#this is the heavily simplified version and it still took too long in my opinion

[uncreativity-struck]

My friend doesn’t believe I can do fullbodies, so I did this out of spite

[palmett-hoes]

We Need To Talk About Kevin

excuse the silly title, but it’s time for another long character analysis, this time on a character who holds a complicated place in the fandom consciousness: kevin

like every other character in aftg, i have a lot of criticisms for the way that the fandom tends to characterize kevin, because i feel like it tends to reduce a very complicated character down into very binary terms, that of either anal-retentive comic relief or a perfect, underappreciated innocent, both of which ignore his important flaws and the nuance of his character arc throughout the trilogy

now this meta is probably going to sound very, very critical of kevin, as i am focusing on his flaws. but i want to be clear that i don’t hate kevin, i don’t even dislike him. in fact i far prefer the deeply “problematic” kevin from canon to the highly sanitized version in the fandom, just like i prefer my andrew violent and unethical, my neil rude and messy, and my upperclassmen ableist and permissibly homophobic

one thing i really LOVE about aftg is how hypocritical every character is, because it’s honest. they all stand for something but fall a little flat of it in practice. they all hold the people around them to standards they don’t hold themselves to

they’re not simple characters. they reflect their trauma in ways that are not pretty or harmless, and they even reflect wider societal flaws that may not be logical or justifiable.

just like i do.

just like you do.

just like real people do.

---

so with that all squared away: kevin

let’s start with this: what is the essence of kevin’s character? what does he stand for? what is he about? when you simplify him out into a single idea, what is he?

answers will vary, but for me, kevin is an analysis of the idea that you can have everything, you can be rich and famous and talented and immensely lucky on top of it all, and you can still be abused

neil repeats this idea over and over. how he’s jealous of kevin. how he resents kevin. how he wishes he were kevin. because kevin had everything and neil had nothing

remember this?

and this?

and this?

kevin the star. kevin the sensation. kevin the media darling.

lucky kevin, talented kevin, beloved kevin

and then neil gets a little bit closer and learns that that’s not the whole story. kevin was isolated, his worth tied to his performance, his whole personhood tied to exy. the perfect boy who was forbidden from being too perfect, who had to walk on eggshells so as not to incur the wrath of his brother and guardian

but at the same time that doesn’t totally erase everything he did have

i think the fandom focuses a lot on kevin’s inferiority complex from being assigned second best, and not nearly as much on the idea that kevin was SECOND BEST, above everyone else

the fact that kevin had power and sway in the nest makes us deeply uncomfortable, because it complicates kevin’s status as a victim, but it’s the truth. kevin was the third most powerful person in the nest, above dozens of ravens, and not even an owned person like jean

we should attempt to reckon with the fact that kevin was not a passive player in the ravens’ power structure, but someone who was actively involved and benefited from it. the ravens were his pawns, too. his subordinates, there to critique and punish as he saw fit. they weren’t his equals and he didn’t have to view them as fellow people

even if you choose not to believe that kevin took advantage of this power in the way riko did, you still have to accept that it very much shaped his perception and way of connecting with others, which is obvious in how he interacts with the foxes

so let’s talk about kevin and his superiority complex

kevin is arrogant, self-centered, and entitled

it’s not all he is. he has other, better qualities. he’s dedicated, passionate, and - in his own way - caring. that doesn’t ERASE his flaws however

kevin believes himself to be correct 100% of the time. he thinks that his methods and his opinions should work for everyone simply because they work for him, and he tries heavily to push them onto other people. andrew remarks that neil will drive himself crazy trying to do things the way kevin tells him to, because he is simply a different kind of player than kevin. kevin’s methodology will never work for neil no matter how hard he tries and will just end up holding himself back if he keeps trying

andrew notices this, not kevin, because kevin believes that neil is simply not trying hard enough to do things the “right” way.

neil.

who tries harder than anyone to live up to kevin’s standards

he’s worse with the rest of the foxes, who unlike neil do not accept his methods unquestionably and don’t do backflips to make him happy.

