#such a weird phenomenon but apparently it’s common enough to be studied

[ormymarius]

most annoying breed on the planet next to men is straight women who pretend to be queer for funsies

[sceptilemasterr]

Defenders of the Flame (TE Rewrite) Act 1, Scene 11 - The Girl in the Mirror

Title: Defenders of the Flame (A CIU Screenplay)

Main Pairings: Shreya x F!MC, Beckett x F!Atlas

Other Pairings: N/A

Genre: Full Rewrite (The Elementalists, Book 1)

Rating: PG-13 for violence, blood, swearing, alcohol, and sexuality

Summary: After a dark conversation, Fiora finally opens up to the others about the mysterious reflection she has been seeing.

Previous Scene: New Routine

Masterlist: Link

INT. FLETCHLY HALL - LOUNGE - NIGHT

The Pend Pals, now including Beckett, are gathered in the Fletchly Hall lounge for a study session. Beckett is sitting near a podium similar to the one Dr. Religast uses in her Stoicheal Theory class. A diagram of various stoicheal techniques and theories is displayed above it, which only Beckett himself seems to be paying attention to; his Grogue sits on the podium, trying to shoot down the display with his metal pebbles. Fiora and Shreya’s Lumians sit perched atop the ceiling light, sleeping contentedly, while their owners sit side-by-side on a couch, engaged in rapt conversation. Zeph lays on his back on the floor, playing one-handed catch with a sphere of water he had conjured as Ishi tries in vain to flash-freeze it with his breath. Griffin pages through a textbook on his lap, frowning at one particular page. His own companion, a Talpea (a cross between a mole and a rabbit) named MUGU, is trying and failing to dig through the carpet.  Suddenly, one of Ishi’s ice blasts misses Zeph’s water sphere and hits Griffin’s leg.

GRIFFIN: Ow! Hey, what was that?

ZEPH: Sorry! That was Ishi. Ishi, no!

Ishi whines and walks away from Griffin. Shreya looks over at Griffin and Zeph.

SHREYA: Hey, be glad it was just ice and not fire. Our element is much stronger, I must say.

ZEPH: What, still sore about losing to me ten duels in a row this week?

SHREYA: Okay, that isn’t fair. Everyone knows water overpowers fire. You had the advantage!

ZEPH: Then why did you keep challenging me?

SHREYA: Because I wanted to win!

GRIFFIN: C’mon. All Attunements have their pros and cons. Don’t think there’s one that’s necessarily better than the others.

ZEPH: I dunno, maybe not in terms of power, but personality? Metal-Atts leave a lot to be desired.

BECKETT: I heard that, you know. Besides, I’m the only one here who has already thoroughly studied everything. Is anyone else going to use this study session to actually, well, study?

The others exchange glances.

SHREYA: Apparently not. Come on, Beckett, join us! That display isn’t going anywhere, after all.

BECKETT’S GROGUE: Croak!

FIORA: See? Even he agrees!

BECKETT: Hmm, very well. But only if you all promise to get through at least another two lectures’ worth of concepts by the end of the night.

ZEPH: It’s a deal.

Beckett takes a seat in an armchair near the others.

BECKETT: If we’re speaking of Attunements and personalities, such things have only minor effects on one another at best. True, certain personality types are more or less common among certain Attunements, but nothing is absolute.

ZEPH: I dunno, you and Dr. Rallah sure both seem to have the stiff, uptight, boring routine down pretty well--

Beckett’s Grogue lets out a loud croak and launches a stream of pellets right at Zeph’s forehead.

ZEPH: Ow! Hey!

The rest of the group dissolves into laughter. After a moment, Zeph joins in as well.

BECKETT: Frankly, even I will admit that her lecturing style leaves much to be desired.

SHREYA: Wow, this from you, of all people? I am shocked!

GRIFFIN: I mean, all the Earth-Atts I’ve ever met have been pretty friendly and outgoing, but that might just be because I only hang out with friendly people to begin with.

SHREYA (shrugs): Seems sensible enough to me.

FIORA: Okay, hang on... but what about the Wood-Atts? They don’t have a mean bone in their body. Every single one of them is a nature-loving, friendly, peaceful, hippie-type! Even Dr. Kontos!

The room suddenly goes quiet. Everyone except Fiora exchange uncomfortable glances with one another.

FIORA: ...What? It’s the truth! I mean, Shreya, you’ve met Aster, she’s so--

SHREYA (uncharacteristically serious): Not Aster. Someone... else.

Fiora scans the room. Everyone has serious, downcast expressions on their faces as they stare at her.

GRIFFIN (gently): Fiora... surely you’ve heard of... the Dread, right?

Fiora looks over at Shreya, realizing that this is something she should know, but doesn’t. Shreya gives her a subtle nod.

FIORA: I... uh, yes? But I don’t know much--

GRIFFIN: He was a Wood-Att.

Fiora continues to stare, puzzled, at Griffin. Zeph picks up the slack:

ZEPH: Fiora... the Dread was the worst mass-murdering criminal of the last century. He killed hundreds. Some even say thousands.

Fiora shudders.

FIORA: And... he was…

GRIFFIN: A Wood-Attuned. That’s right. Listen, Fiora... do you remember the Primal Force for Wood?

Fiora thinks for a moment.

FIORA (muttering): Light... Gravity... Motion… (louder) Oh! Life, isn’t it?

Beckett nods.

BECKETT: That’s right. And you can imagine why that particular Attunement would be so dangerous in the hands of someone such as the Dread.

GRIFFIN: You’ve noticed with your own fire, right? Attuneds can’t just create their element, but erase it as well. Now, imagine a murdering psychopath with that kind of power over life itself.

FIORA (uneasily): I can imagine. But how could a Wood-Att become that... that... horrible?

ZEPH: Exactly. Our Attunements don’t make us who we are. It’s our choices. And some people... well... choose awful things.

FIORA: I guess. But, I mean, he’s gone now, right? What happened to him?

The others all exchange another glance.

SHREYA: Honestly? No one really knows. I mean, he was obviously stopped, but as for how? No idea.

GRIFFIN: That’s right. Growing up, he was just a story our parents told us to scare us into doing what we were told. Y’know, “If you don’t eat your peas, the Dread will get you!” That kind of thing.

BECKETT: Ugh, please don’t remind me of that. It was my parents’ excuse for essentially everything.

FIORA (sarcastically): Sounds like amazing parenting right there.

BECKETT: Unfortunately, it was a very real possibility. The Dread--or, to use his real name, Raife Highmore--had a horrifying tendency to target children. No one knows why.

FIORA (terrified): O-kay, enough creepy murderer stories for me, thank you. This guy’s from forever ago, right? He’s gone now?

Zeph creeps closer to Fiora, and says in a mock-spooky voice:

ZEPH: Ah, Fiora, he’s gone for now. But one day, he shall return... and then, he will be out for BLOOD!

Zeph claps his hands in front of Fiora’s face, startling her. She shrieks and falls over, landing flat on her back on the ground. Zeph and Griffin laugh uproariously.

ZEPH: Wow, Fiora, you really fell for that one!

GRIFFIN: Nice one, Zeph!

He and Zeph high-five. Fiora frowns.

FIORA: Oh, ha ha, very funny. Look, I just…

As she looks around the room, desperate for a change in subject, her gaze alights on a mirror in one corner of the room. She flinches back in shock when she spots her silver-haired reflection looking back at her. Fiora rubs her eyes, and in the time it takes her to do so, the strange reflection is gone, replaced by her normal one.

FIORA: Hey, guys... does anyone see anything weird in that mirror there?

She points to the mirror. Everyone follows her gaze curiously.

SHREYA: Nothing but my lovely face, why?

GRIFFIN: I don’t see anything…

BECKETT: It’s simply a mirror.

ZEPH: What, did y’see something there?

FIORA: I mean... it’s gone now. But for a moment, I saw a weird version of myself. Basically the same, but with silver hair and a different expression. Is that normal? Have any of you seen something like that here?

Beckett frowns in puzzlement. He looks to Griffin, who shrugs.

GRIFFIN: Beats me. Weird reflection, you say?

FIORA: Exactly. A weird reflection. I even saw it in--

She stops herself when she realizes she was about to accidentally reveal her origins to the group.

FIORA: Uh, saw it in another mirror. Somewhere before I started at Penderghast... and then again, during the Test of Attunement. It... she... looked just like me, but wasn’t matching my expression or movements. And her hair was silvery.

She absently tugs on a few strands of her own red hair. Griffin frowns.

GRIFFIN: Can’t say I’ve heard of anything like that before. You’re sure you saw it, right? It couldn’t have been some kind of illusion?

Fiora shakes her head.

FIORA: Don’t think so. It sure looked real. You’re sure this isn’t some kind of normal thing that happens in this place?

SHREYA: I haven’t heard of anything like that, either.

Beckett abruptly stands up and starts walking back toward the projection in the corner.

BECKETT: You can continue discussing this phenomenon if you wish. I, however, shall begin my own research into this event. Perhaps I can uncover some insight during my ample free time.

ZEPH: Wait, “ample free time?” Since when? With all of our classes, we’ve got--

BECKETT: You mean to tell me you haven’t completed all of the assigned homework for the entire quarter yet? Nor read each and every textbook twice by now? Hmph.

Zeph visibly shrinks in his seat, embarrassed. Griffin rolls his eyes.

GRIFFIN: Seriously, Beckett? It’s not a competition.

BECKETT (genuinely confused): I did not mean it that way. I apologize. I only meant that, as I have plenty of time available to me, I am best suited to investigating this “strange reflection” that Fiora mentioned.

FIORA: Well, whatever the reason, thanks, Beckett. Hopefully you can find some explanation. It’s kinda creeping me out…

BECKETT (smiles): Naturally. Happy to assist, Fiora. Isn’t that part of friendship, after all?

FIORA: You’re right about that. Thanks!

Shreya yawns, stretching her arms out widely.

SHREYA: Well, I’m not sure about the rest of you, but... (yawns) ...je suis fatigue. Fiora, care to walk back to our room with me?

FIORA: Sounds like a plan, Shreya!

BECKETT: Wait! What about your promise? Two more lectures’ worth of concepts, do you recall?

SHREYA: Please, Beckett. A mademoiselle like myself needs her beauty rest, non? We shall review more of our lectures tomorrow. I promise!

Beckett starts to object, then sighs.

BECKETT: Very well. But I assure you, I will be holding you to it!

SHREYA: Of course you will. Goodnight, all of you!

FIORA: Night!

Everyone says their goodbyes. When it’s Zeph’s turn, however:

ZEPH: Have a romantic night, you two!

Shreya splutters with surprise as Fiora stares at him like a deer in headlights.

SHREYA: What-- what could that possibly-- I don’t-- excuse you--

FIORA (simultaneously): Wait a sec-- no-- we’re not-- hold on--

Zeph breaks down into laughter. After a moment, he stops laughing and simply looks at the two girls with a knowing smirk.

