#~M: a glimpse between worlds (meta)

[thevalicemultiverse]

Okay... I found this memes... But they're so silly and funny I just have to show these. This memes were made by @the-victor-brothers, so shout out to her!

[There are more but unfortunately I can only do 10 at a time. I'll send the rest of them once you've respond to this.]

Cuddlepile

Alice: [snorts] These are some very good memes, yes. @the-victor-brothers did an excellent job. Though I do believe you uploaded the "ruined dinner" one three times...

Victor: [laughing softly] On the other hand, telling the town crier that I ruined dinner with an argument is definitely something my mother would do three times in a row. I didn't realize I had so many, uh, interesting facial expressions, though...

Smiler: You do, and it's great. You are very meme-worthy and we love you for it.

[theoriginalsuki]

Because if you like what I write, we probably have the same taste!

There’s a glut of well-written, well-crafted post-TROS Star Wars fanfiction out there, from fix-it to AU’s – not that I’m complaining! – but I’m-a just throw out some of the ones that have hit my sweet spot.  Please reblog!  It keeps the fic life cycle going.

Complete

The Ocean: A TFA Divergence by Journeying_Jane

I’m a die-hard TFA Kylo Ren fangirl (it’s my favourite of the trilogy, I know), and this divergence tugs the threads unravelled in the interrogation scene to a very satisfying conclusion, re: Rey and Kylo see their shared future a lot sooner, before the elevator scene in TLJ, and start to understand what they mean to one another.  Soooooo good.  (Rated G)

Air and Water by Flaignhan

The tender and thorough examination of Ben and Rey’s relationship, what it is, how it completes her, and their wholesome being-together that we ache for across three films.  Better than cozying up with a hot cup of cocoa on a rainy day.  (Rated G)

What She’s Worth by g_girl143

If Rey had been taken in by the Jedi Academy as a child and basically raised by Ben Solo.  Hear me out.  This love story is innocent and organic and is so well navigated that by the end you’re just like, yeah, of course, there was no other way that could have happened.  The *potential* is what it gives us.  I need to read it again, slowly and to savour, and happily await the sequel!  (Rated T)

Dead Space by Solia

Kylo Ren sacrifices himself to save Rey when they are stranded in a malfunctioning ship.  If you’re like me, and you like angsty grand gestures of love more than sexy times, this one is gourmet Reylo.  I’m so into the not-looking-directly at their feelings and extending that sweet pain for as looooong as possible.  Because, one brain cell!  (Rated G)

Paradise by englishable

Post-TROS, the only epilogue I will accept (except for Cleave, also by englishable).  Ben is brought to trial; Rey stands by him throughout; they figure out how to go on together.  It’s so wholesome and satisfying.  Let the healing begin!  (Rated M)

Near Kinsman by englishable

In post-Civil War America, Rey answers a bachelor ad and the most classically romantic love story since the Brownings unfolds.  (Rated T)

Delicious Ambiguity by Juulna

Some people like smut.  I like dangerous male-types harnessing their aggression toward protecting women and their unborn children.  That’s hot.  Some good TFA Kylo Ren being inexplicably soft with Rey and her Force-conceived twins.  Both of them have issues.  Both of them really, really love those babies.  It earns the happily ever after, which you know I appreciate so much in a fic.  (Rated M)

until you return to me by lovefrompluto

Rey accesses the WBW and looks in on every incarnation of Ben, all the lives they live together.  Such a cool meta on fanfics with a satisfying ending, giving Rey the agency she was denied in TROS.  (Rated M)

Killing Me Softly by AlbaStarGazer

I’m not a big AU person but the premise of this is so good and works really well with the characters as we know them in canon.  I also really appreciate a fic that isn’t afraid to look at the work of love.  

Ben and Rey, childhood sweethearts, married, are put to the test for three years after Ben gets in a terrible accident and forgets Rey.  She’s won’t give up on him, but she’s too hung up on the past.  He’s in love with her but afraid that all she sees is a memory, and not the person he is now.  Some really good character study and hurt/comfort with a happy ending.

WIP’s

The Argent Coda by BetweenTownleys

A deeply involved and well thought-out fix-it that makes me soft.  It’s not happily ever after (yet) and I am 100 percent okay with that.  The Force bond intimacy between Ben and Rey hurts soooooo good!  (Not Rated)

Conversations by acowlorsomething (suchlostcreatures)

Takes place after TLJ and moves effortlessly into the kind of interaction we want to see between Maybe-Ben and Rey.  Okay, what *I* want.  Nothing too easy, nothing too sexy, more of the same of the tender conflict we got from The Last Jedi, playing out in a believable way.  (Not Rated)

Bride of Fortune by SharKohen

Cute arranged marriage AU.  Rey is supposed to be a lucky bride.  So Leia Organa-Solo brings her into the household as her son’s wife.  They’re only young, so will they have time to chose one another before the age of consummation?  (Rated T)

Chains by Veggieheist

Rey is a slave on Jakku.  Kylo Ren picks up on her Force sensitivity and “buys” her.  Cue side comments from everyone that he just wants to sleep with her,  to which he is bewildered and frustrated.  Kylo doesn’t understand why someone so powerful would act so lowly, but when he pushes Rey hard, he finds out there’s more to her than he bargained for.  Or did he see it all along?  (Rated M)

hear my plea (and come save my life) by nouveaulove

Rey finds Ben alive but with amnesia.  I’m so soft for pining and protective Rey having to woo back Ben.  (Rated M)

Halfway, Between The Black and Grey. by PunkForTheMoment

Anakin helps Rey go back in time to the interrogation scene in TFA and she is anything but smooth.  Inspired by that meme.  Very promising!

My Fic

Epilogues by TheOriginalSuki

My initial self-help fic in the wake of The Rise of Skywalker.  Kinda dream-like with a hazy plot that is basically me just making myself feel better.  Maybe you too?  Some mature content, I don’t think it’s smutty, though.  (Rated M)

Rey goes into self-imposed exile on Tatooine.  After refusing to let Ben go, they break the laws of physics to be the family to one another they never had.  Healing can at last begin.

Battlefield by TheOriginalSuki

After The Rise of Sywalker I could see things getting worse before they got better.  If Kylo Ren had buckled down on the darkness after soul-crushing rejection from Rey and the trauma of seeing Luke again, how in the world would he walk back from that?  I’ve got it tagged “dominant Kylo Ren” but I’m not into abusive stuff, so don’t expect that!  I do however love the angst.  (Rated T)

Kylo Ren took the galaxy, and Kylo Ren takes Rey.  There’s nothing left for him to accomplish, Vader’s vision is complete – only he’s still in pain.  And no matter how he manoeuvres around the scavenger girl, it’s not easing up.

what stars are made of by TheOriginalSuki

Me trying to make a place to dump one-shots and dead-end ideas and probably failing.  Every time I pull a thread of “how things could have gone” in this universe, a whole world unravels!  Oops!  The tone of this one is completely different, inspired by the adorkable Ben Solo we got a glimpse of in TROS, and how he and Rey’s relationship plays out afterward.  (Not Rated)

Rey has a minor objection to being abducted.  Good thing Ben didn’t ask her, then!

The Stray by TheOriginalSuki for itsinthestars

Written for the RFFA fic exchange.  A modern AU!  (Rated T)

Rey moves in across the hall from Ben; a former foster kid alone in the city, aspiring to be an actress. Ben is a ladder-climbing white collar businessman with a horrible boss and zero social life. Which is just the way he likes it. So why in the world has this insufferable creature made it her life’s work to adopt him? From sharing her dinner to doing his laundry, she seems determined to make a connection. In the end, it’s easier for Ben to just let her. But opening up means letting your heart be vulnerable.

Hiraeth by TheOriginalSuki

A passion project.  I even have a plan!  Bonus – there’s Tai!  (Rated M)

Rey crosses over the World Between Worlds and finds herself in a time before Kylo Ren.  it’s been twelve years since her Ben dies, and she’s achingly in love.  But he has no idea who she is.

Beatrice by TheOriginalSuki for englishable

Illustrates the principle that good art generates good art.  Rinse.  Repeat.  (Raged G)

A brief character study from Ben Solo’s point of view, encompassing the three films and then a positive resolution.

[idanit]

Yuletide 2019 recs

Yuletide 2020 is upon us, so what better way to get into the spirit than to finally finish that rec post I started compiling months and months ago? For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Yuletide is an annual exchange centred around small fandoms and I love it fiercely. If you have canons you love, but which don’t have much of a fandom, there’s no better way to get some content for them than to participate.

Yuletide 2019 was the first edition I took part in and I read around 60 stories from the collection. These are my favourites, loosely grouped by canons or themes. There’s some experimental stuff, some crack treated seriously, some fluff, some character studies, and lots of excellent writing and cool concepts inside. The fics are mostly very short and most of them are inspired by book canons because I’m me.

Girls from past centuries, now older

A niveous vignette, or a snow story Anne of Green Gables | T (F/F) | 1K Cozy winter fluff you can wrap around yourself like a blanket. Anne and Diana live together and Rachel Lynde makes sure the rest of Avonlea doesn’t whisper a single bad word about it.

A teacher’s work is never done Anne of Green Gables | G (F/F) | 0.3K ...and this is what Anne’s teaching life could be like if she lived with Diana. I loved this little glimpse into how an older queer person might support a stray younger one.

Altogether Too Queenly Anne of Green Gables | T (F/F) | 2K  Katherine Brooke longs for Anne Shirley despite herself. It was a really nice character study and Katherine is sometimes altogether too relatable.

Discipulae A Little Princess | G (F&F) | 6K Sara uses her fortune to learn new things and encourages Becky, who remains faithfully at her side, to also acquire new skills. They make sure that those who might be less fortunate have good lives, as they always did. It was a lovely and a wholly believable extension of the canon.

Secrets You Keep Alice in Wonderland | G | 0.1K And, at last, a little 100-word snack. Alice from Wonderland, grown up. I love the first sentence.

Children

Stretched Too Thin His Dark Materials | G | 1K This was a fic with some of my favourite things from this canon: Lyra’s Oxford years, rulebreaking, rooftopping, shapeshifting, and a focus on the relationship between her and Pan. Very nice.