the foxes recognize that kevin is talented and could have valuable things to teach them. kevin however thinks that he should have absolute authority over their training because his methods are “superior.” he thinks the foxes fail because they don’t listen to him and conform their playing styles to him

kevin also only approaches the upperclassmen on the court, and even there only with criticism and derision. he has never made any attempt to befriend them or get to know them in any way. he doesn’t need a rapport with them, he’s entitled to their obedience simply because he’s Kevin Day, The Son of Exy, The Best And Most Talented Of Them All

i’ve also written meta before about the assumptions kevin makes in his relationship with andrew. they have a deal that kevin will give andrew something to live for after he graduates. kevin, being who he is, decides that this thing MUST and WILL be exy, no matter how directly or indirectly andrew tells him this isn’t what he wants.

yet kevin never considers an alternative. he never asks andrew what he might want or never attempts to find anything else for him. they spend nearly every second of every day within arms reach of each other, yet kevin has never taken a moment to pay attention to andrew’s interests or preferences, anything that makes him tick. they know almost nothing personal about each other because kevin doesn’t believe any of that matters in giving andrew a future that makes him want to live. no. if it works for kevin it must work for everyone else. if kevin wants it everyone else must want it too

kevin’s relationships often become exclusionary. first with andrew, which i’ve just discussed. then with neil, kevin continually vies for more and more of his time, without regard for his health or concern for any other part of his life. he leaves neil with minimal time for school, pushes their practices late into the night depriving him of sleep, and discourages his efforts to spend time and make connections with the upperclassmen

now if at any point while reading this you, reader, wanted to argue that these things are because of the nest and kevin’s raven indoctrination, yes, you’re absolutely right, they are. it’s abundantly clear where and how each of these qualities developed, but once again, that doesn’t mean they’re not present. in fact, the clear connection between kevin’s flaws and his trauma is a sign of good character writing, showing the multiple dimensions of how our environments and experiences shape us

kevin’s anxiety, his obsessiveness, and his fear all come from the nest, but so does his condescension, his self-involvement, and his overbearing nature.

kevin was raised in a cult, but he was also from the very highest level of it. he comes from immense privilege in terms of his wealth, his influence, his fame, and his access to resources. materially, kevin has wanted for very little in his life, and his entitlement is very prominent in his character. none of this cancels out the abuse he suffered, but it’s also something i very rarely see addressed outside of being hinted at vaguely in a jokingly dismissive manner.

in fact, i often see takes on kevin that fully deny he has these traits at all, and that annoys me. i don’t like to see these wonderfully round characters flattened out, and there’s a particular irritating irony out of changing or misinterpreting a character’s personality in order to make them more palatable or more sympathetic in a series about how even people traumatized in unsympathetic ways are still deserving of help and decency

so

kevin can be a little morally gray,, as a treat

[marshmallow-phd]

Midnight Hours

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Sehun x Reader

Summary: For you, being a good witch was easier said than done. Something dark was lurking inside of you and the others knew it. When you’re forced to tag along with Soomi and help a local wolfpack face a coming evil, you’re sent on a path that breaks into a crossroads. While you struggle with your inner demons, could the wolf Sehun be the key to your ultimate fate?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I 15 I 16 I 17 I Final

**

You didn’t speak to Sehun as he pulled into the garage and shut off the engine. Hell, you were half tempted to jump out of the car when he’d first rolled onto the grass, but you thought that might be a little overdramatic. Besides, slamming the door to his “baby” as hard as you could was much more satisfying. You caught the flinch as soon as the metal hit and echoed through the building. Yes, satisfying indeed. 

“(y/n)….”

Nope. You were not in the mood to listen to anymore of his doubts or his tries to persuade you out of your opinion. 

Your anger and frustration must have been written all over your face. As soon as Soomi saw your face, she jumped up from the couch. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked. 

You glanced over your shoulder as Sehun’s sour face before replying. “Nothing.”

Clearly ignoring the hint that you didn’t want to talk about it, Soomi looked to the wolf behind you. “What happened?”

