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jinmukangwrites · 4 years

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Bruised (1/?)

For @batboycentral <3

Whumptober day 10

Internal Bleeding

Ao3

Warnings: blood, nosebleeds, illness

-o-o-o-o-

The first time he noticed it, he didn't actually notice it. Like, bruises were common in Tim's line of work. Sometimes, he'd wake up in the morning with enough purple splotches to almost look like he was trying out Cheetah cosplay. Not remembering where a bruise came from was just as frequent. When you went out close to every night to fight common street crime you're going to get hit very often. So often, that really, it would be impossible to remember where you've gotten every single bruise, cut, and ache.

Tim waking up this morning to see his legs had large, dark bruises polka-dotting his pale skin was nothing out of the ordinary.

He just looked at them, shrugged and wondered if he got that bruise sparring with Kon or if it was from stumbling on one of his lands last night while swinging roof to roof.

Then he continued with the rest of his day, not even thinking about them. They were just bruises, what was the point of wasting brain power thinking about them?

The second time he noticed it, he still didn't actually connect the dots. The only difference this time was that there were bruises on his arms as well.

"That looks painful," Bart pointed out, literally and figuratively as Tim made himself breakfast that morning. He had to practically dance out of the way from having the bruise on the outside of his bicep poked.

"It's just a bruise," Tim said, retreating from the Tower's kitchen counter with a bowl of cereal clutched in his hands. "People get them all the time."

Bart hummed and followed Tim to the table with a spark in his eyes that Tim didn't like. He'd have dodging practice early today, he guessed.

Bart sat down next to Tim, kicking his legs under the table. "I don't get bruises like that. It's big"

"Because you're superhuman with a heightened healing factor," Tim deadpanned before stuffing his mouth full of captain crunch.

"Oh yeah, I forget that sometimes."

��How do you just forget you have superpowers?!”

The third time he noticed it was when he actually began to wonder about it. For the past three days, he'd been covered in bruises. On his sides, limbs, even a persistent one on his cheek. And yes, he was used to being covered in bruises, but the bruises were starting to look strange, covered with little red dots that gave him the impression of acne hanging out right below the layers of his skin on his legs and arms. And it felt like he was getting bruised for every little thing. Cassie playfully punched his arm a little while earlier and he soon found himself scowling in the mirror, poking the dark stain of skin. Cassie punched hard, sure, but she knew her strength. Even when she was roughhousing, she knew how to make it so no one got hurt.

And then, there was the fact that he woke up this time with bruises once again, but he hadn't gone out the night before. He stayed in to hack into the mainframes of various potentially corrupt companies of Jump City and their neighboring city of San Francisco that they occasionally patrol from time to time. He didn't do anything last night to warrant bruises.

The third time he noticed it, he was more careful with it, because Tim wasn't dumb. He wasn't oblivious to his own body. His spleen was missing for crying out loud! That could change things about his health and how he pursued both his everyday life and his night life. Common illnesses could be deadly. His body just didn't function the way it used to.

But now, it wasn't just the bruises. It was also the new episodes of lightheadedness and weakness that he just… couldn't explain. He slept. Not a full 8 or even 7 hours of sleep every night but he still slept . He ate food. Good food, especially for dinner. Meats, vegetables, the whole shebang. It was impressive, actually, how well everyone at the Teen Titan's Tower ate, especially for being a bunch of, well, teenagers .

He shouldn't be that tired. Standing up shouldn't be a chore like it was beginning to become.

And the others were noticing as well, which only served to worry Tim more about his own health.

"Woah, you good?" Kon asked, grabbing Tim by the shoulders as he stumbled up from the couch and almost fell immediately backwards.

Tim slapped his hands off, even though normally he always welcomed the company of Kon, but he was close to panicking. Something was wrong, and he was afraid to figure out what. "I'm fine," he replied, trying to keep a fearful snap out of his voice. Judging by the way Kon scowled, Tim wasn't to be believed. "I'm just… tired."

"Tired"?" Bart asked, zipping up from the couch and ending up right in front of Tim in the blink of an eye. Bart was scowling, looking up at Tim with narrowed eyes. "Tim Drake? Tired? I don't believe it."

"No, Tim's always tired," Cassie put in, her voice carefully level to the point Tim almost winced. "Tim admitting to being tired? Feels almost like sacrilege."

Bart nodded, like that was what he was thinking the entire time and Tim had to swallow down a deep sigh. He sniffed and stepped away from the others, folding his arms across his chest. "I think I'm just coming down with something." Oh no, Kon's frowning. Tim quickly continued, sniffing again. Maybe. It's not a big deal. I'm just a little more tired than usual-" Tim sniffs once more as something wet begins to slide down the inside of his nostrils. Great. A runny nose? He reached the back of his hand up to his nose and wiped. "And feeling a little weak. But that's it. Just…"

All three of them were staring at him oddly now. He frowned.

"What?"

"Tim…" Cassie started, "your nose is bleeding."

"What?!"

Tim looked down at the hand he had used to wipe under his nose, and to his shock he saw a thin streak of red trailing down over his thumb joint, parallel to his pointer finger. Right next to one of his strange bruises.

He reached up to his nose, wiping once more. His eyes widened when his hand came away with more blood. He sniffed again, only this time he brought his hand back up to his nose and kept it there. "I'm gonna... um…"

"Go," Kon said, "we'll talk after."

Tim nodded, knowing there was no way his friends would let him off the hook now that he admitted to not feeling the greatest. He quickly rushed past them—sniffing and sorely hoping no blood would drop down onto his shirt and stain it—and eventually found himself inside one of the many bathrooms built into the Tower. Using his free hand, he grabbed a tissue and painstakingly folded it up a few times. He leaned over the sink as he finally let the hand cupping his nose fall away, and instantaneously a few drops fell into the sinks porcelain. He swiftly pressed the tissue over his nose and turned on the water to wash his now blood streaked hand. The water ran crimson to pink and back to clear. He turned off the water and carefully closed the toilet seat lid to sit down on the shaggy purple cover. He kept the napkin pressed tightly over his nose and leaned back against the wall, breathing through his mouth and fighting the dizzy feeling settling in his brain and on his chest.

He could taste blood in his mouth. He hoped it was because the blood was dripping the wrong way down into his throat and not because of alternate reasons. He could see the dots. He didn't want to connect them. Not yet. He just had to wait for his bleeding nose to stop. Then he could start sorting out the symptoms.

Unconsciously, he brought his free hand to his side, under his armpit and above his stomach, then ran his fingers over the scar placed there under his cotton tee-shirt.

Please don't be related. Please oh please don't be related.

He exhaled, swallowing blood, and dragged his hand away to pull out his phone. He ignored the Google app and instead began to distract himself by checking the notifications on every other app he owned. Tumblr, Discord, Instagram, all of them. Every so often, he'd pull the napkin away from his nose just to immediately put it back when blood attempted to drip down. Eventually, he ran out of apps to laze through and opened his Email, however he immediately gained a headache when he saw most of them belonged to Wayne Enterprises.

After quickly changing the napkin for a new one once his fingertips began to feel wet, he opened the Play Store and downloaded the first mindless game he could tap on.

He was in the middle of figuring out where the sevens could go in his solitaire game when a knock on the door caught his attention. He lowered his phone and turned towards the door. "Yeah?" He yelled, his voice nasally thanks to the tissue still squeezing his nostrils shut.

"You good?"

Kon's voice. He sounded concerned.

"Um, yeah?"

A beat of silence. Then a clearing of a throat. "You're still bleeding?"

Tim almost hummed, but that would shoot gore out of his nose. So he clicked his tongue instead. "Yeah. A- a little."

More silence. "Do… do noses usually bleed this long?"

And not for the first time does Tim regret making friends with mostly superheroes who are, in fact, super. With their indestructible skin, healing factors, and amazing feats of strength, it was sometimes hard for them to comprehend how plain old humans with no abilities acted in certain situations. What plain old humans with no abilities needed to keep physically healthy. He loved his friends, no doubt about it, but questions like do noses bleed for this long gets his head spinning with the realization that this was his life.

Tim tucked his phone away in his pocket. "Um, depends. Really."

He should open the door. Talk to Kon face to face. He sounded genuinely hung up on Tim's health. Talking directly with each other should help calm Kon down at least. He put his hand on the counter next to him and used it to lift himself up.

Once his butt left the toilet seat, he knew he had just made a mistake. The world swirled and his head suddenly began to pound. He wasn't sure if he blinked, or even blacked out, but he did know that one moment he was halfway to sitting and the next he was on the ground with his legs crumbled beneath him, blinking cobwebs from his dizzied brain as the door suddenly slammed open.

And that was another thing about being a part of both a team and a friend group of supers. They sometimes underestimated how much a plain old human with no abilities could take. Though this time, Tim was pretty sure the worry on Connors face was for good reason. Those poor door hinges though… they’d need replacing...

There was a warm, copper tasting liquid dripping down over his lips and off his chin. During the confusion, his hand holding the napkin had ended up limp by his side, his body having forgotten to hold it over his nose while he blanked out and fell. At the back of his far away head, he knew that the amount of blood dripping from his nose, especially considering how long he's sat here with his fingers pinching it shut, was way more than what should be normal.

It took a tremendous amount of energy to lift his eyes up to Kon, who at this point had ended up in front of Tim, kneeling with hands lifted and eyes wide.

"Are you okay?" Kon was asking. His voice teetered the line of hysterics.

Tim brought his hand up to his face and tried to wipe away the blood to open his mouth, but all he did was smear the liquid over his hands and face. His heart pounded as he leveled his gaze into Kon's eyes. He thought of the bruises, and rash like dots on his arms and legs. He thought of his spleen, of the lack of it. He thought about his compromised immune system. He thought about the dizzy spells. The weakness. He thought about how his nose should have stopped bleeding by now.

"I think… I think I need a hospital.

-o-o-o-o-

End of chapter one. More will update after whumptober is finished. Please do not ask to be put on a tag list.

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hoedameron · 3 years

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but before i go looking in the tags, let’s talk about my latest gifsets!

what a worker bee i was both yesterday and today with prodigal son AND loki <3 never have i created so many gifs in a short amount of time it’s a damn miracle that my photoshop didn’t straight up cough up blood and keel over. alas, us bitches are stronger than that! if this post gets flagged because of the scenes i included....that would just mean that i made the right decision to exclude those scenes ajsdksajkldsa

malcolm stabbing martin

when the episode finally downloaded, i took a peek at the ending before it aired to see how it all ends (just in case it doesn’t get renewed </3). GOSH, was i just in a TIZZY when i saw this happen and i couldn’t tell my dad what i saw because we were straight up watching the show as it aired. anyways, keeping my secret knowledge, i got to work on making this gifset. i missed a huge chunk of the episode bc it took me over TWO hours to make the six gif set. i was really torn on the “artistic” approach aka which scene to gif and which to leave out. because i saw the ending before anything else, i couldn’t play it out loud and i didn’t have my headphones to listen so i was like FREE FORMING THE SUBTITLES. plus the captions weren’t synced up so it was really hard to decipher what was being said :(

i really thought i would be able to create the set before 9 but i was running into unforeseen issues such as the subtitle problem, which on top of that, like i said earlier, my photoshop is c/racked and janky so....you catch my drift. i was actually going to gif the bisexual moment in the cafe which i think would’ve been MUCH easier but i jumped the gun and wanted to make the gifs of the shocking ending. funny part about that is the shocking part wasn’t even included in my set (malcolm driving the knife into martin) because i felt like the scene was too short...anyways, let’s talk about the positives:

i really do like the coloring of this one. i used a psd that i’ve used before and luckily it’s meant for outdoor scenes with greenery so the gif really popped. sharpening, buddy ole pal, love you sm. the caption was kinda last minute but i hoped to save it with the gradient. cropping was a bitch because for some reason, it takes forever when you’ve made multiple gifs beforehand (cache innit) pero we pulled through! i actually started not saving the psd files to try and save time which is very unusual for me pero i was getting frustrated with photoshop so i was like y’know what....so i just gave up entirely and stopped saving. i do save when i’m taking my time but jeez, it’s a bad habit. i like saving the psd file because i never know if there is a mistake i missed in post and when i go to publish it, it’s blatant and it needs to be fixed. please, save your psd files idc if it takes up space u can just delete them later. IT HELPS !! TRUST ME!!

