#mean!ellie written by you is my new personality trait!

[elliewiltarwyn]

for the meme!: Top 5 Jobs (ICly and/or what you prefer to play)

this was harder than I thought, considering that if I like a job I tend to bend my own personal canon to make it work in-character -- like Ellie picked up reaper because deep down she knew she wanted to go head-to-head with Zenos on his own terms. but that doesn't mean it's actually still what I prefer to play, either, so it got weird. I decided to make this about which job I like playing most in each role...though I am pretty bad at ranged and caster. and healer. I have a very obviously in-your-face playstyle, I'm pretty sure.

at any rate!

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Tank: Dark Knight

i have. exulted quite a bit about dark knight in these answers lmao. but part of the reason i love it so much is because I genuinely have a blast playing it. It feels big and powerful, it feels risky, it really nails the feel of making yourself bleed to protect your comrades. The burst phase when you just throw absolutely everything you have at the enemy is an incredibly satisfying, violent rampage. They made it an ability to call upon your dark twin to help you in combat, and I've mentioned how much of a sucker I am for dark twin shit. Blackest Night, imo, is the most rewarding "super shield" tank ability. And post-buff, I'd argue Living Dead is the best invuln.

plus you know, everything about the entire storyline and Esteem and the image of playing through Shadowbringers in this job. it's all just so good. Immensely satisfying to play and is probably the best at fulfilling its "job fantasy" for me.

2. Melee: Monk

I always like the hand-to-hand characters or movesets in fantasy settings; there's something very appealing to me about facing a bunch of fantastic supernatural beings and just punching them in the face. That said, I actually had several false starts with FFXIV before it finally hooked me about... four years ago. Every one of those times I picked pugilist as my starting class, got frustrated by never being able to hit positionals (it was because i was using lockon. why does the lockon in this game exist lmao.), and would give up. Once I was finally properly playing, I pushed through leveling pugilist into monk and thought it was... alright, but felt incredibly high-strung, like they were putting in more effort to do the same damage. Then Endwalker completely reworked the kit.

They lowered the level requirements for the chakra moves, making them actually fun and usable long before Stormblood. They made Greased Lightning a constant trait instead of having to struggle to keep it up so your GCD wasn't ass. They added the Masterful Blitz mechanic to dial in combos that end with kickass finishers. They... didn't give it any new buttons for the actual 80-90 level range that EW covered, but that was okay because I was suddenly having way more fun working this rotation than almost anything else in the whole game. It's either tied with or above DRK for my absolute favorite to play, because it's fun, rewards skilled play, and I get to do DBZ shit and zip all over to kick my enemies into oblivion. Plus, I'm doing almost as much damage as my co-melee in my static who uses the hanzo steel of a samurai, but I'm using my bare fists. It rules.

(not really a fan of the storyline, though. hence why canonically Ellie trains with Lyse instead of Erik and Widargelt. :V)

3. Healer: Sage

I kinda feel bad that I started as a conjurer, and yet I am by far worse at healing than any other role. At least with White Mage you can kinda get away with spamming Medica II through most of the MSQ, but y'know... that's pretty boring. Pretty effective, and I'd still probably prefer WHM if I ever attempted to heal high-end content, but I'd struggle.

Sage though, I have an absolute blast playing even if I'm not necessarily being a great healer. The aesthetic rules and can pretty easily be written as magitek-y: hence, Mia canonically can use Sage even though she's Garlean and can't usually do a caster job. I love flipping Eukrasia to activate powerful energy shields, even though it also means one more button press than all the other healers to apply the DoT. I love zapping dudes with Gundam-esque funnels and having that channel heals to whoever I want, I love throwing out Physis+Kerachole before a big raidwide, or Krasis+Haima onto the tank before a buster. I even kinda love that it really encourages you to be constantly using your Addersgall pips to help manage your MP. It makes high demands kinda like monk did pre-EW, but for some reason it's a lot more fun as sage. Maybe because of all the sick twists and dramatic pointing you do while firing lasers from Gundam funnels.

I always forget Holos exists though. I have no idea why.

4. Caster: Red Mage

look, the more red you wear, the more damage you do as red mage. it's scientific. Ellie's favorite color is red, idk how obvious it is. :V

Canonically, I don't think any of my WoLs actually use this. But of the three current casters, RDM strikes the best balance for me of a complex rotation with rewarding mechanics, balancing black and white levels and trying to keep them unsynced so you can keep properly proccing your real attacks, without being overly-demanding like Black Mage or sort of basic with not much room for variations like Summoner (I'm sorry SMN mains! I do like SMN! it's really good for me when I'm having a bad brain day, which is frequent. >.>). You also get to completely save disaster runs with instant-rezzes and double heals, and then never get any comms for it! /eyetwitch

And above all else, it's stylish as fuck to the extent that I kinda wish I had the physical ability to try fencing.

5. Ranged: Dancer

Funny, I actually thought I was going to choose MCH because gun, but then I thought about what actually satisfies me the most to play, and... it's massively buffing the whole party and then just whaling on every button on your hotbar that lights up, and suddenly I understand how people get addicted to like, pachinko and such games. But seriously, it's fun, it's stylish, the rotation's easy to pick up, you get to feel good about making a buddy do mega damage, and you get to make big damage numbers yourself (I mean obviously it's because of how long it takes to activate the dances but damn it's still satisfying to see that many numbers).

I haven't remotely figured out how, but I do want Lily to canonically pick up and use Dancer. You look like you're having fun when you dance on the battlefield, and Lily deserves good things like having fun in the middle of combat.

and now you're way too familiar with how I play this game. :3 thanks for the prompt, @viiioca!!

[sp4cepunisher]

Hey 🥺 I noticed that you haven't posted for a while and just wanted to say that I love your writing alot, the way you write for ellie is perfect and I hope you get inspiration soon, because I love reading your new stuff 💕

hi! first of all, thank you so much for saying that. it means a lot hearing that you still love my writing despite the fact that i haven't posted for a minute.

i haven't had a lot of inspiration at all actually, if i'm being honest with you. i've got some requests in my inbox and, even when i try and stem some inspiration from those said requests, i get suuuper self-critical (one of my toxic traits) and end up deleting the bulk of what i have written, which is very annoying. and then some personal things happened in my life, so i was a little bit stuck.

but, saying all of that, this evening i am really going to try and continue what i already have of my latest bit of ellie writing in hopes of posting... later? maybe tomorrow? we shall see.

but thank you, again, for telling me how much you like my writing. that helps me hugely when it comes to liking the things i produce. thank you, thank you, thank you.

[formerprincess]

A tale written with fangs and claws || Chapter 61

Chapters: 61/? Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt Characters: Liam Dunbar, Theo Raeken, Mason Hewitt, Corey Bryant, Nolan (Teen Wolf), Brett Talbot, Lori Talbot Additional Tags: Alpha Liam Dunbar, Slow Build, Friends to Lovers, Dunbar Pack, Bisexual Liam Dunbar, Werewolf Theo Raeken, Alpha Theo Raeken, Canon-Typical Violence, Smut, Mates, Liam and Theo are mates, Top Theo Raeken, Bottom Theo Raeken, Top Liam, Bottom Liam Dunbar, Bisexual Theo Raeken, Original Character(s) Series: Part 1 of Morning Dew Pack

Maddie and Asher follow Liam's invitation. He also learns new things about were cheetahs and Theo gets a new job from an unlikely source.

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"Anyways, he invited the whole core pack to a BBQ. It's nice meeting with Luka. I learn so much about general history and other things. That's alright with you?" Liam switched his cellphone from the right hand to his left so he could reach for a shampoo bottle with his right. He was currently doing some shopping before his shift at Ellie’s started and also used the time to have a phone conversation with Byron. Byron chuckled softly. "Why shouldn't it be?" "Dunno. Maybe because you think I'm replacing you? Rather listen to him than you?" Byron sighed softly. "Liam, I am well aware of my own age. It is very noble of you to care about my feelings in that matter but I have to tell you not to worry. I know you listen to me but having another werewolf, an Alpha even, closer to your own age group, gives you undoubtedly the advantaged to see things from a different perspective. You young people see the world differently than we do, that is perfectly fine. You can never know too much and different viewpoints allow you a better understanding of things. I am not worried you will forgo my advice or replace me with Luka. In fact, I am excited you get to make this experience with other Alphas and leaders of supernatural groups." Liam exhaled and smiled. "Good. I am grateful for all of you taking your time to teach me things, explain things to me. Especially at the moment, I feel I'm learning so many new things about our world. Things I never ever thought of before." "Your willingness to learn is one of your most admirable traits. When we met, it was one of the first things I noticed", Byron praised him. Liam meanwhile opened the shampoo bottle and sniffed. He grimaced. Way too chemical for his liking. He hastily closed the bottle and put it back on the shelf. "I try my best. The way I see it, knowledge makes me a better Alpha. Which, funnily enough, is an insight I share with Scott." "You're right. Knowledge is always good." Liam found another shampoo he liked and took it to the cash register. Byron meanwhile reminisced. "I think I met Luka's parents once. Unless there is another pack with the same name in North America, which I highly doubt. Insightful and willing to listen. Remarkable people. It appears, their son takes after them." "Wow, maybe one day you two can meet and you can tell him that. I'm not sure when his parents died exactly but he still grieves them and hearing about them will surely make him happy. Maybe you can also meet Savannah and Maddie." He considered this a good idea. Byron hummed approvingly. "I'd love to."

"One second, Byron." Liam found it incredibly impolite to check out and be on the phone so he paused the call and turned his full attention to the cashier once it was his turn to pay. The transaction didn't take long and Liam left the store with his shampoo. Only then he picked up the conversation again. "Sorry, had to pay." Byron hummed again and Liam remembered a question from earlier he had wanted to ask: "You said it's highly unlikely two packs with the same name existing in North America. Why?" "I guess I should have worded it better. There is a chance of another pack having an Alpha named Barrett, it is not an incredibly rare name, but the possibility of the other pack referring to themselves as Barrett Pack is rare. You know, Liam, packs can have all kinds of names. A lot of them take their Alpha's last name. McCall, Hale, Barrett. Others, like ours, derive their names from the world around them or things connected to them. Red Ambers Pack, The Creek Pack, Silver Eyes. What all those names have in common is they are exclusive to those packs, simply because no one wants to be dragged into another pack's business because they share the last name. Imagine another pack, full of brutal and disruptive wolves, being called Dunbar Pack. One day someone shows up at your door and causes trouble. You would be furious. It's common werewolf etiquette to not have an already taken name. Also an etiquette stemming from old times." "Why do I now imagine all Alphas visiting an office where they register their names and pay the registration fee?" Liam snickered. Byron laughed wholeheartedly. "It's a nice image. Most come from hearsay, to be honest. And, in case of a pack having their Alpha's last name as pack name, the name changes with the Alphas. Unless it's another family member taking over, but that goes without saying." Liam pondered. "So our pack would have gone from Fairclay Pack to Dunbar Pack, if it weren't for Morning Dew." Liam opened his car and put the shampoo bottle on the passenger seat before he closed the door and locked his car again. Now he made his way toward's Ellie's store. "Exactly", Byron confirmed. "I like it better that way. Think of the poor registration office. All this paperwork for a name change." Byron laughed again and Liam joined him. "My shift's about to start, Byron. Talk to you later." "Take care, Liam."

He ended the call and pocketed his phone. The store was very central, with many shops around, and Liam used it to run some smaller errands quite often. When he now arrived at his workplace, Ellie was on a ladder. “Didn’t I tell you to wait with restocking until I’m here?” Liam asked lightly and sidestepped a few empty boxes. His boss placed a box on the shelf. “You mean because you’ll heal faster if you fall from the ladder?” “I…yeah. Besides I’m your young employee. Use me.” “I want to take up that task in case you have no use for Liam!” Carlie yelled from somewhere between the shelves. Her friends giggled. “Carlie.” Liam smirked. “What about Theo? He would get jealous of me for having you.” Theo had visited Liam in the shop before and as expected Ellie and her friends had fawned over his charming personality. “I take both of you!” They all laughed and Ellie thankfully climbed down from the ladder to let Liam take over.

He was working away for a while when the door opened and Theo entered the shop. He didn’t even need to open his mouth, the feeling of resignation and frustration pouring through their bond was enough. Liam gave him a pitiful glance. “The job interview didn’t work out.” Theo completely skipped over Liam already knowing his emotional state and just continued. “They wanted a twenty-year-old with thirty years experience and I can’t offer that. Tried telling her I’ve been to hell. She thought that was a joke.” "I'm sorry." Liam meant it and went to console his boyfriend. He hugged him tightly and Theo clung to him. He wanted to work again and Liam always felt a pang of guilt. Theo had hated working at the diner but he had been working and because his Alpha pressed, he was now jobless. "It's just...It's starting to get borderline ridiculous! Seattle is not a small town, how can nobody be in need of a healthy college student willing to get his hands dirty? Bullshit!" Theo ranted and Liam let him. It was only logical Theo needed to air out his frustration.

"Don't mind me barging into your conversation", Ellie appeared next to the couple. "But, Theo, if you really want a job, I can offer you one. Liam said you two wanted to work together after college anyway. Why not start now?" "That would be possible?" Liam asked surprised. She shrugged. "I see why not. There is more than enough work for the two of you. Also, two strong young men are always better than one. Carlie, don't even comment on that one!" "I didn't say anything!" Carlie shrieked and Theo laughed. "It sure sounds like fun." He looked at Liam. "Is this okay for you?" "Yeah, I don't mind." Liam really saw no issue with that. Ellie was right, they wanted to work together someday, might as well as start now. "Then, yeah, I'd love to accept, Ellie. Thank you." Theo was extremely grateful. She was happy. "Amazing. We can later talk about all the details. I'll offer you the same contract as Liam." He understood that. "Any rules for working together as a couple?" "Boy, you visited Liam several times since he started working here. I never had to fish you out of the storage room or the back office. I'll take the chance." "We are professional!" Liam squawked. Ellie shot him a grin. Then she pumped her fist. "Not me being selfish but there will be some deliveries arriving soon. You two strong men can take this, right?" "Absolutely", Liam promised and pulled Theo along to show him everything.

