#importance of 21st-century skills

[niennanir]

Listen to your elders

So last week I posted abut the importance of downloading your fic. And then three days later AO3 went down for 24 hours. No one was more weirded out by this than I was. But while y’all were acting like the library at Alexandria was on fire I was reading my download fic and editing chapter eight of Buck, Rogers, and the 21st Century. And also thinking about what I could do to be helpful when the crisis was actually over.

So first off, I’m going to repeat that if you’re going to bookmark a fic, you really need to also download the fic and back it up in a safe place. I just do it automatically now and it’s a good habit to get into.

But let’s talk about some other scenarios. Last October I lost power for over a week after hurricane Ian. Apart from not having internet or A/C I did find plenty to do, I collect books so I had plenty to read, but maybe, unlike me, your favorite comfort reads aren’t sitting on a bookshelf. So let’s do something about that, shall we?

In olden times many long years ago around 1995 we printed off a lot of fic. It was mostly SOP to print a fic you planned to reread and stick it in a three ring binder. And that’s totally valid today too, but you can also make a very nice paperback with a minimum amount of skill and materials.

Let’s start with the download; Go to Ao3 and select your fic, we’ll be working with one of mine. This method works best with one shots, long fic tends to need a more complicated approach. Get yourself an HTML download

Open up the HTML download and select all then copy paste into any word processor. Set the page to landscape and two columns, then change the font to something you find easy to read, this is your book, no judgement. This is all you have to do for layout but I like to play a little bit. I move all the meta, summary, notes to the end and pick out a fun font for the title: 

No time like the present to do a quick proofread. Congratulations, you’ve just created your first typeset. On to the fun part.

Now you’re going to need some materials:  8.5x11in paper ruler one sheet of 12x12 medium card stock (60-80lb) scissors pencil pen or fine tip marker sheet of wax paper white glue two binder clips 2 heavy books or 1 brick butter knife

You’ll also need a printer, if you’re in the US there is almost a 100% chance your local library has a printer you can use if you don’t have your own. None of these materials are expensive and you can literally use cheap copy paper and Elmers glue.

Print your text block, one page per side. Fold the first page in half so that the blank side is inside and the printed side out:

use the butter knife to crease the edge. Repeat on all the sheets. When you’ve finished, stack them up with the raw edge on the left and the folded edge on the right. I used standard copy paper, because you’re only printing on one side there’s no bleed to worry about. Take the text block and line everything up. Use the binder clips to hold the raw edge in place.

Wrap the text block in the wax paper so that the raw edge and binder clips are facing out. I’m going to use my home built book press but you don’t need one, a brick or a couple of books or anything else heavy will work fine.

Once the text block is anchored down, take off he binder clips and get out the glue.

You can use a brush but you don’t need one, smear some glue on that raw edge.

Go make a margarita, watch The Mandalorian, call your mother. Don’t come back for at least an hour

In an hour smear some more glue on there and shift your brick forward so that the whole book is covered. This keeps the paper from warping. While glue part 2 is drying we’ll do the cover. Get out your 12x12 cardstock

Mark the cardstock off at 8.5 inches and cut it. Measure in 5.5 inches from the left and put in a score line with the butter knife (the back edge not the sharp edge)

Carefully fold the score line, this is your front cover. You have some options for the cover title, you can use a cutting machine like a cricut if you have one, you can print out a title on the computer and use carbon paper to transfer the text to the cardstock. I was in a mood so I just freehanded that beoch. Pencil first then in pen.

Take your text block out from under your brick. Line it up against the score mark and mark the second score on the other side of the spine

Fold the score and glue the textblock into the cover at the spine. Once the glue dries up mark the back cover with the pencil and then trim the back cover to fit with your scissors.

Voila:

I’m going to put this baby on the shelf next to the Silmarillion.

The whole process, not counting drying time, took less than an hour.

If you want to make a book of a longer fic, I recommend Renegade Publishing, they have a ton of resources for fan-binders. 

[post-leffert]

For An Anarchist Radio Relay League

A free zine about amateur radio for anarchists.

For an Anarchist Radio Relay League (0.24.1.1)

For an Anarchist Radio Relay League (0.24.1.1) -booklet

However, in a time when the United States government is fighting tooth and nail for the preservation of its own legitimacy while simultaneously eviscerating community services by way of privatization (Health Care, Postal Service, Public Land, Public schools, you name it), it is as important for the anti-authoritarian Working Class to learn about the science and art of radio communication as it is to learn how to grow food and shoot straight. (read "Factories, Fields, and the Firearms to Defend Them" by Hybachi LeMar )

In fact, in October of 2020, Ajit Pai's* FCC** ordered amateur access to the 3.5GHz band to be "sunset" (http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-orders-amateur-access-to-3-5-ghz-band-to-sunset ) so that the frequency space can be sold to private companies to expand the new 5G mobile network. While this isn't exactly disastrous for anyone other than a specific sub-set of Hams***, it is par for the course for this early half of the 21st Century that the government would sell off public property to the highest bidder so that private companies can sell it back to "Consumers" and lock poor people out of access to something as ubiquitous as air or water. Sound familiar? (https://iaffaiorg.wordpress.com/2020/10/11/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-5-communications-equipment-for-rebels/)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

[submitted 4/24/2024; 📂 for later reference]

WIBTA for reporting teachers to my school principal on the basis of the quality of their teaching?

Hello! For context, my school follows K-12 and I'm in my 2nd to last year (G11). Where I live (I don't know if it's the same for other countries) we all have to get into a track, and each track usually has its own teaching staff led by appointed coordinators who report to the principal every month or so regarding the performance of the teachers under them, though I've heard of some teaching in two or even three other tracks. This information will be important later on.

My first class in the morning is literature, more specifically 21st century literature, and it's taught by Mrs. G. The first thing that gave me a hint that the English-based subjects wouldn't be as great as I hoped was the fact that she was a nursing student. (It's on her Facebook profile. Nearly everyone I know in school posts concerningly detailed stuff about themselves on Facebook, and I just use it for the Messenger...)

Second or third in the morning on a normal school day is Ms. C. She's a DOST scholar which doesn't bother me in the slightest, but out of all the staff that handles the track I'm in, she's the only one who handles two subjects: Statistics and Reading & Writing, another English-based subject, one she doesn't have any certification for. (Again, from Facebook.)

Still, I know well that our system isn't perfect so I sat through their lessons. I was the kid that read a lot of books so I consistently scored high, but I noticed after reading a bit of DepEd learning plans that my classmates and I weren't getting the most out of their lessons for the competencies we were supposed to achieve - for literature, we needed exposure to representative texts from each continent, and for R&W, we were supposed to learn types of reading (archetypal, sociological, etc) earlier. The kindest I can say about them regarding their teaching is that they're deviating from the learning plans in a bad way + spoonfeeding the classes without making them think critically which I know is an important skill when it comes to their subjects.

I later learned from my mom who used to teach at my school that they're still able to hold their positions because they, for lack of a better word, bribe the coordinator with food and a bit of guilt-tripping since some of them are related to him, all to stay in the staff of my track because it's the most convenient one (2nd floor, one hall only). And the coordinator has let it happen for how many years already. It's a matter that should've been reported to the school principal and the division office, but I guess nobody's really had the guts to try and fix this for the sake of the quality of our learning.

I'm going to feel really guilty if I took up on that though. Mrs. G just gave birth this year and needs the salary to provide for her son, and Ms. C doesn't want to give up R&W so she can have enough teaching load + to keep staying in the staff of my track where it's safest to avoid her possibly abusive boyfriend, from what I've heard over the year. I want to do something, not out of malice, but out of concern that the next G11 batch wouldn't learn those 2 subjects and the necessary skills for them properly (because not all of them can afford to self-study).

So, WIBTA?

[aliciavance4228]

If there's one over hated god by Greek Mythology Enthusiasts, that is Zeus. And look, I know that in most Greek Mythology ecranisations he's presented in a similar way the Christian God is or that he indeed did a LOT of horrible things he deserves to be criticized for. However, some people are going way too far with this criticize, to the point where they start to over exaggerate all of his bad actions, then erase all of his good traits, and then slowly start to portray him as a cartoon villain.

Which not only that is very reductive when it comes to a figure like Zeus, but it's also not the case as often as many people would like to believe.

The most prominent example is the myth of Philemon and Baucis: Zeus and Hermes were traveling the Earth disguised as mortals, asking people for a place to sleep that night. Everyone refused to welcome them in their house except for a poor old couple. Zeus not only that told them about the flood and advised them to climb the mountain so that they would be safe, but he also fulfilled their wish to die together as well.

