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rncareergroup · 2 years

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RNCareerGroup-Best Agniveer Course in Chandigarh

What is it Agnipath scheme?

Agnipath Scheme, also called Agneepath Scheme, is a tour-of-duty program launched by the Indian government on June 14, 2022, for the recruitment of troops into the three armed services who are below the rank of commissioned officers.

The youth of India will be instrumental in making the dream of creating an AatmaNirbhar, Sashakt Bharat a reality. A step closer will be made through the Agnipath scheme. It is a special chance for them to realize their desire of enlisting in the military and defending the country. RN Defence Academy is the best Academy for Agniveer Course in Chandigarh.

Overview Of the Agniveer Scheme:

The Indian government authorized the Agnipath initiative in June 2022, and it will go into effect in September 2022. At noon on June 14, 2022, the announcement was made. The program is open to both male and female candidates between the ages of 17.5 and 21. The Central Government increased the upper limit from 21 to 23 amid widespread demonstrations against the program, but only for hiring in 2022. The Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force will all be recruiting through this program twice a year. The vacant positions fall below the officer cadre. The only way to join the military is through the Agnipath Scheme.

It Means if you want to join the Airforce, Indian navy, or Indian Army all these posts and forms have come under the notification of the Agniveer scheme.

Everything you need to know about Airforce, Navy, and Army is mentioned below including the syllabus, paper scheme, and which coaching institute is best for Agniveer coaching

NEW BATCHES BEGIN EVERY MONDAY. BATCHES IN THE EARLY MORNING AND THE EVENING ARE BOTH AVAILABLE. FULL STUDY MATERIAL IS PROVIDED BY THE INSTITUTE, INCLUDING THE LAST 11-YEAR QUESTION PAPER WITH SOLUTION AND OBJECTIVE TYPE ASSIGNMENT. 6 DAYS A WEEK OF DAILY 5 TO 7 HR CLASSES AND WEEKLY INSTITUTE TEST. EXTRA TIME SET APART FOR DOUBT SESSION CLASSES

Indian Navy SSR AA Coaching in Chandigarh

An essential component of the Indian Armed Forces, the Indian Navy represents power, honor, discipline, bravery, and courage. It plays a crucial part in India’s defense services. The fact that the Indian Navy is the fifth-largest Navy in the world suffices to demonstrate its esteem. Aspiring aspirants have received helpful advice in this area from RN Defence Academy in Chandigarh. For those who want to serve the nation and take an active role in the security and defense of the nation, it has been a continual source of support. Looking for Chandigarh’s Best Indian Navy Coaching. Enroll in Chandigarh, India, coaching for the AA and SSR admission exams for the Indian Navy. In Chandigarh, India, RN Defence Academy offers the best coaching for the Indian Navy. We are regarded as Navy SSR & AA’s top coaching facility.

Best Indian Navy SSR AA Coaching In Chandigarh

A sight for many fans is joining the Navy. The top Indian Navy Coaching is available at the RN Defence Academy in Chandigarh, and it offers students helpful advice on how to pass the SSR AA exam. Without the instruction provided to applicants at the Naval SSR Coaching Institute in Chandigarh, it is exceedingly difficult to pass the Naval test. Since our achievement over the years has been impressive, we are pleased to list our institute as one of the best coaching centers for the Naval Examination. Exam results are good for students. Our group follows the naval testing success stages. For the Naval examination, applicants might prepare the fundamental knowledge from earlier courses.

Indian Army(Clerk, GD)

A reputable institution for preparing for defense exams is the RN Defence Academy. The greatest instructors and policemen on our staff are in charge of instructing and educating the students. Every year, we have selected a sizable number of candidates for the Indian Army GD. Different from other training methods, ours focuses more on effective pre-game strategies

For physical training, we have a staff of qualified trainers and dieticians. Nothing we left in the training can prevent you from making a decision. We can boast that we offer the best GD classes for the Indian Army in India. For choosing, our preparation is more than adequate.

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aptechvisaglobalimmigration · 2 years

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160,000 foreigners are invited to live, work, and prosper in Australia!

Migration Program of the Australian Government. The program's primary goal is to accelerate the nation's economic recovery, which is currently hampered by pandemic-related problems. It is intended to improve and promote social cohesion outcomes in the aftermath of an epidemic. According to the official documentation, the Migration Program would also have a planning level of 160,000 spaces.

Distribution of the Migration Program

Additionally, the following composition further distributes these locations.

Skill Visa

This stream, which has 109,900 spots, is intended to increase the economy's potential for production.

FREE AUSTRALIA IMMIGRATION ASSESSMENT FORM

Additionally, this will address the skills gap in the job market, which includes regional Australia.

Families Visa

This stream, which has 50,000 openings, consists primarily of Partner visas.

In this way, Australians can reunite with their distant relatives and provide them access to citizenship.

Partner Visas

From 2022 to 2023, partner visas will be issued based on demand in order to encourage family reunions.

This also aims to speed up the application procedure for many applicants and the Partner visa pipeline.

40,500 Partner visas are anticipated for 2022–2023 for planning purposes.

It is important to remember that there is no upper limit on this estimate.

Talk 📞 to our 👩‍💻 immigration expert at #AptechVisa

+91-7503832132, +91-8447281370, +91-9131059075

Child Visas

For planning purposes, an anticipated 3000 child visas will be issued in 2022–2023.

It should be noted that this category is demand-driven and uncapped.

Particular Eligibility

This stream, which has 100 spots available, provides visas for people with particular needs, such as Australian permanent residents who are returning home after spending time abroad.

Moving forward, in order to adapt to shifting economic conditions as they happen, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services, and Multicultural Affairs has the right to regularly redistribute the positions among Skill Stream visa categories.

SKILLED OCCUPATION LIST - AUSTRALIAN SKILLED MIGRATION

Visas Nominated by States

The State and Territory governments may recommend qualified people for visas under this program.

It is important to remember that although there is an age requirement, these visa holders do not need to be connected to a specific employer.

This states that the person must be under 45 years of age.

Please be aware that there is currently no employment guarantee.

They must therefore establish their own viewpoint.

Nominated Visa Categories by States and Territories

The following visa categories are available to States and Territories as nomination allocations under the 2022–23 Migration Program.

Skilled – Nominated (subclass 190)

Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) (subclass 491)

Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP)

Please take note that each State and Territory evaluates eligible applications according to standards specific to their territory.

You can also read the latest Australia Immigration News and Draw Updates here.

Also read:

Indian guide on Australia Tourist Visa

Australia Immigration 2022 expected to rise by 2023

All You need to know about the Australian PR Process for Indians

Apply for an Australia Skilled visa assuming you are an It Professional

Source Url: https://www.blog.aptechvisa.com/blogs/pr-and-job-opportunities-await-australian-immigrants

#Australia pr #Australia pr process #Australia pr eligibility #Australia immigration #Australia Spouse Visa #Australia Child Visa #Australia visa sub class 190 #Australia visa sub class 491

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octaviasdread · 2 years

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Gendered Boarding Schools: Dead Poets Society (1989) & All I Wanna Do (1998) - Part Two

P1: Character & Plot Similarities | P3: Student Rebellions & Secret Societies | P4: Are They Queer?

I'm back with another silly little post about mid-century boarding schools I'll never be rich enough to attend. Shamefully, I haven't actually finished part one yet, but I have a lot of half-finished content that's really late so here we are. I'm planning to try and get part one up tomorrow, but I hope this makes enough sense without it.

P.S - All I Wanna Do has a few content warnings so if anyone wants a list or anything specific just send me an ask<3

Part Two: Schools, Teachers & Star Students (aka, the start of an extensive analysis)

1. Nolan's Hellton vs. McVane's Miss Godawful's

Both Welton and Miss Goddard's are attended by multiple generations of the same families and are touted to be one of the best preparatory schools in the United States.

While these 19th-century institutions remain almost unchanged in their approach to education and welfare, there are noticeable differences in their goals. Welton was established to protect tradition, while Miss Goddard created her school to protect the minds and interests of young girls whose education is not traditionally prioritised.

Mr Nolan as headmaster represents conformity to a society that is inadequate for the boys. Nolan believes in the success of the old ways and the preservation of social power. For this reason, he views Mr Keating's teaching philosophy as a threat to social stability. If students can think for themselves, they may not follow the prescribed path of college, a well-paid (and parentally approved) career, marriage, and kids to feed back into the system.

Whereas Miss McVane, headmistress of Miss Goddard's, represents a need for social change. She believes in her school as a rare institution that provides a high-quality, well-rounded education to girls who would otherwise end up in traditional finishing schools. Miss Goddard's carries hallmarks of a finishing school - french lessons and horse riding - to satisfy the requirements of upper-class parents, whilst concentrating on academic achievement, character building, and self-governance in its students.

Interestingly, this places Miss McVane closer to Mr Keating than Mr Nolan in her characterisation as a humorous, well-intentioned, and sympathetic teacher. This similarity also has a darker side as Miss McVane is similarly restricted to working within the system to alter the student's environment, education, and well-being for the better. She may be Headmistress, but her power is limited by the trustees in ways that Mr Nolan's authority is not. The film makes it clear that Miss McVane will not be listened to, and will even be penalised, if she becomes angry or emotional during disagreements with the trustees or the Headmaster of the St. Ambrose School for Boys. The insecurity of her position is stated outright. If Miss Goddard's becomes co-educational then she can easily be replaced.

This threat confirms Miss McVane's fear that her girls will be neglected within the walls of their own school and therefore inadequately prepared to advocate for themselves in the outside world.

"We build them up so you can’t tear them down. They come first here. If we merge with a boy’s academy, the girls will be second. They shouldn’t have to learn such a bitter lesson at this crucial age" ~ Miss McVane

Miss McVane's method of balancing compliance with hints of subversion fails, leaving her exhausted from fighting within the limits of a system set up to subdue her. In the Headmistress' final moments with Verena, she lets her emotions get the better of her, before instructing her ex-student to "never give up." In this scene, student and teacher part as equals (shown in their handshake and Miss McVane offering her student a cigarette) who have each made sacrifices for "the fight."

Visually, Miss McVane's final meeting with Verena has many similarities to Neil's last scene alone with Keating. Tea and tears define these scenes as student and teacher talk freely within the private sanctuary of their teacher's office. The key difference between these meetings is reflected, in part, through colour. Miss McVane's parting words to Verena are spoken amongst a backdrop of light and greenery, hinting at her fertile future full of growth and possibility. Keating's office is coloured with hints of red while the close-up shots which accompany the dialogue are shadowed, betraying Neil's gloomy future. It is the tone of these mentor meetings that foreshadows the end of Verena and Neil's character arcs.

Meanwhile, it is the remaining students whose actions make an impact. The Headmistress cannot protect them, nor can Verena, their peer leader. This loss generates a similar sense of hopelessness and impending doom to the loss of Neil and the removal of Mr Keating. These emotions motivate the girls to organise and use their education to stage a protest. They re-group under Odie's leadership - like the poet's following Todd's lead in peaceful protest against Keating's dismissal - to demand a vote and lobby for power.

"Miss Godard’s gave us a voice, so now it’s kinda hard to shut up" ~ Odette Sinclair

This contrast between Miss McVane's resigned dread and the energy of youth reflects the larger cultural context of social protest and second-wave feminism at the time of the film's 1963 setting. It was a notable year in US feminism:

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was published. The book used interviews and research to argue that women are not inherently fulfilled by the role of a housewife. It questioned the contribution of education, media portrayals, and the advertising industry to the widespread lack of identity felt by women. While the book undeniably mobilised a challenge to tradition, it cannot be ignored that Friedan's work excluded non-white, working-class, and queer women

Gloria Steinem's A Bunny's Tale was published in SHOW magazine. This was a shocking expose of the misogeny, exploitation, and forced medical monitoring that women suffered as employees at Hugh Hefner's Playboy club

The Equal Pay Act was signed into federal law by President Kennedy in June to make pay discrimination on the basis of gender illegal for similar work with the same employer

For the cultural context of Dead Poet's Society's 1959 setting see part four (I still can't believe I did that) of my previous essay series.

2. Social Power and the Face of the Trustees

The Trustees' neglect of Miss Goddard's and their under-estimation of the girls is evident in the school security. Where Welton Academy has dogs to keep watch and raise the alarm, Miss Goddard's has elderly men constantly shown to be unfit for the position. Throughout the film, the guards are shown to be sleeping on duty, zoning out while Odie's boyfriend sneaks in, and absolutely nowhere to be found when Snake's gang of 'townie' boys trespasses twice onto school property at night.

The face-off between the old, white men supposed to enforce the rules and the teenage girls armed with anger and hockey sticks only emphasises the building social change. The guards manage to take down the barriers to the occupied building but cower at the sight of organised young women. Hints of ineptitude become undeniable fact as the security team runs away. This short exchange illustrates the effectiveness of a united front, but also the incoming era of social revolution as the guards who most closely resemble the nation's leaders are unable to use force against this majority, thus leaving them no choice but to retreat.

Mrs Sawyer, President of the Trustees, wears the 'little white gloves' (examined in the next section) which Odie tells her classmates to throw out during her rallying speech. These gloves are symbolic of compliance with the socio-political system which devalued and oppressed women in the period.

