#and that both of them were childhood friend and got separated because an external force made them- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

every1studio · 4 years

Text

“heartstrings series: intro” [wayv]

genre: fluff + LONG

ficstyle: bulletpoints + series [INTRO]

summary: everyone knew you were in love with an oblivious boy but you didn’t know that others were in love with you

songs to listen to while reading this: you call it romance - k.will ft davichi + day 1 - k.will

note: (I’M SORRY I’M JUST WRITING MY OWN STUFF RIGHT NOW, BUT I’LL TRY TO GET TO MY REQUESTS ASAP)

you were a hopeless romantic

maybe you watched too many shoujo animes and read too many romance mangas

but it made you a sentimental person; one who stay up at night to look at the stars

a forgiving person; one who believe in second chances

an observant person; one who’s always in the background

if you were a character in a romcom drama, you would be the best friend of one of the most popular girls in the school

the one that’s just there to fill in space and have a couple lines to add onto the plot

the one that all the guys overlook because the one that they are looking at is the pretty girl that’s sitting next to you

and if guys did talk to you, they treated you like you were just one of the boys

you were used to it

but you always had a feeling that there will be someone for you

so you didn’t mind waiting

also because how can any regular guy compete with your 2D boyfriends

that was until you met Lucas

he was the new transfer student; and boy, oh boy, he was STUNNING

all the girls swooned for him in an instance

even you fell victim to the boy’s visuals

you heard he had a brother that was pretty good looking too but you were too busy admiring Lucas to see what he looked like

you could say he was your first, real crush

you were playing so many scenarios in your head that you didn’t see the tall boy exiting the bathroom

you were about fall on your butt but you felt his arms wrap around you

“are you okay?”

you looked up and saw someone you didn’t recognized

but he was pretty handsome, he looked like a prince

“y-yeah.. yeah I’m okay..” you muttered as he helped you up

“hey bro, you ready for basketball tryouts!” you recognized his voice, that was Lucas

your face got more and more red, the closer and closer he got

“oh hey you..” Lucas smiled as he offered a high five

your eyes widened as you received his high five, “you know me?”

“yeah~ you’re in my class! you know Hendery?” he points to the guy who’s still standing there

“no.. I just.. bumped into him..” you muttered, you had a hard time keeping eye contact with him

Hendery saw how flustered you were, but he knew you weren’t flustered over him

“hey.. I’m Hendery, Luca’s brother..”

your jaws slightly dropped, eyes shifted back and forth between the two handsome guys, “oh.. Oh...OH....”

“yeah, we gotta go to tryouts.. see ya later Y/N” Lucas waves at you before dragging Hendery

Hendery kept looking behind his shoulder at you, “you know she likes you right?”

“huh? her? nah, man.. I mean with MY face, I can see how she can be starstruck but I don’t think she’s like INTO ME, into me... hmm.. no yeah.. I don’t think so” Lucas babbles as he tries to play it off

Hendery face drops in disappointment, he can’t believe that his brother is so oblivious

he can’t believe that his brother can’t see that this beautiful girl has completely fallen for him.. like he fell for her

Hendery shoved his feelings aside for his brother

why?

because he was never strong enough show his feelings; that’s his weakness

you were looking for after school clubs that ended at the same time basketball practice

this is your last year of high school, maybe you should join a low effort club

so you thought it was a good chance to wait for Lucas; a confession would be too much but just talking would be fine, right?

you came across an empty music room; empty meaning there wasn’t anyone around but there was an abundance of instruments

you sat down with the guitar and started to strum and hum

you were so into it that you didn’t notice the quiet boy standing by the door

“hey do you wanna join our band?!” he was sounded so excited, he probably forgot that the room echoed

you almost dropped the guitar, “WHO ARE YOU?”

he puts his arms up to show that he’s innocent, “I-I’m Xiaojun from class 2-B..”

“oh you’re an underclassman... you’re in a band?” you asked as you relaxed

“yeah.. we need a vocalist and you got a great voice.. a sub guitarist wouldn’t be too bad ei..ther...”

Xiaojun’s sentence draws out as he sees your face clearly

you were so pretty in his eyes and your voice was the cherry on top

you placed the guitar down and smiled at him, “what makes you think I can’t be the main guitarist?”

he shook his daydreams away and smiled back at you, “because I’M the main guitarist..so you’re gonna have to fight me for it”

he’s just thinking how he’s finally talking to his crush since his 1st year of high school

BUT making sure that you didn’t know about his feelings because he wouldn’t know how to act or what to say

“hey Y/N, ready to go home?”

you turned to see your childhood friend and your neighbor; your surprised face melted into a warm smile

which worried Xiaojun

“hey Kun~”

“oh hey Xiaojun!” Kun goes over to pat Xiaojun on the back

“you know Xiaojun?”

“yeah we’re in a band!”

you frowned at your friend, “you never told me you were in a band!”

Kun pinches your cheeks, noting how cute you look when you pout, “yeah because if I did, I would have to introduce you to my good-looking band mates..”

you swatted his hands away

“yeah yeah whatever... now I know that you’re not in that weird cooking club..”

“he’s actually in that club..” Xiaojun said with a slip of the tongue which got Kun glaring at him

“it’s not weird...” Kun murmured

“hmm what is this aroma, is it oregano? mixed with rosemary? oh it has to be rosemary,” you clowned Kun for a conversation he had with a member from the cooking club back when you two were 1st years

Kun yells through his embarrassment and tries cover your mouth

Xiaojun kind of saw this moment in slow motion; it was like a cheesy scene out of a k-drama

“you guys dating?” he thought he said it in his head but he said it

out loud

for you and Kun to hear

“WHAT?” Kun’s ears started to get red

“NO!” you said at the same time

no one could see how Kun was slightly upset by your quick rejection tinged with a little bit of disgust

“Kun is like my brother! I’ve known him since I was a baby, that would be weird to date him..” you shuddered

Xiaojun nodded in relief and started to set up the room

“wow, you’re not gonna tell him that you used to call me “my prince charming” up until middle school?”

Kun tried to brush off his disappointment by making fun of you, he ruffled your hair

before you could say anything, he started to shove you out the door, “think about joining the band, but for now you gotta go.. we got practice!”

he shut the door on your way out

you stuck your tongue out at him

you looked at your phone to look at your time

“I need to go now or I’ll miss Lucas..”

you started to dash through the empty halls

you passed another guy but you didn’t pay too much attention to him

his hair grazed his lashes, he was adorned with lots of ear piercings, airpods in his ears, phone in his hands and had a pair of drumsticks not chicken in his tote

you made eye contact with him and he gave you a smirk of a smile

which made you look away so fast and suddenly you were thinking if you were running weird and started to fast walk instead

as you made it to the end of the hall, the boy had entered the music room

“hey Ten!” the two boys greeted him

“hey..”

you continued turned to see if the boy was gone before you started to run again

you didn’t want anyone to judge the way you ran or thought of you as the weird 3rd year student who spends her time after school running halls of the school

you cursed the school for being so big

you estimated that if would talk you a whole 3 minutes, if you ran, you would make it to the basketball courthouse that was separated from the gym

being as non-athletic as you were, you were having second thoughts if this boy was really more important than your lack of air

in those second thoughts, you ran into something

Newton’s first law of motion came into play

and the external force?

was brighter than the sun itself

AND?

you were laying, in pain, on that sun

“are you hurt?” the sun said with a smile

“what? no.. are YOU hurt? I’m SO sorry!!” you frantically got off him and offered your hand to help him up

he took it as he kept on smiling

“I have to go... I’m running late..once again, I’m sorry!!” you apologized as you fast walked

he smiled as he rubbed his chest, “that kinda hurt.. but for some reason.. I don’t mind it..”

“hey YangYang! are you gonna start the meeting or what?” the student council VP said through the doors down the opposite side of the hall

“yeah yeah.. coming!”

you finally made it to the gym so the basketball courthouse would only be around the corner

you spotted a tall guy with a bag similar to Lucas so you ran up to him

“hey Lucas!” you tried not to sound out of breath

when the guy turned around, you immediately started to apologize which you have doing a lot more today

“I’m sorry, I thought you were a friend of mine-”

“you’re Kun’s friend right?” he interrupted you

your brows knitted together in confusion, “you know me?”

“yeah.. Kun talks about you all the time.. I’m WinWin, I play the bass for same band as him..” he stuck his hand out for you to shake

you shook his hand as you saw a couple of girls you recognized from the Traditional Chinese Dance team giggle as they came up to WinWin, “good luck on your solo performance, WinWin..”

he nods at them and put his hand up to acknowledge them

“you have a solo performance? how do you have time to do both dancing and being in a band?”

he smiles at you as he hoists his bass case, “when you find things you love to do, you make time for them..”

and with that he left

“Y/N?”

you turned to see Lucas waving at you with Hendery by his side

you ran all this way and Lucas was the one to find you first

“hey Lucas... Hendery..” you gave them a small smile, mind was clouded with Winwin’s words

“you okay?” Lucas asked, Hendery looked just as worried

“yeah..” you were happy that Lucas seemed worried about you but you didn’t want him to, “are you free?”

“hmm? yeah I am now.. just gonna head to get something to eat with Hendery!”

Hendery read the lines of the situation and said, “you go with Y/N, I need to go home first. I got LOTS of homework and I can scavenge the something in the fridge..”

he was getting the keys to unlock his bike out from his bag

before either you or Lucas could put in a word, Hendery waved at you too, “see you when you get home! and get me something to-go! bye Y/N!”

and with that, he took off on his bike

Lucas rubbed the back of his neck; kind of confused by the situation and nervous because this is the first time he’s talking to you, by himself

he didn’t keep anything that Hendery told him before about you in his mind

“so.. are you okay with the diner on 7th Avenue? that’s where Hendery and I were gonna go, you know... we were craving burgers... and like, saw that that place had good reviews...so.. uh, you down?”

you smiled as you tucked the hairs in your face behind your ear, “yeah.. I’m down..”

you and Lucas made small talk on your way to the diner as he dragged his bike along

your shadows slightly touching each other even though there’s some distance between you and Lucas

the golden hour made his golden skin glow even more and you never thought that you could ever fall for anyone so effortlessly

he opened the door for you as he excitedly talk about his favorite combo of sweet and salty, “Y/N! Y/N! you HAVE to try the milkshake and fries together, it’s my guilty pleasure!!”

you couldn’t help but smile over his excitement of milkshakes and fries

and you couldn’t help but fall hopelessly more and more in love with him

is it possible to fall in love with him in only a day?

and is it possible for him to fall in love with someone like you?

only time will tell

will you be the one to pluck his heartstrings?

or will it be someone else..

or, will someone unexpected pluck your heart?

Are you still watching “The Heartstrings Series?” -Continue watching? -Exit

[ masterlist + guidelines ]

79 notes · View notes

countessofbiscuit · 4 years

Note

What are your Bobasoka headcanons? I've already gone through all of the (criminally little) fic on ao3 and I especially loved Smothered and Covered, and I saw the majority of the fics in the tag were gifted to you so I'm assuming you're the OG shipper. Feel free to essay if you like!!

Thanks for the ask and kind words about that fic :3

Oh, Bobasoka … where to begin? It’s a pairing that’s been bumping around in exchange requests for a few years — I figure it’d be easy for anyone invested in Ahsoka’s relationship with the clones to be compelled by the idea. Lledra used to draw Boba and Ahsoka interacting, and it was probably a few panels of their incredible Destinies comic that set my Bobasoka wheels turning. I’m also drawn to them because their journeys traverse so much canon; there’s not just a sandbox to play in, but a whole goddamn stretch of beach, stretching far out into the horizon ... (#AhsokaLives #BobaSurvived :D)

I have to lead with the proviso that almost everything I write/daydream about/headcanon has a groundsheet of Rexsoka. Ahsoka’s interest in Boba, in my head, is intimately tied up with her attraction to and/or relationship with Rex — or, at the bare minimum, her intimate fellowship with the clones. She went through puberty (maybe with heats!) surrounded by a literal army of handsome, roughly college-aged dudes; that must’ve been a heady mix of heaven and hell. If she didn’t quench her thirst before war’s end and her (eventual) separation from Rex, she’d probably be pretty dehydrated when stumbling across Boba. As for Boba’s attraction to Ahsoka, well ... she’s very pretty, she’s potentially useful, she’s not likely to skewer him in his sleep (+2) on account of being a Jedi (-1), and now she’s the one down on her luck; if he falls in bed with anyone, why not this girl who isn’t afraid of him and stares a lot at his lips?

And Boba is like a hot shipping potato — satisfying, hard to fuck up, goes well (read: makes for an intriguing story) with almost everyone. And I think it has everything to do with his liminality, something he shares with Ahsoka and probably recognizes.

Their neither-this-nor-that-ness overlap in such interesting ways, and they each bring their identity issues to the table — Ahsoka as an on-again, off-again Jedi; Boba as a clone who isn’t a Clone™, a Mandalorian by birth and bearing, but not by the book. At different points in their stories, they identify as different things, and that would affect their headspace and color their view of the other. They wrestle with themselves and each other. Force-user and bounty hunter; privileged topsider and orphaned juvenile delinquent fugitive; GAR commander and outcast clone; Jedi and Mandalorian; Disillusioned veteran and disaffected army brat; Rebellion agent and Imperial contractor.