****** Working with Theo was easier than Liam imagined it to be. Sure, he would have never made the suggestion for their own coffee shop had he doubted that but it was even easier than in his imagination. They worked well together and knew how the other would react in certain situations. They also fell in an easy working rhythm without speaking so much. "Is it really okay for you? Me working here?" Theo still asked when they were storing the deliveries later on. "Yeah, sure. I don't mind in the slightest." Liam opened a box and began handing Theo things. The Second Alpha sorted them meticulously. "Just wanted to check, so you don't feel like I'm intruding or whatever." "You're not. We want to have our own store one day. This is a great exercise." Liam gave him a big smile which Theo returned. "Besides, Ellie is a great boss, you'll see. Makes life easier." "Easier?" Theo inquired and grabbed another box from Liam to store it away. Liam grunted. "She knows about us being werewolves. We don't have to find silly excuses if anything comes up. I had to lie so often in Beacon Hills and come up with stories to cover. Now my boss knows what I am, my coach knows, even my most important family members know.  I don't have to lie anymore and that makes things so much easier. My friends all are either supernatural themselves or involved with the supernatural one way or another. I can be honest, and just be me, you know? It feels so much better", Liam confessed. "It truly is easier", Theo admitted. "Ellie is my first boss in known about the supernatural, it's quite a luxury for me." He gave Liam a cheeky grin and Liam laughed. "You don't mind working with me, right?" He then inquired. "If I did, I wouldn't have accepted the job offer. I'm desperate for a job, but not that desperate." Theo sorted the last thing and handed Liam the label maker. "I'm sure there was a compliment somewhere in that sentence", the young Alpha nagged but didn't mean any harm. Theo understood and scoffed playfully. But then he grew serious. "It's actually quite soothing for my wolf. Being around you, knowing where you are." "Knowing where I am? You know where I am, even if you're not here with me." "It's not that. I know where you are, yes. But are you safe? That's how the mating bond manifests for me. By the urge to protect you every time and at all cost." Liam loved Theo with all his heart and he loved the protective streak the older one had developed for him. Yet... "I like that and I appreciate that. However, I am perfectly capable of protecting myself." "I know you are", Theo confessed, "And that scares the crap out of me." "Huh?" Liam frowned in confusion. Theo grumbled. "One day, I fear, I will be too slow. And you jump headfirst into danger, probably sacrificing yourself for us, and I won't be able to protect you and keep you from doing it. One day, even though you're perfectly capable, I'm afraid a bad guy will get lucky and you will die." Theo shuddered and Liam smiled softly. He put his things down and moved closer to his boyfriend. "I protect myself as good as you do. I will never leave you like this, okay?" "Hm. Promise?" "Promise." Liam kissed him. Maybe it was a dangerous promise given their life but at this moment it felt needed. The sheer thought of one of them not returning after a fight was terrifying and cruel. So acting as if they had complete control over their fate was the only thing to stop the thoughts from going down this path. Theo responded to the kiss but then poked Liam's side. "Come on, let's get those things to Ellie. She didn't hire us to make out. That would be a different line of work."

Liam snickered but then grabbed a box and followed his boyfriend back into the store. "Before I forgot, Sadie and Mason plan on taking you shopping to your new friend Savannah's boutique. Told me before I left." "Me??" Liam shrieked and Ellie looked at him in shock. "Yep. Sadie stalked Savannah online and wants to see the stores. Mason's all for that idea but both agreed it would be rude to show up there without you. So, you have to be the sacrificial lamb, puppy." "No", Liam said firmly, "I'm not going shopping. You all dressing me up once was bad enough. No way!" "Tell them that. I'm just warning you."

The young Alpha grumbled and Ellie chuckled. Liam decided to change the topic slightly. "Luka said he would also invite Savannah and Maddie to the BBQ. I'm really excited to have you all meet. They're cool. It's nice hanging out with them." "Or texting with them", Theo teased. It was true, especially Savannah sent a lot of texts but she never expected a decent answer and just spammed with various things. Maddie, her sister in spirit as the two called themselves, responded equally excited and Liam's phone was buzzing significantly more since he met them. "Are you jealous?" "Me? Of what or whom?" Theo asked surprised. Liam shrugged. It had crossed his mind, he still remembered Theo's jealousy regarding Scott once. "Of Luka maybe?" "Why? Because you had a lunch date?" Theo joked and began tidying up behind the cash register. "It wasn't a lunch date. Not even a date. Just two friends getting something to eat. I do the same with Mason." The Second Alpha shook his head. "I'm not jealous. You're friends, you clearly respect each other and I see how happy it makes you. You see it as a chance to exchange views and advice. How could I be jealous of that?" He paused. "I mean, he is handsome and I know you noticed this as well. You have a type, puppy. Charming men with dark hair. Only natural you find him attractive." "I don't have a type." Liam had begun to fill the displays around the cash register and now shook his head. Theo raised his fingers while he enumerated. "Brett. Me. Luka. Even some of your exes. All fit the bill." "No." Liam scrunched his nose. Though he was not so sure about that one. "Hayden, for example, didn't fit the description." "Yeah. This particular type you have is reserved for males only. I met all your ex-girlfriends and when it comes to women you go for different types. But almost all your ex-boyfriends or crushes share the same traits." Flawless logic but Liam would rather swallow his tongue than directly admit that. "Okay, so what? He is attractive. Doesn't mean I want to start something." "Never said you do."

"Can the old coot give you advice?" Ellie injected. Both men looked at her. She shook her head. "Don't do that to each other. Don't tell yourself you're not allowed to find someone attractive just because your partner might get jealous." "I'm not jealous", Theo clarified. "I know you're not. It's just general life advice from an old lady." "You're not that old", Liam mumbled but continued to listen to her. "I saw relationships end over this. Because one partner thought they were not allowed to find anybody else than their partner sexy or handsome. It's ridiculous. Finding a person attractive says nothing about feelings or ambitions. Just like you said, Theo, it's a preference, a type. But this irrational of making the significant other jealous can become such a pressure, it ends in a breakup. And yet somehow society began telling people, young people, this is how it should be. It shouldn't. It's toxic. My advice is to see it as easy as you two do. A little bit of jealousy is good and I know there is a thing called emotional cheating, that is wrong, but not taking things too seriously is the best way to handle it. I am in a happy marriage and we both find other people handsome. Doesn't mean anything." Liam and Theo looked at each other. "I think we got that one covered", Theo muttered and Liam nodded with a smile. "Yeah."

****** "I hate you and regret all my life choices up to this point." Maya had her arms crossed in front of her chest and glared at the building ahead of her. "Why am I here?" Liam put his arm around her shoulders. "You know you love me and your life choices were good. But if I get dragged down by them, I need to drag someone with me", he explained sardonically and pointed at Sadie, Mason, Brett, and Corey currently gushing over the shop window of Savannah's boutique. Mason had managed to convince Corey and Brett to accompany them and they had excitedly agreed. Liam had decided for that alone they all would get one Christmas present less. Or a lump of coal. "Liam, look, they have suits." Mason was already at the entrance. Coal was a good idea. "And bowties!" Or nothing at all.

The boutique was perfectly illuminated and the carpet was held in pastel colors. One ground floor and a first floor, connected through circular stairs. Several clothing racks and shelves with all kinds of garments were placed around. Liam didn't know where to look first. "Welcome, welcome." Savannah walked towards them looking stunning as always in black heels, white ripped jeans and a black spaghetti top. She smiled brightly at Liam before she hugged him. Then she introduced herself to the others. "I am Savannah. Feel free to look around and see what you might like. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask. And shut up, those earrings are adorable." Just like that, Sadie had a new best friend. Both women excitedly greeted each other and soon enough their friends all swarmed the place. Maya stayed next to Liam. "You look out of place. Are you alright?" Savannah asked. "I don't like shopping", Maya admitted. "I just can't spend hours browsing a clothing store. It's just not me." "That's a shame. I think everybody should enjoy buying things for themselves. We try to give customers that here in our store. But maybe we can help you. Pilar!"

A dark-haired woman in Savannah's age showed up at the top of the staircase. "Yeah?" She called out while she walked down the stairs. She wore sneakers, grey shorts, and a colorful top. "Guys, this is Pilar, she works here with me and is also one of my Betas. Pilar, those are Liam and Maya. Maya hates shopping. Think you could help?" Savannah moderated the getting to know each other. To Maya, she further explained: "Pilar is great with clothing and has this unique talent of always finding something a person likes. I swear, she will make this a fun experience." "Oh, great." Maya still didn't seem convinced but she gave Pilar a brave smile when the were cheetah grinned proudly. Then she swiftly pulled her long, wavy hair up in a bun and studied Maya. "Tell me about yourself. Are you more tomboy or more sporty? Dresses yes or no?" "I'm not a tomboy. I'm simply not interested in too much makeup or dresses. Don't know if that makes me a tomboy already?" Pilar hummed. "What are your hobbies? What do you care for?" "Painting, I care about the environment, protests," Maya started to list. "Environment, amazing. We have a collection of local-made eco-friendly clothes here.  I make all of them, so I know what materials were used and how. Maybe we can find something there?" Maya looked suddenly incredibly happy and followed Pilar up the stairs again.

Savannah grabbed a polka-dotted bowtie in blue and white and held it up to Liam. "You would look pretty in a bowtie." "Absolutely not!" Liam shook his head. She laughed. "Relax, I'm just messing with you. You're not my dress-up doll." He chuckled. Her humor was something you had to like, otherwise you might feel insulted or ridiculed. But Liam got it. "You're coming to the BBQ?" "Later, I think. It's a busy day here and I cannot plan in advance when we will be done. Stocktaking, you know? I'll keep you guys updated." She smirked. "I wonder what his house looks like. Is it big? Small? Maybe even bigger once inside." "Are we still talking about Luka's house?" Liam questioned. Savannah clicked her tongue. "Maybe. Maybe not." Her eyes flashed light blue. Liam narrowed his own eyes in concentration. "Are your eyes always this color? Or did they change after you did become an Alpha?" "Blue, you mean? It's the default eye color for cheetahs. Our Alphas don't have different colored eyes than the rest. Blue for everyone." "Wolves only have blue eyes once they took an innocent life. Hence why I'm asking." The blonde shook her head. "We don't have that." Savannah wrapped one arm around Liam. "Now, tell me, any life updates? Things I should know about? Should I take time off work for a wedding?" "My wedding is in a few years, don't stress." Liam blushed. She cackled and let go of him when three women passed the store window. They waved and Savannah waved back. "The brunette one is Beatriz, the redhead is Paola, and the one with the black hair is Carmen. They make the rest of my pack." "Your pack is solely women?" Liam was surprised. "I mean if you don't count our parents, yeah. It's not uncommon for were cheetahs. We are matriarchic minted packs most of the time. It has its origin in the myth of the first were cheetahs. We originated in Africa and there was a village. The old king had been okay-ish to the women in the village. Not the most supportive fella but not bad either. But he got dethroned and killed. The new king made women fair game. They had to serve the men, were mistreated, abused, raped, were no more than slaves. One night the women fled into the wilderness. But without any food or weapons, they were scared and so they prayed to the highest gods for help. One heard their prayers and decided to help them in exchange for something. The women would get the powers to overtake their oppressors and in return, they would forever serve the cheetah goddess. Thus were cheetahs were born." Liam marveled. "I have no idea how werewolves were created. It is so cool you guys know your origin story." "Well." She looked rather proud of herself. "It's tradition and we're proud of it. No, we don't hate men. That's not what this is about." "Who hates men?" Mason appeared next to them. "Nobody." Liam ducked last minute before his best friend managed to place a pink tie around his neck. He just didn't count on Corey appearing behind him and placing a small tiara on Liam's head. "We crown you Alpha of our hearts!" Liam wanted to be mad. But it was hard when he was already laughing. "You're ridiculous!"

****** "Do we have everything we need? Are you sure it's fine? Maybe we should have picked up wine? I don't know." Corey stood in the kitchen and nibbled at his thumbnail. He had begun that after running his hands through his hair and destroying his hairstyle three times in a row which almost caused a nervous breakdown on Mason's part. Liam reached out and gently tugged his friend's hand away from his mouth. "Wow, you are nervous. Relax, it's only Maddie and Asher." Corey groaned. "I know. But I feel this is the first time Mase and I represent this pack as emissary and consultant. Yes, you are here but nobody else is, and what if something goes wrong?" "Corey, you advised me in the past", Liam reminded him. "I know but that was in group settings. This time, it's just us." He pointed at himself and Mason who also seemed incredibly nervous. Liam almost pitied them. "Look, I felt the same way before the Alpha meeting. But it turned out fine. Maddie's a great character and I'm sure Asher is as well. I mean, otherwise, they surely wouldn't be friends." He exhaled. "I also don't think you two are even capable of starting a war or offend somebody. I know you. Mason, you're great at diplomatic stuff, and you, Corey, are great with keeping the peace. I trust you." Sometimes as an Alpha, you had to give a pep talk. Liam could relate to the anxious feeling and the fear of destroying everything but he absolutely believed in his consultant and his emissary. He would have never given them those positions otherwise.

The doorbell rang. "Okay, relax!" Liam felt like a father protecting his kids from trouble in school as he now made his way towards the front door and Mason and Corey followed closely.

And then he opened the door. "Liam! I brought the playdate for your boys" Maddie announced cheerfully and with the biggest grin on her face. She stood at the front door alone, Asher still at the car which he currently locked. Other than last time Liam saw him he was now wearing jeans, sneakers, and a grey henley. It fit him better than the suit. More like him. And it seemed like his best friend had not bothered to wait for him. It also seemed as if he was used to this given he didn't even comment on it when he now joined them at the door. "I'm thirty-one. I don't need a playdate!" He now corrected her playfully exasperated. He smiled at Liam. "Hi, I'm Asher, please ignore her." Maddie opened her mouth in mock outrage and Liam laughed. "Hi, I'm Liam, welcome. Those are Corey and Mason." He stepped aside and pointed at his friends respectively. Both raised their hands. "Hey." "Hi." Maddie had overcome her faked shock from before and stepped into the house. She continued the conversation with her best friend as nothing happened. "No, what you need is some happiness fucked back into your soul." "Oh my god!" Asher glanced at the ceiling as if he asked higher powers for help. Then he gave Liam, Mason, and Corey an exasperated glance. "Please, double-ignore her." "You can't ignore me! You love me!" She reminded him gleefully. He sighed. "I wonder why." But the banter between the friends managed to break the ice, Mason and Corey warmed up immediately, and smiles spread over their faces. "You just stepped into the house, so you don't need an extra invitation", Mason mused. Maddie nodded. "No, I don't need this. We can enter any house unless a or mountain ash barrier prevents us. Speaking off, you have one outside, right? I felt it." "A ghostly barrier created by our witch, yep", Corey confirmed. "You were only able to pass because Liam invited you. Other supernaturals without invitation would have not been able to get over it. But it's amazing you could feel that." "Sometimes we can feel those things. Not always", Maddie explained.