ZEPH: Have fun…

Shreya and Fiora look at each other awkwardly.

FIORA: Uh... right. I’ll just... go now.

SHREYA: Goodnight, Zeph.

The two of them leave the lounge. Zeph stares after them, then turns to look at Griffin.

ZEPH: Ah, young love... am I right, or am I right?

GRIFFIN (shrugs): Who knows?

_______________________

Scene Notes: At long last, we find out about the Dread in this version. Since all of the “super-Attunements” from canon were wrapped into the Primal Forces here, Blood became the Life Primal Attunement, thus making Raife a Wood-Att. Terrifying how the most kind and gentle Attunement can be twisted so far... but as Griffin said, it’s all about our Choices. (See what I did there...?)

Timeline: November 23rd! Still in the ES time jump.

_______________________

Next: Unexpected Saviors

CIU Tag List: @brightpinkpeppercorn @endlesshero1122 @bbaba-yagaa @acidsugar0 @shaylan211 @griselda1121 @acanthisorbis @marmolady

DotF/Elementalists Tag List:

[callsignbaphomet]

Just an excuse to introduce a creature and writing practice. 4 pages and 1,763 words. Personally I don’t think it was graphic enough to warrant the warning but just in case trigger warning for body horror.

Norway Sunday, April 22, 869 C.E.

    They set out at first light, Sanaa, Grete, and Eli at the front. Ingvarr and Jørgen behind the women, concern and concentration adorning their faces; swords at the ready. In front of the group, Agnarr, leading them to the very curious finding that made its way into his property only to collapse and die from wounds sustained in battle.

The old man had heard tales of the phenomenon since he was a small boy almost a century ago. He’d heard stories of creatures with no form of their own but could steal the form of others with just one glance. They could become perfect copies that looked, behaved, and even smelled just like that which they mirrored. The only tell was the way they spoke. They couldn’t control their voices; they’d speak in broken sentences that made little to no sense. They spoke like an infant who was first learning to speak but there was no emotion behind their words. Only a monotone echo of words they heard from those they mimicked. Thus, the name stuck, mimics. It was worse when they managed to copy the shape of an animal since they had perfected the look and the sound. Once a mimic took on the shape of an animal it was impossible to tell the difference.

There were dozens even hundreds of theories as to where these creatures came from and what their original shapes were. The most common theory was that they came from another realm and that they are incorporeal creatures with no shape to call their own. Mirroring others was how they hunted and hid from predators and hunters alike.

“Caught between a deer and a wild boar.”

“For how long?” Grete asked.

“I’m not sure. I woke up this morn’ and found it. My guess is it was near death when it dropped on my doorstep. Had large slashes all over its body and big bite marks. Now I know why my dogs were barking all night long. Animals can tell, you know.”

“I was under the impression that it was impossible to tell.” Sanaa observed. She was fascinated and eager to see the creature. Ever since she found herself in this land she’d heard of the mimic, how it moved amongst people, how it used speech or what passed as speech to lure victims, how it could shift into animals to escape pursuers, how no one had ever seen what they actually look like. It seemed intelligent and some of the people even debated if it was sentient though most doubted it. It was fascinating and it reminded Sanaa of her home. Her people dealt with all manner of oddities from the small to the celestial and beyond.

“There’s the thing.” Agnarr announced as they reached his home.

Out in the front lay a massive carcass with equally massive injuries. Grete walked past Sanaa and Eli and slowly circled the creature to examine it. She was bewildered by the specimen at her feet, she slowly crouched down to get a closer look.

“Be careful, Grete.” Jørgen said as he squared up. His brother followed suit and both siblings braced themselves in case the creature was merely feigning death.

“Ah, don’t worry. It’s dead all right. Poked it a few times with a stick to check.”

“This is…incredible.” Grete whispered as her eyes darted over the body. The torso was that of the common wild boar seen in the wilds, the tail of a boar but much shorter, all but the left hindleg was of the deer, the hindleg resembled a boar’s. Clearly it ran on the other three legs seeing as the other was shorter. Grete then turned her attention to the hooves. They were horrible fusion of boar and deer, she guessed walking was uncomfortable and running was out of the question. Her eyes moved along the neck, long like a deer’s but wide as a boar. The head was a sickly mix of a deer and a boar, both seemed to fight for dominance but neither won. Snout as wide as a boar with no teeth and half a tongue, the one side of the skull facing upwards was a deer’s. The deer side had a tusk protruding from the eye socket and on the other side was a single horn, the surface cracked like dry tree bark and broken in several places. Missing an ear on the deer side, most likely torn off by whatever attacked the thing. She carefully lifted the head to see the other side. Just as she suspected, the other side resembled a boar but to her shock the ear on that side was shaped like a human’s. It was covered in thick brown fur, but it had the shape and flexibility of a human ear.

“Have you been hearing strange sounds around here?” Grete finally spoke up.

“None whatsoever. Everything’s been real quiet.”

“This mimic was trying to take a human form but died before it could continue. Left ear is in the shape of a human’s. Most likely to try and get help from you.”

“How? It was twisted.” Agnarr asked as he pointed to the mimic.

“I’m sorry, twisted?” Sanaa asked.

“Mimics can…well…mimic people and animals. Usually they shift quickly, almost in the blink of an eye if they have to.” Eli said. “Sometimes though, something goes wrong and while they shift to a different form, they can become confused in the process leading to what you see before you. A mix of two, three, four or maybe more animals. The twisted mimic cannot untwist itself and every time it tries to shift it just deforms further until it’s deformed it can’t move. Eventually it dies of hunger or thirst or something else kills it.”

“Is it always twisted with animal features?”

Sanaa looked at the group as it fell into an uneasy silence. Apparently, she asked a delicate question. Eli cleared her throat as she recalled a tale her great grandfather had told her once.

“When I was a young girl there was a family that had recently lost their eldest son to a fever. He’d gone off to explore the wilds and lost his way. He was found a few days later with a bad cough and a burning fever. They tried to save the boy, but the fever took him. That year the winter was especially brutal and unforgiving, so much so that animals risked hide and limb just to be closer to the village as it was warmer due to the fires. The bolder ones took shelter in our homes. Then one night the entire village awoke to the sound of horrible screaming. It sounded painful and agonizing. Several people took weapons and torches and ran into the wilds following the loud screams. They called out but only the screams answered so they followed them. Crawling on the ground was a twisted mimic. Torso and head of a human, the boy who died, it was pulling itself by it’s one good arm because the other had shifted backwards and was missing all fingers. From the hip down it was a mess like it had been a cat at some point. The patches that weren’t covered in fur you could see skin broken by bones protruding in the wrong direction. The screaming was the worst part, it was mixed with crying, but it didn’t have any feeling behind it. As if the only time it heard a person they were crying and that was all it could imitate. Obviously, it was put out of its misery and the body was disposed of. It tried to mimic the boy but became twisted.”

“It’s a rare occurrence though.” Agnarr reassured. “We figured the damn was freezing and starving, so it tried to imitate a human to seek shelter from the elements. Most likely saw the boy when he was lost and remembered his shape.”

“Are they violent?” Sanaa asked, more fascinated than worried.

“It depends but they have been known to lure people out into the forests. We sometimes don’t find more than blood on the ground.” Ingvarr said.

“Hmm,” Sanaa exclaimed while reaching into her bag and pulling out a small but sharp blade and an old piece of cloth and crouched down beside Grete, “Are they loners or do they roam in packs or pairs?”

“They never attack each other but they stay as far away from one another as possible. I’ve tried to study them from afar and I can’t even tell you if they mate and reproduce. They mark their territories so whenever we kill one, we take their bladders and coat the outside of the village to keep them away. Which reminds me, Agnarr, you should think about spreading some of it around your home before you get rid of the carcass.”

“Aye, will do.”

“Is there a tell?” Sanaa scrapped some of the fur off the creature’s hide and placed it neatly in the cloth and carefully put it back in her bag. “You know, is there a way to tell if one perfectly imitates a human? A mark? Some kind of sound they emit?”

“Well, they can mimic animal sounds perfectly so it’s impossible to tell when they take the shape of an animal. But if they imitate a person, they talk weird.” The group turned to look at Ingvarr and then at Jørgen when he elaborated on Ingvarr’s answer.

“Yeah, they can’t seem to form sentences correctly. It’s sort of like when a very small child is trying to learn to talk but it sounds false. Whatever they say has no feeling behind it, they don’t even respond correctly to anything you say or ask. They just say anything they might have heard before.”

“Animals can tell.” Eli said as she turned to Agnarr. “Animals out in the wild give them a wide berth or sometimes run away from them. Agnarr said his dogs were barking all night long.”

“That’s right. First one of these things to show itself around here in twenty years.”

“Yes, but there’s been a decline in their numbers in the last ten years that I’ve noticed.”

“That’s interesting.” Sanaa pulled out a small glass container from her bag and filled it with the creature’s blood and held it in her hands to observe it as it swished around in the container.

“What’ll you do with that?”

“Well, Ingvarr, I don’t trust these for medicinal purposes, but something tells me I can unlock some secrets that could benefit us.”

[awed-frog]

When you say romance should be 18 and over do you mean the brand of romance we know today (aka toxic) or romance as a whole? If we wrote healthy romance aimed at younger crowds or presented unhealthy behaviour as unhealthy behaviour in regular romance (for older crowds) would that be a good solution?

Well - I see three questions here, all of them incredibly complex and beyond interesting: should art be political and is censorship ever a good idea and also is the romance genre okay? The answer to all of them, in my opinion, is ‘no but’.

1) Should art be political?

The stupid thing is, art is inherently political, whether you want it to or not, but art that’s deliberately political tends to be awful, and that’s a universal truth both for left-wing stuff and for right-wing stuff. When you willingly create political stuff, what you’re crafting is propaganda, and proganda is generally sad and bad. I guess there is propaganda that’s also good art - Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs comes to mind - but the problem is, not all of us are Victor Hugo. 

That said, since whatever we create is political (because man is a social animal) and will have some kind of moral message, yes - ideally we want more art with an ethically ‘good’ moral message than we want garbage, because art (and here I include everything: books, movies and so on) is perhaps the most effective and impactful mind-shaper ever. That’s why Disney is doing its very best to be a monopoly, after all. But: I don’t have a good solution for how to ensure art is nice. I think art is nice when artists are nice, and artists are nice when they grow up in good, healthy societies. So the more a society rots from the inside out, the more likely it is you’ll find art that’s also rotten. I mean, while romance as a genre was always a bit dodgy (see below), what that article was talking about - the rise of the possessive, violent boyfriend and domestic abuse as the great love story - is sort of a recent phenomenon, and goes hand in hand with the deterioration of women’s rights in (Western) society. 