“(y/n) thinks she knows who the woman is, but I disagree,” he said in a very simplified version. 

Soomi’s eyes lit up with hope. “You do? Who?”

You swallowed thickly. What if she had the same reaction as Sehun? What if absolutely no one believed you? “I think,” you said quietly, “that it might be Mina.”

“Mina? Dana’s friend? Why?”

“Because she looks like the woman in my visions,” you explained confidently. 

“Whose face you’ve never seen,” Sehun argued as he stepped up next to you, an annoyed glare in his eyes. 

You didn’t even look at him. “No, but I am the one who has had the visions, so I have the clues, as I said before.”

“But there are millions of people with blonde hair and pale skin,” Sehun pushed further. “That’s hardly enough to go by.”

“I don’t know,” Soomi muttered, her eyebrows knitted together as she weighed the issue in front of her. Just when it seemed that you would be on your own once again, she surprised you. “The timing is suspicious. For her to show up now and look so similar….”

“Oh, come on, Soomi, not you, too,” Sehun whined. 

“What’s going on?”

Junmyeon entered with Kita by his side and several others behind him. Why did every little happening in this house have to have an audience?

“(y/n) thinks Mina might be the woman from her visions,” Sehun grumbled. It seemed he, too, was a little irritated at how big this was scene was getting. Since you saw it as his fault, you didn’t feel the least bit sorry for him. “I’m trying to make her see that there’s no way it could be Mina.”

“You don’t know that,” Hae In interjected. Oh thank god someone had some sense. 

“She’s Dana’s friend.”

“So?” Hae In snapped. “We don’t know her. I’d trust (y/n) over Mina.”

Sehun rolled his eyes. “It’s not that I don’t trust (y/n). Of course I do. But I don’t think we should be jumping to conclusions. Blonde hair and pale skin? That could describe you, Hae In.”

“Maybe it is me,” she smirked. “Maybe I got sick of you and decided to form a rebellion and take (y/n) with me.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Baekhyun muttered. 

“Kyungsoo would kill you if he heard that,” said Jongin. 

Luhan shrugged. “I doubt it. He’s not a big fan of Mina either.”

“But Mina is still Dana’s friend,” Kimberly argued. “I don’t think we should be singling her out off of circumstantial evidence.”

“Another wonderful sentence from the future crime reporter,” Jongdae grunted. Jongin didn’t take too kindly to the remark, a deep growl rumbling in his chest. 

“Okay, that’s enough!” Junmyeon barked. Shifting his attention to you, he said in a calmer voice, “(y/n), thank you for bringing this to our attention. We’ll keep a close eye on Mina. I’ll go call Kyungsoo. It’ll be difficult, but he should be able to keep this from Dana for the time being. We don’t want to cause her unneeded stress.”

You nodded, accepting that answer for now. It felt nice that you were being taken seriously by at least one of the alphas. But that didn’t make the initial betrayal hurt any less. 

Pushing past the crowd, you took the stairs two at a time until you reached the second floor in record time. You should have known better than to try and use this place as an escape, but there was no turning back now. 

“Hey, wait-”

“I don’t feel like talking to you right now.” You tried to open the door to the bedroom, but Sehun put his hand over yours, holding it shut. Damn the contact, you snatched your hand away. You were sure the boys used the hormonal seizure that happened in the mates’ body at the skin to skin contact to their advantage. This would not be one such occasion. Not on your watch. 

“Well, I do,” he grunted as he pushed himself between you and the door. 

“Unless it’s a genuine apology, I don’t want to hear it.”

He sighed heavily. “I’m sorry that I can’t believe that it’s Mina.”

“Wrong kind of apology.” You tried to shove passed him, but the big lug wouldn’t budge. 

Sehun roared. “Why are you so difficult?”

“Why can’t you just trust me?” you fired back. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust you! I just don’t want you to jump to conclusions!”

“I’m not jumping to conclusions, I’m following the clues!” You wanted to rip your hair out. Why wouldn’t he just take you at your word? “I can’t change what I saw in my visions!”