first & “last” appearance

i actually premade gifs for this gifset! unfortunately, i didn’t realize that three of the five gifs were the wrong size (pictured above) because i flipped the ratio. instead of 268 x 250, i made them 250 x 268. i don’t know HOW i managed to fuck that up but luckily i saved the psd files (wink, wink) so the coloring was still intact. i think i had to restart photoshop or it was getting too late so i picked it back up in the morning. sucks that i had to remake the entire gif from scratch but we will take some wins xx

coloring is the same with the previous gifset (listen....it’s a good coloring) and i actually did have an alternative coloring that was very warm pero i didn’t end up using it. almost melted the two with the “last” appearance of gil but ultimately didn’t go through with it. also i was thinking of using baby malcolm as the first appearance because technically, that IS his first appearance in the show but i was like...just use adult malcolm lol. also i know that scene of dani isn’t the “first” but the first scene she has goes really quick and she is planked by gil so there isn’t much of a solo (even though this scene isn’t much of a solo either pero it’s better than the former). the lighting is weird in this episode and my coloring tried their best :/ i know gifmakers make each gif a diff coloring pero i’m lazy okay and looking to be time effiencent. another slight tangent is that i actually queued the post for the morning but since i woke up to a storm, i was like, i’m here so i’ll publish it myself.

other than that...i didn’t run into any other problem. i was actually hesitant to make the caption that because i wasn’t sure how to really describe the team. i have poor memory so if there was ever an official name, i do not remember it. i did a quick google search pero it turned up nothing. i stuck with “dream team” because, well, that’s what they are. plus i didn’t want to tarnish the gifset with any mentions of p/olice (i was thinking about putting sumn along the lines of ‘the nypd team’) so DREAM TEAM IT IS because it’s true! you cannot have the show without these five! also, i should’ve used quotations on “last” because there is a bunch of talk about a renewal pero...just in case... sorry y’all :/

odinson brothers parallels

this was made in the spur of the moment. i saw that the teaser trailer with shirtless loki dropped in hd, i came A-RUNNING! it was posted like 47 minutes after the fact and i was like...somebody probably already made a gifset of the scene so i was like...gosh, to make the gifset or not all the while i was trying to download the video. trying because again, this was in the middle of a storm so my wifi was acting up and wasn’t at its strongest (whatever that may be). so i was getting frustrated because neither cc nor 4kdownloader was downloading this small one minute clip. that’s when i knew i was gonna be too late to make the loki gifset so i was like whatever ig...

then i had an idea.

i love parallels so luckily it hit me that this paralleled with thor and how his hair got chopped off. so, i knew i had ragnarok downloaded and got to work <3 wasn’t sure what dimensions to use so i went with 268 x 268 to make perfect squares. because the loki scene was short, i could only make three so i was like..okay, i can work with this. three for loki, three for thor, they’re brothers and they share! i wasn’t planning to add subtitles but i had written them down for the plain gifset so i was like alright, we’re going all in. i didn’t take that long to make since again, they’re small gifs and i did have a coloring in mind that i always use for ragnarok (it’s my fave for non-marvel edits as well). there was a slight adjustment to the final loki gif because i realized the gif had that dark fade into the scene which i didn’t know if it was an artistic choice for the show itself or was added for the trailer only (it happens when companies cut a bunch of scenes together and it’s not at all how it actually plays out). i didn’t want to take any chances so i cut those parts out. i know the gifs are short on the loki side pero...that’s just how it is in show business.

thank you so much for listening and hearing me out! i like discussing my work and i try to have pride in them even if the numbers don’t reflect what i hope they would. either way, still learning, still growing, still thinking about buying p.s. like deadass this shit is RIDICULOUS -_- imagine opening up ps and like...it opens up in less than two minutes...shivers

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evasivaardilosa · 3 years

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Hey guys! As promised, I am back after watching the movie. Actually, that’s a funny story. Wednesday was a holiday here so I just downloaded a p*ratebay version of it, the image was too dark and the audio was too quiet and I forgot I can’t understand stuff in English without subs (Eng subs are fine) so I just got half of what happened, but then Friday I got a better version and watched it today. I still don’t wanna talk about it bc I think I need to enjoy it by myself a little longer before seeing what the internet is saying but if anyone has a post about the easter eggs in hand, I am very interested

Leaving that aside, the semi hiatus was fun fandom wise here

My figures of Scorpion and Sub-Zero arrived, I love them. Still didn’t figure a place for them in my room but I am working on it

mkm had the Klassic Ninja pack these days including Klassic Noob, but I had been neglecting it so I didn’t have a lot of souls. Didn’t get Noob, but fused my Klassic Ermac, and I think I finished the challenge golds now? So yay.

I did get my best moments in mk11 tho. My new attempt at Test Your Luck gave me a Noob boss battle so now I have his Luckality and it’s so convenient the two moves I overuse are brutality moves. But really, my friend Sheeva alone did most of the work in getting me to finish all four stages of those damn towers! Between Noob and Geras with their Luckalities and my superpowered Sheeva, I now can also solo 2/3 coop towers (the third one seems to require you to find someone online but I am still not paying for it). I felt invencible until I summoned the Lucky Tower again and got a Jacqui in the 4 matches tower... She just destroyed my best fighters, now I have no idea of what to do. But anyway, even if I can’t figure out how to beat her, I just have to summon it again until I get some tower without her, this shouldn’t be a problem

I also seem to have emptied the krypt, included the shrine, of skins and kosmetics. Yet, even with augments everywhere, I don’t seem to find the ones I need to make superpowered versions of other characters. Also it’s sad that this happened just when I figured out that my Lucky Blows Kabal (using Smoke and Mirrors + Pure and Simple) just needed that augment that gets souls for krushing blows and that other that converts souls to koins to give me the quickest money I ever made in this game.

I also watched a couple more Conquest episodes today and I kinda like what they did with Mileena’s backstory. It’s in no way better than the current one but it’s interesting. But yeah, G Kung Lao fucked Mileena and we have to live with this. Siro has blessed genes. Shao Kahn’s voice does things to me. The trio has just one braincell and it’s usually with Kung Lao, sometimes with Taja. Siro isn’t seen with it often.

Siro’s backstory with his brother reminded me a bit of Bi-Han and Kuai Liang.... If we are to draw parallels, I guess Taja has some Skarlet vibes, backstory wise, since they take very different paths

My sister said the sentence “Sub-Zero freezes his problems” and she is not wrong

I want to open requests but it will probably have to wait until next month. By the way are you guys familiarized with AO3’s prompt memes? I am thinking of opening them there. Depending on how it goes, I could use both ao3 and tumblr for it, it all depends on where I can reach more people who would be interested. If there’s anyone who would be interested, of course.

That’s it. It’s good to be back in this blog. Now, I will leave you all with my father’s words:

PRESIDENT GORO!

(It’s our Baraka Obama)

#ea talks #look i dont support moro but PRESIDENT GORO is who we need #great kung lao still has a nice ass #i want klassic noob so badly #and klassic jade #all klassic ninjas #i faced mk11 rain in the tower and he is badass #mortal kombat conquest #gaming logs

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pynkhues · 4 years

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I just want Beth to be like, fuck boomer. How can she be so forgiving for everything he did to her and Annie?

I’ve only watched the episode once at this stage, anon, but the impression I got was that she did say ‘fuck Boomer’, and that she wasn’t forgiving of him at all. As soon as she saw him pop out of the septic tank, she knew what Rio was asking, and she never wavered in delivering him, which is huge, huge growth for Beth (and Annie and Ruby too). I’d argue too that trying to take him to Marion was smattered with three very different sets of motivations.

Annie was doing it for Marion.

Beth was doing it for Annie.

And Ruby was doing it for Beth.

None of them were doing it for Boomer.

Overall though, I think this episode marked a really substantive growth in terms of Beth’s handling of a rotten egg, and that it represented a natural evolution from the horror of what happened to Lucy, and the initial disaster of her handling of the Boomer situation in the early parts of s2, in a way that felt true to her character and true to her moral descent, which is less a plummet off a cliff, than it is a stagger down the stairs.

So let’s break that down a bit:

Annie + Boomer + Beth

The first real scene of violence (as opposed to threatened or inferred violence) on this show is actually through Annie, Boomer and Beth.

He tries to rape Annie, and Beth first holds a toy gun on him, and then smashes a bottle over his head.

This scene is a really clear precursor to what happens later in the series, but also a very distinct character set-up for Beth, because it shows that she thinks quickly on her feet, will protect her and hers (aka Annie and Ruby), doesn’t think things through (was there ever a plan of what to do with Boomer in the treehouse?) and has a lot of barely contained rage, simmering beneath the surface of her.

Beth + Rio + Dean

In a lot of ways, that barely contained rage manifests with Beth getting Rio arrested, an act motivated out of a conflicting cocktail of fear, anger, vindictiveness, and - as I’ve argued on here before - genuine hurt. The scene at the end of 1.10 is such a good cliffhanger, and they explode that cliffhanger back open with 2.01.

Rio gives her the gun, manipulates Beth’s trust, and then uses that trust as a weapon against Beth to get her to willingly give him back the gun as he shoots Dean.

It’s a scene that punctuates Rio’s ability to do what Beth can’t.

The Girls + Boomer

And yet, for Rio, that immediately seems to build into a desire to get her to do it.

He’s just shot her husband, and now he’s strongarming, goading, and - in 2.04 - positively gleeful at the prospect of getting her to shoot someone too.

Boomer is really the first person who’s framed as a dead man walking on this show, and by the time the show articulates that explicitly in 2.01, it comes with a loaded, complex history. Boomer’s Annie’s boss, her would-be rapist, and now the fiance of their sort-of-employee? It’s a mess from the word go, and it falls out as a mess because Rio’s overshot, because Beth isn’t ready.

That whole mess just falls out and falls out and falls out across season 2, until it culminates in:

The Loft

Which not only parallels with 1.10/2.01, but also the Boomer arc.

Rio gives Beth Turner as a gift, a lesson, and a punishment combined, and once again, Beth isn’t ready for any of it.

It compounding with the games and then the abandonment and then the kidnapping, means Beth shoots the wrong person in a way that calls back to 1.01. It’s an explosion of desperation and then an ill-thought out rage that resets the board for s3.

Season 3

In a lot of ways, Rio’s taken a step back from Beth this season, and I think in no small part, that that’s manifested in his desire to see Beth get her hands dirty. That desire is absolutely still there, but he’s downloaded a lesson plan, and he’s pivoted his approach.

Now, it isn’t about getting a gun in her hands, it’s about making her complicit with the gun in his.

Beth + Rio

This is really started in 3.02/3.03 with their reunion, and the extension of the shift in violence in their relationship which was escalated in 2.13.

Namely though, it reiterates a set of rules that haven’t always appeared so plainly, but have certainly underpinned many of their interactions.

1. The gun is in Rio’s hands and he makes sure she knows that it’s there (he tells her he’s planning on killing her).

2. Beth scrambles to save someone (in this case herself through the pregnancy lie).

3. She plays along (she goes to the OBGYN with him).

4. She tries to negotiate (their whole conversation at the bar in 3.04)

5. She suffers the consequences (lets him strongarm into her business.)

And then it escalates.

Beth + Lucy

I’ve talked about it before, but Lucy’s death was a marked shift for the show, because it wasn’t about making Beth do it, it was about making her complicit in the crime.

Again, it follows a formula, albeit this time, not over two episodes. It’s in a handful of scenes.

1. The gun is in Rio’s handsand he makes sure Beth knows that it’s there (he presents as a clear and obvious danger to Lucy, echoes language he’s used with Beth when trying to kill her to emphasise his intentions. I talked about this a lot in the post I linked to above).