Free To The People. A Series of Unfortunate Events | G | 1K An excellent Snicket voice. The Baudelaires in a library.

Iconic male duos of classic literature

Ubi sunt gaudia Raffles | G (M/M) | 5K  Raffles and Bunny and Christmas in the countryside, quite atmospheric.

Relics Frankenstein | G (M/M) | 5K Written like the novel is written—serious, heavy, slow and so good. Victor is dead, but Robert can’t move on just yet. The necessary conclusion of this one made something in me want to protest, which just goes to show that the fic made me feel things.

The Vast Unknown Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | G | 3K Aronnax doesn’t leave and things have to change. It reads like Verne, in a very good way, and contains some linguistic tidbits I really enjoyed.

beautiful meanings in ugly things The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde (Comics), The Picture of Dorian Gray | T (M/M) | 5K What delightful writing and characters. The investigation runs parallel to the romance, one complementing the other.

Full House 221B Baker Towers | NR | 9K A casefic made all the more interesting by the setting and the characterizations of John and Sherlock. I wish there was more of this to read.

beneath closed eyelids I do not cease to guard this  A Study in Emerald | T (M/M) | 2K A character study of Watson. I really liked the loving, desperate arms this fic extends towards the canon, once-removed (the Arthur Conan Doyle’s one) at the end.

Ancient times

New Under Heaven Akkadian Empire RPF | G | 0.3K Enheduanna was the first poet we know the name of. This is an intriguing triple drabble, a glimpse into what she might have been like.

Easy to Love Tanakh | G (M/F, M/M) | 1K This one has an extremely unusual narrative voice for a fic—one of an experienced, loud, oral, old-timey storyteller. It’s short, it’s chilling, it has an interesting idea, it reminds me of what fanfic can do as a piece of transformative writing.

Aliens, magic, ghosts and sentient vehicles

Strange Fandom Strange Planet | T | 0.1K A bite-sized explanation of what fics are, Strange Planet-style. 

Ain Humans Are Space Orcs (meme) | G | 1K Blessed be confusion! Two species meet on a planet that has been saved from a supernova blast. A fascinating glimpse into what feels like a rich world.

The Bargain 19th Century CE German Literature RPF | G | 4K There’s music and magic and deals made with folk creatures. I really enjoyed the main character—rational, but still a child with a childlike imagination—and the place art has in this world.

Rotten Heart Behind You (webcomic) | T | 5K  This one has a very fun protagonist for a ghost story and some enjoyable trope subversions. I called it a student gothic, the giftee called it an academic thriller.

12foot4 11Foot8 Bridge (anthropomorphic) | G | 2K An adorable story (very nicely) written for a cracky prompt. Cars and bridges are sentient and surprisingly relatable.

The Author of the Acacia Seeds

An Orchid Keeps Its Secrets G | 1K Art can sometimes transcend species. Orchids write fanfiction. I loved this so much—a worthy fic to a great canon.

Mother Bonesplitter's Children G | 2K This one is just as worthy. It’s a fictional academic paper related to a paradigm-shifting fictional conference about some fascinating ideas and hyenas.

4′33″

Portable 4′33″ G | 0K For starters: the experience of the piece, presented as an app/game for our modern sensibilities.

273 Moments of Silence. G (F/F, F/M) | 2K Sentences full of silence that IMO could work as guided meditation.

John Cage Collaborates with the Archive's Terms of Service G | 0K Socratic dialogue. Is 4'33" music? Is this a fanfic?

The Sound Of A Yuletide Fic Not Being Written. G | 1K And a fun meta thing to finish it off. If you’ve ever struggled with your Yuletide assignment, you will probably relate.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recap: “Cordially Invited”

Only a week late, folks! Can’t say I’m surprised, what with the holidays underway and my normal schedule all topsy-turvy. Still, at least now there’s a little something to fill the RWBY-less hole this Saturday. Always a silver lining.

We begin the episode with our group discussing their upcoming dinner---Oscar included! We’re off to a great start. We learn that Jacques supposedly just wants to “break bread and hash things out,” but anyone with two brain cells to function together know that’s a load of BS. What frustrates me is Ruby’s attempts to spin this as a good thing because they supposedly want Ironwood to start “opening up” to “these people.” Yeah... there’s so much wrong with that. Normally Ruby’s optimism is one of the personality traits I love most about her, but lately that optimism has been twisted into naivety at best, that pro-protagonist perspective at worst. We saw this in Volume Six where the optimistic “We’ll find some way into Atlas!” became an attack on Argus. Now, Ruby’s “Maybe this won’t be so bad!” is functionally an attack on Ironwood. The responsibility lies with him to achieve that good outcome: he needs to open up to the horrendously corrupt abuser that Weiss at least suspects might be involved with Salem. Note that Ruby doesn’t extend those same expectations to herself and her team. She doesn’t claim that they all should “open up” to Jacques in the name of crafting better relations. No, she immediately jumps to having Weiss spy on him in order to get ahead in the game. For the record, I don’t give a damn if the group commits “bad” actions against Jacques (more on that below) because again, Jacques is an evil, corrupt abuser. Rather, it’s just that continuing issue of hypocrisy. Ruby expects Ironwood to “open up” to him and make peace over dinner, but only expects herself and her friends to give him what’s for. Insert [Ozpin and Ironwood must never keep secrets or tell lies, but we’re allowed to] here. Same song, different tune. 

Oscar at least points out how idiotic that perspective is from a practical perspective. He doesn’t call Ruby out on the expectation that Ironwood make nice with the man they want to keep Weiss five billion feet away from, but he does acknowledge that such expectations can’t be fulfilled at this time in this place. Jacques has tailored this dinner to benefit him and him alone. He will control the conversation, so good luck getting around that.

Weiss: “I think my dad would do whatever it takes to win.”

Ruby: “And we should do the same.”

Granted, “whatever it takes” comes to mean spilling some food which obviously is in no way comparable to Jacques’ entire existence. The viewer doesn’t know that’s coming though. When we first hear them, these lines are another nod to the closing gap between the “heroes” and the “villains”---whether we’re defining a “villain” as someone like Jacques or someone like Ozpin. The theme is there. The group is willfully adopting the same choices as those they oppose. If Ozpin is going to lie to us then we’ll lie to Ironwood. If Jacques is going to do whatever it takes then so will we. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As I’ve mentioned in non-recap metas, RWBY has now created a harsh world where by-the-book heroics will only hurt you in the end. If Ozpin had never kept secrets I don’t believe he would have achieved that extraordinary time of peace. If Blake and Yang hadn’t killed Adam they still would have a murderous abuser stalking them. We clearly have a story where the concept of a lesser evil exists...it’s just that we’re continually turning around to insist that the group is somehow better than everyone else for also doing what they have to to survive. 

Which brings me to the fact that if Blake and Yang told everyone else about Robyn, we get not indication of that here. The only nod to last episode’s huge decision was Robyn’s shock that Jacques doesn’t already know what the Amity tower is for, but she’s cut off before she can reveal anything in front of Ironwood. So until proven otherwise... here’s another secret. Not just from an adult in a position of authority, but from the rest of the team as well. Given that Blake hid her faunus status and time in the White Fang, Yang continues to hide her knowledge of the Spring Maiden, both of them are helping to keep at least three major secrets from Ironwood, and are now keeping the Robyn secret from everyone else... no leg to stand on. Not to be dramatic on main, but if either of them ever pulls another, “How dare you keep secrets?!” I’m gonna go absolutely feral lol.

Anyway, back to the plot.

There are no new models of the group in fancy dinner clothes. I in no way had my hopes up for that, but it was fun seeing the posts theorizing about it and I can understand others’ disappointment. That definitely would have been a nice surprise, if an insane amount of work for what amounts to ten minutes of screen time.

Instead everyone just shows up in their normal gear and we get a telling exchange between Ironwood and Winter where she informs him he’d have to pay her to smile. I’m really glad she got a lot of attention this episode, both because we expect as much with her returning to the Schnee manor and because, if she’s going to become the next Winter Maiden, we really need to develop her character some. Even just setting up that she might become a Maiden demands that Winter be more than just Ironwood’s second hand and Wiess’ big sis. Who is she on her own? We start getting a glimpse of that here.

Before her outburst though, the group arrives en masse looking like a small army knocking on Jacques’ door. They’re greeted by Whitley who comments on that, asking Ironwood how large he thinks their dining room table is. Absolutely humongous, obviously. Not really the point though. This is clearly Rooster Teeth poking fun at their own massive cast, which would be more enjoyable if the number of characters didn’t constantly hinder the story. Personally, I’d prefer that they actually tackle underdeveloped or mostly dropped characters (like Maria) rather than just joking about it, but anyone keeping up with these recaps already knows that. If we’re not going to get a better structured story I’ll take some jokes here and there. Laugh about it when you can.

Although, I will say that Rooster Teeth does a good job with a minor character here, namely Klein. Whitley makes a dig at Weiss over how he was let go. Wonder how that could have happened. Klein, to my mind at least, was always meant to be a one shot sort of deal. He was introduced to help Weiss escape and once he’d achieved that was no longer useful to the story. It makes sense that we left him behind, but it’s nevertheless wonderful to get a bit of closure. Sad closure, but closure nonetheless. Now, if Rooster Teeth wants to keep him out of the picture we technically have a complete story. We know who Klein was, what he did, and what happened to him in the aftermath. Yet by keeping him alive and away from the Schnees, there’s always the potential that we’ll run into him again someday. I’m quite satisfied with that balance. It’s much better than what I was expecting, namely for Weiss to return home and conveniently not run into him because that would complicate things. Here we’re given an in-character explanation for his absence. Of course Jacques would fire him.