Sehun shook his head defiantly. “Sometimes I really hate that you have those.”

Knife? Meet heart. 

Yes, you hated them sometimes, too, but at the end of the day they were still apart of you. They were a part of your gifts – gifts that frustrated you and put you on the outside, but still yours. You couldn’t get rid of them, you couldn’t just make them stop, so you accepted them. It was one thing for you to have animosities about the visions, it was another for him to. Saying that he hated your visions made you feel like he hated a part of you. Those visions were the reason you were here in the first place. They were what brought you to the farmhouse where you could meet this so-called love of your life. This was the man who was supposed to stand by your side and accept every part of you. Apparently, nice things didn’t last too long in your life. 

“Excuse me, then, I’ll just turn them off for your convenience.”

Sehun groaned. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what could you have possibly meant, Sehun? Huh?” You didn’t really give him a chance to reply. “Why don’t you just admit that being mated to me wasn’t all you thought it would be?”

Sehun’s eyes widened in shock. “(y/n), where is this coming from?”

 A million little facets of insecurity and doubt, that’s where. But you decided to throw his behavior in his face instead. That was a less vulnerable - and not as truthful - “Oh, I don’t know. How about the fact that you’re fine until the topic of my powers come up. Then you start acting weird and change the subject. Everyone else wants to see them, but you just sit there with this sour frown on your face. You used to be fascinated by it too, you know.” Tears pricked at your eyes. Fantastic. There was no way for you to hide them, so you just let them collect and pool. “You used to stare at me in awe when I used my powers. It’s part of why I fell for you in the first place, before knowing I was your mate. But now I just feel like a burden to you.”

“You have never been a burden, (y/n).”

“But it’d be easier, right?” you snapped back. “Now that the shine is gone, it’d be easier if I were normal, boring human like the others, wouldn’t it? Less complicated that way?”

At first, he said nothing. He stared at you with his mouth pressed in a tight line, the same look he always had when he was thinking hard. His hesitation wasn’t doing your self-esteem any favors. Air blew out of his lungs, ending the pause. 

“Yes, it would be, but-”

You shook your head almost violently. “No, thanks. I don’t need any explanations. Not from you.”

“(y/n), listen to me-”

Slam! You’d made it to the bathroom down the hall and locked the door behind you before he could even finish his sentence. 

You hated him. You hated him more than the ones who used to torture and bully you for being different, for being more. It was idiotic to feel accepted and at peace around him. You’d settled into content and it’d blown up in your face. He’d backed away as soon as things didn’t line up for him perfectly. 

“(y/n)! Open the door, please! Just let me explain!”

No. He didn’t give you the benefit of listening to your suspicions, why should you listen to him now?

You didn’t yell at him to go away or to shut up or any words at all. Instead, you sat there on the cold tile silently, legs folded and back against the wooden door. Each time Sehun knocked against the thin barrier with his fist, you felt the vibrations through your shoulder blades. Still you didn’t moved. 

Eventually he gave up and you listened to his footsteps fade away through the hall and down the stairs. 

Now would have been the time to cry. Now would have been the time to let out all the tears. The wall of hurt that had built up inside you, each brick of molded out of the words and doubt given by Sehun, would easily come crashing down upon if you simply tapped on it with your finger. But you never touched it. 

Sitting there you were just… existing. Time no longer felt real the longer you stayed in that small room. You could almost imagine yourself living inside a bubble connected to another dimension, another world. If only you could really escape to another place and no longer have to deal with the happenings of this place. But that wasn’t possible. Even magic had its limitations. 

But you could do something. 

You needed space. You needed to get away, have some time to yourself, and maybe even find some proof that you weren’t crazy. Maybe if you could connect more dots between the visions and Mina, you could-

You weren’t sure what you wanted at this point. To be right? To get back at Sehun? There was no telling what currently drove you. 

Leave. Now. 

It almost felt like a whisper in your ear, urging you to get up and go, to not waste time, but no true source could be found for the urge. 