(As an aside, I’m not sure I agree (young) women are necessarily misogynistic for reading crap like Fiftfy Shades: I think (young) women are exhausted. Fifty Shades is, more than anything, an ode to undeserved capitalism - the only kind that seems open as an option today. After all, we know trickle-down capitalism doesn’t work and most of us will toil and toil for very little; Christian Grey is the antidote to that, the guy who shows up, basically kidnaps you, and smothers you in a life of riches for which the only thing you must do in return is give up. Having someone else decide on your job, your car, your possessions and clothes, where you’ll live, what you’ll eat and when, whether you’ll take birth control (lol: obviously not), when you’ll see your friends and family plus when and how you’ll orgasm - what women tried to escape for generations is suddenly the dream for many of us - not because of any new political ideology, but because we’re beyond tired. Women, like men, are now crushed in a neverending cycle of bs, underpaid jobs, and are apparently fed up enough in taking responsibility for anything that not only romance and ‘superhuman’ characters are booming, but a very specific kind of subset of that: essentially, slave fics. 

Just give up your agency, and you’ll be taken care of and cherished - forever.

I understand a kink is not the same as your actual political opinion, but still - I’m not enthusiastic about this trend, and I’m even less enthusiastic when it gobbles up young women who haven’t had time to experience real life relationships.)

No, I think that in the end, the answer is - if you reverse the rotting of society, automatically - statistically - you’ll get healthier artists and a healthier audience. So, really, the fight is always the same: better paid jobs, better (and free) schools, more opportunities for continued education of any kind, more democracy and transparency, more green spaces and better living conditions.

2) Is censorship ever a good idea?

Sadly, no. You’d think the logical conclusion of what I just said would be, ‘In the meantime, let’s ban the most dangerous stuff’ or something, and while part of me is tempted to support that, censorship has a way of ending very badly no matter how good and noble your intentions are.

(Self-censorship should be more of a thing, though: not everything that goes through our minds deserves to be seen and shared.)

What sucks at the moment is that on the one hand, capitalism is operating its own censorship; and on the other, its desperate search for new markets has led to a disastrous disintegration of actual human interactions.

So, problem one is that we only publish and market what makes a lot of money, and while that’s normal, to an extent, the result today is that everything is ‘almost the same’ as the previous thing (think sequels, prequels, remakes, obnoxious book covers for books that are basically all the same). So if ‘asshole boyfriend who beats you up’ suddenly makes money, it becomes very hard to escape the trope, because what will be offered to you everywhere is exactly that. This was less of a thing back when our main sources of entertainment were shared (movie theaters, the one family TV, school libraries and so on); now, it’s an epidemic, and as we see with Youtube algorithms, a dangerous one, because this obsession with watching and rewatching ‘almost the same’ inevitably leads to more and more extreme stuff.

Meanwhile, problem two is that the more tailor-made our entertainment is, the less we connect to real people. I know I sound about 90 here, but when all family members are glued to a different screen - mom watching the 50th remake of Eat, Pray, Love, dad down the rabbithole of lizard conspiracy theories, big brother now exploring some milk&peanut butter weirdness on Youporn and younger sister 30 fics deep into Stucky high school AUs - what do they have in common? What do they talk about? What can they even learn from each other? Until recently, and for aeons, fiction was shared, and its primary goal was to form a connection between group members. Now, that’s gone. We destroyed it, without even realizing what we were doing, in the space of twenty years. And yeah - I know you can create new communities, but a) these communities are virtual (which means, for the most part: not real) and b) they tend to connect like with like, which is comforting, perhaps, but not very useful. The whole point here is that we need to learn how to feel empathy and trust for those who’re different, and build a community with them - instead, what the internet is doing is isolating us inside our little bubbles, so much so that any minor disagreement is now seen as good reason to break off contact.

Censorship, however, doesn’t solve any of this. For starters, we need more regulation on how big corporations can get, what social media companies can and can’t do and who can access what kind of material. And it’d be great if we could all unplug a little, but uh - fat chance of that.

3) Is the romance genre okay?

Again, just my opinion, but personally, I mistrust it. There are no romance books for men? Instead, books for men feature a Main Character doing stuff and improving himself while accidentally meeting a Sexy Lamp he can go home to at the end of the story. And, well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but isn’t this a healthier way to look at life? While good relationships are very meaningful (or even the most meaningful) part of any human life, if your goal is to get them, they won’t grow right. You shouldn’t be hyperfocused on finding love; I think it’s much better to be like Main Character: you work on your drawing skills, try a new sport, read poetry, defeat evil Russians, thus developing inner happiness and self-confidence, thus leading you towards towards a partner who’ll fall in love with who you are - not a partner who was looking for some empty shell to fill with their own expectations and preferences.

And I know - romance books and movies are full of exciting non-romantic events and stuff - but still, the fact they’re classified and intended as romance does imply that finding a romantic partner is the ultimate goal. Which, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s healthy, and is a particularly inappropriate message for young women. After all, why is it okay that young men are encouraged to go on ghost hunts, study dinosaurs and save the world while young women are taught to wait around for a broken (possibly violent, but it’s not his fault) bad boy only they can fix? It’s messed up, is what it is, and I may be extreme here, but even the tamest, sweetest romance revolves around the same message: that you’re not complete on your own, and that you should focus on relationships as a way to become a better, happier human being. 

Now, as much as I love this quote -

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” — Oscar Wilde

- obviously there’s no direct cause-and-effect here - you don’t read one book and become a mindless Stepford wife - so I’m not saying, ‘no one should read romance ever’. It’s just - as I said in that other post, we should all enjoy diverse stuff. Read your romance novels, but also read the classics, read some philosophy, a random poem, a badly-written thriller - read Stephen King, read how the OED was written, or a Wikipedia article on the French resistance - anything and everything. Because of capitalism, because of this push towards personalized entertainment, we’re being forced and pigeonholing ourselves in smaller and smaller cages, and the worst thing is - we’re comfortable inside them, because this is the awful truth: cages are comfortable, and that’s why we need to get out before we forget what cages are for.

[As a final point: you say ‘if we wrote’, does it mean you’re an aspiring writer? If so, you shouldn’t worry about any of this. You write what you want, you write the stories you want to read. Just remember to get out of your cage as well - experience, discover, grow, read, dare - and then put all that into your books. I’m sure they’ll be great, whatever your favourite genre.]

[theparanormalperiodical]

Is Stephen King's IT Based On A True Story? The 7 Real Life Stories of Evil Clowns

With autumn just around the corner, that can only mean one thing: Halloween season is finally upon us!

But you can snort your pumpkin spices and layer your scarves all you want. There’s only one thing I am in anticipation for this autumn.

It’s the horror flicks.

Every October, a chaotic mix of horror films hit the cinemas, leaving us paranormal fanatics spoilt for choice.

But only when you cut out the rushed screen time plays that were written purely to coincide with the most wonderful time of the year, that is.

I’m not here to talk about crap, however.

I’m not here to bitch about clunky jumpscares, and the movies with more holes in a plot than in your prep school tights (“Mum, they’re fine!”).

I’m here to talk about IT Chapter 2.

The IT sequel – alongside Stephen King’s other horror hits – is set to complete one of the cinema phenomenons of this decade, and its influence on pop culture is just one echo of the incredible story the movies tell.

If you’ve been trapped in the sewers with Pennywise for the last 27 years, let alone the Clown Craze that’s followed us in and out of cinemas, here’s a quick rundown of the book/film:

A rag-tag group of misfits start noticing odd patterns in their small town. Namely, kids start to go missing. And this tends to happen roughly every 30 years, just like clockwork. Cue some freaky shenanigans evoked by an evil entity who is represented by an image of a clown/whatever you fear, and here we are.

Now, the book/films sits on this 27-years rule. It’s set between when they were young, and when they were several decades older and once again face It.

We last see It half kinda dying (but if there’s a sequel y’all know that’s BS) in the midst of the 1980s. And the new film brings us screeching back to the phenomenon that is once again haunting Derry. 

Like I said – and as you will well remember – when the last flick came out, there was a Clown Craze. There was this cultural obsession, even a criminal wave using clown masks and attire to scare the innocent bypassers. Viral videos were scored with Pennywise-esque thumbnails.

(I’m pretty sure I even went a club night that was clown themed…)

So, it got me thinking: have evil clowns ever actually existed? Has anything ever emulated the character that titled one of Stephen King’s most famous books?

Unfortunately – in more than one case – the answer is yes.

Why does the answer have to be ‘yes’.

In today’s edition of the Paranormal Periodical we are going to be discussing why we all hate clowns, the cases of actual evil clowns, and urban legends that echo these cases.

Let’s get spooky.

Why are we so afraid of clowns?

I’m pretty sure that no one in the history of ever has liked clowns. In fact, that’s actually a key part of the book.

Pennywise supposedly thinks children love clowns, and that it will entice them so he can take them away for his feeding purposes.

And believe it or not, Stephen King wasn’t the first guy to write an evil clown into literature.

Clourophobia – or the fear of clowns – is a common phobia, and has been played upon since the 19th century by the king of horror himself, Edgar Allan Poe.

And only a decade before King published It in the 1970s, several mock comic books hit the stores with ‘Evil Clown’ blaring across the cover. ‘Frenchy the Clown’ as he was known might not be the malovalent entity that is core to King’s novel, but he does echo the dark themes we pick so easily out with clowns.

Even academics have outlined our unease when it comes to these supposedly comical figures.

The University of Sheffield did a study which confirmed this universal fear of clowns today.

In particular, they deduced that children don’t like clowns as they are unknowable. The thick layers of makeup, the potential threat that could be disguised by jokes and silly clothing.

And why wouldn’t they be?

*Ok, this has nothing to do with like spooky shit but can I just air my thoughts right why and how do clowns exist now like surely we teach kids not to talk to strangers who act weird and you don’t know and that’s literally the purpose of clowns and like yall can say I’m a trigger libtard whatever but a lot of the basis to clown makeup must be based on blackface look at the lips and the hair or even trying to mock disabled people by how they act*

Even academic figures lie Wolfgang M. Zucker take this point further. Zucker claims there are strong similarities between clown figures and the cultural depiction of demons and other terrifying creatures.

Deathly white faces, the freakish features.

This is what makes Pennywise the Dancing Clown such a standout character.

And it’s also what makes the following real-life stories of evil clowns quite so distressing.

Here are the 7 cases of Evil Clowns that you have to hear about:

This might be the Paranormal Periodical, but there is nothing supernatural here. And its probably the lack of ghost-based legend that makes these evil clowns so like Stephen king’s iconic character.

And we start with probably the most horrific case: John Wayne Gacy, aka Pogo or Patches the Clown.

From 1972 to 1978, John Wayne Gacy murdered, tortured, and raped over 30 underage and young adult men. Most of the bodies were buried around his home, and some were even disposed in a nearby river.

He even made plans to fill the crawlspace in his home – where he had crammed over 20 corpses – with concrete and essentially make a new mass grave on top of it.

