#i might still put it out but i like committing a certain quota for them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

justanotherpersonsuniverse · 3 years

Text

Demon Alya: Ladybug learns the truth

“Hold on a minute,” said Alya as she scrutinized the billiard-ball sized object on the bed in front of her. It glowed with several different shades of purple that swirled around each other just slightly faster than was comfortable to look at. “This is a very difficult case.”

Sitting next to her on the bed, Juleka stifled a giggle. “What’s your prognosis, Dr. Alya? Am I going to make it?”

Alya grinned at that. “Your soul looks mostly fine,” she said. Her tail flicked in pleasure; Alya liked it when her ‘cult’ — or, as she had learned to think of them, her friends — were doing well, and Juleka was one of the closest friends she had. Alya’s wings fluttered a little too, creating a slight breeze which blew a few strands of hair into Juleka’s face. Juleka blew them back with a mock-grimace while Alya chuckled and then continued. “No blemishes or spots that I can see. Just a little agitation. And as for what might cause that…” An idea came to her. “Are you planning on asking Rose out later?”

Juleka blushed, her skin reddening to the point where it almost matched Alya’s devilishly-red hue, and the colors in Juleka’s soul began swirling even faster. “Maybe,” she admitted. “I’ve been, um, trying to build up the courage for a week or so, but it’s hard.” Her hair drooped over her face, and this time she didn’t try to push it back. “She’s so amazing,” Juleka went on. “And I’m—“

“Also amazing,” Alya cut in. “And I’m not just saying that because you’re the best high priestess ever. I know that Rose likes girls who are kind, compassionate, wise, and have a strong moral code—and you’re four for four. Forget that prohibition against angels dating humans; if you ask her out, I’m certain she’ll say yes.”

Juleka smiled a little, but she said, “Everything you say makes sense, but I just have trouble making myself believe it. It’s hard to feel it, you know?”

“Yeah,” said Alya, thinking about one of her other friends. She’d been hanging out at Marinette’s house a couple hours ago, listening to the girl excitedly detail the pastries she was going to make for a charity bake sale, and she’d found herself wondering once again if she could risk revealing her true identity. It would be so easy to let her demonic veil fall and show Marinette her true form, and surely Marinette was kind enough and non-judgmental enough that she’d be able to see past the horns, wings, flickering tail…

But if she wasn’t, if Marinette panicked at learning that Alya was a literal demon from Hell, then the friendship would be over. And Alya couldn’t risk that. Even if Marinette didn’t do anything else (like call Ladybug to banish Alya back to Hell for the next few eons), Alya would be devastated to go through her time on Earth without being able to call on her best friend. And so Alya had once again decided the risk wasn’t worth it, no matter how much she yearned to be able to tell Marinette about her true self.

But even if she couldn’t solve her own problem, she was sure she could help her High Priestess. “Let me try,” said Alya as she cupped Juleka’s soul in her hands. “I think I can calm your soul enough that you can at least ask Rose without panicking halfway through.”

“Thanks,” said Juleka with gratitude in her voice. Alya could tell that she’d been worried about losing her nerve at the worst moment.

Alya focused on Juleka’s soul, reaching out with her demonic senses until she could feel Juleka’s love-fueled agitation. Then she began to exert her will on it. “Yield to me,” she chanted in quiet Latin. “You who have entrusted me with your soul, yield and let me calm you…”

After a few minutes, the colors in Juleka’s soul slowed down a little, and Juleka took a breath. “I feel better,” she said as a smile crept across her face. “Seriously. Thanks.”

“No problem,” said Alya as she continued to focus on Juleka’s soul to make sure no traces of agitation could remain and screw things up for her later.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Juleka said. “You told me that demons usually use their soul-influencing powers to torment the people whose souls they take, as part of their torture. You know, like making them fanatically loyal and ready to sacrifice everything else for their demon, or driving them into fits of rage, or things like that. But you use your powers to make me and the other people in your cult feel better and be more functional. Do you have different powers than other demons? Could other demons act like you if they wanted?”

“They could; my powers aren’t unique to me,” said Alya as she inspected Juleka’s soul again and noted that it was now in perfect order. “After all, any of the things I’ve done for you guys could be used to hurt someone. Take right now: I just calmed you down, and that’s good, but another demon could calm the soul of a soldier to mellow him out so much he couldn’t be roused to defend his position, resulting in the bad guys overrunning it. Or look at yesterday. Aurore was still feeling a grudge against Mireille for beating her to get that TV job, and she asked me to help her get over it so she didn’t get angry whenever Mireille was on TV. I was able to use my influence over her to make her more forgiving and remove that blemish in her soul, and everything was fine. But another demon could do the same thing on a judge so that judge decided to ‘forgive’ criminals and release them, even knowing they were going to commit more crimes.”

Juleka inclined her head. “I see. But I guess most demons stick to the more obvious types of harmful influence? Making people angry, or greedy, or things like that?”

“Yeah,” said Alya. “The seven deadlies are classics for a reason. They usually work for tempting and damning people, and they don’t require a lot of knowledge—make a human really angry and he’ll usually commit a sin. So they’re useful for demons who aren’t interested in humans, the ones who just want to bag their quota of souls and go back to Hell.” She grimaced. “But those demons are idiots. And the idea of squishing all humans down to being a bunch of angry, greedy jerks is just… it’s ridiculous.” She shook her head. “I mean, I was taught otherwise and I even believed that at first when I showed up here, but that crumbled as soon as I met actual people.”

“Specifically, Marinette,” Juleka noted.

Alya blushed a little, but said, “Not just her. So many of the humans I’ve met are amazing, and I’d rather help you be the best humans you can be than turn you all into a bunch of psycho cultists. Yes, there’s humans who are already awful, and I’ve got no problem yanking their souls and doing all the traditional devil stuff to them. You guys heard what I did to that exorcist who tried to banish me, I’m sure. But corrupting someone like you, or Mylene, or Alix… taking away what makes you girls unique so you can become yet another generically-terrible person… that would just be wrong, no matter what my bosses say.” She paused. “If you girls are in my cult, if I’ve got your souls, I want to use that to help you. Not torment you.”

“Well, you’re a pretty amazing demon yourself,” Juleka said. “And we appreciate that.”

Alya beamed at that. “I do try,” she said in a faux-haughty voice. “And as long as my high priestess continues to supply me with regular deliveries of Dupain-Cheng pastries and anime to watch, I’m sure I shall continue.”

Juleka laughed, then stilled herself while Alya picked up her soul and gently pressed it against her chest. After a moment the soul slid in through Juleka’s shirt and body, and Juleka gasped slightly at the now-recognizable (but, somehow, never totally familiar) feeling of suddenly being more ‘herself.’ Once her soul was back inside her, she let out a happy breath and said, “I really do feel calmer now. Thank you so much, Alya. I think I can ask Rose out without panicking.”

“Well, if you need any help, you know who to call.” Alya hopped off the bed and stretched, her wings flaring out and her tail flicking backwards to poke Juleka’s nose. Juleka giggled and playfully flicked at it, and it recoiled for a moment only to dart in and begin tickling her under her chin. Juleka quickly dissolved into helpless laughter.

Alya glanced back and smirked for a moment before laughing herself, and it took a moment before either of the two girls could stop. Then Juleka managed to get up, a silly grin still on her face. “I’ll look over the souls,” she said as she motioned to the large shelf where Alya kept the now-considerable number of souls from her ‘cult.’ “See if anyone has any new blemishes or spots.”

“Just don’t mix them up,” Alya said. “I remember the last time my little sisters got in here and put them all out of order, and then when Mylene needed her soul back for the day so she could go to church, she accidentally got Chloe’s soul and spent the whole service calling the priest ‘ridiculous’ because he kept asking for donations to buy fancy artwork for the church but wouldn’t commit to using any of the funds for actual charitable causes.”

“I won’t,” said Juleka. She went over to the shelf and began looking at the souls. First was Chloe’s, which was yellow and orange and vaguely spiky (though the spikes were gradually shrinking as Alya and the others worked to bring the prickly girl out of her shell). Then came Alix’s, which was pink and almost vibrating with energy, to the point where it actually bounced if dropped or tossed against a wall. (Alya knew this because Alix had idly tried to dribble her soul one day, and it had bounced around the room until it bonked Alya in the head, at which point Alya had instituted a no-dribbling-souls policy). Next was Nino’s, a gentle blue ball in a comfy little doll bed and had tiny headphones playing Nino’s favorite music. And so on, down the line.

While Juleka looked over the souls, Alya gathered up a few dishes and went to put them in the kitchen. Technically, it was the job of her cult to do any chores that she needed done — and it was Juleka’s job to manage the cult and make sure that happened — but Alya didn’t feel comfortable making them do that. Besides, Marlena would get mad, and—demon powers or not—Alya knew better than to disobey her.

Alya entered the kitchen as she idly whistled a tune she’d heard on the radio. Her little sisters were over at Nino’s house, which meant that there should have been nobody in the house who didn’t know that she was a demon, which meant she didn’t need to bother with her veil. As such, she was in her full demonic appearance, with red skin, horns, wings, cloven feet, and a flickering tail as she rinsed off the dishes.

And then, when she turned around, she saw Ladybug staring at her.

For a few moments Alya didn’t believe it. Then her mind almost crashed as she realized what was going on — that one of the superheroes, someone who wielded the power of the kwami and was more than capable of banishing her to Hell for half an eternity, knew her true nature — and scrambled to find a way out of it. But none came to mind. Ladybug was staring at her, Alya Cesaire, in her demonic form.

A half dozen potential options for escape flitted through Alya’s mind, but none survived a second of scrutiny. Ladybug was fast, strong, fiendishly clever, and she could summon magic objects which always somehow managed to be whatever she needed to catch her quarry. Then Alya thought if there were any possible ways to fight Ladybug and win — if she could throw Hellfire, or Whisper distractions, or draw on her cult — only to dismiss those ideas too. This was Ladybug. She couldn’t win a fight against her. And besides, even if she somehow did, that would leave Paris defenseless against Hawkmoth. It would leave her cult—her friends—without protection from that lunatic.

And so Alya didn’t run or fight. She just lowered her head and whispered, “Please don’t banish me…”

“I wasn’t going to banish you,” said Ladybug.

Alya blinked. “You weren’t?”

Ladybug shook her head. “If I was, I wouldn’t have waited for you to notice me,” she pointed out. “I’d have zapped you from a neighboring rooftop.” A slight smile appeared on her face. “You’ve fought alongside me for how long, Alya, and you think I’d give someone a free shot?”

Despite everything, Alya couldn’t help giggling. “No, you don’t usually subscribe to the ‘that akuma needs to have a fair chance of killing me or else it’s not honorable’ school of thought. You’re more about wanting to win.”

“Damn right,” said Ladybug, which made Alya smile a little more. Ladybug returned a smile of her own, though it quickly faded. “So no, I’m not here to banish you. But I do want to talk to you. I need to know what you’re doing in Paris. And if you’ve…” She took a breath. “If you’ve done anything that, as a hero, I would need to correct.”

Alya nodded, but then something occurred to her. “You don’t seem surprised that I’m, uh, who I am,” she said. “How long have you known?”

“About two weeks,” Ladybug said. “Do you remember how Mayor Bourgeois signed that law to bulldoze that forest preserve and put up a shopping mall?”

“Yeah,” Alya said.

“I knew that a local girl named Mylene cared a lot about saving the park, and I was worried that she might get akumatized once Bourgeois crushed her hopes,” said Ladybug. “I went to her and found her just in time to see one of Hawkmoth’s butterflies touch that pin in her hair. Before she actually got akumatized, though, I could see her trying to fight it off. And I could… sense, I guess… something helping her. Something was trying to keep her calm and urge her to fight off Hawkmoth’s promises.

“Whatever was helping her, it was able to keep her from giving in for long enough that I was able to get to her, smash the pin, and purify the akuma.” Ladybug shrugged. “She thanked me and said she felt better, but I could tell she was still a little tense, and that whatever was helping her was still influencing her. So I tried to follow that magic, and it led me to your apartment, where I looked in through the window to see… well, to see you, looking like that, holding a lilttle rainbow-colored ball and chanting something at it.”

Alya frowned as she thought back. “Wait a minute,” she said after a moment. “Two weeks ago, right? I remember. I was home when I saw her soul begin flashing red and vibrating, like something was attacking it. So I tried to calm it down.” Then, despite everything, a tiny smile spread across her face. “You’re saying I stopped her from being akumatized?” she said. “I didn’t even realize that was happening, but… I’m glad I was able to help.”

Ladybug nodded. “You did. But Alya, I need to know why. I talked to my kwami afterwards and she said this isn’t normal for demons; they don’t usually stop destruction in the human world unless there’s some ulterior motive. But you did stop her. So: why?”

Alya hesitated. “I mean, Mylene’s one of mine, you know? She’s in my cult and she’s my friend. I have to look out for her. I don’t usually like messing with my cult’s souls without their permission, but if one of them’s about to self-destruct, I can’t just sit back and let that happen.”

“Why not?” pressed Ladybug. “Isn’t that why demons come to Earth? To lead humans astray, get them to sin, and ultimately take their souls to Hell?”

Alya’s mouth opened but no sound came out.

“Alya,” Ladybug repeated. “This is important. If there’s some weird demonic plot going on, then as the protector of Paris, I need to be aware of it so I can derail it.”

“I know, but… I don’t want you to think less of me,” said Alya softly. “You’re an amazing hero and a good friend.”

Ladybug smiled a little at that, then went to Alya’s side. “I don’t want to think less of you either,” she said. “And I promise you, whatever I think, it’s not going to be influenced by your species. So just be honest with me, Alya. Tell me everything.”

Alya paused, again torn. But she finally said, “Okay. I will.”

The two girls sat at the kitchen table and then Alya said, “When I first came to Earth, it was exactly like you said. My job was to collect souls and that’s all I cared about. I figured I’d just find people, tempt them, grab their souls, and move on. That’s what most demons do.”

“So what changed?” Ladybug asked.

Alya blushed a little. “You might think this is stupid, but I met someone. This girl in my class. Her name’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Ladybug froze, though Alya didn’t understand why. She was pretty sure Ladybug knew Marinette; after all, Marinette had used the Mouse Miraculous once, which presumably meant Ladybug had given it to her. Then Ladybug shook her head. “What about Marinette?” she asked.

“She was so kind to me,” Alya said. “I was new to the human world, I didn’t have any friends or connections, but as soon as I got to school—that was my cover, I was a local student—she befriended me and helped me fit in. And… look, I know humans are nice to each other a lot, but in Hell, that never happens. Everyone’s always out for themselves. The only reason someone down there would help me is so I would owe them a debt or a favor. But Marinette was just so compassionate, so kind, and she genuinely didn’t care about being paid back.” Alya smiled a little dreamily. “She was amazing. And she made me want to… to be different.”

“Different how?” Ladybug asked, still seeming slightly stunned.

Alya shrugged. “She’s the kind of person who can… inspire people to live up to her example, I guess. At least, she inspired me that way. I loved her kindness, the way she so obviously cared for me and for others without worrying about herself, and I found that I wanted to be like that too. I wanted to keep feeling the way I felt when Marinette was kind to me, or when I was kind to her. And also, the idea of doing the standard demon thing, of using twisted magic to warp some innocent person into committing a heinous sin so I could seize their soul… it didn’t feel right anymore. It felt awful. Cruel. I couldn’t bear to be like that, not after having experienced real human kindness.”

“So m—Marinette’s kindness helped convince a demon to stop tempting people?” Ladybug asked.

“Yeah,” said Alya with a little chuckle. “Seriously, if you haven’t met her, you should. I think you two would be amazing friends.” Then Alya paused. “But, um, it wasn’t just Marinette. I don’t want to sound like a stalker or something. I made other human friends too and they also helped me be better.”

Ladybug seemed to shake herself, as if breaking out of a stupor. “So you don’t take souls for your bosses?” she asked.

“I do,” Alya admitted. “But only people who have already committed serious sins. Criminals and the like, especially the ones the police haven’t caught yet. I get their souls so I can fulfill my quota and stay up here on Earth, and I don’t mess with them too much. Mostly I just influence them so they won’t work with Hawkmoth by making them too despondent to respond to his summons, or too paranoid to trust his promises, or other things like that.”

Ladybug blinked. “Wait, that’s you?” she asked. “So that’s why Hawkmoth never worked with felons and why he’s just picking random people who happen to get mad one day! I would have figured they’d be the most likely to join him! That makes a lot more sense than my prior theory.”

“What was your prior theory?” Alya asked.

“That Hawkmoth is an idiot,” Ladybug said.

Alya couldn’t help giggling at that. “Well, he did summon Mr. Pigeon dozens of times, so that wasn’t a bad theory,” she joked. “The man is not as smart as he thinks.”

“Nope,” Ladybug agreed. “Seriously, I mean, the guy has total control over the powers he gives people, and yet half of them are useless. What was Reflektra even supposed to do? Make us look ridiculous while we kicked his butt? How does that help him?”

Both girls laughed before Ladybug brought the conversation back around. “If you’re really just targeting people who have already committed serious crimes—and making sure they don’t commit more—then that’s one thing,” she said. “But I do know you’re collecting the souls of others as well, like Mylene. Why is that?”

“To make sure other demons don’t get them,” Alya said. “I’m not the only one here. And I can’t tell you who the other demons are—literally, I’m under a demonic geas that will set me on fire if I say their names to someone who doesn't already know them—but I can tell you they’re a lot worse than me. The other demons have no problem at all with warping innocent people into Hellbound monsters. But if I get the souls of my friends first, the other demons can’t lay their claws on them.”

“Hmm.” Ladybug gave Alya a long look. “I imagine you had to trick these friends into losing their souls at first.”

“Yes,” Alya admitted. “Some made deals—Mylene wanted me to resurrect her pet ferret, for instance--but others, like Alix, lost bets or fell into a minor temptation I set up. I didn’t love doing that, but if I hadn’t, they’d be in the clutches of a far worse demon.” She shuddered at the thought of what Lila would have done.

“Now that they know the truth,” Ladybug went on, “If these friends wanted their souls back so they could leave your cult, would you let them?”

Alya hesitated. “It hasn’t come up,” she admitted. “They aren’t hurt by losing their souls, except that they can’t go into churches or do a couple other ‘holy’ things. And I don’t use my power over their souls to make them worse. I try to help them when they ask for help, instead.”

“Even so,” Ladybug went on. “If Mylene went to you tomorrow and said she wants out, what would you do?”

Alya was tempted to just lie and say that of course she’d return Mylene’s soul, but she had a feeling Ladybug would be able to sense that. So instead she tried to give the question as much thought as she could to come up with her honest response. “I’d be worried about her, and I’d try to convince her otherwise,” she said. “But if Mylene was adamant, I’d give her soul back. Some demons treat their cults like slaves or prisoners, but I can’t do that.”

“Because Marinette would disapprove?” Ladybug asked.

“Not just that,” Alya said. “Maybe for the first few days after I met her, but I’ve moved past that. My ‘cult’ are my friends and I wouldn’t keep them against their will.” She let out a breath. “But again, it hasn’t come up. Honestly, I think they like knowing that if something goes really wrong and they become upset or angry, there’s someone looking out for them who can calm or polish their souls. Especially Chloe. Her mother is… not great, and Chloe has panic attacks when she’s around. She was really happy when I said I could monitor her soul and try to soothe it when her mother came to visit.”