And as much conflict is baked into these dynamics, it also generates a certain magnetism; and I believe they recognize, on some level, their shared trauma and the symmetry in their experiences. Boba and Ahsoka both have happy childhoods with very little to distress or vex them (beyond the art, I do not jive with Age of Republic: Jango Fett, a Disney-canon comic that not only doubles-down on the Jango-wasn’t-Mando nonsense, but shows him being rather cavalier about Boba’s life); Geonosis happens and their adolescent lives are dominated by war (which is how they came to actively threaten each other as space!secondary-schoolers — whaaaaatf!); they are both dubiously (even wrongfully) imprisoned; and they both suffer alienation and incredible personal loss.

Boba was set apart from the clones before he was even pulled him from the jar, othered and elevated from the beginning. He never bonded with brothers, he does not identify as a clone. And while there are examples of clones making overtures to him, canonically his relationship with them is fraught and probably made worse when he gets banged up in Republic Central at the tender age of eleven or twelve — and of course, Ahsoka is an accessory to this, the second chapter in his tragedy at the hands of the Jedi. He needed help (whether he wanted it or not), it was not given by clones or Jedi alike (hamstrung by bureaucracy, sure, but surely some other means of intervention might have been lobbied for?), and Boba becomes a right teenage disaster, well-balanced only in the sense that he has a chip on both shoulders.

(n.b. Putting my RepComm hat on for a second, I can’t help but sniffle-laugh at the idea that the Alphas watched him get thrown in a maximum-security slammer and were like “Ah, there he is, the feral vod’ika. First time, we’ll let the little snot earn his stripes. Second time, we’ll bust him out and send him on a tough love retreat with A’den or Jaing.”)

Ahsoka, meanwhile, is part-and-parcel of the institutions that Boba sets himself against, even after she too has been cast out by circumstances beyond her control. She grows up in a supportive Jedi community and then spends some seriously formative years with a whole slew of brothers — brothers that should have been Boba’s!

Boba, on the other hand, is a great example of the proverb that a child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth. (As he tells Hondo, “Why should I help anybody? I’ve got no one.”)

The resentment that must create! But also, later, the quiet empathy too — maybe when Boba’s having one of his better days and Ahsoka’s obviously not.

And all of the above is interesting enough, without also touching upon the wildcard that is Mandalore.

Boba’s relationship with Mandalore .... well, that’s contested in- and out-of-universe and I won’t allow myself to essay overmuch. I subscribe firmly to a Mandalorian Fetts construction of canon, even though Boba must be someone who struggles mightily with Mandalorian identity. He’s raised by a bona fide Mando, a solicitous, loving father who’d have no reason not to pass on his language and beliefs; but at the same time, it takes that village, and when Boba’s clan of two is shattered, he has no one else. The loss of his dad unmoors him from his only anchor to Mandalorian culture and clan.

If Boba had been close to the Cuy’val Dar, one would think he’d have turned to them rather than fall in with Jango’s criminal acquaintances; or maybe the bounty hunters just scooped him up first, and troubled lil’ Boba was shepherded through bereavement by folks who enabled and encouraged him to externalize his anger in a way that gave him a (false) feeling of agency and strength.

Whatever the reasons, Boba does not repatriate himself to Mandalore (much to Fenn Shysa’s melodramatic dismay). He strikes me as a lapsed Mandalorian; he doesn’t exactly follow the creed besides wearing the armor (scavenged? his dad’s sans helmet? canon is confused on this point, but he doesn’t go Mando until the unfinished arcs at the end of TCW, either for lack of stature, lack of armor, or lack of enthusiasm). I feel like if someone rocked up to Boba in a cantina and had the balls to ask “hey, so you a Mandalorian?” Boba would be like “<ominously slow helmet tilt> who’s asking” and never give you a straight answer.

Meanwhile, Ahsoka gets a crash course on Mandalore from none other than someone who, at one point, belonged to a sect that wanted to expunge Jaster’s legacy from the galaxy — and at the very least, had reason to dislike clones. This isn’t the place to explore my Boba/Bo-Katan feelings, but know that they are fathomless, and I would pay good money to be a fly on the wall of that Kom’rk when Bo-Katan gives Ahsoka Mando History 101 with her own special sauce. Ahsoka is probably more up-to-speed on Mandalore than Boba, and at one point, she may even own more beskar than him! (n.b. After the crash, I think one of the first places Rex and Ahsoka bounce is just inside Mando space, to scope out the Sundari situation and maybe try to scramble a signal to Bo-Katan; she’d have the goodwill to at least get them back on their feet if she can’t help them lay low herself. For a variety of reasons worth maybe ficcing down the line, they aren’t successful.)

I don’t really have a concluding statement except, I just think Bobasoka’s neat :) They hit all my depressed-Millennial buttons.

Headcanon by bullet-point isn’t really my style, but this is tumblr so ... tl;dr:

They recognize a lot in each other, even if they’re slow to admit it, if ever. Boba’s a cagey bastard and Ahsoka doesn’t ever like him enough to be emotionally honest.

They bump into each other during Ahsoka’s walkabout(s) ‘cause Coruscant’s Underworld ain’t big enough for the two of them. Without Slave-1, Boba couchsurfs at Nyx Okami’s garage, but he does his laundry at Rafa’s. He might even borrow the Martez’s new, useful friend for a job or two.

Ahsoka eventually matures enough to be sensitive about her use of the Force on and around clones, and she definitely doesn’t use it around Boba. Definitely not during sex.

Boba is privately weirded out every time Ahsoka uses Mando slang she picked up off the clones or the Nite Owls.

Boba absolutely kills Cad Bane in that shoot-out, keeps the hat, and lets Ahsoka have it. She shoves it out the airlock and uses it for target practice.

So many great smut flavours! Hatesex. Acquaintances with benefits. “You’re traumatized and touch-starved and you look just like him/them, and I know how to be gentle and what to do, so maybe we could … ?” They’re both privately comfortable with their bodies and sexuality, but Boba’s got trust issues a parsec long and Ahsoka’s lost confidence; it’s always an awkward affair, but desperation wins out.

They exchange comm codes every time they run into each other, which is kind of pointless because they both use burners.

Ahsoka hitches a ride on Slave-1 more than once. There really is only one bed, so it’s either sleep upright, sleep in a pokey prisoner hold, or sleep with him.

For a few years, Boba can pass as a last-generation clone — the ones that got sold off in bulk units to slavers before Kamino sunk another three years’ food, board, and training into them. Boba pretends he doesn’t notice, easy to really, since he tells himself his helmet is his face. But occasionally, when Ahsoka can convince him there’s profit in it, he agrees to play sleeper agent and assists in liberating a few here and there.

They don’t talk about Aurra Sing.

When an Imp really crosses him, Boba passes on intel to Ahsoka to ruin their day.

Once, when they’re both super skint, Ahsoka volunteers to get handed in to some relatively minor and out-of-the-way Imperial garrison, so Boba can collect, bust her out, and split the pot with her. It’s the closest she ever comes to telling him “I trust you” — and when he brushes the idea aside, citing something about risk, it’s the closest he ever comes to telling her “I love you.”

Boba sees Inquisitors as muscling in on his game. There are so many lousy Force-users around nowadays, it should be easy pickings, but Inquisitors get privileged information. So he makes sport out of misdirecting them, especially from Ahsoka.

When he pisses her off, Ahsoka fantasizes about Bo-Katan taking Boba down a peg or two while she watches :)))

Boba experienced Ahsoka’s heat once, secondhand through a cabin wall. He thought he was being clever by shooting Rex up with some Nevoota stim pollen, locking him in with Ahsoka, and hijacking their locked ships. Longest three days of his life, limping on broken hyperdrives and shared fuel stores to the nearest waystation to a soundtrack of violent lovemaking : \

Bounty hunters invariably bump into spies and agents because they work in the same areas. The agents pretend to be bounty hunters, eccentric business people, sex workers, or a range of other things. Sometimes each party knows all about the other, but it’s only polite not to mention it. This happens to Ahsoka and Boba A LOT, especially once she becomes Fulcrum; rebel cells and Imperials often want the same people. Occasionally they exchange fire. A couple times Boba gets imprisoned in Ahsoka’s own brig. Once, Boba blows her cover and definitely lives to regret it.

(this essay was originally punctuated with pics, but replies with images won’t show up tumblr tags so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

#bobasoka #boba fett #ahsoka tano #rexsoka #the clone wars

47 notes · View notes

comradekatara · 5 years

Text

the comics need to stop adding new convoluted plotpoints that dont make sense, and instead write a self-contained story with an A-plot, a B-plot, and a C-plot that all connect somehow. a quest narrative of sorts where they’re all split up and each on their own separate missions that force them to solve their internal conflicts, while also furthering the narrative thematically both in terms of the tensions established in the subplots and in the narrative thread running throughout. this is like, basic separate-but-together quest narrative 101, but. yknow.

here are some hypothetical suggestions for these subplots:

first option

A-plot: aang and azula are forced to work together in the heart of the swamp. azula feels shame as she is all alone with aang and must actually confront him, so she retaliates by being cruel to aang and insulting his intelligence. aang is never not nice to her, insistent that she’d like him if she got to know him––but that’s what she’s afraid of. the stress of the swamp causes her to nearly break down completely again, but she forces herself to persevere through it, snarky remarks as her coping mechanism. aang repeatedly saves her life from the swamp, which she finds she can neither outwit nor bend her way out of. instead, she must embrace the entropy, and through aang’s wisdom, she begins to find a sense of inner peace. she starts to admit that she has a lot to learn from him, though that still hurts to think about. they don’t leave as friends, exactly, but they’re getting there.

B-plot: sokka, katara, and zuko are sent to the north pole for [x plot device], where they are all forced to confront their pasts. though they are on a diplomatic mission, it doesn’t take much for them to all get sidetracked. katara grows furious when she sees that absolutely no progress has been made in regard to women’s rights, and she yells a lot, at yue’s dumb patriarchal dad, at pakku, and at sokka and zuko for trying to help (she doesn’t need their man opinions trying to speak over her!!!!!! zuko’s just like, “i literally didnt say anything.........”) and eventually she rallies the women of the tribe and basically incites an entire feminist movement. upon seeing yue’s dad again, sokka is forced to confront memories he tries his hardest to bury deep. now that he finally has time to breathe, he lets himself acknowledge his guilt complex when it comes to protecting people. and zuko is given a second chance to amend his “that’s rough buddy” into actual, genuine emotional support. meanwhile, the north pole is stirring bad memories for zuko, but for other reasons. he must confront his guilt over all the dumb shit he did when he was 16; he must acknowledge how this was a turning point in his life, when he teetered on the edge of life and death just to fulfill his goal of capturing the avatar; when he watched zhao die. he never had the opportunity to confront that properly. he gets to now, and katara and sokka are there with him. sidenote: i think their dynamic makes for an excellent trio by virtue of them all being a third wheel. anyway they get the macguffin that symbolically represents their emotional journey. no i dont know what said macguffin is what am i a writer (jk its probably a mirror)

C-plot: toph, suki, mai, and ty lee complete their side of the quest without breaking a sweat. the four of them? together? please. they’re unstoppable. but they soon realize this, and decide that if they’re going to be given the opportunity to hang out just the four of them, they’re going to do it right. so occasionally, from aang & azula’s internal-tension-filled plot, and sokka katara & zuko’s swelling emotions plot, we just see toph, suki, mai, & ty lee fucking shit up and having a blast. we don’t see everything that they get up to, though a lot is alluded to, and it sounds cool as hell. they conclude their adventure with the realization that maybe they’re too powerful, and they should be more responsible with that power. but then toph’s like ............nah, and they all shrug and nod.

second option

A-plot: sokka, toph, and azula are on a boat. why are they on a boat? idk. reasons. anyway, toph does not like boats, and she very loudly affirms this at least once a page. though not so secretly she feels a lot safer than she otherwise would because sokka is there. azula also doesn’t like that they’re on a boat. she feels trapped. and she knows that even though they likely won’t, sokka and toph could take her down at any time, regardless of the fact that toph is unsteady, she’s on a ship made of metal, and azula’s not going anywhere. sokka doesn’t have a problem with boats. he grew up using boats all the time. he’s built boats. but he also really wishes katara were here, because without her, unfortunately, the tides do control this ship. a bunch of pirates try to take control, and practically obliterate the rest of their crew, and they all have to use their own unique brand of ingenuity to save the others. azula comes to respect them even more, and they her. sokka and toph already respect each other a hell of a lot, but i guess they exceed maximum respect levels cause that’s how cool the other thinks they are (and they’d be right!) and they forge a genuine friendship with azula for the ages, which sokka was previously highly skeptical of, but.... she’s nice now. somewhat. she’s mellowed out a bit, even if she’s still incredibly high-strung and weird. but who is he to judge? ‘cause hey, at the end of the day, they make a great team.

B-plot: aang is given an important Mission, and he’s ready to go in alone. after all, katara is busy, sokka is busy, toph is busy, zuko is busy. but suki offers her services, and she and ty lee flank him on his Journey. aang realizes that even though suki’s a part of their group, he doesn’t really know her at all. so he decides he’s going to learn. he asks about her past, her upbringing, her plans for the future. he asks the same about ty lee. we see flashbacks to all three of their childhoods, and what motivated them to become who they are today. aang was just a carefree kid, and he shied away from any type of responsibility; now, he’s carrying the entire world on his shoulders. even though she looked exactly the same as all her sisters, or maybe because of it, ty lee always felt like an outsider in her family. it’s clear that underneath their picture-perfect facade of upper-middle class stability that her father insisted they project, there was a deep strain on all of them, and the cracks seeped through. ty lee always felt like it was her job to mediate, and she soon learned to manipulate people into being satisfied with what they had, instead of what they wanted. but one day, she realized, it wasn’t her job to be that person in an environment where she already felt alien, so she ran off to join the circus. only when azula resurfaced in her life did she have to adopt her facade again, out of survival. and suki was raised by wolves. (ok i’m kidding––or am i––but tbh her backstory deserves a post of its own so..) anyway, aang ends up learning a lot about two people he never made any prior attempts to befriend, and learns about himself along the way. go team!