When a security guard explains they will have to break windows and doors to carry out Mrs Sawyer's instructions, Miss McVane is horrified, while Mrs Sawyer responds, "do it." This willingness to destroy the school building represents her participation in efforts to uphold capitalist and patriarchal power. Mrs Swayer benefited from the school, yet has no regrets about damaging the opportunities and education provided to its current students, including her daughter, if the result is a further increase to her own socio-economic power as an individual.

"Miss Goddard's was betrayed by her own. Year after year I've been on my knees grovelling to the alumni for handouts [...] Men give generously to their schools, it's a solid investment for ensuring a steady supply of the nation's leaders will be men. Maybe you women don't give because, deep down, you know it's useless" ~ Miss McVane

I'd like to amend Miss McVane's speech to acknowledge that these ensured leaders will be men like themselves. The men donating as alumni are largely those from schools like Welton - white and extremely privileged. Men from working-class and minority backgrounds rarely received the same support or opportunities, in fact, they were actively excluded from them.

On the topic of privilege and power, it is Mrs Sawyer, the President of the Board of Trustees, who most closely mirrors Mr Nolan.

Visually, Gale Nolan and Paige Sawyer hold similar positions at the Chapel lectern as they represent the school authority in an address to the students and their parents. Placing these characters as representatives of preparatory schools reveals a further narrative function - a representation of the adults these schools are expected to produce.

It is particularly interesting that both Richard Cameron and Abigail Sawyer, the two students these adults have the highest expectations of and feel proudest of the trust placed in them to succeed at the beginning of Dead Poets Society and All I Wanna Do, become the most conflicted about their duty to obey adult (and social) authority as the events of each film unfold.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but Mrs Sawyer losing her control over Abigail, the board of Trustees, and Miss Goddard's school seems like an apt commentary on the fading importance of high society wives as women began to enter the workforce in greater numbers. This entrance into the workforce is exactly what the secret DAR club discusses as their most secret of ambitions.

A similar conclusion can be drawn from Dead Poets Society as the tragedy has little effect on Nolan - a representative of those whose power has been maintained long after the social revolutions of the 1960s. Meanwhile, the students learn to think for themselves and are forced to choose a side - to stand or not stand - at the end of the film. It is the youth who drove much of the protest movements against the governing forces which Nolan represents.

I debated over the inclusion of this section, but both of these films are retrospective tales of the past produced 1989-98. Knowledge of historical outcomes has an inescapable effect on our interpretations of history so it is a fair angle to at least consider.

Parts 2, 3, and 4 were originally one long and glitch-filled post. For this reason, the images are still in a combined format from when I tried to squeeze them into the ten image limit, sorry! But I'm too tired to change it now.

Sources:

A-Level: American History, 1860-1975

Uni module: Angry Young Men & Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century

Betty Friedman's The Feminine Mystique: text and about

Gloria Steinem's 'A Bunny's Tale

The Equal Pay Act

#CO Posts #dead poets society #dps #anderperry #all i wanna do #all I wanna do 1998 #strike!#the hairy bird movie #kirsten dunst #verena von stefan #odette sinclair #verena x odie

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writing-prompts-for-friends · 4 years

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Questions to Help World Build

I’ve realized I have a big problem with my writing. I am awful at world-building. Like, I just start writing without thinking about the world. And since I write fantasy. Well. That’s pretty no bueno and leads to all kinds of problems down the road. So I did some brainstorming with my friends and we created a list of over 100 questions to help think about our stories’ worlds and make them more concrete. Thanks to everyone who chimed in and gave me a hand!

A traditional Japanese clock, wadokei, that counted hours from 9 to 4, starting from sunrise, and then starting once again from sunset. (1-3 were not used for religious purposes.) They’re super interesting and confusing. You should definitely check them out.

Temporal

Is your story set in the past, present, or future?

Specifically, what year(s), month(s), day(s)?

Are days 24 hours? Or does time pass differently in this world?

How many months are there in a year? Is it a seven day weekday? Does the concept of weekends exist?

Have most existing societies developed a timekeeping device?

Is there a way to communicate across long distances?

The concept of time zones is still relatively new to our world. Prior to the late nineteenth century, timekeeping was a purely local phenomenon. Each town would set their clocks to noon when the sun reached its zenith each day. Do standardized time zones exist across the world?

Geographical

From a planet perspective, is it Earth? If it is not Earth, or an alternative version of Earth, what is it like? Is gravity the same? Does it have a moon or multiple moons? Can you see other planets? Is it closer or further from the sun? If so, what impact does that have on the climate and passage of time?

What town, state, region, country, continent, planet does this story take place in? What are its bordering/nearest neighbors? Draw a world map if you want.

What kind of land is it? Landlocked? Mountainous? Along the sea? Desert? Tundra? Tropical forest? Plains? Agricultural? Industrial?

What kind of plants and animals are common to the area? Are there any that do not exist in the real world?

What are the most common crops and livestock in various regions? What geographic features influence certain regions ability to grow/raise their crops and livestock (positively and negatively)? Are the regions diets strongly influenced by what they are able to grow themselves, or do other circumstances (like strong international trade) allow them to have more varied selections? How does religion influence what is considered ‘normal’ to eat?

What, if any, natural disasters are common to the region? Earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, monsoons, blizzards?

How many seasons does it have? Are any longer than others?

What is the typical weather like for those seasons?

Does the region have any unusual geographical features that set it apart? Perhaps there is some weird thing like Devil’s Tower just chilling out. Or hot springs because of volcanic activity?

Is it easy to travel from place to place within the area? Is it difficult to travel because of terrain/technology issues, or because travel is strictly regulated?

Main Locations: Cities

Many stories take place within one city. In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, a character remarks, “So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe it dreams.” What personality does this city have? What soul does it have? What does it dream of when it slumbers? If your story takes place within a settlement, town, or city, give these questions some thought.

Exactly where is it located within the lands you conjured up in the above Geography questions? Does it have a bay? A river? Does it butt up against mountains? Draw a map of the city.

How big is the city? Is it compact, or sprawling?

How old is the city?

What is the history of the city? How did it come to be? What tumults and triumphs has it seen?

What is the population? Is it currently increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same?

Does the town have any claim to fame? Any tourist attractions? What are they? What’s the story behind them?

If it’s a big enough city, how many and what kind of districts does it have? Residential, Commercial, Industrial, etc. Where are they?

Are there any areas that are deemed unsafe? If so, where are they and why are they unsafe?

Is there public transportation? What kind, bus, tram, train, subway, monorail? Is it good?

How do people get around this city if not by public transportation?

Are the roads narrow or wide? Crisscrossing in a methodical grid or higgledy-piggledy?

What are the buildings like? What materials are they made of? If they’re wooden, are they new wood, old wood? If they’re painted, what colors? If they’re stone, what stone? If they’re brick, is it new red brick or blackened, crumbling brick? If they’re glass and metal, are they sparkling with new hope or dull and jaded?

Are there many skyscrapers? Or are most buildings 1-3 stories tall? What does the skyline look like?

Are there many parks?

How is the city powered? Coal? Hydroelectric? Wind? Nuclear? Has it always been so?

What is the city’s main source of revenue? Agriculture? Tourism? Manufacturing? Mining? Something else? A combination? Dive deeper into this. If it’s agriculture, what do they grow? Tourism–what is famous? etc. This will help to determine what a lot of people do for a living.

What are the demographics? Ethnicity, age distribution, distribution of upper, middle, and lower class, etc.

How many schools are there? Universities? Are any of them good? Do they specialize in anything? Do schools even exist? Perhaps there are clans that teach their children everything they need, for example, or education isn’t viewed as important.

Are there any particular landmarks within the city that standout?

How many and what kind of restaurants are there?

Are there supermarkets, open air markets, or both?

Where do young people go to spend time? What about adults?

Do people there bustle or do they amble?

What are the nights like? Does the city grow quiet, or does it grow rowdy?

What does the city smell like?

If you had to give your town a color, one that represented its personality, what color would it be?

Main Locations: Houses (or buildings, but mainly houses)

There are many stories that have a house or headquarters or hospital or some sort of building as their main setting. These questions will mostly be geared towards helping you figure out a house, but you can apply these to other buildings too probably.

Exactly where is the house located within the city or outside the city? How does your character usually get there? Draw a map.

What year was the house built?

Was this house built by the current family or their ancestors? Who else lived in the house before the current dwellers? What were they like? Did they leave their mark on the house somehow?

What style is the house? Bungalow? Cabin? A shed? A cave? (makes the following questions mostly useless if so lol)

How many stories is it?

What is it made of? Wood? Brick? What color is it?

Does it have a lot of windows?

Are the curtains usually open or drawn? Are thee curtains at all?

What does the front door look like?

Is there a porch?

You enter the front door. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you use the side door because the front door is for show or something. Anyways. You enter the house. What room do you step foot into?

Draw out the floor plans for each floor. How many rooms are there? Where are they? How big are they? How are they connected? What color are they? What style of decor?

Is there a basement? Is it used or is it just a home for spiders and darkness and unwanted things? How about an attic? Crawlspace?

How many bathrooms?

Are there any rooms that only certain people are allowed to enter? If so, why?

What is the flooring? Carpet? Wood? Tile? Linoleum?

What does the house smell like?

Government/Military/Economy

In other words, “the boring stuff,” if you ask me. But this is a very important aspect of any world.

What sort of government is in place? Democracy, oligarchy, etc? Is it a just or corrupt government?

How are goods exchanged? Bartering? Money? Coins and bills? Credit cards? A specific kind of sea shell? Lol

What are the police like? Strict? Lax? Is there a curfew?

Do taxes exist? If so, do the people feel as though they are heavily or unduly taxed?

Where is the intersection between theology and law? Is it common to have religious leaders in positions of power? Are laws based around religious ideology, or is there an effort to keep them separate?

Is there an organised structure devoted to halting criminal acts? Are they corrupt? Who runs the organisation? How does their reputation change based on demographic? What is the history of the organisation, and how does that history influence how it operates today?

Regarding potentially criminal acts, what is the elgality of prostitution, sex work, ect.?

What about drugs and other illicit substances? Alcohol, illicit drugs, recreational use. Legality, festivity, age limits, etc.

Underbelly. How prevalent is crime, what sort of crime (scaled from pickpocketing to human trafficking) is there? Are there areas that have bad reputations because of it?

Regarding war, are there currently conflicts in the world? Are they international or civil wars? How common is it to have an active war? What is the history of war? What does current warfare look like (Is it dudes in metal suits swinging swords? Have longbows been invented? Gunpowder? Tanks? Missiles?) Is military service mandatory or voluntary? How is the military seen? Is there a sense of patriotism for the military, or does the common man fear it?

Is there stigma around certain genders entering the military? Are come genders regarded as better recruits than others? Is it illegal for some genders to enter the military? Does a person's sexuality affect their ability to serve?

How has religion influenced war? Have there been holy wars in the past? Do any religious institutions hold their own military forces?

Cultural/Historical

I’ve put these together because events in history lead to cultural change. You can apply these questions not only to the world/country, but also the city or even the neighborhood, workplace, or school that your story takes place in.

What is the history of the region? Who was it settled by? Was another group of people displaced? After that, did any new cultures come in? Did they get along?

Were there ever any wars or serious conflicts in the region? What was the cause and what was the outcome of the war if there was one?

In our world, the internet, social media, and film/tv are massive cultural drivers. They determine the latest fashions, jokes, topics, and expressions. What are the big cultural drivers in your world? Books? Plays? Radio? Oral tradition?

Is it a collectivistic or individualistic society?

What languages are spoken by your characters? Is multilingualism common?

What sorts of cultures can be seen? Do any clash? Do any mesh?

What sort of foods are most common?

What superstitions do people hold? Is there a version of “knock on wood” or throwing salt over your shoulder after a funeral? What are the roots of these superstitions?

Are there religions? If so, what are they? Do any conflict with each other? Are zealots or extremists an issue?

Does slavery or indentured servitude exist?

Are there any class or caste systems? If so, what are they, and what does an average day look like for a member of each class/caste?

How does a person's appearance change from country to country? Do certain countries have very distinct fashions? If so, are the fashions influenced by religion, surrounding countries, the cultural majority or international trade partners?

How does a person's clothing relate to their social standing? Is it very easy to assume someone's roll by appearance alone? Are there punishments for dressing above or below your social standing?

Does the society place a great deal of importance on a person's presentation, or is the society more lenient on such things?

Is there an emphasis on conformity to a dress code, or is individuality encouraged? How strictly is clothing regulated by gender binary? Is it commonplace to see a man and a woman walking down the street in the same cut of clothes? Is there a social stigma when a person does not conform to the most common form of dress for their gender?

How are sexual rights viewed? Does the LGBTQ community have the same rights as people outside the community? How are sex acts between people of the same sex viewed? Is it legal? Taboo? Are there cultures that encourage those relationships in some circumstances (like how the romans were down with guys with guys in the military)?

Are there any groups of people that are victims of prejudice? If so, who are they, who holds these views against them, and what views specifically are they?

In regards to gender, do certain societies hold differing beliefs? Is there a commonly accepted number of gender identities or does it change regionally? Is the most common gender spectrum a binary, or do certain racial and cultural differences allow for a wider range to be seen as the baseline?