There were also situations or parts from several myths where he acts as the mediator between the gods and the enforcer of laws (but not in rigid, unrealistic manner). He punished those who were violating his laws of hospitality (especially when it came to murder) and had his own moments when he took pity of those who were wronged.

And look, I know that it's really hard not to judge him as individuals of the 21st Century with a completely different mentality and perception of morality, which is highly based on this Good-Evil Spectrum. It doesn’t help the fact that we're talking here about a patriarchal society either, with him as the supreme figure of it. And it's quite easy to observe that, given the fact that he doesn't allow Hera to have as much as him, or that he doesn't hesitate to punish or humiliate her many times, or that he assaulted lots of women so that they would bear him honorable children etc. Which by ancient standard would be considered acceptable or even admirable, but by modern standards you cannot help but view him as a serial rapist.

But I'm here to tell you that this is part of the reason why he's a complex deity in the first place. He's supposed to be a represantion of kings/authority figures, and power naturally corrupts even the most level-headed, strong psyches. I also think that it's important to emphasize the fact that he wasn't always a king.

He was raised in secret so that his father won't be aware of his existence, freed his siblings from his stomach after he drank a potion Metis prepared after Zeus convinced her to help him, started a whole war between gods and titans with him as the leader of one side, freed the Cyclops and Hecatoncheires, overthrew his father and threw him into Tartarus. You can come up with thousands of assumptions about his personality purely based on what is suggested in the Theogony: he's strategic, determinate, ambitious, cunning, manipulative, influential, has great leadership skills etc. Yes, he slowly started to abuse his power throughout the centuries, but that doesn’t mean that he isn't capable of being a competent ruler, nor that he didn't deserve this position in the first place.

What if instead of taking into account only his current position as the King of the Gods, people would start focusing on his whole journey and evolution? What if he was a briliant, charismatic boy once who had only noble intetions, but then became consumed by his own power and aspirations to the point of turning into the corrupt deity that we see in many myths? I'm mostly rambling now, but it would be a much more interesting idea that would help depicting him as a compelling, morally-grey figure instead of pure evil.

[troutfur]

With how you characterize Cloudtail, what’s he like? His relationship to Firestar and his cousins Squirrelflight and Leafpool? His mate and children?

A lot of what I think of Cloudtail's characterization in Haneossia stems from a frustration with his uncle. Fireheart assimilated... not easily, he definitely gets much pushback and bigotry. But perhaps it'd be more accurate to say fully. This is helped by the fact he was well-trained and turned out to be a strong and skilled fighter. Very much a true believer in the power of hard work and keeping your head down until you prove yourself.

As Cloudkit and later Cloudpaw grew into the Clan with that same aura of distrust around him and later came to understand where it all came from, he was outraged. But Fireheart definitely tried to steer him into proving himself the way that it'd worked for him. This led him to really try to connect with Princess and his kittypet heritage, leading directly into the incident where he was adopted out and had to escape later.

It's not that Fireheart denied him a connection to Princess. But he certainly expected him to meet her and move on fast. Not for him to deepen it and keep in close contact. It's something that he carved out for himself, always careful to not arouse suspicion and get caught. I think on some level Firestar may have later figured it out but rather than cutting it out he reluctantly let it continue. He thinks it was the right decision for him to cut contact but he lives his what if vicariously through Cloudtail.

It's this early experience with the flaws of the Clans and the contact he kept with his mother that set the stage for his atheism. Atheism is not exactly the right word but rather than get into the nitty gritty of the comparative religion hair-splitting the important thing is he doesn't believe in an afterlife nor that natural phenomena have agency and personhood. He just never got enough satisfactory answers to counteract his skeptic attitude.

He is not an intentionally obtuse idiot. He clearly knows that magic exists in his world but he doesn't think it is directed by a being any more than your average 21st century person believes that gravity or electromagnetism is directed by a being.

I feel this rebel streak and willingness to question things served him well with regards to Brightheart. He is able to ground her when Clan ideas of worthiness, honor, and legacy are being maladaptive to how she thinks. He brings her a reality check and although she doesn't agree with all of his rebel behavior she can tolerate it for that. Plus he is just genuinely smitten by her and he's a great hugger too.

Finally, with regards to Leaf and Squirrel, I think Firestar wouldn't want him to be too big an influence in their early lives. Not that he would have banned them from interacting completely but certainly didn't encourage either side to seek the other. Of the two I see Squirrel more likely to seek him out and most influenced by him. He amplified the Firestar's little nightmare factor for her and got a kick out of it.

All in all, in some ways I think Cloudtail is a more fitting vessel for the rebel archetype that Firestar is often given in fanworks. But at the same time I don't think he'd be a far-reaching reformer or a figure of legend whose influence reverberates. More of a guy that got a happy ending by forging a space for himself to keep what he likes of Clan life and disregarding the things that did not serve him. Truly someone who found a way to live with a paw in each world.

[bethanydelleman]

A solution to the whole 'let's not let kids watch classical cartoon cz they might emulate 'weakness' from said cartoons' is to put disclaimers before every classic cartoons

"If you find yourself in similar situation, pls seek help. This cartoon/animated movie is set in a classical time thus the characters have more things tying them down unlike us in this century. If you don't, you'll be deemed weak/waiting to be rescued because we can VERY EASILY escape the horrible situations life has thrown us in this 21st century, that's why some people even in this modern world are stuck in abusive situation because ???.".

Praying for a world where we can easily escape the bad situations we're in, no anxiety, no monetary concerns, or housing issues.

The message of Cinderella was to be kind and patient. Basic lessons for kids.

If we get rid of the fairytale aspect in the story, Cinderella doesn't get to go to the ball, her story ends with her crying in the backyard. That's it. Because no one was there to help her. Who's going to help her? Were there any other characters that were introduced in the story? And that's how most people in abusive situations irl are. She's isolated.

But even before all that, she's still a kind-hearted girl, she still had her sense of humor.

With the fairy tale addition, she gets the prince even tho she wasn't looking for the prince or knew that she danced with the prince. That's one of the reasons that makes the story so well-loved.

Or was she supposed to be running off to the seas to become a pirate?yh, let's be realistic and she becomes a pirate because ofc badassery is So So Important in today's media; ig we all add up more stuff like Cinderella was accepted as the Captain or one of the ship's crew etc?

Totally not fairy tale-like. Totally not fictional. Because Cinderella is supposed to be...a documentary.

Reading comprehension, critical thinking skills 0/10. :")

Fairy tales are meant to be about the fundamental hope that good will triumph and evil will be vanquished. People still need that hope.

[writerpussyindulgence]

A Fool Out of Time: A Deep Space Nine Story. Chapter 1

Author’s Note: okay, so I was initially going to wait and post this on my AO3 account, but then I said “Fuck it” and decided to put at least a few bits on here first. This is a silly little self indulgent AU that I wanted to write simply because I’ve been rewatching DS9 from the start, and also to work on my writing skills. It takes place around season 2 (don’t ask me which episodes, I haven’t decided yet). If you like this, please consider following this blog and reblogging this chapter. I appreciate it and I hope you enjoy this ❤️

Warnings: none

Chapter One: The Girl in the Ice

It had been a relatively mellow day on Deep Space Nine. There were no threats towards the station, no bizarre visitors, nothing particularly notable. This allowed the crew to take their time and relax. There had been a few ships that had flown in to drop off their contents, mostly supplies for the station and mutual aid for the rebuilding of Bajor. The only exception was a junk freighter that was importing goods and services from Earth to other Federation planets, as a way of sharing Human culture with other aliens. Commander Sisko was in his office, filling out a daily log, when his combadge buzzed.

“Odo to Sisko” the gruff voice called.

“Go ahead” Sisko replied

“There’s something you need to come and see. One of the merchant ships at docking bay 3 brought in something that…well, you just need to see it to believe it.”

“I’m on my way. Sisko out” the commander said, and he walked out of his office towards docking bay 3. When he arrived, he saw Odo, Chief O’Brien and Dr Bashir surrounding a large metal pod with a small, glass window at the top front. The captain of the freighter, a human man about mid 40’s stood over to the side, arms folded.

“What have we got here?” Sisko said as he approached. He took a look at the inside of the pod, and was taken aback by what he saw. Inside there was a person covered with a light dusting of frost, stuck in a cryogenic sleep.

“Captain McGill here claims that he found it in an abandoned warehouse in an Earth city called Chicago.” Odo said skeptically as he gestured to the man standing to the side

“Well it’s true!” McGill interrupted indignantly. “What are you implying? That I kidnapped somebody and stuck them in a cryo tube? I’m a merchant, not a kidnapper”

“He’s telling the truth, sir” Miles remarked as he ran a tricorder along the metal exterior. “According to the readings, this tube is from the 21st century. Around 2023 it looks like.”