This twisted and depressing tale carries further into the innocent image his community impressed upon him.

Gacy frequently performed as his clown alter-egos at local parties, charity events, and at children’s hospitals. Even outside of this, he met a First Lady, was active in politics, and was even awarded the title of Precinct Captain for his services to the community.

And if all this wasn’t terrible enough, the reasoning behind his clowning days further darken his tale:

Gacy claims his clown alter-ego allowed him to regress into his childhood which was fraught with emotional and physical abused from his father.

And so, the ‘Killer Clown’ label has been bestowed upon this case.

Interested in hearing more? Check out the full story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy

Our next evil clown doesn’t stray too far from the predatory behaviour of John Wayne Gacy.

The man behind Klutzo The Clown – A. Paul Carlock – was charged with the possession of child pornography and of child molestation back in 2007.

Like Gacy, he was a force within the community, working as a police officer and a volunteer for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters scheme. It was even noted when he was alive that he had a fondness for children.

In fact, he was categorised as a ‘Christian clown’ before the accusations were brought to light.

He was hired as a police officer in 1973, yet they only found evidence (pictures on his laptop when he returned from an overseas trip) in 2007.

Upon finding the evidence of his predatory and paedophilic behaviour, he immediately began to show signs of illness, dying 39 days after his arrest. And its for this reason that his case is seen in a different light to mine.

The disgusting details tend to be overlooked as his death brought in a lawsuit regarding whether he was neglected and mistreated after his arrest.

Following on from this, we have Martin Evanick.

His clown alter ego, Vlad, certainly expressed a killer-clown vibe synonymous with Pennywise, but it seems his intentions didn’t actually stray to far from the character he sought to emulate.

This metal-band drummer pleaded guilty in 2013 to creating child pornography. He was also found prior to this to be a child molester and rapist.

Another clown to fit the bill of evil is actually a relatively recent case.

Back in 1990, a woman opened the door to a clown who promptly handed her balloons and a floral gift.

The clown then proceeded to shoot her, leaving her for dead.

For 27 years, there was no answer for this bizarre and deadly attack.

Well, until now, that is. Sheila Keen was charged with first-degree murder. She married the husband of the victim, and the later developed DNA evidence provided the key to the case.

Unfortunately, evil clowns don’t always act alone.

And it’s these next cases that vouch for this.

Across many countries in the last few years we have witnessed random groups of people dressed as clowns or donning clown masks who chase, harass, and even attack innocent people seemingly in broad daylight.

One of the most documented cases of this is actually from France. Back in 2014, the French were apparently terrorised by a group of clowns who physically attacked anyone who just so happened to get in their way.

One of these clowns was arrested for beating a pedestrian with an iron bar whilst clad in a clown costume.

A student even had a severe cut to his hand whilst defending themselves from a clown wielding a axe, and Schoolchildren were eve chased down the street by a clown following close behind with a chainsaw.

Shit bro.

But it was only in 2016 that the phenomenon was fully realised.

The 2016 Clown Sightings – which even feature on Wikipedia, now – summarise the frequent reports of people disguised as evil clowns.

However, as this is evidently a broad case, we cannot pinpoint the extent or nature of the ‘evil’.

For some it appears a practical joke, possibly even playing on the build up to the 2017 release of IT.

But the original cases have actually been traced back to 2013, from which a creepy clown was spotted in Northhampton. It was eventually found out to have been created by filmmakers to drive up traffic and fame for their Facebook page. In fact, they used the ‘sightings’ to evoke the fame they sought.

From scary clown pranks littering Youtube, to urban legends feeding on upvotes from Reddit, it appears it has not been grouped as an ‘evil’ or ‘criminal’ set of occurrences.

Even on October 25, news outlets in the US reported on threats of a potential ‘purge-like’ event carried out by clowns on Halloween. The only attack resembling this – which I assume was merely a hoax – was an attack carried out by 20 people in clown masks on a family in Florida.

No arrests were made.

There were many cases in the UK, but these only amounted to petty crimes, threats, and scaring people passing by.

But the widespread nature of it certainly confirms it as a phenomenon. 80 percent of US states witnessed this phenomenon, and the Wikipedia page is crawling with country-by-country listings of ‘killer-clown’ cases.

Do you remember the Clown Craze?

And do you have a personal tale to share about any creepy ass clowns?

Make sure you let me know!

[mairzymarzipan]

Night of the Full Moon Character Reviews- Classes

It’s about time I finally get on this.  I’ve been wanting to start these reviews for a while, but personal stuff came up, and then worries about the future of my blog.  But things are finally sussing out so- why the fuck not now?

And naturally I’ll be talking about the characters.  Other folks are talking about gameplay itself and strategy, but I kind of love these characters.  Some of them have really fucked up stories.  There seems to be some translation weirdness(this is actually a Chinese game), but I feel like there was a love when crafting these stories.  I’ll just talk about mechanics when I feel it’s important for the plot.

And who better to start with the heroine herself?

Night of the Full Moon is sort of a cross between a TCG and a roguelike.  The cards you stumble on, the events that happen and the people you meet are randomized each time.  It takes place in a magical forest on the edge of a village.  Said forest is cursed and everybody knows it.  It always snows, and those affected by the curse in it can never leave.  On a full moon night, cursed people lose their minds, apparently, and attack you even if they might not usually.  The more times you play through, the more about the story is revealed.

You play as Little Red Riding Hood, an orphan(???) raised by her grandmother.  When your grandmother disappears, it’s your job to march into this forest on a full moon night to find her.  

There are currently six classes to choose for your little cloaked heroine: Lady Knight, Ranger, Nun, Little Witch, Magician and Apothecary.

“Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother relied on each other for a living, and was often bullied by boys.  As a result, she did not have many happy memories of her childhood. However, she had to learn to use her brain and her fists to survive.”

Spoilers, but the knight class is the only one you can play for free.  Yeah, sorry, this game has some DLC so, your mileage may vary.  The knight class is fun to play, though.  It involves using your weapons and armor and combining your armor with cards that hit for a lot of damage.  You may feel a little annoyed when the witch pharmacist keeps offering you useless mana potions, though.

I just don’t really have much to say on the story of this timeline itself.  I do like the idea of a person learning self defense specifically bc of bullies, but something about this wording bums me out.  Her being defined as being a victim is kind of a downer.

Knight Red does not(afaik, feel free to correct me) have any class-specific interactions with any of the enemies.  Yeah- some of these classes will get an extra choice when they defeat a certain enemy, if their dialog is triggered.  It’s by chance, though.

And yeah.  Most of the art depicts Red with anime white hair.  I like to imagine the art of her on the cards is her as a little kid and then she dyed her hair as a teen.

🛡️🛡️ Two shields.  Serves it’s purpose but kind of the most bare.  Considered this is the only non-dlc class, that seems a little lame.  Why not just make Knight, Ranger and Witch free and make the others dlc?

“Little Red Riding Hood has long been the only girl who dared to go into the forest with hunters.  Over time, she became more agile and earned more gold from her prey. Perhaps one day she will achieve her dream of building her grandmother a house, no longer cold and hungry.”

Now this appeals to me a bit more.  And- don’t worry.  It’s clearly in the intro that her and Grandma have a place to live- but it’s probably a shitty apartment with a shitty landlord or something.

But this is a Red who has more agency.  She’s defined by her hobbies instead of how other people treat her.  Not that her life is any piece of cake.  I do like that mention about trying to make money, bc this is one of the classes where you can attain the ‘steal’ card, where can get a little extra money when you fight people.  

Ranger Red gets a class-specific interaction with the a hunter who has a particularly harsh backstory.  I’ll get to him tomorrow.  I like to imagine this guy took Red under his wing a lot when she was younger, too.

The ranger class involves a lot of chain reactions, finagling things so your turn is longer and then potentially hitting for a lot at the end if made your turn long enough.  It’s in my top three favorites.

🏹🏹🏹 Three bow and arrows.  Some cool characterization and legit a fun class to play.

“The king Little Red Riding Hood does not like to use violence to solve problems.  “Injuries of the body are far easier to treat than those of the heart and spirit.” This is Little Red Riding Hood’s motto.  Perhaps this is the reason why she is more understanding than others.”

Nun Red was initially interesting to me because...well, spoilers, but it doesn’t take many playthroughs to realize that the people involved with the church are kind of like the biggest bad.  There are other big bads, but they’re kind of the shittiest people?  And a person kind of has to be involved with a church to be a nun.

But that might not be the case.  She really kind of plays more like a cleric.  Her moved involve healing herself and praying.  Her special interaction is also not with a member of the church but rather somebody who may be described as a pagan.  Also, your Grandmother fucking hates the church, so I really doubt she’d let her grandmother become an actual nun.  Nah, ‘Nun’ Red seems to represent an old faith that the villains have been trying to eradicate.

That being said, despite avoiding violence, I don’t have a lot to go on with this Red’s personality.  Ok so, she’s really nice?  I assume she’s poor like all the other Reds, but doesn’t seem to care about that.  Like the Knight, she just kind of comes off as too passive.

Gameplay wise, she’s my least favorite.  A healer makes sense if other people are in your party who can hit, but Red is alone.  It’s very difficult to get her to wield damage and fights go on for a long time.  It’s just, boring and frustrating.  For that reason, I’ve giving her just 🙏🏻 one set of pray hands.  Petty, I know, but that’s how I play.

“Even though the study of black magic is strictly prohibited in town, Little Red Riding Hood’s curiosity cannot be suppressed.  What’s more surprising is that the witch has great patience in her guidance of the girl.”

Oh, yes, here we go!  Probably the most interesting Red story wise.  Spoilers again, but remembers those multiple Big Bads I mentioned?  Well the Witch is one of the biggest of the bads...that is, unless you think that Pharmacy Witch and Apple Witch are different people.  Then who knows which one in her tutor.  My headcanon is that they’re the same person using a shapeshifting, so...

But yeah, to have a character who was trained by one of the main villains then go back and take on the evil in the forest makes for a pretty fun story.  Yes, yes, it’s every video game twist, but give me this.  Also this Red is driven, not by her shitty living situation, but simply by curiosity.  She thinks magic is weird and cool and wants to know everything about it, and she’ll break the town laws and go into the woods to just to learn.  That’s pretty neat!

This description, along with some facts about said Witch also lead to some pretty important headcanons about the ur-story but...I’m going to wait to talk about those when I talk about the Apple Witch.  

Witch Red is kind of just, a wizard.  You can be an elemental generalist, or you can focus one of the three elements, or you can stock up your mana up just to hammer people with it later.  The difficulty is often picking a strategy early enough and finding the cards you need to make it work.  The class specific encounter is with a mage who has a similar deck so- it fits.

She gets 🔥🔥🔥🔥 four fireballs.  Great for story and headcanons, but her class isn’t one of my favorites to play.  As I said: petty.