Are children raised by their biological parents or are children considered to be in the care of the wider community? Is it common/acceptable for extended family to raise children, such as parents needing to study, work, or serve time in the military? Is adoption a common thing in society? Is there a stigma around adoption/being adopted? Do cultural or religious views impact how adoption is seen by the wider community? What is adoption like for a single perspective parent? When adopting, is interracial adoption accepted/common, or is it seen in a negative light? Are some societies more open to adopting children outside of their own race?

How is sex and virginity viewed? Does religion influence it? What is the age of consent? What is appropriate on a first, second, third date? Is sex something that is talked about openly, or something taboo? Are you supposed to wait until marriage? Do couples stay monogamous while dating? Do some regions place higher importance on virginity than others? Do some place higher importance on one gender’s virginity than others?

How is marriage viewed? Are arranged marriages a big thing, or are people free to choose? Is monogamy common? How is a marriage symbolized? A wedding ring, or something different?

How is divorce viewed? What is the divorce rate? Can people remarry?

Magic and the Supernatural

If magic or spooky stuff doesn’t exist in your story, disregard this section.

Does magic exist? If so, who can use it? What are the limitations to their magic? What things are they capable of using their magic to do? What things are they incapable of doing?

Are there laws against what kind of magic can/cannot be used? What sort of laws? Who enforces them? What are the punishments for breaking said laws if they exist?

How does the existence of magic affect religion? Are there religious institutions that infuse magic into their worship? Are there religious sects that see magic as immoral and in direct opposition to their faith? Have there been conflicts in recent or ancient history between religion and the supernatural? Do some sects employ people to hunt and/or enforce law over the supernatural?

Assuming that magic does exist, is it taught? Are there different schools of magic? Is there a system of ranking for magic users based on their skill level?

Do non-magic users look towards magic users with respect or fear?

What role does magic play in this world? Has technology not advanced because magic solves many problems? Or has technology advanced and the use of some magics has become unnecessary?

Are there any mythological creatures/monsters, such as vampires, demons, skinwalkers, dragons, or other creatures of your own creation? Are they common? Do people believe in their existence? Do people worship them? Where can they be found? Do they interact with humans? Do humans fear them or try to put up with them as they do nature?

Do the dead continue to exist in some form, such as ghosts or zombies or the like? Can the dead be summoned or brought back to life?

Are there human/supernatural hybrids? Perhaps a half-demon half-human, for example? How are these people viewed by their peoples, and by society as a whole?

How has the supernatural influenced war? Do armies tend to have a mix of regular and supernatural soldiers/weapons? Have there been wars between the supernatural/magical and those without? How does magic influence a person standing in a mixed army? Is it more likely for a magical being to be promoted than a non-magical being? Conversely, are supernatural being forced into service and seen as pawns?

The End!

Please feel free to reblog and share, and add on any questions you think should be added!

#worldbuilding #world building #creative writing #writing fiction #writing tips #brainstorming #creative writing methodology #writing prompt #writing exercise #writing prompts for friends resources #long post #writing inspiration #writing prompts for friends

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southeastasianists · 3 years

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The history of military rule, armed conflict and the influence of gender norms mean that women and men live, work and socialize in different ways. Women are generally expected to stay at home and concern themselves with household affairs. And yet, since the early days of the coup, women have been visible opposing dictatorship and participating in protests through, for example the pots and pans campaign, civil disobedience movement and neighborhood vigilance groups. They are frontline protestors and activists on social media. Images of women have proliferated on social media giving them unprecedented visibility. It is inspiring to see sheer numbers of women such as teachers who are usually seen as apolitical become politically active and taking risks by participating in the protests. Women of different ages and social backgrounds have been at the heart of these protests.

Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948 until 2010, the country was ruled by successive military regimes with the military playing a key role in Myanmar politics even in its democratic transition after the 2010 elections. Military rule has reinforced “the authoritarian, hierarchical and chauvinistic values that underpinned male-dominated power structures“. Because of the close links between the military and perceptions of male supremacy, this makes discussions and progress towards women’s rights and their participation in public life difficult to envisage for many. Under the military one party state, the civil and political rights of all citizens were decimated and women experienced violence through the use of rape as a tool of war. Even during the transition to democracy, with the adoption of a new constitution, Myanmar remains a masculine state with its male-dominated institutions where there is no belief in women’s equality with men, or support for women to become leaders and politicians. Women remain notably under-represented in all aspects of public and political life in Myanmar’s democratising state. Women comprise 13.6 per cent of elected MPs in the lower house and 13.7 per cent in the upper house at the national level following the 2015 elections, and only 0.5 per cent of women elected at the village level.

For women’s organisations and networks, which made some gains during the transition, the return to the military regime is a blow to progressing the gender equality agenda. Women’s organisations and networks such as Gender Equality Network (GEN) and Women’s Organisations Network (WON) have rejected the military regime by boycotting the Myanmar National Committee on Women (MNCW), the national machinery for gender equality. Membership of GEN and WON to MNCW was approved under the NLD government, for the first time opening up space for women’s voices to be heard at a policy level. Previously that space was occupied by state-sponsored women’s organisations. Most members of these organisations were wives of generals, thereby reinforcing rather than upsetting patriarchal power. Despite their gains in this space, GEN and WON refuse to work with the military regime. “We have zero trust on the military council’s promise of fulfilling human rights because we believe women’s rights and gender equality only survive in a democratic system not under military rule” said May Sabe Phyu, the director of GEN.

A number of women’s organisations and networks also have boycotted the Technical Working Groups (TWGs) established to support implementation of National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women 2013–2022 (NSPAW). In statements rejecting the TWGs, the women’s groups explained that they do not recognize the military council as the legitimate governing body, therefore cannot support its administration. By taking away women’s voices from the policy and political processes of the military regime, they challenge the legitimacy of the State Administrative Council (SAC) formed by the military. Simultaneously, they channeled their voices through open letters to international bodies such as UN Human Rights Council and ASEAN member states, and demanded the restoration of democratic rule in the protests.

The military has reinforced the idea of its protective role as the norm by emphasizing its duty to “protect democracy“, “constitution” and its intention to form a “true and disciplined democracy” in its claim of mass electoral fraud in the 2020 election as the justification for the coup. In fact, the military has nurtured its self-image as the “guardian” of the state throughout its patriarchal rule. The military-guided constitution includes references to women principally as ‘mothers’, which not only reinforces a gendered stereotype, but also contends that their reproductive roles are in need of protection (Section 32). The Race and Religion Protection Laws (2015), passed under the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)’s government, is an example of controlling women’s bodies and limiting their religious and personal freedoms, in the name of ‘protecting’ women.

During the protests, women from Kayah State have been effectively challenging the norm, imposed by the military, that women need protection and the military as the protection. In their rally, women carried bras and sanitary pads as symbols of opposition to the coup. Norms perpetuate ideas that women’s inner clothing, such as bras and pads, is dirty; that women are impure during menstruation; and that women’s roles should be located in the private sphere. By bringing these items into the public sphere, they challenge patriarchal norms and shame the military. Their poster declares that “the military can no longer provide protection for us, not even at the level of a pad” –a timely and relevant narrative as the number of women and men killed in crack-downs across the country increases day by day. In this context, Karenni women have challenged the norm that the military is the protection/protector for the women and all of the people. At the same time, they challenge the norm of women being private sphere.

Women are also challenging other gender norms such as “hpon,” which gives higher authority and status to men. This perceived inherent spiritual superiority leads to men attaining positions of power and influence in political and religious institutions. In the prevailing culture, men tend to avoid walking under women’s drying htamain or longyi (sarong), as they believe that this can harm their hpon. So women are required to hang their htamain lower than men’s clothing and at the back of the house. Protestors have subverted this superstition and turned women’s under garments into an effective protection/defense strategy by hanging women’s htamain in the lines across the street and building htamain barricades to induce fear and lower the masculine status of the security force. Images of security forces trying to remove these htamain shared on social media show that this strategy challenges deep-seated misogynistic/patriarchal beliefs held by the military, and demonstrate that the htamain has been turned into an empowering symbol of resistance.

Women saw this strategy used widely by women and by men, and began to consider it time to directly challenge patriarchal norms, misogyny and sexism rooted in the dictatorship. A group of young women protestors called for a nationwide htamain movement on 8 March, International Women’s Day (IWD), urging people to use women’s htamain as flags. Their slogans, “fly the htamain flag, end the dictatorship,” and “our htamain, our flag, our victory” became the IWD’s theme in Myanmar. Using the htamain as the flag flying high in the marching, women have effectively challenged the private/public roles and patriarchal norms that limit women’s potential.

Phyo Nay Chi, an activist in the campaign, said “we want to highlight the significance of women’s participation in the fight against the dictatorship so we use htamain as the flags during our marches, and as a symbol of our victory over the dictatorship and patriarchal norms.” The night before the movement the SAC passed an emergency law making hanging htamain on the street illegal. Despite this, the women’s action was successful in many areas of Myanmar. There were many posts on social media young men wrapping htamain around their heads and bodies and holding htamain flags in support of the campaign.

This is a revolution in the making, opposing the misogynistic dictatorship as well as its underlying patriarchal ideology. Myanmar women now stand at a unique and revolutionary moment in their history. Although norms and experiences are diverse, women find common ground fighting the dictatorship and the patriarchal ideology. Women in Myanmar need to seize this moment to define a shared vision that also celebrates their differences. How can we create our own, context-specific notions of equality and rights, breaking the patriarchal discourse that has dominated Myanmar’s recent history?

#Southeast Asia #Burma #Myanmar #Gender Issues #Protests #Military Junta

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patandpran · 4 years

Text

Coffee and Coding

A PangxWave Coffee Shop Au...

Wave was on the hunt for Wifi. That’s all he needed. He was in the middle of an extremely complicated coding assignment when his internet crashed at his apartment. If he didn’t get the assignment done in time, there was no telling what his Professor was going to think of him and he certainly wasn’t going to get the TA position he wanted so badly.

He stopped out of his apartment building and stalked the streets for a ‘free wifi’ sign. The first place he came across was a coffee shop. He wasn’t particularly a Java consumer but he was kind of desperate so he walked inside, his computer bag slung over his shoulder and walked up to the counter. He looked up at the menu and decided to order something completely at random because he had no idea what all of the different drinks were. To Wave, coffee was coffee. There didn’t need to anything fancy about it.

And yet, when he looked down from the menu, he almost dropped his computer bag and his order flew from his mind. The young man standing behind the counter was smiling at him so openly and unabashedly that it made Wave’s breath hitch. No one, especially not a complete stranger, had looked at him this way before. Wave’s eyes fell to the Barista’s name tag, which read: ‘Pang’.

When Wave did not immediately share his order, Pang smirked slightly and muttered, “Do you know what you want? I know our menu can be kind of overwhelming…”

“Uh….” Wave usually prided himself on being articulate but he could not seem to string a coherent sentence together.

“I’m going to be honest with you, I just started working here but, if you trust me, I can just make something and bring it out to you.” Pang suggested gently, noticing that Wave seemed to be indecisive.

Wave nodded slowly and held out phone to pay by ‘tap’ but Pang held out a hand to stop him. Pang explained, “You seem stressed. It’s on me. I’ll just cash it out as one of my practice drinks but, in return, you have to tell me how it is. Deal?”

“Deal.” Wave confirmed, still in a bit of a haze because of Pang’s kindness.

Pang nodded toward the tables in the coffee shop. “Go get set up and I’ll bring the drink to you in a bit. Our wifi password is ‘CoffeeisaGift’”

Wave nodded again and made his way over to a table to set up his computer. How the hell was he going to be able to focus on his work when Pang was so naturally distracting? Wave cursed himself for finding the Barista so interesting.

As much as he knew that he needed to get work done, Wave couldn’t help himself. He kept staring back at Pang who had an adorable look of concentration etched across his face as he worked on Wave’s drink. There was only so much Wave could do about concentration when a cute guy was going out of his way to make a drink especially for him. But, alas, he had work to do so he finally refocused and got to work on his assignment.

“Sorry it took so long. I wanted to practice some foam art.”

Wave looked up from his screen to see Pang hovering behind it, a steaming cup of coffee clutched between his hands. Pang had a nervous look on his face, his brows knotted together, and Wave had the sudden urge to reach up and smooth them out. There was no reason for Pang to be nervous - Wave would gladly drink anything he made.

“No problem. I was able to get a lot of work done.” Wave shared and a grin spread across his lips as Pang set down the mug to the side of his computer. “Thanks again for making me the drink.”

Wave looked down and saw a smiley face floating in foam at the top of the drink. . When he looked up, he saw Pang studying him expectantly. Pang obviously wanted to get Wave’s verdict on the drink and even though Wave was not a coffee connoisseur, he was the king of opinions.

He brought the cup to his mouth and took a small sip, making sure that he didn’t burn his tongue. The taste was sweet but subtle and shockingly the taste of coffee was not too prevalent, which Wave actually preferred. He put the cup down and looked up to Pang, “That is delicious. What’s in it?”

A look of amusement crossed Pang’s face and Wave wondered what could possibly be so funny about what he had said. Pang noticed Wave’s confusion and clarified, “You have a foam moustache. It’s kind of adorable.”

Before he could even process Pang’s words, Pang had grabbed a napkin and was wiping Wave’s upper lip with foam. No one, especially a stranger, had been in Wave’s space like this before but Wave was shocked to find himself completely comfortable with Pang’s presence. When Pang was done, he pulled away the napkin.