Ladybug carefully considered that. “You wouldn’t mind if I didn’t just take your word for it, right?” she asked.

“I can give you a list of the people in the cult,” Alya said. “You can ask them for yourself. Plus my high priestess Juleka; I don’t keep her soul on my shelf, since she’s got both warlock and paladin powers to defend it with—long story—but she'd be happy to talk to you about what I'm like.”

“Thanks,” Ladybug said.

The two were silent for a moment, and then Alya asked, “So… what now?”

“Well, now I need to talk to your cultists,” Ladybug said. “But assuming they verify what you said… I don’t see anything here that I’d need to banish you for. As far as I can tell, you really are trying to be a good a friend, and you’re doing a good job of it too. As long as you don’t take any innocent souls, and you don’t do anything abusive to your friends in your 'cult,' I don’t need to get involved.”

Alya felt a wave of relief rush through her. “Thank the Devil,” she breathed. “I’m glad.”

Ladybug smiled. “Out of curiosity, is being banished that bad?” she asked. “My kwami said it’s not permanent and you could come back once the spell wore off.”

“That could take centuries,” Alya said. “All the humans I knew would be dead by then. I couldn’t bear to lose them, especially Marinette.”

“Maybe you could see her after she dies,” Ladybug noted. “Her soul has to go somewhere, right?”

“It won’t go to where I’m from,” said Alya at once. “Seriously, I peaked at her soul once when I was sleeping over at her house and…” She smiled wistfully. “It was so incredibly pure… the purest I’d seen. No, she’s Heaven-bound for sure, and I won’t be able to see her once she dies because I’m not allowed up there. So I just… I want to make as much of my time on Earth with her, and all my other friends, as I can.”

Once again, Ladybug didn’t seem to know how to respond for some reason. Alya, though, thought of something else she really needed to say. “Speaking of Marinette,” she said. “I… look, I loved having the chance to help you fight Hawkmoth as Rena Rouge. I’d give anything to be able to do that again. But if you can’t trust me because of… of this…” She gestured at her horns and tail. “If you need a replacement, I’d suggest you look at her. The girl’s heart is so pure I can’t imagine Hawkmoth ever corrupting her, and not only is she strong, but she’s incredibly clever. Trust me, she’d be a great hero.”

Ladybug’s cheeks colored slightly. “Thank—I mean, I’m sure she’d thank you if she’d heard that,” she said. “But like I said, unless I learn that something you told me wasn’t true, I don’t see any reason to take your powers away from you. I’m happy to have your help in the battle against Hawkmoth. In more ways than one, apparently.” She smiled. “In fact, once you give me the list of the people whose souls you have, if I learn that one of them is getting upset or is likely to get mad about something, I hope it’s okay if I text you and ask you to check on their souls.”

“Of course,” said Alya at once. “Anytime you need.”

Ladybug nodded. “You’re a good friend, Alya,” she said. Then she turned on her heel before pausing. “Ah, one more question. You said you took your friend’s souls to protect them. Why not Marinette’s? You don’t have her soul, right?”

“No, I don’t,” said Alya. “I thought about it, because I know there’s other demons who would love nothing more than to corrupt someone as pure as her. But I…” She hesitated. “If I took her soul, she’d know what I really am. And I can’t bear the thought of her rejecting my friendship over that. She’s… she means a lot to me.”

“I see,” said Ladybug. “Well, I won’t spill your secret, but I’d encourage you to tell her. I know her pretty well, and trust me: she might surprise you.”

Alya smiled, though inwardly she wasn’t sure if even Marinette could be that tolerant. Still, though, Ladybug’s word had a lot of weight. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said at last. “And I’ll also keep a close eye on Marinette. I might not have her soul, but if I see demons moving to attack her I’ll do everything I can to hold them off. And I’ve got my paladin/warlock high priestess to help, plus this angel I know. We should be able to keep her safe.”

“An angel?” Ladybug repeated.

Alya grinned. “Yeah. I know demons and angels aren’t supposed to get along, but this one’s cool.”

“I don’t suppose Marinette influenced her too?” Ladybug said in a teasing voice.

“Marinette seems to influence everyone for the better,” Alya said. “Marinette will never know it, but yes, I think the angel is happy to know her too.”

“Why won’t Marinette know it?” Ladybug asked. “Are angels not allowed to reveal themselves?”

“It’s more that they only do so if they’re smiting an evildoer, or if they need to save a human from temptation,” Alya said. But Marinette’s so pure that she’s not really in any danger of that, so I don’t think she’ll be getting any angelic intervention unless she spontaneously gets tempted to rob a bank or something.” She giggled. “Which really isn’t like her.”

Ladybug laughed too, though she seemed slightly disappointed for some reason. “I need to get going,” she said. “I’ll see you later, Alya. Thanks again for all that you do.”

Alya waved as Ladybug launched herself back out the window. Then, feeling a bit overwhelmed, she went back to her room to tell Juleka everything.

——

The next day, Alya found herself invited to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. “Hey, girl!” said Alya as she walked inside. “What’s up?”

“Alya!” Marinette said. She ran over and exchanged hugs with her best friend. “I just came up with some new pastries and I wanted you to be the first to try them!”

“Anytime!” said Alya. “What’cha got?”

Marinette took a few pastries off the shelf. “This one here is a Mexican chocolate cake,” she said. “I remember you saying you liked the spicier pastries, so I made it with a little cayenne pepper. Please, try it!”

Alya bit into the cake and grinned as the fiery sweet flavor danced over her tongue. “This is really good,” she said. “Seriously. And—“

“Oh, there’s also this other one,” said Marinette suddenly. She took down a donut. “I wanted to get back to my roots a little,” she said. “But I also wanted to make something you’d like. So this is a cinnamon donut with green and red chilis, the sort you find in Hunan cuisine.” She handed it over. “What do you think?”

Alya tried the donut and gasped, because it was possibly the best thing she’d ever tasted. The sweetness matched the peppers perfectly. “This is amazing,” she said. “Damn, girl, you know how to bake. Although, I thought you said you guys weren’t working too hard on developing spicy pastries because your parents didn’t think they’d sell well?”

“I’m going to prove Maman wrong about that,” said Marinette firmly. “Because people who enjoy spicier deserts should be able to get treats they love, just like anyone else. I’ll make spicy treats that are so good they sell just as well as everything else we’ve got.”

Alya blushed. Marinette really was one of the kindest people around, she thought.

“Besides,” Marinette went on, “even if these didn’t sell, it’d still be worth making some for you. After all, you’re my best friend.” She moved closer to Alya. “You’re an amazing person and a wonderful friend,” she went on. “I don’t think anything could drive us apart.” She gave Alya a quick hug. “Maybe I don’t tell you that enough, but it’s true.”

“Um.” Alya wondered if Ladybug had maybe hinted to Marinette about some of the conversation they had. “Right back at’cha,” she said. “I think you’re a great friend too.”

Marinette smiled.

Alya hesitated, on the verge of asking Marinette to go somewhere private so she could remove her demon veil… but she still didn’t feel quite confident enough. Someday, she thought. But not just then. “If I”m so great,” she said, “maybe you could let me have a few more of these?”

“Have the whole tray!” Marinette chirped. “But one thing in response: the concentration of chilis is slightly different in each one, so I need you to rank them. That way I know which one is the best one!”

“You’ve got it!” Alya grinned and reached for another donut. She was truly blessed, she thought, to have a friend like Marinette.

——

Later that evening, Marinette was in her room with Tikki, trying to relax after a long day of helping her parents in the bakery.

“I’m just saying, Tikki,” Marinette said quietly, though her voice was light and she was clearly joking. Well, mostly joking. “It would just be one bank. I might get to see an angel, and then I could give the money right back!!”

“No, Marinette,” said Tikki in a stern voice.

“It could be a bank owned by bad people!” Marinette went on. “It—“

“No, Marinette,” Tikki repeated.

Marinette smiled softly. “I guess you’re right. But I hope I get to meet that angel anyways.” She blushed. “I can’t believe that I convinced a demon to be good.”

“You’re a very special person, Marinette,” said Tikki.

Marinette grinned before settling back on her bed. The idea of having helped to make Alya the amazing, compassionate warrior for good that she was… well, it was stunning. It made her feel really good.

Of course, as Alya had explained, there might be such a thing as being too good. “What if it wasn’t a bank, but it was just some jerk like XY?” Marinette asked.

“Marinette!” Tikki complained before tossing a pillow at her. “No sinning just to meet an angel!”

Marinette giggled. “I know,” she said. “Still, it’s fun to dream.”

Across the neighborhood, Alya was also dreaming. “Someday,” she promised herself as she thought of telling Marinette the truth. “I promise.”

“Hey, Alya,” called Juleka from across the room. “We’re about to start the show. You want in?”

“Sure!” Alya said. She scurried to the couch and slid down between Juleka and Mylene. And then she settled back to watch the show with some of her best friends in the world.

-------

AW THAT WAS WONDERFUL

I loved that thank you!

Just imagining this is how the akuma charms are made, via Alya being a smart cookie and smart soul user. That was just so delightful

#submission #demon alya au

34 notes · View notes

magnesiaandlemonjuice · 4 years

Text

Monday 18 December 1826

6 35/60

11 1/2

In my room at 7 35/60 - at my desk at 7 40/60 - read over what I wrote to IN [Isabella Norcliffe] Friday and Saturday and was just beginning to write when the washerwoman came - settling with her and 1 thing or other took me till after 9 - unaccurately paid her 0/50 too much - some alteration made in George’s bill, so took the people’s adding up which on examination I found was 6 sols too much, and hastily seeing that I had charged (and the charge was not altered) only 12 sols instead of 16 in my bill for 4 chemises gave the woman 4 sols in addition and thus paid her 10 sols too much - I have seldom paid the washing right of late - ‘tis odd enough - I will try to manage better in future - At first on coming here, I could seldom make out my money right to a few sols - I have now got the better of this, and perhaps I shall pay the washerwoman right by and by - From 9 1/4 to 10 1/4 wrote the latter 3rd part of page 3 of my letter to IN [Isabella Norcliffe] very small and close - then read for 1/4 hour the supplement that came yesterday to Galignani of Saturday - breakfast at 10 1/2 - read the French news and advertisements of this morning - concluded what I wrote to IN [Isabella Norcliffe] on Saturday - with

‘the inconvenience occasioned me by our carriage was serious on the journey; but we have got the bushes of the wheels repaired, and shall be thoroughly prepared before we start again - we are effective for a drive to the Bois de Boulogne, and want no more at present - Monday morning 18 December what will become of us by and by, is not quite certain - I do not think Travelling suits my aunt, - I mean agrees with her complaints, tho’ she likes it, and would evidently like the thought of our going somewhere else - I shall see how she is in the spring - At this moment I know not what to say of her - If she is not better than now, I must give up dwelling up the hope of seeing you - Her nerves are too weak - she could not bear us in the room; nor could she bear the very little additional to do in the apartment that we must make - we often talk of you - she bids me give her kindest love, and say, she hopes to be better, and then she shall be delighted to see you - yet she sometimes speaks of never seeing my father and Marian, or Shibden again, and says, she will be buried here - She always much admired Père Lachaise, adding ‘How little I used to think I should come to be buried here!’ Perfect quiet seems to agree with her best - my entering at all into society, is perfectly out of the question - I have refused even one evening to Mademoiselle de Sans that was, and only see her, and Mrs Barlow, and the de Noés very occasionally in a morning - some time ago, I fancied I might manage having a little society - I now see it does not [?], and I have entirely abandoned all hope or thought of it - I never in my life associated so little - Doctor Thackeray told me, my aunt had probably a great deal to suffer - I often think of this - She cannot move herself in bed - her nerves are very weak - yet, withal, she has been a little better lately (we have had such mild beautiful weather - not a single flake of snow has fallen), and talked yesterday of going to Shibden for a summer 2 or 3 years hence! Of course, I say nothing against all this, knowing that she is too nervous to bear the despair of those around her - But her bowels have been better of late; and this is a great thing - we shall certainly change our apartment as soon as we can after the expiration of our term here (on the 7th of March) - the kitchen being 2 stories above us, and the servants unable to hear the bell, we find insufferable - Not having brought plates with us, we are supplied by the porter - Our quota of tablespoons was six, all which were stolen on Thursday morning’ -

At about 11 at my desk again wrote the last 25 lines in 1/2 hour - then sat down to finish my letter - MacDonald soon afterwards came in and wanted brown sugar - asked her to get the scales and weigh it - saw her put weight after weight into the scale - found she held the balance in such sort that it could not play - thought she did not seem to quite know what she was about - Told her she always she appeared in such a hurry and so confused it was impossible to depend upon her for doing a thing - she said she had by mistake sent all her mistress’s things to the wash she meant to have washed at home - it was very unlucky - and she looked as if not hers - on this I told her she ought not to call it unlucky - it was not bad luck but bad management. She has no good method and for want of this committed all her blunders - repeated several times I was not angry, not scolding her - not did I blame but pity her for what I supposed she could not help - it was absolutely calamitous that she was so little able to take care of things - I could not wonder at Miss Reed’s letter saying she had found things so out of order MacDonald said the castle was very damp - she had left all well done - could not tell what Miss Reed meant - it must be that the linen was not well aired - she had spoken to Miss Reed’s father - was desired to give the linen to a head man of some sort in the service and he was the worst that could be - I then mentioned the petticoat the other that she declared was not among my aunt’s things and it was found there - no! it was found among her own things and she never thought of looking there - I then to instance the foolish things she sometimes did, mentioned the rice pudding of Saturday that she told my aunt she had spoilt by fearing it would not turn out and so, after creaming the rice, she had dried it again - she wondered how her mistress could say this - it was not so - it was …. I said I cared not about the puddings - had no time to listen about them - her mistress might be mistaken, but that I told MacDonald all this for her good who always seemed to me to have no presence of mind - to be as if she knew not what she was about - at Shibden when she took a pint of our strong beer every day between dinner and tea (about 5 p.m.) it might have been better accounted for; so much would have put me under the table - she declared she did not - I said I had met Mrs Cordingley one afternoon with the mug, and inquired, and she told me she MacDonald had had it full every afternoon since she (MacDonald came that Cordingley had told her such was against the rules of the house - such a thing never done before - MacDonald declared she could never do such a thing - then said she had not had it every day after prevaricating some time upon whether the vessel was a mug or a glass or how large or how small I said long as I had known Mrs Cordingley I had never known her guilty of falsehood and I should certainly believe what she said - MacDonald declared she had never asked for beer, but Mrs Cordingley had given it her, and she thought it was very odd and very foolish in her to do so - and pray said I were you not foolish then to take it? she thought it was very odd that Mrs Cordingley should make mischief - had thought it very odd that so respectable a person as Mrs Cordingley should one day when she asked her how I liked to have my things packed - very odd that she should (I wondered in myself what was coming) say…. I liked them folded tight! why should I, and so I do - Mrs Cordingley was right - MacDonald had intended to prove that Cordingley told a falsity in making me understand that Cordingley had said I liked things bundled up as MacDonald had bundled up hers - In fact, the woman was at a loss for some accusation against Cordingley. I told her it was in vain to accuse Cordingley of falsehood or anything else and I should not forget all this. Cordingley had no interest in saying she, MacDonald, had had the beer every day if it was not so - yet what MacDonald said of it herself only made a bad worse, and the less she said the better and I bade her leave the room - I am now persuaded MacDonald does not stick to truth and I really begin to suspect she will drink too when she can - I never liked her - now I have no confidence in her - the taking the ale staggered me at first, now what she said of it staggers me still more - Told her I had not mentioned either this or Miss Reed’s letter to my aunt - Did my aunt know of these 2 things I believe she could not endure the woman, for she too, has never liked her - having written one end to IN [Isabella Norcliffe] - hastily concluded on the other and sent of my letter to the [?] post at 12 1/2 to ‘Miss Norcliffe, to the care of Mr Fisher, Petergate, York, Angleterre’ - and then went to bed room (expecting Madame Galvani every minute) to finish dressing - I have been thus particular about MacDonald that when this subject comes on the tapis again (for it will one of these days before we get rid of her) I have this journal to refer to -

for the same reason I have copied all I wrote to tib about her not coming to see us here -

Madame Galvani came at 12 3/4 just as I had done my hair - left her till I had finished dressing - she stayed till 2 3/4 - conversation as usual - Told her I was so much occupied I would rather she only came once a week till I had more leisure - after Madame Galvani went came to speak to my aunt about something - mentioned having had a long conversation about MacDonald’s carelessness (but neither named Miss Reed’s letter nor the beer - went out at 3 35/60 - to Michel’s - ate a mince-pie by way of tasting what sort of things they were (very good) ordered 4 for Xmas Day, 2 three lb. very rich plum cakes meaning to send one of them to Madame Galvani it dampened a little - returned home for my umbrella - then took 2 turns quick round the gardens in 3/4 hour and came in at 4 3/4 - settled my accounts - George brought in the beef he bought this morning to weigh it - to my surprise instead of 7 3/4 lbs it was 2 oz. less than this - I will have every thing I buy weighed - Dinner at 6 5/60 - Left the dining room at 7 50/60 just before dinner wrote from line 12 to 33 of the last page, and just after wrote from line 33 to here -

in speaking to my aunt before going out mentioned getting rid of mcd [MacDonald] and taking Mrs Potter who is going to leave Mrs Barlow on trial -

the mince pie very heavy on my stomach just before dinner - at dinner took a little pepper - perhaps the weight of a grain or 2 which I think did me good - writing to here, and the rough draft of the index took me till 9 1/4 - from then for 1/2 hour sat talking to my aunt - then till 10 1/4 finished reading the whole of the yesterday’s supplement to Saturday’s paper - Mr Brougham’s speech in support of ministers sending troops to Portugal very good - very fine frosty morning and fine till after Madame Galvani went at 2 3/4 - about 3 came in rather hazy and at 3 35/60 when I went out was just began to damp or small rain a little which continued all the time I was out tho’ not enough to wet my umbrella - came to my room at 10 1/4. O [two dots, marking discharge] - wrote the last 4 lines -

[Margin] very fine frosty morning the street dry F371/2 at 1 40/60 a.m. 36 - 4p.m. 35 - 10 1/4 -

SH:7/ML/E/10/0031 & SH:7/ML/E/10/0032

#December1826 #AnneLister #GentlemanJack #AnneListerCodeBreaker

3 notes · View notes

theaveragetinker · 3 years

Text

What Is Equality? Should We Be Pursuing Fairness Instead?

- Equality is treating people the same, irrespective of circumstances -

I started this conversation by texting 4 friends, all with the question “What is Equality?”.

Here is how they went. Friend 1 said “Being equal.”

“Ok, well then what is equal? Is equal the same as equality?”

“Ya. Equal regardless of circumstance.”

“But surely if you’re a murderer you wouldn’t be equal (being the same) to everyone else, you’d have certain restrictions in place, like your employer would know that you’ve murdered and you’d be judged and therefore you wouldn’t be equal? Or does circumstance mean to you inherent unchangeable characteristics? Like me being straight and you being gay?”

“Yeah, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion etc.”

“So people shouldn’t receive prejudice based on these inherent unchangeable characteristics. We’ll just say for ease that those four you named are all the inherent ones and people aren’t prejudice towards them, does that mean that’s equality?”

“But if someone feels they are being prejudice towards someone for whatever reason that’s creating inequality.”