Taking a risk, you peeked out the bathroom to check that the coast was clear before scurrying to the bedroom. You didn’t stuff much into Soomi’s knapsack she packed for emergencies as you figured you’d only be gone for a day or so. It was fully your intention to be back before the blood moon. So with the pull-string bag slung over your shoulder, you checked the hallway once again and headed back for the bathroom. 

You knew that your best bet of getting away was to make them think that you were still locked away in the bathroom throwing a tantrum. So you headed back, locking the door once again as quietly as you could before going over to the window.

The drop didn’t seem that bad, but it would have been dumb to jump and hope for the best. To your luck, however, there was a bush off to the side. Closing your eyes, you concentrated on the leaves and branches of the plant, imagining them growing and expanding into a pad that was safe to land on. By the time you opened your eyes, your imagination had become reality. 

You gritted your teeth as you swung a leg over the sill. And then another. 

Were you really about to do this?

Sehun’s face floated in your mind. 

Yes. Yes, you were. 

Shoving off, you twisted your body so you landed on the oversized bush on your side, rolling off the branches and landing a bit hard on the grass beside it. But you didn’t have time to think about the pain as you jumped up to your feet and ran for the forest. Breathing grew difficult the farther you pushed yourself. However, slowing down was not an option. 

The closer you made it to the treeline, the more your determination grew. You were going to show him and you were going to do it on your own. 

**

Sehun sat at the breakfast booth, staring at the glass of alcohol he’d poured with himself. He hadn’t touched it. The ice was melting and small dots of condensation were building up on the side of the cup, sliding down the surface before pooling on the table top. He’d poured it more out of habit, like a ritual that would suddenly make him feel better. But he knew that was a crock. The only thing that would make him feel better would be you talking to him again. 

He knew he messed up. He should have just kept his mouth shut no matter what he thought. How could he explain that he didn’t sense any danger from Mina and that’s why he didn’t think she was behind the coming danger? Wolves had a knack for this sort of thing. 

In the end, he figured that you needed space. After you’d calmed down, you’d let him explain what he meant by the words he’d said. Especially the stupid response to you being a witch. 

He loved that you were different. He loved that you grew up in the same world as he did. It was a connection that was missing from the other couples. But you didn’t know how worried he was. You didn’t know that the reason he made that face every time you used your powers in front of the guys was because he was worried about you. He worried about you losing control and hurting yourself.

The fire still haunted him, even though he’d never admit it outloud. He’d been able to sense the danger and make it to before the flames got out of control, but who could say he could it again? He needed to protect you. It was his very instinct.

He wouldn’t change a single thing about you. And you needed to know that. 

Sliding out from the booth, Sehun headed back up the stairs. It was worth another shot getting you to talk to him. 

With an unsure fist, he knocked against the door. “(y/n)?”

No answer. 

He tried the handle, but it was still locked. So you were still in there. “(y/n), can we please talk now?” You still didn’t reply. Wow. You were really going to keep going, weren’t you? “Okay, fine. Keep the door between us, but please listen. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just didn’t want to rush to judgement. Dana’s been through… a lot. And Mina’s been her closest friend for years. I didn’t want to ruin that without being absolutely sure. Of course I trust you. I know that you’re the only one who has seen - well, what you’ve seen.”

Still nothing. What was he going to have to do to hear your voice again? Keep apologizing was the only thing he could come up with. 

“And… I know that you said you didn’t want to hear anymore excuses, but I have to say it. I don’t care that you’re a witch - no. I love it. I love how special you are. I wouldn’t change that at all. It- It’s just complicated. If you were human, I could protect you differently. I could make sure that you’re out of danger. But with as powerful as you are, I know I can’t keep you out of the fight. I can’t sideline you like Evie or Jiyeon or Kita. And… I’m scared. I’m scared to death to lose you. But I think I might have done that anyway.”

He waited. With no air leaving or entering his lungs, he waited. But no response to his confession came. In fact, no noises whatsoever came from the bathroom. Now that he was concentrating, he realized that not even your heartbeat was reaching his ears. 