Mason was already on the case and lead them to the dining room where they had put the bestiary and Corey's computer. "He needs to write this down." Liam knew his friend. Maddie pointed at Asher. "I have one of those as well." Asher was more interested in what Corey and Mason had gathered. "Is that a bestiary? I've heard about those but never saw one before. Wow. How did you get that?" "From friends. Yeah, I think that's a good explanation." Corey kept it simple. It didn't need more explanation for the moment, the three of them started talking animatedly. Meadow and Liam retreated into the kitchen.

"I know it's weird. A human and a vampire being best friends. But he makes me feel normal." She smiled weakly. "I don't think it's weird." Liam shook his head. "Mason and I were friends before I became a werewolf but after I finally came clean to him, it was good to have him. To know not everything is supernatural. Sometimes I need this. Normality. I understand what you're saying." Maddie seemed happy he understood and looked at the three men. They were still deeply involved in their exchange, didn't even notice their friends being gone. "I think this was a good decision", she said quietly. "Yeah? That's good." Liam was also pleased it worked so well. She sighed. "He doesn't have many friends. Acquaintances, yes. But not those I-can-call-you-at-three-in-the-morning-because-my-whole-life-is-exploding-right-now type of friends. It's good he's meeting new people." "I thought Asher was part of your coven." Had Liam been wrong? "No, he can't be", Meadow declined, "See, vampires are independent beings. We can form covens but even then we tend to ourselves. I told you I can walk around during the day but at night, vampires are more active. You won't find a vampire sleeping during the night unless they're forced to. Our rhythm is completely different than a human's. It's not like your pack, you are humans as well. We have a human side and yet we're detached from the human living. Having a human in a vampire coven wouldn't work." It made perfect sense Liam just had not considered it before. Logical. "So best friends but not part of each other's groups. Huh, okay." "Yep." She popped the 'p'.

"How did you two meet?" Corey asked meanwhile. Asher put one arm over the headrest of his chair and looked at Meadow. He started laughing. She grinned. "Oh, I can tell you. A few years ago this vampire came to town. She had been going on my nerves for a while and causes some havoc. One night, she was on the hunt for new prey and picked Mr. Asher himself. Look at the guy, who can blame her?" Asher groaned and rolled his eyes but continued to look highly amused by how she was telling the story. "Anyways, she lures him away and I follow. She's doing the most, all seductive and sexy, and then I barge in, ready to save the innocent human. The vampire chick and I start yelling at each other, she cries about how she almost had him and what does he say? Sitting on the couch, frowning as if she insulted him, and then he hits her with: I'm gay!? Like, how could you not pick that up? Completely unfazed by the reveal about vampires." "To be fair, I knew about supernaturals through my father. It wasn't a groundbreaking discovery", Asher relented. Maddie ignored him this time. "From that moment on I knew he is game for everything. We started talking, I learned whose son he was, the rest is history." "Meaning since this moment she's pestering me and acting like my undead auntie", Asher teased her. "Well, someone has to take care you're not going to the dogs. Also, undead auntie? If anything I'm the cool auntie!" She acted arrogantly and watched her nails. "Don't be fooled, she's the one getting her heel stuck in the streets and lands on her behind while trying to get it unstuck." Asher let Liam, Mason, and Corey in on a secret. Meadow shrieked and walked over to his hit shoulder. "This was one time and absolutely not my fault." Every word was followed by a hit. He laughed and tried to stop her from hitting him. "You were drunk and the shoes too big. Which I told you in the store." "Yeah, the only fashion tip of yours actually useable." Asher groaned. "Oh god, no, not this again." Mason used this to take notes. "So calling out god in the presence of a vampire is okay. Nothing happens." "I'm not Satan. We can walk into churches without bursting in flames or getting hit by lightning too." "Demons burst in flames upon entering a church. Hence why my father never visits one", Asher put in his own two cents. Corey eyed him. "Morbid sense of humor or truth?" "Dark humor. His father is the human equivalent of a demon if you must know. Though I personally prefer to call him a walking trash pile of a human being. You never know when a demon is around and overhears. Wouldn't want to insult them", Meadow nagged and Asher shushed her. "Maddie!" "What? Your father is garbage. Not just because of his businesses but just alone based on how he treats you." "It could be worse." This didn't seem to be the first time the friends got into a spat over Asher's father. "At least, he didn't let me be homeless." "He lets you live in a tiny shoebox of an apartment and makes you pay horrendous prices for rent. The bar is so damn low and yet this rat walks beneath it with his head held high." Liam didn't want them to fight and cut in. "The joy of terrible fathers. My biological one is also one of those. But it's good to have people in your life who care about you." "You cherish them more. That's how I see it", Asher agreed. Meadow understood the peace offering as what it was and kissed his cheek. "Such a cutie." "Hate you." "Asher, you're embarrassing me in front of our new friends." "They know you for a few days now. That train has left the station. They already know how nuts you are." Mason cackled. These two gave him and Liam a run for their money. They also could banter and bicker but when push came to shove, they were there for each other and had each other's backs.

Asher returned his attention to the bestiary and pointed at an entry. "That information is false. It says nymphs are redhaired. Nymphs can have every hair color in the world, not just red. If you can, I would note that somewhere." "You can read Latin just like that?" Corey was baffled. Asher shrugged. "Sure. Learned it in school and never stopped using the skills. Especially after I met Maddie and started helping her with a few vampire-related things. Comes in handy." "Asher is good with languages. It helps him in his job as well." "What are you doing for a living?" "I'm an event planner. My client list is small but exclusive. It's not the most charitable job in the world but you have to get out of bed." And just like that, Liam decided he liked Asher immensely. He had this wicked humor you only got after years of being through an absolute shit show and from what he already heard about his father and what he saw at the meeting, Liam could see where this came from. Meadow had said Asher's mother died when he was a child, another traumatic experience. Yet here he was, talking openly with strangers and sharing things with them. Away from his father, Asher seemed more relaxed and himself. And it was obvious he cared deeply for Maddie. Liam liked people with their hearts in the right place. Those were his type of people.

_____________________________________________

Author’s note:

The eyes of a were cheetah when they flash:

______________________________________

I am happy I got to insert Asher more. I love this guy. I love all my characters but after I barely had a chance to write about him in the last chapter, this chapter felt good. Next chapter they all finally come together. Or do they? We will see 😁 Did you like the chapter so far? I hope I managed to bring out the friendship Maddie and Asher have. They're each other's persons.

[thecharizardfromhell]

My TotV AU: Changes and things kept

Note- Soneone took down the wiki so I may have to dig through archive sites to find my old CANON sources

What the hell is TotV : Tales of the Valkyr is an original story/fan fiction hybrid with a canon au (Scars) written by Canadian YouTuber Lily Orchard it also has ties to several fictional properties namely Family Guy, MLP:FIM, and WoW.

Why have an AU: I like some of the ideas just not how they were implemented

So if you're at least partially familiar with the source here are my biggest changes

-some characters have been cut from the plot. Namely Elethyn, Mags, Honey Crisp, Ellie, Ascentias's rapist, the cast of mlp, Megsalyn (basically meg from family guy) and Jehovah.

Elethyn-owner wants her to not be tied to the TotV plus I have much darker/more in line with character plans for the Ascentia romance plots. Mags- personal taste honestly I feel like an uwu babu sassy child whose colorful and quirky plot clashes with my themes. Plus I'm not a huge fan of writing this type of character . Honey Crisp-see Mags, Ellie-is it mean to say she's basically a pallette swapped Elethyn with less personality?, Ascentias's Rapist- a plot device that revolves around molestation yeah I'm going dark but I'm not the biggest fan of using that for shock value . The Cast of MLP-there will be unicorns but not these ones I replaced Twilight's being a war bride to Ascentia with a humanoid character however. Megsalyn- because she shouldn't be alone without her creek buddy no actually it's because its such a weird ass plot inclusion that clashes with my vision . Jehovah because that whole plot had super inconsistent holes and was overall a bit like a cringy reddit atheist screed (I say this as an atheist by the way lol )

-characters changes/kept ideas

Valkyr in general-theyre a authoritarian fascist totalitarian government not a monarchy (which they never showed traits of-Lily please fucking research politics ). They like many fascist cultures are obsessed with the idea of purity based on race something I didn't add it's in the original ) but there is a large resistance movement who distrusts Valithra and her ideas and policies . Forced military service is a facet of their society (including to altered prisioners of war), polygamy with war brides/husbands/partners is practiced amongst the "most pure" aka those closest to Valithra but is discouraged among the "commons". Marriage in general is discouraged and outright denied amongst the commons due to Valithra's eugenics mindset. Gay marriage is surprisingly legal but once again more encouraged to the "most pure". Religion is based on the idea of Valithra as a fallen goddess. You can executed on the whims of Valithra and to a lesser degree Ascentia. Most pures have the mysterious ability to regenerate and come back to life (along with bringing others back) Valithra claims it's due to genetic superiority but that seems oddly suspicious doesn't it? (not getting into spoilers), gender identity is only respected amonst the "most pure" sadly . Experimentation on prisoners of war and prisoners is commonplace. They are not Nomads and have several cities nations etc. The Capital of Auralvana (I changed the name) is the head and home of the mysterious ancient Citadel (forbidden to most). Killing and violence is taught in schools . Pro Valithra propaganda is common as Is media suppression. Economy is being worked out (I'll figure that out I swear but it's probably capitalist)

Valithra Ryder-im keeping her iteration as a cis woman to fit her new backstory. I actually brought back the dead wife plot too . I've also made her a bit less openly cruel when manipulating other nations and planets. She's also a bit more calculated instead of all brute to extend her threat level . She now also creates propaganda and has actual opposition amongst her people.

Ascentia-she is still highly treated like a prized baby by her upperclass "most pure" cohorts but fairly feared by the commons for her extremely violent blood lust nature even with violence being normalized . She is extremely beautiful and willingly models and acts for propaganda pieces . Her extreme love of violence was sadly groomed into her from childhood and war became a somewhat religion to her . Despite her brutal nature she's also intelligent and willingly helps Sunatu with her experimentation. She has the most war brides among her social class with a staggering 400. She is abusive towards some . She enjoys living the life of luxury and hates being challenged. She secretly fears the idea of one day being actually hurt by an enemy and thus losing her social status.

Sunatu- no longer Palestinian due to the racist implications of turning her into a demon (especially since she's the only real world POC) so she's just a spooky demon. An "honorary" Valkyr she lives in the squalor zone at the edge of the city but because of her willingness to go hard into the unethical human/humanoid experimentation sciences Valithra gives her a slightly nicer house and guards to kill any squalor dweller planning to off her. Her obsession with these inhumane sciences are what got her exiled from her demon home . Blind due to Valithra ripping her eyes out in rage (a horribly common punishment) but able to be meticulous in her work . Secretly fears Ascentia

Tolrah- defected from Valithra's military and faked her death in order to become a rebellion leader . I stripped her of her numerous bisexual stereotypes and killed the plot point about her neglecting to save Ascentia from her Rapist because of said stereotypes. I also decided that the Hebrew tattoo punishment idea was tasteless as fuck because how the hell did Lily not put two and two together and realize hmm this seems offensive because I reminiscent of the Holocaust . Which despite the Valkyr being race obsessed I won't allude to because actual people died and were tortured . Anyway she's brave intelligent and falls in love with the main character.

Edit: it's Xarlan

Phayaun- toned down her brutal nature. Tolrah's pupil who defects later on after seeing the true extent of Valithra's cruelty .was forced to give up her true love to be a bride for Ascentia (who killed her) so harbors resentment towards Ascentia.

OC shit

Main characters

Xarlan- a Valkyr soldier in training. Starts to question his loyalty towards Valithra after the Earth invasion and witnessing the numerous war crimes

Duskara- took Twilight's role. Former princess of a fairy kingdom sold to Ascentia as a war bride. Seeing her people massacred she formulated a plan to destroy the Valithra regime . Through manipulation and spying she discovers the secret that may even the odds against Valithra.

Eddy-a survivor of the attack on Earth. Eddy and his boyfriend must figure out a way to rally the other survivors and protect what is left and to contact those who were taken

Nightmare/Cait- Former human twisted into the form of a winged unicorn through magical experimentation for one of Ascentia's twisted ideas . When she finds the secret from Duskara she decides to wage war as a new type of monster on the regime

All for now

[d00dt00nz]

Obligatory promo stuff at the top because it sucks and I hate it and let’s get it out of the way! follow me on twitter where I’m active, check me out on spotify for music, or like my facebook for sparse updates on music stuff. Thank you. The Cover art is by Ellie Tison

Okay!! Last song!!

Well, I say last song, but it's more like “last song”. There is one more song that I used as an epilogue, but I'm not going to get into that, and honestly if you've listened to 13 tracks without being sold (why would you do that?) one more track isn't going to sell you on it.

And would you look at that, the last song is a reprise of the first song. Wow, it's like Sgt Pepper... that's so cool. Now it makes sense why I didn't bother talking about that first song right? Not planned btw.

This song was one of the first songs I wrote for this album. I said this for a few. Truthfully I did four or so around the same time and they were all great. I had a few more tracks in the oven as well. Everything was going great. I was like “wow this album's gonna be done in no time!” Anyway that was like three or four years ago. I guess that's how these things tend to go.

This is back when I was trying to make a bit more of a straight ahead rock/indie rock sounding album. I'm pretty sure I wrote this song on guitar, lyrics and all, which is honestly (and sadly) pretty rare for me these days. I had this idea for repeated backing vocals and a call/response sort of song structure. I'm pretty sure this more energetic version of the song came first. I originally wanted a sort of Lou Reed feel to it, but once I wrote that groovy dancy bass riff it immediately lost that feel. Once I started recording electric guitars I accidentally did a grungy “brrroww” at the end of the phrase and really liked it. I replicated it throughout the track and in turn lost even more of that Lou Reed feel.