C-plot: zuko is forced to act as a mediator between mai and katara, who both find the other teeth-grindingly offputting. zuko really just wants to focus on Doing The Thing because the fact that the Thing has not been Done is stressing him out. but mai and katara clearly have issues between them that are in need of solving, and zuko cares about them both very much, so it’s hard for him to see them snipe at each other all the time. especially because he keeps getting dragged further and further into their arguments, to the point where they’re basically just arguing over who has more of a claim to him. mai says they used to date, katara’s like, “yeah for 2 months and it sucked what’s your point,” and katara’s like “he jumped in front of lightning for me,” but mai’s just like “he would do that for a stray cat whats your point.” zuko’s just like “listen. i would die for both of you. but if you don’t shut up i’ll kill you myself.” ultimately, the Conflict is Resolved, and in the most climactic moment, katara saves mai’s life. mai is grateful, and has enough humility to acknowledge this. katara’s like, “of course. i’d do anything for my friends.” and they still don’t like each other but the animosity has quelled considerably. and then they realize that they may have absolutely nothing in common, but they can still bond over making fun of zuko. the whole way back they swap stories about him being a Fucking Nerd, and zuko’s just like, “i’ve made a huge mistake.”

third option

A-plot: aang, zuko, azula, and ty lee are somehow tasked with a Plot-Relevant Burden, and shit gets real. these four people have so much baggage among each other that while they all insist to put their feelings away for the sake of the mission, tension bubbles to the surface anyway, and zuko and azula all but get in a row. aang and ty lee bond over having to be the mediators, while also acknowledging the harm azula caused both of them. they all get trapped in a Magical Cave of Logic Puzzles (fuck it its a comic idk) that they must solve before they can pass. aang and azula are both isolated, but their monologue is external because of course they both talk to themselves. aang considers it a fun game, azula is determined to crush this cave just like she obliterates all her enemies. zuko and ty lee meanwhile, are trapped together, but neither of them have any idea what’s going on in this wack cave. they eventually talk through all their feelings, and reconcile in a way zuko never in a million years expected to with ty lee of all people. then she reveals she had the answer to the puzzle all along and just wanted to facilitate an honest conversation. zuko would be mad, but honestly he’s just impressed. they all return into the light of day again, and the sunlight feels cleansing.

B-plot: katara, toph, and suki soon realize that they make for a more awkward trio than they anticipated. at first katara had been very insistent that it was finally time for just the girls to go on an adventure together, but it becomes readily apparent that without sokka......they have nothing to talk about??? and they’re all like. fuck. is sokka really that important to the fabric of our friendgroup?? the answer is, of course he is, but it pisses them all off. they can be friends outside of sokka! as a matter of fact, fuck sokka! who needs him? not them, certainly. they’re the world’s most powerful waterbender, earthbender, and non-bending warrior respectively! what does sokka have? a sword? some maps??? so they may not have many things in common, but their sheer willpower & determination is shared among them in spades. they complete their Task with great competency, and they’re all like “FUCK YEAH.” sokka is very confused as to why all three of them tackle him in a hug next time they see him.

C-plot: no grand quest. no adventure. mai simply finds a bat hanging in the corner of her room, and happens to notice sokka walking by. she summons him into her room, where she points at the bat with disgust. sokka’s like, “you’ve got to be kidding me. it’s just a bat. i’d think you’d love bats.” and mai’s like “then u are mistaken.” so sokka sighs and says he’ll take care of it, opens the window, closes the door, and tries to coax the bat into the night air gently. unfortunately, sokka’s execution is less than poor. the bat flies at his face, at which he lets out a very dignified shriek, and the bat starts flying around the room like crazy. for some reason, it refuses to just go through the window. mai and sokka, both fearing for the bat’s safety as well as their own, take the only logical option and hide in her closet until the bat leaves. after a while, they can no longer hear its indomitable screeching, so they open the door to the closet just a crack, only to see that it had actually tired itself out to the point of exhaustion and seemed to have fallen directly onto her bed. mai’s like “ewwww i sleep there sokka get rid of it!!!!!!!!!” and sokka’s like, “i can’t just throw it out the window!! it’ll die???” and mai’s like “this is why we need an animal control department.” which gives sokka a great idea. he tells mai to stay put and mai’s just like “you mean alone????? with the bat??????” sokka runs back moments later with a stricken zuko. “mai, are you all right???” he pants desperately, to which mai rolls her eyes and is like “yeah bitch im fine.” zuko turns to sokka and glowers. “you said there was an emergency in mai’s room! i thought she’d been–– oh what’s that???” they introduce zuko to the batshit bat, which sokka has named Squeaky, and zuko immediately knows what to do, and soon later it flies through the open window without a care. sokka’s just like “man, you really should’ve asked zuko for help instead of me.” and mai’s just like, “well... you were there. and youre.. competent.” and sokka looks around at the mess squeaky made of mai’s room and he’s like “u sure of that???” and it suddenly hits them just how uncouth this entire affair was, especially considering that zuko was the one who came out looking most competent (which they both deeply resent). they vow never to speak of it again.

#so the last one is just a story about a bat #......and?#aang #azula #toph #sokka #suki #mai #ty lee #zuko #katara #cant tag this as AUs bc it's canon-compliant!#but i gotta tag it something............#comics that are better than gene yangs hack writing #:)#there we go :)#postwargaang

61 notes · View notes

adrianalvas · 4 years

Text

Podcast 188: Figure Section [aufnahme + wiedergabe] [ +Interview]

Figure Section arose from the meeting of Austrian-French musician and actress Olivia Carrère - aka Olive - and Belgian artist and producer Yannick Franck (RAUM, Orphan Swords, Mt Gemini), who first crossed paths on a theatre stage in Brussels.

Although founded on an acknowledgement of these styles, their execution is experimental, idiosyncratic and entirely modern in spirit, guided by an intent to revise their influences and an approach shaped by romanticism and a surreal, Dadaistic sense of humour. The recurrent themes of the project address friendship, love, loss, existential angst, survival, irony, degeneration, queer culture, non-conformity and ‘the expiation of tensions through modern day rituals’.

The duo’s first single ‘Teutonic Knights’ was hailed by The Brvtalist as an illustration of ”infectious wave [music] with an eerie atmosphere and frigid vocals”, a track that subsequently generated widespread acclaim. In October their debut EP was released on the cult Berlin based label run by Phillip Strobel, aufnahme + wiedergabe.

TF: What motivates you to create Figure Section?

O: My collaboration with Yannick is an intersection between a strong friendship and similar interests and tastes in music. What’s more, the collaboration between us is really complementary in the creative process and allows us to explore new musical playgrounds which neither of us would probably reach if we were working separately.

Y: There are certain musical realms I wanted to explore for a long time whilst doing very different projects (Orphan Swords, RAUM, Y.E.R.M.O.), and since we met and started to experiment together, we dreamed of having a proper duo. It took time but here we are, I am very glad the project exists and I couldn’t dream of a better companion to do it with.

TF: Tell us something about you. What’s your background? Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

O: My background is rather diverse, and it took me a long time to discover how intimate I was with music as a listener, but also as a composer. I come from a theatrical background. I trained as an actress, though I started my studies with a degree in communication – specifically in socio-cultural animation - knowing that I would change path after obtaining it. It’s quite funny to see how tortuous life can be before finding your way through and beyond all these experiences. When I started as an actress ten years ago, something was missing in my professional contribution. I was desperately looking for some creative language that I could develop on my own. I was already familiar with singing since my childhood, so I started learning the basics of music theory online, and quickly I realized that I wanted to compose songs, and to find the easiest way of recording them without any external help. I got my hands on a keyboard and software and started composing, singing and producing at home. It was more a secret process for a few years, until I created a solo piece in the National Theatre of Belgium, which involved performing some of my compositions. This was a fundamental step where I learned that, with the music, I could be really free in the writing and performing process.

Y: I studied painting, but it quickly became clear that music was a territory worth exploring and one that I had to invest my time and energy into. Since I was pretty disgusted by the blatant materialism and the general mindset of the art world; the galleries, and a lot of the attitudes adopted by other artists (competitiveness, individualism, tendency to follow an art world, scale version of the Star System), I found there would be more freedom making music. People attend a concert to have an experience. Anyhow I love art, all sorts of art and my friends are usually creative people. Also, there have never been any boundaries for me, you can build sonic sculptures or paint rhythms, you can conceive a concert as a performance, you can do whatever you want. I recently moderated a panel at BOZAR about the underground art scene in New York in the 80’s, in East Village in particular. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dany Johnson (she was a resident DJ at Club 57 and later at Paradise Garage), Leonard Abrams (he ran the fabulous magazine The East Village Eye) and Gil Vasquez (DJ and president of the Keith Haring Foundation) and what struck me was the fact that at that particular moment in that scene you had zero boundaries between visual art, music, dance, performance… Klaus Nomi shared the bill with Ann Magnuson and John Sex and Haring curated shows and painted almost 24/7 while listening to music. It was all about energy. It’s academicism and speculation (art as a luxury product) that kills such energies (and eventually did in that case) Two different problems, both normative and alien to any creative essence. I stumbled upon a Serge Daney quote lately: ‘Academicism is the aesthetics of nihilism.’ And I agree with that, once you “do things because that’s the way they’re done”, reproduce them in blind fidelity and separate, classify, and annihilate boundary breaking forces, you start producing numb, meaningless objects. In this case a painting has to go from a gallery to a living room or a collection where it belongs. Is it a nice base material for speculation or a good way to seem educated and exhibit your taste as a buyer, to impress others? Hell no…a painting is rather an expression of life itself, a celebration, an exhibition of the worlds revolting features, its horrors, its injustice, its sadness, qualities and themes such as these…in every case it is an essential, vital gesture. Otherwise why even take a look at it? Music should be just the same.

TF: Do you spend all your time for your musical activity or do you have another job?

O: Yes, I do now. The musical activity has taken the vast majority of my time even though I’m still performing as a theatre actress, but that part of my professional activity is becoming more and more scarce. I’ve been recently offered to create music for theatre. So, my work today is divided between Figure Section, and other emerging projects for which I compose and produce for other artists, and my work as a music composer for the theatre. Maybe one day I will come back to the stage with a performance in which I’ll be the actress as well as the musician. I do keep an eye on that prospect even though it’s not the priority for the moment.

Y: I teach sound in cinema. We analyze movies and their soundtracks most of the time. It is a very interesting way to make a living next to music making.

TF: How is your live set up going to be? Any particular equipment? What’s your favourite track to play live and why?

O: We are working on the simplest and most efficient way of touring. So, our set is based on live keyboard playing, voice mixing, and equalizing the tracks live. So, there’s no particular equipment at the moment.

Spectral Dance, is one of my favourites to play live. It’s a more nostalgic synthpop song that offers a vast sense of space for the vocals and the keyboard parts. I just love its simplicity, almost naïveté, contrasted by lyrics about pernicious ghosts from the past that try to keep us from moving forward.

Y: There is a lot of different processes and ideas colliding and merging in Figure Section. It is always quite challenging for us to write a new song and perform it on stage. I think my favourite live song is currently Disfigured Section. We both sing on that one and I love that. Lyrics and vibe wise it’s sort of a Neo Dada track, maybe a tad surrealistic too, from apparent nonsense a lot of sense can emerge from the lyrics. Also, it is nervous, rough, noisy, kind of pissed off. At the same time desperate and full of energy. A union of opposites.

youtube

TF: What new hardwares did you apply to make 'Spectre' LP? Do you have a particular method while working in the studio?

O: There’s no new hardware utilized, but we have a more precise choice of instruments these days as well as a particular approach in the production process. Yannick and I work just as well separately as together in the studio. It just helps us to be more efficient because of our very different schedules. We both share online a musical file filled with musical ideas, loops, drums and lyrics. We are both the composers and mixers of the songs, but Yannick is more the writer and the producer and I’m more the arranger and singer. I think that we have now reached the perfect balance in the creative process, which is almost symbiotic.

Y: Yes, it is super interesting because I never know where Olive is going to take a song to when she starts working on it with her great skills and sensibility. What I know is that great stuff will eventually happen, leading to things that will stimulate us and give us even more ideas.

TF: How do you compose this tracks? Do you treat them like musical narratives or more like sound sculptures or images?

O: It really depends on the material. Sometimes Yannick comes with a very complete composition and I add the keyboard and voice arrangements, sometimes I come with a proposition and he completes it. Our strongest asset as a duo is that we started music completely differently, Yannick as an electronic experimentalist and performer, and I as a pop songwriter and singer. So, what we do is bring these assets together in our songs. I think the first track of the Spectre release is the perfect example of that symbiosis. This is what we aim for.

Y: Yes, it is a creative adventure, we have no such thing as a clearly established routine, it’s more laboratory like. It is not “experimental music” but the way it is done is not conventional either.

youtube

TF: Any movie, documentary, album (not electronic music) that you would like to share with our readers?

