The fact that some people actually blame tumblr shipping culture for the reason men can’t show intimacy to each other without being perceived as gay is fucking mind boggling to me

my rambling about reiji, tokiya, ai and aine!!!

hi!! i’ve never posted on tumblr before, but i wrote s fic on ao3 based around reiji and tokiya (last words of a shooting star) and how i interpret tokiya’s backstory based on what we know and what we were told, but i’d like to go a bit in depth on how the timeline TRIGGER WARNING - seeing as we’re talking about aine-- and how i see tokiya’s “accident”-- there will be talk of suicide here. it won’t be very in depth, but if that is a trigger of yours i do suggest not reading. also here i’m just assuming reiji and aine are the same age 1986- Kotobuki Reiji’s Birth 1993- Ichinose Tokiya’s Birth 1996- Reiji’s debut in the entertainment industry (10)         - Mikaze Ai’s “Birth” 2006- Tokiya’s parents’ divorce (13) 2007- HAYATO’s debut in the entertainment industry (14) 2008         - Kisaragi Aine’s death (23)         - Tokiya’s “accident” (15)         - Mikaze Ai’s creation (Technically, 12) 2009         - QUARTET NIGHT formation (R- 24, A- 13)         - Ai’s debut in the entertainment industry (13) 2010- STARISH formation (T- 17) 2011- Master Course (R- 26, A- 15, T- 18) 2014- SSS Opening Competition [2] (R- 29, A- 18, T- 21)

and now i’ll explain how i see tokiya’s accident and why So, his parents got a divorce and neither of them took custody over him. Then, when he was 14 the agency he was originally at took interest in him and raised him like a son. Then, when he turned 15 and the stress and expectations began to get overwhelming, he attempted to kill himself to end it all. This landed him in the hospital where he met the little boy singing Amazing Grace. He then found his want to sing again and from there he vowed to not give up and to continue pursuing his dream. I see it like this based on how he said it, as well as the irony it would hold. He worded it as “losing his aim” shortly after debuting and then he was hospitalized after an accident. As well, how ironic would it be for Reiji to be Tokiya’s senior if this were the case? I read somewhere that Reiji has said Tokiya reminds him of Aine based on all the stress he is putting himself through, but what if he also reminded him of Aine for other reasons he left unsaid? I wrote that one-shot after rewatching both the NEVER and KIZUNA episodes and I thought about what Reiji said and other interpretations people had on the scenes. Reiji told Haruka that he knew that if the stress and schedule became too much, that he could just quit, and I think he likes to tell himself this because he feels guilty that he wasn’t able to tell Aine this, but when the time came that he was the one overwhelmed, he almost lost sight of that statement. However, I think that’s why he was just waiting at the beach in KIZUNA. He remembered what he told Haruka, and what happened to Aine, and so he stayed there to calm down instead of doing anything. The one-shot I wrote was basically about Reiji reassuring Tokiya that there was someone in his corner when the times got hard, someone who could relate to his struggles when maybe STARISH couldn’t. this was so much omg i adore tokiya with my whole heart i might just start posting on here to talk about him. i have so many thoughts and i would love to share them somewhere aqkdhskajdhkawfgiashfka

#JourdanDunn is a #British supermodel. She was discovered in 2006 & began appearing on international runways in 2007. In February 2008, she was the first #Black model to walk a #Prada runway in over a decade since #NaomiCampbell. She was also the first #BlackBritish model to make the Forbes Models Rich List in 2014 & was declared an Icon by models.com. Shes won several Model of the Year & Women of the Year awards in fashion. Shes considered to be one of the #millennial generation's supermodels. She was born in London. Shes of #Jamaican #Grenadian & #SyrianLebanese descent. She was self conscious as a teen, due to her height & weight. Growing up, people would tell her she could be a model, but she was apprehensive. She said shows like #ANTM intrigued her, as they gave her a new perspective of the job. Now Gen Z models can look up to her for guidance; from speaking up about racism & discrimination in the fashion industry & having a successful career after giving birth at 18, which is taboo in high fashion. "Having a son made me realise I have to make shit work: Im his voice, Im his lifeline, I have to be driven. He pushed me in the right direction. Ive always been ambitious, but now I have more focus. I'm more hardworking." Being discovered at age 15, she grew up fast. She was a fashion star but she was very articulate, observant & very smart as a teen & still is. When she was 18, her comments about race made headlines & have been ever since. At London Fashion Week she said: "London's not a White city. So why should our catwalks be so White?" Critics fired back with the industry having to bow to customer demands - which is White, thin & blonde. "Seeing Naomi & Tyra when I was growing up made me believe I could be a model. I cant think of other names who could have inspired teenage black girls. I dont see a change. It needs to be said because I think about these things & other girls do too." She wants to establish a #multiracial modeling agency. "When I go back to school, Im studying business. I'd do an agency for Black girls; & Asian & Latinx, because there aren't enough of them on the runway either." 🇯🇲🇬🇩🇸🇾🇱🇧 #mixedgirl #whm #womenshistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CbTMBT3untQ/?utm_medium=tumblr

𝖘𝖚𝖓𝖓𝖎 𝖉𝖆𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 . . .

Not everyone can say they’ve been to the Big Apple, but  [SUNNI DAE], a [FORTY] year-old [CIS WOMAN] has lived in [FLATIRON DISTRICT, MANHATTAN] for [TWENTY-TWO YEARS]. This is the city of dreams and [SHE/HER] knows it, because they came to NYC to be an [ACTRESS]. Living in the city means they meet all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think they look like [SON YE-JIN]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it!

hey, everyone ! here’s sunni. her about is listed here, her statistics are listed here, and her plotting page is listed here. if you’d like to claim any of the plots on that page or do some other plotting, shoot me a message ! i prefer discord, but i’m open to messaging on tumblr. my discord is limes#6826. give this a like and i will come to you for plots !

TRIGGER WARNING — child abuse ( mental ), mention of bullying, drug dependency issues ( namely alcoholism ), infidelity, abusive marriage, terminal illness

sunni born under the name dae eun-ha to an aspiring artist and a mother suffering from depression. sunni’s parents met in songpa-gu, seoul, south korea, where sunni would later be born, and quickly fell into a whirlwind romance. they would eventually marry a year before sunni’s birth. 

her father’s family had money thanks to his father’s possession of a chain business for restaurants and not long after the birth of sunni, her father was pressured by his wife to get a gig with the help of his own father. he landed in marketing after some training and the promise of an eventual degree. this pretty much drained the life out of him and he stopped painting, deteriorating into a shell of a man. 

( tw mental child abuse ) growing up was difficult for sunni, as her mother blamed her depression on the birth of sunni. she was a stay at home mother who was perpetually disappointed in anything sunni did and was neglectful due to her own dysfunctional marriage, mental illness, and trauma from an abusive childhood. as for her father, he never acted poorly toward her, but he simply wasn’t around. on the off chance that he did speak to sunni, he would spew hateful speech at her about society and the steady destruction of his life force.  ( end tw )

by the time sunni was four, the family was set up to move to los angeles, california, with the prospect of a higher paying job. this ended up being for naught as sunni’s father never really obtained a super successful job, only managing a small pay bump after years of working in los angeles.

childhood was rough for sunni as her parents would fight constantly over their class difference, financial issues, her mother’s general dissatisfaction with how their lives turned out, and her father’s infidelities. as a means of escaping her home troubles, sunni dove straight into the world of cinema. she found it easy to idolize specific actors and viewed a couple of them as her rightful parental figures. 

in school, sunni felt out of place. her parents had spent their money on tutors for a couple years ensuring sunni could skate by with her english, but she had difficulty communicating with others after a long summer with little practice or when it came to more difficult concepts. it wasn’t until junior high that sunni felt 100% confident in her english speaking abilities.

( tw mention of bullying ) sunni was timid and had extremely low confidence, and this caused her to be preyed on at times. the only time sunni was outspoken was in her theater club, where she landed relatively large roles within the production thanks to her passion for acting and persistent practice. as she grew into her adolescence, she finally began to see the flaws in her substitute parental figures. scandal after scandal followed the celebrities she idolized, and sunni couldn’t help but feel betrayed. ( end tw )

when sunni was sixteen, she began waitressing to save money for when she was able to move out. this paid off, and she moved into a small studio apartment in tribeca, manhattan, when she was eighteen. when sunni wasn’t working, she was performing in local theater productions. her confidence grew as she avoided exposure to a toxic environment and made a small group of likeminded friends. by the time she turned 21, she began bartending and made enough money to move into a two bedroom with a friend.

sunni’s life as a young adult was relatively uneventful until she was discovered by an agent at a show when she turned 23. in 2004, under the stage name “sunni dae”, she scored an audition for a pg family sitcom named the campbells. it wasn’t mean to be a big project, and after a couple auditions, sunni scored the lead role. 

( tw drug addiction ) not long after its introduction to television, it completely blew up. the show is likened to full house both in popularity and general vibe. though she started as a humble actress, the fame quickly got to sunni. her drug dependency issues began quickly after exposure to various substances at a party.

her drug of choice was alcohol, much like her father, and she began frequently drinking on set. sunni’s ego grew to be massive and she began treating others poorly because of it, unable to understand the woes of others if they didn’t pertain to her own life. ( end tw )

moving out of her two bedroom in 2005, sunni moved from tribeca to the flatiron district and top ( seventeenth ) floor luxury penthouse. this penthouse would later be what sunni calls the best thing she got from the campbells. in 2006, sunni officially changed her name from dae eun-ha to sunni dae. 

( tw depression, drug addiction ) sunni saw her celebrity idols smiling and happy in their fame, and wondered why she didn’t feel that same happiness. in fact, she felt isolated, bitter, and cynical; these feelings fed into her drug addiction. it didn’t help that her friendships began to fall apart thanks to her selfish behaviors and narcissistic tendencies. her parents were unresponsive to her fame, with her mother even expressing disappointment in the fact that she was a part of a show with cheap comedy and simple plot lines. ( end tw )

her career took a turn for the worse in 2007. toward the end of 2006, sunni began a relationship that would later turn into a highly publicized toxic marriage a little over half a year later. the marriage had multiple scandals and each news story plagued sunni’s reputation. this stain would follow her even into her forties, as she was considered a high risk individual to act as the face of a project.

it was also released at one point that sunni allegedly gave drugs to a younger cast member, though it wasn’t publicized which one it was. however, sunni wasn’t the only cast member who had public controversies. by 2011, the cast had racked up so many controversies that the show was cancelled, though it was given a proper ( rushed ) finale. in the same year, sunni got divorced, and thanked her lucky stars for the prenup.

after the campbells, sunni hired an skilled freelance investor to expertly invest her money for her; she would later be thankful for this as the few projects she did take after the campbells completely flopped. a frustrated agent would watch as looper’s inevitable “what happened to sunni dae?” video popped up after years of inactivity, though they did choose to stick by her side, as they had confidence in her potential. 

( tw drug addiction ) others did not see her potential, however, as she was simply “the lady from that old sitcom” in the acting world. to those who knew sunni, she was viewed as a destructive force with drug dependency issues and horrible interpersonal skills. she has had a couple relationships, but nothing serious as sunni’s partners eventually grow to acknowledge her toxic behaviors. ( end tw )

( tw terminal illness ) at the age of thirty-seven, sunni’s father passed away from acute liver failure. sunni thought she would feel something from this inevitability, but no out of place feelings came to her. ( end tw )

( tw assumed depression ) now forty, sunni spends most of her time inebriated and getting into shenanigans with new york locals. occasionally, she’ll still have a scandal that hits the news. she takes part in small projects, such as being the face of a bourbon or starring in commercials, but she’s actively looking for something to revitalize her career and give her life meaning again ( at least, that’s what she thinks ). ( end tw )

in the interest of learning more about things i may have cut out, feel free to check out her about page, listed above. you can also find more about her personality there.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : Part 62 of 83 : World of Sea

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

Part 62 of 83

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2020

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users   of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may   reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information   remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in   my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical   compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Mord knocked on the cabin door.  The guard opened it at once.

The degree to which he was still trusted by the crew was shown by their choice of guard.  It was Bron, the cabin-boy.

“Yes, Sir?”

“Bron, would you please ask Alor, Acting Captain Kotance, a representative of the Master’s Council and  Cron to come here?”

Bron was aware that such a group meant something important.  He went at once to Alor’s cabin just down the passage.  He spoke with her through the door, staying in the hallway so that he could watch the Captain’s cabin door.  Mord only waited, as expected.

Alor went to get the witnesses that Mord had asked for, and Bron came back to his guard post by the door.  The group assembled quickly, coming one at a time to the Captain’s cabin.

Last to arrive was Alor, who came in the company of Master Juris.