Finally, in the realm of massive casts and character development, I’ve got to admit that I’m disappointing with Penny being there. Simply because it once and for all shatters the hope that this well-executed frame job will amount to anything. If she’s attending a dinner with Jacques Schnee then things are fine. I said that I wasn’t convinced of this “Penny might be deactivated!” consequence before and I’m definitely not convinced of it now. Theoretically another consequence could have been Ironwood losing his council position, but we don’t see that either. Jacques references Ironwood’s inability to catch whoever hacked them at Beacon and his inability to catch whoever attacked Robyn’s supporters as reasons for being untrustworthy, both of which stand without the frame job. It’s incidental. Tyrian could have just killed everyone as Tyrian and it would have had the exact same effect. All the framing has done is make Penny sad (which hasn’t led to any development yet) and get Pietro to spill the beans about her aura (which could have happened in a thousand other ways). I was so pleased at this setup and the ingenuity of the villains, wondering what sort of impact this framing would have, but now we see the impact is minimal at best. If you frame a character for murder but have no other major character questioning their guilt and they’re out in public two episodes later... what was the point of the framing? Penny’s presence here is disappointing. Not because I don’t love Penny, but simply because of more missed opportunities. At this point I’m wondering why they bothered to bring her back at all. We’re not going to have Ruby grapple with the resurrection of her friend. We’re not going to deal with Penny taking the heat for Tyrian’s murders... Why is she here?

Also, not to distract from these important questions but... that.

That.

Friends, I cannot quite convey how confused I was at first. This is obviously supposed to be akin to the Jaguar ornament but... that’s a raptor, right? Have we seen raptor-type grimm? Am I missing something?? Yes, yes I am. Turns out RWBY Rex is a thing I never knew about and I can now only assume this is another Easter egg. Either that or I’m still missing something. Which is always possible. Either way it made me laugh. 

The group heads inside and then splits, Ironwood, Clover, Winter, and Penny going into the dining area. Clover makes a quip about needing luck and Qrow points out that he’s already been invited. I can easily see why so many people are shipping them, but as a hardcore ozqrow shipper myself I’m already biased to view this as friendship. Maybe if we see more of Clover and he doesn’t die like everyone thinks he will I’ll find space in my heart for a dual ship. Either way it’s sweet. As much as I’d like Qrow to acknowledge the best friend he already has two feet away in the body of a kid he hasn’t treated particularly well, I’m nevertheless here for Qrow having healthy and supportive relationships.

We also get to see him refusing a glass of wine. Thank you! Again, it’s pretty late in the game to introduce this and we’re still given no insight into why Qrow is willing to battle his addiction now when he’s succumbed to it for most of his life, but at least they’re maintaining the work needed to stay sober. Qrow politely refuses the offer (from a faunus waiter. No surprise there given Jacques’ racism) and removes himself from temptation by offering to patrol the grounds. Very nicely done. The other Ace Ops join him, warning the newbie huntsmen not to wander off, not to break anything, and make sure you’re available if Ironwood needs you.

To which Yang provides the counter point that they should wander off, they should break things, and all the rest. Jaune later says, “What was that about breaking things?” Admittedly, these lines originally rankled. Because as much as Jacques deserves all the snooping and breaking our team can dish out, I maintain the position that they need to act more responsibly, especially now that they’re officially on the job. We’ve already got Blake and Yang deciding to go behind their bosses’ back. We don’t need them aggravating a situation when they’re the ones who want Ironwood to do that “opening up.” Jacques controlling the situation aside, Ironwood is even less likely to make headway if his guests are off causing trouble.

Which is why I’m so thrilled they didn’t. I’ll be blunt and say straight out that this was a fantastic way to do things. They’re allowed to get food. Nothing wrong with that. We already know Nora is a big eater and tends to be impulsive. If she just happens to pile a plate crazy high, it just happens to hit another guest, and she just happens to douse Whitley in wine? Well... who could have seen that coming? It’s a way of causing mayhem without endangering others or their mission. It achieves the one very specific thing they need: give Weiss an opening to sneak off. No one went overboard. No one else actually snuck off to break things. It was an all around smart plan. Unlike the group attacking Cordovin or Weiss dumping a racist in the trash when they’re supposed to keep a low profile, this is the kind of decision making I can get behind. Something that demonstrates the maturity the group continues to insist they have alongside keeping their playful personalities.

Also, just look at Ren’s smile. That might be the first smile we’ve gotten from him all season. That’s a blessed image, right up there with Oscar stealing hors d'oeuvres the second he walks through the door. Our farm boy is hungry and he’s going to milk Jacques’ wealth for all it’s worth.

The other thing this scene gives us---besides the joyous image of Whitley drenched in wine and Weiss’ amusement over it---is the split screen technique. On the whole I think Rooster Teeth chucks this in too often. There have been many times since the beginning of Volume Six, especially during fight scenes, where the split screen doesn’t feel necessary to me and is even at times quite distracting. Here though? I think it works. The split screen montage used to show the many people involved in, say, a heist is a pretty common technique and it adds another spot of humor to this situation. They’re plotting and executing their food spill with all the sincerity of a bank robbery. I’m here for that.

As Weiss heads upstairs we turn our attention to the meeting with Jacques. It goes about as well as anyone expects. A lot happens in that short span of time though. Robyn sarcastically points out that she should just be happy to have been “invited to the table” and though there’s another black woman across from her, it stands out to me that Robyn, a comparatively dark skinned woman to the rest of the group, says this while the shot poises her between two very white, powerful men. Even the phrase “invited to the table” has gender and racial implications for the audience watching, outside of Robyn’s in-world characterization as a Robin Hood type focused on class. Going off of these themes, we also hear Ironwood reassuring Jacques of their safety by claiming that “Penny is completely under my control.” This, hands down, is the worst thing I’ve seen Ironwood do this volume. Sure, things like the embargo and the supplies have objectively worse consequences, but the story has done a lot to demonstrate the “greater good” justifications behind those choices. We might not agree with Ironwood, but we’re supposed to understand that (until proven otherwise) he has good motivations. Here? That comment is pretty horrible. Ironwood refers to Penny as if she’s a weapon or a tool, a young woman who he believes he literally has control over. It’s a fascinating look into his perspective and a pretty logical one as well. Here’s a man who has put so much faith in his technology, from amassing an army to protect his kingdom to relying on prosthetics to get around. He asked his team to create a new security measure and they did... they just happened to create a person along with it. I’m not sure Ironwood fully understands that yet. He trusts Penny enough to bring her into his own inner circle, but he likewise thinks he can manage her like he would a gun or a vehicle, dictating whether she has friends and announcing that she is under his control. I hope that this is something the writing explores and helps Ironwood work through, rather than just letting it sit as generic evidence that he’s a bad (as opposed to flawed) person. I think Ironwood would realize his mistake and work to correct it if someone pointed out the issue, in the same way we’ve seen him considering, settling, and agreeing with the issues the group has seen fit to yell at him lately.

What interests me most about this whole interaction is (shocking) this continued debate regarding secrets and trust. Overall Rooster Teeth has actually succeeded in creating a decently complex situation here. We know that (again, until proven otherwise) Ironwood has only good intentions and we likewise know that Jacques is now connected to Salem. The information the audience has makes us biased. We know who is supposedly good and supposedly bad. At the same time though, the actual issue appears to be removed from that. Jacques’ side---notably expressed through a new character who acts as a more neutral party---points out that from where they stand there’s no reason for this embargo. We know there’s a reason. Ironwood knows there’s a reason. Because we all know about Salem. But the other council members are making entirely reasonable demands given the information they have: why are you continuing to hurt both the people and our relationship with others? What’s the justification? You can’t give us one? Then why in the world would we let you keep doing this? It puts us in the discomforting position of knowing Jacques is an evil slim ball manipulating the conversation while likewise having to admit that his side has a point. You can’t just announce Salem’s existence because that would make things exponentially worse, but keeping her secret has its definite downsides.

Where Jacques’ party doesn’t have a good position is in his insistence that because Ironwood hasn’t caught these various perpetrators he can’t be trusted, equating trust with results. There’s only so many ideas, resources, and luck that can lead you to catching someone like Tyrian. I understand that knee-jerk reaction, the idea that because someone hasn’t succeeded you should replace them with someone you assume will, but in situations like this you only have so much control over the probability of success. Claiming that Ironwood not catching criminals is indicative of an inability to lead is flimsy, but as we’ve seen, Jacques is a manipulator. He tosses these assertions out as if they’re facts. He and the others continually cut Ironwood off, refusing to let him defend himself. It’s not at all surprising that Winter, someone who suffered under his abuse, eventually explodes with, “You can’t just buy trust like everything else! You have to earn it.” Winter is someone I’m particularly interested in seeing react to the group’s secret keeping because from her perspective, she and Ironwood have earned the group’s trust a hundred times over. Again, provided the story isn’t hiding something from us and Winter is secretly in on some plot with Ironwood, we’re seeing this volume how she’s done the work her father couldn’t and it still wasn’t enough. Her peers, including her baby sister, still decided they weren’t going to trust her with secrets that are intimately tied up in their current work and choices.

  Frustrating moral questions aside, something I really loved about this scene was the character setup and the cinematography. Having Jacques with his two allies on one side, Ironwood mirroring that on the opposite end of the table, and Robyn sitting poised between the two, the audience still unsure whose side she’ll fall on. That aerial shot showing off the distance between them all? Excellent visual storytelling.

We get a quick conversation between Winter and Penny which I don’t have too much to say about. Merely that I love Penny for checking up on Winter and I love Winter for correcting her assumption: I’m not saying you wouldn’t understand because you’re a robot, I’m just saying these problems are very specific to me and being in this place. That was particularly reassuring after Ironwood’s comments. Penny ends the scene by saying she doesn’t understand why Winter wouldn’t want to follow her heart. Perhaps an odd comment coming from someone who almost blindly obeys the orders she’s given even when she doesn’t agree---such as not making more friends---but then, it may well be a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ situation. Just because Penny isn’t sure how to always follow her own heart doesn’t mean she can’t encourage others to do the same.

We return to Weiss who, after getting past a curious server, makes it to her father’s office. I feel like this is the scene people are most invested in, considering that I’ve seen a LOT of posts lately trying to demonize Willow for her comment about Whitley. Here’s what people need to remember about Willow moving forward: she’s as much a victim of abuse as Weiss is. She is, presumably, Jacques’ first victim, fully entrenched in his abuse by the time her kids started coming along. As a mother does she have a responsibility to her children? Absolutely, but that doesn’t erase the fact that she’s simultaneously a woman attempting to survive domestic abuse.

(That’s another stunning shot hell yes.) 