“And yet you still took it for your own?” Sisko asked McGill, a hint of distrust in his voice.

“I didn’t know it had a person in there!” McGill protested. “There was a lot more ice on that window, I couldn’t see through it. I was going to take it to an outpost and have it looked at! Honest!”

“Outpost? Why not just take it to Starfleet on Earth? We have a base in Northside Chicago.” Sisko queried.

“I didn’t have the time.” McGill spluttered. “I had an important rendezvous with a customer on Rigel VII.” He quickly pulled out a pad and handed it over to Odo. It was a proof of purchase from said important customer, and an itinerary of planned stops, which indeed included Outpost 12. Sisko and Odo carefully looked over everything. Finally, with a shared look, they handed the pad back to McGill.

“Everything looks like it’s in order, but we will be keeping an eye on you, Captain McGill. In the meantime, we will take this tube into our custody.” Odo stated gruffly. McGill nodded aggressively

“Well that’s all very fine, but I believe I deserve some kind of compensation for this inconvenience? Or at least something in return since I am a merchant?” He remarked with a smarmy attitude.

“Your compensation is that we don’t place you in a holding cell for further investigation” Sisko stated firmly. “Now, if there’s nothing else that we need to know, you’re free to go about your business.”

McGill huffed resentfully, then pivoted and stomped away to his ship. At that, the three men and 5 other security officers turned the cryo-tube onto a large moving cart on its side, and pushed it into one of the large observation rooms on the station.

Lieutenant Dax, and Major Kira were already there waiting for them.

“Commander, we got a call from one of the security officers to meet you here. What’s going on?” Kira asked.

“It looks like we’re about to find out.” Sisko replied.

With the help of several officers, the tube was finally pried open, and the person was set on the examination table. The crew gathered around to take a good look. It was a young woman, about early 20’s and plus sized with dark red, shoulder length hair, pale skin and freckles all over her cheeks and forehead. Her eyes were closed and her teeth clenched as her face reflected frustration. Her fists were raised as if she was pounding against the inside of the tube. She wore ripped jeans, black Doc Martens, a baggy red short sleeve shirt and a leather jacket. At her feet in the tube there was a knapsack made of carpet carrying goodness knows what

“How long will it take to thaw her out and regain consciousness?” Sisko asked, turning towards Jadzia.

“Well if we keep the temperature at a level where she won’t get hypothermia, about 2 hours minimum. As for waking her up, there’s no telling” she responded

“I’ll look after her.” Julian said “She’ll need to be inoculated when she wakes up, and most importantly she’s going to need someone to calm her down. This century and station is going to be a vicious culture shock for her. It may send her into a panic”

“Do whatever you need to” Sisko insisted. Julian and Jadzia had themselves and the woman beamed to the infirmary, where they got to work on the thawing process and the other necessary procedures

About 5 hours later, Julian was adding some data input to the files he had open on the woman and the information he had been able to find from old archives of the 21st century and the 2020’s. Suddenly from behind him, he heard the rustling of movement and a low groan. His ears perked up and turned around. The woman was starting to slowly move. Her foot twitched as she tried to move up her arm to stretch. She gasped in pain as her muscles ached after being stuck in place for so long.

Julian stood over her with a gentle hand on her shoulder and a tricorder in the other as her dark brown eyes fluttered open. She squinted up in confusion at the doctor above her and groaned in protest at the bright lights obstructing her vision

“Computer, dim the lights by 30%” Julian called out. The lights dimmed, putting less strain on her sight “It’s okay, you’re alright now.” He said, gently squeezing her shoulder. The woman turned her head to try and get a look at her surroundings.

“Where am I?” She croaked.

“You’re in an infirmary.” Julian replied gently “I’ll answer more of your questions soon if you could answer some of mine, if you please”. The girl nodded weakly. “Good. Now tell me first, what was the last thing you remember?”

The girl looked at him and then back up at the ceiling in contemplation.

“I…I was in an abandoned building, on the West Side. I was running from…from somebody. I needed to hide, they wouldn’t leave me alone. I was in a cellar full of these…these big tubes. Tubes with…frozen people inside of them. I got scared and…I got stuck in one. I kept banging on the door trying to get out and then…And then…it got cold and dark” she trailed off, then fear filled her face as she looked back at Julian. “Am I dead?”

He chuckled and took her hand in his, gently rubbing her knuckles with his thumb.

“No, you’re very much alive. Do you think you can answer a few more questions for me?” She nodded again. “Good. Now who is the current president?” He asked

“…Biden. Unless….was I out for long? Like months? A year?”

“….No. Now finally, can you tell me your name and your pronouns?” Julian asked again

“My name’s Harper D’Amata. She/her.” said she, starting to look at him with increasing suspicion. “Where am I really? This doesn’t look like Northwestern” she tried to sit up but winced in pain again, because of her sore muscles. Julian made her lie back again.

“Well then, Harper. My name is Dr Julian Bashir, he/him. And I have no other way I can tell you this, but I suppose I’ll need to just rip the bandage off. That tube you were stuck in was a cryogenics case. You’ve been in a frozen slumber for about 348 years.”

Julian could only stand there as he watched the color drain from Harper’s face. A look of confusion, terror and denial washed over her.

“What!? No no no, it's not true.” She sputtered out, tears threatening to spill over.

"It's true," Julian said softly, his voice steady despite the whirlwind of emotions evident in the room. “and I’m very sorry. I can’t possibly imagine what you’re feeling right now”

“You’re damn right you don’t!” Harper cut him off, her voice cracking from fear, rage, and the lack of usage. “You’re lying! Where am I really?? Did you break in to that room and kidnap me?” As she spoke, she struggled to sit up despite her body’s aches and pains. Julian firmly put a hand back on her shoulder and tried to push her back down

“I assure you that I’m not a liar nor a kidnapper” Julian said firmly. Harper shook her head repeatedly and shoved him away. She threw herself off of the biobed, frantically grabbed her knapsack off of one of the chairs and sprinted out of the infirmary. Julian tapped his combadge.

“Bashir to security. Patient 12 has escaped the infirmary. Track her down, but please don’t scare or stun her!”

As soon as she was as far enough away from the infirmary, Harper stopped to catch her breath. She looked down the long, dark halls of the station. Everything looked the same, she couldn’t tell which way was which. Her heart racing, she continued running forward, her muscles throbbing in pain. She turned left and ran out onto the Promenade, and stopped short, taking in the bizarre new environment around her.

Humans. Aliens. All together walking around the wide area, conversing with one another, buying food and articles from vendors, sitting down. All around her there was a cacophony of unfamiliar sights and sounds. Harper felt as if her heart was going to burst out of her chest, her breathing labored. Eyes darting this way and that, she desperately searched around her for something that looked like an exit, but she couldn’t see one.

Before she could even take another step, a shout echoed across the Promenade.

“You, in the red! Stop right there!” She glanced up and saw Odo on the top level, pointing directly at her. She recoiled in fright at the sight of his smooth, undefined face and ran in the opposite direction. Weaving her way between individuals as carefully as she could, she pushed her way through the crowd. She didn't dare look back, but she could feel the presence of pursuit gaining on her. She ran faster, no longer caring who or what she bumped into.

Suddenly there was a loud *zing!* sound and she felt something excruciatingly sharp and agonizing hit her right between her shoulder blades. She shrieked in pain, and fell onto the floor, face first and unconscious.

Odo and two Starfleet officers walked up to her and stared down at her motionless body. The changeling had fired a phaser and stunned her. Julian came running up, and looked down at her in worry

“I told you not to stun her!” Julian exclaimed in exasperation.

“I had no choice.” Odo said. “She resisted my order.”

Julian sighed and crouched down, scanning her with a tricorder again. She was alright, but she was showing severe muscle trauma both from the blast and from running. He had them both beamed back to the infirmary, and had two nurses help lift her back onto the biobed

Julian immediately set about treating her injuries, administering a hypospray to ease the muscle trauma, and another to wake her up. Harper opened her eyes, and flinched when she recognized him. Julian put both hands on her shoulders firmly, but with the most care he could muster

“It’s alright.” He said. “I know you’re scared and upset. I really do. But I give you my word as a Starfleet medical officer that no one has kidnapped you. You were brought to this space station through a series of very unfortunate events.”

Harper blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to fight back tears again. It was no use as they began to fall down the side of her face. Julian softened his voice.

“Just focus on breathing, okay?” he asked. Harper nodded and took a deep, shaky breath, now starting to cry. Julian signaled for one of the nurses to replicates some tissues. He handed one to her and she dabbed at her eyes. “You’re going to be alright. You’re safe here, Harper. We’re going to take care of you.”