The others waited in nervous silence until Alor began the meeting.  As Purser, she was the ship’s legal officer for most things and all official documents except the log were her province.  

She began, “Mord, we have assembled as you have requested.  What do you contemplate doing that needs witness from all sections of the crew?”

Mord drew a deep breath and knit his brows before replying,  “I have to do the hardest duty of my life.  I have looked at all of the charges in the documents that you have provided me and reflected on how best to deal with them.  They are all true.  I cannot in conscious good faith waste the time of the Longin or the Council trying to fight this.”

Concerned, Master Juris asked, “Will you mount no defense?  These are serious charges.  You could lose much, perhaps even your life.”

“I can only say in my defense that I plead mitigating circumstance.  I believe that I went onto dry land when Kurin was so viciously poisoned.  I have regarded her as a daughter and responded to her poisoning with a parent’s rage instead of a Captain’s thought and consideration.”

Kotance thoughtfully ran a hand through his red hair before speaking, “As Acting Captain, I must inquire into your state of mind.  You say that you ran hard aground.  What do you think has put you safely afloat now?  In short, are you refusing to fight as a way to get yourself punished for the killings?  Do you have safe water under your keel?”

“I believe that I do, Captain.  I do not want to be punished but I must take the responsibility for what I have done.  I did not even realize that I had done anything seriously wrong until after I saw the charges in writing and had the time to reflect on them.  I believe that I am now past that lapse of sanity.  I will accept the decision of the Council.  Until then, I will serve the Longin in whatever capacity I am allowed.”

Chapter 23: Questions

Kurin braced herself.  She had interviewed many of the Grandalor’s company.  What she had found had bothered her a great deal because it showed a dark side to the fleet that she loved.  Many of the crew had done bad things and had deserved their punishments.  Nearly as many more had been the victims of crimes by high officers on their ships or were inconvenient to keep for one or another reason.  They had been disposed of.

The Oath of Adoption, where they repudiated their old ship names and took Grandalor in their places was a thing that had been planned without Barad or Tanlin’s knowledge.  Originally, only about half the ship’s crew had planned to participate.

When it became obvious that the Captain who had helped them in their need was himself in trouble, they had pulled together behind him unanimously.  He had not let them down and they would stand with him. The Oath had been a way to show both him and the Council how they felt.  Their loyalty was ferocious.

A lifetime of habit made the very idea of accepting what Barad might tell her as questionable at best.  Tanlin had put it succinctly.  “Oi understand t’at i’ Barad told ye t’at t’e sky wa’ blue t’at ye wad probably look up t’ check.  Twad be best t’ interview ‘im last o’ t’e crew but before Morgu an’ Silor.  T’en ye’ll ‘ave somet’in’ t’ use for judgin’ w’at ‘e tells ye.”

Kurin had taken that advice.  She drew a deep breath and knocked on the Captain’s cabin door.  Tanlin opened it at once.  Barad was seated at a small table in the middle of the cabin.

“Do ye wont m’ t’ stay or go?” asked the Captain.

“I would appreciate it if you stayed but all of my other interviews have been solo.  I had better do this alone,” Kurin answered.

“T’at’s good,” said Tanlin, stepping through the door.  “T’is way shows nae favoritism.”

As the door slid shut behind her Barad smiled wanly and waved her an invitation to sit across from him.  “I won’t bite.  It cost us dear to get you here to help us.  I can’t see how you can save me. I am grateful that you will try to get my wife and crew off.”

Kurin replied thoughtfully, “I may not ever like you, Barad, but you deserve the best justice that can be.  I have learned things that I wish that I had never heard or read.  I can check almost everything from the fleet archives when we Gather for the trial.  I am sure that what I have learned will be backed up.”

The usually self-assured Kurin looked at Barad in dismay and said, “It has me confused.  I love my fleet.  They have done some terrible things.  My own ship is involved.  Are they good people or bad?  What about you?”  The dismay was real enough but the questions were calculated to obtain a candid reaction from Barad.

Barad’s reply shook her to the keel.  He considered thoughtfully before answering.  “They’re people, Kurin, with both good and bad.  Some few in influential places have abused their positions but most try to steer an honest course.

“Me?” he shrugged.  “I’ve been worse than most but not as bad as painted by some.  I’ve tried to pick up their mistakes and keep the innocent or merely foolish from swimming to your foster father.”

“You mean like Lenai or Darkistry?”

“Good examples.  One of each.  Darkistry was raped and framed.  Lenai simply got pregnant before she could get legally married.  The birth slot that she would have to have taken belonged to a friend who was married and had waited three Gatherings for the Lottery to give her a chance at a child.

Lenai had a good heart.  At the small Fall gathering, she went to look for a ship that would take her.  While she was looking, her ‘friends’ put her goods on the raft, after pilfering the best of them, and left a note barring her from returning to the Darok.  I took her and never regretted it.  She was the best sail-lofter and rigging surveyor in the fleet so far as I am concerned.

“Little Arnat alone would have been worth taking her in.  My wife was long dead, so I gave her my birth slot.”  He smiled softly.

Kurin could not help asking, “Why did you take in Silor the way that you did?”

“For five Gatherings, he was my eyes and ears aboard the Longin, though he would never tell Ship’s Business until the fiasco this last Gathering.  When his delusions about you led him to be cast off your ship, I could not help him openly because he was to be a key person in the plot to poison you.

“We picked him up in secret.  After he had done his part, I would have given him some education in Arrakan writing and figuring and sold him as an indenture to their fleet, where he would have probably become a good officer in time.”

The blunt revelation left Kurin feeling ill, needing to hide.  She pulled herself together and asked, “Who all knew of the plan to kill me?”

“At first, only myself, Mister Morgu, and one other that Mister Morgu picked.  I later learned that he was Merk, Master Selked’s apprentice, who was needed to make the poisoned kit.”

“What do you mean, ‘at first’?”

“I was troubled by something about the plot but couldn’t put a finger on it.  It nagged at me.  I know that doesn’t sound like much but very little that I’ve ever done bothers me.  I pay attention when something does.

“Shortly after picking up Silor, I took both Tanlin and Master Selked into my confidence.  They showed me the fatal errors in my reasoning.  

“Tanlin reminded me that by Arrakan custom and Law I would be forsworn if I went ahead.  You and Captain Mord were both at our wedding feast. That meant that our enmity was forever over, or I would lose her as wife.  Though it broke both of our hearts, she would have left me. How do I tell you that she is more important to me than even my ship?”

The question was rhetorical but Kurin interrupted to answer anyway.  She said quietly, “You don’t have to.  You stepped down as Captain to save her.  That’s proof enough for me.”

Barad gave her a surprised look.  I knew the she’d be intelligent.  I had not really expected wisdom.  

He went on,  “Master Selked pointed out that though I had always treated my old grudge as if it were the Longin that I hated, it was really only Mord that I had any complaint of, and that over twenty Gatherings gone.  In fact, the very thing that I held against him was the one time that I had completely bested him.  Hardly a reason for hate.

“One thing that I pride myself on is that I can change course immediately when I believe I am wrong.  We had that one Ord spine unaccounted, and it worried me because none of us knew where it was.  I logged and announced Standing General Orders that any use of Ord was mutiny.  I further ordered that if any part of the Ord were to be found still aboard, it should be destroyed.”

Kurin paused to consider what to ask next, thoroughly disturbed by all that she was hearing.  “That explains the timing of those orders.  I found them in the log and they’ve been mentioned in my other interviews.  

“You have also filled in the one hole in what Tanlin told me.  She tried to protect you.  She told me the truth but left you out of the plot to poison me.  Now that you have told me the rest of the truth, I like her even better and trust you more as well.

“Several people have mentioned Purser Morgu’s activities during the Gathering.  What can you tell me?”

TO BE CONTINUED

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My Breakdown of Descendants Characters’ Ages and Birthdays

So I’m really bored, and out of nowhere, I began thinking about the ages, birthdays, and birth orders of the Descendants characters.

Now, I know everyone has different headcanons about when their birthdays are. (I’ve seen a headcanon that Evie’s birthday is on Halloween and she decides to share it with Gil AND THAT’S SO ADORABLE), but here has been my own general headcanons/analysis for them:

The references I’m using are the 3 movies, the 4 Isle of the Lost novels, and the Villain Kids’ Guide for New VKs (which I don’t own, so any information from this book, may be incorrect. I’m just going off of pictures I’ve seen on Tumblr that are now lost somewhere in my likes and I totally forgot to reblog them)

If I got my facts wrong from the novels, feel free to correct me because I’ve only read each book maybe two or three times each.

From my understanding, this is the timeline for the books and movies:

Isle of the Lost (a couple months before Descendants)

Descendants

Return to the Isle of the Lost (Is actually stated in Rise of the Isle of the Lost that the events of this book happened only a few days before the events Rise of the Isle of the Lost)

Rise of the Isle of the Lost (If I remember correctly, only about a month before Descendants 2)

Descendants 2 (6 months after Descendants)

Escape From the Isle of the Lost (I don’t think it’s stated, but I think this one takes place a little over a year after Descendants 2, but probably only a month or two before Descendants 3)

Descendants 3 (Over a year after Descendants 2)

*By the time D3 comes around, which takes place in the summer, Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos had been living in Auradon for almost 2 years.*

Mal: In Isle of the Lost and the first Descendants film is stated to be 16.

Evie: I did a quick skim of Evie’s intro chapter in Isle of the Lost, to see if it mentioned her age. I may have missed it, but from what I got, the book didn’t blatantly state her age. It does state that she was banished to the Castle Across the Way at age 6 and lived there for 10 years. Making her 16 during the novel, which takes place (I think) a few months before Descendants.

*Due to the fact that Mal was already 6 years old on Evie’s 6th birthday, Mal is older than Evie (most likely not by much. Maybe a few months at the most)*

Jay: Like Evie, I don’t think Isle of the Lost blatantly states his age. He can be assumed to be 16 given that he seems to be the same age as Mal and Evie. He also graduates with them. Due to his “older brother” attitude towards Mal, Evie, and Carlos, I believe he is the oldest of the four.

Carlos: It’s kind of obvious he is younger than the other three. I’ve seen him as both 14 and 15. To me, I feel he just turned 15 (or has been 15 for at least less than 6 months) at the time of Descendants.

Ben: In Isle of the Lost, it states he is 15. The opening scene of Descendants takes place a month before the rest of the movie, as said by Beast. In this scene, Belle mentions that Ben is turning 16, making him still 15 a month before the film. During the rest of the movie, Ben is 16, as he stated during his date with Mal.

Audrey, Chad, Lonnie, Doug: Their ages, I don’t think, are blatantly stated anywhere, but, like everyone else, they can be assumed to be 16 at the time of the first film.

Jane: Like Carlos, it’s obvious that she’s on the younger side, especially since Carlos and her end up dating. I believe she’s 15 as well at the time of the first movie, but had only just had her birthday maybe a month or two before.

Uma: I believe she is to be the same age as Mal just younger than her by a couple months or so, given that when they were kids, Uma was said to be “too small” (even though we all know Uma’s taller and Mal just wears massive boots). Given that Descendants 2 is 6 months after the first, she may be 17 at the time of D2.

Harry + Gil: Again, these two are most likely the same age as everyone else. I do headcanon them to be more on the older side of the group though. Probably around 17 by D2.

Dizzy: I’ve seen a couple of references say that she’s 12 in D2, but In The Villain Kids’ Guide For New VKs, her application says she is 14 at the time of Descendants 3, so, in Descendants 2, which is over a year before, she is most likely 13 (which is how old Anna Cathcart was when filming D2).

Celia: In The Villain Kids’ Guide for New VKs, her application says she is 13 at the time of Descendants 3 (which is how old Jadah Marie was when filming D3)

Squeaky + Squirmy: in The Villain Kids Guide for New VKs, their application says they are 12 at the time of Descendants 3.

Now for everyone’s birthdays. For reference, I’m using the ages of the Class fo 2019 since Escape From the Isle of the Lost and D3 were released this year when the majority of the characters have graduated. Also, I was part of Class fo 2019, and I’m in that age range. (I’m only using the years I used as a reference for an idea of how old they are in each film since we don’t actually know what year it is, and the timeline of the movies doesn’t line up to the 2-year time between releases)

We also need to take into consideration what grade they were in in D1 along with when in the school year.

Descendants (I’ve heard) takes place in the beginning of the school year. Given that the majority of characters are 16, coming into the new school year, those in Class of 2019 are in their Junior Year (11th Grade), which would’ve happened August-September 2017.

Descendants 2 takes place 6 months later, making it still the same school year. This puts them at about February-March 2018.