Initially Weiss takes the side of the posts I’ve seen, painting her mother as someone who made a conscious decision to let the abuse happen---another abuser herself, one out of passiveness. “Some of us are trying to do something about it,” Weiss says, emphasizing that she’s better because she’s doing what her mother never could: fighting back. Ignoring for a moment the highly dubious insistence that abuse victims must simply ‘do something’ about that abuse (it’s not that simple at all), Weiss quickly realizes that she was wrong. Her mother has been doing something, namely setting up hidden cameras around the house for some spying of her own. Why? “For our safety.” To make sure that if Jacques ever goes farther than he already has, Willow will know about it and can take appropriate steps. Is taking precautions against something worse better than leaving a situation that’s already horrific? Of course not, but as said, abuse isn’t just something you can fix. Even if you know it’s happening. This is a woman doing all she can and what someone is capable of in an abusive relationship is based on them and that context, not what others believe is fighting back “enough.”

Willow then reassures everyone, Weiss and the audience alike, that she doesn’t expect Weiss to be the family savior.

Willow: “You haven’t come back to stay, have you?” Weiss: “No.” Willow: “Good.”

That first line potentially reads as a plea. We might have gotten a scene where Willow is disappointed that Weiss isn’t coming back because she doesn’t want to face this family alone. While a very human and understandable desire, it’s likewise not okay to expect another abuse survivor to return to their abuser after they’ve gotten out. In that hypothetical scene the fandom would have a basis for going, “No. That’s... not okay.” But we don’t get that. Willow is thrilled that Weiss both got out and has no intention to return. She wants her daughter safe. That parental instinct outweighs any selfish, human desire to not suffer this situation alone.

Keep the above point in mind when we read the line, “No matter what happens, Weiss, please don’t forget about your brother.” Willow isn’t telling Weiss to return to the house and save him. She’s not even telling her to forgive him. Just don’t forget him. Remember that he’s not a mini Jacques. He’s another young abuse victim. He’s just like you. When we look at the family dynamic it’s clear that in some ways Weiss had a leg up from her brother that helped her get out. Namely, she had Winter. They’re the ones who are close among the siblings and thus Weiss had a role model to follow. Winter, however she managed it, got out and forged her own path. We then see throughout the series how closely Weiss emulates that, from going into combat herself and having Winter train her. The two actions---fighting and escape---are connected in Weiss’ Volume 5 short. Winter tells her that if she wants to get out she has to get better. That’s your route.

In contrast, Whitley has shown no interest in combat and thus doesn’t have that path to emulate. He’s not a girl and is thus automatically treated as the next Jacques, not the next Winter or even Willow. Most importantly, Whitley doesn’t have a close relationship with an older sibling to guide him.

That’s all Willow is asking of Weiss: be for Whitley what Winter was to you. Don’t forget about him. Don’t pretend he doesn’t exist. Don’t fall into the lie Whitley himself believes, that he’s set to be the next Jacques. He’s really an abused 14-15 year old who has suffered through everything we have. So if there ever comes a time where Whitley falters in this belief or you’re given an opening... please treat him like your brother, not your father.

I think that’s a perfectly reasonable thing for a mother to ask and we can easily see via Weiss’ expression that she’s coming to all these realizations too.

“Of course [Whitley doesn’t want anything to do with you.] You left him alone. With us.” That’s not an accusation, it’s a fact. As established, Willow is happy that Weiss got out, but like with so much in RWBY the best decision doesn’t mean it’s a consequence-free decision. In this case the consequence is that Weiss and Winter left their little brother alone with their abuser. They had to for their own mental health and their safety, but they nevertheless did it. So if there ever comes a time when they can help alleviate that consequence, please do. 

It likewise doesn’t escape my notice that, again, Whitley is a guy. Just like the fandom was unwilling to accept Ozpin as an abuse victim, people seem hesitant to accept Whitley as an abuse victim either. From what I’ve seen (and there are admittedly always exceptions) Whitley’s shitty behavior hasn’t gotten an a fraction of the sympathy Weiss’ shitty Volume 1-3 behavior got. They’re three years apart at most. If Weiss is a victim then so is her little brother. Don’t let the Jacques’ genetics and learned behavior fool you. 

Finally, we end on Watts. The man who continues to be THE most dramatic bitch in this entire series.

We watch as he shuts down the system keeping Mantle warm. Rather than rain, snow starts to fall. Whether this will be just another generic thing going wrong to make the people angry and Ironwood seem incompetent, or whether there’s a more dangerous downside here (we did hear from Weiss about the deadly temperatures...) remains to be seen.

And that’s it. You know, I think that’s the first time in nearly two volumes where I ultimately had more good things to say about an episode than bad. It’s a holiday miracle!

Until next Saturday ;)

[thestupidhelmet]

Anonymous said to thestupidhelmet:

For the recap of One difference the answer is probably yes, a meta of character arcs and subtext chapter by chapter would be awesome!    

In the almost ten years I’ve written T7S fic, I’ve never been asked to do this before. I started it a few weeks ago, and I managed to get through two chapters. Analyzing my own story requires way more time than I anticipated. 😅

I had to choose between finishing a meta of all fifteen chapters of this story or continuing to write new a one. Not hard to guess which I chose to do. Sorry about that, anon. Sometimes, I wish I could press pause on time and do ALL the things. But, sadly, I can’t.

With that said, I’m posting my meta of the first two chapters. If you’d like to read more analysis of this story, you can check out the comments on it at AO3. I have some very insightful commenters, and I responded back in kind. Those exchanges might be interesting to you. 😊

Meta is after the cut. Enjoy, my anonymous acquaintance!

One Difference: The Answer’s Probably Yes

FFnet / AO3

Summary: In a desperate act, Hyde seeks advice from Jackie, a girl who thinks he's scum. He's not fond of her either, but she makes him a crazy yet strangely-appealing offer.

Rated: M

Chapter 1: Temporary Insanity

Despite the title, this chapter is about breaking free from self-delusion.

Hyde’s motivation at the start of the story is the same as the episode “The Best Christmas Ever” (1x12). He wants Jackie’s advice on buying a present for Donna. Jackie, however, is more aware of her dissatisfaction in her relationship with Kelso than she is at this point on the show.

In the episode, one can interpret her, “Hyde, if you want to make out with me, the answer’s probably no,” remark as evidence she’s at least somewhat physically attracted to Hyde. It’s also evidence of her massive ego. But in my story, she’s on a mission to find out if the problem(s) in her relationship with Kelso stem from her or Kelso. So, combined with her physical attraction toward Hyde, she takes a risk and says instead that the answer’s probably yes.

Hyde, meanwhile, reels from a burst of self-awareness. Jackie’s chastisement that he “doesn’t deserve a girl like Donna for six dollars” breaks through his selfishness and self-delusion. On the show, Hyde is written as a villainous, boundary-ignoring / -invading selfish foil to Eric during much of season 1. In my story, though, he realizes Donna doesn’t share his romantic feelings, and that pulverizes both his heart and his self-conception.

Kelso’s negative attitude toward his relationship with Jackie lessens Hyde’s inhibition toward kissing Jackie. He wants to numb himself from the shock and pain his self-awareness has brought.

Despite his need for escape, Hyde’s realization about himself has an immediate effect on him. He wants to make sure Jackie is a) absolutely sure she wants to kiss him and b) isn’t too young to make that determination. Instead of acting from a totally selfish place, as he’d been doing with Donna, he takes Jackie’s wants and needs into account.

Jackie’s experience during the make-out gives her at least some of the answers she seeks -- that Kelso doesn’t satisfy her physically, in large part because of Kelso’s selfishness -- but she’s not quite ready to embrace the truth fully.

Jackie and Hyde don’t know each other too well at this point in the show. The same goes for the story. Their communication sucks. In the universe of this story, Jackie admired his dancing skills in “That Disco Episode” (1x07), and she clumsily tries to explain that to him. He eventually untangles the misunderstanding between them, and this conversation is foreshadowing for chapter twelve, where they go to Prom together.

Hyde also begins to challenge Jackie’s snobbishness a little. It doesn’t hit the mark, but it plants a seed into her subconscious. The story begins with Jackie demonstrating her classism and Hyde’s internal reaction to it. This is a thread that weaves through Jackie’s character development throughout the story and her parents’ behavior.

I love foreshadowing.

Eric and Donna catch Jackie and Hyde in the act, same as they do in “I Can’t Quit You, Baby” (5x02). I blended and rearranged elements from Jackie and Hyde’s season-5 relationship into this season-1 version of their romance. Partly as Easter eggs for the reader and partly to reflect that Jackie and Hyde’s relationship, regardless of when it happens in during the show’s timeline, creates similar ripples in the world around them -- and to show that Jackie and Hyde, when written in-character, will inevitably make certain choices.

Chapter 2: The Best Gift of All

This chapter’s main purpose is to show the aftermath of Jackie and Hyde’s realizations. Hyde is no longer in denial about Donna’s feelings for him or his treatment of her. Jackie, on the other hand, goes right back into denial about her relationship with Kelso.

Her physical attraction to Hyde hasn’t faded, though. If anything, it’s grown stronger after their make-out. But she feels guilty for cheating on Kelso, and she’s gotten drunk unintentionally. She does her best to ignore her attraction toward Hyde and reaffirms her faithfulness to Kelso.

This chapter foreshadows Edna’s behavior toward Hyde in subsequent chapters and her eventual abandonment of Hyde. His homelife is an important element of this story, and we get an important glimpse of it here. She’s gone on one of her days’-long jaunts with her current boyfriend. Hyde is left to take care of himself, not an unusual situation.

Having been abandoned by both parents, his emotional wounding blinded him to other people’s feelings and wishes. His own feelings and wishes were paramount above all others, a touch of narcissism. Fortunately, Jackie’s blunt assessment in chapter one destroyed that narcissism, and he’s a changed man.

At the Christmas party, Hyde makes clear to Donna he knows how selfish he acted toward her and apologizes for it. His friendships with Donna and Eric have been the most stabilizing forces in his life, and losing them would be devastating to him. Fortunately, Donna forgives him and trusts him, and Eric ... well, he’s a little less trusting, but their friendship is safe.

When I wrote the end of this chapter, I thought the story could satisfyingly end here. The last paragraph puts a neat, narrative bow on what could’ve been a two-shot. But I outlined a longer story, and I had no intention of not writing it.