Friend 2 said “Equality to me means equal opportunities for all.”

“Could you have equality of opportunity and there still not be equality?”

Two things came up for me, the definition of equality is not equal opportunity because two people can have the same opportunities in life and both commit the same crime but one gets more jail time than the other, therefore you can have equal opportunity and there still wouldn’t be equality in the world. I also felt they were both talking about a sense of “Fairness”. I was getting closer. Equal is something being the same as something else but what is Equality?

Friend 3 said “To present a blank canvas and allow all individuals to leave their mark. After which one can form an opinion based on the desired relationship and information attained. To get pay based on the role and skill, not gender, race or preference. A fair unbiased opinion (although we are never unbiased) when the same opportunity is presented to another individual. I’ll tell you what comes to mind Gender - Women vs Men, Race - All others vs White, Pay - Race & Women vs Men. Well in brief it’s to be fair to all. But if you really think about it (which I’m sure you have), it’s more complicated than that.”

“I’ve just discovered from talking to others that I’m getting a sense of “FAIRNESS” from everyone.

“Of course.”

“Rather than it being about a fair discussion and a sorting out in fairness, it’s become attacks from one side to another and that causes division.”

“Agreed.”

Well that one went deep, everyone I’ve talked to has very strong feelings about these topics but I have to be rational when answering these definitions. Well, what is Equality not? Being unfair. So equality is being fair? Well yes but is that all, does that cover everything, all the meaning? Something doesn’t feel right about that.

What about advantage and what about circumstances? They exist in life, advantage is having more than in something, for example people who are stronger have more than other people who aren’t as a strong, that’s an advantage. Circumstances are contributing factors in events. If two people commit the same crime but one has a mental disability that in some way contributed to their crime, would it be equality to sentence both equally? Yes it would. BINGO!

Equality is treating people the same irrespective of circumstances. Fairness is treating people with respect to circumstances. There’s a difference, there’s nuance between the two.

If two people attack someone, equality says they both committed the same offence they both get jailed for 2 years, that’s equal. Fairness says one person had the intention to attack someone else, the other person was defending himself against an attacker and as a result he attacked back and hurt the aggressor in self defence. The former gets 2 years, the latter might get no time at all. Fairness is open to multi-variants, Equality is only two things compared to each other.

The final chapter came with Friend 4 the day after, “I was thinking about what you said, that so far what you got from people was that equality was a sense of fairness... but treating two people equally and two people fairly is actually different. If you treat them equally, you treat them exactly the same way, regardless of who they are etc. If you treat them fairly, then maybe you might take into consideration the fact that they might need to be treated differently to be equals. In that case you are not treating them equally but fairly. For instance, when the government put into place quotas to have people of different backgrounds being represented in a work environment... it means when you are hiring you are not treating people equally but treating them on the basis that this is “fair”. So actually I think equality and fairness are very different!”

“I figured that difference out last night and I’m glad you did too. However I argue that for employment, we should hire not based on representation but a system of meritocracy. How competent, how talented someone is at that particular job. Equality says 50% women and 50% men for jobs but fairness asks to take into consideration circumstances and the one I argue is the most important and should take first priority is talent.(Meritocracy is awarding people based on talent.) What if 75% of all the doctors are women and the remaining 15% are men. Equality would say we need to equal the numbers out but fairness (meritocracy) says let the best person for the job get the job. We certainly are biased, that’s why we say we need to get a “feel” for the person being interviewed for the job and the personality of that person is a huge contributing factor to getting employed, it’s the same for friendships, we want to feel like we’re “vibing” with someone, but I argue let’s prioritise meritocracy over representation because in doing so we are hiring people who are the best for the job. That’s a better option because that way we are all getting the best services possible because no one better could have been in those jobs. Equality says equal representation because that’s the same but fairness (meritocracy) says let’s have the most talented get the best positions and if that pushes more towards certain demographics, that’s unfortunate but what we can guarantee is that we’ll have the best services and everyone benefits from the best possible services, the reverse isn’t true and that to me is fair.”

Hope this helps, it sure did for me.

That’s all for now folks,

The Average Tinker

#theaveragetinker #equality #fairness #representation #meritocracy

0 notes

moonprincess92 · 7 years

Text

Continually Unexpected (3/3)

1, 2 Read on AO3

PART 3: End

Kay had been preparing himself for the day honestly ever since they had gotten back together, yet he found that he was still not even remotely ready for it when it came.

He’d put it out of his mind. Seriously, it was more of an abstract concept that had no meaning really, as Cassian and Jyn spent their time being all wrapped up in each other again. Ever since the award ceremony, they were once again joined at the hip! It was just like old times as she dropped by unannounced, continued to eat Kay’s cereal (scrawling ‘thanks! :)’ on the box every time) and once again finding himself investing in a pair of decent headphones to drown out any noises that may emit from Cassian’s bedroom. No, the idea stayed on a backburner, simmering away but never really coming to the front… until the day that Cassian came home from work with his anxiety levels apparently through the roof and an impulsively bought engagement ring in his pocket.

“Kay… I think I did something stupid today,” he said as a greeting.

“Do I have to bury a body?” Kay asked, flatly.

“What? No.”

“Because I think we have a shovel in our storage space downstairs and if we’re going to do it, we had been get onto it before the rain comes–”

“While I appreciate your willingness to cover up a murder for me,” Cassian said, shutting the front door behind him and dropping his bag and coat onto the chair in their hallway. “No crime has been committed, except perhaps that I’m convinced someone has stolen my sanity.”

“I see,” Kay put down his phone. “Right, I’m listening. Explain.”

Cassian nodded, abnormally white-faced as he walked further into the lounge. That was odd. Even stranger still was the way he just blurted out the words without so much as a breath, “So I was just walking to the train station after work, when I noticed this jewellery store still open and I swear I only noticed because there were all these sale signs outside of it. Really, you couldn’t not notice! Anyway, there were these rings in the window and they were at a reasonable price and I didn’t even think about it, I just…”

He suddenly shoved his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the slightly crumpled store gift bag. He reached inside and pulled out the box, which he then handed to Kay. Kay took it with some trepidation, before lifting the lid and seeing the engagement ring that Cassian had chosen.

Blimey.

“That… is one hell of an impulse buy, Cassian.”

“AM I INSANE?”

“Oh, definitely,” Kay said, scrutinising the ring. He didn’t know much about gems and precious stones, but considering that Cassian had said he got it on sale, he’d guess that he’d certainly gotten his money’s worth. “Does Jyn even wear rings?”

“Fuck,” Cassian squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“When are you going to ask her?”

“YOU THINK I HAVE A PLAN?” Cassian said, wildly. “Kay, I bought that on a complete whim! Sure, yes, I would marry Jyn in a heartbeat, but we haven’t talked about it at all yet, I don’t even know if she wants to live with me! I really am fucking crazy.”

“Well, maybe you just… hold onto it, then?” Kay suggested.

“What,” Cassian finally came and sat down, flopping with a defeated whoosh next to Kay on the sofa. “just… hide it and never ask her?”

“Well, not never,” Kay snapped the lid closed, handing the ring back to him. “You said you’d like to marry her someday. Maybe just hold onto it until you’re actually ready to ask?”

“Yes,” Cassian said, with the kind of manic look that one might have if they had impulsively bought an engagement ring for their girlfriend. “Yes, that’s a good plan! But you’ll have to hide it for me.”

“ME?” Kay said, affronted.

“I can’t keep it in my room, she’ll find it!” Cassian said. “I don’t know how, but if anyone could, it’s Jyn. And how often does she ever go into your room?”

Kay unfortunately couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Fine. But know that if someone ever accidentally finds it, I’m calling you out.”

“Fair enough.”

Somehow, Kay had found himself at yet another party. How did this keep happening to him?

At least this time it was Cassian’s birthday, so it was for a reason that Kay somewhat cared about. Their flat was overrun with people, their friends and colleagues laughing and chatting over the top 40 music that was blasting from the stereo. Jyn was naturally binging on Mezcal because this was about Cassian, it was a Mezcal night damn it, and Kay had already been forced to intervene and rescue her from plummeting headfirst into the floor several times.

Kay had already drunk his quota of alcohol for the next 10 years of course, so he was happy to stick to his virgin rum and coke. “You realise tha’s jusss coke, righ’?” Jyn had slurred at him at one point, but he digressed. He was able to experience more or less the same taste of a usual rum and coke, only without the side effects of falling down! It was foolproof. Why didn’t everyone do this?

Cassian thankfully wasn’t quite as shit-faced as Jyn currently was, despite the fact that he was now only 2 years away from 30 and that concept did seem a little daunting, even to Kay. He’d been somewhat on edge ever since the whole ‘Ring Incident’ (Kay technically wasn’t allowed to call it that, but how else was he supposed to refer to it?) only tonight he seemed calm. Happy. He was dancing with Jyn in their lounge, his arms tight around her waist and her hands in his hair. It could barely be called dancing, if truth be told, but they were having fun and that was the main thing.

He watched them from across the lounge, the self-appointed DJ of the evening, since apparently no one else had the ability to choose a song that hadn’t been overplayed on the radio yet. Honestly, Kay didn’t think they’d never been this loose before. Before they’d broken up, when they were first together, there had always been a kind of tension to them and they’d always been happy of course, but they’d never looked quite so… free. Jyn’s head turned with the beat, giving Cassian access to her throat and he spent the next several minutes exploring it with his mouth. She laughed, grinding her hips up into his and it turns out that they must have been walking on eggshells the entire time. He’d never seen them this close before.

Not physically close (he’d unfortunately seen a bit too much of THAT before) but emotionally close. Which wasn’t something he’d ever thought Jyn Erso capable of.

He tore his eyes away from them. There was something there that seemed too intimate to witness… that, and by his usual calculations, this was about when tongues would start to become involved, and he had no intentions of seeing that! Shara was there in front of him now, requesting a certain song and he happily allowed himself to get distracted. He played whatever inane pop songs everyone wanted and quite honestly, Kay was able to forget about Cassian and Jyn entirely… right up until he walked in on them in the hallway.

Naturally.

Still wrapped up in their own world, they thankfully didn’t notice him stumble to a hasty stop. They’d apparently been in the middle of dragging themselves off to Cassian’s room (Kay’s was technically closer, but they would never dare, surely) when they’d apparently gotten side-tracked. He had shoved her up against the wall, Jyn’s legs up around his waist and seemingly permanently attached at the mouth. Kay sighed. Every time!

He was about to do an about face and walk back off again, however, when he heard his name.

“But I need to talk to Kay first–”

Jyn groaned a little, although it could have been more of a pained whimper. “That’s really not a name I want to hear when making out, Cassian.”

“Sorry,” he murmured against her. “just – this affects him too. I can’t just announce ‘oh by the way, Jyn’s moving in with us’ it doesn’t work that way–”

“True,” Jyn hummed. “it would probably send him into shock.”

“Jynnnn.”

“You’re too nice,” she smirked into his lips.

“We’ve been living together for almost 10 years, it would be the end of an era–”

“It was the end of an era when you first met each other,” Kay helpfully pointed out.

The two of them broke apart, yelping slightly. Jyn almost fell as she was hastily dumped back on her feet and Kay stepped forward, unable to help revealing himself. Cassian clutched at his heart a little, the other arm gripping around Jyn’s waist.

“Where’d you come from?” Cassian asked. “Fuck, Kay, I didn’t mean – I’m so sorry–”

“Stop apologising,” Kay waved away at once. “it is clear that at some point during this party you have decided to move in together, but you do not have to worry. I am completely on board.”

Jyn exchanged a disbelieving glance. “But you hate me.”

“You are mistaken. I only hate you every second day.”

She actually let out of a bark of laughter, burying her nose into Cassian’s shirt for a second. “It’s really ok with you?” Cassian asked, tentatively. “We’re not asking you to move out or anything–”

“Oh, I understand,” Kay nodded. “Couples live with flatmates all the time, and a third person would help keep the rent down. Really, there are no downsides to this scenario.”

“I’m scared. Why’s he being so reasonable?” Jyn stage hissed at Cassian.

Honestly. The truth of the matter was that they were probably ready to move in together and if it was going to make them happy, then he was willing to go along with it. Less rent was just a bonus. However, that reasoning was incredibly sentimental which he just knew that Jyn would rip him apart for, so in the end he just settled on saying,

“But if I have to catch you guys making out one more time, I’m going to smash something.”

Cassian threw back his head in laughter, although Jyn was already quickly reaching up for him. “Punch a hole in the wall then,” she grinned, before crushing her lips back to his.

Kay rolled his eyes.

Somehow, there ended up being an evening in which Kay and Jyn actually Hung Out.

It wasn’t exactly by choice. Cassian was busy working a case, and Jyn had been living with them for three weeks now, so an argument over who got to use the T.V. had only eventually been settled when they had decided that watching something together was the only fair solution.

“But just to make it clear,” Kay pointed out from his end of the sofa. “I only agreed to watch something together, I did NOT agree to specifically watch Harry Potter.”

“Do you want to fight me?”

On any other day maybe, but he was tired and his head hurt from dealing with her.

“I don’t understand any of this movie, it makes no sense,” Kay gestured vaguely at the screen, where the children were currently flying around on broomsticks with CGI backgrounds. “They have magic, yet they write with quills? What about electricity? Are you telling me that they live alongside the modern world, yet are less updated than them? What if there was an emergency, an owl isn’t going to deliver something in real time–”

“OH MY GOD, it’s a movie about kid wizards ok?” Jyn burst out. “Don’t overthink it.”

“But. It. Makes. No. Sense.”

“It’s 2017 and you’ve never seen Harry Potter, you don’t get to talk about what makes sense.”

Kay grumbled a little, but otherwise didn’t have an argument for that one. He sat in silence, watching Harry’s broom go haywire. At least the child actors in this movie were decent enough. It was odd that none of this actually felt… well, odd. Despite all of his assurances that he was ok with it, Kay had admittedly kind of dreaded the inevitable move-in day that he’d known was coming. However, in the end Jyn becoming a part of the flat felt… strangely natural. She had been practically living with them anyway so moving in officially really hadn’t made much difference, except that they also got her mail now too and that their rent was of course slightly lower. Sure, there were more frustrating scrambles to get the bathroom first and Jyn always complained that Kay was slowing down the internet with his programming, but at the end of the day, she more or less fit seamlessly into their lives.

(She still stole his cereal, though. It seemed that nothing was going to stop THAT).

As Harry’s adventure continued, Kay made sure to keep providing his always thought-provoking commentary while Jyn consistently threw popcorn at his head. Right when Harry and his friends were running through a poorly constructed set of a forest, however, there was a knock at the door. Kay was more than eager to take a break to go and answer it.

“No, you don’t have to pause!” he called back down the hall. “In fact, please don’t pause it,” he added in a mutter.

He opened the door to find a weary-looking middle-aged man standing out in the hall. Kay narrowed his eyes at his bulky stature, dark hair and heavy eyes. He wasn’t someone he had ever seen before, and Kay said, “Yes, can I help you?”

“Hello. Is Jyn Erso there?”

“Who are you?” Kay stared, but within the next two seconds, he answered his own question. He’d seen the case files often enough to recognise the face. He’d seen him on the news and hell honestly, just from the way the man held himself told Kay everything he needed to know.

Huh. Maybe he was better at reading people than he originally thought.

“You’re her father, aren’t you?” Kay blurted out.

Galen Erso sighed. “I’ve heard that she’s been trying to find me–”

Kay slammed the door right in his face and promptly locked it.

“Kay?” Jyn’s voice echoed from the lounge.

“PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MY FLATMATE IS A POLICE OFFICER,” Kay barked through the door. “I AM CALLING HIM IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO ENTER THE PREMISES I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE FORCE AGAINST YOU.”

Jyn skidded into the hallway within five seconds.

“What the hell is going on?” she said in alarm.

“Jyn, CALL THE COPS.”

She did without hesitation. Punching the number into her phone, she glared at him and all but demanded, “What is it?”

“Your father is here.”

—

It was a lot of commotion.

Harry’s adventure was abandoned in favour of their own drama that was unfolding within their very building. Kay wasn’t even sure how the man had gotten inside, but either way Cassian was called, who apparently then brought with him what felt like an entire battalion of cops. Galen Erso was arrested and Jyn had refused to say even one word to him the entire time.

“He faked his death to go and work for a shadow government that was developing illegal drugs and weapons,” Jyn had snapped earlier when Kay had questioned it. “I don’t want to even know him.”

Kay didn’t really understand, as he stood on the front steps of their building, watching Galen get put into the back of the police car. Jyn had spent a good majority of her life thinking he was dead (or maybe hoping he was dead?) and when she’d learned that he was alive, she’d wanted nothing more than to find him. Only now that he had reached out and found her… she was pushing him away.

Kay supposed he didn’t really need to understand, though. Figuring out Jyn Erso was a job best left to Cassian, who had wrapped an arm around her some time ago and had his hand firmly anchored in her hair. He couldn’t see Jyn’s face, but Cassian seemed to be whispering to her and Kay was satisfied knowing that he was there. He would take care of her.

Kay was a little confused, therefore, about how Jyn managed to go from Cassian’s arms to cornering him up on the steps only minutes later.

“So… you won’t hesitate to use force, huh?” she mentioned.

He huffed. “I’ll admit that came out in the moment. I apologise.”

“Don’t,” Jyn’s voice was quiet, but he heard her. He turned to see her with her arms folded tightly across her chest, hair hiding her face. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Well,” Kay spluttered, quite unsure about how to answer. “You’re welcome?”

It seemed that she made a split second decision because suddenly, she was moving forward and wrapping her arms around him. Oh dear lord! Kay quite honestly floundered, because he didn’t do hugs, where was he supposed to put his arms, did she even want him to hug her back? She squeezed tight, almost too tight, but as annoying and grating as she could be sometimes, Kay realised that his earlier statement of it all being ‘in the moment’ wasn’t entirely true. If it meant protecting Jyn Erso… he would always use whatever force necessary.

He never expected this.

He awkwardly patted her on the back. She laughed.

Kay got the phone call at roughly 8pm.

“I was just about to watch Goblet of Fire, this better be important–”

“KAY,” Cassian hissed down the line. “I need you to bring the ring!”

Kay hit pause immediately.

“Is this for real this time?”

Cassian had called with that exact phrase no less than twenty times since he’d actually bought the damn thing half a year ago. Every now and then, he would suddenly decide it was time and Kay would bring it out of its hiding place amongst his socks (he thought it was probably best not to ever inform Jyn of that fact) only to go and find Cassian rocking back and forth on the floor, shaking his head and saying, “Never mind, never mind, maybe next time…”

Apparently, it was next time. AGAIN.

“This is real as fuck, I promise you!” Cassian stage whispered. “How quickly can you get to the park?”

“Maybe twenty minutes, if the traffic is good – but Cassian, I’m not going all the way into town, just for you to back out again.”

“I promise I’m not backing out. THIS IS IT,” He assumed that Jyn was still nearby, since Cassian was still attempting to keep his voice low. “We went to dinner at the same place we went on our first date, and there’s this night market with a bunch of lights and it’s cheesy but she’s happy and I’m happy and I have to marry this girl, SO PLEASE GET HERE–”

“Ok, ok!” Kay heaved himself up off his bed. “But be warned that if you’ve dragged me away from Harry Potter Night for another fake out, then I will be mightily displeased.”