2. Beth scrambles to save someone (she tries to tell Lucy not to finish the new template.)

3. She plays along (she goes out to the van with Rio and his guys).

4. She tries to negotiate (passionately this time! But - notably - for herself, Annie and Ruby first, Lucy second - her first moral slip in this particular sense).

5. She suffers the consequences (Lucy’s killed).

It’s a stark contrast to 2.01, because Dean survived, and an even starker one to all of the other scenes of violence on this show so far, because Lucy was an innocent, unlike Dean, Boomer and Rio.

Hell, she’s even unlike Annie and Mary-Pat, who have both experienced awful sexual violence in this series at Boomer’s hands. There is no situation ever in which any person deserves that or invites it; however, in talking about the violence on this show, it’s important to acknowledge not only their respective traumas, but the way they play as morally grey characters in the storyworld versus Lucy, who was never presented to us as anything other than ‘good’.

The brief foray between Beth, Max and Rio that falls out of it forms a compelling, but short-lived exploration of the ramifications to this, and is in no small terms about highlighting two things. a) Beth has never been as innocent as Max, who wets himself in the heat of the moment, and b) that she’s stumbled down a few stairs in terms of what she can do, while c) still letting her guilt guide her course of action.

Beth + Boomer

Which is why this episode was, in practically every way, an escalation of what Beth’s capable of, even if it did perhaps feel like it wasn’t.

1. The gun is in Rio’s hands (a fact Beth instantly accepts when Boomer pops out of the septic tank).

2. Beth doesn’t scramble to save him. At all. This is huge for her and a really, really marked shift in terms of her character. Like I said at the start of this post, everything she did in this episode was for Annie’s benefit, not for Boomer’s, but I’ll come back to that in a tick.

3. She plays along, but it’s different this time. She’s both falling into line, while creating her own space. Yes. She’s going to bring Rio Boomer. But she also might need more time within that, and she’ll fight for that when it’s for her sister (taking Boomer to say goodbye to Marion), but she won’t when it’s for Boomer himself at their expense (she’ll steal away the urn and threaten to throw it away when it’s too much). Beth bossed up in a big way. Not in a pretty way, sure, and not in a way that perhaps immediately presented as empowering, but it was - she did what needed to be done to deliver, not just play along.

4. This is why I think Beth’s negotiation here was important and needed to be in there. The shift in her own morality in this episode has been both a logical evolution of the series and a really stark one. She needed to know she tried, and it’s no accident that her brief, half-hearted efforts at negotiating for Boomer’s life with Rio came after Boomer was appealing to Annie again, and again, and again, and again in that car.

We’ve seen what Beth’s like when she’s fighting for a life.

She wasn’t fighting for Boomer.

If anything, she was providing the most base of comforts to her sister, and likely herself too.

They tried.

5. She suffers the consequences. She doesn’t fight it. She doesn’t spring from the car, or start her filibuster like she usually would. Which means she doesn’t just suffer Boomer’s death.

For the first time in the series, she accepts it.

And she lets it go.

And sure, maybe it’s not a fuck you, but for Beth? The woman who can’t even divorce her husband? I think that’s pretty huge.

I also think that the end of the episode where Annie tried to give peace to Marion just reiterated how much this episode was about her for Annie, not about Boomer (which is why it’s also important that the show reminded us that Marion was racist, and that she chose Boomer over Annie anyway, which I really appreciated).

And going off that final montage? None of them mourned him like they did Lucy, which, well. Says a lot, particularly when paralleled with their respective guilt spirals in 2.04 after disposing of Boomer the first time.

#gg 3.08 #crime time #dis/armed #beth boland #annie marks #ruby hill #rio #leslie peterson #dean boland #gg spoilers #Anonymous

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almaasi · 5 years

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reaction post typed while watching SPN 15x13 “Destiny’s Child”

so Destiel is a pizza metaphor now, I guess :o

05:24pm

i am LATE

because my doctor wanted to see me before the entire country goes into self isolation for 4 weeks. so i was there at 10am (an unGODLY HOUR) and they were doing all the appointments in the car park, with the patients in their cars and the doctors outside wielding those forehead-check temperature thingies. anyway i’m not dying. but i did have to go back to bed with wet hair because DECONTAMINATION

also i wore a surgical mask and now i have a rash where it touched me :/

05:42

almost done downloading. expectations for this episode: SOMETHING FUN. hopes: a hint (or a heap) of destiel. c:

05:45

alrighty it’s done!!! let’s go, lesbians

05:45

cas: “if the pizza man truly l--”

OH BOY WE’RE IN FOR SOMETHING

cas sexuality recap????????????????? iiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting,,,,,,,,,,,

the pizza man.......... is dean............................

what

happening

seriously what the fuck is happening

for 10 years i’ve expected a destiel recap and thIS WAS NOT IT, FAM

BUT I AM FUCKING INTO IT.

edit: wait, the pizza man is CAS, meg/the empty said later. so dean just wants all the pizza in his mouth i guess

05:49

my brain has rewired itself to be unable to see two characters together without worrying about covid-19. i can’t imagine anyone kissing without squicking myself. it’s weird.

and dean and sam are TOO CLOSE

take a little sub-step back there, ladies

05:51

other-dean-and-sam step out of their car

okay first off

1. the music. i like it. it’s awful in this show. i’m gonna look it up later.

2. the ANKLE. disgusting. i’m attracted to it.

2.1. wait no it’s sam’s ankle i take it back

05:56pm

sam: “it’s latin for ‘hidden’. where do we find it?”

billie. “i. don’t. know. it’s. hidden.”

i love her so damn much.

05:58

dean playing with the rubber band feels like a metaphor for the universes. he twists it into an infinity symbol and ooooooh

ahh look at this boy stimming

recently, the more i’ve watched dean the more i’m more inclined to think he’s also on the autism spectrum. just SO different from cas. and forced to hide all his traits by his upbringing, lifestyle, and surroundings, the way women with autism tend to do.

DEAN TRYING TO GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO THE THING AND CAS SAYING NO !!!!!!!!!!

10/10

edit: probably my favourite part of this episode tbh. and i completely forgot about it until i was re-reading this post just now

06:05

anael/sister jo: “well, the healthcare systems sucks, so i pick up the slack”

resentful applause would be appropriate here

i like how she’s dressed! stripy blue turtleneck under a red satin cocktail dress under a bubblegum pink blazer!!!! nice!!

06:20pm

accidentally moved my computer and it turned off, lost a bit of this post. basically it was me saying ARE YOU TELLING ME ANAEL AND RUBY WERE CROWLEY AND AZIRAPHALE and having my fingers crossed for it being explicitly romantic somewhere in this

and then cas is talking to jack

cas: “dean feels things more acutely than any human i’ve ever known”

which, for one thing, only feeds my growing autistic!dean headcanon

and secondly, there’s a shot of the pizza as he says that!!!! significant

did dean just call sam ‘samwitch’ or is he referring to sam/rowena

cas: “the demon you were sexually intimate with”

which just reminds me how ruby was cas’ parallel that season.....

so i guess nowadays they just pop into hell like it’s a grocery store

dean’s gonna be so mad if cas dies forever

team free will dies if jack does it wrong

MUCH PRESSURE TO PUT ON TINY JACK O NOES

anael and ruby are definitely playing good omens

06:46

jack questioning this every step of the way probably Means Something

dean and cas standing in a church by the altar looks a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle like a wedding

i question how the moon would be in exactly the right place and fullness in order for them to find that. one minute off and they never would’ve seen it. and ruby’s been dead 10 years and somehow knows where the moon is, topside???

SO CAS JUST FOUND A SNITCH AND THE SNITCH IS LIKE “EAT ME”

very harry potter

jack’s gonna eat the snitch isn’t he

snek

JACK HEARS PARSELTONGUE

there is SO MUCH good omens and harry potter in this, i love it

dean and cas at the altar again........ ugh <3

brazil iS NOT WHERE ANYONE WANTS TO BE

everything is Bad there

07:00

HOO

it’s over

well that was a different episode than the trailer made it out to be. good though. wow so much all at once. i enjoyed seeing the ladies again.

THE RECAP ABOUT THE PIZZA THOUGH. like... it wasn’t textual in the episode, just made people Aware of the subtext?? which means regular people WILL BE NOTICING THE DESTIEL GOING FORWARD. OH BOY.

i’m too tired to have coherent thoughts but i enjoyed this!! i love jack and billie and i love how concerned dean was about dead!cas, and the other-sam-and-dean were funny but THEY’RE JUST?? OUT THERE IN THE WORLD NOW??

10/10 and i am intrigued about what’s coming next........

but yeah there was destiel. it’s just a pizza metaphor now.

*pizza emoji*, *clown emoji*

edit: so i just realised this was a bucklemming episode and THAT EXPLAINS MY WEIRD FEELING OF “i enjoyed this but something felt off”. like parts of this fell flat and felt like they skimmed potential rather than delving into it, and i was like hmmmm, but ignored the feeling bc i am just really fuckin tired. but yeah that explains the busty asian beauties thing too. i didn’t mention it bc ugh can’t be bothered. but yeah. adjusting my rating to 8/10 because it really does make a difference knowing the author’s intentions were questionable

#spn #Elmie watches things #post of postiness #season 15 #destiny's child #15x13

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joysmercer · 5 years

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine 7x01 Final Thoughts

(7x02)

I want to preface this by saying that I was absolutely and completely against them even thinking about trying so early in the season and I was even more against the idea of a pregnancy scare, but although those things happened, this episode still managed to exceed my expectations tenfold. I loved 99 (heh) percent of it, and the stuff I didn’t was mostly due to me being a worrywart and not because there was something wrong with the ep. Let’s get started.

First of all, can I just say how happy I am that Amy verbally said that “[they] agreed not to start trying for at least a year”? After what happened in a certain episode last season, I was convinced that the writers had no idea how to handle this storyline properly (more on that later), but the acknowledgment that Jake and Amy mutually agreed to a time frame and had every intention of sticking to it is a really important step in correcting those wrongs, and I’m really glad they chose to include a line about it not once, but twice.

I also loved seeing the Sleuth Sisters back on screen together! Rosa’s attempts at calming Amy down and helping her were absolutely hilarious (“you know hat keeps me relaxed? kicking stuff” / “glub glub glub…is this helping?” / etc) and the fact that Amy went to her for help made me so happy. I especially enjoyed the bit where they were sorting through the weird pregnancy tests from a bodega—especially because it parallels a similar conversation they had in Grey Star Mutual.

Lastly, the scene at the end between Jake and Amy was lovely and soft and nearly perfect in how it was written and executed (more on this later, too). The part when Amy told Jake about the pregnancy scare and then proceeded to—convincingly—pretend to be bummed until he brought up his feelings himself was excellent: it’s clear from the way they spoke and acted that neither was feeling any pressure to say something they didn’t truly believe, which is why the end result—Jake saying he’s ready to start Trying—is just about as good as it could have been.

Miscellaneous stuff that made me grin:

These two episodes were a clear return to the form/style of seasons 4-5, and I am here for it!

I didn’t write much about the A-plot above, but it was good, clean comedy. Debbie is amazing, as were her interactions with Holt. The end scene between Jake and Holt was especially sweet, and I’m interested to see how their new dynamic progresses in the future.

Jake, concerned about his finances (when he asked Charles to download that app)? Growth.

My remaining thoughts about this episode in the context of season 6 and what I think about what will happen going forward with regards to the themes and issues brought up in it are under the cut. The vast majority of them are not criticisms (of this episode), but they’re not exactly glowing reviews either, so proceed at your own risk.

If we pretend the Joke in 6x16 never happened, this episode would pretty much have satisfied everything I wanted to see regarding Baby Talks. But, as I have mentioned before, I can’t see how that event could have possibly made Jake any more ready to start a family—if anything, it would have set him back a bit. I’m not going to get into why, because I’ve already discussed this issue elsewhere, but the reason I bring it up is that I think that it was—and still is—really freaking important to show Jake’s journey to being ready on-screen, something we haven’t actually seen yet. After such a, well, tumultuous few months, coming to that conclusion couldn’t have been easy, and there’s been too much buildup for the writers to just show this scene and move on.