[hadesgoddess]

1, 7, 13 for the meta self ship questions!!! - canongf 💗

AAAAAAAAAAA @canongf AND @galaxysships!!!!!!! yall are gonna kill me you know that??? I shouldn't be given a pass like this to gush, its gonna be so EMBARRASSING!!!!!! (but ofc im going to anyway)

For Liv first!!!! -

1) how did you discover your f/o’s content? - hmmm I suppose it was in senior year of high school when descendants was popular! My best friend that I had a crush on was into it then so I watched it with her and fell in love with the songs and the plot!

7) are there any specific scenes/chapters/moments of your f/o that you find yourself going back to revisit more often than any other?  - I looooooove watching his introductory scene because its as dramatic and fiery as he is! I also love re-reading all his chapters in the 4th book and the screenplay novel! OOH and in the Royal Wedding when he's explaining what really happened at the wedding and that little walk he does with the fountain in his arms and the little snicker he gives as he pours the water on Chad's head, UGH HE WAS SO CUTE IN THAT SCENE!!!!!

13) do you have a favorite line your f/o has ever said? - GOD HOW TO CHOOSE!? I think it would be a toss up between his line in Hercules where he's bragging to Herc that Meg was working for him the whole time, saying, "I mean your little chickie-poo here was working for me all the time. Duh." and in D3 when he's being taken away again and only gets to tell Mal, "Thanks for a glimpse of the sun." and smiles at her like its the first time he's ever seen the sun

OK now on to the rest, thanks to Star!!!!!! -

2. how old were you when you discovered your f/o’s content? - I was 18 I believe! I was almost done with high school!

3. describe the first time you watched/played/read your f/o’s source content. - I probably remember it wrong, but I'm pretty sure I watched it at my best friend's house, we were hanging out in her bed and the lights were off with an afternoon storm outside. Im sure we had WAY too many snacks and she was probably giving snapchat more attention than the movie but I LOVED it

4. who was your first favorite character when you initially got into your f/o’s source content? was it your f/o from the very beginning? - Since Hades came out in D3 way later, it was NOT him, but I remember really liking Evie!!! I thought she was really cool and had great style!

5. if your f/o is from a series, were you into the source content from the start or did you come in later? if you came in later, what was the most recent release when you got into it? - Its funny, I watched D1 in high school, but then I didn't bother to watch D3 until like..... a whole year after it came out! I mean I was in college and really busy trying to figure out life so cant blame myself

6. if your f/o is from a series, which episode/movie/game/book of their source content is your favorite? - UGH I WISH THERE WAS AN EPISODE OF WICKED WORLD WITH HADES, but there WAS the Hercules Animated Series which featured Hades in almost all 65 episodes so I really got all I ever needed! My fav episode from that was DEFINITELY the Jafar/Hades team-up that was so fucking funny

8. are there any scenes/chapters/moments your f/o is in that you skip when you revisit their source content? - I don't skip anything in the hercules movie OR the descendants movies cuz thats all good eatins! But I've definitely skipped episodes of the animated series and a few House Of Mouse ones too, usually cuz they put a romantic lean on some of Hades' character interactions and im too much of a jealous bitch

9. if your f/o has been represented in more than one way (i.e. in a book AND a movie, in a movie and then recasted for a reboot later, etc.), which version of them is your favorite? - OOOOH controversial take incoming; I love the Hercules Movie version the best. CJ can sing, has the eyes of an angel, and the humor, BUT animated Hades has the charisma of a loan shark, the attitude of a car salesman, and a wit dry enough to make James Bond's martini cry. I WANT THAT ONE!!!! When I write Hades, I do my best to combine CJ's Hades and the animated Hades

10. if you could change one thing about your f/o’s source content, would you? what would you change? - I would allow him one (1) rated-R curse and two (2) PG-13 curses

OH id also have him speak Greek

11. do your friends/family know that you’re into the content that your f/o comes from or do you keep this interest to yourself? - oh im pretty sure my family knows about my investment in this character but not the level. They've seen my laptop case covered with Hades stickers and know I want to get a tattoo that's at least, slightly, connected to him, but they don't know I have this blog or about the wedding rings or any fanart/fics

12. did you know what self shipping was when you first discovered your f/o’s source content? - yes I did!! I had just a few f/os at that point, but when I started shipping with him, Hank and Seven were my mains

14. what’s your favorite outfit your f/o has ever worn? - HOOWEE SIT DOWN AND BUCKLE UP!!! he's got sooooo many good outfit designs, his gorgeous black duster with the blue skull print on the back is particularly good, but.... my fav outfit they're ever put my god in is this

15. do you own any merchandise from your f/o’s source content? what is it? - I DOOOOOO!!!!! I have so much Hades merch but Im always looking for more, mainly because they hardly ever release any despite him being such a popular villain! I have my fila crop-top with blue flames and his tiny hand giving a thumbs up on the front, my Hades sweatshirt, my Hades pins, and some disney art prints!!! I have more unofficial merch for him that I've collected, but thats it from Disney corp. itself!!

[whopooh]

Play it again, Jack – fourth and final post of MFMM fics you love to reread

There is no thing as reading too many times, Dot. And of course I can read this on a public transportation if I want to! 

This post is the fourth and final of “Play it again, Jack” – posts that collect the fics we love to go back to and reread.

It has been so fun to hear about your thoughts and to put these posts together. Thank you to everyone contributing!

First I want to start with a comment from @bumblemama that fits perfectly to the spirit of this collection:

Aaaaand another thing... despite having read literally every story on ao3 with the mfmm tag, I realised I couldn't actually remember them all. So I've just gone back to the very start and am working my way through again. There are some lovely gems, and it's really cute to see requests for a season 3, or even a few 'wonder where s2 will go' comments. A good reminder of how perspectives change and stories evolve. There would be plenty that would fit into one or more of the year of tropes, but they somehow seem less consciously trope-ish, I guess because they hadn't been done in this fandom before. Anyway. No specific recommendations just the generalized advice to find page 82 (!!!!) of the fics and work forwards!

@chrismarieisme sent me several lovely recommendations I felt I couldn’t cut up and mix, so here they are all together:

This was difficult because I love so many of the fics, but here we go:

“Be still” by @flashofthefuse – very sweet glimpse of a moment between P&J the night before she leaves for England. It's exactly how I'd hope that moment would be.

“He Calls Her Beautiful” by @ladyroxie – simply exquisite.

“A Perpetual Feeling” by @missingmissfisher – so romantic! The intuitive connection between P&J.

“The Actor” by @ollyjayonline – Jack & Jane, Pride and Prejudice. What more does one need?

“Merciful Powers” by @scruggzi – Jack, tights, Shakespeare. Ngggh.

“The Wager” by @soupsouffle – fun, witty, deliciously, steamy URST.

@soupsouffle, “The Wager”. Reread by @kanste

A wager between Phryne and Jack about who gives into seduction first makes for great banter and flirting. I love how they both use every trick in the book to seduce the other. This fic has some of the best flirting/banter and some of the hottest smut scenes ever. Do I need to say more?

@omgimsarahtoo, “A Thief in the Night”. Reread by @rubycaspar

This story is just so much fun. I love the beginning, told from drunk!Phryne's POV, and then the lovely moment when Jack wakes up and finds her there in the morning. I love the characterisation of both of them in this fic, and the concept is so cute and so well-executed.

@ladyroxie, “The Sweetest Fruit”. Reread by @kanste

Can I just say I love Peach and this fic has a lot of it. It has no smut but it is sooooo sexy. I love to imagine Jack in the garden, especially on a hot day like today. The banter/feeding is just like them and turns up the heat some notches.

@jackphryne4eva, “Cafe Blend”. Reread by @omgimsarahtoo

I adore the meta nature of this fic – the story is of a female MFMM fanfic reader who needs to find a quiet place to read the latest chapter of a smutty fanfiction. Her anticipation is delicious, as is the small French cafe she finds! There's an element of all of us in how she is struggling against her impulse to hide her obsession with MFMM and its fic, and how she decides to read on, working to smother any shame she's been made to feel. It's got a million tiny moments that evoke the show, and so many spots that could be any one of the Phrack fangirls we know. I just love it!

@aljwritesphryne, “and stealing my heart...”. Reread by @rithebard

.... Sweet story. Jack takes Phryne home to escape her mean father and it is just such lovely touching story.

@evendale, “Finally”. Reread by @scruggzi

Set after “Unnatural Habits”, this was one of the first fics I read and I was fascinated by the exploration of phrack's developing relationship with a much more inexperienced depiction of Jack than in many other fics. Phryne in this is very much the teacher, ushering him into the modern world through their developing relationship. Their characters take on this nice point and counterpoint dynamic, with her representing the age of modernity and him a traditional approach that he's fairly eager to leave behind. It's mostly a very gentle story with some lovely banter and very sweet moments between the two of them and it's very much a comfort fic for me. Something I tend to re-read when I'm grumpy. Although I think I lean towards a more experienced version of Jack's character now, with its setting at the end of season two I think this one works as an interpretation and it fills me full of the happy feels whenever I go back to it.

@firesign23, “Grasping at Shadows”. Reread by @rithebard

Phryne and Jack go back to Paris after the war and are haunted by their past and have a hard time sharing it with each other. This is sweet and special because it touches on their vulnerabilities. And how their love bridges it. It is a lovely tale.

@aljwritesphryne, “A Collingwood girl for an Abbotsford Man”. Reread by @kanste

Phryne and Jack return to the footy field and it turns out very different then in the show. I love the flirting and how determined Phryne is to "win over" Jack.

There is desk sex too.......

@omgimsarahtoo, “The Power of the Feminine”. Reread by @kanste

Another series of fics. I love all the different aspects Sarah put into the fics. There is young Jack having sex for the first time and Sarah manages to make the life of the woman with whom it happens come alive. She also introduces us to all the different women who made Jack the man and lover he is today. Of course there is Phrack sexy time. She gives us a new family member whom I like very much and I hope makes a return sometimes.

What made me especially happy is the Happy End Concetta is getting after Jack. It is such a wonderful heart-warming story for a lovely minor character.