Kay didn’t even know how Cassian ended up giving him directions to where they were. Their city was a big place, and he was left wandering the paths somewhere throughout the park, with nothing but a vague one-sided text conversation as his guide

From: Cassian We’re next to the doutain *foundtain *FOUNTAIN U know in the park go down the path nxt to the pond Have u found the market?? Just walk right thru Ashahdfhjdfhj She keeps asking me who im txtng HRURRY UP WE’RE @ THE FOUNTAIN WHERE R U Hold up I see u!!!! dnt move!!!!

Kay glanced up from his phone then, staring around in confusion across the market ‘square’ that was currently being hosted within the park. The ambiance was admittedly romantic, so Kay could at least accept that this was an appropriate time. Lanterns and other fairy lights were strung up through the makeshift streets, setting everything with a multi-coloured glow and he finally saw Jyn not too far away, apparently saving their seats at the edge of a large, ornate fountain. Cassian looked a little crazy-eyed when he hurled up to him from amongst the crowd, but Kay didn’t fault him. This was a big deal.

If he actually did it this time.

“Thank god, where is it?” Cassian asked a little frantically.

Kay pulled the ring from his pocket and handed it over. “I expect this to be beautiful,” he warned. “I’ve been live-tweeting about it ever since you called.”

“KAY.”

“What?” Kay shrugged. “Shara says that if I go viral, I might get on Ellen.”

Cassian just turned and stomped away. As he approached Jyn once more, Kay pulled out his phone and started filming on selfie mode.

“Well, he took the ring… as you can see, target is in sight. Also Ellen, if you’re watching this, my friend Shara loves you.”

They didn’t end up on Ellen, but she DID retweet his video and apparently that was all it took to go viral these days.

“Guy Livetweets His Best Friend’s Proposal And It’s Hilarious,” Kay read.

“Oh my god, you legit got on fucking Buzzfeed,” Shara snatched the phone right out of his hand.

Apparently, his ‘clinical, deadpan approach’ was a hit with people and the fact that he wasn’t even trying to be funny at all had made it all the more funnier! Kay was kind of in awe over the entire thing – he had gained thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers practically overnight, which was slightly overwhelming when he remembered that he’d had a grand total of 12 before this entire thing had happened. He was getting messages from all sorts of websites asking for comments, but he was content to just keep deleting them. Shara got her shoutout, and Cassian and Jyn were engaged. That was all that mattered to him.

“It gets better,” Jyn called out from the other side of the room, currently sitting snug under Cassian’s arm. “I think you’re a meme now.”

“WHAT?” Shara leapt across the room.

“Show me,” Kay insisted.

They all crowded around Jyn and her phone. She held up just one of what appeared to be many posts, all featuring his screenshotted face with the subtitle target in sight. He watched Jyn scroll through the endless sea of posts.

When u see bae across the room… target in sight.

When it’s nearly the end of the semester… target in sight.

When it’s September 30th… this time he had a pumpkin photoshopped over his head.

“THIS IS INCREDIBLE,” Shara was apparently beside herself.

“Work is actually going to fire me,” Kay noted.

“Hey, it’s not like you ASKED to go viral,” Cassian pointed out.

Kay literally did not know how to dignify any response, so instead he just walked out of the room amidst peals of laughter from Jyn and Shara. One of these days he needed to get better friends. He decided to leave his phone behind, since every now and then it still pinged with a message or another, even though he had turned off all notifications that he possibly could several days ago and he was already looking through the pantry for something to cook when Cassian joined him.

“Oh, hello,” Kay noted. “Jyn and Shara laughed themselves into comas yet?”

“You’re ok with this, right?”

Kay turned to stare at Cassian. He stood in the middle of their quiet kitchen, barefoot with nerves written all over his face and Kay scoffed incredulously.

“Are you asking for my approval?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Cassian ran a hand restlessly over the back of his neck. “Kay, with everything that’s happened, with it blowing up this big when I know you didn’t mean it to, I guess I just wanted to… to know whether you… we’re ok.”

“Cassian, I am ok.”

“Because it’s been you and me for so long and–”

“Are you kidding?” Kay asked. “It hasn’t been just me and you for years! Jyn’s your life, Cassian, and that’s fine. I love both of you, I want you to be happy, and no amount of Twitter followers is going to make me change my mind.”

Cassian smiled weakly. “Shit, Kay.”

He winced. “I got emotional… I apologise.”

Cassian swung forward two steps before throwing his arms around him. Kay staggered slightly under the weight, but carefully figured out how to hug him back tightly (he liked to think he was starting to get better at it). He didn’t say anything for a long moment. The only sounds were Jyn and Shara’s voices chatting muffled in the other room, and Kay concentrated on just being there in his best friend’s presence. Friends liked that kind of thing.

“Thank you,” Cassian muttered into his shoulder, voice a little choked.

“It’s fine,” Kay replied.

“I mean it,” Cassian held him tight. “Thank you for being there for her. Thank you for looking out for her, even when she makes you watch stupid movies and steals your food. It means a lot that you care.”

“Hey, Harry Potter isn’t that stupid.”

Cassian laughed. “I love you, Kay.”

And for a moment, Kay did have that slight touch of emotion. A brief second of what if, what if everything did change from here? What if they got married and forgot about him, what if they grew up and they eventually become too different over the years, their lives slowly drifting further and further apart until their only interactions were happy birthday messages on Facebook? Rationally, Kay knew it wouldn’t likely happen, but it only took a second to second guess yourself and Kay let himself have that second to worry.

He clenched his arms tighter.

“I love you too, Cassian.”

Sometimes, Kay looked at Cassian and Jyn and wondered what it felt like.

He was honestly just curious. Back in the early days he’d almost thought that he was jealous of what they felt, certain his interest had to come back to why a love as strong as theirs never seemed to happen for him, but turned out it wasn’t about that at all. He knew now that it just wasn’t something he wanted or needed, but damn it they looked at each other like they each set the world on fire and he needed to know how they could stand it without burning up. Maybe they didn’t, he figured. Maybe they were both like stars, burning bright in this endless universe until eventually they would expand and explode. Become stardust.

Or something (he wasn’t good with analogies).

At one point, he had been resentful. He and Cassian had been doing just fine, he didn’t need this explosion of a girl to come in and shift their entire universe because things were just fine the way they were! But as much as Jyn was a pain in the arse, she hadn’t just changed Cassian’s life. She had significantly tilted Kay’s as well, to the point where he couldn’t even see the horizon anymore and he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. Something in him still shuddered at the thought of calling her a friend, but he knew that he was willing to die for her if need be, and considering that Cassian was the only other person in the world he was willing to do that for, it said a lot.

Maybe he’d never really understand what it was that drew Cassian and Jyn together. They were certainly enigmas! Either way, he was still proud to be the one who was stepping up to her, offering his arm.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kay did at least felt the need to that point out.

Jyn just shot him a look that he might have interpreted as disdainful, if he hadn’t actually known how nervous she was.

“That’s exactly what a girl wants to hear five minutes before her wedding,” she said.

“I just mean–” Kay cut himself off, frustrated. “What if I fall over? What if I say the wrong thing?”

“It’s the bloody 21st century, we’ve been over this, you don’t have to say anything!”

“BUT TRADITION DICTATES–”

“WE’RE NOT ARGUING ABOUT THIS NOW,” Jyn attempted to press warily onto her eyes before remembering the make-up. “Look, just – just walk me down the aisle and get me to Cassian in one piece, ok?”

Kay nodded, perhaps a little frantically. “Ok. Ok.”

“It’s gonna be fine, Kay! Jesus Christ, we should have eloped.”

“I approve whole-heartedly of that plan – we could leave right now and no one would be any of the wiser?”

“Tempting,” Jyn said, dryly. “but I think Cassian might get a little pissed in that scenario.”

“HA, HA,” Kay muttered. The doors opened then, the guests rising to their feet beyond and Shara turned to exchange an excited grin with them before music played and the Maid of Honour started the progression down the aisle. Oh, god!

Jyn suddenly turned to Kay.

“Thank you,” she said, somehow panicked and earnest all at once. “I know I give you shit all the time but honestly, thank you for agreeing to do this.”

Kay squeezed his elbow around hers.

“Of course. Do try to not fall over.”

“God, why do I bother?” Jyn muttered.

Kay almost laughed. “Let’s just get you married.”

And the two of them stepped out to start what felt like their miles long journey down the aisle.

- FIN

#rebelcaptain #rebelcaptain fanfic #dailyrebelcaptain #rogue one #rogue one fanfic #ro #ro fanfic #my fanfiction #continually unexpected #i finished it yall #now to finish the friggin teachers one and maybe i'll finally start the food travel au #either way i hope u liked kay's pov!!!!!!!#pls reblog me i love yall #<3

49 notes · View notes

pixiekptt863-blog · 4 years

Text

What's new in Grand Theft Auto 5

I have only committed a half-hour planning the perfect heist. I'm going in smart, blowing not on the protections with the team after the fragile jewellery counters from the mass with a carefully placed smoke bomb, and smashing into both cabinet with the handle of a semi-automatic rifle before reaching the flight on a regional getaway bike. I'm cut the cut so I could use the best hacker to disable the protection order, with a flair gunman to handle crowd control. And yet, despite our very best efforts, with a single poorly-taken corner upon the bicycle, everything goes wrong. I should be getting behind a moist sewer tunnel, sneaking our sense under the capital to independence. Instead, I'm here, mowing down say next wave of authorities on the town lanes, with with the new while performing a Grand Theft Auto game, I feel immensely guilty about it.

This isn't due to some grand moral awakening by the part, but an interesting side effect of what is the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One form of Grand Theft Auto 5's most make new piece: first-person mode. Even when GTA activity were Grand Theft Auto V free Download top-down shooters, there was always a bit of an disconnect between the sometimes shockingly violent scenes on-screen, also the mentality of the person. You could imagine that, despite directly organizing a quality, it was that exclusive caricature of a legal spending the crimes--you just played witness to them. First-person mode fundamentally changes how you view Grand Theft Auto 5's world. It has the power to make people cease and sense on your own motions, then to truly issue a character's drives. Then in the cycle that experience always been criticized for glorifying a years of crime, rather than questioning that, it is no bad idea.

Yes, there are plenty of violent first-person shooters around in which flows associated with morality can be created, but little are paired with the stunning Hollywood production quantities of GTA Versus. The city of Los Santos is one of the many beautiful and influence open-world environments to retain increasingly thanks a video game, and now their original higher-resolution guise, it's even more spectacular. Compared to the last-gen versions, the new Grand Theft Auto 5 is visibly sharper, largely due to improved antialiasing. Textures resolutions have been bumped, floors are, very, bumpier (thanks enhanced tessellation), and there are all approach of extra particle, elegant, with lens effects. You can cruise down Vespucci Shore and go for small aspect throughout the trinket gather and skateboard looks that lived there or. You can get about inside shower, marvelling at the beautifully rendered raindrops and puddles on the ground. And once you quit admiring the landscapes to producing some anarchy, explosions from a hastily thrown grenade pop in a stunning show of fireplace with light.

To enjoy this every into first-person is a pleasure. The vast, cinematic topic of see is very different to that regarding the average shooter, as is the slower time with you walk; think REHABILITATION. and you're on the proper path. Where the camera once easily roll up beyond and throughout the town, on ground level everything seems better and more imposing. I found myself going together the municipality streets, view because many weird and wonderful inhabitants of Los Santos moved regarding the interest. I strolled in shops, also those everywhere I can believe everything, to admire the amazing level of depth in eye plane, with great extent of area effects helping to offer the interest. This all really natural, the delicate head bobs and movements as you start over dams with drop out of cars drawing you into the game in a way that third-person mode never can.

This is especially true when the war legs up, with where the grizzly certainty of Grand Theft Auto 5 falls into sharp focus. With many missions turning around about shape of gunplay, the bloody splatter of a drug dealer put to squander on the pavement, or the groans involving a great injured cop mark on the cover involving his vehicle have far more of the influence than previously. Of course, not anyone will be as affected by this because I happened, yet there are several practical hearts toward contemplate too. Develop and throwing explosives is easier in first-person, flush with GTA's assisted aim disabled--provided you turn down the obscene levels of controller sensitivity before you start--but the wrapping system isn't really here, and also near were times when I live able to peek in a corner well and followed shot as a result.

Then there's the power, that, no matter how fast I attempted, I found far too trying to master in first-person. The fully performing with wonderfully detailed vehicle interiors might happen impressive, but the twitchy regulations that control so highly in third-person for moving down outrageous driving stunts are just far too vulnerable to quickly be cars on the road during a frantic police chase. There are too vehicle vision which simply weren't ended with first-person in mind either. Trying to take Michael's son because he swings away from a yacht on the highway, or playing a flying get through on the interstate is very hard. It's probably more realistic, but I found myself move to third-person in order to get them done. Thankfully, it's not an any or situation when it comes to the view. You can initiative with third-person and have the game automatically change to first-person when on-foot if you like, or even pan exposed to third-person if you get cover.

But even if you choose to ignore first-person mode completely, GTA V has escaped small regarding their lustre since release. Even now, after the days of improvement from the business and all the great up for in which I've played, I'm amazed how little have managed to replicate the Artist air and easy, natural dialogue of a GTA. This is a line which owns consistently been the most convincing and the most cinematic with sports, and GTA 5 remains that tradition with ease. Still impressive when central as credible creatures stay a curiosity, and yet GTA 5 manages to create an entire city full of them, along with three authentic head with which to journey through it. That's not to mention these leads are likeable characters, but perhaps that's the point. There may be several moment you sympathise with retired gangster Michael while his kind time crumbles in him, or if you think that wannabe gangster Franklin can become a wonderful man because he speaks he's always trying to solve the right thing.

But they are narcissistic, psychopathic killers who do not blink an eyelid on killing hundreds of perfectly innocent people after it functions their own ways. This is particularly right of Trevor, that remains far and away the most fascinating and well-written figure in the set, a terrifyingly insane yet remarkably intelligent criminal who regularly appears around the limit of some kind of mind breakdown. Scary doesn't even begin to describe it. These creatures are not without question, though--there are times when a figure will contradict his own motivations, seemingly just to mount the form of a mission--but the fact that these creatures can be so convincingly terrifying, so severe and sharp in their conversations with one another is a tribute to truly the way fantastic the creating in GTA is.

That develops for the planet at large too: the sprawling, gorgeously detailed capital of Los Santos deftly satirizes its real-world inspiration of La, with involving America as total. Highlights include the self-proclaimed god of gathering media, Lifeinvader CEO Jay Norris, And the company's beanbag-filled offices; the faithful bank of advertisements for celebrity magazines, prescription drugs, with plastic surgeries of which remain savaged on the radio; and also the corrupt federal groups such as Tale which a lot work worse than the criminals they're trying to put away. Sure, Grand Theft Auto V is a bit heavy-handed with its satire, although there are number of activities to dare go as far as GTA does with its nihilistic comments, with fewer even to do it with like conviction.

youtube

Move in everything are bombastic missions to performance away like Hollywood blockbusters, with the finest of gangster films. Heists remain the identify, and the whole process of planning them off, hiring participants with the party, gathering equipment, and then going the fuzz doesn't interfere about the great period is entirely engrossing. Bombs are increased, helicopters are hit into the side of skyscrapers, and total squads of laws do chase as you make a futile attempt break lower the road; the utter joy of the four or five star chase like what seems like the entire state's quota of authorities descends about you could be understated. And yet, Grand Theft Auto V remains stuck in the past in certain ways. There are chase missions where losing spectacle regarding your goal because of a badly understood start the highway means making a frustrating restart, and shooting missions where, if you fly the rifle and destroy your goal before the game expects you to, you have to start over again.

But the sheer spectacle from it all drags you back in for more. GTA has not really been faint, and the game steamrolls the path because of it is less exciting moments, stop them with crafty pop culture-filled exchanges with breathtaking landscapes for you to ogle. There are extra quest to join in too, including the random creeps of Los Santos who question you to make points because mundane as tow vehicles for them, as well as to smoking prepare and mow down aliens in an hallucinogenic rampage with the town. There are the multiple leisure activities you can indulge with, or the real estate you can acquire, plus the accumulation you purchase along with the markets you can manipulate. Before you can just slack it all off fully then value Los Santos as your own wonderful digital playground, setting up sticky bomb-filled booby traps in the middle of traffic, or taking jumbo jets from the international airport also attempting to escape them under bridges. Indeed, that the journey you create yourself to typically show to be the most fun.

And then there's GTA Online. This safe to say GTA Online didn't get off to a good father, with server problems along with the whole manner of balance difficulties. With Grand Theft Auto 5, online gets a few boosts, containing the increase character creator, as well as backing for up to 30 simultaneous players (with a couple additional spectators), along with the supplement of 11 of GTA Online's existing updates. And agreed, you can fun with first-person too. These are good additions, but Online still suffers from a lack of direction. Although you can easily import the other character, I opted to create a new one, after which I was thrown against a pavement with Los Santos armed only with a plan full of confusing icons with very little idea about what I would do then.

Once you're over the hump and you've identified the means of getting work to do like taking packages from individuals, or working section with road races--and people to makes them with via your trusty mobile phone--things get more interesting. Once you've shape in place a fitting mountain of coins (which make take a while if you're shrink from the start), you can get a nice apartment to stay in, and hope cars to place into their garage. To what end, I'm still uncertain. Much has been said about how GTA online becomes extremely open, then just how sessions often turn into mass deathmatches, which is more of an issue with 30 chaotic players around--but for me that's always been portion of its draw. Trolling someone who's considered themselves far too seriously in the street competition in establishing an epic bar, or just wandering the avenues robbing convenience stores and staging a clean getaway still manages to raise a smile.

That these activities bring up a smile now (yet after played in first-person), and yet place in place a moral dilemma in single-player is as much to do with the lack of a narrative structure online as it is to do with my personal beliefs towards most new internet users. This produces an interesting conundrum too: is it better to performance with first-person and be pulled in Grand Theft Auto 5's function in the new profound style, before must anyone act in the third-person, distancing yourself on the game's more controversial moments?

The fact that I'm even thinking about that at all in a video game that's so standard and as, well, mainstream as Grand Theft Auto 5 is a evidence toward the excellent. On the day later, GTA V remains the most consistently entertaining video games I've always played. Even without the spectacular new images, first-person way, the epic new rail gun, the new murder mystery missions for Jordan, the new, even furrier animals, remote play foundation on PS4, a pile of another songs for the radio (including the personal favourite, I need This That Way by the Backstreet Child on the dash situation), also the revenue of automobiles like the classic Dodo seaplane, Grand Theft Auto 5 would be still be worth playing.

Aside from some mild frame rate issues that sometimes adopt the boundary away it is other dramatic moments, this is the definitive variation of GTA V, also the lock where all other open-world games, before certainly any game in which points regarding a cinematic think, should remain said. It is attractive, and thought-provoking, and kicking throughout. Even if you've played through Grand Theft Auto V once already, it's worth going back simply to be repeated regarding exactly what a outstanding achievement it is.

At its being, Grand Theft Auto V on PC is the same game that it is at additional program, although it is never appeared as good as it does with a solid PC, anyone who’s played Grand Theft Auto 5 elsewhere may not benefit from believing it for an additional or third stage unless they’re desperate for top graphics. If you get into to camp, you can simply move your progress onto the LAPTOP version by the Rockstar Social Club to stay anywhere a person gone off, diving headlong into the revamped Los Santos with minimal fuss.