Descendants 3 takes place, most likely, over a year later, during the summer of 2019. I believe it is July.

Class of 2019 was born between 2000-2001. Here’s how the birthdays would be separated:

Early Birthday

July - September 2000 (I was born in September 2000, so I would be considered an early birthday for Class of 2019)

Average Birthday

October 2000 - May 2001

Summer Birthday

June - August 2001

Late Birthday

September - November 2001 (or whenever the school’s cut off date was. I think the elementary school I went to, the cut off was within the first week of December 2001)

*For future and past years, you use the same months, just add or subtract one year until you reach the class year you want.*

Mal, Evie, Jay, Harry, Gil, Uma, Ben, Audrey, Lonnie, Doug, and Chad are Class of 2019, which puts them born between 2000-2001. (I know Audrey didn’t graduate with them and is in summer school, but for the ages sake, she’s here)

Carlos and Jane are confirmed to be only a grade younger than the rest, putting them in the Class of 2020, which puts them born between 2001-2002. However, I headcanon both of them to be born in 2002 (will explain).

Dizzy is 14 during D3, which is the summer of 2019, but will be turning 15 later in the year (will explain), so she was born in 2004 and in the Class of 2023.

Celia is 13 during D3, which is the summer of 2019, but will be turning 14 later in the year (will explain), so she was born in 2005 and in the Class of 2024.

Squeaky and Squirmy are 12 during D3, which is the summer of 2019, and their birthday had already passed (will explain), so they were born in 2007 and in the class of 2025.

Given that, here’s my breakdown for their birthdays (this is just my headcanon)

FROM OLDEST TO YOUNGEST

Chad (September 2000)

I feel like Chad is the oldest of the group mostly because Jedidiah Goodacre is the oldest of the descendants. Also, since Chad isn’t exactly the smartest, there is the possibility he could have been held back and was a late birthday for the Class of 2018.

Gil (October - November 2000)

Dylan Playfair is in the older half of the cast, so I feel Gil would be up there as well. Also, I don’t know if it’s because of the colors he wears, but Gil feels like an Fall birthday.

Jay + Harry (November - December 2000)

Jay and Harry just feel like they are the exact age, so I feel like their birthday would be super close together. I don’t know which would be older, but I’m leaning more towards Jay.

Mal (January 2001)

Mal I feel like fits pretty well in the middle. I don’t know if it’s because Dove Cameron’s birthday is in January, but Mal just feels like a January birthday.

Doug (February 2001)

Just feels like a February birthday

Uma (February - March 2001)

I feel like she fits perfectly age-wise between Doug and Lonnie.

Lonnie (March 2001)

Just feels like a March birthday. Also, even though Dianne Doan is in the older half of the cast (2nd oldest actually), Lonnie feels like she’s in the younger half.

Evie + Audrey (April 2001)

These two feel like Spring birthdays. Also, both Sofia Carson and Sarah Jeffery were born in April

Ben (September 2001)

Just turned 16 when Junior Year began, making him a late birthday.

Carlos (May 2002)

I feel like he had been 15 for at least less than 6 months at the time of Descendants, and he’s only a grade younger than the rest. Also, Cameron’s birthday is in May

Jane (July 2002)

Her birthday is during the Summer as confirmed during Descendants 3 when she has her birthday party. However, she’s still Class of 2020, so she had to be born in 2002.

Dizzy (November 2004)

I’m pretty sure her application said November (correct me if I’m wrong)

Celia (October 2005)

I’m pretty sure her application said October 31 (correct me if I’m wrong)

Squeaky + Squirmy (June 2007)

I’m pretty sure their application said June (correct me if I’m wrong)

So after all that, I’ve came to the headcanon breakdown of how old each character was at the time of each film:

Descendants (August - September 2017):

Mal: 16

Evie: 16

Jay: 16 (birthday coming up close)

Carlos: 15

Ben: 16 (birthday just passed)

Audrey: 16

Lonnie: 16

Jane: 15 (birthday just passed)

Doug: 16

Chad: 16-17 (birthday coming up close or just passed)

-------

Uma: 16

Harry: 16 (birthday coming up close)

Gil: 16 (birthday coming up close)

Dizzy: 12 (birthday coming up close)

Celia: 11 (birthday coming up close)

Squeaky + Squirmy: 10

Descendants 2 (February - March 2018)

Mal: 17 (birthday just passed)

Evie: 16 (birthday coming up close)

Jay: 17

Carlos: 15 (birthday coming up close)

Ben: 16

Lonnie: 16-17 (birthday coming up close or just passed)

Jane: 15

Doug: 16-17 (birthday coming up close or just passed)

Chad: 17

Uma: 16-17 (birthday coming up close or just passed)

Harry: 17

Gil: 17

Dizzy: 13

-------

Audrey: 16 (birthday coming up close)

Celia: 12

Squeaky + Squirmy: 10

Descendants 3 (July 2019)

Mal: 18

Evie: 18

Jay: 18

Carlos: 17 (birthday just passed)

Ben: 17 (birthday coming up close) (WHO IS LETTING THIS BABY RUN A KINGDOM AND PROPOSE WHILE STILL BEING A MINOR?!)

Audrey: 18

Jane: 17 (her birthday is literally that day)

Doug: 18

Chad: 18 (birthday coming up close)

Uma: 18

Harry: 18

Gil: 18

Dizzy: 14

Celia: 13

Squeaky + Squirmy: 12 (birthday just passed)

-------

Lonnie: 18

Anyway, I hope you all liked my little, pointless analysis of how old I think all the characters are and when their birthdays are. 

New In Town: Background Info

Click here for a version with working hyperlinks.

Although it's never explicitly stated by the games, I'm going to assume the story is set in the US, or at least a country like it. The existence of monsters likely altered the course of several events in human history, so it's possible things are actually radically different. For the purposes of this story, I'll assume most things are still the same unless stated otherwise, (e.g. the American Revolution was still in 1776, and World War II was still in the early-middle of the 20th Century.).

Let's also just go ahead and say the story takes place in 201X for now.

[For the record, I pronounce 201X as "twenty-ex-teen". I guess you could say it "two-oh-one-ex", but why would you? I also assume it refers to the whole decade, so, for example, when I say "the early part of 201X", that could mean anywhere between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2014.]

Navigation:

Humans and Monsters (Current headcanon)

Humans and Monsters (Old) (Preserved for posterity)

Footnotes

Master Post

Humans and Monsters

Humans and monsters have always coexisted relatively peacefully, at least as well as humans and humans. There have been some smaller wars over land and resources, but nothing like the war in Undertale (hereinafter "The War").

Someone still remembers that other universe, though. The universe where monsters freely used magic. The universe where a monster could absorb a human SOUL. The universe where the monsters were sealed underground and later systematically slaughtered by a human child. Perhaps that someone is W. D. Gaster. Perhaps it is Chara. I haven't decided yet. Until that time comes, I'll call that person Individual 1.

Individual 1 remembers the world of Undertale, but the version they remember is the one in which the genocide route takes place. After that world is destroyed, Individual 1 uses their DETERMINATION to bring the world back. They restore the world to long before The War takes place. Individual 1 convinces the King of All Monsters (who is probably someone other than Asgore) to strictly curtail the use of magic. It is Individual 1's belief that the only way to prevent The War from occurring is if humans never learn that monsters can absorb their souls. This is why we don't see evidence of magic in Deltarune.1

Sometime in 1965, a man in Twin Falls (Bill Hammond) learns of the monsters' hidden power. He attempts to alert the government, but it's years before anyone in power takes him seriously. Most people view him as a crackpot; he's this universe's Alex Jones. However, he begins to gain a following among the commoners, who take to calling themselves the Arcane Enforcement Unit. Hate crimes against monsters become more frequent, and the government establishes the Directorate of Inter-Species Relations to combat this.

Hammond's influence grows, and he runs for president multiple times, though he rarely gets more than 2% of the vote. In 1996, his campaign performs surprisingly well, but he is assassinated. His following was strongest in Twin Falls, and it once again becomes a hot spot for anti-monster sentiment, only this time it extends to humans who are considered "monster sympathizers", including Kris's birth parents and eventually Rudy, who is born around this time.

Paul and Judy Harper are DISR employees in Twin Falls. In 2003, the year Asriel is born,2 the DISR begins a joint operation with DHS and FBI to infiltrate the AEU, which is now suspected as a terrorist organization. The Harpers are assigned to the team, Operation Golden Flower, as undercover agents in 2005. In 2007, Judy becomes pregnant. Later that year, their cover is nearly blown. In order to keep their child safe, they begin making arrangements with some old friends of theirs, the Dreemurr family in Hometown. Their son is born in December,​3 and adopted by the Dreemurrs immediately. A few months later, Paul and Judy are killed; their death is not publicized classified in order to avoid jeopardizing the operation.

In the early part of 201X, an AEU supporter named Noah Trey Ullman is elected mayor of Twin Falls. This is when things really start to go south. Ullman incites violence against monsters and monster sympathizers. They usually stay out of the majority monster neighborhoods, but they tend to target monsters who are known to affiliate with humans. This is what prompts Rudy to move to Hometown.

Humans and Monsters (OLD)

Humans and monsters have always coexisted, but there's always been a lot of tension between them. For most of their history, they've lived more or less independently of each other. As humans began to industrialize, they began to expand and encroach on monster territory.1 Interactions with monsters became more frequent, as did altercations. While there hasn't been an outright war between humans and monsters, there have been frequent skirmishes, akin to the US and the Native Americans. There was a period where humans sought to make use of magic, primarily by employing the monsters. The monsters were often subjected to inhumane conditions, and uprisings, while infrequent, were not unheard of.

Knowing that a monster with one or more human souls could become a being of great power, this practice was eventually outlawed. Humans became reluctant to hire monsters at all, and most monsters eventually relocated to their own settlements. These are similar to Indian reservations, with the distinction that they are not considered sovereign. In order to keep things under control, the government created the Directorate of Inter-species Relations in the mid-19th Century. Under the pretense of fairness, the DISR banned the use of magic about 100 years ago;2 this would theoretically allow more monsters to be hired, so long as they weren't being exploited for their magical abilities. In practice, because magic is so central to a monster's existence, this drastically changed the monsters' way of life. Initially, smaller acts of magic were allowed, but as more monsters moved into settlements, their interactions with humans became less frequent, and the humans became more fearful, having only the legends and rumors to inform them rather than their own experiences. Eventually, all magic was banned, and the Arcane Enforcement Unit was created in 1956 to enforce said ban.

Of course, some monsters remained in the human cities. They felt they still had ties there, and refused to move. They are largely relegated to their own neighborhoods, and the AEU does its best to "gently encourage" them to relocate. Other than the AEU, very few humans interact with monsters.3

What happened five years ago?

There was a change in leadership at the AEU, and they became much more aggressive in their policing.

[I think this was a separate subsection because I originally planned on writing more, but now it seems pretty silly to have a subsection with just one sentence.]