When the clips to this episode were leaked a few weeks ago, there were 3 Big Things I was mad about: Timing, the concept of a Pregnancy Scare, and Amy having Second Thoughts.

With regards to the Timing, I still think it is much too soon after Casecation (per my calculations, 1.5 months at most have passed) to feasibly have Jake ready to start a family. This is also why it is really, really important to show his point of view soon: this whole storyline just doesn’t seem complete otherwise, and honestly, it makes me a little worried.

Personally, I still think that the Pregnancy Scare plot could have been avoided and that there were other, better ways for Jake to realize he was ready to start trying. While the episode made it clear that he wasn’t pressured in any way to say that he wanted to start trying (see above), hearing about Amy say “I thought I was pregnant” jump-started a part of his brain that probably would have stayed dormant for a little bit more time. I can’t be certain if this was a good or bad thing.

As for Amy having Second Thoughts, that is something Melissa Fumero mentioned in an interview but wasn’t addressed in this episode, and I stand by my earlier statement that this would be a truly bad thing to bring up this late in the game. What they showed in this episode, with Amy concerned that they don’t have a preschool lined up or whatever, is natural, but if they make her seriously question her ability to balance parenthood and her career obligations, I’m going to be really upset. Amy is canonically shown to plan out every single detail thoroughly, and she should have all of that figured out by now. A little bit of panic once she actually becomes pregnant is one thing, but second-thoughts and reconsidering is quite another.

The last bit of worry that I have is that, in a 13-episode season, Jake and Amy will take over a majority of the plotlines. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except that it increases the possibility of other characters being sidelined in the process. I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen.

That’s it for now! Read my (much shorter) 7x02 Thoughts here.

#b99 spoilers #brooklyn nine nine #b99 #brooklyn 99 #peraltiago #jake x amy #jake peralta #amy santiago #7x01 #manhunter #b99: 7x01 manhunter #spoilers #c: jake peralta #c: amy santiago #p: screw light and breezy {jake & amy}#b99disc #cw discourse #myposts #myfinalthoughts

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Watchmen Episode 9 Easter Eggs Explained

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The big finale of HBO's Watchmen comes together in episode 9! Here's all the references to the book we were able to catch.

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This article contains Watchmen spoilers.

Watchmen episode 9 “See How They Fly” wraps it all up. And you’d think that after nine time-hopping episodes they might be ready to wrap up all of their homages and references to the original book. You would be wrong.

But not everything comes from the book. The episode’s title, “See how they fly” is a lyric from The Beatles’ psychedelic masterpiece “I Am The Walrus” which features the sinister/joyful (and Watchmen-relevant) refrain of “I am the eggman.” Now, with that out of the way, let’s get down to business.

LADY TRIEU

- We’re once again back on Nov. 1, 1985...this time to witness the conception of Lady Trieu. Her mother, Bian (who in the future Lady Trieu will clone and raise as her daughter) was one of Veidt’s Vietnamese employees who kept his fortress of solitude, Karnak, running. The verse she recites is apparently from folklore about a Lady Trieu who lived during the third century.

Incidentally, this is the most we’ve seen of the inner workings of Karnak, including in the book, where we only saw TWO employees. Does this mean he murdered ALL of these people, too? That is dark as fuck.

read more: Complete Watchmen Timeline Explained

- Lady Trieu is sperm sample 2346. That’s 23 x 2. It could very well be a reference to the “23 enigma,” an almost cult-like belief in the significance of the number 23. It was popularized by counterculture icons like William S. Burroughs and Robert Anton Wilson.

- The fact that Bian crowns her insemination with “Fuck you, Ozymandias” is interesting. Is Veidt, like Dr. Manhattan, a symbol of American imperialism in Vietnam? Pretty likely, right?

- In 2008, when Lady Trieu confronts Adrian Veidt and refers to him as “the smartest man in the world” she’s using the nickname that had been given to Ozymandias by the press. Trieu is, of course, “the smartest woman in the world.”

ADRIAN VEIDT

- This is the filming of the “confession/congratulations” video that Wade Tillman was shown by Joe Keene back in episode 5. It will be presented to Robert Redford on the day he is inaugurated as President on January 21, 1993. You can see the giant squid in the tank behind Veidt while he is recording the message to President Redford, by the way.

- “Untie knot” is the password prompt on Veidt’s old computer. “Untie knot” refers to the Gordian Knot, which Alexander the Great famously solved with his sword. The password is “Rameses II” just like in the book.

- That’s a portrait of Alexander the Great in Veidt’s office, but as of yet I’ve been unable to identify it.

- We learn in this episode that Veidt has “never given himself to a woman.” The fact that he specifically mentions women and not men could possibly echo Rorschach’s observation about him in the book, that Veidt is “possibly homosexual.”

- Based on the five year timeline laid out by Lady Trieu here, it would appear that Veidt spelled out “Save me Daughter” on the surface of Europa with the corpses of his servants in 2013.

read more: Watchmen Finale Explained

- Veidt’s line about achieving “everything” having “started from nothing” is a quote from the book, during the chapter when he is recounting his own origin story.

- Veidt catches the bullet from the Game Warden as he did in the comic when Laurie tried shooting him in Karnak.

- Veidt’s philosophy that “masks make men true” seems to echo Oscar Wilde’s “give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth” aphorism. This is refuted later in the episode by Will Reeves who feels quite the opposite about masks.

- “Palestine has become a widow for Egypt.” Veidt is quoting the Merneptah Stele, an ancient inscription detailing the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah’s victories. He ends with “the end is nigh,” which is generally Biblical in nature, but refers in this context specifically to the sign that Rorschach, in his identity of Walter Kovacs, used to carry around in the book.

DOCTOR MANHATTAN

- Joe Keene’s high-waisted undies are a mirror of the ones Dr. Manhattan wore through chunks of his career, before he decided to abandon clothing entirely.

- Lady Trieu refers to Dr. Manhattan as “the big blue cheese.” This is a surprisingly playful reference to Shazam, whose enemy Dr. Sivana routinely calls him a “big red cheese.” Incidentally, Lady Trieu does have a tendency to dress like the Sivana of the comics, who favors all white outfits.

- The 7th Kavalry discovered the existence of Dr. Manhattan on the White Night because Cal teleported “Mike” to Gila Flats, which was the place where Jon Osterman became Dr. Manhattan.

- Laurie refers once again to the thermodynamic miracle, a term taught to her by Jon the day that she discovered that her father was in fact Edward Blake.

- Jon has remained somewhat disoriented since he was “returned” by Angela. Throughout, we see him slipping into the past, specifically into moments from the book.

- “Janey, are you cold? I can raise the temperature” refers to a Christmas in 1959, the first Jon spent as Dr. Manhattan, when he was still with his first love, Janey Slater. Her “chill” was because she was getting a little scared of Jon and his increasingly distant humanity.

- “There is no situation in Afghanistan requiring my attention,” comes from the final moments of Jon’s talk show appearance in October of 1985, moments before he left Earth for Mars.

LOOKING GLASS

- “Mirror Guy? “It’s Looking Glass” has become the best ongoing joke of this entire series. And as it turns out, Laurie and Wade have more in common than they thought. Wade has a tendency to puke after experiencing Dr. Manhattan’s teleportation, a trait he shares with Laurie.

RORSCHACH

When Angela is interrogating a member of the 7th Kavalry, she starts breaking his fingers, before threatening to move on to other parts of his anatomy. That was a favorite technique of Rorschach to extract information.

HOODED JUSTICE

Will Reeves uses some comic book speak by referring to the Tulsa Race Massacre as “my origin story.” He also says “before my world ended,” both an allusion to the Tulsa/Krypton parallels we have tracked elsewhere in these guides and the way Batman is fond of referring to the night his parents died. Both are appropriate.

NITE OWL

Nite Owl’s old ship, ARCHIE (hence Veidt’s “it’s been a hoot”) is still in Karnak after freezing up shortly after transporting Dan and Rorschach there to confront Veidt on Nov. 1, 1985. Wade would indeed know how to fly it since Dan later licensed his technology to police departments under the umbrella of a company called Merlincorps.

Incidentally, while Dan was only ever alluded to throughout this season, if we do indeed get a Watchmen season 2, then we have to figure he’ll show up to testify at Veidt’s trial.

We wrote more about Nite Owl here.

ANGELA ABAR

Is Angela now a godlike being who can walk on water after consuming that mysterious egg? Well, during their first meeting 10 years ago, Dr. Manhattan did tell her that he could “theoretically” transmit his powers into organic material for someone else to consume. And he DID want her to see him walking on water. But it looks like we may never know for sure.

read more: The Unanswered Questions of the Watchmen Finale

But that ambiguous ending is meant to mirror the final panel of the book, where it was unclear whether the bumbling intern at the offices of the New Frontiersman would reach for Rorschach’s Journal from “the crank pile” for possible publication.

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

- “As if some cowboy actor could ever become president.” It worked for Ronald Reagan!

- When Lady Trieu tells Adrian Veidt that he “stopped the clock” she’s referring to the Doomsday Clock, which was at one minute to midnight before the squid massacre prevented World War III.

- We once again get Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube Waltz" on Europa, this time as Lady Trieu's spacecraft lands. The 2001: A Space Odyssey parallels are real, considering that film dealt with a mysterious Monolith appearing on the surface of Europa.

- At the newsstand, there’s a headline that says “Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Drag On” for John Grisham. This has become something of a running joke on the show since episode 3.

- There’s also a New Frontiersman headline that says “Four Wounded in Saigon Burning” indicating that unrest in Vietnam continues.

- The gentleman in the wheelchair who turns up is Senator Joe Keene, Sr. the man who outlawed masked vigilantes in the first place in the book.

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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tak4hir0 · 3 years