It seemed great about PS4 and Xbox One, but Grand Theft Auto 5 shines in COMPUTER thanks to 4K-grade feels, the availability of additional post-processing make, also a great unlocked frame rate. Earlier form of the game played only great in 30 frames per minute, but you quickly appreciate the increase variability of enjoying at 60 FPS (if not added) by PC. If you can create that enough juice (read: afford top-end gaming hardware), then you can wonder with the added grows in 4K, even, yet yet a few Nvidia GTX 980's in SLI couldn't push the highest settings at 4K without dropping to present 30 frames per minute. Whether in 4K, before on 1080p, the new high-res textures pop with point, also new lighting effects lead to plenty of awe inspiring moments. GTA V could paint stunning pictures, with the appropriate mix of scenery, question, and daylight, to identify the usual magnificence of its geography along with the stain that pulses due to the physical veins. GTA 5 has always looked good, but a great gaming PC is the only way to see the full size of Rockstar’s admirable handiwork.

Keep in mind that GTA 5 retains evidence of their last-gen roots, level in MACHINE, with clean geometry abound. You sign low-poly standards in occasion as they contrast with the great texture composition and fun around, as simplicity and difficulty mix or the attention. GTA V is remarkable at times, but you never forget about to you’re showing a game that’s foundation was constructed with outdated constraints in mind.

You get a unique tool in the MACHINE version that allows you to show off all of the game's flare, as well as the imagination: the Rockstar Editor. This instrument enables you to record footage during vision or while free-roaming around Los Santos, both by manually recording gameplay or through sourcing the last few second of cached actions. More than just allowing you to stop together clips, you have complete power over the camera while going through your gameplay. You can put your angles manually, choose from a list of preset angles, then implement camera shakiness, redefining the style and perspective of a moment in time. Little touches such as blending make it easy to move from one video and camera angle to the next, without having to put much thought into it.

With Chief means, you have even more management of the functions at hand. You can pick actors, man or dog, to control, rather than being limited to the several main characters. You also state direct over time of generation, the area on the drawing, and whether cheats are permitted, allowing you to sample from a large palette of possibilities to shape the landscape regarding your dreams. There's a hearing curve to the editor, but Rockstar offers a range of tutorials which need to help felt and inexperienced editors alike.

Playing Grand Theft Auto 5 on PC means that you can now use a mouse and piano, which is a huge benefit during shootouts where perfection is important. Whether anyone show this here original- before third-person form, this definitely makes targeting easier. However, don't think of which an individual must put down the controller for good. Keyboard and mice lack analog buttons, which are important during driving sequences. Being able to run the throttle with a sensitive trigger becomes incredible you get used to and control naturally, often without offering that another imagined. The binary, at before off kind of a keyboard or mouse button gets in the way of your instincts also draws absent the nuanced control presented by analog triggers. For the best experience, remain a controller selected now and transition between that plus a mouse and piano for that second at hand.

0 notes

starkbarnes-lovechild · 7 years

Text

A Little Healthy Competition (Part 1 of 2)

Summary: Bucky doesn’t know what is up with all these Avengers kissing the fella he likes. He has to do something about it.

The numerous times an Avenger—who wasn’t Bucky—kissed Tony and the one time he was finally the one who kissed Tony.

The future (present?) never fails to fascinate Bucky. He loves how fast everything is now—from information gathering to food. He likes how transportation is faster than before and how beautiful all these new technology are. He’s always been a fan of machines but they never really had the means for him to pursue what he wants back then. But, even with his adoration for the quickness of everything today, he still prefers the slow burn of wanting to be with someone romantically, of wanting to be with someone for the long run instead of just a roll in the sheets. He still believes in wooing someone, of courting them to show them you’re serious of wanting to have them as your gal or your fella.

Which is why he has never made a ‘move’ on Tony, as the young people say.

Tony is gorgeous and smart and wonderful and he deserves to be wooed. He deserves the absolute best—nothing less.

So Bucky would leave these little trinkets at the workshop that remind him of Tony, or give him gifts now and then, like flowers and chocolates and little accessories he made. Tony always looks so pleasantly surprised and grateful.

It doesn’t take long for the rest of the residents of the tower to figure out his affection for the genius.

“You could just tell him?” Steve always says.

“No, Stevie. Tony deserves to be wooed. I’ll not have him thinking I just want him for his body.” Steve always gets a confused look on his face whenever he says this but remains quiet, nonetheless.

“Just kiss him, Barnes.”

“Yeah, dude. Put us out of this misery.” Natasha and Clint would always tag team him this way, but he just ignores them.

Lieutenant Colonel call me Rhodey Rhodes always looks at him with a certain amount of pity and amusement but just shakes his head then moves on.

He’s not sure if it’s serious or not, but they have a bet going, too.

“I’m betting on Tony making the first move.” He overhears Bruce say one night.

“I believe Sergeant Barnes would be victorious in his endeavor and will initiate the intimacy.” Thor.

“Nah. I’m with Bruce on this one.” Steve. Some best friend. “Tony may be trapped in his insecurities but with the right nudge, he’ll make the first move. Bucky’s just too stubborn.” Yep. Fuck you, Stevie.

“I thought we weren’t interfering?” Pietro.

“I think we can consider a tiny nudge in the right direction as a friendly help and not interference.” Natasha. Seriously. What is up with these people?

“Nah. I’m with Thor on this. Barnes will break first. Tony doesn’t realize when someone has the hots for him.” What the fuck? Rhodes? Is every Avenger but him and Tony there?

“Let’s just set our bets. Tony will be suspicious if me, Pietro, Peter and Vision don’t show up for the new training simulation he made.” Wanda. So every Avenger is really in that little meeting.

Bucky just walks away and tries to forget everything he heard.

(Later, he would realize forgetting what he heard was some sort of mistake. Maybe. He still isn’t sure.)

Three weeks later, after the conversation he eavesdropped on and forgot, Tony walks in the kitchen, half asleep. His hair is in complete disarray, he’s wearing a shirt twice as big, looking like he’s drowning in it somehow.

He looks both adorable and delectable. How is that even possible?

Anyway. He comes in looking all adorably rumpled and Bucky just... He just can't because Tony is the most beautiful being he has ever seen. He can write songs dedicated to Tony's beauty. He's not even a fucking writer, Jesus!

Back on the topic, though. He's also pretty sure that the shirt belongs to Steve because he remembers Nat giving it as a gag gift for his birthday last year.

(For some reason, people like the idea of Tony and Steve being in a romantic relationship. Frankly, he couldn’t see the appeal. At all. And no, fuck you, he isn’t jealous. He's the fucking Winter Soldier, damn it! He doesn’t get jealous, especially of his best friend, fuck off, Steve.)

So, yes, Tony's wearing Steve’s Ask me about my ship shirt with the Captain America shield on one side and the slash thing of Stark Industries at the top, which, with the front lifted high enough, has a print of Steve and Tony about to fucking kiss.

Deep breaths, Barnes, he tells himself. He's afraid he break something if he keeps on thinking what's on the other side of that shirt.

“Hey, Tony.” Steve greets cheerfully, placing a plate of bacon and eggs and bread, and a cup of coffee in front of their tech genius. The other man simply groans and starts digging in, moaning when his brain processes the taste of good food.

Bucky can feel his fingers twitching from the desire to touch the other man.

“Are you wearing my shirt?” Steve asks as his brain finally, fucking finally, processes what Tony's wearing. The blond's voice is fond, though, which means he doesn’t mind at all.

Tony hums. “You left it in my room.” He mumbles and Bucky is struggling to keep himself from breaking the mug he's holding.

What does that even mean?

(There's a Keep Reading since I realized it might look neater that way.)

He knows for a fact Steve has a thing with Sam (for fuck's sake, Barnes, it's not a thing. It's a fucking committed relationship, something you obviously want to have with Tony). He knows, logically, Steve isn’t the cheating kind and he knows Tony doesn’t like the idea of cheating either—whether he's the one doing the cheating or being cheated on, or he's the one being used to cheat on someone. So, yeah, nope, nothing to be—

What the?

Steve is suddenly in Tony's space, leaning down and kissing his forehead. “Keep it.” Steve mumbles, fondness evident in his voice as Tony leans into him annnnd now they're staring at him. “You okay, Buck?” Steve asks and if it’s anyone but Bucky, it sounds like there’s only concern there, but they’ve been friends long enough to know amusement is there and is more evident than concern.

The little shit knows what he's doing.

Tony's concerned frown, eyes down on the mug Bucky's holding, makes him look down and, shit. No wonder they look concerned. He totally broke the mug and now he's also bleeding. He is, unfortunately, holding the mug in his right hand. Damn.

“Fine.” He mumbles gruffly, hastily cleans his mess and hightails it out of there.

He. Is not. Fucking. Jealous. Shut the fuck up.

Bucky absolutely loathes these fucking galas. He knows it’s for a good cause but god fucking damn it! Humans are annoying. Oh, wait, that’s doing children a disservice; correction, adults (and sometimes teens) are fucking annoying.

He's in his stupid penguin suit and, it’s not uncomfortable, per se because it's a tailored one, but he still prefers his simple Henley and jeans and comfortable boots. He always feels like an impostor whenever he dons his suits, as if he’s pretending to be more than what—who he is.

He doesn’t like it. At all.

Well, there is an upside to it—Tony looks absolutely divine in a suit. His ass is always, always the highlight and Bucky can’t thank Ray enough for being a fantastic tailor. The man knows how to make the best asset just pop out. Tony's waist also looks a little slimmer, his shoulders broader.

That aside, Bucky usually stays in one corner or at the bar of there is one after mingling for a bit. He may not enjoy these events but he does know how to pull his weight.

“Help!” Bucky perks up, hearing Tony's frantic voice. He turns slightly and finds the other man with Natasha, back tense and hands shaking a little.

He's about to go over when Natasha smiles softly then cups the back of Tony's neck, pulling him down for a kiss.

It’s a good thing he isn’t holding anything this time.

He stays there for a moment, watching with narrowed eyes when they pull away, enough for Natasha to murmur something and for Tony to respond, then he’s leaning back down and. Yeah. Bucky hastily walks away, sends a group text saying he’s reached his quota of human and interaction and is going home.

Also. If he looks like he’s sulking in his room, watching Notting Hill, of all things, while wearing loose sweatpants and a loose shirt, Friday’s his only witness.

I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

Fuck this shit. Fuck Julia Roberts and fuck rom coms. That’s the last time he’s watching one.

“Friday, change the movie please.” He says, before he decides to actually throw something at the TV screen.

The movie starts playing and he assumes it would be about pirates—it’s called Pirates of the Caribbean, for Christ's sake. Unfortunately, Friday seems to have an odd sense of humor because there’s romance in it and, why? Why do they keep on adding romance to everything? Even horror movies have some sort of romance.

Elizabeth, I should have told you every day from the moment I met you. I love you.

Friday is definitely trying to tell him something.

So he just turns and covers himself with his blanket, knowing Friday will know it’s her cue to turn the movie off.

(Later, much, much later, he will find out Natasha kissed Tony because one of the brunet’s creepy, crazy one night stands was in the same gala and has been pestering Tony in the creepiest way possible. Since Natasha was the one closest to him, Tony decided to go to her for help instead.

Later, he would also find out how amused Natasha was when she saw him grumpily walk away.

That won’t happen until later, though.)

Bucky knows Rhodes is Tony's Steve to his Bucky, but it doesn’t change the fact they’re way too cuddly and handsy with each other, fuck!

Again. Not jealous. But he’s pretty sure cuddling on the couch while watching a movie is some sort of violation against the 'bro code', whatever that means.

For now, though, he’s going to make good use of the stress ball Tony gave him.

(He may or may not have broken one too many mgs every time someone gets a little affectionate with the genius.

He's also quite sure everyone’s doing it on purpose because they’re all dicks.)

So, yes, watching a movie with the team. He's pretty sure the movie's good but he can't focus on it because Tony is now halfway asleep on Rhode's chest and he just can’t, okay?

You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming?

Bucky looks back at the movie, the stress ball being abused in his hand.

That’s where I'll always love you.

Nope. He looks back at Tony (and Rhodes).

The stress ball breaks.

Rhodes' lips is on Tony's temple. Rhodes is giving Tony a kiss on the temple. That’s too intimate, isn’t it? Especially since they’re already cuddling? And for Tony to lean into the touch? Really, though. He's pretty sure only people in romantic relationships do when they’re cuddling.

(“They’re practically brothers, Buck, probably closet than we could ever be. They've been through hell and back together and they've seen the literal worst of each other.”

Steve will try to reason later but Bucky will be too busy annihilating a punching bag.)

When he looks away, he meets Steve’s eyes, the blond's eyebrows raised in amusement and since Bucky’s a mature adult, he flips the asshole off and just turns back to the movie.

Tony rarely gets sick but when he does, he looks terrible and everyone in the tower is protective of him. When he gets sick, he never does it halfway and goes straight to flu with really high fever. Sometimes, especially the first two or three days, Tony doesn’t even have the energy to move and just, Bucky feels horrible on his behalf and, as it turns out, so does everyone else in the tower.

Wanda, with the help of Vision, would cook her mother’s special soup which tastes divine and would spoon-feed the genius if needed. Pietro would bake crackers an incredibly ill person can stomach because his baking has always been Tony’s favorite. Clint, Peter and Natasha would always be around when the genius needs company or in need of entertainment or just someone to talk to. Thor, Steve and sometimes Rhodey, are there for when the genius is feeling cuddly because I’ve always cuddled with Rhodey, and Thor and Steve are the perfect size to spoon me, Tony said once when asked about it. Bucky and Bruce are kind of the all-around, in a way, since he doesn’t really have much to do unlike all the other Avengers (who all seemed to have jobs and school and charity work, for some reason—maybe it’s time he finds one, too?) and Bruce I’m really not that kind of doctor is the only person Tony trusts to check on his health.

So yes, on the rare occasions Tony gets sick, everyone in the tower is tense and worried. And when he gets better, everyone seems to start feeling better as well.

Tony’s fever had gone down, still running a little hot, but a lot better than three days ago. He can now move around for short periods of time, which Bruce says something Tony should do. Currently, Tony’s sitting by the dining room table, his head pressed against the table as everyone moves around him, preparing lunch. Steve has passed by and ruffled his hair gently, a touch Tony leaned into. They all touch him as they pass, as if to remind themselves that Tony is okay and is currently with them.

When the food is on the table—with something lighter for Tony—Bruce presses his lips at the top of Tony’s head before he sits down between the genius and Steve.

It looks so paternal that Bucky didn’t even feel a twinge of jealousy.

Bucky has been with the Avengers for almost a year and a half now (one year, three months, three weeks and six days, not that he’s counting) and is celebrating his second Christmas with them—the first where he’s celebrating with all of them present since Thor was in Asgard the year prior, Sam took Steve with him to introduce the blond to his family, Tony had an emergency meeting to attend, and Pietro and Wanda were visiting their parent’s graves.

They’re currently decorating their floor and, as per tradition, they’re doing it the day before Christmas.

(Tony still have the penthouse as a personal home, like the rest of the team have their own homes outside of the Avengers. There are two floors dedicated to the Avengers, though—one serves as a home and the other one for training—and they all usually prefer staying at Stark Tower anyway.)

He, Steve, Vision and Sam are in charge of the tree because they brought in a big one. Natasha, Peter and Clint are in charge of the decorations hanging on the ceiling. The twins and Rodes are in charge of the food while Tony and Thor are in charge of sorting the decorations and the gifts.

(He’s been told, in a way, of the disastrous Christmas when they left Thor and Tony to decorate anything. Until now, neither he, the twins, Vision, Sam or Peter knew what actually happened. All they knew was that having Thor and Tony decorate would be disastrous.)

“Mistletoe!” Peter’s cheerful voice snaps him out of his own focus of decorating the tree. He turns to look at the boy to see him hanging upside down on the ceiling, a sprig of mistletoe in hand, directly above Thor and Tony. Bucky feels his fingers twitch. Worse, he’s holding the star they’re about to place on top.

Tony’s on the fair side at the moment, his natural color returning since fall, which makes the blush on his cheeks quite obvious. Thor looks ecstatic and, really, what the fuck? He’s dating Jane, isn’t he? Why does he look so happy about the thought of kissing Tony?

“Shall we indulge our shield brother?” Thor asks with a smile. Bucky feels his grip tighten. Tony simply shrugs.

Fuckity fuck fuck shit.

Thor cups Tony’s face and, upon doing a quick scan of the room, everyone’s looking at the pair expectantly.

Double fuck.

Tony smiles shyly up at the blond and tilts his face up as Thor leans down. Their lips meet, probably for longer than is expected, the team cheering loudly when Thor deepens the kiss. The star finally breaks.

At least the cheering drowns out the sound of the ornament breaking.

(And no, his heart didn’t break along with it, okay?)

I was excited to post this, okay? I’ll try to finish the rest by this week? Hopefully?

#my winteriron #winteriron #tony x bucky #tony/bucky #tony x avengers team

4 notes · View notes

chrisx-212 · 7 years

Text

Comparing Vishkar with the old Dominion (Starcraft)

If you play Blizzard games, you’d probably know Starcraft. In a way, after noticing both that game and Overwatch... Well...

People say that Vishkar is an A-class A-hole hypocritical company. Yes. I can see that. Still, that wasn’t the first group like that that Blizzard made. No. Actually, they already made it first in Starcraft, in particular, the Terran Dominion when under Arcturus Mengsk.

In earlier story of the first Starcraft, Arcturus presented himself as a dashing rebel leader of the ‘Sons of Korhal’, trying to liberate the planet Korhal from its lenient government the Confederacy. That could very well be like what Vishkar may look like in the beginning, not every corporates start out as ‘evil asshole corporate’ (except Talon). They might even be genuine in improving the homes of people.

But still... as time passed on, Arcturus started to liberally use sadistic method to overthrow the Confederacy, sometimes worse than them, even sacrificing his own men for that (including a certain Sarah Kerrigan, who would become infested and becoming the Queen of Blades and Bitch of the Universe). In the end, he claimed power over Korhal, but it is revealed that he’s not doing that for altruism like he claimed, but for personal power. And that eventually continues until the second game’s first part, Wings of Liberty (though it has its ups and down during the expansion, Brood War).

By Wings of Liberty, Arcturus has made himself the Emperor of Dominion (new name of Sons of Korhal) and claims to be protecting his men, but they were instead put on authoritarian regime. There were only a few group that he favors and really protects for beneficial reasons, but ignores the other lesser people to die. Does that sound like what Vishkar would’ve done to Rio? Yes, probably.

In addition of this, Arcturus employs the Ghost Program to create Ghosts that became his personal special-ops team. The Ghosts are usually required to enter memory wipe and then reprogrammed into serving Dominion loyally, even if they’re allowed to have their own personality. Okay you may notice that this is similar in a forceful way towards Symmetra and possibly most other Vishkar employees, and even then, we are already introduced with what could be the counterpart of Symmetra in Dominion: Everybody’s ‘favorite’ sniper Ghost, Nova.