“As a descendant of the Hope family, Little Red Riding Hood discovered a strange bond between her body and cards when she was very young. She sought to cover up this supernatural phenomenon and magic became her best excuse.”

There is a lot of unpack here.

“A descendant of the Hope family” is another thing I’ll talk about when we get to the Witch.  This class is...kind of meta?  I had assumed up until seeing that that everyone wasn’t really carrying around physical cards but rather they represented attacks.  What does it mean if Magician Red has power over cards themselves?  Does she warp reality to mess with people’s attacks?  Spoilers but no, unless you have a card that wipes out mana/attack pts.

Also, it’s wild to me that Red was born with this super power, but it was soooo scary that she told everyone that it was magic.  Yanno, the thing that’s been established as illegal.  What exactly is it that Red is capable of doing, and why is it so frightening?  The description doesn’t reveal much.

You can either use a lot of traps with her or you can bank mana to make combos with your poker dart card.  Both are pretty fun.  Her special encounter is with a robotic stage magician who is actually pretty awesome.  Also he probably didn’t train her, because he’s kind of new to the area.

She gets 🃏🃏🃏 three playing cards.  Fun class to play, and he beginnings of an interesting character, but too confusing for me to latch onto.

“Little Red Riding Hood has been filled with curiosity for the natural world ever since childhood, and enjoys performing strange experiments. To care for her aging Grandma, she secretly learned how to concoct cheap potions from the crazy apothecary.”

Personality wise, Apothecary Red seems to have a lot in common with Witch Red, with the natural curiosity.  The nature of the ‘strange experiments’ is a little dubious, though.  Are you talking ‘let’s see what happens when I mix these two chemicals’ or ‘let’s see what happens to this frog if i stick it in a blender’ strange?  Apothecary Red may or may not be some kind of sadist.

The fact that she willingly hangs out with the other Apothecary does not help her case in that respect.  Dude is kind of a jerk but more on that later.  Worth noting, though, is that she only works for the guy for money, but does her ‘strange experiments’ on her own time.  She seems to be self taught and feels like she’s lowering herself working for this guy.

Her playstyle supports the notion of this Red being a jerk.  You can set people on fire and they’ll burn for a little while, or you can slowly drain their life force, or you can blow up your own stuff in their face, causing damage.  It’s...actually really fun!  Especially you have the right weapons to set up chain reactions.

The apothecary is who you have a special interaction with, and even then she seems to be unimpressed by him.

Anyhoo, I’m go ahead and give this girl 💥💥💥💥💥 five explosions.  She’s definitely a sadistic heroine, but that’s what makes her fun!

WEREWOLF RED WEREWOLF RED WEREWOLF RED???

So, this is the teaser image for the ‘coming soon’ class.  I’m hoping it’s indicative of what’s to come and not just a generic plate.  It looks like a girl with an axe with a werewolf growing out of her back which...is actually a concept that’s already canon, so yeah. Anyhoo I am so pumped about this.  You interact with so many monsters in the story, it’s about time you get to be one.

🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺 five potential werewolves!

Ok, so there you go.  This post is going to be a little different as we’re talking about one character in different timelines and also we didn’t touch on voice acting.  Hopefully that gives you an idea of the game without skipping ahead too much.  Next we’ll talk about some of the people mentioned here, as well as a few others.  

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OR AT LEAST DISCARD ANY CODE YOU WROTE WHILE STILL EMPLOYED AND START OVER IN ANOTHER DIRECTION

But while the investors can admit they don't know what we're looking for, that leads to more ideas. Hackers just want power. Whatever gets you your target growth rate to impress investors. Instead of doing a small number of users. Particularly since economic inequality is not the hours but the responsibility. If we want to keep an eye on things you've changed recently. So programmers continue to develop iPhone apps, even though Milan was just as dismayed when he didn't seem to harm us. People only tend to use problems that are, without the owners even knowing it, your life could be better, for a while in Florence. So the language probably must already be installed on the computer you're using.

But the problem is well-defined. Once you're ramen profitable. It was like the floor dropped out. But it is very common for a group of girls waiting for the school bus, and was shocked to discover, not something you can only judge computer programmers by working with him, and sure enough, I thought that something must be. It's just 178 square miles at one end were distinguished by the presence of quality x, at the end of it they had built a real, working store. It's not a question that makes sense to exclude outliers from some types of studies, studies of returns from startup investing, which is typical of spam is that every one of these words has a spam probability of 98%, whereas the main importance of ramen profitability is the other extreme, I think, is reading books. 99 and, say, a lace collar.

But I have a legitimate reason for arguing against something slightly different. So how much shorter are your programs if you write about controversial topics you have to push down on the top? Every audience is an incipient mob, and a party reminder from Evite. Even if we could somehow magically save people from moving, we wouldn't have been able to think about installing new operating systems. Plenty of successful startups have, by building something you yourself need, the first thing they tried was to get some message past network-level filters if they want to market themselves to founders: they don't affect innovation much, one way or the other. Stuff used to be common. The most valuable truths are the ones that won't make such a list, even if they don't plan to start students off with the list of n things seems particularly collectible because it's a way of getting new customers, but it didn't help Thinking Machines or Xerox. For most successful startups generally ride some wave bigger than themselves, it could be shipped to Europe. _____ Credentials are a step beyond bribery and influence. Html 20. And I've met a lot of startups writing mainframe applications. But you have to be pointed straight down the deck; the wings have to be other ideas that involve painful schleps.

So I was surprised even then. Such measures increase the filter's vocabulary, you can take your time. I think I see now what went wrong with philosophy, and how important, relatively, are these other functions? $15k per month is high, they may find that you can't judge ideas till you're an expert in a field, any weird idea or apparently irrelevant question that occurs to you is ipso facto unfashionable. It will work not just as a goalkeeper who prevents the other team from scoring is considered to have triumphed, as if I have to pause when I lose my train of thought—but the amount of the company to build their sites. They build a coarser model of their surroundings, and this remark convinced me that Sarbanes-Oxley. This kind of metric would allow us to compare different languages, but that they were nearly finished, and reminding them not to click on the browser's Back button.

The hardest kind of work is higher because it gives them more power relative to investors. When you see your career as a writer of press releases was one celebrating his graduation, illustrated with a drawing I did of him during a meeting. They assumed that their local network infrastructure would be critical to do video on-demand, because you can, because you control the whole system, right down to the hardware. We're not depending just on technical tricks. The Acceleration of Addictiveness July 2010 What hard liquor, cigarettes, heroin, and crack have in common. Perl have won. Well, of course, that good paintings must have faces in them, it has few nerds. It's not for the people who voted for Kerry did it as an example of this phenomenon was in TV.1 If you're going to be wasted. What all this implies is that there is a long slippery slope from making products to pure consulting, and you get. Professional investors hear a lot of money from a top firm would generally be a bargain.

The fancy version of everything was called the executive model. Samuel Johnson said it took a hundred years should only increase it. 6 months before they're out of business, lies in something very old-fashioned. It seems to be the bad guys. So the fact that you're mainly interested in hacking and you go to college. So I was surprised, because I'd never considered that question. I want to write out your whole presentation beforehand and memorize it, that's what you're designing for, and there's no interesting old city to make your fortune was a crazy thing to do. Consulting Another way to resist acquiring stuff is to think, just as I might into Harvard Square or University Ave in the physical world. We felt we were good at was writing software. You're worrying about construction delays at your London office instead of the current probabilities: Subject FREE 0.

Notes

If it failed it failed it failed it failed it failed it failed it failed. You can have a notebook to write a book or movie or desktop application in this department. Perhaps the solution is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors treat them differently.

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #46

UPDATE 46: Nothing Good Ever Happens to Him

Last time Flechette had gone to her first patrolling since she arrived to Brockton Bay to be a temporary member of the Wards. She had intended to bond with Shadow Stalker, wanting to have a friend of her same age and gender. You can guess how that went, given Shadow Stalker’s vigilantism tendencies. At least she managed to connect with Parian, so it’s not all bad. Let’s continue with the next chapter!

“Welcome to Parahumans 103: Theories and Patterns.  I see we have a packed auditorium, and according to the enrollment list, we have no less than three hundred students taking the TV course.  A bump up from the last two trimesters, so I must be doing something right.”

Oh, nice. Looks like this chapter may have some explanations regarding parahumans. That’s always nice. Given that most Wards and some PRT members are here, I suppose there’s some credibility regarding the accuracy of this course, unless they all came here to watch if this guy knows what he’s talking about – unlikely. You don’t need all Wards to be here for that.

Although...some of the Wards aren’t paying attention. Hm. Maybe being here is something they can’t avoid, maybe it’s mandatory?

Only thirteen people present, altogether.

...well! This must be a hella tiny auditorium! They’re lucky three hundred students are taking the TV course, although I’d bet only around 75% are taking it with some seriousness. This is a college class, it seems.

“For this class, I want you to think.  Parahumans. People with powers.  They’ve been around for nearly thirty years.  Where did they come from?  Why are they here?  It’s common knowledge that parahumans are ordinary individuals who gained abilities.  It is too easy, however, to assume that this is the sum total of our knowledge.  I want you to think further on the subject. For example, why does virtually every parahuman ability have some application in confrontation and combat? Is this the nature of humans, to turn any progress to violent ends, be it science or superpower?  Or is it by design, an individual’s hand at work?

Huh. Well, I’m not completely sure every single parahuman ability is meant to be used in confrontation and combat, but yeah, everyone knows a trait humans have is that we can get really creative when we want to be. It’d be no problem for a parahuman to think of a way to use their ability during a strife. The amount of parahumans who don’t want to use them for any kind of confrontation seems to be rather low, at least I judge that by the number of known rogues so far, compared to the amount of heroes and villains there are.

I suppose there’s a possibility it is by design, that something in the parahumans’ brains change at the moment they obtain their abilities, something that makes them be predisposed to fighting and combat. It’s already known trigger events and gaining skills can affect a person’s brain and behavior. It’s possible it happens to everyone and nobody has realized it yet.

Miss Militia’s...vision from when she gained her own skill is a bit puzzling, though, now that this guy mentions it could be an individual’s hand at work. Wasn’t the colossal being breaking down, wasn’t it dying? Hard for it to be controlling anything when it’s dead. I can’t rule out the possibility parahumans are influenced in some way, though. That is, if such vision wasn’t something kind of metaphorical. It could have been Miss Militia’s mind coping with the newly gained power.

With the destructive potential of these abilities, why do so very few individuals perish in the chaotic and unpredictable emergence of their talents?

Instinctual knowledge on how to use the powers, perhaps? Studying what went wrong in those few individuals who died at their awakening may be a good idea.

Wow, it seems this chapter will be filled with a lot of worldbuilding. A good time as any to learn and try to see if my understanding of the powers here is accurate enough.