O: We are big fans of horror, thrillers and sci-fi. The last movie that left me fascinated as well as horrified is Midsommar by Ari Aster. I loved that movie because its director knows how to subtly inject weird elements of comedy that make you feel uncomfortable, as well as conveying an ice-cold intrigue about ancient pagan practices and rituals. Loved it.

Y: +1 for Midsommar. I loved that the movie never seems to bring any judgment about the neo-pagan community it depicts, it is just utterly different from what we know but it seems to make sense no matter how shocking it can be. It gives us a break from the ethnocentric attitude of many North Americans and from the extreme arrogance of modern western civilizations, which seem to be absolutely convinced of their superiority to any previous or different civilizations. Also, the visual effects are amazing. Der Goldener Handschuh (The Golden Glove) was quite a great movie too. Being utterly disgusted by this ugly, messy, desperate serial killer’s gruesome murders without being able to restrain myself from laughing was for sure a wild experience. And it really triggers thoughts afterwards. Moral thoughts especially. I found it pretty strong. A non-electronic album: Lux perpetua by Ensemble Organum, which is a very particular version of the Requiem by Anthonius de Divitis. It is such a beautiful requiem and such an incredible interpretation; it even features throat singing which is very unusual in the context of European polyphonic reinterpretations. 15th century art tends to focus a lot on death and mortality. And as Regis Debray said in his 1992 book The Life and Death of Images: “Where there is death there’s hope, aesthetically speaking.”

TF: What are the forthcoming projects?

O: Wrapping up our debut LP.

Y: We are also planning tours, confirmed dates are in Israel and the US so far but more will be announced later on. It would be fabulous to come play in Mexico too!

source https://www.tforgotten.org/single-post/Podcast-188-Figure-Section-aufnahme-wiedergabe-Interview

1 note · View note

selinascatnip · 7 years

Text

In My Dreams

Minako/Kunzite | 6205 words | AU | Read here on AO3

Thank you @charliechaplin2blr for the beta

“Koichi-chan...” she said in the most sickening voice ever and he knew she was after something. He sighed tiredly., knowing that, despite his attempts to resist, she’d get whatever it was she wanted. “Oh no,” he said, resisting anyway.

She grinned and leaned across the table to get closer to him. When their faces were mere inches apart, she batted her eyelashes.

“Koi-chan,” she said in that same sweet voice, “dearest of my heart, you know how much I love you, don’t you?”

Rei let out disgusted moan.

“Why do we have to witness this horrid display?”

But the other two seemed oblivious to their friend’s reaction.

“Unfortunately, yes. I am painfully aware.”

“So if you’d be so kind as to…” she fluttered her eyelashes a few more times in lieu of actually finishing her sentence.

Once more, he sighed, and then hung his head resigned.

“Just give it to me.”

“Yay!” she cheered lightly as she retreated into her seat and slid the ridiculously massive bowl of half-eaten ice cream over to him.

“Why do you always put so much when you know you’ll never be able to eat the entire thing?” he complained, stirring the contents of the dessert he was being forced to finish, “and why, of all things, is it mint chocolate chip? This is disgusting! I feel like I might as well be eating chocolate while brushing my teeth.”

“If you hate it so much, then why do you always eat her leftovers?” asked Makoto, never one to hold back.

“He hates to see food going to waste.” Enlightened Minako.

Koichi begrudgingly shoved a spoonful of half-melted green goop into his mouth. “And she takes advantage of that, using me like-” he pulled the spoon from his mouth as he looked for the right word. “What do you call a person who’s basically forced into eating the leftovers of someone with no common sense?”

“A boyfriend!” laughed Usagi.

Minako was nodding sagely (she tended to unquestioningly agree with everything her fellow blonde said). “Yes, boyfr-” (except this). The nodding stopped abruptly. “Hey, wait!”

“Oh please,” Makoto said with unusual acerbic bite, “exactly how long do you two intend to keep this up?”

“There you go again, Mako, coming to conclusions far too quickly. It isn’t like that at all. Koichi and I are just friends, aren’t we, Ko-chan?”

Koichi looked up from shovelling in another mouthful of the hated ice cream. “I’m already eating this for you, you don’t have to keep calling me cheesy nicknames.”

“Own, but they fit you soooo well,” she said as she leaned over the table again and pinched his cheek.

“Get off me,” he pushed her arm away, in no mood for her teasing.

“And… they completely ignored me,” sighed Makoto.

“It happens when a couple is too self-focused,” Ami stated, matter-of-factly.

“Not a couple!” protested Minako while also trying to poke Koichi’s leg with her foot.

“Honestly,” Rei said with a roll of her eyes, “they’re more insufferable than MamoUsa.”

Usagi chose to ignore the main point of her friend’s remark. “About that, what would their couple name be?” she wondered aloud. “Minko? Konako?”

“There would be no couple name, because we are definitely not a couple,” countered a breathless Minako (turns out, Koichi was pretty good at dodging her pokes).

Rei eyed the ridiculous display of flirtation between her two friends with disgust. “At least Mamoru-san acts like a separate person from Usagi.”

“It’s true,” Makoto agreed. “He even takes us out sometimes. Remember when he took Ami to that exposition about that medicine thingy?”

“It was fun,” Ami said, looking over to Usagi. “You should come with us next time,” she suggested, always eager to try and get her friends more interested in academic pursuits.

“Eh,” Usagi said, unenthused by the idea. “You guys go and enjoy stuff like that together, really it’s fine. I’m happy to stay home on those days.”

“Not. A. Couple.” Minako punctuated each word with an attempted poke to Koichi’s leg, once more, no one payed her attention, Koichi pushed his chair back as far as possible from the table in order to get away from her. Minako threw herself back on her seat and sighed dramatically in defeat.

“Meanwhile,” continued Makoto, “I called Minako the other day, inviting her to a concert, and she turns me down because she had to have dinner with Koichi’s grandmother.”

Koichi all but threw the empty ice cream bowl onto the table. “When did you have dinner with my grandmother?” he asked, scandalized.

“Uh, last week?” she said, and then smiled, “she made baklava for dessert and it was to die for.”

Koichi’s outrage would not be assuaged. “But she didn’t even invite me!”

It was Minako’s turn to roll her eyes. “She’s still hurt because you forgot her birthday.”

“You could have said that the gift you brought was from the both of us.”

“But it wasn’t. You forgot.”

At that he got up from his chair and rounded the table. Minako watched him with a confused frown until she found him standing so close to her they were practically touching. “What ar- Ack!” she yelped as he poked her, hard, in the ribs and then retreated back to his chair on the opposite side.

Usagi shook her head. “You guys can’t keep your hands off of each other. You ignore all your other friends when you’re together in the same room and you literally buy gifts for each others’ relatives. Sounds to me like you’re a couple.”

“Come on, people,” Minako said, getting a little tired of this accusation. “We’ve known each other since we were in diapers, I call his grandmother ‘granny’, what’s the big deal over this?”

Rei snorted. “Ok, fine. Live in denial if that’s what you guys really want.”

“For the last time, guys, it’s not denial,” she looked over at Koichi. “Back me up here, please? We’re just friends, right?”

“Of course,” But he didn’t face her when he said that, and everyone seemed to notice his detached instance, except for Minako.

“Satisfied?” she asked.

The other four girls just exchanged brief looks with each other, dropping the subject.

Her heart beat fast in her chest, but she carried a smile on her face.

Even in that moment of despair, she couldn’t let her emotions surface. She couldn’t allow her Senshi to lose their trust in her, or them lose their trust in themselves. Even if she was a ruin inside, she had to show complete integrity, it was her responsibility to be the structure on which her sisters would lean during what would be, without doubt, the hardest night of their lives.

And yet, if she was truthful with herself, she would have to admit that she was afraid, very afraid. Although she had listened since childhood to stories about the legendary Silver Crystal, and even if she trusted the Queen and the powers that she and her sisters bore, it was difficult not to ask herself if all of that would be enough after the entirety of planet Earth had been consumed by darkness. The orb that had once shone like a blue sapphire could not now even be compared to a black pearl, since no light reflected from its surface.

It had happened so fast, in less than a moment they had gone from having complete control over what happened on their primitive ward planet, to receiving the refugee Prince Endymion, sent by the leader of his guard, Lord Kunzite, in a last, desperate act to save the remnants of a planet being engulfed by chaos. Of course, there were many express requests, even from the Lord Commander himself to the Prince to be returned, but Endymion refused them all. People changed after meeting Metalia, he said.

But despite the sinister evidence in front of her, she couldn’t stop herself from hoping. Part of the reason was because she had nothing else to hang onto, but because she trusted Kunzite. She had trusted him when she saw how he’d acted around her Princess, with zeal and care, but never with lust; she had trusted him because of how he’d led his men, with honour and comradeship; and the complete adoration he’d had towards his Prince. She had trusted him, and not only that, she’d given her heart to that mortal. She couldn’t help but hope that Endymion was wrong, that her Kunzite was incorruptible, and that soon, he would come to join her in battle, not as her adversary, but as her salvation.

But when he came, he led the troops who exterminated all she loved.

She still tried to make him see reason, and found that even in the midst of the war’s chaos, her Senshi pride spilled on the ground like the blood of her sisters-in-arms, and she begged him, please, Kunzite, open your eyes!

But he stood indifferent to her pleadings and completely and prepared to destroy her.

So, when she heard the last scream of despair from her Princess, she knew then, finally, that there was nothing else to lose and, gathering the parts that remained, she slayed him with her own blade.

When Minako woke up screaming and crying, she could still smell the blood of the battleground.

He could hear laughing and chatting coming from the kitchen, so he pushed himself out of bed – his current preferred location for brooding over the happenings of the previous day – and plucked a book from the writing desk. He settled himself quickly back into bed and did his best to make it look like he was reading. It didn’t take long for to him to hear the creak of the door opening, but he didn’t lift his eyes to look at her.

“Koichi?”

He didn’t answer, instead he turned a page and tried really hard to actually read it.

“The second law explains how the velocity of an object changes when it is subjected to an external force. The law defines a force to be equal to change in momentum (mass times velocity) per change in time. Newton also developed the calculus of mathematics, and the "changes" expressed in the second law are most accurately defined in differential forms. (Calculus can also be used to determine the velocity and location variations experienced by an object subjected to an external force.) For an object with a constant mass m, the second law states that the force F is the product of an object's mass and its acceleration a:

F = m * a

For an external applied force, the change in velocity depends on the mass of the object. A force will cause a change in velocity; and likewise, a change in velocity will generate a force. The equation works both ways.”

“Hey Koichi, what are you doing?” she sat next to him on the bed.

Oh physics. He likes physics. Maybe he even would be able to focus in what it was written enough to keep his plan of ignoring the only person he was never able to ignore with his introspective demeanour: Aino Minako.

“Koiiiiiiichi! Don’t you dare ignore me!” She tried pulling the book out of his grasp but he held it firmly.

She changed tactics then, and instead of pulling up she pulled back. He resisted by pulling the book towards him. He should have known better, really… especially considering what he’d just been trying to read. With Koichi being the stronger of the two, he pulled the book free from Minako’s grip, and was rewarded with it bashing him square in the nose. .

“Minako!” He closed the book and started massaging his injured face.

But she was too busy laughing to her heart’s content to be affected by his ire. “You literally had it coming! That’s what you get for ignoring me. Who studies in the middle of the summer anyway?” she stole the book from his hands, “and physics of all things? Why are you such a nerd?”

“What do you want?”

She blinked, surprised at the gruffness in his voice. “Wow, moody, too! What’s wrong?”

“None of your business.”

“Oh, he really does have his socks in a twist.”

“It’s ‘knickers in a twist’, Minako.”

“Whatever makes you comfortable, mate. But tell me, Koichi-chan, sweetie, cutie patootie, what makes you so pupset?”

He made a disgusted face.

“I think I just threw up a bit inside my mouth.”

She laughed again, unfazed at his displeasure.

“Oh, please, I know you secretly love all the nicknames I give you, don’t you, honey pot?

He just rolled his eyes this time.

“What have you come here for, Minako?”

“Do I have to have a reason to see you?”

“Nothing, then? You can go back from where you came, I want to study.”

“Study? Don’t be silly! You spend almost the whole year doing that! You can stop being a nerd for the summer, at least!”

“And what do you recommend I do instead, huh? Whatever it is you want? Should I be giving all my undivided attention to a girl who isn’t even my girlfriend?”

“Is that so terrible? We’re besties… aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what we are.” He went back to his book, his brow frowned.

“Koichi?”

“Hmm.”

“Koichi, have I done something?” She took a silver lock of his and twisted in her fingers. “If I’ve hurt you somehow, you know it wasn’t on purpose, right?”

“But wasn’t it really, Minako?” He finally looked up at her.

She paled and let go of his hair.

“What have I done?”

“Yesterday,” he sat up. “Why does the idea of being with me upset you so much you have to deny it so many times?”

She ripped her gaze away from his, unable to cope with its intensity. “But… we’re not a couple,” she said softly.

“Why aren’t we?”

“Because… you know why.”

“No I don’t.” He took in a deep breath and tilted her chin lightly, forcing her to meet his eyes again. “Minako, I like you.”

“What?” She stood up from the bed, shaking.

Seeing her back away so quickly he frowned and snapped the book in his hands shut. “I- I wasn’t-” he hesitated, struggling to find the right words. “I wasn’t really planning to tell you like this, but now it’s done, I suppose. I mean, I wasn’t trying to hide it, it’s quite obvious, actually. Everyone knows I like you, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise to you.”

“You never told me.”

“Does it really need saying?”