“It’s a latte with coconut milk.” Pang explained. “Natural sweetness from the milk and because I wasn’t sure if you were okay with lactose or not, I thought I’d go with an alternative.”

“T-thank you.” Wave managed to get out, sliding his hands around the mug once again. “It really is good, though. How long have you been working here?”

Pang seemed surprised that Wave wanted to continue the conversation and he checked behind him to see if there was any new customers lingering. When he saw none, Pang pulled out the chair and sat across from Wave at the table.

“I’ve been working here for just a few weeks.” Pang explained. “I go to Ritdha University so I live in the area too.”

“I go there too!” Wave expressed with a bit more enthusiasm than he probably should have. “What’s your major?”

“Oh, cool! I’m surprised I haven’t seen you around. Political Science.” Pang answered. “I want to be a lawyer or maybe work in government some day. What about you?”

“Computer science.” Wave responded and took another sip of his drink. “Actually, that’s why I’m here… my Wifi from my apartment went down so I had to come here to complete an assignment on time.”

“Oh, you mean you didn’t just come for the coffee?” Pang teased and leaned over to see what Wave was working on. “What’s the assignment?”

“Coding…” Wave felt his cheeks get hot. “Uh… it’s not that interesting…Geeky stuff.”

“That’s not geeky.” Pang sat back down and respected Wave’s privacy. “I think there’s nothing more intriguing than someone who is openly passionate about what they do, especially when it’s something that most people might not understand.”

Wave felt himself relax significantly because of Pang’s words. Wave tried to recall a time where he had instantly felt so connected to someone and couldn’t think of anything. There was something about Pang’s smile and energy that put Wave at ease.

“Why do you want to be in Politics?” Wave wondered, wanting to divert the conversation away from himself but also wanting to know more about Pang.

Pang got a serious look on his face and chewed his lip for a moment, clearly trying to put his thoughts together before sharing them with Wave. This was a quality that Wave couldn’t help but admire. Pang was really thinking about his response before he shared it.

“I want to help people.” Pang finally answered. “I think that sometimes people don’t have a voice because of certain societal limitations. I want to help people find that voice and help the world become a bit more just and equal.”

Wave was surprised by how mature Pang’s answer was, considering how young he looked. Wave figured they were around the same age. Pang had really thought about it while Wave had chosen technology because he had an affinity for it and had always been told that it would be a lucrative career path. His answer compared to Pang’s seemed juvenile and selfish.

“Wow, we’ve been talking this whole time and I still don’t know you name…” Pang prompted when Wave did not respond right away.

“I’m, uh, Wave.” Wave spat out, having been planning his response and compliment about Pang’s initial answer but felt more comfortable answering Pang’s question anyway.

“I’m Pang.” Pang shared, pointing to his name tag. “But I, uh, guess you already knew that. Anyway, sorry for chatting your ear off, I guess you probably need to get back to work instead of being distracted by an annoying Barista.”

“You’re not annoying.” Wave protested, wanting to make sure that his awkwardness was not coming across as disinterest. “The drink is amazing. Thanks again.”

Pang got up to his feet and smiled at Wave, “Well, I’m glad to hear that I’m not as horrible as I thought I was at making coffee. I should probably get back to work anyway…”

“O-okay.” Wave murmured, slightly disappointed, but he tried to keep his composure neutral.

Pang nodded and made his way back behind the counter and returned to his work tasks. Wave returned to working on his assignment, sipping away at the drink Pang had made him every so often as he got closer and closer to completing it. He was so lost in a world of binary that he did not even notice how dark it was getting outside. When he was finally done, he looked up from the screen and noticed that there no other customers left behind in the coffee shop.

Wave went to take one final sip of his drink and was surprised to find that it had gone cold. He drank it anyway and started to pack his things up, trying to see out of his periphery if Pang was still behind the counter or had already gone off shift. Wave picked up the mug to return it to the counter.

“All done?”

Pang appeared in front of Wave so suddenly that the mug slipped through his fingers in surprise. Thankfully, Pang reacted quickly enough and was able to catch the mug in his hands. Wave winced apologetically as Pang placed the cup on the counter.

“Not so good with your hands, are you?” Pang shared in a suggestive tone and Wave’s eyes grew wide in shock. Pang registered Wave’s reaction and quickly clarified, “I was kidding. Sorry. I shouldn’t be making jokes like that when we’ve only known each other for, like, five minutes.”

Wave’s gaze dropped to the floor to avoid Pang’s but after a quick breath, he looked up again and shared, “No worries. And, yah, I got the assignment done so I can sleep easy tonight… speaking of… are you supposed to be closed already?”

Pang smiled sheepishly and shrugged, “You just looked so focused and I did some extra deep cleaning. I really didn’t mind staying behind a bit later than usual.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” Wave muttered, a bit embarrassed that he had received special treatment and likely inconvenienced Pang.

“I know.” Pang confirmed, staring intently at Wave. “But I wanted to.”

“Oh…” Wave, once again, was taken aback by how straightforward Pang was. There was no BS, Pang seemed to the type of person who went for what they wanted, when they wanted. Wave was quite envious of that.

“Sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable.” Pang shared, “There’s just something about you that makes me want to get to know you more. You’re kind of an enigma, like a mystery I want to solve.”

“N-no it’s okay.” Wave assured him and a soft smile played on his lips. “I’m just not used to this kind of attention, especially not from someone like you…”

“Someone like me?” Pang echoed, clearly confused.

Wave considered his words carefully before responding, “Someone so confident, kind, friendly… I usually only get approached by people who want something from me… like, help on an assignment, want me to fix their computer, that kind of thing….You don’t need help with homework, do you?”

Pang chuckled lightly. “No, I think I’m okay. I’m sorry that’s your experience though. It probably makes it hard for you to trust people…”

“Yah…” Wave agreed, shocked by how quickly Pang seemed to be able to figure him out.

“Well, if you’re willing to take a chance on me, I would love to earn your trust.” Pang stated plainly. “Coffee’s great and all, but, would you maybe want to grab a drink with me sometime?”

Wave was at a complete loss of words. Was Pang, the adorable Barista, asking him out? He didn’t want to jump to conclusions too quickly so he tried to play it cool. He managed to get out, “Um, sure.”

Pang pulled a napkin from the dispenser on the counter and scrawled his number on it before passing it to Wave. “No pressure. Call or text me if you’re interested.”

Wave nodded, in a bit of a daze, and Pang guided him to the front door of the coffee shop, obviously needing to do some other last minute duties to close up the coffee shop. Wave walked through the door and turned to face Pang, who was hovering on the threshold, beaming at Wave.

“Thank you for the drink.” Wave murmured, and felt his cheeks grow hot before he blurted out, “I’ll text you later on tonight.”

Pang’s eyes lit up before he nodded, “See you soon, Wave. I look forward to getting to know more about you…”

With that, Pang disappeared back into the shop and locked the door behind him.

Wave, who had been so determined that the universe was against him when his Wifi stopped working that morning now was quite sure that he was meant to stumble upon that coffee shop on that particular day…

The universe might have taken his Wifi but it had given him the gift of Pang.

#pangwave #pang x wave #the gifted graduation #tgg #the gifted #my writing #cass writes

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priorireverte · 3 years

Photo

Congratulations Ash!

Your application for Theodore Nott has been accepted. As much as my inner government official is groaning and reaching for the headache potions already, I can’t wait to see what trouble this Unspeakable gets into.

Please look to the checklist for the next steps and reach out if you have any questions!

OUT OF CHARACTER

NAME & PRONOUNS: ash & they/them

AGE: twenty six

TIMEZONE: est

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m a front end dev for a virtual event platform who works between 5-7 days a week but I’m usually active after 6pm and on weekends. I have slow weeks when on lighter projects and busier weeks when we have a lot of shows.

ANYTHING ELSE: N/A on triggers. I’ve been roleplaying on tumblr for i think 14 years? Too long.

CHARACTER DETAILS

NAME: Theodore Cantankerus Nott

BIRTHDATE: July 7th, 1980

DEATHDATE: N/A

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Cismale, he/him. Theodore hasn’t given much thought to his sexuality, not even as far as labeling it. In the past, he’s found his attraction hasn’t been limited to one side of the gender spectrum. Currently, he’s entirely too busy to even sit for a moment and identify his years-long attraction to his current roommate. In the same manner, gender is never something he’s felt the need to question.

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Slytherin

OCCUPATION: Unspeakable in the Death Department.

FACECLAIM: Woo Do-hwan

CHARACTER BACKGROUND

TW. Child Abuse, Neglect, Parental Death

POSTBELLUM

Theodore finds himself deeply in the middle of moving on. His own experiences with the second wizarding war left a sour taste in the wixen’s mouth and not just due to his father’s involvement. He watched various classmates suffer at the hands of the Dark Lord, familial pressure, and expectations. He noted no members of the high and mighty heroes seemed to think of the lowly slytherins. No hands were outstretched. No children saved from their situations. That was the heart of the issue. They were children then and aren’t now. How is he to trust that his generation will act any differently? Theodore has always preferred to be on the sidelines, to watch before acting, and to have his actions be as discreet and unnoticed as possible. Growing up, the lesson of fading into the background had been indoctrinated into him and that was a terrible thing to try to shake. Theodore’s never been a fighter. He’s always preferred to have knowledge on a situation before speaking.

Becoming an Unspeakable gave him a chance he never thought he would have to dedicate his life strictly to learning. With the dead coming back, Theodore hopes for his mother even though hope is something he has given up on a long time ago. Hope always leads to disappointment. Planning for the worst, however, leads to being pleasantly surprised by the results you receive. He doesn’t have many nightmares anymore. Any last trauma comes to him more in the form of a too quick touch or a raised voice sending his senses haywire. Lately, however, he swears he’s hearing his father’s voice in the midst of the Return’s camp. Seeing his face out of the corner of his eye. He knows the possibility of his father is high based on who has turned up so far. He does not wish for that day to ever come.

PERSONALITY

(+) Aware. Everyone had an opinion, a snap judgement they made based on your actions upon first interaction and rumors and gossip they had heard about you. Theodore is too aware of his own actions, his nature, and how he could be perceived due to his bloodline. He listens and watches while in the bowels of the Ministry.. He keeps an eye on the paper, aware of their sensationalized stories of the past. He stays aware when he locks himself in his and Draco’s two bedroom flat for the night, his house elf and cold ancestral home merely a thing of the past.

(+) Humble. It would be rare to hear Theodore speaking on his own accomplishments. When others bragged over NEWT results, family estates, or care packages while at school, Theodore stayed silent. In a post schooling life, he found he had nothing to brag over. His work is undiscussed, both by a willingness to keep to his own code of ethics and true inability to speak on it. Perhaps it is his conscience telling him karma was a tricky thing, the winds of fate often changed and were never certain. He is always aware that if he begins to celebrate his achievements, they could slip through his fingers before he had a chance to fully appreciate them.

(+) Skillful. When you spend most of the early years of your life hiding, there is no better place than a library and there is nowhere best to escape to than a book. At a young age, Theo’s mother Perdita exposed her son to learning. It became a joyous activity for the two of them. The dwindling vaults of the once great Nott family had no spare coin for a tutor for their only heir. Once it was just himself and his father in the house, Theo entertained himself with the curious collection of family heirlooms that littered the corridors of Nott Hall. He enjoys puzzles and figuring out just how magic is intertwined with a physical object. Nowadays, Theo spends his time pouring over books from Obscurus’ impressive collection while on his lunch break. He has enough puzzles to keep himself occupied for his lifetime.

(-) Cautious. It would be irresponsible to think the world was capable of change so quickly after the defeat of the Dark Lord. People didn’t change. Not unless they wanted to. Monetary repercussions, war reparations, were only likely to affect outward interest, not ideologies. Though perhaps that cautiousness had negatively affected Theo. He turned inward, the social progress he had made from fourteen to sixteen taking a turn when the Carrows took over the castle and his own father was broken out of Azkaban. He limited his social interactions severely, preferring to stick his nose in a book or have a quick intimate meeting over big social events and friendly gatherings and he still hasn’t grown out of that inclination. His social circle has been kept even as years passed and he enjoys a separation of the different areas of his life.

(-)Distractible. Wix alike were an issue. A pretty face, handsome smile, and a nice word easily swayed Theo’s attention. Always conscious, the tall boy doesn’t reveal or give much of himself. He does find he tolerates speaking to someone at length if they are intriguing when he would have otherwise ended a conversation. The same can be said for those with strong personalities. He finds himself getting caught up, steam rolled, instead of speaking up.