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GOAL OF THE GAME The goal of this game is to understand how organisational design using component teams leads to the waterfall and unnecessary complexity. In this game, you experience how a typical scaling approach I call “Copy Paste Scaling” results in not so good things in organisations. Copy Paste Scaling is what I see most companies do. What they do is scaling by adding Scrum Teams and as a result, they have multiple Scrum Teams; instead of multiple team Scrum. And then need to add all kinds of extra complexity to their organisation. OVERVIEW OF THE GAME We are a product development group of a company called StickyArts. We develop graphics using only Sticky notes. Our product consists of several deep specialities. These skills need well-educated people with lots of experience working on the single speciality. Some companies have Java, Android, iOS, MainFrame, SAP, Billing, Legal etc as specialities. At our company, the specialities we have are Sticky notes of colour Blue, Red, Green, Orange and Yellow. The product that we need to create is the text “LeSS = Scrum”. In order to build our product, we work in teams of at most 5 people. The teams are organised into single function teams. So, there is 1 team per colour sticky note and we have a Red team, a Blue team etc. DURATION 90 Min. NEEDED SUPPLIES 5 Teams of at least 3 people 5 flip charts or A0s and wall space for the teams to work on. 7 tables 5 packs of different colour post-its. Thick sharpies for each colour for the Analysis Team. Caps or Hats; 1 Program Manager Cap, 5 Integration Team Caps, 5 Product Owner Caps, 2 Project Manager Caps. 1 Printed Product Backlog, see below an example. (download here) Printed decompositions of PBI letter ‘e’, see below for an example of letter ‘e’ ( download here ) The printed template for the letters ‘L’, ‘S’, ‘S’, ‘=’, ‘S’, ‘c’, ‘r’, ‘u’, ‘m’. Each letter on a separate A3 paper. These are needed for the Analysis team to do the decomposition (download here) Game Rules that everyone in the room can see. Timer WhiteBoard/Flipchart where you keep track or progress StickArts.com Logo PAPERS TO HANDOUT FOR FURTHER READING AFTER THE GAME. Scale your Product NOT your Scrum at http://agilix.nl/resources/ScaleYourProductNotYourScrum.pdf Why Scaling Scrum is the Wrong Question to ask at https://agilix.nl/blog/528-how-to-scale-scrum-is-the-wrong-question-to-ask WORKFLOW The teams do the following steps in parallel but synchronized: Start each Sprint with 1 min of Sprint Planning. ( how should we build our PBI? ) Then we have a 2 min development episode. The teams build their PBIs. ( Build it by using post-its. ) and end the Sprint with 2 min of retro where each team proposes an improvement. ( what dynamics do we see and what can we do to improve? ) The facilitator of the game acts of the owner and has final say on organisational design and acceptance of the product. After each retro, the facilitator leads a discussion about the dynamics that are observed and the teams’ proposals for improvement. Out of the organisational design improvements, you choose 1 proposal and implement it. PRODUCT BACKLOG (DOWNLOAD HERE) EXAMPLE DECOMPOSITION OF LETTER ‘E’ (DOWNLOAD HERE) FACILITATOR GUIDE Step 0. SET-UP THE ROOM VELOCITY-CHART We are going to track the teams’ velocity to see progress each Sprint for each team, to use it for Sprint Planning and to track PBIs done. Create a Velocity Chart for the 5 teams for 5 Sprints. RULES – A0 Create on an A0 Paper the rules of the Game to that it is visible during the game. A team only works its own speciality. Sprint Planning 1 min Sprint 2 min Retro for improvement of the system 2 min You cannot form other DEVELOPMENT teams. You can introduce other types of teams. We Improve the system based on your feedback from the retro PBL – A0 Glue the Product Backlog on a wall or door in priority order en explain the PBIs. The order of the PBL is from left to right: “LeSS = Scrum”. Explain the Product Backlog. It is ordered in Value and it already has estimates on it you see. SPACE Each team needs a flipchart or wall space with A0 papers and also their colour stick notes. Table space for the Analysis Team as far away as possible from the development teams. Table space for the Integration Team as far away as possible from the development teams. Enough wall space for the end product ‘LeSS = Scrum”. Step 1. ORGANISE INTO DEVELOPMENT TEAMS So, first step: Let’s organise into DEVELOPMENT teams For example: “You are 1, you are 2 you are 3 etc” Explain: You are DEVELOPMENT team with all the skills from development, to testing to ship your speciality colours. REMEMBER: You can only work within your own speciality and use your own colour sticky notes. START SPRINTING SPRINT 1 GOAL: Understand that there is a mess and propose to introduce an Analysis Team. Give each team a PBI and then you can start Sprint Planning of 1 min. EXPLAIN AGAIN: You can only work on your own speciality because otherwise, that would not be efficient Ask if there are any questions? IF they say something like: this is stupid, we cannot complete a PBI because it required multiple components THEN say yes that is the result of component teams. SKIP Sprint 1 and ask the teams to come up with a proposal to fix it. Set the timer of the Sprint Start Sprint Planning for 1 min. Start development episode for 2 min At the end of the Sprint ask: what is your velocity? Nice all worked very hard how many PBIs are done? …. Update the Velocity Chart for each team. Facilitate: “Interesting, we only created parts of PBIs, but the most important PBI also did not get done. Facilitate what they see happening around them. What dynamics they see etc. Point out the dynamics of local optimisation and creating wastes. Now ask: “I want the most important PBI to get done the next Sprint. And you are only allowed to work within your single speciality.” And then ask: “Please have a 1 min retro and come up with a proposal for improvement”. After their retrospective: Ask each team one at a time what their proposal is. Facilitate the retro results so that they propose something like an Analysis Team. Once they propose such a thing you choose that proposal to be implemented. Each team will have 1 person that speaks on behalf of the team and will share the team proposal for improvement. You make them the ‘volunteers’ to be part of the Analysis Team as Team Product Owner. Invite them to leave their teams and become the Team Product Owner and take a seat at the Analysis Team tables. Give them their Analysis Team hats and hand them A3 papers and colour stick notes to work with. Add Analysis Team to the Velocity Chart and start tracking their progress too. SPRINT 2 GOAL: Understand that there is a bigger mess and that work needs to be integrated Important: Let the teams throw away their work of the first Sprint because it did not work anyway. The teams start Sprint 2 clean. Show the teams the decomposed letter ‘e’ so that they understand how it looks and what the Analysis Team needs to do. Show the Analysis Team the PBL with the next PBIs that need to be decomposed. Point out that each Team PO needs to decompose as much as possible for their OWN team. Explain that in this Sprint the development teams will produce their part of the decomposed letter ‘e’ PBI while at the same time the Analysis Team will decompose as much PBI from the PBL as possible. Hand out the prepared decompositions letter ‘e’ to each team. Each team gets only its own decomposition by colour. Tell the analysis team that they need to work on the Product Backlog and decompose as many PBIs as possible for their own team. For example: The Team PO of the Blue team can pick the template for letter ‘L’ and then draw blue squares on the A3 paper on the right location. After all blue squares are on the exact location the decomposition of letter ‘L’ for the Blue team is done. Set the timer of the Sprint Start Sprint Planning for 1 min. Start development episode for 2 min At the end of the Sprint ask: what is your velocity? Nice all worked very hard how many PBIs are done? …. Update the Velocity Chart for each team. What happens is that a lot of work got done, but nothing is integrated. Facilitate: Facilitate what they see happening around them. What dynamics they see etc. “Please have a 1 min retro and come up with a proposal for improvement” After the retrospective Ask each team one at a time what their proposal is. Facilitate the teams’ proposal and let them propose something like an Integration Team. Once they propose such a thing you choose that proposal to be implemented. The members that speak on behalf of the team are the ‘volunteers’ to be part of the Integration Team. Invite them to the Integration Team tables and give them their Integration Team hats. Explain that their task is to get the parts from the teams and integrate them into a DONE PBI on the wall. They will need to get the A0-papers from the teams and combine it into a single A0 with the complete PBI. Point out the dynamics of Integration Teams, waterfall, handoff, delay, information scatter, not being able to work on highest value PBI and therefore optimising for ‘ass to chair time’ etc. Note: Add Integration Team to the Velocity Chart and start tracking their progress too. SPRINT 3 & 4 GOAL: Understand that there is even a bigger mess; that nothing really gets done and that work is being done out of order creation queues and coordination problems. In this Sprint: The Integration Team is integrating PBIs from the teams. The Analysis team is analysing the next PBIs. The Development Teams are developing their part of the PBIs. Set the timer of the Sprint Start Sprint Planning for 1 min. Start development episode for 2 min At the end of the Sprint ask: what is your velocity? Nice all worked very hard how many PBIs are done? …. Update the Velocity Chart for each team. The waterfall is there… Facilitate: Facilitate what they see happening around them. What dynamics they see etc. Point out all the dynamics of Component Team and the effect of having to do waterfall. A lot of PBI is being developed out of sync because they work of the PBIs do not distribute evenly across the teams. To manage this and ensure that the right pieces are integrated you need a solution. “Please have a 1 min retro and come up with a proposal for improvement” After the retrospective Ask each team one at a time what their proposal is. Facilitate so that the improvement proposal you choose is to introduce project managers to handle the coordination and keep track of the work. Give the project manager the Project Manager hat. Fire all of them Now, explain that you do not like this. You spent a lot of money and very little got done. More and more people are added for coordination, integration, design, analysis who are not doing value work. Facilitate discussion about the dynamics of adding special coordination roles like Project Managers. Now, fire all people. “You are all fired…” Rehire all of them and let them organise into feature teams. Give each team a PBI and start a new Sprint. (The teams will likely finish a PBI on the wall by themselves.) Set the timer of the Sprint Set the timer of the Sprint Start Sprint Planning for 1 min. Start development episode for 2 min Update the velocity chart for each team. Facilitate discussion about Feature teams and the dynamics. Hold a retro for improvement. Pick 1 improvement Have final Sprint. Facilitate Recap of the whole game by using a distributed retro technique where the teams come up with their most important learning or concepts. LESS HUGE EXTENSION For LeSS Huge, with more than 25 people, you can introduce Areas. One Area does the ‘LeSS’ part and the other Area does the ‘Scrum’ part. Enjoy, Cesario The LeSS Dynamics Game by Cesario Ramos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://agilix.nl/blog/534-the-less-dynamics-game. Book author, LeSS Trainer and Coach.

#www.tastycupcakes.org

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metawitches · 5 years

Text

Episode 2 of Stumptown, Missed Connections, explores how Grey and Dex became best friends instead of romantic partners. It also provides background on a part of Grey’s past that he’s ignored for years, which is now coming back to haunt him. After the pilot focused on Dex’s time in the military, PTSD and lost love, Benny, this is Grey’s chance to be seen as more than just an amiable sideman.

The story of Grey and Dex’s hook up 6 years ago, his past as a felon who did time for Grand Theft and the return of his partner in crime in the present day to draw him back into a life of crime runs parallel to Dex’s case of the week. She’s hired by a bar patron, Alan (played by Jay Duplass from Transparent) who wants her to help him find a woman he fell in love with at first sight, then lost. It turns out that the woman, Katrina (played by Zosia Mamet from Girls) is a con artist caught up in a life she can’t escape on her own. Katrina’s crime partner, Megan (Megan Le) is still very much in the picture and not okay with losing her business partner.

Recap

Dex foiled a bodega robbery 6 years ago when the robber took his crime one step too far and asked for her Fiona X beanie in addition to the cash from the register and her pockets. Some things are worth defending as a matter of principle.

As thanks for chasing the robber away, the bodega manager gave Dex a liter of beer. On her way out the door, she and Grey walked into each other. She dropped the beer and it broke on the pavement. The cops were on their way, so Grey offered to buy her a beer somewhere else. They ended up spending the night together at his place.

And thus, a best friendship was born.

Actually, it’s not that simple.

The next morning, she tried to sneak out, but set off his security system. He didn’t offer her breakfast because he was starting his annual 3 day detox cleanse. She couldn’t remember his name or anything about him, while he had every detail about her memorized. Grey tries to get some conversation going, but Dex cuts him off because all she wanted from him was what she got last night, and now she’s ready to leave. Once she’s gone, Grey muses that he dodged a bullet, and makes a green smoothie for his cleanse.

In the present day, at the bar, Grey makes an identical smoothie for this year’s cleanse and gives half of it to Dex. Dex is complaining loudly that a drink this healthy goes against everything she believes in. After they choke down the first swallow, Grey asks if she’s called the lead Miles gave her in episode 1.

It was a guy who wanted Dex to find out if his wife was cheating. Dex told him that if he was suspicious, the odds were that she was. Grey asks why she didn’t wait to tell him that until after she’d done some work for him and gotten paid. Dex didn’t want to take advantage of the guy, but Grey reminds her that she’s broke.

Ansel joins them and tells Dex that he lost his phone again. Dex bought him a belt clip, but Grey and Ansel agree that it’s too uncool to wear. Grey passes Dex a drink and tells her to take it to a potential PI client who’s sitting in a booth.

The man, Alan, tells Dex that he met a woman in a bar several days ago and talked with her for hours. He thought they had a real connection, but when he tried the phone number she gave him, it didn’t work. He wants Dex to find the woman and he’ll pay $1,000. Dex is skeptical, but she’ll search as long as she gets paid either way. Alan has felt this once before, with his late wife. If what he felt with Katrina is real, he doesn’t want to miss out on what they could have together.

After Alan leaves, Dex looks over at Grey and remembers more about the beginning of their friendship. She went back to Grey’s apartment within moments of leaving, because she’d forgotten that she didn’t have a car anymore. She was supposed to go car shopping that morning, so Grey drove her to the car lot, looked over the car and complained about her decision to buy the car. It’s the car she’s still driving with the magical mix tape stuck in the stereo. He complains because he’ll have to fix the car, because he’s a car guy, but you know he wants to help her.