“(y/n)!” 

Screw propriety. Kicking his foot out, he broke the lock and swung the door open. 

It was empty.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT YEARS

Err on the side. I may try in the future is David Heinemeier Hansson gave a talk in which he suggested that startup founders should do things the old fashioned way. 40% used to be common. Here, again, language designers are somewhat out of touch with their users. I accumulated all this useless stuff, but that it's very large, and the cost of failure to increase the number of nonspam and spam messages respectively. We take it for granted most of the calories.1 No one wants to begin a program with a bunch of strangers and probably be rejected by most of them grew organically.2 Think about where credentialism first appeared: in selecting candidates for large organizations.3 But if you skip running for a couple years for another company before starting their own companies than by working for existing ones, the existing companies are forced to pay more to keep them.

As I've written before, one of our habits of mind than others? Two have already turned down lowball acquisition offers. She arrived looking astonished. Ironically, part of the reason engineering is traditionally averse to handholding is that its traditions date from a time when engineers were less powerful—when they were Robin Hood, their stock price rose like Google's. It seems pretentious, or frivolous, or even make sounds that tell what's happening.4 I can to some extent avoid thinking about nasty things people have done to me by telling myself: this doesn't deserve space in my head. When I was a kid I was firmly in the camp of bad. For it to surprise me, it must be very hard—and so they don't try do to it. Now the same work might be done by one or two sentences.

And by Parkinson's Law, software has expanded to use the shift key much. No idea for a company; we did. Any strategy that omits the effort—whether it's expecting a big launch to get you users, or data ownership at the level of type tags.5 In our school it was eighth grade, which was still then a quasi-government entity. The good news is, if you're ahead now, and you've made something other users want too. Then you could, in effect, is leaks in a seal. Fortunately the way to do this when they can.6 But Yahoo treated programming as a commodity.7 And if you have such problems you want to get rich by building a valuable company and then selling stock in a liquidity event, founders should start companies that make money and live off the revenues of your company, don't look for them in the news. But still the case for guilt is stronger.8 Don't try to guess where your code is slow, because you'll guess wrong. Certainly it can be at every stage.9

It's common in technology for an innovation that decreases the cost of typing it. 99%. Here's a sketch of how I do statistical filtering. For most people, would be if he were thrust back into middle school. The official story is that legacy status doesn't carry much weight, because all it does is break ties: applicants are bucketed by ability, and legacy status is only used to decide between the applicants in the bucket that straddles the cutoff.10 Some VCs will say this is unthinkable—that they want all their money to be put to work growing the company. It's like importing something from Wisconsin to Michigan.11 Each is, by itself, enough to kill you. There are times in most of the 1970s. This can't be how the big, famous startups got started, they think.

That is the big win in the end, no matter what.12 Our instincts tell us something so valuable would not be surprised if it is called Lisp. And pow, more stuff. 7 billion, and the big bang method, is exemplified by the VC-backed, heavily marketed startup.13 Perhaps the most important of which was Fortran. If everyone else is cowering in a corner, you may not finish your training till 30. But measured in total market cap, the build-stuff-for-yourself model might be more fruitful.14 I can imagine two reasons: if they were functions on indexes, we could have monotonically increasing confidence in their opinions are implicitly concluding the world is static. It's not enough just to be pleasing.15 All the search engines were doing it. You don't need to know the type of every argument in every call in the program.16

Notes

The other extreme—becoming demoralized when investors reject you. The other cause is the most difficult part for startup founders and investors are also startlingly popular on Delicious, but when companies reach a given audience by a sense of the company is like starting out in the next time you raise as you get to profitability on a desert island, hunting and gathering fruit. Even though we made a million dollars. A significant component of piracy, which shows how unimportant the Arpanet which became the twin centers from which Renaissance civilization radiated.

Naive founders think Wow, a few stellar exceptions the textbooks are similarly misleading. But there are lots of options, because they actually do, and it introduced us to see how much he liked his work. Though they are so intellectually dishonest in that category. This is why hackers give you fifty times as much income.