Footnotes

Notes for New Info

There are several reasons I decided to scrap the old backstory, but this was probably the main one. I really liked the theory that Deltarune takes place after the Genocide Route, and I wanted to expand on that. I'm no longer sure I buy that theory, but I still think it's a cool idea. ↑

As noted in the "Headcanon for Existing Characters", I originally planned for Asriel to have started college early, which would further demonstrate how exceptional he is, and also factor into the resentment Kris wishes they didn't have of him. This is also his first semester of college, which is why Kris is so worried he'll have changed. I think I'll keep him a freshman, but increase the age gap between them. When Asriel gets back from college, he'll have just turned 19, while Kris will be turning 14 very soon. I'm assuming he's returning for Thanksgiving Break (and also that Thanksgiving still exists in this world), and this is the first time he's been back home since he left for college. ↑

Yes, Kris's full name is Krismas (no, not really). Their birthday is 22 December, and Asriel's is 15 September (unless there's an official birthday listed somewhere, in which case it's that). I hope it's okay if I write that Kris is biologically male, even though they identify as non-binary. Since I've already changed their pronouns in the main story, this is probably the only time it will ever be mentioned, unless maybe they go swimming or something. I got the idea from @caretaker-au and how they represent Chara as male non-binary (is that the right way to say that?); I know some people find that blog to be problematic, but I think that was more to do with them drawing porn of Chara and Asriel, not because they drew Chara as biologically male. (For the record, I was not aware of that when I started following them, especially since Tumblr banned porn a year before I even bought Undertale.) ↑

Notes for Old Info

Another reason I dropped this: I'm pretty sure this was inspired by @wolven0ne-universe's "Long Road" AU. Actually, there's a lot that was inspired by Long Road, even in the new backstory: the decision to have multiple OCs, the way magic supposedly works, humans exploting monsters for their magic, a shadowy organization that abducts monsters because of their magical abilities, etc. Some of this is attributable to the fact that I never read fanfics prior to playing Undertale, so some of these were "inspired" by Long Road simply by virtue of it being, like, the second fanfic I ever read, ever. (The first was "Flowey is Not A Good Life Coach".) Anyway, my point here is that I dropped this backstory in part because I didn't want it to be too similar to Long Road, not because I suddenly stopped liking Long Road. ↑

Here's an additional reason I changed the backstory: I wasn't sure if this was a believable timeline. I feel like it's plausible that human society would forget that monster magic involves a lot more than just a monster's ability to abosrb a human soul in just 100 years, but that doesn't seem like nearly enough time for monster society to forget that monsters can use magic. Plus, if monsters and humans have coexisted for all of human history, and monsters have been using magic for like 99% of said history, that seems like it could have created a lot of ripple effects that I would spend way too much time thinking about. Like, what if the existence of magic resulted in the first Industrial Revolution happening in the 15th Century? What would Earth look like in 201X if that were the case? I just didn't want to deal with all of that. ↑

Other than wanting to believe that Deltarune takes place after the Genocide Route, the next most important factor in my decision to scrap this backstory is that it's just really dark. The story has enough potentially depressing shit that I didn't need to add a monster Trail of Tears on top of it all. Plus, I was worried it might come across as racially insensitive. ↑

Tumblr Overview

Tumblr launched in February 2007 by web designer David Karp. He had taken an interest in the ‘tumbleblogs’ circulating around the internet which were a collection of links, quotes, photos, videos, dialogue, and short text. After a year of waiting for a tumble blogging site to emerge, he had decided to make his own and thus, the birth of Tumblr. The site had gained major popularity and traction, reaching 75,000 users within the first two weeks (Institution Co.). Over the years, Tumblr had flourished and became one of the top hubs for community-building, countless subcultures, and social networking.

As of February 2021, Tumblr is home to 518.7 million blogs (Finances Online). The site allows for widely accessible and easily digestible posts that can be reshared and liked across the globe, including statistics of users’ usage and interactions. Byron attributes Tumblr’s popularity to how its “ blogs are typically anonymous or pseudonymous” which “affords a greater sense of privacy and…is less likely than other popular social media platforms to bring one’s existing friendships and communities into a shared space” (Byron, 2243). Although social media platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter existed, Tumblr paved the way for curating online identities because of blogs’ widespread ability for anybody anywhere to share their thoughts and build an audience of strangers as opposed to family members and friends. Additionally, one of Karp’s main focuses was the freedom of creativity and self-expression which allowed for vast opportunities to communicate such as sharing articles, links, pictures, or videos without much censorship. With endless opportunities, niche communities and interests were formed and flourished; Multiple conversations were being had about favorite musicians, artists, fashion, and writers. Tumblr attracted deviant and stigmatized communities which began a heavy discussion on teen mental health. It enabled people to share taboo experiences which were often absent in social groups outside the site. This gave birth to the infamous “Sad Girl” subculture of the 2010s.

Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade (born October 29, 1972) is an actress, voice artist, activist, and author. She began her career in the 1990s, appearing on television sitcoms, before landing supporting roles in teenage comedy films She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Her breakthrough role was in the 2000 film Bring It On. She is known for her performances in the romantic comedy films The Brothers (2001), Deliver Us from Eva (2003), Daddy's Little Girls (2007), Think Like a Man (2012), and Think Like a Man Too (2014). She also had starring roles in the CBS medical drama series City of Angels (2000) and films Bad Boys II (2003), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), Neo Ned (2005), Cadillac Records (2008), Top Five (2014) and Breaking In (2018). In 2013, Union began starring as the lead character in the BET drama series Being Mary Jane, for which she has received an NAACP Image Award. She co-starred in the 2016 film The Birth of a Nation, and next appeared in Almost Christmas (2016) and Sleepless (2017). Outside of acting, she has written two books: a memoir, entitled We're Going to Need More Wine (2017), and a children's book, entitled Welcome to the Party (2020). She has been an outspoken advocate for issues involving women's health and violence against women. She was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CVnH8GlrSqnuIuCwLzgr3eiTuFRMWgD-NU1WM40/?utm_medium=tumblr

Tumblr got me thinking back to when I first came up with My name Daiyu Amaya and I wanted to share the story as I’ve never actually explained my name.

It kind of starts with Fanfiction.net, which was created in 98’ and in 2002 or 2003  I found the site and began reading and writing under one of those ‘I’m such a kid’ usernames. As I got older and my tastes more refined I realized I wanted to use a nom de plume, I essentially wanted to springboard my fanfiction career into an author's career. I’d known since I was young that I wanted to be an Author and so in 2005, I began tentatively investigating names I could use.

I found Amaya first, which was Japanese meaning Night Rain. I fell in love with that as my Surname because I’ve always been a night owl and I love storms especially windy, Rain laden ones with the low rumbling of thunder. It took me some time after that to find Daiyu, meaning Black Jade in Chinese and something just clicked.

Daiyu Amaya came to be in March 2007 and I deleted my old FF.net account to replace it with the one you can still find. I haven’t posted to it for years now but it has some of my older works. I used to purge my accounts so I think the oldest thing on there is from 2015 or so? 

“Hey, Daiyu?” Those words I will never forget because that was the first time I used a voice chat on Discord and it was the first time anyone had addressed me by the name I had been using for nearly sixteen years. Yeah, sixteen years I had never been addressed by Daiyu Amaya other than words on the screen, no one had ever with their voice called me that. 

It floored me, I remember taking a moment to respond because they said it a second time spurring me to answer. That moment made me realize something, Daiyu Amaya was as much my name as my birth name. More so in some ways, because I’m less shy and a little more honest online. In this space, I can be and do whatever I want to a degree and it's so freeing to just be myself.

HISTORY OF NEW MEDIA

The earliest methods of communicating across great distances used written correspondence delivered by hand from one person to another. In other words, letters. The earliest form of postal service dates back to 550 B.C., and this primitive delivery system would become more widespread and streamlined in future centuries.

Technology began to change very rapidly in the 20th Century. After the first super computers were created in the 1940s, scientists and engineers began to develop ways to create networks between those computers, and this would later lead to the birth of the Internet. (Hendricks, 2019)

Irish May Servillon

1979 USENET

In this year UseNet allowed users to communicate through a virtual newsletter. Usenet is  a worldwide communication connection where you could read and post messages, similar to today's internet forums. 

1980 COMPUSERVE

in this year home computer were becoming more common and social media was becoming more sophisticated. In 1980, the CompuServe broke new ground again as the first online service to offer real time chat online with its CB Simulator.

Charish Mae Panaligan

1984 PRODIGY COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATIONS

prodgy communication corporation, offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features.

1988 INTRODCTION TO INTERNET RELAY CHAT

introduction to internet relay chat is an application layer protocol that facilitates communication in the form of text. The chat process works on a client/server networking model.

Albino But Jr.

1997 SIX DEGREES

Six Degrees is widely considered to be the very first social networking Site. The. The site launched the following year and combined popular features such as profiles, friends lists and school affiliations in one service. While the site had millions of registered users, due to the lack of people connected to the Internet, networks were limited. It would be a few years before the Internet's infrastructure could catch up with the concept of social networks. The site was sold in to December 2000 Youth Stream Media Network

1999 LIVE JOURNAL

Live Journal was launched in April 1999.It was one of the first free blogging platforms and online communities. For the first few years, the service was by invitation only but eventually became accessible to everyone. What started as a fun project  a way for Fitzpatrick to keep up with his old high school friends in pre-Facebook days soon became too big for one person, and Live Journal began hiring their first team.   

Jamaica Kaye Palmes

2001 WIKIPEDIA

Various notable social media platforms such as Myspace and Facebook are developed and released, and blogging begins to gain popularity. Instant messaging platforms such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Windows Live Messenger also become increasingly popular.

2002 FRIENDSTER

It officially launched in 2002, a decidedly big year for social media, and by 2005 it had around 20 million unique visitors to the site every month.

2003 HI5

2003 also saw the launch of My Space, which quickly became "the" social media platform at the time. It allowed users to completely customize their profile, but also to could embed music and videos. Despite a tumultuous 2018, Facebook is still the top social network in the United States, with 169.76 million mobile users accessing the Facebook app in September 2019. The company's other properties Instagram and Facebook Messenger ranked second and third with 121 and 106 million users respectively.

Glecy Hannah Garcesa

2004 FACEBOOK

Facebook became the largest social network in the world and only Harvard University open in that year. 

2004 ORKURT

which was meant to create an environment of trusted friends, but the site may have been to exclusive.

2004 FLICKR

popular way for amateur and professional photographers to host high resolution photos.

Mayryl Ann Virayo

2005 YOUTUBE

~ In February 2005, there are three former paypal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, launched the youtube website for publishing and sharing video files. The first video called "Me at the Zoo" was uploaded to youtube on April 23, 2005by one of the co- founder Jawed Karim. Most of the content on youtube is uploaded by individuals and youtube allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to playlist , report , comment on videos and subscribe to other users. Unregistered users can watch, but not upload videos on the site , while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimittes number of videos.

2005 REDDIT

~ The entertainment and social networking platform. Reddit was founded by university of virgina roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian and Aaron Swarts in 2005. Registered members submit content tto the site such as links, text posts, and images which are voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into users- created boards called "subreddits", which cover a variety of topics such ad news, politics, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets, and image sharing. Submissions with more up-votes appear towards the top of their subreddit and if they receive enough up-votes, ultimately on the sites front page. 

2006 FACEBOOK 

~ Best performing social media platforms till dae with 1.44 billion active users. The Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006 to everyone aged 13 and older  with a valid email address. It was summer 2006, a little more than two years after Mark Zuckerberg had created Facebook in his harvard  dorm room as a way of him and his friends to be better connect with schoolmates. Hw wanted to supplant and surpass Myspace and make facebook the largest social network in the planet Everyone can posts, like, comment and share in facebook. Real life or not, it also have a stories and everyone can connect or contact their families and friends and even meet a new friend using facebook. Facebook also has a information from anay official websites or account.

Niecy Joy Mandeoya

2006 TWITTER

twitter is a social media site,and its purpose is to connect people and allow people to share their thoughts with a big audience. Maybe its not obvious or no one can notice it but twitter can help us a lot, because you can gain some information about the happenings around us.

2007 TUMBLR

tumblr is a subsidiary of automatic,a technology company that empowers people to build beautiful websites,tell their stories, and find and grow their audience. The way we handle your information has not changed.

2009 WHATSAPP

WhatsApp is a open in the foreground on their device and are connected to the internet. Through our privacy setting, you have the option to control who can see your last seen. However, it does not necessarily mean the contact has read your message.

Angeloe Crespo

2012 TINDER

The Tinder dating app was launched on September 12th, 2012 first on iOS and then later Android.  Tinder uses location in part to match members and they popularized swiping which allows users on profile photos to swipe right to like someone and to swipe left to dislike someone. If both users swipe right on each others photo it is considered a match and then you can message each other. Tinder user accounts can be linked to a person's mobile phone number, and/or Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify accounts. Users can also write a short bio of themselves for their profile.

2013 VINE

January 24th 2013 when vine app was officially released. It is an american social app where users can share six or seven second long, looping videos. Most videos are funny. In July 2014 vine updated its app with a new "loop count" which means every time someone watches a find a number on top of the video will appear showing how many times it was viewed

2014 PHEED

 was a mobile pay per view technology and social networking service that completed with facebook twitter etc he was aimed at a younger audience at than Facebook's demographic. It is a social media plat form with live broadcast option. Pheed provided a pay-per-view option, covering both individual elements, such as a video or audio event, or subscriptions to a full feed that can be scheduled for a specific time or day with a specific cost, and mobile applications through the Apple App Store and Google Play.

.

I'm not sure if you're interested but have you read this about Selena/her health burnthroughmyskin*tumblr*com/post/165337919738/okay-i-cant-believe-im-going-to-actually-do-this it does seem like people are forgetting about the "chronic" part of her illness

link

i want to warn before anyone responds that skimming this will be quite evident if you attempt to argue before reading as i will attempt to cover as much as i can. this will lean very “pop feminism”, however there are brushes of other types of feminism mentioned.

the thesis statement: how we view female pop stars and their recovery is a direct reflection of our society and we all have an inherent bias against women in their own narratives.

In order to best understand why people view Selena Gomez’s treatment as a “she’s healthy now and will never be sick again”, one must first examine the fear behind why one wants recovery to be as simple as “she got a new kidney, now she’ll never be sick again”. It’s the inherent fear of being sick. This is an overlap where physically disabled people, chronically ill people, addicts, and mentally ill people receive most of their discrimination. It strongly ties into the fear of growing older.