In the present day, the car runs but is finicky, which makes it personalized to Dex. She visits a high end restaurant bar to question the bartender about Katrina. The bartender called a cab for the other woman, so Dex is able to get her address. At the apartment building, Dex asks a woman to hold the door open for her, but the woman refuses, on the grounds that someone who lived there wouldn’t ask her to.

Dex finds another way into the building. When she reaches Katrina’s apartment, she can hear a man and a woman arguing. She knocks on the door, posing as a neighbor, and tries to find out what’s going on. That leads to her getting into a physical fight with Katrina’s (ex)boyfriend, Doug, who then leaves.

Dex explains why she’s there and, touched, Katrina agrees to come meet with Alan. She really liked him, but gave him the wrong number on purpose because she thought she’d ruin his life. She thinks that Dex finding her and the car playing Love Will Keep us Together are signs that she and Alan are meant to be after all.

Dex is not impressed, obviously. Her sign is another parking ticket. Does this mean that Miles is her Mr Right (or Right Now)?

Alan and Katrina have a happy reunion. Dex tells Grey the story later while he works on her kitchen sink drain. She’s caught up in the idea that they could have met their soulmates that easily. He wants to know if he gets a percentage of her fee for sending her the client. Ansel walks in and asks if Dex downloaded the tracker app for his phone. She goes to find the app and discovers that Alan’s check bounced. Ansel and Grey stay at the house while Dex goes in search of her pay.

While she’s driving to Alan’s house, she finds Ansel’s phone in the car. She discovers that Alan must be wealthy, judging from his house. But there are signs of foul play, since the door is ajar and there’s broken glass. Alan isn’t there, but his dog Millie is. Just as Dex says “Hi” to Millie, someone hits her in the head and knocks her unconscious.

After the commercial break, Dex is recovering at the police station with Miles and Cosgrove, who are being as ridiculous as usual. They are blaming her for breaking and entering into Alan’s house, even though the door was open and she called the police. Cosgrove also mentions that Dex is acting as a PI without a license. Alan is apparently heir to the Brantley Vinyards fortune. Dex suggests they check out Katrina’s ex, but they have other ideas, including holding Dex on the breaking and entering charge for as long as they’re allowed to, simply to harrass her. Then Miles accuses her of asking for special treatment because they’ve slept together.

Seems like it’s going the other way around to me. He actually lectures her about it until a hottie who’s dressed to show off her chest (nothing like the tight horizontal stripes to make things look even bigger) gets led in and straight out says that she name checked Miles in order to have him take care of a speeding ticket. He takes the ticket and promises to make it go away, no questions asked, no admonitions about driving more carefully.

This is not okay. He’s should be better than this as a cop and a person. He shouldn’t be stringing Dex along when he cares about someone else. I am not in the mood to view corrupt cops as good guys right now. Cosgrove and Miles’ actions toward Dex are already borderline illegal, since they’re clearly just holding her to keep her out of the way, and they don’t intend to charge her.

Dex sees the exchange and understands the implications, especially since Miles and the woman hold hands, then embrace. She’s been put in her place as the hook up who can take care of herself, while this woman is the damsel in distress who needs him.

Dex remembers more of her first morning with Grey. They went out to breakfast, where he told her he’d just gotten out of a 4 year relationship and wasn’t looking for anything serious. Before that, he did 18 months in prison for grand theft, a crime he committed with a man named Jack Feeney. Dex says that the only other criminal she’s slept with is a woman named Sammy who is a compulsive shoplifter.

In the present day, Ansel finds that Grey’s ex partner, Jack, has taken advantage of an unlocked door to wander into the bar. He’s getting himself a beer from the tap and tells Ansel he’s looking for his old pal, Greyson McConnell. Then he harasses Ansel, looking for information on the keys to a safe or anywhere that Grey might keep valuables. Ansel refuses to help or take the tip/bribe he offers before he leaves.

Learn to repect boundaries, people. A door that’s ajar, with signs of a fight, and one that’s unlocked are two very different things. Neither is an open invitation to enter, though Dex really was thinking of Alan’s best interest.

The cops have brought in Doug Blix, Katrina’s ex, for questioning, but he knows her as Kaitlin and tells Miles that she stole a substantial amount of money from him. He still loves her though, and would have given her the money if she’d asked for it.

Katrina turns out to have several aliases, a record of charges brought against her that don’t stick and an accomplice named Megan. Dex recognizes Megan as the woman who wouldn’t hold the door open at Katrina’s apartment building. Megan has worked with other partners in several other states and is a suspect in a murder case that’s similar to Alan.

Dex tells Miles that they have to find Alan before Megan and Katrina kill him. Miles responds by telling her that she’s not part of the investigation and should go home.

Grey and Dex feel weird about the case, since Grey sent Alan to her, thinking he was helping both Dex and Alan, and Dex thought Katrina and Alan really did care about each other. Now they’re worried that Alan will be killed. It’s so unlike the result of their own meet cute in a bar.

Grey helps Dex track down the fraud alert on one of the checks that bounced and gain entrance into some of Alan’s accounts. A while later, they get a security alert that someone tried to withdraw $50,000 from one of the accounts. Dex can use it to find the con artists once she calls the police.

Cosgrove lectures Miles on not getting in over his head with Dex. He explains that he’s a jazz fan. There’s the perfectly composed music of John Coltrane and then there’s the raucous, freeform, rebellious music of Charles Mingus. Miles is a Mingus fan. Dex is complicated and always on the edge of spinning out of control, like Mingus, but Miles can handle it, at least for now. They might as well take advantage of her talents, for as long as it works out between him and Dex.

Ansel tells Grey that Jack stopped by. Grey tenses up.

Dex finds Alan and tells him that the check he wrote her bounced. He tries to fire her. She explains what’s really going on. He tells her that Katrina wants out of her life of crime. He withdrew the $50,000 as a pay off so that Megan would leave him and Katrina alone. She tries to talk him into talking to the police before making the drop off, but he refuses. While he’s distracted by their conversation, she plants Ansel’s phone, with the tracker app, in his car.

He starts to repay her the $1,000 he owes her from the $50,000 in cash he’s carrying, then realizes it has to go to Megan. He promises to pay her the $1,000 tomorrow.

If he’s still alive.

Jack comes back to the bar while it’s open and Grey’s bartending. Grey seems happy to see him. It’s been ten years since they’ve seen each other and Jack’s been in prison a few more times.

Jack looked up Grey because even though Kane is locked up for life, he’s calling in his money and he’s sending Frank to collect it. Grey says that isn’t right, since Kane doesn’t need the money in prison, but Jack says it’s the truth. They were each holding $250,000 for Kane. Jack has spent all of his.

Grey invested the half he was holding in the bar, which is successful. He can pay back the money slowly. Jack doesn’t think Kane will go for an installment plan. Jack suggests they burn down the bar for the insurance money or else make a run for it. Grey’s not leaving, but Jack decides to run. He reminds Grey that he was the one who was against settling down one place years. ago.

Dex follows the signal from Ansel’s phone and remembers back to 6 years ago, when she and Grey were getting to know each other. He sits on the couch and plays video games with Ansel while she makes lunch. Then Grey asks her out to dinner that knight.

Dex follows Alan to a local cheap motel and bribes a maid into letting her unti the room. Alan is tied up, with a plastic bag over his head. Katrina’s accomplice Megan jumps Dex as soon as she’s inside the room. A fight ensues, until Dex knocks Megan unconscious with the room phone. Dex races to get the plastic bag off Alan’s head.

Katrina is grateful to Dex and the police for saving her from Megan, but most of all she’s grateful to Alan for believing in her and believing she wanted to leave the con artist lifestyle behind. Miles is skeptical about Katrina’s sincerity and wonders if she’s just using all of them to escape the criminal life.

Cosgrove concedes that Dex did a good job on this case. But she tells her to follow the law and get her PI license if she wants to continue in this line of work. Cosgrove leaves and Miles comes in, asking Dex to explain Alan and Katrina’s love at first sight. Dex says nobody understands a relationship but the people in it, and even they don’t always see eye to eye.

Dex asks Miles about the situation with the woman he fixed the traffic ticket for. She’s the widow of a friend of his who died several years ago. He helps her when he can.

Miles is called out to a crime scene at Fremont Bridge.

Dex watches as Alan, Katrina and Millie are reunited. Alan pays Dex and tells her that he hopes she finds love, too.

In a flashback to 6 years ago, Grey drives Dex home because she called him after getting drunk, even though she stood him up for their dinner date. He correctly assumes the possibility of romance triggered her binge. She tells him about Benny, her true love. Dex has extreme survivor’s guilt. She thinks that if she crosses the line from friendship or hook up to love with a partner, then they’ll die because of her. Grey suggests that they just stay friends and don’t cross the line again. Dex agrees, saying they dodge a bullet.

In the present day, they share a beer to celebrate their 6 years of friendship. They’ve continued to dodge the bullet and have never crossed the line between friends and lovers. But they give each other a lingering look to let us know that they both still think about crossing the line.

Jack Feeney’s body washed up with the tide at Fremont Bridge. Things don’t look good for Grey.

Commentary

Now we have to meet Sammy, compulsive shoplifter and Dex’s former lover.

Yikes, Grey has got some big issues to work out with the mob. Or maybe the mob owns his bar now. I’m glad it wasn’t just Dex’s issues keeping the two of them apart, but he needs to come clean with her.

I don’t think we know what happened to Dex’s parents, do we? It seems extreme for her to decide that everything she touches gets killed, based on one boyfriend dying in a warzone. It’s also a giant cliche. It would make more sense for her to feel that way if she can twist her parents’ death into being her fault, too. It might even provide a larger mystery for her to solve.

youtube

Images courtesy of ABC.

Stumptown Season 1 Episode 2: Missed Connections Recap-Explores how Grey and Dex became best friends instead of romantic partners and looks at Grey's criminal past, which is catching up to him. #Stumptown Episode 2 of Stumptown, Missed Connections, explores how Grey and Dex became best friends instead of romantic partners.

#Cobie Smulders #crime drama #Jake Johnson #Jay Duplass #metacrone #Missed Connections #Psychological Thriller #Stumptown #Zosia Mamet

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droewyn · 7 years

Text

Question Game!

I was tagged by @phlintandsteel!

rules:

1. answer the questions given by the person who tagged you

2. write 10 questions of your own and tag 10 people

1. Have you ever truly hated another human being?

Yes. My stepmom’s son. She raised him as a single mom, and while she didn’t have much of anything, she gave it all to him. He wanted to go to broadcasting school to be a radio DJ. She was terrified that he’d fail, but supported him anyway, and when he didn’t fail, she was his biggest fan. Then he met and married Old Southern Money, and became ashamed of his roots. He cut off all contact with her -- told her via fucking certified mail that she didn’t “do enough” for him and he wanted nothing more to do with her. Periodically he calls just to fuck with her brain, saying that he wants to talk, only to go off on her and belittle her. When his first kid was born, he invited her and my dad to the baptism, and when they flew down to New Orleans on their own dime he bitched her out and told her he didn’t want her there. Like he'd never intended for her to attend, he just wanted to humiliate her in person. We had her on suicide watch for weeks after that little trick. I've actually wondered if driving her to suicide is his goal. He is staggeringly cruel, an absolute waste of humanity, and the world would be so much better off without him in it. At least then my stepmom could have some goddamn closure and stop getting tortured every six months. I hope his wife has a billion affairs, gives him crotch rot, and leaves him for the mailman. I hope his kids grow up to break his heart. I’d also really like to kick his balls into his throat. Repeatedly.

... sorry. You asked. :/

2. How do YOU pronounce caramel?

CARE-uh-mel.

3. What was your first fandom?

Um. Okay, so, like. I'm old. Tumblr OldTM, but still. So I'm kind of not sure how to answer this question.

The first thing I went absolutely nuts over was My Little Pony. I was four, and there were these pastel unicorns and I. Had. To have. Them all.

The first thing I made up stories in my head about was Rainbow Brite.