“But…but my life…my life back on Earth,” Harper stammered out through the sobs. “My friends. My family. My parents. All…all dead. And the worst part…the worst part is that it’s all my fault!”

Julian helped her sit up on the biobed, and he sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder in comfort.

“It’s not your fault.” Julian consoled

“Yes it is!” Harper wailed. “You don’t understand. I got into a really awful fight with my parents. I had said some things I didn’t have any business saying. I mean…I guess I did because they never were the greatest people. But still! And then I stormed out! And now I can’t even apologize to them”

Her head fell into her hands as the sobs wrecked through her body. Julian wrapped both arms around her and held her close in a tender embrace.

“I’m so sorry, Harper,” Julian whispered, his voice filled with empathy. “I promise you that none of this is your fault. I understand that this whole situation is overwhelming and terrifying, but I give you my word that everything is going to be alright.”

They sat there for several minutes in silence, save for Harper crying. Eventually Julian got up again to replicate her a glass of cold water. She looked over her shoulder at the device in confusion

“What is that?” She asked.

“It’s a replicator. We have thousands of them all over the station.” Julian replied with a smile. “We primarily use them for nourishment, but they can make anything out of reused matter”

“Anything?” Harper inquired again, an idea dawning on her.

“Yes, anything”

With that, Harper shakily sat up and walked over to the machine.

“Uh…hi computer. I’d like one cup of black coffee” she stated

“Please specify temperature.” the computer said

“Uh…hot?” Harper said, perplexed. The replicator beeped in response, and a porcelain white mug of coffee appeared in a shimmer of light and particles. She picked up the mug with both hands and splashed the scalding liquid onto her face with no hesitation. She screamed and jumped back, dropping the mug to the floor and she clutched her face. Julian lept up and ran to her, dermal regenerator ready for any burns she received

“What did you do that for??” Julian demanded, panic in his eyes. Harper dabbed the coffee from her face with the end of her shirt and blinked her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I had to do something to make sure I wasn’t having a bad dream” she groaned. Julian ran the regenerator over her face, the burn marks fading away twice as fast than they were forming.

“Well I assumed that a simple pinch would suffice.” He scoffed.

“This is too bizarre for a pinch to wake me up. What the hell even is this place? Where did all those aliens come from? How far away from Earth are we? What happened while I was asleep? Was Earth destroyed?”

Harper kept babbling out questions, until Julian held up his hand.

“I can only answer so many questions at a time. But I’d be more than happy to do so, while you let me finish examining you.”

Harper nodded and sat back down on the biobed as Julian told her about how the United Federation of Planets was created, what Deep Space Nine was, the work they did on there and about the wormhole. She hung on every word he spoke with intense curiosity. Finally he finished his exam.

“Well, you seem to be in perfectly good health, but I will try to see if I can get you a counselor for your emotions and for processing everything…if we even have one here” he stated with a cheerful smile.

“But what about my medications?” Harper asked.

“That will be no problem.” Julian replied. “I found your prescription list in your wallet when security was going through your bag, and I can easily get the molecular pattern so we can start replicating them for you. Now if there’s nothing else you need me to look at, I’d be more than happy to give you a tour of the station. My shift is done for the day.”

“Wait wait, that’s it?” Harper asked incredulously. “You’re like…not going to tell me off about my body or give me a diet?” Julian cocked his head in confusion at her.

“Well no, not really. Aside from your cholesterol level being a tad high, but it’s nothing severe. Why? Would you like me to recommend a diet? Do you have certain allergies?” He inquired, concern in his voice.

“No no, it’s just…” Harper paused and looked down at her twiddling thumbs. “It’s just my weight is always the first thing that all my doctor’s I’ve seen over the years bring up. They always point out how high my BMI is and that I need to control what I eat. They’ve always blamed every cold and problem I’ve had on me being fat”

Julian looked at her, feeling incredibly sorry for her. He had read in medical history books about how cruel the medical industrial complex of the 20th and 21st century was, especially towards disabled and fat people. About how diet culture was less of a means to wellness and more of a fashionable trend to starve yourself, drink dangerous beverages that promised “instant weight loss” and new drugs constantly being marketed that offered instantaneous results, but ultimately left the users with intestinal cancer. He tilted her head up with his finger to have her look at him, and gave her a warm smile.

“You don’t need to worry about that. The Body Mass Index was abolished back in 2077. I promise you that you’re a very healthy and beautiful woman the way you are.”

Harper’s heart fluttered. Both at his kind words, and his handsome, boyish face. She smiled back at him, gratefully.

“Thank you so much. I think I will take that tour, please.”

[achillessulks]

NYT’s top 100 books came out, used to stalk you on GoodReads so I’m wondering if you had any thoughts about it?

YES okay so I’m not subscribed to the NYT because I don’t agree with their platforming of transphobia but you’d best believe that I went through the whole list.

The first thing I saw was the (intentionally?) eye-catching headline:

I’ma be real with you, New York Times, this is a pretty bold statement considering that we are not even a quarter through the century in question.

‘Literary luminaries,’ hah. I guess ‘The 100 Best Books of the First 25% of the 21st Century’ just isn’t as catchy of a clickbait headline.

So, yes... obviously I had some issues with the framing of this list. At the end of the article they do acknowledge that they only included books that were in English (translations were acceptable) and published in America (although books originally published elsewhere were acceptable as long as the translation’s publishing house was based in the US):

I think this is a stupid-ass limitation that, quite frankly, disqualifies the entire list, but whatever. It’s a newspaper from New York; I don’t expect the most worldly of perspectives on global literature.

Anyway, regarding the actual selection! Perhaps damningly, I have only read 34/100, and didn’t even like all of those. Also, there are mistakes (Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis was incorrectly listed as having been originally published in English, for example).

I will be honest, the list felt a lot like it was intentionally curated to give the veneer of diversity. A lot of the books on it are simply not very good, but that’s what you get for not being consistent with how you’re defining ‘best.’ Most popular? Most technical skill displayed? Most memorable? Who knows! The ‘most important [and] influential books of the era’ (or at least the first quarter of it, mind) cannot be determined while you’re still living through said era. That’s just not how anything works.

With that said: let’s do some statistics on these 100 books!

54 books by women; 46 books by men. (This was cool, actually.)

13 translated books; 87 books originally published in English. (This is a particularly egregious statistic, given that the initial claim was that the list would represent all the best books of the century; you cannot do that if nearly 90% of them are from America.)

69 fiction books; 30 nonfiction books; 1 poetry book.

Several authors had multiple works represented on the list (the whole ‘multiple books by a single author’ schtick was particularly annoying, given the constrained demographic of the potential books—not a good look):

Authors with two (2) books each: Alice Munro, Denis Johnson, Edward P. Jones, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth, Roberto Bolaño, Zadie Smith.

Authors with three (3) books each: Elena Ferrante, George Saunders, Jesmyn Ward.

Regarding genres (this is a clever pun because the French word ‘genre’ refers both to genre and to gender):

17 nonfiction books by women.

13 nonfiction books by men.

36 fiction books by women.

33 fiction books by men.

1 poetry book (by a woman).

In general I really wasn’t too upset at the basic statistical breakdown of the list; it was pretty evenly divided by gender, if not genre. It wasn’t all white men, like many similar lists. The real issue was twofold:

You cannot claim to be providing a representative sample of the ‘best’ books while limiting your countries of origin.

You cannot claim to be providing a list of the best books of the current century when we have not even made it through a quarter of that century.

And frankly, a lot of the books on the list were just plain bad.

—

As a final note: Some criticism of the list mentioned the fact that several of the authors have been credibly accused of various heinous activities (this was shortly after the Alice Munro exposé, for example), to say nothing of the inclusion of, say, Junot Díaz—known misogynist and general creep—on the list of curators (and books). Personally, I have no issue with including works by awful people; the art is not the artist, and terrible people can occasionally create works of quality. However, I do take umbrage with the employment of shitty people in the curation process. The NYT didn’t disclose whether or not they paid these ‘literary luminaries,’ but that doesn’t really matter. When you’re talking about the art itself, it is not always necessary to mention the artist’s real or perceived faults; however, when you’re directly utilising the artist’s perspective and opinions for your own product, I think it is. So yeah, generally a very disappointing situation all around.

[vintagerpg]

Haunted Almanac (2021) is a book I genuinely didn’t think would ever exist. It’s an anthology, published by Games Omnivorous, of Nate Treme’s game designs from 2018 to 2021, most them in fact. I never thought this would happen partly because of how they exist individually. They’re all different formats, different sizes, different purposes, many are handmade. I have so much of the stuff that makes up this book in the original versions that were sent out to patrons and it just doesn’t seem possible that they could be standardized into a book.