(-) Resentful. Theo often wondered how his life could have been different. What if his father had been captured after Voldemort’s first fall? What if some member of upper society took a moment to investigate the reservedness of Perdita or young Theodore? What if a professor questioned why young Theodore always stayed at the castle and never went home for the Yuletide holidays? So many things in his life could have been different if someone had looked closely, but they weren’t. The Malfoys, Narcissa specifically, were his only saving grace throughout childhood but they still didn’t overstep and remove him from his home. His resentment is something Theodore tries to tamper down when he can, choosing to look at life positively. No one demanded his quiet in his flat. The heat works with no need for an illegal heating charm here or there. He knows where everything is in his small space, even with Draco living alongside him. He doesn’t need to hide his things for fear of retribution. There are no nights worrying over going hungry.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY

Theodore Cantankerus Nott was born the only child and heir to Cantankerus Nott and Perdita Nott (nee Travers) on a warm summer night in early July. Theo spent little time under the careful (and stern) thumb of his father before his mother’s death. His mother was a much gentler figure, helping Theo grow sweet and strong. Perdita taught her son all the names of the flowers, their uses, and any star he asked the name of. She introduced him to music, showing him the piano and allowing him to pick up the violin. Theo was content to forget his father’s presence when he could, though he never dared voice that state of mind to Perdita. As Theo approached his eighth birthday, he began to see his childhood might not be as normal as his peers. He and his mother rarely left the grounds of Nott Hall. The once great stately home had slowly fallen to a near-ruinous state over the years. There was no shopping done by Perdita, all taken care of by their two remaining house elves. No tea time or meetings for the boards of any councils. The one time his mother seemed to be able to leave was when she was on the arm of his father at a required event. Theo wasn’t permitted to have friends over though visits to other sons of great houses were heavily encouraged the closer Hogwarts grew. He noticed the blatant way his peers’ parents showed affection. The boys his age never shied away from their father, some even spoke back with no fear of punishment.

Theo had stayed the sweet boy his mother had encouraged. Though his own father grew concerned about what was keeping the young boy soft. It didn’t help that Perdita’s health had begun to deteriorate ever since her birthday. Her walks around the garden with her son proving to be a bit too much for her. That duty had been given to the house elf, Dandy. Though she still wore the bracelet his father had gifted her every day. On the eve of his eighth birthday, his mother was trapped on the third floor of their home in her bedroom. There were no healers in and out of the grounds. Eight year old Theo took to hiding in the library, reading every book he could. He knew there must be something his parents were overlooking. They just weren’t trying hard enough. If healers could fix this, but weren’t allowed on the ground, he would. But his research proved naught and Perdita passed just before Christmas day, leaving Theo in his father’s sole care.

There were no kind words for the severe kind of man his father was. Piano lessons stopped as there was no one to teach him. Theo found himself with more alone time than he had ever had before as his father wasn’t a man you would like to find yourself around for any period of time. The exception was meals, when the youngest Nott and the eldest were forced to interact. His father often deemed these mealtimes lecture times as well, spouting off ideals Theodore never would have heard from his mother’s mouth.

HISTORY

When his first year arrived, Theodore understood the extent of what his mother had shielded him from. In the few years of them being the sole occupants of their home, his father’s once rare cases of corporal punishment had become a near daily occurrence. He had learned many times since gaining a wand that healing was an unacceptable action to take but his father had no issue with glamours. A word of what occurred at home wasn’t appropriate conversation. Familial business stayed such, without outside input or scorn.

It took Theo many years to come out of his proverbial shell. He thinks without Malfoy Manor as a place to escape to on school breaks and summer weekends, he may have not turned out the same. As his father’s attention turned away from his son and to the Dark Lord’s return, Theo felt almost free. That freedom didn’t occur until the Battle at the Department of Mysteries. The ministry had no issue arresting his father and not looking into whether young Theodore Nott would have any sort of adult supervision the summer before his sixth year. Why would they need to? Families like his never suffered.

Theodore didn’t participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, too fearful someone would take one look at him and make the sort of assumptions that ended with him being written about as another young death eater killed in the skirmish. He hoped to whatever ruled the skies and stars that his father didn’t survive, feeling guilty immediately that he had even had that sort of thought. It was safer than assuming his father was imprisoned. His father had escaped once before with no issue and there was no doubt in the youngest Nott’s mind that his old man could do it again. Fortunately, his wish came true.

Four years post Battle, Theodore has created a separate life for himself than the one originally laid out and it’s all thanks to the Department of Mysteries. The week after his father’s death, Theo returned home. He allowed himself only a week to mourn a man he knew in his heart he absolutely despised. Before the week was out, the long quiet house was filled with voices. Strangers were sitting in the abandoned sitting room. They had a proposition, a job offer, and no answers for how they had gotten through the wards of his home. Today, he has just about moved up to a fully-fledged unspeakable in the death division. The challenge of the Returned lays ahead.

His ancestral home of Nott Hall lays virtually abandoned. Only the blood wards stopped the acquisition of the property from anyone who strolled upon it. He still has some duties, as the remaining and only Nott, to attend to. Meager reparations paid to the Ministry dried up the last of the Nott vaults, leading Theo to have to acquire a small flat that he shares with Draco. It’s not fancy by any means, nothing like the tall ceiling rooms they both grew up in and without any house elves, but it’s theirs. His first purchases for himself, the sofa and his bed, are by far his favorite things in the whole flat.

OOC EXPLORATION

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

Please you know. I hate it here.

ANYTHING ELSE?

https://www.pinterest.com/securemal/priori-reverte-theodore-theo-nott/

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS

CHARACTER CONTRIBUTION

I truly love the idea of bringing in an Unspeakable to this world. It’s curious how they are the ones who made, and possibly caused, the discovery of the Returned but know so very little. Their, and Theo’s, entire worth is built on knowledge but they’re diving into the utter unknown and there are so many factors to consider about how this could end up. We don’t even know if the Returned can sustain themselves indefinitely. You’ve built a lovely playground for us, Emmy, and I’m too excited to play in it. But also I love Theodore Nott. Cursed Child did him dirty okay.

PRESENT

It was another night of waiting. The wooden small chair the Unspeakables were given wasn’t comfortable despite the many cushioning charms Theo’s co-workers had applied to it. He supposed that was the point. Most of the death division were working double or triple shifts. They had allocated reserve Unspeakables from both the time and love divisions and, still, they were understaffed. Their stock of pepper up potions should have run dry some time ago but the healers had been called in as well. No amount of pepper ups made this task any easier.

The coffee in his hand was lukewarm and Theo’s eyes were drooping. Slowly closing as his head fell forward until he caught himself. The curtain was moving. He could see it and he could have sworn he heard the now familiar sounds of confusion and anger at how the next unfortunate soul had ended up in the windowless chamber but he was wrong. The curtain always moved and Theodore always heard the whispers. It had taken quite a lot of restraint the first time he had been granted access to this room years ago but he kept his distance as the object called out to him. It was no different than the cursed books and painting and vases in his own home and Theo learned long ago that anything calling out for you was not a good sign. It only led to death. All things did in the world but especially here. Purposefully here. He wasn’t going to end up like his mother, touching something that didn’t belong to him and paying the price for it.

#prioriacceptance #theodore nott

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coreastories · 4 years

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Modern Royals: The queen bares her heart about her new project, her queenship, and the king

This author is very honored (and tickled) to be invited to the palace for a private tete-a-tete with the queen

This isn’t exclusive, but I did get a note from The Royal Public Affairs Office that I’m the first in the lineup of the press junket, so yes, I screamed in the powder room

Also in the note: As long as I interview the queen about her project, I can ask other questions I want. They’re confident that I would remain respectful of Her Majesty’s privacy.

Well! They knew how to rein me in, didn’t they?

The October air was crisp and cold that morning but the thought of meeting the queen warmed me up. We were offered breakfast upon arrival. My team ate. I couldn’t. I was too excited. You remember that I’ve been dreaming of an interview with the queen for ages!

At eight, we were brought to the interview location. The media room was simple, with zero clutter. The furniture was modern minimalist. The walls were white, the floor-to-ceiling windows were bare. Your eyes were drawn to the lush grounds.

And it was so warm you could forget it was autumn. Rather than a press junket, the room gave the impression that the queen was meeting you as a friend, invited to relax in that gorgeous room.

Once there, I discovered I could eat. I drank tea and had some of the best scones I’ve ever had.

At eight fifteen, the queen arrived in her trademark, understated elegance. Barely any makeup. No lipstick. Hair splendid and shining but unstyled. Her outfit looked like something you wore at home, because of course it might be a palace but it was her home.

Well, something you wore at home in different brands, unless you’re also upper crust Corean who can afford head-to-toe Chanel, because the queen’s outfit was all Chanel, from her Coco Crush earrings to her suede calfskin and grosgrain mary janes.

Her Majesty was just lovely. She made us feel like friends. If I weren’t in love with her before, I would certainly have been head over heels then.

Don’t get me wrong-- the queen is not friendly in that overly familiar style that just manipulates you to respond in the same way. No, the queen simply charms you with her sincerity, despite her obvious shyness. If she asks you a question, she genuinely wants to know the answer-- it’s not just small talk.

When everything was ready, the queen sat in her chosen chair. We shared a laugh because it’s exactly the type of chair the king didn’t want her to sit on when Their Majesties dropped in on us for his flash interview.

Without further ado, darlings, here’s my interview with the queen on her new project.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

The Queen’s project revolves around Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, a day of remembrance for pregnancy loss and infant death, which includes, but is not limited to, miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, and the death of a newborn.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day is held on October 15 in several countries. Are we going to have a separate day for it in Corea, Your Majesty?

HM The Queen: I found out about Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day on the same day it was confirmed that I’m pregnant. So we’ve been working on this project for several weeks. I wanted to unveil it on the remembrance day, but I didn’t want that strict deadline on anybody’s head.

Thankfully, we still managed to be quite close to the Remembrance Day. So we are launching the Eomoni Foundation this year and Corea will join the international Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day next year.

The Eomoni Foundation

Eomoni Foundation is literally “Mother” Foundation. Is it for all mothers in Corea?

HM The Queen: Yes. Mothers do so much, even before the moment they learn they’re expecting a child. When they’re trying to conceive, or when they suspect they’re pregnant and they’re not sure yet if it’s happy or unwelcome news. There’s just so much there, unspoken and unrecognized. Eomoni Foundation stands for everything a mother needs before, during and after pregnancy.

Because of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, we’ve talked to experts on how to support this often overlooked aspect of becoming a mother.

Mothers who lose their children during pregnancy or infancy need the most support. So Eomoni Foundation is their safe harbor, where they can come for informational, emotional, medical, and peer support.

And the foundation is truly up and running?

HM The Queen: Yes. The helpline is up, the website is live, and Eomoni Foundation has fully-staffed centers in Seoul, Busan, Pyongyang and Hamgyong. Of course, we’re still learning everything, but we have reliable models from other foundations worldwide. The Queen’s Office and the Office of the Prime Minister are both working together to have a Eeomoni Center in every city in Corea.

What’s your goal for the foundation, short term and long-term?

HM The Queen: We’re in talks with the Ministry of Labor about requiring all private and government businesses and organizations to have training for Infant Loss and Bereavement. I want parents to have company policies and HR that support them. This is both the short and long-term goal, to change policies and laws to support parents in this difficult time.

I suppose this is very personal for you, Your Majesty, now that you’re expecting? How has that affected this project you whipped up so quickly?

HM The Queen: Of course, it’s personal. And this is almost never discussed because it’s terrifying, but this is a mother’s biggest fear: to lose her child. It’s very real to me right now-- I can understand that fear and I can imagine the devastation and grief at this visceral level, so I wanted Eomoni Foundation up, and we do have the means to do that. There were no impediments for this project to get on its feet.

No superstitions at all that might have cautioned you against it?

HM The Queen: Ahhh yes, there was something said about it, but even the most superstitious understood. I mean, of course I wouldn’t want anything to happen. But not touching this because of that has no logic at all. No one wants to get cancer, and should that mean we couldn’t touch support and research and funds for cancer patients?

So we pushed through with this, because this is absolutely needed.

Congratulations, Your Majesty, this is stupendous.

HM The Queen: Thank you. We had a lot of help. Her Excellency, of course. And Dr Chae. And Elizabeth Locke of the Infant Loss Foundation in the United Kingdom. The Corean Association of Counseling is also offering training specifically for Infant Loss Counseling, under Eomoni Foundation.

That’s wonderful. Your Majesty, you’ve had so many projects since becoming queen. It makes my head spin. Do these help with the adjustment from your previous job to this one? Did you have an adjustment period at all? How--what was it like? You’re handling so much, and now you’re also pregnant.

HM The Queen: I’ve been a public servant ever since I became an adult, and my role now just continues that, only on a bigger scale.

I got married. And my marriage happened to come with a queenship.

The adjustment period was more on the small “big” things, like people bowing, and not being able to go out and about like I used to, and events where I’m the center of attention instead of being invisible in the background.

I had to learn the protocol and I had to get used to so many things. I suppose I was already trained for this because a cop should be adaptive. You need to be nimble for every case, every situation, and if you transfer to another station or another department-- or if you even just get promoted--you also need to adjust there. You shouldn’t get comfortable, or be afraid of change.

It’s such a huge change, Your Majesty. Do you ever feel regret for what you gave up? Do you ever think of your previous career?

HM The Queen: No. I made my choice and it’s something I don’t regret at all. I do think of my previous job. Who wouldn’t? But even though I loved it, I wasn’t really in a position of influence.

After becoming queen, I had to wrap my head around the fact that I can do what I want. I’m in this position where I can help and serve people without all the bureaucracy I would have had to go through first.

Once I’ve done that, I filled pages and pages of notes on everything I could do for Corea. That’s why you’re seeing so many projects. I talk to the Prime Minister a lot. Secretary Mo is also a great advisor. I have a lot to learn if I want to be a working queen.

The king is supportive, of course. And the king and I have always planned to have a family. So having a baby is just part of everything, too. I went into this with both eyes open and I’m determined to do my best.

That’s what it’s like. I’m learning, adjusting, asking questions. I do have a lot of help. And for many of my projects, I’m simply a patron. I get it off the ground, I raise funds, the experts do the work.

