’ll both be back before you know it.” Anakin tried to reassure her.

The two met in a soft kiss. His thumb rubbing gently on her cheekbone, her hands went up to play with the ends of his hair. The kiss couldn’t last long though, and they both pulled apart resting their foreheads together.

“I love Anakin.”

“I love you too.”

🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕  

I told you I’d make more. I love the found family in TCW. And I said there’d be a bit of canon divergence

[bleaksqueak]

I wanted to ask you a couple questions about the school structure for the Veil if you can talk about it. It seems like the academy and university are fairly closely linked but do they operate basically the same as our hs/uni do? Like picking a major/trade kind of thing. I think I saw that Audric was listed as a post grad but still a trainee so is there reaper uni classes then a sort of practicum afterwards? I hope this makes sense. I’ve tried to write this ask 5 times now

So, I spent some time rooting around my files, because a long while back I drew a map of the campus grounds for the spire...but now I can't find it, so i wonder if it's one of the unfortunate victims that got jumbled when I moved to my new machine. Ah well. But yes! They're quite literally linked, since that's why I even went looking for the file. The two campuses are side by side and share certain amenities.

so these are some super rough unfinished concept things from my files, but this ought to at least show the physical setup. There's a primary school within the spire as well. Somewhere in there. I haven't decided yet, not that it ultra matters, so let's just say it's somewhere in the middle. As for how they operate-- You got it already, more or less! The schools themselves are famous for their reaper program, having been founded by the same scholar who founded the organization itself. Of course, with Veil attuned students being one of the rarer attunements, the island's --uh, resources , to put it kindly, and the focused study needed to train those who would take on the veil's blight, the schools have a bounty of academic wealth to impart on hopeful magi graduates as well as those seeking to become eidolons. So there's several fields here that will gain a shining education in their field if they put in the hard work (... And, strangely enough, they have a pretty good classic lit department.) Using reapers as an example, the path would be as follows: Enrollment to secondary school and all basic curriculum classes as normal > attunement > undergrad prep courses for the reaper program if it's accepted (most do) > first stage of graduation undertakes the Eidolic Aperature (Uncap Ceremony, breaking the limits of magi's natural magic limit) > If successful, second stage will complete the full graduation ceremony and go on to university > training /studying intensifies, focusing more on study (the nature of liminal tears, wraith winds, corruptions, and the tools reapers operate) and choosing which field they will pursue in the program, while all are given a basic training course in specific magics and hunting techniques that ramps up until > completing the four year program, grad students engage in full trade training, working as the island's main service of hunters, scouts and sentries. Audric is currently in the final stage of this, hence the gossip quoting him as "Just a student, but practically the real deal." Primary school is fairly standard as can be, but it's a bit more fun to learn those classic subjects when you have the fun of enchanted textbooks and a kind, quirky siren for a teacher who plans fun aquatic fieldtrips. At least she tends to be everyone's favorite (She's also a grad level professor who works specifically with Aetherbiology majors and Reapers in their first years of university. She's one of Audric's favorite professors-- if not his top favorite.) Lichgate in general is something of an outlier for how its schools operate, though. It isn't exactly standard practice to smash them together at the very top of a spire, or to offer such an exacting focus from the moment of enrollment (on in some certain cases, attunement) until you've essentially gained your equivalent of a doctoral/masters. The location sitting right on the Veil's most unstable liminal tear is to thank for that-- and of course, even if you don't care as much about your education, it somehow manages to be the safest campus. As long as you follow the rules, obey curfew, don't wander off, and do exactly as your professors say during any off-spire excursions, especially.

[lifesarchive]

UGLIES by SCOTT WESTERFELD (A REVIST)

quickly: a new friend wakes a teenage girl up to the not-so-pretty world she is living in (new face, who dis! / pretty privilege / mandatory plastic surgery / pranks and tricks as a lifestyle / journeys over the river and through the woods / solar powered hoverboards / dehydrated foodstuffs / engineered plastic and nanotech glues / ecofriendly totalitarianism / the deep deep state / underground facilities / government programming / citizen deprogramming / backstabbing the backstabbers).

Rereading since originally reading it back in 2007. First book of 2024!

Vintage clothing is cool, but what will we do when our entire society and way of life becomes vintage? What if, in an effort to rid society of its ills (war, illness, violence, etc.) we developed a medical procedure that made everyone the same and dulled our sensibilities? Scott Westerfeld isn’t a master wordsmith with a poet’s pen, but that’s not what we came here for anyway. We came for the well-constructed futuristic dystopian universe jam-packed with unimaginable avant-garde technology and the social dilemmas that erupt when humanity and technology collide. There are hoverboards that work by magnetism, medical procedures that can regrow all the skin on your body and reshape your entire bone structure, and surveillance so precise it practically knows what you are thinking.

At the center of all of this is Tally, a fifteen-year-old girl who wants exactly what everyone else in her world has been programmed to want: to be pretty. While she is awaiting the government-facilitated procedure that will make her “the standard” and initiate her into young adult society, she meets a new friend who is also nearing the time of her pretty procedure. Her new friend is a radical, transfixed by the idea of a land faraway called “The Smoke”, where many of the Uglies have been escaping to evade the overseeing technological eyes of their government… a government so secret that some don’t believe it even exists. As Tally is exposed to life outside The Cities, she becomes the focal point of a massive movement of rebellion. This was a fun, wild hoverboard ride through a very futuristic world that felt very grounded in today’s times.