Credit for that, I think, mostly goes to Gontijo, who did a fantastic job of converting all those disparate sizes and shapes into a cohesive whole, but without sacrificing their individual characters. The book still feels like Nate’s work in a fundamental way. As someone with a modicum of design skill, this strikes me as an impressive accomplishment.

Taken all together, this is one of those books that just feels important to me; I can picture some weirdo like me fifty years from now plugged into the cerebro-net posting about how Haunted Almanac is the lynchpin of 21st century microgame design and how it is a shame that so many hard copies were left planetside during the evacuation of earth. Drop haulers occasionally bring copies back from their salvage dives, but ship-to-ship postage is just ridiculous these days.

[brown-little-robin]

Club Recruitment Arc, pt. 2: Miasmas & Such

Kageyama Shigeo, age 16, is not exactly a member of the Salt Township community. He's more like a shadow that passes through town every few days.

Reigen Arataka, greatest miasma expert of the 21st century, keeps his disciple on the move. The pair of them sleep in strangers' houses two days out of three, so the house that officially belongs to the Kageyama brothers is mostly Ritsu's, really.

Ritsu isn't mad at Shigeo for leaving. (He might be a little mad at Reigen Arataka for being the one to take him—but not at Shigeo. Never at Shigeo.) He understands how it is, being busy, having responsibilities. He understands, too, that Shigeo needs distance. He went through a lot, and Ritsu isn't sure how much Shigeo remembers. He's just glad he has his brother sometimes. Ritsu's care is communicated in small gestures—he always greets Shigeo lightly, makes sure he has clean bedding to return to, and offers him the expensive milk he buys just for his brother. Shigeo always smiles back and accepts Ritsu's gestures. But they don't talk much, really. Shigeo is always tired, and he's always behind on schoolwork, of course. When Shigeo is home, he mostly just does a lot of schoolwork, late into the night.

Being gone so long at a time means that Shigeo has to ask his teachers to send homework with him and grade it in large batches. The teachers do it even though it's an extra hassle for them, because, first of all, they feel bad for him—the cure never worked quite right on him, but he's trying his best to serve the community anyway, which is all anyone in Salt asks of a child. And second, his big little brother, Kageyama Ritsu, is quite the important person in the education system now, and everyone knows he's protective of his brother to a possibly literally insane degree. When Kageyama Ritsu hears anyone even mention his brother, his eyes become the eyes of a cornered mother bear. And who can blame him?

Reigen would like to have seen Mob stay in school much longer. He would have liked to see Mob have a normal life, with parents to keep him in school and the same place to sleep every night. But that's not what was in the cards for the kid, and Reigen justifies their lifestyle to himself by reminding himself—reasonably—that Mob is learning a useful trade here. Mob is serving the community. Mob is getting rid of miasma. Reigen might not be able to see miasma clouds, and he might have no idea how Mob sees them, let alone how Mob "gets rid of" them (the kid is always vague about that part), but he mostly trusts that Mob is telling the truth about them. The kid's distress had definitely been real when he came to Reigen's office and asked Reigen how to stop "breathing out clouds". He'd only used the word "miasma" after Reigen had used it first.

Reigen hadn't know that miasma came from zombies' breath before Mob said so. He hadn't even known that miasma was real. But what he did know was that this kid, visibly a recent ex-zombie, was wringing his hands, stumbling over his words, ashamed and exhausted. And he was looking at Reigen with clouded-over eyes like Reigen was the first ray of sunshine he'd seen for a long time.

This is an apprenticeship. Reigen is teaching Mob by example how to live as an adult human. Mob is human, after all; it hardly even counts as lying to let Mob believe Reigen used to be a zombie. After all, Mob is human, and so he can learn to do everything that Reigen can. Everything important, anyway. Reigen despairs of teaching him to schmooze with clients. But Reigen teaches Mob practical skills. How to use that boost to strength he got from being a zombie in productive ways. They clean and maintain water systems, teach people to discourage pests, dig wells, clean homes, and harvest vegetables. Mob makes change when clients pay in money, and Reigen teaches him to invite themselves to stay the night in someone else's house in lieu of other forms of payment.

Ultimately, though, Reigen hopes he's teaching Mob to accept himself and ignore the people who sneer at him for his lingering zombie traits, which are just traits, not good or bad.

Reigen knows what Mob looks like to someone who doesn't know him for his personality, of course. Two years after the cure, at age 16, Kageyama Shigeo still looks like a zombie. He has permanent bags under his eyes. His eyes are an unsettling misty red. He moves a bit like a zombie. And when he speaks, which isn't often, he speaks unsettlingly slowly, deliberately, and quietly. Reigen knows the kid talks that way to enunciate clearly. The sores in his mouth never healed all the way, and he has to talk around them.

Reigen worries about the sores—open wounds!—in this world of infection, that's dangerous!—but there's nothing he can do about them. He gets used to how Mob's breath smells kind of like broccoli, and he even kind of misses it on the days he's not sleeping on a futon next to Mob's. (He always sleeps close to Mob, because he's the adult, and if there's any kind of attack, Reigen is going to protect Mob or die trying. This kid has survived enough.)

(Mob gets much more sleep when he's with Reigen. Being around a trusted adult makes his body relax easier. Reigen has no idea how much he does for Mob's insomnia just by sleeping on the next futon over.)

Over the last two years, Reigen has gotten more and more tired of how some people treat his disciple. Because he makes them uncomfortable, they treat Mob like an insect. They think they can get away with it because Mob is gentle and slow, which is where Reigen swoops in, making a huge show of announcing that AS A FORMER ZOMBIE, he will exorcise the influence of disease from their homes, and SINCE HIS IMMUNE SYSTEM IS SO GOOD AT DEALING WITH DISEASE, he is not afraid to enter their balefully infected basement and spiritually cleanse it, and AS AN EXPERT ON CURES,,, such as the cure of ZOMBIE DISEASE,,, he is uniquely qualified to perform his special technique: RELAXING SPA DAY CRUSH!!!. Reigen takes vindictive pleasure in turning people's expectations of zombies on their heads. Even if he is faking it.

And sometimes he sees Mob looking at him with such raw hope that he has to fake a coughing fit so he doesn't do anything stupid.

[adragonsfriend]

Why you no therapist, Starwars?

"The Jedi don't have therapists so they couldn't possibly understand emotions or how to raise kids"

"If Anakin got therapy he would've been totally fine"

"The Jedi would be against the idea of therapy"

i'm gonna scream at someone

Analyzing a work of fiction point 1:

The reason the Jedi don’t have dedicated therapists isn’t because SW characters are dumb or ignorant of how emotions work, it’s because SW came out starting in the 1970s and 80s.

I'm not saying talk therapy was non existent as a concept then, but I am I’m saying it was much less culturally prevalent, and shoe horning it into the world in the prequels would’ve been a shoddy, out of place world building decision for a world created in the 70s.

Actually important point 1:

For almost all of the world’s population, therapy is still a very new and very foreign concept, and most humans that have existed over the past 300,000 years or so have managed to successfully understand what an emotion was and done a functional job of raising their offspring. There are not skills that solely emerged from the study of psychology.

Analyzing a work of fiction point 2:

Because we're talking about a work of fiction, it's essential to note that George Lucas wasn’t making movies about the efficacy of therapy in treating childhood trauma. He was writing about family and love and individual moral choices, and there isn't the runtime in a couple hours of movie for half a dozen therapy scenes that wouldn't serve his themes at all.

Go watch like,,, Good Will Hunting, if you want a movie about therapy and trauma, it's great.

The Jedi would be super supportive of therapy if they lived in a universe where it was a concept, and if you want to read a version of that done well, I recommend reading Force of Many Sights by DAsObiQuiet on ao3. It’s a wonderful fic, linked below.

Actually Important point 2:

Talk therapy isn't a universal solution. It doesn't work for all people, for all problems, at all times. Just getting someone into therapy is not a guarantee of recovery or even any improvement at all. It's a really great tool, a good idea to try out if you haven't, cheers if it works for you! But saying that 'therapy would've fixed everything' is misleading, western/21st century centric, and utterly dismissive of the complexity of treating both trauma and mental illness.

Fic Rec:

[weareallgonnaliveforawhile]

Sometimes Violence Is the Answer

It is a normal day at the Spirits and Stuff Consultation Office, and we meet our two protagonists who are about to cross the threshold of 'Boss-Employee' to 'Weird Father Figure-Weird Daughter Figure' with the power of violence, panic attacks, and a good cry.