Even men get hit with it, though we are going to disregard the male experience entirely in this thesis as I have little experience with being male for obvious reasons. This will solely focus on the woman’s narrative and how it ties into other isms in our society.

With women, they are expected to be pretty, look youthful, and be healthy for as long as they possibly can. When someone at twenty-five has a chronic illness, this upsets the balance of what women are expected to be. A woman with chronic illness is expected to hide it away in shame. With the rise of social media, this is no longer something celebrities can do. A celebrity in the 1950s would be able to quietly disappear for six months then return as if nothing had happened.

Shirley Temple, the first example (and yr example) of a child starlet did not have the same circus surrounding her as she grew up. Before 2005, the only examples of stalking out a young starlet was limited to those who could afford the cameras to do so. What happened in 2005? Camera phones became easier to acquire, MySpace begin to rise in popularity, and thus our ability to stalk out celebrities became far easier too. While there’s issues regarding celebrity life before 2005, the focus is post 2005 and how it interacts with the need for a narrative.

Narrative wise, “was sick then got better” is a nicer summary than “was sick, then was fine for a bit, then was sick again, and will now need treatment until the day they died”. People don’t like it. They don’t like that Halsey’s cauterization of her womb to treat PCOS is only a treatment that might fail her. They don’t want to think about how Demi Lovato’s stint in rehab and therapy are only treatments for her addiction and bipolar disorder. They don’t want to think about how their treatment of these delicately imbalanced women can worsen their symptoms later.

Which is the crux on which this entire theory is built: people don’t want to be held responsible for their actions. They don’t want to think of Selena Gomez as being delicate in regards to her feelings towards growing up in the spotlight (in which she described being photographed on a beach at fifteen by grown men “violating”), they don’t want to think about the long term effects mocking Taylor Swift for her surprised face when she was only seventeen carrying into adulthood, they don’t want to think about how Demi Lovato hitting a dancer could have been caused by the speculation of her mental health, and they don’t want to think about how Britney Spears’s public breakdown could be their fault.

No one wants to be the bully and they want to victimize other people so they can then accuse of “playing the victim”. Playing the victim as a phrase was originally coined in reference to abusers manipulating sociological effects to appear to be innocent while utterly demonizing the victim. Oddly, the mob mentality bullying of these starlets work more of “playing the victim” than any female starlet. They are restlessly bullied then accused of being “too sensitive” the minute they cry out. They are forced into a reaction of smile and laugh politely at jokes about their mental and physical health.

So, let’s think back to 2007 - the invention of the iPhone and the rise of Twitter and the birth of Tumblr. Suddenly, social media and cameras were novelties… that allowed us to watch in real time Britney Spears shaving her head and beating Kevin Fenderline’s car with an umbrella. No longer did we have to wait for the page 6 news spread of it in US Weekly or People - we got to see it happen while it was happening. This is our first example of a public breakdown actually being public. Suddenly everyone had an opinion.

Britney Spears was crucified as a warning - step out of line, and we’ll tear you apart too. Her career was dead the very next day. While Blackout managed to regain some of her popularity back, Britney will never again reach the same heights she had pre 2007 break down. This is mostly good for her mental health, however. The 2005 darlings - Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Raven Simone, and Amanda Bynes - all now had black marks against them with social media and narrative writing all contributing to their fall.

Lindsay Lohan’s recovery is ignored, Amanda Bynes’s mental health issues ignored, and Raven Simone was left to fade into obscurity with only the occasional reminder she is still working in television. This set a precedent.

While Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, and Selena Gomez all rose at roughly the same time, there is a strict timeline to adhere to here. Taylor Swift began her career in 2005, but only started to gain traction in 2007 - the same as the rest of her contemporaries. It is with this marker that we recognize that Britney Spears’s public melt down served as a warning to these darlings - you are not human.

Thus when Demi Lovato’s breakdown started happening in 2009, she was instantly hospitalized with the excuse of “exhaustion”. Selena Gomez would later use this excuse to hide her first diagnosis with lupus. “Exhaustion” was now something none of these starlets could use because now the narrative had already taken shape: exhaustion means drug addiction. Nevermind that dancing for two hours every day and singing for two hours every day is physically exhausting for even the most abled of bodied people.

In 2011, Demi Lovato’s image was given a make over with the release of “Skyscraper” - a double edged sword. She was presented to the public as if she’d fully recovered. However, bipolar and addiction are chronic illnesses. Yet the narrative stuck - she was recovered. Now it traps her - she’s unable to backslide in public. Which means that all of Demi’s backslides must occur within conveniently timed slots which is not how backsliding works.

You might be asking “wait you mentioned Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga… I get how Halsey and Demi Lovato relate to the subject matter, but how does this tie together?” The answer is already there for you: narrative. Taylor Swift’s career path is that of a woman in total control of her narrative. This actually did not occur until 2010, in which she released Speak Now on the promotion that then 17/18 year old Swift wrote and produced the entire album by herself.

Lady Gaga, conversely, owns her narrative in total control of her sexuality. These are two things that women are not supposed to do and thus they are demonized for this. The demonization of Taylor Swift occurred during 2011/2012 - the same as Demi Lovato’s narrative of being a phoenix who rises from the ashes, the same as when Selena Gomez was first hospitalized for lupus (then described as malnutrition and exhaustion - symptoms of lupus), then same as Lady Gaga’s release of Born This Way.

Narratives are important in this new social media game, in which you want to package your starlet in a way that can be easily ate up in soundbites. Lady Gaga was “born this way”, Demi Lovato was a “phoenix”… Taylor Swift is a slut and Selena Gomez is the future trainwreck. The narratives once given are incredibly difficult to break free of. It didn’t help that Demi disparaged Selena for not visiting her in the hospital and that in 2012, Taylor Swift began to date boy band favorite with the hair extraordinaire, Harry Styles. They were now outcasts.

1989 in 2014 helped take back narrative control for Taylor Swift - until it didn’t. The same way Taylor Swift put her career back on track was the same reason it fell off again. Because Taylor Swift puts so much emphasis on controlling her own narrative, she is the most prone to receiving backlash out of all the starlets. People do not like narratives being in control of the people they wish to write them about. Selena Gomez, conversely, now has come forward and publicly admitted to having lupus. Lady Gaga’s new album is “too weird” and thus the subject of derision. The same narrative that put Halsey on the map is now used against her.

So what is the truth of it? Narrative speaking wise… women aren’t allowed to have messy, ugly, complicated narratives.

22 year old Taylor Swift who came on the scene as a pretty, hopeless romantic must have something wrong with her if she hasn’t settled down already (never mind that relationships are naturally complicated and messy and often times both partners have some fault) and is now dating an 18 year old.

Selena Gomez must be heading for a breakdown if she is checking into hospitals for exhaustion and suddenly working “less”.

Lady Gaga should be “over” her weird phase after experimenting with Born This Way.

Demi Lovato must never be allowed any freedom to backslide. Halsey must never, ever show any complaints of PCOS symptoms ever again.

The worst part is that these narratives are often written over the course of two years. It is why new female artists often have difficultly breaking past that first hit. The demand that a female celebrity gives us something to root for often outweighs the music itself. It’s why post The Voice, Cassadee Pope is finding it difficult to receive mainstream success. It is why Britney Spears’s level of fame will remain plateaued at the current level. It is why instead of viewing Lemonade for what it was (a celebration of being a black woman), there was an instant need to pry right into Beyonce’s marriage with Jay Z.

Following this, women’s narratives that are independent of men will be treated as if they have resolved only because of men. Taylor Swift’s relationship with Calvin Harris was treated as the reasoning behind her success, Demi Lovato’s relationships with men disallow her bisexuality to be seen as legit, Halsey’s own relationships with men have choked out any other thing about her, Cassadee Pope’s win was credited to Rian Dawson’s fanbase, etc.

“Recovery” becomes a meaningless word to women’s narratives if they are not allowed an independent narrative.

So what makes this reflective of our society as a whole? It shows what we value and what we mock. Women who are single are to be mocked and told they’re the problem if they do not settle for less. Women who are weird are mocked because they’re funny and not actively striving to be pretty. Women who are sick must recover in order to be seen as inspiring. These are things that we can find examples of in every given pop star. It is why Madonna is mocked - she is an older woman who is still having fun. Older women are not supposed to be fun or be single.

This leads to a conclusion that despite all our progressive beliefs on an individual level, on a societal level we’re still stuck trying to implement second wave feminism. Until we fully dismantle the ableism in the recovery narrative, we will never be able to truly reclaim women’s narratives. Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk.

Survey #67

“i wanna grow up, i wanna be, a big rockin’ roll star!”