Nova’s appearances in the first two Starcraft 2 games, when Arcturus was in power, is basically a loyal soldier of the Dominion, programmed to serve the group. She came to antagonistic blows towards our hero, Jim Raynor, who was presented as a freedom-loving rebel leader that will not bow against Mengsk. But mostly because Mengsk has done a number on him, especially in regards of the aforementioned Sarah Kerrigan, his girlfriend. Since Raynor is the hero, the narrative goes with him, and Nova is sometimes presented as ‘evil’ because she served Arcturus Mengsk. So, Overwatch players, doesn’t that sound like what happened with Symmetra? Considered just as evil as the company she served because she opposed our resident freedom fighter Lucio?

So how truly ‘bad’ was Nova? It might not be visible in naked eye, but in the end, Nova is actually a woman with conscience trying to help and protect the people under Dominion. This is not seen in the first and second part of the game, but in the DLC Nova Covert Ops, we see her doing altruistic and protective deeds on her own, protecting innocent people. In the end? Not that bad. I think the same can be said with Symmetra, we can still believe that she’s an altruistic person even if she believed in Vishkar’s methods due to her upbringing, similar to how Nova often got mind-wiped to ensure her loyalty.

Now at the end of the the second expansion, Heart of the Swarm, Kerrigan came with great vengeance to strike at Arcturus, but then Arcturus decided to sacrifice even his own Dominion men in a bid to kill Kerrigan and consolidate power for his own belonging only. Not even his more upstanding son Valerian is safe from this. Yep, if this kind of reminds you of the fire at Rio by Vishkar, this is probably it.

Anyway, Kerrigan managed to put an end to that and killed Arcturus. By the end, Valerian took up the throne and reformed Dominion into a force of good. By that, this instantly ‘cleansed’ the sins of many of its old subordinates, including Nova, they’re now heroes.

Moral of the comparison? By this time, Vishkar is in the same place as Dominion under Arcturus. It’s NOT a force of good, but it has similarities in how it goes, and there are many of its employers that aren’t as bastardly as its leader, they can even be an altruistic lot. Aside of Nova, there’s also general Horace Warfield, a father to his men and very morally grounded too.

Now most people would think that a way for Symmetra to redeem herself is to reform Vishkar and lead it. If I have to say something, unfortunately this cannot be the case. Symmetra is a good lady, but I don’t think she’s born to lead. I compared her with Nova not without a reason: Nova does not lead the Dominion either and stayed a subordinate. If she’s leading something, she would be leading a special ops group, not the whole organization. Symmetra would need to find someone who’s like Valerian: An upstanding man who also has talent to lead the mass and the people. And so far I don’t think any of the Overwatch cast fulfill that quota. Therefore, to redeem herself, Symmetra doesn’t need to lead Vishkar and steer it to a better way, she needs to find someone else for that. Or go another path of redemption.

To finish this up, I believe that there is a way to actually redeem Vishkar. But first, we need to know who’s the CEO, the guy who would be the equivalent of Arcturus Mengsk, overseeing and commanding the activities of Vishkar. Then, the CEO must be eliminated, then replaced with a more upstanding man. That way, those within Vishkar can have a chance to redeem themselves from the sins they committed in the past. So rather than blame the company itself, blame the head honcho. It worked in Starcraft, and the second game was where the narrative style started to look a little bit like Overwatch, with ‘clear cut’ good vs bad faction.

Hopefully you enjoy this reading. You can reblog with comments!

#overwatch #starcraft #comparisons #vishkar #dominion #arcturus mengsk #nova terra #symmetra #valerian mengsk #sarah kerrigan #jim raynor #lucio #hopefully lessening the unnecessary hate on certain characters #blizzard

5 notes · View notes

boobachu · 5 years

Text

Why 100 reasons not to kill youself is bullshit

I’m in a bad mood and I’m bored out of my skull so I’m gonna fill out answers to that post going around

1. We would miss you. Who’s we? I left the internet a week and no one noticed.

2. It’s not worth the regret. Either by yourself if you failed or just simply left scars, or the regret everyone else feels by not doing enough to help you. Okay this is kinda true, the main reason I haven’t blown my brains out yet is fear of screwing it up and becoming a vegetable.

3. It does get better. Believe it or not it will eventually get better. Sometimes you have to go through the storm to get to the rainbow. No it doesn’t! Well, technically it gets better enough for you to feel pain when it gets worse than it ever was,

4. There’s so much you would miss out on doing. I’m dead! I can’t miss shit when my brain isn’t on!

5. There is always a reason to live. It might not be clear right now, but it is always there. This isn’t even a reason, five and you’re already stuffing this full of bullshit.

6. So many people care, and it would hurt them if you hurt yourself. Literally I can’t remember the last time someone told me “hi” or “Hey wanna do something?” No one cares I exist and nothing I can do will change that.

7. You ARE worth it. Don’t let anyone, especially yourself, tell you otherwise. Why?

8. You are amazing. Yeah that must be why I can’t get a home or even cook.

9. A time will come, once you’ve battled the toughest times of your life and are in ease once again, where you will be so glad that you decided to keep on living. You will emerge stronger from this all, and won’t regret your choice to carry on with life. Because things always get better. Well it’s been 25 years... nope, never happening. I’m only getting worse and worse.

10. What about all the things you’ve always wanted to do? What about the things you’ve planned, but never got around to doing? You can’t do them when you’re dead. I CAN’T DO THEM WHEN ALIVE EITHER!

11. I love you. Even if only one person loves you, that’s still a reason to stay alive. You can’t love strangers.

12. You won’t be able to listen to music if you die. So?

13. Killing yourself is never worth it. You’ll hurt both yourself and all the people you care about. Okay good?

14. There are so many people that would miss you, including me. I literally don’t know OP. This is why suicide prevention is total bullshit. No one actually cares about you, they care about making themselves feel better through platitudes.

15. You’re preventing a future generation, YOUR KIDS, from even being born. I’M STERILE

16. How do you think your family would feel? Would it improve their lives if you died? If they’d care, they’d have actually shown even a little bit of empathy.

17. You’re gorgeous, amazing, and to someone you are perfect. Bullshit.

18. Think about your favorite music artist, you’ll never hear their voice again… Who cares?!

19. You’ll never have the feeling of walking into a warm building on a cold day That’s literally the worst feeling, you have to take off all your clothes cuz it’s suddenly hot as hell and then you have to put on the jacket to leave and ugh it’s the worst. 20. Listening to incredibly loud music Who cares? 21. Being alive is just really good. It’s literally not.

22. Not being alive is really bad. You’re not even trying, you’re just filling bullshit to hit that 100 quota.

23. Finding your soulmate. SOULMATES AREN’T REAL 24. Red pandas Ew

25. Going to diners at three in the morning. Diners don’t exist! Where are these diners? I live in fucking Texas!

26. Really soft pillows. In the coffin. 27. Eating pizza in New York City. I’M POOR 28. Proving people wrong with your success. That dream died a decade ago.

29. Watching the jerks that doubted you fail at life. Literally all the jerks I know are mega successes. Hell look at ProJared, Jontron, Pewdiepie! This world rewards being the worst!

30. Seeing someone trip over a garbage can. Meh 31. Being able to help other people. No one needs my help, they have others.

32. Bonfires. scare me. 33. Sitting on rooftops. SCARE ME

34. Seeing every single country in the world. No way jose. 35. Going on roadtrips. I’ve already done that, now I’m poor.

36. You might win the lottery someday. Yeah that’s stable. 37. Listening to music on a record player. Who cares?

38. Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I’M SCARED OF HEIGHTS STOP 39. Taking really cool pictures. WHO CARES

40. Literally meeting thousands of new people. Who don’t give a shit about me, next! 41. Hearing crazy stories. Who cares? 42. Telling crazy stories. No one cares.

43. Eating ice cream on a hot day. This really doesn’t seem worth it. 44. More Harry Potter books could come out, you never know. So murder-suicide JK Roling.

45. Traveling to another planet someday. No way 46. Having an underwater house. NO

47. Randomly running into your hero on the street. I have no hero. 48. Having your own room at a fancy hotel. WHo cares? 49. Trampolines. I HATE THEM

50. Think about your favorite movie, you’ll never watch it again. I’M DEAD

51. Think about the feeling of laughing out loud in a public place because your best friend has just sent you an inside joke Yeah, that’ll never happen.

52. Your survival will make the world better, even if it’s for just one person or 20 or 100 or more. It literally doesn’t!

53. People do care. That’s not a reason 54. Treehouses What do they care too? LOL

55. Hanging out with your soul mate in a treehouse Soul mates aren’t real.

55. Snorting when you laugh and not caring who sees I already do that, doesn’t matter.

56. I don’t even know you and I love you. Impossible

57. I don’t even know you and I care about you. More possible but still difficult

58. Because nobody is going to be like you ever, so embrace your uniqueness! Thank God, I’m a horrible person.

59. You won’t be here to experience the first cat world emperor. Big whoop 60. WHAT ABOUT FOOD?! YOU’LL MISS CHOCOLATE AND ALL THE OTHER NOM THINGS! Well I’ll be dead so meh

61. Starbucks. Worst thing ever 62. Hugs. Scare me

63. Stargazing. I’m always scared a spider will exist. 64. You have a purpose, and it’s up to you to find out what it is. My purpose is to die.

65. You’ve changed somebody’s life. So?

66. Now you could change the world. I already did.

67. You will meet the person that’s perfect for you. Nope, I’m too bad of a person. 68. No matter how much or how little, you have your life ahead of you. Actually yeah, the nazis might turn me into soap so it might be better to die now.

69. You have the chance to save somebody’s life. So?

70. If you end your life, you’re stopping yourself from achieving great things. You already said this.

71. Making snow angels. Texas 72. Making snowmen. TEXAS

73. Snowball fights.

TEXAS!!!!

74. Life is what you make of it. Which is why I want to die. 75. Everybody has a talent. Who cares!

76. Laughing until you cry. I can’t cry no matter how much I want to and honestly that’s a big fuel of wanting to die.

77. Having the ability to be sad means you have the ability to be happy. Nope, depression. 78. The world would not be the same if you didn’t exist. The world is always changing.

79. Its possible to turn frowns, upside down You literally just said this.

80. Be yourself, don’t take anyone’s shit, and never let them take you alive. This is literally advocating suicide. Wow you suck at this LOL

81. Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary. Be your own hero. Poor

82. Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. No, it means waking up not wanting to die and having something to look forward to and being able to do what you really really want to.

83. One day your smile will be real. The wind blows waftfully 84. Having a really hot, relaxing bath after a stressful day. I’m too big for my bathtub.

85. Lying on grass and laughing at the clouds. I’m scared of spiders.

86. Getting completely smashed with your best friends. Alcoholism runs in the family and I don’t want that.

87. Eating crazy food. Ew no

88. Staying up all night watching your favorite films with a loved one. No one loves me.

89. Sleeping in all day. Already do that cuz depressed

90. Creating something you’re proud of. If I could, I wouldn’t want to die.

91. You can look back on yourself 70 years later and being proud you didn’t commit I’m pretty certain I’d die of famine by then.

92. Being able to meet your Internet friends. I’m literally terrified of meeting them. 93. Tea / Coffee / Hot Chocolate Who cares

94. Sherlock season three. This is literally advocating for suicide, wow you’re bad at this! 95. Cuddling under the stars. You already mentioned this.

96. Being stupid in public because you just can. Wow that’s really worth living for 9__9

97. If you are reading this then you are alive! Is there any more reason to smile? No, there’s literally no reason to smile because my future is blighted.

98. being able to hug that one person you haven't seen in years I’m scared of hugging.

99. People care enough about you and your future to come up with 100 reasons for you not to do this. You literally didn’t!

Many of these are just repeats and almost all of it is nonsense!

Like if I could enjoy any of this shit, then I wouldn’t want to die in the first place!!

Either that or your “reasons” were horrible awful things I’d never want to do.

Deadinparadice, you suck.

100. But, the final and most important one is, just, being able to experience life. Because even if your life doesn’t seem so great right now, literally anything could happen You mentioned this many times.

Well that was a shitload of fuck, what were they thinking?!

You wanna know real reasons not to kill yourself?

A) If you fuck up it’s going to hurt like hell

B) If you don’t die because you fucked up or if some asshole saves you, there’s always going to be something wrong with you

Whether it’s colorblindness, mental hiccups, or being a fucking vegetable, the lights are on but nobody home

C) It’s scary

Otherwise, suicide happens when you have no place in the world, when your depression gets so bad, and it ALWAYS gets that bad eventually, that you can’t take it anymore.

Like, if other people can take these platitudes and feel better, more power to ya, but all this shit just feels like being mocked.

Like it’s sooooo easy to want to live.

As though life is going to be wonderful always.

There’s literally a genocide going on along with a massive extinction event, and all the fascists, authoritrians they all got nukes so one day it could all end.

There’s nothing to look forward to.

On top of that more and more it feels like I have no place anywhere in this world.

If I were braver I’d take the shotgun and end it, but I fear pain so much I’m scared of running cuz I might trip and skid my knees.

Life is nothing but misery.

#TW: suicide #death #negativity

0 notes

hellofastestnewsfan · 5 years

Link

For Martin Law, Marie Kondo’s tidying regimen was life-changing, until it wasn’t. Law, a 32-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge, went through with most of Kondo’s popular tidying method two years ago. “I managed to get rid of a great deal of items that I previously had found difficult to let go of,” he told me, including about half of his clothing.

After Law’s big cleanout, though, the stuff gradually crept back in. His kitchen gained a series of useful but not vital devices: a new cookie cutter, a larger whisk, a machine for making peanut butter. The accumulations of the past two years have added up. “The house is probably no better than it was—perhaps marginally better, but in reality probably no better,” he says. His commitment to having very little has, he confesses, petered out.

“If you adopt this approach—the KonMari Method—you’ll never revert to clutter again,” wrote Marie Kondo in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, published in the United States in the fall of 2014. Millions of people have bought her book, and many of those millions have since learned whether her promise holds for them as they systematically purge their homes of items that do not bring them happiness, or “spark joy,” as Kondo famously puts it.

I recently checked in with more than a dozen people who did their first KonMari-style cleanouts in 2015, 2016, or 2017. They were generally enthusiastic (even Martin Law) about the way Kondo’s book made them reconsider their relationship to material things, although many of them lamented the onslaught of new stuff that must always be kept at bay.

[Read: Marie Kondo and the privilege of clutter]

That process has come more easily to some than to others. “My house has never gone back to the way it was before I started doing this three years ago,” says KK Holland, a 37-year-old who lives in Santa Barbara, California. Yes, clutter occasionally mounts, but she works to keep it in check. “I remove items that no longer spark joy on an ongoing basis, and I am a pretty fierce guard of what comes into my house,” she told me.

At the end of 2017, she and her husband had a baby girl. “I’m happy to report our KonMari survived an infant,” Holland says. She insists that nothing makes her uniquely good at vanquishing clutter, but that Kondo’s approach has staying power because it prompts people to fundamentally revisit why they own what they own.

Most people I talked to, though, carved out exceptions to or ignored certain recommendations in the process outlined in the book. A couple of them kept more books than they thought Kondo would want them to. And two women—one in Massachusetts, the other in Hanover, Germany—independently told me they thought it was too onerous to remove everything from their handbags each day upon returning home, as Kondo prescribes.

And for some people, the project of going through every last thing they own, one by one, was too much to handle. Mike Fu, a 33-year-old Brooklynite, estimates that he made it through about three-quarters of the KonMari method three or four years ago. “I probably chickened out at the point where it was going through all the papers and non-clothing or -book objects,” he told me. Fu says he was at one point enticed by minimalist “lifestyle porn,” such as an image of a “sparsely decorated all-white living room with an iMac,” but he’s since come to terms with having a bit of clutter. And he and his partner are planning to give the KonMari method another try, “at our own glacial pace.”

Jasmine Bager, who’s 35 and lives in New York City, also tried a KonMari cleanout but decided it wasn’t for her. After she piled up all her clothing for a Kondo-style review a few years ago, she found the prospect of carrying through with the project too exhausting and avoided the pile, shifting it back and forth between her chair and her bed. She later came up with her own decluttering system, which she says works for her: Every day, when she leaves her apartment, she forces herself to take three items with her to get rid of.

There is some flexibility to Bager’s rule (a bag of garbage counts toward the quota, and she doesn’t follow it if she’s in a real hurry), but she has been sticking with it for more than a year. In the course of what she calls her “little game with the city,” she’s been leaving behind various objects—a magazine, a key chain, a book, shoes—around town, unlabeled, with an expectation that someone who needs them will claim them. Once, months after abandoning a headband she’d made herself, she was pleased to see a stranger wearing it at a subway stop near her apartment.

Whether or not they followed the instructions in Kondo’s book, Bager and the others I talked to for this story discarded a significant amount of stuff. Some thought about it in terms of volume—a Jeep Grand Cherokee’s worth of objects, or enough furniture to fill a two-bedroom apartment. One woman estimated that she and her husband chucked 60 to 70 percent of their belongings.

Even with all this throwing out, people have had very few regrets. Most told me they now don’t miss a thing, even stuff that they hesitated to discard. Some recalled isolated instances of (usually fleeting) second-guessing. Velma Gentzsch, a 40-year-old in St. Louis who KonMari-ed in 2017, says she wishes she still had the pair of brown leather boots she parted with. “I loved them, but they were half a size too big … [but] it’s not a huge deal,” she says.

Christina Refford, whose fourth KonMari-versary is this year, remembers twice going to her bookshelf—once for a stack of cooking magazines, once for Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women—only to realize that she’d tossed out what she was looking for. She wasn’t too bothered. “Almost anything I would’ve gotten rid of can be found somewhere else,” Refford says.

The most missed item in all these purges was a special-edition pack of Pepsi bottles, each emblazoned with a cartoon alligator, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the University of Florida’s football program. The bereaved: Imani Clenance, a 34-year-old graduate of the university who lives in New York City. “Every now and then I think about those, like, Hmm, those might’ve been kind of cool to keep … But if I really wanted them, I could probably find them somewhere on eBay,” Clenance says. (I looked—she could.)

Marie Kondo writes that when doing a cleanout, “starting with mementos spells certain failure,” for they are plentiful, meaningful, and often irreplaceable. Kondo recommends tackling this difficult category last because it’s so hard, and indeed it’s one that the people I talked to struggled with. Many of them still haven’t finished it.

Lisa Shininger, who’s 40 and lives in Dayton, Ohio, told me about a beloved, ragged old T-shirt that she agonized over when she KonMari-ed in 2016. It carried so many memories for her that discarding it would feel like discarding them too. After rescuing it from her get-rid-of pile a few times, she ultimately let it go, and now she reports that she doesn’t miss it.

“If something didn’t make it in a move, or somebody else got rid of it by accident and I didn’t know about it—those kinds of things I regretted not having anymore,” Shininger says. “But I found that [wasn’t the case] when I myself made the deliberate choice [to get rid of it].” She particularly appreciates Kondo’s suggestion that people thank their stuff as they bid it goodbye—she thinks that helps prevent regret.

One particularly diligent KonMari practitioner, a 62-year-old retired child psychologist living in Washington, D.C., mentioned a strategy that helped her with this stubborn class of belongings. (She asked me not to publish her name because she didn’t want her clients’ families reading about her personal life.) She took pictures of the art her children had made in school and some trinkets she’d received from her grandparents. “I enjoy looking at the pictures,” she said, “but do not miss the actual objects.”

Another devotee, Ian Bate, shared his own secret to success. “I was surprisingly ruthless about [mementos], partly because I have an advantage: I’m old.” Bate is 70, an age at which he says it’s become clear which memories matter most to him and, more practically, “who might or might not like [my stuff] after I’m gone.”