______

| Ao3 |

Warnings: Creepy relatives, panic attacks, Teruhashi Makoto's general existence

Word Count: 3551

Notes:

Kokomi Reigen AU!!!

I want to dedicate this work to @nyxtsu on tumblr! Their fanart inspired this entire AU lol

----

In this world, there are many strange things that can not be explained by science or rational logic! Ghosts, Perfect Girls, spirits, demons, and many more- wait, what was the second one?

We open on a quaint office known as the Spirit's and Such Consultation Office, located in Seasoning City. Here we meet its residents having a quiet day, which is a solid half of their days, at the office. 

It is approximately 5:41pm and 23 seconds.

The eldest resident at age 28, Reigen Arataka, is the founder and boss of the agency. He is the self-proclaimed Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century. He has shown little to back this claim up, but his student never fails to show unwavering belief in this obviously false claim. Furthermore, he runs almost every aspect of this agency and is the primary one to speak to customers.

Due to his silver tongue and fantastic people skills, even when they are given problems unrelated to ghosts, he can satisfy customers into becoming regulars

By all accounts, he looks rather unassuming if not like a blatant con man. Logically, there should be nothing that makes him likable or appealing to his two employees. However, due to his unique way with words and unexpected kindness, he has gained the wholehearted trust of his student and the extremely conditional respect of his other employee.

The second-eldest employee, with quite a large age gap, is the most Perfect Girl in the world. That is not an exaggeration. Teruhashi Kokomi, currently age 16, has known since the moment she was born that she was perfect and has carried herself as such ever since. 

On the surface, she is the exact opposite of Reigen Arataka. The fact she is working at a consultation office for spirits (and such) should cause any sane man or woman to break out into sobs for her sanity and close proximity to a con man. 

This is an unfounded worry. 

Unknown to anyone but herself (and a certain pink-haired boy), Teruhashi Kokomi was an incredibly cunning and cutthroat young woman. She was able to hide it significantly better than Reigen since people were naturally inclined to do whatever she wanted, but she had not grown up blind.

When everyone within a hundred-yard radius of you fawns and ogles over you while constantly saying how perfect you are, you quickly learn your worth. And young Teruhashi Kokomi certainly did. Growing up she learned exactly what words to say to get someone taken by a mob, how to tell if someone was lying to her, if she was being stalked, and many more horrific things that a little girl shouldn’t have to know. 

(She has yet to realize how deeply horrifying this is for a young girl to know. This will be important but later. )

(Not in this story. Just generally much later)

With her silver tongue rivaling Reigen’s trained and genuine charisma, she had thought that she would work the front when she first asked for a job. After all, she was beautiful enough that with her as a receptionist, customers would flock there! She was wrong for one of the few times in her life. 

She attempted to, on her first day, but after an older customer spent the entire consultation attempting to ask her out, Reigen put her slightly away from the customers so that they didn’t immediately see her face if she didn’t actively move toward them.

She still didn’t fully understand why he was making such a large deal over an ordeal that happened to her regularly. She doesn’t know his reaction is because this isn’t a normal thing for a teenage girl to experience. Reigen does not know that the reason this encounter did not faze her was because it happens hourly though he remains concerned nonetheless.

This level of mutual obliviousness is only interrupted by the third resident of the building. A terrifyingly powerful psychic with poor control over his emotions. An individual by the name of Mob.

Actually, his name was Kageyama Shiego, but Mob was a nickname that caught on. He was a middle school student at Salt Middle School and was a very monotone young boy. 

Currently, it was just Reigen and Teruhashi in the office. Mob had been there for a short while but had been sent home to rest after it became clear that he was still tired from P.E. class and wouldn’t be able to do work. Thought, it’s not as if Reigen made Mob do work that wasn’t related to exorcising spirits.

Despite his inherent scumbag nature, he was hesitant to give either of his employees work that they wouldn’t be able to handle. So he primarily made Mob work on his homework and had Teruhashi work more on proofreading their social media site if she completed her own homework before arriving (Which she almost always did as was expected of the Perfect Pretty Girl).

Right now, it was a very pleasant day in the office. Teruhashi was rewriting some of their old advertisements and working on a new one that could be printed out on their faulty old printer. Mob had attempted to fix it yesterday with his powers and hadn’t succeeded much to his disappointment. 

Teruhashi was still adjusting to Mob’s powers but the boy was so mild-mannered and polite that it made it quite difficult to actually be afraid of him. 

Additionally, her beauty made her synonymous with Jesus but if he had blue hair. So between her being blessed by God and Mob’s powers being powerful enough to destroy Japan (probably), they were mostly on equal footing.

She looked up from her computer and stretched her arms, keeping an eye on Reigen in the corner of her eye. No reaction. For the past few weeks, she had been slowly testing the limits to see what he was like. Most men fawned over her as if she was an actual goddess but Reigen remained an odd exception.

He made the remark once that she was incredibly pretty and had predictably said ‘Oh wow’ upon seeing her as everyone did but had done nothing else.

Teruhashi may have been the perfect pretty girl, but contrary to popular belief, her primary personality, barring pettiness, trait was stubbornness. She was committed to figuring out exactly what Reigen wanted with her and wouldn’t rest until she knew his exact, almost definitely impure, intentions.

Teruhashi may have been the perfect pretty girl, but contrary to popular belief, her primary personality, barring pettiness, trait was stubbornness. She was committed to figuring out exactly what Reigen wanted with her and wouldn’t rest until she knew his exact, almost certainly impure, intentions.

Unfortunately for Teruhashi, Reigen Arataka is not a pedophile. Reigen Arataka, even though the man regularly attempts to scam people out of their money and has been lying to a middle schooler for some years, is not a bad person at heart. (This is something that only Mob is aware of, however)

Reigen may have been initially surprised by Teruhashi Kokomi’s beauty, but as he is not attracted to little girls in any sense of the word, he immediately got over it and went into customer service mode. After the first interaction, he witnessed a man older than him leering at a teenage girl, he did his best to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again for Teruhashi’s own well-being.

As it stands, Teruhashi Kokomi is unaware of the fact that Reigen genuinely cares about her well-being with no regard for her beauty (or unsavory intent) and Reigen Arataka is unaware that Teruhashi thinks he has any non-platonic intent to her.

This misunderstanding has been slowly simmering since Teruhashi first started working there a few weeks ago. Uninterrupted, it’s likely this would’ve slowly begun boiling until it exploded in a dramatic confrontation involving tears, yelling, psychic powers, and an angry mob or two.

Luckily for them, that is not what happened because that misunderstanding was cleared up today.

Teruhashi Kokomi stretched, taking a break from where she had been carefully adding subliminal messages to their website, and turned to her boss, “Oh, Reigen-san. Do you mind if I take a break..?”

Here Teruhashi is employing a careful trap. This is the first time she’s asked directly for a break without using Mob’s own wellbeing as an excuse. She’s carefully making herself seem more pitiful to see what Reigen’s reaction to her will be. Will he rise to the bait and do what she’s expecting (Whine or otherwise make an excuse for her to keep working?)

Reigen glanced up from his computer, “What? Of course, you don’t need to ask me. Go ahead and take ten.”

Oh! A skilled parry from Reigen Arataka and he doesn’t even know he’s playing. 

Regardless, Teruhashi’s poker face reveals nothing as she internally curses at him for not taking the bait. She carefully begins to lay her next trap with a sweet smile.

“Ah, thank you, Reigen-san! Do you mind if I-” The girl cuts herself off when she gets a notification on her phone. Mentally, she begins cursing profusely at what idiot could be texting her right now when she is in the middle of laying one of her traps.

Teruhashi looks down at her phone and instantly pales. This catches the attention of Reigen who frowns and stands up a bit, “Hey kid, you alright?”

The sound of another person's voice spurs Teruhashi into action from where she had been staring at her phone in open horror. In her panic, she makes a simple but extremely unmistakable error.

She flounders.

“What? Oh, yes! I’m fine! Um. I just to, I mean I just need to-” The girl begins picking her things, frantically stuffing them into her bag with no care for her usual organization.

Reigen properly stands up from his desk and walks over, only absentmindedly glancing at the phone before focusing his entire attention

“Teruhashi, kid, look at me.” He says in as gentle but stern voice he can manage. It only works for a second, making her instinctively pause and look at him in a panic. But a second is all Reigen Arataka needs.

After all, for all his lies, his best skill is 

People!

“Listen to me. Take a deep breath.” The man begins to make overexaggerated breaths, making sure to make them as physically involved as possible.

Teruhashi Kokomi has gone through many different challenging situations since she was young, but this was the first time since the tricycle incident of 09, that she’s allowed herself to be upset in front of other people. With that being said, that means;

Teruhashi Kokomi has never been genuinely comforted when upset in her entire life. 