did you pay attention to anything you were being taught in health class?  i always listened, yeah, but it scared me a lot because my anxiety around that time was mostly health-focused. i was afraid i was going to get everything somehow lmao. what are your feelings regarding shopping?  i like shopping for myself, but not for vitals. like grocery shopping, nah man. shopping for stuff like clothes, bueno. do you think people have any misconceptions about you? i'm not certain about many things, but i am certain about that. have you ever worn fishnets? no, but dey sexy. do you go somewhere to get your eyebrows done? occasionally i'll go to get them done, and the woman who does them is actually my hairdresser. do you believe prayer really works? boy, isn't this relevant to some things going on... the answer is, i don't know, but i'm leaning towards "only if god for whatever fucking reason deems you more worthy than someone else who's prayed for something for a fucking year but i don't want her to have that." the people whose prayers come true just seem so fucking cherry-picked. do you have one best friend who is always there for you? apparently not. only when she agrees my issues are "valid." describe one of your most emotional farewells. well, the one that affected me the most was certainly when jason left, but it wasn't the most emotional in that moment of all my farewells. the one i would define as most emotional was when my lizard shadow died. he was old (i had him most of my life) and wasn't moving much, but i finally realized he was dying. it was so. fucking. slow. and he was obviously in agony the last day (yes, this shit lasted days), as he kept writhing and opening his mouth to gulp in air... oh my god, i don't even like talking about it. i sobbed and sobbed and talked to him so much, and any time i sat by his cage, he always looked at me. he was such a sweet little boy. have you ever been tied up? no. i really don't know how i'd feel about that. how many times have you been cussed out? online, PLENTY. irl, i only remember one occasion. does it bother you when people ask personal questions? who's asking? do you know anyon​e who’​​​​s been in jail? i do. have you ever considered acupuncture? noooo. have you ever watched the same sex undress? she undressed in front of me, but i didn't watch her. have you ever seen the last person you kissed cry? i've seen him tear up, but never totally cry. have you ever seen your mom or dad drunk? my dad's a recovering alcoholic, so i saw him drunk a lot. i'm pretty sure i've seen mom drunk once, but she denies being drunk. do you enjoy mario games? not particularly, but i mean, i'd play something like mario kart for family fun. do you think that necessities should be free? (ex. food, toilet paper) hm. debatable. does it bother you when dogs lick you? no, unless they're licking my face. do you feed your pets human food? occasionally. which is worse: being sexist or racist? oh jeez. do you think suicide is selfish? i mean, yeah, it is, but if this makes sense, it's not a damnable kind of selfish? like you truly are thinking about yourself and not how it would affect others, but sometimes, y'know, you need to think about yourself. i'm not saying suicide is ever necessary, but i understand why it happens. would you take a dirty picture of yourself for someone you are dating? heh, probably. what are the most embarrassing songs in your itunes library? lmao i think i have one taylor swift song. OMG I DO IT'S "PICTURE TO BURN" KILL ME. how picky are you when it comes to choosing who to kiss or not kiss? VERYVERYVERY. i have to be sincerely interested in you. do you feel that having sex anywhere but a bed is more exciting? i'm sure you've heard this enough in my surveys, but never had sex, done sexual things. but i mean sure, doing things in places other than the bed was usually more fun, but i ALWAYS felt way, WAY more vulnerable and paranoid. in your opinion, is it ever okay to get back with an ex? of course it is. people change/learn. what's the first animal you go to see at the zoo? it would be a meerkat if my zoo still had them, buuut... what's the strangest or rarest creature you've seen at a zoo? a white (not albino) alligator! o: what animal is at a zoo that really, in your opinion, shouldn't be? oh, i'm sure there's many if i was more knowledgeable about this subject. do you like zoos or aren't you bothered? i have mixed emotions. i offer you a cigarette, you say... "no thanks." why do you think you were put on this earth? i go back and forth between god planned me very intricately and uniquely to my parents just decided they wanted a kid. is it ever okay to hit a child? when is this? NO. YOU DO NOT. TEACH YOUR CHILD. THROUGH FEAR. do you think violence in video/computer games influences the nation also? oh boy, this question. no. it doesn't. pretty sure we didn't have video games since humanity began, and we've had violence since the start. are you in any shape or form, racist? no, i'm not. are you in any shape or form, sexist? no, i'm not. how do you think the world will end? the world itself, or humanity? humanity will end whenever god feels like it. the earth itself, well, i guess if it explodes somehow. what natural phenomenon do you find the most beautiful? WHAAAAAAT, I HAVE TO PICK ONE?! would you kill someone who killed a child? how about YOUR child? i know without a doubt you killed a child, mine especially, i kill you. what is your favorite cover of a song? "hurt" by johnny cash. bar none. have you ever been in love with someone who was fatally ill? holy fuck, thank god no. have you ever received or given a make-over? ... oh god... yeah... i gave jason a make-over lmfao and got him to pose for a picture after like 30 minutes of pestering him. i'd show the picture, but i have too much respect for him ha ha ha. do you know anyone who is HIV+? not to my knowledge. have you ever been to a desert? nope. do you know any trans* people? not irl what is your favorite beatles song? "hey jude." i'm honestly not a big beatles fan whatsoever. what is the poorest you have ever been? probably now, really... i'm sure you know of the gamer fad on youtube. who's your favorite? markiplier! is there something written on your shirt right now? "we're all mad here" what is your favorite song to play on guitar hero or rock band? "king nothing" by metallica!! \m/ where do you find the surveys you take? as of right now, i've been getting my surveys from a lad over at livejournal who has a good 2k surveys stockpiled up. i'll occasionally pick some up from tumblr, too. if i'm truly desperate, i'll just google search and find random webpages. what's one weird/annoying thing your pet(s) tend to do? OMGGGGGG YAAAAAAA'LLLLLL. okay so my dog teddy has this super weird habit of, totally out of the blue, trying to climb onto me and lie directly over my face. like i have to physically hold him back to stop him, and he still fights against me to try and get on me. i haven't the slightest idea why he does it, but it's super annoying... i always have to bring him to his room so he'll stop and calm down. what's your favorite song by your favorite artist?  YOU SHOULD NOOOOT BE ASKING ME THIS QUESTION OH GOD. i have a very, very difficult time picking favorite songs. i'll go through my fave artists regardless though and try... ozzy osbourne: probably "trapdoor." metallica: oh god. uhhh. "king nothing," i assume. otep: eeeeek!! i really, really love "special pets" and "apex predator" like the same!! marilyn manson: yikes. errr. "heart-shaped glasses," maybe. WAIT. "angel with the scabbed wings," perhaps. cradle of filth: i guess their cover of "mr. crowley." rammstein: "donaukinder," pretty easily this time. a day to remember: "i'm made of wax, larry, what're you made of?" fuckin' rocks!! do you have an "original character?" well, as a forum role-player since i think 2007, i think last time i counted, i have over 200, lmao. and yes, i'm attached to them all too much to kill off half of them. fuck my life rip rip rip. what about a persona/fursona?  ye, ozzkat. do you ever MAKE your own surveys?  not an entire survey, no, but once in a blue moon i'll think of a question i think's really good and add it onto a survey. why's it the woman who have to give birth anyway if the man is physically stronger in most cases?  i mean, besides the obvious, are you asking why it was ever made this way to begin with? *shrugs* who really knows? do you get good internet there? nnnnnope. it goes out pretty frequently. ever had a cavity? how many? i sure have, but idk how many. ever broken a tooth?  indeed. when i passed out as i was scrambling out of the shower because i felt dizzy, i landed dead on my chin. a good number of my molars shattered. the feeling of all those broken fragments in my mouth when i woke up... ewwwww. ;D; for a while, they went untreated as they were not causing much issue. eventually though, they needed to be filled, i think because the microscopic cracks that were formed were expanding. it could've ruined those teeth. what did you do on the playground at your school as a child?  for a long, long time, i mainly swung if there were any swings open. it was the one thing i actually enjoyed doing outside. in my older elementary school years, i actually started a trend, ha ha: digging tunnels with our hands in the sand pit. idk why exactly i liked doing it, but i did. my friends and i would always be the weirdos digging the entire time we were outside. i remember once we made a pretty intricate system. are you into comics? no, i don't read them, but i still sometimes enjoy who the subject is. ex. i like batman, but i've never read his comics once. would you ever like to work on a farm? i would not. i don't like outdoor labor, honestly. did you ever have computer disc games you played as a kid? sure did! we had "putt-putt," "freddy the fish," "i spy spooky mansion," "odell down under," "oregon trail," i personally had vet-oriented games, and i remember there was one about going up the amazon river, and it was the third in the series. that one was my all-time favorite. OH OH OH! and i had this wicked cool dinosaur game that taught you about various dinosaurs and looked sooo realistic!! what do you think of people who have therapists? i think they're brave as fuck to admit they have a problem and need help??? like what else would i think??? do you have any of those adult coloring books? i do. i don't use 'em a lot, though. don't enjoy coloring like i used to. ever ridden an elephant?  no, but that'd be REALLY cool. deserts: dreary or beautiful?  beautiful!!! ever seen a panda?  i don't believe i have, even in a zoo. what kind a camera do you have?  nikon d3200 do you have stretch marks? where? don't be shy, they're tiger stripes! i'm much convinced they're not tiger stripes. all they tell you is i'm overweight, not that i'm a warrior. and honestly, the better question is where don't i have stretch marks. i gained weight way too fucking fast when jason left, so... they're kinda all over the place. they're fucking gross and i've tried so hard to get rid of them using bio oil (which was working, but we don't have the money to keep buying) and another cream that doesn't do much. ugh. lobsters: cool or scary?  both. they're honestly pretty creepy, but i do believe they're still quite cool, too. opposoms: total vermin or cute? CUTE AS FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK what tv channel dominated your childhood?  ha ha animal planet!!! if nicole was picking what to watch it'd be disney channel, but me, animal planet. (: it's such a shame how much animal planet has changed, though... now it's all about people and how to survive a fucking animal attack... ever actually seen a snake in the wild?  here in the rural south, plenty of times. i have two noteworthy occasions, though. once, when i was being dropped off at home from school by a family friend, we stopped short because of something in the driveway. my sisters and i got out of the car to see a rattlesnake- a HUGE one- curled up, head raised, hissing, and rattling its tail vigorously. we called for our mom and dad, who came outside and immediately called somebody; i don't recall who, but they were not going to harm the snake. they came quickly and, with a shovel i think, moved the snake to the large tobacco field right across the road of our house. the snake was quite compliant, i was surprised. second, also many years ago, i was taking a walk and found a pretty small snake in the middle of the road, which is just a gravel path. it didn't want to move, but it seemed perfectly alive and healthy. i couldn't identify the species, but i don't think it was venomous. regardless though, i refused to be stupid and touch it, but i still stayed by it and directly a car once around the snake because i didn't want it run over. my friend came over, however (they were whom i got around the snake), so i abandoned the serpent and went home to play. after she left, i went to check on the snake, and he'd been run over. :( i was sincerely sad. have you ever had a PET snake? what kind? i've had two! my first ever was a ball python named mona lisa, and wow... i never knew it was POSSIBLE to love a snake so dearly. i mean, "it's just a snake," right? no, she was family. she was going to play a big part in my senior project actually, but she sadly died due to the pet store's own negligence (there was a tick on her when we adopted her, and it apparently made her ill). after mona, i adopted another snake quite a while later; it was too young to distinguish gender, so i gave it a neutral name: cato. it too was a ball python, and we had little cato for a very short period of time... it never deficated, and when it passed and its tailbase swole up, we took its corpse right to petsmart because i had a feeling they were to blame. again. apparently, we'd adopted a sick snake: something was wrong with its bowels, no doubt, and the employee assumed it had to do with bacteria. i absolutely refuse to ever adopt a reptile from petsmart or petco ever again; they just don't treat their reptiles and rodents (i've got a gooood story about rats...) like family in my frank opinion. i've located a ball python morph breeder instead, and i plan on adopting from him very, very soon. (: ever had an encounter with a snapping turtle? they're scary!  ha ha ha omg guys my older sister ashley once fished up a HUGE snapping turtle!! it was liiivid! i can't remember how my dad did it, but he got it off suuuuuper-duper carefully. wait, or maybe he just cut the line, i don't remember. do you like oatmeal? eh, i have to be in the mood, and it needs JUST the right amount of milk or it's too liquidy. i also only eat it with milk, not water. wherever you live, have you ever seen your national bird? i have once in the wild! :D i live in north america, so it was the bald eagle. it was SO BIG. ever had a reptile as a pet that you had to feed crickets? did you ever pick up the crickets? i sure have: a chinese water dragon lizard named shadow. for a very long time, i couldn't touch the crickets, no. eventually though, i would pick 'em up and drop them into the cage. later in shadow's life though, it was much easier (and convenient for him) to just dump the whole bag of them into his terrarium. it was so cute how he'd get so excited every single time he saw a cricket! i miss him. :( ever play hearthstone?  i have, but only to get the "i won three games" mount in world of warcraft, lmao. it's an okay game, but i don't love it. i'm not the best with tactic games like that. ever gone hunting? biggest thing you've ever shot?  i do not go hunting, no, i can't stand the idea of killing an animal for sport. my little sister does sometimes, though. i don't think she's been in a few years, however. coolest place you've ever been hunting? n/a. how about fishing? biggest thing you've ever caught?  heeeeeell yeah, man! been fishing since i was a little girl! :D i never keep anything i catch though: i kiss my hand, touch the fish's head with it, and gently place it back into the water from whence it came. i caught my biggest many summers ago while catfishing one night... i hooked a blue catfish in the eye. whoooops. o.o; i ended up catching it, and it was huuuuge! wish i had the picture dad took to show you guys. with its size, dad said i could certainly keep the fish to cook up for dinner, but i said no, to let him go. watching dad take the hook out though was horrid; the fish ended up losing its eye. :( so i called him "'ole one-eye," hehe. 'ole one-eye was just fine when he got back in the water, thank goodness. i almost caught something i KNOW was even bigger once, though. same fishing spot, catfishing again. fought with it for a while, and holy SHIT i wish i'd seen how big it was. ended up breaking my line pretty quickly. i wanna go catfishing again. :( coolest place you've ever been fishing?  i've never been fishing outside north carolina, and not far from home, either, so i haven't really been anywhere necessarily "cool." there's two places i consider quite interesting, though. the catfishing spot, for one, is at a dam. i don't know what about it, it's just real cool there. the second spot, though, is much more wild. it's in the middle of shitfucknowhere and you have to brave through some pretty thick woods to get to the river. It's also connected to a dam, but you can't see it from where you fish. it's a great place to fish for striper. boy, is it pretty there, too... wish i had pictures. i love how untouched it is. i watched a mink, i think it was, dive into the water once. this fishing talk is making me so nostalgic! which is cooler: african or asian elephant? i wouldn't say one's "cooler" than the other, but i find an african elephant to be more proportional with the size of its ears. the asian elephant's ears look too small. craziest thing you've ever eaten?  i honestly don't think i've ever eaten anything considered strange. i'm VERY picky and don't really risk much with food. i mean i guess the "weirdest" thing was i took the smallest, smallest bite out of deer jerky once. what's in a camel's back? fat. it's not water, if that's what you wanted me to say. do you believe in any cryptids?  i think i do, yes. there's just been too, too many sightings, and i don't believe that many people are liars. i think i believe in sasquatch, chupacabra (not the "omg it drinks blood" bullshit, but the coyote/??? mixed creature), the dover demon, mothman, hellhounds/the many ghostly hounds people have seen in the world, olitiau if i spelled that correctly, i'm iffy with the jersey devil, and i'm sure i'm forgetting some i think are plausible... i am VERY interested in learning about any cryptid. i mean c'mon, a good portion of our world is entirely undocumented! who knows what's out there! "lost tapes" was my shit back in the day, until like the last season where everything looked too fake. steve irwin: foolish for messing around with animals or brave for teaching us? steve irwin was anything but a fool. he was an inspiration for all us people who love and are fascinated by animals. he was my teacher, despite never meeting him. he put his safety aside to teach the world about creatures big and small so we could respect and honor them. god bless that man, and may he rest in peace. you were and still are my hero. what do you think of people who put their whole life on social media? some things need to be kept quite, sure. like i'm not gonna go on facebook and proclaim, "i just had sex boiz!!" or "just took a shit, ya'll!" some things, keep a mystery. your whole life isn't everyone else's business, you know? if you post a lot, i have no issue with that, just know your boundaries. don't you think it's a bit deceptive to wear a push-up bra?  no??? is wearing certain pants to make ya dick look bigger deceptive, too??? perhaps some people are more comfortable with the cushioning. or maybe they could only find their size as push-up. or, just maybe, a woman likes to feel better about herself. do you truly believe we came from chimps? why? no, i don't. and i have a plethora of reasons, but the underlying belief of mine is that it's just implausible and i don't believe our body can "pick" the "right" trait to pass on to increase odds of survival. to believe we all came from one organism just seems... very unlikely. well, what do you think of extra bones and even organs in our bodies? why do we have them?  if you're talking about the appendix, it actually does have a use. it's vital to survival in the fetal stage. I don't remember what it does, though... extra bones, i can't entirely tell you with certainty. my own sister had an extra bone in her hand, gross stuff... i like to think of them as god fooling around in the sims creation page *wink* if you could choose anyone to be your mother, who would it be? i honestly don't think in any case i'd want another mom. if you could choose anyone to be your father, who would it be?  ... i honestly want to say james hetfield, but i think incest might be a problem because fuckshittits i'd fuck him and he's in his 50s kill me pls end this madness. weirdest video game you've ever played? hmmm. i personally don't think i've ever played a "weird" game. the first "silent hill" is pretty damn whacky, but far more in a scary sense than weird. it just really throws everything you've ever thought about the world into chaos. we're having a pig-pickin'! whatcha eating?  oh god... i hate those... please no... D: ever been on a scary hay ride? i have indeed, at the old church-oriented cheerleading and basketball place ever been to a castle?  i have n- wait! i've been in cinderella's castle in disney world! :D what's your favorite kind of penguin? i think they're called emperor penguins. they look very majestic but silly simultaneously! whales. should they be allowed in sea world?  i don't think so, honestly. if so, they'd need a WAY bigger aquarium than i remember seeing them in... ever seen an albino? whether it be human or animal?  pretty sure i've seen albino mice, but that's it, i think. what do you think of the song "miss jackson" by panic! at the disco? good song very good a++ what is the wallpaper on your best friends cell phone? i'm pretty sure her lock screen is she and her husband, and her home screen is a bible quote. do you feel comfortable singing in front of others? nope, no one. do you like using big words when you talk? if i believe this word to be more descriptive/accurate when explaining something, sure? do you EVER use caps lock? yes, i do, for emphasis. i'm extremely passionate and talk exactly how i type, so there's gotta be emphasis!! are you loud when you’re having sex? i wouldn't know, but i was always quiet doing sexual things because i was sooo nervous about being loud, even if no one was around. have you ever wanted to drop out of school? definitely. i was suicidal in high school partially because of school, and i really considered it in order to potentially save myself (i ended up having to drop all but one class when the issue was brought to my principal). i did drop out of college. when was the last time you watched south park? well over a year ago. i watched it with jason occasionally, he enjoyed it. are you italian? i am not. are you interested in photography at all? well, i'm hoping to be a photographer, so. any survey takers that annoy you on tumblr? not at all. there are some whose answers i disagree with very much, but honestly, every survey taker i've seen seem pretty cool. do you like bob marley? OH MY GOOOOOD NO I HATE HIS VOICE can you talk to your parents about anything without them judging or bickering at you? i don't think so, honestly. are you interested in art? very much so. don't you think we're spending too much money on exploring the mere theory of climate change? lmao who made this, donald trump??? no. climate change is important as fuck and if we keep this shit up, could very well end or nearly decimate humanity. everyone always wants to know your favorite animal. what's your SECOND favorite? probably rhesus macaques. very mischievous and social. who’s your favorite disney character? probably mulan, but i have no real preference. have you ever taken the eharmony personality quiz? YES AND I HAD ZERO MATCHES GG do you take vitamins? if so, what kinds? not anymore, no. how much was your prom dress? what’s the most you’d spend? i'm not sure how much either of them costs... and i really don't know how much i'd pay, but not too much, i mean, it's just prom. would you marry someone of a different religion?  depends on the religion, really. like some religions have beliefs i would never respect, such as some religions believe the woman is far lesser than the man. i wouldn't marry someone with those beliefs. how did you learn the word “fuck”? school, i'm sure. if you could make one of your enemies your best friend, who would it be? why would i want to be friends with my enemy, as anyone who i consider my enemy is obviously so for a reason? what is the last movie you saw in theaters? trolls. soooo cute. (: have you ever got into a wreck?  i've been in an accident, not a wreck, i'd say. do you think you are an argumentative person?  no. to avoid confrontation, i usually just keep my opinion to myself to avoid this whole issue. can you admit when you’re wrong?  i'm quick to admit that honestly. i doubt myself. are you easily confused?  VERY VERY VERY do you think you would make a good wife/husband?  i hope... have you ever caught a butterfly?  omg i forgot this story... a few days after jason left (it may have even been the next day, i don't recall), i found a yellow-and-black, crippled butterfly. i tried so hard to nurse it back to health, but it was useless, it was going to and did die. i buried it in my back yard among crysanthemums (i probably murdered spelling that). honestly, part of me getting my semicolon butterfly tattoo relates to that butterfly. have you ever deliberately tried to get someone drunk? no, that sounds... really wrong. do you like being kissed on the neck? if you want your clothes ripped off, sure. favorite song by the band the offspring? uh-oh, i'm not sure! i reeeaaally love "why don't you get a job" and "pretty fly for a white guy" about the same. how many times each morning do you press the snooze button? i never use an alarm, so. when you go out to eat, what sides do your order with your food? fries because i'm a fat american what video game or computer game are you best at? am i best at? idk, really. how do you normally come across new music? youtube's recommendations what subject in school do you feel is the least necessary? it depends on what you want to do in your future, really. they all have purpose, just not for everyone. do you enjoy power outages or do you get annoyed? i wouldn't say i "enjoy" them, but i'll usually get excited a bit for like a minute just because something different is going on. are you pretty politically correct? yes and no. have you ever behaved like a stalker?   ... i think so, honestly. do you appreciate other people’s opinions?   appreciate, yes.  it's part of what makes us unique. if you could pick your own pet name, what would it be?   *shrugs* do you care what’s going on in the world?   i'm one of the idiots that lives on it, duh i do. how many partners is too many?   having any more than one do you examine the tissue after you blow your nose?   yeah, ensure there's no blood or anything. do you prefer boys to shave down there?   no preference.  whatever they're comfortable with. how much does your mother know about your sex life (or lack thereof)?   all she knows is i almost had sex once but didn't.  i talked to her about it because i felt VERY guilty. are any of your siblings married? what are their spouse’s names?   only ashley is married, and her husband's name is nick. have you ever had a pet bird?   no, i wish. how many times have you moved in your lifetime?   i've moved twice. if you could get one piercing and one tattoo, where would you want them?   piercing, labret.  one tattoo... ohhhh man... i think it'd still probably be what i'm starting next: the painting "denialism" by da's tatchit on my right upper arm.  it doesn't have a personal meaning to me, honestly, i just think it's fucking awesome. would you consider yourself to be adventurous?   depends, really.  what're the risks of what i'm doing? has any part of your house ever been flooded?   no, only our yard. is there anyone that you're worried about right now? who and why?   well, jason is the obvious.  i always worry about him, whether or not he's happy and moreso if he's being loved enough... because i can guaranfuckingtee ashley will never love him like i do. if you won a lot of money, would you donate any of it? to what organization would you donate it?   i'm sure i would, but idk where. describe the best friend you've ever had, or the best person you've ever known.   jason, quite easily.  he was both my boyfriend and best friend.  he just kinda... changed one day. have you ever adopted a stray animal?   MANY cats, yes. if you were seriously ill and couldn't find the necessary help or treatment in your home country, would you ever travel abroad to get treatment, expenses aside?   who wouldn't, honestly? what time did you wake up this morning?   i'm woke 24/7, motherfucker. ever wonder if you’re someone’s everything?   i have.  apparently, i wasn't. would you ever bleach your hair platinum blonde?   i actually kinda want to, but it's another hair color mom won't allow.  my hair is like supremely healthy and she doesn't want me to ruin it. what is your mom’s middle name?   marie do you know the color of your ex boyfriend/girlfriend’s eyes?   yes, a very mellow dark brown. have you had your wisdom teeth out?   no, but it looks to be inevitable soon. your appendix?   nope, i still have it.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : Part 61 of 83 : World of Sea