The first thing I had headcanon for was She-Ra, Princess of Power. When the DVDs came out and I rewatched the series as an adult, I was genuinely shocked that the episode where Adora had to earn everyone's trust because hello, there's usually a step between "I've decided to quit being the enemy's greatest general" and "I accept the position of leadership in your rebellion", didn't actually exist. I still "remember" it vividly, and I'm not entirely convinced that there wasn't some history rewriting or parallel universe involved.

The first fanfiction I wrote was for Final Fantasy I. I wrote a Save Our Princess! flyer for some spelling test or something in sixth grade.

My first actual online fandom was Sailor Moon. I had a 2400 baud modem, and the tiny, distorted, 300x400 video of the Japanese opening credits took two days to download. Fanfiction.net didn't exist yet, never mind AO3. We had WEBRINGS. It was barbaric.

4. Guys in high heels, yes or no?

Doesn't do anything for me, but then I'm demi, and my boy has never been into that. You do you and don't worry about what I think.

5. Did you go to college, and if so, was it worth it?

I dropped out as a sophomore, so no. It was not worth it. I'm making decent money as an entirely self-taught Salesforce admin.

6. What is your favorite type of AU?

Something that gives me an entirely new experience while staying true to the characters. I've loved me some A/B/O, and I've also been utterly revolted by A/B/O. Ditto for soulmates, fake relationships, pretty much all of it. It's all the writer and their storytelling for me, not a specific setting.

...

OKAY FINE GIVE ME ALL THE LEVERAGE YOI AU IN THE WORLD AND I WILL BE SO HAPPY THERE I SAID IT

7. Would you hide your orientation/stay in the closet to get ahead in your career (I guess I’m assuming since this is tumblr that we’re all queer here)?

I joined the workforce in the late 1990's. Of course I have been in the closet at various workplaces, though much of it was less being concerned about possible advancement or lack thereof and more not wanting to deal with being the freak in the triad relationship. These days I'm open about being queer with my coworkers, though I have not laid out any actual details to anyone. Except for the one adorable little baby gay who worried that I might find some people's behavior shocking if I went to Detroit Pride this year. Then I was all oh sweetie you think I'm vanilla that's so cute let me tell you exactly how wrong you are.

8. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?

So I take about a quarter cup of olive oil, right? The regular stuff, not EVOO; EVOO can't take being heated without losing flavor so there's no point in spending the extra money for the sake of being fancy. I grind up some salt and pepper with a mortar and pestle until it's super fine and add it to the oil, stirring so the particles are evenly suspended throughout. Then I crush about 4-6 cloves of garlic and add them. Yes, cloves. More than that if they're small. Next, I turn the stove on to the popcorn sweet spot (just past the 7 line on my range) and add a single kernel of corn. When that pops, it’s time to add the rest of the popcorn, about a half cup. It has to be kept moving! I use one of those hand-cranked popcorn kettles that lets me continually stir; if I don't have that it's shaking the (lidded) pot like a savage and trying not to get burned by escaping steam. When the popcorn is done, it gets dumped in a very large bowl and sprinkled immediately with powdered parmesan cheese so that the remaining oil will allow the cheese to stick to the popcorn. Sometimes I add some fresh chives if I'm feeling precious.

That is my favorite popcorn, and it is the fucking bomb.

9. What character do you think deserved a better redemption arc (or to get one when they didn’t)?

Actually, I'm going to go back to my She-Ra headcanon from above. I know it was a child's cartoon from the 1980's. But even when I was a child I understood that some transgressions are just too big for "Whoops, sorry I was like brainwashed and stuff" to cut it. She needed trials, tribulations. She needed to earn her place. Earn the right for redemption. I'd love to see a take on the series that digs into that. (That and the Hordak/Adora relationship. Why the fuck did he raise her to be innocent when keeping her that way was so much trouble? Was she a trophy? Was she the one good thing in his life? If so, why did he make her fight for him? Did he ever care for her at all? These questions should keep her up at night. She should be torn between hatred and love for the father figure she thought she'd had. IT WOULD BE SO DELICIOUS)

10. What element would you choose if you could bend/control ONE.

Carbon. I'd basically have control over everything organic and RULE THE WORLD MUA HA HA HA HA

I’m tagging the following people (entirely voluntary, of course):

@mercury01, @minttytea, @doesitlooklikeineedanotherfandom, @silvercrystal1, @basedpandesal, @cinnamonviking, @spideypool-snarryalways, @planeoftheeclectic, @ihaveacrappyusername, and all of the porn bots.

My questions:

1. What would your ideal T-shirt slogan read?

2. What is your comfort food, activity, and/or piece of clothing, and why?

3. Which fandom are you the most proud to be part of? Which fandom are you ashamed of? They can be the same fandom.

4. Name one thing about yourself that you like. This must be genuine. NO SIDESTEPPING, SELF-NEGGING, OR BACKHANDED SHIT. IF I CAN DO IT YOU CAN.

5. Do you have any traditions in your family that you’ve inherited and are happy to carry forward? Are there any traditions that you’d like to start yourself?

6. What are your pet(s) name(s)? If you don’t have a pet, what would you name your fantasy pet?

7. What of yours would you like archaeologists (alien or future humans; your choice) to dig up one day? Why?

8. You’ve done all of those “What’s your porn/writer/Star Wars/etc name” memes. We all have. What’s your favorite one?

9. What song summarizes you?

10. What’s your superpower? Will you be a hero or a villain?

BONUS QUESTION BECAUSE MY HUSBAND WANTS TO CONTRIBUTE BUT IS A SMARTASS:

11. If Richard the Lionheart had actually taken his shit seriously, do you think he could have spanked Saladin, or did existing socioeconomic and political conditions doom his Crusade to failure?

#question game #phlintandsteel #tumblr game #original content #i kind of want to answer my own questions now #personal stuff #question 1 basically sums up why i'm a slytherin btw #i try to be kind #but nice is situational #and DO NOT FUCK WITH MY TRIBE

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lilietsblog · 8 years

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Strike Witches episode 1: first impression

so im gonna try strike witches: the unknown anime i chose to not familiarize myself with the premise beyond 'something like fighter pilots i think?' that i picked up by osmosis

oh hey look a discarded doll. def war is hell vibes here

cant say im a fan of the visuals from the first several seconds, the color scheme and everything seems kinda bland? the only reason im making this observation is bc i had to pause to let it load tho

oh look Very Noticable CGI

(i have a headache and am vaguely nauseous and basically am Very Cranky as a result)

man, there aren't even characters yet. it's been almost two minuets and there still aren't people for me to relate too that's a crime by which i dont mean that literally but just 'this might not be the thing i want to watch right now'

oh hey monsters okay this is better than just straight up war is hell between humans omfg in 1939 subtle 'we wanna play with ww2 era toys but without bringing up the fact japan was on the side of nazi germany' i assume sure im onboard if thats the premise

magitech??? magitech!!!

that's. their legs. in those things. are they evoking Baba Yaga and her travels in a stupa bc thats okay panty shots i think imma quit at the end of this episode

oh i. just realized this is the movie that actually makes it a bit better and gives me more hope lets try the actual first episode first

ok the first shot is of the sky and not a discarded doll that's already better

holy shit whatever this video player is it allows to load external captions from pc or url. technology progresses at an incredible pace

i love that the fighter planes are clearly shown attacking the vortex first 9u9

opening has so many girls wearing shoes but no pants. im just. this entire device's entire point is clearly to fanservice that does not mean this is bad character-wise yet ofc. i watched and liked fucking rosario+vampire. this show has a chance yet. lets see what its got

the op song is nice its also very straightforward about aesthetic of this show being 'girls without pants in absolutely non-sexual situaitons' and i can respect that

and oh look it actually does start with characters interacting right after exposition that's what im talking about

okay so now might be a good time to mention that the first context i heard of strike witches was uh. misogynist porn. like the kind that doesnt go for 'look at these relatable characters being kinky' but for 'consider: what if powerful girls got hurt instead'. so thats the context in my brain and i want to fucking overwrite it

military uniforms+panties are definitely an aesthetic and im incredibly amused by it okay every single girl here doesnt wear pants sure that actually looks like a swimsuit rather than panties and thats nice

also they are characterizing the protagonist! like i know thats not much to ask for but im going into this straight off blogging about madoka and this is just such a relief! she is kind and brave and plucky and talks gently to a scared kitten and I love her also she Does Not Think Things Through shes like the typical shonen protagonist but a girl. im in

Yoshika her name is Yoshika

and her motivation is her dad but eh sure whatever I kind of like the touch of 'it was classified military information' not sure why

theres nothing about Yoshika that qualifies her other than her personality and magic powers huh

yep thats a swimsuit aww shes a healer!

I love that the military observers rush to help as soon as they see something is off theres work and then theres helping emergencies

oh!!!! her mom and grandma are around!!! and teaching her!!! im happy!!!

Yoshika why is all that a 'but' to 'you should learn to control your power' i dont think there was any subtext of 'you shouldnt even try' there? or was it? maybe i should just trust her for now

awww Yoshika actually doesn't want to go to war <3 but this woman thinks she will because she wants to help people and she'll help people the most there I I like this ;~; I'm so happy I like this I love Yoshika's 'fuck war' instinct I love her drive to help everyone and in fact the trope of magical healer almost killing themselves to help a patient (despite it being professionally inadvisable) is actually the thing i made my very first rp character sooo :> you know. stuff something is fishy about that letter. its no coincidence it was sent just now... I love Sakamoto and her A+ social skills HA HA HA HA HA also huh... she's not in on whatever's up with that letter

Yoshika so uh alright she'll take her without enlisting her huh interesting but uh what about school I guess military and witches can override all that and it kind of makes sense to me thematically

'Britannia' gee how familiar that name sounds and i dont mean geographically

so hm could Yoshika be a military doctor without actually enlisting? how do the formalities work there i like that Sakamoto doesnt question her dislike of all things military like its unexpected but mostly bc Sakamoto's got a one track mind that has a hard time expecting anything other than what she wants to happen and beyond that its like 'sure ok a conscientous objector got it' even though its weird how there would be conscientous objectors to fighting MONSTERS its not like theres an alternative to not fight I mean also clearly Yoshika is a kid and theres room left for that in other characters' treatment of her opinions and I love that they dont get Offended that she doesn't understand and Have Proper Respect well Sakamoto doesn't at least not sure about how other people will react

man that raccoon on the road sure was convenient though. like i first thought it was Sakamoto's deliberate tactic to gauge Yoshiko's powers. she was opening her eye to i guess do just that visually and then the raccoon appeared and it just felt very natural that one follows from the other? is this foreshadowing or are the writers of this anime just unfamiliar with the concept of 'subtle' i dont mind if its the latter tbh

(im writing a ton of reflection bc the episode broke after i tried to rewind a little and i decided to download it after all, and its doing that)

so far, this show seeems nicely straightforward and fast paced. like, really straightforward. yoshiko's introduction? saving a kitten. making a ww2 era anime without difficult shit? monsters attacked in 1939. motivations and revelations are handled with all the subtlety of a hammer to the face, from the raccoon to the letter. even fanservice has the same charming quality that makes me actually be okay with the entire point of their outfits being gratuitous panty shots. making sense and having pretense is for the weak. this anime knows what it wants to be and is going straight for that. i respect that approach

also its p clear that what it wants is to be character driven and its been Delivering on that since its only half episode one and i already Love two characters personally and also some supporting cast (Yoshiko's entire family)

and like you know that in some other show GASP MIGHT MY DAD BE STILL ALIVE would be a reveal saved for like. the halfway point. but here its literally the starting point spurring everything into action bc all other motivation was just too slow to get the character where she was supposed to go. good job yo

there's this trope where the main character doesn't want to go into the main conflict (Refusal of the Call)... and very often it's handled by either 1) letting them wallow until everything goes to shit showing how wrong they were or 2) immediately conveniently wrecking everything so they have no choice now I uh. am really glad this show went a different way if just joining the conflict isnt a good enough motivation GET A BETTER ONE and IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE ANGST (and it doesn't have to be romance, either!!! why are those two the only things writers seem to be able to think of jfc)