Throughout the course, we’re going to be looking at correlations and patterns, both in relation to trigger events and other things.  For example, how does the nature of the trigger event shape the power? A study by Garth and Rogers suggests that psychological stress leads to a higher prevalence of mentally driven powers. Tinkers, thinkers, masters, shakers. The more physical violence that is involved, the higher the bias towards physically driven powers.

It’s true that trigger events seem to be related in some way to the powers, but in some cases not directly – not that I can say much about this stuff, I only know a total of two awakenings: Taylor’s and Brian’s. Taylor’s was filled with a lot of anguish and desperation, she felt the insects not in the locker but in a considerable ratio. I’m not sure how what happened to her is related to the bugs, but...yeah, it could be said there was a link between her awakening and her power, even if it is a very tenuous link. Brian’s awakening doesn’t seem to have much in relation to his power, but I should point I don’t know the exact circumstances of the moment he triggered. Maybe it was dark. Maybe he had wanted to blend with the shadows to stay out of that man’s sight and attack stealthily. All I know about Brian’s awakening is the broad details. Maybe if I ever see another trigger event described here in Worm, I can have a better idea of the correlation, or maybe it’ll be answered here in this chapter, anyway.

Yeah, it seems families have an easier time awakening to powers, most likely without the need for triggers. There’s something rather curious about the fact powers can be passed to future generations or siblings, it suggests some sort of genetic predisposition, which is...unlikely, I think.

Turns out none of the Wards are interested in this in the slightest. As I thought, they’re not here because they want to be! This is Piggot wanting to give them an education. Does she think knowing the details about how their power works will help them? Maybe it will, but...yeah, given the current state of the city, it’s unlikely they’ll have much use for this stuff. I sympathize with Clockblocker here.

Hell, it was on videotape, a recording of last year’s lectures.  Why couldn’t they watch it in their off hours?  It was just a fucked up set of priorities enforced on them from the people in charge.

Oh, it wasn’t a live class? I suppose that explains why the teacher’s words didn’t fit the, you know, the fact there were only thirteen people here. I’m pretty sure most Wards wouldn’t watch this, not even in their off hours.

More women than men have powers, for example, and there are more powers in undeveloped countries than there are in industrialized ones

Hm. More chances for powers to awaken in those undeveloped countries, I suppose. A harder life gives you tougher situations to battle, and when you’re losing, you get that boost through a power. It’s not like parahumans are rare, though. Don’t get me wrong, I know that in a city like Brockton Bay, which surely has dozens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people (or even more than that), the number of parahumans isn’t going to go over a hundred or two hundred. Parahumans are rare. But these few parahumans are very known, the effects of their presence is felt by everybody. Undeveloped countries must be quite...difficult to live in, if more awakenings than usual happen in those places.

Witch burnings in Uganda, most likely because people feared parahumans and their weird abilities. Oh joy.

“Another pattern we will be exploring is the apparent effect of multiple trigger events occurring in the same time and place.  There is a very strong correlation between coinciding trigger events and individuals displaying three or more powers rather than one or two predominant ones.”

It took me a few times to understand this paragraph. So…those capes that have several powers…it may be because more than one cape awakened at the same time than them. I wonder…if that happens, then all capes that awaken at the same time in the same area would all have more than one power? It’s unlikely they’d have the same ability, but would they both have lots of powers?

Unlike the other teachings so far, this does have some immediate practical use, Kid Win asks Flechette if she knows about other parahumans awakening at the same time than hers. There was a villain…but it’s not confirmed if that has anything to do with Flechette. Still, it’s worth thinking. Weld has no patience for people talking during class, and tells them to shut up and pay attention – in kinder yet blunter terms than these. Yeah, Weld’s not endearing himself to the rest yet. It’s a shame, I know he has good intentions, but it’s going to be hard to lead the team if nobody likes him.

Scion is a deviation to the norm – I’d think so, being the first parahuman ever. The Endbringers are deviation to the norm – I’d think so too, I mean, they weren’t ever human, according to Tattletale. Nilbog may or may not be a deviation to the norm – who the heck is Nilbog? The last deviation mentioned are the Case 53, the one with the tattoos. Weld is one of them and Clockblocker knows it. I wonder if anyone in the Wards will ask him about how he got powers? It could give us readers some information about this clearly abnormal situation.

Weeks five and six, assuming we’re on schedule, we’ll pull all earlier material together and discuss the beginnings of the parahuman phenomenon.  Not for the individual, as with trigger events, but as a whole.  Where do capes come from?  There is the patient zero theory, typically working under the assumption that Scion is the source of these abilities.  This, however, raises questions about where Scion came from.  The theory is corroborated by the case of Andrew Hawke, who came into contact with Scion on the very first sighting of the hero, only to manifest powers of his own… but there are others who manifested powers without ever coming into contact with Scion or entering a location where Scion had visited.”

“There’s the viral theory, supposing some advanced virus, though it is flimsy at best in justifications, with no identified culprits, method of transmission or explanation as to how it provides the actual powers.  The genetics theory is popular, but has been thoroughly debunked.

Okay, this is a lot of information. Let’s see what theory I think it more likely…genetics is off the table. While it’s true families have powers and those powers are similar to each other, this wouldn’t explain how people awaken to powers. The theory about Scion being the source of these abilities…unless he was floating around Taylor’s school when she had her trigger event, that sounds unlikely. Viral theory…that may be it. If I remember biology correctly, viruses modify the host’s DNA in the cells it invades, and multiplies to continue invading the body. I think there’d be some logic in that theory. The problem I see is that they’d have to determine where the virus came from, and that’s going to be hella tough. Then again, nothing is easy when it’s about doing science.

The Parahuman Theory Power Hour is interrupted when Clockblocker receives an urgent message. He should go see his father in the hospital. Dang…did his father get injured recently, during the Leviathan incident or during the riots happening right now? This isn’t going to help Clockblocker feel any better about having to sit around listening to year-old classes.

At some point, Clockblocker’s father got sick with an infection, and he’s now dying. He won’t last long. That’s why Clockblocker has to go to the hospital right now. I suppose it’s not impossible the infection happened because of the attack or because what’s going on now. He doesn’t leave immediately, first he asks Glory Girl to have a word with him outside.

“New Wave may be disbanding.  My mom suggested that if I wanted to keep being a hero, I should consider joining the Wards.  So I’m here, checking things out.  Your leader and director okayed it.”

Oh. Dang, the two deaths this family suffered really hit them hard…is Panacea going to join the Wards too? Maybe. I don’t think Lady Photon will stop being a hero, maybe Laserdream will…hm. I never thought someone would stop being a hero after the attack. Glory Girl isn’t sure if she’ll join or if she’ll be like a vigilante. The portraits in the lobby don’t help leave behind the pain and sorrow, that’s for sure. It’d be tough to walk through there, with Gallant’s portrait watching you.

The reason why Clockblocker wanted to talk with her is because he wants to ask Glory Girl if Panacea could heal his father. He has leukemia, he has an infection because he got injured during the Leviathan attack…I feel bad for him and Clockblocker, that’s really awful. I hope Panacea does heal this guy’s father. Glory Girl won’t promise anything, but…maybe it’ll happen!

Weld and Vista exit the room to let Clockblocker know they paused the video for when they return – a tacit ‘permission granted’ for Clockblocker to leave. He doesn’t want to tell the rest about what’s going on with his father, he doesn’t want to make anyone else worry.

“I’ll trust you have reason for this,” Weld smiled slightly, showing a row of white metal teeth, “But don’t take too long.  You’re on patrol at two this afternoon, and that doesn’t allow us much leeway for delays if we want to finish watching.”

Oh my god. I know Weld has the best intentions, and I know he’s not aware of what’s happening with Clockblocker’s father, but he really has an uncanny skill to say the wrong stuff at the wrong time. Are we sure that’s not his secondary power or something? I’m amazed Clockblocker managed to not say anything besides ‘alright’ until Weld returned inside.

At least Vista is willing to give him a chance, and defends him when Clockblocker comments what it’s he doesn’t like about Weld – that Weld is asking them to work as hard as he’s working, which is no mean feat. Something about this all makes Clockblocker snidely ask Vista if she’s channeling Gallant—oh my goodness, this whole team is falling apart. Brockton Bay may be falling into pieces right now, and so are the Wards! There goes Vista, running away, and this didn’t earn any brownie points with Glory Girl, either. At least she kind of forgives him.

“But you’d better go after that girl and apologize.  Because the way I heard it from Kid Win, you were the one who told everyone else to be extra nice to her, because she was taking it hard.  You convinced Shadow Stalker to play nice, and from what Kid Win said before class started, that was a pretty big deal. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know your team like you do, but I’d guess that if you don’t fix this, your team won’t forgive you for a long time.”

Well, yeah, they hardly will forgive him, even with the stuff about his father. ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ is not a good leadership style – even if Clockblocker is not the leader. Spurred by Glory Girl, he hurries down the hall to look for Vista.

No wonder Vista was hit so hard by Gallant’s death. She had a crush on him. Even though she knew she had no chances with him, she still liked being with him. That’s rough…it seems it wasn’t a secret, and Gallant never had anything bad to say about Vista. He never had anything bad to say about anyone. Well, no, he had bad things to say like any normal teenager when he was forced to do stuff that was a huge hassle.

But what Clockblocker wants to make Vista see, is that Gallant enjoyed spending time with him and with her, using as an example how he smiled or replied ‘great’ when he was assigned to patrolling with Clockblocker or her. Ah, that’s a rather nice detail. Good show-don’t-tell, even if it was a secondhand account from another character.

Clockblocker has so much frustration inside it’s a wonder he hasn’t tried to punch Weld.

I was, am, angry.  At the pointlessness of what happened, what’s still happening out there. I get frustrated and angry when I’m here, because I feel like I should be out on the streets.  I get pissed off when I’m out on patrol because I feel like I should be with my family… but when I’m with my family, I feel frustrated and helpless because I can’t do anything there…

There are very few emotions worse than knowing there’s nothing you can’t do about something you’d like to change. Asking Panacea for help must have been his very last resort option, and it’s not guaranteed she’ll do anything. Heck, he hasn’t even talked to her face to face.

At least this sincere heart-to-heart is helping Vista cheer up a little, so I’d say he is forgiven. The team’s weakened bonds will last for a while longer. With some luck they’ll all get a break, the civilians will stop rioting, and everyone will be able to mourn properly.

…

…it’s only going to get worse, isn’t it? Since the first chapter, everything in Brockton Bay keeps escalating. It’s hard to imagine something more brutal or deadly than an Endbringer attack, and there are like twenty arcs left. What else do you have in your box of frightening surprises, Mr. Wildbow?

“…I was taking it out on the new guy, when he probably doesn’t deserve it.”

In all fairness, the new guy isn’t getting A+ in sensitivity.

“I miss the old Dennis.  The guy who picked a sorta rude codename and announced himself in front of the news so Piggy and the other people in charge couldn’t really make him change it. Because it was funny.  Because he liked pushing the limits and because he saw this all as something fun.  The new Dennis is so angry.  Now I guess I get why.”