Watching her boss do objectively ridiculous motions and hand gestures to show that he’s breathing in and out, her mind is in a state of intense shock at the entire situation, and she copies him.

Once Reigen manages to get Teruhashi to visibly calm down, he opens his mouth to ask something. That something could be anything at all. Place your bets! 

A. “Who was the person on the phone?”

B. “What was that?! You’re not perfect anymore, get out of my office! I’m telling the news!

C. “Your car's extended warranty is up. Are you going to renew that?”

D. “Are y-” [Gets interrupted by frantic knocking]

If you guessed D: “ “Are you-” [Gets interrupted by frantic knocking] ” You would be correct!

Reigen takes one look at the door, another at Teruhashi who is quickly descending back into a panic attack and hurries her into the backroom.

“Alright, I’ll deal with this, you stay here and um.” The man flounders in the face of a teenager on the verge of tears and knocking that is getting increasingly faster as pass, “Eat something? I guess. Or you can just sit and de-stress!”

Without another word, the con man quickly closes the door, takes a deep breath, and opens the front door.

Any greeting he could have is stopped immediately by two factors.

The fact that the man almost shoulder-checks him to get into the room

This itself is incredibly rude and something Reigen was not expecting but it is not what ultimately caused the man to be rendered speechless. After all, it's not the first time he dealt with customers who weren't exactly hospitable. The primary reason was...well.

The man’s appearance

You see, this man…was extremely attractive (and looked weirdly similar to someone Reigen had seen before)

(The man will only realize who this is 71 hours later when watching a rerun of a movie and seeing the main actor. He switches to the next channel)

He was attractive to a point that it almost seemed unearthly. Reigen had only seen this level of raw beauty harnessed into a human vessel in one other person who looked remarkably similar to this man.

For you see, this man is none other than Teruhashi Makoto.

Any Saiki K fans most likely groaned (or screamed) in either dread or annoyance upon reading this man's name. This is the correct reaction.

For those (Mob Psycho only) fans who have the pleasure of not knowing who this individual is, let me enlighten you. On top of being a famous actor he is also-

.

.

.

-a pervert.

You could call him a ‘sis-con’ but that takes away from some of the true revolting nature that he shamelessly excludes.

On top of being a shameless pervert and pedophile, he’s also incredibly rude.

This specific aspect of his truly awful personality is revealed almost instantly as he begins demanding to know where his sister is

“Where is my Kokomi, you miserable charlatan?!” God, he speaks. His voice is truly as awful as everything else about him.

“Sir, sir, calm down. Can you tell me what you’re looking for? Or who you’re looking for?” Oh, Reigen…both the fans and Kokomi (who’s very much spying from the other room, looking in through a crack in the door, while doing something on her phone) applaud you for trying to keep the situation calm, but there’s no use reasoning with a man like this.

“Kokomi! My sister! The tracker in her phone said she was here,-” Ew. “-and she’s been avoiding my texts recently!”

“Listen, sir, if you just calm down we can talk abou- Did you just say tracker?” Ah, it seems like Reigen is beginning to realize, “Why is there a tracker in her phone?”

Oh no, Reigen, don’t ask-

“Because I need to keep tabs on my future wife, of course!” Ah. There it is.

“What.” This is less of a question and more of an involuntary reaction to Makoto. But even if it was a question in some form unfortunately there is no answer to that. Except if you asked ‘What did he just say?’ where the answer would be ‘Exactly what you thought he did’.

“Ah, well you see-” The following rant he goes on could be transcribed, but there is no writer in the world willing to genuinely write it out.

You get the gist though. There is quite a bit of creepy stuff involved in this. Jeez, he just made a third remark about being fated soulmates with his sister.

However, by the bored and embarrassed look on poor Kokomi’s face (who is still typing on her phone, safely hidden by a door), it seems as if this is a common rant that she’s heard. The poor dear. 

…seriously, he’s been taking for a minute. Someone should punch this guy.

It’s a wonder it hasn’t happened already but god, someone should do it. 

…he’s still going. People don’t give Kokomi nearly enough credit for not strangling this man in his sleep. For fuck's sake, I can’t believe no one has-

Oh shit.

Reigen did it.

This is one of Reigen’s special attacks: 

Fuck this Creepy Pervert

Where he punches a pervert, often times a sis-con, in the face because no one else has. 

“Alright, listen. I don’t care who you are, but you need to leave. I don’t condone people like you being in my office.” Reigen's is as awe-inspiring as ever but-

WHAT’S THIS?! TERUHASHI MAKOTO IS NOT DONE WITH HIS ATTACK?!

“I could sue you for this!” Oh no, that’s an actual possibility. While almost every single aspect of him is lacking, the one thing he has an abundance of (other than looks) is money. “Someone like you would never s-”

“Stop.” The woman of the hour herself, Teruhashi Kokomi stands in the doorway of the backroom!

“Go home, Makoto!” She explodes, unable to keep her temper to herself any longer. Good for her.

The piss poor excuse for a man sputters nonsensically, “But, K-kokom-”

But the girl isn’t done yelling, “I told you to stop putting trackers in my phone! I knew it was dumb to assume you hadn’t done it this time, but you promised!” 

You can see Reigen’s heart actively breaking as Kokomi becomes more and more enraged. You could actually use Reigen’s expression for the dictionary definition of ‘Devastated’. It’s actually a bit hard to look at.

“Kokomi, we both know I had to!” Oh shit, he’s still speaking, “Who knows how many horrible and disgusting men are out in the world!” You are one of those men.

Reigen looks as if he’s about to punch Makoto again and Kokomi might beat him to it.

“Kokomi, we both know…” Dang it, he’s about to go on another rant. Also, why is he speaking like she’s a child? Does his creepiness know no bounds- no, it does not. Stupid question to even ask. “...no oth-”

Oh, his phone rang! Maybe we’re lucky, and it’s the cops coming to tell him to turn himself in. The perv looks down at his phone and rolls his eyes before answering it,

“What?! I’m in the middle of something!” Is all he manages to get out before there’s unintelligible screaming coming from the receiver.

The man's face pales, and he attempts to stammer out what seems to be an explanation before the screaming on the other end somehow seems to get louder.

Makoto looks at Kokomi who has an oddly smug look on her face before rushing out of the office, yelling apologies for not being able to stay as he does so.

In the silence of the office, neither of its inhabitants do anything for a long moment. They remain still like statues or paintings, unable to make the first move.

As expected though, Reigen is the first to move. With a simple eyebrow raised at Teruhashi.

“I texted his manager.” She blurted out quickly as if she wouldn’t get another chance to speak. Which was completely false, Reigen would let her speak all she wanted.

Also, that explains what she was doing in the backroom before she ended up coming out. It would make sense, this isn't nearly the first time she's had to do so.

“That’s my brother, Makoto, and for some reason, he thinks that he’s destined to marry me and my parents are never around to tell him that he’s gross and I don’t want that, and he’s creepy, and I hate him-” Okay so, she’s not really breathing while ranting, maybe someone should cut her off actually,

"-and it’s not like they’d even say anything if they were around since they think it’s all one big joke!” Jesus, that is some heavy trauma that she’s dumping.

“Besides, it’s not like I exactly have a place to complain right?! I’m the Perfect Pretty Girl, and I’m not allowed to complain about anything that’s less than horrible, I’ve dealt with him for 16 years, I can deal with him for a few more until I can legally move away, and I can change my name and I can get away and-” She’s cut off by Reigen’s next comment.

“Kid.” She’s cut off by Reigen’s firm voice. He’s squatting in front of her so that she has to look down at him. She didn’t notice he was even there.

With a gentle voice and soft expression, he asks a simple question. The one he wanted to ask in the first place when he first saw her nearly having a panic attack over a text message from a contact named ‘Him’

“Are you okay?” 

It’s almost paternal in its concern and that’s what causes the floodgates to truly open.

Teruhashi breaks into heavy sobs and throws herself into Reigen’s startled but waiting arms.

It’s a long time before she’s able to say anything else before she wipes her tears or has the mind to get embarrassed.

But for now, as she’s being tightly held in arms that are nothing but Platonic and familial for the first time in her life, she allows herself to just focus on the warmth she feels.

In this world, there are many strange things that can not be explained by science or rational logic. Ghosts, Perfect Girls, spirits, demons, and horrible family. 

We close on a quaint office known as the Spirit's and Such Consultation Office, located in Seasoning City. Here we meet its residents having a rather eventful day, which is a solid half of their days, at the office. 

It is approximately 6:24 pm and 45 seconds.