I admire that so much, Your Majesty. Thank you for your candor. I’ve always been curious, what does being patron of these foundations involve?

HM The Queen: It involves signatures and funding for the most part, and support where needed, for both the best developments and any bad circumstances.

How are you, ma’am? No more morning sickness? I hope it’s alright to ask that. Everyone’s thinking about you.

It’s adorable how the queen refused to touch her baby bump throughout the interview, but often came close to doing so anyway.

HM The Queen: I do still get sick now and then. We’re told this is normal and might go away. Or not. And I thank everyone for their concern. I’m very well taken care of. Sometimes to the point of excess, but I’ve learned to accept some of it, and we’ve all gotten better at it.

Can you share something about that, Your Majesty?

HM The Queen: Well, the king is almost back to normal and no longer snaps at Jangmi’s every move. I mean Jang Mi-reuk. And Lady Noh is always giving me tisanes and soups. I’ve told her which ones I like and which ones I absolutely wouldn’t drink, so we’ve all come to an agreement.

How is the king? Is he excited-terrified, or excited-impatient?

HM The Queen: I think he tries to be neither. We’re excited, of course, but we try to temper that and just stick to happiness every day. We just savor each day.

That is lovely, but also surprising. So you don’t plan for May, for example? No birth plan?

HM The Queen: That’s already done. We got it out of the way on the first days. We don’t dwell on it. We enjoy each new day, each new milestone.

So I suppose you have names ready?

HM The Queen: Ahh, I think I’ve been told not to say anything about that.

That reminds me of that time Your Majesties dropped by! Can I ask you some of those questions?

HM The Queen: Of course, you can ask me. I just won’t guarantee the answers.

I’ve always been curious about that blessing His Majesty mentioned. He said, and I quote, that you “were blessed by God to meet and stay together. God made sure our paths would cross and stay intertwined.” What does this mean?

HM The Queen: That’s exactly what it means. We were fated to meet, and then fate kept us together, as cheesy as that sounds. All our doubts and fears were answered and addressed.

That’s just as cryptic as what the king said. Let me capture something non-cryptic at all. The rings you’re wearing right now. They’re the Coco Crush rings. Any significance? We haven’t seen your wedding rings at all.

HM The Queen: My wedding and engagement rings are both very thin bands-- and they don’t fit my fingers right now. These aren’t part of my bridal jewelry. They are gifts from the king. I wear them sometimes when I’m at home.

And when he’s not home? When she misses him? The king is currently away on kingly duties to Russia, China, Thailand, and Singapore.

First thing that comes to mind: what do you love about the king?

HM The Queen: His dimples. So I guess that’s his smile. The rest of him isn’t bad at all either. You think he’s vain but he’s not. He’s a man of principle. What he said in your interview was right: He does know how to joke in difficult situations.

It amazed me that I didn’t become a puddle of goo in that gorgeous press room at that point. Despite her smiles and giggling, there was something in the queen’s eyes that told me she’d witnessed a demonstration of the king’s stalwart principle. This queen admires and respects her king in the highest degree. And these two are so in love it’s almost contagious-- no wonder the whole kingdom is in love with their love, too.

It’s probably his principles that took him away from you these days?

HM The Queen: Well, these diplomatic visits have been scheduled for months. He comes home from Singapore in a few days.

Just in time for the King’s Birthday?

HM The Queen: Hopefully.

What is something you adore about the king, something we won’t see or notice at all because we don’t live with him, but something we can watch out for in public appearances?

HM The Queen: If you ever see him pick something up with his right hand, sometimes his pinkie would be sticking out. He hates it when that happens, but it’s not really something he can control.

And laughing at that little detail, our interview came to an end. I feel quite blissful. I don’t know if I’d asked what I’d wanted to ask, but I’m content.

Stay tuned because we’ll be back at the palace for the king’s birthday!

For more information about Eomoni Foundation, go here.

Images from Elle Korea interview video. Love that so much.

LMH’s pinkie sticking out is as true as KGE missing her pockets lol

#CoreaNews #CoreaFiction #the king eternal monarch #the king: eternal monarch

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therefrigerated · 3 years

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My Take On The "No Shame Period" Campaign

It’s my absolute dream that a woman should be able to go to a regular restaurant and ask for the menu with a heavy flow pad, as you might say.

Hey kings! Hey queens! If you’re new here, I’m Paarth. Now, this thing has always bothered me that how the hell can I, as a sophomore, contribute to abolish this senseless absurd taboo. So what exactly is the point of me writing this? The thing is, even if I could impact just one person to give up on this silence, it’d all be worth it. So yeah, here you go. This article is distributed into 4 parts, a. Menstrual education should not be restricted to only women, b. Should menstrual products be made free? c. Encouraging eco-friendly alternatives to regular sanitary pads and finally d. The takeaway. Let’s get into it.

An incredible number of girls and women in our societies, especially those from not so affluent backgrounds with crisis settings who are impoverished and extremely vulnerable experience period related pain. Period shame is even more dangerous than the pain itself, because it makes barriers for them to access the basic menstrual health information and supplies.

It’s high time to start normalising the process because it is totally natural, and essential, part of the reproductive cycle; about half of the human population has or will experience it at some point of their life. It’s absolutely unbelievable that this process is shroud in mystery, leading to so much of unnoticed and systematic exclusion, and ruthless discrimination.

Menstrual education should not be restricted to only women.

The first thing we need to do is to normalise this so-called stima of menstrual education and to demystify the ordinary human biological process and finally start promoting it as a human right and not only as a women’s issue.

“My aunty told me I should stay away from boys,” a 16-year-old girl in Zambia told UNFPA.

“I want to study but the boys started bothering me,” a 13-year-old in Madagascar said.

The question is how to end this shame? Silence plays a significant role in perpetuating these beliefs, but things need to change. The upfront conclusion is to finally educate all the people of the globe, irrespective of their sex, genders, country, race etcetera and to encourage the issue as a human right issue. Education is the ultimate key to end the ongoing taboo. People need to know that menstrual blood is not impure, just like any other blood from a part of body, this blood too starts decomposing and thus emanates an odour.

Should Menstrual Products Be Made Free?

India eliminated its 12% tax on feminine hygiene products in 2018. This was after a year of lobbying by advocacy groups and even celebrities. ... In 2004, Kenya was the first country to abolish sales tax for menstrual products.

Every month, an uncountable number of girls and women face the cycle of pain, discomfort, shame, anxiety, and isolation. Yes, the periods, the menstrual periods. In so many countries like India, we have so many low income and even middle income families, where the access to sanitary cups, sanitary pads, tampons is very limited. As a result, women often rely upon these proxy materials like mud, leaves and even animal skin, in some part of the country. Hygienic and safe toilers are rarely available. One in ten girls aged between 14-21 years, even in developing countries like the UK can’t regularly afford menstrual products, forced to stay home.

The change has already started taking place, efforts have been made worldwide to empower and educate adolescent girls as well as guys about menstruation, and to highlight the right of women and girls to hygienically manage their periods. We applaud all of these efforts made by strong men and women leaders across the globe!

But, at the end of the day, the needs of 300 million women and adolescents remain buried on a large scale. The reason is simple, because they are often embarrassed for casual and candid discussions about menstruation. It is time to finally give up on this senseless, pointless, absurd silence and start normalising the free menstrual girls. My dream is that a woman should be able to go to a regular restaurant and ask for the menu with the heavy flow of sanitary pads. How can it be possible? By simply talking about it, just like we talk about our usual social and human issues. I believe that only words can change the world. Menstruation, a sign of a good health, must be normalised and in fact celebrated.

Encouraging Eco-Friendly Alternatives To Sanitary Pads

Out of less than 20 % of the women who use some sort of sanitary products in India, the majority of them are only aware of regular sanitary pads. The problem with them is that sanitary napkins are 90 percent of plastic, even the upper layer commonly referred to as the fabric layer is a plastic woven sheet.

A regular sanitary pad could take about 500-800 years to decompose because it’s made out of plastic that is totally non biodegradable and stays in the environment for absolutely ages.

Some cool alternatives of the regular sanitary pads could be:

Menstrual Cup- It is like a small, flexible, funner shaped cup kind of a thing which is made of silicone and rudder. It is inserted directly into vagina and provides absolutely leak fee experience for about 12 hours and is totally reusable. For the record, it can be used for more than 10 years, making it both environmentally friendly and economical.

Cloth pads- These come with the same mechanism of that of the disposable ones, the difference is that it is made of cotton layers encased in a waterproof fabric that can be washed or rescued.

Period panties- These are the undergarments with built in period protection that can be worn as normal knickers that we wear in general. This is the most comfortable, user friendly alternative of the regular sanitary pads which makes it the best option with heavy flow? They are reusable, washable, and absolutely long lasting. Can anything be better than that?

Outro- The Final Takeaway

Menstruation is a normal and regular event in every healthy adolescent girl’s life. They need the support of their governments, families, and all the people around to them to have the access to at least basic sanitary products and gender equity to manage their periods We can take inspiration from many other countries like Kenya, which now provides absolutely free sanitary pads to girls in education, and Ethiopia, which now has established menstrual hygiene. Our strong community leaders, both men and women, the social media influencers are perfectly positioned to abolish this unwholesome stigma. The parents, especially in rural India, need to be educated about what are the things that are wrong, which is most likely to cause unintentional harm to our youth. For the purpose of establishing a social change, education is the key. The people from all the genders must be educated about menstruation and basic reproductive health to empower them to discuss comfortably about their periods and menstrual health. Not to mention, we should finally stop calling this process as ‘impure’ or ‘dirty’ because it is the cause of our very creation of life, the creation of human beings, our very own existence. How can anyone even to dare to call this process as ‘impure’, it is no different than calling our very creation as impure.

#gorgeous women #women #social justice #menstruation #period pain #radical feminst #feminizedmen #loveyourself #health

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mitigatedchaos · 3 years

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Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

#miti does media #longpost #flagpost #ghost in the shell #sac_2045 #standalone complex #review

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k7l4d4 · 3 years

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Owl House AU Ideas, ZA FIFTH!!

Hello all, once again, I am BACK with an AU! It is a crossover with the popular superhero franchise, DC COMICS BABY!! WOOT! Specifically, this is a crossover between Earth 16, setting for the Young Justice Comics and Show, and The Owl House setting in the form of the newly formed Earth 53! Give ‘em some love folks, round of applause! Sorry if I’m hamming it up too much, just feeling really amped.

The premise is partially inspired by a crossfic over on ao3, can't really recall the name right now, that involves the Anti-Monitor's Anti-Matter wave occurring; The Owl House-Verse gets wiped out and subsequently resurrected as part of the DC Multiverse, with Amity somewhere in the mix due to being taken off the board just before her world is destroyed. In this idea, something occurs that results in the Boiling Isles and its connected Earth to be merged into the DC Multiverse; the shockwaves result in mass alterations to the two world's shared history as the Boiling Isles and Human Realm become the new Earth 53 (I know that the DC-Verse isn't restricted to just 52 worlds anymore, the name is mostly for dramatic effect). The biggest difference between this and similar premises is the idea of Earth 53 coming from OUTSIDE the Source Wall, an extreme anomaly in the DC-Verse Space-Time Continuum, if not an outright impossibility, that has resulted in "Errors" forming across the worlds. Amity is the one of the only ones who clearly remembers life before the merger, and the changes, both to the world and to herself, have been jarring. She who was once the heiress-apparent to a magical household of considerable influence was now the marginalized third child to two of the meanest lawyers in Bonesburough, friendless and adrift. In a world where humans, witches, and demons live alongside one another, and magic is a rare commodity hoarded by major cities and governments, where is her place in it all? And, more importantly, where is Luz?!?