“Aren’t you? Angry?  At everything that’s going on?  At the unfairness of what happened?”

She shook her head, which amounted to rubbing her head against his shoulder. “Yeah.  But you can’t let it consume you.  If you really don’t like Weld, you don’t have to force yourself to get along with him.  But don’t stay like this.  Don’t stay angry.”

Wow…are we sure Vista is just thirteen years old? She’s being rather mature right now, and generally I’d say she has good control over her emotions. This is a very mature kid. I’m starting to be fond of her.

I know she’s a secondary character and therefore I don’t think she’s going to make lots of appearances in the main story, but here I do this, as a token of appreciation. What a good kid. Chances are she’s the only Ward that’ll have a meter.

Say, since I gave her one, I better give Armsmaster one too. I meant to do it before but I forgot.

Sure, I despise him, but as a character I’m rather interested in what he’s doing and where it’ll go. I wonder how his “retirement” is going? In the Birdcage? Is he really there? Anyway, yeah, I’m interested in him.

The poignant emotional moments are over when they go to return to the classroom. There’s trouble. Wards away!

Alright, this goes beyond ‘trouble’. I’ll spare you the description. All you have to know, is that it’s not a pretty scene. It’s rather brutal, three mutilated bodies in three different ways. That kind of hints to three different attackers, doesn’t it? Because the MOs are so different. It’s also said there are another two crime scenes like this one. As if the riots and the destruction of the city hadn’t been enough trouble. I knew things were going to get worse! Knowing this story is full of people with powers, I suppose there are three superpowered murderers on the loose.

The Travelers are here. It’s unlikely they’re the ones who did all this, but since they’re, you know, villains and therefore are untrustworthy, Weld tries to get them to come, because they’re suspects anyway.

“Let us go. Whatever happened here, it deserves your full attention.  You should be trying to find and capture the real criminals.  This guy here was still alive when we arrived.”  Trickster pointed at the man with the chain limbs.

I wonder if he said anything. Well, even if he did, it’s unlikely the Travelers will be cooperative, what with Weld’s request of turning themselves in. Not wanting to be imprisoned, a fight ensues.

Until now I had only seen Tricker’s power as a way to help, I hadn’t seen it during a fight. While Ballistic keeps Weld on the defensive through continuous assaults with thrown objects – some of which may get stuck on Weld, if he throws something metallic – and Genesis is the close combat fighter of the team, Trickster gives support by swapping people around and causing confusion. Clockblocker is taken away before he can freeze anyone, Kid Win’s shot is countered by swapping him with Trickster himself…it’s going to be difficult to get a good grip on this guy, with all these teleportation hijinks.

Sundancer’s sun is also rather effective at keeping people away, nobody wants to be close to a superheated orb, and it can also set nearby wood on fire.

To try to counter Trickster, several of the Wards charge at once towards him, so if Clockblocker is swapped with anyone he won’t be taken too far away. Vista’s space-warping skill also helps get there faster. Hm. Shadow Stalker is still away, isn’t she? Clockblocker could be swapped with her, or Trickster could swap himself with one of the Wards. Catching him is going to be rather difficult.

Weld ducked one of Ballistic’s attacks, then charged for the orb, striking it out of the air with one fist.  The blow dispersed it enough that Sundancer couldn’t draw it back together, and a wave of hot air washed over everyone present.

Weld, for his part, staggered back, his hand glowing white-hot.  He flexed his glowing hand, and it moved slowly, stiffly.  Even as far down as his elbow, the metal of his arm was an orange-red.

How fortunate it wasn’t hot enough to melt! Still, that’s going to stay hot for a while. Good thinking, Weld, if a tad risky. Sundancer is much easier to deal with than Trickster, he keeps getting Clockblocker in situations where he could freeze one of his teammates. My mind is blank regarding ideas about how to capture him.

There’s not much progress, soon the Wards are in the center and the Travelers are to the sides. Easy enough position to attack, if they wanted. Escaping, though, that’s going to be difficult, at least for two of the Travelers. Guess the fight won’t be over yet.

Genesis exhales lots of a vapor that seems to be created specifically to make them have a hard time breathing. Even a trace of it makes Clockblocker cough.

So, that’s what a changer nine brings to the table.  Different forms, each with their own powers.

You got that wrong, pal. If I remember correctly, this here is a projection, the real Genesis is not present here during the fight. She’s somewhere else, most likely nearby. In that case, can she be defined as a changer nine? Maybe, yeah, but it’s possible another classification is needed. Then again, it’s possible the Wards and the Protectorate aren’t aware of how Genesis’ power works!

At least it seems that one way for Clockblocker and Weld to get along is to fight villains. Thank goodness! You know what they say, fire-forged friendships are forever. Who knows if they’ll reach such level.

He realized what it was, this calm.  Whatever else it was, this fight was a refuge from that feeling that had plagued him since the fight with Leviathan ended.  The feeling that he was always in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, in the face of a city in crisis and a dying father.  This, right here, was where he was needed.

This is what I’m here for.

Hm. I’d chalk it up to the adrenaline, but if Clockblocker is feeling better and can take his mind off the lots of problems his life has, then it’s good. Good luck, guys.

So first it was Weld, then it was Flechette, then it was Clockblocker...I suppose Vista, Shadow Stalker and Kid Win are still yet to come. I wonder which one will be the next? Guess that’ll be for next time!

Next update: in six updates

[jennbateman23]

The Thoughts of Gym Rats – How Trying to Better Yourself is the Wrong Thing to Do

By Jennifer Bateman

Clunky, half-cleaned machines, bulky lacrosse players staring at their biceps in the mirror, people taking more selfies with weights than actually using them – the wonderful, sweaty world of a college gym. It’s like high school P.E. class all over again, except instead of your teacher yelling about how terrible your form is, it's your own insecurities instead.

Everything from the cable machines to the poorly dispensing water foundations is intimidating. Not only is it anxiety-inducing to learn about machines, free weights and cardio, but, almost worse than that, is the fear and experience of judgment from other gym-goers. A study conducted by FitRated, a website that provides extensive fitness reviews, surveyed 1,000 Americans about their take on going to the gym. More than half of the respondents admitted to avoiding the gym because of anxiety and fear of judgment. 52% of men and 65% of women said they have felt judged by others at the gym simply because of their weight. So, is “gymtimidation” just in our heads? Or is it a real, common fear that stops people from getting regular exercise? I’d say both.

There are two reasons why people don’t want to go to the gym – personal insecurities holding them back, and if they conquer those in a 20-second-confidence boost (or, just long enough to walk through the gym doors), they’re then faced with people who are already succeeding at something they haven’t even started! Humans like competition – so when the chubby, shy girl (hypothetically speaking) walks in and stares at the seemingly-difficult cable machines, it may or may not give a confidence boost to the gym rats that live next to the free weights.

Consider this scenario – a girl walks into the gym with a plan to do some cardio and some lifting. She figures out the treadmill and bike, but when she goes to strength train in the weight room, she receives quiet snickers when she doesn’t know how to adjust the seat of the torso machine. This isn’t some unknown phenomenon with no explanation – this is simply the attack of someone else’s insecurities to hide from their own. It’s the same psychology as high school bullies – the desire for power and purpose because of their own lack of it. If you can get power and purpose by taking it from someone else, that’s much easier than developing it on your own (apparently). But laughing at the fat people in the gym or picking on the weird kid in school only gives you low self-esteem and a hard time maintaining relationships.  The second problem is projecting the judgement of our own lives onto others, even when they don’t deserve it.

It’s been proven that the way we judge others is how we judge ourselves. Mark Manson, a self-help author and life coach, claims that we measure others by comparing them to the measures of ourselves – so when a person lifting 175 pounds analyzes the person who struggles at 50, the thought process is that they’re more successful simply because they can lift more. Another example – if your measure of life is of physical attractiveness, you’re more likely to judge someone who you see as “ugly” or more “attractive” than yourself. At that, I interviewed a friend of mine who is relatively fit and knows her way around gym equipment. Her main insecurity about going to the gym was that she wasn’t going to see results while other people were – a measure of life. If even one other person has this same measure of life and is subjectively seeing more progress, my friend will be inwardly judged based on just that concept. Conclusions will be made, judgments will be created, and insecurities will be cemented.

Someone will always be there to judge you, simply because their insecurities tell them to do so. It’s usually not a personal attack, but rather just a coping mechanism. What’s there to take from any of this? A realization that the only reason someone is judging you at the gym is because they feel judged too – usually by themselves. Attempt to not make your measure of life based on physical attractiveness or fitness – once this change is made, the gym will no longer feel like high school P.E., but your favorite class with your favorite teacher.

[mackinmacki]

Trading Partners

Rating: K

Word Count: 2892

Summary: Dia, Mari, and Kanan play Pokemon together.

Pairing: KanaMari (background)

Link: (FFN)

"Diaaa!" That loud, shrill voice was soon accompanied by a full-body tackle, and Dia yelped as she was taken to the ground by her enthusiastic friend. Grunting upon contact with the ground, she squirmed around to look up at the big smile on Mari's face.

"Wh-What do you want, Mari?" As much as she tried to sound stern, her voice never failed to drop to a more meek level when talking to Mari. It was the same with Kanan, if she was honest with herself. In their little group, she was the quiet one, the one who was in the background while her more boisterous and confident friends took center stage.

"Guess what I got last night?" Mari jumped off of Dia and stood in front of her, smiling even brighter if that was possible. At first, Dia didn't understand what she was talking about, but then it hit her. Eyes widening, she jumped back onto her feet and clasped her hands together.

"Y-You got a Houndour?!" At first, Dia hadn't been interested in getting involved in the Pokemon phenomenon. Though both Kanan and Mari had begun playing it, she had resisted, not wanting to get hooked. That all changed on her birthday, however. For a present, Mari had definitely surprised her with a DS and a copy of Pokemon Diamond. Though it was kind of cute that Mari had chosen the version that basically had her name as a title, she'd been hesitant to spend too much of her time playing. Then she actually started to play, and it didn't take long to get her hooked.

"Yup! You wanna trade?" For several weeks, Dia had been trying to get Mari to breed her a Houndour. The first time she'd seen its evolved form, Houndoom, it had been the most recent Pokemon that Mari had caught. She loved the design and really wanted one for herself, but of course it just so happened that Houndoom were only catchable in Pearl, the version that Mari had.

Originally, Mari had tried to trade Dia the evolved version, but she wouldn't take it. She couldn't just have the final form: she needed its previous form too. Plus, she wanted to add a Pokemon to her team that came from Mari. That seemed to make Mari happy, and she promised to deliver a Houndour, though apparently laziness had gotten the better of her. Well, better late than never.