In my original recording process I had a damaged patchcord. I didn't realize it at first because I was trying out some new equipment. I just thought it was really quiet. That being the case, I had to turn it up way loud to get a good volume and that's actually where some of the guitar tone you can hear (mainly in the one playing a melody-line during the chorus) comes from. I actually really liked it, I thought it sounded like Pavement. Actually, my Tiff did too and that's probably the nicest thing she's ever said about any of my music.

At some point I added more guitar tracks to the track to make it sound fuller, and also replace some of the ones recorded with a broken patchcord. I honestly kinda liked the original tracks, which still had a little bit of that 70s glam grittiness to them, but I'm far too neurotic about this stuff to really sit with that. In the end it sounded less 70s and more mid 90s. It had a sound that I've actually been trying to get for a while, though not on this track – the sort of fuzzy swirling guitars with a groovy beat and bassline to it. Tiff described it as being “Like those music videos where everything is blue and everyone's got really baggy pants”, which, again, big compliment. I don't know if that one was actually a compliment, but I'll take what I can get.

The song had its genesis at that same party I mentioned last time. There's nothing specific really. We had my album on and it's got a pretty fun cool first half. The people there were enjoying it, but then it gets to the second half and it's a little bit more mopey. It's also completely sexless and uncool throughout. That being the case, one of the guys there was like

“Sorry Con-dog, the vibes are just not working with this right now,”

and I was like,

“Oh don't worry about it, I understand dude,”

And then he was like, “Right on man. I’m getting fucked vibes from those guys over there. Here, hit this for me.”

And then I did some coke off a Pulp Fiction VHS tape.

I thought to myself, “man it'd be nice to have music that you could put on at a party”. Which basically was the whole idea behind this album, conscious or not. I don't really know if it succeeded, but there's definitely a certain kind of party where this would play, and honestly I don't think I'd mind being at it.

The album was originally going to be more centered around the idea of the character described in this track. I mean, obviously he's me, but I'm trying to detach myself and make things a little more universal. I wanted to explore all the different traits and behaviors that this one person has. Some of them being mine, and some of them being not. Honestly, it didn't really pull through to the end. There's a little bit of that in here, but it's mostly just songs. I'm okay with that. They have some thematic cohesion. It's got this song bookending the album. Wow, it's like Sgt. Pepper.....

The ending is a little bit embarrassing for me because I do a bit of a scream voice, which, honestly I don't think there's anything actively wrong with it, I just cringe when I hear myself doing it because it's like “ah oh god I'm doing that”. I don't know. There's also the fact that, well, one of the things I yell is the word “Wasteman”, which is a little bit of an outdated slang right now, but when I actually recorded the song it wasn't. Whatever, this is an insanely white album from a white kid. I figure a lot of people who enjoy this type of music haven't actually heard that word. I wouldn't have, but I hang out with Tiff's cool friends sometimes. Honestly I think it's a cool term. I think the most embarrassing part though is I copy-pasted it so it repeats twice because I felt like I wanted more intensity. I don't think it's super noticeable, but the idea makes it a little disingenuous. During the outro I wanted to add a little more of that “90s blue and baggy” feel, so I plugged in a keyboard and freaked out on the organ setting. I think it really adds a lot.

The slower version of the song was written afterwards and I actually cheat because it uses some of the same midi tracks. I was super torn between the more exciting sound that I had and my original “vision” for the song, which was a bit more downtempo Lou-Reed inspired. I figured, why not do both?

There's not a whole lot to cover here that I haven't already covered. Mostly the backing vocals, but only because I think I did a worse job with them than the other version. There's nothing outwardly wrong with them per-se, but I think the blend is not good and that's gonna immediately stick out to some people. The middle section just kinda came about because the other version doesn't really have a proper chorus. It just has some guitar noodling. I played around with the chord progression of the middle chorus in the fast version and made something that was a bit more structured, then adapted a melody around it. Harmonies grew out of the melody. I felt like something was missing, so I took that same call and response idea from earlier and applied it here too. I really liked the interplay between the two vocal lines. The “Purify me” line was originally supposed to come up again and again throughout the album. One of the tracks that ALMOST made it would have been the song it was from, and then there would be callbacks to the melody throughout the album. It was kind of like a motif. That was unfortunately completely scrapped and this is the last trace of it. Maybe I'll work the idea into something I do in the future.

I like this song. I realized way too late that it massively rips off The Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane. I guess that “Lou Reed inspired” idea was a little bit too literal. Fortunately I would say the middle section saves it from being too much of a copy. I think it's a good way to start and finish the album. I also like the thematic notions of this album starting with the same track it ends on. Like these things work in cycles and you're never truly free of your own quicksand. Like an Ouroboros eating its own tail, like Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When one cycle ends, a new begins. The same, but slightly different – until it is completely undermined by the epilogue track that says “no this is actually the end”.

Hey congrats on making it through all of these entries! You may have only read this one, or even skipped to the end. If you did that, disregard that previous sentence and go back to read them. This album was the culmination of a lot of work and thought. 13 of these writeups was nothing compared to probably hundreds of hours spent working on this album, and probably thousands of hours thinking about it. I'm aware few people are reading these writeups, but it's honestly mostly my own indulgence. I gotta decompress this stuff and be free of this album. I can finally get rid of all this useless crap in my brain. I'll probably enjoy being able to go back and read this stuff once I've forgotten most of this, and once I've become a more mature person. I'll probably go “wow this shit is cringe. I can't believe he posted like 22 pages of cringe” but that's okay. The album's okay. I made for certain it was not, in fact, cringe before releasing it. And honestly I enjoyed writing these.

A part of me wants to get back to the freakish pace I had in like 2011 where this blog was nonstop content. I don't think it'd work so well in 2020 Tumblr because who even uses this site anymore? I think it's a little sad because it's pretty much the death of long form posting. Twitter is great because people pay attention to you, but sometimes I just want to write like two thousand words and have some psycho actually read them and respond to it. I think we've lost that on the internet. Sometimes I think of making youtube videos, but I'm no good in front of a camera. Sometimes I wonder, couldn't I just read something like this TO the camera? The answer is no, I can't. That'd be boring. I'm completely convinced nobody would watch that. I sometimes think that if I could add some editing and some visual component though, it'd work out. Some sort of... video essay. Some kind of... man with facial hair and left leaning politics who enjoys media and talks about both... Wow I wonder if that niche has been filled at all?

[agent-hood]

Whatever it takes

A response to @the-roanoke-society ‘s ‘endgame’ prompt ((WARNING: DARKEST THING IVE WRITTEN YET. TW: attempted suicide))

[[READ MORE]]

The first week they were gone, Parker was busy. Lilith had them ran ragged to catalogue and staunch the extent of damage caused by the disappearance. Half the population of the world- gone. But for Parker, whatever caused it took everyone from her: her mother, her twin, even Hampton. What did it mean when death itself was not immune?

It meant Parker needed to get to work.

The moment she had a moment to herself, Parker isolated herself in the labs, going over Ellie’s and Dara’s abandoned (hopefully not for much longer) work with a fine-toothed comb. It takes her a year to even grasp it, and another to realize that while she may be circling the drain of a theoretical answer, she had no way to actually apply it.

So she decided to look to the arcane for answers. This too yielded little results to a solution as she was not trained in nor had any talent for any sort of magic. The months she spent translating and deciphering texts and runes made the previous years look like a passing fancy.

They were worried about her, the ones that were left, but they left her alone. She figured that no one wanted to be the one to stop her because *what if* she found something. So Lilith gave her free reign of the archives, Billie Joe made sure she ate, and everyone else avoided her, having learned in the first year that if they didn’t have an idea for a way to bring them home then she didn’t want to hear it.

Her obsession grew unchecked, twisting and gnarling around her mind as each new thing she looked into spoke of something darker that it required- but it wasn’t the solution she needed so she didn’t need to think about the sacrifices it called for... yet.

In the spare moments she wasn’t throwing herself into research, she lived in the past. Playing old voicemails from her mother, looking at selfies her twin took, wandering around the old and empty offices of the Agents who vanished as she held unheard conversations with them, practicing what she would say to each one when she saw them again. Because she would see them again, she’d make sure of it.

Finally she stumbled across something that was close enough to an answer. It was dangerous and called for a sacrifice in blood, but fuck it- she had years worth to spare if it meant she could even get one person back. It didn’t have to be Carter or Hampton or her mom, it just had to be someone. That would make it all worth it.

She guessed Billie didn’t view it the same way she did, as he meticulously removed any and all sharpened objects from her vicinity, not even leaving a goddamn nail file around before he scurried off (probably to tattle on her). She had been working for this for four years though, she knew how to make due.

Lilith found her, weak and slowly bleeding out with a circle of sloppy unfinished symbols written out in a terrible mixture of blood and spit from where she had bit into her arm like an apple.

“You’ve always been on the tenacious side of ‘resourceful’, Agent Hood. Normally I love that trait in you, but I have to admit my disappointment in you.”

“...finish it...” Parker said softly, trying to keep her breathing steady as she fought against the world growing dim around her. “...with your touch surely we could bring just one back.”

Lilith, stooping down and picking Parker up in her arms like she was nothing (-Which maybe she wasn’t. Four years was a long time to eat away at someone-), staining her in the horrible red.

“No dear. Nothing could be worth that cost.”

Parker survived, but she didn’t want to. The next week after she was stabilized was spent railing against Lilith, sobbing and begging to continue her work, and then the cold and silent resignation of her failure.

She was only under observation for a month, but she stayed in that clinical and ‘safe’ room for the rest of the year, only venturing out when Billie insisted she eat or Lilith would call her to her office to try and get her to talk, giving up when she would only get disinterested monosyllabic answers in response.

Then one day the manor was full of shouting and commotion, and Parker, having gotten up to draw the blinds and lock the door from whatever was happening, was knocked flat by 200 lbs of bargheist. Before she knew what was happening (before she could even catch her breath), she was brought to her feet and swept tightly into a familiar set of arms. And suddenly it didn’t matter that she had spent the last year effectively useless, because it finally happened and that’s what mattered.

“I’m here twigs, I’m here.”

[snarktheater]

Any advice for writing a story with a villain protagonist? Particularly if they're fighting for an ideology? Also, do you have any tips on how to structure such a story (by means akin to the standard 3-Act-Structure or Monomyth? Trying to figure out how to lay out a tragic version of that formula, if that makes sense)?

Before I actually answer your question, I have to get on my soapbox for a second: the monomyth is, how do I put it…bad? I don’t want to get in a whole rant about it but it’s basically storytelling astrology. Like, all the steps defined as part of the hero’s journey are 1) incredibly vaguely and broadly defined and 2) optional. Any story can be made to fit into the monomyth when the steps are so vague that you can always say “well THIS kind of counts” or, worst case scenario, say “well, not all steps have to be respected anyway”. And then of course…what’s the point, you know? Being able to fit a story into the template of the monomyth isn’t helpful because it’s not really going to help you take a more critical look at the story, or extract some new meaning from it.

Anyway, still on that topic but closer to your question: a framework like the 3-act structure (or, my skepticism towards it notwithstanding, the monomyth) isn’t really a canvas to build your story around. It’s more of a useful tool to criticize a story after it’s written (or, for yourself, to edit the story). The three act structure can, for instance, give you a framework by which to criticize your story’s pacing. Also, just like any framework, it should be taken with a grain of salt. To quote Linsday Ellis:

“[…] it’s not terribly useful for writers to start their own work […] feeling the need to hit the points of a three act structure. When you’re outlining something, it’s best not to think about that sort of thing. But when you come out the other side, you will probably find that you’ve unconsciously created a three act structure.”

[…]

“As a writer, if you think only in terms of ticking boxes for the sake of structure, yeah, it’s probably not gonna be a great story.”

(I would also say you should watch the entire video while you’re at it. If you’ve watched it before, rewatch it. It’s good.)

Now this isn’t to say you can’t use the structure from the get-go, but it's not something to rigidly adhere to. Also, keep in mind the three-act structure is something that emerged specifically from movie criticism, because that’s the medium with which the structure fits the best.

On to your actual question. The most important thing you’ll have to think about is probably the character arc—and in this case, specifically the protagonist’s. You’ll hear the phrase “want versus need” a lot, and there is some of that, although considering the character flaws is another way to look at it. Essentially, a typical heroic character will want to achieve something, their flaws will lead to some form of failure (in a 3-act structure, this would typically be the end of the second act, i.e. the lowest point), which then leads to the character realizing what they need instead, overcome their flaws and triumph.

With a tragic arc instead (whether your character is a villain or not doesn’t matter here yet), well…the last part doesn’t happen. When confronted to failure (or the potential of it), the character’s flaws will prevent them from achieving the growth they need and lead to their downfall. Jacob Chapman summarized it best in his (now deleted) Madoka Magica review: in a tragic story arc, the character’s flaws will serve to make their downfall inevitable.

So now to apply that to a villain protagonist, especially an ideologically-driven villain…if your point is that the ideology itself is wrong, then that should probably be a guide for you. Think of your story itself as the rebuttal to the ideology: identify the flaws in the ideology, and showcase, in the unfolding of your story, why those flaws doom the ideology in question. If you don’t think the ideology is inherently bad…then you can skip this part.

Regardless of whether or not you do that, you should compound it with a more personal character arc. In other words: give the character a flaw, and, once more, use that flaw to lead to the character’s own end. This works even better if the flaw in question is a twist on the character’s perceived greatest strength. For a villain, a very typical (yet effective) one would be that their choice to reject having any loved ones because “love is weakness” causes their defeat because they have no one to turn to for support or help at the end of the day. But you can really go for any character trait here, and I’m sure it’s possible to turned it into some kind of tragedy-causing flaw.

Once you have your arc in mind, the story will probably sort of reveal itself to you. If you know where to go and what causes it to happen, you’ll have a clearer idea of what needs to be established and built up in your story. And yes, you can use, say, the canvas of the three-act structure to kind of organize how these events play out, but it’s probably not a necessity.

This is of couse just the bare bones. You can then add on that by having other characters (either supporting or antagonistic characters) build on top of that base arc. Typically, a supporting character will mirror the development of your protagonist (in this case: same flaw leads to same tragic end), while an antagonist can be used to show the opposite ending of the same arc (in this case: have the same flaw, but overcome it in the way your villainous protagonist doesn’t), but you have plenty of other options too. Storytelling is kind of infinite like that!