Boscha: Unlike her canon self, DC Boscha is a tough girl who grew up on the streets, fending for herself at nearly every turn; she was eventually taken in by the Park family, one of Bonesborough's most well-known, if not necessarily influential, families, growing close to the daughter of the family, Willow Park. Boscha often acts as Willow's bodyguard and confidant, providing both protection from anyone trying to harass her, and a shoulder to lean on when she needs it. She has a small crush on Willow, but hasn't realized it for what it is yet. Boscha is a conduit for the Strength Force, granting her immense physical strength, durability, and geokinesis. Despite her immense power, Boscha is largely unskilled with her abilities, often being limited to the most basic interpretations of her powers. Willow: This version of Willow grew up as part of the lower Upper-Class, straddling the border between the Middle-Class and High-Society circles, gaining renown for her skill with plants and vegetation in general. While just as kind as her Canon self, DC Willow is somewhat jaded, often having difficulty opening up to others for fear that they are trying to get something from her or manipulate her. Willow suffers from a mild form of Narcolepsy, falling asleep when sufficiently stressed. Willow has a strong connection to the Green, gifting her with a powerful bond with all plant life; unlike other Conduits and Avatars for the Green, Willow refuses to fully connect with it, channeling her nature as animal, and as such of the Red, to retain her self. This unique state of being both apart of yet separate from the Green offers Willow a few abilities that other, similar, existences lack, with her greatest ability being the power to forcibly merge an enemy with the Green, essentially turning the Nature Dimension into a prison for them, though the technique is only fully effective against enemies who wield the Green themselves; non-Green Empowered individuals can only be held for around a month to up to a year before the Green rejects them and spits them out back in the Physical Plane, often sickly and in need of food and water, though not desperately so. An unusual quirk of Willow's is that she often adopts a demeanor similar to a religious figure, using formal speech and an extremely serene and calm demeanor; no one is sure, not even Willow herself, if it is an act or if she is genuinely being altered in some way by using her powers. Gus: Half-human, Half-witch, this interpretation of Gus often feels uncomfortable in his own skin. The only time Gus truly feels at ease is when he is immersed in water. At the age of Eight, Gus when swimming and nearly drowned, only surviving due to a sudden surge of the Life Force resonating through the world. As a result of his exposure to the Life Force, Gus possesses similar abilities to, yet still distinct from, those of Atlanteans. Gus cannot communicate with sea-life, but they are unusually docile in his presence, with even the most vicious of sea life being harmless to him. Gus can distort and manipulate the water in his body, and the water vapor in the nearby air, to create illusions and mirages. Gus tries to disguise his discomfort by hamming up his more excitable and comedic traits. Replacing his obsession with humans, this version of Gus is near obsessed with Magic, instantly going into Fanboy mode at the site of Amity's spells (note: Gus is capable of distinguishing magic from similar phenomena on his own, a holdover from his past self having magic, though his current self is unaware why he can do so). Skara: A popular girl, Skara sits at the front of the pack, yet also has a reputation of being kind and accepting; as she attends one of the most divisive schools in regards to Human-Witch-Demon relations in the world, this often results in her being forced to play mediator, much to her own distress. Skara can't stand seeing anyone upset or feeling left out, going out of her way to include others, even if it means she herself ends up left out. Skara is incredibly skilled at both Music and the Bow, serving as an expy of both Black Canary and Green Arrow, in that she wields a harp/bow combo capable of launching sound arrows. Skara is a nascent magic user, though her skills are highly unrefined and geared near-exclusively towards those based on sound. Edric and Emira: The twins are a study in contrasts as opposed to their canon similarities. While they still possess their sense of mischief, Edric has been groomed to be a respectable gentleman, at least in terms of appearance, while Emira is essentially an out and about rebel, bucking authority and rules at every opportunity. Edric thinks of himself as suave and charming, but to most everyone it just comes across as adorable and childish; a little kid thinking he's an adult. Emira is confrontational, aggressive, and possesses a reputation for being a punk, though she often takes a stand against bullies and thugs. The two often argue, but both fondly remember the days when they were more similar and got along more. The two share Speed Force powers, Negative for Edric, Positive for Emira, yet neither is compatible with their respective bodies, as Emira is more attuned with the Negative and Edrice with the Positive. To counteract the damage their abilities do to their bodies, they channel each others' Speed Force for their sibling; a side-effect of this sharing is that they cannot utilize the super-speed common to all Speed Force Conduits unless they work in perfect sync, but otherwise possess all the standard abilities of their respective forces. Jerbo: The quirky child of the local funeral director, Jerbo is highly skittish, often jumping at random and having a meek personality, he is slow to trust others. Jerbo has always possessed a fascination with the intricacies of life, death, and the cycle between them. This fascination ultimately culminated in him developing a connection to the Green! However, an accident disrupted the process, causing his connection to degrade and allowing a connection to the Grey and the Rot to enter in its place. None of his connections are particularly strong, but using them in concert allows him to leverage powers and abilities far above his technical weight class. He often uses his powers to necromantically command plants and bacteria, building intricate "Rot Golems" to fight with, in a manner similar to his Canon Plant Golems. In addition, Jerbo often uses his Rot powers to accelerate and regulate the decay of already dead plants and animals to create fertilizer and revitalize the environment. Viney: An adventurous free spirit, Viney has a genuinely compassionate soul, going out of her way to help out however she can. Viney has a deep sense of empathy, particularly for animals, serving as a first look for local pets before their owners decide to take them to the vet or not. Viney cannot stand animal abuse in any form, often protesting groups that have shown histories of shady animal practices whenever she can. Viney wields a connection to the Red, which she leverages in a manner similar to the powers of B'wanna Beast, as well as healing. Viney often serves as the team's emergency medic, as she lacks her canon-self's medical training. Barkus: An actual dog as opposed to his Dog-Witch Canon self, Barkus never the less can communicate with others. Barkus wields a connection to the Sage Force, granting him far higher levels of intellect compared to other animals and the ability to speak. Barkus possesses numerous mental abilities, including fortune telling, telepathy, and a mild-level of mind-reading. Barkus has a cool head, often serving as the voice of reason for the others, as well as an extra set of eyes and ears, as his nature means few people expect him to be a spy. Eda Clawthorne: Suffering from a weakened immune system and chronic pain, most people are often surprised by how spry and active Eda is. Eda possesses a genius-level intellect, often providing intelligence and resources for the team as well as a mentorship role. Eda enters the field as the "Knight Owl" (Not to be confused with Nite Owl), operating a highly sophisticated battle suit outfitted with a mix of advanced technology and magic to possess an answer to virtually any scenario. While adopted a cold, highly-serious persona when in the field, Eda's real personality isn't all that different from her Canon self, albeit more responsible and less criminally inclined. Eda often spends her time either monitoring the companies she owns portions of or searching for Lilith, who has been missing for several years in the new timeline generated by the shift into the DC Verse. Eda isn't a straight-lace though, she does have numerous connections and contacts in the underworld, she just isn't a flat-out criminal-hermit anymore. King: Not much different from his Canon self, merely lacking his delusions of grandeur and megalomania, he is often grumpy and sullen, prone to the occasional fit of rage over being treated childishly or being babied. He possesses incredibly potent magic, often being in charge of upgrading and repairing the team's gear that requires it, yet lacks the stamina and technique needed to use it in combat. Lilith Clawthorne: Fully remembering the prior timeline, awakening years before Amity, the shame and guilt over her past mistakes drew to her an Ultraviolet Ring, transforming her into the Ultraviolet Lantern of Sector 2814. Lilith's stalwart will allows her to dominate the ring, often bringing her into fellow members of her Corps who have been subsumed by Umbrax, Lilith has dedicated herself to using her shame over her past as fuel for her desire to aid others and protect them from the self-destructive darkness inside of everyone, often acting both as a fighter against evil, but also as a councilor to those she encounters on her journey who are suffering from their self-destructive impulses. When on duty, Lilith manipulates her uniform to disguise her appearance and voice, preventing others from identifying her true identity. Lilith constantly strives to better the lives of others, both as way to make up her past deeds, but also to ensure none feel the suffering she felt in her selfish foolishness.

This is to explain how Luz fits into the story beyond being a Maguffin to drive the plot. Also, because I don't want to drag it out any further and to cut off as many questions and clarifications on world-building ahead of time as I can... I have decided that, while still connected to the wider DC Multi-Verse, this particular idea is set on Earth-16, the earth of the Young Justice show and comic, and the newly formed Earth-53 of the merged Human and Demon Realms. At the time of the shift into the DC-Verse, Luz had been attempting an experimental spell that combined all of her, Eda, and Lilith's knowledge of Magic in order to see if they could fashion a new portal, or, if that proved impossible at the time, use the data to help further develop a cure for the Clawthorne sisters. Whether the spell worked, or did anything really, is unknown, but the reaction of the world shifting caused Luz to be flung across the Verses and Earths of the 52, before she ended up in the care of none other than Klarion the Witch Boy, specifically his fully villainous incarnation from Young Justice. Needless to say, due to Luz's connection, however faint, to the Titan, as well as her unusual magic, Klarion decided to see what fun he could have with her (not in a sexual way, just to clarify to anyone even accidentally thinking about it). This version of Klarion is a full-on Lord of Chaos, and a particularly malevolent one at that, with a wide variety of mystical relics at his disposal for his games and experiments, and just before finding Luz, he came across the most interesting toy of all, a staff that fuses magic and technology, something rarely attempted and often backfired, but he had found one that worked! Luz was not in good shape when Klarion found her, her body and mind damaged by the journey, her very soul mangled. Deciding to pretend to be a nice guy, Klarion used his resources to heal her, but what fun would it be to just up and fix the girl, hmm? Taking inspiration from the staff he had so recently found, Klarion set out to find relics and devices of magic and science both to repair Luz, just to see what mixing them all together would do, and it wasn't like he cared if she died if something went wrong! Low and behold, he managed to find a fragment of the Black Lantern-Corrupted Firestorm Matrix that composed Deathstorm, and a tiny piece of the divine lightning that granted Black Adam, and it WAS the lightning of Adam as opposed to Captain Marvel, and using these pieces, along with some chaos assisted spells for flavor, he worked his magic, pardon the pun. Now, before anyone says anything about these powers making Luz OP... they really won't. She only has a fragment of the Firestorm Matrix, a corrupted one at that, so she has none of the proper abilities of a Firestorm, nor does she possess the abilities of Black Adam, as awesome as that would be. Rather, the mixing of these forces, along with her magic, resulted in the formation of Catalyst, a psionic spirit born of her own mind. Catalyst is largely elemental in nature, lacking the mentality of a human, or any mortal being for that matter, content to sit in the back of Luz's mind, only emerging when something truly dire acts against Luz, as well as passively blocking any and all mental attacks against her. The part about only emerging against dire acts is rather literal, Catalyst will only intervene if Luz is close to death or about to suffer a fatal blow, and she lacks any ability to distinguish friend from foe, preferring to wipe out anything and everything in range to ensure Luz and her's safety. A benefit to the changes induced by Klarion's manipulations is that some of Luz's innate biological potential has been unlocked, but only a little. Luz absorbs information insanely fast, capable of memorizing a 1000 page document in its entirety on a single read through, and her muscle memory develops abnormally fast, making combat training very effective for her, though training is far from mastery, as she doesn't automatically gain the experience needed to make full use of any skills she may acquire. Luz is now naturally drawn to imitation, subconsciously copying Batman and Robin's walking style to minimize noise on instinct alone. Luz does gain some benefit to the Matrix merged with her body, along with the lightning, as her body now naturally acts as a conduit for divine and mystical forces; spells and divinity naturally flow in and out of her without effect, though the magic of Chaos and Order can easily disable her, particularly that of Klarion and Doctor Fate. For offense, Luz can cannibalize her internal energy stores to manipulate as light, electricity, and flames, though not all at once, and she currently doesn't remember how to eat, as the Matrix breaks down anything she can recognize as food and converts it directly into the nutrients, vitamins, and biological materials she needs to live, though she still needs to drink like normal. Luz possesses genuinely inhuman reflexes and mental processing, as she can easily track and process Kid Flash's movements, though anything faster than him gives her a massive migraine to watch. Luz has a limited ability to adjust her body, capable of making herself very fast at the expense of being more fragile, or very strong and durable yet incredibly heavy and slow. Luz suffers severe amnesia, though her personality is basically identical to how she was previously, merely missing the experience and social knowledge to reign in her most dangerous impulses, which she couldn't do very well to begin with, let's be honest, and cannot recall anything other than the fact that she is fluent in both English and Spanish, loves a series of books called the Good Witch Azura, and the names of her friends, though not how she knows them or that they are her friends (I think it is telling that she remembers the people she cares about more than she remembers herself). After Klarion healed her, he promptly dumped her back on earth to fend for herself; after regaining consciousness, Luz basically ambled around acting on whatever impulse struck her, no matter how insane, random, or dangerous, with her antics, combined with her inability to stop herself from using her powers, catching the eye of Cadmus, who promptly took her captive and stuck her in the sub-levels with Superboy. Something of importance to note, the Matrix that is currently helping hold her body together is tainted by the power of Necrom and his perversion of death; as it stands, every time Luz uses her powers and abilities in anyway other than to "eat" she shortens her lifespan, with the rate gradually, almost minutely, but inevitably speeding up. If the problem, and by extension a solution, isn't discovered soon, Luz will die, and her corpse will become an out-of-control vessel of extinction. In part due to the alterations made to her being, Luz views Superboy in a manner similar to a brother, and often tries to run interference between him and Superman to ease the tension and help them get along. Luz's attire upon awaking is composed of a skin-tight, black, sleeveless bodysuit with three silver lines running across it in a manner similarly to an atom model, centering on an orb affixed just above her right breast, emblazoned with a silvery-blue version of her light glyph, not that she currently recognizes it. Luz can disengage her Matrix, which disappears in a crackle of mystic lightning, and return to her civilian state by concentrating hard enough, doing it by accident after being released from Cadmus along with Superboy by the Team and the Justice League; the bad part was that she didn't have any clothes on after dismissing the Matrix, as Klarion didn't particularly care if she was clothed or not after he was done repairing her. Her codename, until she can recall her real name, is Thunderstorm!

Luz originally doesn’t quite remember how to use magic, but after waking up groggy and needing a light one morning, she, by pure accident, draws and casts one of her light glyphs off of pure muscle memory. Her reaction?

Luz: I can do magic? (Looks at the spell floating above her head) I CAN DO MAGIC!! (Cheers)

To explain, due to lacking the presence and power of the Titan, Luz’s spells are now cannibalizing her lifeforce for fuel, which vastly accelerates her life-drain. Of course, this is Luz, if she can use something to help her friends, even if it endangers her, she will, much to the concern of her friends and teammates. As Luz’s lifespan shrinks, she gradually experiences increasing symptoms of hunger, followed by occasional aches and pains that grow in frequency and intensity, before evolving to full-on fits of debilitating agony at its most advanced stages. Luz isn’t concerned about her condition, once she finds out about it that is. Why? Because she has faith that a solution can be found before she is ever in any real danger, and if not? She would gladly giver her life for her friends and the safety of the people... that’s just the kind of gal she is.