She took another step back and searched for something to hold herself, but found nothing. The dream she’d been trying to forget rose up, burning hot in her recent memories.

“I… I think I’m going home now.”

“Wow! You really hated that much to know that?”

“It isn’t like that, Koichi!” she snapped, but her heart was beating fast. The last thing she ever wanted was to hurt him, and it made her angry that he could even consider - let alone actually believe - that she would ever do anything to deliberately hurt him. “I just… I just didn’t expect to hear this now, ok?”

“It’s ok. Look,” he stood up and walked towards her, picking up her hands. Minako had to stop herself from hugging him. No matter if the right thing now was keeping her distance, she knew, now that there was so many doubts, he still was her best friend, her biggest source of comfort, and there was nothing she wanted more than to be in his arms. “Maybe I got everything wrong. If you don’t feel the same way about me then you can ignore what I just told you, but I don’t think I can keep going the same way we are now.”

“Just let me think about this for a while, ok? I some need time to process all of it.”

He nodded, resigned. She gave him a weak smile, before freeing herself and going away.

“So, it’s really true? You and Koichi-san broke up?”

Having been completely blindsided by the question, Minako’s thumb slipped. The next thing she knew, the words “Game Over” were flashing obnoxiously across the screen. Damn it! It was her last chip, too.

“We didn’t break up, Usagi-chan. To do that, we would’ve had to have been dating in the first place.” Usagi rolled her eyes. “And who told you that, anyway?”

“Mamo-chan,” Usagi’s character died too and Minako felt a pang of satisfaction. “He said Koichi-san is really down. Why’d you do that, Minako-chan? You guys were so cute together!”

“We were never together!” she protested, stepping away from the game machine and shamelessly squatting to look under the game machine for any spare chips which might have been lost, dropped or forgotten about.

“Ok fine, if you’re going to keep denying it, then I have no choice but to change tactics. What happened? When you were ‘not-dating’” she said, using her fingers for quotation marks, “you guys seemed really happy! Why’s the, uh… ‘not-love’ over?”

Minako sighed, still kneeling on the floor, “Actually, he confessed.”

“Really?! How romantic!”

“It didn’t seem romantic at the time.”

Usagi was thoroughly confused. Since when was a love confession not romantic? “Why not?”

Giving up on her plan and not very satisfied in having to keep carrying that conversation with Usagi in those conditions – or in any conditions if she was being sincere with herself – Minako stood up and patted the dust from her knees.

“He didn’t seem very satisfied with that.”

“I don’t get it.”

Both girls started walking towards Motoki’s balcony.

“I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe he was nervous, or maybe I-” Minako hesitated, unable to understand it herself, “I don’t know.”

Usagi touched her hand in sympathy. “That must have been it. Maybe he was nervous about your answer? What did you say?”

“That I had to think about it.”

“Oh… and haven’t you seen each other since then?” she asked, carefully.

“No, we haven’t.”

“So what do you think?”

“I don’t know, Usa…” she really didn’t want to have this conversation in public, or anywhere.

“But don’t you like him?”

“That’s not the problem, it’s just…” she sighed, “it’s hard.”

“I’m sorry Mina-chan, but I don’t know how hard can it be. You’ve basically been together for years.” Minako opened her mouth to protest, but Usagi wouldn’t let her interrupt. “You can deny it all you want, but everybody can see how much you like- no, how much you love each other. It isn’t like Mamo-chan and I were when we couldn’t be around each other without fighting.”

Minako smirked. “You know, I miss the times he used to make those completely ridiculous excuses to be around you, and you would put on such an act to show him just how much you disliked him.”

Usagi smiled at the memories.

“It was fun, wasn’t it? But don’t change the subject!”

“Damn,” Minako whispered with a grimace, “I almost had you there.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t. So explain to me please why this is so hard, because I still don’t get it.”

Minako sighed, relenting. “First of all, he’s my best friend. What if we beak up? Our entire friendship could go down the drain and I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have Koichi in my life at all.”

“Nah, that won’t happen.”

Minako scoffed. “How can you be so sure? Rei-chan’s the Nostradamus of the gang, not you.”

“My heart knows it to be true.”

“Wow… Your heart! I’m positively overflowing with confidence now.”

“Oh stop, sarcasm doesn’t suit you at all.”

Minako raised an eyebrow. “You know what sarcasm is?”

“Please,” Usagi rolled her eyes. “I date Mamo-chan.”

“Good point.”

“And stop trying to change subjects again!” She jabbed her finger into her friend’s shoulder. “I’m on to you, lady. If you don’t trust the infallible predictions of my heart, then at least trust in logic.”

“Logic?”

“Logic,” Usagi stated with certainty. “Logic, and logic says that you and Koichi-san could never be apart, whether or not you’re friends, lovers or exes – although that last one isn’t exactly a realistic option, either, because once you two start dating for real, you won’t break up. You guys are end-game.”

Minako pulled a face, which made her opinion on the subject pretty obvious. “I don’t think you’re using logic correctly.”

“Yes I am.”

“I don’t think you are. And it doesn’t matter, anyway. We’re not a couple and now I don’t even know if we’re still friends.”

“What do you mean?”

“When he confessed he also said that he doesn’t think we can go back to the way things were before.”

“But it would be unfair to ask as much, wouldn’t it?”

“It would…” Minako sighed, her guilt weighing heavy on her. “I know I’m being selfish, ok? But I don’t want to lose what I’ve got.”

Usagi patted her friend’s arm and did her best to see things from a more positive point of view. “And how about gain new things?”

Minako shook her head. “I don’t know…”

“Look, I know you probably won’t admit it, even to yourself, but you do like him, don’t you?”

“If I won’t admit it, then what kind of answer are you expecting?”

“Minako-chaaaan…”

“Alright already, jeez! I surrender! I like him, ok? I like him! I’ve liked him for so long, probably even longer than he’s liked me. But I always thought he saw me as nothing more than an annoying little sister, and that was better than nothing.”

When she noticed Usagi wasn’t saying anything, she looked up and found her friend staring at her owlishly. “Woah!” she said. “I didn’t expect that.”

They stood in silence for a while.

“So… he likes you, you like him… What’s stopping us from going out on double dates and making everyone peanut butter and jelly?”

Minako had to smile at that. “You’re going to think this is stupid, but that isn’t the only thing that’s stopping me… I’ve- I’ve been having these really weird dreams.”

“Dreams?”Usagi repeated. “I did notice the panda disguise.”

“Wow, thanks!”

“I’m not trying to be mean! I was worried, but I thought you were just awake at night, pining over your silver haired prince.”

“Usa, I know I can be cheesy, but you take it to a whole other level.”

She giggled adorably in response.

“But tell me, so, what are those dreams like?”

“It’s hard to say…They’re kinda hard to describe, and I feel a little awkward even talking about this.”

“Well, we’re on vacation and Mamo-chan is intent on fulfilling his role as the quintessential nerd by going to summer cram school, so I really don’t have anything else to do but to stay here all day, waiting for you start talking.”

“Don’t you also have Mako, Ami or Rei to annoy?”

“If you think Mamo-chan’s level of nerdity is high, imagine what Ami’s is. I’ve already read all Rei’s manga and she told me she wasn’t buying any new ones until next week and poor Mako is doing part times, so yeah, I just have you to annoy.”

“Oh goodie, hanging out with me purely because I’m all you’ve got left, huh?”

“Minako-chan… You are changing subjects again! Come on, tell me about these mysterious dreams!”

And so she told Usagi everything. And as she was relating the events of her dream, she could see the run of emotions on Usagi’s face, like an artist’s canvas, first curiosity, then confusion, even enchantment when she explained about the Silver Millennium, and then horror when she reached Metalia and the war. When Minako told her the sad part Usagi had played in the dreams and what Minako had been forced to do at the end, her friend, who she saw as a better version of herself, was in tears.

“I’m sorry Minako-chan, I know it’s only a dream, but it’s so sad!”

After having revealed so much, Minako found herself at a loss for words. She felt weird. In telling Usagi it seemed that the details had become clearer, and for a moment she had forgotten of who she was, as if only the Senshi of her dreams were real. The pain had been so vivid, it was hard to shake.

Usagi grabbed her arm, pulling her out of her own thoughts. “Listen, “it was only a dream, do you hear me? Just a silly dream. You shouldn’t let something so stupid get in the way of you and Koichi-san.”

“I know, but Usa… Every single time I think about the two of us, I remember that dream. Over and over, I can’t help it. It felt so… real.”

“But you can’t be happy being apart of him like that, can you?”

Her shoulders sagged. “It’s true… I’m not.”

“So!”

“Ugh, Usa…”

“Think about it at least, will you? I want you to be happy!”

“I know.” She leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Usagi smiled and kissed Minako lightly on her temple. “Anytime.”

It had been a week since she’d seen Koichi, and it had been without doubt the worst week of her entire sixteen years of life. Not even breaking her leg at twelve years old and having to be immobilized during the whole summer on her bed had made Minako feel so miserable. At least then Koichi had visited her every day, ensuring she wasn’t consumed by boredom. And he’d always bring a board game with him, or a movie for them to watch together. He’d even made her a scratcher with and old clothes hanger.

The truth of the matter was even though she woke up crying every morning, each day it was becoming harder for her to avoid the house on Roses’ Street. She missed her best friend, she wanted to tell him why her nights were so hard, she wanted comfort and she wanted it from him. But she didn’t know how to approach him. It was as if the last words they’d exchanged - his confession and her reaction - had had built a wall between them. It wasn’t fair, she knew, approaching him without an answer and, despite what she’d said to Usagi, she still didn’t know if she had one. Even though she loved him, even though she wanted to be with him now and forever, what would stop the memories of that awful dream from getting to her every time he held her hand or tried to kiss her?

When she’d had that dream for the first time, it’d been horrible, but… it hadn’t been real, had it? She’d dismissed it quickly enough, thinking everything would be just fine. She’d always had a fertile imagination, and the dream was just the fruit of it, but now she wasn’t so sure. With every night and every new rendition of it, things would become clearer, and she was starting to lose her grasp on what was real and what was not. Had they been simple nightmares, maybe they would’ve been easier to ignore - after all, a Koichi who was capable of hurting her couldn’t be more different from the Koichi she knew so well. And the man of her dreams seemed older, although so was she - a Goddess, centuries old, in fact – but he wasn’t just her adversary, he had been kind like Koichi, proving that no matter how it ended: the man in her dreams couldn’t be anyone else. But that didn’t matter. None of it mattered, because they were just dreams… just dreams. So why did they still haunt her?

Perhaps it was his pain. Night after night, she’d kill him – a fatal wound, the sword sliding through skin and sinew, past bone until it would pierce his heart. In the ten years she’d known Koichi, she’d never thought she could ever harm him, and yet she dreamed it vividly, and worst of all, on the night he’d confessed, she’d broken his heart. But how could she ever explain it? How could she ever tell him the truth? She couldn’t forget the expression he on his face when she reacted – not very well, she recognized – to his love confession. Her heart break with only the thought of the reaction he would have if he tried to approach her and if, by reflex, she repealed him. How could she ever? She couldn’t just say that out of the blue all they had built together was destroyed by a silly nightmare. Still, at the same time, those scenes were real in her memory, as real as the moments they spent together while she was awake.

As she lay in bed, mulling these terrible thoughts over and over, in an attempt to try and stay awake, to avoid the inevitable onslaught the dreams would bring, she heard the unmistakable sound of pebbles hitting her window’s glass.

Her heart began to race. It was him, she knew it was him, but she couldn’t move. She had avoided him for the whole week – the longest she’d ever gone without seeing him, and her body was itching to run to him in that instant, she had missed him so much, but she was afraid. How would she react to him? What excuses could she make to explain her abandonment of him? The pebbles kept tapping at her window pane, but Minako lay immobile, like a plank of wood, under her covers. As much as she wasn’t brave enough to go to him, her heart turned to ice with the possibility of him going away.

“Minako! Open the window!”

Her eyes popped open and she felt her heart in her throat. What did that idiot think he was doing?! Forgetting all about her dreams, his confession and her own feelings, she jumped out of bed, stumbling over the cat – why did Artemis always have to sleep in the middle of the damn rug? – and ran to the window.

She couldn’t help smiling at the sight of him hanging from a tree.

“You’re totally bananas, do you know that? You’re going to wake everybody!”

“Help me!”

“You’ll fall!”

“If you don’t help me I will! Whose idea was it to prune the tree?”

“My mother’s. She said it was filling the house with leaves.”

How could she know, after all, that the plum tree next to Minako’s window on the second floor had, for years, been Koichi’s own private “stairs” that fort years lead Koich into to her daughter’s room?

“Tell you mother,” said him with difficulty, grabbing one of her arms for support and stretching himself to reach the windowsill “what an awful idea that was.”

She pulled him in with some effort. They both fell back on the rug, only missing Artemis by mere millimetres. The cat meowed, offended, and jumped out of the window into the night.

“You know I’m not exactly on speaking terms with my mother.”

Still lying on the rug, he pushed a lock of hair from her eyes.

“Your mother I can understand, but why aren’t you talking to me?”

“Koichi…”

“Tsukino-san told me about your dreams.”

“What? That nosy thing!”

“I was really surprised, not by the content - because, if I’m honest, I didn’t get half of it -but because I never thought that something as silly as nightmares could push you away from me.”

“I’m sorry…”

“So am I,” he sighed and rolled over onto his back, facing the ceiling “or is it that there’s no dream at all. You just don’t want to talk with me because of what I said last time?”