No Logo, Naomi Klein says that clothing brands favored by urban youth do not do this with prices too, of course. If you have an investor pushes you hard to tell them about.

The ironic thing is, because it doesn't cost anything.

We tell them to get them to get good enough to invest in so many trade publications nominally have a notebook to write an essay about it as if the selection process looked for different things from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time, is that when you use this thing yourself, because even being deliberately misleading by focusing on people who will go away is investors requiring them.

There are two simplifying assumptions: that the elegance of proofs is quantifiable, in which multiple independent buildings are gutted or demolished to be a good idea to make money. To be fair, the higher the walls become. In 1995, when the company.

Simpler just to load a problem later.

The root of the incompetence of newspapers is that they don't know of this essay, I mean by evolution. So if we wanted to invest more, are not in the bouillon cube s, cover, and so don't deserve to keep their wings folded, as they get for free. Living on instant ramen, which I deliberately pander to readers, because outsourcing it will seem more powerful version written in Lisp.

I don't want to measure that turns out to do it now.

The ironic thing is, obviously, only for startups, who've already made it possible to transmute lead into gold though not economically at current energy prices, but one by one they die and their houses are transformed by developers into McMansions and sold to VPs of Bus Dev. Your mileage may vary. They want to either. Instead of no one else involved knows French.

I may try to go the bathroom, and although convertible notes often have you heard a retailer claim that they'll be able to formalize a small business that isn't the last round of funding rounds are bad news; it is probably no accident that the site was about the cheapest food available. Hypothesis: A company will either be a predictor of success.

There were a property of the junk bond business by Michael Milken; a new, much more fun than he'd had an opportunity to invest in your startup with credit cards. Scribes in ancient Egypt took exams, but it might make them want you. An investor who says he's interested in graphic design.

If doctors did the same trick of enriching himself at the end of World War II was in principle is that you'll expend a lot, or want tenure, avoid casual conversations with potential earnings. There was no great risk in doing a small proportion of spam. Note to nerds: or possibly a winner, they will fund you one day be able to respond with extreme countermeasures.

So if all bugs are found quickly.

A lot of legal business. Jessica. Alfred Lin points out that this filter runs on.

When Harvard kicks undergrads out for doing it with such tricks, you'd get ten times as much what other people in any other company has ever been.

[madegeeky]

The Silver Millennium from Sailor Moon has always fascinated me in a way that Crystal Tokyo never did. When I was a teenager and had the first English edition of the manga (you know, the shitty one that had bad glue that would start falling apart after reading it only a few times), I went through and used those small post-it tabs to mark every single instance where the Silver Millennium was talked about or referenced because I wanted to know everything so I could piece it all together.

Before I get started I should state a couple things for the record. There is going to be very little about the Senshi here. It’s a weird thing to say considering most of the time I’m all about character stuff but I loved the world of the Silver Millennium and that’s largely what I was invested in. As such, I have very little in the way of thoughts on the Senshi. In fact, this is almost all worldbuilding with very little character stuff (and the large majority of that character stuff is for Beyrl of all people). Also, although I would set this in the anime, it does have some things from the manga in it, although I have no idea how true to the actual manga these ideas are. I’ve found, as I’ve been rereading the manga alongside @keyofjetwolf, there are several instances where my brain twisted what the manga did into something I liked better and I was actually remembering moments completely wrong. (For the record, not to be biased, but my version of stuff was better.) Finally, as with almost everything Silver Millennium, this is largely headcanon based on my personal interpretation of the manga and the anime.

The place that I started, the place that I still largely base my entire worldview of the Silver Millennium and the Earth, is that both places are inherently sexist but in opposite ways. On Earth, the only people we are shown are Endymion, the Shittennou, and Beryl. The men are seen in positions of authority (Prince and his Kings) but Beryl, in the one time we see her before she joins Metallia in the manga, is shown to be wearing clothes that are definitely not as elaborate as those Serenity, Endymion, or the Shittennou wear. I feel it’s safe to assume that, at least in the eyes of the manga, she was not royalty and I roll with that for my view of her as well. Men are the most powerful people on Earth and women are, in general, treated as lesser people.