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SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

Part 61 of 83

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2020

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users   of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may   reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information   remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in   my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical   compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Aboard the Longin, men and women broke out every boat that could be put under oars and began the long task of dragging their ship out of the calm fog.  It took over two hours to get the Longin to a breeze. They paused only long enough to reload the boats before they set every scrap of sail that could be set and began to hunt south for the Dorton, that was sailing near to them.  Together the two ships sailed north, searching into the Dragon Sea for the Grandalor.

They ran two days north before turning in a wide search sweep of the same sort that they would have used to locate a lost fishing boat.  They saw nothing but an occasional soaring Wide Wing.

When Mord slept at all, he dreamed — — Hag taken by the poisonous tentacles of nightmares that would not stop.  The blood of the fight had stained his hands and would not come off.  Barad, ripped open by a strong Skin’s fin spine was screaming in agony until the huge fish bit him in half.  The Grandalor attackers rowing away in the fog when a Wing Ray, so large that it darkened the sky as it leaped, pancaked down on them reducing the boats to bits of floating wreckage — but they’d taken Kurin with them …

Bleary eyed from his Hag poisoned dreams, Captain Mord said heavily to his mother, the Longin’s Purser, “I hate to admit it, Alor, but we need to go find help for this search.  We can’t do it with only two ships.  Already we have lost days.”

“If we can, Mord,” Alor replied thoughtfully, “we need to get the Dark Dragon and the Soaring Bird.  Both of them are experienced in tracking ships.”

In a far different tone she went on, “I am worried, son.  I need to talk to you as a mother.  There have been some rumors about that boarding.  Did you really silence the fog drum when you knew that they were from the Grandalor?”

Angry, full of self justification, he answered, “What difference does it make, Mother?  Yes, I did.  They were from the Grandalor!  We don’t allow them onto our ship!  We never have.”

Alor looked sadly at her son, of whom she’d been so proud for so long. “What happened to the first one to set foot on our deck?”

“I repulsed her, Mother!” he said defensively.  “What difference does it make?  Stop looking at me that way! … All right!  I stabbed her with my knife!”  He looked puzzled, thinking back to the fight, “I must have.  The knife was mine, in my hand but I don’t really remember doing it.  She was boarding us, for Dragon’s sake!  I was in my rights!”

“The man who tried to pull her back over the rail?”

Suddenly Captain Mord realized that Alor knew far more of the fight than he had realized.  “He got in front of me!  His  throat was cut!  He couldn’t attack us further.”

Her face fell.  Sadly she said, “Now I must talk to you as a representative of the officers and Masters of the Longin.”

She held out a limp fish-leather bag, weighted with scraps of the same. “What was the worst injury that we took?  I’ll tell you the answer, though you already know it.  Old Sorra got three bruises. None of the Grandalor folk struck at any of us, unless we struck at them first.  They only defended themselves.  All that they had were these pitiful coshes.”

“Mother! They were a boarding party!  They attacked us!  They kidnapped Kurin!”

“Are you quite sure of that?” she asked sharply.

“She’s gone!” Mord shouted frantically.  “What more do you need?”

“The note that she left would be a start,” she said quietly.

“There was no note!” he said desperately.

“You have persisted in lying to me about this event.  I have no choice.” Alor put her face in her hands and wept, saying through her tears, “By order of a joint council of the Masters and officers, you are relieved of your Captaincy until we can hold a hearing on your fitness to command.  You will have the right to witnesses on your behalf and to rebut all charges.  You will be notified in writing of all charges in advance, to prepare your defense.”

Three officers entered the room.  They took away the dismayed and unresisting Mord.  He was allowed to stay in the Captain’s cabin on his word to do nothing to interfere with the running of the ship during the investigation.

The Longin continued to run south through the treacherous weather of the storm’s aftermath, seeking aid as swiftly as straining canvas could take her.  

Mord, the once Captain of the Longin, looked in disbelief at the parchment that had been handed to him only a few minutes before.  It bore the familiar signatures of every officer and Master aboard the Longin. They were formally requiring an investigation into his competence to govern the ship that he had commanded for nearly thirty Gatherings.

Seeing the allegations in writing finally brought home to him just how far onto dry land he had run.  For him, the worst of the whole affair was that he could not deny any of the charges.  He could explain what he had done and even why.  He could not excuse it.

He was accused of violating the boarder’s rights under the Fifth Great Law (the right of safe haven to mariners in distress).  There were two counts.  He had silenced the fog beat and he had refused to allow them to come aboard to safety.