As always, feel free to ask questions, comment, or use the idea as you wish.

#the owl house #dcu #young justice #owl house au #luz noceda #amity blight #king the owl house #willow park #boscha #gus porter #eda clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #toh skara #firestorm matrix #shazam

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT FEATURE

They seemed to have lost their virginity at an average of about 14 and by college had tried more drugs than I'd even heard of. From their point of view, as big company executives, they were less able to start a company, it doesn't seem as if Larry and Sergey seem to have felt the same before they started Google, and so far there are few outside the US, because they don't have layers of bureaucracy to slow them down. It meant that a the only way to get rich.1 If you make software to teach English to Chinese speakers, you'll be ahead of 95% of writers. We arrive at adulthood with heads full of lies.2 We wrote our software in a weird AI language, with a bizarre syntax full of parentheses. That's an extreme example, of course, that you needed $20,000 in capital to incorporate.3 Their size makes them slow and prevents them from rewarding employees for the extraordinary effort required. Doing what you love in your spare time.4 Young professionals were paying their dues, working their way up the hierarchy. By giving him something he wants in return.

Once they saw that new BMW 325i, they wanted one too.5 If you simply manage to write in spoken language. Languages less powerful than Blub are obviously less powerful, because they're missing some feature he's used to. The kind of people you find in Cambridge are not there by accident.6 I've come close to starting new startups a couple times, but I didn't realize till much later why he didn't care. We'd interview people from MIT or Harvard or Stanford must be smart. Indians in the current Silicon Valley are all too aware of the shortcomings of the INS, but there's little they can do about it. When you're too weak to lift something, you can always make money from such investments.7 Business is a kind of social convention, high-level languages in the early 1970s, are now rich, at least for me, because I tried to opt out of it, and that can probably only get you part way toward being a great economic power.8 It must have seemed a safe move at the time. At the end of the summer.9

It's not merely that you need a scalable idea to grow.10 How much stock should you give him? Users love a site that's constantly improving. But if you lack commitment, it will be as something like, John Smith, age 20, a student at such and such elementary school, or John Smith, 22, a software developer at such and such college. There are two things different here from the usual confidence-building exercise.11 But it means if you made a serious effort. Bill Gates out of the third world.12 What's going on? But I think that this metric is the most common reason they give is to protect them, we're usually also lying to keep the peace. The kind of people you find in Cambridge are not there by accident.13

Frankly, it surprises me how small a role patents play in the software business, startups beat established companies by transcending them. The problem is that the cycle is slow. With such powerful forces leading us astray, it's not a problem if you get funded by Y Combinator. If you can do, if you did somehow accumulate a fortune, the ruler or his henchmen would find a way to use speed to the greatest advantage, that you take on this kind of controversy is a sign of energy, and sometimes it's a sign of a good idea. Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world, things change so rapidly that you can't easily do in any other language. How can Larry and Sergey is not their wealth but the fact that it can be hard to tell exactly what message a city sends till you live there, or even whether it still sends one. They build Writely.14 I'm not sure that will happen, but it's the truth. Stanford students are more entrepreneurial than Yale students, but not because of some difference in their characters; the Yale students just have fewer examples.

And whatever you think of a startup. In the US things are more haphazard. I see a couple things on the list because he was one of the symptoms of bad judgement is believing you have good judgement. There are a couple catches. Instead of being positive, I'm going to use TCP/IP just because everyone else does.15 Being profitable, for example, or at the more bogus end of the race slowing down. An example of a job someone had to do.16 But actually being good. There are a lot of people were there during conventional office hours.17

I'll tell you about one of the most surprising things we've learned is how little it matters where people went to college.18 In Lisp, these programs are called macros. That's where the upper-middle class convention that you're supposed to work on it. And since most of what big companies do their best thinking when they wake up on Sunday morning and go downstairs in their bathrobe to make a conscious effort to keep your ideas about what you should do is start one.19 The most powerful wind is users. We're just finally able to measure it. And not only did everyone get the same yield. VCs need to invest in startups, at least by legal standards. Ten years ago, writing applications meant writing applications in C. If you have to operate on ridiculously incomplete information.

Notes

Foster, Richard Florida told me about several valuable sources. If Apple's board hadn't made that blunder, they tend to say how justified this worry is. The founders want the valuation at the time 1992 the entire West Coast that still requires jackets: The First Industrial Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1965. Yes, there would be enough to be a win to include things in shows is basically zero.

Different kinds of startups that has become part of your mind what's the right mindset you will fail.

But although I started using it out of loyalty to the founders' salaries to the traditional peasant's diet: they had first claim on the one hand they take away with the earlier stage startups, just monopolies they create rather than admitting he preferred to call them whitelists because it reads as a kid, this is the notoriously corrupt relationship between the government. As the name Homer, to mean starting a business, A. The Department of English Studies. Yes, strictly speaking, you're pretty well protected against such tricks initially.

There are also the 11% most susceptible to charisma. Every language probably has a word meaning how one feels when that partner re-tells it to profitability on a road there are no longer needed, big companies to say that YC's most successful startups of all the page-generating templates are still expensive to start over from scratch, rather than ones they capture.

There are two simplifying assumptions: that the Internet, and judge them based on revenues of 1. If the company goes public. This is one resource patent trolls need: lawyers. When that happens.

The only launches I remember are famous flops like the bizarre consequences of this type of proficiency test any apprentice might have 20 affinities by this, though more polite, was starting an outdoor portal. The Duty of Genius, Penguin, 1991, p. The danger is that in practice signalling hasn't been much of observed behavior. When I say in principle is that intelligence doesn't matter in startups tend to be when I was genuinely worried that Airbnb, for example, the startup after you buy it despite having no evidence it's for sale.

Another thing I learned from this experiment: set aside an option pool. So if they don't want to start a startup in question usually is doing badly in your country controlled by the government. But in a company grew at 1% a week for 4 years.

We added two more investors. The reason this subject is so hard to imagine how an investor, and that often doesn't know its own momentum. We think. I'm talking here about everyday tagging.

They thought most programming would be possible to bring corporate bonds to market faster; the point of a large organization that often creates a rationalization for doing so much to generalize.

Many people feel good. So instead of being interrupted deters hackers from starting hard projects. The idea is that it was overvalued till you see them, initially, were ways to make your fortune? In fact the decade preceding the war.

One father told me about a form that would appeal to investors.

Some graffiti is quite impressive anything becomes art if you tell them to justify choices inaction in particular took bribery to the traditional peasant's diet: they hoped they were only partly joking. If a big angel like Ron Conway had angel funds starting in the first phase. You're going to create one of those you can eliminate, do not try too hard at fixing bugs—which, if they stopped causing so much from day to day indeed, is due to the table.

The hardest kind of gestures you use the wrong ISP. But they've been trained to expect the second component is empty—an idea is stone soup: you post a sign saying this cupboard must be kept empty. The two guys were Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. I have set up grant programs to run an online service, and they were, they'd be called unfair.

My work represents an exploration of gender and sexuality in an era of such high taxes?

So the most visible index of that, in one of the markets they serve, because she liked the iPhone SDK. For example, because a it's too hard to pick the former, because it is.

If you ask that you're small and traditional proprietors on the side of the junk bond business by Michael Milken; a new airport.

The biggest exits are the only audience for your side project. You're not one of their portfolio companies. He did eventually graduate at about 26.

A lot of time on schleps, but he doesn't remember which.

When I talk about startups. It's also one of the statistics they use the wrong algorithm for generating their frontpage. The reason Y Combinator only got 38 cents on the other: the source of food.

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kkglinka · 4 years

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I gotta say how much I love that this DC Limited Series is validating so many of my personal interpretations of existing canon. But of course, I'm talking about Blake — you know me.

I understand that many have difficulty with various inconsistencies in the art, but as someone who has read comics since age thirteen, I find them negligible Unless the company commissioning the series is wealthy, media tie-in comics are invariably slip-shod, with beginner artists and rushed art. Everyone's gotta start somewhere. I do accept the comics as canon and treat some scenes as the visual shorthand they are.

I really love many of the little details such as the Japanese aspects of her home life, along with the emphasis on Pacific Islander cultures, such as love of ocean sports — especially little Blake in a muumuu, draped with beaded necklaces. We also see she was a child in the city while Sienna is holding a rally with the Belladonna's both present and publicly acknowledged. Kali's dialog in a later issue tells us that Blake had fallen under Adam's influence when they still led the organization — so Blake was only eleven or twelve, at best. Clearly, younger Blake had periods where she was on the island. To me, that makes perfect sense, but to explain, I need to back up a little.

At odds with early fandom, I figured that Blake had to come from an upper class family and, if she were an orphan as her equivocation implied, then it was late enough in life that it left her with noticeably elegant manners. There was even a memorable instance in which Blake reflexively corrected Yang's slip in etiquette by thumping her across the stomach. (Just as Kali did to Ghira years later). From the way she holds a teacup to how mortified she was over Sun's behavior, we know manners matter to Blake. I was surprised as anyone else to discover her home still existed.

I was uncertain about her family home for a time until another viewer directed me to the post-episode storyboards. The house and lands are identified as "The Belladonna Estate" rather than, say, the chieftain's lodge. There is also a sepia toned photograph of what might be grandparents standing in front of what looks like the bungalow's portico. Finally we have V5's dialog about the Belladonna's time ending, which usually implies a family has been in power for generations.

The tragic princess story suggests that the island was already colonized by Faunus before Humans "gave" it to them. It's far more plausible, from a real life historical perspective, that Humans found the land inhospitable, full of dangerous wildlife and, most salient, resource poor. After the Faunus uprising, the people of the island welcomed refugees and those emigrating from Human controlled lands. The "gifting" was an underhanded way for Human's to cede authority and agree not to invade. So either the Belladonna's were native (unlikely since the capital name suggests a different culture), or they were Mistrali who married into a ruling family.

A chieftain system like we see in Kuo Kuana mostly closely resembles a constitutional monarchy. In smaller villages or tribes, the ruling body might be a council of elders. In a sprawling Rio de Janeiro city like Kuo Kuana, which stretches across the entire valley, it's likely a set of government department heads. The chieftain acts as a figurehead where compromise and mutual support are desired, but not necessary.

That person also forms alliances with other groups/governments and spearheads trade negotiations. In this system, the chieftain doesn't need to be present for the government to continue running smoothly. This system is completely compatible with the Chieftain of Kuo Kuana serving as High Leader and spearheading long-distance political rallies.

Blake refers to the early White Fang environment as being like a family, which kind of implies entire family groups were involved. But they were not a band of Roma or Sinti refugees continuously fleeing Nazi's and denied settlement everywhere they went (and still are). The way I see it, the WF were essentially a missionary group. Anywhere they went holding rallies, giving speeches, rocking the boat, they would have attracted converts and followers. They would have collected refugees, the elderly, the disabled, children, homeless, all wanting to flee and find new homes. Everyone needed to be fed, clothed, protected from Grimm etc.

There is no way that WF traveled through the winter — that would have been an unnecessary logistical nightmare, and suicidal for family groups. Instead, I imagine the Belladonna's gathered resources, planned travel destinations, organized funding, volunteers and everything else during the northern hemisphere's winter, while back home in Kuo Kuana. The band would then travel from spring to winter, which would be consistent with Blake's claim that she spent most of her life traveling with the WF. Then they would bring everyone back to Kuo Kuana in the fall, get new immigrants settled and so forth.

Let's go back to all those kids. First, the notion that semi nomadic groups don't educate their children in all aspects of life is an example of internalized racism with its roots in colonialist beliefs. All societies educate their children, but prior to the western colonial era, schools took a variety of forms. Some were permanent structures, some were tents, some were a circle of seats in an open clearing.

The materials might be written or oral, the teachers might be scholars, philosophers, priests or rabbi. In older models of education, you might think of it as elementary schooling followed by vocational training that inherently included relevant high school level topics. Regardless of method, the WF's children weren't a bunch of uncouth illiterate wild animals, though I'm sure Remnant's Humans believe exactly that.

Blake's vocational training would have been to a government position — more or less. That would have been history, politics and diplomacy, public speaking, combat abilities (for social appeal and to avoid being assassinated for power), self-restraint and etiquette. Much of that training would have begun when she was very little — some of it occurring subconsciously because little kids are like social sponges. But imagine truly comprehending that as you hit your early teens, that an entire island population will depend on you (even if only as a figurehead).

That is what brings us to the royalty in disguise trope. The most familiar example is Aragorn from LoTR. This trope always begins with the young royal attempting to abdicate from an overwhelming social responsibility, which haunts them whether they choose to go solo, follow another leader instead, or become a hermit. That guilt underpins their actions until they ultimately accept their role in society.

TL;DR; The White Fang did missionary work most of the year, helped new immigrants and planned for next year during the winter, and educated their children the same as any other society does. Blake spent about an aggregate third of her childhood at the family estate before Ghira became Chieftain full time, after which Blake traveled year round with Adam's splinter group. Her original very carefully worded equivocation was true and we're just having the six years of fanon problem.

#fandom #rwby #rwby meta #blake belladonna

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