★ ★ ★ ★

more thoughts: SPOILERS!

Thoughts are italicized, spoilers are not: 

Some personal context… I originally read the entire Uglies trilogy one summer in 2007. I had a boxed set that included UGLIES, PRETTIES, and SPECIALS. EXTRAS hadn’t come out yet, and I’ve never read it. I vividly remember the 3 book set with the high-fashion editorial style covers. My original copies were lost in what I call “The Flood”, which took a great number of pieces in my literary collection to a moldy watery grave. I found a pic of them on Amazon though. 

These covers are SO MUCH better than the current blank generic covers they have in stores and libraries. I plan on rereading the entire series and finshing with a first read of the last book, EXTRAS.

This book made me feel like it was 2007 again, and that I could throw this book down at any moment, step outside, and find my friends waiting for me to go along on one of our adventures playing in the woods that connected our backyards.

The book starts with Tally pulling a trick by sneaking into the highly monitored New Pretty Town to visit an old friend. Tally is a young, simple, coming-of-age girl who thinks just like everyone around her… life is useless until you turn 16 and the government turns you pretty, and then life is great. Until 16, nothing matters and no one takes you seriously. Uglies, as people are lovingly called pre-operation, are expected to be wild, uncontrollable, trouble-making good for nothings. This is why all of their pranks are referred to as ugly tricks, or simply tricks. When you’re a pretty, you don’t have time for such trickery. 

The Uglies live in dorms that are bland and interchangeable. The Pretties live in a glamorous city within a city, where life is a party with a formal dress code. Then eventually Pretties undergo a second operation to become a “Middle Pretty” where they move out to the suburbs to have “Littlies”, before turning into “Crumblies” and are moved further to the edges of society. Of course, all this turns out to be well-thought-out propoganda 

Tally makes a new friend, Shay, after her old best friend Peris reaches Pretty age and undergoes the operation. He moves to New Pretty Town immediately after, as is customary, leaving Ugly life behind. After busting into New Pretty Town to see how much Peris has changed, she decides it is best to just wait until she has her own operation to see him again. Her time spent with the rebellious and adventurous Shay increases. 

Shay teaches Tally how to hack her hoverboard, sneak out of The City, and tells her about The Smoke. A place where people live as ‘Uglies’ by choice, opting out of having the operation to become pretty. Shay teaches Tally the way to the rusting city ruins where Uglies meet up to find the mysterious David who will someday lead those willing to make the journey to The Smoke.

Tally can’t comprehend life lived as an Ugly, and doesn’t understand why anyone would want to forgo the operation to become Pretty. This is why she can’t tell Shay YES, when Shay asks Tally to run away to the smoke with her before her operation. Tally ends up making the journey anyway, alone, after she is manipulated by Special Circumstances (a secret underground division of the government) into betraying her friend and everyone at The Smoke. 

Life in The Smoke opens her eyes to the real world that has been hidden from her. Her desire to be pretty wanes, and disappears after bonding with the other residents. She falls in love with David and plans to stay. After accidentally triggering the tracking device given to her by Special Circumstances, Tally leads SC directly to The Smoke. It is swiftly destroyed and all the Smokies are detained. (Cue big breakout scene where Tally escapes custody, tracks down the detainees, and frees them.)

After all the hell she’s raised, Tally ends up developing a plan to help right some of her wrongs, but you’ll have to make it through to the end to see what that may be.

The rest is for you to read on your own!

I’ve read some of the reviews on Goodreads that criticize Tally’s character as being too vain, dumb, selfish, etc. This makes me wonder if the readers with those opinions understood the circumstances of the world that Tally was a part of. Everyone was vain, dumb, and selfish. No one wanted to look under the veneer of their society because there was no reason to. Everything was taken care of. The people in this world were programmed to think that the past was a monstrous barbaric place and that all the world’s problems were solved by the development of ’the Cities’ and the Pretty operation. 

I’ve also read some reviews that criticize the fact that Tally’s love interest David is what inspires her to make her big decision to leave the cities for good. I think that is a poor summarization of this character’s journey. After having to make the long journey to The Smoke by herself, Tally endured a process of disillusionment that separated her from her life in The City. She had gone from a place where everything was planned, every move was monitored, and the threat of world catastrophe was linked to how ugly or pretty citizens were. She had never been in real danger until she made her journey to The Smoke. She had never met anyone older than 16 who was not “pretty” until she arrived at the camp, The Smoke. David was just one of the reasons she made her decisions, not the sole reason. In fact, Tally’s journey begins and ends with her trying to save her girl-friend Shay.

I won’t go into too much more detail about the story. It was just a fun read, an adventure, a journey, all those things. So glad to have re-read it, and so glad it held up after all these years. There are plenty of high-speed chases, thrilling escapes, and ingenious hi-jinks to keep you turning the page. And if you’re a tumblr kid like me, there are loads of nostalgia in reading this book again all these years later. It’s wild to think that this never made it to the big screen or as a series on someone’s streaming service.