There was an accusation of violation of the Second Great Law.  They had the right to a fleet trial, to call witness on their behalf, and to rebut the cases against them.  In repulsing them he had prevented them from obtaining fleet justice.

He was accused of murder in the case of the one man whose throat he had cut.  There was a charge of attempted murder in the case of the woman that he had stabbed, who was still alive when last seen.

He was not accused directly of the death of the Grandalor sailor (tentatively identified as the Bosun named Modanet).  His injuries had occurred in the heat of combat and none remembered who had stabbed him.  The death, however, was put to the Captain’s flawed leadership.

He was accused of leading his crew in the above illegal actions.

He was further charged with destroying Kurin’s note and refusing to examine the tallow-slates brought by the boarders and then lying to officers who questioned him about them.

In addition to all of the above was breach of custom in the burial of the dead.

The parchment also informed him that Kurin’s note had been recovered by careful scraping away of the upper layers of tallow by Master Juris. The recovery process had been witnessed by Alor for the ship’s officers and Mistress Daeron for the Craft Council.  The note verified that Kurin had apparently left the ship voluntarily, her right as a legal adult.

One of the tallow-slates from the Grandalor had been recovered by a sailor and given to an officer.  The note had been in Tanlin’s left-handed writing.  This had been compared to documents relating the cargo survey and security agreement with the Grandalor.  The documents contained material written by both Barad and Tanlin.  It was Alor’s formal opinion that the handwriting was the same as Tanlin’s.  The contents of the note revealed that the twelve boarders were to be hostages for Kurin’s safe return, should she agree to come away.  If she did not, then the twelve would submit to trial under fleet justice.  The note’s signature identified Tanlin as the Grandalor’s Captain.

Appended was a list of witnesses and what each had contributed to the case.

Mord thought long on the problem of what was needed.  It was clear that he needed to be relieved.  As bad as things had got, now that he could see the charges, with time to reflect on them,  their justice was obvious.  He could not fight this.

The stress of nearly losing Kurin, and the rest of the Grandalor business had unhinged him.  Now that it was not hidden by his responsibility for the whole ship, he realized that he felt more for Kurin than just pride in an outstanding member of an outstanding crew.  He felt as if she were the daughter that the Birth Lottery had denied him.  When he thought of all that he had not done, his heart clenched in nearly physical pain.

He opened the port near his bed for fresh air and to see something besides walls of Strong Skin.  The sky was dark with leaden clouds and rain sweeping by on gusts of wind.  It suited his mood.

When Kurin’s mother went mad, after her father’s death, He should have fostered her.  He had let Cat, his foster sister, do it.  He should have hugged her, praised her and disciplined her.  In fear of seeming to favor one above any other, he had never done any of the job of a parent.  He had left it to others to do.

He missed her accomplishments and strange mix of adult wisdom and childhood.  She had stood up to him and tried to prevent the disaster, and he had sent her away.  He could see now how the battle combined with a few persuasive words could have made her go.  The whole mess was his fault … He would have to plead guilty with mitigating circumstances.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Intermission

(a free response to my favorite tumblr piece in ages: Aphelis's Seven Samurai Interrupted, an exploration of the ontology of the intermission)

2001. "I'm not so sure what he'd think about it," says the astronaut. And then, a vertiginous surprise, like something holding us up just fell away: White noise, The 2.35:1 frame irised down to a peephole, Telephoto, POV, panning: through HAL's eyes as he reads their lips. The moment of consciousness. But then, a more vertiginous surprise: A deeper, more silent void than even outer space: A black screen, outside the narrative. Fade in:

The mind races--- wait, no, wait-- NO! A film floating glacially, reel after reel, suddenly bursting with intrigue only to be shut off, suspended, abandoned, adrift, uncertain... But in the audience, a hundred virtual guess-movies still play.

Early 1990's. When I was a kid, my mom sometimes rented The Great Race or It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for me and my sister. Two very silly films that came on two VHS's each. I remember there being overtures, exit music, intermissions. I remember pressing fast-forward. In the VHS era, we made our own intermissions.

(The Great Race and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World were long films. Now I wonder whether my mom chose them to give herself a long intermission from me.)

1996. The first tape of The Right Stuff ended with Glenn saying, "I plan on being the first man to ride the rocket." The second tape began with a montage of test rocket failures. Convenient, since that's the only part I really wanted to watch. Had there been an intermission there, cut for the tape? Wikipedia tells me The Right Stuff had an intermission. I check my blu-ray, but I can't find one. Where had it been? Where has it gone? Was this the erasure of an absence or of a presence?

Wiki tells me that Fantasia had an intermission, too. I don't remember it. I do remember, however, that my parents always fast-forwarded through the dinosaur part and the Bacchus part the rare once or twice we watched it. Drinking was bad, those were false gods, evolution was a lie. Like I said, we made our own intermissions.

2004. In college, I watched Persona for the first time on possibly the worst VHS tape ever made. A 16mm transfer that might as well have been made by pointing a camcorder at the screen, with white on white subtitles. Partway in, the action abruptly stopped and a card appeared on screen reading, “Please wait a moment while we change reels.” I remember it taking about a minute.

2007. In grad school, I TA'd for an introductory film history class. The Birth of a Nation was, of course, pure suffering for all the students in that 150-person room. (Seriously, everybody. If you must teach Griffith in Intro to Film, figure out the learning goal. Continuity editing? The Lonedale Operator. Poetry? The Country Doctor and maybe The Musketeers of Pig Alley. Film as fine art? Intolerance. Lillian Gish's acting? Broken Blossoms. If you want to talk about the racism, show scenes, but don't waste the 3 hours.)

Anyway. I've heard laughs during Keaton and shrieks during Un Chien Andalou and even a hushed gasp at the end of Citizen Kane. But I've never heard as pained or as abject a moan as the one that issued from every mouth in that room when the title card told them:

2009. A road trip to the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, to see Jennifer Reeves's When It Was Blue play on film, from two projectors hitting the same screen. A hallucinatory Brakhagian ocular explosion for over an hour, except for a few minutes in the middle when both projectors were turned off. Black screen, dark theater. Big, lush music played. An intermission? No one left their seats. A pause to change reels? But the experience continued as the music played, and I kept my eyes trained ahead. What was it, then? It was my favorite part.

2012. A last-minute road trip up to Ann Arbor, Michigan to see one of the rehearsal performances of Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach. It's an over-five-hour affair: 4 acts plus 5 "knee plays" designed as bookends and links between the acts. But the Knee Plays are not intermissions. Instead, the audience is invited to create their own intermission wherever they need it. I never left my seat. Neither did any of the other music nerds I went with.

2015. Chicago, for the 70mm Hateful Eight roadshow. The theater was packed with drunk, agitated people. The overture didn't shut them up. The intermission didn't calm them down. I was willing to believe that the film was building to something; but the second half proved me wrong. Over three hours of meaningless cruelty, pointless bloviation, gratuitous bloodshed. Like the film stock itself, was the intermission simply a compensatory gesture? The act of a filmmaker trying to make a bad project seem important? My friends and I talked about it for hours. We couldn't save it.

(Then again, maybe The Hateful Eight just came out a year too early. After the 2016 election, a meditation on hate and division, especially a grotesque, unredeeming one, feels timely.)

My parents voted for Trump. They'd always been Evangelical Christians (Cruz was their candidate) and they raised me as one. I don't know whether I resent their vote more for its idiocy, its bigotry, or for its absolute nullification of their values. I left the church for good around 2010. My mom still believes I'll come back.

My dad and I built model rockets together when I was a kid, but we gave it up when I went to college. We said goodbye to the hobby and figured it was all over. But it turns out it was just a break; a couple years ago we got back into it. I think that return gives my mom hope that one day I'll "find my way back" to the church. The Evangelical allegiance to Trump convinces me again that there's nothing to come back to.

2000. dc Talk, the biggest Christian band of the 90s, announced their indefinite hiatus with a greatest hits album called "Intermission." As the years went by, the intermission stretching ever longer, I sometimes pondered whether that name was a put-on. The Eagles in reverse: They didn't take a vacation, they broke up. Now I learn that dc Talk is getting back together in 2017 to play a single Caribbean cruise. Looks like there was nothing to come back to.

2007. I watched the 1965 film The Bedford Incident, which ends with the accidental launch of a nuclear missile, then white noise.

I was so furious at this ending that for years I fantasized about teaching a screenwriting class in which I would assign the students to replace "The End" with "Intermission" and write treatments for the "second half" of the movie. Where intermissions do not exist, it becomes necessary to invent them.

Because what is an intermission? It's a signpost on a journey. You're halfway there. It's a reminder of artifice: that the story was designed. Fear not, the artist is in control, and the artist will lead you back out. It's terror (because we do not yet know) but also hope (because someone does).

     Mittere: to let go.      Inter: between.      Intermission: to let go of something, but only for a time;      that is, "between" holding it and picking it back up again.

The intermission is eschatological. It proclaims, this is NOT the end. This is just a break. For two millennia, Christianity has been in intermission, awaiting the Second Coming. The second act. The intermission proclaims that an absence is really a presence. That a designer left a gap here for a purpose. That it's not just meaningless silence. "I am going there to prepare a place for you."

Where intermissions do not exist, it becomes necessary to invent them.

Goodbye India, hello IPL: MS Dhoni set to 'rule the roost' in UAE - Click on link to subscribe my channel https://ift.tt/34vXvMA Facebook - https://ift.tt/2Vjiyz6 Twitter - https://twitter.com/HsrSports Pinterest - https://ift.tt/2ywdZIH Tumblr - https://ift.tt/2z5qwmL Blog - https://ift.tt/2VlBDRu #Sports #Sports_News #Tournament Mahendra Singh Dhoni. (TOI Photo) NEW DELHI: India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni may have signed off from international duties but he'll be at the heart of the action in the Indian Premier League -- a tournament he helped inspire, and where he remains a towering figure. Dhoni, who has led the Chennai Super Kings to three titles and five runner-up finishes in the IPL's 12 editions, will feature in the opening match on Saturday against the Mumbai Indians, the defending champions. The game comes more than a year after the 39-year-old last played for India in their semi-final loss to New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup. After much speculation, the wicketkeeper-batsman finally announced the end of his 16-year international career last month. And without the pressure of having to play well to keep his place in the national team, the flamboyant Dhoni is expected to shine in UAE, the IPL's temporary home as India battles a rampant coronavirus problem. "He is very fit and I believe he is working very hard on it. Plus he has stopped playing international cricket so there will be less burden on his body," Saba Karim, another former India wicketkeeper, told AFP. "Global cricket still needs an icon like MS Dhoni to continue." Dhoni's captaincy began with India winning the inaugural T20 World Cup title in 2007, a success that triggered the birth of the IPL -- the world's most popular and richest cricket league -- a year later. "Dhoni played an instrumental role in kick-starting the IPL because of the way he brought a different dimension to the shorter format of the game because of his aggressive side with the willow," Karim said. "Also with his calm exterior behind the stumps." Dhoni, once hailed as the world's best finisher, has played 190 IPL matches, scoring 4,432 runs including 23 half-centuries. An exemplary leader with fast glovework, Dhoni has made Chennai one of IPL's most loved franchises with almost 200,000 people following the team's fan club on Twitter. Chennai chief executive Kasi Viswanathan says Dhoni remains key to the team's plans and they expect him to keep playing till the 2022 edition. The team has been under scrutiny after arriving in the UAE last month with two players testing positive for the coronavirus. Senior batsman Suresh Raina and veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh later opted out of the competition. "I swear if Dhoni pulls out of IPL, there's no IPL for me this year!" a Twitter user wrote after the withdrawals. Cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra said Dhoni is "the biggest strength of the team and the entire franchise is dependent on him". "He is the soul of Chennai Super Kings. As long as he is there, CSK's heart keeps beating and they move forward. MS Dhoni, the player and the captain, has a great impact," Chopra said on his YouTube show. "Dhoni is going to rule the roost once again as a captain, as a batsman." Chennai and Dhoni were plunged into controversy in 2015, when the team were banned from the IPL for two years for match-fixing. But Dhoni and his team -- which includes many players aged over 35, including Australia's Shane Watson and South African Imran Tahir -- came back with a bang. Top Comment Giving naive comment, he already gave chance to youngster not like other legend in our country.. he has lot of cricket left and IPL is entertainment setup and no one can better do that. SO respect g... Read More See All Comments Add comment Labelled 'Dad's Army' by the media, Chennai returned to lift the title in 2018 and establish themselves as one of the most consistent teams in IPL history. "Dhoni is Chennai, Chennai is Dhoni. If Dhoni is doing well. Chennai is doing well," veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle said on Cricbuzz.com. Credit : Times of India Source: https://ift.tt/32w4SVe