Do keep in mind I’m mostly spouting theory here since I’ve never actually attempted such a story myself. So. This is only worth what it’s worth. Plus, ultimately, there is no ultimate writing tip that will always work. But hopefully this helps.

[cb-143]

Hi! If it’s okay with you, would you mind if I request a BTS written ship?

See, I’m a girl who’s like 5'4 (weird bc I’m like thirdish tallest in my class) , and is someone who is incredibly shy and and quiet, and is also very much serious and ladylike for the first few meetings. Though it takes some time for me to open up, and when I do warm up to new people, I’ll get more excited, enthusiastic, bubbly, clumsy dork 😂.

I’m like the very very supportive cheerleader of the group. Like I can be cheering for you in a game or giving you a thumbs up for a presentation 😂. I’m like 1000% supportive and protective of them, often would help them with whatever they’re going though and with anything I can offer. I love my friends and family so much, that I consider a lot of people who aren’t even blood related to me a part of my family. And I’ll do anything for them tbh and I won’t hesitate to defend them when the time comes.

I’m also told to be a sweet, compassionate, empathetic person, and The cinnamon roll little sister of the group because of these traits, including my curious nature, often asking the why’s and how’s of everything. I’m also a relatively deep person so be prepared for deep talks 👌. I also get loud when I’m excited. I’m a bigger napper, i’m an independent but I’m also adventurous (anywhere is adventure for me 😂) and a big adrenaline junkie (rollercoasters in amusement parks are the best!) I’m also photographer, it’s more a hobby than a job 😂, taking pics of everyone, everywhere, anytime, anywhere all for the sake of memories and memes. I also am a deep person, who likes to talk about anything 😂. Despite the adventurous nature, I prefer to stay at home to rest and sleep well.

I love books! I’m a flower, art, and music (any genre basically 👌 but like musicals and classical often take the cake for me. And the classics and the classical.) enthusiast. I’m total nerd for history and fashion 😂. I’m also into memes, as I myself am one. I’m also a big fan of anime, Disney, cartoons, and movies. I’m often found jamming out with my classmates and friends in class, and making tunes (parodies usually). I also love hearing stories and making stories! So, I guess I’m writer and a speaker apparently. And I love animals! Except rats. But especially bunnies! I also do a bit of painting as well! From a canvas to a wall! I guess when it comes to languages, I am interested (very interested) but like I’ll try to talk in it despite it being so broken 😂.

But I hate rats despite being scared of them and I’m terrified of the dark.

Oh boy, I didn’t expect this to be long and I usually don’t talk about myself that much 😂.

But thank you so much in advance! I hope you’re doing okay over there! Take your time as well! 😂😊🌼💗💮

Hello @latte-is-late! ♥ Thank you for your request! Writing a lot really helps us to find the perfect match for you & it helped me to write a lot as well, so hopefully you can imagine your relationship with your member as much as I could c’: Thank you for your kind words at the end there! ♥♥ I really appreciate it when people ask as kindly as you did c:

In BTS we ship you with...

...Jimin!

You and Jimin would be a cute couple! You'd always be supportive of one another; with you, Jimin could fulfill his needs to get praised and validated.

Right from the start, Jimin would like how family-oriented you are. He wouldn't be nervous at all introducing you to his own family, and he'd safely (and with butterflies still in his stomach) go into starting his own family with you!

Though Jimin would sometimes get shy, he would love it when you take pics of him. He will even pose for you and request for you to take a picture with him. He'll love to travel with you. As you'd explore the different cultures, went sightseeing, or went to the beach, you'd both take hundreds of photos! After the trip, you'd print them all out and make a photo-album – that would also be something Jimin greatly enjoys, to sit down by the table, go through the photos and assemble the album.

I think sometimes, his mood would just drop, insecurities might get to him, and during those times,  he will need your advice. Your conversations about his worries would always get him back to a positive mindset, and afterwards, your discussion will shift to either deep, serious topics, or little topics about silly things with little meaning.

Of course, when together, you will not only talk a lot, or travel all around the world, but Jimin also loves comfortable days inside your home, where he can cuddle you – aka get cuddled by you – and watch some cute movie/anime/etc.

Since you're interested in the arts, he will also take you to musicals (he'll surprise you with theater tickets on ur first anniversary). [it is at this point that I realise, Taehyung would have been a brilliant fit for you as well]

Jimin will take interest in your fashion mainly by complimenting you. Art wise, he will also love that you have knowledge and talent, as that means he can comfortably show you his own works (&he expects some praise for that;; oml).

- Elli & Chan

[theteenagetrickster]

Nashville nation, R&B, stone and also hip-hop performers to watch in 2020

Nashville artists towards watch in 2020: Ingrid Andress, Devon Gilfillian, Kalie Shorr and extra

Matthew Leimkuehler, Dave Paulson as well as Cindy Watts Nashville Tennessean

Released 6:00 AM SHOCK THERAPY Dec 22, 2019

Whether they are actually making country, R&B, stone, hip-hop or even soul, there's a brand-new game of artists that Nashville ought to look out for in 2020. Breakout country excellence Ingrid Andress tops our checklist -- keep reading to see who else you should maintain your eye on.

Ingrid Andress

One year ago, Ingrid Andress failed to possess music out. The Colorado citizen was actually composing songs, commemorating her report cope with Detector Music Nashville as well as bothering with all she still needed to do to get her job off the ground.

Today her critically acclaimed escapement single "Extra Hearts Than Mine" is actually the only launching coming from a solo women musician to burglarize the Leading twenty on Advertising board's Country Airplay chart in 2019. She's preparing to launch her very first cd in March of 2020, as well as she's happening an arena trip with labelmates Dan + Shay.

" Ever before because February, when the initial track emerged, it's practically merely felt like a whirlwind, in all honesty," Andress mentioned. "I was actually certainly not counting on every thing to go as wonderful as it is actually. I am actually merely very brought down by it."

A self-described singer-songwriter who mentioned she "blogs about actual s ***," Andress has actually refined her craft because she was a child. When she was actually very youthful, Andress keeps in mind creating up jingles regarding doing jobs-- like regreting the long trip to the mailbox-- to make it through the activities. She wrote her very first song on the piano through the opportunity she was 8 years outdated. Andress really did not understand music occupations existed till she found a leaflet in higher university for Berklee College of Songs.

" I only presumed that everyone got genuine jobs, and also the only means you can be a vocalist is actually if you succeeded 'American Idolizer,'" she pointed out. "Yet, I really did not intend to be on 'United States Idolizer.' When I discovered out people visit college simply to research songs, I felt like, 'What possess I been actually performing with my lifestyle? Like, this is preposterous.'"

Songwriting was Andress' passage right into the performance planet. She went to Berklee University of Music and also has actually written tunes for musicians consisting of Bebe Rexha, Charli XCX, FLETCHER, as well as Dove Cameron as well as co-written with Sam Search, Alicia Keys and also Tori Kelly. She co-wrote her "Much more Hearts Than Mine" along with Sam Ellis as well as Derrick Southerland.

After college, Andress claimed she considered to transfer to Los Angeles "like everyone else," however took a random travel to check out Nashville. Everyone informed her it was actually the songwriting capital of the globe, and she desired to inspect it out for herself. When she got there in Music Urban area, Andress said she instantly knew she really wanted to keep.

" To this particular day, I don't know exactly how I was actually crazy adequate to steer from Boston to Nashville by myself as well as move certainly there, certainly not knowing any person," she pointed out. "Yet, I believe that you simply need to go along with your gut in some cases. Nashville merely possesses that sort of neighborhood that actually nourishes songwriters."

Kalie Shorr (left), Ingrid Andress as well as Devon Gilfillian (best) lead the Tennessean's 2020 musicians to enjoy

Andress listened to Nashville is actually a "10-year town," which signifies it takes a decade to breakthrough into country songs. Her line was actually a lot briefer. Regarding one year after she relocated to city, she complied with popular manufacturer Frank Rogers that revealed enthusiasm in her talent. Rogers aided her receive a posting deal, which suggested Andress could quit her job as a hosting server.

" It was actually extremely fast, which I was actually certainly not anticipating," she mentioned. "I think that was actually probably among the absolute best things that could've happened to me because it definitely required me in to the society of Nashville and also writing country songs as well as discovering exactly how to inform a tale."

As c and w relocated by means of the bro-country style, Andress exercised writing meaningful songs. She received disappointed as she viewed her friends receive slices on lighthearted jingles while her mental narration was actually bypassed. Andress mosted likely to Los Angeles, created popular song and had tracks tape-recorded by pop performers. She possesses no regrets.

" I'm actually thankful that I only adhered to what carried me joy rather of marketing my soul," she pointed out.

While the launch of her launching cd is actually still concerning three months away, Andress claimed she is actually presently focusing on the next one. She seems like she is actually learnt more about herself with the method and revels in the know-how she possesses an electrical outlet to share it.

" I think that there is actually a bunch of things taking place in culture straight now that individuals aren't always chatting about," she said. "I definitely love the reality that I possess this brand-new system to be capable to carry recognition to traits that I assume are necessary for our nation. It's ironic that it is actually phoned country and western, (so) practically, our company should be discussing things that are actually taking place in our country, you recognize?"

Gabby Barrett executes at the 7th yearly Following Ladies of Country party at the CMA Theater at the C And W Venue of Fame in Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

Shelley Mays/ The Tennessean

Gabby Barrett didn't win "American Beloved" in 2018, yet she might requisition 2020. In approximately 19 months considering that she placed 3rd on the well-liked aired ability hunt, the Pennsylvania indigenous authorized a document manage Detector Songs Nashville and her debut solitary "I Chance" broke the Leading 50 at nation broadcast. She has accumulated much more than 130 thousand on-demand streams, and recently scored even more than 100,000 users on YouTube that caused 24.4 million video perspectives. YouTube called Barrett a 2019 Performer increasing.

" This has actually been a frustrating year in the best method for me professionally and directly," Barrett, 19, mentioned in a statement. "Viewing the reaction to my debut single, 'I Chance,' is so satisfying. Coming from the response along with flows, to listening to the crowds sing all the phrases at my shows-- as an artist/songwriter, it doesn't receive any better than that. The Lord is merciful, as well as I am actually truly blessed."

Her brand new track "The Good Ones" is actually out right now.

Caylee Hammack does at the 13th Yearly ACM Respects at the Ryman Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn.

. Larry McCormack/ Tennessean.com

Caylee Hammack

Caylee Hammack hemorrhages creativity, fire and resolve thus fully that she's a beacon in a sector of manies thousand.

Born in Ellaville, Ga., Hammack hoped evening as kid for God to "simply satisfy produce me different." A self-described hippie from a hillbilly town, Hammack made use of phony I.d.s to acquire gigs around her native South Georgia before she was old. She denied a college scholarship that will possess carried her to Nashville for a kid that ceremoniously damaged her center quickly after. She transferred to Nashville anyhow, rested in her vehicle in an Intended car park up until she could pay for an area to keep and after that her house got rid of down in a power fire.

" My dad possesses consistently mentioned that one of the most lovely and also best points are shaped in the fire," Hammack mentioned in a declaration. "Iron is nothing at all until you function it in a fire. Glass may not be blown without rigorous warm. You can't create anything wonderful or even solid without a little bit of warmth."

Hammack launched her debut singular "Family members Plant"-- which she co-wrote and co-produced in 2019-- and also it was actually the most-added debut song at nation broadcast through a female artist in much more than three years. Her initial cd will certainly be actually discharged in 2020, as well as she'll devote the springtime opening shows for Reba McEntire.

Kalie Shorr

Tastemakers all over the country noticed Kalie Shorr's launching cd, "Open Book" -- which's no tiny accomplishment for a self-released effort.

Kalie Shorr plays on phase during the 4th yearly Bentonville Film Festival on May 4, 2018, in Bentonville, Ark.

. Phillip Faraone/ Getty Images/ Bentonville Movie Festivity

But managing her very own show works marvels for Shorr, and also her spunky, self-penned tunes that do not possess to soften phrases or soften their sonic sides. "Schedule" is a convincing mix of pointy, Swift-esque country-pop as well as classic substitute apprehension.

Shorr's readied to reach the ground running in 2020 along with a brand-new printing bargain and also a headlining program at Nashville's Exit/In on Jan. 31.

Devon Gilfillian

Devon Gilfillian

Andile Buka/Contributed

Facility and religious, Devon Gilfillian's take on timeless spirit breathes along with originality. Socially, he mixtures the roots of American heritage-- stone 'n' roll, nation, spirit-- with a modern-day effect from Kanye West as well as Jay-Z, the nation's foremost music writers. Listeners simply require to listen regarding his most current single, "Unchained," for a taste of the depth Gilillian promises along with his music.

And listeners must hear a lot more soon from the Philadelphia-raised, Nashville-based Gilfillian. He discharges his Capitol building Records launching full-length, "Dark Gap Rainbow," on Jan. 10, 2020. A grad of opening up for Mavis Staples, Keith Urban, Brothers Osborne and extra, he'll take the cd when traveling following year as primary support for Elegance Potter's upcoming excursion.

Jenny Tolman (Independent)

A 23-year-old private nation songwriter spent three years writing and also capturing a principle cd. Ambitious? Yes. Excellent? Completely.

In her 2019 cd "There Goes The Neighborhood," Tolman welcomes listeners to her not-so-fictitious "Jennyville"-- a town where personalities revel in a "High Course Poor white" way of life, the projection asks for an one hundred per-cent chance of hearsay and working possesses little bit of to perform along with a nine-to-five.

Nation artist Jenny Tolman.

Politeness of Jenny Tolman/Special to the Tennessean

She harmonizes tongue-in-cheek peculiarity (" along with Louis Vuitton that were actually made in Hong Kong" she jests on singular "Higher Course White Waste") along with a painful integrity that is actually required coming from all ageless nation cds (I've got friends that really love the Pope, and also buddies that like their dope/ Suspect our team're all simply tryin' to discover a greater spot" she provides on "My Welcome Floor Covering"). As well as she does it with musical deepness that admires the artists who influenced her -- Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton and Shel Silverstein.

" It takes folks with all of the emotional states that our company actually carry out experience as people," Tolman mentioned of her debut. " It's OK to feel factors. It's ALRIGHT to have a great time. It's OK to be actually challenged."