@phrynesboudoir/Sassasam, “Mirrors into Windows”. Reread by @scruggzi

This fic combines all my favourite elements of undercover phrackvestigation and resolved sexual tension. Phryne and Jack have been estranged since her return from London although Phryne doesn't know why Jack's not sought her out since she's been back. After being thrown together on a case involving slaughtered academics they renew their friendship and try to navigate a big change in Jack's life and what it means for their partnership. There are lots of lovely things I could say about this fic but basically Phryne as a professor was a kink I never knew I had and it made me spectacularly happy.

@promisesarepiecrust, “City that works” and "A Whole World in Here". Reread by @balticprincess

These are two of my special favourites. Unusual, but great!

There are three things that I love best in fics I like: Angst, Modern AU and a happy ending. And while the first two are not mandatory, I enjoy other fics as well, the last one is. As I watch only movies with happy endings, of course this goes for reading fic, too. "A Whole World in here" by @promisesarepiecrust is written as a play. Nevertheless you can suffer and rejoice with Phryne and Jack in this one. It is full of suspense and romantic. And angsty. So angsty. The epilogue is lovely AND it is M-rated, as I like it. So, an unusual one, but so good and well written.

"City that works" is a modern AU. Total AU: Jack is the free-spirited rich guy and Phryne the divorced policewoman with PTSD. It works so well, that one. Romance, suspense, will-they-won't-they, sex, love, misunderstandings, fun: all there. So, also unusual, but so worth reading!

lefaym, “Locked Rooms”. Reread by @whopooh​

I have probably read this fic more than ten times. It’s fun and lighthearted, and it captures awkwardness in such a wonderful way. Phryne is sure she is about to die in a cellar together with Jack, and she decides to kiss him, because she “had no intention of going to her grave without ravishing Jack Robinson at least once”. When they are saved by Dot and Hugh, they are found in the most compromising situation, and from this moment on the fic is all about delicious awkwardness, and Phryne not wanting to admit she feels awkward. She tries to push it away as not important but fails spectacularly. Here comes one of the funniest lines I’ve read: “Phryne was not going to be defeated by a small masturbatory lapse in judgment“. Finally, the people around her decides she needs a push in the right direction, and we meet the lovely concept of Aunt P ex machina. 

@omgimsarahtoo, “The Female Gaze”. Reread by @kanste

Why do I like that fic? Well, it has Jack in a shower (a lot). But that is not all. Every single reaction to Jack is spot on and lovely. Especially Elsie has a soft spot in my heart

YouknowmeasJ, “Before the World”. Reread by @scruggzi

I'm am absolute sucker for a fluffy reunion fic and this is one I especially like. Jack catches up with Phryne before she leaves Australia and they scheme together to get the Baron home without Phryne having to fly him because he's driving her up the wall. Some lovely funny banter, a little bit of smut and that nice 'you and me against all obstacles' aspect of their partnership really comes to the forefront.

@phrynesboudoir/Sassasam, “The Nearness of You”. Reread by @rithebard

I love pretty much everything Sassasam writes but I chose this one because it really touched my soul. Jack dies in 1929 on the way to meet Phryne and his ghost finds it attached to her home but no one can see him for years till her a new Phryne Stanley comes along. I love this story because you love Phryne's decedent and you feel so deeply for both Jack and Phryne Fisher's sadness and loneliness. Incredibly touching.

@gaslightgallows, “Creatures of Stillness”. Reread by @rithebard

Again I really love gaslightgallows's stories. But this one just really touches me. Jack becoming a merchant seaman to get to Phryne in a beard and dirty peacoat all he wanted to do was get to Phryne and she was delighted. She loves taking care of Jack and it is a very sexy story but it was what they discover about their feelings that really touches me.

@jeneenp/ CollingwoodGirl, "A Man in Need”. Reread by @kanste

This fic has so much going on. I love the PhrackAngst, how everyone works together to get our two idiots together, and the little glimpse in Jack's live. It has some of my favourite Phrack scenes in it. Phryne convincing Jack to let himself touch (in the train), Phryne being her goddess self and bathing in the forest lake and Phryne teaching Jack how to use his tongue. As a plus you have Dot in detective mode.

@olderbynow , ”Smoke and Fire”. Reread by @zannadubs23

According to my reading history it’s around five hits. I love this for a couple of reasons. It’s light and sweet, but still smoking hot. Phryne who is normally so wonderful at everything, just can’t handle the baking of the biscuits. I like that she wants to try, not because she’s goo-goo eyes for Jack (well, not only that—thought that’s clearly part of it) but because he challenges her. That’s it right there. It hits the essence of what makes them tick and lights our imaginations on fire with these idiots. He challenges her and she loves it. She challenges him and he loves it.

@ollyjayonline​, “For Fox’s Sake”. Reread by @whopooh​

This fic is such a happy place, it’s a fic that kind of sparkles with fun and companionship and teasing and love. Phryne and Jack are bailing out from a fox hunt to instead first save the fox and then ravish each other in a folly. The way they interact has such energy and at the same time lightness in it, Phryne’s teasing about Jack’s slightly higher levels of embarrassment is lovely, and it’s a delightful fic.

@omgimsarahtoo, “Romantic Overtures”. Reread by @kanste 

This is not a single fic but a whole series worth reading. I'm really, really fond of letters and Sarah writes some of the best letters out there. I love how Jack and Phryne get bolder with the letters and how in the later fics they keep up with the letters. I would love to have something like that in my relationship

Comeaftermejackrobinson, “Method in their madness” & Miss Templeton, Twelfth Night series (starting with “A Willow Cabin”). Reread by @rithebard

Reunion in England, "Method in their madness" is another favorite, so lyrical and poetic. It is really a story for romantics which I am and exploring the inner lives of our heroes. I also love Miss Templeton's Twelfth Night series on ff.net. She creates a fascinating arc in their romantic relationship while they professionally solve case after case. Also it is fun. And they both have their vulnerabilities with real understanding and though they don't say it out loud love.

DivineMissP,  "Impact" and "Pure Bliss". Reread by AnonM

Dark, well written hurt/comfort. Jack gets to be a reluctant hero without taking anything away from Phryne's strength.

@omgimsarahtoo, “The Breathings of Your Heart". Reread by @kanste

This is Sarathoo's take on the soulmate trope and one fic I've turned to many times. The concept of one soulmate is troubling but Sarah did it beautiful. I love that Phryne and Jack aren't really convinced of the concept (Jack marrying Rosie, Phryne is doing Europe) but when they need comfort turning to each other.  The picture of Phryne writing over her bruises without the ink gives me so many feelings. To balance it out, the conclusion and especially her last message made me laugh out loud.

@firesign23, “When I Sorrow Most”. Reread by @omgimsarahtoo

This is one of those stories that I go back to when I just need a moment to cry. It's short, but saturated with emotion, and just perfectly painful to read. It's like those movies you watch, knowing that they're going to tear your heart out and you're going to love every minute. It breaks my heart every single time.

@heavyheadedgal​, “Queen’s Gambit”. Reread by @whopooh​

This is only a ficlet, but I have found myself coming back to it agfain and again. Although Phryne and Jack are only playing chess in this fic, there is still so much happening and so much understanding flowing between them. I love the way they talk about themselves and their possibly developing relationship while they seem to be talking only about the game in front of them.

This was all.  Here are the earlier posts in the series: I ; II  ; III.

I hope I managed to include everything that has been sent to me -- if I missed something, please let me know and I’ll remedy it!

[dixiechikdigger]