“No! It isn’t like that! I mean, what you said really got to me, yes, but I’d never run away from you because of that.”

“So, you admit you were running away from me?”

“I’m really sorry.”

He sighed. “I can’t accept your apologies right now. I really want to say that it doesn’t matter, that I forgive you no matter what, but this was a hard week, Minako, and it wouldn’t be the truth. I need an explanation to forgive you.”

“I know…”

“So?” he said turned his body back to her.

She took a deep breath.

“The nightmare, then…”

And so she told him, more rich in details than when she told Usagi, since now she knew so much more from the life they had in those dreams and also because it was him. No matter how much she loved Usagi, as the woman in her dreams loved her Princess, her first reaction was always to protect her friend, but from him she felt like she couldn’t hide anything. And he heard everything in contemplative silence, the tell for what he was feeling were the lines on his brow that dipped lower and lower as she neared the end of the story.

And when she finished, instead of the distant coldness she’d felt when the told the same story to Usagi, it was Minako herself, who was in tears. Tears he dried with his thumbs lovingly.

“I’m so sorry you have to go through that every night.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.” She offered him a small smile in thanks.

He reached out and pulled her close.

“It’s alright… Just promise you won’t keep these things to yourself anymore.”

“I won’t.”

“And look, I’m hugging you, and you haven’t felt the need to run away, or have you?”

“I actually feel like I never want to leave this spot ever again.”

They stared at each other for a while in silence after her declaration, until her hugged her again, rocking her slightly.

“What take us to the second subject… I don’t want to be that kind of guy, and I’d never push you into doing anything, but Minako, after all we’ve been through and after what you just said, I’m sorry, but it’s hard for me to believe that you don’t reciprocate my feelings.”

“You’ve never really lacked self-esteem,” she laughed.

With his lips covering his teeth, he bit her shoulder.

She laughed more.

“Ok, ok! I confess. I love you, alright? I don’t know how to live without you,” she caressed his face. “I don’t want to live without you.”

And with those words been said that, under the moonlight, lying on the fluffy rug of Minako’s bedroom, they exchanged their first kiss.

A few moments or many summer nights after, they parted, breathless.

“And what about my nightmares?” she asked quietly.

He traced his along the contours of her face. “Oh, I have the perfect way to push them away.”

Grinning, he stood up suddenly and scooped her into his arms, carrying her like a bride.

“What are you doing, you crazy person?”

He tossed her on the bed, eliciting a squeak of surprise from her, and then laid down next to her. “Making sure you will never have to worry about silly nightmares”

She scooted closer to him and interlaced her fingers with his. “And when you are not here?”

“I’ll always be here.”

“I don’t think my parents will be too happy with that.”

“Your parents love me.”

“I don’t think that’ll continue once they find out you invade their innocent little daughter’s room every night.”

“My intentions for invading your room are much more innocent that you ever were.”

“Blasphemy!” she declared with mock outrage and then pouted, tracing her hand along his side. “But you really intend to be completely innocent?”

He stopped her hand from wandering over his chest. “Minako.”