Bren Delight (Human-Re-Sources)

In 2018, pop/R&& B newcomer Bren Happiness began creating his 1st tunes.

Much less than 2 years later on, the smooth-voiced Nashville citizen has actually scored more than 3 thousand flows on Spotify. In Might, he released his debut, "Twenties," which increased adverse the dominating commitment of his very early singles. That's particularly correct in "Sugary food," along with jazz-meets-G-Funk bounce that's difficult not to salute your crown to.

In October, Pleasure opened for rap sensation Megan Thee Stallion at Vanderbilt, and also he's regarding to supplant the brand new year with Keith Urban, Jason Isbell as well as co. as a performer at Nashville's "Popular music Metropolitan area Midnight" gig.

Published 6:00 AM SHOCK THERAPY Dec 22, 2019

This content was originally published here.

[myautisticpov]

New review! I told you I was coming back from hiatus!

This time it’s AUTISM RUNS AWAY, the second book in the School Daze series.

Review Summary:

Overall Opinion: 4/5 Clarity of Autism: 5/5 Stereotype or Person: 2/5 Accurate Autism: 3/5 Storylines: 2/5 Respect 4/5 Total: 3/5

Script is below:

Continuing on with the School Daze series, can the second book live up to the first?

*Intro*

If you haven’t seen my review of the first book, I would recommend checking that out before continuing.

This second book continues to follow the character of the first, though there is a greater focus on Ben’s sister, Ellie, as well as a new teacher, Rob, and a new autistic child, Ethan.

It follows a lot of the same beats as the first book, with the opening even being almost identical, only with Ellie misunderstanding Rob’s teaching methods, instead of Ben misunderstanding Mel’s.

Overall Opinion

**** - Like the last book, it’s a reasonably enjoyable read. Though it definitely lacks the cohesion of the first book. The only arc that really gets resolved is the romance between Ellie and Rob, and there’s not the same resolution to Ethan’s arc that Kyle had in the last book. But more on that later.

Clarity of Autism

***** - Stated in the text.

Stereotype or Person

** - It’s time to talk about what I have been referring to as The Jeff Problem.

If you remember from the last book, Jeff is Mel’s adult autistic brother. In the first book, he was a very minor character who mostly gave Mel motivation for her career choice. He had no character development or arc. He was just there.

“But wait,” I hear you say. “Didn’t he get a job despite his parents wishes? Wasn’t that an arc?”

Yeah, but not for him. That was another arc for Mel and mostly dealt with Mel’s relationship with her parents.

The easiest way to figure out if a character has an arc is to ask “Can you identify their Disney Princess I Want song?” and do they make progress towards that goal?

Jeff doesn’t have any wants, according to the narrative. Mel asks him if he wants things to change, and he says things are fine.

Mel then takes matters into her own hands and pushes Jeff and gets him a job. Because she’s determined that that’s what’s best for him, and that’s what he really wants.

Now, Jeff was a side character in the first book, so I let this slide. After all, most side characters aren’t as well developed in most books. But the second book only continued this trend.

I swear, Jeff has less personality than a female character in a shonen manga. Or worse, a Michael Bay movie.

So, let’s break down my main problems here, because there are a few:

He's a walking teaching tool. Seriously, everything he does is a Teachable Moment, and it’s outright stated as such by the characters who interact with him. He does something quirky and they learn not to judge him. How Disney of them. I’ll come back to this in the respect portion. In the end, Jeff ends up lacking the nuance of actual adults with autism. He’s still making the kind of mistakes that most people grow out of. Especially those with Jeff’s history, which I’ll get to in a moment. Also, the allistic characters zone in on social mistakes so quickly. I get that the narrative wants to draw attention to Jeff’s autistic traits, but it shows. Most people don’t care that much about a stranger’s quirks. Not unless they’re coded as “insane”, where the first explanation would be mental illness or disability. Mostly they’re just ignored or easily explained away and they're not as frequent.

He's completely oblivious to how his parents treat him. Like, completely. Which is part of this quite outdated and harmful stereotype that autistic people don’t know when people around them are hurting them. To be honest, it’s quite easy to read Jeff’s parents as emotionally abusive. It would explain why they refuse to let him gain independence and why he’s so reluctant to rock the boat. It’s not that he doesn’t care about getting a job, it’s that he’s scared of the consequences. But the narrative has done nothing so far to support this, so it is firmly in the territory of a honeypot. Especially since this book avoids the topic if abusive parents like Superman avoids Kryptonite.

So, I get that this is a book for Autism Parents™ to educate them on how to do better. And the problem with Autism Parents™ is that dealing with them ends up being much like being a hostage negotiator.

Most people’s first instinct when the perp answers the phone would be to tell them to get fucked.

After all, they are a terrible piece of shit.

But no hostages are getting out alive in that situation.

Instead, hostage negotiators have to approach the situation from a place of empathy and compassion - not because the perp deserves it, but because that’s how you resolve the situation peacefully.

You know, without dead hostages.

But while I can appreciate this rationally, it doesn’t make that compassion easy to find for those of us who are triggered by the kind of abuse Autism Parents TM inflict upon their children.

All of it is, instead, being used up on the kids.

And therein lies the ultimate problem. We want the hostages out alive, but the optimal approach doesn’t take long to emotionally crush us.

Which is one of the reasons why it took me so long to finish this book. The attitude was that all parents love their children and therefore aren’t capable of emotional abuse. There was one particular line where the teachers reassure a group of parents by saying that children are forgiving and will understand their mistakes.

And don’t get wrong, that’s an important message for non-abusive parents. And even abusive parents need to be gently brought around if they’re hearing this in a voluntary situation. But there’s no bringing them around here. It’s just “don’t worry, everyone makes mistakes”. Which… Yeah, I get why it’s like this, but it’s horrifically common for parents of disabled kids to be abusive. I know that this book is meant for those who aren’t, but a lot of the rhetoric seems like it would just be giving abusive parents a free pass if they read it because it is incredibly sympathetic towards parents whose actions hurt their kids, with very little regard to the psychological trauma that it can cause. Yeah, kids are resilient, but only so much. There is a reason why Jeff’s lack of anxiety as an adult is unbelievable. Speaking of...

Jeff’s autism informs everything about his character, and nothing else does. This is most obvious in the complete lack of comorbid conditions, most notably anxiety. Like, Jeff’s parents’ behaviour, in refusing to let him pursue independence, is explained by Jeff having been bullied by his boss at his first job. Which… explains his parents behaviour, but not his? Seriously? But no. No sign of anxiety. Like, at all. Not even at a work environment. Or around strangers. Yeah, I don’t buy it. That’s not how that works.

He sounds like Drax the Destroyer. Seriously. Which, again back to the anxiety thing, is a problem because our pov in the Jeff chapters is a complete stranger to Jeff. That’s not how that works. You don’t just openly admit “I don’t understand the phrase you just used” to a stranger. It paints a target on your back for bullying, which Jeff would know because we are told that he has had experience with that kind of bullying in the workplace. You nod, you work out the meaning from context, or you just make vague non-committal noises and hope that they weren’t asking you something important.

Asperger's - it's a defunct label and shouldn't be used so heavily. Like, Jeff corrects people who say that he has autism. And here’s the thing, the main difference between the labels is always touted as “did you speak before you were three?” but once you’re an adult, that’s bull. It’s largely “can you pass as NT or not?” Which Jeff clearly can’t. So why it’s used so heavily and insisted upon is beyond me, besides good old ableism. “I’m not like those other autistics.” I would cut it slack in other books for realism (because a lot of people do cling to Asperger’s out of internalised ableism), but this book is meant to be an educational tool, so no slack here. Especially not when that internalised ableism is never addressed.

In the end, Jeff isn’t a character. He seems more like a patchwork of different stories about autistic people, but put together in a way that doesn’t make sense. He’s all anecdote, and no substance. Just a collection of Teachable Moments. Just like taking a baseball bat with the word autism written on it and bashing you over the head with it. Metaphor. Seriously, Sheldon Cooper has more going on beneath his inane catchphrases. Sheldon mother-flipping Cooper.

Accurate Autism

*** - would be 2 stars if it was just Jeff, and it honestly just scraped three. There is a single scene in this book that saves it from complete annihilation by my internet reviewer powers. This scene is told from Ethan’s point of view.

I’ve spent so much of this review going on about Jeff, I haven’t even really talked about Ethan. But that’s not without reason. Ellie and Rob are the two main pov characters in this book, and they’re both very secondary figures in Ethan’s life. Rob is his teacher, and Ellie met his mum once at her bakery? As such, we’re missing the same narrative cohesion regarding Ethan that we got with Kyle and Ben.

So, as the title of the book suggests, Ethan has a problem with running away when meltdowns loom. We’ll get to the narrative arc of this more in the storylines section, but for this section it’s enough to say that in the final chapters, there is a scene from Ethan’s point of view where he runs away for the final time in the book.

This scene is really well written. It avoids the usual “autism voice” that is so, so common for autistic point of views in books. It also does a really good job of explaining things from Ethan’s point of view.

This scene is the only thing saving this section from a two star rating.

Storylines

** - They’re barely treated as human and just there to further other people’s plots.

Jeff and Ethan don't have arcs. They're there as teaching tools for the other characters.

So, I said I was going to talk about Ethan’s narrative arc here. The thing is, it’s not Ethan’s arc. It’s his teacher’s and his mother’s. It’s about his mother learning not to worry to the point of making things worse for her son, and yet even this barely has any resolution.

The arc is basically that Ethan runs away when he reaches the point of meltdown and his previous school couldn’t deal with it. They kept calling his mother, and his mother is always terrified that something is going to happen to him.

But now he’s at the school from the first book, only a year up from Mel’s class, since time has passed since the first book. His teacher is a new introduction in this book, Rob.

Rob uses his experience to help Ethan’s mother run through tactics to help avoid Ethan running away and he works to get her more at ease with Ethan being at school and visiting friends and stuff.

But that’s it.

I mean, that’s literally it. He tells her what to do, she makes some attempts, but doesn’t quite manage it.

And then Ethan runs in front of a car and Rob is injured saving him.

That… What?

I mean, I have seriously thought over this, and I can’t possibly see the resolution to Ethan’s arc. In fact, this end point should be the “all is lost” moment. The only thing that gets resolved is the romance between Rob and Ellie.

The only possible angle I think the author was going for was the fact that Rob wasn’t angry and didn’t blame Ethan? And kind of disapproved of Ethan’s parents being hard on the kid about it. But he just showed it by firmly stating that it wasn’t Ethan’s fault. Yeah, that’s not going to do anything in that situation.

Like, I came away at the end just terrified for Ethan. Especially when his dad seemed complete devoid of understanding about his son’s behaviour. Just embarrassment and anger.

That’s just… Nope. All I can picture is Ethan hiding in his room without dinner, and having all of his special interest things taken away, doing everything he can to remain silent to avoid verbal abuse from his father.

From the information given by the author, I literally cannot imagine any other ending to this scenario.

But even without that imagined resolution, the resolution we’re given is weak, and not really about Ethan as much as it’s about his parents and Rob.

Respect

**** - Pretty decent, but there are some slip-ups

While the books do well with conscious shows of respect, the subconscious ones can be just as powerful in imparting lessons.

How well can the “treat autistic people like people” lesson be imparted when the story doesn't treat autistic characters as characters. They have no arcs or character development. Allistic characters have that, but autistic ones don't.

I think the unsaid lessons can be just as powerful - if not more so - than the said lessons.

AUTISM RUNS AWAY reveals some of the inherent problems of this approach to educating people about autism. It doesn't replace a textbook, and it's not education through good representation.

Is there room for this kind of education? Maybe. But it's not a question I think I’ll be ready to answer until I look back on the series as a whole.

Overall, AUTISM RUNS AWAY gets three stars. It’s not necessarily bad representation it’s certainly shallow. Hopefully the series will pick up from here.

[huntsthemoon]

1. Your first OC ever?

It was a vampire in the Beyblade universe, her name was Tru Darling and I was 14, don’t judge me lol

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?

I have a personal soft spot for Eleanora ‘Nora’ Argent obviously. She’s the first fully fleshed out character I’ve created and I thought about her for a year before I started writing. I’m just super proud of her.

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

The same beyblade fic I had made friends with some folks on ff.net and basically added them as characters. By the time I was down there was like 20 OC’s in the story and it wasn’t finished. It was a mess lol.

4. A character you rarely talk about?

Mika Parker, she’s a poly-sterek fic I started to work on but she never got very far. I might still write her some day. She helps spark!Stiles control his magic and come to grips with his attraction to one Derek Hale

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

Ooooo it’s hard to pick, but I think I’d have to go with Nora. Just because I’m like 18 chapters in and I just really want to see people love my little broken bird.  

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?

The only ones who aren’t related that look somewhat alike would be Gabriel and Valentina and only because they’re blonde and blue eyed. Not really anything other than that.

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

Eleanora and Gabriel are part of The Moon Huntress (latest chapter here)

Frankie and Ben Connelly are part of Above All Else which is in the process of being written. (learn more about them here and here)

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!

I don’t RP sorry

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?

I’m willing to allow crossovers or fan works but I would like to be asked first although those who’ve already made me stuff no they have full permission ;)

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? 

All of them lol I love writing complicated characters what can I say? 

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? 

Not sure what’s meant here, but Frankie is all smiles and sweetness on the surface...

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

I can’t pick just one lol.... a few OC’s that I’ve read so far are and they’re all great. If I miss someone I’m sorry.... Ellie Connor, Piper Dean & Merikh Amor by @lady-baratheon Fred Ackerman by @susiesamurai Emery Duran, Diana Chang & Bianca Larson by @dubonet Maddie Hayes by @anarchxst Arianna Patrakis by @fraysquake and there’s so many more my brain is just not functioning right now.

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? 

My biggest troublemaker would be Gabriel from TMH, he’s not even fully introduced into the fic as a real person and he’s causing all kinds of problems ;)

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory 

Eleanora Argent thought she was tough as nails, but being back in Beacon Hills hunting a rogue alpha werewolf throws her world for a loop. And the addition of Derek Hale in her life only helps to complicate things. Her family has a code, but what's her code?

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?

Like it? I love it! And I love hearing about others OCs as well. Anything you wanna know ask away and I’ll try my best to answer.

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? 

Probably Frankie, she’s super smart and not afraid to go after finding something out she doesn’t know about. Unfortunately she doesn’t have much time to study.