12 FRIGHTENING FACTS ABOUT MILK

12 FRIGHTENING FACTS About MILK. By Thomas Campbell, MD October 31, 2014. 12 Frightening Facts about Milk. A large observational cohort study[1] in Sweden found that women consuming more than 3 glasses of milk a day had almost twice the mortality over 20 years compared to those women consuming less than one glass a day. In addition, the high milk-drinkers did not have improved bone health. In fact, they had more fractures, particularly hip fractures. Interestingly, the study also found that fermented milk products (cheese and yogurt) significantly decreased mortality and fractures among these women. For each serving of these fermented dairy products, the rate of mortality and hip fractures was reduced by 10-15%. The researchers pin the negative effects of liquid milk on D-galactose, a breakdown product of lactose that has been shown to be pro-inflammatory. Milk has much more D-galactose than does cheese or yogurt. I am surprised that this study garnered so much mass media attention upon its release, as it highlights the deleterious side of milk, but I also think it is important to keep the findings in context. And when it comes to the health effects of dairy, the context is not so pretty: In observational studies both across countries and within single populations, higher dairy intake has been linked to increased risk of prostate cancer (cited in [2]). Observational cohort studies have shown higher dairy intake is linked to higher ovarian cancer risk (cited in [2]). Cow’s milk protein may play a role in triggering type 1 diabetes through a process called molecular mimicry[3]. Across countries, populations that consume more dairy have higher rates of multiple sclerosis[4]. In interventional animal experiments and human studies, dairy protein has been shown to increase IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor-1) levels. Increased levels of IGF-1 has now been implicated in several cancers[5]. In interventional animal experiments[6] and human experiments[7], dairy protein has been shown to promote increased cholesterol levels (in the human studies and animal studies) and atherosclerosis (in the animal studies). The primary milk protein (casein) promotes cancer initiated by a carcinogen in experimental animal studies[8]. D-galactose has been found to be pro-inflammatory and actually is given to create animal models of aging[1]. Higher milk intake is linked to acne[9]. Milk intake has been implicated in constipation[10] and ear infections (cited in [2]). Milk is perhaps the most common self-reported food allergen in the world[11]. Much of the world’s population cannot adequately digest milk due to lactose intolerance. So despite being very pleased that the public is glimpsing some of the evidence against milk in this recent study (though they also could be hearing about the benefits of cheese and yogurt from this same study), I think there is a far more powerful story; a story that takes into account the largely hidden context of diet and dairy research. There is a wealth of indirect evidence of very serious possible harms of consuming dairy foods, and, on the flip side, the evidence that milk prevents fractures is scant. As we look beyond the headlines, it is hard to think that we should continue to consume the lactation fluid that exists in nature to nourish and rapidly grow calves. References Michaelsson K, Wolk A, Langenskiold S, et al. Milk intake and risk of mortality and fractures in women and men: cohort studies. Bmj 2014;349:g6015. Lanou AJ. Should dairy be recommended as part of a healthy vegetarian diet? Counterpoint. The American journal of clinical nutrition 2009;89:1638S-42S. Dahl-Jorgensen K, Joner G, Hanssen KF. Relationship between cows’ milk consumption and incidence of IDDM in childhood. Diabetes Care 1991;14:1081-3. Malosse D, Perron H, Sasco A, Seigneurin JM. Correlation between milk and dairy product consumption and multiple sclerosis prevalence: a worldwide study. Neuroepidemiology 1992;11:304-12. Key TJ. Diet, insulin-like growth factor-1 and cancer risk. Proc Nutr Soc 2011:1-4. Kritchevsky D. Dietary protein, cholesterol and atherosclerosis: a review of the early history. The Journal of nutrition 1995;125:589S-93S. Gardner CD, Messina M, Kiazand A, Morris JL, Franke AA. Effect of two types of soy milk and dairy milk on plasma lipids in hypercholesterolemic adults: a randomized trial. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2007;26:669-77. Youngman LD, Campbell TC. Inhibition of aflatoxin B1-induced gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase positive (GGT+) hepatic preneoplastic foci and tumors by low protein diets: evidence that altered GGT+ foci indicate neoplastic potential. Carcinogenesis 1992;13:1607-13. Spencer EH, Ferdowsian HR, Barnard ND. Diet and acne: a review of the evidence. Int J Dermatol 2009;48:339-47. Caffarelli C, Baldi F, Bendandi B, Calzone L, Marani M, Pasquinelli P. Cow’s milk protein allergy in children: a practical guide. Italian journal of pediatrics 2010;36:5. Rona RJ, Keil T, Summers C, et al. The prevalence of food allergy: a meta-analysis. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007;120:638-46. Thomas Campbell, MD Thomas Campbell, MD Thomas M. Campbell, MD is medical director of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. As part of his groundbreaking UR Program for Nutrition in Medicine, he works in Rochester, NY, with individual patients and groups to optimize health and prevent and treat illness using nutrition and lifestyle. He is co-author of The China Study and author of The China Study Solution. Write for Us Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 268 Comments More: Blog Cancer Dairy Diabetes Nutrition Research Women's Health Related Posts: Got the Facts On Milk Film TrailerGot the Facts on Milk Milk: Is It the Elixir We’ve Been Sold?Milk: Is It the Elixir We’ve Been Sold? No Body Needs MilkNo Body Needs Milk Gluten Fears & Facts: Is Wheat Truly Terrible?Gluten Fears & Facts: Is Wheat Truly Terrible? Avoiding Breast Cancer with DietAvoiding Breast Cancer with Diet What Does Research Indicate About Animal Protein and "Reproductive" Cancers?What Does Research Indicate About Animal Protein and ‘Reproductive’ Cancers? Comments Live A Whole Life Our online plant-based nutrition program has empowered thousands of lives. Learn More In partnership with Related Articles Why China Holds the Key to Your Health Why China Holds the Key to Your Health By T. Colin Campbell, PhD Breaking Free Of The Dietary Pleasure Trap Breaking Free of the Dietary Pleasure Trap By Douglas Lisle, PhD Love Your Liver: Lessons From Chinese Medicine (TCM) Love Your Liver: Lessons From Chinese Medicine (TCM) By Guest Author Donate Now Support Dr. T. Colin Campbell's dream of a global, plant-based movement. Donate Signup for our free newsletter Get quality nutrition & lifestyle news monthly. Subscribe Mission Our mission is to promote optimal nutrition through science-based education, advocacy, and research. By empowering individuals and health professionals, we aim to improve personal, public, and environmental health.

[small-seo-tools]

Best Keyword Research Tools 2018

Great Keyword Research Tools

Those who have been engaged in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for any given amount of time will tell you that is one of the most important SEO tasks that bloggers and website owners should be seized with.  In fact, one can be as bold as to say that Keyword Research is where Search Engines Optimization begins. Without it, nothing else really matters in terms of getting a website ranked favorably by Search Engines. But, what, really, is Keyword Research and what are some of the best keyword research tools that you can use during the current year. Before delving deeper into this topic, here are some of the best Keyword Research Tools that can be found out there;

Full ReviewStarting Price/MGet it Now!Long Tail ProRead$25SearchMetricsRead$69KWFinderRead$10.75

What is Keyword Research?

In SEO, Keyword Research is the process of determining the terms and phrases that are typed into Search Engines by people who are looking for a particular product or service.

A not so brief explanation

Whenever people look up a product, service or information on the internet, they use certain words that enable them to find whatever it is that they are looking for. Search Engines, on their part, have the all important task of indexing all the data that makes up the World Wide Web.They use the hyperlinks that exist between web pages as highways, on which to travel while cataloguing everything that’s on the internet.

An Example

If, as an example, you have a company that provides 24 hour plumbing services in the city of Dakar, in Senegal, you will need, as part of creating a website for your company, or as part of ongoing content creation activities, to carry out keyword research that will tell you exactly what the people who are looking for your services type into Search Engines.

Without this research, your efforts to attract customers by having your company become more visible online could very well be misdirected and futile. The good news is that many of the keywords that you would need to include in your content in order to rank high on Search Engines are rather intuitive. As an example, the owner of the plumbing business will probably need to include the term “24 hour plumbing service Dakar,” in his or her website’s content. This brings us to the next point;

Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are the longer phrases that are typed into Search Engines by people who are looking for specific information about a specific product or service. They are very important because  people who use them are not just looking for information out of curiosity, but genuinely need to have something done. They therefore represent a great opportunity for you to generate fruitful leads.

A Review of the Best Keyword Research Tools

Having defined and explained Keyword Research, it is now time for us to identify the best keyword research tools that can be found out there;

Long Tail Pro

Remember what we have just been saying about long tail keywords? Long Tail Pro, without doubt, is one of the most useful Keyword Research tools that can be found out there in this regard. This amazing tool gives you the ability to look for and find the best keywords for your content marketing effort;

Features

Long Tail Pro comes with a number of unique features, many of which you will not be able to find on any other Keyword Research tool;

Keyword competitiveness scoring

Calculate keyword profitability

Sort niches and track favorites

Custom difficulty targets

View metrics

Export results

AdWords Data: CPC, local/global monthly searches

Searchmetrics’ Keyword Research Tool

Network Bees recommends which comes with the best keyword research tool that you will be able to find anywhere out there. Searchmetrics Essentials contains serious SEO software for those who are looking for a well rounded Search Engine Optimization experience. Rather than getting SEO tools from ten different places, why not just sign up for Searchmetrics Essentials and get the following in one place;

A keyword research tool

Website analysis and optimization

SEO and PPC performance and rankings

Competitor Research and analysis

Social Links

Backlinks analysis

Much more

What we like most, at Network Bees, is that with Searchmetrics Essentials, no longer do you need to subscribe for each of the above essential SEO services with five or six different companies. All that you have to do is sign up for Essentials and you will get a great deal on a wide range of crucial SEO tools. Click on the banner above or on this link to get a great deal on Searchmetrics Essentials.

Google Keyword Planner

Cost:      Free

Google’s Keyword Planner is one of the best keyword planning tools in the world

Google Keyword Planner is, perhaps, the best known Keyword Research tool that you will be able to find out there. That is really not surprising, considering that Google is the master of search. Anything that the company produces in this regard is bound to be taken seriously by the majority of SEO experts. Keyword Planner is a great AdWords tool, that you can use when planning your Search Engine Optimization efforts.

Besides allowing you to carry out detailed Keyword Research, Keyword Planner also allows you to bring several keyword lists together to create a new one, and to get a glimpse into the potential performance of a particular list of keywords. The tool also gives you historical keyword statistics.

The best thing about Keyword Planner is that it is free and can be used even by beginners who are looking to get their SEO efforts off the ground. You can either use it when launching new campaigns, or when you are looking to refresh existing ones with new keywords.

Keyword Planner was designed as an aid to people who are looking to launch AdWords campaigns. However, you can still use it for your own Keyword Research, as part of your Search Engine Optimization efforts.

SERPs- Keyword Research Database

Cost:      Free

The good thing about keyword planning is that most of the best keyword research tools that are out there are offered free of charge. The Keyword Research Database from SERPs is one such tool. It comes with a number of features that are unique and useful. The search results that you get when using this tool give offer you a glimpse into the monthly search volume and the estimated . Another parameter that is listed is the estimated Value of each keyword. This figure represents the search volume multiplied by the CPC.

Cost:       From $50/ Month

Another of the great keyword research tools that are out there is the Keyword Explorer from Moz Pro. It costs from $50 a month, although you can try it out for free for one full month. This tool does cover a wide range of metrics that are not available in free Keyword Research Tools.

The Keyword Explorer not only gives you the monthly search volumes for any given keyword, but it also estimates how difficult it will be for you to overtake the pages that are already ranked at number one on SERPs for your chosen keyword.

You are also presented with an “Opportunity,” estimation, that is, an estimate of the click through rate for your keyword on organic search results. There is also an estimate of each keyword’s potential, that is, its potential ability to achieve your desired results based on your chosen settings.  

Cost: Beginning at $12 per month (Free to try)

KWFinder is another paid keyword research tool that you can use to launch you Search Engine Optimization campaign. One of the main selling points for this tool is that it can be used to find long tail keywords, which is great, considering that they have a greater chance of turning into leads. After trying out the KWFinder tool, you will see why it is offered on a monthly subscription basis when there are so many free Keyword Research tools out there.

The tool returns data on a wide variety of useful metrics, including on how your chosen keyword has been trending over the past 12 months, its search volume, its CPC, its PPC and, last but not least, the keyword’s SEO difficulty.

On top of that, you also get to see the Google SERP for your chosen keyword. These are, in effect, the pages that you are going to have to beat if you are going to rank at number one. KWFinder also gives you an estimation of how difficult it is going to be for you to beat these websites.

The final in our list of the best keyword research tools that you can use during your SEO campaign is Bing Keyword Research. All that you need to do in order to use it is sign up for a Bing Webmaster Tools, which you can do with your Microsoft account, if you already have one. The tool provides you with up to six months of data from organic traffic. This includes keyword ideas that are organized by language, country or region, which allows you to fine tune your keyword ideas to the specific markets in which you hope to have an impact. It also keeps a history of up to 25 keywords, which allows you to quickly make reference to the topics on which you have carried out research.