[klaineharmony]

Why We Love: Trinity (The Matrix)

I wrote a post the other day about Why We Ship Trinity and Neo, and in the course of that, I said that it would take a whole other post to talk about Trinity. And then I promised @tickety-boo-af that I would write it, so here we are. :)

I will start by saying that for a lot of us who loved these films from the beginning, I think there was a sense that Trinity was just as much the hero of the story as Neo was, or perhaps even more so. And I think Resurrections bore that out in a lot of ways - I'll get to that. There is what Trinity was (and is) to the story, and what she meant to me personally, and some of that overlaps, but not all of it. I'll try to talk about why she's important in a story sense and in a cultural sense first.

In a cultural sense, I think Trinity was very much the beginning of the strong woman action hero character on a big movie screen. Of course, these types of women have existed in comics for a long time, and we had one great example of that in the television realm when the Wonder Woman television show with Lynda Carter aired. But in the modern, 21st century, action movie sense, Trinity is the first woman character I remember who got to be fully onscreen, integral to the narrative, and just as much of a badass as the men around her. We didn't have the MCU yet. We didn't even get the first Lara Croft movie, with Angelina Jolie, for another two years after The Matrix. (Although, like in comics, there had been more representation of action-oriented women in video games up to that point, I think). Trinity was a breath of fresh air - or a whirlwind. She was so new and different for 1999! Seeing her be so uber-comptent and skilled and swift and ruthless was exhilarating in the best way.

As I said in the post about Neo and Trinity, I also don't think Trinity's importance to the narrative of The Matrix franchise can be overstated. She is the one who finds Neo, who comes to retrieve him from the Matrix, and she is the reason he becomes The One: she loves him, therefore he is The One. It is her love and support and belief that make his power possible, make it a reality.

But, Trinity is also so strong on her own terms. She is not just a support for Neo; she has been fighting for years to take down the Matrix with Morpheus and the others, and she has spent so much of her life fighting for that freedom, for herself and everyone else. I love watching her operate in the Matrix in the original fims - she has so much strength and control and absolute determination to succeed, no matter how much danger she is in. When Lexy, in Resurrections, says, "All I ever wanted to be was as fearless as Trinity," I felt that in my soul! We all wanted to be that brave and fearless, and when I was a much younger person, that felt impossible. I wasn't very brave then (though I hope I've gotten a little braver in the past 25 years), and the idea of having that kind of courage was so enthralling. I desperately wanted to be stronger and more confident in myself, and Trinity showed me it was possible.

However, the other thing I loved about Trinity (and still love) is her softness. That might seem like a contradiction, but her vulnerability with and love for Neo also meant the world to me as a young person. She is as fierce as you would expect in terms of the strength of her love for him, but when she is with him, you can see the openness and vulnerability and emotion all over her. She can be scared with him, in a way that she can't be in the Matrix (because fear, when you're inside, is a pretty swift path to death). That was important to me, too, for it showed me that you could be both - you could be strong and fearless when required, but also be soft and emotionally open with someone you loved so much, even if you had to be a strong person in the rest of your life. That was a rare sort of portrayal in the late '90s and early '00s, and I would go so far as to say it's still pretty rare now. (It's one of the amazing things about Keanu Reeves' portrayal of Neo, as well - he is always open and vulnerable with her, in a way he is with no one else).

Moreover, I think one of the amazing things about Resurrections is that so much of the story is Trinity's story. We see her take front and center in a way that feels completely natural - Lana gives us the conclusion we had all reached ages ago, which is that Trinity is the center of Neo's heart and abilities, and therefore the center around which the whole story revolves. We finally get to see her access her powers to their full extent, and they are just as fearsome and amazing as Neo's ever were.

I also love that Trinity is the one who helps Neo find his powers again; before she is freed in Resurrections, Neo's love for her is the only thing that lets him access his power as The One, and after Trinity has been saved again by Neo and the crew, we see her fly before we see Neo fly with her, at the very end. The implication is that her belief in herself and in Neo is stronger than his, at this point in their lives - and no wonder, when Neo has essentially been told he's crazy and mentally unstable for six decades. She helps him find himself again, supporting him with all the love and belief she's always had, while stepping forward and taking her own share of being part of The One. She finally has her own full (and immense) powers by the end of Resurrections, and by the Goddess, she is going to use them to fix as much of the Matrix and the real world as she possibly can. I love that for her, and for us - that we finally got all of the Trinity we all saw from the beginning. There's a franchise-long arc there abour her belief in herself, too - she always thinks, in the earlier films, that she is more expendable and not as powerful as Neo, and I think in Resurrections we finally see that shift. We've always known she is just as powerful as he is, and by the end of Resurrections she knows it too, and embraces it.

I'm so grateful Trinity exists, in so many ways. She means the world to me, for her strength and bravery and and vulnerability and her immense ability to love, in addition to her awe-inspiring fighting skills. I'm grateful to Carrie-Anne for giving her to us. I'm grateful that Trinity reminds us all that one can cultivate strength and power, one can learn to be brave in the face of immense odds, and one can love with one's whole heart and soul, all at the same time.

[mcl38]

How will chokedo fuck it this weekend?

get outwualified and outperformed by a rookie?

get track limits penalty?

get involved in a first lap incident?

all of the above?

obsessed w this poem actually

1. the composite word neologism of 'chokedo' places us firmly in the tradition of tongue-in-cheek, provocative poetry, typical of the 21st century

2. 'fuck it' instead of fuck it up is brilliantly ambiguous in its succintness. it's almost like the speaker is reaching towards the platonic ideal of 'fuck it up' but cant reach it, hand perpetually outstretched as they seek solidity in the epistemologic uncertainty of the future. theres also the implication of sexuality in it but so subtle its almost freudian

3. outwualified im not sure if its a typo or an ingenious way to bring back the bwoken meme but either way its SO fascinatingly tought-provoking. it hints at age regression, going backwards in time (reinforced by the mention of the 'rookie'), but is also more literally a tiny mistake in an otherwise correctly spelled word, possibly a physical representation of the image the author is trying to paint: a single mistake rendering a qualifying lap worthy of ridicule

4. we all know track limits result in your lap being deleted rather than a penalty, but i think so does the author - they just choose to lump them all in at once, foregoing the indefinite article 'a' on purpose, to express the desperation of the speaker in their ill-will wishing. they won't be satisfied with one misfortune, they want track limits - penalty - it all. the factual error also invites the reader to question the soundness of their argument more generally, implying that perhaps the speaker themselves is subconsciously aware of the unlikely nature of their wish

5. the fourth line is where the repetition of the word 'get' starts to become especially poignant. the rule of 3 has a long history of association with magic and curses, not least of all referencing macbeth's three witches. the wishes written out as questions, all employing the same repeated formula, start to almost feel like a chant, a spellcasting. the 'get' is also ambiguous in its grammatical displacement. not attached to a verb construction like 'will get' or a subject like 'will lando / he get', the word exists basically in semantic homelessness. it floats at the beginning of the lines in a tantalisingly incomplete lowercase, hinting at whatever is supposed to come before it but ultimately cannot come before it, because of the speakers underlying uncertainty that these things will even happen. or, read differently, the 'get' almost transforms into a vocative command, asking me, the reader, to 'get' it - to understand, to show compassion, empathy

6. 'first lap incident' is a wonderful little bit of intertextuality - it shows the speaker's awareness of past correspondence between myself and (i assume) them, where i pointed out that lando has never had any dnfs out of his own driver error. the remarkably neutral and blameless 'incident' reinforces the poem's tendency to contradict itself, portraying the speaker's conscious hate and subconscious admiration of the muse (lando) for his driver skill. the balance is so impressively delicate its almost seamless

7. all of the above is such a powerful ending to the poem - due to its strong association with exams and multiple choice forms, it seems to place the burden of proof and expectation of knowledge on the reader, absolving the speaker themselves of any responsibility. although the poem obviously uses the interrogative mode as its main medium, the 'all of the above?' at the end is pushes past the rhetorical and challenges the reader directly, seemingly the last and most important attempt to get the confrontational tone across

all in all i would say this poem is very reminiscent of chelsey minnis's brilliant 2007 collection of poetry 'bad bad', in which the speaker's disillusionment with the practice of poetry is positioned as an aggressive front to mask what is really unprocessed grief and love for her late mentor. there is definitely an undercurrent of that 2000s in-your-face defiant poetry in this text, which i think plays beautifully with the characteristically 2010s broken up loose lines. fortunately, despite the author being anonymous, we can date the poem pretty exactly to anywhere after the 2023 qatar gp and before the 2023 cota gp, and i would be quite comfortable to even make the conjunction that it was typed directly into my askbox. lastly, i would ask the anonymous poet to keep applying themselves to the craft, because they have a marvellously promising future in front of them