17. Any OC OTPs? 

Obviously Eleanora x Derek for sure..... my OTP ride and die.

18. Any OC crackships?

A few Eleanora paired with @lydamartin‘s Oliver always has amazing things. And I have a feeling her with @dubonet‘s Will Martin would be interesting as well. And I also love her with @susiesamurai‘s Kevin ;)

I’ve always thought Gabriel and @papermoon262‘s Alex would be really interesting if they could survive each other lol.

Frank with @dubonet‘s Dylan Larson has been interesting lately as well. And Ben could be interesting with either @catgrant‘s Gwen Lodge or @lady-baratheon‘s Piper Dean  

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

The one that would probably sing would be Valentina and it’d be a soft sweet voice singing something in Russian

21. Your most artistic OC

Nora for sure, if she was in AU she’d be finishing art school and have a thriving career illustrating graphic novels or something similar. She draws allot to try to sort her mess of a head out.

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

Nora again, I sometimes get the feeling people think of her allot like Kate but I hope that the more you read the more people realize they couldn’t be more different.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Frankie has changed allot but it has to do with development as she doesn’t have a story fully yet. Also watching the first episode of Riverdale changed some things in my head.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

Probably Nora so I could give a hug she wouldn’t take ;)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

There’s allot of myself in Nora, hard to write some of the traits without including myself or having personal experience but I feel each of my characters has a small part of me in them. Yes even Gabriel... :D

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 

I changed Nora FC after joining tumblr and realizing that I wanted to learn to edit and it was just to hard to find good stuff to makes edits with her original FC. 

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? 

I’m one of those people who writes with my entire music library on shuffle so there’s probably some crossovers from my favourite songs but not inspired exactly no.

28. Your most dangerous OC? 

Definitely Gabriel, there’s nothing more dangerous than a man with no morals, he’s the true definition of beast when it comes to werewolves.

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?

Pretty much all of them... they’re all pretty much lone birds if you know what I mean.

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? 

I wanna say Gabriel because it’s just too funny but probably more like Frankie, she wants to be mature but she’s just a small child inside.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Frankie’s would be lots of pink, sayings reblogged and lots of fashion and hipster blogs reblogged.

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? 

Nora.... girls got skills!!!!

33. Your shyest OC?

Probably Frankie, she’s shy to go after what she truly wants.

34. Do you have any twin characters?

No I don’t

35. Any sibling characters? 

Well Eleanora is Allison Argent’s sister

Ben & Frankie are siblings.

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? 

Eleanora is paired with Derek Hale and Gabriel and is siblings with Allison Argent and daughter to Chris and Victoria, Niece to Kate, Granddaughter to Gerard and Friends with Stiles, Isaac, Erica and Boyd.

Gabriel is paired with Eleanora.

Valentina is paired with Oliver Queen.

Frankie is paired with Jughead Jones and becomes friends with the gang. Sister to Ben.

Ben is paired with Ms. Grundy and is friends with FP. Brother to Frankie.

Mika is paired with Stiles and Derek and Friends with Jackson.

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human 

Mika is a talented spark and emissary from England that is a member of the pack Jackson ends up in. She meets Stiles through Jackson and then Derek through Stiles. She’s a fun loving but no nonsense when it comes to magic kind of girl.

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? 

Valentina is very good on her feet and could whisk you away ballroom style.

39. Introduce any character you want 

Valentina has climbed the ranks of the Bratva for the past five years. All without a care about what Oliver Queen had been doing since their last meeting. The last time they spoke one of them was laying on the ground bloody and beaten and the other stared coldly down. 

She had been 20 at the time and full of rage and a need for revenge. Now when Church is busy destroying Star City the Bratva bring in their best enforcer and assassin to take him down. Her mission is to strengthen their holdings in the city and it’s not long before she runs into it’s new Mayor.

Seeing her again brings up questions for Oliver and gives his new team more reasons to question his methods. But can he stop her from adding another name to her ever growing list of regrets? Or is she too well trained by the Bratva for even Oliver to stop her when she gets her target.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

The fact that Nora is basically the reason I’ve gotten to meet all you amazing people, love ya.

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)

No I haven’t had any drawn I’ve had many awesome other edits made for my characters and I love them all.

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? 

Probably Gabriel ;)

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

I don’t think I do.... 

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

I love that they’re all fun to write for in different ways...

45. A character you no longer use?

That original OC lol.

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?

A few times teehee....

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? 

A few times teehee....

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

None of my characters are pure......

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

Probably Frankie or maybe Gabriel in a weird way....

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

I just want to thank everyone who continues to support me and my OCs I love you all. Even if it’s just reading these and not comment or liking or anything I still love that you take that time. I just want everyone to love my children like I do :D

Wow this is a beast, sorry some of my answers aren’t longer... 

@papermoon262

[kartiavelino]

This Green Book Documentary Centers Black Joy

Written by Andrew Ricketts After I first went to Six Flags in third grade with my pal Stacey and her mother, I noticed how American highways unfold goals. They’re huge and quiet. They permit free motion between states and cities. They host the beginning of summer season journeys and household holidays. Stacey’s mother allow us to select the music on the best way. We had Shanice’s one-hit marvel “I Love Your Smile” enjoying on repeat. We nursed few worries besides passing time till we obtained there. We had been luckier nonetheless: by no means imagining our lives as below menace as a result of we had been Black on the interstate. The correct to open highway journey is an unstated, stunning privilege of American life. It is also one of many many rights that Jim Crow legal guidelines denied Black folks. For over half of the 20th century, touring Black households confronted life-threatening hazard. Racist killers prowled for contemporary our bodies to hold. However by some means kids, moms, fathers, uncles and aunties sought and loved leisure anyway. An industrious writer named Victor Green printed a guide to assist make that pleasure attainable. The Green Book: Information To Freedom is a well timed movie on Green’s handbook of the identical identify. His information listed over 9,500 venues the place Black vacationers had been welcome. However it’s solely an afterthought within the fictional movie that bears its title. Though that movie earned 5 Oscar nominations — amongst them is Greatest Image and Greatest Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) — it glosses over the importance of The Green Book in favor of narrowing the main focus to the prevalence of White ignorance. That curious omission makes the origin story of The Green Book much more essential. Director Yoruba Richen reveals it in a documentary that’s equal elements proud and tragic. In fifth grade, I rode with my finest pal’s household to upstate New York. There was a YMCA camp, Minisink, the place his dad served as a board member. One of many perks was free year-round entry to the lodges. On these roads, we marveled at autumnal orange and pink stripes of the tree line. We performed foolish video games like Minute Mysteries and zoned out on speedy pixels in Tetris. On a weekend fourth grade journey (that I wasn’t on), he and my good pal George suffered a automobile accident. George’s extreme accidents put him and my finest pal within the hospital for over every week. So by age ten, we knew extra about loss of life however nonetheless did not affiliate automobile journey with hazard. Accidents occurred, in any case, and we had been all the time in protected palms with our attentive dad and mom. A Black youngster rising up within the 1950s needed to brace for a harsher actuality. Again then, cautious dad and mom hopped out of vehicles earlier than checking into motels. They surveyed for relaxation stops that permitted “Coloured” patrons. The sundown meant marauding hate gangs would shut in on transferring Black our bodies. In “sunset cities,” native papers declared curfews for all however White townsfolk, and laid out Black loss of life sentences. Sunset cities weren’t restricted to states South of the Mason-Dixon line. Illinois, the place hundreds migrated for higher circumstances, contained lots of of sunset cities. By 1936, Victor Green had outlined in his information the locations in Harlem the place Black households may keep. That very same stretch of Harlem I rode by means of on the best way to camp segregated clients alongside race traces. Richen acknowledges this tough fact in her movie too: “I’m from New York. My mother is from New York. And we all know, from private expertise, from our members of the family and buddies, that racism and segregation was in all places. In New York. In Harlem. In order that incontrovertible fact that segregation and racism existed all around the nation was not new to me however it’s a part of how racism is known, or how the narrative is advised, that it [was] confined to the South.” Regardless of how Black their legacies, venues just like the Cotton Membership excluded Blacks except they had been celebrities. Green needed to tip the financial scales along with his data and he did. However with out Richen’s movie, he��d be a footnote in his personal story. As inclusive because the Academy Awards intention to be, they’re just like the Cotton Membership: unwilling to see Black life previous the stage. Richen sought to dignify Green’s story in her well-rounded documentary: “There is a righteous anger that may encourage me. The anger about how our historical past and our expertise has been distorted and ignored. Sure, there are these painful tales. However there’s the enjoyment and the survival of us that makes me, over and over, love the Black group, and admire our expertise. With The Green Book, it isn’t nearly worry and violence. The Green Book was used and created to assist African-Individuals discover trip spots. In 1940, Victor Green modified the title to be ‘The Green Book: Negro Motorists’ Information To Journey And Holidays.’ He added the phrase ‘holidays.’ And that is ours. It isn’t all simply ache and hardship. We have now created these communities, and experiences and locations for us regardless of residing in a terroristic society.” Why then did Hollywood additional distort the aim of Green’s information? American movie — even ones with summer season highway journeys — hides the ugliest elements of historical past. The primary model of The Green Book featured Harlem listings as a result of Green knew his hometown sheltered segregation. The dearth of motels to host Blacks in Harlem is a shameful truth of the Renaissance period nevertheless it impressed change. The place Green Book, fictional and flowery, misses, Richen’s documentary hits the goal. Viggo Mortensen performs “Tony Lip,” a passively-racist White man enamored of his personal opinions and muscle, but caught unemployed. Mahershala Ali, in his supporting position, performs the esteemed pianist Don Shirley. Shirley wants a driver to information him by means of the Southern states and to behave as his bodyguard in spooky, bigoted cities. However in a twist, Shirley’s character is an élitist, usually unable to see previous his nostril and hook up with others. In the meantime, Tony Lip is a person among the many folks, gliding by means of Black areas with sparse data of the tradition and a great deal of “cool” (he loves fried hen and Doo Wop music.) In Hollywood’s odd symmetry of character flaws, the Black man’s uppity airs equal the White man’s disdainful, obtuse view of a whole race. Richen’s movie, in contrast, tells a distinct and uncommon story. In it, Black ladies entrepreneurs pioneered the place few like them may thrive. Alberta Ellis (proprietor of Alberta’s Home lodge) and Modjeska Montieth Simkins (proprietor of Motel Simbeth) fought White supremacy by working companies that defied guidelines. Ellis and Simkins are protagonists of a broader Black story, the one the place house owners needed to be activists.   In dialog with Richen, she defined possession traits that outlined us in hardship. She remembers these ladies so they do not escape from reminiscence. “These had been ladies entrepreneurs who had been serving the group. Modjeska Montieth Simkins was a civil rights hero in and of herself. Alberta Ellis was too. You need to bear in mind there have been 9,500 listings from 1936 to 1967. There’s loads of data to mine in The Green Book. At one level, once we had been figuring the story —  The Green Books are all on-line, the Schomburg has all of them on-line — we needed to click on by means of the pages one after the other. We began to see what number of ladies owned companies. And so they had little footage of themselves subsequent to slogans like ‘Meals like mother used to make’ and ‘Come and relaxation your head.’ And these had been the one locations that Black performers may keep.” They pushed a civil rights agenda on their phrases and listed their lodging areas in The Green Book. I think about how their biopics would play to American moviegoers. I think about who would possibly discover these tales as beneficial as I do. I do know that they created protected havens for youngsters who marveled at open roads like I did. The place Green Book celebrates the cocky ignorance of 1 White man, and goads viewers into empathizing along with his warm-and-fuzzy flip to decency, The Green Book: Information To Freedom opens a chapter about Black ladies who popular culture cinema uncared for. American highways promise lush goals but in addition disguise uneasy historical past. The rolling hills and verdant tree traces mark the websites of over 4,000 lynchings. Roadside motels both housed vacationers or rejected those that did not match the invoice. The Green Book might enter lore as a cultured story with a ribbon-wrapped ending. Or it would break our quiet with voices from historical past that refuse to fade to black. THE GREEN BOOK: GUIDE TO FREEDOM premieres Monday, February 25 at eight p.m. ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel and is now out there to stream on the Smithsonian Channel app. [embedded content] Photograph Credit score: Jennifer Lourie/Getty Photographs/ Smithsonian Channel Get the most recent from BET in your inbox! Join now for the most recent in superstar, sports activities, information and magnificence from BET. By clicking submit, I consent to receiving BET Newsletters and different advertising and marketing emails. BET Newsletters are topic to our Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Use. Customers can unsubscribe at anytime. BET Newsletters are despatched by BET Networks, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. www.wager.com OR JOIN US ON http://feeds.bet.com/~r/Betcom-Celebrities/~3/fXiqWsl_0mc/yoruba-richen-green-book-documentary-.html The post This Green Book Documentary Centers Black Joy appeared first on My style by Kartia. https://www.kartiavelino.com/2019/02/this-green-book-documentary-centers-black-joy.html

[livinglifedrinkingwine]