...okay I was more like two thirds through the episode rather than half but my points stand

okay so I think what just happened was Yoshiko realized the parallel between herself and her dad leaving and got scared and her response was to comfort other people and I love that <3

I love that Sakamoto doesn't have a doubt in her mind that Yoshiko isn't going to be useless and will definitely help and also comes to her to discuss this explicitly <3

man I love Sakamoto and her absolute lack of social graces and sense of when enough is enough

and the fact that Yoshiko is working chores now and seems to enjoy it too <3

and it's when it's established that she's part of the team that Sakamoto starts showing off <3 she clearly has a dedicated well thought out campaign of convincing Yoshiko going on and its borne out not of manipulation but of clear conviction that she is right and she just has to show the girl what she doesnt know yet <3

ahaha of course showing off worked <3

so I paused and imma make a bet with myself on whether Sakamoto is going to tell her 'if you liked that you can join' right now or leave that unsaid subtly my bet is that she is, bc subtlety is an entirely foreign concept to this wonderful human being, and if i lose im going to make my bed right now not even waiting for the end of the episode let's see

oh she starts with education huh, this is not widely known? i had no idea anyway lets see if she says the thing

I love that it's her dad and it's this kind thing of 'this is what he said he was going to do, and he did' <3

huh so that was slightly more subtlety than I expected, she offered her to try them rather than trying to recruit her directly so I lost the bet gotta go make the bed now

BAM DONE YAY GOOD SELF CARE

hey more main characters!!!! I love all of you already!!! you have personality and discuss things that make sense!!! including their outfits!!! I love them!!!! the parasol girl is my favorite but also the tiny girl and the red-haired girl they are all my favorites!!!

omfg a month of travel and half a day early Yoshiko gets impatient I love her

YOU ARE A NONCOMBATANT she said with the steely confidence of a commanding officer <3

I love so much that Sakamoto respects Yoshiko's boundaries re: fighting???

OMG THE ENDING SONG I LOVE IT

I love the upbeat and airy tone this show manages to have despite the premise??? like I had trepidations at the start bc I dislike doom&gloom-heaviness of 'war is hell' narratives and I'm not a WW2 affictionado. but instead of shiny boom boom toys and angst it's all character adorableness and so much sky??? even the lack of pants ends up feeling like freedom this is the anime we all deserve

#strike witches #anime #liliet watches strike witches

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nerdsonearthblog · 6 years

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Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is the newest adventure for D&D 5e. The back cover describes it as “a mad romp through the wards of Waterdeep” that will take players from from 1st through 5th level. I’ll provide a full chapter-by-chapter review below, but first, please indulge me as I take you on a quick romp around the block.

Anyone who has undertook a huge new endeavor knows it takes a couple of years to really hit your stride. My personal belief is that Chris Perkins is the greatest living D&D storyteller (respects to the King of the Nerds, Gary Gygax). Perkins, of course, was in no way solely responsible for the launch of D&D 5e (his colleagues include the talented Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford). Still, Perkins understandably had a lot on his plate story-wise when D&D 5e was first launched just a few years ago.

This resulted in the first few D&D 5e adventures being very good, yet sometimes just shy of great. To be clear, I enjoyed Hoard of the Dragon Queen just fine and I thought Princes of the Apocalypse and Out of the Abyss had many, many moments of greatness.

But years into the release of D&D 5e, I read Tomb of Annihilation and it was that specific adventure where I had the thought that Chris Perkins was fully at the top of his game, having solidified himself as the GOAT-not-named-Gygax.

Now, having just turned the final page of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, I felt like I read a Chris Perkins story so clever and brilliantly done that he has reached the point of confidence in his career that he could set the stage for adventure, then step back and invite a new generation of storytellers to their mark on the story.

But…what do I know? Maybe I have read the situation entirely wrong. But even a gross mis-understanding of the internal processes of WotC doesn’t change this simple truth: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is an astonishingly excellent D&D adventure. There are several sections of the book that don’t feel like they were written as much as they feel like the design team collected everything fun and enjoyable together in order to stuff them into a confetti cannon that was fired over the pages of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and allowed to fall onto the pages like a glitter bomb of joy.

So, let’s take a deeper look, shall we?

Reviewing Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

In order to properly review Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, an overview is first in order. In the splendid city of Waterdeep, a gold coin is called a “dragon” and a half million of those dragons are hidden somewhere in the city. A magical item called the Stone of Golorr is imbued with the location of the treasure vault but the Stone of Golorr is comically being passed around a huge cast of NPCs like a hot potato.

Players are on the hunt, but their madcap chase is complicated by the fact that there are warring, jostling factions in Waterdeep. These factions might try to recruit the PCs just as quickly as they try to kill them, the end result being that their are four different villains the players can confront:

Xanathar, the megalomaniacal beholder crime lord who is based in Skullport, deep below Waterdeep,

The Cassalanters, Waterdavian nobles who are secretly devil worshippers that reside in an ostentatious villa with a secret lair beneath it,

Jarlaxle Baenre, a dashing drow swashbuckler best know for being a character in the Drizzt novels, and

Manshoon, a powerful Zhentarim wizard who has cloned himself like the glam Mr. Sinister.

Are you having fun yet? Because I had fun just reading the introductory chapter, which perfectly set the stage for adventure. But if it sounds like a huge cast of NPCs and different possibilities for villains might make Waterdeep: Dragon Heist difficult as an adventure for first time players or DMs, you’d be correct.

Perkins and his team clearly understand this, so included in the book are coherent overviews and well-done flowcharts to help track the adventure. Still, this isn’t a D&D adventure that I can recommend you use to get your feet wet. (The Starter Box adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver is best for beginners.) Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is best for players who like intrigue, bluffing, subterfuge, and other roleplaying heavy skills.

It begins with a bar brawl and a quest from none other than the famous Volothamp Geddarm (chapter 1). Even Volo’s introductory quest has twists and turns, ultimately resulting in a case of mistaken identity. But it introduces lots of NPCs and allows players to get a feel for the city setting of Waterdeep.

Plus, the quest concludes in the most wonderful way possible, which is Volo giving the PCs a deed to an old tavern in Waterdeep! (chapter 2) In addition to giving the players a “home base,” this always allows players to feel at home in the setting, while also introducing quests that deepen the major factions of Waterdeep.

Even though the quests are effectively simple “dungeon delves,” Chapter 2 is wonderfully and thoughtfully done. Besides, even though many have begun to use phrases like “it’s just a dungeon delve” as a pejorative, that completely overlooks that delves and crawls are the meat and potatoes of D&D.

Chapter 3 is where Waterdeep: Dragon Heist stumbled for me. A fireball is detonated just outside the players’ new HQ, rattling the windows. This leads to an elaborate ‘who done it?’ that has the PCs working parallel to Waterdeep’s City Watch to determine the who and why of the fireball attack, before finally determining the where of the Stone of Golorr.

To be clear, it’s a well-written and exciting plot that reads like a episode of True Detective. But it involves a slew of NPCs and an amount of skill checks that could frustrate even the most patient DMs or the most intrigue-loving players.

One of the chapter 3 headings was “What’s Happening Here?” At times, I couldn’t tell. My recommendation would be to allow the City Watch to solve that mystery and feed the information to the players so they can jump right into Chapter 4: Dragon Season.

I won’t beat around the bush: the 40 pages of chapter 4 are among to absolute best that I’ve ever read in any roleplaying game book, ever. What they outline (again, with the help of a handy flowchart) are ten different encounters that range from a classic old tower to a mausoleum to a wharf or a chase across rooftops.

Depending upon which of the four villains is chosen, the ten encounters are shuffed into a unique sequence. Then each encounter is re-jiggered according to the season, giving fresh elements to each of the 10 encounters for the spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively. At the end of each encounter chain, players should now have the Stone of Golorr, attuning them to the location of the horde of dragons. It’s dope.

Huzzah! After one final tussle with the villains, the players exit the vault and return the treasure to the proper authorities, becoming celebrities as word of their deeds spread throughout Waterdeep!

The four villains (Xanathar, The Cassalanters, Jarlaxle, and Manshoon) are too powerful for the player characters to face directly, so Waterdeep: Dragon Heist does a bang up job of allowing them to face off indirectly, hindering their criminal operations without an obvious TPK. Overall, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is light, fast, and filled with quirky characters.

But chapters 5-8 do excellently detail each villain’s lair should the player characters have delusions of grandeur. Otherwise, the now 5th level characters are invited back to the Yawning Portal in order explore Undermountain, the next book coming from Chris Perkins and the D&D team.

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Apologies for brushing past chapters 5-8, as the lairs are well done, but it’s chapter 9 that takes Waterdeep: Dragon Heist from a simple adventure book to something much more. The D&D team have cleverly attempted to have each adventure book double as a fine setting book for homebrewers. This is certainly true with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion (chapter 9) beautifully paints a picture of life in Waterdeep. DMs will want to read it for the adventures of Dragon Heist of course, but home brewers will dig it, as it is a nice aid for further adventures in Waterdeep, or even a generic urban-based story that is thunk up. It’s not a full gazetteer, but the chapter has enough hooks to hang up all the mittens and coats from a long Minnesota winter, making it a nice value add for future adventures in the splendid city of Waterdeep.

Closing the book are the typical appendices that detail NPCs, new magic items, and player handouts. But I want to close by talking about maps. First, tucked into the back cover is a large removable map of Waterdeep. It has one side for players, while the other side is for GMs and includes marked locales. It’s fantastic. I don’t know what the economics are of getting a map like this tucked into every D&D book, but I hereby start a petition that it should 100% be the law of the land.

The interior Dyson Logos maps in the book aren’t to my taste. I fully admit the sparse black and white maps are very usable. (Quick to draw or easy to snap a picture, then print out) But I would have preferred them as free digital downloads, allowing the actual interior maps to have the added color and details. As Banky taught us in Chasing Amy, inkers and colorists aren’t simply tracers, they really add depth and definition to a drawing. I would have liked to see that depth and color in the book’s included maps. But, again, that’s just a personal preference.

What I love about Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is that it isn’t a hyped-up world-destroying cataclysmic event designed to have PCs face down villains to prevent total doom and destruction. Instead, it’s like Cannonball Run or the Amazing Race if all the contestants were, you know, wizards.

I close this review as I began it. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is an astonishingly excellent D&D adventure. Kudos to Chris Perkins, the entire D&D team, and for the new designers to D&D, who certainly added freshness and creativity to the book.

It’s a great time to be a D&D player, a god reason being that we all get to enjoy a wonderful city-based adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. So I highly recommend Waterdeep: Dragon Heist as your next D&D campaign. And if you aren’t considering running it? Well, Nerds on Earth’s jack-booted thugs will soon arriving at your doorstep to push a 20-sided die into your palm. Resistance is futile: Xanathar sent us.

You can get Dragon Heist here. Better yet, ask for it at your FLGS.

[Disclosure: Wizards of the Coast sent Nerds on Earth a copy of Dragon Heist in exchange for an honest review.]

The Newest D&D Adventure: A Review of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is the newest adventure for D&D 5e. The back cover describes it as "a mad romp through the wards of Waterdeep" that will take players from from 1st through 5th level.

#Chris Perkins #D&D #Dragon Heist #Waterdeep

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almaasi · 6 years

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reaction post typed while watching SPN 14x13 “Lebanon” (300th episode)

in which i compare this episode to pumpkin soup, because I’m craving more Cas

03:30pm

all righty, thing is still downloading, and there’s a 720p version queued up so that’ll be downloaded by the time i’ve watched half. i have snacks, i’m gonna half close my blinds so i can see, but I DON’T HAVE HEADPHONES AGAIN which is the worst. why do headphones break so easily, that’s what i want to know. (just gotta pray there’s a good sound quality i guess. my laptop speakers suck)

...2 minutes left on the download c’moooooon

03:35

OKAY DONE!!!!