Source

https://networkbees.com/2017/07/07/keyword-research-tools/

[wayneooverton]

Kimbe Bay: The Coral Crucible of Papua New Guinea

A line of thought within the marine-scientific community holds that the first corals probably originated in this large, sheltered bay, roughly one-third of the way along the north coast of New Britain island. Diving in Kimbe Bay leaves little doubt of the area’s diversity because the numbers, as they say, cannot lie.

Depending on which scientific survey we look at, Kimbe Bay is home to around 860 species of reef fish, 400 species of coral and at least 10 species of whales and dolphins. To put that in a global perspective — in an area roughly the same size as California, Papua New Guinea hosts almost 5 percent of the world’s marine biodiversity.

Location, Location, Location

New Britain is part of the Bismarck Archipelago, forming the southern ridge of the so-called “Ring of Fire.” This volatile horseshoe-shaped seismic strip of oceanic trenches and volcanic arcs wreaks periodic havoc around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The archipelago’s islands formed between eight and 10 million years ago due to what geologists rather mildly refer to as “tectonic uplift.” The flight from Port Moresby into Hoskins Airport on the southern edge of Kimbe Bay will put the uplift concept into a slightly more dramatic perspective.

As you cross the narrow Vitiaz Strait from the main island of New Guinea, you’ll catch your first glimpse of New Britain. The western tip of this narrow, crescent-shaped island is roughly 310 miles (500 km) long, 19 miles (30 km) wide at its narrowest point, and 93 miles (150 km) at its widest.

Huge mountain ranges, the result of those tectonic uplifts, run along the island’s spine. These soaring peaks are so high that effectively isolate the north coast from the south and create their own weather patterns. While the north coast follows the normal monsoonal seasons, the south is completely opposite. The mountains also create a partial rain shadow over the north, making the south coast the second wettest place on Earth. Rainfall totals from 20 to 26 feet (6 to 8 m) per year.

As you fly over Willaumez Peninsula, the western boundary of Kimbe Bay, you’ll get a spectacular view of the other visually defining feature of this part of New Britain — volcanoes. Mount Pago and its two smaller siblings rumble periodically.

Beneath Kimbe Bay

The Willaumez Peninsula to the west and Cape Tokoro to the east shelter Kimbe from the worst of New Britain’s weather. A 656-foot (200 m) shelf runs parallel to the shore for about 3 miles (5 km) before dropping down into the abyss. On the northern outskirts of the bay, the seafloor drops off over than 6,500 feet (2,000 m).

Across this deep seascape, dramatic seamounts and coral pinnacles rise toward the surface and provide shelter for the bay’s marine creatures. The bay’s larger visitors include sperm whales, orcas, spinner dolphins and dugong.

Kimbe Bay’s deep waters and generally benign conditions function as a kind of marine nursery, and the area also benefits from the rich currents of the Bismarck Sea. As the currents flow along the north coast of New Britain and around the top of the Willaumez Peninsula, eddies direct the nutrient-rich flows into Kimbe Bay.

Scuba Diving in Kimbe Bay

Although scuba diving in Kimbe Bay is on plenty of bucket lists, it’s not a shark-lover’s paradise or somewhere to seek manta rays or whale-shark aggregations.

Rather, the area offers “fish-bowl” diving, as it resembles immersion in a fully stocked aquarium. Visibility often exceeds 130 feet (40 m).

The best places to spot visiting pelagics are seamount dives, such as Bradford Shoals. This isolated outcropping sits on the very edge of the bay where the seafloor is some 4,900 feet (1,500 m) below. Rising from that abyss to within 65 feet (20 m) of the surface, Bradford’s reef structure is mainly flat plates of hard corals, home to numerous colorful small reef fish. Surrounded by deep water and distant from the nearest reef structure, the area regularly draws big fish and pelagics, including large schools of barracuda, big-eye trevally and dogtooth tuna.

Preserving Kimbe Bay

Agronomists Max and Cecile Benjamin arrived in New Britain in the late 1960s, interested principally in what came out of the ground around Kimbe Bay rather than what was below its surface. They bought the 800-acre Walindi palm oil plantation in 1969, intending to modernize and improve its operation. But instead, by the early 1970s, they started to scuba dive on the weekends and became the first people to discover the incredible biodiversity of Kimbe Bay.

The rest is history, and in 1983 the Benjamins opened the now-famous Walindi Plantation Dive Resort, which now includes the MV FeBrina liveaboard dive boat.

Although the Benjamins took steps to minimize impact on the reefs, such as installing permanent moorings on all the dive sites, by the early 1990s there were significant changes happening in the Kimbe Bay area.

Until the mid-1980s, the local population lived sustainably as it had for centuries, with virtually no impact on Kimbe Bay’s marine life. But by the end of the decade, New Britain’s developing palm-oil industry was changing that traditional lifestyle. Economic migration into the area resulted in far greater environmental pressure, including rising demand for food, firewood and building materials, as well as a significant increase in pollution.

In 1993, the Benjamins joined the local government and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop an overall long-term conservation strategy for Kimbe Bay.

While the bay faced significant environmental challenges, it was largely spared the ravages of cyanide and dynamite fishing that had wreaked so much damage to coral reefs across Southeast Asia.

In 1994, TNC, supported logistically by Walindi, conducted the first ever Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) of Kimbe Bay to quantify its biodiversity. The results revealed the true extent of the area’s marine riches, and the challenge remains when it comes to how best to preserve it.

By guest author Don Silcock

Australian Don Silcock is based in Bali. He has dived many of the Indo-Pacific’s best locations. His website offers articles and location guides to the places he has visited and the big animals he has dived with. Learn more about Kimbe Bay and Papua New Guinea in his complete guides.

The post Kimbe Bay: The Coral Crucible of Papua New Guinea appeared first on Scuba Diver Life.

from Scuba Diver Life http://ift.tt/2ue0Lts

[allinfozone-top-news22-blog]

Ed Sheeran: 'I've got a song that is higher than Thinking aloud'

Ed Sheeran: ‘I’ve got a song that is higher than Thinking aloud’

In the initial instalment of associate exclusive on-line two-part interview, dysfunction Sheeran takes BBC Music newsperson Mark Savage behind the scenes of his third album, ÷ (Divide). In the lobby of Atlantic Records in West London, an advert of dysfunction Sheeran’s huge face peeks out from behind a pendant, smiling beatifically at you. As you get within the carry, there he’s once more. And…

[thevalicemultiverse]

LB!Alice, looking at VITD setting: It can't get weirder than this.

*Camera slowly pans to BABS setting with ominous music (courtesy of an Amorphous Flute Player)*

Londerland Bloodlines Alice: Oh God, what's wrong with that one?

Valicer In The Dark Smiler: Well, for starters, apparently both the sun and the moon are evil and trying to melt people's brains or turn them into cultists! Or both!

LB Alice: ...I'm never complaining about the bizarre parts of my own world ever again.

[thevalicemultiverse]

Hey Smiler, I need your help. You see, I want to draw you as a Pokemon like I did with Alice and VD. But I can't think of anything! I was thinking of making you an electric type because of your hyperactive personally, but I don't know if I should just leave you as an electric type or at another type with it.

Any suggestions?

Cuddlepile

Smiler: Oh hey -- I'd love to see a Pokemon of me, thanks! Electric type would be good for a starter -- give a moment to look up some of the other types... [looking up things on their phone] Okay, Psychic type would also be good, as that has a lot of mind-affecting moves. And -- if I can go meta, like Alice did when you asked her about her source material -- I'm actually based off this rollercoaster called The Smiler, which is all about, uh, brainwashing people to be happy. [slightly nervous grin] I have ethics, I promise you. But yeah, Electric/Psychic would be a good match-up then -- and if you want some thoughts on aesthetics, you can check out this page on Tower Times for a bunch of pictures of the coaster! Basically think spirals, stripes, lots of weird twisty shapes, and lots of legs. Hope that helps!

[thevalicemultiverse]

Ya know... If Tim Burton decided to make The Corpse Bride movie a more male on male love story, I know the perfect person to be the Corpse Groom. I'll give you a hint, he's Mr. unlucky to a man in Kentucky.

Cuddlepile

Victor: I -- I'm afraid that's not much of a hint, as I'm not sure what that is referencing.

Smiler: Hang on, let me look that up... [does a little searching on their phone] ...Okay, apparently we really need to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas more often. It's a line from Jack's song at the beginning.

Alice: I'm pretty sure that there's already fanfics shipping Victor and Jack out there -- it does seem an obvious combination once you think about it.

[thevalicemultiverse]

Fallout of Darkness meets Beneath a Broken Sky

BABS Alice: Wow, and I thought the year 2000 was advanced. Even accounting for the...post-war situation.

BABS Victor: Still weird that this is, what, the third place that has vampires? Something has to be up with that.

BABS Alice: That is quite odd.

Dr. Daniel, examining an ominous looking book with a gash on its cover: I'm more curious this defiance-of-death deity here!

Fallout of Darkness Victor: To be fair, my world seems to be weirdly behind in a few ways too -- color television was not the norm before the bombs fell. And our computers weren't nearly so nice... Honestly, though, at this point I'm just glad that my apocalypse didn't either blow up the sun or turn it evil.

FOD Alice: Same here...and I don't think it's that bizarre that multiple universes would have vampires. Maybe it's a little more odd that they would have the same kind of vampires, yes, but -- vampires in general? After some of the things I've seen, and some of the things you've seen, that should be barely be a blip on the radar.

FOD Victor: [nods -- and then sees the book Dr. Daniel is looking at; he blanches -- somehow -- and rubs his throat] I -- I wouldn't -- I'd be careful with that.

[thevalicemultiverse]

Tour guide at the Clown's Gallery Museum in the BABS universe pre-1997: The Egg Registry uses these painted eggs as records of the face paints of registered clowns under Clowns International, both as a method of copyright for a performer's design and to differentiate human clowns from regular domesticated clowns. Their facial markings are kept in a separate registry at the Institute of Coulrology.

Valicer In The Dark

Alice: ...one of these days we have to have a proper contest between our world and this one and see which one actually wins for being the most fucked up.

Smiler: Are the -- domesticated clown's markings also painted on eggs? Just curious.