Sunshine Blogger Award

This is really an honor to be nominated for an award. I want to give a special thanks to Karen Bradshaw at Themommylady85@wordpress.com who nominated me for this award on 10/17/2018. As well as a second thank you to Marta Azra at http://mischievouswordsbymartaazra.wordpress.com who also nominated me for this award on 11/12/2018. It is really appreciated that others really like my work. I can’t thank all my readers enough. Since most people I've seen get awarded a couple times and that's where it usually ends. I feel like even though it is a second nomination for me. I will still add to my post. By still answering the questions that I was asked the second time as well. Here are the rules❤️: Thank the blogger who nominated you and pop a link back to their blog in your post.Answer the 11 question which they posted for you.Nominate 11 more bloggers who you think deserve the award and create 11 new questions for them to answer.Notify your nominees. Here are the questions I was asked: What is your favorite type of foreign cuisine? I would have to say Chinese. I love to get orange chicken and of course Chinese donuts! To  top it all off with white rice makes it more of an excellent dish. What is your earliest childhood memory? Wow! This is a good one. There is so many I’m not sure which would be the earliest. I’ll have to go with when I was really little I remember climbing out of my crib and running down the hallway to see my Uncle who was visiting. I would say I was probably about two or three years old.If you could be any animal, what would you be? Usually I would say a penguin because they are my favorite animals. To be honest, I don’t like the cold so I don’t think a penguin would be a great idea. So I think I would go with a lioness. I would say a lioness because they are queens of the jungle. They obviously are mates with the lions who are the kings of the jungle. Most animals are afraid to be around lionesses because they are the predators of the jungle. Like a lioness I am the provider of the family with strong values. I don’t like to be pushed around. I spent a lot of my life being told what to do and now I know how to get passed that and be more empowering. Plus as an added bonus I think lioness are cute, like cats only bigger.Fantasy dinner guests, you can choose only five, who would they be? There are so many people that I would like to have as dinner guests. Since I can only pick five I will have to go with, first pick would have to be Leonardo DiCaprio. He is literally my all time favorite actor. He is my man crush, to me he is so hot. Second person would be Roman Reigns from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) he is also my man crush, he is also really hot. Third person would be Nikki Bella from WWE. She has awesome style and she is one of my favorite women wrestlers. I’m actually gonna be her for Halloween at our annual Halloween party. Fourth person that I would have as my dinner guest would be Anna Kendrick, she is one of my favorite actresses, plus if I have Leo then my boyfriend would be sad that I don’t invite her. She is one of his women crushes. The fifth person that I would have as my dinner guest would be Carrie Underwood she is one of my favorite singers.Which is the most influential book you have ever read? I have to be honest I don’t read much. I have read a few books and I really like suspense and mystery books. I read a lot of those kind like, twilight that was a good series. So was Harry Potter. I guess I would have to go with Amelia Bedelia because even though she is not the brightest bulb in the socket she taught me what not to do. Of course definitely not to take anything literally.What motivates you to keep blogging on? The blogs I write tell people about my memories, what I have gone through, what keeps me going. Seeing my kids think wow this is cool mom you have your stories out there, it’s exciting. Knowing that my kids are excited about what I do and blog about motivates me. To see that my boyfriend is supporting me every step of the way, and I always know that he is the biggest fan I have out there. It truly is an award all in itself. All that motivates me. Yea I have writers block from time to time but I’m sure everyone does. That is what helps motivate me to remember something that I liked about my past that I want to write about.Would you rather be trapped in a confined space completely alone or with lots of other people that you don’t know? Well I have anxiety so for me to have people in a small space with me would really freak me out. So I will go with by myself. Only question is can I have internet, computer, my phone, and obviously food and a bathroom in there with me? That would make it even better.Name a fictional character with whom you identify most. Harley Quinn! She is sassy just like me and we don’t take any ones crap. Plus I talk to myself, well she has voices I just talk out loud my thoughts to myself that is the same difference.What fascinates you the most? I am most fascinated by really the world. I love traveling and doing things I’ve never done before or have ever been to before. It’s amazing what the world has that we probably never seen before.What three traits do you think are most important in a partner/friend/family member? Kindness I don’t like when someone is rude or mean to me. Committed, this goes towards a friend because I have lots of friends but yet I am the only one that commits to calling them trying to hang out. Yet I barley ever get that in return. Last one I would say fun to be around, I like to go out and have fun.If you could have a super power, what would it be? If I had a superpower… well I would like more than one to be quite honest. Since I can pick one I would go with being invisible. I say invisible for a lot of reasons, no one knows your there so you can sneak in different transportation and it will make it so you can travel without anyone noticing you. When I don’t want to be known in a room I can hide myself by going invisible. Now to who I am nominating for this award, who have excellent blogs and that I hope others can get to read their blogs and find them fascinating as well: 1. Family By Choice 2. Thoughts With N 3. Rebel Fish 4. Ellie Bear Escapades 5. Geraldine Talks 4. Travel to Recovery 7. Leah Saffron 8. Living as Allison 9. Bailey Leah 10. Two of a Mind 11. Diary of a Spanglish Girl Here are 11 questions that I have for you:What made you decide that you wanted to startblogging? Who/what is your inspiration? If you could meet anyone in the world who wouldit be? If you could trade places with anyone for a daywho would you be and why? What does blogging mean to you? Any exciting work that you maybe thinking aboutdoing in the future? If you could do one thing to change the worldwhat would you do? Where is your favorite place in the world? If you could bring back any celebrity who wouldyou chose and why? What is your dreams? What is your favorite tv show? Now the second set of questions I was asked by Marta Azra: What kind of music you like? I love all types of music. My all time favorite would be country. I do, however, switch back and forth between country and pop music the most.How do you manage everyday life with blogging? It is hard. I have to set aside time for me to do my blog as well as make time for myself and my family. People think oh well she must really be bored if she can find time to write. What people don't realize is that it is not that I'm bored. Writing to me is a way to express myself and show people who I really am. Most of the time I try to get my blogs done while my youngest naps. That's when it's the best time for me because it's quiet and I can think better. What is the hardest part of being a blogger? The hardest thing about being a blogger is coming up with the material, the thoughts of what to write and getting people to look at what I've written. I can blog all day but without an audience its harder to get my name out there. Also monetizing is hard to do. I can put ads up and posts about a product or a place but getting people to actually click on it and buy from it is hard to do. You can't force people to do it. At the same time that is one of the main ways that bloggers can make money from blogging.Do you have a hobby and if you do what is it? I love to sing. I've been told I have a great voice. I used to sing a lot but then I went through a bad time in my life and stopped. Now that my oldest loves to sing too, I try to sing with her and get back to doing what I love. What is your fav. Book? Man, favorite book, that is tough because I don't really read a whole lot. Probably Harry Potter series and Twilight series. Who is your fav. Blogger? I love a lot of blogs I would have to say Thoughts With N, I feel like her blogs get me. Who is your role model in life? My mom always has been my role model too. She is such a strong woman. Even though her dad died a year ago she has been hanging in there. I call her practically every day. That is something I remember my mom did with her mom. Every day she would call my grandmother. Whether she had a prose needed advice on or just to call her and talk to her. That's is what I do. My mom is not the best at keeping secrets though unless you specify not to say anything. If she is excited she seems to let it slip. But I wouldn't change anything for the world.Do you have any tips for new bloggers and what are they? Even if you feel like you want to give up just try your hardest to keep going. I sometimes feel like no one is going to read my blog but then I get a surprise when I look at my stats. Sometimes I get three views a day sometimes I get 100 but the more you write the more people will keep coming back.Share the best advice you ever got from somebody? Never give up! That is honestly the best advice I think anyone could have ever given.Do you have a book crush? And who is it? I am team Edward all the way. He is so sweet to Bella throughout the whole series.What is your biggest dream? To become a successful blogger. To show the world that I did it even when a lot of my friends and family thought I couldn't. Read the full article

[livinglifedrinkingwine]

Sunshine Blogger Award

This is really an honor to be nominated for an award. I want to give a special thanks to Karen Bradshaw at Themommylady85@wordpress.com who nominated me for this award on 10/17/2018. As well as a second thank you to Marta Azra at http://mischievouswordsbymartaazra.wordpress.com who also nominated me for this award on 11/12/2018. It is really appreciated that others really like my work. I can’t thank all my readers enough. Since most people I've seen get awarded a couple times and that's where it usually ends. I feel like even though it is a second nomination for me. I will still add to my post. By still answering the questions that I was asked the second time as well. Here are the rules❤️: Thank the blogger who nominated you and pop a link back to their blog in your post.Answer the 11 question which they posted for you.Nominate 11 more bloggers who you think deserve the award and create 11 new questions for them to answer.Notify your nominees. Here are the questions I was asked: What is your favorite type of foreign cuisine? I would have to say Chinese. I love to get orange chicken and of course Chinese donuts! To  top it all off with white rice makes it more of an excellent dish. What is your earliest childhood memory? Wow! This is a good one. There is so many I’m not sure which would be the earliest. I’ll have to go with when I was really little I remember climbing out of my crib and running down the hallway to see my Uncle who was visiting. I would say I was probably about two or three years old.If you could be any animal, what would you be? Usually I would say a penguin because they are my favorite animals. To be honest, I don’t like the cold so I don’t think a penguin would be a great idea. So I think I would go with a lioness. I would say a lioness because they are queens of the jungle. They obviously are mates with the lions who are the kings of the jungle. Most animals are afraid to be around lionesses because they are the predators of the jungle. Like a lioness I am the provider of the family with strong values. I don’t like to be pushed around. I spent a lot of my life being told what to do and now I know how to get passed that and be more empowering. Plus as an added bonus I think lioness are cute, like cats only bigger.Fantasy dinner guests, you can choose only five, who would they be? There are so many people that I would like to have as dinner guests. Since I can only pick five I will have to go with, first pick would have to be Leonardo DiCaprio. He is literally my all time favorite actor. He is my man crush, to me he is so hot. Second person would be Roman Reigns from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) he is also my man crush, he is also really hot. Third person would be Nikki Bella from WWE. She has awesome style and she is one of my favorite women wrestlers. I’m actually gonna be her for Halloween at our annual Halloween party. Fourth person that I would have as my dinner guest would be Anna Kendrick, she is one of my favorite actresses, plus if I have Leo then my boyfriend would be sad that I don’t invite her. She is one of his women crushes. The fifth person that I would have as my dinner guest would be Carrie Underwood she is one of my favorite singers.Which is the most influential book you have ever read? I have to be honest I don’t read much. I have read a few books and I really like suspense and mystery books. I read a lot of those kind like, twilight that was a good series. So was Harry Potter. I guess I would have to go with Amelia Bedelia because even though she is not the brightest bulb in the socket she taught me what not to do. Of course definitely not to take anything literally.What motivates you to keep blogging on? The blogs I write tell people about my memories, what I have gone through, what keeps me going. Seeing my kids think wow this is cool mom you have your stories out there, it’s exciting. Knowing that my kids are excited about what I do and blog about motivates me. To see that my boyfriend is supporting me every step of the way, and I always know that he is the biggest fan I have out there. It truly is an award all in itself. All that motivates me. Yea I have writers block from time to time but I’m sure everyone does. That is what helps motivate me to remember something that I liked about my past that I want to write about.Would you rather be trapped in a confined space completely alone or with lots of other people that you don’t know? Well I have anxiety so for me to have people in a small space with me would really freak me out. So I will go with by myself. Only question is can I have internet, computer, my phone, and obviously food and a bathroom in there with me? That would make it even better.Name a fictional character with whom you identify most. Harley Quinn! She is sassy just like me and we don’t take any ones crap. Plus I talk to myself, well she has voices I just talk out loud my thoughts to myself that is the same difference.What fascinates you the most? I am most fascinated by really the world. I love traveling and doing things I’ve never done before or have ever been to before. It’s amazing what the world has that we probably never seen before.What three traits do you think are most important in a partner/friend/family member? Kindness I don’t like when someone is rude or mean to me. Committed, this goes towards a friend because I have lots of friends but yet I am the only one that commits to calling them trying to hang out. Yet I barley ever get that in return. Last one I would say fun to be around, I like to go out and have fun.If you could have a super power, what would it be? If I had a superpower… well I would like more than one to be quite honest. Since I can pick one I would go with being invisible. I say invisible for a lot of reasons, no one knows your there so you can sneak in different transportation and it will make it so you can travel without anyone noticing you. When I don’t want to be known in a room I can hide myself by going invisible. Now to who I am nominating for this award, who have excellent blogs and that I hope others can get to read their blogs and find them fascinating as well: 1. Family By Choice 2. Thoughts With N 3. Rebel Fish 4. Ellie Bear Escapades 5. Geraldine Talks 4. Travel to Recovery 7. Leah Saffron 8. Living as Allison 9. Bailey Leah 10. Two of a Mind 11. Diary of a Spanglish Girl Here are 11 questions that I have for you:What made you decide that you wanted to startblogging? Who/what is your inspiration? If you could meet anyone in the world who wouldit be? If you could trade places with anyone for a daywho would you be and why? What does blogging mean to you? Any exciting work that you maybe thinking aboutdoing in the future? If you could do one thing to change the worldwhat would you do? Where is your favorite place in the world? If you could bring back any celebrity who wouldyou chose and why? What is your dreams? What is your favorite tv show? Now the second set of questions I was asked by Marta Azra: What kind of music you like? I love all types of music. My all time favorite would be country. I do, however, switch back and forth between country and pop music the most.How do you manage everyday life with blogging? It is hard. I have to set aside time for me to do my blog as well as make time for myself and my family. People think oh well she must really be bored if she can find time to write. What people don't realize is that it is not that I'm bored. Writing to me is a way to express myself and show people who I really am. Most of the time I try to get my blogs done while my youngest naps. That's when it's the best time for me because it's quiet and I can think better. What is the hardest part of being a blogger? The hardest thing about being a blogger is coming up with the material, the thoughts of what to write and getting people to look at what I've written. I can blog all day but without an audience its harder to get my name out there. Also monetizing is hard to do. I can put ads up and posts about a product or a place but getting people to actually click on it and buy from it is hard to do. You can't force people to do it. At the same time that is one of the main ways that bloggers can make money from blogging.Do you have a hobby and if you do what is it? I love to sing. I've been told I have a great voice. I used to sing a lot but then I went through a bad time in my life and stopped. Now that my oldest loves to sing too, I try to sing with her and get back to doing what I love. What is your fav. Book? Man, favorite book, that is tough because I don't really read a whole lot. Probably Harry Potter series and Twilight series. Who is your fav. Blogger? I love a lot of blogs I would have to say Thoughts With N, I feel like her blogs get me. Who is your role model in life? My mom always has been my role model too. She is such a strong woman. Even though her dad died a year ago she has been hanging in there. I call her practically every day. That is something I remember my mom did with her mom. Every day she would call my grandmother. Whether she had a prose needed advice on or just to call her and talk to her. That's is what I do. My mom is not the best at keeping secrets though unless you specify not to say anything. If she is excited she seems to let it slip. But I wouldn't change anything for the world.Do you have any tips for new bloggers and what are they? Even if you feel like you want to give up just try your hardest to keep going. I sometimes feel like no one is going to read my blog but then I get a surprise when I look at my stats. Sometimes I get three views a day sometimes I get 100 but the more you write the more people will keep coming back.Share the best advice you ever got from somebody? Never give up! That is honestly the best advice I think anyone could have ever given.Do you have a book crush? And who is it? I am team Edward all the way. He is so sweet to Bella throughout the whole series.What is your biggest dream? To become a successful blogger. To show the world that I did it even when a lot of my friends and family thought I couldn't. Read the full article