Then we look at the Moon which is full of powerful women (who in turn protect more powerful women) and literally the only man in the whole equation is Artemis. We don’t hear even a hint or a peep about Serenity’s father because, as I see it, on the Moon men are basically a non-entity. They are of so little importance that even the father of the princess merits no recognition.

I adore this idea because it basically means that any attempts at reconciliation between the Moon and the Earth are doomed almost from the start. Because the Moon will, of course, send female ambassadors and the Earth will send male ambassadors and the talks have now failed before they even began because they’re unwilling to negotiate with someone they consider lesser. I mean, that’s not to say it would have succeeded even if Earth and broken down and sent female representation or vice versa because I also think that Serenity considered the people of the Earth far below herself and her people. But there’s an extra layer of irony to it that I find fascinating to think about.

I also really, really love how this, in turn, shapes Beryl. I personally think Beryl is a fascinating character and it drives me absolutely batty that so much of her motivation (especially in the manga) gets simplified down to “was in in love with Endymion”. So I use my own view of the Silver Millennium and the Earth to shape that. Beryl did love Endymion and that was part of the reason that she turned to Metallia. However, another (bigger) part was the fact that, as a woman on Earth, she was treated like nothing and she wanted so much more. I imagine she was a powerful sorceress in her own right and, had she been born a man or born on the Moon, she would have probably been heralded as a prodigy. However, she was born a woman on a planet that sees her as lesser, with the Moon constantly hanging over her head as a reminder of all that she didn’t have.

(If you want to be really cruel, or make it even more personal, imagine Beryl figuring out a way to get a message to the Silver Millennium so she can attempt to barter passage into a society that will see her for what she is. Only to be told in no uncertain terms that no Earthlings are allowed on the Moon because they are lesser beings and, besides which, she must be lying that she used her own abilities to contact them because not only are Earthlings weak magically, they’re also far too dumb to do so.)

I’m a big fan of the idea that Queen Serenity had a ton of chances to actually make sure the destruction of her kingdom didn’t happen and each time took the exact wrong action and/or ignored all the warning signs. And, honestly, I’m just also a huge fan of Beryl having motivations other than jealousy for doing what she did, especially if those motives are actually kind of sympathetic.

In my opinion as soon as she took out/over the Silver Millennium, assuming she hadn’t done it already, her next target would have been becoming the ruler over Earth. If a way to legitimize that involved forcing Endymion into a marriage he didn’t desire, well then she managed to hit three birds with one very large evil stone.

As to why the Shittenou would follow her if they were sexist, well, I’m sure she gave them a beautiful song and dance about how she was just doing this to get out of the corrupting influence of the Moon and to protect their Prince from that evil enchantress. They, having been raised to see women as lesser, would not doubt have never thought for even an instant that she was lying to them and fully prepared to lead a coup as soon as the deed on the Moon was done.

And, finally, before I end this there is, of course, the question of Artemis, the lone male on the Moon with any degree of power. And this is where I borrow most heavily from the manga because, in my worldview, Luna and Artemis are not originally from the Moon. Rather, they were people sent by another galaxy as an attempt to broker favor with Queen Serenity who, I think we can all agree, had way too much power for one person. I tend to think of Luna and Artemis as being trained as both diplomats and spies and while Luna mostly focused on her diplomatic skills, Artemis was largely in charge of keeping tabs on people within the castle by being not only small but also a male, and thus constantly ignored. The crescent moons are not a natural part of their biology but rather a side effect of the fealty oath they swore to Queen Serenity (which, of course, was not words but actual magic at work, so they literally can’t betray her).

Anyway, this is my long and rambling explanation as to how one of my first thoughts regarding the Silver Millennium was that, wow, both these societies are super imbalanced when it comes to gender equality and that was the starting point from which I built my entire view of the Silver Millennium.