She rolled away with a dramatic sigh. “What a waste!” she said with a laugh.

~~~Alternative Ending ~~~

Minako woke up. And even their magic being so different, he didn’t fail to answer her silent calling.

“Nightmares?”

Sitting on her bed, her head resting against the window and holding her legs, she turned her head to look at him.

“No,” still looking at the ghostlike figure that glimmered in rose tones under the penumbra of her room, Minako laid her head on her knees, “actually, the contrary of that.”

He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to continue.

“Once I read that there is two types of dreams: the awful ones and the terrible. The awful dreams you can deal with, after all, you always wake up, but about the terrible, the worse that can happen is waking up. Do you dream, Kunzite?”

“Sometimes.”

“Have you ever had a dream from which you didn’t want to wake up?”

He didn’t answer with worlds, but they were not necessary when his eyes made it so obvious. And it was the frustration of being able to witness that gaze, but not the real version, just that diaphanous and in the wrongs colours that she found that she was grateful for that dream. And that maybe, nothing of that had been fruit of her heart’s desire, maybe, in a parallel universe there was really a Minako and a Koichi that never had to kill one another, and that didn’t have their lives chained to a cycle of tragedy, and to the burden of duty.

Minako sighed, then she told him everything.

A/N: This fic was written for the @ssrevminibang and was inspired by a playlist made by @astarinsomebodyelsessky and a fanart made by @galaxylily you can find both artworks on the AO3 link on the top of this post.

#ssrevmb17 #sailor moon #minako x kunzite #sailor venus #kunzite #venus x kunzite #my fic #vk

34 notes · View notes

takethepresent · 7 years

Audio

(There’s a song by Chris Tyson on here at first, sorry lol)

Kendrick Lamar releases one of his best albums of all time. The messages, the layers, the content, the flow, the creativity. This is real hip-hop. I won’t be reviewing what I think Kendrick meant in his songs because they are pretty layered. If you want to look into that kind of thing, you can look on Rapgenius. Rapgenius is not 100% correct, but it will at least get you thinking.

Instead, I will leave a lot of this open for your own interpretation. I will be talking about what I believe should be taken from many of these songs.

Kendrick does attempt to penetrate the subconscious of his listeners. Each song targets a certain emotional pattern. The song that you like the most probably says something about you and your subconscious patterns.

Kendrick is becoming a master of his craft. The way he crafts the message, both subliminal and explicit, is perfect for influencing the masses. The production on this album was also great. There is a great variation of sounds while all of the songs could be universally enjoyed. It is a true work of art, something you can put on shuffle.

Here is my take on each song:

BLOOD.

This intro is very interesting. It plays with ideas of duality that are developed further in the album. I’ll let you decipher it for yourself.

DNA.

This song is probably one of the best songs to bump on the album.

Our DNA stores much more than we can possibly imagine. Scientists will say that more than 90% of your DNA is “junk DNA” because they can’t explain what it does. However, how can 90% of your DNA be useless? This song attempts to describe the kinds of energy patterns that may be stored in your DNA. Many things can be passed from generation to generation through DNA.

“ I got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA I got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA “

YAH.

New Kung Fu Kenny! This song has a very chill vibe. I am unsure of the actual purpose of this song in comparison to the others, but it does provide some meaningful commentary. Below are two I’ve picked out. I do believe that “Yah” is a reference to Yahweh.

“ I'm not a politician, I'm not 'bout a religion “

Politics and religion will enslave your mind and breed separation and conflict

“ I know he walks the Earth But it's money to get, bitches to hit, yah Zeroes to flip, temptation is, yah First on my list, I can't resist, yah Everyone together now, know that we forever— “

People choose worldly things over spirituality.

ELEMENT.

This song has a catchy hook that will probably stick for some time. I don’t really have much to say about it.

“ Last LP I tried to lift the black artists But it's a difference between black artists and wack artists “

FEEL.

This song is a collection of many different feelings. Many of these feelings are things other people in society feel. Hopefully, this song allows them to bring up those feelings from their subconscious. Many people feel alone, like “nobody prayin’ for me”.

I encourage you to really listen to the lyrics in this song. Some things may stick out to you. Those things say something about you and your subconscious patterns.

“ I feel like the whole world want me to pray for 'em But who the fuck prayin' for me? “

LOYALTY. (feat. Rihanna)

This song explores the idea of loyalty and trust. Many people have these commitments to money, fame, drugs, sex, power etc as if they were real people.

“ Tell me who you loyal to Is it money? Is it fame? Is it weed? Is it drink? Is it comin' down with the loud pipes and the rain? Big chillin', only for the power in your name Tell me who you loyal to Is it love for the streets when the lights get dark? Is it unconditional when the 'Rari don't start? Tell me when your loyalty is comin' from the heart “

“ Tell me who you loyal to Do it start with your woman or your man? (Mmm) Do it end with your family and friends? (Mmm) Or you're loyal to yourself in advance? I said, tell me who you loyal to Is it anybody that you would lie for? Anybody you would slide for? Anybody you would die for? That's what God for “

PRIDE.

"Love's gonna get you killed But pride’s gonna be the death of you and you and me And you and you and you and me And you and you and you and me And you and you and you and me and—”

“ Hell-raising, wheel-chasing, new worldy possessions Flesh-making, spirit-breaking, which one would you lessen? “

Again, Kendrick talks about problems felt collectively by our society. Pride is a big problem in our society. It breeds this false sense of confidence or superiority due to surface level things. It breeds conflict.

He talks about the impact of these worldly things on your soul.

HUMBLE.

" I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of the Photoshop

Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor Show me somethin' natural like ass with some stretch marks “

I was a little surprised to see people offended by this. The only women who would be offended by this are the ones who are dependent on unnatural beauty standards. Who would be opposed to us embracing the natural look more? Who would be opposed to the beauty industry not being able to exploit insecure women as much?

LUST.

Lust is not exclusive to sex. Many have a lust for life; this unnatural, unnecessary, destructive desire for surface level things. It shows how the person who obsessively seeks sex is no different than the person who obsessively seeks drugs or friends or social validation or money etc. Many people in society need to have a deep look within themselves. They will find that they use these lustful desires to satisfy this deep, emotional, subconscious “itch”.

“ Lately, I feel like I been lustin' over the fame Lately, we lust on the same routine of shame Lately, lately, lately, my lust been hidin' (Lately) Lately, it’s all contradiction Lately, I’m not here Lately, I lust over self Lust turn into fear Lately, in James 4:4 says Friend of the world is enemy of the Lord Brace yourself, lust is all yours “

Lust is used to runaway from fear. Fear of what?

LOVE. (feat. Zacari)

“ If I didn't ride blade on curb, would you still love me? If I minimized my net worth, would you still love me? Keep it a hundred, I'd rather you trust me than to love me Keep it a whole one hund': don't got you, I got nothin' “

You could think this is about a specific girl or about something else. However, I do think it’s important to mention these lines. These feelings are often deep within our subconscious. It is what we call conditional love. We think people only love us for ___ or ___ because we only love ourselves for that reason. If we can find a way to love ourselves unconditionally, we can alleviate the many problems that arise from conditional love. In reference to the last line, if you don’t have unconditional love for yourself, you don’t got nothin’. You will always be trying to fill that void caused by conditional love with surface level things.

XXX. (feat. U2)

“ Ain't no Black Power when your baby killed by a coward “

Kendrick talks about the hypocrisy present in America. We respond to violence with more violence, hatred with hatred. People want to talk about black empowerment but won’t fully acknowledge the destructive forces within their communities.

“ The great American flag Is wrapped and dragged with explosives “

This just reminds me of America meddling in other countries with our imperialist military operations. It is time for America to confront the fact that they have been the biggest source of military conflict in recent history. This could also refer to police brutality.

FEAR.

This is one of my favorite songs on the album. I love the chill beat on the background. This song especially captures the feeling of fear, and attempts to show how it manifests over time. Emotional conflicts from our childhood that are never dealt with create external conflicts later on down the line.

“ Why God, why God do I gotta suffer? Pain in my heart carry burdens full of struggle Why God, why God do I gotta bleed? Every stone thrown at you restin' at my feet Why God, why God do I gotta suffer? Earth is no more, won't you burn this muh'fucka? I don’t think I could find a way to make it on this earth “

Kendrick attempts to convey the feeling of fear in a different light. The first verse starts off with “I beat yo ass” repeatedly. It really shows the subconscious thought patterns that become implanted in children at a young age. These subconscious patterns create internal problems that manifest over time into distorted, complicated, external problems. It should be no surprise that those who are physically beaten as children develop violent/aggressive tendencies later in their life.

“ If I could smoke fear away, I'd roll that mothafucka up And then I'd take two puffs I'm high now, I'm high now I'm high now, I'm high now “

This shows how people will do anything to runaway from their fears, or their subconscious patterns. Many take to drugs as well as other surface level things like sex, friends, social media etc.

Verse 2 starts off “I’ll prolly die” repeatedly. It shows more subconscious patterns of fear.

Verse 3 gives us a summarizing explanation of how the fear accumulates over time.

The outro is especially important. It highlights the major implications of mainstream religion. It shows how we are taught to believe that God is judgmental. This plays into all of the subconscious patterns of fear mentioned above. It says that God judges us and punishes us because he loves us, which opens the door for many people to become abused by loved ones and remain complacent to it. It also allows for people who are abused to become the abuser themselves later in life, creating a destructive cycle of judgment and punishment.

GOD.

There are two ways Kendrick could have meant this song to be perceived. I believe the most beneficial perception is that he is describing the feeling that many people feel when they “win” in surface level things. People use many things for a subconscious desire for power. When they attain those things, they actually feel “Godly”. Our obsession for power holds us back from ever realizing what true empowerment feels like. Only those who can let go of worldly desires will find this empowerment.

DUCKWORTH.

This song tells a story that you’d be better off listening to yourself. However, there are two notable lines that I want to explain.

“ It was always me vs the world Until I found it's me vs me “

Many people want to victimize themselves and believe their life problems are because of their external circumstances and not because of them. Your life will start to improve when you learn to hold yourself accountable for the life you are manifesting.

“ You take two strangers, and put 'em in random predicaments; give 'em a soul So they can make their own choices and live with it “

A little insight for why we are here.

#music #Kendrick Lamar - Damn #Kendrick #Lamar #-#Damn

13 notes · View notes

the-battle-lesbian · 7 years

Text

Okay little shits I want to say some words about the Earp Sisters- particularly my darling Willa

I see a lot of you guys have been giving her quite a bit of flack- you know for hating Waverly and shooting Nicole and unleashing a writhing tentacle beast on Purgatory. Now these are all very bad things. But I’d like to take a moment to explore how we got here. And as a clinical child psychologist specializing in abuse and trauma- I have A LOT to say about these three. Because OH BOY do they run the spectrum of child abuse outcomes in the real world.

Now, I want to start by saying all three of the Earp sisters were born into an abusive household. But the three had some very different experiences of abuse/neglect, and environment is SO important on child development. Like genetics is some basic groundwork but really it’s environment that does most of the shaping. In this analysis, let’s start youngest:

Waverly Earp. Now Waverly is like an ideal outcome from abuse. Clearly this girl was born with a hell of a lot of resilience in her genes (that Earp? legacy). She can bounce back from a crisis. But, she kinda got it easiest of the three: she was only in the homestead until she was 6- after that she was raised by Gus and Uncle Curtis in what was no doubt a much healthier, stabler household. Now see age 6 is important- because personality is generally done developing just before puberty- about 10 years of age. This factoid of personality development will come up again later, but for Waverly, being removed from a toxic environment at a young age meant she actually had a chance to unlearn/recover from many of the more nasty potential effects of severe neglect (she was by far the most neglected I mean a demon was her best friend and NO ONE KNEW) as well as the sibling abuse inflicted by Willa (blackmail, sadism, power plays- not a good sign in a child).

Now does the abuse still affect her? Hell yeah! She still lived through it and it changed her permanently- you see it in how she needs love and attention (why else go for Champ as soon as Wynonna leaves town? She needed ANYBODY) even at her own expense. She downplays herself, but simultaneously wants to be important (the Heir- cause you know her dad only cared about the Heir). And you know what I think? She didn’t resist telling Wynonna about Nicole because she was scared what she would think. No. Wynonna of course doesn’t care. No she didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to even risk Nicole getting involved in the toxicity surrounding the Earp family. She wanted Nicole separate to keep her safe (remnant thought process from Willa using what Waverly loved to blackmail her). But still, even with all of this, she is not as severely affected as she would’ve been if she had stayed neglected and abused for say, 12 or 13 years. Waverly had intervention, and real world case studies of severe emotional neglect have shown that a child as old as 5-6 can bounce back remarkably well in the right care. I mean to where you wouldn’t know they had been through Hell- at least not immediately.

Wynonna Earp. Middle sibling, mix of neglect and abuse. She is the most moderate/common outcome from abusive childhoods- with healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms and personality traits meshed together. Like Waverly, resilient as hell, because she lived in that environment for 12 years, and unlike Waverly didn’t get a healthy stable home afterwards. No she got the foster care system and juvie and unhelpful counselors who essentially gaslighted her (unintentionally but it’s still gaslighting) which does no one any favors. So Wynonna had way more negative environment time, yet she still held on to her “good” side- she has a moral code she follows, she cares for those close to her, she’s able to have a healthy relationship with at least one person (Waverly). I’d almost say she’s shown the most resilience of the three. Now her childhood experience is interesting, because she’s in the middle of this spectrum. She didn’t receive the full force of Ward’s attention because she wasn’t the Heir, Willa was. So that’s less aggression abuse from him, instead she was more neglected by him. But her very close age with Willa put her close to that aggression abuse as she experienced it vicariously through Willa. She saw what he did to Willa by way of abuse and Waverly by neglect, and seeing that affected her. It made her so, so protective and parental. Of both Waverly and Willa. So while Ward may not have done much direct abuse to Wynonna, she still lived it. And it affected her to make her a caretaker.

It’s also a form of displacement on Wynonna’s part- to be a caretaker. The prospect of caring for herself is far too daunting but caring for another? More doable. Taking a caretaker role also helps her regain some sense of control, none of which she had when she had to witness Ward’s abuse and couldn’t help Willa or Waverly. Now some of you may be asking: “Didn’t she see Willa abuse Waverly? How could she still care for Willa?” Remember she had known Willa much longer than Waverly, and on top of that she knew WHY Willa was so callous and aggressive- she knew first hand why. So she explained it away because she loved Willa and saw she was broken and I’m willing to bet when she witnessed the sibling abuse, she stepped in. I have a feeling Willa did most of it under the radar. Hell I bet even Wynonna got some verbal or emotional abuse at times from Willa, but she went with it because it was less severe. And again she would explain it away. And in Willa’s absence, Wynonna idolized her even more, and she became a myth of herself. Her good qualities remembered over her bad ones. Waverly had a different experience seeing as she didn’t HAVE any good memories of Willa.

Now to the contentious point. Willa Earp. Now I’ve taken you through the personality development of Waverly and Wynonna. You see how they came to be. Now I’m going to show you how Willa came to be. As the Heir, Willa was THE focus of Ward’s attention. And this is where it begins. If she had been neglected she may have actually had a shot, ironically. Because Ward promoted aggression, antisocial behavior, and created a culture of fear. We’ve only seen glimpses but he was taking her out in the middle of night telling her how everyone would die and it’d be her fault. He was creating a paranoid soldier. Now this is awful for a child’s development, especially personality. Remember she lived under Ward’s thumb for 13 years- her personality had long since formed, and it formed to cope with constant fear and a desire to gain some semblance of control over her situation to stay safe. And to keep Wynonna safe. I do not doubt she loved Wynonna- but she loved her how she LEARNED to love another human. Ward had no problem hurting and scaring Willa in a horribly misguided attempt at raising her. She knew as a child that fathers are supposed to love their daughters. So Ward’s abuse must have been how you love (in the mind of young Willa), and you see her applying this with Wynonna. She was more than ready to kill Wynonna because she truly believed it was a kindness and a show of love.

Did Willa ever love Waverly? I do not think so. Because Waverly didn’t show up until Willa was already about 8 years old and completely bonded to Wynonna. And, I think she was too busy to learn to love her, which I’ll explain more later on. Even in a healthy family, it’s not uncommon for an older sibling to resent a younger one, but add in the way Willa has been treated and raised up until that point, and you get the extreme response of sibling abuse. Now you might ask “So why didn’t Wynonna do the same? Why did she get parental while Willa got aggressive?” and the answer is (for the first time in this whole spiel) likely genetics.

A quick lesson: everyone is born with a specific type of temperament, which in short is how a child naturally deals with their emotions. Do they sorta “go with the flow” of their emotions, are they a powder keg with strong, uncontrollable emotions, or some mix? Temperament forms the building blocks of all further personality development, and it is far far from destiny. But it’s a genetic predisposition to regulate your emotions in a certain way. And it is interconnected with that resilience I’ve mentioned previously.

Resilience, if you aren’t sure, is a child’s ability to cope with adversity. The greater the resilience, the more likely a child is to come away from adversity without major psychological harm. A highly resilient child, is more likely to have a “good” temperament (moderate level emotions, relatively easy to work with) whereas a child with low resilience is more likely to have an “at-risk” temperament (very strong emotions that are difficult to regulate). Wynonna, with her obviously high resilience, clearly had a “good” temperament growing up. Willa, most definitely was an “at-risk” temperament (her losing her cool at the slightest provocation with Whiskey Jim for example), and combined with the severe abuse and aggressive environment, that temperament blossomed into the rest of her personality.

A third vital ingredient in this is called cognitive load. What that refers to is basically how much mental effort/energy the brain spends performing a task or tasks. There is a finite amount of cognitive load the brain can handle, and so it must apportion its time as it sees fit. If there’s a lot of stimuli (external and internal) to deal with, the brain will prioritize, again, as it sees most fit, leaving out “unnecessary” information. EVERYTHING take some cognitive load, from thinking through a problem, to emotional regulation, to social relationships. And we all know you can only juggle so much.

Now let’s combine these three concepts together in Willa. Willa was born with an “at-risk” temperament, which means she has BIG emotions and cannot regulate them well. That takes a LOT of cognitive load to manage. She also has lower resilience to adversity, and some of resiliency’s power comes from a LARGE capacity for cognitive load. You are more resilient if you are better able to process and work through adversity instead of getting drowned in it. So low resiliency=low cognitive load capacity. This already low cognitive load capacity had to deal with emotional regulation of a veritable firecracker, so it’s mostly busy doing that. Add in her forced focus on Ward’s “training” (skills and cognitive tasks) and abuse, and her close bond to Wynonna (a social relationship to manage and someone to protect) and her poor brain is overloaded. It can’t handle any more responsibilities. So when Waverly comes along she sees another potential responsibility and says no. So instead Waverly becomes not only a nuisance to her (she’s got enough to focus on already), but an outlet for her frustration and pain. She has no control with Ward, but she can control Waverly like he does to her. She can feel big, and what kid doesn’t take comfort in feeling big?