“A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective,” Kondo writes. “It is life transforming. I mean it.” Language like this makes her book veer into self-help territory, but based on the experiences of the people I talked to, Kondo wasn’t overpromising. Whether a matter of causation or just correlation, many of the people I spoke to also said that their cleanouts coincided with pivotal moments in their lives.

One had just broken up with a longtime boyfriend when she did hers two years ago, and is planning another with her new partner now that they have moved in together. One found that his cleanout finally unburdened him of keepsakes he’d inherited when his parents died almost a decade earlier. One KonMari-ed, and then made long-procrastinated headway on getting her finances in order. And one finally went on the six-month backpacking trip she’d been thinking about for a long time, once she didn’t feel weighed down by her stuff.

“I wish I had encountered the book when I was 30,” Bate told me. He reflected on his career as a “good American consumer” and concluded that the majority of what he’d bought over the course of his life wouldn’t meet his new KonMari-calibrated standard. “If I had done it back when I was 30,” he says, “I just would have saved myself a lot of hassle by not buying and having to dispose of endless piles of crap.”

from The Atlantic http://bit.ly/2TP6ylY

#Blogger

0 notes

brittanyyoungblog · 5 years

Text

Why Recycling Your Exes is Bad for Your Environment

I’ve always been a sucker for a good “second chance” story.

I mean… who doesn’t love a good rom-com starring the lovable cad of a boyfriend who lets his awesome (and of course, perfect, gorgeous, and flawlessly thigh-gapped) girlfriend down in new appalling ways every single day; probably doesn’t have a job, goals, ambition, or the ability to stay faithful for longer than one episode of a Netflix binge; and doesn’t realize the error of his ways until said girlfriend has left him high and dry, and taken her Netflix password with her? (So basically Matthew McConaughey in every romantic comedy he’s ever been in.) We all know what happens next, right? Mr. McConaughey sees the light, chases his leading lady to the airport/train station/across the world/etc./etc., becomes a better man than he was five minutes earlier, and professes his undying love, then she takes him back, no questions asked. They kiss, we swoon, the credits roll. And, once again, Hollywood succeeds in making us forget why exes are, in fact… exes.

There are certain ex-boyfriends out there, who always come back around. No matter how long it’s been since you broke up or what remote, deserted island you moved to in order to escape him—he will find you. He will online stalk his way back into your life via a tweet or a Facebook friend request or an Instagram DM. He might even start a new account to get to you since you blocked him on all the old ones. Nope—ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no river wide enough to keep him from getting to you. And more than likely it will happen right at the very second that you finally get over him. It’s like a weird male antenna that receives a signal that you’re not hung up on him anymore and his fingers are suddenly drawn to his phone like a moth to a flame. “She’s not crying into her pillow every night anymore! I better call and remind her why she was crying in the first place!”

While not all exes have bad intentions, and some might actually be texting just to see how you’re doing, it’s best to avoid that danger zone like you would a coffee shop with no WiFi. Why? Because as the old adage says, “A leopard never changes its spots.” In this case—the spots being whatever reasons you had for ending the relationship in the first place.

“Things ended for a reason. Remember that reason.” That’s something my therapist likes to remind me of every time I come to her with an ex who has popped back up in my life like a game of whack-a-mole. (Or a whack-a-leopard, I guess.)

Whatever spots your particular leopard had when last you saw him, you can bet they’re still there—even if he’s cleverly hiding them behind a more mature age, smoother talk, or sudden eagerness to commit.

I once tried to date a guy when I was 20, then again when I was about 26, then again when I was 31, and I can categorically say: The third time was NOT the charm. Nope, he was sketchier and shadier every time I gave him another chance. It’s like this guy went out of his way to get in his lifetime quota of weird dating behaviors with me. But I seem to just have this soft spot for my exes.

And I can’t help but wonder… is this just me? Or is everyone more susceptible to catching feelings for someone they’ve once had feelings for? Here are the stories I tell myself to justify recycling an ex:

– He’s changed.

– Things were left unfinished between us, and this is our chance to get it right this time.

– Maybe he’s the one I’m supposed to be with, and it just took time for us both to realize it.

Here’s the thing, though: People don’t really ever change THAT much. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying people aren’t capable of change. I believe they are. I’ve changed greatly over the past few years. But I got here through intensive struggle and therapy and confronting my own junk. Most people aren’t willing or able to take the necessary steps to effect real change. Barring a miracle or a massive life overhaul, your ex is still the same guy who told you that you were the love of his life then broke up with you via text message.

As for the “unfinished business” excuse? I would argue that any ending, no matter how it comes about, is closure. It’s okay, and even healthy, to let some things end messily, and badly. You just can’t put a cherry on top of every sundae. Sometimes things just end because they’re supposed to end, and you don’t get an explanation or an apology or closure. My therapist also likes to remind me that we are responsible for our own closure. You should never leave your peace of mind or ability to move on in someone else’s hands.

And finally… real love isn’t like a movie and and it’s not supposed to be. Real love doesn’t have to chase you to the airport at the end of the movie, because real love doesn’t leave in the first place. If he was and is the one you were meant to be with, he would have stuck around. For the hard stuff, for the intense stuff, for the messy stuff. Don’t get so sucked into the idea of a perfect Hollywood ending that you mistake glitter for gold.

Exes are, by definition alone, bad news. Exile, excommunicate, exclude, extradite, exhume, exhausted… do any of these words give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? There’s a reason that “ex” comes before “boyfriend”—and it’s best to leave that relationship in the ground where it belongs and not try and recreate a moment that probably wasn’t all that great to begin with. Besides, if you’re filling up your calendar with X’s, you’re leaving no room for O’s—as in “Oh, he’s so wonderful!” So the only “ex” you should be headed for is the exit, and quickly!

At the end of the day, recycling exes might not be bad for the environment, but it’s bad for your environment. If he didn’t make it past your past, he’s certainly not worthy of your future, so quit wasting time on what might have been and look ahead to what can still be. Just because “ex” didn’t mark the spot doesn’t mean there’s not still buried treasure to be found… Most likely where you least expect it. So here’s a shovel. Start diggin’.

The post Why Recycling Your Exes is Bad for Your Environment appeared first on The Date Mix.

from Meet Positives SMFeed 8 http://zsk.cm/2UJlVfy via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Meet Positives SMFeed 8

0 notes

pedrocamposhtc-blog · 5 years

Text

10 Amazing Productivity Tips For The Ambitious Sales Professional (To Implement Today)

If you`re struggling with staying productive…

Something is wrong! With your level of awareness.

There`s a lot of advice out there when it comes to productivity tips, some great information. In fact, I encourage you to check other articles after reading this one.

But most people forget to talk about self-awareness and how it can impact your productivity.

You see, if you`re not operating like a top performer, there`s probably something you`re not aware of. When the things we do become a habit, if we`re doing the wrong things over and over again, they become a bad habit, would you agree?

Winning is a habit, so is losing!

If it doesn`t move you closer to your goals, eliminate it from your day. Click To Tweet

Staying productive is a habit, so is never finishing things on time. Average is an epidemic in this world and very few people are considered top performers.

Listen, it`s not because you`re lazy or dumb, sometimes you might just be missing a few extra strategies that you`ll take your sales career to the next level.

Being more productive is a matter of increasing your awareness and changing bad habits.

That`s it!

In order to help you become a more effective sales professional, I`m gonna give you my best productivity tips so you start crushing your numbers and outperform everybody else.

Get ready…

Productivity Tip #1 – Script Your Day

Have you ever seen a great movie that didn`t have a script?

Of course not, it creates predictability, much like a sales call script. No different with your days.

So, what do I mean by scripting?

It simply means taking your calendar, it could be on your smartphone and list out all the tasks you need to get done for the day, ideally with reminders at a certain time.

Take it a step further…

If there`s some conference you want to attend at a specific date, put it in the calendar as soon as you make the commitment to go there.

Your script will help you stay on track and give you more clarity. Then, you´re not wondering around asking yourself “what do I need to do?” , “where do I need to go?”

It`s already on your phone or computer and you know what to expect.

Dude, I`m so freaking productive that I create time, it`s my little slave. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #2 – Create Checklists

How many times have done something that required a process but you forgot half of what you needed to do?

It happens a lot when you don`t have checklists. They are lifesavers, sometimes deal savers!

They prevent you from making silly mistakes when tackling a specific task and give you the peace of mind you need to carry on with your day confidently.

You don`t want to be in the bathroom and thinking about what you may have forgotten in the last email you sent out to a prospect.

Some tasks can become too daunting without a guideline, a roadmap you can follow every time.

Create a checklist for everything… seriously! Writing follows up emails, doing closing calls, presentations, pre-call research, CRM, proposals, referrals or online meetings.

The last thing you want is to try to remember what the prospect said two days ago. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #3 – Close Door Policy

Open door policy?

Dumb!

Don`t do that to yourself. If work at home or in an office where you have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and close the door, man. Open doors only invite distractions…. and also the curious, time vampires to be precise.

Open doors send a signal to other people that goes like this… “please, interrupt me anytime!”

Most people will respect your space and see the door closed as a sign that you don`t want to be interrupted. Great, now you can focus on doing what`s important.

You can even put a little note on the door…

“I`m busy crushing my sales targets, please don`t bother me!”

If you can`t close the door for some reason or don`t have any door, headphones or headsets are your next best bet.

Distraction is the only luxury of the poor. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #4 – The Big Three

At the beginning of your day, jot down on a piece of paper, on the computer or the phone, whatever works for you, the three most important things you need to accomplish that day.

These tasks should be the ones that move the needle forward, income-producing activities.

They could be doing a presentation, preparing a contract, prospecting new accounts or contacting existing customers to renew contracts.

And no, putting stuff into the CRM doesn`t count.

Checking emails doesn`t count, either!

“But what do I do after I`m done with those big three?” – you may ask. Great question, it`s simple, you put your focus on the other less important activities, the non-money making…

Organizing your desk, preparing your next presentation or think about what you could improve.

By prioritizing the tasks, your mind will focus on what you must do to reach your goals first, not what is convenient to do.

Sometimes you might just be missing a few extra strategies that you`ll take your sales career to the next level. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #5 – Start With The Hard Stuff

Salespeople love to start the day like this…

Checking emails and logging things into the CRM. It`s a productivity killer, you know that! Then why do you keep doing the same sh*t?

Because it`s convenient!

All the sudden you find yourself in the middle of the day, without accomplishing anything relevant because all you did was the easy stuff.

There`s no better confidence booster than getting your day rolling with the most difficult tasks.

It might be different from person to person.

For you, it could be prospecting, doing closing calls or presenting your product or service to a group of potential buyers.

I can`t tell you how much motivation this simple trick gives you. It`s crazy!

When you get the hard things out of the way first thing in the morning, you`ll be more be inspired to tackle the rest of the day and whatever comes along will feel a lot easier to get through.

Nothing can stop you!

The human brain is programmed to focus on only one thing at the time, not 16! Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #6 – Log Now Not Later

We both know what happens when you keep your notes in your head…

Exactly!

Confusion, overwhelm and a bunch of lost data.

After every sales contact, do your best to put any relevant notes or information in the CRM, as soon as the meeting or call ends. Most of them these days allow you to pause in between calls to log information.

If you don`t have access to the CRM in the moment, put your notes on paper and transfer them to the software as soon as possible.

The last thing you want is to try to remember what the prospect said two days ago.

I promised you…

If it stays in your head for too long, it will disappear. Your brain has a hard time coming up with creative ideas and solve problems when you keep stuff in there and this is when you start making mistakes. Because you`re trying to remember 26 things that happened one or two weeks ago.

Clearing your mind will do you more good than anything else for your productivity.

At the end of each day or week, get critical about your performance. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #7 – Multitasking Is A Load Of Crap

I`m sure you have never come across an Olympic athlete that was swimming and tweeting at the same time. If you did, something was wrong!

Athletes don`t multitask, they immerse themselves in one thing. Even practicing, they work on one single skill at the time.

I still laugh at the amount of job posting opportunities asking for people who are proficient at multitasking.

Who writes this nonsense, come on… really?

The human brain is programmed to focus on only one thing at the time, not 13!

Now, I`m checking emails, at the same time I`m closing a sale on the phone, drinking coffee, tweeting about how good I am on the phone and… taking notes.

I hope this isn`t you.

No top performers operate that way! They`re immersed in one single activity and I recommend you to do the same if you want to be a top earner, not an average salesperson.

Create time blocks for everything you do and immerse yourself into that one task.

If you want to go beyond average, you must stop paying fair. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #8 – Surround Yourself With Winners

Who`s the top salesperson in your office?

If it`s you, congratulations! If not, make sure you start hanging around with the pros. Go out with them, talk to them on a regular basis, ask a lot of questions and be a sponge.

Choose your environment carefully, it has a tremendous impact on your results and ultimately, the quality of your life. “Oh, but Jenny and I are friends from high school!” Ask yourself… “is she dragging me down or lifting me up?”

Success is not a popularity contest or and it`s about being liked. If the people around you don`t support your dreams, move on.

Get around winners, you can get so many insights from people that are crushing it. In my first sales job, I`d always admire the top guys, and was constantly asking myself “what do they know that I don`t?”

Watching and mirroring the sales pros seems such a simple trick and that`s why most people forget about it.

Average in our society is the predominant state of being. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #9 – Turn Off Notifications

Seriously…

Those notifications you have on your phone, turn them off! The constant beeping and vibrating don`t put money in your pocket.

They are more of a distraction than anything else. How can you focus on the task at hand when you`re addicted to those freaking comments and likes?

Go into your phone and… you already know what you have to do.

Some salespeople are in the middle of prospecting and looking at their Instagram in the intervals between calls. No wonder they miss quotas.

You just can`t focus on anything when you`re checking your phone every 30 seconds.

Social media can get addicting, I know!

But if it`s becoming such a distraction that your results are being affected by it, you`ve got to let go. Distraction is the only luxury of the poor.

I believe in the principle of the slight edge and so should you, if success is a priority in your life. Click To Tweet

Productivity Tip #10 – Analyze Your Day

Time to get honest!

Sometimes we get so caught up in the midst of our busy days that we lose track of how the hours are being spent. You may be surprised to you find out that your days are not as productive as you thought they`d be.

Self-awareness is the key here.

At the end of each day or week, get critical about your performance. On top of scripting your day, you want to make sure you list out all the things you did that day or week.

Ask yourself questions like these:

What activities did I do?

Where did I go?

How many deals did I close?

What was I doing Tuesday at 02:00 pm?

How many hours did I spend on the phone?

If you start seeing a pattern that doesn`t serve you, for example playing Candy Crush in between sales calls, then it`s time to remove that habit from your day-to-day.

“Candy Crush is so fun!”

It might be but if it doesn`t move you closer to your goals, eliminate it from your day. There`s no money to be made playing stupid little games.

Being more productive is a matter of increasing your awareness and changing bad habits. Click To Tweet

Putting It All Together

Use all of these productivity tips and I promise you that your results will be different. Because guess what?

Most of your peers are not doing this. If you think about it, average in our society is the predominant state of being.

If you want to go beyond average, you must stop paying fair. I believe in the principle of the slight edge and so should you, if success is a priority in your life.

Take advantage of every little trick that I`ve shared with you today, think about how you can implement them in your daily battleplan and watch how much you can get done.

Make Time Your Slave

Most salespeople complain… “I don`t have enough time”, “I`m too busy for that!”

Instead of following the herd, start telling yourself…

“Dude, I`m so freaking productive that I create time, it`s my little slave.”

You create time, indeed. As long as you`re committed to your goals, your future, your potential, time is not an obstacle.

People that make success a priority in their lives do not complain about how little time they have, instead, they focus on improving themselves and you too can do the same.

Be great and go crush it!

The post 10 Amazing Productivity Tips For The Ambitious Sales Professional (To Implement Today) appeared first on Pedro Campos.

source https://pedro-campos.com/productivity-tips/

#business #entrepreneurship sales #marketing #blog digitalmarketing #blogger

0 notes

rolandfontana · 5 years

Text

How to Find the Cops America Needs

Officer-involved shootings continue to be a major problem for police departments across the country. According to the Fatal Force database compiled by the Washington Post, 3,743 people have been shot and killed by police since 2015, with 746 of those deaths occurring in 2018 alone.

While a number of these incidents may be the result of officers responding to legitimate threats to their safety, and the safety of others, many still point to a pattern of violent and irresponsible reactions to situations that should have ended differently for everyone.

One solution has been to train officers in de-escalation and conflict resolution techniques, an option tried in major departments such as New York and Seattle. But increasingly, members of the criminal justice community say police need to take a much closer look at who they’re hiring, and how those men and women are being selected for a job that puts people’s lives in their hands.

“The traditional police hiring process really tends to eliminate people; it’s not designed to hire the best,” said Tom Wilson, director of the Police Educational Research Forum’s Center for Applied Research and Management, in an interview with The Crime Report.

According to GoLawEnforcement.com, an online employment resource for nationwide law enforcement, the standard hiring process consists of a written exam—usually multiple choice—an oral board interview, a physical agility test, a polygraph, a psychological exam, a background investigation, and a medical exam. Each candidate completes each exam and then moves on to the next.

Wilson, a 25-year veteran of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, compares it to a “funnel.”

“You start at the top end of a funnel, and you get all these people to apply and then maybe by the time you actually hire somebody you whittle it down to one out of ten, twenty, thirty, forty.”

The “funnel” only serves to weed out those who don’t make it to the next step. Most departments then rely on their training academies to further identify who has the desired and necessary skills they are looking for, and who doesn’t.

“If you don’t pass mustard in the academy, if you’re not able to pass certain requirements and tests, then you will be eliminated from the process,” said Wilson.

But police academies aren’t always reliable filters. With police departments around the country facing high demands for new officers, some cities’ academies are graduating people who are both ill-prepared and ill-suited for the job ahead.

Cities like Chicago and Baltimore, for example, who are under pressure to hire thousands of new officers, have been criticized for the quality of their new hires. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Police Department’s academy graduated more than 97 percent of its recruits over a four year period. According to a report in the Baltimore Sun, a third of Baltimore police recruits set to graduate lack even a basic understanding of the laws governing constitutional policing.

“As long as you have (hiring) quotas, you have targets, and when you have targets you’re eliminating good people,” said Stan Mason, host of the radio program Behind the Blue Curtain, in an interview with TCR.

Lowering standards begins at the hiring level.

A 25-year veteran of the Waco, Tx., Police Department, Mason was part of the selection process in his agency for 15 years. He points out that for most departments, and especially those in major municipalities, lowering standards to meet numbers begins at the hiring level.

As a result, even positive efforts like diversification can yield poor candidates when selection comes down to just filling required slots as soon as possible.

“When you have to meet numbers and you get down to the last two black guys, neither of them might be worth a thing,” said Mason. “But, one of them is going to get in there because you gotta fill those books.”

Stan Mason

Mason recommends that cities and their departments focus instead on better understanding the demographics of their communities, stressing a need for departments that strive for a cultural diversity that mirrors the demographics of the cities or towns they police and, as a result, are better equipped to provide the kind of officers those communities really need.

It’s a necessity that Wilson agrees is long overdue for recognition.

“It’s time we start recognizing that different people bring different skills to this job, and we need that diverse background,” said Wilson, who adds that even just changing where and how departments hire those people is a step in the right direction.