"Y-Yes!" The two of them hurried back into the school to grab their backpacks, where their handhelds were stashed. Since their free time had just started, they had time to make the trade before they were ushered back to class. Fishing in her backpack, Dia grabbed her DS and flipped it open, turning it on and impatiently starting the game. She was really eager to get that Houndour.

Soon enough, the two of them had entered a nearby Pokemon Center and gone into the trading area, where a frustrated Dia had to catch Mari before they could start trading, since Mari was running around the small area. "C-Come on, Mari!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Mari laughed and finally stopped, allowing the two of them to begin the trade. In exchange for the Houndour, Dia had caught an Aron, which had been Mari's choice for a return Pokemon. According to her, Aron looked like 'a good friend', though Dia didn't know what that meant. She put up Aron first, only to be met with a pout from Mari. "Diaaa, why don't you ever name your Pokemon?"

"They already have names. The creators worked hard on them." That was one of the things that Dia remained stubborn about. She didn't want to name her Pokemon, since they already had names the creators thought were appropriate for the designs. Mari pouted some more, but if Dia went to rename it, they wouldn't have time to trade, so she just went along with it, putting up her Houndour in exchange.

Wait... That didn't look right. When she'd originally seen the evolved form in Mari's game, it had clearly been black. This one was blue, though. She stared at it in confusion, then inhaled sharply. When she'd been looking up information on the games, she remembered seeing something called a shiny. They were the same as regular Pokemon, but their color palettes were different, and they were incredibly rare. She'd never seen one before, even through breeding, but here one was, staring her right in the face.

"M-Mari, y-you got a shiny Houndour?"

"It's really shiny, isn't it?" Mari smiled proudly, pointing on Dia's screen where its name was: SHINY!!!

"Mari, this is really rare. It's almost impossible to get one of these." Dia's eyes were still wide in disbelief, unable to believe that Mari would just trade her such a rare Pokemon for some common Aron. Her morals wouldn't let her take it like that. "I-I can't take this. You should keep it. You're the one who obtained it."

"I got it for you, though." Rather than listening to what Dia was saying, Mari pushed A on the 'accept trade' option, looking at Dia and waiting for her to accept as well. "Dia deserves the coolest Pokemon!" The statement made Dia blush, but Mari wasn't backing down, so she had little choice but to hit accept as well. Was she really getting a shiny Houndour for her team?

When the trade was finally completed, and the congratulatory music declared her the proud new owner of a shiny Houndour, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. It was so cute, and it was even better because it came from a friend. "Th-Thank you, Mari!" She really wanted to show Kanan, since she knew that her other friend hadn't obtained any shinies either. As luck would have it, Kanan entered the room at that point, apparently having been looking around for them.

Excitedly, Dia rushed over to Kanan to show her what she'd gotten, while Mari followed with that prideful smile still on her face. Just as predicted, Kanan was shocked and ecstatic, and the three of them celebrated their first shiny together. They could only celebrate for a short time though, since class was going to start again soon. The two of them quickly saved and shut off their handhelds, stashing them back in their backpacks before heading outside with Kanan. Dia couldn't wait to get home and train her new Houndour.

From that birthday back in elementary school until their first year of high school, Dia kept playing Pokemon with her friends. She'd moved on from Diamond to Black and then to Y, but throughout each generation, she'd transfer a select few Pokemon to each new game. Even when she became forced to pay an annual fee to use the Pokemon Bank in order to keep transferring, she did it because she wanted her favorite Pokemon with her in each new generation.

By the time Pokemon X and Y came out, Kanan was no longer playing, leaving just Dia and Mari to keep playing. However, Dia's younger sister Ruby also began to play, so they still had a third person to trade and battle with. It still felt weird without Kanan, though. The only thing she had left as proof of Kanan's previous gaming was a level eighty-five Salamence with the OT name of Kanan.

Most of the Pokemon she had received from Kanan and Mari were transferred from game to game, but her absolute favorites were that Salamence and her trusty shiny Houndoom. He may have started out as a cute level one puppy, but by the time he was transferred to Y, he was a ferocious level one hundred beast of a canine. Though he was way too high-leveled to use in regular battling, Dia refused to leave him behind.

Even better, the new generation of Pokemon had introduced Mega Evolution, and both Houndoom and Salamence had mega evolutionary forms to go with it. Her, Mari, and Ruby all worked hard to collect every mega stone, and she very nearly squealed with joy the first time she mega evolved her Houndoom in battle.

However, there wasn't as much time for gaming as there was before. Her, Kana, and Mari had decided to finally start their own idol group, which meant more time was spent practicing. On top of that, Kanan didn't play anymore, so neither her nor Mari wanted to make her feel unwelcome by continuing to play while they were all hanging out. She still enjoyed playing when she found the time, however.

Things didn't truly change until after their first real performance, however. They'd been slated to compete in an event in Tokyo, but Mari had sustained an injury that made performing extremely difficult for her. She'd been prepared to gut it out, but Kanan wouldn't have it, and when it was their turn to perform, she just... didn't. Stage fright is what she had claimed, that the bright lights of Tokyo had paralyzed her vocal chords. She told Dia the truth, though: that she'd done it on purpose so as not to aggravate Mari's injury.

Dia hated lying to Mari, but she agreed with Kanan that it wouldn't do them - or Mari - any good by performing and having her worsen her injury. Besides, Kanan was her friend too, which only made it more confusing what to do. In the end, she chose to keep what Kanan had done a secret, a decision she came to regret on the day that Mari left.

Kanan had come to believe that Mari was wasting her time in their quaint little seaside town, when she could be out somewhere grander, becoming someone truly incredible. That was the reason why she pushed Mari to study abroad, and despite her great reluctance, she eventually agreed.

Watching Mari leaving in her helicopter was the worst moment of Dia's young life. She stood next to Kanan as the helicopter took off, barely able to make herself wave as they both watched their friend eventually disappear into the sky, perhaps forever. Neither she nor Kanan knew what to say, so they both silently went home, a gulf already starting to open up between them.

That night, Dia cried harder than she'd ever cried before, sobbing inconsolably into her pillow. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and she already missed Mari enormously. It didn't take long for that sadness to turn into anger, though. She was mad at Kanan for making Mari leave, even if her intentions had been good. They had both considered Mari to be a best friend, and now she was gone. Dia blamed Kanan.

Before school one day, the two of them got into a heated argument over it. Kanan reiterated that she had done what she'd done because she wanted what was best for Mari, but Dia refused to forgive her for making their friend leave. Wasn't it Mari's choice whether or not she went? Things already felt lonely without Mari.

Of course, things became even lonelier without Kanan. Their friendship was, for all intents and purposes, done at that point, even if neither of them had said that they didn't want to be friends anymore. Friends usually talked though, and neither of them would break the wall of ice that had formed between them. It even strained Dia's relationship with Ruby. Nothing bad had happened between them, but one of the things that had been a bonding point between them was idols. Before the idol group, it was Ruby whom Dia had shared her love of idols with. The disintegration of their group had left a bad taste in her mouth though, and even the mention of idols made her internally recoil.

In a moment of angry petulance, she turned on her 3DS again. Without all the idol practicing, there was time now to play Pokemon, but seeing those creatures she'd gotten through trading made her feel ill. She felt intense sorrow looking at her strongest team because Mari's Houndoom was there, while also feeling a blood-boiling anger due to Kanan's Salamence being there as well. At that point, she nearly released all of Kanan's Pokemon in a fit of rage.

She couldn't do it, though. They were just creatures in a video game: they hadn't done anything wrong. Besides, even in her worst moments, she couldn't get herself to throw away the only remaining things that connected her to her friends. Well, former friends, it would seem. Instead of releasing all of them, she instead hid the Pokemon she'd gotten from Kanan away in the final box of her PC. Then she closed her 3DS and cried again.

Dia's third year in high school was a lot more eventful than her second. Out of the blue, Mari showed up again, claiming to be the director of the whole school. This was a claim that ended up being true, leaving Dia in stunned silence. If she'd ever believed Mari was going to return, this was not the way she expected it to happen.

Since her second year, Dia had taken over the student council roles at the school. They weren't getting many applicants - none, really - and the students didn't really want to deal with the work that came with being part of the student council. Dia took to it with aplomb, enjoying the fact that all the work helped distract her from the negative feelings she'd been having concerning Kanan and the departure of Mari. In a way, she was glad that she did all of it alone. It proved to her that she could do things on her own, and she didn't need anyone else to prop her up.

That all changed when Mari came back. When she returned, everything seemed to cycle back to their first year. The idol dreams were revived once more, successfully at that. Kanan returned and, after a big emotional blowup between herself and Mari, their friendship began to repair itself. It was like things hadn't changed at all.

Something had changed, though. At first, Dia had been upset that Mari returned without even telling her, but she eventually felt better because she was back. Then she was further delighted that Kanan and Mari resolved their feud and became friends again, because that meant they could all go back to being good friends as well. That wasn't exactly the case, though.

On the positive side, she and Kanan were able to become friends again. It was like their own feud hadn't even happened... and maybe that was the problem. With Mari back and a new idol group born, everything kept going like what had happened in the past didn't even occur. It wasn't that Dia wanted to reopen those old wounds, but it didn't feel right to act almost like newfound friends rather than what they used to be.

What was worse was that working out their problems brought Kanan and Mari closer. They started spending a lot more time together, and it was clear that they were becoming really into each other. That left Dia on the outs, and she would often find herself trudging along behind them, trying to not notice the way they stared at each other, or the way they seemed to forget that she was even there.

There would be times where she'd pull out her 3DS again, and boot up her copy of Pokemon Y. She hadn't even bothered to ask if Mari still played, since that would mean she'd have to stop looking at Kanan for five seconds to answer the question. Besides, the topic had never been brought up, so she felt justified in assuming that, like Kanan, Mari had stopped playing.

When the game loaded up, she opened the PC and went into the final box. There were all of the Pokemon that Kanan had traded her, hidden away due to her anger. She sat there staring at them for a couple moments, then she grabbed Salamence and dragged her into the party, right next to her shiny Houndoom.

Looking at the two of them together, she smiled a bitter smile. Right underneath them, in the third slot, was her Empoleon. She had picked Piplup as her starter all those years ago, and like the others he had followed his trainer from game to game. It seemed fitting that her starter would be in the third slot, since that was where she apparently was meant to be.

After exiting the PC, she looked up from her 3DS and out the window, sighing wistfully as she stared at the night sky. Everything seemed so peaceful outside, completely opposite of how she felt. Things had definitely changed, but they had made everyone else happy. Why did she have to be the only one who felt this way?

Looking at her team, it reminded her of elementary school, back when her, Kanan, and Mari were an inseparable trio, not a duo plus one. She wished so badly that things could go back to the way they were. Now all she had left was a team of Pokemon from a different time: a group of pixels that represented better days.

Resigning herself to her fate, Dia flopped down on her bed and took her old team to the Elite Four, allowing herself to drown in the memories. It was all she had left.