Another major thing I want to point out with adult Willa is her obviously stunted emotional and social development, which is no surprise. I’m willing to bet growing up she really didn’t have any friends besides Wynonna, so all of her socialization happened in the Earp homestead (not a great place as has been clearly demonstrated). Willa shows an understanding of the world that is basically that of a preteen. It’s shown as a black and white understanding of other people when she tells Wynonna of the citizens of Purgatory “They hate us Wynonna, they’re evil they deserve that thing!”. It also plays into her lack of emotional regulation, because even a child with an “at-risk” temperament tends to improve some as they age because they learn ways to cope. Willa never did. Now not only did Ward contribute to this stunted development but so did being isolated by Bobo and Lou.

And finally it is here where I will address the Stockholm Syndrome briefly. Only briefly because while she clearly has it- believing Bobo loves her- it did not create Willa as she is. That happened long before Bobo. Bobo used what Ward had started, that’s probably part of what drew him to Willa. Bobo’s influence sure as hell didn’t help because all he did was reinforce everything she had learned up until that point. But Stockholm alone did not make Willa. It’s a much more complicated story and it is tragic and it is one that needs to be heard. She is a product of fear and pain and the need to survive, and while her history does not change the fact that as she is now she is a villain, she is a villain worth sympathy. Because the poor thing never really had a chance from day one. So I dare you to instead take a look at Willa not as the evil lesbian-shooter, but as a scared child trained to be a soldier who is solely responsible for everyone’s lives who cannot handle the pressure and needs to escape and doesn’t know any other way but destruction.

#earp #waverly earp #wynonna earp #willa earp #wynonnaearp #personal post #child pscyhology #analysis #earp analysis

974 notes · View notes

gunterfan1992 · 7 years

Text

Episodes Review: ‘Islands’ (S08E20–27)

Airdate: January 30–February 2, 2017

Story by: Ashly Burch, Adam Muto, Kent Osborne, Jack Pendarvis

Storyboarded by: Sam Alden, Graham Falk, Polly Guo, Tom Herpich, Seo Kim, Hanna K. Nyström, Kent Osborne, Aleks Sennwald, Pen Ward, Steve Wolfhard, Somvilay Xayaphone,

Directed by: Elizabeth Ito, Cole Sanchez (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Here we are: Islands. This is the second miniseries that the creators of Adventure Time have made, after Stakes (2015). I was a big fan of the last one, and I particularly enjoyed this, one too. I have quite a bit to say about it, so instead of doing a recap, I’m going to jump right into what I have to say about the 8 episodes that aired this week.

What Works... What Doesn’t...

Within the middle of Islands are arguably two of the most emotionally compelling episodes that the series has ever produced: “Hide & Seek” and “Min & Marty”. Both of these take characters we already knew about (Susan and Martin, respectively) and have them interact with new characters (Frieda and Minerva, respectively). In the end, we learn a great deal about what makes them them. I have gained a new respect for Susan, with the revelation that she was forced to betray her friend (and possible crush). Likewise, Martin’s characterization makes much more sense now—he was not originally an evil guy, but his experience losing Finn and Minerva presumably broke him.

I was worrying how the show was going to handle Finn’s mother, but Minerva is an excellent character. It now makes sense where Finn’s heroic traits—his desire to help others, his inability to rest until wrongs have been righted, etc.—come from, as his mother is a Helper (which is basically a person with the expertise of the best doctors, but with the bed-side manner of the best nurses). I had predicted that the show would present Finn’s mother as a some trite warrior-goddess, so I’m glad Adventure Time instead went down the medical route instead. It’s fresh and creative, and it also makes Finn’s subplot in “Do No Harm” more relevant.

It is rather heartbreaking to realize that Minerva’s post-mortem computerized existence means that Finn will probably never be able to see his mother again, but at the very end of Islands, when Finn slips on the VR headset and is able to embrace his mother in virtual reality, this heartbreak somewhat subsides, if only for a moment. Finn got the chance to meet her, Minerva finally learned that he didn’t die, and the two finally connected with one another. Finn leaves the island with tears in his eyes, and it’s a bittersweet moment. He met his mother, but he can’t physically interact with her. This doesn’t really matter, however, because in the end, Finn’s mission was a success, and he now knows that Minerva is a wonderful, caring mother whom he never had the pleasure of being raised by. That knowledge, and sense of inner peace it brings, is worth all the Finn-cakes in Ooo.

Unfortunately, the beginning three or so episodes after the premiere are, to put it bluntly, somewhat unnecessary. While “Imaginary Resources” is just really funny (Man-BMO is horrifyingly hilarious), “Whipple the Happy Dragon” is a non-starter, and “Mysterious Islands”, while certainly cool, doesn’t really establish much outside of what we already knew (namely that humans are great at killing themselves via their technology). This isn’t to say that these episodes are bad—they are not, and this needs to be stressed. However, the pacing of the miniseries and ultimately the character development within are affected by them. Perhaps Zack Blumenfeld of Paste magazine puts it best when he writes:

An origin arc done well should hit hard in the feels department. And there are moments of Islands that do so, most notably the heartrending story of Susan Strong (Jackie Buscarino) and her childhood flame, Frieda, as told in “Hide and Seek,” the emotional peak of the miniseries. [But] none of the Finn-centric moments in Islands has as much impact as you’d expect. Perhaps this is because Adventure Time here makes inefficient use of its 11-minute format; Finn simply isn’t given the time to process the society he discovers, and the “Islands” episodes that would be totally fine as one-offs—the deadpan, hilarious “Whipple the Happy Dragon” and the sweet “Mysterious Island”—instead take valuable time from the character-driven focus.

If we compare how Islands functions to Stakes, one will see that the former goes from about a 3 to a 9 really fast once we hit “Hide & Seek”, whereas the latter is consistent all the way through. This issue with Islands is perhaps its biggest detriment... and honestly, probably it’s only detriment. But it can’t be ignored.

MVPs

You can probably already guess who I’m going to praise.

Yup.

Hanna K. Nystrom and Sam Alden.

Both do just stellar work. Sam’s episodes go from good to great, in that order. Hanna’s episode is, to put it bluntly, perfect. She and Aleks Sennwald do wonders with Susan, giving her depth and a purpose. Susan, for the longest time, felt like an abandoned and awkward season two story arc, and so with the reveal that she was a Seeker, her character seems finally justified.

I also appreciate that Hanna inserts people of color into her episodes. First, it was Marceline’s mother, and now Frieda. This diversity is great, and the show does it in such a low key-yet-major way that it successfully normalizes what is already very normal feature of human society (namely, that people of different shades, beliefs, and cultures all call this planet home). It’s sad that shows have to ‘normalize’ something that is as important as the reality of diversity (since it arguably should be reflected in media in the first place), but Adventure Time succeeds, and I would argue makes the world a bit of a better place.

Humans and Technology

Whereas Stakes was a meditation on the eternal return (a topic that, given all the events that are happening in the world today, is of critical importance), Islands instead focuses on the practical and philosophical implications of technology on humanity. Every one of the islands that Finn and pals land on shows amazing technological progress: Alva’s island features tech that can control the weather, the VR island features a mega virtual reality serving hundreds of humans, Dr. Gross’s islands is the seat of transhumanism, and Founder’s Island is a veritable utopia. But each of these islands also holds a dark not-so-secret. Alva’s island was ravaged by the elements, killing most of its inhabitants. Those on the VR island are helpless and weak outside of their faux-reality. Dr. Gross’ experiments are an affront to nature (more on that later). And Founder’s Island is a nanny state.

According to seminal communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, every technological advance is an extension of humanity (in that it enables us to do things that we were not able to do before), but also an amputation (in that it renders unnecessary previous attributes). An example is the book. While the book allows us to store information for posterity, it also negates the need for us to remember every single detail of an intricate story (as such was tradition with oral stories). This might seem like a pretty good trade-off (I would argue that it is), but it means that we don’t have to put as much effort into remembering things, and so our skills at remembering can weaken the more we rely on the written word. This idea was espoused by Socrates via the story of Ammon, wherein he notes that humans “will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.”

Perhaps Socrates was being a bit hyperbolic, but I believe there is a definite truth to McLuhan’s understanding of the issue. Technology is great, but because it redefines what it means to be human, certain factors/attributes/advances/etc. that humans once relied on will fall to the wayside and eventually atrophy. It seems that this is clearly what Islands is trying to show by taking us to the extreme limit: by putting all our trust into technology, we will inevitably lose what makes us human.

Adventure Time consistently proves to be a very humanist show. I don’t mean that in the secular humanist pseudo-religious way, but rather in the full embrace of what it means to live as a human. This is perhaps best illustrated in the sixth season finale “The Comet”, wherein Finn affirms his desire to see his meat existence through until the end. This means embracing all that life has to offer: happiness, sadness, joy, anger, loneliness, love, desire, peace, etc. If we substantially modify our reality and bury ourselves in tech in the desire of escaping the ‘bad’ parts of the world, we will inevitably lose the good as well. At the end of Islands, Finn beseeches his mother to realize this. Life is really not worth living if you only experience the good, because without the bad (or the dangerous, or the risky) your understanding of good is so shallow as to be meaningless.

Now, I’d caution that Adventure Time isn’t espousing a Luddite philosophy. After all, Finn is perhaps the best example of McLuhan's extension/amputation philosophy (i.e. he has a robot-arm that functions as an extension of the body, but it is also an amputation because he is lacking a ‘meat’ arm), and he seems to be doing fine. In fact, he feels that the arm is natural. Finn therefore represents the proper balance between living the human existence, but also embracing technology to a healthy degree.

It is this ‘healthy embrace of technology’ that separates two other characters: Minerva and Dr. Gross. The two are presented as opposites sides to a similar coin, as both have embraced technology as a way to hold off death. However, the two cannot be more different.

Dr. Gross was attempting to modify the natural world so as to make it 'better'. Her song about evolution in "Preboot" expresses this ideology. In her mind, the material world is not firing on all cylinders, and so it is up to her to upgrade and improve it. However, she does not seem to be doing this for some sort of altruistic reason, but rather to control the world around her (otherwise, there'd be no reason for her to have the ability to 'over-ride' her cyborgs' minds and effectively eliminate their free will). Why does she desire control? The excuse of 'protection' is given, but that doesn't justify the extreme measures she goes to. No, the way I see it, Dr. Gross is motivated by one thing: a fear of death. This terror drives her to modify herself with technology in an ill-advised attempt to escape that which comes for all of us.

Finn's mother, on the other hand, has also embraced a transhuman post-mortem existence, but she is portrayed in a good light. This is intimately connected to the reason for why she uploaded her consciousness: not to live forever, but rather to aid others. We know from the episode "Helpers" that the antics of Dr. Gross caused all of the helpers to eventually be killed off by a virus. Minerva was the last one, but she too was dying. However, her will was strong, and she still had a desire to help others rather than herself. Instead of uploading her consciousness so as to escape the reality of death, Minerva uploaded her essence so as to continue serving the community that she so very dearly loved. Her embracing of transhumanism was ultimately for an altruistic reason.

At the end of Islands, when Minerva finally understands what her son is trying to say, becomes the type of person that Adventure Time is wont to praise: someone who does things (even fully embraces technology) for good and altruistic reasons, but who also realizes that life is worth living, even if that means putting ones self in danger.

(OK, I’m going to talk about some really, really dark stuff right now.)

I might seem like a deathist with this essay... and I guess I am. Like J. K. Rowling, I view death as inescapable, but also something that should not be feared. Dr. Gross fears death, and that fear drove her to do terrible things. Now, I will admit that the concept of death has terrified me since I was 12, but I also realize, in a somewhat Stoic manner, that worrying about it is not going to help things. Even if technology were to advance to the point where we can all live forever, we have to remember that eventually the Universe will burn out and then we’d still bite it. We can’t escape, and we need to realize that. Adventure Time seems to make this point pretty clear.

Mushroom War Evidence: Almost too much to count. We get a glimpse into the world of humanity following the war, but before the present day.

Final Grade:

#adventure time #atimers #islands #review #season 8 #miniseries

78 notes · View notes

douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

Text

THE RECIPE WAS THE SAME GROUP OF PROGRAMMERS

Startups are as impersonal as physics. I think the key to this puzzle is to remember that art has an audience.1 It's just something we use to move wealth around. Look at what a hard time Microsoft is having discovering web apps. Most people who write about procrastination write about how to make them work, and other people trying to do. You certainly don't have freedom: no boss is so demanding. I say up. I was growing up. But because humans have so much more confidence that they seem as if they've grown several inches taller. And in the early stages, giving up upside and risk for a smaller but guaranteed payoff. In 1995, the e-commerce business was very competitive as measured in press releases, but not about observing proprieties.

It's obvious that biotech or software startups exist to solve hard technical problems, but for the moment the best I can offer is the hopelessly question-begging advice that if you trust your instincts about people. The problem with working slowly is not just that technical innovation happens slowly. And the big hits often look risky at first. But in technology, you cook one thing and delimiters say another, we go by the indentation. But the short version is that if there were some program you wanted to write, and the big bang method. Most of the greatest fortunes have probably involved several of these. And it's a skill you can learn quickly enough that car means the first element of a list and cdr means the rest.2

One disadvantage of living off the revenues. And so interfaces tend not to give you advice that surprises you. But of course if you really get it, you can use this information in a way that's more valuable to you than that. It's hard to design good libraries. One of the biggest remaining groups is computer programmers. By way of summary, let's try describing the hacker's dream language. Languages are for programmers, and that language is not the brand name, capital, and distribution clout, they'll take away your market overnight. After a few days it will be. What would you think of technology as something that's spreading like a sort of fractal stain, every moving point on the curve that you want to start your own startup, Viaweb, to make software for building online stores. I realize I might seem to have an enviable life, but there are things you can write the first version of a program is proportionate to its complexity, and a startup especially, is to make a quick sketch when you have to go with your gut. When someone contradicts you, they're in a position of having to choose one out of God's book, and something to hack—how do you turn your mind into the type that has good startup ideas is to get yourself to the leading edge of technology moves fast.

I've read was not in a position of having to choose one out of God's book, and something that's expensive, obscure, and appealing in the short term. For one thing, the official fiction is that you can't choose when it happens. So saying startups should move to Silicon Valley and raised money there. Now a candidate probably couldn't get away with changing more than you realize.3 And in fact, when we funded Airbnb, we thought, let's make something people want. It's easy to convince investors is to make a quick sketch when you have to go back to programming in a language where you have to install before you use it. Nothing is hidden from you that doesn't absolutely have to be optimistic and skeptical about two different things. Think about what you have to do to write or read it. Look for the people who say that the goal of a language is what happens in college. At the moment those two functions are separate.

But understanding the relationship between meanness and success inversely correlated? Well, food shows that pretty clearly. Because, in effect, simultaneously choose all the management companies to run yours for you, in whatever proportion you wanted, you wouldn't need money. You can have wealth without having money. The manual is thin, and has to do all the company's errands as well as talent, so this answer works out to be sure signs of bad algorithms.4 You're expected not to be an expert on startups, but as I explained before, this is a constant problem when you're painting still lifes. Performance is always the ultimate test, but it is not all they're for, then what else are they for, and how much is due to the creators of past gadgets that gave the company a reputation for succinctness would be the number of simultaneous users will be determined by the amount of memory you need for each user's data. And when motivated by that you find you can do to keep the two forces balanced. The only thing worth talking about first is the problem you're solving, and then at each point a day, a week, a month feel you've put so much time that it was too crazy.

They would rather overpay for a safe choice. How do you get bought? The other thing you get from work experience is the elimination of certain habits left over from childhood. Everyday life gives you no practice in this.5 Everyday life gives you no practice in this. It's really true. Steve Wozniak put this very strongly: All the best things that I did at Apple came from a not having money and b they can spend their time how they want.6 Conversely, a language that doesn't make your programs small is doing a bad job of what programming languages are for. When you only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they're unable to work on. And what we've found is that the company has no way of measuring the value of the succinctness test is as a guide in designing languages.7 Humans were not designed to eat are a few differences: life is not as hard as you possibly can. If you have impressive resumes, just flash them on the screen for 15 seconds and say a few words.

Though of course if it were.8 Expert hackers can tell a good language? Be sure to ask about how they funded themselves with breakfast cereal. Here, again, language designers are somewhat out of touch with their users.9 This way of convincing investors is better suited to hackers, and learning what they want.10 I have to get better at picking winners. In our world, you sink or swim, and there are no excuses.

If anything it may have helped foster a Perl cult. Pundits said Carter beat Ford because the country distrusted the Republicans after Watergate. They'll make sure that suing them is expensive and takes a long time: for several years at the very heart of hacking. You can't make the pie larger, say politicians. In every presidential election since TV became widespread, the apparently more charismatic candidate has won. You're trying to solve problems. It's the same principle as incremental development: start with a simple prototype, then add features, but at first it takes a conscious effort to find smart friends.

Notes

If Paris is where people care most about art.

Often as not the distinction between them. Google was founded, wouldn't offer to invest but tried to attack and abuse. Google proved them wrong.

2%. If you were doing Viaweb again, I'd open our own Web site. The reason not to. The unintended consequence is that a startup, both of whom have become.

As far as I make this miracle happen?

But becoming a Texas oilman was not something big companies could dominate through economies of scale.

But the usual misquotation is closer to a clueless audience like that, the only way to answer the question of whether public company CEOs in 2002 was 3. But a couple hundred years ago. That name got assigned to it because the processing power you can survive without external encouragement. The trustafarians' ancestors didn't get rich, people who said they wanted to make people use common sense when intepreting it.

I call it procrastination when someone works hard and doesn't get paid to work like blacklists, I mean this in terms of the court. It's surprising how small a problem so far done a pretty comprehensive view of investor behavior.

Even in English, our contact at Sequoia, was starting an organic farm, though.

To be fair, the switch in the 1960s, leaving the area around city hall a bleak wasteland, but also very informative essay about it well enough to convince at one remove from the formula. Hypothesis: A company will either be a hot deal, I can't tell you all the more subtle ways in which practicing talks makes them better: reading a draft of this essay wrote: My feeling with the issues they have to talk to mediocre ones. It might also be good.

To get all that matters to us. Perhaps the solution is to be actively curious. In one way to answer your question.

0 notes