In the wake of low unemployment rates, negative public scrutiny, and a shift in what younger generations want in a career, developing new and innovative hiring practices to fill the ranks of police departments is critical.

A 2017 national survey by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence found that governments are having more trouble hiring police than any other category of personnel. According to Wilson, this may be due, in part, to an outdated hiring strategy.

“It’s not the old standby that we go to the local colleges, or state colleges, or military bases,” said Wilson. “We need to start branching out a little bit.”

Some departments are.

Proactive Recruiting

In 2017, the Michigan State Police put full-time recruiters in the field, made community partnerships with the Black Caucus Foundation and America Corps, visited churches that recommended candidates, and launched an aggressive social media campaign with videos posted on Facebook and YouTube. Their most recent academy class, set to graduate in 2019, is the most diverse they’ve had in 20 years.

In Dallas, Chief U. Renee Hall launched a program that seeks to hire recent high school graduates as supplemental public service officers who will receive college tuition reimbursement and, upon program completion and reaching hiring age, become eligible to attend the police academy.

Its goals include attracting a new pool of recruits from different areas in the communities that the police serve and thereby strengthening trust.

However, Mason insists that innovative hiring campaigns like these, while positive efforts, are only successful if the departments know the people they’re serving and choose the right officer for the right community.

“You have to understand your city,” said Mason.

“You can’t hire two Blacks, 17 whites, and one Hispanic and say, ‘wow, look at us: we got more people.’ You just have more resources. If the resources can’t be applied effectively, what good is it?”

And for officers like Mason, making sure that departments are hiring people who know the communities they are policing is essential to ensuring everyone’s safety and understanding.

A 2017 report by the Pew Research Center found that in a national survey of nearly 8,000 police officers, 72 percent considered knowledge of the people, places, and culture of the areas they work extremely important to doing the job effectively.

However, many departments today find a lot of their officers live outside the communities they serve.

Does Location Matter?

According to The New York Times, in cities like Baton Rouge, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis, a majority of officers don’t live within the city limits. In fact, data journalism outlet FiveThirtyEight reports that only 15 of the nation’s largest police forces even require residency for their officers at all. As a result, the number of officers policing communities they actually know is rapidly dwindling, creating greater risk for potentially deadly mistakes.

“If you have a white officer, who has never been around black people, is this guy going to fit in Detroit, Chicago, or Baltimore?” asked Mason.

“This guy can’t handle it; it’s culture shock.”

Faced with this reality, finding the best officers can’t just be about finding the people that culturally or ethnically best suit a specific community.

For David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a leading national authority on racial profiling, it must also be about finding the people who are able to make a connection with, and adapt to, any community’s culture.

The first step begins with paying attention to how a candidate behaves at home.

David Harris

“If I’m recruiting people, I want to know what they do in their own community,” said Harris, a criminal justice author who has also worked as a professional trainer for law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

According to Harris, finding men and women who demonstrate a concrete commitment to the community in which they live, even if it’s not the one they’re applying to serve, is essential to finding out what kind of police officer they will be in the future.

“Do they coach Little League? Do they work at a soup kitchen? Volunteer for meals on wheels? Anything,” said Harris.

“Show me that they are people who care about that sort of thing.”

By finding such community-involved and adaptable individuals, Harris believes that departments can move closer to the more empathetic and conscientious officers that people want. And the departments that will have the best luck in finding these kind of men and women are the ones who reach out to those very same communities and ask, “what do you want.”

While conducting research in this area for his 2005 book “Good Cops: The Case for Preventive Policing,” Harris had the opportunity to observe the St. Paul Police Department do just that.

“They went to the community and asked them what kind of police department and officers they wanted,” said Harris.

“The people didn’t come up with physically strong, willing to run into a burning building. What they came up with was good communicator, honest, having integrity, being able to talk to people. Those were the things that the community was interested in. What any community would be interested in.”

For Harris, this kind of cooperation and communication should be the norm, especially during the hiring process. For example, by including civilians and members of the community in police department’s review boards, which interview candidates on their qualifications and character, departments may have a better chance of improving the whole process and veering away from hiring the kind of command and control police officers traditionally sought after in the past by boards comprised mainly of a department’s sworn officers.

In fact, according to the Report on 21st Century Policing, released under the Obama administration, civilian involvement with local law enforcement agencies is essential to improving the state of policing in this country. And while police popularity may be low, a 2017 study by the Urban Institute found that large percentages of people living in the most challenging areas of cities like Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and Birmingham, also professed a desire to work with police to solve neighborhood issues.

Community Involvement in Hiring

“A civilian group, or the community more broadly, can and should certainly be helping an agency determine what its priorities are,” agreed Seth Stoughton, an assistant law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, and a former Tallahassee, Fl., police officer, in an interview with TCR.

A member of the Columbia, S.C., Police Department’s civilian advisory council, Stoughton explained that, as part of the department’s inclusive selection process, a member of his council always attends both police applicant interviews and officer disciplinary hearings.

Seth Stoughton

Enjoying an equal voice and vote alongside the police chiefs and commanders in the room, these men and women can ask questions and provide feedback on a candidate that helps to better decide if they are the best choice for the job.

Another example of this kind of successful cohesion is Washington D.C. where, according to PBS.org, the Office of Police Complaints (OPC) has won praise for an effectiveness that is based on community outreach, independence, and authority to approve policy and training recommendations to the department.

But while the OPC may be an example of a best-case scenario when it comes to organizing civilian involvement and cohesion with police in the hiring process, Stoughton warns that no two departments are alike. Things like independence and authority are hard to come by, he said.

“The devil is in the details,” Stoughton observed. “How do you pick which civilian or set of civilians is going to be involved in this? How much say does the civilian have?”

In a country with roughly 18,000 different law enforcement agencies, finding the right answer to these questions is no easy task. A report by the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) states that the largest impediment to establishing approaches to civilian oversight are the wildly different practices of any two jurisdictions, which can depend on a variety of political, cultural, and social influences.

Inconsistency of this kind can lead to board members being selected by the chief of police or a political official, a biased situation that some would consider no different than having the chief select an officer.

In addition, further damage can be done by the civilian members themselves, who, according to a study by the Columbia Journal on Law and Social Problems, can not only display bias towards the department that hired them, but could also be overly deferential to the police because of a lack of experience.

Shortcomings like these are exemplified by cities like Seattle and Albuquerque where, despite having established civilian oversight and apparent transparency in the past, they find themselves facing an uphill battle to improve their police departments.

In Chicago, a debate continues over whether civilian groups should oversee police at all. While it may be a small step in the right direction, civilian involvement is far from the only solution to finding today’s best, brightest and most empathetic police candidates.

“I think civilian involvement in the hiring process is an easy thing for most agencies and jurisdictions to do,” said Stoughton.

But he added, “I don’t think it entirely or substantially solves some of the problems that various agencies in various communities have experienced.”

Gypsy Cops

When it comes to proper hiring, one of the largest of those problems are known as “gypsy cops.”

Recently, communities in Cleveland were outraged to find out that Timothy Loehman, the Cleveland officer who shot and killed 12-year old Tamir Rice, had been hired by the nearby Belair, Ohio police department on a part-time basis.

Despite losing his job in Cleveland for failing to disclose that the Independence, Ohio police department had previously found him unfit to be a member of their own department, Loehman was also permitted to apply at departments in Euclid and RTA. Though he has recently quit amid public pressure, he was still hired in Belair despite his very public and questionable reputation.

“Most would assume that if police departments knew what happened with an officer at a prior department you wouldn’t hire them,” said Roger Goldman, a Callis Family Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law, to TCR.

Roger Goldman

“That is absolutely not the case.”

Instead, police departments around the country have been rehiring officers with terrible records for years. And while some departments may look into a former officers past before hiring, they are too often either not digging deep enough or are willing to ignore prior misconduct and hire people who are a risk in the face of both state laws and department budgetary issues.

“State law can get in the way of screening officers who come from prior service,” said Stoughton.

According to the Washington Post, some states shield police personnel records, including firings, from public records, while state laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s allow police some form of collective bargaining rights. Thus, police unions are able to appeal any discipline taken against an officer and, more often than not, have them reinstated.

The process is lengthy, complicated and costly and, as a result, many departments prefer to avoid liability altogether and only provide a former employee’s start and end date.

“One agency might not want to tell another agency exactly why an officer no longer works there, because they might be afraid of a defamation lawsuit,” added Stoughton.

On the other end, Goldman said that police departments, especially smaller departments, will often choose to roll the dice on a former officer with a poor record just to save money, rather than spend what they may not have in order to train a completely new hire.

It’s a decision that can cost lives.

“What got me started in all of this was a cop at a St. Louis, Mo., department who was playing Russian roulette with suspects, and despite that was hired knowingly by another department that couldn’t afford a better cop,” said Goldman, who adds that the officer later ended up fatally shooting an unarmed suspect in the back.

‘Desperate for Bodies’

“Some departments are so desperate for bodies that they’re willing to hire anyone.”

But Goldman explains that this pattern can be broken by taking sole authority for hiring out of the hands of local departments and sharing it with the state.

For the last 40 years he has successfully crusaded for state laws that allow for decertification of police in instances of misconduct. Noting that state licensing boards already exist for occupations such as lawyers, teachers, doctors, and even plumbers, he argues that the policing field needs this same type of oversight.

Since New Mexico became the first state to get the authority to revoke licenses in 1960, 46 states have followed suit and established commissions with the power to decertify officers and a total of 30,000 officers have been decertified, according to an article from The Guardian.

However, four states—California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island—still lack these kinds of regulatory bodies. Twenty of those states that do have the power can only decertify if the officer has been convicted of a crime, according to The Atlantic. Even some states that have the power to decertify often fail to utilize it, such as Louisiana, which The Advocate reports has only decertified six officers in the last 12 years.

While the issue of decertification is currently only an individual state concern, when plagued with these kinds of inconsistencies Goldman states that it may not be able to succeed without federal involvement.

“These are local matters, but you need federal oversight to make sure that individual departments come up to standards,” said Goldman.

Federal involvement of the Department of Justice (DOJ), in a fashion similar to the consent decrees issued after Ferguson in Missouri, Seattle, and Chicago, could help to motivate state efforts by denying funding to departments that fail to comply with set guidelines. In addition, where there is currently no national database for recording decertified officers, activity by the DOJ could require one.

“Just how we now have the National Practitioner Databank for healthcare professionals, that has any disciplinary action that has been taken against the practitioner run out of Health and Human Services; so too if a police officer goes across state lines a licensing board would be able to access a federal databank,” said Goldman.

But, so far, the feds have done very little.

Since 2003, states have been required to submit data on officer-involved killings of civilians to the DOJ, but many have repeatedly failed to cooperate, with little to no resulting penalties, reports NBC.com. The only existing resource for recording decertified officers is the National Decertification Index, an independent databank that 45 states submit to and which accounts for 25,000 of the total 30,000 recorded since 1960.

In addition, the current administration has stated that it considers policing a matter of exclusively local oversight, going so far as to suggest cutting funding for the DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which provides information and funding to advance the practice of community policing in departments nationally, a major blow to a seemingly already faulty system.

Yet, step by step, state by state, there are pockets of improvement.

Colorado recently passed a law stating that former officers cannot be hired by another department unless they waive any nondisclosure agreements that they may have made. New York, through regulation, has had the power to decertify since 2016, and Hawaii has recently enacted a decertification bill. In the ongoing effort to find the best possible officers, decertification helps prevent departments from hiring anything less and holds them to the same standards as other professions that are not given a badge and a gun.

“Like we do with lawyers, we can do with cops: take away their license, probation, suspension, so forth,” said Goldman.

“Policing requires the same kind of oversight that all these other occupations have.”

“In policing, thinking doesn’t go very deep and it doesn’t go very far.”

Peter Sarna, a 40-year police veteran and former chief of the Oakland Police Department, thinks that ideas like this are sorely lacking in the policing field overall.

“In policing, thinking doesn’t go very deep and it doesn’t go very far. It doesn’t look out over the horizon to see what the long term effects might be,” said Sarna in an interview with TCR.

A nationally recognized expert in police training and use of force, Sarna believes that this absence of foresight has not only led to circumstances like the gypsy cops, but also trapped policing in an outdated and unrealistic performance model: one that expects all their officers to be able to perform a variety of different task specific skill sets, at any given time, and to be able to switch rapidly between those skill sets depending on the task.

In addition to the basic tenets of the job, and the everyday potential for danger, police officers today are now called upon to handle a variety of new situations that they were before rarely called upon to deal with. From policing the mentally ill to performing disciplinary actions at schools, all while dealing with an increasingly popularized negative image of policing in general, police today are wearing a lot more hats—perhaps even too many.

When it comes to hiring and selecting, expecting to find large amounts of people who can perform all these duties effectively might be a tall order.

“Maybe you have 1 percent of your cops that you can recruit who are stars,” said Sarna.

“They have the mindsets, they can move quickly among different types of calls, they can catch bad guys, solve family fights, they can do spectacular work. But they’re a small percentage of the workforce.”

Looking for the ‘Renaissance Cop’

According to Sarna, this model of a “renaissance cop” ignores a stark reality of the profession: it requires a multiplicity of tasks performed by a variety of officers to succeed. While the goals of having de-escalation skills, empathy, and conflict resolution abilities in every officer are important and necessary to pursue, he insisted that there will always be those officers who are better at one aspect of the job than the other.

Instead of wasting time searching for new hires based on an idealized model of the perfect cop, he believes that the whole policing profession needs to be restructured and that police officers should be selected for specific positions based on the strengths they develop and bring to the job before and after training.

It is an idea that mirrors the kind of division of labor found in most hospitals today.

“You go to a hospital and there’s a doctor for every part of the body,” said Sarna. “It’s extensive.”

This kind of division of labor is more than necessary in the policing field, where the types of calls for assistance vary widely. And a recognition that certain types of calls warrant specialization and demand certain skill sets has begun to grow, especially when concerning the handling of the mentally ill.

In cities like New York and Chicago, departments have started Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) programs and created teams of trained officers who respond to any call involving the mentally ill or those in distress.

Sarna, who served as a rank-and-file officer in Oakland before becoming chief, pointed out that this type of specialization was attributable to much of Oakland’s success at that time. And though the “warrior vs. guardian” debate continues to define how officers are chosen, he insists that understanding the need for both, and how to properly assign them, is the key to a more successful, and safer, style of policing.

Tough Questions

But first, departments need to start asking themselves some tough questions.

“Do we need to specifically select a top tier of cops who are crime fighters and can do it well within the law?” asked Sarna.

“And do we also need ‘community service officers’ who can handle a lot of the tedious, mundane things that need to be done to work well?”

For Capt. Victor Davalos, Commanding Officer of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Recruitment and Employment Division, there are no easy answers to these questions. He argues that a department’s ability to implement this kind of overarching specialization depends on specific factors.

“It’s important to know the differences, limitations and environment that every department operates in,” said Davalos.

Though it may be an option for larger departments, he notes that specialization is a luxury that most smaller departments, and even medium-sized departments like the LAPD, can’t afford.

“Unlike, for example, New York, which has about 30,000 officers, we only have approximately 10,000,” Davalos told TCR.

“We have to do a lot more with a lot less.”

And while the LAPD does have a program similar to the CIT teams in New York, where their officers are partnered with mental health specialists and respond to mental health calls together, and can also utilize a SWAT team to respond to very dangerous and high risk situations, Davalos points out that, in any department, there are a lot of calls to service in between those two dimensions.

“We really need officers that are able to respond to all types of situations,” said Davalos.

In order to find them, he and the LAPD feel that, rather than trying to restructure the whole department, a lot of progress can be made by simply making adjustments to policies and procedures that would make hiring easier and better suited to the times. And, for some departments, one such adjustment that is currently up for discussion is the use of marijuana.

Should Past Marijuana Use Disqualify?

In the past, drug use of any kind was considered an automatic disqualifier for service. But as marijuana laws become more relaxed around the country, with Business Insider reporting recreational use legal in 10 states and medicinal consumption legal in 33, police departments are following suit. In places like Chicago, Denver, Portland, police departments are relaxing their policies on past marijuana use in an effort to attract candidates who would otherwise be passed over.

Davalos says the LAPD is following suit.

“As those laws continue to evolve, so must we, so we remain current and we’re not using outdated guidelines,” said Davalos.

In addition, the LAPD and other departments are also reconsidering disqualifying applicants based on credit checks and certain criminal records, both of which, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, disproportionately impact racial minority candidates who are more likely, for multiple reasons, to have low credit scores and more contact with criminal justice in their communities.

By adjusting certain aspects of selection in this way, departments ideally have a chance at widening the pool of applicants they have to choose from.

Aram Kouyomdjian

This was the case in Philadelphia where, in 2017, after lowering the college credit requirements and raising the hiring age, the police department experienced a 20 percent increase in applications from the roughly 5,000 annually that they were accustomed to. More applicants arguably allows departments to be more selective in their hiring and take the time to find the best possible candidate, opening a pathway up to those most needed that gets them through the hiring process much faster for much less.

“If I’m trying to process 10,000 people, many of whom are unqualified, that is a harder drain on my resources than if I’m processing 7,000 candidates who are more qualified,” said Aram Kouyoumdjian, Assistant General Manager (Public Safety) of the City of Los Angeles Personnel Department, the entity that handles testing and produces the lists of eligible candidates certified to be hired for the LAPD’s final review, to TCR.

“It actually makes the process easier for them and for us.”

According to Kouyoumdjian, this more streamlined process, and resulting influx of officers, has allowed his department, which handles every aspect of hiring but the police department interviews, to fine-tune testing to focus more on reading comprehension and communication skills, adjust physical exams to be more in line with what is done in the academy, and take a much harder look at applicants backgrounds than ever before.

“It’s about trying to get more qualified candidates into the process from the get go, as opposed to just testing willy-nilly and spending time screening people out,” said Kouyoumdjian.

Yet some in law enforcement remain concerned that changes such as these could potentially have dangerous results.

A 2016 article for policeone.com warns that a person with poor credit history may be susceptible to bribery, someone convicted of a previous crime may reoffend, or a person who can’t meet physical standards may jeopardize the lives of others.

And in Texas, ksat.com reports that the San Antonio Police Officers Association recently argued that changing the standards for department hires may lower the quality of men and women hired for the job rather than improve it.

Despite these concerns, Kouyoumdjian insists that changing the standards by no means equates to lowering them.

“Our responsibility is hiring officers who can deliver on all fronts.”

“We want officers who can, when circumstances call for it, perform the job of law enforcement, but (who will) also be able to recognize who needs protection and who needs accountability.”

However, although this kind of clear-sighted and optimistic approach may be necessary to finding today and tomorrow’s best police candidates, it might not be enough to tackle the many real hurdles the industry has to overcome.

While practices such as involving the community in hiring, diversifying applicants, decertifying lateral hires, restructuring division of labor, and updating and evolving hiring to suit the times represent some of the best efforts being made today to find the officers we need tomorrow, men like Peter Sarna still remain unconvinced.

Isidoro Rodriguez

“Are we fooling ourselves? Can we actually get people in large numbers, who can perform full spectrum policing? Or is it impossible?”

The answer to those questions may determine the future of 21st century policing in America.

Isidoro Rodriguez is a contributing writer to The Crime Report. He welcomes readers’ comments.

How to Find the Cops America Needs syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

0 notes